My Requiem: Chapter 2

We were sloshing our way through the disgusting sewers, the girl who had finally introduced her name as Janice had begun to explain some things she claimed I needed to know if I wanted to keep existing. I had already come to realize I was, in fact, an actual vampire, and I was scooping up rats of the concrete and biting into them with my new fangs.



As she had explained so far, the Nosferatu were the social outcasts of vampire society. We were so warped by the embrace, we couldn't blend in with normal society, so we had to travel in more creative ways, such as navigating the sewer system. We were also quite disgusting, as I quickly realized by how I was casually feasting on rats that had likely swam threw all manner of... well we're in a sewer, you figure it out. Nothing new to me, I was used to being alone as a human, now I just had more reason to be. I asked her how she was so strong with such a frail looking body, and she said that if I actually listened to what she had to teach, I could become that strong. She mentioned something about it being a "discipline" that I had to learn. I thought as a vampire, the strength would be automatic, but that was not the case, as I didn't feel any stronger than when I was human.



"The Prince is the leader of this territory, anything he says goes. Do not disrespect him in public, he can kill you with a word." Janice warned me as I finally had my fill of rats. We arrived at an exit leading up, it was unlabeled, unlike the rest of the man holes, and as she began to climb her way up and lift the heavy grate, I followed after her. I noticed that the sewer opened up into what looked to be a basement for a corporate building, instead of the city streets. Why any corporation would instal a sewer access on their own property was a mystery to me. The smell had to be noticeable, I thought.



The sewer also opened up near an elevator , a hidden floor, no doubt. and as Janice called the ride, I listened as she explained the elevator was custom designed to only stop on two floors, this bottom access, and the Prince's court room. It was exclusively for Nosferatu usage, since public elevators would run the risk of us being noticed. The elevator could also be remotely shut down and was under surveillance in case anyone tried to use it for assassinations.



As the doors slid open, we climbed inside and with another push of the button, we were on our way up. I still didn't know where we were, the small basement access didn't give me much knowledge of the company, and the elevator had no windows. I couldn't think of too many corporations down here in Georgia, either.



I watched the counter as we went 10 floors before the door finally slid open again and we stepped out. I noticed that the elevator was actually part of a secret doorway, the wall itself had slid open inside the office. The office quite a sight to behold.  A red, velvet carpet forming a large cross pattern in the room. In between the spaces where the carpet didn't reach  was pristine, white tiled flooring. Ivory pillars reached up to the circling around the corners of the room, and the walls were painted with burgundy. High glass windows reached from the floor, up to the ceiling, giving a good view of the streets below.



Sitting at the far end of the room was a man who looked to be in his late 70's in a leather padded chair. He was dressed in a fine burgundy colored suit, with a white undershirt and black tie. His gray hair  grew to the middle of his ears and was combed back into pristine condition. He had a pair of red rimmed glasses and despite his advanced age, he held a stiff, elegant posture as he looked up from his papers to see us. Upon looking at Janice, he seemed rather disinterested, as if he knew who she was, but after seeing me, he quirked a brow.



"Who is this?" He said with a southern accent, and one that sounded short on patience, "A new child you have sired?" He asked, his attention being drawn away from his desk completely as he focused more intently on me. "Step forward, child and allow me to get a better look at you." He ordered me. I cautiously began to approach him, but when I was within 10 feet of his desk, he held up one hand and gave a quick "stop!" order.



I watched as he slid back from his desk and rose to his feet, grabbing a cane from under his desk. The cane was black in color, except for the head and the tip. The tip of the cane was white and looked to be made of real ivory. The head of the cane had a flawlessly cut ruby to match his suit, but he soon hid the gemstone within his palm as he grabbed the cane and walked his way towards me.



