Vampire Nation 1: Titan's Story

by Joe Fowler

  He nervously stood and started toward us hesitantly. His mind was racing.

  “Who are you people? Why did you kidnap me?” He asked.

  “You have been turned into a vampire. It happens more often than you think. You have the chance to be immortal if you can survive your fights.” I told him. His gift was an electric shock in his hands. He could have a chance. Not a great one but a chance.

  “Fights? No! I hate fighting.” He hesitated his approach.

  “Come with us and I will tell you everything you need to know.” I said.

  “Do I have a choice?”

  “Nope.”

  Richard was walking. He was walking really slowly but he was walking.

  “Every new vampire must win ten fights to earn his freedom. I am on my sixth fight and Sweetie is on her fifth.”

  “Wait, she is so tiny. How could she win her fights?”

  “Each vampire is given a gift. Her gift is illusions. That’s one of the most powerful ones. Your gift is an electric shock that is located in your hands. I will teach you how to use your gift before your fight. We are going to help you, Richard.” I told him.

  “I didn’t tell you my name. How do you know my name?” He was getting scared again.

  “I can read minds. My gift is much different from anyone else’s. I can acquire other gifts when I drink from vampires. I can do a lot of things now. You will only have the shock in your hands and whatever fighting skill you have or can develop. You may face someone with mind reading, invisibility, mind control, or a hundred other things. We will teach you what we can to prepare you.” I assured him. We were finally reaching the stairs. “When we enter this room, don’t speak unless Arria ask you to.”

  “Okay.”

  Richard was still walking too slowly. It took way too long for us to climb the three flights. Even with my problem, I knew it took too long.

  I opened the door and saw my Arria. I felt my face smile. She was in her customary position. I couldn’t take my eyes off of her for four months. When I allowed a glimpse at the ones with her, I was shocked to see Agda and Alethea.

  “Arria, this is your new fighter, Richard. His gift is an electric shock in his hands.” I informed her.

  She took her regular route around the nervous newbie. She gave me a smile when Richard couldn’t see. She gave Sweetie a wink. Sweetie smiled back.

  “An electric shock can be good. We’ll see how you do. Take him to the donor room and get him something to eat. His fight starts in less than two hours.” Arria said with a wave of her hand.

  “Yes, Arria.” I made my usual bow to Arria. I made a second bow to Agda and Alethea. They smiled in return.

  We turned and headed for the donor room.

  “Why the second bow? I thought we should only bow to our old one.” Sweetie asked once we were back in the brown hallways.

  “Those other two women are council members. I was paying respect to them since they let me live.” I explained.

  “Wow. I guess that would make sense.” Sweetie said.

  “None of this makes any sense. Old one? Council members? Tell me what is going on!” Richard exclaimed.

  “An old one is a vampire who is at least one thousand years old. All vampires have to obey the council. The council is made up of the nine oldest living vampires. Those three women you just saw, are all members of the council.” I told him.

  We were entering the donor room. I set him up with the last donor in the room. One of the vampires working the donor room approached me.

  “Will you be needing another? We were told you could have three a day. You’ve only had one so far.”

  “Yes. I will eat right after I get this newbie going.” I replied.

  “Works for me.” She said and went for a fresh donor.

  “Richard, take the donors arm and bite on the wrist. You will know where.” Sweetie told him. “You eat. I will handle Richard for now. You need this.”

  I smiled at her. I sat as the new donor was strapped to a chair. I kept watch over Richard’s mind while he fed. He lifted the arm and felt his teeth drop. Before he could stop himself, he bit into the donor. He loved the taste, unlike me. When he felt the breaking point, he stopped feeding.

  “Am I supposed to keep going?” He asked Sweetie.

  “Most vampires do. I don’t. I know that these donors are all going to die here but I won’t be the one to kill any of them. I will kill the vampires I need to in the arena but not the humans. It is really up to you.” Sweetie explained.

  Richard debated. He was struggling with it. He decided not to finish off the donor. I felt relief, even though I had been finishing them off myself lately.

  My donor was an old man. He had war memories. He had seen and done some brave heroic things. I drained him.

  We resumed our trek through the brown sphincter. I had the bad thought of what the paint color reminded me of. I knew from then on, I would see this place as an asshole.

  “We are about to reach the training room, Richard. There is going to be a lot of vampires in here. You will only be fighting one of them and it will be his first fight too. If you win, your second fight will be against someone else making their second fight. It goes like that all the way through the tenth round. Try not to be nervous. This room can be intimidating.” I warned him but not well enough.

  We weren’t ten feet into the room when Richard mostly froze. I had to half drag him to our mats. He was close to total mental breakdown by the time we got there.

  “Everyone, this is Richard. Richard this is Apollo, Patty, and Charles.” Everyone said their hellos to the shell shocked newbie. He didn’t respond. “He is a little overwhelmed right now. He will get better. Richard, come over here and I will get you started.”

  He looked at me. Fear was all his mind was registering. I hated the way it was used in the movies but I decided to slap him to see if I could shake him out of this panic.

  It worked!

