A Vampire Story (Temporary title for now)

I really don't know what to call this, but it's a combination of many different vampire myths, legends, stories, etc. This is a raw work so let me know your thoughts.

I awoke this evening to the sound of the nightingale outside my window.  I had so adored the song when I was alive that I still cherished it even in death.  Perhaps my statement perplexes you? Yes, I did say death.  However death in my sense is not the same as death in yours.  To you, your kind and your medical community I would most certainly be classified as dead, having the same body structure, cell composition (to some degree), the same organs, and the same visual appearance, but I am not one of you.  I will not dance around the subject nor elude your questions with rantings and verbalizations of the sort in an attempt to mystify you.  I am what you would call a Vampire.   No, of course we don’t exist, and as long as legend, lore, and your cultural beliefs continue in that manner, then we survive.  For if your race new of our existence, there would be a war.  Yes, I said a war, but this war would be for survival of your species.  Many of us walk among you, some are nightwalkers, these are the young vampires, and then there are the Daywalkers, the older vampires that have survived for centuries amongst you, living normal lives, holding normal jobs in your world, living the “American Dream” as your culture so pleasantly puts it. 

The look of surprise on your face is not unfamiliar.  You are not the first to whom I have revealed this little secret, and it is only because of what I have observed that you still breathe your air in my presence.  It is the fact that you are in a place in your society where none of your peers, other humans to be exact would believe you, but when I am finished, your entire civilization will be turned on its head for you are the messenger that my people have chosen to reveal our existence.  And how are you to do that, you ask?  I am sure that you will find a way. 

I am not your typical vampire as legend would have it.  I do not turn into mist, a wolf, a bat, or any other type of nefarious creature.  The whole shape-shifting story was devised to scare the hell out of your people and to ensure that we did not become the hunted when our race was but in its infancy.  You see, as I stand before you, you envision a man appearing just as you would and that is how I want it to be.   I can see the look of disbelief on your face and the changes in your heartbeat.  Yes, your heartbeat.  There are so many things you don’t understand, and for me to explain them all would leave you nothing but confused.  I will over time, enlighten you to our secrets and you will understand how we can exist amongst you without being discovered.  

To start off with, I’ll explain a little of our history.  You may want to take some notes, but let me warn you before we start.  If you attempt to reveal our existence before we are ready, you will no longer cease to exist in any form as those who have appointed me this task will be watching and keeping a very close eye on every event in your life.  Yes, the questions are already forming in your mind.  I can see and smell certain physiological changes that make me aware of your curiosity. 

Do I have fangs?  Yes, I have fangs, but not in the same sense as you would think.  Here, I will show you.  Grisly, aren’t they?  Their sole purpose is to pierce through skin deep enough to reach the main arteries anywhere in your body or any animal body.  Yes, the legend is true that we feed off blood, and it must be freshly oxygenated blood for us to receive nutrients.  Venous blood will do in a pinch, but the oxygen-rich arterial blood is what activates the enzymes in our digestive system allowing us to fully digest the blood, albeit human or animal.  My question has always been why humans think that vampires are only after their blood and only dine on animals when human food is scarce.  I find that utterly preposterous as human blood, with all the chemicals, poor nutritional habits, and lack of physical health is the least of my favorites.  Lower animals, as you would describe them, are much better tasting and certainly more nutritious than humans, and they listen, when trained as familiars much more so than any human.  A familiar, you ask.  Ah yes, similar to what you would consider a pet, such a dog or cat I believe, however our “familiars” obey more so than any pet would you, and are deathly loyal.  You will learn more about how that happens, but I digress.  Oh yes, our history.

