Fanon:The De Crypt Family

This is my first fanon, so please have a little patience whilst I get to grips with the editor!

Introduction
''My name is Dracula De Crypt, and this book is the history of my family. I intend it to be a record of how I climbed to glory on the shoulders of my father and grandfather, and a record of where my children are heading. Read on, and know the secrets of the most important family you will ever meet. For I am confident this family will last the ages; how can it be otherwise? At the third generation I have already reached the top of the pile at my coven, and I am confident my children will take our name on from strength to strength. ''

''Do not expect this history to be written in blood - we are not the monsters of legend. Of course, we must feed, and the teams of Hunters and Baits keep our colonies supplied, but there is no death involved when we drink blood. The donors only give us a little of the precious liquid carried in thier veins before having thier memories erased and a safe return to the streets. Some who know that we exsist criticise us for this, say we need not feed at all. How ignorant they are! We take as little as we can, but we would die without it.''

''Death is inevitable. My grandparents are dead, one burned in the sun, the other withered away from old ages. My uncle died as a teenager, before my parents were married. These are natrual causes; I have never killed someone when feeding from them.''

''I apologize, I seem to have gone off-topic. I hope I will not do that very often, but I am old now, older than it is possible for you mortals to be, and even the immortal mind fades and becomes uncertain eventually. My story starts with the arrival of my grandparents in Aridia. They were poor, they were newly converted, and they were in love. How happy they must have been.''

Chapter One: Humble Beginnings
''These are my grandparents, Angua and Vince De Crypt. In the early days of our dynasty few records were kept. I struggle to understand how one can leave their family, their home, and not even record the reason why. I do not expect I will ever understand - I have never lived the kind of life they lived, I have never experienced the poverty they accepted as normal. I hope I never will. I remember my grandfather telling me once, when I was a toddler all those centuries ago, that moving to Aridia was meant to be a 'fresh start' for them. Why did they need a fresh start? What were they running from?''

''Those were less enlightend times, people were not as accepting then as they are now. Even in Aridia, in my grandparent's time, vampires and werewolves were creatures to be feared. My children and I can proudly walk down any street without fear of being attacked, but back then our kind had to hide behind locked doors and could only socialise with fellow creatures of the night. Maybe Angua and Vince lived somewhere even worse before they moved to Aridia, and had to leave in a hurry when thier neighbourhood turned on them. That would certainly explain why there are no pictures of thier childhood homes.''

''I don't even know who converted them to their supernatrual status. My grandmother was a werewolf; they age, of course, and during the day they look like anyone else. Maybe if she had fallen in love with someone else she could have lived privately and kept her secret to herself? Speculation is pointless. My grandfather was a vampire. You know, of course that we must sleep all day in a coffin, but you probably assume any coffin will do. In fact, our coffins are specially desgined to protect from the rays of sun. In primitive times they slept in normal coffins, and in an emergency even a cupboard will do. I have heard stories of vampires who survived the day covered only in a thin layer of dirt and gravel, because they could not seek proper shelter in time. The vampires did not survive unscathed, they were ill for many months. It is best to sleep in the cool, comfy embrance of a velvet lined coffin that has never been sullied by being buried in the dirt. The best coffins last decades, and when you finally enter the final sleep your coffin will be with then as well, as it is buried with you.''

''Of course, at the start of the story Vince is still alive, and his coffin still sat in the bedroom next to Angua's bed. Money was short and bills needed to be paid - Vince needed to get a job. It is often a struggle for vampires to find a job, simply because we cannot go out at night. If we are lucky we can get a job as a security guard, prehaps, but the pay is low and you cannot get promoted without being pushed into a day shift. Who wants to be a security guard forever? Luckily for Vince, the local Job Centre was little more understanding than most and he found a job in the local vampire coven.''

''Of course, no relationship is enitrely without trouble. My grandmother was desperate to have a child, but Vince was uncertain. The excuse he gave Angua was that he wanted to be in a more stable position, but in reality he was worried what the offspring of a vampire and a werewolf would be like. I think his worry was justified; at that time no such creature exisisted and thier understanding of genetics was less complete. We still have some way to go, of course, but we now know that if a Vampire or a Werewolf has a child it will be human. I am proof of that, as are my father and my children. We were all born human and were bitten as teenagers to become vampires, or werewolves. Of course, It is a well known fact that I am only half-human; my mother is an alien. That part of the story will be explained in more detail later.''

''I never met my grandmother, but by all accounts she was a strong willed woman. She knew how to get her way. I hope that trait has passed down through the generations, it would be no bad thing for my children to have a little of that iron will. With a little self-control we could keep the blood strong and pure, and my descendants could continue this book until it becomes a saga to last the ages.''

''Of course all the sagas have companions to accompy the hero. Angua bit a local woman called Rose Dai - but don't fret! They soon became firm friends, so Rose must have asked to be bitten. As time passes I grow more confident in this opinion; the reactions of others I have bitten confirm this. I admit, in my youth, when I was overcome with the excitement of being freshly converted to the legion of darkness, to biting those who did not wish to be bitten. I thought they would also feel the joy I feel when they discovered what they had become, but instead they shunned me. They purchased medicine to become human again, or they worked to become prominent in the coven and tried to stop my ascent up the hierarchy. They failed, of course, but they caused me much trouble and I had to had to get some of them removed. Do not judge me for this - responsibilty and power and conscience are far more intertwined than you realise. I have had centuries to regret foolish actions, do not stand in front of me with your handful of decades and tell me I was wrong to act this way.''

''So this is how it began. My grandparents moved to Aridia, my grandfather got work in the local coven. My grandmother wanted a child, but my grandfather was afraid. Friends were made, and a fresh start was made.''

Chapter Two: Vampires and Werewolves
''As I said previously, Vince was afriad of what children they could have. He worried that a vampire-werewolf hybrid child would be a monster of sorts, and would be rejected by even the vampire and werewolf communities. His marriage to Angua was already making career progression more difficult for him.The various differences of opinion between vampires and werewolves is well-documented, but thier origin is not. It's not true that the bite of a werewolf is deadly to vampires, but certainly something in thier nature means that they rarely, if ever, get along.''

''Its often been remarked that putting a werewolf and a vampire alone in a room together is like putting oil on a fire. How, then, did my grandparents end up together? This is something else lost to those years without record, but I have a half-memory of when my grandfather told me the story. When they first met, Angua was not a werewolf, and Vince was not a vampire. They were university students, living in the same dormitory. They barely noticed each other for a long time, but one night Vince was the victim of a random attack from a vampire. He was left for dead on the street, and would have died then had Angua not found him and called for an ambulance. By the end of the semester, they were engaged. After they were married, Angua was visiting her friend late at night when she discovered that her friend was partway through transforming into a werewolf. Disorientated and confused, her friend attacked Angua and turned her into a werewolf. It seems thier love was strong enough to cross the antipathy between vampires and werewolves, and they stayed together.''

