alternative history anyone? let’s have a look

these last three posts, this one included, was to please the readers.

the first one of the series detailed on the format of the story ( your story looks like a fantasy work ) the second one detailed two pages of my diary, which was to satisfy both a request and a promise ( two pages of another life – my diary ) and this one here is to satisfy yet another request, which was made through a rather short request, but inclusive.

“if you really know how shit went down in history, then you should write about it”

My only concern was, for not writing about it sooner, that if I do write about this, it will cause two things:

A) Separate from the story – it doesn’t add anything new to it.

B) Make the story even more science fiction than it already seems.

Well, right now I couldn’t care less. This is what I’ve learned and that’s that, whether you like it or not.

So let’s put this into context:

Over the course of my time spent with Regina, Viktoria and others, I’ve taken part in discussions, some more interesting than others, some boring, some mind-blowing.

Few of the discussions had me as a subject – as in – they were stories told directly to me, and not discussed among them.
Some stories were answers to my questions. Some were answers to other’s questions, and some were given as example for present day events.

So let’s start our alternative history lesson.

Napoleon Bonaparte

First, apparently Napoleon was a “short fat and angry man”  and he had a “twitch in his left eye that made you twitch yourself every time he did it”.

Viktoria was a common sight at Napoleon’s arm, she influenced him in retreating from Russia and later helped him escape Elba.
She knew Joseph Bonaparte too, which stole La Peregria (biggest pearl in history) for her. Viktoria never had the pearl, which ended up in England. She still wants it to this day, I think it’s her precious.

She remembers it as being the harshest punishment she ever got from Regina. For interfering with human affairs.
They are not responsible for his death, which was a poisoning and not stomach cancer.

Gregori Rasputin

Rasputin never healed Alexei who supposedly had hemophilia.
Alexei in fact presented 100% the effects of a porphyria child. Alexei was in fact the born child of man and vampire, and all he needed was blood. Nobody thought of offering him to drink blood, except Rasputin. Who did. As soon as Rasputin found out what Alexei was, he was executed by the elder in the region at the time. Shot in the head.

Alexei would have stopped aging soon if he wouldn’t have been killed. The bones discovered were burned, but still had signs of hemophilia B in them, a symptom present in all moroi that do not feed.

Marilyn Monroe

While the WW2 was raging in Europe, Regina and Viktoria were both in the U.S where they met and spent a considerable amount of time with Marilyn Monroe. Viktoria says that Regina was deeply influenced, more than she should have been, by Marilyn herself, and in turn, Regina also influenced Monroe deeply.

Before leaving the U.S, Monroe was deeply depressed at Regina helped her overcome it, which apparently didn’t last, not even a year. She deliberately made herself known to Monroe and showed her that the world is much more than she thinks.

Monroe was deeply impressed about the unity of the vampires, which disregarded race, nationality, religious belief or ancestry.
The last interview Monroe ever gave was one year later after Regina left the U.S, and Regina read the interview and wept. She’s not afraid to do that, even to this day. I’m stupefied that such a being, after so many years, can still find reasons to cry and laugh.

The interview talked about the fact that what the world really needs is a “feeling of kinship”. Regina knew she was referring to her, and still talks about Monroe to this day.

Nicephore Niepce

He was the inventor of photography and according to Viktoria, the photography industry almost never happened. Regina decided in the last moment that Niepce will not be interfered with, because he had already produced the first photograph which scared the majority of the kinship. They wanted him dead but Regina declared otherwise.

For ten years Viktoria was at his side, in the shadows. Protecting him from others like her, and nothing else. The world could have been a totally different place without Regina’s intervention. Niepce is known in the kinship world as being one of the few humans to receive a libel (free-pass) even though he worked apparently, against the kinship, not towards its interests.

Regina didn’t regret it for a second.

Lumiere brothers

The same move was made with the Lumiere brothers which would have been wiped from the face of the Earth without Viktoria’s presence for 6 years at their side.

Both photography and movies were considered very dangerous inventions for the kinship at the time.

Later, Regina told me how she was very fascinated, which rarely happened, by movies. She was addicted to movies for a period and knows by heart, to this day, the first hundred movies ever made. She was and still is a great fan of Georges Melies. I wish she would be here today to see Hugo the movie with me. We would deeply enjoy it.

The ottoman empire

Regina actively interfered in very few events, but most of them were related to the invasion of the Turks in modern day Romania.
She had, and still has, an obsession of  continuing Dracula’s (Vlad the Impaler) work of keeping Transylvania away from the muslim world.

She actively promoted action against the Ottoman empire, promoted allegiances that would hurt the empire, sent her most trusted to influence Europe’s highest aristocracy to promote and protect Transylvania as a region.

It was her doing of taking Transylvania from Hungary and putting it under Romanian control, because of a failed allegiance between Hungary and the Austrian Empire, of which she did not approve.

The kinship treaty of Vienna from 1760 dealt and headed specifically towards this. Viktoria had been prior to the treaty, dispatched for thirty years in France where she influenced King Louise’s the XVth eldest daughter, Adelaide, into opposing her father’s decisions which regarded external politics, and also influenced the king himself, turning him in favor of a Franco-Ottoman allegiance against the Habsburg empire.

