Nightfall

Chapter 1
The Invitation


Our story begins in 1381, on a stormy evening in June, in such a place far unlike our own, devoid and unheard of modern embellishments of human want. Griggles such an uncommon place for many like me, whence I had humanity. Long, old, pale reminders of such a state of grace in such a frail, pathetic life that is man. Now, don’t get me wrong I enjoyed being human and once had great respect for them. Since I had changed forever, of what most would consider being dead, yet I consider human life to be merely living, if at all. Nothing can change my idea of that, for I have seen all that is wrong and corrupt in this god-forsaken hell of humanity.

“Brendyn, what are you doing over there in the corner all by yourself, my boy?” an elder man questions
         
Brendyn, that was my new identity, Brendyn Michael Forlorn, at least that’s what people of this age know me as and I have accepted that as my own. After all, I feared persecution with my birth name of Vladmir Von Hesse, Duke of Elegeron. Everything I had grown to love with that name of Vladmir, I had to give it all up, and whence I changed into something I am more proud of then that pathetic human life.
“Just writing in my journal, Jason, that’s all.” I reply
Jason was the man who took me into his house and looked after me, it all started when he found me in tattered rags soaked from being in the rain for so long. He bathed me and gave me clothes out his own wardrobe, and nursed me until I was well; he always asked me why I would sleep all day long, and stay awake all through the night. I never revealed the truth to him, for he never asked about my past, and I feared that if I told him he would’ve thrown me out like a mangy dog, as all the rest before him had.
“I see… would you let me read it?” Jason asks.
“Not yet, once I have finished it then you may read it, is that fair.” I state, since it’s only fair for him to read it since he has bestowed homage and care to a wretched person such as me, when many would not.
I sit there and think ‘I wonder if he would like to be forever a part of my story… No he wouldn’t… he would be like all the rest and abuse it.’
Jason asks “what are you thinking about, Brendyn?”
“Oh nothing…” I say “nothing that would be of interest to you…”
“Like what? I mean if you don’t mind me asking” quizzing me like an insolent puppy.
“Well… umm… never mind.” I repeat.
“ Are you thinking of your past and how the ones you left behind are?” he asks.
“I had to leave them behind!” I snarl back at him. “If I didn’t, the ones that weren’t dead would have ended up that way!”
“Was there a lot of battles in your homeland?” he asks.
“…” I look at him with a glare in my eye.
“I’m sorry Brendyn, I didn’t mean to make you upset” He apologies.
“No Jason, I ‘m sorry I yelled.” I calmly cover what is actually my intention for him.
He walks over to the cabinet and grabs some wooden mugs for some brew and looks to me and asks “Would you like some?”
“Sure, Jason, come and sit so we can talk, there is something I would like to ask you.” I reply.
He nods and pulls up a chair and sits. “What is it?” he asks.
“Jason, what I am about to ask you is serious, so don’t be alarmed when I ask, alright.” I say.
“Umm…. Sure” he answers.
“About earlier, when you asked about reading my journal…”I start. “Would you like to be a part of my story, a real living part of my story that will live on for eternity and never end?”
“W…what do you mean a real living part of your story that will never end?” he wearingly asks.
“What I mean is…I’m sorry… I knew you wouldn’t be up to it”. I say
“No, don’t be sorry, up to what?” he replies.
“I mean would you like to live in my world? Something that will let you be able to be not afraid of… well… you know… death any more...” I hesitantly ask.
“Well… I thought I was living in your world…what do you mean never fear death?” Jason replies.
“No Jason, my world is extremely different than yours. First of all, I’m not human nor considered to be living, yet I live amongst humans but I don’t believe in any human ideals.” I say.
“How so? How can you be living but yet not alive in some way?” he asks.
“Jason, my good friend I am the undead, that elders tell children to keep them behaving right.” I reply with great care and guard.
“Yeah… Brendyn, what else is there for me to lose, I have already lost my two boys in war and my wife when she was giving birth to my second son, so there is nothing more to lose. So yes, I would like to be part of you world. I have noticed that you’re more mysterious than when I first found you in tattered rags on the side of the road.” Jason replies.
