Livings Harder Than You Think

~Intro~

"Has anyone ever told you that you should try and get a tan?"

That sentence was one Damien Schmarotzer heard very often. With his colourless skin and eyes so brown they had no pupil, he was often told that he should work on a tan, or that he looked ill. Everyday when people came through to talk to the funeral director, they would take a double take at the man stood in front of them. Yes he always wore a suit the colour of his hair, fancy dress shoes tied as to make sure that the laces would not drag amongst the floor, his aroma as fresh as mint and had always sported a wooden necklace with a cross on, but that didn't mean he was not to have a happy personality. Despite their thoughts.

Damien was 27 years old... Well he was 400 and odd but in mortal years he looked like he was in his late twenties, which his life long friends envied. He looked like the youngest out of them all, despite actually being the second oldest. He was born in East Europe but travelled around frequently in his youth. Roughly around the time he reached Germany, he was turned. He hadn't expected it, he was knocked out in a church just after his mother's burial. She was the last one of his surviving family. Or at least of who she had ever mentioned.

Yet after that night, the full moon shining above him, the last thing he remembered was his pale face falling against the damp grass and the noise of two emotionless laughs. One female and one male. He came too, a few hours later, and he was in the graveyard behind the church. Blood was dripping down his neck- his eyesight blurry with the blood loss- but just before he fainted once more, he saw the silhouette of a young man falling down onto all fours and running deep within the forest. He knew he must have been delusional from sustaining an injury, but that memory stuck with him for centuries onwards.

Ever since then, he had always avoided churches. He had grown up as a Christian, he still was, but that didn't mean he would ever go back to one of those dreadful buildings. Nevertheless, he still prayed twice a day and wore a wooden cross around his neck. Even when he took the necklace off, the imprint of the Christian symbol was burned into his skin, as all crosses caused vampires to cringe away and burn if one was made into contact on their skin.

That was one thing that always annoyed Damien. No matter what century he was in, everyone managed to get vampire folklore incorrect. Sometimes he felt like just shouting, "We can go in sunlight! It just depends on how we are exposed and the temperature, you uncultured swines!" But he didn't, he never did. Instead his eyebrows would furrow and his eyes would dart from human to human. He hadn't come across any other vampires when he moved back to Scotland for his business. But he did find some other paranormal creatures, whom he befriended quite soon after the nineteenth century.

Considering his abnormal appearance, which unsettled anyone who laid eyes upon him, Damien had a rather optimistic personality. He would always give a polite smile and joke around. He never took things serious and made fun of his friends that did. He had always been the one to make jokes and cause mischief, everyone else would be the ones to take care of him. If he was ever quiet or sad, people were immediately concerned. For the business he had, most would say he wasn't cut out for it,but it never actually weighed down on his mind.

He had always been a messy person, never having the patience to withstand something including time and effort, instead he would just rush through things and spend the rest of his time joking around. He was much more of the kind of human to procrastinate up until the project was due in, that would be the time Damien would attempt at it. But no-one would change it, because that's just how Damien is, and that's how he would always be.

He had a noticeable English accent. His words would roll of off plush, peach lips and come out with a voice like honey. He spoke with a flourish and was very noble. His words were like the ones of William Shakespeare. As though he was quoting from Hamlet all times of the day. Sometimes people found his way of speaking annoying, others found it fascinating. But most would find it unusual, and instead, we're scared of that fact that they found themselves wanting to hear more. His very words could turn a man into a quivering mess. Yet instead of using it for his advantages, Damien decided to be quiet and only use his voice for when he was spoken to. If it wasnt for that, he would never be heard.