Which succeeded.

Madame de Popmadour was a pawn used to influence King Louis XV, she had first hand knowledge of both Viktoria and Regina, and had many advantages because of them. She went ill at the age of 42 and refused to accept the turning. She died as a result.

Picasso

Viktoria keeps saying that she was one of Picasso’s models and she’s very proud of it. I don’t believe her and Regina laughed every time Viktoria mentioned this. I think it’s some kind of an inside joke of theirs.

I don’t believe her because Viktoria said many things, from being the subject of a poem (considered nowadays to be a vampire poem) called Lenora to saying that she watched Van Gogh paint with his mouth. She also claims that she had met Voltaire in her little excursion to Versailles, to have influenced his writing and wait for it, the best one – she said that she’s the one responsible for the infamous saying that “the moon is made out of green cheese”. I laughed.

August Comte

However, Regina seemed to have been into more serious business. She influenced August Comte and his writing. She deliberately made herself known, as in the case of Marilyn, to Comte and explained to him the kinship society.

This strongly influenced his thinking. He even came up with the term “queen science”. Funny.
Comte was influenced by the touch of social interaction and the close relationships in the kinship world which, for an outsider, will look as something out of a Karl Marx book or some sort of dictatorship.

Regina urged him to write about values that distance religion from European society. Regina recognized religion (not because she’s a demon, but because it’s true) as being a bad influence on the scientific development of Europe.

As a result, Comte (and Marx) came up with the a new secular ideology which had strong roots and is considered to be the spark of the European secularization.

Secularization (of a society) (definition) = transforming a society which identifies itself with religious values into a non-religious society which, without religious values, will most likely identify with scientific ones.

Francis II Rackoczi

He was the prince of Hungary and Transylvania and shared the same belief with Regina concerning the Habsburg empire. As a result, Regina pushed him even further and successfully had him lead a Hungarian uprising against the Habsburgs.

The bigger picture here was separate Hungary from Austria and then separate Transylvania from Hungary.

France was already in the works with Hungary and that is why, after Rackoczi’s imprisonment, France was seen as the next best thing into separating the Habsburg empire.

Regina blamed Rackocz and refused him what he most wanted (turning) for not taking the Polish crown which was offered to him twice and still believes to this day that the European landscape would have been very, very different if he would have accepted it. The Poles had great support from Peter I of Russia at the time, and could have led a very successful invasion into the Habsburg empire anytime.

We could have been all talking Russian by now. Forget Hitler.

Maria Theresa

Maria Theresa was the ruler of the Habsburg empire for over forty years and could have easily been thrown off the throne or killed, but Regina ordered otherwise.

Maria Theresa had great power in her hands and Regina supported her views. Although Regina didn’t agree to the Habsburg empire, which was, once again, an obsession to her, she always had fought against crushing Transylvania and Wallachia between the Turks and the Habsburgs, she considered, and still considers, Vlad the Impaler as being her role model.

Which is of no surprise, considering that Vlad the Impaler was the great-uncle of Regina’s mother, Elizabeth Bathory.

Anyway, Maria Theresa.

Yes, she was needed but also needed to be taken down. Regina protected her instead, against all odds, because Maria Theresa promoted things Regina approved of, like financial reforms, educational reforms and most importantly, refused religious tolerance in her empire.

Giacomo Casanova ( I’m really going to be sorry for this, it’s preposterous!)

I don’t know how to put this any other way, but… I’ve met him?

Yes, he’s gorgeous, yes, he’s mischievous, and yes, each second sentence he says is a joke. He’s a joker, smiles and laughs all the time. He’s a nice company. And he has fangs.

This sounds fun right? IT WAS.

I asked him seriously how many women did he made love with and he said just one, and looked at Regina.
I’m jealous to this day, but also deeply proud! Imagine that!

I have to tell you, from all the things on this blog, this was the most impressive thing that ever happened to me.
It’s like meeting Elvis! (who is dead, yes, don’t get any ideas).

Anyway, you don’t believe me?
Hmmm…

Here’s a NOTED, HISTORICAL, VERIFIABLE fact said by the Count of Saint-Germain about Casanova:

Count de Saint-Germain: “This very singular man, born to be the most barefaced of all imposters, declared with impunity, with a casual air, that he was three hundred years old, that he possessed the universal medicine, that he made anything he liked from nature, that he created diamonds.”

You can read this quote in a book by J. Rives Childs.

And he still says that to this day, although nobody believes him.
He still claims to be a magician.

He said: “I’m the magician of the kinship, I can turn night into day and iron into gold”. They all laughed when he said that and I felt like a child seeing a coin pulled out behind his ear by a “magician”.

This happened during the stay at Chateau de Launay.
Apparently he faked his own birth certificate. Go figure.

He speaks, acts and looks like Captain Jack Sparrow. I’m dead serious.

Please don’t flame me on this.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Apparently he was a very, very beautiful man. – Described by Karl, which is by no means a gay man. So he must have been beautiful indeed.
He also knew Regina which led him to change his whole way of thinking and ended up in arguing with Hobbes against human nature.
Rousseau’s main point was that man is not evil, by essence. I’m pretty sure by this point he met Regina because before meeting her, studying Rousseau myself, I always found that I thought he was wrong. I considered the human being as being primarily evil, becoming “good” only superficially, constrained by society and moral values imposed on him.

