Samantha walked with a rose in her hand. It had been a gift from him, left on her windowsill. It had been on the inside of her window.
Early that morning, she had woken up to the blood red petals, soft as silk, and a loving, carefully written note:

“Meet me in the park at midnight.
It’s time for us to be together forever. Don’t be scared.
You and I, together forever and always…
Love,
Jake.”
She had smiled to herself as the tears welled in her eyes. After receiving that note, Jake had touched Samantha’s heart in the way he always managed to.
She knew her parents weren’t going to care about what she was going to do tonight—they never cared about anything but themselves—so she had anxiously anticipated midnight, twirling the rose in her hand for hours on end and staring out the window as if somehow he would just pop out of nowhere.
No.
Jake was different, and she knew it. It was the reason the rose was inside her windowsill and not on the outside. It was the reason he wouldn’t come out to meet her until midnight.
Clamping down on her thoughts, Samantha walked the streets of the city down to the central park, twirling the rose in her hand as she had all day. Being careful not to snag her fingertip on a thorn, she found herself at the park—glancing at her watch to find it was exactly midnight.
There was no one out here.
Then she heard a rustle in the bushes and, with the free hand she had, brushed away strands of hair from her face as she peered out into the night to find out who was there. It had to be him.
Walking over to the bush Samantha thought the sound had come from, a dark figure approached her and she let out a gasp that was half relieved.
“Oh, Jake. It’s just you. I thought you were some creepy stalker.” Samantha laughed when she said this and Jake chuckled as well. He then sobered a little bit, an understanding smile crossing his face.
“Are you ready? I know you were kind of scared at first to do this. You’re positive this is what you want?”
“Yes.” Samantha breathed. “Of course I’m ready. I want to be with you forever. I want to leave this place and never look back.”
Jake nodded. “I understand you want to leave here. You also know you’re going to have to leave anyways, right?”
Samantha nodded, mirroring Jake.
“Alright then, we should go back to my place so no one sees us. They’d suspect something the moment you were in my arms.”
Jake took her hand and, together, they made their way quickly to Jake’s apartment. He lived alone since he was eighteen and since Samantha was seventeen, it didn’t really matter if she was with him or not.
They arrived a few minutes later and Jake took her to his room, telling her to lie down.
“You’ve done all you wanted to before we started this?” Jake asked with concern and uneasiness lining his features.
“Yes. I’m completely ready. Let’s get this over with.” Samantha replied quickly. She was definitely more than a little nervous.
“Okay…” she heard Jake breath, suddenly right next to her.
The sting of his fangs in her neck made Samantha gasp before she fell into unconsciousness.
**************************
Jake had never tasted anything sweeter than Samantha’s blood. Nothing compared to this. Not the random street people he had taken small amounts of blood from, not the donated stuff from hospitals, nothing.
Just Samantha could compare to Samantha. Hands down.
As he fed on her, pushing his intent into the bite, he thought really hard to himself not to hurt her. As he concentrated on this, he almost didn’t notice the little prick he was feeling against his chest.
It was the rose he had left for Samantha this morning.
She grasped the rose tightly in her fist as she fell into the darkness he knew was enveloping her.
Pulling back from the bite, he used all his will not to return to her neck for more. He couldn’t live with himself if he accidentally killed her during this process.
All that was left to do was wait for her to wake up.
The seconds, minutes, hours passed by without delay as Jake waited for Samantha to wake up.
His true love was becoming a vampire like him.
And he was determined she would wake up from this as a vampire.
It wouldn’t kill her…
It couldn’t kill her…
****************************
The only thing Samantha knew when she woke up was how powerful she felt.
The darkness has swallowed her, leaving her feeling warm, numb and detached from the world.

She had floated in the darkness contentedly for what felt like a lifetime before she was pulled out of it. Now she was residing in a powerful body that didn’t feel like her own at all, just some powerful weapon she was placed inside of without a purpose.
She stood and glanced around to see Jake standing three feet away from her.
Samantha smiled.
**************************
Jake watched as Samantha slowly turned to find him, enjoying the feeling he got when her familiar smile crept across her face.
He took her in his arms, kissing her repeatedly until they couldn’t bear it anymore.
Then he stepped back. Samantha took his hand and squeezed it reassuringly.
This was definitely a new beginning—and a beautiful one at that.