by Pet TorreS
“Come closer!” he ordered me with apprehension. “This is your meal.”
I did what my tutor suggested to do, and then I approached the creature with no speed as I felt a panic.
I came closer to it. I could see its horrible face and it looked like a disfigured human with its round eyes, white and huge teeth, its skin was peeled and without vivacity. It looked like a deformed vampire.
My thirst for blood ran high. I lowered the hood of my prey, grabbed its neck carefully and put my nose on its neck. I smelled its blood and I stuck my teeth with all my will into its bloodstream. I closed my eyes, savoring its red liquid. The more I extracted from it, the more I wanted to drink it. The creature went limp in my arms, fainted, in its last breaths. Vincent grabbed me by the shoulders as he was terrified. He prevented from me sucking its last blood drop.
“Enough!” his voice shouted hard at me. He separated me from the fainted body, which went straight to the ground like a dead corpse. “Let's get out of here!” Vincent ordered.
Right now I was led by him, who laid his hand on my shoulder.
“What will happen to this creature?” my eyes ran up at his pale face. I asked as I was sorry for what I did to that poor soul. But my father looked to be used to this kind of thing.
“It will die in a few minutes,” he responded, gazing way from there. I tried to follow his gaze with my silent look. My voice didn’t stop talking.
“Aren't they immortal like us?” I asked, interested in the subject. My father almost gave me a small smile. My unexpected question had made him proceed that way.
“That is why they are called pre-vampires.” My father alleged and looked intently on the road to me. So I continued mute for a long time.
CHAPTER 7
Walking through the castle corridor, I saw a shadow standing in the middle of the big room. But that was right I knew that shadow. Soon I thought I could be a good company for it. Since then, I marched to the living room and congested next to a chair.
The shadow turned to a side and looked at my image. That way, I could see clearly Eros’s face. He was holding a metal glass in his right hand.
“What are you drinking?” asked him, as I took a seat and crossed my legs under my long dress.
Before Eros started to respond, he gave me another gaze in silence and so he remained standing with the glass in among his fingers.
“I am drinking the famous ‘hot blood.” His voice as always looked so sarcastic and seductive at the same time. Eros made no effort to look really genteel before my person. That was the old modest Eros.
“Oh, I see you love this drink so much.” I made fun of it as well. But Eros’s face remained serious, mainly when I arrived there and ended up stealing his privacy.
“This drink makes me remember something exciting.” His lips curved and he made a short pause in his attractive voice, “Maybe something tasty.”
During this occasion, I imagined he was relating to tasty lips of some woman. Because of it, I tried to change the subject as my fingers traveled over my long black hair.
“I think you could say me how you were turned into a vampire.” I forced a modest smile in his direction. “After all, you owe me that converse.”
Eros’s face made a strange movement, his voice sounded very soon after that.
“Okay, princess of the vampires of Neptune, what do you really want to know?”
He ended up sitting in a chair beside mine, but his fingers did not abandon the glass with the fresh blood.
“I want to know everything.” My eyes faced his for some instants, “Since the beginning.”
His chin moved softly and Eros made me an advice.
“All right, but you know I have no patience to narrate stories.”
I sad back rapidly, “Do what really is good for you.”
He soon confessed me. “I prefer to show you all the truth about my life. The way as I looked like before I had become a vampire.”
“I hope your story is interesting.” I declared as I leaned my right hand on one side of my neck.
“And it is,” Eros said back. His malicious gaze ran over my pale face and stopped in the direction of my red lips. He looked vigilant at my representation. “My stories are always interesting for the women.” His lips offered me an elegant smile. “I can swear you this.”
“I know you can.” My voice declared back.
“Well, but let’s go to the main point.” His hand rose up and pointed in the direction of the stone wall. An immense black square emerged there and almost immediately scenes from Eros’s ancient times came up. I remained looking at the wall with great curiosity, as Eros’s voice continued saying. “Look at it and kill your curiosity regarding my precedent life.”
During this, ten scenes from Eros’s life were showed up on the wall in the living room, each of them in their correct course.
~~~
Narrated by Eros
Scene 1
I am walking through the woods. It is serene, just the trees, the animals and me. Then a man with a dark cape appears in front of me. He has thick, dark hair down to his waist and his nails are huge. I realize that he is a stranger to me.
I have never seen him before in the village.
He looks at my face and then he smiles at me. I see enormous teeth in his mouth. He actually looks like a vampire.
I begin to feel uncomfortable. He doesn’t look like a normal person.
I turn my eyes and look to the side. I can see my brother sleeping on his bed. I'm absolutely sure that everything is just an eccentric dream. Maybe I was impressed with the conversation I had with Safira that night.
