Broken Wings (SAMPLE)

Chapter Ten

In this book, we will be looking at all of the manifestations of the vampire myth, from where it started in folklore to where it is now. We will talk about how this popular creature managed to dominate the imagination of many, how it has been perceived over the many years since the 'birth' of the vampire legend. The origin of the vampire legend goes back centuries, having developed over the years. 

Blah, blah, blah, I thought, skipping the rest of the introduction and going straight to chapter one; The  Vampire Myth. I hoped I would be left with some knowledge about the book when I finished reading it. 

Vampires, in folklore, are creatures that are said to live by feeding on the life essence of the living, usually meaning the blood. In European folklore dating back to the 19th century, vampires are the undead who often visited those they left behind, their loved ones, frequently causing trouble or murdering others in the neighbourhood they lived when they had been alive. Often described as bloated, dark creatures that are the opposite of today's pale faced vampires we seen on screen.
Communities in the early 19th centuries were concerned with dead and disease. The idea of an undead being coming back from the grave to haunt the living spread, superstition at it's highest, filling people with fear.

The superstition didn't just stop there either. As many believed in spirits, if something went wrong, the spirits would naturally be blamed. These spirits were considered evil, wreaking havoc wherever they could if they refused to help with daily tasks like people invoked them for. There was also another superstition that if someone was ill - either human or animal - the spirits would be blamed, accused of sucking the life essence out of them.

In Slavic culture, it was believed that when somebody died, their soul would continue to live on and haunt the places they had once lived. Some families would even leave a door or window open so the spirit could come and go at will. It was important that people do this become if they didn't, they feared the particular spirit would make their lives a misery.
Also, to make sure that the spirit would go away without causing trouble, people would consider it important that all burials were carefully observed. This would also explain why they took such care in making sure that nobody 'came back from the dead' as a vampire.

So is that how the vampire belief started? Once a soul living on after death but soon popularised into an actual body, coming back from the grave.

It certainly seems likely.

This was definitely going to be an interesting read, I thought to myself. The book then went on to talk about river demons and house demons and double faith. None of it was helping me understand Shadow and that was the reason I'd bought the books in the first place. I needed to know what was fact and what was fiction because surely, the abilities that vampires had in films or fiction had to come from somewhere. 

I had so many questions that I wanted to ask but I was scared that he would react badly. I didn't know anything about him other than this name. He was a murderer for god sake, how do I know he hasn't killed people just for fun? I may still be the top of his murder list for all I know. Curiosity killed the cat as people say, and in my situation, that statement couldn't have been any more true. One wrong word could result in me becoming a vampire's next meal. 

Although he hadn't been too horrible to me lately, the fact still remained that he had kidnapped me and was refusing to let me go. So, obviously, I didn't want to get to trusting in him. I doubt that would be a possibility but I couldn't be too sure. The man was a psychopath. 

It wasn't long until I realised just how psychopathic he is. Two hours after I'd stopped reading having finished chapter one, I heard doors slamming and what sounded like a man yelling. I couldn't understand what the man was saying; it was too muffled. I wanted to go down and have a look but the door was locked.