It was the worst of times when he came for me. But I guess it's always that way when they do it. I had just broke up with my girlfriend. We'd been seeing each other for seven months. Not that long, you may say. It was long for me. Before that I wouldn't even stay with a girl for one month before something would go wrong. I'd either get bored with them, or, someone else would get my attention and I'd be off with them. This girl was different. We just fit together so perfect. Yeah, we fought sometimes, hey, everyone does. We would always make up afterwards though. When we broke up, we both hurt. She probably hurt more, maybe that's why I hurt so much. I've always hated making girls hurt like that. It makes breaking up harder, one of my major flaws. Even if I didn't care for a chic anymore, I might stay with her longer than I should, to try and let her down easy. It never would work. Both me and the girl would always hurt more than we would've had I done it when the thought first came to me. That was my fault, and often I hated myself for it. This girl was different. At least to me she was. I didn't want to break up with her, and I cared more about her than I thought I could care about anyone. Maybe I still care about her now. No, not just maybe. I know that I still care about her now, and maybe that's why I'm sitting here writing this. Maybe, not for sure, but maybe. Anyways, the two of us got into a fight one night. No big deal, like I said, we had had a lot of fights before this one. There was a different feel to this argument though. Then, all of a sudden something inside of me snapped.

I told her I couldn't take fighting anymore. I told her maybe we could give our relationship another try sometime. And I told her that I still cared. After that, I left. We talked over the phone the next day. We both decided that the night before wasn't really either of our faults. But we would still keep our relationship on hold for that week. Give each other the space that they'd been craving for. I told her I'd take her out on Friday. Neither of us could just walk away from what we had together like that. We needed another chance. Eight o'clock at her house, Friday night. Both of us had high hopes about our relationship. Things never seem to work out for me though. I should have known that this wouldn't work out either. Hey, I was naive back than, how was I supposed to know what was going to happen.

That night I met him. The one who changed my life forever. The one who killed me, and the one who brought me back. He called himself "The Hooded One". Yeah, I know, I thought it sounded stupid too. He had reason for it though. If someone knew his name, there were ways for that person to get power over his thoughts and actions. He didn't give anyone his name, he sure wasn't about to give anyone power over himself. He came to my house to get me. Which wasn't very much a surprise, I was never that hard to find by someone who was looking. What did surprise me was though is that he found the most unconventional way of coming to my house. I could have seen him walking up the steps to my door, ringing the bell and asking if we could talk. I would have said fine, and been perfectly fine. No, that was far too normal for the Hooded One. He had to knock. Not only that, he had to knock on my bedroom window, while I was trying to get to sleep. To add to this, my bedroom is on the second floor of a two story house. Out of my window is a straight drop, nothing to hold onto until you get to the ground. Now at first, this guy really pissed me off. Imagine this, at twelve-thirty, some guy you don't know is floating outside your bedroom window, which is on the second floor, knocking very loudly. I was trying to get to sleep. I didn't seem to be able to get to sleep anyways. Regardless, this guy looked like he was important. So I let him in. If I knew what I do now, I wouldn't have, but like I said, I was naive. I didn't know any better.

As soon as the window was slid open, this man was in my room. "Hello, let me introduce myself. People call me The Hooded One." He said this before I could even open my mouth to ask him why he was knocking on my bedroom window. "I have come to grant you your greatest wish." "Yeah, fuck that." I answered calmly. I knew that Santa and the Tooth Fairy didn't exist, and I knew that your wishes never came true. For that reason, I had never wished for anything in my life. At least not since I had been a little kid. I was just beginning to think that this guy was a complete nut, when he spoke again. "Ah, but you're wrong. You did wish for something, and sometimes wishes do come true. Let me jog your memory for you. About two months ago, you were watching a movie with some woman. What was that movie again? Oh, let me see here. Was it Interview with a Vampire. Yeah that was the movie." "Oh, shit," was all I could say. I had really wished for something, though I had never for even one second think that I would get my wish. I had wished to become a vampire, like the ones on the movie. Wished to live forever. To have real power. To be above everyone else. "You have gotten your wish. I really hope you're happy with it." I was, maybe a bit freaked out, but happy none the less.

