The following occurs in December 3450

Chapter 1

New York City, 3450; the month is December and preparations are under way for the Christmas season. The air grows colder and the streets grow louder. Just five centuries before this great city was spared of the devastation of The Great Attrition and The Second Attrition. I have settled in this city after spending one hundred years in the land of my birth. I was mostly in the city of London where there has been drastic change. The people of Great Britain no longer sang "God Save the King" due to threats that have been perceived by the ungodly. Great Britain had became a strong atheist nation and all citizens deluded themselves in the notion that their own skills and talents would help them through their lives and that they did not have to place their faiths in a higher force that they thought did not exist. Through their pride and ignorance the human population was unaware that in the shadows the vampire gained a foothold in Great Britain. In fact, the entire Eastern Hemisphere had now removed God from their hearts and had become corrupt in their hearts and in their minds. Sexual immortality became the norm and secular governments became less and less democratic. These were the exact conditions that were welcoming to the vampire. After I have spent all those years fighting the vampire and feeding on the blood of the ungodly scum I had become fed up and left for The United States settling in the city of New York. The United States was the last stronghold of moral values, yet year by year pride and folly were manifesting within the American's heart.

This, however, was not the first time I have visited this city. When I was eleven years of age I visited the city by ship along with my grandparents in 1891. Upon arriving I saw her: The Statue of Liberty; a gift from France that would be a symbol of American pride for centuries. I revisited New York in 1976. It was at this time when I saw The World Trade Centre for the first time. Back then it was the tallest structure ever built by man. I was amazed how ordinary men could establish such great things as those two towers. Since then, from my perspective, American pride has turned into arrogance through the recklessness of her policies and behaviour. This city has been seen great horror with the terrorist attacks on Tuesday September 11th, 2001. I was in New Jersey at the time when two commercial aircrafts, one after the other, crashed into the towers of The World Trade Centre. Within several minutes they both came crashing down like card houses releasing huge clouds of debris that covered half of Manhattan. During the time of the attack on The World Trade Centre, in the United States capital, Washington D.C., another airliner crashed into the military complex of the Pentagon. Meanwhile another airliner, United Airlines Flight 93, crashed into an empty field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. At the end of this nightmare, 2,998 American lives were lost. The World Trade Centre was destroyed and the Pentagon was damaged. No one knew how it happened at first, but it was later revealed that 19 Islamic extremists of Arab descent hijacked four commercial aircrafts and used them as missiles against their targets. The fourth plane failed to reach its target when the passengers onboard overpowered the hijackers in an attempt to halt the advance.

The terrible thing about this attack is that it had occurred on the day when I welcomed my 121st year on earth, September 11th. I was filled with grief over the indiscriminate loss of life and that I was allowed to live to be a witness. In fact I recall being witness to another dreadful site in Nagasaki after the city suffered a massive nuclear attack. I was distraught that these young men would use their beliefs as a means of vengeance and murder. I would not see Ground Zero until three weeks after the attack. Smoke and fire was still present at the huge mountain of ruins. The site brought me to tears as I started to imagine what these innocent human lives went through as they struggled to escape the danger that pursued them. I imagined the horror they endured as the great structure began to fall upon them and the difficult decisions they made by leaping to their deaths. The American populace were given the remaining weeks of September to grieve their dead and the world grieved with them.