"I'm sure Janice has informed you that all new kindred must be brought before the local prince if they wish to keep living on god's green earth?" The man asked as he began using his cane to prod at me. "Well I am the local prince, and mah word is tha law in these parts." He said, more of his southern accent coming to the surface. "I, Theodor Lagrime Jr. have ruled this state for the past 400 years, and I like to keep mah affairs in order. Its good to see you respecting our traditions." He continued, poking my chest with the tip of his cane.



"Since you've done the courtesy of announcing your presence, I will give you permission to operate in my state until I deem otherwise" He said, moving back to his chair and slipping into it. "What is your name, son?" He asked, although the tone of his voice, it may have been a demand. He maintained his glare on me, as if looking for any signs of rebellion.



"Its Christopher." I answered as Janice stood back where we had been before. Apparently she wasn't allowed to step closer unless ordered to. Theodor began to ask me more questions, which I tried my best to answer them. "I'm 24 years old, I'm born and raised in Auburn Georgia" that seemed to make Theodor cheer up a bit at the idea of having a native Georgian around.



"Are you a religious man, Mr. Christopher?" the prince asked, to which I was hesitant to reply due to the circumstances. After giving it some thought, and carefully choosing my words, I responded.



"I renounced Catholicism when I was 15 after having a moral disagreement with god's ways, but its hard to completely disregard the sense of a spiritual presence after years of being raised on it. Finding out vampires are real hasn't helped either." I said. Upon hearing that I had actually forsaken Christianity and even god himself, Theodor's cheerfulness at my Georgian heritage seemed to have dropped immensely, he went straight back to frowning at me, and I actually thought he was going to order me tied to a stake and burned! Even as I glanced back at Janice, she seemed stunned, her mouth hanging open in surprise.



"If you're looking to regain your faith, Christopher, the Lancea Sanctum is having a midnight mas this Sunday, we can re-baptize you of your sins at the Longinus Church." He said, taking a flier out of his desk and tossing it to me as I caught it. With a wave of his hand, I understood we were dismissed, and me and Janice entered the elevator once again.





"A Christian vampire?" I asked, as Janice glared at me, apparently not happy I had told the prince I wasn't religious, but she massaged the bridge of her nose with the flat end of her nails and began to explain to me that the Lancea Sanctum was one of a series of covenants, vampiric factions. The Lancea Sanctum was founded by Longinus, who claimed to have been transformed into a vampire when a drop of Christ's blood fell into his lips after piercing him with the spear. Christ worshiping vampires who believed the undead had a place in god's great plan, and their faction was the most powerful within this region. Not surprising, Georgia was a redneck state, as I mentioned before, quite a deal of religious among the population.



"I thought you were Christian, my contacts have seen you in church with your family." Janice said, sounding confused, I told her that although I had personally renounced it, I was forced to come along against my will to not embaress the family. She seemed even more upset at that and dropped the subject.



"Well that's just fucking perfect, I was hoping to get in good with the Prince if he thought I was bringing more worshipers into his ranks, now he probably thinks I'm trying to embrace more heathens!" She fumed. I tried to ask about what other factions were in the area, but she refused to speak on them. She informed me that the Lancea Sanctum held the most power and that as far as we were both concerned, that's all that mattered.



She was wrong, for this vampire, this... Janice, apparently hadn't put too much stock into her research about me. Ever since I was young, I've had a fascination with mythology and occult lore. Whether it was the tales of the Greeks, folk stories, monsters, and more. I spent much of my childhood actively trying to perform magic, but over time, I began to grow up and lose faith in it, realizing magic was just the stuff of superstition. Now that I knew vampires were real, I wanted to know as much as possible, and I sure as hell wasn't going to go running back to Christ just because I found out the dead were walking around. If she wasn't going to tell me more, I'd have to investigate matters on my own. I remembered today was Monday, I had a good week of time before this undead get together, should be plenty of time to investigate what I wanted to know.



For now, I decided to play along, I'd get my chance to know what was really going on. As the elevator reached the bottom and we began climbing back into the sewers, Janice told me we had a about 5 hours left until the sun rose, we would use that time to practice my first discipline, but we needed a suitable training field. I continued following her as she said she had a good place in mind.





