the definitive guide to vampires

…introduction to this guide.

so you’ve dug deep into the story, also maybe you managed to have a look over the first 10 things you should know about vampires list.
however, the story and the list does not even begin to explain how deep everything goes and, in the same time, fishing details out of

Bathory crest – notice the merge of the two sigils inside.

the story can be [I know] confusing at times.

so that’s why I have decided to write this article as a definitive guide to vampires in which you will find everything you need to know about vampires, up to and including how to deal with one, what can she do and what can’t she do, how is a vampire made and how can you kill a vampire. [ oh this sounds so dumb and naive for some, I’m aware, but I have no other way to put it – it is what it is ].

I know – I’m 100% aware that if it was me, reading this text right here, a few years ago I would have either thought to myself: well this is a nice fantasy story, or I would have smiled and laughed at how naive some people are for believing and writing these kinds of things.

Frankly, I couldn’t care less whether you believe me or not. I don’t care if you take this guide and the lists seriously, I don’t care if you regard the story as reality or fiction. I’m glad you’re reading it. I know – some people would rather believe “Dracula” the novel. I mean let’s face it – who am I to step in and squash almost everything else ‘known’ about vampires?

Well, for one – Bram Stoker not only did never travel to Dracula’s homeland, but he never actually studied anything related to vampires. All his information was gathered from libraries. I might not have his talent in writing, but I have the knowledge.

Not only did I travel to Dracula’s homeland, but I was born in the town where he was born. I grew up there, I played, partied and went to school around his house. I played in the cemeteries and castles of Transylvania and yes, some of them really are as spooky as they are in movies, just not for people who grew up seeing Dracula’s citadel out the window. Like me.

And one more thing: whether you take this guide seriously or not, I assure you – it will be more than useful for the few unlucky ones out there. Because they do walk among us, and you better know what you’re up against.

…the image of vampires in the 21st century.

The vampire today has been softened and modeled and remodeled by countless books and movies in mass-media. We have been brainwashed and have absolutely no idea anymore about what it is and what does it represent. We don’t know whether they are afraid of garlic or vervain, whether they burn or implode. We don’t know whether holy water works or if they even exist at all!

And who do you think made all this possible? Why all of a sudden, over the course of 10 years, vampires became SO well-known and SO changed – turned from bloodsucking monsters to sex symbols – starting with Anne Rice’s book.

They did. Yes. I’m not being paranoid.

I won’t start saying that, well,I know because they told me directly because that would not be true, at least in part. That would be like the president of the US telling me, and just me, personally, that aliens visit Earth. Fake and gay some would put it.
You should be aware that the vampires, before mass-media explosion, were very much feared, hunted and there were countless vampire hysteria cases where villages, whole regions started killing and hunting vampire actively.

Ireland has such a case even in the 7th century, then in the 8th and all the way up to the 14th century. Countless bodies were found with stones in their mouth for apparently preventing the fangs to come out. The stones were inserted prior to their death experts say.

This is the link to the news coverage.

The same happened in Italy, in the 16th century Venice, and also in Florence later. A female body was found with an exact stone like that in her mouth, inserted prior to death, to prevent her from feeding.

This is the link for that.

There are many more cases like these. The witch hunts are nothing compared to the vampire craze. All the way leading up to the 19th century and beyond, there have been groups of people, societies and organizations that actively hunted for vampires. There have been many vampire epidemics over and over again. The most famous cases are those of Peter Plogojowitz and Arnold Paole in the 18th century. There’s so much information about those two that I can’t decide on what to link here, so I will leave you to search for them if interested. I will invite a guest writer who has already composed a very complex and hefty list of the most known such accounts. I don’t really care for them to be honest.

The vampire belief in today’s Transylvania is very much alive and still going as it did hundreds of years ago. As recent as 2004 (as I was saying in another post) there have been active vampire hunts and killings. The case of Petre Toma (reported by The Guardian, The Sunday Times, Daily News and CNN) who was exhumed and then staked, heart removed and burned to assure his death.

…how and why did the image change.

Someone, at some point, in the vampire world, decided that enough is enough, and rather than living in secrecy, they should approach the “make them not fear us anymore”. And they succeeded. You have to think about it – someone who has been around for hundreds of years has not only has the knowledge but also the connections and power to control and do whatever she wants, including but not limited to influencing Hollywood. Vampires sit in the shadows of the world’s most important organizations and no, they shouldn’t be feared. Because they do not mean humanity harm, they were human once. They just want what we all want: privacy.

That assumption is based on what? Nothing. I don’t have any proof. I just see what’s out there and try to put two and two together. I have seen things, which cannot playback for you on video, because I’m not a VCR, and I have overheard things, which even if recorded, would make no difference for a skeptic. We’ve been arguing on which religion is right and wrong, failing to see that religion is not based on which god is greater or bigger, or the true one, and it’s just pure geography. If you’re born in a certain part of the world you’ll be more likely to have another religion than you would have otherwise [in other place]. Think Europe vs. Asia.

And more on the matter, and this is a quote whose author is escaping my mind right now, we fail to see the irony of men cutting each other’s throats for millenia because they fail to agree on what happens after they cut each other’s throats.
There have been centuries and centuries of vampire hunts and epidemics and then, all of a sudden, they weren’t monsters anymore, they were sex symbols. Interesting enough how that can change. You got to love PR. I’m wondering why the devil isn’t a sex symbol yet, he’s been around for more than a few centuries, I guess it’s about time, right? Right – but nobody has an interest in doing that. But someone had an interest in doing that for vampires.

…who is the vampire expert?

The short answer is: anyone can be a vampire expert. I do not proclaim myself a vampire expert but I try to present them as they are. A true scientist presents its sources. I’m not a true scientist.

You have to pull your head out of your ass and look around you at what’s happening. This is the 21st century, you have to forget Van Helsing. You don’t need to be dressed in Victorian clothes with a monocle and have a vampire kill kit with stakes and holy water in it to be a vampire expert. You don’t need to live in the vampire world. You don’t need old books and manuscripts. Vampire themselves use iPads (LOL – I KNOW RIGHT?!) so why would we chase old manuscripts for “confirming our suspicions” ? Regina herself often used an iPad, although I felt the paranoia in her all the time.

And can you blame her?
Anyway, I don’t know in what way was it used.
So don’t look at them as being technologically impaired, on the contrary, they need to keep up with technology, for many reasons.

All you need to be a vampire expert is first hand access in seeing and/or talking with a vampire. Because, let’s face it: the moment you have that, you have more than 99.9% of the human population, which makes you an expert above everyone else.

…vampirism and vampire characteristics.

Vampirism is not magic, it is not a disease (well at least I don’t consider it) but it does behave like a retrovirus. I don’t know what it is, but I’m pretty sure it has something to do with altering genetic code.

A dead person is a dead person and that’s it. If blood is not flowing and electricity is not generated, life does not exist. Vampires are not dead. Why is it so hard to comprehend that? Why is it so difficult when you have first hand proof that there are creatures which live solely on blood (leeches, mosquitoes and others) and there are creatures who undergo a total transformation to become from A to B (like silk worms and butterflies among others).