I’ll be cliché and start the story about how we came into existence, but it is not as you humans would find credulous.  It happened by accident actually.  A lone sole lost in the wilderness, without food, without water and nearly on the edge of madness when she, yes a young human woman in her early teen years, came across a rotting animal corpse laying on a riverbank.  Having gone with food or water for nearly 10 days and on the brink of insanity, knowing no better, she attempted to feast upon the rotting carcass and found the meat to be sickening, but the blood was a different matter.  At the core of the animal’s heart lay a pool of blood that, when she drank, gave her energy and allowed her survive.  For only a few days did she stay with the corpse of the rotting animal, living off its blood and feeling energy course through her system every time she did.  Even we do not know the root cause of our existence, but we do know that there were certain chemicals in that animal’s blood that caused irrevocable physiological changes in her system that would leave her in a state unlike any other human.  Our scientists hypothesize that something mixed with the animal’s blood and caused these changes.  She was the first, but certainly not the last.

Upon returning to civilization after being rescued, her changes became more pronounced not only to her but to others around her, her skin turning a initially a pale yellow, sometimes now associated with jaundice and then eventually an ashen white due to lack of the normal nutrients consumed by humans.  She could only consume blood as her digestive system rejected all other types of food.  Had she not accidently discovered this fact, she would have most certainly died.  No, there are no violent reactions after a body has adjusted to the changes, but the first few days are excruciatingly painful as the chemicals induced into the body begin to change the cells throughout the body at a molecular level.  Yes, you heard me correctly, a molecular level.   We, from a scientific standpoint, as a race, are far more advanced than humanity, due to the inherent fact that we had to learn about ourselves using your science, which was limited and we evolved many of scientific principles over the centuries due to our longevity and our need to better understand how we work.  I am no scientist, nor do I profess to have all the information about our physiology, just as you wouldn’t about humans, but I have had a long time to learn more.  As a matter of fact, many of humanity’s “scientific discoveries” were made by our Daywalkers and we graciously allowed them to leak to you humans.  A coexistence of our species, as decided by our elders, was of paramount importance for both our races continued survival.  Of course, there are some among that feel that humans are worth nothing more than the blood that courses through their bodies, but the general consensus among my kind is that we should live in harmony, but again I digress.  Allow me to continue with our beginning.  You are intrigued, I see.  I will continue.

Oh, you want to know about Daywalkers?  Yes, I have mentioned both them and the Nightwalkers.  They are as different as night and day in many instances, but I will get to them in time.  These distractions are keeping me from telling you our history, so if you will keep your questions to a minimum, I will fully explain everything.  As I had previously stated, this young teenage girl was returned to her village in a very sickly state, having been fed the normal human foods the entire trip back, which was almost as long as her time in the wilderness.  By the time they arrived, she was at death’s door, and of course like any human parents, hers were distraught as to the possibility of her death.  Even she did not understand her weakness, considering that she ate more food than two fully grown men.  You see, her body had changed, metamorphosized into what most of us are today.  Bedridden and near death, the hunger she felt was all but consuming causing her to reach a new level of madness.  It was when the village slaughtered an animal, and no, I don’t know what type as details have been lost in history, that her vampiric instincts kicked in and caused her leap from her deathbed and rush to the site of the slaughter.  How did she know, you ask?  It was the smell of the blood that awakened her from her death state.  Her desires became animalistic, and the villagers watched in horror as she drank the blood from the dying animal, energizing herself with its life essence.  Her strength returned and she was able to gorge herself on the blood of the dying animal.  She lay contented on the ground next to the animal, immediately realizing that the villagers she had known since her early childhood now looked up on her in fear and disdain.  

