Redeeming The Cursed Vampire King

Not A Kid Anymore

VENNIE CULLEN

Today marks the beginning of a new year. For me.

Yet, the same routine of my life was to be used throughout the year according to the man standing before me with furrowed eyebrows and eyes that seemed even more determined than the previous years.

He was my father… his unshaven beards looked even rougher today, even though he had cause to shave them off and look less empty… for the day at least.

But that was too much to ask him.

My father's void and dark brown eyes pierced into my soul and, for once in my twenty years of living as his daughter, I wished he would look at me definitely and smile… for today at least.

But still, that was too much to ask of him.

Silence settled between him and me and we both stared at each other, trying to communicate different things and fighting for different outcomes. I believed I deserved a different outcome. I wished he would say something to me. After all, it was my new year… my birthday.

“That’s too much to ask and you know it, darling. I know what's best for you–”

My father finally broke the silence and I immediately retracted my wish. I shouldn't have wished for him to speak. Perhaps I should have been more specific. I should have wished that he would agree with me and finally let me attend the ceremony like every other teenage girl and lady of Hope Valley.

But as my father said, that was too much to ask, even for the birthday girl…. Even for his only daughter who had finally reached the age of twenty. Even for a female child of the Cullen family- a family known to have spiritually inclined members. I wasn't little anymore and neither was I a teenager anymore, but the same rules that applied when I was at that stage of life were still valid… to my father at least.

I should struggle and fight to end that rule this year.

I couldn't continue living like this… I shouldn't. No one should and from the sounds of drums, happy feet, and happy voices reverberating through the thick walls of the Cullen family home, no one except me, Vennie Cullen, was living like this.

This is my life…

This is how I have been living since I was born.

The same questions were asked multiple times yet I got the same answers. I was used to that… but not anymore. Not this year.

“Do you even know what day it is, father?”

I breathed. My long eyelashes fanned over my eyes as I blinked back what I knew were tears of disappointment. I wasn't a teenager anymore. I shouldn't cry this year.

“Of course, Vennie. What do you take your father for?”

My father, Hiram Cullen, scratched his breaded jaw as he answered. His eyes were void of interest and the expected gleam that the birthday girl’s father should have. Nothing was in there and my eyes clouded with unshed tears.

“It’s the day every teenager in Hope Valley attends that useless and dangerous ceremony that they call… hmmm… look here, Kiddo–”

“It’s called the Hope Teenagers festival, Father, and I am not a kid anymore!”

I yelled at him, barely shaking him out of the self-isolation that he had cast upon his soul for years. Of course, he didn't know what today was and he could only get the festival right because of the loud celebration going on outside and in some parts of the house.

He had been so lost in himself even though there was no one else that required his attention. I was all he got for crying out loud and yet, he failed to be the father I needed.

“Don't be mean to your father, Kiddo. I have–”

“Don't call me that, father! I am not a kid and guess what?” I gritted with no bone of respect. My father’s eyes widened yet he didn't understand what I was going through. He was simply getting angry and before he could explode like he always does, I added “It’s my birthday!”

“And guess what again? It’s my twentieth birthday!”

My raised voice attracted the attention of other members of the family. And trust me, we had a large family living in the same house with my father and me… the Cullen family house- a place where all living members of the family live in either unity or hostility.

Whatever rocks the boat at the moment.

“Calm down, Vennie, and watch your tone.” My father whisper-yelled, but I wasn't about to calm down. I have been living like a damn prisoner in my own family's house. Among my numerous cousins, I have had the worst life and some of them rub it in my face every chance they get.

Especially Shelly- my aunt’s eighteen-year-old daughter.

We all live in the same house and originated from the same family, but I have always been treated differently… perhaps it happens like that because my mama wasn't with me as I grew up… but I wasn't the only motherless child in the Cullun Household,

However, most of the otters weren't my agemates. They were older and didn't have a father that restricted their movement like mine have been doing ever since I was old enough to walk on my two feet.

“Let the poor child be, Hiram. You shouldn't be shouting at her when you owe her an apology for forgetting her birthday.”

Finally, someone interfered and her fragile hands reached for me. This woman was the only one that had genuinely cared for me all my life… she was the mama and papa and I loved her more than anything in the world.

“Mama. you shouldn't spoil her like that. She doesn't get to raise her voice at–”

“Shut your mouth, Hiram, and apologize to your daughter this minute. She has been waiting by the boundary ever since she woke up this morning just to see you and ask your permission to attend the festival even though she is no longer a teenager.”

