The sound of rain thundering on the pavement was soothing, and yet unnerving. It had been many years since I had been in this town, and I don't recall happy memories of it either. My name was Iris Hardy, I have been dead for nearly 40 years now, and it isn't as glamorous as I thought it would be. I was born in Castlegar, a small town in the kootenays of British Columbia. I had grown up reading about vampires, werewolves and all the mythical creatures, and I remember being very fond of them. How I wish I would've known what I know now. You see, I had always been an outcast. I never hung out with any of the children I went to school with, I barely had any social interactions outside of forced ones in school. I was a loner. And I wanted desperately to be a vampire.
I would walk up and down the streets in Castlegar late at night, pretending to hunt. I followed random strangers, practicing to stay out of sight and always hiding in the shadows. Needless to say I got really good at it, almost no one ever caught me. Then I met him, a tall man with beautiful dirty blonde hair, pale skin and the most amazing features. Almost perfect. Then I saw his red eyes. As a seventeen year old girl that had been begging to meet a real vampire, I nearly screamed with joy at finding him. His voice was deep and husky, but had a smooth tone as well. Very alluring, as I had expected, he asked me for my name and I nearly fainted.
"My name is Iris," I trembled with what I thought was excitement.
"What is such a pretty girl like you doing out at night all by yourself?" a question I didn't remember the answer to.
I froze and suddenly realized, I was talking to an actual vampire. A real life blood-drinker. Then the fear hit. I opened my mouth to scream but he covered it with his icy cold hand and held a finger to his lips. "I don't like screaming, and you don't want to make me upset do you?"
I swallowed the lump in my throat and felt tears form on my cheeks. I had brought this encounter upon myself. I had wanted this for so long. Now I realized that I did not actually want this. I wanted to pretend. My sounds of sobbing brought me back to reality as I looked into the deep crimson eyes of my attacker. He took his hand away from my mouth and gazed into my eyes. There were no emotions in his eyes, I had no idea what to do. All the books I had read about these creatures couldn't have prepared me for the next series of events.
My memories have blurred over the years, I try not to remember them for fear of awakening my human side again. But I always remember the pain. My nameless master had taken me to a dark location to give me the choice I thought I knew the answer to. He had drank my blood to the point that I could barely stay awake then gave me the choice to live or die. I had wanted this for years, I told myself that I did still want this. I chose to live that day, but I hadn't realized just what I was getting myself into.
I remember drinking his blood and thinking about how sweet it tasted, I hadn't noticed it was blood at first because it didn't taste the way I had expected. But as I drank I began to feel a very intense burning pain all over my body. Fire flowed through my veins as I rolled around uselessly on the cement. I clutched at my arms trying to figure out what had caused this pain. Tears stung behind my eyes, I couldn't stop screaming. My eyes and throat were raw and dry when I finally blacked out. I don't know how long I was there, faded in and out of consciousness and wishing for the end. Numbness. I felt numb, and nothing seemed real. That was when I opened my eyes and saw for the first time with clarity.
My eyes had somehow become stronger, they saw further and more clearly then I had ever thought possible. I could smell fresh rain in the air, and then I heard the sounds of chatter. A group of people outside of the building I was in. Something caught my attention, a very sweet smell. It was like nothing I had ever smelled before and that was curious to me. I pulled myself up from the cement floor wondering what had happened, and where I had ended up. I felt hungry, very hungry. But this was a different hunger then I was used to. It was a need. I needed something, but what was it? I looked around the room, I knew this place. It was the boiler room at my school.
What was I doing in the boiler room? How had I ended up here? Then I remembered. A nameless vampire. Did he bite me? My hands shot up to my neck to feel for any scars. Nothing. What had happened? I reached in my pockets and found my cellphone. No missed calls. No texts. Not that I had expected any anyways.
I walked into the darkened hallways of the school and heading for the exit. There was a group of teenagers outside talking loudly about something. I never cared to listen. I could smell the alcohol on their breath as I walked by, and then something else. There was that sweet smell again. I looked around briefly trying to figure out what it was. Then I saw it. One of the male teenagers had a white bandage wrapped around his hand and the blood had started to seep through the cloth. I was drawn to the sight of it and I didn't understand why. The group had noticed me approaching and started to talk to me, but I couldn't hear them. One of the boys in the group had stood up and grabbed my arm. As I turned to look at him, his face went white. He shouted something at me but I was confused. What I did next was pure instinct.
Another boy had grabbed my other arm and they held them tightly. I growled and flung the first boy forward. My free arm now grabbed the second boys arm and twisted him so his back was in front of me. I grabbed his hair and yanked his head backwards to show his neck and I bit him.
I felt his soft skin break underneath my new fangs and a warm liquid spurt into my open mouth. As I closed my lips around the wound I tasted the most amazing thing. It was like nothing I had ever tasted before, and I wanted more. The hunger I had felt earlier was all but a thought in the back of my head as I drank the blood. Something in my mind screamed at me to stop, but I couldn't. I could hear the boy's heartbeat thumping loudly in my ears and then it seemed to slow, I felt confused then I realized exactly what I was doing. The boy dropped to the ground after I released him and scrambled away from me. I stood there, blood dripping down my chin staring at the terrified group. They were shouting and I noticed a few adults approaching. One of the adults grabbed me from behind and started yelling at the others. I felt the sting of tears behind my eyes as I fully realized what had happened.
