Chapter 2 – Questioning
When Stas awoke the next night, the pain was gone, but he was horribly weak. He lay inside his coffin for quite some time, just trying to muster the strength to lift his arms and feel the coffin lid. At last, with a grunt, he managed to lift his arms and push weakly against the top of his wooden tomb. It didn't budge and he quickly gave up the effort, waiting in dark silence for his abductor to free him.
To Stas, it felt like an eternity before he heard the muffled movements of the other vampire and his coffin lid was at last pulled open. Stas momentarily closed his eyes and inhaled the sweet sent of fresh air as he was at last exposed to the world outside his wooden box. However, that moment was soon ruined when the smell of fresh death permeated his senses.
Stas nearly gagged because of the smell. His eyes shot open again and a look of disgust crossed his face as a freshly dead rat was thrust upon his chest.
"You're weak. Eat," The other vampire ordered.
Stas pushed himself into a sitting position, leaning back against one of the smooth walls of his coffin. The look of disgust never left his face as he stared at the dead rodent.
"I can't eat this," he said weakly and hoarsely.
"You'll eat what I give you," was the other's reply, "drink the blood or you'll die before sunrise."
Stas looked at the rat hesitantly and at his captor with a look of scorn. Ultimately, he drank the blood of the rat. It wasn't as bad as he had expected, he just had to close his eyes and make believe it was some sort of delicacy.
Once he had finished his meal, Stas turned his eyes back to the other vampire, who had been standing in front of a fire place about 5 feet away from Stas, watching the logs burn and turn to ash. He had his back to Stas, yet the young vampire had no doubt the other could sense his eyes on him. It frustrated Stas that vampire man refused to acknowledge him.
"Who are you?" Stas finally asked. His strength returning a little bit, he climbed out of the coffin and stood facing the older vampire's back.
"My name is Jurek," the elder answered in a slow, even tone.
He wasn't really old, per se, but he still looked older than Stas. Jurek looked like he had probably been turned into a vampire around age 35, but his faced showed the concerns of one who had walked the earth for over a century, silently enduring all the trials and the tribulations of both the morals and the vampires.
"Why have you done this to me?" Stas demanded. His ice blue eyes burned with impatience and indignation.
"I did it to save you," Jurek replied in the same indifferent tone as before.
"Save me from what? I was in no danger!"
Jurek finally turned to face the young vampire, smiling at the fire burning behind his angry eyes.
"I saved you from death," Jurek answered smoothly, "because of me you are free from life's pain and suffering. You will live forever."
"You mean I will live forever in the freedom of death's pain and suffering! I don't believe you! Vampires seek only to destroy, not to save the lives of mortals they don't even know!" Stas took a few angry steps toward Jurek. " Tell me the truth, why have you done this to me?"
Jurek laughed at Stas' rage and turned his back to the young vampire once more, this time walking to a window on the wall opposite their coffins.
"You are mistaken, young Anastas. Vampires do not seek only to destroy. In fact we take great pleasure in creating. And make no mistake – you are not some random mortal. I've been watching you for quite some time now and you are exactly what I've been looking for. I saved you out of love."
Stas was taken aback and confused by Jurek's words. All they did was create even more questions for the young vampire.
"You're been watching me? You saved me out of love? That is the most preposterous thing I have ever heard! I ask you, are you mad?"
Jurek laughed quietly from his place at the window. His soft laugher only served to anger young Stas more.
"Why do you mock me?" Stas fumed, "First you take me against me will and turn me into this monster! Then you deny my right to know why and laugh at my misfortune! What kind of cruelty is this?"
Jurek laughed again, a bit louder this time, and turned to address Stas.
"So full of questions!" Jurek exclaimed, his voice showing character for the first time that night. "That's precisely what I liked about you, young Stas. You were always so inquisitive and so passionate! You are an intelligent young man and so full of energy, much unlike other mortals these days. And unfortunately very much unlike most vampires these days."
Stas remained silent this time, waiting for Jurek to continue.
"You see the life of a vampire can be a very lonely one. I've traveled the world over the course of two hundred years, Stas. I've seen everything there is to see. I've seen hundreds of other vampires, but none of them have what I seek – drive, energy, true wisdom. They have all become so stuffy – so full of themselves and their immortal wisdom! I yearn for adventure, excitement, passion! I've searched the world over, and still the only place I can find these things is in youthful mortality."
Stas was beginning to understand what the older vampire was getting at.
"And you saw these things in me?" Stas asked.
