The Vampires of Hartoum

Born in the City of Baltimore, Maryland, to a Haitian immigrant father, Leonel Jacques, and a White American mother, Muriel Hawthorne, Helena Jacques was born at a rather turbulent time in the United States of America's history. She learned early in life that being different could indeed make one's life more complicated than it had to be. There was definitely a price to pay for being rather unique in American society at the time.

In mid-1980s Maryland, interracial couples weren't exactly rare, nor were they that common. A Black man and a White woman being happily married and raising a mixed-race daughter in a middle-class neighborhood, definitely earned the Jacques family a few extra glances, but none of that fazed them. The Jacques family had been through many upheavals and emerged stronger as a result.

"You can accomplish anything you want, my dear," Helena's mother Muriel told her, after the young woman wowed everyone by becoming the first non-White valedictorian at Magnus Academy, an elite private school which only accepted the cream of the crop of Maryland society. Eighteen-year-old Helena Jacques looked at her mother and smiled, then gave her a fierce hug. Mother and daughter embraced on Helena's graduation day, while a lily-White crowd of attendees looked on.

"Come on, ladies, save some love for me," said Helena's father Leonel, and the six-foot-tall, burly, broad-shouldered and dark-skinned Haitian-American Corrections Officer smiled at his darling wife and daughter, then pulled both women into a bear hug. The Jacques family made their way to the school's crowded parking lot, then went to dine at Creole House, a neat little Haitian restaurant located a few miles from their house.

"Mom, Dad, I want to study Anthropology at Howard University, I think I can make a difference in that field," Helena told her parents during their celebratory dinner, and the two of them looked at her, clearly surprised. Muriel Hawthorne-Jacques had hoped that her only daughter would go into teaching, and Leonel Jacques thought Helena was going into law enforcement to follow her old man's footsteps. They were both wrong. Nevertheless, the Jacques family informed their daughter that they respected her choices.

Educated at Howard University, where her keen intellect amazed both her instructors and her peers, Helena Jacques was bright, beautiful, and destined for great things. She fulfilled a lifelong dream when she became Professor of Anthropology at her alma mater, at the tender age of thirty two. At a time when a lot of folks her age were still in graduate school or working on their Ph.D. Helena Jacques was teaching at a world-class school.

Becoming a Professor of Anthropology at a fine school like Howard University was but a stepping stone for Helena Jacques. There weren't a lot of women working in the fields of Anthropology and Archeology, and the works of minority women in those fields had gone merely unnoticed, they were practically nonexistent. Dr. Helena Jacques set out to rectify that...

The books, documentaries and exposes done in those fields usually featured the works of middle-aged White men in Khakis, exploring the mysteries of the ancient past in exotic locales. In her first field assignment, Dr. Helena Jacques was trying her damned best to buck that trend. That's what led her to leave the comfort of her classroom at Howard University and come all the way to Sudan, to the cradle of human life, as it were.

"We've found some ancient skeletons that are going to revolutionize how people think of human evolution," Dr. Helena Jefferson said, speaking to the news crew from the Discovery Channel, at the excavation site located near the City of Khartoum, Sudan. The six-foot-tall, curvy, dark-skinned and very voluptuous, Khaki-clad, thirty-something African American Anthropologist wiped her brow with a slender hand, and smiled for the camera.

"Doctor, please, tell us more," replied Hans Drexel, a one-time CNN reporter, now a talking head and frequent contributor for the Discovery Channel. The short, red-haired, plump newsman tried to feign interest in those ancient human bones that Dr. Jacques, Award-winning nonfiction author and Howard University Professor was so damn excited about. Leave it to a geeky Black woman to get worked up about old bones, Hans thought dismissively.

"Last year I was in Botswana, overseeing political elections on behalf of CNN, now I'm in the frigging Sudanese desert, looking at the bones of frigging cavemen," Hans almost blurted out, seriously wishing he were elsewhere. The Anthropological dig site was full of workers, mostly young Sudanese men whom Dr. Helena Jackson probably bribed into working for her by plying them with American dollars. The doctor herself wasn't bad looking, being tall and athletic, but she was also bossy on top of extremely nerdy, which Hans found off-putting.

"Oh, dear, please, come along and see for yourselves," Dr. Jacques said, literally bursting with enthusiasm. The smiling doctor led the newsman and his assistant, a bored-looking young Asian woman named Kelly Ling, deeper into the excavation site, to a large tent under which sat an ordinary wooden table. Atop said table sat a rather large pile of human bones, or at least, that's what they appeared to be at first glance.

