Further and further she fell into the bottomless well. She had never felt such pleasure before, and she never wanted it to end.
This is what you seek to give up. A voice came from somewhere within her. Remember it well, cherish it.
It grew dark and cold as the warmth faded quickly from her body. As each part of her body grew cold, she felt pain surge, evicting the pleasure of seconds ago.
She felt the loss of sensation in parts of her body. One by one, they turned off—or died, taking with it the feeling of life that had nurtured it. Piece by piece, the cold of death traveled through her body like an unwelcome guest, killing everything in its path like a plague.
She felt weak and cold as she slowly opened her eyes and looked at him. The flame still burned within this strange man’s eyes. But now she saw that his mouth was dark; covered by shadow, but the shadow moved as it dripped from his face. As her eyes adjusted to the dim light, she realized it was not a shadow but blood: her blood. He had taken it from her. What was he?
Her mind supplied an answer. She remembered the stories she had heard about creatures of the night, about vampires. They would prey on humans to get what they needed to survive. Blood. Had she sacrificed her life to a man that was not even truly alive? The thought was infuriating and anger fought for dominance as shame and vile self-loathing filled her heart. She imagined what her fate might be: Taken advantage of by two men to further their own goals, while completely disregarding her and her life. There must be… and then she remembered what else she had heard as a young child.
These creatures harbored amazing recuperative powers. They were extremely hard to kill: Their wounds would close up quickly or they would vanish for periods of time while they healed. People said it was because of the altered blood that flowed in their bodies. That was the answer!
If she could drink his blood, perhaps that would save her. The thought was revolting and even as weak as she was, she felt her stomach lurch at the thought. But what other choice did she have? Would she allow herself to be defeated again? Perhaps it was better to just end it and die here alone in the woods with her shame.
No! The thought of defeat brought immense hatred. Her emotions flushing away the weakness brought on by the loss of blood. She would have him. She would have his blood and she would drink it as he had drunk hers. If it didn’t help her, she would die—but she would not die alone. She would take him with her. If it did help her, she might live another day or night and…what? Yes, seek revenge against those who punished her wrongly.
“Do you still wish to die?” he asked.
His voice drove her from her thoughts and back to the moment.
“Perhaps it would be better,” he answered to her silence.
“Give it back,” she said. “My life…I want it…”
“I cannot give you back what I have taken. If I did, it would change you into what I am. Your anger would then manifest you into something worse: Something that that would consume and change you over a great period of time, nurturing you perhaps into something even more pitiful than you are now.”
It is true, she thought. The stories were true. He could give her back life.
“No. I cannot allow that,” he continued. “If you wish to live, you must do it on your own. You must want to live enough to survive this night, but you must do it without my help.”
“You bastard,” she whispered. She wanted to strike out at him, to hit him and hurt him. She wanted to kill him. But he was stronger and she needed a weapon of some sort. Then she remembered the knife: he had thrown it to her before he had grabbed her by the neck. Where was it? She didn’t remember. Knife or not, she need something.
“You must decide what you wish,” he said.
“You have not left me a choice, have you?” she said, trying to act calm and to distract him from her hand’s movement.
“None,” he answered, and then his face went blank as if remembering something from his own past.
She slid her hand along her leg and onto the ground, searching for anything she could use to strike him with. Her hand struck something hard and cold on the ground. Her fingers examined it as she kept her eyes on the man. The cold steel and sharp edge confirmed the object to be a knife.
“Perhaps I am a bastard,” he agreed. “But I have shown you what life can truly be about if you let go of your anger and thirst for revenge.”
“I want to see your face,” she said. “I want to see the face of the man that would do such a thing.”
He leaned closer.
She took a deep breath and channeled all her energy into her right arm. She sent the knife straight up into the man’s throat.
C
HAPTER
T
WELVE
17 October 1944
The research continues. Further examination and interpretation of texts the civilian authority has in his possession suggests that the definition of a vampire is an un-dead creature that feeds on the live blood of animals and humans. Physically strong, one creature can possess the strength of ten men. They are virtually impossible to kill except by decapitation or exposure to sunlight, though there are references to the use of some religious symbols. They can move quickly and are virtually undetectable. Additionally, they appear alluring to the opposite sex and possess a strong sense of self-preservation. They are generally antisocial and tend to be solitary creatures who maintain a certain degree of territory superiority with other similar creatures.
Of course I reserve my judgment on believing any of the information contained in the texts. Myths and legends are usually nothing more than old wives’ tales fabricated out of superstition to explain things not understood. But if this, any of this, is true—and we assume that there were more of these creatures, then why have we not seen or heard of them before? Or is she the only one? It is questions such as these I shall pursue.
The civilian believes there is a way to bring the woman out of her deep sleep. He suggests that their senses are naturally attuned to the smell of fresh blood. We shall attempt to lure her awake by using fresh blood from a slaughtered animal. He cautions that she will resist all methods of capture and that she should be killed immediately if proven to be one of these creatures—a vampire.
Although unlikely to be required, I have taken precautionary measures. While she is still in her trancelike sleep, I have inserted an explosive device inside of her body; an extremely difficult procedure considering the healing powers of the body. The device is encased within a steel cylinder approximately six inches in length and with a diameter of three inches. It can only be moved or opened by the use of a special transmitter and encoding unit. The explosive is not removable without entering a coded sequence into the transmitter.
18 October 1944
My God! We have successfully awakened the creature! I doubt I will ever be the same man I was before I saw what happened today. I have seen a lot in my lifetime but nothing like the carnage I witnessed here. If her other talents prove to be consistent with the legends, we may have exactly what we need. But I’m getting ahead of myself, I shall begin by describing what we did and saw.