I was not human anymore. I was something evil. Something that I had always wanted to be.
A vampire.
And for the first time in my life, I felt truly alone in this world. I broke free from the grip of the person holding me and ran. I ran as fast as my legs would carry me. I don't remember crossing any roads, but I remember hearing car horns blaring. I ran until I found the abandoned cabin in the woods on the far side of the town. I collapsed against the door of the cabin and screamed. My eyes burned, but no tears formed. I could no longer cry. I closed my eyes and sobbed against the hard wooden door until I could sob no longer. The sky was turning a pale grey colour with the rising sun and I wondered if the sun would end my suffering. I was a vampire now, so the sun would kill me right?
But something inside of me stirred and I went inside the cabin and locked myself in the basement. I lay against the cold earth of the cellar walls and thought.
This was always what I had wanted. I had wanted this for as long as I could remember. So why was I so upset? Why was I so utterly depressed about this? If this was really what I wanted, then why was I so scared?
I was alone. That was what was so real about this. No one would understand me now. I had thought that being a vampire would be awesome because I would have a coven and it would be great. But I was alone. And I would never realize just how lonely it was to live forever. I found that I had no where to go anymore, my mother just didn't know what to do when I had gone home the next night. She stared at me with this look of pure agony. Her baby girl was gone forever. Her daughter was a monster and she didn't know what to do about it.
My mother committed suicide a few weeks after I changed. It killed what was left of me. I was so angry, I changed my name and left the city. I vowed to find the vampire that had changed me and kill him. For my mother. She had always been there for me and now that she was gone, I had no one at all.
That is where my story began, and that is where we are now. I have returned to Castlegar nearly 40 years after the loss of my mother and myself. My name is Iris Hardy, and I am starting to enjoy the little things in life again. I have my hunger under control now, and I can even enjoy human food again. I often try to seem human in order to gain access to information about the nameless vampire that I seek. But lately there have been no new leads on his whereabouts.
You would not realize just how many vampires there are in this world. Most of us don't even live in the darkness anymore. We are out in the open, walking amongst you as humans. Sunlight burns, but it doesn't actually kill us. So long as we wear sunscreen and cover up, it barely even phases us. Garlic, crosses, holy water and the like are just myths. I tried them all after the loss of my mother in order to end my own suffering. Silver hurts a lot and takes a lot longer to heal the wound that it creates, but it doesn't actually seem to cause death. I suppose if I had left the dagger in my chest it might've eventually killed me, but I was trying for the fastest and easiest death. But let's get back to my hunt.
The Element Bar and Grill in Castlegar is the best place to meet other vampires believe it or not. I suppose the lack of windows and the huge amount of fresh blood will draw just about any vampire there. You see we tend to go where there are large gatherings of people that wouldn't notice the disappearance of one or two humans. Dark places are the best for feeding because they will see if as "making-out" instead of an actual attack. Most of us don't ever drink enough to kill anyways. There is no need for that unless we are injured or trying to make more of our kind. I only ever turned one other person into a vampire. Her name was Yvonne, a beautiful girl that was very ill. She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer at 23 and was trying to live her life to the fullest, but it was fast growing and there was nothing the doctors could do for her accept ease her pain a little. I met her one night in a dark alley, she was looking for death knowing that she was to die soon. I made her an offer.
At first she laughed at me, called me a liar and told me to just kill her already. I walked towards her and pinned her against the brick walls of the building and barred my fangs. At first she screamed but slowly she stopped and just stared at me. I realized that she believed me. Our conversation was short as I explained how it worked and told her of the horrible pain to come. She seemed at peace with the idea of pain, after all she was a cancer patient and she knew pain. So I bit her and changed her into a vampire. Except I didn't leave her to figure it out from there. I showed her the ways I had taught myself to survive. I explained the how things worked among our kind and then I told her that she could come along if she wished.
Yvonne was happy, until the day she fell in love with a human. I am not sure exactly what happened after that, but I know that I never heard from her again. Perhaps he loved her enough to go through with the transformation and spend his life with her. Perhaps he rejected her and she found a way to die. I wish her the best either way.
As I arrived at the front doors to the Element, I felt the presence of other vampires. We can sense our own kind, from what I gather some of us can even communicate telepathically to other vampires. I have a few of my own powers that will be discussed later. The door pushed open and the different smells of sweat, blood, and other bodily fluids invaded my senses. I could see the many bodies grinding and moving together in tone with the beat. The different colour lights moving around in irregular and sporadic patterns. I walked over to the darkest corner I could see and approached one of the vampires there. "Good evening," I hadn't heard my own voice in days and it was a little odd sounding to me.
" 'Sup? You must be the new vamp in town that the others were talking about..." A tall dark-haired male spoke. I laughed a little. New vampire was a little weird to me because I had been here before these young idiots.