In those times, legends, lore, old wives tales, and superstitions ruled the way the people lived and it was no different in her village.  This fear they felt turned to hatred and they thought her insane and classified her as a witch, or whatever term they used then, and attempted to restrain her and kill her.  This was a mistake whose consequences that none of them, including the little girl, could have possibly imagined in their wildest dreams.  Those that did not die that day became as her, some good, some evil, depending on their human demeanor at the point of death.  Oh yes, it was a slaughter, none of them expecting this demure little girl to bring to bear the destructiveness of ten times as many men, helpless to stop her.  Yes, she was injured, but the changes in her body gave her the strength of ten men, the speed of a striking cobra, the agility of its enemy the mongoose, and the ability to heal at an amazing rate.  Our chronicles state it was twenty-five upon which she fed, with eighteen of them dying by having their hearts ripped from their chests, four dying from having their throats ripped out, and three surviving only because she could gorge herself no more.  Those three that lived, over the next week, slowly evolved into vampires, the chemicals from her saliva mixing with their blood.  Yes, the process was slow, and being the first, she did not comprehend the full measure of what had happened nor that they were like her until it was almost too late.  Had it not been for the recuperative powers instilled by their transformation, they would have surely died, as she fed upon them for the next week during their transformation, but this I will explain in more detail later. 

Only over the centuries did we learn that to more quickly transform someone into a vampire was it better to feed some of our own blood directly to them, speeding up the metamorphosis, and allowing them to live properly.  These three that survived, were mutated to some degree by their slow transformation and certain physiological changes occurred in them that did not occur in her.  They could not venture out into the daylight as the sun’s ultraviolet rays wreaked havoc on their skin, causing a rapid destruction of the cellular structure, which brought an end to two of the three.  They were also sensitive to light, vision wise, and developed an acute ability to function in the dark with ultra sensitive vision reaching into the ultraviolet and infrared spectrums. This remaining one was the predecessor to the modern day nightwalkers, which only after many centuries of attempts to breed out those traits, have we been successful in reducing the animalistic aggressiveness.   

You see, at that point, there was a clearly marked distinction between the two, but she had the upper hand, with her intelligence and an innate ability somehow achieved through her transformation to project a type of mental control through thought and voice.  Even the smartest of our kind still do understand why we can do it, although we have mastered the techniques over the many centuries.  How many centuries? To some degree the legends of our longevity are true with many of us living many hundreds of years, but millennium old vampires are pure myth.  I believe our oldest living members are close to eight hundred years old, but they do not venture out much as they are not very amenable to modern societies.  Once you have lived past two hundred years, nothing comes as a surprise and becomes boring to most of our kind which is why we are so reclusive.  Many of my kind yearn for the olden days where they could co-exist with little fear of discovery, not having much use for the new ways such as technology, and advances made only in the last one hundred years.   Some of the older vampires have allowed themselves to die, tired of living and living with no end in sight.  It does play on our mind, not much differently than it would play on yours. 

And yes, we die, but not in a manner which you understand.  Somehow our memories are stored in our blood, the very essence of our life, just like humans, except we are different as our blood can be transferred to a new body through means we have developed and we can be given a renewal, or new body.  If we are injured too badly, such as the loss of a limb, or major damage to our organs, it is the only way, as we cannot, contrary to popular belief, re-grow a lost limb or repair major damage.  This body upon which you gaze is my third in as many hundred years.  To prove this, I will show you something.  This is a photograph of this person whose body I occupied. It was taken in 1892.  You may take it and verify its authenticity if you like, as I have all the possessions of this person and will not miss this one photograph.  Oh, the process used to be quite vile and uncivilized even by our standard, where as the victim was force-fed the entire blood contents of the dying vampire.  Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t.  I was one of the lucky ones where it worked.  The process we use now is one we developed and perfected to reduce the risk of death to the recipient, and even now your modern medicine uses the same process with performing open heart and other major surgeries.  All the blood is removed and filtered out through a machine, but instead of replacing it with the same blood, the dying vampire’s blood is introduced, smoothing the transition and allowing the dying vampire to move into a new body.  This is quite imaginative, wouldn’t you say. 

