This is part one of a series of short stories I wrote years ago. It was meant to keep going but I stopped working on it.
Most people stay inside at night. They are afraid of what might be hiding in the shadows, lurking around the next corner, waiting for them to take that last fatal step. They don't see the night as I do. When the sun falls beyond the horizon, they see a beast, ready to take their lives in the blink of an eye. But I see a different creature. I see the night in a way no other eye can. I see the life that courses through the stygian darkness. I see the shadows as a place to roam freely, uncovering everything that night has to offer.
It isn't suprising that I see the night in a different way so different from others. It is all I have known for so long that I can't even remember what the day is like. It has been eighty years since I've felt the sun on my face. Eighty years since I walked in the daylight. Eighty years since the fateful night I was bitten. And became the creature of darkness I now am. My name is Kyle and I am a vampire.
I tell my story now because I choose, because I want the world to understand what life is like being what I am. I want to share my thoughts and feelings with the mortals who share this world with us. And I want them to know why we are children of the night. Even as movies and stories portray us as evil creatures who prey on the innocent like wolves upon sheep, I speak on this cloudless night to say my piece. And to set right the terrible wrong that has been done, to myself and those like me. May the world know what it is like to run in the night, to kill to survive, and to have the guilt of over eighty years of murder on your soul.
I shall begin my story with how I became this creature that I am. It begins in the place I called home, the small town of Lake Morris, Ohio. I was born there in 1917, during the first World War. My mother died giving birth to me and my father owned a small store in town. We lived above it in an apartment. My father was a devoted Christian and I was immersed in God's glory throughout my childhood. I grew to love church and was adored by the entire congregation. When the Great Depression hit, my father was lucky enough to save the store and I worked in it for him, stocking shelves and doing odd jobs. It was right after I turned 19 that my life changed in the most terrible way imaginable.
I had been dating a young girl named Julie and had just taken her home from a movie. I was walking through the town park and stopped to stare at the moon. I then saw a person stumbling across the grass towards me. As the individual got closer, He appeared to be very drunk. He had a bottle in one hand and was staggering in my direction. I waited until he got close and spoke out. I asked him if I could help him get home and he mumbled a yes. Then I asked where he lived and he gave me directions to a place nearby. I put an arm around him and guided him through the park. The place he gave me turned out to be a dark alley. When I asked him about it, he said the door was just down a ways. I began to get suspicious, but figured I could defend myself if any trouble came up. So I helped him into the alley and found myself at a dead end.
That was when the attack came. All I heard was the sound of a bottle breaking and then I felt two sharp points tearing into my neck. I grabbed his hair and tried to pull him away, but he was inhumanly strong and had a tight grip on my shoulder. Terrible pain coursed through my body, like liquid fire in my veins, and I screamed. It was unlike any pain I had ever felt. Then my eyes rolled back in my head and I felt myself falling.
I awoke on the floor of a dark room. There was a damp smell in the air, like that of a basement or a cellar. The pain in my neck was a dull throb, but it seemed to be lessening. I tried to sit up, but I was very weak. I had little control over my body and couldn't move. Then I heard the sounds of a door opening. A small amount of light poured through a nearby wall and a shadowy figure slipped into the room.
"Are you awake?" an unfamiliar female voice asked. I tried to reply but all that came out was a ragged gasp. The figure, which I could barely see in the faint light, approached and I felt a gentle hand on my cheek. Then a cup of water was lifted to my lips and water slowly filled my mouth. I drank deeply, my mouth seeming to absorb the moisture immediately. I tried to speak again and succeeded in asking where I was.
"You are in my house." came the reply. Then the cup was set down and the lady helped me get up. She led me towards the door and into a hallway. It was then that I got to see her face for the first time. Her long black hair seemed to glow in the faint light and her eyes were a beautiful shade of amber. I found her looks to be very appealing.
"Who are you?" I managed to ask, but my voice was becoming weak.