  “Now, you and I are going to spar. I will attack you and you need to try and defend.” I back a few feet away and got into a stance. He mimicked my stance. I made a semi quick attack and hit him hard enough to knock him down. I was careful not to put too much into it.

  “How am I supposed to fight that?” He asked. I resisted the smile that wanted to spread across my face.

  “I am faster and stronger than any vampire in this room.” Richard looked around the room again and back to me. “You will never fight against anyone tougher than I am, unless you are attacked by an old one. What you need to understand is that you will not know what your opponent’s gift is until you are fighting him. If you are against someone gifted with speed, you are in trouble. That is probably the hardest to defend. You remember when I told you some of this? Your opponent might be invisible, incorporeal, strong, able to read your mind, or a hundred other things. You have to be prepared to face whatever comes. To win, you will need to rip your opponent’s head off. That’s the only way to end a fight in the arena.”

  “I understand. I think.”

  “Patty, can you come help us?” I meant to use her as a good example. “I need you to spar against each other. Richard, take your stance and defend as best you can.”

  They squared off and Patty teleported and hit Richard. He fell but bounced right back up. He got a determined look on his face and faced Patty again. She teleported again but Richard dodged this time. He was able to dodge her a second time but not able to strike her either. His power still hadn’t shown itself.

  “Stop! Thanks, Patty.” I told her. She actually smiled before she went back to the other mat with Justin and Charles. “You did really well. You are learning. Your power hasn’t shown itself so I will help with that.”

  I took his arm and drank until I felt his gift. I then spent the next month teaching him how to use it. Like before with Patty, he was learning quickly.

  “Justin, your turn.” I called Justin since Patty and Charles had just started their sparring.

  “Y
ou mean Apollo!” He said as he joined us.

  “Nope, I called you, Justin.” I laughed. I knew he didn’t mind.

  They faced off and made a few passes. Justin was getting more hits in but Richard was getting better. Finally, he got to use his gift on Justin. Justin went down in a heap.

  “Wow, that’s a hell of a shock!” Justin said, as he got back to his feet.

  I let the others take over Richard’s training then. I joined Sweetie by the wall. The room was fairly charged. I could feel it as I sat with my back to the wall. I looked out at all the vampires and wanted to go back to bed. This would be a really long night.

  Eventually, the groups were gathering. It took a while, don’t ask me how long it took, for Gray to show up.

  We followed her. I made sure Richard walked with me as we went. I was checking his mind for questions as we walked through the assholes, I mean, hallways.

  “We are about to be paraded in front of the old ones. Don’t speak unless spoken to. That isn’t likely, anyway. They will look as our names and levels are called, then we will leave there heading for the holding pens by the arena.”

  “Don’t worry, Richard. The old ones will only be paying attention to Titan. He’s kind of a big deal.” Comet said, chuckling.

  “Why are you a big deal?” Richard asked.

  “It’s a long story. I will tell you all about it if you survive the night. Just concentrate on that for now.” I told him. We reached the door leading to the platform room. “Richard, fall into line behind Patty. We have to be in order.”

  We were paraded up for the old ones. Comet was right, all eyes were on me. I met Arria’s eyes and smiled. She gave a tense smile in return. I guessed Pyro and his crew were to blame. I looked around and kept my mind open for any stray thoughts from the old ones. I did hear one thing I didn’t want to hear.

  “We will speak soon.” I looked to the one who said it. I had seen his face in someone else’s mind. This was Pyro.

  We were led away to follow the asshole that led us to the holding pen. Maybe I should reword that, since it sounds like I am calling Gray an asshole instead of the hallway.

  Once in the pen, I directed Richard where to sit. Sweetie took her usual spot to my left.

  “With fifteen teams here, there will likely be a few fights before yours. When your name is called, you will go into the arena. You will see two X marks. Go stand on one of them. The announcer will announce the five minute betting period. When he does, kneel down on the X and wait for the announcer to tell you when to stand. When the announcer says, ‘let the game begin’ the fight will start. My advice is to attack quickly, but you have to do what is most comfortable to you.”

  “Sleeping is what is most comfortable to me.” I saw the laughter in his mind as he laughed aloud. I laughed with him.

  “Good. You’re dealing with all of this very well. Just to warn you, I may fall asleep myself. Don’t be alarmed if I do. The others here will answer your questions and tell you what you need to know.”

  “You can sleep in this situation? How?” Richard’s mind was as shocked about that as it had been all night.

  “There is something wrong with me. I will tell you more tomorrow. You need to be concentrating on tonight.”

  “There seems to be a lot about you that I need to know.” Richard was figuring out things fairly quickly.

  “Some is good and some is bad. I hope you can win so you get to hear the story.”

  “Me too.”

  I appreciated his attitude. He started out pretty shaky but was coming around now. I sat remembering my first night as we waited for the fights to start.

  “Welcome everyone! We have an exciting night ahead of us! We will get started with first timers Stacy and Fred! Give our fighters a round of applause.”

  “Watch everything closely, Richard.” I told him.

  He sat forward and got his mind started the right way. He was envisioning himself walking out as these two were now doing.

  “You will have five minutes to place your bets!”