"Not new, just returning home. I hope that you don't think I'm intruding on your parts," I stopped short noticing a group forming around me. This was a small coven of 6-8 vampires, and they had claimed this as their territory. "I'm just passing through, I'm looking for someone kind of important to me. I was hoping you might be willing to help me."
A larger male stood behind me and put his arms on my shoulders, I could feel his strength in his grip. "Little lady, you ain't welcome in our turf. I suggest you leave before we have to make this ugly," his threat barely even registered in my mind. I could have laughed if I wasn't trying to be polite and understanding. Vampires that form a coven are often very territorial, and will do almost anything to make sure that you stay out.
"Like I said, I'm just passing through. Just wanted to ask a few questions," I turned to face the larger vampire. He was at least 6'5 with army cut brown hair. He was very well defined, very attractive too. This man was built like a tank, but that would not help him should he want to start a fight with me.
"Lady, we have been here for twenty years. You best just leave without asking anything or there will be a problem. We dislike vamps like you that don't seem to understand how coven's work," his anger was only taunting me. I wanted to make him angry, he was young compared to me. A couple of the others had circled around me now and I was right in the middle of this group. I shoved my hands into the pockets of my coat and laughed.
"What's so funny girl? You think you can take the entire coven?!" He shouted at me. A few of the humans looked our direction and started talking quietly while moving away from us. Best that they take cover when the fun starts.
"I can see that you think your coven to be some kind of amazing thing, but your just huffing around doing nothing. Why don't we take this outside and see who is the stronger of us?" I taunted him now. The problem with young vampires was that they always thought they were the strongest, and the best. How wrong they always were. I pushed past the group and walked back outside. It was a brisk night, winter would be here in the next few weeks. The leader of the coven followed me as I walked down the street a little.
"Bitch you ain't got nothing on me and my boys. We ain't lost a fight yet!"
Silly boy. I shrugged my coat off and smiled. "Let's begin then..."
The leader circled me, trying to judge my strength and power. I'm a little over 5'4 so he must've thought his height would have helped him. The other coven members began to circle me as well. I laughed a little before disappearing. At first they looked around confused then they realized I had jumped onto a roof nearby. The leader, let's call him Bud, shouted orders at his flanking members. I didn't care to hear them because they would lose either way. One tried to jump directly at me, that was a bad idea. I moved slightly to the right and grabbed the back of his shirt slamming him into the roof behind me. Two came at me from the side, I just jumped up and let them hit each other dead on. I landed on their heads and lept to the street below. Bud growled and charged me, I side-stepped to the left and kicked him in the back. He hit a building with a hard thud. The others seemed leery to attack me, so I did the honors and attacked them. I charged them, jumped into the air and kicked one in the chest and backflipping into the other.
Bud had charged again, this time when I side-stepped he grabbed my coat and threw me over his head. I attempted to recover in the air and land on my feet, but I landed on my hands instead. I flipped to my feet and skidded forward a few steps. I guess I would have to pull out the big guns soon.
I closed my eyes and focused on the sounds of the group. Their footfalls gave away their positions, and then I sprung my weapon. I opened my eyes and focused on Bud. He stopped in his tracks and looked at me. I have the ability to control blood of all things. Even vampires have blood within their veins. I held my hand out and flexed my fingers back, Bud bent backwards and contorted in an unhuman way. He cried out in pain as his other coven members stopped dead. I used my free hand to grab another member within my blood grip. I flexed my fingers again and the second bent completely in half. The sound of his spine snapping was so loud it echoed in the streets. "Give up, I don't really like doing this..." I spoke dully. I really didn't understand why these idiots always insisted on fighting me.
"W-what... what is this?!" one of them exclaimed.
"The power of vampire created by an ancient," I hated that the man who had changed me, was actually one of the oldest and most powerful of our kind. I inherited a few of his powers, and sometimes they were useful. Other times, not so much.
"If you want me to let you go, all you have to do is ask," I laughed a little. It was amusing to watch these vampires squirm with fear. But I hated using my powers to prove a point. They really should've just listened to me earlier.
"Let him go! We'll do whatever you want!" Someone shouted, I couldn't tell from where.
"I just want to ask a question, do you know where I can find Cindy? She is an old one like me, and she said I could find her here," I was tired of these idiots. I just wanted to find Cindy and find out where to go from here. This city was not a place I really wanted be. I released my grip on Bud and lowered my hand. They were annoying me now, and I just wanted to leave.
"We haven't seen anyone named Cindy, never even heard of her!" Bud spoke this time, obviously shaking from my power.
I sighed heavily and shook my head. "Wrong answer," I growled snapping Bud in half and throwing him into the group of the remaining coven members. They screamed and howled at me as I walked away. I put my hood over my head and walked towards the Tim Hortons. I really wanted a coffee after that whole deal. I heard some shrieks of humans as I was walking away but I only smirked.
Wherever Cindy was hiding I would find her. She could not expect me to come back here just to see old friends. I had no friends left in this dead end town, I really didn't even want to be here, but I wanted answers. I walked for a few minutes before feeling a very familiar presence. In the distance, a tall man with dirty blood hair and the same deep crimson eyes as when I had first met him.
"Hello Iris."