Thanks to some excellent feedback, I've decided to continue my story. So here's the second chapter.
'A Past Revealed'
The woman led Ben into the cabin, it was cool inside, and mostly dark. The woman's eyes seemed to glow in the half-light, "Now Ben, I'm going to give you a choice, you can leave now, go back to what you were doing before. Risking capture by Lydecker, risking probable death. Or you can let me change you, into what you've always feared you were."
"A Nomlee. Max said that I was a Nomlee."
"Max was wrong. I've been watching you Ben. Ever since you came to Seattle. At first I thought you were one of my own kind, come to challenge me for my rightful prey. But after you left that body, I realized that you were something else. Why did you remove his teeth and leave them on a Holy altar?" Ben knit his brow, "You don't know?" The woman hung her cloak on the protruding horn of a Death Mask beside the door, "I'm not who you think I am Ben. The pendant I understand, and now I understand the tattoo as well. But why the teeth?"
"They keep Her heart strong. So She can protect us. If you're not Her, then who are you?" The woman smiled predatorily, and sprawled in an armchair with an easy, catlike grace, "My name is Carmine Harengs. I'm a Vampire." Ben laughed harshly, "Vampires are a myth." Carmine leaned forward and grinned, allowing her fangs to show, "Oh, I assure you, we're very real." Ben sat down on the sofa across from her, "But you were out in the sun." Carmine relaxed back into the chair, "Yes. Some of us can be. Most of us simply prefer the dark. I do, sunlight hurts my eyes."
"If I leave now, will you come looking for me again?"
"No. That goes both ways. If you leave now, we'll never see each other again. Even if we want to. You have this one chance at Immortality." Ben studied Carmine's face, "Were you given a choice?" She smiled, "Oh yes. But it was far more simple, and more difficult, than the one I am giving you. The choice I was given was Immortality or Death." Ben leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, "Tell me." Carmine closed her eyes and sighed wearily, "Before I begin you have to understand, this happened almost a hundred years ago, and things were more, innocent, then." She ran her hands across her face and through her hair, "I was born in 1901 and lived a fairly normal life for a child, and young woman, of the time. In 1921, when, in my naïveté, I thought I could take on the world. A group of Immortals attacked the small town where I lived in the south of France. I watched as they started at one end of the town square, brutally attacking and killing anyone they came in contact with. My people were powerless to resist, the Immortals seemed to cloud their minds, their wills. When they found me in the hayloft, I fought back, with all the strength my small frame contained. While I was kicking and screaming, I couldn't believe that I was capable of harming anyone, let alone someone as beautiful as the man in front of me, who was devouring me with his eyes. He smiled a beautiful, bloodstained smile, 'Bonjour dangereuse jeune dame.' He said, calling me a 'Dangerous young lady' before tearing into my throat. The pain of being bitten was nothing compared to the pain of dieing. He drained me to the point of death then offered me 'salvation' in the form of Immortality. As I said before, I was naive when I was young. You can tell what I chose. So now Ben, I'm giving you the choice. Stay as you are, mortal, easily damaged, capable of remorse, prey. Or join me and become Immortal, strong, a true predator. It's up to you Ben."
Actually it's up to you, the reader, you get to decide how the story should end. Should Ben give up everything he's ever known and become what he's always feared? Or should he give up the Blue Lady and go back to running from Manticore? Or is there a third option? I'll wait until I get a majority of votes for one ending, or May 14th (whichever comes first) to start writing the third (and final) chapter. Thank you for your time.
'A Past Revealed'
The woman led Ben into the cabin, it was cool inside, and mostly dark. The woman's eyes seemed to glow in the half-light, "Now Ben, I'm going to give you a choice, you can leave now, go back to what you were doing before. Risking capture by Lydecker, risking probable death. Or you can let me change you, into what you've always feared you were."
"A Nomlee. Max said that I was a Nomlee."
"Max was wrong. I've been watching you Ben. Ever since you came to Seattle. At first I thought you were one of my own kind, come to challenge me for my rightful prey. But after you left that body, I realized that you were something else. Why did you remove his teeth and leave them on a Holy altar?" Ben knit his brow, "You don't know?" The woman hung her cloak on the protruding horn of a Death Mask beside the door, "I'm not who you think I am Ben. The pendant I understand, and now I understand the tattoo as well. But why the teeth?"
"They keep Her heart strong. So She can protect us. If you're not Her, then who are you?" The woman smiled predatorily, and sprawled in an armchair with an easy, catlike grace, "My name is Carmine Harengs. I'm a Vampire." Ben laughed harshly, "Vampires are a myth." Carmine leaned forward and grinned, allowing her fangs to show, "Oh, I assure you, we're very real." Ben sat down on the sofa across from her, "But you were out in the sun." Carmine relaxed back into the chair, "Yes. Some of us can be. Most of us simply prefer the dark. I do, sunlight hurts my eyes."
"If I leave now, will you come looking for me again?"
"No. That goes both ways. If you leave now, we'll never see each other again. Even if we want to. You have this one chance at Immortality." Ben studied Carmine's face, "Were you given a choice?" She smiled, "Oh yes. But it was far more simple, and more difficult, than the one I am giving you. The choice I was given was Immortality or Death." Ben leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, "Tell me." Carmine closed her eyes and sighed wearily, "Before I begin you have to understand, this happened almost a hundred years ago, and things were more, innocent, then." She ran her hands across her face and through her hair, "I was born in 1901 and lived a fairly normal life for a child, and young woman, of the time. In 1921, when, in my naïveté, I thought I could take on the world. A group of Immortals attacked the small town where I lived in the south of France. I watched as they started at one end of the town square, brutally attacking and killing anyone they came in contact with. My people were powerless to resist, the Immortals seemed to cloud their minds, their wills. When they found me in the hayloft, I fought back, with all the strength my small frame contained. While I was kicking and screaming, I couldn't believe that I was capable of harming anyone, let alone someone as beautiful as the man in front of me, who was devouring me with his eyes. He smiled a beautiful, bloodstained smile, 'Bonjour dangereuse jeune dame.' He said, calling me a 'Dangerous young lady' before tearing into my throat. The pain of being bitten was nothing compared to the pain of dieing. He drained me to the point of death then offered me 'salvation' in the form of Immortality. As I said before, I was naive when I was young. You can tell what I chose. So now Ben, I'm giving you the choice. Stay as you are, mortal, easily damaged, capable of remorse, prey. Or join me and become Immortal, strong, a true predator. It's up to you Ben."
Actually it's up to you, the reader, you get to decide how the story should end. Should Ben give up everything he's ever known and become what he's always feared? Or should he give up the Blue Lady and go back to running from Manticore? Or is there a third option? I'll wait until I get a majority of votes for one ending, or May 14th (whichever comes first) to start writing the third (and final) chapter. Thank you for your time.