Why is it so hard to comprehend that the human body is the most complex in all of nature – and with that complexity other things follow, because the more complex it is – the more room for change. The only true difference right now separating you from vampires is your lack of better-to-instant healing, which could also mean rapid cell regeneration, translated easily into immortality. Of course vampires are more than that, but if you know at least the bit of evolution studies, then you know that nature does not change according to inhabitants, but inhabitants adapt according to needs, which are created in turn by nature itself. In the same way humans evolved to have speech, vampires might have evolved to have retractable fangs – which are more than present in nature.

…characteristics.

• A vampire has the strength of 20 men, be it woman or child. A vampire’s strength depends on a number of factors. The most important factor is the way in which she was made, which will be the next point I will make. The second most important factor is the bloodline. Another important factor comes after that, which is age. A vampire’s strength also depends on muscles, yes, they do have muscles and a big muscular vampire is stronger than a child, however that becomes unimportant if the child is of a superior bloodline and older. Other smaller factors include but are not limited to: how often a vampire feeds, how much sunlight she received in the short-term past and the type of blood she drinks (some humans have more nutritious blood than others).
• A vampire’s main diet is human blood. She can survive on animal blood, but because many animals are rather different from humans and have totally different diets, their blood does not contain all the nutrition that a human (or vampire) body requires. A human couldn’t survive just on animal blood also, but she could survive on human one – if we could digest it.
• A vampire’s strength also translates into increased speed. They run very fast and very far without stopping. They can sprint even faster and then have to slow down. In other words: exhaustion exists. A vampire is not a blur when she runs and she does not have the speed of sound. She’s just that much faster than a human. She can get tremendous speeds, but nothing close to the limits of physically impossible. The stronger she is the faster she runs. When a vampire really wants speed, she will combine running with small jumps, or hops if you wish. Watch a cheetah running and you will know exactly what I’m talking about. It’s that split second when none of the four limbs touch the ground, they don’t run on four limbs, but hop just high enough for that extra push. A vampire can jump high, much higher than a human being, but only because her muscles allows that and because she is leaner, easier and has more training. It’s not flying.
• A vampire’s circulatory system is not similar to a human one. Her veins and arteries do not carry the main blood supply, instead they have double or triple the number of small capillary veins which flow through the muscles. Human muscles have little to no blood flow, compared to other parts of the body, but a vampire’s main blood supply flows through the muscles. This is also why wounding a vampire is not that serious, because the contraction of the area instantly closes the bleeding – and healing does the rest in no-time.
• A vampire can see better in the dark, much better, but only when she is in attack/defense or feed stance. The pupils dilate considerably, gaining a reddish tint. The extreme dilation causes more light to pass through and make them literally night stalkers. This is why also their eyes, in that stance, can glow much like the ones of large predators.
• A vampires sense of smell and hearing are somewhat improved, but only as much as the body allows it to. They do not grow extra ears or extra eardrums, they do not grow extra olfactory cells. They just use the existing ones to the max, be it because of their healing capacities or general alternation of the genetic code. Humans don’t use them at maximum, like we don’t use anything at maximum. A vampire can push pretty much any part of her body at maximum, but not for infinity. You can catch a vampire with her guard down, with hearing and smelling tuned down. In the sunlight, many vampires are just like humans. Preferring to conserve all their strength into healing power, rather than hearing or smelling.
• A vampire is not afraid or repelled by crosses, holy water, garlic or silver. These are myths and inventions. Just like you are not being harmed by them, vampires aren’t also. There’s also no flower and no vervain that kills, weakens or makes them more visible.
• A vampire cannot get drunk and drugs or poisons have no effect on them. It’s related to their ability to instant heal. They aren’t strong enough, no matter the quantity. Along the same lines, a vampire’s blood is that much different and contains that much different minerals, plus the healing ability, that diseases do not affect them. Be it because of their difference or because of their ability to heal. Think of inter-species diseases – they are less frequently passed on, and when they are – it’s a big problem. For a vampire, even if she contracts something by ingesting the blood, the virus passing into the bloodstream is highly unlikely, and if that happens, it will be dead because of the healing ability long before the vampire realizes she even had a disease to begin with.
• Vampires can be killed by decapitation, prolonged exposure to intense fire and by piercing their heart for an amount of time that will allow decomposition. Because the heart cannot heal while a sword is still inserted, it starts decomposing and by the time you pull out the sword, it will not start again. However this takes several days. A short-term staking does not work. Also shooting a vampire just wounds her, even if the shot is in the head. The wound heals and the bullet is often (but not always) expelled out as a foreign body. Vampires shot in the head lose consciousness for several minutes to an hour, depending on the vampire. You have to understand that this apparent indestructibility is not that great, it is only because of their ability to actively dodge hits and then, if they don’t, because of their ability to heal. The only thing you need to do is figure out how to overcome their ability to heal fast. Be creative. Also, they really hate guns. I bet if someone could make a true statistic, it will reveal that vampires are much less prevalent in countries pro-guns, like the U.S. Sorry teenage girls waiting for Edward.
• A vampire does not shape-shift, at least not physically. I have observed that many, but not all, prefer a certain animal or have a certain attachment to a type of animal. Regina enjoyed cats and snakes (figures). Also, the animals apparently behave funny (curios – angry – confused) when near a vampire taking the stance of the respective animal. Trust me, you wouldn’t like to meet a vampire who likes wolves, because wolves really love biting stuff and are really edgy (paranoid?). Clue: Viktoria. Physically, they don’t shape-shift, ever. Not into a bat and not into anything else. She doesn’t turn into mist or dust. A vampire is inside the same body for eternity and nothing can bend the laws of physics so much that will allow a vampire to rearrange every single atom in her body in a matter of seconds. No.
• A vampire can and will grow new limbs and organs. This takes a considerable amount of time and blood, months in some cases. Vital organs, if damaged or removed, can kill a vampire unless she has a steady supply of blood while regenerating fully. Which is often impossible if she cannot hunt. Friends are a no-go. Given the example of a missing kidney, that would be nothing. Other organs have their functions reduced or stopped, but others are more important. A vampire needs to breathe but can overcome this by drinking fresh blood (straight from another breathing body) and can also hold her breath for a considerable amount of time (order of hours) – but in the end she will die – lack of food will slow and then stop cell regeneration.
• A vampire cannot mind control you, but has the training and the charisma necessary of steering your intentions and impressions on certain subject, as much as you could call it “influencing”. It highly depends on the circumstances and the human involved. Cross-sex influencing obviously, is preferred. You can control this and resist it. A vampire is only as strong in your mind as you let it to be. Even fear works for a vampire, the more afraid you are the higher her chances of making you do something you don’t want to. However, no vampire can mind control you to enjoy being bit, if you don’t accept the bite.
• Vampires do not associate with one another, do not form secret societies and prefer to keep from themselves. Ever heard the saying “don’t go into business with friends and family” ? They are ahead of times, technological wise, and are not old style as you would think. They need to blend in and act as normal as possible. There are few cases in which a vampire creates a mate for him – as in – turns a human into a vampire – but this is just a relationship which is often a love/hate one. The last part doesn’t really belong here, but it connects to the fact that: you can, although rarely, encounter vampire families, usually just two members, which goes against the “no association” idea. As you can see, human or vampire, “it’s complicated”.
• Vampires can and do make love. They can have children, although they can control whether to have one or not (it is a conscious choice). Most prefer not to, because the child born is a moroi – a half-breed, but only until he gets older. As time passes, all moroi become rang one vampires. The differences are obvious only in young vampires.
• Young vampires are very much like humans. Fifty percent of a vampires strength come from her mind, from her knowledge, from what she learned and what she knows. From her age. Most have training in vast fields from mathematics to music, fighting and preaching, public speaking (yes, you read that right), and any other field you might think off. They get bored I presume, with all the time they have an everything. Instead, you would be, tomorrow, the same person you are today, if you would be turned in this second. Except the small biological changes. You will not be able to easily kill anyone or be that strong for that matter. Time makes you a vampire, biology just helps.
• There are two types of vampires, genetically the same, and in the long run they assimilate, however they differentiate at younger ages ( up to 100 years). The two types are strigoi (rang one, superior vampire) and moroi (inferior, rang two vampire).
  