I was surprised how easily she was able to navigate the sewers. We passed by several maps used to aid maintenance workers, but she didn't even give them a glance, having committed the layout of the sewers to memory. We soon passed by what appeared to be a blank wall, but as she placed her hands on it and pushed, a large chunk of the wall slid backwards, allowing us to pass into an opening. I noticed that the chunk of wall she had pushed was actually a prop wall painted to blend into the rest of the actual wall. She slid it back into place, lining up the lines and cracks as I checked the rest of the room. It looked to be a forgotten boiler room in the sewers, with machines against one side of the wall to pump and purify the waste. There was a fridge for food storage, and I was surprised to see the room actually had electrical sockets to plug devices into. The mini fridge came up to about waist high, and was painted to look like chestnut wood. I opened it to see a collection of blood bags inside and quickly closed it again.



The room was dimly lit with an overhead bulb illuminating mostly the center, but leaving the outer fringes of the room cloaked in shadow. The center of the room had a sparring mattress, and a punching bag was bolted into the wall next to the purification system. A bed large enough for two people had somehow been transported down here, but it was incredibly ruined. The spring board was warped, causing the mattress to bend and sink in uncomfortable looking positions. The mattress was stained with liquids I didn't want to imagine, and the pillows were nearly flat. On the left side of the room, a rechargeable laptop was resting on a worn out, metal desk, along with a stack of books I couldn't recognize. The desk had 3 drawers to store things in. Aside from all this, the room was bare, but then again, this was in the sewers, so I can't say that even this was what I expected.



As I picked up one of the books and read the title, "The Covenants" I opened it up to see that it was not an actual book, but a journal. Janice called to me and I dropped the notes back onto the table to see what she wanted, she was standing in the center of the mat and beckoning me, I began to approach her as she explained the lesson.



"There are 3 disciplines that each clan specializes in, today I will teach you the power of Vigor, supernatural strength." She began, "Mind you, you won't be anywhere near as strong as me at first, that will take practice." She warned with an amused grin before giving me a signal to try and strike her.



I was hesitant at first, but decided to at least give it a try. I swung a punch, expecting her to take it as a display of power. Instead, she did something completely different, with one twisting motion, she grabbed my flying wrist with one hand and used my momentum to send me once more flying across the room and smacking into the stone wall upside down.



"To use your disciplines, you must channel the power of your vitae, the mystical energy within your vampiric blood. You can't use Vigor with muscle strength alone, it is mystical in nature." She explained. I pulled myself slowly back to my feet and approached her again, trying to focus. It didn't work, I couldn't seem to feel any sort of mystical connection, and as I tried to do another punch, Janice ducked under it and delivered a leg sweep that knocked me off my feet as I slammed back into the floor, but this time, it was thankfully cushioned. Or so I thought, because as she quickly rose back to her feet, she followed up with a field goal kick to my ribs, sending me sliding off the mat and impacting the wall again. By this time, I was starting to ache, and I was certain she had shattered at least three ribs, but as I clutched my sides in agony, I felt a cracking sensation as my bones mended themselves back into place.



"Come on, this isn't that difficult!" She chastised, "Just focus the vitae into your punch. If you can't even do this, the other two disciplines are going to be way out of your league!" Janice was really pissing me off now. She jumped jumped and embraced me on the spot and expected me to somehow instantly adapt to every order she gave me. I climbed back to my feet again and began to storm my way over to her, throwing a punch as I gave a cry of frustration. This time, there was no counter attack, she held up one of her clawed hands as my fist impacted the palm. There was a loud thud as she skidded two inched backwards on the mat, but otherwise held her ground.



"Oh good, about time." She said as I blinked in surprise, how had I done that? I didn't have time to try and remember, because she was back on the offensive again and grabbed hold of my arm, preparing to throw me across the room. I tried a counter of my own, intending to slam her down into the mat, and for an instant, I could feel a spark within me. That spark caused me to grab her by the shoulder with my free arm and roll, causing her to lose her grip and fly a good two feet through the air before slamming down onto the mat. I could tell she was holding back, her efforts to counter dropped greatly when I started showing what she wanted to see. It was only when I failed that she put more force behind it.



