Читать книгу Soulstice: Luna's Dream - Lance Jr. Dow - Страница 3

Welcome to my world. I am Luna. Luna Tremaine. And I am a vampire.

All of what I will write here has been handed down the generations verbally. They say writing any of it down would leave us vulnerable to exposure. It is too great a risk. Writing it down is breaking “the code.” But “the code” isn’t written down either for the same reason. There’s something a little fishy about that if you ask me, a little cowardly, when someone doesn’t want to commit something to paper.

I’ve always been a rebel, a secret and quiet rebel. Because I’m actually not brave at all, except within the confines of my room. I’d like to think I’m a noble creature. But it isn’t easy when your existence is predicated on the premise that you don’t exist, coupled with the requirement to live a lot of your life as a total deception. A lie if you will. It makes for some deep and seemingly never-ending and tormented soul-searching. I’m trying to cope. This is an exercise in coping.

I expect when I’m done getting it off my chest (coping) that I’ll burn this. And I’ll watch the flames consume it and turn it into ashes. Then I’ll crush those ashes to dust and I’ll toss the burnt powder and with it my secrets into the sea just to be sure. Such is the metaphor for my life. I am destined never to be who I really know I am, forever-trapped in this rapidly changing world as a teen vampire.

I’m ready to fly. I stand on the precipice pen in hand, pad at the ready, ready to leap. It’s so exhilarating here in the solitude of my room with no one to stop me from leaping. I admit I’m scared. I’m committing to paper what is in our world, a grave sin.

Taking a deep breath... LEAPING

I really am just like you. That is, if you’re a 15-year old girl trying to figure out this complicated world and your place in it. And let me tell you… fifteen is a complicated age.

It’s not much different today, the lives and worlds between vampires and humans I mean. We just happen to feed upon you. Well… your blood. We’re not sorry. God made us who we are and you can’t argue with God can you?

I admit that I love the rush I get from fresh blood in my mouth. I can imagine from what I’ve observed in your commercials and real-life human behavior that’s like your reaction to a creamy milk-chocolate truffle or a bite of velvety key lime pie. That’s blood to me. Sometimes blood has a little “zip.” It tingles on the tongue. That’s an extra special treat when that happens.

Somewhere in Earth’s constantly evolving and re-invention of itself, we evolved from humans many thousands of years ago. No one is sure quite when. The verbal record is murky. But it was a long, long time ago.

Many think it was a bite from a mutated vampire bat to a man and a woman who were mates. There was something in the saliva of the bat that then mutated their DNA.

Our Adam and Eve, so to speak. They produced an offspring with a dominant vampire gene and so it went until we got to the pure-blooded vampires, one of which I am.

What does that mean to be a pure-blooded vampire? Absolutely nothing nowadays-- the underpinnings of our society are the same as yours--- money, or wealth if you choose, is the arbiter of class and power.

Vampires lived amongst humans at the beginning. In secret of course, just like now, but our skills were limited and our enhanced bodies had not yet evolved. If a vampire was found out (which was often), it was driven away from human society or, as was the most frequent outcome, killed.

If something much larger than a mosquito is feeding on you… you’ll tend to shoo them away or whack them dead, right?

Through the thousands of years we evolved into what we are today; very skilled stalkers. We have superior abilities and senses to humans and in many ways; animals. The truth of the matter is --- we are the most dominate species on the planet in as far as what we are capable of. A contest between me and any human on the planet is no contest at all. A contest between me and a lion or a great white shark… is not a contest at all. I just turned fifteen in September. I’m only fifteen-years old and I have to keep all of this bottled up inside me, for the rest of my life?!

In almost every other aspect of life, vampires are very much just like you now. We are every race, every color, and we have our various forms of religion. I believe in a greater being with a grand design… God, if you will. To not believe in Him is to believe that something came from nothing, which is impossible, unless God made it so.

Yes, I unequivocally believe in God. I wear the symbols of His presence-- crosses and such. They give me peace. I’m not choosing one religion over the other. These are the symbols I’ve been exposed to. There’s a Christian church nearby that I visit late at night (it also gives me a sense of peace) and the paintings and statues showing Jesus affect me down into my soul. I’ve read some of the books I find there in the church and I believe what most draws me to Jesus are his expressions of love and goodness. Everything is about loving one another and being an entity for goodness. He also struggled with the same things I do. Well… some of them.

