I sit here now more than 500 year since my birth and nothing has changed. I use a keyboard instead of a quill, these things are but shells, they achieve the same aim, and nothing has changed. I listen to the children play they want to be astronauts instead of knights, heroes of a different age but still the same, nothing has changed. I have watched as the villains of society have changed from witches to communists, neither of them wrong just people who are different, still the same just a different name, and nothing has changed. My siblings and I are not alone; the shadows of our ages still stand beside us, just a different name, here and there. There are few of us left some might say, but there never were many.
The name I go by, my true name having been forgotten by all but myself, is Davies. From this you may attempt to ascertain that I am from such and such a place and that I am such and such a nationality, however before you do let me remind you that it is but a name I have taken to myself. And I suppose that I would fit your definition of a Vampire. Now I hear you think, “Ah another child playing games” but to you I say all stories have truth in them. And many stories have been told about the Vampires, children of Satan, Demons of the dead, corpses buried improperly coming back to life. All these are said to be the causes of a human becoming a Vampire. Even today the Vampires are still talked about, now I ask you, the cynical minded person you are, why so many stories if not based upon at least one inkling of truth? The most common reason that so many people cannot accept the concept of us is because humans hate the idea that they are not the dominant species on this planet.
Historically I have been told that we came from Egypt and others say Asia, but even to us our past has become so shrouded in mist that it is hard to be sure from whence we came. But enough of my wanderings let me try to clear up some misconceptions that you have of us. First we cannot change form, no changing into bats or dogs. Second we are not scared or in anyway effected by crucifixes, I have a personally collection of some 200 hundred Transylvanian crucifixes. Third we are not allergic to garlic, although I do loathe it. Fourth we do not only drink the blood of virgins, I personally prefer twenty-something year olds and we all know how hard it is to find a twenty-year-old virgin nowadays. (If I have forgotten anything then I ask that my siblings be so kind as to point it out to me)
Now I will try in my own feeble way to give you some idea of my life. When I was still one of you I lived in the large forests of southern England, not far from Southampton. Of my father and mother I have little recollection but that we were not poor, we had servants and land, so I would venture that perhaps my father was a nobleman. Life was good and peaceful, and then the plague came. At first only the peasants became sick, but then my father grew ill. I was sent to London to stay with my uncle until the sickness had passed. When I first arrived in London it was to be for only a few weeks, but fate was not to follow my parents’ plans. My father died and soon after my mother also so I ended up living the rest of my first life with my uncle. Of my uncle I remember little only that he was often at court and he had a most singular vice, he was addicted to sex. I remember on my 17 birthday he gave me a horse and the deeds to my fathers land, he told me that I was a man now and that life was a sea that I must sail, it would have storms and thunder but it was also have peace and beauty. On the night before I was to set sail, as he called it, he invited me to a party of his. This is when I learnt of his vice. I arrived at the country house of my uncles’ friend, a Hungarian baron over on business, and when I entered the house the smell of wine and lust filled the air. All the servants had been sent away and only the whores and politicians remained. I was so disgusted by the stench that I turned to leave. I was just saddling my horse when a most enchanting lady came to me.
“My good sir where are you going?”
For a moment I did not speak but then I summoned my courage in the face of this beauty and said.
“This filth turns my stomach, and I will away.”
And then with a voice like a waterfall she let out a little peal of laughter. She turned away and by a force I did not then understand I was compelled to follow her. She led me back to the house, through the unholy doors and into the dinning room. That room was a scene of utter depravity. Men and women lay together in an orgy of unholy sex and wine, my uncle lay in a drunken stupor on the floor. I turned to the woman beside me and opened my mouth to ask her why she had brought me here. Before I could speak she grabbed me and pulled me close to her and she said those words that were a death knell to my mortal life.
“Lets drink.”
With that she sank her teeth into my neck and began to drain me, I tried to cry out but my mind was frozen and when she final realised me I fell to the floor, darkness covering me. When I came out of the darkness I tried to sit up and failing that let out a weak cry. Hardly had the sound left my lips than her face was in front of mine, blood caking her lips and teeth.
“Are you thirsty?”
She asked me. Without waiting for a reply she bit into her wrist and filled her mouth with the blood flowing from it. When her mouth was full she leaned down, pressed her lips against mine and, without swallowing the blood, kissed me. The blood flowed into my mouth and I drank of it.
Here I must leave you for a short while my siblings. The sun will soon set and I must be away.