Chapter 1: Échapper

(As with Rötterdämmerung, edited photos are used to indicate the past. I'm not sure what compelled me to do so, given you won't see much of the present. Storytelling purposes, possibly.)

I suppose you wish to have an explanation for who I am. Well...

You may not believe this, but I was once like you. A human, that is.

Indeed, I was not always the fanged monstrosity that is before you. I once had blood flowing within my veins, and a beating heart.

I was one of the very race I despise now. A man by the name of Sebastian.

My life way, to say the least, privileged. Whatever I desired, I was given.

Well, not everything, but within the realm of possibility. I will admit, I appreciated where my place was.

Though, I worried for my dear sister Francisca, and did my best to learn of her whereabouts. I promised myself that I would take every chance I was presented with to find her.

There was but one dark stain upon this, however.

Her.

Catarina, the woman who birthed me. I don't dare call her 'mother', because though she gave me life, that was all she did that was considered even remotely motherly.

Oh, her guise out in the public eye was that of the doting wife and mother. Behind closed doors, however... a completely different woman took her place.

So obsessed was she to see me married off. All she spoke of was, "wedding" this, and "marriage" that. Catarina spoke of carrying on the family name, of only wanting me to be happy with a potential bride.

Every word held emptiness. She truly had no such thoughts for me. She only cared of herself.

Many times, I confronted her. I told her, "I am not a 'Little Prince' anymore. I am not livestock to be sold to the highest bidder. I am my own person."

Of course, Catarina being Catarina, often tried to save face. She tried to counter, saying she wanted me married off, preferably to a rich person, and to be able to enjoy things finer than she already had. She desired to see her grandchildren before her time was up.

I merely wished to find Francisca, but Catarina claimed my sister was a lost cause.

When I called her out on her lies, or stepped out of line in her mind, well...

That was when she resorted to violence.

One night, after slapping me particularly hard, that was when I knew that I had had enough. My sister had the mind to escape, and now I had decided to do the same.

I was about to step out of that mansion, presumably for good, when Catarina stopped me.

The fury was evident in her eyes, even before it came upon her face.

Almost as if by coincidence, I knew the words that she was about to speak.

I remember her weak attempts to sway me. 'Where do you think you're going to go?' and, 'What about the family name, and the future?' and then came the last nail in the coffin, 'you can't do this to me!'

To this day, I remember the exact words I told her in response:

"So it's you this is being done to."

"You think I can't do this to you?"

"Oh yes, I can."

I still hear her protests. She tried anger, she attempted tears, and she finally resorted to guilt. But her words did nothing for me. I would no longer be under the thumb of a woman who was my 'mother' in name only.

The feeling that I was free...it was indescribable. For the first time in what felt like an eternity, I was finally free! I was no longer trapped within that gilded cage. I was finally able to spread my wings, and witness life in my own way.

And surely, I wasn't the only one who gained the right mind in breaking free.

(End of Chapter 1.)