Chapter 1

As Callum's eyes adjusted to the darkness, he had a moment to reflect on the events that had led to him being in this place. It really wasn't an adventurous story or particularly interesting; he'd been part of a group touring through the Oaxaca Valley in Mexico exploring various ancient ruins. He hadn't been planning to go on this trip when he first saw the flyer for it posted on the bulletin of his college. He didn't even live on campus anymore, so he tended to pay less attention to these things than his friends. But when he found out Melanie--the girl he'd had a crush on since freshman year and knew was still single--expressed strong interest in the trip to Mexico, Callum couldn't pass up the opportunity. With the help of the registrar, he was able to claim the trip as part of his global multicultural studies credits and could utilize scholarship funds in order to afford the trip. Lord knew his parents weren't going to help fund a trip for the sole purpose of trying to date a girl, so he was also forced to work double shifts and save up until at last, summer vacation came and he was ready. One of Callum's closest friends had also accompanied him on the journey and it was through his pressuring that Callum had finally spoken to Melanie on the bus.

"Hey," Callum said, as casually as he could.

"Hi," Melanie had replied, turning to face him. She gave a bright white smile that melted Callum's insides, but he could tell she was a little hesitant to talk to him.

"Uh, have you ever, uh, been to Mexico before?"

"No, but I've always wanted to see the ruins in the Oaxaca Valley. Ever since high school Spanish." She gave a small laugh and Callum reciprocated, relaxing a little at her genuine openness.

"Cool, cool. Honestly," he said, "I don't know too much about them. I wasn't very good at paying attention in Spanish."

"Oh, really?" She gave a sly smirk. "You must like to learn more from experience, then."

Callum nodded and smiled, though that wasn't quite accurate. He honestly didn't like the feeling of being in a different country where the main language wasn't English. It felt weird. He felt weird. But he pushed those feelings down, instead focusing on conversation with his crush and his friend.

Callum had also managed to trade rooms with someone else so he could be with his buddy. That was more comfortable for the both of them, but his friend had teased him relentlessly for being so awkward that he couldn't even stand to room with someone he didn't know all too well.

Throughout the course of the trip, Callum became increasingly aware of how interested Melanie really was in learning about the culture of these ancient peoples. And so he resolved to try and impress her in the only way he knew how: by absorbing as much information as he could and engaging her in conversation about every site of ruins the group visited. Of course, she always seemed to know more than him already, but he hoped that he was at least gaining some brownie points with her over expressing an interest in the same things she did. The shallowness of the entire situation and his actions didn't really manage to catch up with him.

Three days into the week-long excursion and today was the tour of Palenque, an ancient Mayan city-state with numerous temples still mostly intact. Callum had broken away from the rest of the group to do his own exploring. He thought maybe by lingering in the temples longer than the rest of the group with Melanie would provide an even better chance for them to converse. It was inside one of these temples that he had lingered a little too long and found that Melanie was no longer with him when he turned around. And as he had made his way back through the hallways, the ancient flooring had crumbled beneath his weight with no one near enough to hear him cry out as he fell into the darkness below.

Now, the blond was lying flat on his back, the wind knocked out of him and only the faintest stream of light pouring in from above, illuminating a circle of the floor around him. His eyes fluttered rapidly, as he tried to regain the ability to breathe again and felt down his torso with shaking hands to see if he had injured himself in the fall. He didn't feel any pain, but adrenaline was still coursing through his veins and so he was sure that if he had broken a leg or two, he wouldn't be able to feel it until the rush subsided. Miraculously,there were no bones jutting out where they shouldn't be and he was able to confirm that he had control of all of his limbs, but an ache began to appear along his spine as he attempted to sit up with a grunt. Looking up into the light, he opened his mouth and let out a hoarse cry.

"Help!" Callum called as loud as he could. "Help me! I'm down here!"

He waited for several moments, expecting to hear voices or the sound of shoes slapping the stone above as they ran towards his voice, but nothing came. He knew he'd stayed within this particular temple for longer than the rest of the group had and visiting hours had been reaching their end. Callum's stomach sank at the thought he could be down here for a while, but tried to reassure himself that the tour guide would at least take roll call back on the bus before embarking back to the hotel. And if nothing else, he would surely be rescued the next day at the latest as a fresh group of tourists made their rounds through the temples.