  1.)A rang one vampire is a vampire who has been made the proper way. A way which presumes both her and the maker being vulnerable and unconscious for an amount of time, in this case, the maker risks and cannot do it often from biological reasons also. The maker is drained almost entirely of blood. The older the maker and the better the bloodline, the stronger the turned human will be, even from her first day. The main advantage of first rang vampires is that, given the possibility, they can match their makers strength and bloodline, which is risky. As such, few makers take the chance of creating first rang vampires. It is a privilege given only to the few.2.) An inferior rang vampire, a moroi, is either a vampire born (a child vampire), either a made one. In both cases, it is the same. An inferior rang vampire’s disadvantage is that she is looked down upon and she is much weaker than a superior one, but only in the short-term. An inferior rang vampire is made easily, by the same procedure but with much less blood exchange and without a direct bite from the human, with no consequences, after effects or losses of consciousness. In her first years, an inferior vampire is vulnerable, needs to feed much more often, has a much higher degree of weakness in the sunlight and does not posses the ability to heal to such extent as a superior. She will also get older, for 5 up to 10 years, after which the transformation is complete, aging stops and ability to heal matches the superior rang vampires. In the long run, on the course of 100 years, a superior rang vampire and an inferior rang vampire will match in everything, except status and strength – because in many cases, superior ones are of a better bloodline and made by a stronger and older maker. However, inferiors or ‘critters’ have often managed to successfully defeat and kill a superior. It’s not something unseen before and it is common.
• There is a Codex Strigis from which vampires learn all of the above, plus much more. It is a well-kept book, accessible at will only to the few influential ones and the queen herself. It is written in Latin and it is a guide-book and law-book for vampires. Codex Strigis translates into “The vampire book” or “Book of vampire” or “Vampire bible”. Among the most important rules in the book are the laws which state that no vampire will ever enter a home without permission (this is not magic, it is a rule by which they live, they obey purely out of – something – the degree of obedience and respect for the Codex and the elders is astonishing) and no vampire, under any circumstance, will make himself willingly and fully known to a human unless:
  a) she plans on killing the human or
  b) she plans on turning the human in the very near future
  Same book also explicitly says that any turning must be done with the spoken accord of the human. No human will be turned without accepting by his own consent, unhindered and not forced. The book is, as most things, rare, unheard of and kept under heavy guard. A truck of diamonds doesn’t hold the value of that book. It was written eons ago and since then, unlike our christian bible, it suffered alterations and additions, times change – the book changes. It needs to. IT is something meant to be helpful, not hindering. Nothing in it resembles the kind of circular logic we find in the bible, such as “it’s good because I say it’s good”.
• A vampire does grow hair an nails like a human being but apparently, it adapts, and by repeated, dense and often trimming of the aforementioned, they grow slower and slower in time. As such, many vampires have a hard time changing appearance over the course of a month, but they can do it over the course of a year.
• A vampire cannot have piercings or tattoos, they are both absorbed or repelled. The healing power overcomes them. Hair dye works, yes.
• A vampire has a soul, a beating heart and a brain. She has a physical body and as such has a normal reflection in any mirror and also has no problems in taking photos, although you wouldn’t want to do that. You have to understand that a photo places a vampire at a certain place in a certain time, which can be detrimental to their needs. Very.
• A vampire drinks water – yes. More rarely than a human being because blood has a high percentage of water, but she does. Be it for physical need or mental need, a vampire does drink water. She does not die apparently from the lack of water over the course of months, however, there are no accounts of a vampire not drinking water for more than that.
• Please don’t ask me about ‘biological needs’.
• No, you can’t poison a vampire with cyanide.
• There is a constant search of magic power in the world of vampires, although this is as much of a secret for them as the vampire world is for us. There have been no proven accounts of a vampire using magic, but apparently they still search for it such as our search for immortality or cure to all diseases. Ironic.
• Vampires have no central authority except the queen, which is not actively present in their life. No throne and no ruling place, it is a nomadic life for her, chosen not imposed, in which troubled places are set to order one by one. News does not travel fast in vampire world, the need for secrecy makes it prone to sluggishness. Instead, authority and order is kept by self-discipline, obedience to the Codex Strigis, respect for the elders and the queen, and enforcing laws through the power of the elders present in the area, who often do more than necessary and even so – if overwhelmed – the queen and an elite few always manage to keep them straight. I have seen the madness of which Regina is capable, and I have seen her close companions in such a state also, like Viktoria, and it would take an army to stop them when they are angry.
  You have to understand – it is unlike anything you’ve ever seen. There is total devotion and obedience to the elders and especially the queen. Few know who the queen actually is, not because it is a secret, but because there is no need for telling, and from those few none dared threaten her after they had found out who are they up against. There is no need for an army or a police like in our society, they are few in numbers. I have overheard things and formed a clear picture of actual area numbers, I been going over those numbers, but by what I know about how each keeps from himself and needs that much space, if you would be to calculate for the whole human population, you would end with less than 150 vampires to each million humans. Do the math, that’s roughly a bit more than a million individuals. Such numbers are easy to control, their total number doesn’t even reach a medium-sized European capital city. So when you ask who is the authority then my answer is: they are their own authority, but when someone steps over the line, the elders and – if needed – the queen intervene.
• Vampires use the internet, yes, although they are mainly active on the deep web if you really must know.
• Vampires consider internet a weapon both against them and usable by them. They learned how to steer it in the right direction, just look over the stories, and you’ll see the “disinformation by over-information” method. This present guide is meant to set records straight.
• There is a free pass (no, not multi-pass, no Korben) in the vampire world. A free pass is a piece of paper, any paper, with a drop of blood on it. The free pass can only be given by a few known vampires, the oldest ones, and the queen, which rarely does. A free pass allows a vampire or a human (which rarely happens, but it does) to disobey any rule in the Codex Strigis for as long as she has the free-pass. As you can see, this is a powerful weapon and is rarely used. It is hushed and spoken under the breath, in the vampire world, that Vlad Tepes himself had a free pass, although most have no clue from whom. Nobody knows if there even was such a thing back then, or if there are vampires that old. One thing is sure, someone DID turn the oldest vampires that there are today, and that or those someone, haven’t been seen since. This free pass or  “libel” how is it called, is against the concept of organization vampires currently have. They prefer no means of authority being enforced upon them, but the free pass has been created out of a need. The free pass guarantees a vampire will not be held responsible for his actions and allows him the right to let the giver of the free pass to explain in his name, and also the free pass guarantees a human to live and speak freely in front of any vampire, inferior to the giver of the free pass, but not limited to. The free pass is often used only and only in the interest of the whole kinship, and not for personal reasons. It is strictly forbidden to ‘hire’ someone and give him a free pass. In such cases, the elder is held responsible by the next higher authority available, which is usually Viktoria, or Regina – and when that happens, you’re literally, royally fucked.
  The drop of blood on the free pass is identifiable by any vampire, by taste or smell, they can discern who the giver of the free pass is, if they previously met him.
• I keep saying ‘elder’ but not really say what is that. It is any vampire of superior rang that has more than a hundred years over the other vampire. As such, each vampire can have an leder, and be an elder in the same time. Much like your grandmother being your elder but the great-grandmother being both yours and your parents elder.
•  There have been vampire actors, writers, painters, singers, politicians, leaders and role-models, in the human world. Lately, there has been a change, surveillance today plays a big role and apparently going back in the shadows is a necessity. I agree.
• Vampires don’t sleep in coffins. No. Those are reserved for the dead. Vampires don’t sleep in the ground either. They sleep like you and me, and yes, they need sleep, although much less and by my observation, they are true batteries. Being able to put sleep off for several days and then recuperate by over-sleeping in the following days. I would bet that’s trained.
• Vampires have often been known to wake up exactly before sundown or be able to tell sunrise moment, even without looking outside. That is not biological, it is trained. Years and years of training have taught them exactly when the sun goes down and when it comes up, according to seasons, and they can often approximate pretty well what time it is, without a watch. However, a traveling vampire will have problems with this. Relocate a vampire from Greece to Norway and watch her get confused. It takes months to get accustomed, call it “jet-lag extreme” if you wish.
• Yes, vampires can cross running waters and don’t need to sleep ‘on the soil of their homeland’ – I don’t even have words to begin and understand where this crap came from.
• Vampires wash their teeth – I think it’s rather more of a habit or a hygienic, clean like feeling, rather than a necessity. Their teeth don’t get damaged. And no, not all vampires have perfect white teeth. The color of one’s teeth is more or less genetic. Yes, they also shower and everything else. I don’t know how many times should I point this out: they are by all means, or at least look like, more alike humans, rather than different. THEY NEED TO.
• It is true, yes, that many, older vampires, have a certain ‘stand-by mode’ in which they don’t move, not even flinch, they don’t move eyes, sometimes they even hold breath involuntarily. I call it ‘time out’ and I guess it’s their way of really relaxing. And trust me, it only happens in very, very safe conditions when there is very, very little chance of anything happening. They are more than aware that ‘bad things happen when you least expect them’ because they know this is logical, of course they ‘happen when you least expect them, because when you least expect them – it is then when you have your guards down – and that’s why they happen’ – and that’s a quote.