She wished I were really a bloodsucking creature.
~~~
While I strike the wood with my axe, I think of the mysterious man's image that came in my dream. My brother looks at me and asks, “Why are you working like an angry man today?”
“Leave me be!” I speak as I strike the wood again.
“Your time with that girl last night was not good?” Enric insists.
“My bad mood has nothing to do with the girl.”
“What has this to do with then?"
I drop my axe and it falls to the ground. I sit on the stump of wood and start talking again.
“I had a weird dream last night! I dreamed of a vampire.”
My brother laughs. “You dreamed of a vampire?” He laughs again. “Are you like this because you dreamed of a vampire?”
“I see nothing funny in that,” I say seriously and look at him.
“You spend one night with a beautiful girl and dream of a vampire!” He tries to hold his laughter but he doesn’t have much success. “This is unbelievable!”
"Safira stayed up all night talking about vampires!" I rub my hands on my face. "She thinks I look like a vampire."
“I am now sure that you spent the night with a crazy girl!”
“That dream left me very frightened!” I say, looking at the floor. “It seemed as real as this axe you're holding.”
Scene 2
I take out an arrow, place it in the bow, fire and hit a capybara at a considerable distance. It is a new night for hunting.
Within three days my father would be completing another year of life. Like every year, we always hold a feast to celebrate his birthday.
After my arrow pierces the animal's body, it falls to the ground. I approach my prey and I see that its last breath occurs as it lies next to my feet.
I drag the dead animal to where my brother and my father are. They have also managed a good game catch.
On the way back home, I walk with the animal over my shoulder while my father is in front of me with his game and my brother is behind me with his.
Among the trees of the forest there is a dark bird, hidden amongst the green leaves of a tree. That bird follows my steps as I walk farther and farther away. I notice its presence so I look back and I see it flying from one branch to another, advancing forward.
My eyes beco
me almost hypnotized by that owl. I do not know why that creature caught my attention in the darkness of that forest.
Finally, we get home and my mom comes running to receive the three loves of her life. We enter the house and I come back to the porch to look for my knife. It simply is not at my waist where I always keep it when I hunt.
I look at the floor trying to find the object, since I'm sure it fell there. Then I lower myself to the floor and see a soft glow over my knife. I reach out and touch it. At this moment I notice the accelerated flight of an owl, which rises quickly into the air.
My heart races after that little scare and I rise slowly, looking up at the owl. The owl also stares at me. So I lift my hands carefully in his direction and command it smoothly, “Come here!”
The owl shakes its head and remains on the dry trunk of a tree.
“Come!” I insist gently.
The dark bird flies again and comes toward my outstretched hand. It rests in the palm of my hand and I draw it near to me, close to my eyes.
I stare deeply into its yellow eyes. Then, without warning, the owl stretches out its wings and flies back to the tree.
Scene 3
A flash shines in the starry sky and for a moment it makes me blind. I lower my head towards my right arm and hide my vision from that insistent brightness.
Minutes later when I realize that the brightness is less constant, I dare to look up to the sky again and I see a blue symbol in the sky, in the shape of a ‘V’ and ‘N.’ They seem to be interconnected.
I open my eyes and look at the dark ceiling of my room, and a strange feeling invades my being. Once again I was in the midst of an incoherent dream.
What symbol is that?
Where does it come from?
I wonder into my thoughts as I rise from my bed and walk to the open window. The answers to my questions are not in my room, much less outside that window.
Scene 4
My father's birthday…
It is night and my mother decorates the dining table for a special dinner in order to celebrate my father’s birthday.
The four of us sit at the table and my mother serves the food on our plates while my father fills our mugs with wine.
After some time, we begin eating and drinking.
My father looks at me and Enric. “I am getting old and you both have not sought a bride to get married and finally give me grandchildren!” He hits his hand on the table. “I want to see this house full of grandchildren!”
Enric and I remain quiet and my mother supports my father’s words.
“Enric, Eros, it is indeed time for you both to look seriously at any girl from this village.” She looks at each of us. “You will not be young forever!”
“I have not met a girl yet with whom I have fallen in love for real,” Enric says.
“No one here is talking about passion! We are talking about marriage.”
“Did you marry my mother without passion?” I ask my father finally looking into his face. My father does not reply just eats a piece of meat, avoiding giving me an answer.
My mother stands up. It is clear she is a little embarrassed.
“I'll get some more bread!”
She leaves us alone and my father leans his body over the table and answers quietly.
“Your mother has always been a great wife.”
“But that's not what Eros asked you,” Enric insists.
“Generally, no man marries for love,” my father says looking at our faces. “We get married because we need a wife.”