On October 7th, with vengeance manifested in her heart, the United States launched a military attack on a well known safe haven of the perpetrators, Afghanistan. Within a month the radical Islamic government of Afghanistan was toppled, yet the main targets of the military attack managed to escape. Many would be enraged if I had said this back then, but I was against the American response to the attacks on September 11th. To understand the reason one must ask this question: exactly how many wrongs make a right? The populace of Afghanistan was already impoverished and oppressed. Why make their lives more difficult than before? I came to the conclusion that if the United States continued on the path she took, she was at great risk losing the sympathy it had earned in immediate aftermath of that day in September. After Afghanistan, the United States would continue its crusade against perceived threats in the Middle East. The United States invaded and occupied the country of Iraq. Within the ensuing months and years American servicemen and women would battle an insurgency, corruption and growing unpopularity and hostility towards the United States the world over. The Iraq War lasted for twelve years and as a result 8,500 U.S. servicemen and women lost their lives in an unjust, immoral war. In the years following the attacks on September 11th the United States took drastic measures to ensure that such an attack would not occur again. They began screening all foreigners who visited their country, constructed a concrete barrier along the United States/Mexico Border; they performed surveillance on all Muslims inside and outside the United States and clamped down on all news agencies who questioned the works of the American government. Slowly the United States was turning into a fascist nation, the same fascism she had fought and defeated in the Second World War. A certain class of people soon emerged. They spoke of God's glory and salvation through Christ, yet they were hypocritical arrogant, self-righteous and determined to make their views a way of life. The United States government passed laws that diminished a handful of individual rights that the American citizen possessed in order to achieve victory in what was known as The War on Terror and penalised those who dared questioned them.

For sixty years American citizens were paralysed in the fear of the perceived threats their government spoke of until victory in The War on Terror was finally claimed in the year 2061. The Middle East soon became a secular democratic region, yet with the scarce practice of religion the Arab became morally corrupt. As the years wore on marriage in many nations would no longer be defined as a union between one man and one woman. Religious persecution was rampant and many nations engaged in horrendous acts never before seen since Sodom and Gomorra. Unfortunately, the United States was the leader in the slow decline of the morals that shaped the human race.

I prowled this world for centuries experiencing more armed conflict than I have ever imagined. During the First World War I saw firsthand how the human race squandered its technical knowledge by building machines meant to kill and destroy. During World War 2 Germany with its full embrace of fascism mercilessly attacked the land of my birth and invaded many other countries slaughtering many innocent lives all for the sake of establishing a supreme Aryan Race. I, however, would not return to England until thirteen years after the war had ended. In 1945 under the guidance of Todo Hotsumi and Hollow Dragon I experienced the total devastation of the nuclear bomb in the attack on Nagasaki. I along with a handful of companions was operating in a town that was nine miles east of Nagasaki when U.S. launched its first nuclear attack. As we passed through Nagasaki we were met by a city that became a barren wasteland. Every building was destroyed and there was almost no sight of human, animal or plant life. Also, a large mushroom shaped cloud still hovered in the sky. I have never dreamed that I would be caught in the midst of yet another nuclear attack. In the year when The Second Attrition began I was in Los Angeles one night when The People's Republic of China launched nuclear missiles from unmanned nuclear submarines in the Pacific Ocean. One by one the nuclear missiles dropped upon their targets. I was present when one single nuclear missile destroyed the City of Angels. The moment the bomb dropped a bright flash caused every man to freeze in his place. What followed was a deafening sound that was louder than thunder and a gigantic mushroom cloud grew over the city. The sounds of piercing screams filled my ears and within my presence a wave of hot debris rushed towards me. I felt all my clothes ripping off my body and my skin began peeling off minute by minute, suddenly I blacked out and all the noise became silence. After a while I regained consciousness and I discovered that I was naked and covered in ash. There was debris everywhere that reached my knees and the debris started falling out of the sky like snow. I wandered around and discovered the city of Los Angeles in ruins and what met my eyes was total death. I saw the skeletal remains of many of the city's citizens in almost every corner of what remained of The City of Angles. It was an attack that took everyone by surprise and this was obvious because I could not feel the presence of life in the ruins of Los Angeles. After a while I discovered that I had actually survived a nuclear attack! A mere vampire would not live to see the aftermath of such devastation but I knew that I was no mere vampire. The blood of Dracula had provided a shield for me against this attack and when I slipped into a state of unconsciousness I was unaware that my body had fully healed. Guilt overtook me when it became known that I was virtually the sole survivor of this devastation and in the coming days my self-resentment was ever stronger.