"Good, that's twice in a row, now lets see if you've really got it." She said, climbing back to her feet. The first time, it happened on reflex, the second time, I caught a brief idea of what to feel, the third time, sealed it. As she went for a leg sweep to my head, I quickly got one arm up and grabbed her wrist, feeling the flair course through my arm, I whipped around, yanking her off the ground and send flying across the room. This time, she didn't play with me, and somersaulted in mid flight, landing with her feet on the stone wall and kicking off again, flying back at me.  I was so surprised, I didn't get a chance to counter her again, and her boot slammed into my nose, breaking it and sending me flying off the mat, slamming into the wall again as she landed gracefully on the mat, smiling as she folded her arms.





"Good, you've learned the basic level of Vigor." She congratulated me as I held my broken nose, feeling the appendage healing itself under my palm. I began to feel the hunger creeping in again, and she seemed to sense this. "Every time we use our disciplines, it drains a little more of our blood. You need to feed to keep your ability in check." Janice warned me, moving to help me up. Once I was standing again, she retrieved a blood bag for me from the fridge which I looked at for a moment, contemplating what I had become. Then I bit into it and was surprised by the taste.



"Human blood, much tastier than animals, but difficult for us Nosferatu to acquire." She said as I slurped down the bag like a juice box. I wanted more, but she knew I had a low impulse control when it came to feeding, and she shut the fridge again, warning that if I tried to raid the fridge, she would actually rip a limb off, instead of just breaking it.



I frowned and went back to the desk, picking up the journal and sitting on the disgusting bed which sank beneath my weight. Janice watched me for a moment before turning her attention to the rest of the books. She explained they were all journals, notes, and logs she had written during her time as a vampire, a personal record of what she had experienced and learned of vampire society. They would serve as my guide when she was otherwise preoccupied. I was already flipping through the book I had, trying to study the covenants. The first on the list was the Lancea Sanctum, but I would get to that later. I continued onward and found a chapter called the Circle of the Crone, and written at the top, it said "heathens and pagans" which I took to mean that they were not on good terms with the Lancea. I began to read through the chapter as it caught my interest.



"The Circle of the Crone appears to be greatly despised by the Lancea Sanctum. As I have come to understand, they are a coven of pagan witches and warlocks who use blood magic and worship a goddess known as The Crone. As the Lancea Sanctum holds most of the power within Georgia, the CotC have little presence here and must keep their activities hidden, lest they invite an inquisition. I have learned that a collection of them meet regularly at the exclusive club, Blackthorn Rose, but have had little success infiltrating it. They have erected a ward to prevent spies from intruding through secret entrances, and with my appearance, I can not simply walk in the front door. Theodor knows about the club's existence, as he is the prince of the city, but the wards make a full assault impossible, and I doubt he wants to kick up a holy war in the streets. He has so far allowed them to exist, so long as they do not encroach upon Lancea Sanctum's activities. A Gangrel named Damian Bluespire is the club owner. I doubt Bluespire is his real name, probably changed it to make himself sound more magical."



That was the information on the covenant. As I turned the page, I found it continued to another covenant, apparently she decided if she couldn't get into the place, she couldn't gather any more intel on it. I decided to give this club a check out when I got the chance. If they used blood magic, real and true magic, I certainly wasn't going to miss the opportunity. The next covenant on the list was called the Carthian Movement, and scribbled in the title read a warning that any ambitious kindred should not mingle with their association.