When Hans Drexel came closer, he took one look at one of the skulls, and involuntarily flinched. For the skull, while no larger than that of a modern human, was definitely peculiar. There was something definitely off about it. In its maw sat row upon row of distinctly sharp, glistening canines. Hans hefted the skull in his hands, he saw that it was real, and not a plaster duplicate like those he'd seen before. This was oddly discomforting, for some reason...

"Doc, I believe that you've found the ancestors of Count Dracula," Hans Drexel joked, and Dr. Helena Jacques frowned. The newsman put down the skull and held his right hand up, smiling faintly. Shaking her head, Dr. Jacques took the skull from Hans, and the newsman was such a butterfingers that he almost dropped the priceless artifact. Dr. Helena caught it just in time, and winced, for the skull's fangs lightly grazed her fingers.

"Mr. Drexel, I expect more Professionalism on my site," Dr. Helena said, clutching the skull as protectively as a mother holding her young. Hans apologized, but the good doctor ignored him like a waitress ignoring the advances of drunken louts at the local pub. Hans looked at his assistant, and Kelly Ling shrugged emphatically, even though she did not care one way or the other.

"Sorry about that, ma'am, I truly am, you see, um, I just wasn't expecting this," Hans replied, and he gestured at Kelly Ling to keep filming. Dutifully the assistant continued to film both the bones and the newsman's interactions with the doctor. Impromptu moments like these made for good copy and were the backbone of true journalism. When caught unawares, people tended to reveal their true selves, and that always make for good copy, as they say.

"The various species of proto-humans that we know of, Homo Habilis, Homo Erectus, the Neanderthal, and others, seem to have had an ancient enemy," Dr. Helena Jacques said, smiling at the ancient skull in a discomforting manner. The beautiful lady gave Hans the creeps, but he put on a smile. In the past, the Discovery Channel wowed millions around the world with its documentaries on dinosaurs, and ancient humans. The same generation that grew up watching special videos like Walking With Dinosaurs, and Walking With Prehistoric Beasts was bound to eat this up...

"I like it, Doc, those things were the first enemy that modern humans had to defeat to take control of this planet, our first villains, that's going to be our slant on this," Hans said, smiling, and his assistant Kelly Ling rolled her eyes and kept on filming. Seemingly placated by the newsman's turnabout, Dr. Helena Jacques smiled and continued.

"First, we are going to need to classify these creatures, they weren't the ancestors of humans, or like any members of the Homo genus that we're familiar with, they're a completely new species," Dr. Helena Jacques said enthusiastically, and Hans impulsively made a fist, and held his hand out to her. Frowning, the good doctor shot him a puzzled look, and then reluctantly bumped her fist against his. This goon is lucky I need all the publicity I can get, Dr. Helena Jacques thought grudgingly.

"You were so annoying back there," Kelly Ling said to Hans Drexel, as they retreated to their tent, which Dr. Helena Jacques offered them for the night. Slightly less comfortable than their hotel room in Khartoum, the tent was nice, in a rustic kind of way. Hans looked at Kelly Ling as the young woman undressed, revealing a curvy, nubile body that set him on fire every time he looked at her.

"Sorry about that, babe, let me make it up to you," Hans said to Kelly, and the Asian beauty smiled coyly as he drew her into his arms and kissed her. Kelly straddled Hans, and grabbed his hard dick, stroking it gently. Hans kissed Kelly's lovely breasts, then gave her a round ass a firm slap. Kelly moaned softly as Hans entered her, and buried his dick in her pussy. Rocking back and forth against him, Kelly welcomed Hans inside of her.

"Dammit, I'm trying to sleep, you fuckers," Dr. Helena Jacques mumbled to herself as she lay in bed, deep inside her tent, about a hundred meters from Hans and Kelly's makeshift dwelling. Wearing her pajamas, the doctor rose to go take a piss, and was surprised to feel a burning sensation while urinating. Looking at her pee, she was surprised to find blood in it. Biting her finger, Helena was surprised to find a nasty scratch on it. Puzzled, she returned to her tent, and looked at it under the lamp light.