What is my purpose here on Earth? How do you stay good when there is so much temptation not to be? How do you make the right choices when confronted with the most difficult choices imaginable? That is the journey I find is before me. And I am scared.

I guess in the end it is strange--- a vampire that believes in God. A vampire that wears crosses, who then goes out and feeds on humans.

Are you beginning to understand now what I mean when I define myself as a living, breathing contradiction? Can you understand why I’m confused about so many things? Why I seek out God to help me understand? Why I need to get some of this off my chest?

I’ve gotten a little “me” dramatic here so let me get back to vampires as the focus of this.

Many thousands of years ago when we separated from the humans we began living and building our own society in the deep woods and forests. The only time we came in contact with humans was to feed on their blood. We made a point to avoid humans; even those that made their lives in the forests.

When a vampire was found out or captured, they were often killed or an attempt was made to kill them. I say an attempt was made because we simply don’t die as easy as humans. Yes, we certainly can be killed and no, we don’t rise out of the dirt or anything like that. It did seem that way because when we were left mortally wounded by human standards the one ability we evolved was to heal up quickly and live to feed another day. If that vampire was seen again, well naturally you’d think he or she had risen from the dead. No we just heal very fast.

Our abilities evolved in the deep woods just like the animals; speed, hearing, sight, strength, and an enhanced sense of smell. These abilities are exponentially greater than human beings and exceed that of most animals as well. Actually they are off the charts.

Our speed and strength aren’t supernatural; they are due to our metabolism, larger adrenaline glands, and the resultant adrenaline production. Meaning, the sugar (glucose) in your human blood is quickly turned into freely usable energy by our skeletal muscles. Translation: Super strength, super speed, and our super-metabolism that helps us heal super-fast.

Not to get too technical, but we are born with bone morphogenetic proteins and osteoblasts cells like humans. These are the basic building blocks of bone formation. Then your human blood provides the minerals we need to create our bones. So our bones grow fast and very strong. Our strong bones and skeletal structure are needed to support the physical things we do.

That’s a basic lesson on why we are how we are.

No, we can’t really fly. But we can jump-- some of us farther and more graceful than others. I myself can jump quite far now and can position my body aerodynamically, thereby reducing friction and going farther. It’s very cool to be able to do this and it’s one of the things I really like to do-- that and diving off the cliffs. These are the mothers of all swan dives. I’m up to a quarter of a mile out when I knife into the Pacific. That’s one-thousand three-hundred twenty feet. That’s the length of over four football fields. I launch off a seven-hundred foot cliff. My life may be complicated and angst-filled, but it sure can be fun sometimes.

They say there are some vampires that have learned to use the Earth’s magnetic field to levitate themselves and “fly”. It’s supposed to result from some type of reverse polarization of the iron ions in our blood from all the iron in the human blood we consume. I’ve never seen it. I can’t do it. I think it’s one of our own myths.

While we were satisfied to live our lives in the deep woods, our food source; humans, exploded upon the planet. So many of them, so few of us; by our own hand and by nature’s own design. You can understand why most vampires did not openly confront the human world. Your numbers were just overwhelming. Humans also began to create weapons that more than leveled the playing field and those weapons as years passed, grew even more efficient and deadly. And the will to use them to get what is wanted has always been there in humans.

One thing you humans excel at is making weapons to kill things; no matter what it is-- even a bacterium. If we were found out and it was decided by humans that we needed to be eradicated--- you would certainly develop the weapons and tactics to do so. A simple sun test is all that would be necessary to identify a vampire or a light source that imitated the spectrum of rays that are damaging to us.

We are just as intelligent as humans, but for some reason we didn’t pursue these types of advances early on. We had no need. We could survive and live our lives without them.

By the time we realized that weapons were also a defensive measure we were too far behind humans. Our society decided secrecy was the best way forward. As long as we remained just a myth we would be able to live, survive and even prosper alongside the human race.

