Phil's POV

The sun had gone down, and I ventured outside. It had been a few months that I decided to occupy a new area. There were few people around, but I think they've already spotted me.

I took nervous and quiet steps until finding the end of the woods, where a clear lake gave me a view of the sky. I leaned over the waterbed, and looked at my reflection again, like I had many nights in a row.

What I saw was hideous. Snow-white skin from lack of sunlight, dark hair that didn't contrast well with the rest of me, and two very small, sharp fangs that stuck out over my bottom lip. I was so terribly ugly. The most human thing about me were my eyes. They remained a clear shade of blue, while the rest of me didn't look real.

I sat down, tired of looking at myself. I looked over the surface of the lake, where a half moon shone brightly. I let out a sigh. It looked so beautiful, but I would never get to enjoy it with anyone else.

Long ago, when I was in my twenties and still human, my parents found a bat living in their attic. They angered it, and it flew around and bit me. It transformed into a human figure, with white skin and fangs like mine, but bigger.

"The boy is cursed!" he had yelled at them. "You have disturbed my presence, now I ruin your first born!"

They got him out and took me to a hospital, where they couldn't explain anything that happened without sounding crazy, so they said a bat bit me. The doctors found nothing wrong with me and sent us home.

Once my body began to change a few days later, my parents called an exorcist, because its not like they knew of how to expel a vampire bite. They also did nothing for me.

Terrified, my parents called the police and told the truth. But, thinking they were simply mentally ill, they took them away from me, which forced me to live alone. I never saw them again.

As my ability to withstand light weakened and my fangs grew sharper, I was forced to run away, and I lived on my own ever since, avoiding people as much as possible. Now, in my immortal twenties, I can only wander around helplessly, begging to nothing for a way to be mortal - to be normal - again.

I had, one time after my escape, gone to a medium and spell caster on my own for help. She did nothing, but gave me a vampire prophesy that I memorized:

"A mortal cursed by a vampire's bite

shall remain alone within the moonlight.

He lives forever, until time does end,

his suffering is one that cannot mend.

He cannot die and be put to rest

until a stake be driven through his chest.

The curse can end through death or fate:

a mortal's love will open the gate.

Only then can a life be regained,

sealed with a kiss, all that remains."

It's strange to think about. I've recited the phrases so many times to work up an understanding of it - I'm immortal unless killed with a stake to the chest, or until a mortal falls in love with me. That wont ever happen, though. No mortal human would ever love someone as ugly or strange as a vampire like myself. Because of this, I've wandered around aimlessly from place to place for years in search of somewhere quiet to spend eternity alone. It's all I can do.

Rethinking the thoughts of my past, I let my back fall against a tree and hugged around my knees. I didn't like being this way, but I knew I'd never be human again.

No one could ever love a vampire.