The Vampires of New York
By Red Turtle
Once again this involves my own characters in a new form interacting with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, who incidentally are owned by Mirage Studios. If you want to learn more about my characters you can go to my bio. If you want to learn more about Ninja turtles there are any number of devoted websites to check out.
Here my characters are vampires. Since vampires are purely metaphysical, I pretty much invented whatever abilities and limitations they have, much as every vampire movie or book incorporates different visions of the vampire lifestyle. I tried to make them as unique as possible, so it isn't just another vampire story, and I somehow never got into Anne Rice's books, so there isn't any of that influence that I am consciously aware of here. My favorite vampire movie is The Lost Boys, but I only saw that because ten years ago I thought Corey Feldman was a hottie. Actually, Blade was pretty fucking awesome, that was the best vampire movie. The worse would be John Carpenters version.
Anyway, feel free to let me know if I captured your alls imaginations with this.
Part I
The constant neon glow irritated them; it was almost as if pieces of the sun remained in the city through out the night. Fortunately it did not extend uniformly through out, and the areas it didn't reach had the advantage of being very much like the third-world cities they were used to hunting in, crowded and unwatched. They soon discovered additional advantages to this city over the third world, here people were generally better fed, lots of animals abounded if they didn't get enough humans, there were many abandoned structures to hide in, and there was an extensive sewer system to travel through as well. They were used to preying on remote villages throughout Africa and the Middle East. Actually, they still weren't used to this life at all.
Two years ago they had been ordinary turtles. They didn't remember that much, but somehow they had become part human. They remembered the glowing ooze that had done that, and they were already adolescents when they mutated although they didn't know their exact age (turtle years to human years are hard to configure). This had happened in Africa, they knew not what country. Shortly after that they had gone to a nearby village for food or some form of social contact, and found the village deserted. They remained there, eating leftover crops and learning what they could about the ways of life of the humans. Then, after three nights, one of them learned the horror of what had happened there, he learned it personally. He was taken by another vampire returning to visit its former home. He in turn converted all the others; he couldn't stand to be separated from them.
Since then they had roamed the world, mainly in search of a good food source (that being human beings). They found mainly small villages like the first one and would take only a few people before moving on. They had lived in only two cities previously: Cairo which proved to have too tight a police force and not enough places to hide, and Baghdad, which worked out fine for unlimited dining opportunities (there wasn't even electricity all the time), but radiation poisoning from leftover Gulf War missles, untreated diseases and lack of food from the US sanctions left the people too decimated to provide much nutrition. Even so, they had stayed for three months until happening to hear over a radio that the US planned to bomb Iraq and in particular that there would be no safe place in Baghdad (actual quote). They decided they needed to get the fuck out of there, so they snuck aboard a truck heading towards a port, and from there boarded a ship that arrived in New York just after sun-down.
By now they had names. They had ended up with all American sounding names, when deciding what to call each other they had been hanging out in Cairo near some American tourists, and chose names they picked up in their conversation. The leader was Necromancer, not actually a name but he had liked that sound and turned it into a name. Later he learned what it meant, and decided it fit him well. Then Darin, who had been the one that brought the curse to his siblings, a pair of identical twins named Jordan and Torrance, and another set of what must be twins, but a boy and girl named Simon and Molly. Both of these last two had inherited long black hair from the human mutation, and combined with the vampire aspect gave them a hauntingly beautiful look.
They hadn't caught anything yet. Although desperately hungry from the days on the ship (in which they hadn't eaten anything larger than a rat for fear of discovery) they explored the new surrounding first, to find a lair and the best place to hunt. Now the time had come to feed. They split up, preferring to hunt in teams of three than a pack of six.
They met up again at the top floor of a warehouse before sunrise. The warehouse was chosen for its remote location and the very smell indicated humans hadn't been there for years, and were not likely to visit soon. Anything of value had long ago rotted away.
Each team had been successful in their hunting, but Nikki, Darin and Molly had seen something much more interesting, which they were eager to share with the others.
Because of their isolation and their nature (of being vampires) they didn't talk much. It had been months before they had even bothered to name each other. Before living in the cities most of their communication consisted of hand gestures and few Swahili words they picked up from African villagers. In the cities they picked up more words in Arabic and English, but for a long time they didn't even realize these were different languages. Anything they needed to convey to each other always consisted of food or shelter; they had never tried to express deeper feelings.
"We saw something", Nikki started to say to the others.
"We saw turtles", Darin clarified.
Simon, Jory, and Tory stared at them expectantly.
"Did you eat them?" Jory asked, when no more information came forward.
"No", Nikki answered.
"They were turtles like us...like us before we were like this...but after the first change..." Molly tried to explain.
"Turtles that were human?" Simon verified.
Nikki nodded, remembering the sight of them, the thoughts about them.
"How many?" Simon inquired.
"We saw two. Their may be more, we didn't follow them."
The question of "why not" went unasked. The answer would be a visual of the blood, death and curse they would bring to this other turtle family if they found their home. This visual surged through them all, it was something both desired and feared. It had taken great discipline for Nikki not to attack the two they saw, fortunately they had just eaten.
"Boys or girls?" Jory asked.
"Boys."
"How old?"
"Teenagers, I guess."
There was silence for a while. As I said, they are not adept at conversation.
"Should we leave here?" Simon finally asked. That best vocally expressed his desire not to hurt them.
"I don't know", Nikki replied, acknowledging the unspoken desire, but equally strong was the need to hurt them, to hunt them, maybe to convert them and have some companionship, "Let us think about it tomorrow."
With that, they went to sleep. The sun was coming up. Vampires don't dream, but if they did the dreams would have been rich and moving, about the other mutant turtles who were not vampires. Not yet, anyway.