However, after meeting Regina, I changed my viewpoint 180 degrees.

Rousseau considered, like Regina, that society has a negative impact on human kind but also that there is a need of law and morality which without, make of the state of human nature a primitive condition.

Boring but interesting stuff if you put them in context.

You have to understand that all of the kinship’s influence spans over centuries, and something started today may have the end result seen centuries later.

Electricity

Timisoara, an obscure (at the time) city in Romania, compared to the great capitals of Europe, was the first city to be illuminated, public space wise, by electricity.

Why? Why this particular town?

Because “The Doctor” was living there at the time, and nights seemed too dark to bear anymore. So “The Doctor” made it possible.
I’m sorry but I just can’t stop comparing a certain someone which seems to have influenced everything that I know of with “The Doctor” – for me, as an outsider, he’s a time traveler by definition.

Anyway, these are just few of the cases in which the kinship interacted with famous people. The list goes on and on and on and you would be amazed by the existence of so, so many small details that made everything else change.

I cannot even imagine how the world would have looked like without the kinship.
I also cannot even begin to imagine how would the world would have looked like with a kinship that had a different ruler.

Although not religious myself, god forbid something would happen to Regina. There’s nobody else to take her place. Nobody suited as well as her. And god forbid Viktoria would assume the role. With her style of thinking and her very, very impulsive behavior, I wouldn’t be surprised to witness the latest Underworld (which has as a subject, if you don’t have the time to see it, a war between vampires and humans) movie twenty years from now. Seriously.

Here’s a list of names I heard being discussed, but haven’t noted down anything else except the names.

I remember some of the details for some of them, like the nature of the interaction, but nothing more, so I’ll just keep it at that. A list of people, some more known that others, that were influenced, directly or indirectly, by the kinship.

Think of the details. Think of how many of these people wouldn’t have been famous today or wouldn’t have made a difference without the kinship.

I really believe that Europe is deeply non-religious because of the kinship itself.
Look around you!
The highest concentration of the kinship is in Europe, Regina only acted in the interest of these territories and was only concerned about them, always. Although, lately, it has become increasingly vital to influence other parts also.

Anyway, look at the U.S – deeply religious.

Look at the middle-east – it’s a mess.

Now look at Europe, look at Sweden for example, country where Regina actively interferes with politics to this day, continuing to promote “the feeling of kinship” that Marilyn Monroe herself was talking about. You would be amazed of some of Sweden’s Social Democratic Party members.

Anyway, this is the list:

Laura Bassi – first European college teacher. Was inspired by the strength of a kinship member.

Andres Celsius – he felt the uncanny warmth of a kinship member in the cold weather of Sweden and as a response to that he got “It’s because of the weather”. Apparently that’s where he got his idea that there must be a temperature that’s constant regardless of weather (freezing or boiling). He later published the paper named “Observations of two persistent degrees on a thermometer” which used the scale in two steps increments, and influenced by the same member with a single question: “Why complicate already established things?” he decided to use the Roman “centigrade” instead, which was incremental from 0(zero) in steps of one, to 100.

Anne Bonny – famous woman pirate, still alive today. She’s a kinship member. She knew Edward Teach (Blackbeard) as a child, which inspired her in becoming a pirate. She was turned during her pirate years, by a crew member. He went to sleep in the ship’s bowels and woke up in the middle of the sea with nothing but the crew to feed on. He fed on her and turned her. Interesting stuff.

Darwin – fucking Darwin – he was one of the few left to know about vampires, not turned or killed, after he had an encounter and a love/hate relationship with one. Look what happened with that! Look what impact that had on history. He became amazed with evolution. Many people pondered how is it that he was so obsessed with it, here’s your answer.

Emanuel Swedenborg

Joseph Perl

David Hume

Alexis Clairaut

Gauss

Laplace

John Whitehurst

Jean-Baptiste Denys, who is considered to be the inventor of a method of blood transfusion, was a vampire, and is very well alive today. Viktoria told me. I shat bricks.

Edward Jenner – now this is interesting, he invented vaccination after studying vampire blood which nobody knows how he got apparently, in which he observed a new type of T-cells not present in normal blood. He saw them in action against anything he threw at them, and the kinship deducted that there’s where from he got the idea that he can derive a certain response from normal human T-cells by exposing them, deliberately, in small doses, with the disease in question. He later patented the famous smallpox vaccine. Imagine that. Call vampires monsters now if you dare.

Lugi Vanvitelli and Alexander Kokorinov – both architects

Battista – painter

Bach – yes, that one. Yes, I’m serious.

Charles III

Ahmed III – sultan of the Ottoman empire, recognized Regina instantly for what she was and tried killing her on the spot. I can’t blame her for the hatred of the Ottomans….

And as a bonus…

I know all these are just random and not in a chronological order, so I figured I’ll add the very last thing (i.e most recent) that Regina and Co. were involved in, although I’m not really sure about this.

