A young woman with a curious appearance and a wild spark in her eyes of undiscernible color paced slowly the moon-lit grass. She was on a hill that only a few trees accompanied. There were a few dozen of people with her there that night, but they all sat on the unnaturally darkened parts of the bare hill, leaving the woman on a brighter part that gave the feeling of a stage. The young woman looked at the people surrounding her in the form of a crescent, then gave an uncanny wink to a man in ragged clothing, whose presence hadn't been noticed by the others until then; the man winked one of his kohl-darkened cunning eyes in return. Young woman's unstable voice filled the air, getting more and more stable as she progressed through her speech.
"Brothers and sisters gathered here tonight! I'm no priestess to sing about a glorious bit of our story, but those of you who have been to one of my humble self's ceremonies know that I make a good bard. You are also aware that most of the time I'm not in my right mind, so greet the bard with gratitude. Since we have the new complexions of boys and girls tonight, I will leap into our history's fierce embrace and take you to the beginning." The young woman in a mismatch of clothes stopped for a second and looked at the crowd. With a slight nod received from her pack priest, she continued. "I'm no scholar, and no sane person," she grinned frantically for a second, "as most of you know; and those who don't, well, now you know." Her grin faded and she sank into her obviously-rare serious expression. "Tonight, dear brothers and sisters, I am gonna tell you about our Genesis. But let there be no misunderstandings, like I said, this is my way of telling it." She winked again to the man and the show started.
A young man who looked older than the woman started creating his illusions the moment she started her story.
"At first, there was darkness; but then God said, 'Let there be light' and there was light." said the young woman, as the shadows cast not by the gipsy returned to their original places and the man lit up some imaginary candles at the line between the crowd and the woman. The woman gave her trademark grin and cut her ominous act for a second. "Yes, I know it's a tad bit too early-" she cocked her head to the side and then
came to herself and said, "Yes, yes, I must continue to the story," as if she had listened to someone guiding her. Who could know? Maybe Malkav himself was curious about the story and encouraged her. "Anyway," she smirked. "God looked into his image, and created man." The gipsy played his magic chords and voila! There was a slightly smoky image of Adam.
"Then the man was bored, of course, and God gave him woman" Eve was placed right next to her man. "But no no no! We're not there yet!" The female vampire popped Eve into an undiscernible cloud by swooshing her arms in an exaggerated manner and slyly looked at Adam for a second; some of the crowd gave a howling laughter.
"As you know," she continued, "Lillith was the first wife." A much different woman was now with Adam, dark as Eve was fair, cunning as Eve was innocent, looking at Adam with the feeling of being complete equals. "Unlike Eve, of course, Lillith was smart, some even say Satan had come to Eden for revenge when she was the wife, wanting to do the things he did to Eve to Lillith actually." Adam disappeared and the majestic figure of a gorgeous serpent took the stage. "But Satan disguised as Serpent saw how wise and cunning Lillith was, and instead trying to deceive her, they had a chat." Satan was wrapped around Lillith's body now, the Tree of Knowledge forgotten way behind.
"Satan learned from Lillith and respected her, so he left her alone, thinking her of importance." Satan's slithery figure disappeared and Adam was on stage again. "Lilith was the first female demon, I think maybe it was the reason they so easily got along." The Malkavian seemed thoughtful for a second. "But she eventually rebelled against the male domination of God and Adam," Lillith seemed angry at something, her back stiffened, she threw back some hair that fell onto her eyes with her hand, a secret lust was revealed to Adam. He was impressed, excited, but he didn't yield. "So Lillith was exiled." The First Wife looked at some unseen force, protested; but defeated, she left, her plump figure blending into darkness.
"Then, of course," The female vampire in a bored manner pointed with her thumb at Eve who had popped again, "she came. This time God had created her from his ribs, unlike molding her like Lillith; thinking that insulting and degrading The Second Wife would prevent her from rebelling." Adam and Eve looked at each other with affection, but every real person there knew he had more life in him when he was with Lillith.
"Lillith's disrespectful rebellion being forgotten, again something God couldn't think about happened, another kind of wisdom, this time it was called Satan." A beautiful person appeared in relatively dark clothing, it was impossible if it was male or female. "Satan, knowing what rebellion can cause to those who were beneath God from his own experiences, and mourning Lillith as the only understanding friend, adorned himself
with the coat of the serpent again and arrived at Eden." Behind Adam and Eve's happy figure, the serpent slowly slithered. The man and woman broke from their embrace, standing under the infamous tree of knowledge, which seemed to have crept closer while no one was watching. Adam turned away from Eve, and this way also away from the audience, and looked into the bright skies the Cainites couldn't see. The serpent
slithered onto Eve, just like he did to Lillith before. "But the difference was that with Lillith, it was merely for a few wise words spilling from her mouth, whereas in Eve's case, it was more of a lustrous curiosity." The ductus of the most experienced and renowned pack thought that the scene looked like one of William Blake's portraits and wondered if his Malkavian and Ravnos pack mates did that on purpose. He smiled. He knew they were better than they seemed like to be.
Now the Cainites could see the serpent wrapping his body against Eve's in a sexual fashion, really unlike his respectful stance with Lillith. This time serpent was bold enough to offer the ripest apple he picked from the tree to Eve. "They conversed, too." The female vampire broke the scenery with her uncanny voice once again. "Satan could see there was a spark in Eve akin to Lillith, he was excited. But then he realized the
conflict she was in, and was sure that Eve and Lillith were nothing alike."