There are those vampires that want to take the planet as our own. They want to subjugate the humans and harvest what we need. But our progressive society of tribes, clans, and governance has prevailed. Though not many cling to the whole tribe-clan thing anymore, it’s from yester-year. The family-unit is our core societal unit now. Mostly we are left alone to live our lives. Our government steps in, only under the most extreme circumstances, letting the natural forces of society to exert their will on a more local basis. And as in your world, natural forces come down to power from wealth. Natural forces also mean natural strength as well. The animal in us makes us yield to the strongest of the pack. The strongest of the vampires tend to rise to the top of the social ladder. Some, like my parents, don’t want all the rest that comes with being in the upper echelons of vampire society. My parents are very strong vampires but they want a simple life for themselves and us, their children.

As evolution would have it, female vampires of age can only bear up to three children within a window of time between the approximate ages of twenty and twenty-eight-- yup, a real strict biological-clock. Go figure evolution. It makes strange and weird happen sometimes. It all works to regulate and limit our population vs. the humans.

I’m probably going into areas you’d rather not hear about. I’m still dealing with the whole “birds and the bees” thing myself and I still feel that twang of “ew” running up my spine in a nervous shiver ending in a spasm in my jaw and face. I understand boys get this same feeling when they think about getting kicked in the “you-know-what’s.” My older sister Christian, tells me this “ew” factor will surely pass and it will become the “Oh yeah” factor.

Vampires aren’t a curse. Well, most of us aren’t. There are some vampires that are just vicious and cruel. The “Killer Bees” and their clan are such vampires. I’ll get to them in more detail.

There are some vampires that for whatever reasons didn’t join the evolutionary progression of vampires to become modern-age vampires, or splintered off from the whole of vampire-dom. It’s like if human Neanderthals still existed in some far-off arctic ice canyon, or a cannibalistic headhunting tribe deep in some never seen or long forgotten place in the world.

Most of us simply want our sustenance and to live our lives. But there are those vampires who love the hunt for the power they feel when feeding, and those who love the rush of a kill. Although killing victims is forbidden in progressive modern vampire society, there are vampires who do. They are usually from elite and powerful clans, which is how they get away with it. The “Killer Bees” are such vampires. They were definitely born to kill.

The Bees come from such an elite and powerful clan. The clan is headed by the parents of the worst Bee of them all-- Nadira Vidal.

There is talk that the Vidal’s have humans imported for “special occasions.” Like a container-load of humans that they buy in bulk. I don’t know if it’s really true, but it would be one more reason for me to hate Nadira more than I already do.

As we vampires evolved alongside humans, and as human populations exploded we found we could move out of the deep woods. We could move away from the battles for turf with the animals and with our brutal nemesis, the werewolves. We could now be closer to humans and therefore closer to our food source. Closer equals less effort. See how much we’re like you? Give us a comfy couch, a big screen TV, a good movie and we’re chill.

Werewolves are extinct. At least no one has seen one for over a century. They seemed to appear from almost nowhere. But we considered them another animal in the forest. They were no different to us than the wolf with the exception that they consumed other species like no other. They didn’t consume humans for some reason. Maybe our scent was around humans and they feared us. Somehow they sensed we were superior and they had all they needed from the animals so there was no direct conflict. The werewolves population kept growing however as there were no checks on them. They had no predators or natural forces to keep them in check. This affected humans as humans needed the animals to eat. This affected us as humans began to die in large numbers from starvation. That’s when our society began to kill werewolves. That seemed to keep them in check and now they were like a pest management situation. If we killed enough of them, enough animals survived for the humans to eat. Our efforts ran into the laws of unintended consequences. Werewolves had to consume massive amounts of food to feed their equally-high metabolism; something we both had in common. They began taking humans. And once they got a taste for human flesh it got bad real fast. The werewolves would wipe out an entire clan or town of humans overnight. It was as if those humans had just disappeared off the face of the earth. Nothing was left of them. Their victim’s bones would be crushed to bits between massive jaws and teeth becoming thoroughly consumed. Their digestive systems would extract every bit of nourishment leaving only a small amount of excreted material back in the deep woods. That would be the only thing to remain of these humans.