…vampire society.

They have very few principles by which they live on. They realize principles limit ones abilities. However, there have been hints of really strong moral values in the vampire world. Who would expect that?

They have no faith and no religion. They do not worship their elders or makers, instead they base everything on mutual respect. You have to understand, vampires live a very, very long life and they need respect and manners, because you meet the same people over different centuries and on the course of countless years. It would be very hard and very stressful to be enemy with someone over centuries. Not to mention deadly.

Vampires don’t know and don’t care who Bram’s Stoker Dracula was, but they do base apparently a lot of things on Vlad being the first vampire and most agree that the first vampires emerged in the Balkans and like the tales, some point to Transylvania and some to neighboring territories (read countries). The elders and the queen alike, agree on the existence of the old ones, the ones who made the queen herself, because she actually remembers him, but also older ones, the ones that basically ‘made the makers’ but are only fairly certain of one, yes, Vlad the Impaler.  Vlad’s grave has been opened (by the Romanian government, curiosity, yes) but it was empty.  Quite a shocker, right? This is verifiable by anyone. Nobody in history knows if and when, and where he died.

Many vampires, old and young, pay respects to Vlad’s birthplace and his burial place. That is why I met Regina. That is why she was in my home town, lucky me to have been born there (I guess). That is why the monastery where Vlad is was supposedly buried is in the middle of nowhere, on an island in the middle of a lake, off-limits for everyone, including high-ranking priests. Only a very obscure cult of monks stay there. It is called “Snagov island”. A very, very good article about it – from a visitor from Texas – is here. Vlad Tepes is seen as the savior of the west by the Romanians, and not as Dracula. He managed to keep the Turks at bay, for Romania was a buffer zone between muslim world and christian world for centuries. If you do read the article, do take note of ‘the caretaker forgot to tie the boat’ and the monk was so happy and friendly (unlikely for a monk), and when he heard about the boat, he plainly suggested to ‘spend the night there’. I have only once been there, and never again going back. The place is creepy as it is – but the monks – well those are something else. No idea what’s up with them and what are they guarding, but they are up to something. I would bet my everything that those people have seen more vampires than the queen herself.

…vampire culture.

Attempts at creating a culture inside the vampire world have increasingly been encouraged inside their ranks and as a result, as you can see, paintings, drawings, movies, books, general culture and rumors about vampires are increasingly appearing, we don’t know why but the proof is in front of everyone to see. This is the result of the queen ordering everyone to stop hunting those who try to make vampires known, as long as they don’t posses any real danger. “Let them be – see where it leads, for secrecy never did us any good except hunting parties and mobs.” – I dearly hope she is not wrong, I’m fairly certain of it, she has centuries of my knowledge, but seeing the latest “Underworld” movie made me shiver to my core, when I pictured that such a scenario is upon us – more than we know it.

Vampires don’t have weird customs and traditions or an inclination to organize festivals and big ceremonies for celebrating grim occasions. They don’t drink human blood out of golden goblets and they don’t offer their ring for you to kiss. They don’t make observations like ‘I don’t talk with my food’ or ‘puny human’. They really try to be as human like as possible, although there are the few who feel that it is against their nature, that they do not want to be human anymore. Which is allowed as long as it doesn’t jeopardize the kinship. Do take this with a grain of salt, and don’t greet a vampire, if you ever come across one, with “Hey dude, ‘sup?” – for the love of god don’t.

Vampires have been known to rescue humans from disasters, including but not limited to fires, explosions and floods. I felt this belongs here, with vampire culture.

Vampire traditions are limited to visiting the homeland of Vlad, paying respects and moving on. It is done as often as they want and feel like needing to renew their allegiance. The town is off-limits only 3 days per year, which change every year.

Those three days are the days in which the town of Sighisoara has an annual medieval festival. Thousands of tourists flock the streets and it smells like risk for any vampire to be there.

I have never heard of a vampire wedding although there have been funerals. Viking style.
No birthdays, I guess it would be rather amusing celebrating your birthday for centuries, yes. I could see some of my friends who over enjoy planning and celebrating a birthday doing just that. However, not in vampire ville.

…the treaty of Vienna.

The treaty of Vienna from 1760 establishes that all vampire kind will unite under a common cause, disregarding duties or allegiance, if the cause is deemed to be of a real threat to the queen or the vampire world. And that is why she is a dictator but a philanthropist in the same time. Power to do anything, yet very mild – when not… in frenzy. If you have seen the movie “Bruce Almighty” then Morgan Freeman as god could be a good analogy to her. Powerful as fuck, deadly, yet calm on the surface. Like the ocean. Or the eye of a storm.  The examples could continue until sunrise, but you got the point.

The same treaty speaks of “no vampire will make himself or his kinship known, freely, willingly and to a full extent, to the human population at large, nor to any singular specimen, “because they are many and we are few”. And we desire to remain that few. A war between vampires and humans is out of the question, for eternity. Anyone who puts the human species in danger puts himself in danger, for we are one and you should never forget that”. Seriously. I’m not joking. You can’t make this stuff up.

