a vampires tale

I remember the night I died. of course that was back in the day when the world seemed brighter. I remember being an alchemist, living the small crop of civilization called davidstown. It was dark age on earth at that time, the Vatican still kept a sharp eye on us, and the inquisition was more than happy to find an excuse to charge us with heresy. I may have had my links to the darkside but I kept clean. As an alchemist I knew the seasons and the sighs and was well traversed in the spirit world. The elder rosemary was one of my best customers. I had a wife as well. A more beautiful woman than most. She was smart, strong, and had complexity like no other woman on earth. She was a blacksmith and owned her own forge. I made most of the metals she used in her creations. We had been married for years. It pains me to think of her even to this day. by now I am certain she is dead. I still wonder sometimes. If she told me the truth at the end. I didn't find out how devious she was until a late in the relationship. I remember walking home one night from a journey out of town. I entered my home unbeknownst to what was occurring inside. The smell of our home was odd. I recognized it upon entering. Immediately I had my suspicions. The sounds coming from the bedroom only could be from one thing. I crept back silently. Her moans and giggles that I had grown so familiar with were echoing through my mind. The solid hard relentless terror in my stomach said something wasn't right. A mans voice danced along with hers. The two of them sounding infatuated with pleasure. I opened the door though I all I wanted to do was leave. She turned and recognized me instantly, her eyes grew wide with fear. The man above her was a soldier, I had seem him at the local garrison. Large bulky, short hair. He began to scream something. I remember being overcome with fury. I grabbed a knife that sat nearby. If i had fought that man today I would've won. But when I was human and alive, I was weak. He broke my hand, took the knife and stabbed me in the stomach. Throughout the turmoil that followed he left the house. I didn't die instantly, it was rather slow and painful. The knife was exotic in style it had torn most of my organs. I bled and bled and bled for the rest of the day. my wife weeping at my bedside. A doctor came to look at me once. He said the infection was too deep and that I was lucky to be alive now. Basterd, if I was lucky I would have died instantly and painlessly. Now all I had in my life was to suffer. I could never truly forgive my wife for her betrayal. Somewhere in my heart I still loved
her a little. I remember how she begged and begged me. I still couldn't forgive her, the sight of her and the soldier boy was still burned into my mind.

" why Roxanne" I would ask when I felt enough air in my lungs " why"

she never answered me that question. Only wept. There were visitors in those final pathetic days of my life. My friends and best customers did come and pay their respects. The day before I died though I received more appreciated company. The elder rosemary a vampire of the greatest bloodlines. She whispered to me secretly what was happening to my ever so wrathful soul. She made me an offer, I took it.

The last day of life I had, I remember it more than any other. It was the day I secured my freedom from the grave. My wife as she had been was begging me to forgive her. I made her an offer.

" please" she asked like she had over and over again " don't hate me"
" Roxanne" I wasted as much breath as necessary " could you do me one last favor"

" what is it, anything" she seemed to still plead for herself.

" when I am buried, unearth my coffin the first night of my burial, take it to the place where we first met" I requested " tell no one of this afterward."

She agreed. I died that night. They put me in coffin and shut the wooden box tight. As a spirit I watched my funeral. There were my friends and acquaintances. The elder rosemary watched form the hilltop. There was my wife, and there was that damnable soldier boy next to her. No one was ever told of his crime. She told them that I had a freak accident and fell of the blade. The soldier boy was a hero with the town, they all believed him. My so called wife cried on his shoulder. They said their goodbyes and left. Some left flowers. The soldier boy all the time wore an infuriating smirk. Later that night after everyone had left. My wife came to me, with a shovel in hand. She dug late into the night, by that time however my soul had returned to the flesh, I was slowly rebuilding my body. after she was finished moving the earth above me, she used her strong arms and hauled my coffin from that place. She tied a rope and drug me box and all through the woods. The moon was high and full that night. When she arrived she dropped the rope and said her final words.

" I know I wronged you" she said " I know I did something terrible to you. I still don't know why. You had been gone for so long, I got so lonely" she tried to explain, no sign of a tear in her eyes " he isn't that bad really, I hope you can forgive him, he was charming, sweet, and so handsome, and you were gone. I'll understand if you never forgive me put please know this, I did love you, I still do, with all my heart since the day we first met." She bent down and kissed my coffin " please don't hate me" she said and left me there. I heard every word. Rosemary was nearby, I could sense her power. I had told her to find me here, and that as long as my wife came alone not to harm her. As soon as the woman I had married was gone, rosemary made her approach, her honor guards with her. I was starting to feel again. Inside that coffin, my flesh was growing warmer. I had learned once more to open my eyes. My heart was confused and filled with a darker side of me, the dark side I had accepted and grown fond of in these passing final days. Rosemary stood beside my tomb. Ill never forget the first day of life in death. My first look at the rest of the world as an undead. She swung open my coffin.

" arise old friend" she stated " walk the earth once more"

Her five kinsman stood timidly behind her. They had come to witness the creation of abomination. As I rose from my bed to stand once more I knew very well what I had become. I was no flesh born living vampire who simply need blood for life, no I was a true vampire. A monster born of the night, a soul wreathed in energies that shouldn't exist and damned to wander in darkness forever. Neither living nor dead, I was no longer the alchemist of Davidstown I was a monster. The elder looked at me with a friendly yet evil smirk, her kinsmen and followers all bore looks of terror. I stood there with her on the first night of my creation, the powers awakening within me were invigorating. I was taken by them, savoring them.

" hello rosemary" I spoke in a voice more wicked than my original. " I see you have came to give me a name"

" indeed, old friend" she answered " your looking better, I can feel your strength growing, you are no longer who you once were, I shall call you Nicolas of the full moon."

" thank you my old friend" I bowed in gratitude.

She took me home that night to her castle and gave me a room in the deepest most secluded dungeon. There I slept through the days in that dark and secret place, in my only coffin, unable to forget the memories of my life. My beloved Roxanne, and that soldier boy. The next night I crept out of my hiding place and vanished from rosemary's manor. I returned home for the last time. To rid myself permanently of the memories that still ached my cold heart. A new sense of cruelty whispering in my mind. As I stood above my once welcome bed, I looked down upon the soldier boy who had taken my wife away. He was in bed with her, the air carried no scent of sex. He awoke, groggy, and starred at me. it must have taken him a moment to register what he was seeing. I smiled, I was going to kill him. He quickly reached for a blade. I jabbed my hand deep into his warm flesh and grabbed his still beating heart. He froze and blood erupted from his mouth. I knelt down and gazed into his terror filled eyes. His pain and fear amused me. then I twisted his heart, severing all arteries connected to it. He squirmed in pain, then as I crushed the meat in my hand I saw his eyes quickly fade into stone color. Blood poured from the gaping hole in his chest. I left my wedding ring on the nightstand, and left the scene as quietly as I had arrived. Since then I have never returned to that town. I will admit that was a more regrettable murder of mine. A stronger man would have been able to let the past die behind him, I however could not. A grudge in my heart was carried forever. I finally had what I came back for though. Peace of mind was at last mine. In the coming years I learned many things from rosemary. She had agreed to teach me the ways of the night, what I had become, how to use my powers and what I had to do to remain in this undead state. In exchange I would be one of her assassins. she sent me on many missions. Vampires in her area who had gone to far, unruly packs of werewolves, paladins and vampire hunters, all were killed. But this is only the story of my beginnings, for even as mankind matured into the civilized creature it is today, we did not fade into memory.