6

	My eyes fluttered open; Morning. I stumbled out of my coffin, and I 
actually bonked my chin again... would you believe that... more like I LOST 
a year than gained a year.

	Walking downstairs, Mother was waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs 
and hugged me when I reached her, "Happy Birthday, Alucard."

	I hugged her back, not caring about whether she called me by my nickname or 
not, "I'm not excited, y'know."

	"So?"

	I shrugged. I didn't really feel good about today... something wasn't 
right... but I shook away the thought; I hadn't slept good the night 
before... I only got two hours of sleep. But, regardless, I asked, "When do 
you need to attend to that one person who has an appointment with you?"

	"I told you last night that it'll be around noon," Mother said.

	"Oh, yeah. What time is it now?"

	"11:45. You need to wake up and meet me at the cottage soon. I have to go 
now, but just be there, ok?" Mother announced. I nodded.

	A couple minutes later, Mother had left the castle; the cottage where she 
used to live is about three miles away from here, and that's where she 
treated people. And yes, Witch Hunters DID know where it was... they just 
had a hard time getting there because I guarded it.

	I had gotten dressed and fixed my hair, and was heading out the door. It 
was 11:55 already, and I knew that something was bad already.

	Then I saw them. I was late. An ear-piercing scream broke the silence that 
surrounded me, "ADRIAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

	Before the word fully escaped my Mother's voice, I was dashing down the 
hill leading to the cottage, and almost reached Mother when two arms grabbed 
me and threw me into a tree.

	"NO!!!" Mother yelled. I got up to help her, but a whip lashed around my 
throat, and the witch hunters threw Mother onto a cart, and she grunted as 
she landed hard on the splintered wood.

	I struggled furiously to get free, but the whip held me tight, and finally 
it dragged me to the ground. The whip loosened, and I lay there on the 
ground panting for breath. I then heard the whinny of a horse and I rolled 
out of the way before the stomping hooves trampled me as the apparent leader 
of the Witch Hunters rode away. Back to Town to kill Mother.

	I stood up after much effort; that man was Jonathan Belmont, the most 
proclaimed Witch Hunter in Transylvania...

	...And he had caught Mother.

	Chasing myself from my daydream, I started running again. My legs tired 
easily after the first couple of yards but I didn't care. I kept running. 
Mother was NOT going to die. Not today. I wouldn't let it happen. I just 
WOULDN'T.

	As I neared town, I could already hear the roars of the crowd as Mother was 
tied to the cross in the Town Square.

	I leapt onto a building, and saw Mother standing there. She was helpless, 
and tears were streaming down her cheeks, and my eyes were burning from 
wanting to release my own tears.

	I shouted, and I caught everyone's attention, "MOTHER!!!!!!!"

	Mother looked up at me, "ADRIAN!!!" but Belmont had rewarded her outburst 
with a hard slap to the face, which enraged me. I gritted my fangs as 
everyone looked up at me. Townspeople backed away from the building in 
panic; they knew who I was, and they knew that I would protect Mother with 
my life.

	Finally, I leapt down from the building, and that's when all the commotion 
REALLY started. Hunters leapt for me, but I dodged them, continuing to run 
towards Mother.

	But the Belmont had stepped in front of me again, glaring at me as he held 
a torch in his hand, "You aren't going to save her, Dhampire..."

	I bared my fangs and growled. I leapt forward to tear his throat out but 
when a little girl screamed "Grandpa!" I stopped, and turned to the voice. A 
little blonde-haired girl was being held back by her Mother.

	Jonathan Belmont shouted at me, "You stay away from her!"

	I scoffed, and turned to him. Mother hadn't been set on fire yet, but I 
suffered just watching her wait for Death to take her soul to the Afterlife, 
"If I should suffer watching a family member get ready to die, why shouldn't 
you?"

	The girl, now, was hiding behind her Mother at hearing my words, but 
Jonathan cracked his whip to draw my attention away from her, which had 
worked.

	Mother called to me, "No! Do not hate humans. If you cannot live with them, 
do them no harm, for their's is already a hard lot."

	Jonathan growled when he heard her speak, and grabbed a torch. I screamed 
for him to stop, and began to rush forward again, but two men grabbed my 
arms, followed with two more men.