As you’ll bound to find out sooner or later if you continue reading this blog, the whole story will stop by 2010. At least directly… Yes, sorry to disappoint you, but don’t worry, there’s still years of the story left.

The story ends with Regina disappearing. I’ve told this to a number of readers whom I have been in contact with over e-mail, but only that. However, the circumstances in which Regina disappeared left me… hanging. I think this is a good post into which to include that very thing.

It was 2010 and Regina was in Poland – for over six months she and Viktoria have been working on something to which I sincerely have no knowledge about to this day, but they kept going back and forth Poland and Russia, both of them, and all I knew at the time was that they were heavily interfering in politics, something that they rarely did these days….

Anyway, I don’t know exactly where Regina was last time, all I know is that she was always on the move between Russia and Poland and all I know is that by coincidence, the day the plane crashed was also the last day in which I had any contact with her.

What plane crash? The one in 2010, that crashed in Russian territory and killed the Polish president, his family, all the highest ranking government officials of the Polish government, including top military chiefs, commanders and generals. Over 100 of them in total. Basically, the whole Polish government and military.  This one.

I’m not implying that Regina had anything to do with it, I’m just saying that crash smelled bad from the beginning for everyone, and for me it was just… a very dubious coincidence.

I’ll tell you one thing: I’m pretty sure they are somehow connected, and this won’t be the last time we will hear about that crash.

Also, no, she wasn’t in that plane.

Next part is an excerpt from an e-mail with a reader:

Imagine that! Imagine how all of the human history could be totally different from what we know today, and they had the power to change it.
I can only be grateful that there was someone like Regina, who understood that they shouldn’t intervene and did so wisely and rarely.
And that’s what I mean when I say she’s a good person. She had the power of decision, and made the right ones, over and over again.
She watched and observed, but rarely intervened.

Imagine that – Hitler could have been stopped, by them, but he wasn’t, by her command. Nobody interferes, you do not protect or kill Hitler. You let the humans do what humans usually do – fight.
It’s mind boggling just thinking of this, so I’d rather focus on the future.

It’s just… wrecking, hearing these things.
Humans cannot comprehend a life of 500 years. It’s impossible because we’re conditioned by our own existence, we’re conditioned by knowing our life to be one hundred, max, not five.
So it sounds… ridiculous. All of it.

Everytime I had one of these stories told, I needed to say stop, let me think for a week (figuratively speaking), redo all of human history in my head, and then I can listen to another one.

If all these things happened, just imagine how many others have happened, the small details, that we don’t know about!
You could write a very big book called “alternative history” and publish it as fiction, just based on these events above.

**

I’m going to be very sorry for posting this.

**

both sides of the same coin [story part 10]

Really want to apologize for using the image on the right but that really is hands down the best representation of the snarl I had so many times in my face. It sent shivers down my spine just thinking about it and remembering what comes next. It’s a snake bite and a black panther snarl. The mouth is open to such an extent that you rarely see, however, the fangs are completely wrong, thus, the image on the left which I found recently is a perfect representation of the fangs. Now I don’t know how are these two possible to be guessed, but I’m thinking trial and error. Those fangs are truly a match for Regina’s. Long, thin and curved. Snake speed and panther strength in the same bite. Combine that mouth with the snarl on the right and there you have it. It is not pretty – nature gave us instincts to fear that – run and hide, however, seeing it shakes you down and immobilizes you on the spot. Your power leaves you and all you can do is watch, gasp and hope for the best. Know this, seeing a black panther 2 centimeters from your face with fangs fully extended WILL NOT prompt you to run. You will not turn brave. This is not the same with watching it on Discovery thinking that you could run. You will stop breathing just so you’ll be sure it won’t upset the panther. You will not even look it into the eyes of the animal. You will just stay there, frozen, feeling its breath on you and seeing the fangs, hoping for the best. You stop thinking. Your body stops working.  You get used to it, barely. But how many people faced an angry black panther 2cm from their face and lived to tell? Picture yourself in that position, see if I’m wrong.

The last post that I had needs a closing:

It was the 28th of December and I had forgotten to write in my journal anything else about that night – maybe made myself not to – for almost a week. That night of December and the following days were perhaps the start of my saga, on how I started to change, mentally, on how I was forming an idea of what’s around me and started making heads and tails of the situation. Up until that point it was like I was living in a romantic story – maybe now brainwashed by too many romantic movies – and maybe because my stupid mistake of watching Twilight later on.

Speaking of Twilight – here’s a fun fact: Later on, when it was released, Twilight had such a low income in Romania and was so hated that people actually considered riots. For real. We hated the damn thing. Mainly because they don’t sparkle, and other things too. You have to understand, vampires are feared in Romania and the traditions and folklore is so deeply tied to our culture that it’s hard at times to distinguish between myth and tradition. For example, old people in secluded villages (and this actually was the case with my grandmother which passed a few years before this) stay over night with the body of the deceased. It is not left behind not even for a second. They do this because they fear he’s not really dead and might come back – or someone might come for him. This especially, was tied to what I had just witnessed in the church, on how both of them, the human and the vampire, fell down to the ground, unconscious for hours – playing dead for all I know. It made me wonder if the old really did know something we didn’t. Most just considered them crazy, but then again, nobody ever opposes “staying with the body” because… like I said: It’s tradition. I had to put and end to my doubts once and for all.

