Chapter Ten

 Present time 

"Who was that?" Ace asks me. 

I hope he couldn't tell how distracted I actually was. I'm not going to lie, Eleanor's voice plays in my head over the centuries, but I have grown to live without her. Her face enters my mind every now and again, and I can easily replace it with somebody I killed. Living without her hasn't been easy, though, by far, and days like today prove it. I feel very much in love with her after all this time. I still wonder what exactly happened to her and what was her path. Did she fall in love with somebody new, settle down and have kids? Did she wait for me, hoping one day will be united and one day this curse will be lifted? 

"She was somebody from my past." 

"Like your life?" He raises an eyebrow. I know this was something that I rarely speak about. There was too much pain there, and so many things I wish I didn't remember. 

"I believe she was a relative to my wife."

"Your wife?" His mouth dropped open like he just heard the most surprising news. I nearly chuckle to myself.

I nod. I showed him the wedding photo I just showed the girl. 

"She was beautiful. I can see the resemblance with the girl." 

"She was the most beautiful girl I've ever seen."

"What happened?" I see the curiosity on his face. It's not very often that vampires get curious about things. We are frozen in time, the day always being the same. So I figured I might as well humor him. 

"There is a guy I hired to help with the company. John. I thought he was great. He helped make everything run smoothly. All the while he was lying, hiding a dark secret. He was a vampire. I let Eleanor get too involved with the company, even becoming a secretary. Long story short, I heard the cries coming from the break room after all the employees left for the day. I rush in knowing the cries were coming from Eleanor, and I see John have his arms around her neck, his fangs ready to bite. In exchange for him not harming her I let him give me a life of mortality."

Ace's forehead wrinkles, listening to my story as I stare off in the distance, trying to brush off the day that once hunted me. 

"Well, if he let her go, why couldn't you guys be together?"

I close my eyes, remembering Eleanor watching me out the train window as she wiped her tears on her tissue. At that moment, as I washed her out her window, I could still taste her lips on my mouth, knowing it would be the last time I savor her kiss. 

"I put her on a train and sent her far away. I gave her all our life savings to take care of herself." 

"Why?" Ace stops walking. 

"Because I knew a vampire was too dangerous for her, and I can never imagine myself accidentally hurting my sweet Eleanor."

"Wow, I never knew you had a soft side."

I roll my pitch black eyes. "Don't get it twisted back then, I had a soft side, now I'm just a ruthless brutal vampire." 

The end