He went straight for my throat. A bit scared, I stepped back, almost falling. It was too late. He was a lot quicker than I was. I felt his fangs sink into the side of my throat just before my whole body exploded with a feeling of ecstacy. I had read of the feelings you get while receiving a vampire's deadly kiss. The feeling you get as your blood is being drawn slowly out of you. The books don't even come close to explaining the sensations. Though I couldn't do any better than any of the books I had read. Pure pleasure. Knowing that if it doesn't stop you'll perish, but not wanting it to stop, even if it causes your own death. The blood drained from me slowly, the feeling dragging on until I didn't think I could take it any more. I enjoyed it thoroughly. You might call it passion. It felt like passion. Yet, it wasn't anything even remotely similar to passion. It was cold. It caused death. A vampire didn't drink to let you feel passion. It drank to feed. It was evil. I didn't know that at that moment. I know it now. And I guess what I know now is all that counts anyways.

When my blood was all but completely drained, I felt myself fall to the floor. I looked up. Of course, he was standing there above me, looking down, examining me. It felt like a dream. Or maybe a bit more like a nightmare. The type that you're sure that you are going to die, and yet you still have a shard of hope that things will work out right. "Please. Don't let me die. I don't want to die." I whined like a little kid who has just gotten his favorite toy taken from him. What else could I have done. I had almost no blood. I could barely even move my mouth to talk. It would have been no more than a couple minutes before I would have been gone completely. Now that I've grown and learned, I know what else I could have done. What I should have done. I should have let myself die. Just lie there and die. I would only have had to endure it for a couple minutes. It would have been the better choice. A much better choice. I didn't know that then. How could I have? I thought I didn't have a choice at all.

The Hooded One placed his neck to my mouth without saying a word. Somehow, even in my weakened state, I knew what to do. His blood would heal. Strengthen me. I knew I had to drink it. I opened my mouth. I thought about how hard it would be to pierce his skin with my teeth. Normal teeth. No fangs. My mouth closed on his neck. Fangs formed themselves out of my two canines. Razor sharp. The skin pierced easily. The fangs sunk into the flesh with what felt like no resistance. Blood poured into my mouth. Down my throat. I could feel the heat of life in it. My strength began to return. The taste was excellent. I bit deeper, and put my arms around my creator. His thoughts passed through my mind. I felt fear. Not mine, his fear. He feared me. I had regained my strength too fast. He thought of how strong I would get. I bit deeper. Drinking his blood faster with every passing second. I felt his fear grow. It only deepened the pleasure of drinking. He thought I had drank too much already. That I was already too powerful. He was right. When he tried to pull away, I tightened my grip on his chest and put my other arm around his back and had him locked in my grasp. Already he was losing strength. He started to struggled. I held him tight in my grasp. I wasn't going to let him go. I wanted all of his blood. It felt good. It gave me power. I almost needed it at that moment. Soon though, he would be completely drained himself. He would be dead. Really dead. True death, they called it. When a vampire dies. This one hadn't planned to get to true death for at least a couple more centuries. I knew this because I was draining not only his blood, but his thoughts and memories as well. I wished I could tell him that unexpected things always happened when I was around, and that I hadn't expected to become a vampire that night. I couldn't stop drinking though. So nothing came out of my mouth until the blood stopped running. I let go of him, laid back and let out the biggest sigh of my life. And then I died.

The pain was far too intense. Like when he had drank my blood, I had never before experienced anything this intense during my mortal lifetime. Except that this wasn't ecstacy, this was hell. The blood rushing through my veins felt as though it was red hot. I could feel it burning through my skin. I tried to keep my body under control. Trying to convince myself that the pain wasn't as bad as it seemed, I began to climb to my feet. Using the wall as a support made it a little easier, but the pain wasn't letting up. When I finally got to my feet, the pain only doubled it's intensity. At that point there was no way I could keep control. My knees buckled under me sending me sprawling across the floor. My whole body went into convulsions. It felt like someone had poured oil on me then lit it. All I could feel was the burning heat. I began to wish that I would pass out and wake when there was no more pain. At least I wouldn't have to sit there and take it for the time it lasted. Half a minute later, the world began to fade out. I knew that my wish had been granted. Actually, I got two of my wishes that night. Now I only wish that I could be happy about it.