''It was in his very last days that Vince told me that story, and I wish I could remember it better but I was young and foolish. I thought he would be there to tell me the story again next week, next month. This is one of the few disadvantages of being a vampire. Sooner or later you will find you have a friend, a lover, a family member who is mortal. They will age and they will leave you. You try to forget, but after the while you make new friends, and they are aging also. You will outlive so many of the people you love, and people wonder why vampires are dark - but how could we be otherwise? You can see a family multiply before your eyes, you can watch look at a mighty oak and remember the sapling, but you can't stop grieving for those you have lost. If we felt nothing when our friends died, we would be monsters. I am many things, but I am not a monster.''

''Again I have digressed from the main storyline - forgive me. ''

''Vince was frightend of having the child Angua was desperate for, but mother nature had other ideas. Angua fell pregnant multiple times, but each time the transformation from human to werewolf was too traumatic and she lost the child. Finally, with a lot of support from Vince and the local hospital, she managed to carry a pregnancy to term.'' 

''This pregnancy, of course, was my father, Vlad De Crypt. From the first moment they looked at my father, it was obvious he was no monster, neithier was he a vampire. In the evening, when he failed to transform, they discovered he was not a werewolf eithier. Vlad had his father's black hair and his mother's brown eyes. ''

''I love the hope a new child represents, I love the moment when you first hold a child and look into its eyes, and see all the future, all the maybes and possibilities. This loud little armful of tears and smiles could be the next prime minister, or a surgeon, or a homemaker, you just don't know. It's been too long since I held a child, mine are all grown, and thier grandchildren too. I suppose I must have great-grandchildren out in the world somewhere, but they don't want to know me. Families look forward, to the future, and I am the past, a living fossil. My latest wife is gone and I sit here alone in my mansion with empty arms. Your children are your legacy, but that legacy will run on without you and leave you looking after it longingly. ''

''My grandparent's friendship group had expanded to include a good witch, a plantsim, and a human who was trying to get into the lifestyle. Angua persuaded Gretchen to share the secrets of magic with her and began to pursue the path of light. She wanted to be a good witch and break free of the sterotype for a vampire's wife.''

''Angua felt that vampires could be a force for good, and of course she was right. She realised we are not inherently evil, no more so than any other person.''

Chapter Three: Births and Birthdays
 ''My father had a happy, if unusual, childhood. He grew up used to the idea that a person might sleep all day, or turn into a wolf at night. His birthdays were frequented by supernatrual beings and he had few human friends. Indeed, my father struggled to fit amoung the daylight people and longed for the day when he could work in the coven like his father. It has been years beyond count since I have even pretended to be like those who live in the sunlight. We must all, as children, go to school, but for some of us it is merely an ordeal to live through until the glorious day when you first feel the sensation of running your tongue over fangs rather than ordinary incisors. I've have often commented on how unfair it is children cannot become vampires.''

''As a toddler my father kept a strange schedule. Angua, who didn't work, had got into the habit of sleeping partly during the day and partly during the night so that she could meet Vince when he left for and came home from work. Of course they wanted my father to spend as much time with Vince as he could, so Vlad was out to bed at odd hours of the day and night.''

''I remember a story my father told me once, of when he was a toddler and barely able to walk. I don't suppose he actually remembers the event himself, he must have been told the story by his parents. Angua was in the living room, studying and researching spells, and waiting for the sun to set. What an exciting time of day that must have been! I have known werewolves, but I have not lived with them. Imagine, for Vlad, what it must have been like - your father is about to come to life, and your mother is about to change into something more akin to an animal than a human. In this story Vlad took advantage of his mother's distraction to go find his father. As I said, the sun had not yet set, so VInce slept so deep it would have been nearly impossible to wake him, which explains how Vlad managed to get the coffin open without disturbing him. My father spoke of the incredible peace he saw on Vince's face, and the puzzling absence of any fear at seeing his father like this. Would you have been afraid? To find your father cold, silent, and being unable to rouse him? Nonetheless, a few minutes later when the sun set and Vince woke, he found his son curled up in his arms, sleeping the way any human toddler would.''

 ''

''My father was not an only child - for a short time, he had a brother, Damien. Damien was born only a couple days after Vlad started school, and he died only a couple of days before Vlad left for University. I wish I knew more of genetics, so I could explain why Damien grew up so quickly and Vlad was an ordinary human. The fact remains that Damien must of inherited something of the vampire or werewolf genes so that he was a teenager when he died, despite only being old enough to be a child. I am getting ahead of myself - Damien lived for many years, you need to hear a little of those first.'' ''Damien's black hair grew long and thick, and it seemed obvious to Angua he was destined to be a werewolf. Strangely, he had a slightly feminine look about him. By now Angua and Vince had more money, although not much, as Vince had worked his way up to be a hunter at the coven, and they managed to scrape together enough to send the boys to private school.''

''The Hunter's at the coven do have a certain mystique about them, and I am proud to say I was one for a short time. Indeed, everyone who has worked thier way into the government of the coven has spent some time as a Hunter. It takes a great deal of physical strength and I admire my grandfather for making a career out it. Admittedly he didnt have the talents to make it further up the hierarchy, but that is not his fault. Such people are born rather than made, and even for them it takes many years of hard work to suceed. Anyone who suceeds easily is only two short steps away from failure.''

''Look at them in the picture, so happy, so carefree. It will last a little longer, I suppose, they had many happy years. They have had happy years since. My uncle would have wanted them to be happy.''

Chapter Four: Growing up
''I said previously that I never met my Uncle. His death was a tragic accident, and many mourned, for (unlike my father) Damien never struggled to fit in. His friendly personality charmed all that knew him. He wasn't as academically successful as my father, but was less withdrawn. If the teachers at school ever had a problem with him, it was because of his frequent truancy, but all he needed to do was flash that winning smile and he was back in thier good book. Many objected that he was bright enough to do better, if he would only attend classes, but thier objections fell on deaf ears. ''

''Vlad was a talented musician, from an early age he could play any music he laid his hands on and wrote musi as easily as he breathed. Mostly he wanted to play the violin, and would spend hours every night producing gothic music that wound its way into a listeners mind and left a stain long after the piece had finished. He stayed up so long every night that he developed dark circles under his eyes, but when his teachers suggested he get an early night, he would just stare at them, silently, seriously, as if calculating the best place to strike.''

''As a child Vlad shocked people by how dark he could be, but as an adult he was much improved and easier to like. As he grew older, however, he let his music slip away from him and during my childhood I rarely heard him play and never saw him write. Instead, he spent most of his time perfecting his appearance. He became a vain man, and wore the best of what he afford, and a little of what he couldn't. If only he had continued with his music! I would have been proud to hear my father play at one of the coven's annual concerts.''

''Unlike Vlad, Damien spent little time on his appearance. he let his hair grow long and thick, almost like a wolf's pelt, and it hung about his shoulders with careless abandon. It's a mystery to me how such a person became even part-vampire. Vampire's are supposed to posess a certain grace and dignity, we do not run with the animals and we take pride in our appearance. Even when he was living in poverty my grandfather understood that much. It is possible for a werewolf to be well groomed, my grandmother in her later days are proof of that.''

''I never met her, of course, but I have seen photos. It saddens me, sometimes, to look at those photos and see a scene repeated throughout our kind; the eternally young holding hands with those who are young no longer. We do not age, even now I look the same as I did when I left university. We age inside, of course, where no-one can see, our personalities change with experiance and time, but those we love age outside, become weaker, until they fade away and leave us empty-handed.''

