Birth of Jaiden (18 page)

Stewart could not believe what
he was hearing. “So, you have all of these people here for
food
?”

“
Yes, Stewart, we had to
find a way.” They paused at the end of the isle way of people and
Malcolm produced yet another key which he used to unlock the door.
“In there are only a few of the people we chose for this
project.”

They moved down a very
narrow and dark stone stairway. At the bottom of it, a gigantic
room loomed before them. Stewart looked around and saw about fifty
people.

Stewart was surprised to
see that there were couches and chairs set up all over the place,
as well as a few television sets. The room was completely silent
and all of them merely glanced up when they saw Malcolm enter the
room.

“
These ones just spent a
lot of time giving blood. After they stay here for a while, they
will go into another area where they all live. It’s actually quite
comfortable for them.”

Stewart stood in a state
of shock.

“
Why would you care about
their
comfort
?” he sneered.

“
Well, we want them to
reproduce. They need to feel happy enough to want to.”

Stewart felt his jaw drop.
“You’re
insane
! You are running a freaking
people
farm!”

Smiling, Malcolm nodded
his head in acknowledgment.

Anger welled up inside
Stewart. “These people aren’t cows. You can’t do this!”

“
But you see, Stewart,
they
are
cows to us. Humans eat cows. Vampires eat people. It is as
simple as that. And we
can
do this…because we
have
.”

Stewart kept his mouth
shut. It was bad. He knew that Malcolm intended to keep him there
until he died. He didn’t want to become a zombie like all of the
people he had seen.

“
Come, Stewart, shall we
go see your new living quarters?”

Stewart knew that without
his magic there was no chance of escape, but he was still not one
to go willingly.

“
Noooo
!” he shouted. He turned around and
darted for the doorway through which they had come. All of the
people roaming around looked up, startled at his screams. Stewart
bolted up the stairway.

“
Stewart, you know as well
as I do that you will never get out of here.” Malcolm appeared at
the top of the stairway and blocked Stewart’s attempt to escape.
“It’s truly a shame you refuse to cooperate. Now we have to
restrain you again.”

He sighed as he grabbed a
fistful of Stewart’s hair and dragged him through the door at the
top of the stairs.

“
No, no, no!” Stewart
kicked his legs and flailed his arms around in a poor attempt to
free himself. Malcolm dragged him down the stone hallway and out
through another door. Soon, they were in the same room where he had
first been tortured.

Malcolm threw Stewart to
the ground and turned to one of the guards.

“
Take care of him,” he
ordered with a swift wave of his hand. Then, he swung his cape over
his shoulder and stalked back to the stairs without a single glance
back at Stewart.

Stewart lay at the guard’s
feet, panting, wishing his magic would work. He was simply human
there. The vampires would always win against mere mortals such as
himself. Hopefully, the council would come for him, but he
sincerely doubted they would.

20

Alex wanted to press on
with the story of his past. He figured he had told Chris that much,
why not tell him all of it. So he began exactly where he left
off.

***

“
I kept drinking simply because
it was the only way I could maintain the numbness I so desired to
feel. I took on various jobs to pay for my habit but the work
I
could
find never lasted. I was usually let go within a week. It
went on like that for months. I didn’t care, though; as long as I
was numb, nothing mattered.

During those months, my
sleep was plagued with nightmares. I would toss and turn and wake
soaked in sweat. In those nightmares, I was stalked. I didn’t know
by whom, or what, but something was always watching me.

Mostly, my days were spent
hunting for meat to sell to the wealthy people. On one particular
evening, I was out doing just that, and I found myself still in the
woods when darkness fell.

The evening was crisp and
my breath looked like smoke each time I exhaled. No new snow had
fallen for at least a week but frozen snow still lingered, covering
most of the forest floor. Given my recent nightmares, the last
place I wanted to be was in the woods at night. So I began to make
my way back to the village.

Soon, I noticed the woods
were silent. No birds, no critters rustling in the bushes, nothing.
An eerie silence fell over the forest. Like before I found the
fire, I could feel that something wasn’t right.

As my feet crunched
through the frozen snow, the feeling grew more intense. The feeling
that someone was watching me became overpowering. I sped up my
already hurried pace and tried to get back to the village as
quickly as I could.

Then, from out of the
darkness, a figure appeared in front of me. In my drunken stupor, I
did not jump back. Also, when I think about it now, I think the
fact that I had already subconsciously known something was going to
happen made it easier to face when it actually happened.

The figure seemed to be
only a shadow in a hooded cape.

I faced it, without
fear.

The figure slowly pulled
the hood off his head, revealing blond hair and blue eyes which
were set against white skin so pale that it appeared to glow. I had
never seen this man before.

‘
I don’t have any money,’
I said sternly.

‘
I don’t want your money,’
the figure replied in a quiet voice, barley above a whisper. ‘I
have been watching you, Alexander, and I know how to heal your
heart.’

I had no idea what he was
talking about. And my heart was beyond healing. Still, I did not
move. That figure was literally my living nightmare; he was the one
who stalked me.

‘
Alexander, you should be
thankful I have chosen you. The life you live now is quite
pathetic. I desire nothing more than to make it better for
you.’

I wanted him to leave me
alone so I told him, ‘There is nothing you can do to help me so why
don’t you let me be on my way.’