You might think this is crazy, but it’s just because you’re used to a certain lifestyle, but I assure you, things are different in Transylvania, for example, just a year before these events were unfolding in front of me, some hundred miles away a body was exhumed by villagers and his family and proceeded to stake and burn his heart. It was in the news, here. Apparently the dude seemed dead and then clawed himself out of the grave and started biting into people from the village and acting like everything was normal. He was confused and pale and the villagers decided he’s a vampire and went back to exhume him, which they did. The part where he got out of his grave and why he went back is still fuzzy. My guess it was just mass hysteria, by what I know now, but ask anyone else in a hundred mile radius around that town and you will get the same response: it was a moroi – which is a young vampire – inferior rang – easily killed – confused at the beginning and all that. More on it in a later post.

I just needed to get this out so you know where we stand with things in vampire country. Transylvania is not known as vampire territory for nothing. Shit goes down. Seriously.

More on this also in a later post.

***

4th of January, 2005 – 13:00

I wanted to post the exact transcript from my diary but decided it’s not detailed enough. I will however do that in a following post with another entry which is more than enough but for now here is what happened next:

It was yet another cold day but clear blue skies were covering the horizon from east to west with no clouds in sight. We call it “sun with teeth” in Transylvania, with no relation to vampires. We call it that because it is deceitful, and “it bites your ass” – it tricks you thinking it’s warm outside, but when you do go out, you realize it’s -15 again. This was the case.

I layered up a bunch of clothes on me feeling pretty sure it’s not warm outside and took an old untreated raw  brown leather jacket on top – which was back in style apparently – and called for a cab. I was going to meet Sophia and Viktor – felt bad that Blanche won’t be there, she was gone for the winter holiday in Austria for skiing and whatnot with her parents. She loved skiing.

I hadn’t seen Regina “Engel” (which was how she named herself apparently, funny because Engel means Angel in German, even funnier because of her first name, which together with her last name makes a weird combination that yields “The Queen of Angels” – kitsch if you ask me, but what do I know, right?) anyway, I hadn’t seen her since the night of the church (28th of December previous year) – she left me at the side of that church as soon as our talk was over and with one look from left to right, she straightened her body, tilted her chin up and announced flatly: “I have to attend some duties now.” – and poof she was gone. I remember I really wanted her to stop doing that.

I was really decided on telling my friends about her, even if I wasn’t sure I’m ever going to see her again. I was pretty confident they would support me and trust me enough. On the ride to the Concordia cafe, the cab driver tried to make some small talk, asked me about how I spent New Year and murmured something about his youth and how he was “still partying if he was me.”

I had spent New Year with family. It was a rather awkward gathering and all we talked about was the weather and how they all liked Regina, even if she was a vampire – continuing to make fun of me of how from all the girls I picked someone who likes to bite me. We were a kind of liberal family, sex was an open subject even though I was really young – however my mother wasn’t that amused – she had seen the bite marks, and met her personally. Father and brother didn’t met her but liked her anyway already. I tried defending her but then I figured she should do it herself – where was she? I was angry she wasn’t here.

Arriving to the cafe, my best friend Viktor was already there – he stood up, shook my hand and hugged me (no, it’s no weird, we’re that good friends) then shortly Sophia came in – with apologies blaming the weather for the delay. It didn’t take long for our coffee to be there also, just like we wanted it. We didn’t even order. It felt good to be known and be a regular in a place you could call a second home.

Oh, the coffee… it had her name. They should change it from Regina to Concordia, the name of the coffee, or to something else. I hated it now. You have to understand, Regina is a pretty common name for everything in Romania. From a coffee to a hotel room, to a corner shop and mostly used as a girl first name. It also means “the queen” in Romanian. Actually that’s the only word for “the queen”: regina.

Whatever I did my mind kept creeping back to her: not because I was in love – hell I didn’t knew what I was feeling, and it didn’t really matter for me. This wasn’t Twilight nor Vampire Diaries, and I was not a girl. In a way I was more sexually attracted rather than emotionally, which is understandable. In any case, as soon as we started sipping our coffee and after going the usual chat subjects, like how was your New Year and all that, I jumped right in:

“Guys, remember Regina?” I said, looking down at my coffee like I was trying to guess in it.
“Yeah, how is she? Where is she?” – Viktor said enthusiastically. Oh man he already blushed.

“I don’t know, but that’s not the point. I…” and I trailed off. Did I really need to do this?
“Maybe she went back to Vienna to be with her family.” – Sophia said, and then added “Maybe she can hook up with Blanche, she’s not that far from Vienna also!”

“Yeah, see, that’s what I need to talk with you. I’d rather her not meet up with any of you.” I said flatly, with a flair of commanding tone in my voice.

“Why not? Did you break up? We didn’t really talk about her because we didn’t really saw you that much so we’re not actually sure if you… but we did speculate.” Sophia said again. Man I wished she’d just shut up so I can get it out already. It was choking me. It was like asking a girl out for the first time in my life. That feeling.

“Listen. Regina is… special. She’s not human.”

