The Original Sin

Chapter one

Nel

I stood in the shadows and watched my sister’s greatest achievement, her legacy; my only niece, as she raised her champagne glass in a toast and clinked it gently against her new husband’s glass. Smiling to myself, I raised my own glass in acknowledgement, silently wishing them well in their now entwined future.
They didn’t know I was here. I'd received the engagement announcement and the invite to the wedding and had replied to Emma via letter. I'd declined the invite, as I had her eighteenth birthday, and her twenty-first and thirtieth, claiming that I didn’t have the time to fly over and that I'd send a gift in my place. I'd sent that gift, a beautiful photo of my sister and I the day Emma was born in an antique black frame that I knew she would like, then I'd come to stand in the shadows and watch her, seeing the amazing young woman she had become over the years and knowing that Elaine, my sister, would have been so proud of her.
With a last look their way to ensure that they were happy, I turned to leave, placing my empty glass on the tray by the door on my way out.
The cold air hit me, and I pulled the lapels of my coat tighter around my chin as I headed for the car I'd hired when I'd arrived out here. Emma and her new husband lived out in the sticks, miles away from the type of civilisation that I was used to from living in the heart of a small, but busy town. I'd driven out here and was quite looking forward to the quiet drive back to the small airport I'd flown in to, however I realised now that I might have misjudged the timings.
I closed the door and cranked up the heat. As a vampire, I didn’t feel the cold like a normal person would, but it didn’t stop the wind from sending a chill down my spine. Checking that I still had my plane ticket, I set off into the darkness, knowing that I was going to have to rethink my timings if I was going to keep control of myself.

The airport was crowded, and I had to snake my way between the families and groups of people all waiting for their flights before I could slip into the ladies’ restroom closest to my departure lounge.
I splashed cold water on my face and looked up at myself in the mirror. Even I knew when to admit that I was in trouble. I had an hour and a half flight before I got back home, as well as a half hour drive back to the club, and my eyes were already black.
My phone dinged, distracting me from my problems for a second and I smiled when I saw Emma’s name on the screen. There was a photo of her and John smiling at the photographer and holding up their glasses.
Wish you could be here Aunt Nel, I miss you. E xx
I didn’t reply straight away, instead, I pulled up a different thread and sent a message back home to see how things were going. A reply came in almost instantly, and I smiled again at the witty reply from my spirited, young bar manager.
Haven’t burned the place down yet. Hurry back though, we miss you! C
The words echoed the ones I'd read from Emma and I started to think about how much she really did miss me these days, or whether it was just words. I hadn’t seen her since she was a kid. Almost twenty years had passed since the last time she’d seen me. Could she really still miss me?
My phone pinged again, and I pulled it free of my pocket again to read the message.
And James says bring ice! C
I rolled my eyes. Would there ever be a day when we managed to order the right amount of ice?
A disembodied voice sounded above me then, announcing my flight, so I switched off my phone and picked up my bag, taking a deep breath in before heading back out into the crowds.
The queue for my flight was long and slow moving, and I began to feel uncomfortable from the lack of breathing. I was trying to hold my breath to stop the smells around me from making me feel worse but having to try and make myself look like I was breathing at the same time so as not to alarm anyone who might be looking a little too closely. I might not need to breathe, but it began to get uncomfortable if I didn’t do it for too long, but the alternative was letting the smell of too many people crammed into one space overwhelm my senses when I was already hungrier than I normally allowed myself to get.
This was why I shouldn’t leave the club for too long, I silently berated myself as I finally made it to the front of the queue and onto the plane that would take me home again. Back to where I was safe.