Again, I am sidetracked.  Getting back to our first.  She soon realized that she could control this beast upon which she had been feeding and used it not only help her find food sources, but to protect her at night while she slept.  Your myths often speak of werewolves being the guardians of vampires who sleep during the day, yet another falsity. Werewolves are even legendary among our people, and even so, we are not sure of their existence.  We do not control them, nor have any knowledge of them.  Do they exist?  It is quite possible, but probably just as you, I have never seen one in all my time.   As I stated, she was able to control this beast, but the problem remained that for victims not fully drained of their blood, they would change into yet another one of the beasts.  Before long, she had a horde of them as her followers and they roamed the countryside on a killing spree that left hundreds dead and changed.  Only when one of the mistakenly attacked her and drink her blood before she was able to snap its neck did she realize the power of her blood.  The beast that attacked changed yet again, keeping the animalistic instincts and heightened rage, but regained some intellect and could communicate with her on a more, dare I say, human level. Although the frailties remained, the sensitivity to light specifically, this new creature was at nearly the same intellectual level as her.  Between the two of them, they were able to thin the growing population of the raw nightwalkers and bring them under control.  Now with their knowledge that their blood was the key to expansion of their new race, they knew they had to be careful.  For many years, they lived in some semblance of harmony, only feeding when they needed, mainly off of animals, and continuing to grow the race. 

Do we reproduce, you ask?  Not in the same sense as humans, as somehow during the transformation process our ability to sire and have children is destroyed.  We have been working on a cure for this, but to date we have failed with many of kind dying a very agonizing death in testing the treatments.  Many of our kind would like to have children, not having had them in their human lifetime, but I do not see it being a reality anytime soon.   

So, as I was saying, these two lived in harmony for many years, fearing that if they were discovered, the humans would kill them, and yes, we can be killed.  It takes more than it would to kill you, for instance, but we can be killed nevertheless.  I’m sure you’re curious about how, but those are secrets that will not be divulged.  I will tell you that a stake through any living creatures heart, vampire or otherwise will most certainly kill it, however injuries that would kill a normal human or other type animal are not nearly as fatal to us.  And yes, if you cut our heads off, we will die as well.   The garlic thing?  Well, part of it is true as our sense of smell is extreme compared to most other living creatures, and garlic is repulsive.  That is the only reason.  We do not even like to feed on people who eat a lot of garlic as it upsets our digestive system, but nothing more than that.  Oh, and I’m sure you’re thinking about the holy water.  A load of rubbish.  Holy water has as much affect on me as it does on you. None.  Fire on the other hand, just like it burns you, will burn me as well.  I am not impervious to being burned although I can heal more quickly from the damage.  Nightwalkers are a different story; they are affected by the ultraviolet rays of the sun just as what would happen to you if this planet were closer to the sun.  The cellular structure is such that exposure to daylight will cause intense burning and a breakdown of the cellular structure, turning them into a pile of bloody mush if they get too much exposure.  No, they do not burst into flames nor explode, but will, the best way I can put is, melt, but we have devised methods for nightwalkers to survive outside during the day, although they are not keen on it themselves.

To be continued...

Author's Note

This is a brand new work...just forming the plot in my mind, and am looking for some general feedback on how it flows. My concept is taking all the various vampire myths and legends and turning then on their head, so to speak, and bring the vampire history to a higher level of credibility, at least in the readers mind.

Reviews

[Hans von Lieven]

I am not really sure where you want to go with this. As a core for a theme it is fine. As an introduction to a novel I would not use it as it stands. At the moment it sounds like a rather dull academic dissertation. There are some really good plot ideas there, it is the presentation I have problems with.

Many of the things you are portraying could be introduced via dialogue, events or snippets of information in between.

Right now it sounds like some arrogant, patronising arsehole lecturing a bunch of dimwits.

Now there is nothing wrong with presenting things in this way, but inside a story perhaps, not as an introduction to a novel.

The first few pages in a novel set the scene and the tone of the piece. Whatever you write there you are stuck with throughout.

You need to have a close look at whether you want to go where that particular introduction leads or not.

Like I said, terrific idea-yes.Let it crystallise a little more, then go back to it.

Greetings from Australia

Hans