The Other Side

I sleep by day. I live by night. I'm from the other side, a side only few know about. The only way you'll know what I'm talking about is if you've either experienced it or know someone who has. Daylight is my enemy. No, I am not a cheesy vampire that sparkles in the sunlight or sucks the blood of strangers that you'd read about in some book. I'm purely human, breathing air; heart pumping blood. But only for so long.

Claire has a special and rare disease called Erythropoietic Protoporphyria. EPP for short. She's allergic to the sunlight. She's not allowed to go outside in the sunlight or her skin will start to slowly bubble and burn unless she's wearing special full body clothing including a hat and an umbrella over her head. She doesn't understand why she has this disease or why it won't go away, but she deals with it. Staying home all day, being homeschooled and living at night, traveling the city in the protection of the darkness is a norm for her. She knows more about the big city of Manhattan than anyone else around. She knows how to defend herself against the creeps on the street at night. She knows all the faces of the few people that travel around at night. Other-siders or night-timers, she calls them. Her life is more normal than people would think, except for the fact that she can't be outside during the day.

So, when she bumps into Mr. Day-timer himself, she rubs it off like it's nothing. But Mr. Day-timer has grown a large infatuation with her. She thinks he's nothing other than an annoying pain in the rump. Especially when he starts trying to get to know her. Claire is used to being alone. Now that she isn't, she's afraid. Can she love someone from the other side?