The thing that hit Nelly the hardest about the loss, was how relieved she was. Her parents had been hard on her, constantly her of her faults and what a godless sinner she was. And she was only 11 the last they saw her! It would also explain why she was such an over weight youngster, eating in secret trying to find some comfort in the food that she didn't find from her parents or the guardians at the Home. Of course like all 'chubby' youngsters she was teased ruthlessly, but for Nell some attention was better than none.
Throughout the Junior High years following her parents' deaths Nell tried almost everything to get accepted by the In Crowds. Until Homecoming of her Sophomore year when rolly polly Nell was invited to the after game party by one of the cheerleaders. It didn't go well. She was given too much to drink, then taken into the boy's locker room where nearly the entire football squad abused her. When she came to the next morning, bruised and bleeding, she some how made it back to the Home and tried to tell them what had happened. She was sent to her room to "pray for forgiveness and repent for her sinful ways." She went to her room alright, but she packed up her meager belongings, gathered the small amount of cash she'd misered away and left, never to return to the Home or the school again.
The next few years were a blur, she managed to get a job at Denny's and lived hand to mouth, surviving at the Y, or any flea-bit hotel she could scrounge enough money to afford. By the time she was 20 she had gotten the apartment she now resides in and had begun saving up for a dream that she developed from serving mediocre food day after day, and she'd begun experimenting with recipes on her off hours. Without formal training, she got to be a fairly good cook, creating several original concoctions on her own. She vows to one day own her very own restaurant and not have to rely on anyone for her living.
The shortage of cash for essentials, like food, had actually done her some good and she dropped over 50 pounds, which revealed a rather striking young woman Men began to take notice of her, though she would continue to see herself in the eyes of the teen and would refuse their advances.
It was at this time her interest in the lives of the Vampires started. She saw a few movies, read a few books and the whole concept intrigued her. She started to 'hang out' in places that looked like would interest those types and asked questions, exploring and learning as much as she could. She would sit in the theater and watch movies like "Horror of Dracula" and "The Lost Boys," or at home the Buffy series, and each time the screen showed some one getting bitten she could feel a stirring, a longing of sorts, to find out just exactly what that feels like........
Last fall, she found out.
And her nightmare began with one Kiss.
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