Vampire Underdogs

Epilogue

Whatever you see in the movies, it is not true. We are not the dangerous predators of the night, the demons that suck the blood out of your living body. We are not the fallen angels that move like shadows through the city streets. Truth is, we are nothing more than stray dogs, beasts that have to hide and move from place to place, restless, for we have to remain hidden and unknown. Otherwise, we would die soon, and all the immortality and the so-called dark gift that runs in our blood could not change that. Ever watched those modern Mobster movies, those where you take a look into the life of a lowlife criminal, not some big shot from the top? Those where the protagonist has to break up parking meters for change? We are those lowlife mobsters, caught in the suds of a dark legend that has been told for hundreds of years. The only difference, the twisted turn that makes our story kind of special, for you at least: We are - if you haven't figured it out yet - Vampires.

I am writing this lines in a summer morning, and I know that I will be dead soon. I will wait for the sun, let myself burn down to the ashes and the wind will blow me away. You know, that is the only reason I have the courage to write this down. And maybe it is not courage but pure urge, because it is the only thing that will remain after I am gone. I turned a few years ago. I am no old Vampire that has seen the fall and rise of empires, I have never seen those golden years, when Vampires lived with humans and enjoyed each other's company, and I honestly believe that this is pure fiction and that there are no ancient Vampires, powerful as walking gods and vengeful, when someone just dared to break the rule of silence. We die too soon, that is a fact. Of starvation, by the hand of hunters, although I have never seen one single of them, or simply because we turn mad, or tired. And this is the point I have reached. But back in the days when I just turned, I believed all of it: I feared the hunters, our ancient ancestors, even the humans. The immortality I received was a gift so precious that I was too afraid to take any risks of losing it. I became a Vampire in a cold night in October, which was kind of symbolic for me, because my birthday as a human was in that month as well. The dark gift was a rebirth I never asked for, I never even believed in it, but it had come to me in a time when I was more than eager to receive it. In that night I was on drugs, that much I remember, but simply because there was almost no night that time around when I was not on drugs. Dropout, no job, no girlfriend, living on welfare, you get the picture of me, right? I spent the evening in a club, Friday night. The weekends were the highlights of a life that consisted mainly of rewatching all the stuff on YouTube I had already seen before. 

And then I saw her. Now, she was the real thing, one of those sights you could easily put in an epic film about Vampire Lords and bloodlust, not one of those shiny pussies from Twilight. She moved like a cat, that was the first thing I noticed about her. And I watched her, man, I watched her the whole night as I was standing like a brain-dead zombie in a dark corner. In retrospective, I have to thank the drugs I smashed in my body, otherwise I would never have had the boldness to approach her, or to even speak to her. But I did. I don't know if she ever liked me, to be honest. I liked her though. A lot. Even when I turned, when I was the same being as her, the same stuff of legends told in pitch-black nights, she remained a beautiful demon to me, a distant goddess, a mistery. And I never forgot those yellow eyes I stared into that night for the first time. Can't really remember what we talked about. Or if we even talked. I probably mumbled some nonsense. My mind began to fade away as soon as I stood next to her to be honest. Not because of the drugs, as I first thought, but because of some Vampire shit she did to me. I realised that much later. You see, that girl I met in that shady club that night was not just your every-day Vampire girl - she was older, much older than anyone I met later. She was serious business. And she was hungry and you know, that was probably the only reason she picked me. The gift I used to talk about was no gift at all, it was luck. She fucked up I guess, her bite did not kill me. Maybe the pills I had taken kept my pulse beating just long enough to turn. I was not a chosen one, I was a mistake. And my yellow-eyed creator, the goddess with the black hair, the long legs, that special snowflake with the pointed teeth and the snow-white skin, well - she left me alone to die in a dark alley. And, to give you an honest image of my glorous first night as undead creature, she put my body into a dumpster, which was, ironically, my rescue. Kept me hidden from the sun. I woke up after a long delirium in the following night, not knowing what had happened to me. Although, I sensed something big had happened. Which you actually wouldn't believe normally when you wake up in a smelly container and in between garbage, old cigarettes and empty bottles. 

But there was it, my new life. Not quite suitable for a creature of the night, a walking nightmare, a predator from the depths of hell, right? Well, I was offered nothing more than that. And when I stick out my head from that dumpster that was my incubator, I saw the night. And that was it. The sun was gone for me. But back then, when I barely could walk and a million scents overwhelmed my nose and all shades of black tired my eyes, I didn't know that yet. She had to explain it to me.