Having tried and failed to get any attention from above a few more times, Callum finally turned his attention to the chamber he found himself in. It was obviously undisturbed for quite some time, as indicated by the fact the only entrance was from above which had been sealed off, and also by the heavy cloud of dust that still was settling around him, disturbed by the impact of his body on the stone floor. His eyes were slowly beginning to adjust the darkness and he could now see the basic architecture of the room.

It was a relatively large chamber compared to most of what Callum had seen in the other temples. The walls were covered in intricate relief carvings and painted with what Callum assumed to be very vibrant colors had more light been allowed to enter the room. These walls seemed almost perfectly preserved, away from the elements and from human gaze. Supporting the ceiling were large stone columns, also covered in reliefs and painted. Some of them had crumbled to the ground in large piles of chiseled stone, explaining why the floor had given way beneath Callum. The years of people treading the hall above must have finally loosened the stones enough for him to fall through even though he wasn't even close to being the heaviest in the tour group. Whatever purpose this chamber once served, Callum figured it must have been important enough to seal up in an attempt to keep visitors out.

Finally rising to his feet, Callum brushed the dust from his pants, coughing and reaching for his phone that had been in his back pocket. The screen was shattered, but the phone was surprisingly still functional and he turned the screen on, using the dim light to help him see better. It was then he noticed the human remains scattered on the floor around him amidst the rubble. His eyes widened as he gazed at the bones collected around the room, noticing more and more as he passed his phone over where they rested. They were everywhere, some crushed to pieces by fallen columns, others relatively intact in far corners. He felt sick to his stomach when he imagined that these people must have been sealed up centuries ago to starve to death and rot away until they were nothing but bones. But this was not even the most disturbing discovery for Callum yet, for on the other end of the chamber, he saw something even stranger. It was the form of a man lying on his back that still had all of his flesh on his bones!

Callum approached with a racing heart, expecting to see some sort of mummified corpse, but instead it looked as if the man lying there had been freshly deceased. He appeared to be in peak physical shape with immense muscular strength and his body spanned a good length of the floor. This man could easily be 6'6", a height considered massive not only in the modern day, but gargantuan in ancient Mayan civilization. His body was covered in very little clothing, with only a patterned loincloth covering his groin, but he was adorned with golden anklets, bracelets, armbands, and an intricate jade piece that covered his shoulders and part of his neck. The only pieces of adornment missing from this man compared to what ancient Mayans would have worn was the numerous piercings. His skin was a deep brown and his hair was long, dark, and very wavy, tied back in some sort of low ponytail that splayed about his head on the ground. Even by today's beauty standards, there was something incredibly beautiful and timeless about this man's face. As Callum looked on, the man seemed peaceful, as if he was only sleeping, but Callum was sure he could not see nor hear the faintest clue of breathing from the body.

Was this some kind of elaborate joke? How else could such a sight be possible? This chamber had no indication of being disturbed in centuries, yet here was a fresh corpse right before Callum's eyes, seemingly pulled straight from ancient times. Slowly, Callum kneeled next to the corpse, suddenly aware of how ragged his breathing was. With tentative fingers, he reached out toward the arm of the corpse and touched its flesh. Faint warmth greeted his fingertips and he found he could press down into the skin and it was soft, with firm muscle beneath. He retracted his hand quickly in shock. A few moments passed before Callum placed his hand back on the arm, this time his entire palm. The skin was definitely warmer than a corpse's should be.

Suddenly, the corpse's body jerked and its hand flew up, clasping Callum's forehead firmly. Callum cried out and instinctively grabbed the man's wrist, trying to pry it off his head, but the hold remained firm. He could hear the sound of his phone clattering across the floor in an echo all around him. A strange rush of deja vu passed through his entire being as his vision disappeared and quick scenes from his memories began to fly to the front of his mind. It was as if he was hearing every word he knew being pulled from bits and pieces of his memories and being sucked out into the hand holding onto his forehead. No, not just the words themselves, but the knowledge of them, what they meant, the grammar of them, how they felt when being formed by the mouth. The body on the ground remained absolutely still save for this one appendage that Callum tried to desperately to get away from, but it was as if a deeper connection than just a physical one was holding the two together. Callum's head began to ache with the rush of information happening and just as his vision went stark white and he thought his skull might split open, the connection was broken. The hand released its grasp and fell back to the stone below with a thud and Callum fell back onto his rear, clutching his forehead in pain. His brain was pounding and he felt he might be sick, not only because of the pain, but also because of the sight of the body on the floor before him opening its eyes and sitting upright. Callum could do nothing but shrink away in horror as the reanimated man turned to look at Callum and rose to his feet in one swift, graceful motion. Callum had been right earlier in thinking this man was extremely tall and now, as he towered over the cowering blond, it was clear how much larger this man was than Callum's own frame. Just as the man had taken his first step toward Callum, his phone in the corner began going off.