That bit makes me feel a bit less concerned about aliens really. Not that I believe aliens visited us, but if they ever do and mean us harm, well, at least we’ll have the vampires on our side. – This is meant to be a joke and should be treated as such.

…how do I know all this?

Why would you believe Dracula (the novel), Vampire diaries, True Blood and Twilight – but not me?
At least I’m not trying to sell you anything. This is for free and for your own good. Read and ponder about it.

Meeting me is not an option, stop asking for that. I will gladly answer any questions online, but I will not meet with anyone that has nothing to offer except more questions.

…who am I?

Read the “who am I?” page from the blog. That’s all you need to know. Also, if you can read between the lines, then aren’t you a lucky bastard?

…vampire weak points?

As far as weak points for vampires go, I couldn’t really find any that can be named just that. All myths about them turned out to be false, and in the end, what turned out to be false also, is the fact that they aren’t human.

They are, more human than you would think, but in the same time, they are something out of this world. I call it schizophrenia, for they can be me and you now and be a black panther in the next second, unrecognizable and menacing.

In the end, I propose that their greatest weakness is their humanity. I also agree that, their downfall would 100% be, without any doubt, making themselves known to the world…

We fear them, we would continue to fear them even if we have lived with one under the same roof. We hunt them and we want to destroy them just because they aren’t like us and just because we consider them monsters. We wage wars against other nations just because they have a different religion, how is anyone supposed to trust the human race in handling a different specie?

In this respect, I consider vampires to have more and better moral values and be better in general, more GOOD, not evil, than the majority of human beings. For they have known we exist (obviously) for centuries, and they have lived with us, without trying to exterminate us. Well, we don’t really exterminate all the cows also (Big Mac anyone) but my point still stands. Given, humans get killed more often than necessary, but I wonder – would they still meet their death if it wouldn’t be that fear of vampires? That sometimes irrational fear – and we all know what we do with what we cannot understand or what we fear: we destroy. History has taught us many times that we react with violence every time we encounter “the unknown, which can be dangerous”. Let’s destroy it, just in case, and if later is proven we were wrong, who cares, we didn’t miss it before we encountered it anyway, right? Also, let’s forbid everything that might pose a threat, just in case. Let’s forget about the positive aspects that we could gain, we can’t deal with the negative, even if they are shadowed by the positive.

Would you donate blood to keep a human being alive? I will assume the answer is yes. Then, why wouldn’t you donate the same blood to keep another human being, which although different, is still the same as you? A vampire.

Consider it an illness if it makes you have peace with your conscience, but answer this: would you rather eradicate all vampires or donate blood monthly – you and the whole human kind – to keep them alive?

And your answer is why they live in secrecy.

Any more questions that you might have, please leave them as a comment and when enough, I will compile another guide like the one above, which will address them.

You can argue with me and tell me that I’m wrong if you wish, you are allowed and encouraged, but do not expect me to retaliate. I have nothing to change and have no opinion on what “might be different”. These are as they are, and I can’t change that, no matter what you might think.

your blood is mine – its my lifeline [story part 8]

Light – a mystery itself

Bram Stoker’s Dracula walked in the sunlight also, but he was weakened considerably. So was Regina. Well, weakened relatively to what she can be during the night. If you ask me, she was still going strong…

Anyway, more on this later. All you need to know is that vampires can actually walk in the sunlight – but they prefer not to because they feel more vulnerable – they are weakened, they are remembered how it is to feel human – by the sunlight – and they also need to feed more if they walk in the sunlight.

Now, back to Bram Stoker’s Dracula – if you haven’t read it – do so. By any means, the man was on to something. He had a source or inspiration.

Quoting Regina: “There’s a very small chance that someone starts writing about something like this (vampires) and guesses such important characteristics without having any source.” – this is in relation to sunlight. He got the others wrong.

The best read that I could find regarding vampires is actually the oldest of the accounts that can be considered a book. Maybe it’s good because there wasn’t such a degree of fantasy involved in writing a book back then. I’m talking of course about a book written in 1819 by John William Polidori, called “The Vampyre” – here is the book cover. I’m sure you can find it online.

How am I supposed to prove it? Post a photo with Regina standing in the sunlight? Fine – but I won’t accomplish anything with that – how am I supposed to show proof she’s a vampire in the first place? It’s a vicious circle. Like I said, most of you are exactly what I used to be – wouldn’t believe it even if it was in front of me. So all I can do is write. Plus, exposing Regina is not my goal.

Regina told me, and she was right: “It’s easier for me to seem normal and blend in when humans think vampires can’t walk in the sun, so why should I change that?”

***

December 28th, 10:00

I woke feeling really tired, almost sick. I was dizzy, had hazy sight and I had a feeling of floating around and not really walking. I also heard that faint ringing sound in my ears all the time and had a really nasty cold sweat. I was anemic.

My mom came in the room and saw me – she also saw the blood on the bed sheets and saw my shoulder. She gasped, put her hand over her mouth and just stood there, eyes wide open. I can see the expression on my mothers face even now, drilling in my head. She was both scared and disappointed in the same time.

“I’m fine.” I said.
“No, you’re not! I know what happened and I can’t believe you’re fine with it! This is surreal!”

“No mother, it’s real. You should know better…” – I was referring to the black eyed children and my necklace. I was touching it as I said that.

My mom came close, put her hands over my shoulder and touched the tiny bit marks – they were healing fast – faster than normal puncture wounds, for some reason, but I figured it would still take well over 3 days to heal completely and maybe another 2 days for the whole area to present no more signs of any bite.

“I want to meet it.” my mom said.
“What?” – I was confused.

“The thing that did this to you.” – she wasn’t really sure what to call it.

“IT is a girl mom. And she’s better than any girl I’ve met. It makes me happy to give her what she needs. It’s not what you think. Plus, meeting her is out of the question.”

“I want to meet her. Period. Now.”
“Well I’m sorry but I think I forgot to ask for her phone number…” – I was being sarcastic.

Then, instead of seeing my mother burst out for me being a “smart ass” when “this was serious” – because that’s what she usually did and said, she was frozen in place, looking out the window. I turned back to look also and there she was. Regina.

“Hello.” – Regina said and then let herself in like she was my sister and she was using the door. Like everything was more than normal.
My mom – speechless. Even myself, I was a bit speechless also – I mean here I was, naked, in bed with my mother next to me, introducing her to my 500 year old ‘friend’ like this was a normal thing. What’s next I thought, playing scrabble together? This was ludicrous!

Regina saw my mom’s face and didn’t waste any time: “Your son is special to me. He’s not in danger from me or anyone else.” – What I could deduce from this is that others who were not “special” were [in danger].

My mom looked at the bite marks. Regina did too.
“I’m sorry for that, let me fix it.” and with one move she put a finger nail to her forearm and did a small cut – put her finger to her wound which was already closing -what the hell – and smeared the blood on the wound. They closed right in front of my eyes. I was amazed and wanted to see this “trick” as often possible.

My mom said then: “Who are you? What are you?”

“I think we both know the answer to that question.” – she took the necklace in her hand, Regina. Then, she looked at my mom again and continued: “My name is Anna Bathory – I was born a long time ago and this necklace belonged to me.”

