MOTHER, TURNED

She owes me. Not the help she had provided, but vengeance. I had killed almost everyone she knew.

“Ludicrous! All of the people she killed were vampires?” The state attorney scoffed, understandably.

Yet, here I was in an asylum.

I summoned my enemy, Bess. She did not seem surprised to hear from me.

“It's for the best.” Extending her talons to slice through my window, she entered to make me her kind.

Together, we floated out. The hunger was niggling, not sharp, like in the movies. I drew my tongue over my teeth, drawing blood. Instinctively, I spit, but then savored the taste.

I could tell I would grow to like it.

Relief flooded through me. My family was safe, at least from Bess, who would not attack the kin of her pack mate. I would visit my daughters tonight, after my husband put them to bed.

They would grow, with me as their guardian angel. When they were old, I would make the decision to stay and care for their children, or take a stake to my heart.

Nothing forbade me heaven. I believed I still had a soul. I just had a more flexible lifeline.

I might even confess to a priest, daily, if need be, to keep my soul unstained. I planned to be aware, but if I met an unexpected end, I wanted salvation.

News of my escape was surely out, in Tweets and newspaper app alerts.

I had time to observe, and I would find the cruel and psychotic - the ones with the auras of gray and black. Those are the ones I would feed on. To the others, I would be kind. I felt hopeful and optimistic.