See it from my Side

Symptoms of Summer

The first day of summer. A time that all vampires dread, with each changing of season vampires become either stronger, weaker or severely ill.

On the first night of autumn, we become cold, we become hungry, we become...chaotic. On the first night of winter we are starving, but by no means weak, we become three times as strong as we are usually. This can be a very dangerous night for humans, yet another thing to divide the vampires and humans. On the first night of spring we, again become weak, tired, but not necessarily ill. This brings us to the first night of summer. Our skin burns, smokes, becomes red and our skin starts drying out, it's torture, some of us become sick as well, vomiting is common. It's as though we are allergic to the season as a whole, which isn't far from the truth, vampires are heavily influenced by the season. Winter and spring are the best time for us, and the end of autumn, but summer...summer is like hell on Earth for us.

" Are you all feeling alright?" My grandmother asked, her and my grandfather had taken seats either side of my father, with my mother at the other end of the long table and myself, Julietta and Julian spread out on chairs in between them. Julian made a point of sitting as far away from me as possible, Julietta sitting quietly beside him.

A chorus of " Yes, thank you" Reverberated around the room. My mother remained silent.

" I never understood why we burn so in the sun. Perhaps it is as punishment for what we must do to survive, though that begs the question as to why humans escape such torture." It was the most I had heard my mother say in a long time.

" It's in our DNA, Mother, there is no moral component to it." I replied. She didn't answer, I hadn't expected her to. We ate in silence for a while, the room was filled with tension, my ears were ringing, another side-effect of summer.

We continued to eat silently, none of us needing the food that we shovelled into our mouths. " Now, son, I believe that we should speak of this engagement with the rest of the family, should we not?" My grandfather, forever the diplomat.

" It will not change my mind. Or the law, Father." My father replied, without any tremor of doubt in his voice. I was happy that my father wasn't outright refusing to discuss my sister's so called engagement, but I wasn't at all hopeful that we would change his mind.

" It's sick. She's thirteen and you're trying to marry her off to someone three years older than her." I spat, staring down at my empty plate. He disgusted me. My own father disgusted me. Surprisingly, my brother agreed with me, out loud and everything.

" She's right. She's a selfish bitch but shes right." Well, at least I'd made some progress. Not much but some. Julian may hate me, but we were on the same side.

" She is not right. We need this union with the Cassidys, it's about the family as a whole not individual feelings. Besides, Julianna, we both know that it was you or Julietta. I felt that Julietta would be the best choice, she won't make life difficult for herself." I couldn't really argue with my father's point but it didn't mean that I felt the whole situation was fair to anyone. It didn't give him the right to ruin my sister's life.

Sobbing, Julietta stood up from her seat and ran out of the hall. No one noticed, except me, I sprinted after her, racing to catch up. She was fast for someone that hadn't changed yet.

That's when it hit me. She was changing.

The process had started and by the time it finished, Julietta would have to marry Tommy by the time she was fourteen because, due to another archaic vampire law, if an engagement is made between a vampire and a human (Or unchanged vampire) the pair must be married within a year of the 'human' changing.