“I’m sorry Jason, I didn’t know you lost your family.” I say
“Don’t be sorry for my loss, it had nothing to do with you that’s just life. I have accepted it.” He replies.
“But you can’t use this power for revenge… I don’t know if you are ready for what I have to offer you. But I will tell you right now, before anymore is said and before you’ve made your choice, this is an offer that you cannot take back once you have agreed to it. Alright” I warn Jason.
“Uh… what do you mean? Are you going to kill me or something like that?” he asks.
“Well, yes and no, I mean your humanity will be forever lost but you will be reborn in to something else, something that is not cared for much.” I further warn him.
He took me by so much surprise when he didn’t just throw me out onto the street like others had before. Just now when I spoke of losing his humanity, forever, I knew right there that I could confide in him far more than I had assumed before I really got to know him.
“Umm… ok, now you’re scaring me, Brendyn.” He says.
“It’s getting late, Jason, you need some rest. You look tired and weary. We will talk more tomorrow night about this, alright.” I say.
“Umm… ok. I’ll be waiting to hear more.” Jason says as he walks upstairs staring at me out of the corner of his eye.
“Goodnight Jason.” I say.
“Goodnight.” Jason replies.
‘Oh shit… maybe I have said to much tonight, probably when he has some time tomorrow he might just kill me in my sleep.’ I think to myself.
As the night slowly passes, I sit alone in the dimly candle lit hall of the house, consumed with in a gaze of how beautiful the moon is, pondering to myself, ‘I wonder what he will say by this up coming nightfall, if he believes me to be toying with him or if he takes me to be quite serious? Only time will tell me that answer, and I have quite a bit of time to wait, but I fear that time will ultimately be my demise.’
I creep to his room upstairs and whisper into his ear, “I pray you have an answer by nightfall. Enjoy this sunrise for it may be your last.”
Jason mumbles as if in a dream, “I will…”
As I walk back downstairs I notice a faint glow is coming fast upon us, daybreak is almost here, and I slip into my coffin in the back room of the house.
“I understand how Jason feels for I’ve lost something I once loved, nay, someone I still today love her. Something so dear to me I lost, and never to get back ever again. Someone so precious to me had gone. She’ll never return to me even in my darkest moments. I loved her so much and she vanished without a trace, no clues, nothing. She was everything to me but all was lost. ‘Why me God? What did I do to get this? Oh why’ I thought to myself just before turning in for the day.
Moments later, Jason wakes to a blissful morning, the sun shining so brightly and prancing off the morning dew like little fairies playing in the grass. The most beautiful sight one can see, but as for me it is the worst sight I could ever fathom. The sight I had once grown immensely found of when I was still a wretched, pathetic human.
Jason walk about the house asking, “Brendyn where are you? Brendyn, are you still here?” with no answer he shakes his head and assumes that I had went off to work, unknowingly that I was mere steps away from where he stood. When all he really had to do was walk down into the basement and see the brimstone coffin and open it. Not quite sure where I worked, or even what I did all day long, he would never see me until he got back from his shop out in middle of the town square, a blacksmith shop stood, named the Iron Stead. 
Throughout the day Jason thinks to himself ‘I wonder what Brendyn meant, “live in his world, and loss of my humanity forever.” I thought I was living in his world, I mean I live with him, so what could he have possibly meant by that. He is being kind of pushy by wanting my answer by nightfall, when I really don’t know what he is talking about. I guess I will find out tonight. What a beautiful sunrise this is.’
The day was quite dull for Jason, being a blacksmith, with the same old people with the same old repairs, more horseshoes and ox cartwheels. Nothing ever changed, nothing was new about this anymore, nothing interesting and exciting, besides all of the stories that the knights would tell, about wars they have never been in, but had only heard about. Very rarely did knights come here to repair their swords, maces, or even put new shoes on their horse, since they had a blacksmith exclusively to them no one else inside the castle walls. Every great once in awhile there would be a renegade knight, or a knight of the old code who knew who Jason was before the new king had emerged, wanting a hand crafted sword from Jason. But that was all before his wife passed, he was very skilled and revered craftsman that worked inside the castle walls.
