She walked by, her copper blonde hair glistening in the midsummer sun. Not just anyone, a smelly one, tasteful too… Barbaric thoughts crossed my mind, thoughts which, if this'd be the mediaeval period, have lead to me being beheaded, like they did my father and brother. I smiled yearning, it wasn't like I was going to consume her. No, I'd cherish her, I'd keep her smell.
"forget it Bratja, no more human meat, remember?" Vic whispered silently in to my ear, he'd seen me look.
"I'm not hungry for her brother, just… She smells so good…" I answered happily while I looked over Vic's shoulder to see her pass 'round the corner.
"Ssst Brother!" Vic hissed, "remember what happened to Reg and dad when they said that out loud?" he said softly. I answered with a malicious smile, my hand rested on Vic's shoulder.
"These aren't superstitious times, bratja." I smiled, almost manically now, "they won't behead people anymore. Freedom of speech… remember?" I chuckled.
"Well, you'll have your mind changed by a double-barreled shotgun between your eyes, brother." Vic answered, he pushed my hand away and walked away through the moodily lit hallway. Oh how many days wasted in classrooms? I've finished high school 83 times in the entire history of America and even before that I received numerous educations in Europe, from different scholars. The saying that history repeats itself is horribly true considering I've learned the same things over eighty times.
Me? As old as history: I was born as the son of a carpenter (ironically, ref. Bible) in the year 1288 in the city of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. My ignorant human period lasted till 1306. My folks were killed in a bloody bandit raid, I survived and fled into the Russian forests, 'cause bandits were terrorizing West-Europe and I was a target. That's where I met Conrad. My rebirth father, he likes to call himself – rather liked - . See, we nightcrawlers are immortal. In fact, when our heart still is at its place, not beating however, and our head's still attached to our body, we can't die, only from starvation. You see: We do need blood to survive, the hunger is unbearable at times. Conrad turned me, he bit me. Said it was a better life. He raised me, nursed me. Learned me to feed myself. At first on animals, later on humans. 'Cause that's what we do, he'd answer me if I asked. Later, after his death, I learned the real truth, we can survive without human blood, we can survive on animal blood. Just like a human can survive without meat. We are vegetarians, in our own way. But we as Vegavamps are rare and in a world as tasty as this, it's even harder not to give into temptation. Take miss beauty queen, she smells damned tasty. But I won't eat her, no vein in my blood thirsty body. But I haven't eaten in four days. damn it! Hungry!
"Aha, Mister Young, are you coming to class too?" the history teacher asked me patiently, he stood in the porch to the classroom.
"Certainly sir." I said unhappily, I couldn't suppress a slight snarl when I followed him into the classroom.
"What was that Young?"
"Nothing sir, my lunch is having a particularly bad time in my stomach." I said, the class laughed, I laughed a hollow chuckle with them. Painful, for my stomach's been empty for four bloody whole days. I found my place and flopped down on the creaky chair, the class was about mythical creatures, annoyingly enough. If there's one thing worse than being hunted down, it's being ignored and denied an existence, blurred to the vague pages of far, far history.
"Sir?..." I heard myself say with a snide voice, "how exactly was the inexistence of vampires proven during the course of history?"
"Mister Young, would you kindly raise your finger if you would like to pose a question?" The teacher answered with a evenly snide voice. I reluctantly raised my hand.
"WHITE SKIN, WHITE SKIN!!" "What's wrong white boy?" "Cat got your Tongue?" "Step out in the sunlight! Where we can see you!!" "I don't want to…" "hahaha!!!"
As reluctantly as I had risen my hand, I lowered it.
"No question?... Alright…" The teacher shrugged and he continued his story. The remainder of the lesson passed fleetingly. The end of the hour was announced by a buzzer which echoed hollow through the hallway, like a dying scream… I quickly threw my books in my bag and got up. I left the room and the dark cold hallway greeted me like a warm blanket which keeps you safe and warm on a cold December evening.
"Weather's terrible today, don't ya think? It's the drizzle, it really gets me down." Caleb said, Caleb was the closest thing to a friend I had in this godforsaken hellhole. He was pale skinned, just like myself. His blonde hair which spiked in every direction and his bright blue eyes finished his ultra Caucasian appearance.
