The Death of Vlad Mendak

Vlad Mendak

The galaxy was in ruins after the war. It was hard enough for humans, and even harder for vampires. Most vampires got by, by doing mercenary work or other freelance jobs of that sort. My name is Vlad Mendak and I grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana back before the war, before I was a vampire, before I died, before everything. I was born in 1981. I died in 2006, that was also the night of my reincarnation as a vampire. Id start there, but its really not very important, well not as important as the story Im about to tell you. The story about my final death in the year 3081, but Ill get to that in a second.

About 15 years ago I got a job at a huge corporation bent on dominating the world. Arent they all? I had to track down people who owed them money and "take care of them." I guess you could say it was more of an organized crime syndicate than a corporation, or that the corporation was just a cover-up, but whatever it was I really didnt care because I was getting paid to kill people and I couldnt have asked for anything better. Well about 7 years later the corporation was shut down so I had to find more work. I finally found work smuggling things from planet to planet on a small freighter with a small crew of more vampires. Ive been working there ever since and things have been going pretty good until the other day. We started having problems with our computers and our food supply kept running low. That was very mysterious because vampires dont eat the same food as humans do. We only had the food there so that if we were arrested boarded by authorities then it would like we were human. Vampires were very scarce since the war and any vampires seen were being caught and executed without mercy so we had to stay low. But anyway, we had a suspicion that someone was on our ship and they werent friendly, but whoever they were, they were damn god at hiding. We searched the ship from top to bottom many times and never found anyone so we were all a little on edge. The other day one of our crewmember just disappeared. Just like that. Vanished. Thats a little weird when youre in the middle of space. I guess Ill start our story there because that seemed to be the beginning of all the strange happenings.

It was a sunny day in space (Vampire laughs) right, sunny. Thats one of the good things about space though. There was no sunlight and since we were all vampires, we never had to worry about being turned into a rotisserie chicken a little to close to the flame in the middle of the day because like I said there was no sunlight. For food we would usually board other ships in the galaxy and feed off the mortals and take there possessions and vessel to sell it at the closest star-port. It was pretty good money so I couldnt really complain. It was more than the money though, it was like I actually had a family. I hadnt had a family since I was a mortal many years ago. But getting back to my story, we were all a little frightened in the ship. About a week later another crewmember disappeared. If your wondering why Im not sad about these deaths is because if youll remember, Im a vampire and vampires dont show emotion like mortals do. Anyway, getting back to my story, we searched the ship high and low for days. Nothing. Not even a vampire was that good. We couldnt figure it out. It just didnt make any sense. Another week, another crewmember. Now it was just Trons, Scelp, and I. They were two other crewmembers. I worked with Scelp at the corporation for a while, hes the one who got me the smuggling job. So we were all pretty scared about the "shadow" as the thing was coming to be known as. We were all on our guard. We wanted to be ready for this thing. One night it attacked Trons, but we were ready for the bastard. It ran straight at us and then just stopped. Stopped right in front of us and I could feel it staring into my eyes. I tied to look into its eyes but there werent any. Just a faceless dark, shadowy figure staring piercingly at me. It gave me the chills, which was a feeling I hadnt had in over two thousand years. I knew what it was instantly. It was a shadock. Shadoks are creatures that have the same figure as a mortal but they dont have eyes. They can still see but not with eyes. They hunted down vampires just like vampires hunted down mortals. I knew at once that it was over. I wasnt gonna escape this time. Scelp died instantly by a gash to the neck with the shadoks long blade-like extra set of limbs that protruded out of his back. It was like two extra arms that were razor sharp and could slice through anything. Trons was next with a quick slice of his torso he was dismembered from the waist down. He died slowly on the ships bridge. I watched him go. I listened to his blood curdling screams as the last minutes of his life were slowly disappearing into the awkward silence shared between the shadok and I. There he was again staring at me. I could feel all of the hair on my body standing up just waiting. We both just stood there staring deep into each others minds. Through the deep silence I could feel almost remorse for all the lives Ive taken in my years. I could also feel like I was finished running. I realized then at that moment that I was running from something my whole life. I wasnt running from anyone in particular but myself. I was trying to live a pathetic existence when I realized at that moment that I wasnt even Vlad anymore. I was just a beast trapped in the dead carcass of a man that was born Vlad Mendak in New Orleans. I was finally done running. I was finally actually free. I felt like I could finally actually die. The shadok was still staring at me, and me at him. He knew what I was thinking about. He knew that I realized what I truly was. In a flash I saw a dark shadow come toward me and I knew what was to come next. It did. I felt a sharp, intense pain in my neck that brought me to my knees. I knew it was over, but I wanted that. I was tired of running I was tired of chasing a false hope of a real life, of a family, of love. I was done. Then everything went black.