Then, he laughed softly and
took a step closer. I did not back away. When he stretched out his
ghostly hand to touch me, I
did
take a step back. Evil radiated around him. I
didn’t know what he wanted but if he had wanted to kill me, it
seemed he would have already done it.

He took another step and
grasped each side of my head in his hands.

“
Let me go,’ I demanded. I
sounded stern, but inside, I was trying desperately to remain
calm.

‘
Don’t struggle,’ he
ordered.

I didn’t understand what
he was talking about. His hands were not harsh; they held me
gently. Then, he moved forward again till our eyes were level and I
was staring into his watery blue eyes.

I tried to step backward,
away from him and his grip which tightened on my head. Any calm
left in me fled when I found I could not move. I began to writhe
around, trying to get free, but it was no use.

He stood there silently,
smiled and watched me while I fought with all my strength to get
away. He was supernaturally strong. It seemed like he wasn’t even
trying to hold me there.

He pulled my head toward
him while I screamed. His hands pressed so tightly against my head
that I feared he might crush it. But then, he tilted it to the side
so my neck was exposed to the frigid air. The next thing I remember
is how he curled back his lips and opened his mouth wide. I watched
as his eyeteeth quickly transformed into fangs. He had
fangs!

‘
Demon!’ I screamed at
him. In the short time it took for me to shout at him, he had moved
down and punctured my neck. It felt…well, you know what that feels
like. When I woke, I was in his lair.

I woke up as a vampire…the
living dead. Despite my new strength and a driving hunger, I felt
as if I had been cheated out of an afterlife with my family. I
would never again see my wife or my daughter, who looked just like
her mother with her red hair and black eyes.

I would never again see my
sons, who were smaller versions of me.

How could I live with
myself knowing I was evil, that I was a demon? I didn’t want to do
the things a vampire did. But, the choice was not mine.

The figure’s name was
Jacob. He taught me how to do the things I needed to do to live as
a vampire, like how to feed and when to sleep. He took me on as his
own…and I hated him for it.

I hated the way I had to take
lives to
live
. For a long time I refused to do it, not believing I
needed human blood to survive. I hated him most for taking me from
a death which may have reunited me with my family.

Oh, how I hated him! But,
he
loved
me. He loved my attitude, the way I would fight with him,
the way I continued to be stubborn, the way I cursed him constantly
for what he had done. There was
nothing
I could do to make him hate me
back.

I also cursed God. I
simply couldn’t understand how he could do that to me, how he could
let it happen. I had once felt certain that, no matter how hard
life became, we’d be ok as long as we had each other and him but
then he had taken them and had left me alone.

Our nights were always
spent hunting. Jacob liked to stalk his prey. He liked to give them
the feeling they were being watched, that something would soon come
for them. It was exactly what he had done to me.

I hated killing. Jacob
ended up having to do it for me most of the time. No matter how
evil I was, I still could not bring myself to enjoy it.

Most of the time, Jacob
and I would be together, but sometimes, I needed to be alone. He
didn’t like it when I insisted he leave me but he would always let
me go. When I could finally get that precious time away, I would
take to the forest where I could walk and be alone with the trees
and animals.

One night, within the thickness
of the trees, I saw a beautiful dark woman. Her long black hair
cascaded down her back and she seemed to
glow
with energy. She stared directly at me
while I stared at her. Her expression was of surprise, like she
didn’t expect to see me or didn’t expect me to see her.

Was she a dream? She had
to be, to be out in the forest in the middle of the night. Perhaps
she was a nymph or some other legendary figure. Those thoughts
passed through my mind briefly but the expression of surprise more
than revealed her reality.

She turned away and seemed
to disappear into the darkness. I ran after her.

‘
Miss, miss,’ I called.
‘Wait, the forest is dangerous at night!’

But then, she was nowhere
to be found. Even though I knew myself as a vampire, it still
seemed odd to think of other vampires roaming about, waiting for a
woman like her.

When I told Jacob about
it, he went crazy. He told me to stay away from her if I saw her
again. He told me not to speak to her. I asked him why and he
vaguely described to me that she was an enemy of the vampires and
she would try to destroy us.

Of course, I did not believe
him. She had seemed afraid of
me
. Why would she look so surprised and run away if she
wanted to destroy us? But, I
did
realize then that Jacob did know who she really
was.

So, one night, I went into
the woods alone, to the place where I had seen her. I stood there
and called out to her. ‘Miss! Whoever you are. I know you’re here.
Please show yourself.’

When she did not appear, I
sat down in the snow with my back against a tree. I waited there
for hours and hours. I don’t know why I waited or how I knew she
would eventually show up, but she did.

My sensitive ears heard
nothing and my powerful sense of smell didn’t detect anything,
either. But, when I looked up from the snow, she was standing there
just as I had seen her before.

‘
Alexander, you must go
soon, the sun will be rising.’ She motioned toward the
sky.

‘
Who are you?’ I
demanded.

‘
You know who I am,
Alexander, you have always known me.’

‘
No, I do not know you.
Tell me who you are.’

She stretched her hand out
toward me. ‘I am Danielle, your guardian angel.’

Appalled, I told her I did
not believe her. But…deep inside me, I knew she was truly who she
said. I hated her too. If she was supposed to be my protector, why
would she let me get turned into a monster? She acted like I didn’t
hate her, just like Jacob did, and told me to remember where I used
to find comfort.