Laughter. Of course they would laugh. I should have figured.

“Oh come on, don’t be mean.” Viktor said. Was he trying to defend her? I hoped not.
“No, listen – I’m not mad at her and we didn’t break up, and that’s not a metaphor.” I said.

“She really isn’t human… well she is… but she’s not really…” – By this point I remember how both of them were looking at each other, then at me, then at each other again… and then raised eyebrows, both of them. Towards me.

Sophia with her blonde silky smooth hair had seemed more interested than Viktor, which by now was feeling rather irritated. I guess deep down he wanted to punch me already for talking bad about Regina. For god’s sake I thought, he only met her once.

As confused as they were, I raised my hands in the air like a “Fine! Fine!” gesture and then gestured them with a flick of my hand to come closer. They both leaned towards and above the table, carefully pushing the lonely fake rose on the table towards a side, and by now we were all so close we were actually touching each other’s foreheads.

“Regina is a vampire.” I whispered.

They both stood there for a few years, for that’s what it seemed like to me, and then backed up still looking at me with eyes wide open.

“You’re messing with us right?” Viktor said, and before me trying to explain he continued “Listen man, you’re my friend, if you broke up just tell me you don’t want me to go after her and I won’t. You don’t have to make bullshit up.”

Sophia was still looking at me and to my amazement – because she was the shyest of us all – and the most unlikely to have followup questions to anything that came up, ever – she said: “Did she… bite you?” – felt like she barely got it out but she did.

“Yes she did. Here…” I said that as I touched my shoulder. I decided not to tell them about the other unwanted bite I got as a present from someone else.

And then she started laughing maniacally. She was playing me. Viktor too. They stood up and started getting their clothes on. I couldn’t believe it – and it still makes me angry to this day – that they were ready to ditch me just like that, for saying something like that.

“Man, grow up.” Viktor had said to me and ushered Sophia in front of him with a hand on her lower back. Sophia didn’t even look at me as they left.

I had an eerily feeling this will be the case most of the time from now on – I never wanted to try and tell someone again something like that. I was damn determined not too. What did I had to gain anyway?

Again I was reminded that this was no romance novel – friends didn’t jump in for my help and supported me in my quest for true love or happiness or whatever I was after – they felt creeped out and offended – both because they felt they didn’t know me anymore for talking like that – and they knew I was serious, otherwise they would have taken it as a joke and moved on – and offended for the fact that they thought I thought they are so naive that they would actually buy that. I can’t blame them, I would feel the same way.

I was alone in this and maybe it was better. Vampire secrecy made much more sense day by day – of course nobody knows about them – they all seem to enjoy stories, but when something actually gets serious they dismiss it, make fun of it and throw it away as being nonsense. And can you blame that with all the movies popping up like mushrooms after the rain lately? Movies that make vampires sparkle. Sorry. I just can’t hate on it enough.

—

Again I want to remind you – this doesn’t feel like reading a book because it isn’t – it has personal opinions, it’s a story mixed with my thoughts about it and you should treat it as such. If you expect a children’s story with “what’s next, what’s next” you won’t get it. You have to fish it out from what I’m saying. Some parts (like the last posts) are more like that, some aren’t.

—

That very same night I decided, against my own stupidity and my curiosity (heh, curiosity killed the cat) to have a walk up to the Old Church, make another breaking and entering inside it and check out the crypt.

How crazy that was? I know. But I couldn’t be scared enough of some bones, not after what I witnessed in that church anyway. So I went. I took the stairs that not long ago nearly brought me to meeting death, but at half of the stairs, a small path sticks out to the right. It’s a man-made path, the kind that forms by itself by people regularly walking through there. It goes right around the base of the citadel wall and through the forest and if you keep going forward, you finally arrive to the half of the road where it forks and which leads up to the hill – where the church is. I took that road and went through there: I decided to go on this path because I figured there will be nobody to see me going through here, but there might be people in the citadel, which I had to pass if I would have went the normal way.

In any case, I was at the church door in no time and with a feeling of “just go back and forget about it” I pushed the massive wooden doors and to my amazement – they had actually opened. Apparently someone didn’t lock it – or maybe nobody was here for the past week anyway since the “events” unfolded, with Christmas and all I figured that would be plausible. I swallowed my breath.

I went inside and approached the altar slowly, at the base of which was a small rock hatch. The kind that is part of the floor – but it has an iron ring attached to it and with enough force you can pull it up and descend into the crypt.

I looked around with the flashlight, there was no sign of blood, corpses or such. No vampire and no blonde girl. They were gone. I felt relieved and scared in the same time.

With no time to waste – I felt like a burglar – and by all means, I was. I grabbed the iron ring and start pulling on it as hard as I could. Sure enough the square rock hatch in the floor moved – it was thinner than the rest and was actually lighter than I had imagined. I kept pulling and then shoved it aside. I made sure the flashlight is still powerful by looking at it – right before going into darkness. That couldn’t have been such a smart move. I wouldn’t want it to go out while I’m down there, and I started descending.

