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I'm not alone. People tell me this every day. I wake up, and every day until I fall asleep I am lonely. This will never go away, because of what I am. This is all because of a mistake I made. I regret that mistake every moment of life. I wish it would end. I know it can't, and I know why. Gods, how frustrating. I have spent the last 16 years on the run, changing my name and appearance. I'm so tired of the running. I said yes to a dark man, and now I'll have to run forever. I accepted the dark kiss of a creature that shouldn't have been on this Earth.
With a sigh I pull myself away from the window overlooking the country. A beautiful lake, the water stained black with the night's ceaseless darkness. A lone willow tree shelters a tire swing, long over grown with moss and other forms of life. This house hasn't seen life in well over 50 years. And because of what I am, it still hasn't seen any. I work my tongue over the sharpness of my canines and wince. How many people have I hurt with these? How many people did I kill before I learned to temper the insanity of the Thirst? I don't remember. With a half-smile, I make my way down the rotting stairs to the foyer. I don't want to remember. The darkness is complete and whole, surrounding me like a light wet jacket. I shouldn't have come to Louisiana. The nights here are so wet and hot, yuck. The night I was changed was a cold night in Chicago. Sweeping down the country, playing tag with fate and leaving in my wake a bloody trail that always went cold. I touched my forearm on the underside, watching the stark blue lines in my porcelain skin twitch. The Thirst had taken me, but unlike the old days I was riding it. It wasn't riding me. I had about 4 hours before I started losing mental clarity for it. I was thankful that I had mastered my unholy craving, but still miserable that I had it.
The night before I killed the man who made me, he asked me what I missed most about Life. I remember smiling at him cruelly. "Beautiful sunny days," I had answered. He laughed at me, and clapped me on the shoulder. "You miss sunburns and that foul smelling lotion? You miss all of those stupidly vain people reveling in their own beauty, unaware of how it was slipping away every second of their meaningless lives? How, my pet, can you miss that?" I turned to him and gave him a hug. We had been together for a few months after I had been changed. He had been stalking me at work before he attacked me. He stayed by my side, supposedly because he loved me. I think it was to take the edge off of his loneliness too. I held him in that moment, and felt the anger take root. At the base of my spine I felt a surge. Pure betrayal, held in the depth of my being, welling up like an uncorked spring. Pushing it's way up my back and out into my arms. Full force, driving me. I was so angry. So bitter. So depressed that I didn't die like I was supposed to. My "Master" as he called himself had been as surprised as me. I cried tears of blood, and killed like a wild animal for weeks. The edge came off of my insanity, but I was still angry. So angry. I set my teeth in his throat and drank from him. He screamed, he tore at my long blond hair, he kicked and fought. It was to no avail, I was given power greater than him with that rush of pure hatred. I left his empty corpse on the pavement behind a convenience store. I had nothing, so I took nothing. I began to wander. I had heard that if there is something that you are looking for in the supernatural world, you could find it in Louisiana. That was where I was now. It was pretty, but it was useless, like a colorful lamp that doesn't work. With a sigh I shuffled through the towns and boroughs, looking for a place to get a discreet meal. I found it... a house that held a law firm by day and a party at night. Three drunk girls, obviously lubed up with all kinds of "recreation" sat on the front porch. One of them seemed partially coherent, one of them was snoring softly. The one in the middle had her eyes open but wasn't moving. Perfect, looks like she's dead already. I picked them up with ease and carried them to the neighboring yard which was surrounded by a fence and empty. The house was cold and quiet, just recently abandoned. The lawyer and his night guests had probably chased them off. It was a shame too, they were probably good people. And now their grass was the final resting place of three party girls. I had learned to be neat about it, leaving nothing more than the bodies and tiny puncture wounds.One doesn't have to pierce with the whole fang to get the blood to flow. In this modern world it was practical to be as discreet as possible. I didn't know if any of the old legends I had heard growing up were true, and I didn't want to learn the hard way.
Of course I hated being a vampire, and I wanted out of the life, but something a little less painful and torturous was preferred.
