Then one day, I happened to come to a village—small it was—in southern France. I heard keening and weeping, and noticed a group of mourners leaving a small cottage.
Drawn to see what was occurring, we do after all have a great sense of the morbid; I found I had come upon a wake.
I knew at once it was for someone young, as the parents, not old themselves sat speaking of their daughter whom they would never see again.
“Not a blemish on her, her poor weak heart!” they cried.
I happened to glance at the open casket. There laid out was the most beautiful young girl I had ever seen. Death had not marred her features and she was like a bride on her marriage bed, awaiting her groom.
It was then that I heard her whisper from the confines of that other world, that median place that lies between death and life for those not yet ascended.
“Who calls to me?”
You see, she knew I was there. I answered her silently; just a thought and nothing more. “Tis he who shall take you from death’s grim grip dear one.”
I did not hear her again; her mother’s mournful sobs ensured I would not.
“Anna, my child!”
Anna I thought, yes I like that.
I waited for three days and three nights—at last on the night of the funeral I stole out of my lodgings and went to the graveyard. The scent of sweet flowers and damp earth greeted me--the never changing smell of fresh burial.
Her grave looked sad. There were but a few flowers upon it, the rest had no doubt been put upon her coffin to accompany it into its final descent.
I called her name, “ANNA!”
The earth began to shift.
“ANNA RISE AND COME FORTH FROM DEATH!”
Now you see this is no ordinary thing to raise a vampire—there are words incantations you understand and something else you may not know. An appeal must be made to he who abideth in hell.
“FATHER SATAN, GIVE ME FORTH THE WOMAN, ANNA!”
This I have to say is a rather daring command, for the girl Anna no doubt was a good churchgoing girl. She probably was heaven bound—and would have to be snatched away from that well-thought of kingdom—but how to do it?
This is where his dark lordship comes in. The only way to snatch the girl is for Satan to have his demons take her, before the angels can protect her.
I closed my eyes better to concentrate on the intricate incantations I would have to offer up.
Soon after I began them, I heard screams and the unmistakable growling sounds of hell’s own demons.
The earth parted and, the ground gave up its dead. The coffin was revealed in the moonlight, its pristine virginal whiteness begrimed with streaks of dirt like desperate claw marks.
“ANNA!” I shouted.
The coffin opened and she came out and floated toward me still beautiful. Only her eyes betrayed the change that had come upon her, for they burned like two fiery coals.
Now! I must add here, lest I be accused of loving the dead—she was raised up from death bearing no mark or taint of funereal preparation—she was as she had been when she died of a heart defect—perfect in every way, but for the loss of her soul.
“Without a soul you see, Charles,” I said, “a person is capable of anything!”
I had already torn my breast so that she might have her first taste of blood.
She rushed toward me to drink. I must tell you there is nothing in this world as wildly intoxicating as that moment of union when that first taste of blood is experienced. “You are mine now Anna,” I whispered. She held out her hand and I took it and kissed it.
Had I one wish I suppose it might have been that she should retain the innocence I had first seen, but that was before her brief sojourn in hell and is not possible.
I paused here to find my young friend Charles sound asleep.
Now for my confession, dear reader! His drink had been laced with an opiate to make his passage easier, for I was never without compassion—a special characteristic of my heritage you see.
I picked him up gently and carried him into my beloved Anna’s room. Yes, I know I haven’t mentioned that she was there with me at the villa. Well, she was. And she was wasting away—for she had no sustenance for weeks; the plague you see!
“Anna,” I called. “My love I have come to feed you.”
She turned her pale face and listless eyes in my direction and smiled. “Feed me then…”
I held his unconscious body over her—and with one fast tear at his neck I opened his jugular, though I tasted it not. No it was enough for me to watch his rich red port flow into my beloved’s hungry mouth.
“Drink my darling,” I urged.
And so she did.
I saved her that night, and I have her still with me. We will be together for as long as fate allows.
And now for you my friend, thank you for listening to my story—I shall now bid you adieu.
Now dearest mortal I will leave you in peace, but with a warning. If some night a stranger invites you back to his home for a drink—do be careful it is not a vampire who invites you!
The End
Next week: The Legacy, Part One
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