This crypt is rather small. It’s just a 20 meter tunnel, with an arched ceiling, and it’s very narrow, dark and damp. On each side, on three rows, there are skeletons, and I shit you not, if you are a big guy by any chance, your clothes are gonna touch the top of their heads as you walk by them. They [the makeshift tombs, because they really seem temporary] have no doors or anything, they are just deposited skeletons, each in their own little spot.

In total I would guess there are about 120. It seemed to me that there were about 20 on each row, and with three rows on each side, that makes a total of 120 skeletons. Some were missing, so might be a bit less. However, I wasn’t in the mood of counting dead people.

I was actually searching for the dead vampires. I had a really terrible itch in my ass (metaphorically speaking) in knowing what happens with them after they die. Blade had taught me they go puff in flames, other movies had taught me they turn into pink goo, or they explode, or they burn in flames, or they turn into fine ash and so, so many more.

At the base of the crypt, two heads were sticking out more than they should be – they seemed not to ‘fit’ into the landscape. Different color. I immediately went there and I put the light on them – and there they were – two bodies, heads detached but somehow put over the body to seem ‘normal’ were lying there, but they were in such a state that you would think they were dead for at least 5 years. They were literally almost pure bone, except the tissue that was still there which was brown to black. It seemed to me like the last step of decomposition. There was no smell, I remember I had my hand over my mouth and nose but then put it down because I didn’t seem to smell anything.

By all means – they looked exactly like the other bodies and I was rather sure that in a matter of another two or three days nobody could tell they weren’t a part of this crypt – not without forensics at least. For me this was another debunked myth. Vampires died just like humans, if you cut their head off that is, but they seemed to decompose much faster. I wondered if staking them would make them burn.

I didn’t really spend more time in there – I was satisfied with what I’ve seen and I started going towards the exit of the crypt, happy that nothing came to bite me from behind. I had ‘that feeling’ which we all know. The one you feel there’s someone behind you when you walk down a shady street in the night.

As soon as I got to the entrance of the crypt and looked up towards the exit I saw a familiar face.

“Hello.” Regina said.
“Hi.” – I acted like I was just greeting her in the park. Nothing to see here, move along.

“Nous sentir ce soir curieux?” – She said with an air of aristocracy and superiority – like a true French would, however, her French could be better I thought.

“Oui.” I said and that was it for me with French. I switched to native tongue.

“Did you stalk me all this time?” I asked her, with a tone of “I like it” and not with a tone of “How dare you!”.
“Not really… just tonight. I wanted to visit you but you crept out at midnight and I was really feeling anxious to see what you were up to.” She said smiling.

“Are you satisfied with what you found?” She continued.

“As a matter of fact yes I am, I wouldn’t have come here if you would explain better – you know I’m curious – plus this doesn’t answer my question anyway.” – I was feeling rather irritated now, seeing her smile on and on and making me feel like a child.

“What is your question then?” Regina said imitating me in my “irritation”. That actually softened me. But she was still playing.

“How do you… kill a vampire?” I said, instantly feeling nervous, scared and ashamed for what I just asked. Mother of god I just realized I’ve asked the oldest vampire how to go about killing her.

“Am I that much of a bother that you already consider taking my life darling?” She said this with a tone of… jealousy? I couldn’t really tell at the time, but much later I figured out that expression of hers also. It was something like “I’m keeping the game up and making myself seem comfortable, but I’m not pleased with the position I’m in.” – I know it’s much to say about someone from an expression, but think of a false smile. That should paint a good picture for you.

Then she started:

“I told you to get your mind off movies and books. We don’t have our own little secret society where we meet and discuss evil plans. We’re not that different from you, we live in the same world, obey the same laws, well, more or less, and we try to be the same. By all means, we’re rather more alike that different.”

She was furious. Which was rather interesting, seeing how a vampire, the queen of them for that matter, was trying to prove a point: that she’s more human than she is a vampire. That really didn’t hold, no matter what she said. Her big knife and killer instincts a week before would make a strong counter-argument in my head.

“You already saw me walking freely in the sun. What else do you what?” She asked.

“That doesn’t answer my question for what I came here tonight. I’m not asking this for use against you, but I don’t want to be in a position of being attacked again and not knowing what to do.” I said feeling proud of my answer.

“You really think that you could kill me, or any vampire for that matter, if you knew how?” She said. She was actually waiting for an answer, it wasn’t a question to defy me, it wasn’t a rhetoric question.

“Yes I do, so if you please…” and I trailed off.

“Fine. But just so you know: this is the most well guarded secret of them all. Only the fact that you know what I am could get you killed, but it doesn’t because I would have to kill you myself, the others won’t dare.”

“I understand.” I said.

“We die like you. Just harder.” She said and I had a feeling that was it.

“What does that mean? Explain. Details.”

She didn’t want to go on, but I pushed and pushed and pushed and without realizing I made her angry. Really angry.
With one gust of wind I felt her hand on my neck, just the way she had done to the vampire a week before, she was hissing at me, fangs started coming out, I could actually see them elongating, and her eyes now looked like a cup of water in which you poured black ink into. They were swirling inside with blackness and were getting darker and bloodier by the second. This was her transforming into what I revered, worshiped and was scared of in the same time. The fact that I was out of air didn’t help.