	The torch was lowered to the mess of straw and sticks that was below 
Mother, and I screamed again, "NOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

	The fire was lit, and the crowd around Mother and I began roaring things at 
her, yelling at her to die. Words worse than anything that they had shouted 
at any supposed witch. I struggled to get free to save her, tears were 
streaming down my cheeks like rivers. But the men held onto me tightly. Then 
they drew out objects and my eyes widened...

	... They were bottles of Holy water.

	I continued to try and get away in an attempt to both save my Mother and 
get away from the water, but almost instantly after I tried that, I felt the 
men tearing my shirt off, followed by the burning pain of Holy water and the 
glass digging into my skin on my back. I roared out demonically in pain, 
"STOP IT!!!" I yelled, "LEAVE HER ALONE!!!"

	I didn't want them to think that they were weakening me, so I tried to yell 
for Mother to be let go, but the water burned so badly, and I kept crying as 
the Holy water continued to burn into my open wounds that the glass had 
caused.

	Finally, I broke free, but Jonathan Belmont got ahold of me before I 
reached Mother. The poor woman was coughing from all the smoke and screamed 
out in pain from the flames, which brought more tears to my eyes, "STOP 
IT!!!! LET HER GO!!!!!!"

	Jonathan Belmont then drew out a sharp wooden stake which I narrowly caught 
site of in the corner of my eye--!

	I grabbed his hand and twisted it around, and forced his hand down, jabbing 
the stake directly into his leg. He yelled out in pain, and tried to get 
ahold of me again, but I ran my fingernails, which were small, short points 
from the Vampire side of me, down his arms. Once again, the men ran at me 
and grabbed me, but Jonathan shook them away, and he tied my hands together 
with his whip, grabbed me by my hair, and jerked my head up, forcing me to 
watch Mother burn. Tears ran down my cheeks more furiously now, and I 
screamed for it to stop, but the blood left my face as the horror came to 
me...

	...I smelt death, and it was wafting heavily from Mother.

	"NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I shouted, crying even more, but Jonathan held 
me fast, and I kept crying until I swore that I was shedding tears of my own 
blood.


	Within an agonizingly long sixty minutes, it was all over. Jonathan had 
released me, and I collapsed to the ground. The fire had stopped, and 
everyone went home. I was curled up into a fetal position on the cold 
cobblestone, quietly sobbing.

	Mother was dead.

	I heard small footsteps, and looked up, wiping the tears from my eyes; 
Jonathan Belmont's Granddaughter was standing there. This little 
seven-year-old, whom I threatened to kill, was standing there innocently 
looking down at me.

	She knelt down next to me, landing with a small plop on her knees, and she 
held her hand out, holding something in her hand, "I'm sorry that your Mommy 
died like that, Little Boy."

	She nudged her head towards her hand, and I slowly reached up and took what 
she was holding out to me; a little gold locket with the words "Love" etched 
into it hung from a gold chain that I held onto.

	The girl smiled at me, "You can have that, as a sy-mph-ony present," she 
said, struggling to say the word "Sympathy."

	I sniffed, and managed to smile back at the girl, "...Thanks."

	Soon, her Mother ran over to her and picked her up, carrying her away, 
"Sonia, stay away from him!"

							*

	That night I buried Mother myself in my coffin. She easily fit into it, and 
I managed to bury her without breaking down into a fit of tears.

	"Adrian?" A voice spoke.

	I spun around after I finished putting the dirt over my Mother's Grave, to 
face my Father. I glared hatefully at him, "What are you doing here?!"

	Father angled his neck slightly to where he was just barely looking at the 
ground, "I'm sorry I didn't come to help Lisa."

	I growled, "No, you're not. I was the one who protected her. You didn't 
care about her life in the day. You didn't get tortured today!" I shouted at 
him.

	My Father sighed heavily, "Yes, I did care about her. I just didn't realize 
that she was in trouble. Adrian, please forgive me."

	"How in Hell can I forgive you?! If you loved her, you would have stayed 
with her! And today was my birthday! You didn't even stay for my birthday... 
Mother was there. And she was killed! Some 'Lucky Number 13,' eh?" I 
snarled.

	Father closed his eyes, "I'm sorry, Adrian. I would bring her back if I 
could--"

	"The only way you could bring her back is if she were brought back as an 
Undead! She'd kill herself if that happened!" I yelled, cutting him off.

	We stayed silent for a couple of minutes before Father finally walked off. 
When he was out of earshot, I whispered to him, "Damn you, Father... Damn 
you to Hell..."