That night the Elders came into my room, enraged.

"I heard you threatened the boy," Agnes screamed. "When did I tell you to do that? When!"

She ran over to me and pulled at my locks as I shrieked.

"No! No! No!"

Memories flooded me.

Memories of my mother, my real mother, thirty two at the time, dark-haired and beautiful. She must've being crying and holding on to me as they pulled at me and then slapped her, and, pulling her by hair, dragged her away from me.

"You're a failure! You shouldn't have being born!" Selma chanted.

"Your father never should've lived! added Rowena.

"Like father, like daughter!"

"Like mother, like daughter!"

"Don't talk about my mother!" I screamed. I dug my nails into Agnes.

"Ouch!" She pulled back. She stared at the blood trickling down her skin, then glared at me. I had cut her. That was worse than killing her—a vampire's skin, their beauty, was their everything. I might've as well have cut her face.

"How dare you." She looked at me, and her mouth was set in a tight scowl. "I see now. I must've given you too much leeway. The dog has forgotten the hand that feeds them, and bitten it."

"No, Agnes," I whimpered, falling onto my knees. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to—"

"She meant it!"

"I saw it!"

"She even defended her mother."

"And how many times," Agnes continued, "have I reminded you? I'm your mother."

I shook my head, tears flowing like streams, shaking.

"No, but Rowena, or Selma, mentioned it! They said, 'like mother, like daughter'!"

"I said no such thing!"

"The girl's also a liar!"

"How will you punish her?"

"Shall we bring her to the dungeon?"

"No!" I clutched Agnes's black skirt. "Please! No! You need me: I have to seduce Uriel! I will apologize to him! I will do something about it!"

She peered down at me like I was a pathetic and dirty dog pawing her dress. She stepped back, and I fell on the floor.

"It's too late."

Selma and Rowena ran to me and each of them took an arm.

"No! No! No!"

I cried as I clawed the floor, sobbing and screaming, but the two, despite being in their fifties, pulled me out of the room.

"Stand up, or we'll push you down the stairs," Rowena sneered. I hiccuped as I stumbled to my feet, the two of them still tugging and pulling at my arms.

"That's what you get for being so conceited!" We clambered down the steps, and their shrill voices bounced off the wall and repeated itself.

"—conceited!"

"Your beauty's made you spoiled and dull-witted!"

"—witted!"

"Oh," Selma giggled, "just like her mother, Elsie!"

"—Elsie!"

"Who grew too confident just because she was Edith's favorite granddaughter!"

"And Margery is just like that. A beautiful dolt!"

"—dolt!"

"I'm not," I growled, but they only laughed at me as I made my way to the final step. There they pushed me down, and hollered in laughter. I turned and glared at them, my cheeks stained with tears. My fists were shaking.

The two had no power—once, they had being on my mother's side, when she was the one in power, when Edith was still alive.

But they were cowards. They followed whoever was in power, and they had no thought of their own.

It was worse that vampires, as they grew old and lost their beauty, also lost their sanity. Agnes and Edith were twins and due to an unknown reason, survived past their sixties, but the rest never did.

"Rot here," Rowena taunted. She had once been a beautiful dark-haired girl, skinny with a gentle face. Now, however, she was grizzled with grey and white, and her face was contorted into an ugly grin.

"Yes, think about how made you've made Mother Agnes!" Selma, too, was a ginger with green eyes, and men loved her for her sweet songs. Now her voice was sharp and blood-curdling.

Both women continued to taunt at me until they grew bored and left me alone in the dungeon, slamming the door shut behind it and locking it. It was entirely dark inside, and I knew rats were scurrying around. I could kill them, but I would never stoop down to the level of eating one. I had done it once, and I never would again. It was the greatest shame for a vampire.

I wiped my tears and squeezed myself into a corner. I couldn't take it. No, I couldn't.

My mother was the prettiest and wisest vampire there was, and her grandmother—Mother Edith, who was my great-grandmother, had been planning to give her the seat of Matriarch after her death. However, it never happened.

My mother was killed, and I was taken by Agnes. All these years, I had to stay locked in the tower and drink blood. I didn't even desire blood that much—like the rest of Edith's children, we've mutated. We've grown more—more human. Still beautiful, still sensitive to the sun, yes, but more human.