Thus came the last month in the year 3450. New York City had become more developed since the first time my eyes gazed upon its vastness. The Statue of Liberty still stands, so too does The Brooklyn Bridge, The Empire State Building, The Chrysler Building and many other structures that were constructed within the 20th Century. By the 35th Century many new tall buildings were established, among them was The Spear of the Eagle that was constructed in the 34th Century and would be known as the tallest structure in the world. What replaced the destroyed towers of The World Trade Centre was The Freedom Tower. Both great structures were designed to withstand possible high winds and terrorist attacks. Time Square had became vaster in its size with more animated, digital advertisements placed on the sides of 400 buildings in the area. Despite its many wonders, unbeknownst to what was left of the moral man; the city was the centre of all humanity's wickedness and immorality. The youth of this century had engaged in sexual immorality, drug use and violent behaviour. Most of the youth's behaviour was being instigated by the electronic media. Divorce rates soared and broken homes were ever more present; not only in New York but all over The United States and the world. Sadly, this was supposed to be a time where many should celebrate the birth of Christ, but in this great city had not allowed the Christmas spirit to dwell within them. By this time Christmas was now being referred to as The Holidays. No crèche or angel could be found in New York or in any other city or state in America and at The Rockefeller Centre, due to The United States rejection of God's Word, the Christmas tree was now known as The Tree of the Holiday. Though these changes broke my heart, the traditional elements such as Santa Claus and the exchange of gifts were still present.

I prowled the streets at nights hoping not to embrace the temptation of human blood. At day I would cover myself in abandoned warehouses and apartment buildings. It was during daybreak I would lose my strengths and my powers. This was a time when I would indulge in self-mutilation cutting myself with my sword and watching my blood slowly flow out of my wounds. I would wait patiently for night to arrive where I would regain my strength and my powers and watch my blood re-enter my wounds and my wounds would close as if nothing had occurred. This was an act I would engage in whenever I dwelled within my thoughts of how ugly, unclean and worthless I felt due to my vampire nature. I hated this life and the blood that lived within me for more than a thousand years. I hated the killer that I was, I hated the killer that lived among the humans and I hated the killer who created me. I also thought of how disgraceful women of the time had become. Most of the women were involved in sexually degrading activities and buffoonery both on the pages of magazines and on the screens of many television sets. Young girls would emulate the behavior of these women becoming anorexic and bulimic. Many girls as young as fourteen were involved in sexual practises and displayed themselves in the most degrading forms of dress. I thought of how many children were getting themselves involved in almost all adult activities and how no boundaries were in place for them. I thought of the negative impact technology had in that present time. In the last years of the 19th Century, technology had fascinated me with such things as the telegraph, the phonograph and the typewriter. Through the centuries I have held technology responsible for the ills of the earth. From my perspective technology was responsible for the sloth of mankind, the rage that manifested in the human mind, the wars and the polluting of earth's atmosphere. To ease my mind of these thoughts I would travel to the top of The Spear of the Eagle where I would embrace the panoramic view of the New York City skyline. I would also descend upon The Lincoln Centre for Performing Arts where I would listen to the many classical notes and watch the opera performances. This great music was a sharp contrast to the hate, murder and the sexual immorality that was in the music of that era. This was also a century where all vehicles were flying in the sky putting an end to traffic congestion and its engine systems were environmentally friendly.