I woke up and looked at my clock. Two-thirteen. Not bad. In that time, less than two hours, all my pain had vanished. That was good. For most vampires, it takes around four hours for their mortal body to die. Some take longer than that. There have even been a few vampires whose pain never vanished, and died while convulsing on some floor when the sun came up. It's not surprising how little time it took for my mortal body to die though. I had taken in more vampire blood than most that are being created. But the amount of blood I had just recently drank from the Hooded One hadn't helped my new found thirst. It was an insane feeling. My body was telling me what it wanted, what it needed. Blood. And it didn't want to wait. I looked around my room. Everything looked so different. I knew it was because I was now a vampire. Our senses are so much more acute than any mortals. We notice every single detail. It brings out the beauty in everything. It's hard to explain. If only I could explain it better, I would. I was just noticing so much that I had never noticed before. I wanted to stay and look at everything, examine it all until my senses were satisfied. I couldn't though. Something was calling me. It was the thirst. The lady from across the street. She was the one that I would drink from. She was the closest. From in my room, I could hear her heart beating as she lay sleeping in the house across the road. Finally it was to much, I gave into the thirst. Casually I left my house, walking across the street. About half-way across the street I just couldn't stand to wait any longer. All that was on my mind was blood. How good it would taste. It was all that would satisfy my hunger. I broke into a run, making it half-way up the lady's lawn before I leaped high up towards the second story window. Crashing through the window, but landing on my feet, I found myself in the woman's bedroom. She was in front of my on her bed. The crash had startled her and she sat up. Looking at me with her jaw dropped wide open, as if she didn't believe what she was seeing, she said, "God, I must be dreaming." After saying that, she put her head back down on her pillow and closed her eyes. I pounced at her, landing beside her on the bed. Before she even had time to open her eyes, my fangs sunk into the flesh on the side of her neck. The blood ran down my throat, satisfying my hunger. It was enjoyable, drinking blood. It's not exactly like eating. Not as a human would describe eating anyways. I just liked the feeling of drinking a humans blood. I still do, to tell the truth. Of course, she liked it too. I know this because of the small moan she let out as she was being drained. Almost everyone enjoys themselves while they are being drained. It's kind of like a pay back. Since we get to feed, mortals get the pleasure of having us feed. She probably knew she was going to die, just didn't care. When the Hooded One drank from me, I hadn't cared whether I lived or died, until he stopped drinking. I drank from this woman until her heart stopped beating. I didn't know her, so why should I have cared whether she lived or died. I didn't even feel any regrets as I laid her lifeless body back down on her bed.

After hunting, drinking from, and killing another three victims, I started towards the Hooded Ones home. That was one of the things I learned from his mind while I drank his blood. I learned many other things as well, But I couldn't write them all down in here. I don't have enough time, and even if I did, I wouldn't waste all that paper just on him. With everything I learned during those three or four minutes it took me to drink him dry, I could write a couple good sized books. Maybe I'll write about it another day, but it has no place in this story. This isn't about him. He only started it, nothing more. Anyways, I figured the walk to the Hooded One's house wouldn't take me more than half an hour, so I decided it would be nicer to walk, than to drive. Walking was so much more exciting now. I could look at things that the day before I just passed by and figured was normal, and find uncomparable beauty in it. The world looked amazingly different. If only you could see it from a vampires perspective. Then you'd understand. You would understand how much beauty there is in the world, instead of passing everything off as plain and boring. I ended up being right about the length of the walk too. That made me feel more at ease. I liked being right. I hadn't expected anything that night. Finally something had happened that I expected. I felt almost at peace with myself.

On to Page 2 of The Taste of Blood