“So it’s true then…” My mom said.
“I’m afraid – or glad – that it is…” Regina added.

“Come with me.” My mom said and just like that, going over the fear she had, my mom held her hand in a gesture of Regina taking her hand, which she did, and in a second they were out of my room, acting like they were long time friends.

What the hell was going on? I thought at the moment.
By the time I got dressed and went in the other room, they were both standing in the library, my mom checking for some books and Regina sitting down, relaxed, feeling at home – at the small table in the corner, sipping on a cup of tea.

I went in and saw her, arched my eyebrows at her. “Want some?” She said and giggled. So she could drink and eat  normal food I thought. Good.

“Can you taste that?” I asked.
“Yes, and it’s wonderful.” Regina said.

( You would be amazed how much more normal a vampire is – except personality – than presented in movies and our preconceived ideas about them. The ones that really managed to blend in, like Regina, are actually more normal than most people. They sleep just like us, have the same activities, try to live a nice and inconspicuous life, they workout although in a different way, and it’s not needed, and just like a requirement, they are the most social persons I’ve ever seen. At least Regina was.)

Regina was also using my mothers silverware – well there goes the “silver hurts vampires” myth also. It was stupid anyway, silver was supposed to be against werewolves, where and when did it became dangerous for vampires? Meh.

I was still feeling dizzy and pale as a sheet of paper but my mom seemed not to care anymore. “Suck it up” she said when she saw me wobbling a bit, with what I think was an intended pun.

What the hell. Later did I find out she was concerned about bigger troubles – like me not becoming a vampire.
She was really into Regina [as in she felt comfortable with her being there] and didn’t appear to be afraid of her. Regina was also herself again, really social, happy, lively and just full of smiles. How could you not like her.

I stood there for a chunk of time and said nothing. I just looked at Regina the whole time. She was dressed in full white which was almost as white as her skin. Her black, long, smooth hair came in as a sharp contrast to what she was wearing and her dark eyes drilled holes in everything her sight landed on. Her lips were oily and pink and they invited you to have a go at them every time you looked at them. She moved in a very delicate and gentle way yet in the same time she had that something about her. That allure.

At some point I got sick of all this girl friendship. I was feeling really left out. They were talking about me but I had no idea what about.
“Can someone please tell me what’s going on?” I interrupted.

Regina stood up, straightened her clothes and headed towards my mom. She stood beside her and both looked at me like I was getting an intervention. Then she spoke:

“Listen, that necklace, it was mine. It was given to my mother in the same way it was given to your mother. I was also really sick as a child, but the black eyed children told her – they told her what will happen if she accepts them healing me. She was told I had to wear this necklace until one day when someone will come and “take me.”

“Who?” I said with kind of a desperate look on my face.
“Nobody took me literally. A man came and turned me into a vampire, which was not against my will.”

“So it’s true then. This necklace does make me a target.” – I said.
“Yes it does, and I think I’m supposed to be the one taking you? I’m confused. I don’t want to but it seems like this is where it’s going.” Regina said.

“I don’t want you to do anything of the kind…”
“I know, but I think that history is repeating itself. The man who came to me was also marked, although not by this necklace, to become a vampire. Then he came to me. And now, here I am, coming to you. He didn’t want to turn me into a vampire also, neither did I, but then I did.”

Well this was not really easy to digest, or understand. I was still feeling like living in a joke or a TV show. How the hell was I supposed to take in all this information and actually act like it’s normal.

Vampires in my house. Check – My mom ok with that. Check – Old necklaces which made you predestined to become a vampire. Check – Black eyed children and everything – hmmm.

“Why is it so special about becoming a vampire anyway? What would happen if I didn’t?” I said, being more and more irritated by where this was going.
“Well nobody knows because nobody ever managed “not to”. If it was meant to be, it happened.” Regina said, taking another sip of the tea like we were just having a casual Sunday afternoon talk.

“Plus, remember what happens if you take off the necklace…” she added.
“I don’t really know what happens. I only did it once and it didn’t seem to be going well.” I said.

“You wish you’d be dead, that’s what happens. But you don’t die. For all I know, the necklace acts like a lifeline for you. My mother, Elizabeth, managed to find some really old texts about gems, Jade gems, just like the one in the necklace, that focused your aura, which is like a signature, and sends it through the necklace into power lines which are all around us, especially here in this city, and the lines do the same thing back. You are connected to everything with that necklace, and without it – you feel like you’re going to die. Because, by all means, both you and me, should have been long dead without the black eyed children.”

“And the necklace.”  – That was all I could say.

My mom said nothing during this whole chat and then we heard her excitedly saying: “Here! I found it!” – and then she pulled out a book, which turned out to be her diary. She opened it and kept going over pages faster and faster, too fast to actually read something. And then she stopped.

She wasn’t searching, it turned out, for something she wrote. She was searching for something she had drawn.
Both me and Regina gasped and looked at it with eyes wide open. It was the first time seeing Regina being surprised. I wonder how many times did that happen in the past 500 years.

By all means, it was a perfect sketch of Regina. Small but detailed enough to call it a photo rather than a sketch. And my mom hardly knows how to draw.

“That night, after I put you to bed and put the necklace on your neck, when you were little, I had a dream. I dreamed about this exact day – The white girl drinking the tea – and when I woke up all I could remember was her face.” – She looked towards Regina – “I drew it because somehow I knew it was important.” – It was. This was getting even freakier by the second and nobody seemed to mind.

“Well this is enough freaky for me for today. We’re going out.” – I said with an air of ‘I’m the man of the house’.
“We are?” – Regina said.

“Yes.” – I took her hand and off we went, through the forest, up the same steps where she first saw, and attacked me, over the citadel, straight downtown. I was tired of all the esoteric crap talk that was going on. It’s one thing to meet someone who by all means, is different biologically than you, but it’s a completely different thing to start talking about fate and fairies.

“Where are you staying?” – I asked her.
“As it happens, I’m staying right here.” – She pointed at a building. I had no idea how the hell did she managed to go into houses like that and just stay there. Apparently she didn’t like hotels, but felt more than welcome in people’s homes. And she wasn’t picky either. Well, this time she could have done worse.

This is where she was staying. Top floor, second window from the left. I was pleased.

“That’s nice.” – I wanted to ask her for how long she’s planning to stay there but I didn’t want to know the answer to that question. I was just hoping it would be long.

“We have to go mingle with some people. I miss commotion.” – Regina said. Which was awkward, coming out of a vampire’s mouth which was supposed to be hidden, living in the shadows and all that.

“You want to meet my friends?” I asked her. I was betting she would like them more than those other five vampires she called friends, plus I was pretty sure mine would take orders from her too if they would just know who and what she is.

“Yes, but be careful. Nobody can know about what and who I am. I expect that comes naturally, but just as a warning, don’t tell them because I’m sure you don’t want to put them in any danger, it’s for them, not for me, the silence.”

Apparently in the written (yes, written) rules of the vampires, no human can know about a vampire if he or she is not about to be turned into one. Otherwise, they both must die, for the human cannot hold a secret and the vampire will do it again if he did it once. I was feeling like the exception, though Regina felt pretty comfortable about it.

“So how are you not turning into ash my dear?” – I said on a British kind of gentleman tone, it was meant to be funny. And it was.
She giggled a bit, then put on her sunglasses and looked at the sun.

