The Chapters of Eve

Eve

Preface

'In Un'altra Vita'. Eve plays it effortlessly; every note hit perfectly as the sound resonates around the grand hall. 'In Un'altra Vita' is Italian; it means in another life. It is Eve's favourite piece of music, she loves its power and its unrelenting ability to move her, in spite of all this it pains her to play it. For Eve, there is never to be any other life; she has lived many lifetimes and time has not left a mark on her. This is her life, her one life, her only life; time means nothing to her, and there is so little and so much of it. Man has pondered eternity for eons, but no mortal will ever know, not like Eve knows. She knows only too well the nature of eternity, and she often questions her own existence and the very point of existing if eternity is all there is. What is hereafter for an immortal? Eve has everything and nothing at all, everything but the one thing she desires most. Her beauty radiates and turns heads; her penetrating emerald green eyes transfix those caught in her stare. She knows what she is; and that it is inescapable. She is an immortal, a vampire; frozen in time and never moving forward. Those who share her genus embrace immortality; the world belongs to them, yet they hide away, moving in the shadows and cutting a bloody swathe throughout history. It is their world, they believe, yet their numbers do dwindle in comparison to man; for this reason they live cautiously, concealing their nature from man. Eve is bound by her nature, it is all she has, and so she sits there caressing the piano keys with her cold fingers, beaming the sounds of Ludovico Einaudi into the vast empty room. This is what eternity means to her: empty rooms, shuttered and dank. It has been an age since she truly felt the joy of the kill or the thrill of the hunt. She is all she has.

Lineage

Kievan Rus was the name given to the first United East Slavic State, which was founded by Oleg of Novgorod in 880. Oleg was the Varangian Prince, who ruled over many of the Rus’ people, who were fellow Varangians. It is said that Oleg’s death was foretold by pagan priests, who said he would take death from his stallion. The prince was fearful of this prediction and sent his horse away. Many years later Oleg requested the remains of his old horse, he was taken to a pile of old bones and dirt. He stood over the bones triumphant, believing he had cheated death. He bent down and picked up the skull, he raised it to his face; before he could drop it, a viper leapt from within the skull and sank its fangs into the Varangian Prince. Oleg died from his injuries, the story of his death became vampire lore, and it is said that the very first vampires were able to shape shift, assuming the guise of any animal they desired. The Varangian people often spoke of serpents creeping into their towns, killing children in their beds. They sought to put an end to this horror by killing every snake in the land, little did they know, the apparition that haunted them could assume human form too. Eve’s father was a shape shifter, a trait carried only by males. Eve’s parents were both pure bloods, both long dead now. Eve doesn’t remember her early years very well; she was born in 1050, quite how she was born, nobody knows, as vampire pregnancy is impossible. However, her parents were not just vampires; they were pure bloods capable of unimaginable terror and destruction. It is said that the pure bloods simply disappeared into the earth, for centuries vampires have searched for them, but nothing has ever been found. All that is left of the ‘old ones’ is relics and texts that are indecipherable and ambiguous. What is commonly accepted among the vampire community today is that Eve is the oldest and purest among them. Eve cannot shape shift, but she did inherit strength that no vampire can match, as well as a mind as dark and endless as the night sky.

 The Hunt

The moon is vast this night and it engulfs the silent sky. Eve stares out at the city below her; she is stood in her favourite spot that overlooks Tallinn, the moonlight shimmers against her pale skin. Standing atop a ten story building, she observes... She observes the world beneath her, like an owl surveying the woodland floor for its prey. She takes in a giant whiff of air, and within seconds she is scaling rooftops with deadly speed and majestic agility. An endless longing has brought her to this place, to this moment, she quickens her pace and within seconds she has leapt from the ten story building, her eyes closed as she glides down to the ground, within seconds she has landed with ease. Standing before her is the most unfortunate of prey. Covered from head to toe in tribal tattoos and piercings, is the hulking figure of the man Eve has been tracking. Unaware of the phantom watching him, he continues counting the money in his hands. A young girl approaches him, gaunt and emaciated, she trembles as she hands him what seems to be every penny she has. The mascara stains down her cheek suggest she has been crying, the bruise on her face suggests why. The gangster takes the money from the girl and hands her a small bag. Eve, who is concealed by the shadows, can smell the drugs in the bag as easily as she can smell the desperation and fear pouring out of the youngster. The fragile girl  hobbles away and wanders off into the unforgiving night-time tundra. The gangster, unconcerned by her welfare stuffs the cash in his pocket; he feels a breeze behind him and turns around. He watches as Eve moves from the shadows into the rays of the dimly lit streetlight. He looks at her, smiles wickedly, God only knows what he is thinking, but before the creep can even speak, Eve attacks. Her eyes turn a blinding green as she slams him against the wall and buries her fangs into his throat. His huge arms and massive chest fail pitifully against her. There is no struggle, there is no scream, the gangster is dead within seconds, and Eve’s endless longing has been appeased... for now.