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It’s kind of funny, now that I think of it. The first time I left, it was to find my mother. This time when I left, I had no reason to leave... but I accomplished more this time than the time that I actually had a goal.
The very first night, I came across some resistance. I sensed enormous power blocking my path in the forest. I stopped walking.
“Who are you?” I growled.
“Ooh, I’m so scared, little one. I don’t like you, kid. I disagree with what you’ve done with your life.”
“Do you think I give a damn?”
“Look, kid, you made a bad move in freeing Naery. I decided to dedicate what’s left of my life to destroying you and Naery.”
“Hey, look. Yeah, you’re powerful, I sense that. Don’t go on an ego trip in front of me, though. I’m the person you least want to do so in front of. You probably have a better chance of killing Naery than you do in killing me. I don’t want to hurt you.”
“You won’t have to,” he said calmly and pinned me to the air mentally. “Since you seem so kindly, I’ll make this quick,” he promised, coming at me, wielding a sword that appeared out of thin air. I leapt into the world I’d created earlier when Spike had attacked me. The sword went right through me.
“C’mon. Just stop. I mean you no harm. I denied Naery when she asked if I’d help her execute her plan.”
“Plan? What plan?” he put his sword down and I returned back to the world where he could harm me if he so pleased.
“To destroy all humans. She believes that the corruption of the world is because of humans.”
“Hmm. She has good reason to. She and I lived in a time in which vampires ruled-and life seemed much more peaceful then than it does now.” He rested his arm on the hilt of the sword, as the point was stuck into the ground. “Where’re you headed, kid?”
“Nowhere, really, in particular. I was just going to wander,” I shrugged. “Who are you?”
“Humph,” he did not answer at first, and then I saw a smile leak onto his lips and I knew at once who it was.
“What do you want?” I muttered and started to walk away.
“Mysiri, so, you’re leaving again?”
I turned back and faced him. “Antonio, do you agree with Naery?”
“What do you mean?”
“Do you think corruption came with humans?”
“All I know is,” Antonio sighed and the sword he held disappeared. “Naery and I are the offspring of the creators. Vampira, our mother, is complete vampire and our father, Mestizo, was a hybrid. While the world consisted of creatures that were mostly vampire, it was very peaceful; we usually did not concern ourselves with others. I was a little different, actually,” Antonio confessed. “I found myself very often involving myself in others’ problems. They found this curious, but appreciated my actually giving a damn.” He paused. “Little by little, more people started concerning themselves with other people’s business and it got burdensome and annoying. People grew aggravated and started arguing and fighting. Thus began the rivalry of human versus vampire. Vampires wanted to keep to themselves but humans insisted upon involving themselves in the lives of vampires. As people grew more and more human... I guess I grew less and less human. I don’t like involving myself with others and I don’t like others involving themselves with me.” Antonio shrugged. “I guess it’d work either way; all humans, all vampires, it makes no difference.”
“Which would you rather?”
“Me? Personally, I’m all for having all humans. Most vampires are sick of life, anyway.” Antonio shrugged then looked at me intently. “You know I’m not the least bit ashamed of you. Not at all. I’m glad I have someone to say, ‘that’s my daughter, that’s my child,’ about. I just wish I’d not had to betray Tai in order to do so.” Antonio smiled slightly. “No one could ever be ashamed of a child like you.”
I hugged Antonio. “Thank you,” I murmured. “You’re not a bad father, either. If you want another child whose existence doesn’t make you ashamed of yourself... you should go for it,” I suggested. Antonio shook his head.
“I couldn’t...” he said softly, then sighed. “Listen, Mysiri. Don’t let anyone hold you back... and don’t live anything less than the truth. I’ll leave you alone to roam. I hope you find what you’re looking for.” Antonio hugged me then faded into the trees. I smiled a moment, just watching where he had disappeared into, then continued on my way.
Whenever a vampire refers to the time passing, they say that day faded into night, faded into day, over and over, and that time was unrecognizable. When you’re waiting for something, as I was, such is not the case. All of the others searched for something, so they always had something to keep them occupied. I was waiting for it, unpassively, therefore making the days very recognizable and countable. I waited for what it was I found for one-hundred years, seven months, a week, and four days; an unbelievably long amount of time for humans, but normally not that long for vampires. For me, though, the time passed incredibly slowly, and it seemed an eternity... especially those last twenty years.
After my meeting with Antonio, I wandered for five years before anyone confronted me. I was just walking along the side of a country-side road when a guy on a motorcycle stopped in front of me, blocking my path. I looked up from the ground and looked at him.
“Where ya headed?” the man asked in a low, raspy voice. I frowned as I looked into his dark blue eyes.
“Nowhere in particular,” I replied softly, demurely turning my yellowish-green eyes toward my feet.
“You need an escort?” he asked, in as kind a voice as he could muster.
“I’m fine. I can protect myself. But thank you for offering,” I murmured.
“A little girl like you protecting yourself?” he almost laughed aloud, and got a sharp look from me. He was enormous, I noticed for the first time. He looked incredibly rough, with a scraggly goatee and untamed dark hair. “What, is that how you protect yourself?”
“You should be wishing it were,” I growled angrily and mentally hurled him into the air. “So, what were you gonna do? Take me into some cheap motel and rape me there? Or, maybe that field over there would suffice?” I dropped him into some nearby bushes. “Every creature was given something to protect itself with. You keep that in mind.” I started to walk away.