“Sunlight can’t harm me, that’s fantasy. I’m only weakened by it – as in I feel human and my strength is greatly diminished. I also have a hard time seeing because it’s too bright and I need to feed more often. I’m sure your eyes hurt too from too much light, during the night, and I’m also sure you’re hungrier when you’re supposed to be sleeping.”

Well that explains a lot I thought.

By this time we were having just a nice normal stroll down the city park, towards my favorite cafe – Concordia – where me and my friends were so regulars that we even had our own special type of coffee. I shit you not, my friend Blanche made this coffee to her own specifications and named her Regina. Yes, Regina. And it had no connection to Regina the girl, this was years ago when we had no idea about any Reginas. Regina is just a common name, for a lot of things in Romania. It means Queen, like I said before, and it’s a name and an adjective in the same time.

As a matter of fact there was also a shop which went bankrupt just two years ago, on a very busy street corner which was also named Regina. Check it.

We went inside and they there were, Blanche, Sophia and Viktor. My three best friends. In the corner I also spotted my ex-girlfriend, which I forgot to mention, broke up with me just before Christmas. We were still friends, I said hello and didn’t get an answer, I continued to my friends.

“Hello guys. This is Regina.” I said.

With an ease I’ve hardly ever seen before she sat herself down, comfortably, shook each of their hands and kissed (yeah, kinky stuff) Viktor on the cheek  – he was immediately in love I figured – and then sat down.

“I just moved into town…” and then she made a light sign to the waiter, pointing one finger in the air, without even looking at him. He came  within seconds.

“Coffee” – and he didn’t even ask what type of coffee or anything else. That was weird too. There were at least 30 types of different coffee you could choose from. He then looked at me.

“Make that two Regina’s.” – I smiled and looked at her. She was puzzled, smiling and anxious. She wanted to know what’s up. My friends were also giggling by this point. The waiter was already long gone.

He came back with two of the most delicious cups of coffee ever.
Big cups, half with coffee and half with milk. Honey instead of sugar and coconut flavor.

I drank mine in a matter of minutes. Regina didn’t even touch hers.
Me and my friends sank deep into the usual conversation and I felt a bit weird for ignoring, for a few minutes, Regina. She didn’t seem to mind. She was already up and walking around the place, making conversation with people like we were at a party.

That was the most amazing and weird thing yet – even more weird than her being a vampire. I mean it’s one thing to be a vampire, and it’s something else to make 20 friends in a few minutes.

I think Viktor was already having naughty day dreams by this time. When she came back to the table behind him and put her hands on his shoulders: “Relax…” – he flinched.

Blanche and Sophia were puzzled but liked her.
Viktor was  a short guy. A bit fluffy. Big boned he liked to point out, not fat. He had red cheeks all the time and was the soul of the party all the time. He was the stereotypical fat funny guy. We all loved him and he knew it. We made him feel comfortable with himself and we accepted it as our equal. He was my best friend since we were in general high.

Blanche was medium sized, smaller than me or Regina, she had white-olive skin and red(ish) hair – curly but silky and she was the “demon” so to speak of the group. She was always the one with the crazy ideas, the one that pushed us to the limit and who always teased us for being pussies. We often had a love/hate relationship. She was also the smartest girl I’ve ever knew. Until Regina, I wondered how much knowledge Regina had gained in all these years.

Sophia was about Viktor’s size, she was blonde, pure blonde, hair the color of the summer sun. She was always smiling and happy and she had perfect white teeth. Me and Sophia used to date a few years back and we remained friends. Really good friends.

All four of us went through general high in the same classroom and then to high school, still in the same classroom. We had our inside jokes and everything. I cherished them as being my friends every single day and I still miss them like I missed them each day after I left. They were the hardest to let go when I left the country. I felt I could never build a new life for myself without the support and understanding I had from them. And I’m not entirely sure that’s not true, because I’m still building that life and I could sure use their support. I need them now as I needed them then.

We continued our little chat with Blanche and Sophia poking questions at Regina every now and then about where is she from, what’s her last name, how did the two of us meet, what’s going on between us. All kinds of inappropriate questions which for them felt very appropriate because after all, they were talking about a close friend.

Regina didn’t seem to mind and dodged each and every question really elegantly and as convincing as possible.

“Vienna” she said. “I’m from Vienna. I was born there.”
“My name is Regina Engel.” – she presented herself standing up and doing a short bow. We giggled. The girls loved her.

“Regina and I met and… we’ll we became good friends and I hope you can accept her like you accept me because I like her.” – I barely got that out I remember. My friends stood still for a second, looked at each other, didn’t know what to say and didn’t really say anything. Blanche just nodded and Sophia looked curiously at Regina in response.

All in all, they were pleased.

“But you speak perfect Romanian.”- Viktor noticed.
“Yes I do.” – Regina added, leaving Viktor and the girls for that matter speechless. Regina had perfected the way of ending a conversation to the state of an art. She had a way of telling people that’s all you will get out of her and no more. I could see on their faces they were actually waiting for an explanatory response as to how she speaks so good Romanian, but they never got it.

We ended up saying goodbye to each other in front of the cafe Concordia just as it was getting dark and Regina was already starting to glow, energy returning, stretch in all directions like she had just woken up and then moving her wrists and neck like she was preparing for a marathon. She was sniffing the air around her very subtle and was clinging to me, pulling me the way an anxious child is pulling his parents towards the toy department in a big supermarket.

I knew she’s turning again.
Angel by day, angel by night. I loved her both as Regina and as Regina – the eternal light.

We strolled up the stairs and into the citadel for a late night walk.
The weather was nice, it was snowing lightly and the December night proved to be more than delightful for a refreshing walk in the citadel which was by now almost soundless, the snow dampening all and every sound which you would usually hear from people walking on the cobblestone streets which had a way of resonating much more than asphalt usually does.

Even with that deafening and almost surreal silence in a December evening, Regina – with the sun already down and her gaining back herself – she heard it.

In a second, she flinched. Squeezed my hand so hard that I thought I’ll never write with it again  – arched eyebrows – arched lips – attack position – eyes getting darker. No fangs yet.

I tensed up and before I even got the chance to ask what’s going on, I felt both of her hands gripping me in an iron-hug and yanking my feet of the ground. We were running.

lux aeterna [story part 4]

November 18, – around 2:00.

Before going down that path – the one from which I left at the end of the last post – I need to introduce you to something else. the town and the citadel, during the night.

Like I said – my house was at the base of the citadel – As you imagine, the house fits just right in – actually the new buildings which are built in close proximity to the citadel NEED (by law) to look like medieval style architecture.

That was not the case with my house which is already, by design, medieval. Tt’s a 2 story mansion, built in the late XVII century, it has two small towers on the roof, and some sort of left over guard tower, which is part of one corner of the house, is round, and it’s the one holding my room. which is at the base of the tower.

the nice thing is, that the window is actually a bit round, spanning around almost 25% of the whole thing, which not only allows for big enough room to fit a bed through, but also offers a generous view of the citadel, at night. I can clearly see the clock tower although not that good like in the picture. It looks nice, especially in the daytime, the whole citadel looks nice during daytime but, just like a schizophrenic, the town changes moods, personalities and faces instantly, as soon as the sun goes down. The narrow streets start pushing down on you as you keep walking and walking along those old cobblestone streets and especially streets that lead towards the clock tower like this make you feel strong yet very insignificant in the same time. The night is your best friend and your worst enemy, the giver of peace and the god of turmoil, mixed in one neutral feeling.

