I need some peace of mind, no fear of what's behind. You think you've won this fight, you've only lost your mind. -Had Enough -Breaking Benjamin

I hold my head high, shoulders back, my eyes stern and without expression.

“You look like you are in the army,” Damien teases.

I resist rolling my eyes. “I have to look like this when I meet Uncle. You’ll see why.”

I reach over and rasp my knuckles against the door three times.

Not long after a sixty-year-old man with wispy chestnut hair sprinkled with white answers.

I see darkness behind him. Due to my arrival he’s closed the nearest windows with thick curtains. As for lighting, there isn’t any aside from the unlit candles waiting for their use once night arrives. He’s always loathed artificial lighting. There are a few reasons, but the main one for his resentment is the cost of having it, and Uncle is a very cheap man when it comes to anything aside from his work.

“Uncle,” I say kindly, “you look the same.”

“Page,” Uncle comes forward, looking as if he’s about to hug me, “I had a feeling you were coming today.”

With his wrinkly hands he reaches and grabs my face, jerking it right and left, up and down.

“I heard you had a burning episode at school,” Uncle recalls as he checks my chin.

“Um, yes.”

“You know you should have immediately come to me after. How long did it take for you to heal?”

“Yes, I know, and I’m sorry. About three days.”

When the good doctor releases my face, I reluctantly look at Damien who’s been observing us with amusement, causing me to blush, and introduce him.

Uncle frowns. “It was nice of you to bring your…boyfriend along with you.”

I turn my head from Damien so he can’t see me redden even more.

“Anyway,” Uncle claps his hand, “come inside. Come in! come in!”

When I enter I receive the same chill of the broken AC and smell of potpourri. Lee hated the scent and couldn’t stand the temperature, so every year she dumped me on the doorstep and returned for me once I called to let her know my doctor’s appointment was over.

I’m pretty certain that Lee just didn’t like Uncle. Found him too weird-weirder than me-to be around.

“Now I know you must be eager, but your appointment isn’t for another two weeks,” Uncle reminds me-as if I could forget. “The cure will not be complete until after the last test.”

His face lost all humor when he said, “Are you prepared to go through another burning?”

Am I prepared? Of course not. I’ll never be prepared for that pain. I had honestly forgotten I’d need to experience it one last time to finish the cure.

If I had never followed through with Damien’s dumb dare, maybe I wouldn’t be so unsettled. Maybe I would’ve been more courageous about it. But I remembered that day as fresh as if it happened only days ago.

Fortunately, I didn’t come here to assure Uncle that I was ready. To catch up on lost time and know that nothing new in his life had happened.

I came here to prevent that nightmare from happening.

“Um, Uncle,” I begin as I sit down on one of his stiff olive couches; it’s a boulder with cloth stitched over it. Damien places himself near me, but far enough to avoid physical contact. “I actually came here to ask for a favor.”

The elderly man looks at me as if he already knows but asks anyway, “And what might that be?”

I inhale and hold onto the gathered courage. “I’d like you to stop making the cure.”

Uncle doesn’t laugh, he doesn’t even smile.

“I’ve worked too hard to make this, Page. And I vowed to finish it for your father,” Uncle says while glaring accusingly at Damien. “I will not let him die in vain.”

“I know.” I stand, already tired. Also because the couch is much too painful to sit on. “But I’m saying this for a good cause.”

“This is for a good cause?” Uncle cries, rushing to me. “Page, you want to be able to go swimming, right? Wear flip flops and tank tops like normal girls and do normal activities during the day, right?”

“Well, yeah,” I admit. “But I can live without all that.”

“I want you to live your life at its fullest. Not throw it away because some charming vampire boy shows up.”

“Damien hasn’t charmed me,” I protest. “How’d you even know he was a vampire?”

“Please, Page, one look at him and you know! You don’t have experience with them. I do,” Uncle assures me. “And so did your father.”

I swallow, suddenly not feeling so well.

“Was my father a…” I couldn’t say it.

Uncle exhaled, aggravated. “He just wanted the best for you, that’s all. You can’t blame him for that. The cost of his life to give you yours-I have to make that possible.”

What was he implying? That my father died for me? So that I could live?

If that’s true, then accepting the cure will be a mistake.

I’d be failing my father and failing myself.

“You knew all of this and you didn’t tell me?” I stare at Uncle, dismayed. He was family to me.

“I never thought I’d have to. I never thought you’d meet Damien,” Uncle pronounced the name with hatred.

“So you never intended to tell me?”

I whip to Damien and ask, “Did you know about my father?”

To my relief he shakes his head solemnly.

I turn back to my uncle, seething. “Destroy it. Destroy the cure now.”

“Page, did you listen to anything I just said?” Uncle cries, outraged.

I stare him dead in the eye, unmoving.

“Yeah, you did, and I don’t care,” I snap.

“I’m not going to let you throw away your only chance to live a normal life for some cute boy.”

“I’m not doing it for him!” I shriek. “I’m doing it for everyone!”

“I know Damien, Page,” Uncle warns. “Do you? He’s a liar. That pretty face is nothing but a façade. You cannot trust vampires.”

“You trusted father,” I snap.

“Yes, he was the only one, and I’m showing that by making this cure.”

We glare at each other, panting heavily, before I flip my hair back and inform confidently, “When you finish the cure, I won’t take it.”

“You’ll do it for your father,” Uncle responds. “You’re going to turn down something he wanted for you so badly?”

“He’d understand my reason for doing this.”

Uncle glowered. “Page, go home and come to your senses. And rid yourself of Damien as soon as possible. It’ll be for the best.”

I shrug and step out of his face bubble.

“I’m already to my senses, just so you know.” I stop at the door. “And I won’t take that cure, Uncle.”

“You’re making a mistake, Page!” he calls after me as I throw open the door.