Prologue
The moon was shining sweetly. It did not know my deception. I saw it, but it could not see me. For all good purposes, I suppose I am a vampire and the moon is my ally. I am often invisible to it and humans by my own wishes. Nighttime wanderings are my hobby. I pray on humans, destroying their souls, sometimes taking them as my own. I am what I am. Don't make any judgment of me. I didn't choose this. Being created this way doesn't make it right either I guess, but maybe I could tell you my story. Maybe you would understand. Maybe I will have forgiveness at least from someone. My story is unique. I am not the fairy tale vampire. I just call myself that based on what humans call my kind of being.
My memories are eluded to me. I do not know how long I have been around. I can only remember as far as one hundred and eleven years. There are no others like me, I am unique, remember? Or perhaps more accurately I have forgotten them. I know I have forgotten things because I have glimpses of the past. Of me, doing things in other periods and places of the world. Sometimes they are dreams, sometimes they are what you may call flashbacks or blackouts. I am often drained afterwards and feed immediately. They give me glimpses into what happened before I woke up in that desert one hundred and eleven years ago. I usually see brightness and dark shadows. Usually they are fighting each other. Sometimes they are flying and feathers are dropping all around me. The earth is sun scorched and on fire. The oddest and most confusing ones are the ordinary ones. When I am having conversations with humans. They are the oddest because I stay away from humans entirely. I have tried a couple of times to befriend them, because the loneliness gets tiring, but almost always they start to suspect that I am different. Then they cease to acknowledge me at all. These always seem to be in the time before my oldest because the dress is always older.
The very first memory I have from the beginning, I woke up and didn't know what I was. I was panicked and terribly hungry. Being buried underneath desert and sand I had to climb and dig my way up and out. The sun was unbearable and I couldn't see anything. I walked for days until I found a human man. I wasn't moving towards him on my own, but the smell was overwhelming. I latched onto him without any thought and drained him. I sucked on him for a while even after he was dry. Then I collapsed there and blacked out again. The sun woke me up and crawled towards some shade. I had to stay out of the sun, so I sat there for three days until another human came across me. I was like a scared child. I sneered at her and growled. So maybe not like a child, perhaps a beaten dog. Yes, that's what it was like. Her smell was not appealing at all. It was rather foul actually. Despite my natural fear I didn't scare her away, I actually became a little interested in her.
"Let me help you," she said quietly. This time I growled only softly wanting to know more. "Come on, you are going to die if you don't get some water and food."
I was too weak and confused to resist. Much like that first victim, I got up and decided to follow her without much more thought. She took me back to her little mining shack that she shared with her husband. She went in and I did as well. The pretty woman had a dirty look to her and I was hypnotized by her sing-song voice. She led me to a small bed or cot. Then she went over to the corner of the shack and brought out a bowl and cup. I took the food and water she gave me. At first it didn't bother me and the water felt nice going down my throat. Eventually I stopped taking them both from her because I began to get horrible pains. I began to wonder what I was. I looked like her. My physique was similar to hers. When I touched her she was colder than I was. She tried to explain that it was because I was in the desert. Something within myself told me that that was wrong. I was watching her, trying to decide why deep inside myself I felt different. Experience couldn't tell me, I had no memories. Looking back, now, I wasn't infant like, I just couldn't remember why I was there, or what I was. The woman quietly hummed to me and constantly kept a cool towel on my head. Hours felt like they passed. We never said anything to each other but after a while a sad look came over her face. The look was deep and moving.
When her husband came home he was dirty and disgusting looking. Oh! But his smell! It was glorious! He sat down and took his boots off carefully. He never said anything to his wife, but she said nothing to him as well. His smell was overwhelming. I wanted to control myself, the restraint I was practicing was pushing me, it was ready to break free. After several minutes I couldn't fight it anymore, I jumped up off of the small cot she had set me on and lunged at him. He wasn't expecting it and put up no fight. For only a second I heard her scream and then the blood entered my mouth. It was the most amazing calming that I still haven't experienced again. Even that first victim didn't make me feel so wonderful. After I was finished draining him I lad on top of him for a few minutes and another longing welled up inside of me. I didn't know what it was so I just sat up and looked at the woman. She didn't even scream now. She just looked at me quizzically. I thought for a minute whether or not to get her as well, but her smell was just as foul as when she first approached me. I was surprised that there was no terror on her face now.
"Why aren't you scared?" I asked her. She was silent for a moment, then, "he,....he hit me," she paused again, "thank you."
I was confused for a while about why she thank me. It didn't make too much sense. Not until more time went by did I understand it at all, I thought about the images that he had given me when I was taking his blood. She thanked me for releasing her from that man, he treated her cruelly. He had almost killed her himself more than a few times. I didn't say anything to her and just left. I knew I was different from that point on. I did watch her for a while in the shadows at night. Her father came to get her after six months, he helped her pack her belongings and they got into their wagon. As they left I came out of my shadows. She looked back at me and waved a small goodbye.
By night I traveled to Los Angeles. The desert didn't give me any reprieve, no human blood, and the dryness cracked my skin monstrously. I fed off the nearest man I could find. He was an innocent, his kind deeds, prayers for others and myself, frightened me. I never took an innocent again.
One hundred and eleven years later, here I am. There's a lot of years between then and now, but nothing happened to me. I learned about the humans. Watched them through two wars. They went to the moon that I had befriended over the years. They developed technology. Technology was also my friend. That's how I really learned anything. I snuck into my victims homes when they were away and used their computers and laptops. Played their video games. I especially liked video games. Often, they thought they had a ghost because I would play them until I heard their cars rumble into the driveway or garage. In a hurry I would leap out of the nearest window. They would come in and find their house disheveled and all of their electronics turned on. I found it quite amusing. More reasonable (or less I am not sure) people would call the police. Others would just be creeped out.
My latest obsession was this woman. Most women smelled terrible, like the first one I encountered. Her scent was irresistible, it was different. It was most definitely not human. It was better. Her blood that was flowing through her was emanating its own aura, or glow. My extra-sensitive eyes saw it through her skin. Sitting on the rooftop across from her home, I was invisible with the dark.
I had already been following her for weeks when I decided that tonight would be the night to taste that glow of hers. She was in her room. The strange pulling I had took me to the window on the second floor. Hovering outside, the sheer curtain made eerie shadows in themselves. I unlocked the window and opened it.