Once the king had passed when a rival kingdom came and murdered him in front of the royal court for everyone to bear witness to. Yet since that fateful day, he packed up and left never to return, taking his sons with him to show them the ways of the sword, and the old code that many had given up once he aged to a young man. He had always carried that code with him, that code of camaraderie he was taught as a young boy by his father, passed down by his father before him and so on. This code had been in place for at least six generations.
“Curse that damn blacksmith in there taking all the good paying business. No offence to any of you but how am I supposed to pay my lord for my land when I rarely get any business that pays well.” Jason remarks.
Frowns and looks of disgust are shot at him from his usual customers.
“Maybe we all should go inside the castle and use that blacksmith instead of you, Jason, you may be cheaper but at least he doesn’t say anything like that to his customers.” Snaps a customer in the crowd.
“Oh yeah, I liked to see you try; he wouldn’t waste a minute with this shit you bring me. Also he is exclusively for the knights, not lowly peasants like us.” Jason snaps back.
“Bad day, huh, Jason?” a knight asks.
“Get out each and every last one of you! We’re closed. Go on, shoo.” Jason snaps. “John, you can stay… I haven’t seen you in a while, how have you been? Been good, I hope.”
“Yeah, Jason, I’ve been well. I was wondering if you would be able to design and make a sword for me?” John asks.
“Yeah, John it will take a little over two weeks to design and about a month to build.” Jason replies.
‘It’s getting pretty late, I best be getting home. I wonder if Brendyn is home yet.’ Jason thinks to himself as he let John out of the shop.
“Thank you Jason I’ll be looking forward to it. Goodnight Jason.” John replies.
As Jason is locking up his shop a mysterious man walks up and ask is he could ask some questions.
Jason says, “Let me finish locking up and a will be out in a minute.”
The man replies “alright.”
Jason walks around making sure all the fires are out and everything is in its’ place, then walks out the front door and locks it. He looks at the man waiting for him, and asks, “who are you and what do you want?”
“Don’t worry about that, that’s not important, but what is important is, do you know a Vladmir Von Hesse, Duke of Elegeron? Also do you know where he is?”  The man asks.
“I…I uh… I don’t know sir. I don’t know anyone with that name.” Jason replies.
“Don’t lie to me peasant, I know you know him.” The man snaps.
“I not lying sir, honestly I don’t know him and I don’t know who the hell you are either, nor do I really care to.” Jason replies.
‘I wonder if he is talking about Brendyn.’ Jason thinks to himself ‘he can’t be if he was Brendyn would have told me that was his name… or would he? Did he kill someone of royalty or of some importance…’
“Fine then, do you know the name Forlorn?”  The man asks.
“Umm… no I don’t know that name either.” Jason replies.
“Ok fine, I am done questioning you, goodnight.” The man says as he walks away into the desolate night.
‘Oh God, not Brendyn, what did he do? Jason wonders.
As Jason walks through the door, I look up and ask, “What took you so long to get here?”
“Someone stopped me at the shop and asked if I knew a Vladmir Von Hesse, Duke of Elegeron. Then further questioned me if I knew the name Forlorn. I told him I didn’t know either. Do you know someone named Vladmir Von Hesse, Duke of Elegeron?” questioned Jason.
“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about tonight, see you do know him and also the name Forlorn, for it is me. Unbeknownst to you because I have kept it from you, that was my name before this age. I had to change my name for my safety and anyone who would be around me, for their safety too. Since I feared persecution for what I have done in my past.” I reply.
“Done what in your past? Did you kill someone or something?” Jason asks.
“Well… umm… yes and no. I mean I did but not really.” I say.
“How can you but not really?” perplexed on what I’m saying.
