The Godsend Backfire: The Beginning

by Harold Straugh

  He stepped back and I watched as he started to wither a little as his blood left him. The wound I left oh his neck wasn’t healing. He fell to his knees and pulled the horn out of his chest, that wound didn’t heal either, “What did you do to me?” he asked.

  “Rendered you useless, now you know how I felt,” I said. There was something magical going on in my mouth and body. His blood tasted better than any meal I had sampled over the last hundred years. It was making me feel more energetic.

  “I will find a way back from this,” he muttered as he fell over. I then took his head off with a swipe of my foot. It bounced off the side of the cave and rolled back towards me.

  “You know that won’t kill him?” I heard a familiar voice say, I looked to my side and there stood Lucifer.

  “Well, it’s you,” I said, not really wanting to talk.

  “He’ll suffer though, he can feel it, his head being off. He will feel his body wither and a burning in his veins that he can do nothing about,” he said.

  “Why are you here? I haven’t heard from you in a long time, I was preferring it,” I snapped a little.

  “You killed my daughter, even though justified, it still hurt.”

  “If you think killing her was bad, you should know what I did too her before I killed her,” I smiled.

  “I’d rather not. Is that skin?” he asked pointing to skin-cape, that actually had tanned well over the ages.

  “Yes, remember Abakanazar?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well its mostly him, the bottom piece,” I pointed it, “That’s all that’s left of Lilith.”

  Tears filled his eyes and he turned away, “Please don’t kill Derium, he is my first-born son. I helped you out back in Gomorrah, I’m asking you to help me.”

  I thought for a minute, I couldn’t imagine he was asking me to spare Derium’s life. I was highly offended, but he did have a point he did save me back in the day, I guess I owed him, “Well I’m taking the head and hiding it, send Mylicous to find it and use his nose,” I said.

  “Mylicious hasn’t been heard from in a long time, Last I heard he was in the coldest of lands.”

  “Guess I will find him next,” I said with a smile my face.

  “You plan on killing him too?”

  “No, just beating him up really bad, maybe I will chain him with silver and beat him,” I said and looked at Lucifer who had a sad look on his face.

  “He wanted to help you, he got chained up with silver, it wasn’t his fault. What happened to you destroyed him.”

  “It destroyed me too,” I said and walked over to Derium’s body and dragged it to the back of the cave, “Sunlight won’t get it there.”

  “I don’t think the sun shines much on this place, it’s why Derium chose it. You might want to take his head and show the people. he’s been terrorizing this place for a long time.”

  “I might hunt down his creations, so if Mylicious ever finds his head, he will wake up to a bunch of dead children,” I said and picked up the head.

  “What have I created?” he asked, and I just chuckled while I stared into the eyes of Derium.

  When I looked up, he was gone, but I was going to keep my word, I wasn’t going to kill Derium. I was still feeling energetic from his blood and decided to leap from the cave. I was higher than I thought, but I landed just as easily if I would have jumped from five feet up, instead of five hundred feet up.

  Some of the people came out of their little wagon homes and looked at me. I held up Derium’s head with both hands and showed it to the crowd.

  “You don’t have to fear anymore,” I said, showing them his head, “He won’t be terrorizing you anymore.”

  They didn’t applaud or even say thank you, the just nodded their heads and went back into their wagon homes. I used my speed, because I didn’t have a horse and wound up in where Austria is today and that is where I buried Derium’s head. I dug hole, fifty-foot deep and placed it in there. I hoped the earth worms ate it before it was ever found.

  I buried his head just in time, the sun came up just as I threw the last bit of dirt on it. I patted the dirt down with my foot, “Find that, you stupid wolf.” I decided to take the slow way back and I’m glad I did. I was passing through a small town I Baja, Hungary. I sensed the evil that I had sensed coming from Zoar and Sodom. I searched around and found some graves just outside the little town. That seemed to be what they did, never buried in the town they fed from but just outside of it. I dug up the first grave and the body bursts into flames. I caught some attention of a passerby. He started speaking, but at first I didn’t understand, like before after a few minutes, I was able to understand and speak their language.