~~~
I walk to the outside of the house and look up at the stars in the sky. That symbol from my dream is still in my mind like an ardent kiss hammering my thoughts the following day.
I look up at a blazing torch over a stump stuck in the ground. I hold a short stick and start drawing on the ground.
When the design finally becomes clear I give up the stick and I look down. I see the same symbol I dreamed of a few days ago.
Scene 5
In the middle of the forest of dead trees I see a girl with long black hair dressed in a long, dark dress. She's running slowly through the forest. I cannot see her face because she is running with her back to me. She hides herself among several trees and disappears soon after that.
Seconds later, that same girl desperately runs over the snow in a place where there are only rocks and snow. This appears to be another planet.
Again the girl disappears and the white snow begins to be stained with blood.
My heart beats at a fast pace when I awaken and finally realize that this is again another dream. I sit up in bed and take a deep breath while the images from the dream are still in my head.
The girl is running through the woods over the snow and blood is on the snow.
Every time my dreams are becoming more indecipherable.
My hands warm the skin of my face as I lower my head and think about everything I dreamed. When I raise my head, I see my brother sitting up on his bed too.
“What happened this time?” He asks looking at me.
“I dreamed of a girl with black hair. She was desperately running in the woods of dried trees and after that she was running through the snow. Seconds later, she disappears and the snow turns into blood.”
“Who's that girl?”
“I do not know. I did not see her face. But I have a feeling that she does not really exist.”
“Eros, lately you are very strange! Even the girls in the village are thinking this about you!”
“These dreams will end up driving me crazy!” I say, staring at the dark ceiling.
“I think you should seek the sorceress in the high mountains.”
“Sorceress?”
“Maybe she knows how to decipher the dreams and figure out what is happening to you!” He explains. “Why you fear those dreams.”
Scene 6
The next morning, I walk to the mountain where the witch lives. I do this without anyone in the village knowing about it. They would not understand my need to contact that witch. Only my brother knows what I am doing.
I go through waterfalls and ride through the woods on my black horse. After hours of traveling, I finally see a humble cabin on the mountain.
I tie my horse near a tree and walk toward the front door of the cabin. I knock on the wooden door. I breathe deeply, trying to find the courage to stand before a sorceress.
After all, I had never been in the presence of a witch. I’ve only heard about her in the village.
She opens the door and looks at me. Her eyes automatically question my presence there.
“I came to talk to a witch,” I say soon after she opens the door.
“I am the witch you're looking for.”
I look into her dark eyes and see a strange glow inside them. She wears a long, purple dress and her fiery red hair is long and comes down to her waist.
She walks me into her cabin and then she closes the door.
I sit in a chair in front of a round table. On the table are a crystal ball and some incense. The witch sits in another chair across the table, facing me.
She looks at my face and finally asks, “What brings you here, boy?”
“I need answers,” I say seriously.
She puts her hand on the crystal ball and she feels a power rising into the air. Scenes of my dreams run through her mind as quick flashes then she sees the man in black, the mysterious symbol, and the black-haired girl running through the woods. She also sees snow covered with blood.
When she opens her black eyes, she looks directly into my eyes and says, “Immortality walks beside you.”
I remain still, not understanding her mystical explanation.
“Your life will surely be laced with blood.”
I remain silent and stare into her face as she continues.
“You will live on another planet.”
“Another planet? What planet?”
“I do not know. I just see a dark, cold planet. An
d there will be no humans living there.”
I look at the crystal ball and try to see the images she deciphers as she looks into it.
“And in the future, very, very distant, there will be a lost girl on planet Earth and you will have to find her.” She looks into the crystal ball and continues. “And she is not a simple girl.”
“Who is this girl?”
“She is a princess ...”
“Princess?”
“Yes, her name begins with 'V'.”
She looks into my dark-gray eyes again and says, “A vampire princess.”
Scene 7
I return home atop my black horse. When I come home, I see my brother standing at the porch near the entrance, waiting for me.
I walk toward him and he comes running, sounding excited.
“What's up? Did you manage to talk to the witch?”
I look at his face and tell him.
“Never mention the name of the witch in front of me. She spoke only slander!”
I walk into my house.
Enric remains on the balcony, looking at me as I walk away from him.
Scene 8
I am in the village waiting for my brother. He is standing near the fire talking to some girls. I hold a mug of wine and I am standing near a house. I look at the starry sky and then I down the rest of the alcoholic beverage.
A cold wind touches my soul and I shiver from head to toe. I look around but see nothing. I have the impression of having seen someone wandering among the trees beside the house.
I blink in surprise and feel the urge to rub my eyes to make sure I am not imagining things. The alcohol can be making me see things.
