My name is Sapphire *̷̤̺̣̻̭̦̏͘a̷̳͎̠̟͎̰͌̄̈́̇͐*̷͓̞̮̬̒*̴̧̜̬͖͖͇̘̹̔̊̾͋͋̌*̵̛̝̱̘̯̺̗̽̾̿̂̀̉́i̴̦̠̗̙̳͐͆ and this is the story of how I became something a little more than human.

Do keep in mind that this was a very long time ago for me, so some details may very well not be very accurate to the time period that I was born into.

Okay... where do I even begin?

I suppose I'll go back to the very day I was born. My father had been eagerly awaiting to receive me and welcome his new daughter into the world, with nothing but an emptied cigarette box in his pocket. Meanwhile, my mother had been struggling for dear life, screaming into the high-heavens while crushing the hand of the nurse that had been overseeing my delivery. Within the hour, I had been born.

My mother had given me the name "Sapphire", because she thought I had the brightest blue eyes out of any baby in the hospital. She was a sweet and loving woman, really. Even as long as I'm living I still do miss her with a slight sting whenever my thoughts linger for too long.

My childhood isn't really worth mentioning, I was scholarly enough to advance the grades without much issue, but what had really occupied my early youth was looking after my sickly grandmother that no one else had the time, nor energy to put towards her health. Me being as youthful and dedicated as I was, I was the only one that could've taken care of her.

The years went on, but my grandmother never truly recovered from her illness. She was bedridden, coughing and always lacking energy to do anything meaningful, it was almost like her very health was always in a state of perpetual limbo. Never able to get worse, but never able to get better either.

Later on in life both of my parents would pass away, my father from a workplace accident and my mother from a robbery gone wrong, leaving me alone to continue to try to care for my grandmother. Once I was old enough, I decided to use my scholarly talents to try to break into the field of medicine to try to find the root cause of my grandmother's illness.

With my first day as a nurse in training, I was greeted by my teacher, Dr. Hansel, a warm and supportive elderly man that saw my raw potential and worked around the clock to get me where I needed to be in order to serve as a medical professional.

A few years later, my grandmother had finally passed away. It was a feeling I couldn't have prepared for, even if my entire life had been leading up to it. The last of my family had been ripped from me unexpectedly, leaving my all alone in this world with no one to turn to in my hours of need. Dr. Hansel was the closest thing I had left to a role model, sure, but even then I couldn't let myself feel comfortable around him to confide my deeper feelings into just yet.

A few days after my grandmother's funeral I was stuck in the clinic, feeling like a flower ready to wilt away into the soil below. The rain crashed upon the roof like no one's business, as I stared out the window. I was too deep in my sorrows to notice Dr. Hansel sneak upon behind me, as he let his hand fall onto my shoulder. "You've had a rough few days. Why don't you take my umbrella and leave early to better process your emotions?"

I wandered around aimlessly, still. My life's purpose feeling like it was just all for naught, as I sulked around aimlessly in the rain. I didn't know what to do with myself, as I kept walking until I could barely even recognize my surroundings in the city. It wasn't until I heard a faint wheezing from the nearby alleyway did I stop in my tracks.

My head turned to take in the sight of what appeared to be some sickly... figure on the ground. It looked like it was hunched over in pain, ready for death to take the pain away and give it its one final rest. My instincts told me to run away, but I thought I could feel better about myself if I could just save something. Anything.

I hesitantly stepped into the alleyway to approach the thing closer. "E-excuse me, sir? Are you well?" I squeaked out, not even wanting to let myself be visible to this thing on the ground. Then my heart plummeted down into Hell once that thing turned around to face me. It grinned at me with a pasty white grin and crimson eyes, before grabbing me by the arm and pulling me closer.

Before my brain had caught up, it sunk its teeth into my arm. I screamed.

I desperately struggled to push this thing off me, each second got worse as it seemed to find other spots to sink its teeth on my body just for fun, just to make me suffer more. Then, with a sudden surge of strength, I managed to push this ghoul off of me onto the strength. What happened next shocked me to my core, the sunlight bared down on that thing and turned it into ashes on the road, leaving only a coat that seemed as cheap as a trash bag.

I thought the least of my worries had been over, as I felt the air coming in and out my lungs way too fast with me leaning against the alleyway's walls. But then I saw my arms. The places I had been bitten had turned into white blotches on my skin, threatening to cover my skin like paint.

I could barely remember what happened after that. My heartbeat was rapidly fading, threatening to still as I tried to make my way back to the clinic to find out what was wrong with me. Once the sun had set, it almost felt like I was flying with how fast I was going.

Once I was at the clinic, I scrambled to get inside to find Dr. Hansel, hoping he knew what was going on with me. Surprisingly, Dr. Hansel had came back to the clinic that night to retrieve something he had forgotten to bring with him. Once I saw him, I couldn't help but run towards him as fast as I could've to confront him directly.

"Dr. Hansel, what's happening to me?! I-I got bitten by a strange person in an alleyway and became like this!" I screeched at him in panic, still feeling like I might have a heart attack, even if such a thing may have already happened.

Dr. Hansel looked at me shock, his eyes widening as he took in the changes to my body. Suffice to say, he himself didn't really how to comfort me. "...I'm not sure. Never in my years of practicing medicine have I ever seen anything like this."

My bottom lip trembled with overwhelming emotions as I processed that even he couldn't figure out what was going on with me. I panicked, almost looking like I was about to breakdown trying to figure out what that thing in the alleyway had done to me. Then, as if it all couldn't get any worse, Dr. Hansel tried to calm me down by latching onto my shoulder, before instincts that hadn't been embedded into my psyche before activated and I lunged to sink my teeth into his arm.

Dr. Hansel yelped and recoiled in pain, holding his arm to his body, while I was even more distressed and confused by what I had just done. Then I tasted it. Instead of something metallic and disgusting, my taste buds were instead met with something sweet, like jelly, yet fruity like some kind of cherry substance.

"I'm... I'm a monster! No! This can't be happening to me! I don't know why this is happening to me!" I cried, the dam finally breaking and allowing myself to become hysterical with whatever was happening to me. Dr. Hansel reached towards me again to try to comfort me, with a little more success this time.

"Saffy, please! I don't know what's going on with you, but now is probably not the time to give into a breakdown! I need you to stay calm so I can help you! I can't lose you to whatever is happening to your body, you're too important to me and all the patients in this clinic to let yourself go crazy." Dr. Hansel said, holding me firm in place.

I still wanted to scream and throw myself out the window, but the idea of Dr. Hansel saying I was important to him made me want to at least try to hold myself together for him. For myself.

Afterwards, Dr. Hansel convinced me to lock myself in the clinic while he researched my symptoms in the nearby libraries to try figure out what I had become. Because the concept of "vampire" had not yet been realized, we had to go circles through Mesopotamian, Greek, Roman, and Hebrew folklore and culture to try to figure my condition out.

Nonetheless, Dr. Hansel hadn't made me feel any less human because of my condition. He helped me get more used to being active at night to not fry up in the sun and let me feed from in order to sustain myself.

I may have changed that day, but I gained a deeper appreciation for my community and humanity itself. Since I was no longer something earth-born, I felt as if I had a responsibility to my grandma and Dr. Hansel to utilize this odd blessing to do as much as I could for my field, always seeking out new advancements in medicine to better save human lives, as if I was some otherworldly savior...

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"Anyways... that was bit of a long story, wasn't it, sweetie? I'm sure you might have some questions, but I think it's best to leave those for another time, eh? It's getting late, so... why don't you just go to bed for now? I'll be sure to bake those funny little bat cookies you like so much before you see me first thing when you wake up~"