“I gave him the same proposition I have given you and they accepted then they went berserk and staring killing any and everyone they came across. When I found that out I took him out of my circle, and the authorities found the rotting corpse, and came to question me about the supposed murder.” I answer.
“Oh…” he replies.
“I am going to ask you the question I asked you last night, would you like to live in my world? You will have to give up your life you grown used to and daylight, you will become like and take to the night like it is your new found mother and you are just a child to it. I will take you under my wing and guide you through the beginning and then let you on your own. You will always be my child and I will know where you are without being told by anyone. It is your choice now, I will not tell you what to do, so you decide your fate. Yet be warned now once you decide you will not be able to go back on it ever again.” I say.
“You mean anywhere I am, you will know.” Jason says.
“Yes, I can feel your blood flowing through your body, and your heart is strong. You have a heart like the best of us.” I say looking in his mind.
“Really? It’s that strong? The best of you and your kind?” he says.
“Yes, you do Jason.” I reply.
“I want to join you and your kind.” Jason replies with wonder.
“This will hurt a bit but only for a day or so, so bear with it and me while I change you forever.” I say as I bite his neck and draw his bloodline into mine.
“Ah…” Jason cries out.
I release him from my grip and lay him on the floor in front of me and wait through the convulsions, and for him to adjust, and then I slit my wrist and tell him to drink from me, his master. As he drinks from me, he gains a brand new life that only I can offer him.
I think to myself ‘he is stronger and more greedy then the ones before.’
“As you rise from your deep sleep of death and when you cross over to the undead like me, you will convulse a bit more and it shall be complete, forever, no turning back now, Jason, you are mine forever.” I reinforce to him.
Jason lies there convulsing as the last bit of his humanity dies off. I sit next to his dying body and watch for there is nothing I can do for him now but wait. Once his body stops and he reawakes anew. I shall show him what he needs to know in order to survive in the horrible world.
Jason wakes and his whole body rises into the air like a feather and he yells, “Who… who… who are you, and what have you done to me?”
I was quite used to this reaction for it has happened ever time before. ‘Damn, just like the rest.’ I think. “Jason, this is what you wanted, is it not? I warned you that it was going to hurt a bit, so now do you believe me?” I ask.
“I… I guess so.” Jason replies.
“Are you hungry?” I ask.
“Actually, for some reason I am, like I never have been in my entire life.” He answers.
“Well then, let us go out and feast whilst we have some time, before the sun rises. Did you enjoy the sunrise this morning?” I ask.
“Yes, I did, why do you ask?” Jason asks.
“It was the last one you will ever see in your life. For that I am sorry, if you enjoy waking to the sunrise every morning, because you will never enjoy. You will however fear the sight of the sun.” I reply.
“Oh, I see.” He says.
“You, I fear will never see it ever again.” I say.
As we finish talking we leave to feast on unsuspecting victims.
“Watch and learn Jason, you can’t just go up and kill anyone. You have to make it stealth-like, as if they were never there. Where no one will see you and come after you and try to kill you.” I say as I teach my young apprentice on the ways of being a good, uh I mean, skilled vampire and a living one at that.
“All right.” He says.
“You need to get in and get out quick. You can’t hesitate for even a spilt-second. Timing is so crucial, that’s why it is held so dear to us, if you can’t get it right the first time, then you will surely be dead with no return.” I say.
“Hey I know him, that’s Tom the village idiot.” He replies.
“Perfect for your first drink, and kill of your new life. Go on Jason, kill my son.” I command.
“But, master, are you sure?” He asks.
“Yes, Jason, enjoy.” I reply.
Jason lunges before Tom and bites him on the neck and begins sucks forth all the lifeblood he could take and looks to me and says, “I can’t drink anymore, master.”
“Jason, my son I know you can drink more, fill up for tonight, and build your strength, for we shall return tomorrow night and feast again.” I reply.
“But master you haven’t any tonight. Aren’t you hungry?” He asks.
“ I will feast when I find the lifeblood I want. Don’t worry about me.”  I say.
“All right, master.” He replied, “There’s one you can get.”