On December 5th the winds had grown colder and colder, soon on December 7th the heavens opened and snow began to descend upon the earth. The news reported of a snow storm that would last throughout the rest of the season, however, this night the snow had brought me comfort. It brought back memories of my childhood how I eagerly anticipated the snow and the joy of the Christmas season. Those days were now long gone. As I walked the pavements with the cars hovering overhead and the humans passing me by I began to think of the new age I had achieved. I began to think about the fact that for the past three weeks I did not have the taste of human blood. Three weeks was an achievement to me because so long have I tried to free myself from the urging of human blood. The moment I indulged in this thought the craving for blood suddenly took over. With all my strength I tried to fight the craving but it started to fight back. I began to walk faster but the craving seemed to build with every step I took. I walked past every human in my path; suddenly the human scent touched my nostrils. The more humans I came across the sweeter the scent became. I knew I needed to get away from them as quickly as possible. The quickest escape would be to jump up to the nearest building in a single bound, but I could not expose the humans to the freak that I was. I walked faster until I caught the scent of one particular human: a man, 24 years of age, a college graduate. I turned around and I saw the brown haired, green eyed young male with his left arm wrapped around a young blonde, blue eyed woman. I could see them talking and laughing and then they started to walk away. This young man was perfect for feeding but I could hear a voice in my telling me that if I took this man's life a great sin would be committed and I would be pushed further away from God. As the young man and woman departed I walked away and went into an alley. I looked around for watchful eyes and saw no one, then in a single bound I jumped onto the rooftop and found myself looking at the great towers of Manhattan.

I jumped from building to building feeling victorious over the fact that I did not give in to the blood craving. Suddenly I began hearing numerous voices in my head. The voices were clear as if the owners of these voices were near me. As the voices increased in their numbers I began to run away jumping from building to building. Hearing these voices was a power I had possessed for centuries. This was a power the vampire used in his hunt for the humans. I scaled these buildings trying to get further and further away from Manhattan when I suddenly heard a voice that was all too familiar. It was the voice of the young man whose sweet smelling blood ran through his veins. I tried so hard to fight the craving but I found myself hurrying back to Manhattan. As I jumped from building to building the voices began to disperse and I suddenly heard the lone voice of the young man in deep conversation with his female companion. His voice sounded very near and I started to smell his sweet blood. I stopped on one building when I started hearing the young man's voice as if he was presently talking into my ear. I looked down and I could see the man with his female companion walking on the sidewalk. The scent of this sweet blood was strong in my nostrils and I soon found myself in hot pursuit of him

As I pursued I received more clarity of the conversation between the young man and the young woman. I heard the great love they have had for each other, love that had rejected me for so long. Jealously began manifesting within me as I heard them explain their aspirations for having children and raising a family. I kept pursuing them until they arrived at an apartment building where they recalled the wonderful evening they have had. Through the irresistible blood craving I had planned to take the young man as soon as the young woman departed. I waited patiently for the young woman to enter her apartment when I saw the young man reach into his coat and pulled out a ring. He showed it to the woman and asked her to marry him. The woman burst into tears as she was overwhelmed with joy and she gladly accepted her lover's proposal. I was stunned at the whole scene. This young man seemed to be pure in his heart and his love for the girl was undeniable. They embraced each other and kissed goodbye. As the woman closed the door the craving for blood returned. I did not wished to end this young man's short human life and I wished not to destroy his aspirations for a happy marriage to his lover. But his sweet blood had me in its embrace and I was once again in hot pursuit.