On a whim I agreed to allow the local expert to adopt some of the religious aspects of protection—and ironically this may have been the only thing which saved our lives in the end.
Upon placement of the fresh animal blood near her,her eyes immediately opened. I shall always remember those eyes. They weren’t normal eyes. They were dark red in color and animalistic—and the way they stared…with such intensity. And then the holocaust began.
We weren’t prepared for the swiftness of the creature. She grasped the bowl of blood and drank it as if she was quenching a drastic thirst. It was gone in less than five seconds. Then she flew from the crypt and took down two of our men before we knew what was happening. She showed no fear of the rest of us. She ripped open their throats with her nails, which had grown several inches longer since she’d awakened. It sounded like she was cutting paper. I will never forget the way their skin opened and how she buried her face into their necks. The sound of strong sucking and lapping echoed off the cavernous walls. I almost vomited. All of this took place in the blink of an eye. In less than fifteen seconds, she had filled herself and that was when I saw it.
She turned toward us and she had changed. Her physical appearance, the desiccated, near mummified body and the face which earlier contained the features of some type of mixture of human and animal, had now become… breathtakingly beautiful. When she had lain in the crypt she was vaguely discernible as a female. What features she did possess were plain almost to the point of non-gender. Thin lips, small breasts, her skin and hair as coarse as sandpaper from the absence of any moisture. But now… as she stood before me, she was the most voluptuous woman I have ever seen. Her eyes were the loveliest things I had ever gazed upon and they looked into me as if they spoke to my soul. Above them her eyebrows were slender and curved exactly in the right contour to accentuate her eyes. Her face was perfect. Where her nose had previously been mottled and misshapen, it was now even and aquiline. Her lips looked as smooth as cream, they were full and enticing and just below them was a small dimple which highlighted the shape of her chin adding new dimension to the otherwise even skin. I stared at the round curves of her cheek bones, the skin that looked as soft as silk. Suddenly, I could imagine my fingers tracing over that skin, feeling the softness of it. And her hair, it was long and brown falling far past her shoulders. Again I had the strongest urge to reach out and touch it and feel the texture of it between my fingers. She had full and firm breasts where before she had virtually little to no shape at all. Again I immediately drifted into some form of dream like trance where I was with her—touching her. Everything else around me had vanished and was replaced with only the thought of wanting this woman.
Then the sound of gunshots echoed in the cavern and as quickly as I had been sucked into this dream, it was shattered by the harshness of reality and imminent death.
One of the men opened fire. I hadn’t thought about it at the time, about how he had escaped her illusion of attraction which had so easily immobilized me. Only after debriefing, I realized that he had taken communion this morning at a nearby church. I can only think that somehow his religious observance had perhaps saved us all from our deaths.
I watched as the bullets hit her in several places. She had been struck enough times that it would have brought down the strongest man. But she just stood there looking at the holes they left behind. I watched as the wounds closed almost immediately. The rest of the men opened fire and continued to shoot until they emptied their weapons magazines. I thought my head was going to explode from all the noise. Yet, she just stood there.
When the last shot had been fired and the echo died away, a deathly silenced enveloped the cavern. She raised her head and smiled and then I heard her laugh. It was in a tone that was both exhilarating and frightening. It reached into my chest and tore at my very soul.
All during this incident, whether by the sudden change of events or the hypnotic effect she had on me, I had completely forgotten about the explosive device within her and the detonation device in my pocket. As I awoke from my stupor, I reached for it but before I could fully grasp it, things exploded again.
The civilian splashed some holy water in her direction and she stopped and hissed at him baring large canine incisors. He screamed at me to look away from her. I felt his arms on mine as he shook me. As he did so I felt the remaining haze lift from my mind. I carefully returned my gaze to this creature, avoiding eye contact at all costs for I believe this was how she was able to obtain a hold over me. I realized she has a power to cause an unprotected man to lose his concentration in some way. For a brief period, I could think of nothing other than how desirable she was. And I am sure of one thing: She would have kept me thinking that as she slit my throat and drank her fill of my blood.
I realize how crazy this must sound. I have not lost my mind or suffered any forms of delusion. I know what I saw and felt.
What happened next shall remain vivid in my memory for the remainder of my life. I watched the creature slip its hand through its own flesh and probe the area where the device had been planted. Unlike before, when we inserted the device and had the constant problem of keeping the flesh opened, she had no problem at all. It was if her body allowed her own hand to probe her insides at will. When her hand stopped moving, she looked up at me with an expression that threw me. I expected to see a look of disdain or anger at what I had done. But instead I saw a look that I could only describe as a mix of curiosity and amusement.
I found the creature’s straight forward approach unsettling and yet fascinating. I assumed she either accepted her situation, the explosive device within her, or she had a plan to counteract what we had done. I have never before felt so unsure of my actions at any moment in time.
A strange sense of calm seemed to come over the creature. She stopped all forms of aggression and simply asked me to explain what I wanted. After a few minutes of conversation, she agreed to end hostilities so that she could learn more about us and what the world on the outside was like.
It was during those few minutes that I got the feeling that she was not ignoring the bomb we had placed inside of her, but rather that she did not care about its presence one way or the other. This meant that she did not care if she would live or die and this made her truly dangerous.
Even after what I saw—I still have the blood of my men upon my clothing—I am almost ashamed to say this… I am not sure if it’s the effect of the creature’s influence or my own thoughts which are causing my attraction for her.