''Have you seen photos of my father as a teenager, as a university student, as an adult? I am proud of how he looked after his appearance. Most of it was in keeping with the style of the day, of course, but how handsome he looked, how dark, how vampiric! Maybe not the style I would have chosen, but I am not my father. If I was, there would hardly be any point in me exsisting at all! What kind of a world would you live in, if I were not there? It has been decades since the common people lived in fear of vampires, and we own much of the nieghbourhood, give many of you jobs.''

''When I was a young vampire, people were often surprised that I showed up on photos, but of that course that is just silliness. Of course we show up on photos; it is reflections we lack, not bodies. I love to have family photos, my wife and children by my side. One of my wives, I should say. I have had three wives, I have outlived them all, and some of my children as well. Unlike my namesake, I was not married to all three wives simultaneously, even I have to follow the laws on that matter. I am not THE Dracula, of course, the Dracula of legend used Dracula as a surname. I am merely Count Dracula De Crypt, I suppose my father found the name funny. You can hear more of my families later, I am meant to be talking about my father's childhood.''

''Sibling rivalary is a cross we must all bear. Are you surprised to hear me talk of siblings? I have suffered from sibling rivalry, as you will hear later, and I must admit I enjoyed it sometimes, especially when I was winning. I won the last fight it seems; for I am here, and my sibling is not. Human to the end, my sibling aged like everyone else. The sibling rivalry between Damien and Vlad was strong, strong as the rivalry between vampires and werewolves. I have no doubt they loved each other, but unlike my parents, thiers was not a love strong enough to cross the gulf between species. They both hoped the other would see the error of thier ways and convert. ''

''For so long it had been obvious that Vlad would be a vampire, it was all he talked of, all he dreamed of. By the same token it was obvious that Damien was destined to be a werewolf. Vlad had been planning to wait until he went to university to become a vampire, when it would be easier to fit in with his studies, and Damien was still young to survive the transformation. For over a year Vlad had been to trying to win the heart of a local university student, Vanessa Terrano, my mother. As I have mentioned before, as you can see in this picture, Vanessa is not human. Now, I suppose, I had better explain. ''

''The Terrano household had three members, Stella, Nova and Vanessa. They were all aliens, but they came to Earth, and the town of Aridia, to study at our university, La Fiesta Tech. Nova and Vanessa were brother and sister; Nova was my uncle, my friend. Nova and Stella had been dating for many years, and when they came to Earth together, the three of them decided to share a surname. Vanessa was a very outgoing girl, well adjusted to Earth and more intrested in partying than studying. I am sorry to say her grades suffered because of this. Stella and Nova were quieter, more absorbed in thier subjects. Nova never fully adjusted to Earth, and could often be seen wearing strange outfits he thought were normal. ''

''Some disliked or mistrusted them because they weren't human, but to someone from a family like my father's, hanging around with aliens probably felt like a bit of light relief. With them Vlad was not expected to try to conform, nor did he want to. Inevitably, as is the way of such things, love blossomed between him and Vanessa. When she finally agreed to be his girlfriend, it seemed like things could next not get any better for Vlad. His parents were happy for him, and by all accounts Damien was grugdingly proud of his older brother, even if he wouldn't admit it.''

''The next day, Angua brought home a new friend to meet her family, and the group of supernatrual friends she had aquired over the years. If they had known what was ahead, would they have changed the path they were on? Maybe they would have thrown Calista Fuchs from their home, maybe they just wouldn't have converted her. Maybe, maybe, maybe. The world is full of What-ifs and Maybes.'' nb5

Chapter Five: Calista Fuchs
''I've mentioned Calista Fuchs before, although not by name. She was part of my mother's friendship group - can you find the reference? It was around the time I discussed how my mother became a witch. Calista Fuchs was the human who was trying to get into the lifestyle my grandparents led, which is strange, as a lot of the people I know who are currently living the lifestyle would like to get out.''

''Calista came to our house so that she could be present to witness the ceremony when Vince became a warlock. My father spoke of how moving it was, and I have been to these ceremonies for my friends and I agree. There is always a certain something in the air when you watch a person accept thier wand, it can bring tears to the eyes of someone as old as me. Or perhaps I am getting sentimental as well as forgetful in my old age.''

''Calista was exactly the kind of wannabe Vampire that I despise. She saw how goth's dressed and thought that's how we dress. Why do people always make this mistake? The only similarity between us and the goths is that we both dress in black. I admit, at one time, it was fashionable to dress in gothic clothes, or in angry, rebellious clothing, but to think of it now, we just looked like sullen teenagers who all try to express thier individuality in exactly the same way.''

''Nonetheless, my grandmother thought of her as a friend, and I had not be born yet, so Calista was welcomed into thier household with open arms. She even supported my father when, at the end of the ceremony, he announced that he was not going to study the path of light, like my father had, but instead was going to study the evil magics, as was expected of a vampire. I am grateful I live in a more enlightend time, when Vampires are viewed as neithier evil nor good, but people in thier own right, with thier own choices! I suppose it is true that if Vince has tried to be a good warlock he might have been punished by his superiors at work, but that would be allowed no longer.''

''What actually happened that evening is uncertain - there are so many conflicting accounts, no-one saw everything, and no-one saw what they thought they saw. This much is known;''


 * It was a week until Vlad went to University.


 * It was two weeks since Damien had become a teenager, old enough to survive the change to a werewolf or vampire species Picture9.jpg


 * After the ceremony, after Calista had defended Vince, she asked to talk to him quietly outside, where she begged him to bite her and turn her into a vampire. He agreed.


 * Angua followed outside a few minutes later and thought she saw Vince attacking her friend. In her attempt to save Calista, she scratched her, infecting her with werewolf venom as well as vampire venom. It was after dark, of course, so Angua was in her werewolf form.


 * Disorientated and in pain (one change is not easy or comfortable, two changes at the same time must be an ordeal) Calista ran inside to escape my grandparents. As she did so, Damien grabbed her arm to see if she was ok. Without thinking, Calista swatted him away, but her neatly trimmed nails had become ragged claws, and she scratched him as well.

''​My Uncle was ill in bed for three whole days. He got worse during the day, and better at night, and even as he slept in the daytime he tried to escape the sunlight shinging through gaps in the curtains. On the third day, for what must have seemed like hours beyond count, they weren't sure if Damien would even survive the change. Then his fever broke, and by sunset he was sitting up in bed and talking, running his tounge over freshly formed fangs and blinking red eyes. His reflection had dissapeared from mirrors, and it was apparent that Damien De Crypt was a vampire. Then sun set, and my grandmother left for her nightly change into her wolf form. Imagine her surprise, when she returned to Damien's room, to find he had done the same! This is the first recorded instance of someone becoming both a vampire and a werewolf. My grandmother had barely caught her breath when the doorbell rang. When she answered it, who should be there but Calista Fuchs! She, too, had become both a vampire and a werewolf, the first of thier kind.'' 
 * Calista ran out of the house and was not seen again for some days. Damien was quickly taken ill and had to go to bed. Damien had been infected as well, but it was not a large enough dose to change him instantly as Calista herself had not yet finished the change. He had picked up a little venom, and his body was slowly changing, cell by cell, but no-one yet knew if he would be a vampire or a werewolf.