"What the fuck?" Helena thought, watching as a dark substance oozed out of her flesh when she squeezed her injured finger. Dismissing it as puss, Helena applied alcohol against the injury, then bandaged it. Feeling exhausted, Helena finally fell asleep. As she slept, her sleep was disturbed by nightmares very unlike anything she'd ever experienced or imagined before.

Nightfall. The people gathered around the campfire, deep in the African desert, not far from the vast network of caves where they'd taken refuge from the rain in days past. None of them slept, for they knew what lurked in the darkness. They did not fear the Dire Wolves, the Short-Faced Bears or the Saber-Tooth Cats. What they feared was something else altogether. The stuff of nightmares...

Three figures stepped out of the darkness, and approached the campfire. They looked ordinary enough, two men and a woman. Yet the people tensed, for they knew these things were no more human than the majestic elk they slew earlier, and on whose flesh they feasted.

Typically, when marauding bands of humans encountered strangers, they either traded goods, or there were fights over land, women, and other resources. These three had far more nefarious intentions. As the dark trio approached them, the men and women of the tribe grabbed their weapons, and got ready to defend themselves. By the fire's light, a rather grim battle ensued.

With spears, stone axes, and crude swords and machetes, the tribesmen and women fought the three monsters, who moved faster than the human eye could follow, and seemed impossible to put down. They were struck numerously, stabbed and cut, yet they kept on coming.

Only dawn's approach brought respite to the participants in that terrible battle. By then, several of the tribe members had been slain, and they'd managed to bring down two of their assailants. The last monster, a tall, dark-skinned woman with crimson eyes and a mouth full of fangs, fled the tribe just as the sky started to brighten. The tribe gave chase, but were unable to catch her...

"Oh fuck," Helena Jacques screamed, as she bolted awake. For a moment, the young woman looked around, unsure where she was. The dream had been so vivid and disturbing. Still a bit woozy, she went back to sleep. The next day, feeling well-rested, Dr. Helena Jacques went back to work, and even did a couple of interviews with Hans Drexel and Kelly Ling. Around mid-afternoon, feeling exhausted, Dr. Jacques put an end to the work day.

When night fell, it found Helena Jacques lying in bed, and she was doubled over in pain. With sweat oozing out of her every pore, and not just because of Sudan's heat, she writhed and moaned. She thought about the scratch on her finger, which she'd gotten from the fanged skull. I must have gotten infected somehow, Helena mused. She didn't even want to think about what viruses or pathogens might have been around in that proto-human's era...

"Let's get out of here, this place gives me the creeps, not just the camp and the doctor, but those damn skulls especially," Hans Drexel said to Kelly, as they gathered their equipment, put it in the back of the Jeep, and hit the road. Kelly nodded eagerly. Smiling, they headed back to the Four Seasons Hotel in downtown Khartoum, and got some much-needed R & R before their flight back to the United States, by way of Europe. They had absolutely no idea what they'd just escaped from...

The workers were quite pleased when Dr. Helena Jacques offered them the rest of the afternoon off, with double their usual pay. One of her favorite workers, a young man named Omar Saleh went to check up on her. Six feet two inches tall, burly and handsome, Omar met the good doctor when she came by the University of Khartoum to seek helpers among the school's science students. Omar, a twenty-year-old civil engineering student was lured by the good doctor's promise of a few dollars, and he was also drawn to her assertiveness and good looks...

"Doc, are you alright? It's Omar, just wanted to make sure you're okay," Omar said, as he knocked against the wooden pail resting near the door of Dr. Helena Jacques tent, and he shook his head when he didn't hear a reply. Omar was about to walk away when a moan came from the tent, and he froze. Helena Jacques emerged from the tent, looking more sickly and haggard than Omar could ever remember seeing her in the months they'd spent working together...

"Omar, is that you?" Dr. Helena Jacques asked, and Omar nodded, smiling faintly. Was it his imagination or did the good doctor's eyes look a tad bit red? Not the kind of red that comes from tiredness, or even sickness. An unnatural red which was confined to her irises. She returned Omar's smile, and her eyes suddenly looked normal, having somehow reverted to their usual light brown color.

"Doc, no disrespect, but perhaps you should see a doctor, we have a great hospital at Khartoum, I could take you there," Omar suggested, and Helena Jacques looked at this helpful, handsome young Sudanese Muslim gentleman with eyes that were losing focus, and smiled faintly. The young man flinched when Helena suddenly drew closer, and pressed herself against him.