"My name is Amanda." She said, leading me down the dimly lit hall. She stopped at a door and, putting an arm around me to hold me up, opened it. The room was pitch black, but she seemed to know it very well. She helped me to a bed and I gratefully climbed into it. I tried to thank her, but she hushed me and told me to get some rest. Then she left, closing the door behind her, and I was left in total darkness. My eyes closed and I was asleep before I had time to think.
When I awoke, well rested, I found Amanda sitting beside my bed. Before I could speak, she put another cup to my lips and told me to drink. This time it wasn't water. The liquid was thicker and had a slightly salty taste. I was starting to feel wierd, but then a strange craving came over me and I drained it all. When she took the cup away, Amanda was smiling slightly. Two candles provided the only light in the room, but I could still see the light shinning in her amber eyes.
"Can you tell me what happened to you?" she asked, and I told her everything I could remember. When I reached the part about the drunk attacking me, she nodded slightly. As I was finishing, she refilled the cup and handed it to me. Again, I drank deeply of the strange liquid, and the craving began to disappear.
"You don't believe me, do you?" I asked her as she took the cup.
"Actually, yes I do," she said, placing the cup by a pitcher. "I found you lying in that alley and brought you here. It was a good thing I found you when I did."
"Why is that?"
"Because it was almost sunrise. I was finishing a walk through town when I heard a moan from an ally. I went to investigate and found you."
Wondering what sunrise had to do with anything, I asked her if she knew who attacked me.
"Its not who attacked you, but what." She said, and then stood to go.
"Wait," I pleaded. "Please, tell me what you mean."
She hesitated then returned to the chair. She took a moment to gather her thoughts then began to speak.
"You were bitten" she said, pausing "...by a vampire. You're already becoming one yourself."
I looked at her, wanting to laugh. The woman had to be losing her mind.
"Vampires are just creatures from stories." I said, convinced that she was crazy.
"Is that so. Then how do you explain this?" Then she smiled at me. A pair of fangs gleamed at me in the candlelight. I stared at her, unable to speak. Then she took my hand in hers.
"You are becoming a vampire, like me. You will only be able to go out at night. You will have to drink blood to survive, like we all do."
I was still unable to speak. My mind was turning inside out, trying to grasp what was going on. It was all too terrible to believe. Then I finally got a grip and was able to ask some questions, which she willingly answered.
"How did it happen?"
"None of us knows where it began. What we do know is what we must do to survive. Sunlight is the most dangerous thing to you now. But there are advantages too. Your night vision will be perfect, you will have increased speed and strength. You will be immortal, never aging."
"How can you stand killing innocent people?" I asked, not sure if I really wanted the answer.
"Well, there are ways around killing people. You can find someone who is willing to share their blood with you. You can drink the blood of animals if you choose. Or you can kill, but only those who you choose."
I thought about that for a little while. My mind was still trying to adjust to the thought that I'd never again see the sunrise, never be able to walk through the park on a warm summer day. It was almost impossible to imagine never feeling the warm touch of the sun again.
Amanda rose and left, after telling me to get more rest and that she would return when the sun set. How I was surpose to tell sunset in a room with no windows was beyond me, but I gratefully went back to sleep.
My new life began that night. Amanda taught me to hunt, how to use my new powers, and how to feel when sunrise and sunset were coming. She taught me what it is to be a vampire, a creature of nightmares made flesh. In time, I came to understand what I had become. I wasn't a thing of evil. Most vampires look at themselves as being better than mortals because they are stronger and prey on the helpless creatures. Amanda taught me another belief. That we are just humans who are different. We've paid a high price for what we've been given and we should look at the world in new ways. Mortals are what give us life and we should respect that.
As she taught me, I have lived for over 80 years. I have hunted and I have drank, but I've also learned. There are things in the night that are frightening and dangerous, but I'd like to believe that I'm not one of them. I'm just another person trying to survive on this planet. I just live in a different world.