''This seems like a happy ending, but the chapter is not over yet. My father is about to go to University, and on this day, tradegy strikes, and strikes hard.''

''I said day, but night would be more accurate. Damien bit his brother a few nights later, and it turns out that vampire-werewolf hybrids can control what species they turn other sims into. My father became a vampire, not a werewolf or a vampire-werewolf cross. The next night Angua drove Vlad to university, which has always been very understanding when it comes to different species of students. My father was moving in with Vanessa, Nova and Stella. Angua and Vlad locked the house when they left, forgetting Damien was still outside in the garden. The plan was for Angua to get Vlad to uni, unpack his room before sunrise, and drive home during the day whilst Vlad slept in his coffin. ''

''How terrible it must have been for Damien, to realise what had happened. To hear my grandfather call from the window as he went to bed, a warning that the sun would rise soon. To push his luck, to stay up longer than Vince, daring the sun to hurt him. To finally try and get in, only to find all the doors locked, that he was unable to get into the house, into safety. To call out, desperately, pointlessly, as his father slept the sleep of the undead, and couldn't be waken.''



''I have been out after daybreak only once, and then only for a few seconds. I still remember the terror I felt as I fled for shelter, I still remember how my back burned. I still have the scar. ''

''Damien was outside for hours, and eventually he burned to death. Vince and Angua De Crypt buried my uncle in the garden. My father was heartbroken, of course, and I wish I had known him. He sounds like a good man. I have had an Uncle in Nova, of course, and an aunt in Stella. Neithier of them are vampires or werewolves, and they died long ago.''

Chapter Six: University
''My father had an intresting time at university. Once he recovered from the death of his brother, he had to adjust to the fact that he was living in a dormitory with three aliens. Vlad had been dating Vanessa for some time, and of course he know Stella and Nova through Vanessa, but it was a very different experience to be living with them. Nova, for example. Until then my father viewed Nova as an oddity, a curiousity, but as Nova's flatmate my father was the focus of cruel remarks made by ignorant mortals. If only I had been there! I would have made them rue the day they spoke ill to a De Crypt. Our family is an honourable one, and even my Uncle was worth a hundred of those cretins when he was alive. It is not his fault he was born on another planet and did not understand our ever-changing fashions.''



''Of course I admit that my uncle was not a very logical being. In fact, he and his sister were something of an exception as I understand it. I have met aliens since then, and as a rule they tend to be black haired, very logical and mainly intrested in science. Stella, certainly, was a textbook alien, apart from her nose of course (but I was told that they had artifical noses added before they came to Aridia to make thier appearance seem less odd - another example of how the more unusual species of sim deform and degrade themselves to appeal to a strangers sense of what is normal, and by doing so remove a little more of the variety from this world). My mother wouldn't know the difference between science and a recipe for iced buns, and as for Nova, well... he was very good at maths and he always got A's but as soon as he tried to talk to a person or choose an outfit he became as helpless as a kitten. Prehaps more so; I know some very streetwise kittens. ''

''I say this to explain my uncle's appearence in the pictures above - this is how he dressed normally. I can understand that, on a university campus, the number of toga parties might confuse an alien visitor into thinking they are everyday dress, but I never fully understood how he could think that, for example, a gladiator outfit was normal. Not that I would reccomend that anyone conform to what people think is "normal". The wonderful thing about life is the variety of people you get. I know some families only know and interact with human sims, but personally I love the fact that everyone in my life is so varied. Vampires, Plantsims, Werewolves, Witches, Warlocks, Aliens, Robots, Zombies and various combinations of the above. How could I ever find people boring when I always have something new to see?''

''My father flourished at university. He studied political science, to help him advance in the coven, he was getting good grades, and he was dating one of the most beautiful women on campus (my wives had not yet been born, of course). My mother was having trouble maintaining her grades and had to repeat a semester in her freshman year, but eventually she managed to get through and began to get steady grades.''  

''My aunt and uncle had a more difficult time at university, thier relationship began to struggle and for a long time noone was sure if they would make it. I wasn't there and out of common politeness I never asked them for details, but I believe it was something to do with Nova's inability to adapt to Earth. There was always a plan to return to thier home planet once they had finished university, but then my parents fell in love. For a long time my uncle insisted they would still be going home, and Vanessa would be coming with them. Of course my mother would hear none of it, she was determined to stay with Vlad, and Stella had fallen in love with Aridia generally. In the end Nova caved, of course, and decided to stay with his girlfriend and his little sister.''

Chapter Seven: Postcards
''I have been writing this account for many months now, and as I do so I've been searching through photo albums for various pictures of my family to include. Whilst doing so, I found a series of postcards between my father and his mother during his time at university. I dont think anyone realised they were still around - maybe they had been lost. ''



'Dear Vlad, It's such a shame you missed the wedding last week. You and Kazuo were such good friends at school. I've sent you this picture so you can see how pretty everyone looked - thats me in the blue dress. Rose is behind me, of course, you can tell by her hair, such a lovely shade of red. Did I mention that Kazuo's mother finally popped the question to Rose? It's about time, thier child is growing up so fast, you can see he's a toddler already! I still remember when you were a toddler. I'm surprised this child was human though - wasn't Kazuo's other brother a plantsim like her? Anyway, lots of love, Anuga x'



'Hi mum! Just letting you know we're all ok here. Not much is really happening here, we're all working hard. As you can see, Nova's dress sense hasn't improved, but his beard has. I loved your postcard - but wasn't that the maid behind you? Since when was she a werewolf? Or a witch? Give Kazuo my best. It's a shame he didn't come with me to university but to each thier own. Didn't I hear some rumours of a shotgun wedding last time I visited? Let me know! Vlad x'



'Dear Vlad, I simply don't know what you are talking about with this silly shotgun wedding idea! Maybe some people might have said the wedding was bit fast, but I don't think Mackenzie really is pregnant. Speaking of weddings, though, I met this lovely couple who got married, a Mr and Mrs Morrison. As for Kaylynn, she is indeed now both a werewolf and a witch, our little group of friends is expanding! Soon most of this neighbourhood will be a supernatrual being. I'm going on holiday soon, so you might be getting a few exotic postcards! Lots of Love, Angua x'



'Dear Mum, I hope you are having fun on your holiday! I think I remember you saying something about having a trip with the your friends last time I visited. I saw this bird today, I think I might buy one for us when we graduate. Are these constant postcards about weddings meant to be a hint? Well, with any luck, I might have something good to tell you soon. In the meantime, I need to work on my course, I am graduating soon. Love Vlad x'



'Dear Vlad, dont think I've forgotten about your graduation! I'm so proud you're going to get a degree in political science. What is this good news you're going to tell me? Don't tease me like that! Anyway, here is a picture of us on holiday. I was learning this fire dance, it's so much fun! You can see Kaylynn in the background making friends with the locals... we think there might be a bit of holiday romance blossoming! What about you and Vanessa? You don't talk much about how things are going between you two. Love Angua x'

'PS What hints? I havn't been hinting anything!'



