MV1 COMICS PRESENTS		#52
	by Paul Roof

(Note: The following story contains graphic language and some violence. Reader discretion is advised)

July 16. 2001

It’s been over a couple of years and then some since I wrote in this journal. Shanna came back to me a couple of weeks later, and I took her back into the fold. She has since learned the way of the vampire. Together we made a few more like us, but in all that time I found out the victims who had diseases made me stronger, so the more I fed, the more of my victims had either cancer or AIDS, and the stronger I became. So, that is when I decided that only the dying will die by my hands, but I did not tell any of my family what I have discovered in fear that they will try to become stronger then I and that won’t happen in this life time.

It’s been great hunting with the pack. We were doing great until Shanna and the pack started to get greedy and brought the hunters around, so I told them to move on. Some went north, and Shanna, my beloved, took a few and went south. It broke my heart watching her go, once again, out of my life.

Which left Jerome and myself.

He still didn’t really know what I was, and I still go out at night drinking my meals. A couple of those savage bastards from the hunters almost got me; they were good fighters. Oh well, let me tell you what happened.

It was around March 20, 2001, and I was out tracking my supper. I was missing Shanna and the rest of my family, and not really paying much attention to what I was doing or where I was going. As I was sniffing the nice strong odor of a cancer victim, I have to say that their blood stinks to high heaven, but the power surge I end up with was worth the raunchy crap. Then I spotted where the smell was coming from. On top of a rooftop was a hunter; he was the victim that I was tracking, and here he thought he was the hunter instead of the prey. I went around the building just like everyone else, then I stopped and looked up. The building was eight stories high. I didn’t know if I could make it, but I bent my knees and up I went. I got halfway up then grabbed hold of the wall and ran the rest of the way up.

I sat there watching him on the corner of the building, and, as my mind was on him so, I didn’t see or hear the other two that were watching me. So as I sat watching him and smelling his decaying flesh as the cancer took more of his living cells, the odor became sweet to me. I could hear the pain in every breath he took, so I knew he was dying with the cancer of the lungs. I approached him just verily off of the roof by an inch or so, going towards him slowly. The closer I got, the better the stench got. I would say he had no more than a year, maybe less, before the cancer took his life.

But tonight, I would drink from him.

I got right behind him and stood there, just for a minute, and then I heard his receiver come on.

“Turn around, Bob, the son-of –a- bitch is right behind you.”

That’s when I knew I was being watched. I grabbed him by the back of the neck and pulled him to me. I knew I couldn’t enjoy my supper, so this was a death kill with little pleasure to it. I did drink a little when my fangs first entered the poor sap.

Behind me, I heard a string being notched. They were using crossbows and aiming at my heart. I hear two heartbeats, one is close, and he is on the same rooftop as I am; the other is on the rooftop on the other side of the street.

This is the only time that I will kill humans who aren’t sick.

Moving with a blurry speed, I got to the one closest to me. His blood flows so evenly; there is nothing wrong with him. I prepare to sink my teeth in his throat when I hear a trigger being pulled back, and, as the arrow flies towards me, I merely step out of the way and listen to the exploding sound of his heart as the stake enters him. As fast as I ever moved, I cross the street by gliding over it and reaching the roof on the other side. As I looked at this middle-aged man trying to notch another arrow in his crossbow and took in his salt and pepper hair and one eye, I was surprised that he was in such good shape, particularly for someone with clogged arteries. He would have a heart attack in the next year and die, so I figured I would help him along as I knocked him down then grabbed him.

“I’m going to do you a favor and kill you quickly instead of letting you die slowly with a heart attack,” I said.

He looked at me with bewilderment, wondering how I knew about his health condition. I could see in his eyes that he was ready to die by my hand. I took him in my arms, and, as I lowered my mouth down to his neck, I let my fangs grow, then I sank my teeth into him. I could tell he liked greasy food his blood tasted like it stored every bit of it but all in all it was a good supper.

August 25, 2001

It’s been awhile since I wrote. That is because I was in mourning. I heard my all family, including my beloved Shanna, was dead. That hurt me deeply. Now Jerome and I are on a train going to New Orleans so I can have my revenge. I found out something on this train ride. There are a lot of dying people who ride trains. I know I won’t go hungry.

By now, Jerome knows exactly what kind of monster I am, and, if he is scared of me, he doesn’t act like it. I gave him the opportunity to leave, but he decided to stay. I am glad he did. We have been through a lot together over the years. There were times that I couldn’t leave my home in fear of the hunters. And that’s when I would let him have parties, and I would feast on one of his friends. I dare not let him know that, for that might make him turn on me.

There is a solo hunter who is half human and half vampire. That is one I hope I never have to face. He has killed a lot of us so I hear, but I can’t linger on him. I must go down and find out if what I heard is true or not.

The conductor knocked on the door, and, when Jerome answered it, he asked for our tickets. He overwhelmed me with his decaying body. I was starving, so I told Jerome to let him in and then I gave him the look as he stepped outside. I got out the tickets and intentionally dropped them on the floor. “Sir,” I asked, “can you pick them up, for I am weak and sick?”

As he bent down to pick up the tickets, I grabbed him and pulled him close to me. He stiffened right up but didn’t say a word. Since I already had his mind in my control, he just stared at me with a blank expression in his eyes. I bent his neck so I could get my dinner, then I sank my teeth deep into his flesh. I felt him squirm, and that made it a little better eating. After I was done, I opened the little window and forced his body out, hearing every bone break and every organ burst. At least there wasn’t any blood splatter since I drank him dry.

Within three days and three more victims, we pulled in to the station in New Orleans. As we stepped out onto the dark walkway, I felt strange, like someone was watching us. I looked around and saw nothing or nobody, so we walked on. I knew where we were going, for Shanna told me of her address here.

NEXT— BETRAYED! The conclusion of The Vampire Journal