Ryan unfastened the laces of his boots, the lace slipping through his pale fingers. With a slight tremble of his leg he stepped out of the first one and then the other. His bare feet felt the sand, a texture he wasn’t used to. The grainy feel of a thousand grains danced around his feet.

He inhaled deeply, the scent of the ocean and of suncream coating his skin filled his nostrils.

“This is it,” he whispered to himself as he pulled off his shades and took a step out of the shadows into the warm light of the sun.

He winced a little, expecting to feel the burn, but it never came. The warm blanket of summer beckoned him in as he fully gave himself to the sun.

Tears formed in his eyes as he looked around at the beauty of the daylight.

He was cured, seventy years since he was turned at the age of seventeen and now here he was, the same body at eighty-seven embracing the sun of his youth yet again.

His life had been returned to him, no more blood after dark. No more sleeping during the day. He had another seventy years left of life and he was looking forward to growing old, the way he was supposed to. But for now he was just going to enjoy the first day at the beach.