The loud ringtone of bells startled both of them and he man's attention was drawn to the device. Seizing this opportunity, Callum scrambled away as silently as he could while the man was distracted. Callum hid himself behind the rubble of a fallen column and clasped his hands over his mouth, not paying any mind to the human skull right beside him. He peeked over the stones to see the man standing over the phone, head cocked in curiosity as he bent down to observe it. Though the screen provided some illumination, the man had his back turned toward Callum, so he could not see his expression. The man gazed at the phone for a few moments in silence before it stopped ringing and the screen went dark again. Then there was nothing but darkness again. Even the light from overhead had grown dimmer, so it was now near impossible to see anything.

Callum ducked his head down again, and he kept his back pressed against the column behind him. He was trembling, waiting for any noise from the man across the room, indicating if he had moved or not, when a deep voice rumbled toward him.

"This language..." the man said, drawing out the words as if unsure of them. "It is strange...foreign...unlike one I've known..." There was an alluring quality to his voice, though it sent waves of fear up and down Callum's spine.

The sound of him taking a step echoed off the walls.

"Do you think you can hide from me, boy?"

A step.

"You are mortal. I can smell you. Feel your warmth. Your heart is racing in my ears..."

Another Step.

"It has been so long since I fed last."

The voice was almost right behind Callum now. His head slowly rotated upward to see the man bending over the fallen column and gazing down at Callum with eyes that glowed red in the darkness.

"Have you come to offer your blood to me, boy?"

Callum let out what he could only describe as a yelp and scrambled forward on his hands and knees, only standing and turning around when he was a good distance away from the man, who was now calmly stepping over the fallen column.

"What peculiar attire...I knew I had been sleeping for quite some time, but--"

Callum cut the man off. "Stop!" he yelled, holding his shaking arm out. "Please, just give me a minute to breathe!"

Surprisingly, the man stopped in his tracks, eyes still glowing in the darkness. They actually illuminated the man's face quite well and Callum could see his expression was one of mild confusion.

"You must not know of me for you to speak so boldly."

"Wh-What did you do to my head? Why does it hurt so much?"

"I learned your language through you," the man replied in a matter-of-fact tone. "I am sorry for the discomfort it caused. It cannot be helped."

"My language?" Callum wiped the sweat from his forehead and licked his lips. They seemed so dry at the moment. "Who are you?" He asked, his breath hitching in his throat.

The man's eyes narrowed before speaking again with a grandiose tone. "I am a messenger of Camazotz and worshipped as a god in my own right," the man said. Callum could see now as the man spoke that his canines were much longer and sharper than they had first appeared. They were becoming fangs right before his eyes. "They call me Kik'arinaq Chi'. Though, I suppose in your tongue, my name would be Bloody Mouth."

"Camazotz...?" Callum repeated to himself in a breathy whisper. Was that a Mayan god? He thought back to speaking with Melanie on the bus before they had arrived at Palenque and hearing her talk about the great number of gods the Mayans worshipped. It was a few moments of recollection before he remembered she had said something about a great bat-god that a sect of Mayans once worshipped and making an awful pun about that being utterly 'batty.'

"Bloody mouth...you're...you're a vampire?"

The man paused a moment in thought before replying. "Yes, I suppose that is an appropriate word to use."

Callum's knees felt weak. "This can't be happening," he wheezed. "This can't be real; this has to be a dream." In a flash, the man was now standing directly before Callum and had his fingers wrapped firmly around Callum's wrist.

"Enough talk," the man boomed. Callum looked up at him in horror. "My powers are weak. Whether you came here to offer me your blood or not, I need it."

Before he could even try to pull away, Callum was caught up in the man's embrace, being lifted off the ground and the man was biting down into the flesh of Callum's neck. Callum cried out at the intense pain shooting through his body and dug his fingers into the man's arms.

"No!" With every beat of his heart, Callum could feel his life force leaving his body and the man was drinking it deeply. The pain started to subside as he began to feel dizzy and found himself wondering why he had ever wanted to come on this trip in the first place. There was so much he wanted to do with his life and there was so much he still wanted to learn from it. For it to be ending so quickly in such a strange and unbelievable situation made him want to cry. And a few tears did spill over his cheeks as his breathing slowed and his arms went limp. Callum closed his eyes and let the darkness overtake him.