Disclaimer: I do not own anything from Underworld, everything you recognise belong to Len Wiseman, Danny McBride and Sony. This was inspired by Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire, and if she minds, my sincerest apologies. I'm not making any money, and I don't have any either, which means it won't be worth the trouble sewing me…
Since all my reviewers asked me to update, I will. Here it is. Sorry it's so late, I've been rather busy lately.
Confessions of a Lycan
London, not very long ago
"Do you know of the Carpathian mountains?" the lycan asked. The girl nodded. Geography had never been a favourite subject at school, but she knew of these mountains, which went through countries such as Poland, Hungary and Romania.
"Somewhere in those mountains," the lycan continued, "there's a fortress, which few humans have ever seen, and even fewer have returned to tell about. Because this fortress was inhabited by vampires."
"Vampires?" the girl asked.
"Vampires," the lycan confirmed. "But lycans also lived there. We were their slaves, their servants. I was born in servitude. My people guarded the vampires against the sun, it's light is lethal to them."
"They burn in sunlight?" the girl asked.
"They do. Oh yes, they do. They burn to dust within seconds. After no more than fifteen, maybe twenty seconds in the sun, vampires are nothing but ashes and dust," there was something in his voice, that made her look at him curiously, but he faced the window and not her, which meant she couldn't guess what caused him to sound so… sad.
"Fifteen seconds," the girl repeated. That was not much.
"It could be even less, " the lycan said, "but the first time I ever saw it happen, I wasn't really in a state where I thought of counting seconds. And after that, I've never stayed to see it happen. It's a very efficient way of killing a vampire. Just throw them into sunlight and leave. I've done that many times."
"You have? But you said, you were their slave?" the girl pointed out.
"We were slaves until the year of 1405, when we escaped. And after that, we spent six centuries killing each other on sight."
The girl shuddered in her chair. For some reason, the thought of being burned alive made her want to vomit violently. And leaving people to that fate… What kind of person was this Lucian, really?
"Maybe it will be much easier for you, if I just tell from the beginning, not starting in the middle," the lycan said, thoughtfully.
"Perhaps," was the girl's answer.
"Anyway, this fortress in the Carpathian mountains. The master of the vampires there was Viktor. He was the strongest of the three Elders."
"Elders?" the girl asked.
"Yes. They were the oldest and strongest of all the vampires. They ruled over all the other vampires, one at a time. Two slept, and one ruled. One century of ruling, two centuries asleep. Things had been that way for a long time, before it stopped."
"Why did it?" the girl asked.
"We'll take that later. That's in present time, you see."
"And when is present time, when one is as old as you claim to be?" the girl asked.
"All will be relieved in time, if you allow me to go on telling, that is," the lycan said. The girl thought she could see him smile a little, but since she saw so little of his face, it was impossible to determine if he actually was smiling, or if she was just imagining things.
"Please, do go on," she said. He was silent for a while, and then went on telling.
"I lived at Viktor's fortress from the day I was born. Beneath the fortress, there were endless cellars, in which the lycan slaves lived. According to my memories from my childhood, there were thousands of lycans down there, but of course, they were much fewer. My mind keeps playing tricks. And when I say those cellars were endless, it's from a child's point of view." The lycan went silent. The girl said nothing. She knew, that he had to collect his thoughts and memories, before he could tell her about them. She had interviewed a lot of people, despite her age, and she knew he had to be given time to think about what to say next. The girl looked past his silhouette through the window, watching the city below them. And then she turned her gaze to the sky, and saw that he had indeed been right. It was a beautiful moon tonight. The lycan sighed, seeming to have gathered his memories once more.
"When I was only a pup, I lived with my mother in a small room. And that is not my mind messing things up, the room was small, they all were. My father died a few months before I was born, fighting humans trying to attack him while he was looking after the cattle. You see, the vampires held sheep and cows, to drink their blood instead of innocent human's."
"Disgusting!" the girl exclaimed.
"Drinking blood?" the lycan asked, sounding slightly puzzled.
"No, but keeping cattle just to drink blood!" the girl said, her facing looking as disgusted as her voice sounded.
"You humans keep cattle for meat, the lycan pointed out. The girl looked perplexed.
"That's not the same thing," she tried.
"No, I suppose it isn't. You kill the animal before you eat it. They didn't. The vampires have to drain blood when the sheep or cow still alive, you see. Otherwise, the animal is likely to take the vampire with it in death. But cutting an animal's throat open isn't a very nice job, I can assure you. I remember finding the shrieks from the animals in pain horrible." A few moments of silence. And then the girl thought of something.
"You said they 'didn't' kill the animals before they drank the blood.. What are they doing now, then?" the girl asked.
"Lately, the vampires have begun to subsist on cloned human blood. They even have their own company to produce it. Which is much more practical, since they haven't got lycan slaves to take care of the cattle anymore." The lycan went silent once more.
"You said you lived with your mother. You didn't have any brothers or sisters?" the girl asked carefully.
"Not that lived beyond infancy. The way we lived, they way the vampires treated us, was not that good, which meant few lycans survived childhood. Now that I think back of it, I think that was just what Viktor wanted."
"How do you mean?" the girl asked.
"Viktor knew how loyal we were towards each other. We wasn't just a pack, but one big family. He knew, that if we were many enough, we would simply run away. You see, the reason they made us their slaves to begin with, was the fact that we had a common enemy. The humans and their priests, who were, and still are, terrified of anything abnormal. Before made slaves, we were running free, but the vampires feared we would draw attention to lycans and vampires alike, and be the ruin of us all. They feared the wooden stakes and the fires, being burned as Satan's helpers. They were so vulnerable during daylight. So they made us their slaves, to guard them against sunlight." And then, he stopped talking once more.
To be continued…
As always, the more reviews I get, the faster next chapter is up.