  “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” the guy yelled at me, “WHY ARE YOU BURNING THE BODIES?”

  “Stop yelling at me and look, it’s burning itself, watch and I will show you,” I said as I started to dig up another grave. The guy mouthed off a few obscenities, but he stopped when person in the grave caught on fire. I jumped back and he called out. A few more people came over and helped dig up a few more graves. The pattern repeated and soon there were no vampires left.

  I was upset a little because I wanted to taste more vampire blood, but it was what it was, I was wiping some of the ashes off me when I felt a peck on my shoulder.

  “You know, if you’re going to help people get rid of these demons, maybe you shouldn’t wear skin on your back and be so white,” one of the villagers said. He was short and pudgy, he almost looked like a little Italian chef. A bald head with a thick, black mustache, that stretched from one side of his face to the other. He went to pat me on the back and stopped. He had a good point, I wasn’t looking to be no savior and these people weren’t from Sodom or Gomorrah, but I needed to lose the skin. There were plenty of open graves to put the cape in, so I picked one and buried it.

  “How many of these “demons” as you call them are around?” I asked.

  “You say demons like its questionable, what do you call them?” he asked.

  “I call them vampires,” I said, putting my hand on the grave I buried my skin-cape under, as if saying a final goodbye.

  “They’ve been around ever since I can remember. I never knew the sunlight would kill them though,” he said.

  “You know what to look for now, fresh, upturned dirt, dig them up during the day, just be careful as you can tell, they catch fire.”

  “Thank you, friend!” he stuck his hand out, but I just shook my head no, I wasn’t trusting another mortal anytime soon.

  I walked to the next little town, some miles away, sensing a few of the dark energies. I found a few more of the graves and started digging. I couldn’t, for the life of me, feed from them. The minute the sun touched them, they erupted and screamed. I was going to have to wait until night time.

  After I got rid of the vampires on the trail, I stuck around the next town or a little. I was amazed how things had changed in a hundred years. The huts went to bigger huts and some people were using a new technology at the time, cement-like blocks. I stumble upon my first cement-like building.

  I ran my fingers around over the blocks feeling the textures. My fingers moved up and down with the nooks and crannies. The building was only a story tall, with a high-pitched roof. There were windows but no glass. I looked in and there were wooden benches lined up. Once again, I was interrupted by a townie.

  “It’s a beauty isn’t it?” she asked, catching me off guard.

  “It is, yes, but what is it?” I said, I find it odd now that was in awe of a building.

  “It’s a place of worship, I built it by hand,” she said.

  “You?” I asked somewhat insulting her.

  “Yes, me? Do you not think a woman could have done it?” she said. She was tall for a woman, very masculine in build.

  “I stand corrected,” I said, “So a place of worship? Who do they worship?’” I asked.

  “Jehovah of course.”

  The answer caught me of guard,
in my ventures I had totally forgotten about Jehovah, he had forgotten about me, so why not?

  “Have you noticed any demon’s that come out at night and feed from the living?” I asked.

  “It’s the reason I built this place.”

  “Oh really?” I asked and looked at her, my eyes must have taken her off guard.

  “You’re so…white, even your eyes, are you a demon yourself?”

  “I’m guess you can say that I am, but I stop demons as well.” I said, “Don’t be afraid of me, I won’t hurt you unless you hurt me,” I said.

  “We just haven’t had the best of luck with strangers, those demons were strangers once. They came in the night, one in particular, he was bald….”

  “I know you are talking about, I took his head and buried it where only I know,” I said and looked at the masculine lady, oddly was attracted to her.

  “Did you? Or are you just saying that to gain my trust.”

  “I don’t care if I gain your trust or not, at a blink of an eye I could be out of here and the “demons” as you call them in these parts, will kill everyone or change them.”