But Agnes reverted me back into a monster.

I buried my face in my hands and sobbed.

Mother, save me. Save me!

Please!

***

I cried for three days without food in the dungeon, only water. It hardly kept me going. I had being craving blood for some time, and although food wasn't necessary if I had blood, it would've been nice to have some. Yes, in fact if I had food, I would've been able to shave off the bloodthirst.

I cursed Agnes's existence.

I was cursing her without end when the door opened.

I squinted at the light. I wished it was someone other the children delivering my water. In fact, when I saw the tall silhouette of a female, I scrambled to my feet.

"Please! I've learned my lesson—"

"Shh!"

I recognized the familiar voice. Relief washed over me and I sobbed again, but this time out of happiness. It was pure happiness.

"Sabine!"

"Margery—" she cried and raced over to me. She wrapped her arms around me and pushed her face into my chest. "Oh, my dear Margery!"

She cried too, and soon the two of us were crying in the cell, holding on to each other. .

"I'm so sorry, I tried to visit you earlier," she whispered. I touched her face, holding her cheek, which she snuggled against.

"No, it's fine. I'm so happy, it hardly matters."

"The Elders are terrible. Look at you, you're so skinny, so cold—"

"I'm fine," I lied. "But how did you get here? Did they leave?"

"No," she said. "Cecile is on the lookout for us. Quick, drink my blood." She started to untied the ribbon at her neck and pulled down her collar to reveal her white, slender neck, patterned with veins.

"I'm so sorry," I said. I couldn't even reject it. I was so hungry I could hardly keep from plunging right in.

"Don't be, Margery. Please, drink."

Still crying, I raised my head and brought it closer to her neck.

Tendrils of her hair tickled me, and I brushed them away with my hand. She smelled of cedar and tea. I inhaled her smell in before touching my mouth to her skin. Slowly, I licked it, and then slowly sank my teeth in. Then I pulled out again. As the blood trickled out, I began to lick her neck and shoulder, and then the wound. Finally, minutes later, the wound clotted and blood stopped flowing.

She loosened her tight grip on my hand and then touched my cheek with her cold fingertips.

"Margery."

"Yes?"

"I love you," she said. I smiled.

"I love you, too." 

She smiled, sadly. There were tears in her eyes. Why?

"I'm sorry you have to go through this," she whispered. "Don't worry, we'll hurry up the process as much as we can. Cecile and I have been helping the researchers, and the Elders's portraits are finished."

"But I haven't grasped hold of Uriel yet!"

"I'll do something about it," she whispered. "It's all his fault in the beginning. You can still choose someone else—Yves is interested in you."

I wiped my eyes. "I don't want him."

"Then what about Karl? His skin is beautiful, and he is one of the smartest. Marcel is a bit uneasy, but he's started to talk during dinner."

"No," I whispered.

"Then Dr.Gregoire?" She held my hand. "He's older, maybe fifty, but he's not terrible. He brought a book for Cecile, and has been teaching the children the alphabet."

"I don't want an old man!"

"Then what, Margery?" I was shocked to hear Sabine shout. She let go of my hands and shook her head. "Why? Why did it be to be him? Why do you care so much for him? Why does he bother you so?"

I didn't know either. I looked down at the hands that she had let go of. Then I remembered.

"His hair."

"His hair?"

"I've always like your hair, Sabine. That soft yellow, like an angel's." Her expression softened. "Today I also remembered my mother."

"Elise, right?"

"Yes."

Sabine remembered her too. Barely, but she remembered. Unlike me, Sabine wasn't a pure-blooded vampire. After having her, her mother abandoned her, as her mother was only seventeen when she had her. My mother, instead, took care of her along with me. However, she wasn't there that night, when they pulled my mother, Elise, by the hair.

I still remember it now, her hair falling out in clumps as she screamed and thrashed. She cried out for me—what did she call me again?

I could never remember.

"I'm so sorry." Sabine stepped forward and hugged me. "I'm so, so sorry, Margery."

Yes, I couldn't give up. It couldn't be Yvon, Serge, Marcel, or Dr.Gregoire. Only Uriel could do. He would bring me away from this place, and Sabine, too.

"Tell Agnes to let me out," I said, pushing Sabine back. She squinted back tears. "I will succeed."