Authors Note: I would really appreciate a review
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2 Years later...
Not much had changed, I was still the same though I had made a point of keeping in shape after the attack by Louis, one day I would catch up with him I told myself, one day. My knuckles were callused from punching a rubber board repeatedly (sounds pointless but the calluses were the point they hardened my hands so I could punch harder and it would hurt less) I also made sure I never got a 6 pack because it would lower my flexibility and mobility, while still making sure I had strong stomach muscles. It was a hard balance to keep. But that was just changes in my physical stature and minor ones at that. I was uneasy and bordering on paranoid, didn't know why. You know that sense you get, the one that tells you your being watched, and despite all the evidence to the opposite you just can't shake it? Well I had it. Constantly!
Still I don't know what I'm complaining about, at the time life had never been better, I had just passed my A-levels, with flying colours I might add. I had progressed rapidly in karate and now had a brown belt, I even had a small book about to be published, merely a 100 or so pages, it was entitled The Origins of Myths a small project I had been doing on and off since the age of 10. In most myths and legends there was a small grain of truth, take for example the loch ness monster, I believed it to have originated from a particularly large eel, you see in the water as long as the creature can find enough food and has enough room it can just grow and grow till it dies of old age. Another example would be the zombie myth, the person would be bitten by an poisonous snake (usually a black mamba) and appear to be dead, the person would then be buried and a few days later having recovered from the poison, dig themselves out and thee local tribesmen would believe them to have risen from the dead, (though they usually are killed by the poison).
3 of the more universal myths are dragons, vampires and god. It is my belief that dragons, due to the fact the myth is world-spread even in ancient cultures, are I believe the result of ancestral memory from back when we were small mammals running away from dinosaurs, god is mere universal wish, almost a need to believe that we're not alone, that there is some higher power. As to vampires I believe that such a myth was created as a way for man to come to terms with its own mortality, a foolish idea immortality, the modern belief of vampires was further developed from Vlad the Impaler. For vampires cannot exist, they defy instinct, they defy THE instinct, the one that all life answers to, be it plant, animal, micro-organism or fungi. The death instinct, the instinct that cause all things to wither and die, the instinct which causes us to age. Nothing escapes it. Therefore vampires cannot exist.
Of course all the philosophy about wishful thinking and self delusion I left out of the book.
Anyway, I was about to take a gap year before university, but first there was a graduation party – which some idiot had decided would be fancy dress. Being as this was going to be the last mass gathering I intended to attend I put a bit of thought into the costume, I was going for evil wizard/necromancer. I cannibalized 2 grim reaper costumes from earlier Halloweens to create a set of black robes complete with black cloak and hood, the only way anyone would be able to recognise me was from my hands (my skin was bleached white from spending almost all my time indoors on the PC). So in my rather over the top costume I left for the party (walking naturally, so I had to leave 2 hours early).
The party went well, as did the journey back. Once back home I collapsed on the bed asleep within seconds (which was strange for me, it usually took hours).
The next day
Today was the day, I'd finally get to go to Brazil, see the Amazon, then a year later (if I was still alive I'd return to England for my university degree.
The flight was uneventful, and if honest boring. After picking up my luggage (which consisted of a packed backpack), using the small amount of money I had brought along I got a taxi which dropped me at a lodge at the edge of the Amazon, I signed up for the guided tour. The next day I left on the tour, as soon as the guide's back was turned I dived into the river and swam to the bank. Now most people would consider this insane, what with the red bellied piranha, the kamen and crocodiles, the occasional bull shark, the giant leeches and the green anaconda. However red bellied piranha only attacked during the dry season and only when they can smell blood on they're victim, rather amusingly your average swimmer can outswim a crocodile or kamen while they can out run humans on land, bull sharks are very rare in the Amazon, leeches were almost certainly not fatal, and anacondas were rare to be seen at all. I was halfway to the riverbank before anyone noticed, so with they're cries for me to come back ringing in my ears I proceeded into the forest.
Of course this wasn't some spur of the moment action, I'd been carefully planning this for just over a year, admittedly there were to many variables to have a perfect plan, still everything had gone to plan so far.
My 1st step once I was sure I was deep enough not to be found too easily was to set up a base camp. Step 1 was to string up a hammock between two trees at a height of 10 metres (presumably safe), I then put 2 layers of mosquito netting over the top along with an extra layer of cloth (apparently vampire bats lived in the Amazon, though I wasn't certain about the validity of the site I read it on I thought better safe than sorry). It was then I noticed the leech, it was attached to the back of my leg and was thoroughly bloated with blood, now leech saliva is apparently laced with anticoagulants and anaesthetic hence why the blood was still flowing and why I didn't feel a thing. My first instinct was to rip it off and kill it, I managed to restrain myself – just. Logically I could spare a bit of blood and the creature was merely feeding, also to just rip it off would be cruel and make the injury an actual wound, the proboscis would detach and I would bleed far more severely. I calmly got a box of matches from my pack and lit one. I placed it near the leech, the leech almost touching the bright flame quickly detached itself from my leg and fell off quickly heading towards the nearest water source, I noted it's direction so I'd know where to go when I needed to get water.
Ok so mini-crisis over I quickly covered the leg which was bleeding, the blood refusing to clot, I wrapped the leg in bandages then just had to hope that of the 4 species I could think of which would even consider eating a human none were in the vicinity. Still the chances of that were remote at best and even lower that they would attack anyway, they may consider eating humans but they sure as hell didn't like the taste, then again not many animals did, the occasional tiger developed a taste for humans and polar bears actively hunted them given the chance, fortunately for me both were on another continent. In other words I was safe as houses – theoretically that is.
I continued to set up camp cutting a series of wooden torches from the trees using a machete I had attached to the pack. As night drew in I realised it would soon be too dark to make any more preparations, so with the limited defences I had I attached the machete on a string which I knotted to the hammock then ate some of the rations I had brought along before lighting the torches with another match and getting into the hammock, most creatures feared fire, in fact nearly all of them so meagre though all these preparation sounded I was actually defended from the sole flying menace, I had a weapon near at hand and the fire was a near guarantee that I wouldn't need it.
My last thought before I fell asleep was that if something did get me then it probably had more than earned it's food.
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Author's Note: Any guesses as to
what happens next?
Also all the reasons for myths are either
proven or believed to be likely