  Richard watched as they knelt. He was wondering what would happen if he started early in the fight. Was cheating allowed?

  “No! You aren’t allowed to make any move on your opponent until the announcer teleports from the arena.” I stressed that point loudly.

  “Can’t blame me for wondering.”

  “Just make sure you don’t break a rule here. Any violation against the rules of the old ones, means death.” I informed him. We sat quietly after that.

  “Stacy, Fred, please stand and face your opponent…Let the game begin!” The announcer then teleported.

  The two fighters circled warily. Each too afraid to attack from what I could see. Her gift was evasion so I understood her hesitating. His gift was strength. Finally, they started trying to hit each other. The longer the fight lasted, the more repetitive it became. Stacy was having to hit Fred over and over to do any good. His strength was hard for her to overcome but eventually she wore him down enough to take his head.

  “One more thing to remember, Richard. If you get the chance to drink from your opponent, then drink. It will weaken him. Vampire blood fills us and keeps us strong just like a human’s. You get a double bonus, plus the crowd likes it.”

  Two more fighters were called. I didn’t last to see them fight. When Sweetie woke me, I saw Richard kneeling on his X and Justin sitting back down. Justin must have given any last instructions.

  “Richard, Thomas, please stand and face your opponent…Let the game begin!”

  “What gift is he up against?” Patty asked.

  “Invisibility.”

  We watched as Thomas promptly disappeared. Luckily, Richard didn’t panic. He looked around briefly but realized he should keep moving. He then started moving while staying in a crouched position. He was trying to be ready for the attack when he was knocked down. Thomas followed with a kick that Richard was able to catch. Richard shocked Thomas continuously until Thomas became visible again. Once he was visible, Richard use one hand to shock and one hand to strike. He beat Thomas enough to take his head.

  “Great job!” Justin led the congratulations as Richard reentered the holding pen.

  Richard was smiling when he retook his seat.

  “You did really well. Looks like you will get to hear the stories after all.” I told him with a smile.

  We sat through two more fights before Patty’s name was called. She would be facing strength. When the announcer disappeared, Patty struck. She continued to strike again and again. Like the earlier fight, this one was repetitive. Patty finally wore down her opponent and drank before taking his head.

  “Great job, Patty.” I told her as she took her seat.

  “Thanks.” She smiled. I actually had hopes she wasn’t going to keep being a bitch.

  I slept for the next however many fights. This time it was of my own choosing. I wanted to make sure I would be rested for my own fight. I wasn’t afraid of not being strong enough to fight, I was afraid of not staying awake during the kneeling.

  They woke me for Comet’s fight. It was brief, even I could tell that. He used his speed well. He took the head without drinking.

  Since I knew there would be a lot of fights before Sweetie was called, I went back to sleep. Richard woke me when Sweetie was kneeling.

  Sweetie’s opponent was gifted with the incorporeal thing. As soon as the announcer disappeared Sweetie’s opponent started screaming. She calmly took his head.

  “She is scary.” Richard muttered. I laughed at him. He looked from Sweetie to me and back again. “She is so tiny.”

  “Size doesn’t mean a thing in this arena. You will learn that.” I told him.

  Luckily, there were only two more fights before mine.

  “For our next fight, we have an early main event! Let’s hear it for Titan and Siren!”

  I entered the arena and took my spot. I looked to Siren and saw the mind control gift. Having been cheated previously, I knew not to
make eye contact. I knelt when the betting started. I decided to see what she was thinking.

  I had a chance to survive, damn it. Why did I end up against him? Anybody else I could beat, but not him. Of all the stinking, rotten luck…

  “Titan, Siren, please stand and face your opponent…Let the game begin!”

  I knocked her out, drank in her gift, and took her head. The crowd roared.

  “What was her gift?” Justin, still not Apollo since his fight hadn’t started, asked.

  “Mind control.”

  “Wow, really?” Patty and Charles were echoing each other as they both said the same thing. There were more echoes as the others were thinking those words.

  I stayed awake for the next fights. I didn’t want to risk missing Justin. It took like four seconds for the next several fights to finish.

  “Our next fight will put Apollo against Dancer! Let’s hear it for our fighters!”

  Justin took his place both on the X and as Apollo. I could see the gift of evasion for Dancer. She was a slim little woman. Once the fight started, she took the upper hand. When Justin figured out her gift, he used better strategy and made her attack him. His counters worked better but she could still avoid most of those as well. He finally tried waiting until she was there to strike him. Instead of defending or striking, he grabbed her and pulled her to the ground. She couldn’t get away from his punches then. Apollo took her head and Justin walked back to our pen.

  “That was incredible, Apollo!” Charles said.

  The rest of us added our congratulations.

  Justin was amazing to me. He had no gift to help him, but he still won match after match by sheer determination. He outworked everyone, outthought his opponents, and earned everything he got in the arena. He was inspiring to watch.

  I enjoyed Justin’s victory for a few days, then slept through the rest of the event.

  Sweetie woke me when it was time to go.

  Gray led us back to the donor room, then to our rooms. She pulled me to the side where the others couldn’t hear.