The clock tower however looks much more different during the night and going towards it you would follow the exact same path like in the last picture, and continuing to go further, under and around the clock tower, starting to descend the citadel, would lead you on the road you see in the second to last photo.

However, if you make a right when you reach the top of the citadel, and do not go towards the clock tower, you end up going towards the high school and, inevitably, climbing the infamous stairs, which look anything but friendly during the dark night which most of the time are not illuminated like in the photo, and are rather… well… pitch black. Not a good idea in a night like this, especially because they lead to nowhere else except the high school of course, but then there’s the morgue, the old church with a crypt full of bones beneath it, and the entrance to the cemetery, which holds, beside the gates, a nice little house in which a family of the guardian of the gate, and the guardian himself, live.

What is there left? Where else could you head to? Well you could continue towards the clock tower, passing on your way by this church and then, when you get to the clock tower, instead of going around and under, you go left, for one particular reason: there’s a club which is often open until sunrise, which is located right in the basement of the town hall which is the top right building in the last photo, to the left of it being the aforementioned church, to the left of which is the clock tower. Simple stuff.

Here’s a full view of the citadel, made a long time ago, but unchanged.

Now, hang on tight with me, I’ll soon reach as to why all this description. But it’s rather simple, I need you to understand why I made the decision that I made.

Last part of the description:

Between that “going left instead of under the tower” and “getting to the club” is a narrow street, about 200 meters in diameter, which is flanked on one side by the one end of the church and on the other side by nothingness: the citadel ends abruptly there and it’s a straight line down, about 30 meters. It’s rather nice, offers a magnificent view of the newer part of the town below, which is buzzing with life even late at night.

However, that street, is rarely walked, and for a good reason: it’s usually fogged out by some strange reason, only that particular street being completely in fog, and, it’s downright creepy. Nonetheless, I had to cross it. Here is that street.

Done.

Now back to where we left in the last post: I turned back and looked at Regina. I was… my life changed forever, with one look. Right there and then I knew that I don’t know shit about life. That however important I felt up to that point, I’m nobody, I know nothing, I’m stupid compared to what’s out there and I’m going to die – soon.

What I saw in her face is beyond comprehension – as you figured maybe by now, if you had the patience to read this whole blog, yes, this is a blog about vampires and yes, what I’m about to say is exactly that: I saw a vampire. Regina. My Regina. The girl that put me in a crypt, took me out, offered me comfort, then came back. That Regina. Her face was telling me, by all intents and purposes, that I’m a mouse and she’s the cat. And she was about to strike, right NOW.

The reason why I made this blog can be understood in the following lines:

Forget about what you have seen in movies, forget about what you’ve read in fantasy books – most have it completely wrong, and they don’t care, they don’t even believe in what they are saying – they are mostly clueless. Vampires don’t sparkle in the sun.

Listen to me and listen carefully, for if there ever was someone who can tell you exactly what it is the way it is, that’s me. I grew up in the town where their supposed “father” was born. I was born here. I grew up among them (apparently). I’m not writing a book. I’m not gaining anything out of this blog. I have no ads. I have nothing to gain from this: I want one thing and one thing only – to set things straight, to tell how it is, what I lived through, what I saw and how it actually is.

And for one thing I can tell you – it’s not that romantic (well depends on how sick you are) like in Twilight, Vampire Diaries or any other Romance/Fantasy Vampire movie you’ve seen.

I can also tell you that for what it’s worth – Bram Stoker was on to something, he got a lot of things right, but some terribly wrong. More on that later.

Right now – I was looking at Regina, and she was… out of this world.

Her eyes were now wide open, the whites of her eyes were almost no more – it was a deep dark red around her pupils and her pupils and retina were one and the same, there was no telling between the two, there were just two circles, a deep dark red one circling the darkest and deepest black I’ve ever seen. They were not moving. They were fixed entirely on me, jumping from my eyes to my neck wound every ticking second.

Her hair was somewhat over her eyes, not flowing smoothly anymore, it was ravaged, savaged out, beastly.

Her mouth formed a snarl, like that of a dog which is really, really angry at you, showing you his teeth and telling you to stay away through that.

Her throat was making almost the exact hiss that a cat makes when you piss it off – continuously. It was deafening.

At first I was terrified, for a second I thought she’s really, really mad at me for some reason. But then I saw what bit me.

I saw her mouth. I saw her fangs. I…

I can’t explain… well enough, what they looked like. The movies, the photos, they have it pretty much wrong. They length is somewhat ok to what you already know, but the thickness is wrong, they aren’t the shape of human canines, they aren’t that thick, and they aren’t straight.

They are curved both towards the interior of the mouth and towards each other, if only by a tiny notch.
They are thin(er) than normal human canines, girl or boy doesn’t matter.

The only and only photo I could find that got somewhat CLOSE to what they looked like is the photo of the teeth of a cat. This one. That is not a description of the whole mouth, only the canines are interesting here. The rest of the mouth was normal, as I knew it. But the canines have changed and now looked like that.

I did what ANY SANE person would do. I wasn’t romantic like in the movies, I didn’t touch them or lick them or tell her how it doesn’t matter, how great she is and everything. That’s downright impossible. I know you want to believe deep down that even if you’ve seen your loved one like that, you would care for him and hug him. That’s impossible, trust me. Plus this girl already tried killing me once, plus I only knew her for the past 2 days.

Any sane person, when seeing something like that would react just like he would react seeing a pissed of black panther snarling at him coming slowly towards him would react exactly how I reacted: I punched it as hard as I could, without flinching, without even thinking about doing it, I just did (I’m sorry) and I ran. I darted towards the window like Spider-man. I grabbed my pants from the floor without stopping for them, I just shoved them into my hand and jumped with them, I didn’t really care if I could grab them or not, just by instinct as I ran I sprung an arm towards them and caught them in my fingers. I jumped over the ledge of the window, butt naked, no shoes, pants in my hand and ran straight for the gate of the house. Somehow I knew my family would be just fine – this… thing was interested in me apparently.

I ran my ass of as fast as I could towards the citadel, towards the same stairs where I got hit in the head, towards the path that I knew, and from the front of the last flight of stairs, I went down instead of up, and then took a right towards the clock tower. I was there in under 5 minutes, which was a record considering I usually needed 15.

I remembered the club, I didn’t care I had no shoes or no pants. I ran towards it and eventually had to go on the street that I mentioned earlier. I kept running but, without a sound, without a crack, without anything, from the fog, I saw a shadow for a second, a blur maybe, and then I was at a full stop. Couldn’t turn, couldn’t go backwards, nor forward. Couldn’t move. Two white and strong hands were holding me from one side and the other of my arms. She had caught me, she was behind me.

I remember I said something like: “Don’t… something.” And then I fainted.
Seconds before lights going out on me – my last thoughts were just a blur of words.

I saw the fog and the night and thought:

sun; light; pure energy; sterilization
blood; death; vampire

destruction.

I wished for one thing: I wished for lux aeterna. I remembered the phrase which is Latin for “eternal light”. I remembered the sun. I remembered how every time I listened to it I thought about how perfect is this song for an apocalypse.

My apocalypse. I was glad to have this song in my head while I died.

[come back soon to see what was waiting for me when I woke up]