A Vampire In Ottawa

I wonder what today's humans would think if they knew that my kind were real and walk among them daily. Seriously. Considering the hoopla that chicks make about vampires as a genre today, do you think we'd be welcomed with open arms or hunted down and slaughtered? I'm leaning towards the latter because of my experience with human beings. The name is Luc Saint-Raphael and I'm a young man living in the City of Ottawa, Ontario. I was born on the island of Haiti in the summer of 1899 to a Haitian father and French mother. In the winter of 1921, I became a vampire, and life has pretty much sucked ever since.

In the 114 years that I've been alive, I've seen a lot of things I regret. War, famine, domestic violence, persecution of people for their skin color and religious beliefs, and things of that nature. I came to Canada after wandering all over the Caribbean and the southern United States for the better part of a century. In the Capital region, I sought to make a new life for myself. Almost half of all Ottawa metropolitan residents come from someplace like Latin America, the Caribbean, the Arab world, Africa or Asia, so in this town full of immigrants I thought I ought to more or less blend in. In my time I've been a soldier, a chef, a mercenary, a car salesman and a mechanic. I decided to enroll at Carleton University since, for the first time in ages, I was out of ideas.

While walking around Carleton University, I ran into something truly remarkable. You see, vampires like myself aren't the only nonhumans walking the earth these days. Back in the Haitian countryside, I battled wolf-men and vengeful ghosts. In the back of my mind I knew there were quite a few things in this world that mortals and even supposed immortals like myself aren't ready for. I just never thought I'd run into one of those things face to face. Do you know anything about the Djinn? Forget the Disney movies where a jovial blue dude pops out of a lamp and helps a poor schmuck find fame and fortune and win over a princess heart. The reality is far darker, I'm afraid.

According to ancient Arabian and Persian mythologies, the Djinn are immortal entities made out of smokeless fire. The most powerful among them, Iblis, defied God when he refused to bow down before Adam and Eve. For this reason, the Djinn are a cursed lot. Typically they're not fond of mankind and indeed, other species of nonhumans find them scary as hell and good to avoid. Having never encountered a Djinn in the flesh and knowing them only by reputation, I walked up to a six-foot-tall, absolutely gorgeous and athletically built young Arab woman with raven hair, bronze skin and sparkling emerald eyes, and introduced myself. I could sense that she wasn't quite human but she was hot and, um, I'm male, alright? Thus I met Yolanda Hakim. A lovelier lady hasn't been seen by those eyes of mine in quite some time. Yolanda Hakim, the Lebanese Christian beauty whom so many young men ( and maybe even a few young women ) on campus dream of.

When I first ran into Yolanda Hakim, she was walking around with Hannah, a short Jamaican chick I knew from my sociology of deviance class. I took advantage of the situation by chit chatting with Hannah and getting introduced to the lovely Yolanda Hakim. I thought I was being slick. I had inadvertently signed my frigging death warrant. The thing about the Djinn is that they're very destructive by nature. They can't stand other intelligent nonhuman creatures. They are feared by vampires, werewolves, shape-shifters, monsters of various origin and other nonhuman intelligent beings. I'm not sure if mermaids and trolls are real but they probably fear the damn Djinn too. Wherever the Djinn go, chaos follows.

As it turns out, Yolanda Hakim came to the City of Ottawa to do battle with her ancient enemy, a shape-shifter known as Malak. In ancient times, Malak went about in human disguise as he does today, and he ruled much of Mesopotamia. Supposedly he ordered his hordes of warriors to slaughter those he considered unfit to live in his realm, many of which were earthbound Djinn. Now, even today, Malak is a powerful man. He now calls himself Malik Ibrahim, and he's the Imam of the largest Masjid in Ottawa. This dude is wealthy and powerful, and I shudder to think of what will happen to Ottawa residents as these two ancient titans duel to the death.

Personally, I'm too lazy to hold onto a grudge. I mean, I'm of Haitian descent and historically speaking, the Haitian people and the French have no love for one another. I'm from an island filled with the descendants of African freedom fighters who defeated the French colonial armies after being brought to the Caribbean as slaves from their homelands in Africa. My father James Saint-Raphael, a Haitian man whose grandfather fought against France during the Haitian Revolution, married a French woman named Josephine Rousseau and had me. I firmly believe that given enough time, almost anything can be forgiven or gotten over. Is there injustice in the world? Absolutely. The whole human race has a long way to go. I just find the fact that Malak and Yolanda Hakim have a three-thousand-year-old feud galling. I'm not sure if it's possible for a vampire to live that long but I don't think I'd be anything like this bitter duo if I got the chance. I think positive, and take life as it comes. I'm Mr. Zen, in a way.

My first clue that something amiss was going on came when I started reading reports of bodies being found in Vanier, Orleans, Bayshore and various other neighborhoods of Ottawa. What the fuck? I decided to investigate, and all clues pointed to a supernatural entity. We tend to do our killings under cover of darkness for privacy. One night, I happened to be walking in the wooded area near the Ottawa General Hospital when I saw Yolanda Hakim on a park bench, making out with some dude. The two of them looked happy, and I kind of felt like a douche for spying on them in the bushes...until I saw something that almost turned me white. Yolanda set her date ablaze with a kiss...literally.

Vampires like myself are supposed to be masters of discretion and stealth but I gasped in shock as Yolanda Hakim reduced her date to a pile of ashes. Clearly she heard me for she walked right up to me, and grabbed me by the throat. The she-demon's arm around my neck felt like burning steel. I whimpered helplessly in her grasp, sad to say. I looked into Yolanda Hakim's eyes, which glowed bright red, and saw in them the promise of hell and my swift demise. Right before she could finish me off, my execution was interrupted. A tall, good-looking young woman with blonde hair and green eyes clad in a business suit stepped out of the darkness. I vainly shouted at her to get away but Yolanda Hakim tossed me away like a rag doll.

I fell on the ground, and lay still. As soon as my head cleared I looked around, and what I saw amazed me. Yolanda Hakim and the blonde woman were fighting, except they were no longer human. Yolanda's skin was a sickly greenish hue, and she had claws and fangs. The blonde woman morphed into a gigantic serpent right before my eyes and ensnared Yolanda in its coils. I heard Yolanda call it Malak. Of course, it's the shape-shifter! The two fearsome creatures battled fiercely, and neither seemed capable of destroying the other. The Djinn and the titanic serpent continued battling, crashing into trees, setting the clearing ablaze. Eventually they moved out of my line of sight. Feebly I managed to get my bearings and began the long walk home.

The next day, I frantically looked for Yolanda Hakim at school and couldn't find her. Later, I found out that her ghastly remains, barely identifiable were found at the steps of the Ottawa General Hospital. The Djinn woman was dead at last. Of her erstwhile opponent Malak the shape-shifter, a.k.a. Imam Malik Ibrahim of Ottawa's largest Masjid, there was absolutely no trace. The Arab Muslim community of Ottawa held a press conference to address the disappearance of their spiritual leader. Many wondered about the disappearances of a female university student, a Muslim leader and the rash of murders that have plagued Ottawa as of late. I alone know the truth. Two ancient malevolent forces clashed in this town and seemed to have destroyed one another. For now, we shall have peace. Business as usual for humans and nonhumans in the Capital of Canada.