Funny thing the weather, but the thing is, drizzle and all other forms of rain keep me safe, 'Cause the sun can't shine when it's raining. Sunlight doesn't kill us, it just exposes us (we twinkle like a disco ball in sunlight) and annoys us like an allergy. That's the entire reason why I live in Canada, in the charming little town of Cumberland, on the isle of Vancouver, it's about the wettest place in the entire North-American continent. Well, I don't exactly live in Cumberland, I live in a humble house in the hills above the town. Peace and quiet. We, my brother and I, enjoy being left alone, no one to bother us. Caleb waved his and in front of my face and I couldn't help but blink.
"What!?" I said, a bit too aggravated. Caleb flinched, he knew my temper, especially at times when I was hungry.
"Sorry mate, but you spaced out on me again." He said and he tried a little smile, "I asked if you came along to the party this weekend. It's gonna be one heck of a thrill." He laughed and looked at me in anticipation.
"Well… Sure, I'll be there, count on me!" I answered with a forced smile, maybe She would be there I thought happily. You know, some things make you stop and smell, it's captivating. She was exactly that thing, her natural perfume drifted up my nostrils and made my brain do summersaults.
Caleb looked exhilarated, he couldn't stop smiling "All right! Awesome! The party's at …"
"Phil's, yeah I know." I interrupted Caleb, he stopped, looked at me and opened his mouth again…
"At…"
"Nine, yeah, I already knew that too…" Caleb had gone from exhilarated to downright annoyed, just the way I liked them. Humans and their bloody cheery disposition, could all be blasted to hell for all I cared. I wasn't a Vegavamp for all the right reasons, to be perfectly strait, I just don't like the stench and taste of some human blood. It's just like restaurants: you got the MacDonald's and the Michelin restaurants. MacDonald's is a quick and easy snack, not per se tasty. Michelin however, is outrageously yummy, but much, much harder to come by, if not rare. But about the party: I never skip one, I don't sleep anyway, so I need something to keep me amused throughout the night.
"strange boys, those Young brothers," I heard from across the hallway, I have exceptionally good hearing, like most Vamps. two girls were chatting amongst themselves, they giggled as my brother past them, he closed his eyes to smell their scent. Opened them again and smiled crookedly.
"They might be strange," The other girl giggled, "but they both are drop dead gorgeous, aren't they?"
The other girl hummed approvingly. I smiled a smart hansom smile. Took me goddamned long to get the hang of, by the way. Caleb saw my brother come closer and he smiled bleakly, greeted me and walked away as quick as his human legs would carry him. Caleb never liked Vic, not since Vic almost broke his neck in a brotherly quarrel, which he was accidently mixed into. I held out my hand to greet Vic's, he smacked his dead cold hand into mine, and smiled serenely.
"It feels good to look good," Vic said, and he looked over his shoulder with his handsome but naughty smile. Which took him about half the time it took me to learn it, annoyingly... The girls giggled and quickly scurried past us.
Vic smiled, "Nice… ass…" He said lovingly as he followed the two girls with his eyes. I looked at my brother, he looked back at me. I smiled hollow, hunger really puts a strain on my mood.
"Shall we feed tonight, bratja?" I said softly, but loud enough for him to hear.
"It's time isn't it? I've grown hungry too…"
There she was again…
Her smell came before she did, and I knew: I couldn't hold myself any longer. It was time to head for the hills, and quickly.
"Let's go, quickly..." I whispered softly. My brother nodded sympatheticly, he saw the beast in my eyes, I felt it in my heart. We walked away, but I couldn't resist to look back once more, I looked over my shoulder and our eyes met for a second. She immediately looked to the ground. Shy… Hmmm… They say new things always are attractive, the same goes for new flesh I guess. She had just moved here, or at least, I saw her first only yesterday. We passed through the big door at the entrance of the school building, stepped out into the drizzle and I looked up at the sky. I smiled happily: perfect weather to hunt. We walked on, passed a group of boys, who looked at us in envy. Not only were we good looking, we were filthy rich as well, 700 years' interest is a heck of a lot of money. My brother took the car keys from his pocket and he turned off the alarm and lock.
"I'm driving today," I said, and with a malicious grin I caught the keys as my brother threw them at me. A shiny black BMW M3, our new play thing. I got in the car, waited till my brother sat beside me and with a grin I started the engine.
