Immortal Dreams (Revised)

1: The Other World

SEQUENCE 1

(Mathius' point of view)

Not too far outside of Queens, New York sat an abandoned construction project, a subdivision of houses left to rot from a failed economic era, where times were harder and things had begun to change. I lived in one of those abandoned houses, alone. There were another few people that grouped up around here, but I was sure I most likely scared them off a long time ago. I couldn't blame them.

I wasn't like other people. I stayed up late most nights doing whatever fancied me that evening, but most of the time I was just looking for blood. Most nights I would go out on the town, find some dark alley and wait for people to stumble across me, where I would promptly catch them off guard and suck as much blood from their body as I reasonably could. I was a vampire, and for better or worse, this is what I had to do to survive.

You could argue it wasn't all bad. Sure I was cooped up all day because the sun almost literally made my skin crawl, but I was immortal, and on top of that, I could control fire at will, which was great considering I lived in a cold damp house with no heating. This was just where I had to live though, if I didn't the crowd that would surround me every day would be far too enticing to pass up, and I would probably go crazy. Instead I settled with sitting here in the bay window of what I assumed would be a living room, staring out into the rain, at the glowing lights of New York City in the distance, and to that sight, I fell asleep against the cold glass.

I had a dream of who was once my family, before they were killed all that time ago. My sister Hesper and I were playing a game of truth or dare, it was late, we were children, and we had nothing better to do.

"Okay, I thought of one, Mathius!" She cheered, coming out of a slump she'd been in as she thought of something to say, pushing her sun colored hair out of her eyes. "Who do you like?" she asked, an unmistakable smile across her face as she eagerly awaiting my answer.

I immediately felt my cheeks fill with heat, causing my sister to laugh, falling over on her back with a single large inhale. I stammered for a few seconds before Hesper eventually prying it out of me with a few of her buttery words. "It's Martha... Martha Bletcher, alright?" I tried to squeeze out as sincerely as I could, my wits failing me as I immediately hung my head in shame.

Hesper bolted up from the floor and nearly laughed again. "Her?! Ole' Belcher?!" She could no longer contain herself and busted into laughter again, and I couldn't help but chuckle a little myself. I snapped back to my wit however, realizing it was my turn to pry from her, and in classic Hesper fashion, just like her older brother, picked truth.

I woke up to another growl of my stomach. I sat up, my stomach not the only thing aching with pain, that's what I deserved for falling asleep in the window sill though. I looked out the window to notice the rain had passed. The thought of heading out to grab a bite of actual food overcame my trains of thought, so I agreed with it, grabbing my long trench coat from the back of a chair and slipped on my boots, stepping out into the post-storm calm, the air still humid, but not warm. A single wind blew past me, sending my coat into a flail as I stepped along the gravel path to the road I would follow into the city.

I admired my small little village on my way, inspecting every half-finished house, completely empty, with tons of structurally important aspects missing. But this is where I lived, in my own little place, my own small paradise, away from the temptation of blood. The corpses I work on in the city's morgue gave me enough to satisfy myself for a while. It didn't matter, though, I shrugged off the enclosing sense of isolation and continued my march to the city.

The actual city of Queens was bustling, it was still mid-day so there were plenty of people out, but at least it was just rained, so there was a significant drop in population, for now. I walked down 36th Avenue, looking for anything to fill my belly for the evening. I eyed a few vegetarian restaurants before visibly snarling and continuing on my way. It wasn't until a bright neon sign featuring a pig with a dirty pip caught my eye that I decided to stop. Max's Meatery the sign read.