I followed the young man blotting out the fact that he had aspired to be married and to raise a family. I had planned for a quick kill hoping that his fast death would be painless for him and for me. I followed him until he arrived at Central Park West, a place that was considered the safest in the world. I landed softly on the pitch path through Central Park and I had the young man dead in my sights. I walked far behind him to avoid suspicion and detection. As I walked behind the man I saw two male cyclists ride pass me. A few minutes later a female jogger ran pass the young man and then pass me. After five minutes I felt no presence of any other humans in Central Park. The memory of the young man's proposal soon returned which provided a temporary obstacle for me. As I walked closer behind the man his sweet blood smelt stronger than ever. Dashing whatever humanity I possessed I grabbed the young man from behind and brought him down to the ground. In a quick paste I bared my fangs and rammed them into his neck. The moment my fangs pierced his soft flesh, the taste of warm, sweet blood touched my tongue. The young man started to scream as I began to drink a great flow of blood that filled my mouth. He began to fight as he tried to push me off his body. I soon realised he would not submit to death as easily as I hoped. The more he fought the longer I sucked from his neck. With every drop of blood I felt his life leaving but I also felt his will to fight death. The young man gripped tightly on my clothes as I attempted to force the last remnants of his blood down my throat. Clearly his will to live was stronger than the last victims I had preyed on. After what had seemed to be like minutes I started to feel his grip slowly loosening and his life slowly slipping. Suddenly the image of him proposing to his lover appeared in my mind as I tasted the last drops of his blood. I started to feel what remained of his life as I saw him roll his eyes into his head finally succumbing to the fate he had tried so hard to fight. My mouth was still on his neck as I discovered that he was finally dead. Tears filled my eyes as I saw the image of his last embrace of his lover inside my head. I did not wish for this to happen, but the blood craving has strength no mere vampire could ever overcome. I slowly removed my fangs from his neck, but then I accidentally made a long incision across his neck. I released a soft gasp as I saw the opening I had made with my fangs. From the opening wound flowed no blood which was an indication that I had stolen the one thing that sustained him. I slowly laid his head on the ground, took of his coat and covered his face. I got up and took one last glance of his pale corpse. I felt defeated as I felt his warm blood flow through my cold shell. I turned around and slowly began to walk away. It is the blood craving that makes the vampire what he is and it is the vampire that transforms humans into efficient killers. My mind was soon filled with grief and hate. Grief that I had taken an innocent life and hate for the being that I was.

I prowled the streets of Manhattan until I came to the New York City Subway. I descended underground and found a great number of humans of different races and nationalities waiting for the next train. After about eight minutes, a long M.T.A hovered before us and I along with the others boarded mid-section of the train and hovered away. I sat between two individuals and immediately I thought of what had transpired earlier. That young man's dreams were destroyed, all thanks to one monster: me. The image of that man's bloodless corpse appeared clearly in my mind. The more I thought about it the more I hated myself. I then started to look around at the humans who surrounded me. There was a women middle aged and reading a magazine seated at my left. At my right was a young black male wearing a heavy brown coat. This young male, however is different. He was an android, a machine that possessed human organisms whose blood was not at all good for drinking. In front me at the left was a man in his fifties with grayish, black hair wearing a black trench coat over a dark grey business suit. He gave a friendly smile and nodded. I looked at the right and found a woman with two young children, a boy and a girl. The children were screaming happily as they were engaging in innocent play. Suddenly I caught the scent of blood at the far right. I looked to my right and discovered that the scent belonged to a young girl in her mid-teens. The long, black haired female appeared to be in no company and the scent of her blood was tempting. I could have easily surrendered to the lust for blood but I was reminded of my failed attempt to contain the thirst minutes earlier. I was also reminded of the many humans that surrounded me along with droid and I thought of the consequences of exposing my true nature. I laid back my head against the window of the train trying my very best to ignore the young girl's scent. However, with each passing minute my efforts not to give in was proving difficult.