“Wait,” he called. I was quite annoyed, but turned back and looked at him. “How’d you do that? Are you...” some more people appeared around him.
“Are you one of us?” they all asked.
I looked at them curiously. “Yes... I am. But you’re considerably weak compared to those who I’ve spent my life with.”
“Who do you know?” the one that had first confronted me asked. I shrugged.
“Tell me who you are, and I will tell you what I can of myself.”
“My name’s Jim,” he answered impatiently.
“My mother is Euraefy, but I didn’t know that for quite some time. A vampire named Tai took me in because I was out on the streets. It was in living with Tai that I met Antonio, Syti and Spike. After awhile, I left and went walking around on my own. I meant to find my mother, and I did. She got to annoying me, so I left her. I got down to Hell... I’m not going to go into the details there, but I met Naery and Darius. I freed Naery and then returned to Tai’s house. Then I left again and here I am now.” I did not want to tell them of Naery’s plan because I thought they would get too enthusiastic about it.
“You know Naery?” they asked in awe. I nodded, carefully collecting my thoughts. If I said too little about her they would know something was up, and if I said too much, they might form a cult and focus on killing humans uncontrollably. “Is she as strong as they say? Is she as ugly as they say?”
“Strong... I guess she’s pretty strong. Ugly? Not really. How would she seduce all of the humans she has in her life if she were ugly?” I laughed when they all glared at me.
“You know Spike?” Jim asked, his voice croaking. I nodded.
“Yes. Why?”
“No reason. I just heard a lot about him,” Jim turned away to hide his face from me. He knew I could read his face and discover he was lying. It was pointless, anyway; I heard the falseness in his voice.
“Oh really? Like what?”
“He brought us all back to earth,” Jim shrugged. I narrowed my eyes and gestured for him to continue. “Well, several years back, fifteen, maybe twenty, hell, maybe even twenty-five, everyone was in Hell except Spike and some new ‘unkillable’ creatures. I’m not clear on how Spike came to be invincible, but I think I heard something about Euraefy giving her invincibility to Spike without making him a vampire, but I don’t know how she did that. Well, so Spike met this chick one day... um, I think her name was Makita. Well, Makita came from Mestizo to aid Spike in putting the world back to normal. Nosferatu, an unimaginably strong vampire, had come and taken control of Vampira and made her throw everyone in hell and create this new race. Well, Mestizo did not want this, so Nosferatu put a very strong curse on Mestizo to slowly kill him. Makita was very close to Mestizo and did all he asked, so when he asked her to get Spike to help her defeat Nosferatu, she did just as he said, no questions asked.
“It did not take long for Makita to convince Spike to help her. He has a soft spot for girls-especially pretty ones like her. So, they traveled to Hell and trained against all of the strongest people there to prepare for the battle with Nosferatu. They had a simple time defeating all of the people in Hell, even Darius, the guarder of the dates. Darius did warn them that Nosferatu would be incredibly hard to defeat and told them to get some rest. The next day, Spike left the room all by himself and went to see Nosferatu and easily defeated him. Some say Spike killed Makita, some say she freaked, refused to go and is still in Hell somewhere, but all the oldest vampires say that Makita’s and Spike’s souls fused together and maintained one body-the stronger body-to stay in. No one knows for sure.”
“Jim, why do you care so much about Spike?”
“What?”
“You heard me. Why does Spike mean so much to you?” I repeated. Everyone stared at me in awe. No one ever expected to be answered by Jim, unless the answer was a punch in the mouth. Of course, I could easily dodge his fist if such was the case.
“Leave, all of you,” he commanded his followers. They started to protest, but he remained firm. “Leave!” he roared, and they all scattered away. Jim then looked at me warily. “Is Spike all right?”
“Last time I saw him he was.”
“When was that?”
“I dunno. Six years, ago, maybe?” I frowned. “Why d’you care so much?”
“He’s my little brother,” Jim replied simply. “Our past isn’t too loving towards one another... I almost killed him once... but that was when I was on drugs. The next time he saw me was when he was with Makita on that trip to Hell... and I was with his best friend, Lyvia. When he saw me with her, he punched me out. The shrimp had learned to fight; I was pretty surprised... Lyvia had to break us up and that Makita just stood aside, watching. She sensed Spike’s jealousy and I think that kinda disappointed her. Later on, Spike and I made up-just right before they were gonna rest up for the fight with Nosferatu. Haven’t seen him since.”
I realized at that moment that I did not know a damn thing about Spike. I thought I knew him down to his very core-but I didn’t even know that he had freed everyone from Hell-and I didn’t even know about Makita.
I sighed and started walking away again.
“Wait,” Jim called. I turned and looked at him. “How do you know Spike?”
“He-...” I wanted to tell Jim everything about Spike and I, but I felt I had no right to. “... He and I both lived in the same house, adopted by a group of vampires, sorta.”
“Why do you care about him?” Jim demanded. My eyes grew bright and I grinned as I thought of all the reasons why I really cared about him, but then they grew dim again when I thought of Makita and wondered about what had happened between she and Spike.
“He’s my only friend,” I shrugged. It was true, even if it was not the whole truth.
“Where are you going?” Jim asked as I started walking again.
“Hell,” I murmured. Jim’s eyes grew wide. He was about to ask why, but I shook my head. “It’s really
very complicated and I don’t want to get into it right now. I wish to go alone, so don’t even ask.” Jim
stood dejectedly by as I disappeared.
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