'Mum, I have some great news! Stella and Nova are engaged! It was a bit unexpected for all of us, I don't think Nova planned it himself, but its all terribly romantic. At least Stella gets to keep her surname, I told you before how they all chose the same surname when they first came to Aridia. Vanessa is so happy that her best friend and brother are getting married. Anyway, I'm not telling you what I meant, you're just going to have to wait and see, be patient for a change! Love you! Vlad x'

'Oh Vlad, I'm so pleased for them! It's so nice to see a young couple who care enough about each other to make that big a commitment. But you still havn't told me what these so-called hints are that I'm meant to be dropping, or what this news is. This is a photo of us when we took a walk into the mountains. We found a mysterious hut with a Witch Doctor in, he was so friendly. I was able to fix a few appliances for him and he gave me this strange doll back, he said it was a voodoo doll. I wouldn't mind learning a bit more about that branch of magic. I could be a witch AND a witch doctor! Dont write again until after you graduate, concentrate on your exams. Love you! xx'



'I GRADUATED WITH HONOURS!! As did Nova and Stella. Vanessa graduated as well, as you can see in the picture, it was taken in the middle of our graduation party. I'll be back in the neighbourhood in a few days. I look forward to investigating this doll with you... I gotta go! I'm going out with Vanessa later and I've got to start packing my room.'



'Oh Vlad, I'm so proud of you. You're going to go so far in the coven, I called your father and he's proud of you as well. He's still away at this conference they sent him to, but he'll be back tomorrow. I hope you're having fun these last few days. We'll talk properly when you get back home - and don't think I've forgotten you're meant to be giving me some news! This is the last photo from our trip, we're coming soon the day after tomorrow. See you soon, love Angua xx'



'Fine, I guess I can tell you my news now - I proposed to Vanessa last night and she said yes! We'll get married in a few months time. I don't think a family is on the cards for a while yet, we need to concentrate on our careers, so don't start buying baby clothes just yet! We'll talk more when we both get back home. Love you, Vlad x'

Chapter Eight: Babies and Weddings
[[File:Picture_(82).jpg|thumb|left|300px|Sim Wedding

Stella and Nova Terrano]]

''This next chapter should be a happy one, concerned with the events that people commonly remember as the happiest days of thier lives. Why do these events shine so brightly in people's memories? They were happy, for me, of course, but I have other happy days. I remember playing with my children on the beach, that was a happy day for me, but was it really any less happy than getting married to thier mother or seeing them be born?''

''As soon as he finished university, my father moved Angua, Vince and their dogs to a new mansion befitting the De Crypt name. It was decorated in a gothic, yet modern style that suits the vampires of today. The interior was mostly black and red, and along the walk to the front door were dragonsbreath candles. It was large enough to hold several generations of both sim and pets at one time, with room to spare.''

''These are pictures from my aunt and uncle's wedding. Stella Terrano and Nova Terrano got married at night so that the De Crypt family could visit. As you can see, my aunt was a beautiful woman. Im told it was a moving ceremony. Stella persuaded Nova to wear something a little less abnormal for thier wedding, it's probably one of the few times she succeeded at that. A few days after the wedding, my aunt discovered she was pregnant. Alien genetics is a strange and confusing business. I am half alien, but it only really shows in my eyes, which are human. That is a common combination - you hardly ever see half-alien sims with human skin and alien eyes. Why should that be? Surely eithier combination is equally likely? We may never know. ''



''My aunt and Uncle had a baby girl, whom they named Astria Terrano. She had Stella's black hair and the typical alien solid black eyes. Astria is a full blooded alien. The same day they adopted a cat, to be a childhood friend for ther daughter. Vanessa, jealous of thier happiness, persuaded Vlad to move the date of the wedding forward. They planned a typical vampire wedding, in red and black. Since leaving university Vanessa had grown up into an elegant vampire-bride-to-be.''

[[File:Picture_(88).jpg|thumb|left|300px|Sim Wedding

Vanessa Terrano and Vlad De Crypt]]

''The wedding was a sucess, with many people from all species of sim attending the ceremony. My mother dropped her name, of course, and became Vanessa De Crypt. She had become good friends with my grandparents and I believe my grandmother in particular was thrilled that her son had finally got married, although, to her dissapointment, children were not immediatly forthcoming. ''

''After the wedding, Angua began to have health troubles and was frequently ill. Age was finally catching up with her. Her family tried to help her, but my grandmother was more concerned about what would happen to her dogs. Together, everyone promised that as a family they would look after, train, and love the canines. Angua spent a lot of time fussing over her beloved pet dogs. She had bred her orignal two dogs, Leroy and Suzi, and had three puppies, now she gave up two of the puppies and bought a new dog as a partner to the remaining puppy, Cuddles. The new dog, Fred, was from an abusive home and was difficult to train.''



''Angua De Crypt stayed alive long enough to see Vanessa fall pregnant with my sister, but she did not live to see Maria be born. Still, I like to believe she died happy when she learned she would, indeed, have grandchildren. She was buried next to Damien in thier new home.''

''People are often surprised to hear I have an older sister. For some reason they always assume I am the oldest in my generation, or that I am an only child. Why should this be true? Maria De Crypt was not intrested in running the De Crypt empire, and it is not a burden that should be thrust on someone agaisnt thier will.''

''My sister and I have both inherited our mother's pale green skin, and we both had the human brown eyes our father used to before his vampirism turned them red. I inherited my grandfather's black hair, but Maria inherited our mother's red hair.''

''You can see here pictures of my family. In the top picture are my parents and my sister, the bottom picture is of my entire family.''

''I am often struck with a sense of nostalgia these days, as my end draws near I find myself increasingly concerned with remembering my beginnings, and this picture reminds me of the innocence of my youth, before my skin turned grey and my eyes turned red. In our beginnings, we can find clues to the true natures of our selves.''

''Personally, I'm often curious as to why my mother never became a vampire herself. She certainly dressed the part, but somehow she never made the change. However, you can see in the picture she is wearing the trademark hat of a Witch - before she died, Angua introduced my mother to the ways of the light. Vlad never learnt magic from Vince, although of course I myself am now an accomplished Warlock. Prehaps my mother was worried that vampirism would corrupt her dedication to the good magics, or prehaps she simply did not want to be immortal. Who can say?''

