Wish of humanity
- Chapter 1 : -
My name is Darren Shan, and till not much time ago I used to be a boy like many others. I used to have the interests of all the teenagers my age: football, comics, music, movies and, naturally, girls. But, more than any other thing in the world, I used to adore spiders. Yeah: when it happened to me to see one of these splendid eight-legged creatures, I used to stop watching at it and admiring it, charmed, it didn't really matter if it were a common little spider or a poisonous tarantula, ready to bite! And I was even able to remain watching its legs and little eyes movements, so slow but graceful, for hours and hours! Now, I'm not so keen on them anymore…and it isn't hard understanding why. You would hate spiders too, if one of them had changed your life for ever. And for the worse, much worse!
I sigh, thinking once again about how much everything happened to me is incredible, and I put down my makeshift pen that I hold among my fingers. I ask once again if, in someway, it might be only a terrible nightmare, and if so, I hope I'll wake up soon. But I know perfectly that it isn't so. Whatever happened to me, it doesn't belong to the dreams world, even if I wish it ardently.
Even I find it hard to believe it, but it's so.
I feel a burning sensation in my fingers, and I notice they're full of little and pointed wood splinters. They sting and burn like mad when I move and I bend my fingers, in the attempt to make them come out, but more I do it, more the fragments penetrate in depth.
I clench my teeth and I try to remove them, using the points of my nails and my teeth, like they were thorns . It doesn't seem working very well: many break in the attempt and at the end it seems even that they're more in depth than before!
I lay a serie of imprecations, and I have again a look of the paper sheet I'm writing on. It's a page of my diary, striped, just a bit spattered of yellow in the corners (maybe because of all the humidity it got during the journey) and very far from the original white colour. But it's already a luck having a piece of paper to write on, here at the Mountain. And what about the pen? Well…I had to built it by myself, with a small hollow wood stick and some juice of soft fruits , found in the little wood in the vicinity.
Maybe the ink is a bit too fluid and it tends too much to the red, but it answers the purpose. But I have to always pay attention to not let it come out too much, and to not let loosen too much the piece of string that tightens the extremity of the pen. It's quite uncomfortable, but unfortunately I have to adapt. My last pen with true ink ended many weeks ago….how much I wish I found the way to make a little of it!!
With these thoughts in my head, I bend down, I hold again the pen and I start to write again. Here it is again the scent of juice coming out from the point, following my hand's movements, and I write quickly, following the flow of my thoughts. I'm so concentrated on the writing, that I don't notice anything that's going on around me , I forget where I am, about the humid and cold walls that surround me, about the dusty floor, I continue dragging my feet involuntarily on and about the two torches hung above the ramshackle table I'm leaning on.
- Darren? What are you doing sitting there?
I literally make a jump from the stool, and I turn with my goggled eyes and a confused expression. Even if, judging by the voice, it seemed to me it were…
- Larten! I didn't hear you arriving! How the hell have you…
- He he… - he giggles. – At last you should know that we vampires can be silent and agile like felines, if we want.
- Yeah – I say, calling myself silly because I had so afraid.
Yes, you've understood well…it's what I am. Or rather…what we are…all of us, here at the Mountain. A vampire. Or rather, a half-vampire, I mean, how it says even only the word, vampire only for an half. I can still going out at the sunlight without any consequences, but I need blood to survive to. Oh, no…don't form strange opinions! We vampires aren't at all like legends paint us. Most originated from our blood cousins, the vampaneze, that, unlike us, always kill their donators. And it's also for this reason that there is bad blood between us…in the true sense of the word!
- What's the matter? – I ask.
- Nothing…I was only wondering where you were, you disappeared since a while.
- I was there, in Kurda's studio, where he prepares maps...I fancied updating my diary a little. I don't think he minds if I use his old worktable, right?
- Why should he? – he smiles. – Kurda is even too kind, he is not annoyed even from things he should! Your diary? – he adds, coming up to me to have a look.
- Yeah…do you remember? It's a notebook where I note down what happens to us, my thoughts and my emotions – I say, turning it again to show him better, paying attention to not bring the pages too close each other to not smear the still wet ink.
- What does it say of cool? – he asks.
- Wait, I'll increase the power of the torches, so you can have a peep of it. – I say, standing up to regulate it.
- Erm… - he says, becoming suddenly red. I can notice that perfectly, despite the semidarkness. I halt, looking at his eyes.
- To tell the truth…I cannot read, Darren. – he reveals to me, looking away.
- What?!? – I answer, gaping for the amazement.
- It is so.. You know…when I was your age, reading and studying was not considered essential. Only few had the luck to being able to do it, and to afford learning. – he answers, with a touch of embarrassment in his voice.
- But…but – I stammer. – How is it possible? You can sign! You can understand the road signs, and…
- Yeah, but understanding a more complex test or writing one myself is all another story!
I continue to fix my eyes on him, amazed. He never told me about that before! I'm literally astonished.
- And…if I teach you how to do? It isn't all that hard, after all, it's only a question of practice and… - I start saying, with excitement.
