Antonia Stromlynn

That is who I used to be, for I was not always this way. the year was 1801. My family was not rich, but we were not poor by any means. Father, steadfast in his faith was a prominent businessman. Mother, unwavering in her devotion to Father and we three children. My brother Christopher was the eldest and Sister Concetta, the youngest. I remember Mother teaching Connie and Me Stitchery.

I recollect horseback riding one summer afternoon. I stopped near a large pond, spread d a blanket and in the balmy midday sun fell fast asleep. I woke to find twilight had settled and as I gathered myself and my belongings for the journey home, a carriage stopped alongside the road from which an uncommonly striking gentleman stepped and approached me. he was finely dressed with an aristocratic air. He bowed to me and I blushed like a schoolgirl. He introduced himself as, Adrian Meyrick, and queried regarding my being alone after dusk. Hes eyes held me mesmerized, azure as the heavens above. He insisted upon seeing me safely to my home, horse in tow; coverlet bundled between us. We engaged in conversation and the miles dissolved. Father was beside himself as the carriage arrived, but was relieved to find I had been escorted home by a gentleman of suck caliber. Adrian, interceded as Father scolded my lack of vision for staying out past moonrise. Over the weeks to follow, Father encouraged the courtship and I, myself was smitten.

Adrian would send a carriage for me nearly every evening at twilight. He would always see my home himself by midnight. Father was not pleased with these arrangements and confronted Adrian with his concerns; after which father seemed less apprehensive. Adrian asked for my hand and father had consented until Adrian refused a church ceremony, after which, father forbade me to see him.

There are unspoken laws among our kind. Children are not turned as they remain eternal children and therefore need to be cared for. We do not kill one of our own kind that law Adrian broke in a rage upon waking to fine one of his own, feeding and myself at the verge of death.