Chapter Nine: My People
''Up until now I have talked almost exclusively about my own family - but we do not live in a bubble. We have friends, neighbours, families we know like our own. Prehaps if I filled in some of the blanks you could understand the background of our lives and the setting in which we perform our actions. There are two main divisions in the nieghbourhood - those who engage in the paranormal, embrace it, make it part of thier everyday lives, and those who are 'normal'. Normality is relative, of course, but this simple division influences who many of us are friends with, who we marry. It's not compulsory, of course, but if you never see a person you can never get to know them well enough to fall in love, and as a rule these two halves of the neighbourhood do not mix. At this time the nieghbourhood is not as well aligned as it is now, and a single generation can span many ages.. Nowadays each generation is the same age, purely by accident of course. No-one could control that many people that closely to bring this about - it must be coincidence.'' ''At this time, when I was still a baby, my fathers generation spanned children, teenagers and young adults. There was a young couple called Jennifer and Jack Morrison - you may remember them from my grandmother's postcards. They had twins, Eric and Elizabeth. Both of them married into the De Crypt or the Terrano family within a few generations, adn the Morrison surname is still present in our neighbourhood today. ''

''Obviously there is Stella and Nova, with thier daughter Astria. The only other couple in my father's generation at this time was Mackenzie and Kazuo. They had recently left the neighbourhood, as they had both been gripped by a desire to learn more about the culture of Kazuo's family and decided to travel the world in order to find out more. ''

''At that time, Ellie Aridia, Sky Aridia, Fricorith Tricou, and Gvaudoin Tricou were all teenagers. Ellie and Sky Aridia are cousins, as was thier final cousin Marucs Aridia. The Aridia family was a family of rich busines owners all living together in one house. Ellie, Sky and Marcus recently lost thier grandfather Pepe, but still had thier parents. Sky, the eldest, had been adopted by Pettina (founder of Pettina's pets and Sky Arc Spire) as a baby. Ellie was an alien - her mother, Nerissa (founder of Nerissa's clothing) had been abducted by aliens and returned pregnant. Marcus, the youngest, was the son of Carlos and Alan Aridia (founders of Pizza hut and Doc Alans Hangout). At this time the neighbourhood had just discovered the technology to make on child from two sims of the same gender, and there were only two examples of this technology being used, Marcus being the first.''

''Fricorith and Gvaudoin Tricou were also cousins, they lived with thier parents and grandparents in the family house in the downtown area of Aridia. Theirs is an intresting family, actually. They died, once, and the family vanished from Aridia entirely, but a distant relative called The Grey Lady was ressurrected so she could bring her family back to life. The Grey Lady is something of a saint in Aridia - she died in a fire and now watches over all toddlers and babies from beyond the grve so they cannot die in a fire. Eithier the family or the house is cursed by fire as many of them seemed to have died that way. There was often debate as to wether the Tricou family count among the paranormal families, or if they are merely gothic. Certainly they have a close association with the paranormal, and Fricorith's mother Jennail is a vampire, but at that time the family was relativly normal.''

''Kazuo had two half-brothers, Shui and Yoshi. Kazuo was the son of Moriko Sakurako and Rod Humble, but Rod abandoned Moriko after she followed him to Aridia and left her a single mother. A few years after, Moriko became a plantsim, and entered the paranormal side of the neighbourhood. Kazuo had no intrest in being part of a paranormal family himself, although at this time he had no children. This is part of the reason Kazuo and my father grew apart. His first half-brother, Shui Sakurako, was a plant baby, grown from a spore on Moriko's head. I always thought it sad that Plantbabies have such a short lfe - Moriko was not born a plantsim and so would live out her natrual lifespan, but Shui was never a child or a teenager and grew directly from a toddler to a teenager. To make up for this, Plantbabies inherit all thier parent's skills at the time of thier birth.''

''Shui quickly outgrew his brother and was an adult whilst Kazuo was only just starting school, and eventually left to build his own house specially designed for plantsims. Kazuo's third half-brother was Yoshi Dai. Moriko began dating Rose Dai, the werewolf my father remembers as being a good friend of Angua during his childhood. Rose moved in and they had a child together. Eventually Rose and Moriko got engaged at Kazuo's wedding, but they never married themselves.''

''This is my neighbourhood, my home. These are the people I knew as well as I know myself, although they are all long gone now. Thier grandchildren and great-grandchildren play in the streets as I write this. By the time I'm old enough to remember any of these people they are all adults and have children of thier own. I remember the day I saw Astria hand Stella her grandchild, and the expression on Stella's face. I remember the day my sister gave up the De Crypt surname, and I remeber being friends with Kazuo's child just as Kazuo had once been friends with my father. These memories, as fragile and as beautiful as a crystal flower, define who a person is and how they will act next. If you do not know who I live with, how can you know why I act as I do?''

Chapter Ten: Poetry
''I found some poetry my father wrote once. I think it was a few years after he became a vampire, at the end of his teenage years and the beginning of his college. Often the transformation is stressful and can leave the new vampie feeling depressed as he tries to adjust to his new life.''

I have tried to arrange them into the order in which they were written, but they are undated.

***

I saw a butterfly yesterday

the last I ever saw

For I got my wish today

I'll live for evermore

Fangs bit into my mortal neck

and I grew my own

I'm prepared to pay my price

I'l gladly live alone

***

I do not fear you

Grim Reaper

I have faced you before

I looked you in the eyes

and I walked away

I gave you my life

there is nothing left for you to take

search me

find me lacking

find me empty

for I am dead

undead

the dead that walks

I do not fear you

I fear myself

***

I once refused your posioned chalice

I set it down, and did not drink

I danced in the sun and was full of joy

Your heart was black and fall of malice

You paused a while a began to think

You returned with an evil ploy

Instead of darkness you offered power

Instead of lonliness you offered immortality

Serpent child, you spoke with a voice of honey

I believed you

Now I dance in sun no more

Now my heart is bereft of joy

Serpent child, you lied to me

Serpent child, I've change my mind

But you are gone

***

We craved this life once

We craved this cold embrace

We did not see the dagger hidden

We ran towards that we should have fled

Regret, that burning icicle of shame,

A cage for our ever beating heart

Take away this gift, steal our immortality

We will thank you on bended knee

If you will not take it, then we will not give it

We will spare you from this fate

We will you save you from yourself

We deny you this life you crave

We deny you our cold embrace

***

Bite

Such a simple thing

Such a little thing

So small a cost

I thought

To be immortal

I was cheated

The price is immortality

To watch my granchildren grow old

Wither

Die

Leaving me alone

This is the price I paid

To be bitten

***

An empty clatter, mocking me in my lonliness

as the coffin lid falls shut, my safety net, my prision cage,

trapping me for another day

I hearpeople pass by laughing, unaware, carefree

and an unbearable ache overwhelms me

sadness crashing down, crushing down, burying me alive

''surely i cannot survive this? but i cannot die''

my only wish to join the crowd

to be another forgotten face

laughing, carefree

but how could i leave this life behind?

to let the power slip through my grasp, to age,

to walk with death as my compainion

''how do you bear it? tell me your secret''

how can you laugh so freely when you know that in an eyeblink

you will be aged, crippled, dead

I will outlive the grandchildren of your grandchildren's grandchildren

but never will i laugh as carefree as you

with the sunlight on my skin

and freedom in my heart

***

My child, I hold you in my arms.

Your skin is rosy, your eyes so clear,

Your life is bubbling under your skin

as you chuckle,

and the sound warms my heart.

Never choose the life I chose,

for it is no life at all.

My skin is pale and cold,

my eyes stained red

my life drained away so death has nothing to take,

I envy you.

For I am death, walking, talking,

holding you in my arms,

one day I will come for you.

Fear me, fear my choice, even as I love you

I would rather you ran away.

