"You are not my Stephen, you are a monster, a scourge upon this Earth and you will be destroyed," screamed my mother, Elsa Voltaire, as she brandished a kitchen knife which she pointed at me. I looked at her, confused, and saw nothing but hatred in her once-loving gaze. What prompted this rather unsavory welcome, you may ask? Oh, the fact that I'm now a Vampire, and apparently, this makes me unwelcome in the house in which I was born and raised.
"Maman, c'est moi, what are you doing?" I protested, while trying my best to dodge the blade brandished by the woman who brought me into the world. At this moment, she was trying very hard to take me out of it. Flinching, I finally wised up on the fact that I was unwelcome, and hightailed it out of there. I fled the suburb of Quartier Morin, northern Haiti, the lovely place which had been my home for so long. Vampires have no homes, we are wanderers, such is our fate as creatures of forever...
Now, I say this with all due respect, but my hard-working, fervently Catholic mother always believed in the supernatural, to the point that it made her seem 'off' to our neighbors in our hometown of Quartier Morin. I grew up hearing stories of my father, FranΓ§ois Seraphim Voltaire, and how he supposedly left her for another woman and abandoned our little family. Folks say it drove her insane. I think seeing me come back from the dead finally drove her over the edge, and it saddens me to this day...
In the movies and poorly written horror novels, when one becomes a Vampire, it's a rather grandiose affair. The Vampire becomes a cooler and sexier version of the mortal which he or she had been, with better looks, and cool new powers. That's the appeal of the Vampire life in the world of fiction. In real life, or, rather, the Erebus of my new existence, I can assure you that it is definitely not the case. There's nothing glamorous or cool about becoming one of the Undead...
I, Stephen Voltaire, am a person with a story to share with you. On the evening in question, I woke up to find myself in my grave, and frantically dug my way out. I thought it had to be a mistake. I wasn't dead. Dead men definitely don't walk. I remember hanging out with my friends, Lucas Hubert and Jerome Etienne, at Grande Riviere Du Nord, and I also remember being pulled beneath the waves when my leg got caught on something.
What I did not know at the time was that it wasn't a branch or rock that caught my foot, but the maw of an ancient monster. A Vampire which had been buried in that river since the days of the Duvalier regime. A monster whom I was linked to, even before I became what I am now. Fate brought us together, as it were. That ancient beast caught my leg, and filled me with its poison...
Insensate, I was finally freed from the river and brought ashore by my friends, and to their unknowing gaze, I appeared dead from natural causes. Yet another young man who drowned as a result of wandering into the deep waters. I was laid to rest in the Cimetiere Du Quartier Morin, right beside the grave of my ancestor, former Haitian Army Colonel and supporter of Emperor Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the legendary Henry Voltaire. To the world, I was dead and buried, except I wasn't dead. I was Undead, and the world would have to reckon with that fact...
That night, as I fled my family's house, I wandered in the darkness, not knowing what I was. As I walked under the stars, and made my way to the City of Cap-Haitien, Capital of the Nord-Department of the Republic of Haiti, I silently lamented my fate. Roaming the darkness, I came upon a stray dog, and immediately, the poor animal sensed that I was different. It fled from me, and, filled with an urge that I did not know I had, I chased after it.
I was a rather athletic young man before my untimely demise, but I wasn't quick enough to catch a dog. Becoming Undead seemed to have added to my speed and overall athleticism considerably, and I managed to catch the animal. Driven by my urges, I sank my teeth into its neck, marveling as they lengthened and sharpened, allowing me to pierce the animal's throat, and slake my thirst. As the dog's warm blood flooded my mouth, I knew contentment of a new and uniquely different sort.
I discarded the slain dog's carcass by burying it, and saying a few words. I only hoped that the poor creature would remain in its grave rather than rising from it, ravenous and confused, like I had. As I said before, I was new to the Undead state, and had much to learn. I walked through the nighttime streets of Cap-Haitien, and made my way to College Notre Dame Du Perpetuel Secours, the venerable old Catholic school which I attended with my friends Jerome and Lucas.
Why did I venture there? Oh, simply because I was a creature of habit, and since I graduated from that school a mere two weeks ago, it was still a place of comfort in my mind. I went into the little greenhouse that the Scouts of Troop Henri-Christophe liked to gather in on Saturday afternoons, and made my way inside. In this makeshift refuge, away from mortal eyes, I slept away the daytime hours. When dusk came, I was out and about, and went about prowling. It simply seemed like the thing to do, you see...
That's how it began, you see. My journey as a nascent Vampire in my hometown of Cap-Haitien. Now, the smart thing would have been to move away to a place where nobody knew me. After all, I grew up in this town and went to school here, so lots of people knew me. They're bound to be alarmed if they see me out and about, considering many of them attended my funeral fairly recently. In the back of my mind, I knew these things. Yet, I refused to go away because, well, there's no place like home.
"Al, is that you?" came a voice, and I froze, for I recognized the voice as that of my good pal Jerome Etienne. I'd gone to Feut Vert Night Club, a nice spot near CafΓ© Du Port, right by the sea in Cap-Haitien. I was doing the bump and grind with a tall, curvy, dark-skinned beauty whose name I couldn't remember when my buddy hollered at me. What's a brother with fangs to do?
"Excuse me, dear," I said to the young lovely woman, and she shrugged in a disappointed manner, as I left her and went to deal with Jerome. My buddy Jerome looked just as I remembered him. Tall and chubby, with dark brown skin and slick, curly hair. When we were in Terminal Deux at College Notre Dame Du Perpetuel Secours, I used to get Jerome to do all my Calculus stuff for me because he's got a head for numbers. I was better at other things, like social sciences, and getting into trouble...