The Eternal Vampire

As I Lay Dying

The night I met Tristan and his lover Isolde was both the best and the worst night of my life.

It was the last time I saw Julie, the girl I loved, the girl I wanted to marry. I had no idea that this was the night she would be taken from me.

It started out as one of those enchanted nights in a relationship. We'd gone to watch a basketball game and afterwards we took a slow, romantic walk home. We strolled slowly, kissing in alleys, our hands all over each other. I was so hot for her that I was ready to drag her into a darkened doorway and have her right there. I had it all planned: I'd take her back to my frat house, we'd make love, and then I'd propose.

We heard some people walking behind us but paid no attention. Our basketball team was having an exceptional year and each game practically sold out. There were people walking all over campus, you could hear them talking about the game, or debating where to go to celebrate. I wasn't worried about the footsteps, not until it was too late.

Everything changed in an instant. There were four of them; two with guns, two with wicked-looking knives. As Julie and I offered our wallets the tallest one smiled, and aimed his "Glock" and gut shot me, a guarantee that if I didn't get help soon, I'd bleed to death.

I lay waiting to die, helpless, as they surrounded Julie. I could not move or cry out for help as I listened to the sounds of tearing clothes and Julie screaming. Then, after a while, the sound of a gunshot and deathly silence.

I wanted more than anything to curl up next to Julie's body and die at her side. Instead, I lay paralyzed and bleeding as our assailants ran down the alley and I saw the ruins of my Julie lying there. I began to weep like a child. I should be dead, like her, with her. Why was I still alive?

"You are alive so you can avenge her death." A stranger appeared at my side, out of nowhere, and answered my thoughts. He had curly blond hair and even in the alley his complexion had a pale luminescence. He squatted down next to me and stroked my forehead. He seemed like an angel with his pale blue eyes, an angel who had come to rescue me.

"You're dying, mon ami, but I can help you if you're willing to pay the price," his English had an accent—French? Who was he? How had he read my mind? But he was offering me a chance to salvage the life that was slowly fading out of me. I wanted to live and pay those bastards back more than anything in the world. But what did he mean by "pay the price"?

He ruffled his curls, "I can help you get vengeance, or better still, give you the tools to get your vengeance. And you will have eternal life or eternal life as I know it. It will be both rewarding and a curse, but I think you would find it worth your while. You could make those barbarians pay, if that is what you want. But I need your consent: you must be ready to accept the consequences of your choice, and there will be consequences."

"Consequences?" What did he mean? All I knew for certain was that my life was bleeding out of me, and I didn't want to die. I didn't know what he planned to do, but he was offering to save me. I was only 20, I wasn't ready to die. I was half dead, and this beautiful angel in the half-lit alley was offering me life, and what I wanted the most--a way to avenge Julie. I was all for that, I didn't even stop to consider what that price might be.

"I'll have to be careful, he's hanging by a thread," I heard him murmur as he picked up my dying body like I was a child, and held me close. Suddenly I felt something sharp sticking into my neck. I didn't know what was happening, the pain was intense and I fought him at first, but I was far too weak and gave in. I wouldn't have cared if he was the Devil himself, I was dying and he was offering me a chance to live.

Suddenly he propped me up, and then bit his own wrist. "You must drink," he urged and pushed his wrist to my mouth. What he asked seemed strange and I turned my head from him. He was insistent, telling me I had to drink or I'd die, so I gave in and began to suck the blood flowing from his wrist.