Suddenly I raised my head and looked sharply to my left as I caught an all too familiar scent. The scent came from the back of the train and I felt the presence of three individuals. Soon their numbers increased to five and their movements began increasing in speed. I got up and reached behind my back placing my hand on the handle of the companion that had been with me for centuries. The door of the middle car burst open and out came four men and one young girl. Their forced entry startled many on the train, soon the engine sounds were drowned out with the screams of the humans. The humans ran to the other cars and soon the train stopped with everyone making their escape off the train. I was left alone with the five individuals who were members of the vampire race and they were armed with katanas. The first one drew his sword from his sheath and charged towards me. I drew The Final Dawn from my back sheath and soon engaged the Undead in combat. The first vampire clearly had skill with the sword, but I sensed his weakness and he was increasingly reckless. Each time he swiped his sword his blade touched mine. Our blades soon locked and with one kick I sent him staggering back. Two other vampires rushed towards me and swung their swords in my direction. One browned haired, bearded vampire placed his right palm behind the handle of his katana and attempted to stab me. I dodged the attack and kicked him in his ribs. The third, a vampire of Japanese decent, charged me with his swiping sword. I dodged every swipe and head-butted him. The fourth with short, jet black hair charged me, touching my sword with his swipes. I heard the vicious yell of a man running behind me. Immediately I spun around and impaled my sword into the body of the bearded vampire. I pulled out my sword out of this body and he started to scream. In an instant his skin disintegrated into burning ash and his bones disintegrated into hot dust. One vampire swordsman with a blonde pony tail charged me with his swiping sword. I dodged his swipes and his bladed clanked several times against my blade. I jumped on of the chairs and ran to the other side of the car and landed on the floor. The four individuals soon charged me with the screams of men engaged in medieval war. The last individual, a young female with long blonde hair, threw a flying kick at me. I threw up my forearms and allowed them to absorb the girl's kick. She then reached behind her back and pulled out two short katanas and charged me. She swiped her two swords and touched my blade with every strike, and then she made one attempt to stab me. I side-stepped her strike and the girl drove her swords into the wall of the car. The blonde swordsman rushed towards me, our swords clanked and he thrust his sword towards my face. I dodged his strike and his sword smashed the window of the car. The girl rushed towards, made a jump and came down her swords in spinning motion. Our swords clanked and the sound of one swordsman gave me warning as I sidestepped his flying sword. I ran to the middle of the car and soon I was in the middle of two charging swordsman. They pointed out their swords and rushed towards me. In the blink of an eye, I was impaled like a pin cushion with their swords. I looked down and saw their swords driven halfway through my body. I kicked the one at my left and at my right in their chests. The blows made them stagger backwards and their swords were removed from my body. The girl charged me and clanked her sword against mine. The blonde swordsman rushed behind me and swiped his sword several times with me dodging every strike. As he made one final attempt to strike with his sword, I drove the final dawn in his chest impaling him to the wall of the car. His body soon crumbled to a burning pile of ash and dust. The girl swiped her swords at me clanking mine. I dodged one fierce swipe from her and engaged with the last male individuals. I saw the Japanese swordsman rushed towards me and instant I swung my sword. The blade cut the pole in half and beheaded the Japanese swordsman. The last swordsman rushed towards me with the girl at his side. He began throwing kicks at me and the girl charged me with a combination of kicks and swipes. Dodged every strike they laid and with strike I spun around and slashed my sword across the male individual cutting him in half. Soon I was left with the girl who charged me with a combination of flying kicks, jumped kicks and swipes from her katanas. I blocked and dodged all and took off her left arm. She realised a piercing scream as her arm withered away. With her enraged charge came a combination of kicks and swipes with her right sword. I blocked each blow and drove my sword into her chest. She screamed as The Final Dawn made its way through her back. I looked into her eyes and saw how the fear of imminent death had taken over her. I spun my sword and off came the girl's head. Her head bounced to the corner of the car and disintegrated into ash and dust. The rest of her body dropped to its knees as it crumbled into burning ash and dust. I stood there for one long moment surveying the scene of burning ash thrown all over the section of the train. The image of the young man whom I killed earlier was blotted out with my sense of victory. I then sheathed my sword and calmly walked out of the train.

Judging from their black combat uniforms the five vampire swordsmen were members of a vampire organisation that had spanned for 500 years. It was named The Hand of the Dark and its leader was Nelson Pope. For centuries, Pope and his organisation had hunted me down like many other vampire organizations. The Hand of the Dark, as well as other organisations thought that by arming themselves with the sword their campaign against me would lead to swift victory. For centuries they have deluded themselves into thinking they can defeat the vessel of a young girl with veins flowing with the blood of Dracula. It seems that I have started a trend among the vampire race that began during the 20th Century. By the time of the 35th Century almost every vampire wielded a katana sword. What they do not know, however, is that strength does not come from the blade but from the one that wields it. When will they ever learn?