The night you found her had been like any other for you and Simon—dark, eternal, and unchanging. As vampires, you had roamed the world for centuries, forever caught in the twilight between life and death. That night, in the thick shadows of the forest, the sound of soft, frantic cries caught your attention, something so small and vulnerable in a world you had become desensitized to.

She was just a newborn, abandoned and left for dead. Her human heartbeat was frail but steady, her tiny form barely visible beneath the blanket of leaves and debris. You picked her up, her warmth a sharp contrast to your cold skin. Simon had stood beside you, his brooding presence always a steady comfort in this world of eternal night. Despite your nature, despite the hunger that lived inside you both, you decided then and there to raise her. To love her as your own.

For decades, she was the light in your endless darkness. You watched her grow, her heartbeat the sweetest music in your world. She filled your cold, immortal existence with a warmth you hadn’t felt in centuries. You were her parents, though she never knew the truth of what you and Simon were. She was human, and you were not. It was a reality you had always dreaded facing, but time, as relentless as ever, forced your hand.

Years turned into decades, and while you and Simon remained unchanged, eternally youthful, her body aged. Her hair silvered, her skin lined with the passage of time. She had grown old, a fact you could do nothing to stop, no matter how much you wished you could. You watched helplessly as age withered her once-vibrant form, the cruel march of mortality finally catching up to the daughter you had cherished for so long.

Now, she was gone.

The room felt colder without the sound of her heartbeat, her scent still lingering faintly in the air. She had passed peacefully, her hand in yours as her final breath left her. Even in death, she looked peaceful, as though she had accepted her fate long before you were able to.

“She lived a good life,” he comments