#17

It was an exceptionally cold Halloween and I was closing the last set of the Haunted crypt costume party, I was the lead singer of a heavy metal band. At one point in the set I felt a shiver run down my spine and that is when I noticed a dark figure standing motionless in the front row. The glowing white face wasn't what startled me it was Halloween and there were many white faces in the audience. What caught my attention was the strange pull that this figure inflicted on me, I remember once in high school this same confusion when I was on magic mushrooms, but I never even drank a beer before going on stage so I knew that it was this being that was effecting my reality. She was a very beautiful creature indeed and I heard a voice within my head that said "Tonight we will be together" and as the guitar solo ripped into the night I answered her into the microphone "Yes we will". And that was my last night as a mortal. I never had any illusions about what it would mean to be a vampire, I haven't lived the usual tortured life of most immortals and I quite enjoy this gift that has been given to me. My maker was very old and very strong and so I in turn have become very strong prematurely as many might say. I have met many jealous vampires sometimes a century my senior and to my total amazement when these creatures have attacked me my maker would only watch and smile while I as if an adult fighting a child would easily overpower them. She never kept anything from me and all of my questions she has always answered but one. I remember my first feeding, she took me to a park where despite the time of night people where everywhere. I felt very strange, very thirsty and I wanted nothing more than to drink from my maker but she wanted me to drink from a mortal, to see how I would do this without any direction from her. I turned to ask her how I should do it and when I looked she was nowhere to be seen. I was very startled by a hand grabbing me by the shoulder and as I looked at who it belonged to I saw a sad little man, he was shaking, he had deep sunk in eyes and he smelled horrible. He was mumbling something about rock and shoving his hands with palms upturned at me as if I had something for him. "Not another crackhead" I was thinking to myself when suddenly the repulsion of this dirty little man melted away from me and I saw him as a beautiful and glowing being. I could feel the warmth emanating from his aura and I could smell a sweet aroma which I soon discovered was his blood. Suddenly and violently I grabbed him and bit into his out stretched expecting arm. He began to scream so I reached up and covered his face with my hand. I didn't realize that I was suffocating him, I didn't realize that he was dying, I only heard a very fast beating that was slowing down as his will to resist me faded. I drew the blood as warm loving vibrations filled my entire being and I just wanted to drink, to drink forever. A sudden and powerful blow tossed me fifteen feet and I landed beneath a swing set. I felt myself being lifted then we where both suddenly in an alley and my maker was slapping my hand as if scorning a child. "You must never drink until death" she said, "You didn't even have to kill him at all". That is when she told me that many vampires drain their victims causing death. She didn't believe that murder was necessary for me, that I was strong and I didn't really need that much blood. My maker values all forms of life and I haven't killed my prey since.

The greatest lesson that I have learned since becoming immortal besides a respect for all forms of life would have to be that you, if mortal or immortal must be happy with who and what you are. You cannot escape who you truly are by becoming something else. I have met many mortals who hate themselves and thought that becoming a vampire would change this self-hatred and ease them of their suffering. Yet after the transition they soon discover that they hate themselves even more now. So I say this to you; love yourself because you all, even if you don't realize it, are unconditionally loved and you always will be.