Disclaimer: I do not down Dragonball Z and I am not making any profit from this work.
Thirst
Slowly I look around, inhaling the scents of this city. My sharpened senses pick up the scents that no human could ever imagine. A sickened shiver runs down my spine as I taste the stench of hour old vomit and urine from drunken youths, as well as a million other things that I don't care to think about; their disgusting aromas combing to form an overwhelming cocktail that threatened to destroy me.
Shaking off the sensation, I begin to walk along the disserted street and despite it being almost midnight; I can see as if it were still the middle of the day.
Now, I'm going to tell you something that will turn your whole world view around. First, forget what you think you know, Vampires exist and chances are you have seen them but just didn't know it. It's understandable through, given that we are mostly just like you; except for our obvious dietary habits.
Second, yes that's right, I'm a Vampire. My name is Gohan Son.
Don't worry; I'm not like the monsters that stalk the helpless young maidens then butcher and drain them dry. I'm not a psychopath or like anything you've seen on the big screen; but then everyone knows the movies are full of shit. In fact if all you've ever seen of my kind are the illusions crafted from hypocritical priests and entertainers like David S. Goyer and Bram Stoker; then you'll need to be filled in on a few things.
Firstly there is no tried and true way to kill a vampire, we are already dead after all; but then there are worst things then death in this world. I know, we have all seen and read where the old guy with a cape kills the vampire with crosses, stakes and holly water. Well I'm afraid they don't do squat and I lost my religion centuries ago so there is little chance of me going to church and giving someone the chance to stake me in the heart.
Second, that little misconception about our inability to walk in sunlight is as false as the Loch Ness Monster; in fact it was actually started by Vampires in the middle ages. Yes that's right; Vampires were the ones who started the myth, although it wasn't because they were board. At the time, the human race was begging to become highly aware of our existence and was making a tiresome effort to find and burn Vampires at the stake. So what better way to hunt your prey and avoid the hunters then by making them think you are only active half of the time?
Of course, most Vampires took to the darkness soon after, so It wasn't as brilliant as many had first thought.
Some of the legends about us are true through, Vampires don't like garlic though it's not because we may be allergic to the stuff, it's just that it tastes awful and I won't even get started on the smell. Honestly, I don't understand how you mortals can stand it.
Also we do have the ability to change our forms, although it is slightly limited. A vampire can only change into a creature of relative size, something with a bone structure similar to that of a vampire's when altered. So forget about bats, snakes and any other small horror icon. Large breeds of dog and wolves however are quite easily done and I've even been known to do a few larger members of the feline family. I'm afraid turning into another human requires a lot of practice and only the oldest of my kind can do it on a whim. The same goes for turning into mist. It took seven hundred years before I was able to master the technique but I must admit; it was well worth it.
Vampires also posse a slight telepathic ability, not powerful enough to control the minds of both humans and animals like in the movies but we can read and alter them slightly. This gives a Vampire the the famous 'Vampire Charm' that is so often portrayed in the 70s Dracula films although it does take a bit of practice otherwise it looks as if you are staring; which is rather rude if you ask me.
Well, now that I've shattered your beliefs, maybe I should tell you about Vampire society. Yes, the blood sucking creatures that hunt you at night do have a form of culture and order. And there are actually three kinds of Vampire.
First, there are the so called Pure Bloods. These are Vampires who were born with the gene, it being passed down from their vampire parents and family members and they considered themselves the ruling class because of it.
Second are the Vampires that the Pure Bloods like to call Bad Bloods. These are men and woman who were once human and then were turned. However, it is rare for them to survive as either they don't make it through the very temperamental process of turning or simply the vampire who bit them would kill them just after feeding.
And finally there are the bonded Vampires. These are Vampires who have bonded together, a sort of Vampire marriage if you will except this can't be broken as the vampires literally bind their souls together. That I'm afraid is all I can tell you about them, for over a thousand years I've walked this earth and in all that time I've never met a vampire who had taken a mate and bonded. This isn't because it's old fashioned or unfashionable you understand; but simply because the vampire race has forever tilted on the brink of extinction.
There are probably just over a few thousand Vampires walking the earth at any given time and that is forever changing with the human population, every major city in the world only has enough resources to support a handful of vampires. It's not just the nature of our food that is a problem, most vampires have a slight tendency to attack first and converse later in regards to their own kind. But like I said earlier, vampires don't die easy so what's the outcome? After a challenge, the winner would seal the loser away in a prison that they could never escape from. And there, cut off from any precious sources of blood; the vampire would be driven insane within weeks.
In case you're wondering, I'm a bad blood and was once human, but that was a long time ago.
I have often wondered how I got here, walking disserted streets in the dead of night. Up until the age of twenty I had been a Victorian orphan who dreamed of becoming a doctor. Life had been anything but fair to me back then; my family had died from a plague when I was just a young boy. I can still remember that morning, even after all these centuries I can still picture it as if it had happened yesterday.
The night sky was being ravaged by a vicious storm; lightning bolts stabbed the darkness with unimaginable fury while thunder bellowed like the deepest drum. The noise had awoken me and fearing the monsters that lived in the darkness, I had run to my parent's bed. By morning, the storm had passed and I found myself up at the crack of dawn, ready to begin the work in the fields. Neither mother nor father awoke however and I sat on their bed, shaking my father's unmoving body and pleading with him to wake up; never understanding why he didn't. He had always answered, always ruffled my spiky hair as he said morning before we would go to fields; he never ignored me. But that morning, all he did was lie there as I shook him.
