[Diana's POV]
Slowly I opened my eyes and through the curtains, the late day's rays of Sun filtered through.
A soft glow illuminated my bedroom walls and imdiately, I could hear the sound of my younger siblings playing in the living room.
Blinking away the remnants of sleep, I yawned and stretched my body.
As I looked down at the shirt I was wearing, I began to recall the events of yesterday, and embarrassed, I looked away only to see my reflection in the mirror.
I was even lighter than before. My nails were sharper and my canine teeth were longer.
"Yesterday really wasn't a nightmare," I sighed.
I didn't get to wash up since I ca back ho so with no one in the bathroom, I entered and began taking a cold bath.
Ever since I turned into a vampire, I preferred colder water than before.
As I sat there alone in the bathtub, the weight of the previous night's events began to settle upon .
Playing with the water that had risen to my hips, I replayed the mont when I had knocked on the door and imdiately was pulled into the house by Mother.
She hugged so tightly that I thought I was going to die and she was crying enough to fill up the entire bathtub I was in.
As it was late, my siblings were fast asleep and I was alone with my parents.
They sat on the couch, staring at while I was down on my knees on the floor.
Despite my fear of facing my parents' wrath, instead, I was t with unexpected leniency.
Obviously, I was scolded especially by my father for worrying the entire family but I had expected a storm of anger and a punishnt so severe that I could've grown to resent my parents for not understanding my circumstances.
But all I was granted was a re two-week grounding.
It was a strange and unsettling punishnt for doing the two things that my parents told us to never do: coming ho extrely late and not letting them know if I was safe or not.
It was in my parent's nature to be extrely strict and overprotective so when they made their decision, I knew it wasn't rely their anger that influenced their choice.
It was sothing more.
As my thoughts drifted to the reason behind the lack of severity in the punishnt, my mind ca to a single conclusion; they were concerned that if they were to place any more stress on than I already had from past events, I was going to implode.
'They're not wrong about that,' I thought as I lowered my head into the water.
Over the past few months, my life had taken a drastic turn for the worst.
My purity was stolen away from by a fellow student at the academy.
Then when I was prepared to do the worst thing imaginable to him to get revenge, the truth ca out that he was influenced by his demon curse mark.
My revenge now felt fruitless.
Then I was turned into a vampire against my will, thrusting my life into a world of paranoia.
Of course, life works in a weird way as the person who saved from the vampire also happened to be the person who I hated most.
The turmoil inside grows even further and the strings are so tangled that I couldn't imagine how I would ever unravel them.
If my own parents were to give a punishnt that I knew I'd subconsciously deem to be unfair, I could sense the implosion in that was waiting to happen.
Last night, after stating the duration of my sentence, Father asked , "So, care to explain where you've been the past few hours and why you didn't answer our calls?"
To that question, I could only keep my mouth shut, telling them sorry for being unable to answer them.
I was scared that if they knew the truth about , they wouldn't look at the sa.
"Were you with anyone?" they asked, probably wanting to see if soone was bringing down the wrong path.
Obviously, I had to lie because it'd only complicate things if they knew how I was with him.
Even though I still have hatred towards Bell, it was lessened by the truth.
My parents on the other hand didn't care about the truth and their hatred was about the sa as ever.
"I was alone," I answered, lying as confidently as I could.
They looked like they wanted to press further to see if they can get the answers out of but after I promised the two of them that the reason I was out late wasn't because I was being a bad kid, Mother convinced Father to not ask any more questions.
"When you're ready to tell us, promise you'll do it?" asked Mother
"I promise."
With a smile on her face, she hugged again before sending off to bed.
'Thank you, Mommy,' I thought to myself as I threw a bath bomb into the water.
It was hard to recall the last face she made.
It looked like she wanted to cry for a different reason. I wanted to ask why she was making that face but I didn't want to make her cry while talking about it so I held myself back.
The longer her face lingered in my mind, the more and more convinced I was about the reason behind it.
I knew deep down that to her, I was still that little girl she was so proud of.
Seeing withhold secrets must've reminded her that I was indeed growing up and becoming more distant from her.
"Sorry," I uttered with my head underwater.