"The Carthian Movement, or simply known as Carthians are very popular among fledglings and neonate vampires, but gradually loses its appeal to elders. This covenant believes in a vampire equality society, in which all kindred have a voice in the government, not simply the eldest and most powerful. My personal history with the Carthians of Georgia has caused me some difficulty getting into the good graces of this city's elders, even though it has been nearly 50 years since I left their ranks. The Carthians vote upon their decisions and draw in many young kindred who refuse to bend knee to the old ways. No doubt the elders believe my past activities means I have little respect for authority. Their headquarters is still located at the youth group center and Theodor has wisely decided to let them remain active. After all, you can't convince people you're spiritual advisers if you go around purging the children simply because they won't come to church. Wiping out the Carthians would damage the reputation of the Lancea Sanctum, rather than aid it." That was information on the Carthian Movement.



I turned to the next page which was labeled Invictus and saw a side note scribbled like the others. This one read "Sticks up their asses" in double underlines. I smirked and began reading the notes that had been collected on them.



"A covenant run by elitest kindred elders and ambitious fledglings, the Invictus are the most protective of the Masquerade and beholden to the 3 traditions. They are convinced all kindred need their guidance whether we want it or not, and believe that kindred society will drive itself to extinction without them to tell us what to do. In many ways, they're even more tyrannical than the Lancea Sanctum. At least the Lancea believe they're doing god's work, the Invictus do it purely for personal gain. Any fledgling is advised to take anything they say with a grain of salt. They will say and do just about anything it takes to increase their power and influence. Thankfully, the small town family owned businesses in Georgia have made their presence here slow to advance. They own some of the chain restaurants and stores and have purchased many of the abandoned property to conduct renovations." The note ended with that.



I turned the last page and saw it was labeled Ordo Dracul, followed by a scribble reading "Infiltration too difficult, investigation on hold" and then the rest of the journal was blank. I tried to ask Janice about the Ordo Dracul, but she just waved me away saying it didn't matter. She hadn't been able to get any details beyond the name, it seemed, and I flipped back to the front of the book to read about the Lancea Sanctum once again.



"Although I am certainly not the pious type, I have come to realize that the Lancea Sanctum are the most powerful covenant in Georgia at the moment. After much effort to prove myself, I have finally been accepted into the initiation ranks of their covenant, but have not yet been trusted enough to learn their biblical discipline of Theban Sorcery. I have only seen it in use three times, and all three times, its power was awe inspiring. The vampiric ability to invoke miracles and plagues from the old testiment and even some from the new testament, how the so called damned could utilize the powers of Christ. I have attempted to garner further trust among the covenant and one night be trusted to study this mystical art." The note ended there, and I raised my eyebrows in surprise. I read over the part about Theban Sorcery again, to make sure I took in the details. Was it actually possible for vampires, who were well known to be outcast from Christianity, to actually use its historical magic. It seemed contradictory, but even I was curious now, despite my previous dislike for how it presented itself.



I closed the book and placed it back on the table as I moved towards the punching bag, I was going to spend the rest of the night practicing my discipline while Janice seemed preoccupied working away on her laptop. I clenched my fingers gently into my fists, trying not to puncture my palms with my clawed nails, and as I tensed myself, I felt the spark within me again as power began to flow into my limbs. I reached back and thrust a punch into the bag, giving a thud on impact as the bag swung a few inches backwards before rocking back into place. That was pretty cool, I had tried to punch bags before when I was human, but the heavy bags seemed to completely absorb my blows and I ended up hurting myself after a few punches. Now I could actually push the bag a little, I wondered what would happen once I attained greater mastery over this new power.



I spent the rest of the night punching away at the bag, trying to see how far I could get it to move. By the time Janice informed me the sun would be up, I had managed to push the bag 5 inches with my last punch, and once again, I was feeling hungry. She tossed me one last blood bag, which I began to guzzle down as she climbed into bed.



"You'd better hurry, the instant the sun rises, you'll be knocked out." She warned as she lay into the mattress with her arms folded and her eyes closed. I was about to ask what she meant when suddenly, everything went black and the last thing I recognized was my head striking against the dirty concrete floor. What was left inside the bag pooling around my head as I still held it to my face.