"Yes," Jurek replied, "Why do you think you are such a successful businessman at such a young age? You are driven to wealth! You are passionate about your trade! Old age has not yet stunted your enthusiasm. And it never will. I have immortalized your youth."
"Physically," Stas muttered, "but mentally I already feel ages older."
"You're just weak! You've eaten but one measly rat tonight!" Jurek laughed, coming to Stas and clapping him playfully on the back, "Come, I will find you a life form worthy of feasting upon."
Stas was highly irritated by the other vampire's mannerisms. He was also irritated at Jurek's rationalizing of his situation. However, in trying to be rational himself, Stas realized that there was nothing he could do to undo what had been done to him, and that he had better start to see the advantages of being a vampire, lest he drive himself mad with resentment and self-pity.
Stas followed Jurek out into the night. The elder vampire turned once to see if the younger was following him and Stas was once again awe-struck by the way the older and taller vampire's gray eyes glistened in the moonlight. He was also mesmerized by the way Jurek's pale skin seemed to glow under the moonlight. Stas held out his hand in front of his face to see that his skin too possessed a seemingly ethereal glow in the darkness.
When the two vampires came to a stop they were some where in the slums of inner Paris. Jurek motioned for Stas to be silent as they crept through the shadows. Stas followed Jurek to a small wooden house where a fire burned dimly inside. Jurek nodded his head toward the window, indicating that he wanted Stas to look inside.
Stas looked through the dirty glass into the common room of the two-room home. There a middle-aged woman sat alone in an old rocking chair, knitting a blanket. Stas looked back to Jurek to see the vampire was grinning at him, a certain glint in his eyes. It then became apparent to Stas was Jurek meant for him to do.
"No," Stas said, shaking his head in frightened disgust, "I can't. I won't."
"You must," Jurek told him, "you need the energy."
"No," Stas said again, "I cannot kill an innocent woman! Let me feast upon rats and dogs!"
"Rats and dogs," Jurek spoke the words bitterly, as if they had been of insult to him. "And don't be so pleasant…innocent woman…please! This woman is a widow, living in the poverty and disease of this slum! Look at her! She has nothing to live for."
"I won't do it," Stas repeated, "and you'll be damned if you do!"
Jurek snickered at Stas' remark and said, "Haven't you noticed? I'm already damned. That's what you mortals call us, isn't it? The damned ones? The devil's children? If that is truth, then what does it matter whether I kill an old woman or not?"
Stas didn't answer. He stood glaring at Jurek, having lost all respect he had just begun to gain for his elder vampire master. Jurek snarled at Stas in disgust, seeing his compassion for the living as weakness.
"Go find your rats and dogs to fest upon, then," Jurek hissed, "I will be here when you return."
Stas started to turn to leave, when out of his peripheral vision he saw Jurek make a dash for the widow's door. Jurek was inside before Stas could even shout his protest, let alone make any physical efforts to stop him. Through the small window Stas could see Jurek sink his teeth into the woman's soft flesh. In his rage, Jurek was much more rough than he had been with Stas. He was making an awful mess of the woman's neck as he drained her blood.
Stas turned away from the window quickly, feeling sickened and cold. A few moments later, he heard Jurek's footsteps on the dirt outside the woman's house. He turned his gaze upon the elder. Fresh blood still coated Jurek's lips and dripped down his front. His gray eyes were ablaze both with resentment towards Stas and with the natural energy that came from drinking the blood of a mortal.
"You are a child of the devil!" Stas said coldly to Jurek, "and to the devil you will return!"
Stas turned and ran from his vampire master, but Jurek's superhuman speed allowed him to catch the young vampire with little effort. Stas struggled against the bonds of Jurek's arms to no avail.
"Let go of me, fiend!"
"Calm yourself, young Stas!" Jurek kept his hold on the smaller vampire. "You haven't the strength or the knowledge yet to survive in the world as a vampire!"
Stas continued to struggle for a few more seconds before collapsing to his knees in exhaustion.
"I could not do what you did to that woman," he panted.
"You will be surprised with what you can do – what you will do – to survive," Jurek answered him. "Perhaps I overestimated you. I should have started by taking you to the prison, with your affinity for justice. Would you have refused me so passionately if I had asked you to take he life of a thief or a murderer?"
Stas didn't answer. He remained on his knees, his expression pained from mental agony as well as from exhaustion.
"Come," Jurek spoke again, "let us find your stupid dogs. You'll need the strength. I know a kennel not far from here."
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