'I can't believe I'm hurting my mother's feelings because of Bell Agnus.'
I scread and thousands of bubbles floated out of my mouth.
Lifting my head out, I began to drain the water. As I applied shampoo to my hair, I couldn't help but feel a strong surge of conflicting emotions.
Everything that happened to , all the bad, and even so of the good, had to do with a certain person.
His stupid face refused to leave alone.
I had sworn to forget him but when I needed soone at my lowest point, he was the only person I had the courage to ask for help from.
He was the bane of my existence, the torntor who had made my school life unbearable.
The simple thought of him brought forth a torrent of terrible mories as well as this urge for murder.
And yet, his kind actions over the past month, made feel like I was in the wrong for feeling such bad thoughts.
Starting from his apology, then when he saved from Draven, him keeping my secret safe with him, and now him taking care of after I had attacked soone as a newly turned vampire — all of it felt like the actions of a saint.
'But he's not a saint!' I scread, applying conditioner so strongly that my hair was about to fall out.
'He's not a saint. He's not.'
But he wasn't the monster that I wanted him to be.
He was soone who I could've been close friends with if the incident didn't occur.
Now, he was also selflessly offering to beco my source of sustenance.
"You can drink blood from ," he told , looking at not with pity but with true kindness in his eyes.
He even used cruel but truthful words as a ans to persuade my acceptance of his offer.
It was an ironic twist of fate that the one who I now knew was a reliable ally to satiate my vampiric hunger was the sa person that could be considered my greatest demon.
Leaving the bathroom, my mind swirling with thoughts and conflicting desires, my little sister stopped as I was about to head into my bedroom.
"What is it?" I asked.
She gestured for to get closer.
I did as she asked and she whispered, "Did you get yourself a boyfriend?"
What?
'What?'
"What?"
"Don't play dumb with sister," she said, rolling her eyes.
"Play dumb?"
"Mom and Dad probably didn't notice because they were too busy being angry and worried but I did," she announced, raising her chest to boast.
"Notice what?"
"Girl, co on. Next ti you're up late at night because you're at your boyfriend's house, at least change out of his clothes. It makes it too obvious," she told .
"I..."
I was lost for words.
I couldn't believe that was the conclusion that she ca to and yet, it was a reasonable one. All the evidence pointed towards it.
"My trick is that I tell them that I'm at a friend's house sleeping over. I leave the house in the sa outfit I had on in old photos of and my friend. Then I send Mom those pictures every once in a while to trick her."
"First of all, we're going to talk about this later. I didn't know you had a boyfriend nor you were being a bad kid. Secondly, I don't have a boyfriend and I was only in those clothes because... because of none of your business," I said.
"Sure," she said, rolling her eyes. "I totally believe you."
Before my lid could explode, I entered my bedroom.
'A boyfriend? Him? Never! Never! No way! Absolutely not!'
The hatred I was harboring could never be easily dismissed. It will continue to linger in the depths of my very being, woven into the fabric of my identity.
'Him being my boyfriend? Hahaha! Funny joke.'
Making my way to the kitchen to grab so leftover food, I scoffed.
' asking out Bell or accepting his confession? Will never happen. Nope!'
Eating to fill my grumbling stomach, my eyes lingered on my little sister who kept peeking at with these sarcastic eyes as if she didn't believe my words.
'The Sun will have to explode before we ever date. Hmph.'
As I secretly washed his clothes so that no one else could notice my blunder, I shook my head.
'He's not even soone I like let alone love enough to consider dating.'
My thirst for blood, once unfamiliar and terrifying, now simred within as I recalled the taste of Bell's blood.
It was different than the first victim who I had attacked.
That stranger's blood just tasted like blood usually tasted. The only difference was that the mana I had absorbed from him left a slight joyous tingle in my body.
Bell's blood on the other hand tasted sweet like a candy I would've begged my mother to buy for as a kid.
I don't really like sweets now but for so reason, the flavor of his blood didn't disgust .
'That's just his blood though. Liking the taste of his blood is one thing. Liking him is a whole different story. Ew.'
As I lay down on my bed to head to sleep, preparing for school the next day, I rolled my eyes.
'We could never date. Never!'
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