"Hear her purr!" My brother said ecstatically. I revved the engine a couple of times, to attract attention, and then pulled out of the parking space with squealing tires. Vic howled and laughed loudly.
"Move Move!" He said. I shifted gear and the car shot out of the parking lot, almost hitting another car on the road.
"What was the speed limit again?" I asked with a broad smile, " Whoops, forgotten! Ah well…"
I accelerated and speeded down the main road with a 150 miles an hour, weaving through the traffic. A red traffic light caused a small jam, but I steered the car on the sidewalk to avoid it. Crossing the intersection I nearly hit the oncoming traffic. Vampires have lighting fast reflexes and I knew the roads here well, that's why I've never been in any kind of an accident. We left the city limits and turned right to leave the main road, to end up on a winding mountain road. Almost nobody used this road anymore, so I raced up the mountain. About fifteen minutes later we were high up the mountain road and the quality of the already bad road had decreased drastically. The turn to our house lay hidden on the side of the road, and I braked hard to steer the BMW onto the muddy road that leads up to our house. Our house, what's in a name, it was more like a hideout. The brown and green colors barely stood out against the trees and that's why you had to be close to actually see it. The one storey that was above ground was only meant as garage and entrance hall. The rest of the house, which was buried underground, consisted of open spaces, with little to no sunlight. The house had no bedrooms, no kitchen, one small bathroom, a large open living room, and two large personal rooms for me and my brother. We really enjoyed videogames and our living room was decorated with a large plasma screen, an Xbox 360 and a Playstation 3. The Wii is a bore with superhuman reflexes, take that from me. As I came down the spiraling stairs, after parking the car, that led down to the living room the large speakers on the wall were pumping out a rock song and Vic was already lying on the couch. He reached for a mini fridge next to the coach, pulled open the door and looked at the pathetic contents. A row blood packs and a row beer. While we didn't eat, a beer or two went down quite nicely if it was mixed with a few drops of blood.
"Beer?" Vic asked and he held out a cold beer, "It's your native brand." He smiled. He knew I detest my Dutch ancestry, horrible bloody fucks! While I was starving in the gutter as a young boy the rich bastards still continued their endless feast. All I could do was drool…
"Hmm…" I sighed in contemplation, "sure…"
Vic smiled broadly, he opened the can and poured the beer in a glass with a little bit of blood in it. The beer, which normally is golden, turned a smeary brown. I walked to accept my beer and smelled the blood. I wheezed like a horny human.
"Fuck… I'm hungry!" I screamed annoyed and I yanked the glass from my brother's hand. I poured the dirty beer down my throat and just for a second enjoyed the satisfied feeling it gave me. Blood!
"Let's hunt!" I yelled aggressively at my brother. He nodded, the blood thirst was in his eyes too. Whilst we are mostly adapted to modern society, we can't always suppress our beastly nature, especially when we smell blood. The sun had already set behind the mountain and the forest was dark, I breathed in deeply to inhale the cold evening air.
"Lead on, bratja!" Vic growled.
The hunt began.
Vampires are the best at hunting, they're built for speed. I took off, raced up the mountain and tried to smell a prey. Trees flashed past and adrenaline raced through my veins. And then I smelled it, deer! I made a ninety degree turn by swinging myself round a tree, and raced towards the smell. There she was, beautiful fresh blood and lots of it, she stood on a clearing and through the forest canopy you could see that the clouds were churning. I came to a halt and dropped in a ditch to hide myself. I took quick shallow breaths and If I'd had a beating heart, it now would beat like crazy. From my mossy ditch I could see how the deer looked up and twitched her ears. She looked frightened, but she continued grazing. Vic arrived at my ditch and looked at my prey, "Nice one, brother…" he said, wheezing a bit. I'd always been faster than my brother, not only because I was lighter, but my reflexes were better. He on the other hand was stronger. He licked his lips and nudged me.