“Yes, he would be the one I would kill just for fun, since he isn’t that big to quench my hunger.” I reply.
I swoop down from the rooftop we are on and grab this man I once was a friend with and who turned on me and tried to steal something so dear, but I stopped him from stealing it from me. Now I will return his crime against me back to him, through his own death and I shall steal his soul, forever. The man I knew, so long ago started screaming when I bit him on the neck. Yet I couldn’t continue drinking from him since his blood had soured from all he has done to me, so I release him from his draining and twist his head around so I would be the last thing he saw just before he died. Then I shifted his neck so it would snap like it was a twig.
“Master, why did you stop feasting on his lifeblood?” Jason asks.
“Because Jason, when a person does something to you so bad and you can never forgive them for what they have done. Their lifeblood to you will be soured for what they have done. And his was because of what he did to me, something he tried to steal from me. I had heard this before but I never thought it to be true, but now I believe it because I have experienced it for myself.” I reply without hope of leading on to questions of that subject matter with the man I knew.
“What happened? I mean if I can ask you about it, master.” He asks.
I just look to him with a sinister glare, that he knows not to ask about it anymore. Then I begin to walk back to the house and I going to go straight through the town to get there and right then I didn’t care what happened. Jason was startled when he saw me walking straight through town.
He comes running up next to me and he asks me, “What’s wrong, master?”
I just shook my head and say, “just go home and I will be there in a little bit all right.”
“All right, master. I am sorry if that question bothered you. You have my sincerest apology, master.” He replies.
“I have your apology and your soul, remember that. Now go home!” I shout at him.
Jason goes on home. I walk around the town looking for a victim, when I pass the tavern a lovely lady walks out of the mist and moves towards me. She grabs hold of me and starts kissing me and then moves towards my neck. I move my hand ever so softly in between her lips and my throat, and slowly push her back and ask her what she was doing.
She says, “You’re very handsome and I was wanting to get to know you. Would you like to go back to my house?”
”That would be nice.” I reply.
The soft pale illuminating glow of her porcelain skin, the blood-soaked ruby red lips, the long dark flowing curls surrounds her face, all of this reminds me of what I lost long ago. So much love was lost when my beloved passed and I miss her so much, each and everyday that I walk through this god-forsaken world. Walking back with her, many topics flow through the air, we continue about her and her life, where she was from, and grew up, and how she became who she is today.
I look at her and say, “I can’t, not tonight, I’m sorry.”
She looks to me with teary eyes, as I wipe away the tears, she says, ”All right, some other night, perhaps?”
“Yes.” I say as I nod my head with agreement, we embrace for a moment, and I kiss her lips, and I walk away, and say, “Another night, perhaps.” I continue walking and looking for someone to feast upon. The sun only an hour till its’ rise, I search haste fully for the next victim. I think to myself ‘what an active yet worthless night,’ at the moment I bump into a drunken prison guard, mumbling and singing to himself in the darkness that is beginning to show a little light from the dawns’ early glow. I must move quickly and go in for the kill.
He looks at me and says, “Ugh! Get… out…” he pauses to catch his breath and hiccups “of my way you… you no good, worthless, dirty, little rat!”
“What the hell did you call me, you bastard?” I reply with utter disgust.
“You’re a no good worthless, dirty little rat with fleas. You and your kind are what are wrong with the world, you goddamned peasants! Is what I said, do you have a problem with it, scum?” he snaps back with an ever so bitter tone.
“Piss off! You oversized ogre that even your mother would hate.” I say as if I were walking away, all to instigate something to rise from him.
“Go on! Cry to your mommy, you filthy bastard son of the devil.” He yells.
At that instance, I snapped, I turn and charge at him with all my might and strike him down. “Fuck you!” I yell. Sticking my fangs deep into his thick, hairy neck and start to draw the lifeblood out of him. I hear a sharp cry of agony, and then a whimper. With taking his last drop of blood, I throw his lifeless body to the ground and whisper, “Thank you, I enjoyed your lifeblood, and the memories.” And then I rise my foot directly over his head and crushing his skull in one swift step; I remove any resemblance of his being.
