Lourdes: A Vampire In The Old West

14. Afterlife

"I was born in 1587. Roanoke Colony. It's North Carolina today," Lourdes speaks. Most of the tables in the Guinevere Hotel are empty now. Some of the hostesses wash dishes. Others play cards. Only a few pockets of drunks remain. Katterina stays with Lourdes. Her hair has the look of a ball of string, and the makeup about her face is cracked and dried. "When I was three, a vampire came out of the sea. The journey took her years – lifetimes – to complete, but she walked all the way from the Old World across the bottom of the Atlantic. Roanoke didn't know what to make of her, but she knew immediately what to make of Roanoke. To satiate a hunger left unquenched for a thousand years, she murdered the entire colony. My father, mother, brothers, sisters, and friends were all turned into hollow things before me, and I, alone, was kept alive. The vampire spared me, feeding on me again and again until I was on the brink of death, but she never finished my last drop. She kept me with her in the wilds of what would become America until I turned 18. Then, she let me taste eternity."

The grandfather clock in the corner of the Guinevere chimes three times.

Reaching into his jacket, the boy pulls out his pocket watch. He checks the time against the clock. Still slow. Closing his watch, Lourdes caresses its casing. His fingers run along its contours, and holding it still, he can feel all its wheels buzzing within. They click and churn in concert to keep the mechanical heart alive.

Tucking the watch away, Lourdes places it close to his own heart.

"Man was created in God's image," Lourdes breathes. "Ever wonder who made me?" The vampire kicks the floor. A loud, sharp echo shakes the rafters. "Long, long, long ago, a man named Jesus was betrayed by a man named Judas. Betrayal happens all the time, then tears are shed, sour words are shouted, and life goes on, but when the man you betray is the Son of God, there are more severe repercussions. Say what you will about free will, but God always intended Jesus to die on the cross, and for destiny to unfold, Judas had no say in his part in the drama. God, though, had a choice in what happened next. When Judas, overwrought with grief, threw away his 30 pieces of silver and hanged himself, God could have opened his arms to his loyal servant, warmly welcoming him into the Kingdom of Heaven. But, instead, God refused to take his soul, leaving it to rot inside a corpse swinging from a crooked tree. It was Satan, the Morning Star, Lord of Wretched Refuse and the Tempest-Tossed, who took pity. He walked up to poor Judas and cut him down. Days had gone by since Judas died. His soul was screaming, and his body was withered from the sun. Satan gave Judas a new life, letting him drink the black blood from his own veins. Judas was remade in the devil's image and placed in a seat of honor beside him in the innermost circle of hell. This is where vampires come from."

Lourdes holds his head and casts his vision across the bar. He looks at the hostesses playing cards. At the lushes looking for lap dances. At the wives and children of the lushes. Around the corner and down the street. Settled into their beds. Assuming their husbands and fathers are working late inside the mines or on the plains. These women and children sleep with smiles on their faces.

"The creations of day live blessed, finite existences, while the dark is the dominion of eternal, ungodly things sculpted by a different master," Lourdes huffs.

His eyes move about the countryside now away from the Town of Heather. Into the darkness. He sees the things hidden in the sand. Into the blackness. He sees the things hidden in the wind. Into the night.

†

A husky black wolf bounds over nocturnal sands. A stampeding beast with eyes the color of the moon and a starlight mane. A creature composed of coalesced night. Taught muscles ripple beneath its sable coat. Imposing paws evaporate the earth in its wake. Jaws dripping with sin gobble up ghosts drifting in the air. The beast races for the little piece of light where heaven and dirt meet.