"Shall I?" I asked smiling exhilarated. My brother answered by courteously gesturing at the deer. I chuckled happily. This, I was waiting for. I silently stood up, the deer looked at me, I saw the fear. "run…" I said silently, and shot towards the deer. She ran away and the chase was on. I followed her through the thick undergrowth and bushes. She was nimble and quick, but I was quicker. I closed in on her: 10 meter, 5 meter, 1 meter. The deer took a 180 degree turn and raced back the way she came, I responded quickly by jumping against a tree to brake and turn around. I ran after her but I'd lost sight. I did still smell her though, and followed her smell. I caught up with her again and accelerated to catch her. I violently grabbed her by the neck and forced her to stop running. Her watery eyes looked at me in terror. Food… I growled loudly and tightened my grip. I took her head with my other hand, smiled satisfied and snapped her neck with a violent yank of my hand. The snap echoed across the mountain and I heard my brother roar in the distance. I dropped the lifeless body and dropped on my knees next to her. I opened my mouth and sank my teeth deep in the still warm skin. Immediately warm dark blood started to flow, my mouth overflowed and blood seeped down on the grassy ground. I wiped my chin and smelled the deep nutritious smell of blood. Vic came by my side, he also dropped to his knees quickly and sank his teeth into the deer, he greedily sucked in the blood and looked at me with deep satisfaction. The corpse of the deer lay in a pool of blood and fur, scratch and bite marks marred the beauty of an otherwise elegant animal. I stood up, satisfied and saturated, and looked at the moon. The crescent hung in the sky, motionless and white, visible through a clearing in the clouds. Dim white light shone through the trees and weakly lit the forest with eerie light. A distant howl shook me, I stood up and looked around me. Vic also was alarmed and I saw the moonlight reflecting of his dilated pupil.
"Let's move, the hounds are upon us, they've smelled the meat." Vic said silently and he listened carefully. I heard the hounds get closer to us, I nodded apprehensive and looked through the dim lit trees.
"Damn, too late." I said bleakly once I saw the lit cold blue eyes on the hill above us. they showed their white teeth and growled at us viciously. Vic stood up and came beside me.
There are few things vampires fear and we at this moment faced one of those things. Wolves are mean and cold hearted creatures. Who in a pack can kill a vampire with ease. Alone however they don't stand a chance. We and other vampires are settled here on this island because of the presence of wolves here, this helps us explain the animal casualties in the area. But at other moments the wolves are a threat to our existence, this was one of those moments.
"we're fucked…" Vic told me calmly. "we could never outrun the entire pack."
I smiled a tight smile and looked from wolf to wolf. The alpha-male stood the closest, between the trees about 5 meters away from us. from far the howls of another pack of wolfs sounded, the alpha-male looked behind him but continued to near us. Left and right of us more wolfs were flanking us. my saliva was sticky from the blood and the stress, I swallowed with difficulty and felt the spit slowly make its way to my stomach. Vic searched from my hand and I found his.
" 'Twas nice knowing you, bratja." Vic said and I smiled at him.
"Krov Bratja: blood brothers forever." I said softly and pressed my chest firmly against Vic's. "shall we make a run for it? And hope for the best?"
"What other choice do we have?" He answered silently and looked at me, his eyes, which had been black before, were now a deep purple color and he smiled at me with love in his eyes. I counted down using my fingers and eyed at the wolves, who in turn were keeping a close watch on us. I lowered my last finger and Vic ran away and I followed him. We ran, dodging trees and jumping through the undergrowth. I felt the vines licking my legs and making shallow scratches, I barely took notice of it. I heard the entire pack following us and looked behind me. Wolves love the chase, that was the downside of our plan. I knew my brother wouldn't be able to keep up with me and that eventually the wolves would get him. I stopped, unnoticed by my brother and let the wolves close in on me. I'd give them one hell of a chase, that's for damn sure, fuck 'em. I grinned and looked over my shoulder, the wolves were close enough… I turned right and ran down the mountain. Trees rushed by me, as I picked up speed. The rush of a car can't compare to the rush of reaching that speed with your own two legs. Down in the valley the river flowed, violently. A lonely outcrop of rocks came halfway the river. Standing on it, I could see the white foam down below. The river was twenty meters wide, so the jump was ten meters. I looked at the other side, looked up the mountain, where the wolves were coming from and then leapt across the gap, clearing it with ease. I knew wolves could jump it too, but at least it would slow them. I ran up another mountain again, still at high speed. I was trying to lure the wolves away from the house, to let Vic escape safely.
I thought of my brother and tales of old returned to me.