Werewolves were almost eight-feet in height when standing upright. They were powerful and equally agile despite their size. They could leap great distances with their massive leg muscles recoiling tendons of steel and then releasing the energy like a catapult. Their jaws and necks, along with their teeth were meant to do one thing; rip, tear, and crush. Their thick, tight fur, over tough leather-like skin protected them with a flexible form of armor.

We sent our vampire warriors out to kill them. But something changed. Our vampires were not returning. The werewolves’ intelligence was growing. Not only were they able to kill us, but they were beginning to consume our dead. The turning point came when they began to attack our enclaves. They had no fear of anything anymore. Driven by their insatiable hunger the werewolves would stop at nothing to get what they needed. Their population exploded everywhere as they consumed everything almost unabated.

We fought against them every way we could. The battles between vampires and werewolves were like the battles of humans in the middle-ages-- brutal and bloody hand-to-hand battle to the death for many on each side.

Even in battle the werewolves consumed our dead and also dragged off as many of their own dead to eat. They wasted nothing of value. They only lived to consume. We began to set fire to our dead and the werewolf dead to turn the bodies and any werewolf carcasses to ash. We did anything we could do to limit their voracious needs and their population.

After years of major battles, aided by the werewolves’ own decimation of every food source, we succeeded in driving their population down to levels where we were now greater in number.

The tide was turned. We drove their remnants into the deep woods of swamps and thick briars where they could only find small creatures to eat such as snakes and swamp rats. They became weak and sick creatures. Eventually, we drove the werewolves to extinction with teams of werewolf hunters. In fact this was the mission of these werewolf hunters; to find the last werewolf and kill it.

At least we believe they no longer exist. No one has seen any evidence of them for centuries. They say this last dead werewolf has been stuffed and is in some high-echelon secret government location where it is kept as a reminder to the leaders of our society of how close we came ourselves to extinction by another species. Some of the voices use it as a symbol of our situation with the humans.

I hope those voices are never joined and given true credence by our society.

The werewolf years were hard years for vampires. Luckily our great speed allowed us to travel great distances to get to populations of humans to feed. We returned these great distances the same night because we did not want the werewolves to find the humans. That was one of the things that saved us. Werewolves used up their energy quickly. They could not travel far without needing to consume. But like a ripple in a pond they were moving out in all directions. Eventually, without the vampires to stop them, they would have spread through the planet like locusts. If not for us vampires, the human race itself could be extinct. If werewolves had been left unchecked by us vampires, they could have continued killing humans unabated. By the same token; if we had not prevailed that would have meant our demise as well. There was no other option but to wipe them out.

Imagine. We did all this at night and during rainstorms and overcast days or battling the werewolves under the canopy of the forests. Many vampires died when they got caught in the sun. Werewolves had no such limitations from the sun.

As to the myth about a human turning into a werewolf after being bitten and transforming into the monstrous form with the full-moon – total utter nonsense. Werewolves were just big bad wolves that learned to walk upright. But the werewolves are gone. Enough said.

We don’t “turn” humans by biting them either. That’s another myth. And we don’t “live forever.” That may seem romantic to some, but I think it would be the ultimate tragedy. I really wouldn’t want to live forever. I think all the vampire books and movies done by humans have it right. How boring and empty would it really be to replay the same kinds of events, and have the same kinds of feelings over and over and over again. How sad to know you would never transform and see God. I’m looking forward to that someday when I’ve lived enough of life. It’s kind of comforting knowing that all the pain of life will finally be gone. It’s painful; it seems almost unbearable at times. Don’t get me wrong, life is also wondrous. Just right now, I’m in kind of a Neverland of teen angst. I’m on an emotional rollercoaster 24/7, or so it seems.

We’re born just like humans. The gestation period is only five months though. We get baked fast. Haha! We eventually die of old age when our heart just stops. Because when you’ve got a heart that beats some twenty-times faster than a human heart due to your extreme metabolism-- that can’t go on forever. We used to live longer than you humans by about twenty years but we actually die younger than most humans now that humans are living longer. If we get in a bad enough accident, let’s say our head gets severed or the heart gets pulverized or the aortas get ripped away... yup… we’re goners. So, don’t believe everything you read and see in the movies!