- Do not worry about that, Darren. These are things you have got to learn when you are very very young. And it will always come naturally to you…but you do not imagine either how much is complicated at my age…and I have already found out at my own expense. I thank you, anyway. It is really kind of you…but maybe we vampires do not really need knowing how to read, after all. Only few of us can do it. But till one of us will be able to, we will be OK. It is always useful, most of all for the relations with humans. – He says. But then he sighs.
- Really I wish I had learnt….I feel a bit silly for that, sometimes. – he sighs again.
- If only you would have insisted a little more… - somebody else says behind us. This time it's Larten's turn to have a start! I nearly have a start, too.
- Kurda! When will you learn to knock? – I giggle.
- It's a bit hard knocking, seeing the lack of doors! – he answers, with a radiant smile.
- Don't tell me that…it was him your teacher? – I say, surprised by how much this possibility is incredible. (Kurda and Larten can't stand each other!) and smiling at Kurda's joke. He always manages to put me in a good mood, with his optimism and his wish of living. Sometimes I wonder what does a person so…sunny like him in a world so gloomy like vampires one! And why he decided to join us…it seems being so…out of place, sometimes!
- You have always been perspicacious, Darren – Larten confirms.
- But…not!! Is it possible? – I say , giggling, and casting an incredulous glance at Kurda.
- And why didn't you insist? I mean…the willpower of a vampire is incredible, if I'm not wrong?
- You aren't – Kurda answers. – We tried…but it wasn't easy since the beginning. First of all, I didn't have the impression Larten was all that so anxious to learn, after all. It seemed he always had his head in the clouds…and…distracted? – Kurda says, casting a malicious and allusive glance at Larten.
- He he… - Larten giggles, and his face becomes red, even more than before.
In the meantime I'm more and more astonished. I believed they couldn't stand each other…but now they were acting like they have always been friends!
- He…yeah, they were glorious Arra Sails's times! Awww, what a couple!! You should see them, Darren! They shined, in the true sense of the word! – Kurda smiles.
Larten returns the smile, embarrassed. But he says nothing.
- I know, it seems incredible…but the vampire so sage and sensible you see know, Darren, used to be one of most impulsive and bungler of the whole clan! And you can't imagine how much things he did , how much he had a great time when he was young! - Kurda says, smiling even more.
We all burst out laughing. Me more than the others! I never lingered over thinking that even my mentor, so wise and calm, might used to be young and unskilled, like everybody else!
I imagine him chasing Arra, with a bunch of red roses of bramble in his arms, and with many little hearts around his head, like in the comics! And I burst out laughing again, I almost double up by the laughing. Doing it, I put an hand on my belly, but I immediately withdraw it, grimacing with pain. The splinters still hurt.
- What's wrong, Darren? – Kurda says, stopping laughing and looking at me with a solicitous expression.
- Ouch…yeah, to tell the truth, I've some wood splinters stuck in my hand. – I answer, shaking both of them, trying to mitigate the pain, and clenching teeth to not shout.
Kurda bends down to examine them better, the long light blue cloak on the dirty floor.
- It's an ugly affair…how did you get them? – he asks.
In the meantime Larten comes up to us.
- Writing… - I say, with a bitter smile. – The pains of we cultured men! – I say, blinking at Larten. He answers with a bad glance.
- It seems you've been in a carpentry, not that you've written! – Kurda says, perplexed.
- Can I know what pen have you used? – Larten adds.
- That. – I say, indicating with my head the worktable I left it on.
Kurda stands up and goes getting it.
- Is that a pen?!? Where did you get it? – he asks, casting an amazed glance at me.
- Yeah…well, to tell the truth I made it by myself, here at the Mountain they aren't very common objects… - I sigh.
- But you could ask me, Darren! I have a drawer full of them, look! What do you think I draw my maps with? – Kurda says, going near a dark wood desk and a moment after holding in his hand at least ten ball pens!
- Do'h! I can't help exclaiming, looking at Kurda's hand! It seemed he were just come out from a stationery shop!
- Eh…Darren, Darren…all that nice raspberry juice – Larten says, - Who knows how delicious…
While I go closer Kurda to choose some pens, I hear him saying:
- But go on, Larten, Darren shouldn't be reprimanded. On the contrary, he preferred managing on his own, it would be only to praise. An initiative and an independence fit for a true vampire!
I'm flattered…really!
- Maybe… - he limits himself saying.
In the meantime I go off, holding the pen among the creases of my cloak, to not get other splinters, and I return a while after with three glasses full of juice. To tell the truth, the pen is enormous, it almost grazed my chin when I was writing, so the juice he contained was a lot.
- Do you want some? – I ask, with my lips already red.
- Of course! – Larten and Kurda answer at the same time.
For we vampires soft fruits, so warm and juicy, are a delicacy, almost as much as blood. But we would avoid with pleasure to drink it, if it weren't necessary.
We bring the glasses closer to our mouths and, when I drink from mine, I make out though the glass Larten and Kurda clinking glasses.
- Your health! – they say. And they drink.
I smile seeing them getting along so well, for once, and I join the toast, shouting with joy.