End of part 1...
Once again this involves my own characters in a new form interacting with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, who incidentally are owned by Mirage Studios. If you want to learn more about my characters you can go to my bio. If you want to learn more about Ninja turtles there are any number of devoted websites to check out.
Here my characters are vampires. Since vampires are purely metaphysical, I pretty much invented whatever abilities and limitations they have, much as every vampire movie or book incorporates different visions of the vampire lifestyle. I tried to make them as unique as possible, so it isn't just another vampire story, and I somehow never got into Anne Rice's books, so there isn't any of that influence that I am consciously aware of here. My favorite vampire movie is The Lost Boys, but I only saw that because ten years ago I thought Corey Feldman was a hottie. Actually, Blade was pretty fucking awesome, that was the best vampire movie. The worse would be John Carpenters version.
Anyway, feel free to let me know if I captured your alls imaginations with this.
Part I
The constant neon glow irritated them; it was almost as if pieces of the sun remained in the city through out the night. Fortunately it did not extend uniformly through out, and the areas it didn't reach had the advantage of being very much like the third-world cities they were used to hunting in, crowded and unwatched. They soon discovered additional advantages to this city over the third world, here people were generally better fed, lots of animals abounded if they didn't get enough humans, there were many abandoned structures to hide in, and there was an extensive sewer system to travel through as well. They were used to preying on remote villages throughout Africa and the Middle East. Actually, they still weren't used to this life at all.
Two years ago they had been ordinary turtles. They didn't remember that much, but somehow they had become part human. They remembered the glowing ooze that had done that, and they were already adolescents when they mutated although they didn't know their exact age (turtle years to human years are hard to configure). This had happened in Africa, they knew not what country. Shortly after that they had gone to a nearby village for food or some form of social contact, and found the village deserted. They remained there, eating leftover crops and learning what they could about the ways of life of the humans. Then, after three nights, one of them learned the horror of what had happened there, he learned it personally. He was taken by another vampire returning to visit its former home. He in turn converted all the others; he couldn't stand to be separated from them.
Since then they had roamed the world, mainly in search of a good food source (that being human beings). They found mainly small villages like the first one and would take only a few people before moving on. They had lived in only two cities previously: Cairo which proved to have too tight a police force and not enough places to hide, and Baghdad, which worked out fine for unlimited dining opportunities (there wasn't even electricity all the time), but radiation poisoning from leftover Gulf War missles, untreated diseases and lack of food from the US sanctions left the people too decimated to provide much nutrition. Even so, they had stayed for three months until happening to hear over a radio that the US planned to bomb Iraq and in particular that there would be no safe place in Baghdad (actual quote). They decided they needed to get the fuck out of there, so they snuck aboard a truck heading towards a port, and from there boarded a ship that arrived in New York just after sun-down.
By now they had names. They had ended up with all American sounding names, when deciding what to call each other they had been hanging out in Cairo near some American tourists, and chose names they picked up in their conversation. The leader was Necromancer, not actually a name but he had liked that sound and turned it into a name. Later he learned what it meant, and decided it fit him well. Then Darin, who had been the one that brought the curse to his siblings, a pair of identical twins named Jordan and Torrance, and another set of what must be twins, but a boy and girl named Simon and Molly. Both of these last two had inherited long black hair from the human mutation, and combined with the vampire aspect gave them a hauntingly beautiful look.
They hadn't caught anything yet. Although desperately hungry from the days on the ship (in which they hadn't eaten anything larger than a rat for fear of discovery) they explored the new surrounding first, to find a lair and the best place to hunt. Now the time had come to feed. They split up, preferring to hunt in teams of three than a pack of six.
They met up again at the top floor of a warehouse before sunrise. The warehouse was chosen for its remote location and the very smell indicated humans hadn't been there for years, and were not likely to visit soon. Anything of value had long ago rotted away.
Each team had been successful in their hunting, but Nikki, Darin and Molly had seen something much more interesting, which they were eager to share with the others.
Because of their isolation and their nature (of being vampires) they didn't talk much. It had been months before they had even bothered to name each other. Before living in the cities most of their communication consisted of hand gestures and few Swahili words they picked up from African villagers. In the cities they picked up more words in Arabic and English, but for a long time they didn't even realize these were different languages. Anything they needed to convey to each other always consisted of food or shelter; they had never tried to express deeper feelings.
"We saw something", Nikki started to say to the others.
"We saw turtles", Darin clarified.
Simon, Jory, and Tory stared at them expectantly.
"Did you eat them?" Jory asked, when no more information came forward.
"No", Nikki answered.
"They were turtles like us...like us before we were like this...but after the first change..." Molly tried to explain.
"Turtles that were human?" Simon verified.
Nikki nodded, remembering the sight of them, the thoughts about them.
"How many?" Simon inquired.
"We saw two. Their may be more, we didn't follow them."
The question of "why not" went unasked. The answer would be a visual of the blood, death and curse they would bring to this other turtle family if they found their home. This visual surged through them all, it was something both desired and feared. It had taken great discipline for Nikki not to attack the two they saw, fortunately they had just eaten.
"Boys or girls?" Jory asked.
"Boys."
"How old?"
"Teenagers, I guess."
There was silence for a while. As I said, they are not adept at conversation.
"Should we leave here?" Simon finally asked. That best vocally expressed his desire not to hurt them.
"I don't know", Nikki replied, acknowledging the unspoken desire, but equally strong was the need to hurt them, to hunt them, maybe to convert them and have some companionship, "Let us think about it tomorrow."
With that, they went to sleep. The sun was coming up. Vampires don't dream, but if they did the dreams would have been rich and moving, about the other mutant turtles who were not vampires. Not yet, anyway.
End of part 1...