"It's... a long story and hard to explain." Jasper started slow, not meeting my gaze. "And you'll probably hate me after..."

I didn't speak so he went on. "You already knew that you were different, not natural, but there's more. A lot more." He said. "I can't really explain without explaining about my past also because... I'm the same."

My eyes widened and I sat up straighter. "You mean..."

He nodded. "Yeah." He sighed. "It started a while back when I was still living with my family. My human family. We were really poor, struggling to pay out taxes and put food on the table, so I quit school and started looking for a job. Anything to earn a bit of money. But no one would hire a street rat like me. I was walking trash."

He crossed his arms, still staring at the floor. "The only person who would employ me was the local doctor in town. Everyone said he was crazy, he lived and worked in a warehouse, but he gave me errands to run and paid me what he could so I didn't complain. Not until I found out about what he'd been doing to me." Jasper's face twisted with anger. "After an easy run to drop off medicine, I came back to find he wasn't in his lab. Normally I'd have just left, but it was my payday and my parents needed the money."

Jasper laughed and I saw tears in his eyes as he shook his head. "I wish I had just gone home."

I reached out and grabbed his hands from across the table. "What happened?"

For the first time, he looked at me. "I found something that I shouldn't have." He said, voice whispery like he was afraid someone would hear. "He had been slipping things in my coffee and food. He was experimenting on me. Then I found his freezer. I don't know how he did it, but there were dozens of vials of blood. My blood, and he'd been using them to test his research."

"I didn't know what was going on, but I was angry. When he returned, I confronted him. I told him I was going to the constable and that I would expose him for what he'd been doing." Jasper laughed, but it was sad. "I didn't even make it to the door. The first few seconds were painful, but then I just felt tired. He took all of it that day, not just my blood, my family, my future, my life. It was all gone in a matter of minutes as he took every last drop and then left me there to die. All alone in the middle of an empty warehouse."

"He tried to kill you?" I asked.

"He did much more than try." Jasper said. "There were so many things on my mind in those last few minutes, but mostly I was scared. I was going to die. All I could think about was how much I wanted a second chance... and then he came."

I frowned. "Who?"

"I don't know. I can... just see his body, coming towards me as the sunlight faded outside the windows. It was strange. He looked so sad, almost like he was the one dying." Jasper said, eyes drifting. "I remeber every word he told me. He knelt down next to me and just looked at me as he said, 'It is always sad to see the loss of youth. So much wasted.'"

Jasper wiped his eyes, failing to hide his pain at the memory. "And I begged him. I begged him to give me a second chance. I didn't want to die. I had so much I wanted to do with my life... and so I begged, and he granted my wish."

His pain transferred to me and I squeezed his hands. "He turned you into a vampire."

"Had I known the price, I would have never asked..." Jasper said.

"What did he do?" I asked.

"H-he... cut his wrist and told me to drink. So I did. I drank and I drank and I drank, until-... Until my body was on fire and I couldn't see anymore... Then it was over." He took a deep breath and stood up, walking over to brace his arms against the sink. "It was only after I awoke that I realized what he'd done to me, how he'd... changed me."

I stood too and put my hands on his shoulders. "I'm so sorry..."

Jasper didn't seem to notice me. "That night I set the warehouse on fire. I burned everything to the ground that day. April 7, 1723, the date my life ended."

My eyes widened at that. "But that was-"

"Three hundred years ago." Jasper said, turning around and holding my shoulders. "Do you understand now? Your life, my life, they won't end by natural causes. We're dead. We can't ever be like normal people again."

I stared at him, the reality sinking in down to my core. Jasper shook his head. "I have lost countless families, trying to pretend I was fine, and it never did any good. I had to watch so many loved ones die while I was forced to go on alone. I'm trying to stop you from making the same mistake." He said. "Please, Vlad, don't hurt yourself like this. Not like I did."

My throat constricted as tears welled up in my eyes. Jasper's hands were almost supporting my weight as my legs wobbled under me. I tried to speak, but I couldn't. I just... couldn't.

Jasper stared into my eyes, waiting for a response. "Vlad?"

I reached up and pulled his hands away slowly, stepping back. Then I turned to the door. I went and opened it wordlessly. Jasper frowned. "Where are you going?"

I paused, but only long enough to reply, "I need some air."

I didn't. I couldn't even feel it on my skin, I was so numb. My feet moved on their own, but eventually I found myself standing in the shadows across from my house. My parents cars were in the drive so they were home. It was a... weekday? I couldn't even remember. Was Benji home? He probably hadn't gone to school either way. He was probably crying...

Still watching the house, I started climbing a ladder up to the roof of an apartment building across the street. I got to the top and walked to the edge, staring down at my little house. It was such a small building next to large city skyscrapers. Small, yet organized. So different compared to what my life had become. One big mess. A disaster. Like that night.

"Oh, shit, man. Are you okay?" The man leaned over me with worry.

His voice was echoey in my head. It made him seem close, yet far away all at once. How could I have forgotten all of it? That moment in time when everything I knew just... stopped.

"I must have taken too much. Can you sit up?" He lifted me into his lap. "Drink this. It might help." He said, pressing something slick and warm against my lips.

Poison. That's what it was. A life changing poison that ruined everything. A poison, but one that was irreversible.

I might've cried. Maybe. The wetness on my cheeks were known as tears, but what was true anymore? Maybe I was laughing. I could be laughing, laughing without a smile. Laughing in pain. Laughing... in defeat. For that was what I was now. Defeated. Lost. I was nothing I used to be, could be nothing I wanted to be. I was truly lost...

It was hours that I stood up there. The sun was setting in front of me when I finally heard the footsteps approach me from behind. Jasper's warm hand found mine as he stepped up beside me. He gave me a few more blessed seconds of silence before he spoke. "I know how much they mean to you." He said. "And I understand if you want to stay."

"How long have you known?" I asked him. "How long have you known about me? About everything?"

"Since the library." He said.

I nodded slowly, still looking down at my house. "And why... didn't you tell me?"

It took him a minute to answer that one. He seemed hesitant to say. Then softly, "I was being selfish. For three hundred years I had been alone. I had no one to share my life with... No one until you." He said. "I was afraid you would leave me if I told you. Or-... Or worse."

I turned to look at him for the first time. I searched his eyes, but all I saw was fear and regret. With a sigh, I looked back to my house. He had done what he thought was right. Now it was my turn.

Goodbye...

With one last farewell, I turned on my heel and started away. Jasper followed close behind me. "Are you angry?" He asked.

Shook my head. "No. I'm not angry." I said. "Just tired." When we had climbed back down to the ground, I took a deep breath. "What do you say we get to packing?"

*******

Hey everyone! So this chapter honestly made me cry. I was proof reading and I started crying at how sad Jasper's life has been up until now. Sorry if I made any of you cry too. Hope you enjoyed this chapter! AS ALWAYS, VOTE, COMMENT, FOLLOW, AND STAY AWESOME!

-Nekoco