Eve bit the apple and the realization struck her as the serpent left the scene. Just then Adam seemed to break away from his reverie and watched Eve with shock in his eyes. "Man was disappointed. As God's favorite, he wanted to scold woman." Eve stopped Adam in mid-action and with pure lust in her innocent eyes, offered her apple to him. "But man always chose to be naïve first and then God's dog." Eve smirked slightly as Adam bit. After that all the Cainites could see was the horror in their eyes of an unseen and powerful force, before the images broke and revealed the vampire woman in the open. "And I consider these as the first step of our creation. If my priest and my ductus let me continue, I will tell the rest." The Malkavian storyteller and the Ravnos showman waited for the answer. A groan of disappointment rose from the crowd.
"I believe we all want you to continue." said the Lasombra ductus as the Malkavian grinned at the cheering crowd.
"Alrighty then..." said the Malkavian, and the illusions filled the empty space again. This time, however, unlike Eden's beauty and peace, the scene was barren. "God couldn't bear to kill the man and woman, so he punished them. The woman was to bear children and their all responsibility with pain; and the man was to take care of his family and bear the hard conditions of the world around them." Adam and Eve held hands and looked around with fear. "They were exiled." The scenery darkened. "But now let us do some time travel."
When the darkness left, there were Adam and Eve, older but fit and happy; and there were two more young men. The crowd seemed to have held their breath -of course metaphorically speaking. "Adam and Eve had two sons. Abel was the shepherd," the female vampire walked past Abel with a slight pity as Adam and Eve once again left the scene. "And Cain, or as our sources adds an 'e' at the end, Caine, was the farmer."
She stood next to Caine with admiration, and shuddered when the imaginary figure of the father looked at her. She hardly broke her gaze away and continued as if she was out of breath, "As you know, while Abel's offerings were accepted by God," On one side of the so-called stage, Abel stood with a happy expression on his face, blood of his innocent lambs dripping from the bottom of the basket he was holding onto in the vividly green mid-summer day. "Caine's weren't." Caine was on the other side of the stage, hugging his own basket, adorned with the innocent rainbow of his harvested fruits and vegetables, but rejected, pouting as if he were a little child. "And then," the baskets vanished, "Caine couldn't understand this injustice and prayed to God, asking why. But God didn't even bother to enlighten his ambitious servant. Not getting the slightest attention although he tried everything he could do, Caine saw Abel blessed by God; and right then figured that the only
way to have God's attention was through Abel. God was only happy when blood was shed for God's sake, and in order to be loved more than Abel, Caine should sacrifice something more than a mere lamb. Lost in the frenzied ideas, swimming in greed, yearning for God's least attention, he came at Abel. The loved brother didn't even think such a thing could happen, so he was caught off guard, and so Caine slayed Abel."
As Caine murdered Abel, various people saw various tools and various degrees of violence; but when Caine backed away from Abel's dead body, looking at the blood covering his trembling hands, he had forgotten his frenzy. As Caine raised his head into the skies with the same fear once his mother and father head, "And so God cursed Caine," said the Malkavian. Cainites were aware of the darkening skies although they couldn't see them. "Caine was severely punished for the First Murder." The scared young man fell to his knees. "He had the purest darkness deep in his heart, no loyal servant of God could be so evil –and Satan laughed from the deepest pits of Hell- so Caine was to be depraved of all the light, be left in the darkness of his heart. So God took the sun from him, he was to be burned lest walked under it." Caine started crying, more because of fear than of regret. "Then God said it was the fire of greed in his heart that caused this, so he made Caine run away from the exact fire in his heart forever, it was to harm him as much as he did to Abel. And lastly," Caine gave a
cry silent to the audience and thumped the ground. "He was to live forever, for no sin was this horrible to be forgotten in the layers of death or the depths of Hell. So God made him the first vampire, wrapped in pain deeper than our strongest feeling and a bitter understanding no one of us can ever have."
The crowd burst into howls and cries, something the ducti had a hard time to soothing. When silence came again, the narrator also spoke. "As Caine wandered the earth, trying to adjust to his damned new life, he encountered Lillith, who saw everything from afar. As she was the rebellious demon, she took Caine with her, tended him, taught him everything; they became lovers. At first Caine was sorry, but as he paced the earth next to Lilith, whilst he learned the secrets from her, he forgot Abel. As he loosened and finally got rid of the leash of conscience, Caine became stronger, and one day, he left Lilith and started his real journey, as the lone and powerful vampire as he should be." Lilith's image looked at the Malkavian as if she was angry at how fast and easily the storyteller got rid of her, and vanished with pure hatred in her eyes towards the Malkavian. Caine slowly wandered away and vanished.
The crowd was howling again, this time a round of applause was heard too. As the other ducti and priests led the crowd away into their small haven of wood in the country with difficulty, the Lasombra ductus approached the young woman.
"The story you told was mostly wrong and insufficient, you know." he said with a fake disapproval. As the Ravnos and the Toreador priest came next to them, she smiled one of her many smiles and answered, "I am neither a ductus nor a priestess, reverend sir, I am a Malkavian, and this is how I perceive our history. I by no means claim to be telling the best or knowing the truest, but since I am allowed to do this from time to time, and since our brothers and sisters are relished; I decipher I have done my job."
Her smile was insightful now, and she turned and looked at the skies without waiting for a reply. It didn't matter for her as long as it was the same full moon once enjoyed by the great father, now she was looking at; she was okay with the minor changes. Behind her, Toreador priest shook his head at the slightly smiling Lasombra, thinking they would be needing a real ceremony telling the real and full story.