I was no more than ten, maybe eleven steps away from the house when I felt arms around me. A cold, stank breath crossed my nose as a voice hissed in my ear, "Found you." Did "Master" have followers that had tracked me? I tried to remain calm and stay fluid. I thought through the possibilities and smiled. A twist, how exciting. I got dragged into the shadows and held fast. Whatever was holding me was silent, but stronger than myself. I closed my eyes and tried to think. Nothing was forthcoming. I have discovered that how my people deal with living for eons and more... they simply develop minds that live in one moment at a time, and no more. Accessing memories is tricky, and looking to the future is nigh onto impossible. While turning over these thoughts, a forest green SUV stopped in front of me. My "captor" pulled and pushed me to the vehicle and slammed me inside. Inside a large black man that looked like a body builder nodded to me as I made myself comfortable in the back. It had been converted to look like the back seat of a limousine. Fine with me. I crossed my long white legs and met his hooded chocolate eyes. He smiled and showed me the polish white shine of an elder's fangs. He sighed deeply and sat back, resting his hands on a black cane. On the top of the cane there was a thick, rounded ankh filled with a fluid that looked a lot like blood. When he spoke, his voice was like a purring panther.
"Childe, you have trespassed. We know what you have done, and your crime is unforgivable. You will be brought to the Princess." I smiled at him in the silliest way I could imagine. A princess! How lovely! I shuffled and stopped smiling. I was starting to get bored. I had heard that vampire big wigs liked to play games, but this was ridiculous. A big car, a really old and powerful goon, how stupid. I didn't need all this show! Didn't anyone believe in the direct approach anymore?
The vehicle stopped, and I was pulled out. Brought to a very modern tall building in a very developed city area. Very impressive, and all for show. Lead through the lobby, of course splendidly appointed. I yawned as the elevator doors closed and the car began to rise. Why, why did I have to go through with all of this? Though I was sure what I was getting was simply standard procedure. Creep them out, impress them, then... I didn't know what then. The stories all varied there. Some got tortured, some got recruited, some got killed in elaborate ways, and still others got locked in coffins to be driven insane as the Thirst ravaged. Sooner or later they would die and dry up, but that took a really long time, all depending on how old the vamp was and how long he had been a blood sucker. Sad really, how much contempt I had for my people. But they deserved it. Of that I had no doubt. The elevator stopped way up on a high level. Doors were opened, forced into an office straight out of a movie about a powerful bureaucracy. The entire room was the office, big enough that several elephants could have shared the space quite comfortably. A single large desk sat at the end of the room in front of spacious tinted window that overlooked the city. A single high-back leather chair sat at this desk, and it was turned to the window. Oh, could we stop with the stereotypes, please? It was becoming nauseating. Vampires, I was coming to learn, were not very inventive creatures by nature. How unfortunate, with an infinite lifespan, they couldn't come up with anything better than something from an over-budgeted movie. A voice rose from the chair as it turned to face me.
"Would you believe, Childe," a voice said, creeping like drapes of silk from the very shadows. I couldn't even locate the source of the voice, though instinctively I knew it was the chair. "I created that image that they use in the cinema. Choose to believe it or not, it's the truth." A woman, paler and finer than anything else I had ever seen rose from the chair and in a blink or less she was standing in front of me. I was forced to my knees by her goon behind me, and she smiled. A hand, cold and solid like marble caressed my cheek. I let her, it felt really neat. I looked up into her eyes. They were neon green! I had never seen that before. I smiled at her. She was worth the game. I could tell that she was looking into my mind and heart to see what I had been up to. "You are clever and resourceful, but angry. So angry." I looked at the floor. I kind of wanted her to like me. Maybe choose me over her goombas. I immediately silenced the thought. I knew she had seen it. A laugh reminiscent of church bells filled my haunted ears.
"Princess, the morn..." Both of us cast our eyes to the windows. Somehow in the midst of all the excitement, the sky had begun to lighten.
"To the resting chamber then. Tomorrow, we talk." She smiled at me and took my hand, leading me to a door that I had missed off to the left. It was veiled in shadow and I could tell that the only way you saw it is if she wanted you to see it. In the room there were no windows, and a light fixture set to a timer. I smiled more. There were only three coffins in the room. One of them was black with silver inlaid all over it. It sat on a raised platform covered in a dark red velvet sheet. On the right of it was a simple wooden one, beautifully carved. The black man from the SUV was climbing in it. On the left was a very feminine looking casket, a dark cherry wood. I laid my hand on it lovingly. "It is yours, for today. Tomorrow, when the moon claims it's throne in the sky, we will awake, and I will judge you." She climbed into the center coffin with a smile and closed the lid firmly. I tentatively rested my weary body on the padded satin interior and after only a few moments, I was completely oblivious to everything.
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