The Heart of Jade

I'm a Vampire, So What?

            “I had said, ‘I quit and I won’t go back.’  She’d smiled and led me towards the others.  There was this one guy.  He couldn’t have been any more than two or three years older than me.

            “We were standing around, talking.  I was staying back, out of the way.  The woman came over to me.  She said, ‘I’m sorry.  I forgot to introduce you to everyone.’

            “There was Shayla, Zak, Blaze, Adam, the woman was Frannie, Bobbi, and the guy was Ian.  Shayla was tall and willowy and had bright blonde hair.  Zak was stocky and had black hair.  Blaze had black hair with neon green highlights.  She was medium height and had excellent curves.  Frannie was sort of like a mixture of Shayla and Blaze.  Her hair was brown but looked red when the light hit it a certain way.  Bobbi was quite a talker and a bragger.  Ian was built like a dancer, strong yet agile.  He was quiet.  His black hair fell in his eyes, which were green.

            “Another gang had entered.  Frannie said, ‘Ian, take… What’s your name?”

            ‘Tara.’

            ‘Take Tara and run.  Don’t do anything stupid.’

            We’d run the opposite direction.  He led me to an abandoned building.  The lock on the basement had been broken and we went in.  He’d asked, ‘Do you want me to protect you?’

            ‘No!  I want you to take me back there!  Of course I want you to protect me.’

            ‘Do you trust me?’

            ‘I…’

            ‘We have to stick together.  Without trust, gangs would fail.’

            ‘I guess.’

            He kissed me.  I didn’t mind, but the kissing soon became more.  I didn’t mind the grabbing but when he started undoing my clothes I wanted him to stop.  I was trying to shove him off.  He… He did things to me.  He raped me.  It’s not something to joke about.  It was painful and terrifying.

            “Well, I avoided him after that.  A few months later we talked.  He turned out to be a nice guy.  We were together.  We needed money and none of us really liked the thought of robbery.

            “I became a prostitute.  I had a disease so it would be hard to conceive so I didn’t see the need for protection.  I was young and didn’t think.  Ian didn’t mind.  He knew I was only doing it for the money.  The other women were, too.

            “I was doing my job.  There was this one man who came often.  He was rich and paid well.  He probably went to every prostitute in the city.  I wasn’t thinking of diseases.

            “Mom didn’t know.  She thought I had a job on the outskirts of the city so she didn’t ask questions about my late nights and odd hours.  After a year of being oblivious, she took me to a doctor for a yearly check-up.  They found out I had an STD.

            “She shipped me off to my dad’s.  He lived on the other coast.  Ian followed me.  I didn’t want to give him the disease.  Daddy found out about us.  He threatened to kill Ian if he didn’t go back.  We thought it was just threats.

            “Ian finally talked me into bed.  Daddy heard a lamp crash to the floor.  He came up and he stabbed Ian.  I had to watch him die.  Dad had left us after saying, ‘I don’t make threats; I make promises.  No daughter of mine is going to be some pimp’s whore.’