***

My teeth are sharp

My eyes are red

You think I live

But I am dead

Feel my skin

So icy cold

See my youth

When I am old

You envy my

Immortality

I envy you

Please pity me

A empty mirror

Reflects an empty soul

For I am broken

Whilst you are whole

***

''I wonder if my father ever knew how much truth there are in these words? I have lived longer than any vampire I know, and it takes most vampries at least a century to come to the conclusion written out here. Was my father able to see further into the future than the average man and guessed what being a vampire would truly be like? Or was his just expressing standard teenage angst in vampire poetry? There are so many questions I wish I was able to ask him.''

Chapter Eleven: My Childhood
''Its odd, the things you remember when you get old. I remember the first flake of snow I ever saw, landing on my upturned palm, melting almost instantly from my body warmth. I had only the briefest impression of its fragile beauty before the mere fact that I was alive destroyed its very exsistence. I remember looking at my grandfather, seeing the snowflakes settle on his skin. They did not melt - his cold vampric skin held no warmth. That was when I saw the truth - the death we undergo to become vampires preserves beauty, cold and lifeless and pure. Like that snowflake, we are not destroyed but rather protected from the ravages of time, and are left, unchanging as the world moves on around us. We are a statue to some long forgotten hero, standing silently in the crowds, admired for a moment then passed over in the busy and fretful bustlings that are your lives.''

''My grandfather is dead, and so is my father. Time takes us all eventually. We should live forever - but who would want to? I have outlived three wives, I have raised three families, I have outlived grandchildren, and greatgrandchildren, and few of my family that are alve today wish to know me. I am a relic. I am so far out of my time that I cannot adjust. I no longer know the appropiate way to talk, or act, it is all so different from when I was a child. I sit here in an empty mansion alone and unloved. Such is the fate of the immortal. Few vampires live to see their greatgrandchildren grow to be adults, they recognise that it is thier time and exit quietly. I suppose we do not live much longer than normal humans in that respect, but we keep our looks whilst our families wither. My second wife, Jennail, understood the quiet irony of that. Carina, on the other hand, was vain and foolish. If she had not had that accident I suppose she would have chosen to linger, like me, to proud to accept that death is inevitable to us as well as the common man.''

''I have wandered away from my topic again. I am meant to be talking about my childhood - I have not met Carina yet, nor Jennail. I am still a toddler, squalling and grabbing at snowflakes, wanting them to linger and furious that they would not. My mother puts me down in the snow and I totter unsteadily - I am just learning to walk this past week. Finally I cling to my grandfathers legs. He is a giant to my eyes, and lifts me up easily. I place my hand on his cheeks, seeing the difference between my green skin and his grey skin, looking into his red eyes and remembering that my own are brown. This is the man who taught me to talk, who held me after I fell off my tricycle and scraped my knee, who was sleeping in his coffin on my first day of school but gave me advice the night before on making friends, and promised to be there the next night to hear all about it.''

''I doubt it was any one thing that took Vince De Crypt from us. He had been suffering from a lung infection for a while, but he had seemed to be on the mend. I am told that he had been unhappy ever since my grandmother passed, although he kept it hidden from me. Prehaps you really can die from a broken heart - I have had 3, and each time I thought the pain would kill me, but I found a way out of my emotional chasm. Was Vince unable to find his way back to a happiness? Certainly the head injury from a fall that night contributed to his death, but I think a combination of all 3 factors made it so that Vince would slip away peacefully in his sleep.''

I was the one that found him.

''It had been my first day of school, and I couldn't wait to tell my grandfather all about it. I had waited anxiously in his room at sunset until the last flickers of sun drained from the sky, until I could hear my father stirring in the next room. I lifted up the lid of the coffin to wake him, but his grey lifeless skin had somehow become even more pale and drained, and his eyes were firmly shut. I touched his cheek, and it crumbled away like ash beneath my touch. I backed away then, trying to call for help, but no words came. Finally my mother came to find me, and took me away from that room, as if she could make me unsee what I knew was engraved on my memory.''

''I suppose you're surprised that I havnt mentioned Maria much yet. Ah, Maria, with her halo of auburn hair. Everyone remarked on how pretty she was, how inteligent, how athletic. I suppose I was a little jealous at first, but I soon realised my sister and I were destined to walk very different paths in life. Maria could never have been a vampire, she did not have the right personality. She fitted right in with Jaspers crowd and was perfectly suited to being a suburban mum. She was happy, and who am I to begrudge her that? We got on very well, and rarely fought, but our intrests simply took us down very different paths. I suppose she took after our mother a lot, I sometimes wondered if Vanessa looked at Maria and saw the life she had intended to live. What a ridiculous notion! With our vast fortune and impressive pedigree, any girl would be lucky to marry into the De Crypt family!''

''Whilst we were at school we rarely saw our father. During the night we were worn out and slept deeply whilst he awoke and lived his own, seperate life. It was only natural that we had a stronger relationsip to our mother. She was the one who we talked to and interacted with, who listened to us as we talked about the day, who served our dinner and took us out on nights. The older we grew, the later we could stay up and the more we could see of this mysterious stranger. For me the main obstacle to forming a proper relationship with my father was that he reminded so much of my grandfather, whom I still mourned. Eventually I began to see that as a good thing, and once more I was seduced byt the dark beauty of the vampric way of life. Slowly my sister and I turned into carbon copies of our parents. Maria was a bubbly, pretty girl with natrually pink cheeks and a sunny personality. She skipped along the sidewalks into the hearts of everyone she met. On the other hand, even I admit I was reserved and brooding. Like my father before me, I shrank back from the company of my peers and preferred to spend time among creatures of the night. Maria was very close to our cousins, Astria and Venus Terrano. I suppose our parents liked that, and of course Vanessa was still close to her brother Nova and to Stella. Likewise, Astria and Venus were virtually inseperable. Throughout thier childhood they looked very similar, although Astria were a couple of years elder, and they dressed in nearly identical outfits. Of course, the first thing anyone noticed about them was that Astria had the fine, silky hair of her mother but that Venus was permantly bald. Actually, it's not all that unusual, many aliens with little or no human ancestary are bald from birth, as Venus was. I remember one scientist remarking on that fact. He thought that the aliens who came to Aridia to live were in fact atypical of thier kind, having hair and human like noses, suggesting that they may be partly human themselves. Prehaps the result of an alien abduction where the child was kept, rather than returned to Aridia in the womb of the kidnapee... Stella, Nova and Vanessa could concieveably be part human without even knowing it, and returned to (one of) thier home planet out of an instinct buried deep in thier genetics. We may never know.''