My grandmother, Sadie, yelled at her son with her gruff voice. She spoke nothing but the truth. I have been waiting by the line that my father drew many years ago when I asked him “when can I leave the house like other kids, father?”.

“Look at this line, Vennie.” My father had started that day as he drew the line with a paintbrush many feet away from the front door of our home. “This is your boundary, Kiddo. Never step over the line and never attempt to leave the house.”

Little me was confused and asked “Why can't I leave the house, father? Even Shelly has left the house countless times without supervision.”

I wasn't so young back then or did I just have a sharp mind and notice how I was being treated differently by my family members? I mean, I was the only child that wasn't sleeping in the general children’s wing, which had a beautiful corridor according to stories I had heard from Shelly.

I was made to sleep far away from any corridor that led to the outside world… I have been kept a prisoner, sleeping between my father's room and my grandmother’s.

“You can't leave the house because you are special, Kiddo. You are different from Shelly.”

That was the response my father gave to my question and, of course, I asked him “What makes me different from Shelly, Papa?”

“You, my darling, are a princess, and Shelly isn't… how does that sound?”

I squealed, liking the idea of being special... what a fool I was! He was able to fool me back then and, for many years, I stood behind the boundary like the princess he called me. A princess? More like a prisoner…

“He won't apologize, granny. He doesn’t even understand what he has done wrong and how he has wronged me but never thought of apologizing–”

“You thought I had wronged you but all I have been doing was protecting you from the veil that lies outside! If only you knew of the evil that lurks around and rules–”

“There is no evil out there that the Culens can’t endure and defeat, Uncle. You just think Vennie is too weak to protect herself.”

As my father put me off during my emotional moment, he was also cut off by his niece, Shelly… the one family member that had made me hate my father even more. No one was saying there was no evil. We have all been told the stories right from our childhood days but the other members of the family believed their children wouldn't fall victim to the nightwalkers… and they protected them without making them live like a prisoner.

I hated my father yet respected him…

I hated the tales of the nightwalkers more, yet, we all knew they were true… I, for one, knew they were true because I read the newspapers every day and there was no day without zero cases of a missing set of people.

And they would be discovered dead the next day...

Everyone in Hope Valley knew the nightwalkers existed and we all live in fear… everyone that I have read about lived in fear but my father has been living like a coward… and he has made me live like that too…

I couldn't continue anymore.

“Learn to keep your mouth shut before I shut it for you–”

“Don't yell at my daughter for telling the truth, Hiram! You can treat your daughter like a low-life prisoner but my daughter is off-limits!”

My aunt… my father’s sister yelled back at him when he tried to caution Shelly and they both glared at each other, making the situation about themselves and not me, the real victim of everything.

“Listen! Today is Vennie’s birthday and, as we all know, she has been living within the walls of our home since she was born twenty years ago. Now she has taken it upon herself to ask her father if she can attend the teenager's ceremony which Shelly has been attending since she was thirteen. That ceremony happens to fall on Vennie’s birthday this season.”

My granny took over, announcing the cause of the misunderstanding to everyone that had gathered. Sadie was the oldest living Cullen and she hated it when the house was not peaceful. So this was her trying to make peace reign in her home.

“Now tell me, Hiram, will you allow Vennie to attend the ceremony with Shelly and the other teens?”

Sadie questioned my father… everyone in the huge living room already knew the answer before my father opened his mouth, yet I low-key prayed to the spiritual forces of my family that his answer would be different this time.

“As her guardian, I say No, Mama, and before you say you will protect her with whatever, you know better than anyone else why Vennie should remain within the protective shield of our home.”

My father answered, breaking my heart and shattering my hope. I clutched the upper part of my dress, hoping that my broken heart wouldn't hurt as much as it did.

But my father’s next choice of words broke me even more and my strength faded as my brain registered them.

“However, I have noticed that even the shield is failing and I have decided to move Vennie and myself to a safer place.”

How could I remain sane and strong after that… knowing that I would be leaving everything I knew and loved behind to continue living the life of a prisoner in a place that I knew would be deserted and isolated?

How could I remain sane when his voice reached me as he barked “we will leave tomorrow morning when we have the sun as our protector.”

I thought the tightening in my chest and my breathless condition was worse, but I failed to realize that more pain was to come and nothing could stop that…

Shouldn't have been born as the weakest of the Cullens… I shouldn't have been born at all.