"I don't need a hospital, Omar, what I need is you, don't you want me?" Helena asked, speaking in a sultry, husky voice that sent a chill down the young man's spine. Omar held his breath as Helena wrapped her arms around him, not giving him the chance to flee. Not that he wanted to. Omar had been fascinated by the African American lady doctor ever since he first laid eyes on her.

"You're so beautiful," Omar said, smiling at Helena as he felt desire rise within him like water in a well after a rainstorm. Helena's biracial heritage made her resemble the Afro-Arabian beauties commonly found in places like Sudan, Mauritania, and other predominantly Muslim nations, but her style and swagger screamed American womanhood. Women in Sudan didn't carry themselves the way Helena did, and Omar found her simply irresistible...

"Make love to me, Omar," Helena whispered into his ear, and then she kissed him. Although surprised by Helena's kiss, Omar nevertheless kissed her back. As the sky darkened above them, they returned to her tent, to consummate their passion. They hastily undressed, and then tore into each other. Indeed, they didn't even make it to bed, and had to make do with the tent floor.

"You're the most amazing woman I've ever seen," Omar cried out as Helena climbed on top of him, gloriously naked, her dark brown skin glistening in the fading light, and he caressed her lovely face, and then gently cupped her breasts in his large hands. Helena grinned in a decidedly feral manner as Omar's roaming hands caressed her thick round ass, then slapped it.

"Enough talk," Helena all but hissed at Omar, as she grabbed his erect manhood, and stroked it forcefully. Omar nodded, and then grinned broadly as Helena took him into her mouth, and began sucking him off greedily. Omar was on cloud nine as Helena pleasured him, and the lady's skills in that department surpassed those of the lovely but inexperienced young women whom he occasionally bedded at the University of Khartoum...

"Oh, my," Omar whispered, and he admired Helena's thick round ass as the sultry doctor got on all fours, and shook her bum invitingly at him. Omar caressed Helena's ass, and then rubbed his hard member against it. Without any thought of protection, or anything beyond pure pleasure, he pushed his way into her. Helena moaned softly, welcoming the feel of Omar's thick rod inside of her.

"Don't hold back," Helena squealed, and Omar smacked her big ass and fucked her with wild abandon, slamming his dick in her pussy. The two of them went at it passionately for hours, and ultimately found themselves lying on the soft sands, having somehow wound up outside the tent. Omar looked at Helena, astonished by the African American academic's beauty and passion. Helena looked at the sky, and when she turned to smile at Omar, there was a disturbing luminescence to her eyes...

"Doc, your eyes look different," Omar said softly, and Helena laughed, and was it his imagination or were her teeth a lot longer and sharper than he remembered? Omar watched, amazed, as Helena came for him, fangs bared, hissing like a fearsome predator about to pounce on a prey item. Helena sprang on him, and held Omar down, and then sank her sharp teeth into his neck. That's when Omar's whole world went dark...

When Omar Saleh came to, he was...changed. Helena Jacques stood over him, a wicked smile on her lovely face, eyes glistening with unearthly malice. She held out her hand, and after a brief hesitation, Omar took it. With a mighty heave Helena helped Omar to his feet, and he looked at her, amazed by her transformation. The lovely but frumpy academic he remembered had become something altogether different. Helena looked sexy and dangerous...

"Welcome to a whole new world," Helena Jacques said to Omar Saleh, flashing him a fanged smile. Omar and Helena stood by the tent, twenty four hours after their romantic interlude. Driven by a fierce hunger, they raced across the desert and made their way to the City of Khartoum. Helena and Omar fed upon several people they encountered, and those in turn, died, reanimated and went on to feed on others.

"A brother could get used to this," Omar said to Helena, after discarding the body of a plump, matronly Niqabi whom he'd just fed on. The two of them stood in a dark corner of the prestigious Al-Remila neighborhood of metropolitan Khartoum. Slowly but surely, the gruesome twosome began spreading their unearthly plague across the Capital of Sudan.

Sudan and its neighboring nations soon fell to the Vampire Plague, and in time, it made its way to places like Morocco and Algeria, along with Lebanon and Saudi Arabia. A month later, it arrived in the City of Paris, France, and also the City of London, U.K. The nations of the world panicked as the walking, blood-drinking disease spread in the streets of their cities and towns, turning ordinary men and women into bloodthirsty monsters.