She raised her hand as easily as you pick up a kitten, up in the air, with me in it, and slammed me to the left column of the church. Within a second her face was almost stuck to mine. Her nose was poking into mine, her eyes drilled holes in my very own eyes and I could feel her breath on my lips. I hoped she would kiss me.

She didn’t.
Once again her fangs dug deep into my throat – I was now her own endless blood bag which just replenished itself over and over – I felt a lot of pain this time – burning sensations like you’ve never felt before. You feel it deep inside your whole body, you feel your eyes burning and your mind melting. The pain in the neck is so great that you stop breathing or swallowing. You cannot move, not because you’re compelled or something, but because it’s so much pain to even think about moving that you give up instantly, before even thinking. You do not breathe. You sit there and hope you will not die. It traumatizes you every time it happens, but it doesn’t hurt every time. It seemed to me it only hurts if the one biting is angry and I wondered if you can control the pain – as in if she could intentionally make it hurt or not.

She didn’t drink – she just bit me, and then released, pulling me with her and then slamming me again in the column.
Her mouth full of my own blood and eyes deep black by now with the rest of them so red they were almost bleeding themselves, countless veins pushed to extreme – it looked like my blood – I really hoped that wasn’t the case.

She came close to me once again, just like before she bit me and said: “I will die on my own terms. You can’t kill anyone, but if you really must know. We die just like you.”

I gave up on asking her what does that mean – I didn’t want to go through all that again, but I didn’t have to because she continued:

“You can cut off my head and I’ll die. Fire can kill me but only if it’s strong and lasts long enough, otherwise I’ll heal through it. Stabbing or shooting me doesn’t work because I heal through it, not because I’m some creature of hell.”

I took a large breath of air – she studied my face and then to my amazement once again she continued:

“I own my eternity to my power of healing. That is why I cannot die. Overwhelm it and you can kill me.” She looked at me once again, trying to figure out if I’m satisfied. This was somewhat payment for what she just did to me. I accepted the payment.

“How about stakes?” – I asked.

“Wood? That’s a fabrication. Our heart beats just like yours, and it is damaged by wood or metal alike. However, if the stake is pulled out, we heal through it and do not die. It continues beating on, and on, and on, and on…” and I had to stop her before saying that again.

I was satisfied. More than satisfied. I could now paint a more accurate picture of what I’m dealing with, in my head. However, there was much more that I didn’t know, and the worst part was that I didn’t know what I didn’t know, if that makes sense. At least I knew that vampires do die by stopping their heart long enough – that is – leaving the stake in there for a couple of days, until decomposition sets in and then you can safely pull it out without risking the heart starting to beat again.

I was still fuzzy on the details – like drowning. Or limbs, did they grow back? Man what was I thinking. Just a month ago I was worried about how my hair looked and now – oh totally different set of problems – out of this world.

—

This is a long post but I can’t stop it here, have to get to the end otherwise it’s like saying a joke into two different parts, one today and the other tomorrow.

—

After saying that, I saw her biting her lip, piercing it slowly, as slowly as possible: it was intended for me to see it. I was actually aroused  by this – what’s wrong with me I thought – and then I saw her blood.

She bent over and kissed my neck where she bit me and just like that, I could actually hear and feel my wounds closing in. I didn’t know whether I should thank her or get the hell away from her. I didn’t say anything. I just wanted to bottle the damn thing and keep a steady supply with me, wondered if that worked anyway.

I remember I actually wanted to make a joke or tell her something about the crypt below – but  before I could even open my mouth, the doors of the church were closed shut – as by a gust of a really strong wind, because they were themselves really big heavy doors and by the time I turned to look at Regina with a “what’s going on?” look, she was already in her defense/attack stance. She had a really straight back, head tilted upwards, but her knees were bent pretty much and her hands were extended to each side for a bit, with her marvelous golden knife held in a not so tight grip in her left arm. She had her fangs fully extended and was scanning the place with quick glances from one corner to the other.

She stood perfectly still and for a moment it seemed to me she’s not even breathing anymore. She was a real statue with eyes that moved. Needles to remind you, this church was pitch black except my flashlight and the moon which was shining exactly on the altar, engulfing the whole place where we stood, through a window. The rest of the church was uncharted territory tonight.

I was looking at her and really taking in every single detail – I thought this was a great pose for a photo, or a painting – or a really good sketch. I really wanted to remember every single detail so I can draw something later – too bad I can’t draw, haven’t figured that out at the time.

As I was watching her NOT MOVE she turned her head in a really quick glance upwards towards the top left corner (opposite one) of the church. She fixated on something, and sure enough, something moved. For me, it was like she noticed it before it even moved – that wasn’t possible now – was it?

Something was in the church with us – something that was defying Regina! That was not good – anything that fast – and anything defying its queen must be either stronger and faster – or crazy. I wondered if vampires can be crazy. Then I pictured a whole new set of ideas in my head.

Werewolves – SHIT – I thought – What if Underworld (the movie) was right and the vampires actually had a war going on with the werewolves? No way.
My imagination, thanks to Hollywood, was too rich. I often wondered what else I didn’t know about, after I had found out about Regina, but I wasn’t prepared to accept werewolves, not in a million years.

And I was right.

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