Over the millenniums, our venomous saliva developed both anesthetic and hypnotic qualities so when we strike against a human and feed, the entire experience is disjointed, almost dream-like. You’re basically unconscious, but not really, if that makes sense. The properties of our venom allow you to come out this semi-conscious state quickly. You won’t remember the fear or pain. Our venom’s genetic properties will heal over the wound in a few minutes of contact with the air. You’ll never know you’ve been fed upon. That is, unless of course, you meet the wrong kind of vampire. Then, you’re out of luck as they say.

In a symbiotic way, we actually impart special immunities against a host of diseases, most especially cancers and blood-related diseases and infections. Most of those who have been fed upon will live longer lives. A gift I’d guess you’d say. Unless of course you run into one the less-evolved types of vampires any of which means you will die. That’s obviously a gift that goes one way. My Dad says that if humans knew about vampires’ saliva, we’d be the ones being drained—or milked like a venomous snake.

We also have rules as to the age of a human that can be taken. No human younger than the age of thirteen can be taken. I guess it has something to do with the amount of blood loss adversely affecting their future growth and well-being of the brain and major organs if taken before age thirteen. Obviously, we want adult humans to be around. They are our “only source” of true sustenance. And they tend to have more humans!

Animal blood can only be consumed by a vampire for a very short period of time. A number of days before our bodies begin to reject it. Animal blood has little nutritive value for us as well. You are basically starving while you consume it, no matter how much is consumed. The taste alone is enough to make you want to die. We’re given a survival course when we’re very young and we’ve got to suck the blood from an animal to pass the course. It’s horrendous.

Don’t ask me how, but we can sense the age of thirteen fairly accurately just by seeing our victim. It’s like a sixth sense. If the sense is off, the moment we taste their blood, the age is instantly known to us. It is carried in the blood cell, each cell carrying the exact moment of birth and has something to do with oxygenization of the cells that begins with the very first breath in humans. We are supposed to immediately release. Some of us don’t. Can you say Killer Bees? Many of us choose to not even strike when we get any vibe near the age of thirteen. My parents for instance will only feed upon those twenty-one or older. They are very considerate vampires. It’s why I love them so much.

Nowadays, many vampires that are a family-unit hunt as a family pack. It’s almost a necessity with all of the technology around today. But - teenagers being teenagers, many of us teen vampires go it alone or with friends. I sometimes go with my BFF, Lily Burgoyne, or sometimes, with my little sister, Skyla.

Skyla’s the cutest nine-year old vampire. But don’t let that fool you. This girlie is fast and nimble. She’ll be at your throat before you know what’s happening. Or (and this is funny), because of her size, she’ll take a human in the popliteal artery just above the knee. You just have to see it to get the funny part. Hilarious.

In the final move, we vampires found we could actually live among humans. We created a symbiotic relationship with humans, only they didn’t know it. Our society grew along with yours only in secret. Secret bakers and candlestick makers, cobblers, tailors and butchers-- with humans out front in the shops that had no idea of who they were working for. The humans that worked for these mysterious employers didn’t care because they were paid well. The vampires earned the money they needed for the other necessities of a comfortable life and could pay better because their food (blood) was free. Vampires work fast as well so our productivity is much greater than humans. Of course some vampires got their wealth the old fashioned way-- by stealing and they still do. Most of us want to live a decent life with the cards we’ve been dealt and work doing everything humans do. For those that do labor – it’s actually a breeze. The harder jobs are the ones you have to use your brain for.

As the industrial age grew, we learned science. Our scientists and chemists invented the first sunscreens that allowed our society to move in the daylight.

Now our sunscreen is so good we get jobs of almost any kind, live in homes like yours, go to your schools; enjoy the good life. Why live in the woods? Better to live like the Joneses and feed on the Joneses. Kind of like humans, who for a long time lived on farms with their very food sources, now, most humans just go to the grocery store and pick up food in neat little packages. No mess, no fuss.