  A scary thought of how many people Derium had changed in a hundred years occurred to me. I thought on the bright side at least I would be kept busy.

  “The problem is, the demons like to come here and hang out at night, some people want to come in here and worship at night and they can’t.”

  “Can’t they just worship from their huts?” I asked, it was bothering me.

  “They didn’t feel safe in their huts, now they don’t feel safe here.”

  “I will end them,” I said with a smile on my face, “is there a quiet place, besides in here, that I can sit?”

  “There is river on the edge of town,” she said and pointed.

  “Walk with me and if I see any graves, I will show you what to do. What is your name?”

  “Noemi” she said but she did stick out her hand, instead she hugged me. I kind of patted her back and that was the extent of the hug, “You are scary looking, but you are nice.”

  “I can say the same about you,” I said, she cocked her broad, squared jawline and raised an eyebrow at me.

  At first, we said nothing as we walked. Noemi, I think, still hurt from saying she was scary looking, walked a little in front of me. Then she spoke of, “How do you know of these demons?”

  “These, vampires,” I corrected her, “come from my brother, he done a bad thing to me a long time ago and I swore I’d get him back. I found him, kicked his head off, buried it and now I’m going to wipe out his race.”

  “They’re all over, hundreds, thousands of them,” she said, her deep voice had a concern to it, “You’d have to live forever to kill them all.”

  “That’s what I plan to do,” I said. I had no problems back then telling people I was immortal, there was much to believe in back then, it was acceptable. Now days, I don’t say it as much.

  Baja back then was nice, open, green, nowadays its all houses and business. Trees were abundant, which was concerning because they were so thick in spots the sun couldn’t shine through. A vampire could easily stay there, but I didn’t see any more graves on my way to the river with Noemi.

  We finally came to the river, it was huge, the part we stared at had a massive bend to. The water rippled over some rocks, it sounded relaxing. The sun reflected off the water and Noemi had her hands up, shielding her eyes from it. I didn’t seem too bothered by it, honestly.

  “Does this river provide you with much fish?” I asked, thinking back on my day so of Sodom and Gomorrah.

  “Often yes, but that river has swept away many of people, so are careful.”

  I don’t know why I was talking, I still had a grudge against mortals, but these weren’t those people and I wasn’t trying to be so hateful. Once hate fills your heart, its all you think about.

  Noemi walked off into the woods and used the bathroom, which was something I wasn’t used to. I was used to women just pissing in front of me if they needed. She foraged around a little bit then came back with a handful of what looked like cherry tomatoes and tossed me one. I ate it, but it wasn’t a tomato, it was very sweet to me.

  “What are these?”

  “Seabuckthorns, but I call them buckies. My grandma said we use to not have them around here. Then one year it flooded and they popped of up after that.”

  “Do you have any potatoes?”

  “I think everybody has those,” she chuckled.

  I remained there for hours, just soaking in the beauty, eating buckies, they were almost as addicting as potatoes. Soon, Noemi got up and started walking away, “Where are you going? I asked.

  “You may not be afraid of the night, but I am,” she said and walked away.

  I watched the sunset, then headed back to where the cement building was at, a church, I guess I could call it, a waste of space if you ask me. I wasn’t even halfway there when I encountered our first vampire there, he was stand-offish from the get-go. He sniffed the air and then looked at me.

  “You smell different, but I also smell Derium, his blood is upon you,” he said and circled around me.

  “Derium was my brother, his blood flows in me now.”

  “You killed my maker?” he hissed and swiped at the air in front of me.

  “No, he’s not dead, just suffering!”

  He swiped at me again, this time I caught his hand pulling him towards me, then tossed him over me and slammed him on the ground. He was weak for being a vampire, but he was resilient. He was up quickly and hit me, but his hit had half the power of Derium’s, so I just shrugged it off and hit him in chest. He skidded back a few feet and looked at me.

