TO LIE WITH MIDNIGHT ROSES

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XAVIER

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Port Alice was the perfect place for us.

A place I didn't know that night many years ago I would soon call home. Port Alice is a small island just a ferry ride away from the lower mainland of Greater Vancouver. A community of around eight hundred people on the Northern end of Vancouver Island, a strikingly different change from Manhattan and even the city of Vancouver itself.

The town was quaint. Consumed by a thick, lush green forest with trees that tower tall and wide. Surrounded by beautiful lakes with an oceanic climate making it one of the mildest and wettest places to live, quite a perfect climate for Vampires seeing as it is raining most of the year.

Ancient karst & limestone formations were all around, accessible through dirt roads and to all those who dared to wander — wander far enough to find bodies of water so deep they looked black.

There's a place the locals like to call the Devil's bath, a flooded sinkhole with sinfully dark waters and there are stories of course. Folklore too but no one really knows what lurks beneath the dark abyss.

However, the one that's told the most is that visitors who bathe in the murky hot springs never return.

People say they have seen and heard dead people roam these parts, that the Devil lives down below taking the souls of those who wish to bathe within.

Sometimes they say if you get close enough you can hear the whispers through the trees and quiet songs of suffering beneath the still waters, but that is just the start of the darkness that looms over this town in the grey mist that appears most days.

Even the prettiest of places in Port Alice carried gruesome tales.

There is a waterfall that leads down into a small body of water, an enticingly beautiful thing that they call the Eternal Fountain. Now, it's a story most people don't know but Roman... oh, he knows it very well because it's one of his own.

As I grew to know the man whom Ryker and Jaxon brought me to, he told me many stories, one of which was how he became a Vampire — along with his sister.

The first of our kind thousands of years ago.

His sister, whom he never told me the name of, had learned about this fountain first. She had been the one to take him there, he said. A fountain that would grant what they thought was eternal life, turned out to be one that granted that of eternal misery for those who wished to live forever.

Selfish people who felt they deserve a longer life than others will suffer the consequences. They soon learned that it would damn them to a life of suffering. It changed them into monsters —monsters of bloodlust.

All because of their selfishness.

However, within the small town, Roman had found somewhere safe for us to be. Somewhere where Vampires can roam free at night without having to worry about being caught, without worrying about someone hearing us or running into anyone — that is until now.

Rustling between the branches I see a small Fox not too far ahead when suddenly the smell of fresh human blood catches me off guard.

I stop abruptly as a far-off sound of muffled screams rings within my ears capturing my attention and my mind begins to seek elsewhere listening intently, following the sound of banging, glass shattering and then I hear a voice.

Without thinking my body involuntarily begins to trace the scent of human blood. My veins ache, pulsing as my mouth becomes dry with the craving. The blood smelt sweet, like Figs and brown sugar. Never in my life have I smelt blood quite like that and now the only thing my mind and body were interested in is finding out where it was coming from.

The night air shifted as I made my way closer to the smell.

It felt quite strange as I'd never noticed anyone living nearby before out here in the woods and if there was then they were usually very quiet. I follow the direction I heard the noise come from just moments ago as I swiftly maneuver myself through the trees and branches of the forest, making my way quickly down the hill.

The smell of the sugary sweet blood became almost intoxicating as I found myself inching closer.

At the bottom of the hill sat a small cabin, made of brown wood. The front of the house which sat before me boasted two large glass windows, one of them which looks as though it has been shattered.

Large footprints sunk into the dirt road, three pairs of tracks heading towards the property. The house is dark but I can see rustling movement coming from inside when suddenly a woman's voice calls out; a voice filled with fear.

Fear; oh how I've heard that sound so many times before.

Muffled voices come from inside. The woman is screaming now, in pain. The scent of human blood grew even stronger but there was something else I could smell inside too, something familiar.

At this point, I wasn't sure if it was the blood drawing me closer to the house or the women who needed help calling from inside—maybe, just maybe it was the faintest idea of being able to do something good for once.

Whatever it was, I was now standing on the front steps of the house, outside of her door and only the soft yellow glow of a lamp illuminated the silhouette of a man leaning on top of her.

"Just kill me." I hear the woman say and before I could stop myself I was inside.