I don’t mind living amongst humans. I’m not a fan of humans themselves per se, but I love their music, and my cool retro bike and the planet itself. So your causes are my causes. Peace, love, harmony. It makes it all easier for both of us.

And yes, boys are slowly coming into the picture. There are not as many to choose from within the vampire ranks. Humans are strictly off-limits… forbidden. It’s against “the code.” Really against the code. No fraternizing with a human and worse; falling in love with a human.

I’ve got all the young teen girl things going on. All the changes happening with my body, my vampire hormones, school. Deciding what I want to do for a job some day. Hey, our food is free, but there’s no free lunch if you want a nice home, a nice car, TV, internet, iPods and iPhones. We gotta work for those hot concert tickets too.

I’m into planet-related causes. Global warming and pollution affects us too. If humans are affected, we’re affected. I want a clean planet too. I love nature, especially the ocean and forests and all they have to offer. So I’m into it… saving the planet. Mother Earth. I love her. But let me be clear. Mother Earth is not God. It’s the vessel he gave us to ride the universe while we prove to him we are worthy of the other ride; the long ride. He’s given us enough to judge him by with this vessel. I say the wonders of his vessel are never-ending. And the sea we’re traveling in-- even more wondrous. Imagine what waits for us.

Yes, we are affected by the sun-- both the ultraviolet A and B rays penetrate our skin and mild exposure damages our blood cells. Depending on the length of this exposure, it will actually kill our blood cells outright. Kill enough and the remaining cells cannot carry the burden of supplying our organs with what they need to function causing them to shut down. If we have direct intense exposure to daytime sun, our skin and flesh will literally burn and burn away right down to the bone. Without immediate and special care, we die. So our sunscreen is very important to our lives. It has the opposite effect on human skin as it causes a kind of chemical burn. We have to be careful to conceal the sunscreen or certainly not get caught with it by a human. They say the formula is kept by our government in a secret location and that the secret ingredients are also secret. It would be hard, even impossible for humans to figure out what it is. But our government doesn’t want that Pandora’s Box cracked open-- ever. It is sold and dispensed by the government. See how close we are to your society. The thing we need the most, we get charged for!

We still feed at night for the obvious predatory and secretive reasons. “The code” requires that we take all steps necessary to keep our existence a secret. Fact is, it’s just easier all the way around to do it under the cloak of darkness. It’s also when humans, for the most part; sleep. There’s nothing easier than taking someone asleep on the couch, recliner, or in bed. Mostly, our days are filled up with the same things yours are filled up with. So nights are when we hit the streets.

Our lack of sun exposure does make us pale with almost a rosy or pink glow after feeding as fresh blood courses through our bodies. Our sunscreen, along with make-up products and tanning colorings, can keep us looking just like humans. But here again, some vampires shun these human trappings and go completely bare. But they have to stay indoors when the sun is out until it is gone from the horizon. These vampires are usually those who live by the Old World ways. They are our fundamentalists, so to speak. I think they are plain ‘ol creepy.

One thing we can’t hide, unless we use sunglasses, is our eyes. During feeding and up to a half-hour (more or less), our eyes are shades of reds and pinks as blood is processed in our bodies. I mean the entire eye - there’s no hiding it. During feeding and in the first minutes thereafter, we really do look like demons. Luckily, my body processes blood quickly. So, in about fifteen minutes I’m fine to look at. It’ll look like I’m just tired (should you catch a glimpse of me).

Vampires don’t record anything about anything. No writings. No recordings. It’s all against, the code. All information is solely passed verbally, or by watching other vampires, for as long as we’ve existed. Even though that existence goes back thousands and thousands of years—we only exist in the here and now.

There’s a lot more to tell, but I’m going to lull for a little bit before I go out to feed. Lulling is our form of sleep. It’s a rest-state, which is a blankness, blackness, and nothingness. You just know you’re rested when you come out of it. We don’t dream. We can’t dream.

I wish I could dream like humans. From what I’ve read and heard it’s like having a whole other life besides the one you live out every day. That’s so cool. I guess that it’s my dream to be able to dream. For now, it has to be just a hope. I hope, one day, I can dream.