As it crushes beneath the sole of my boot, a man yells, “What the hell are you doing to that guard?”
I run towards him and steal his lifeblood as I stole the guards’ lifeblood, and crush his skull like a piece of clumped dirt that everyman steps on everyday of their lives. People stare out of their windows at the destruction that I have just caused, and gasp for their lives. I raise my hand up, and snap my fingers the streetlights go out so no one can see, nor recognize me. As I raise my hand I clear all of my thoughts to focus on clearing everyone else’s thoughts of that night and all they can remember now is sleeping with only happy dreams of fantasy and hope that they will never see in their pathetic little lives.   
I walk silently back to my humble abode, as not to stir up anymore trouble, for I’m pretty satisfied with the havoc I just caused, it just makes me stop and grin for a moment. With the fear of daylights’ first break, I swiftly pick up my pace, hoping it does not catch me in its’ wake. As I reach the domicile, I walk inside the house I have but a few moments to get Jason and bring him to his new bed.
“Jason come with me, we must retreat, for the daylight will weaken us.” I say to him, who is passed out on the floor just inside the entrance.
“Hmm…err…umm…huh…huh…wha?” he grumbles.
“Come Jason, you need to be in the back room, or else you’ll die.” I explain.
“Hmm…uh huh…” Jason says as he follows me down the stairs into the shadows leading to the back room.
I help me down as not to fall or trip down these treacherous stairs, that were just slapped up instead well-built set. Yet that is the way all the peasants’ house are just haste fully thrown together, for a quick shelter.
“Many things lurk in the darkness, such as us, yet nothing as deadly as we are. We dwell with the rats, snakes, and other ‘unkind creatures’.” I say as he follows, and I think ‘this is all so common for me, yet not so much for Jason, who is still adjusting to his new life and powers,’ who screams as he sees a rat, as black as night.
I look at him and say, “don’t fret, ‘tis only a mere relative of yours now. He lives as we live, in the shadows and darkness, revealing nothing to no one.” A very well executed example I thought, as I explained it to him, wishing that only someone had told this to me like that. Instead of feast my son; feast on the rats’ lifeblood, as my master taught me.
“What do you mean, we are relative?” he asks with uncertainty.
“I don’t mean literally relatives, but figuratively ones. We do as they do, live and breathe in the cover of darkness, and feast throughout the night. You see, watch and learn as he gets his prey.” I reply as Jason watches the rat as it grabs a snake from the dark slumbers of the corner.
He asks “Are we like cockroaches, then?”
“No we are not, not for everyone of us you kill, are there millions that come back to hunt whoever killed that one. Most of only hunt and kill alone, unless it a master and an apprentice. That is the only time there is more than one together. We hunt and feast alone, and not in packs like wolves or dogs, as many would think we do. Merely to teach each other what we did not already know.” I answer.
“I see.” Jason replies unsure of what he had heard, yet accepts as if it were an unwritten law, which everyone is supposed to know.
“You understand what I am saying, do you not?” I ask.
“Yeah… I think so… umm… no, no I don’t.” he replies.
“I mean we are mostly alone in solitude, unless a master is teaching the apprentice how one lives, breathes, kills, and survive, as we are now. So that the youngling can survive alone, like all of the rest, it’s like solitary confinement for the rest of your life, with modest encounters along the way, but ultimately confinement, alone for millennia to come.” I inform him to the sad truth of what he has become.
“What!? Solitary confinement, why the hell did you not tell me this when you first asked me if I wanted this, you bastard! I hate you! Why the fuck did you do this to me…” he yells
“Jason! I ask you perfectly clear if you wanted this, if you want to know more, you should have asked me and I would have told you, or worse killed you myself and not waste my time with you. You ungrateful son of a bitch! I gave you eternal life, something more than your lame-ass god could give you, yeah… yeah… he promises and proclaims he will give you eternal life but you end up as gas, not the way you are now and will be forever.