  I learned a few fighting skills over the years, by watching other people fight. My favorite at the time was the headbutt-leg sweep combo. Which, when he came after me again, is what he got. He got a headbutt and a leg sweep, his fang broke off on my forehead then I sent him crashing to the ground. I wasted no time drinking his blood. I didn’t and don’t feed from them to live, I’m not reliant on their blood, just tastes good and energizes me.

  I felt it get absorbed, I felt it start to fuel me, I moved a little quicker. I stomped the vampires head in as some of the townspeople looked about. I dismembered him and tossed his body in a pile.

  “They can be destroyed, grab up your pitchforks, your axes, whatever you need and fight with me.” I said

  “Feher Demon why should we follow you? How do we know you won’t drain our blood?” one person asked. He was wearing a hat of sorts, it was tight to his head, rounded and small upcurved, brim.

  “I mean you no harm, if you don’t harm me. These creatures are vile creatures and their blood is the only blood I want, both on my hands and in me.”

  “If he was going to kill us, he would have already,” I heard Noemi speak.

  “There are more at our place of worship,” another person spoke.

  “Then lets go,” I said and they parted way for me to walk through.

  They walked with axes, and pitchforks and I walked with my bloodied hands and blood-soaked white clothes. Even after a hundred years I still wore white.

  We approached the “place of worship” and I noticed two vampires on the outside. There was one, looking at me with lust in his eyes. He had long, matted black hair, his skin paler than mine. He had a very pointed nose, with a bump half way down it. He had very thin lips and beady red eyes. He licked his blood-ridden lips then came at me. He was quick, but I was quicker, I dodged his attack, by crouching down and caught him with an upper cut to the gut. I grabbed onto the back of his head while he was up in the air and flipped him over on his back. Dust swirled up from dirt floor he hit so hard.

  The other villagers attacked the other vampire, once they learned they could hurt them in groups it was over. They ransacked the place of worship that had more vampires inside, as I held my vampire down with my foot and watched in awe. Blood splattered everywhere I looked, it was up on the walls, oozing o
ut the door.

  I kept my vampire alive so he could watch his friends get destroyed. I then tore the arms and legs off the one I was holding, leaving his head and torso attached. I wanted to make sure he watched all his other blood-sucking friends burn.

  We made a huge pile of vampire’s parts, placing their heads in a circle around their body parts. I had that done in case they weren’t unconscious when the sun came up, they all could watch their bodies burn. My guy though, I kept back to view it all. I placed a broken pitchfork shaft in the ground, then picked him up and impaled him halfway through his body.

  “You can all go to sleep, I will wake you all for in the morning,” I said.

  “What’s going to happen in the morning?” Noemi asked.

  “You will see!” I said.

  The crowd dispersed and watched as body parts moved about and I could hear snapping of teeth, some of them were still conscious, I smiled at this. My vampire said nothing, he would just hiss every now and then, I finally spoke to him.

  “Your creator hissed at me too and then I took his head.”

  “I wish you would take mine so I can die,” he said.

  “Oh, you won’t die if I take your head, your vampires eyes must not be great because the others are still alive you daft, you will just suffer, like Derium is,” I laughed.

  I got up and walked into the woods a little bit, finding some more Seabuckthorns. I snacked on them while I leaned up against a tree. I thought of Mylicious and how in a hundred years, he had never gotten ahold of me. I sent out messages in my mind, but never got a response back. I never knew if it was because he was too far away or just didn’t care.

  I munched on the buckies until the sky started to lighten. I went back and started knocking on doors, I wanted people to see this spectacle. They gathered around just as the sun hit the pile. The heads screamed, the one I impaled screamed, then the flames started, it was almost like firecrackers were going off in the pile. The one I impaled, screeched at the top his lungs as flames bursts out of his mouth. He thrashed his head back and forth before finally falling quiet. The sizzling of flesh and the smell of burning meat filled the air.