When people think of vampires they generally associate the term with an undead beings who feast on the blood of humans, transform into various objects, and live to create more of their kind and spread evil throughout the world. All of this is simply not true. I should know. My name is Maria Gracelli and I have been a living vampire -- excuse the pun -- for five hundred years now.
I would now like to clear up the many false speculations that humans have about vampires. Garlic does not work, and neither does sunlight. Crosses and holy water do work to some extent, but they will not kill us, just provide us with a really bad rash. The only way to kill a vampire -- or the undead as I prefer to call our kind -- is to drive a stake made of a certain type of wood through the heart. (As for the type, I will not say, wouldn't want to give anyone any ideas.)
Another misconception humankind has about the Undead is that our lives are sustained by drinking the blood of humans and that we turn humans every opportunity we get. Once again, not true. We drink human blood only if there is no animal blood available and only as a last resort. Even then to be able to drink human blood we have to have the human's permission. To take a human's blood without their permission would mean to turn the very blood we need to live to poison in our veins. As for the turning of a human, only master vampires can do perform these. If an inexperienced vampire were to attempt to turn a human without the proper knowledge the humans will go mad. Such crimes are punishable by death among our kind. As for the spreading of evil, that is simply not true. The undead are not evil; in fact humans are not even aware of our existence. We prefer to live in the shadows and observe the goings on of the human world. So you see for the most part the nature of vampires has been greatly misunderstood.
Unfortunately there are those among us who become power hungry and go rogue. That is where I come in. My job is to hunt them down and execute them. It really is rather ironic when you think about it. A vampire killing other vampires? Who has ever heard of such a thing? You’d think for someone who’s been alive for five hundred years the job would get easier. It doesn’t.
Chapter 1
Have you ever noticed how when people are told something their entire life it’s really hard to convince them that they’re wrong? Try telling that to a 350-pound, 6’8” inch adult human male holding a metal makeshift stake in his hands. I guess this guy was told vampires like to feast on human flesh because nothing I was saying was getting through to him.
I’m Maria Gracelli, and I am of the undead. I have walked this earth for 500 years and the human conception of our kind has not changed one bit.
Proof of this is right in front of me. What happened to the days when a vampire could go out, kill an animal, and drink its blood in peace?
Well, evidently those days are over. I was simply preparing to have my usual meal of goat blood when this guy walks right in on me right when I’m about to slit the damn thing’s throat. Apparently the sight of me licking my fingers from the blood that was already seeping out of the goat’s throat from the nick I’d given it gave me away. Kel always told me to kick that habit while I was ahead of myself. Oh, well it was a little late to be worrying about that now. So I decided to try a bluff.
“Are you all right?” I asked.
“I-I was going to ask you the same question.” He replied shakily.
“What’s wrong?” I said impatiently, “Never seen anyone slit a goat’s throat before?”
“Actually no.” he said. Okay I was seriously starting to get pissed off now.
“Could you put the stake away now?” I asked coolly, “No one here is going to get hurt.” After having said this I fingered the knife I kept in my back pocket. He must have seen my hand move because the grip he had on the piece of metal tightened.
« return.