Francis Castillo

I can’t bear this. I can’t stand knowing that my family and I are bound to eternal servitude due my ancestor (hope he rots in Hell) striking a deal to ensure our “protection” in exchange for an eternity of servitude from every generation of the Castillo family.. It’s because of him that our lives revolve around the catering to the whims of an ageless monster who feeds upon the blood of the living. It’s because of him that my daughters, my three innocent daughters, will all be forced to sire the next generation of slave and forfeit them once they are of age. My usefulness will not last much longer. The bastard works me like a dog to maintain his damn mansion, a house built on the blood and sweat of my ancestors. Elizabeth worries for me, my strength is draining every day, and no amount of food or medicine seems to restore it.

Elizabeth... I know that her job is to raise the girls, but that bastard is drinking from her, I know it. She’s getting paler every day. How long before he loses interest in her and decides to drink from one of the girls? I know he’s fond of Naomi, from the day she was born he couldn’t stop staring at her. I couldn’t read his face though, he was so... emotionless. What the hell interests him so much? The question keeps me up at night, and I worry for her every day. He hasn’t shown any interest in Ramona and Beatrice, and he acts like they’re not even there most of the time. That’s a good thing, for now. They know to stay away from him. But not Naomi... She’s always running off to the library, where he reads to her. She likes him, and that’s killing me.

Sometimes I talk with Elizabeth about running away. She tells me we wouldn’t make it out of Canada. Tells me we wouldn’t make it five miles before he caught us and did God knows what to us. I’ve kept pressuring her over the year though, and I think I’ve finally convinced her. We set a destination. New Farriston. It’s near the coast,  maybe we could find an apartment by the ocean. The girls would love that, they always talk about what they’ve read about the ocean from those books in the library. Heard the Teen Titans had a tower there, off the coast. That’d make me feel safer.

It’s going to be hard for the girls to leave this place. This is all they know. I know it’s for the best though. Elizabeth’s been taking small amounts of cash from him over the year, so I think we’d have enough for a trip over the border. The rest... I don’t know. So much can go wrong, and our chances of staying hidden from him forever are next to none. But if we can stay under the radar until the girls are older, we could send them away. He’d be looking for us, he’d be angry. He’d want to punish [i]us[/i] before he takes the girls. That’s our only advantage.

I find myself pacing back and forth across my room, the wall lights are dim. I don’t have to peek under the queen sized bed to know that five suitcases packed with only a few articles of clothing and assorted change lay hidden in the darkness. He’s gone tonight, now is our time to go. So why am I so afraid to leave? Am I really that much of a coward?

No. This is our chance to live for ourselves. To live on our own terms. That’s what’s going to make all of this worth it in the end.

I hope I’m right.

God I hope I’m right.