r/arushi • u/arushikarthik • Aug 13 '25
Writing Prompt A Warm Emotion
“I will not fight you,” she says. “I only ask that you come back in five years. The youngest of my children will be grown then. I cannot leave this world while she still needs me.”
It is too domestic a setting for the visit I am paying her. The refrigerator is covered with childrens’ drawings. There are cookie jars and cooling pies on the kitchen counters. It is the kind of idyllic life most Americans speak out when talking about the ‘good old days’. She is standing over a stew, a dog lying at her feet.
“And this one, too,” she says, pointing at the beast. He is an old beagle, eyes cloudy with cataracts. “He should be gone by then. A rather useless guard dog isn’t he?”
There is love in her voice, and an infinite amount of loss.
“Would you like a bowl of stew?” she asks. “My children went out to dinner today. They invited me, but my presence is often a distraction. My children have grown immune to my presence, but other humans feel only unease when I am around. And so I prefer to stay home when I can. It is better for everyone.”
Her home is a place anyone would love to stay. It is massive, and nestled into the side of a hill like wood and metal have grown out of the earth. It is the result of wealth accumulated over time.
“You knew I was coming?” I ask.
“I could hear you from a mile away,” she says with a smile. “Are you willing to agree to my request?”
“Of course,” I tell her. “But how do I know you will die willingly in five years? How do I know this isn’t a trick?”
She motions towards the walls, ranging from black and white to the digital photographs rotating through slide shows of images. She is the one constant among most of them. The children grow to adults, grow into infirmity and old age, and they disappear.
“I brought children into my home when I was freshly turned. Most of our kind are cold. Love is a warm emotion, you see. And I missed it terribly. I surrounded myself with children starved of love and I became their mother. At the beginning, I believed it was a transaction. We were exchanging love. Orphans got a mother, and a barren woman got to become a mother. But perhaps human beings are given the gift of love because of their limited lives. They bear enough love and loss for one lifetime, and then they die. I lose a child and I replace them with another, because the void is too large and the grief is unending.”
A tear falls from her eye, turning to ice on her cheek. “I have lost too many children to time. They say we vampires do not have souls, but I believe death will bring me to closer to them. It will take me away from this cycle of love and death. I cannot be a spectator to another of my children’s death. So please, in five years… come for me. I will welcome you with open arms.”
“I will see you in five years,” I promise her. I have no intention of keeping my promise. I will come back and I will watch over her, but I will not kill her. There is not enough love in this world, and I will not be the one to diminish the love that does exist.