''Astria and Venus did not feature largely in my life I'm afraid. I suppose I regret that. Prehaps I should have tried to get to know them a little better, as they were then not many in Aridia with alien ancestry. My mother, like my aunt and uncle, thought that I would be happier if I knew someone else "like me". I know now there will be never anyone else like me. I am unique. My heritage, exotic as it is, is only one piece in a puzzle, a puzzle that fits into a kaleidoscope, and is constantly shaken up with every new situation I encounter so that I can present a different face of myself to the world. I change; I adapt; I endure, in a way noone else ever has before. I searched for these qualities in my children, my beautiful children, but my essence, my gift, has not been passed onto them, and with me it is lost. I will not be here for much longer, and I have much left to tell. ''

Chapter Twelve: Alone
''Alone. A bit dramatic, but you must forgive an old man for being a little eccentric occasionally. I was not alone then, although I felt it. I am alone now, and I know it. Alone, in an empty mansion. I must have one of my grandchildren move in here, or have I already arranged that? I forget. It might not be a grandchild, I think they are all grown now with families of their own, it might be a great grandchild, I'm not sure. I know my wives loved them a lot. Carina, she was the first, with her blonde hair and her turquoise skin... then there was Jennail, her hair was a ribbon of darkness... oh, I am getting ahead of myself again. In my narrative, I am still a child.''

''When I was a child I had a vision of what was to come. It was during the summer, nearing the end of a very warm day when I had drunk very little. Dehydrated and a little dizzy from heat exhaustion I crept into my father's room and looked in on him in his coffin. Often the contrast of the coldness of our skin against the warmth of the air can cause condensation to rise like smoke from our coffins, and as I watched over my father's body I breathed some of that smoky mist in. Instantly I fell to the floor, I am sure I made no sound but inside my head I was screaming louder than I ever thought possible, so great was the pain in my eyes. There was a flash, and I was shown a jumble of images, confusing and overwhelming. The first was if I was looking into a mirror, the one we had in the hall not 5 feet from where I lay. At the time I was too short to look into it properly without a stool but in the vision I stood on the floor and could look myself in the eye, for I was taller, and - older. Human still, young still, but clearly I was seeing myself as I would be in years to come. My face had hardened, and there was a dark glint in my eye. There was another flash, and now I looked down on children playing in the sun. I was on a balcony of sorts, just in the shade, but below me I could see my old classmates, grown older, having fun. Maria was down there with Astria and Venus. I turned away and walked deeper into the shadows, turning my back on the sun. Flash! I saw an angel, I thought, in a white dress with honey blonde hair, but she was a vampire, and it was night-time, and as she stood under an arch made of blood red flowers, her hand reached out to me. There was another flash, and I saw myself surrounded by laughing children. They were so beautiful, so healthy, and I felt warm inside, I loved these children I had not met, who were not born yet. Someone called my name, and I looked up in the eyes of the most beautiful woman I ever saw, with a waterfall of hair the colour of night, skin the colour of rainclouds, and eyes like bright red rubies. A final flash, and I saw myself at the head of the Vampire Council. I was the Grand High Vampire, even the Elders listened to me as I talked, and they nodded and went away to do my bidding. I was the most powerful Vampire in the world. I looked to my left and I saw a human woman standing there, tall and regal, with ebony skin, a queen in her own right, but so out of place at this parliament of the undead. We were alone together. I held my hand out to her, and she took it, bowing slightly. I led her away, and like everyone else, she followed me.''

''I suppose I was alone as a child, but it was of my own choosing, even if I did not realise it. My father could see what I was doing - he had done it himself. We wanted to be a vampire when we grew up, so we tried to seek out those who felt the same way and shunned those who were "normal" (such an vague and outdated word!), but as children we could not stay up late enough to meet with vampires, ''

''nor could we become vampires ourselves. We were stuck in a kind of twilight of our own making, we could not yet be creatures of the night, but we did not want to be creatures of the day.I became obsessed with chess, played for hours by myself.I encouraged my own children to laugh, and play, and make friends with those who lived in the sun. I convinced them to make the most of the time they had, for they would not have it again. I did too good a job. They learnt to enjoy the sun, and would not give it up for this life. I suppose I am glad I spared them this living agony, but who will take over my empire? Perhaps one of the children or grandchildren from my third wife, from Penthesilea, my Amazon queen, will listen to me. It has been too long for any of the families from my first two wives, they are all too old or too distant. If only Penthesilea was still here, she would know what to do. Why wouldn't she accept my gift? Why did she remain human, and grow old, and die?''

''I was always jealous of the ease with which Maria made friends. You could leave her with almost anyone, in almost any situation, and after 5 minutes they would be trading secrets as if they had known each other their entire lives. Of course, it didn't help that my mother preferred her. Oh, I know, she loved me too, but she would never admit that she could talk to Maria like she never could to me. They understood each other, whilst I was an outsider. So many hours I stood outside a room, listening to their easy laughter and inane chatter, only to hear it dry up and descend into an awkward silence when I finally had the courage to enter, to try to join in. In the end I stopped trying. I formed my own friendship group at school, those who were like me, wanted to be vampires, or werewolves, but couldn't because of their age. Arianne Tricou became a good friend of mine, In fact it was through her I met my second wife, Jennail. Jennail was the aunt of Arianne's mother Gvaudoin, also a vampire, and soon enough our families were firm friends. I'm surprised it hadn't happened sooner. With Arianne I felt accepted, almost normal. There was a time when I thought we could be more than friends. But that was a long time ago now.''



''So long ago. I stare at the photos and memories rise in my mind like a tide. The first time I picked them up I stared at Maria's face until I all but fell in and became part of the scene myself. I felt an icy chill on the back of my neck as snowflakes melted under my scarf and I heard Maria's laughter echo through the house, calling my name. A youthful grin on my face I turned and ran to the top of the stairs before I remembered - I buried Maria a long time ago. No snowflake had melted on my skin for centuries. Alone, surrounded by memories of a child's laughter, I wept.''

Chapter Thirteen: Hiding in the Shadows
''Memories can ambush you at the most unexpected times. Yesterday I found a piece of chalk one of my grandchildren had left here, but rather than reminding me of my living family, I remembered Maria's teenage years. She had decided she would be an artist when she was older and threw herself into painting, sculpting, everything she could, the house was full of the smells of chalk and clay and paint. Her room was full with portraits of the family, of friends, and landscape after landscape, the view from her window, from our school, from the car window... I remembered one portrait in particular, done in chalk, of our pet Womrat, Midnight, pressing his paws agaisnt the plastic side of his cage, like he was trying to escape...''

''Escape. Its what we dream of, you know, those of us who choose this life. As children we dreamt of escape, of relief from that ever present, ever burning sun. Her scorching gaze warms and burns our skin, making us feel uncomfortable even when we are still human. We hide in the shadows, seeking relief in the cool accepting darkness for just a few more moments Or at least this is what we tell ourselves, but how much of it is true? I said before I wished I had spent more time in the sun before escaping into the night. After a while you forget which of them is the truth. Maybe they both are. We were human once, and to be human is to live in and through and with contradictions and never notice.''

''Hiding in the shadows, watching the other children play, wanting to be one of them, wanting to be normal and have friends, but at the same time wanting to be different, part of another world, where normal has no meaning. Contradictions.''

''I remember the first time I met Jennail Tricou, it was only a few days before my first birthday as a teenager. Arianne had been round and we talked presents and parties late into the night, until finally her mother came to pick her up. Jennail was wearing a classic vampire dress in a rusty red, and had her hair sculpted into an elegant bun to reveal a long, graceful neck. She had mode only the slightest concession to the fashion of the time for tribal tattoos across the face of vampires, or those aspiring to be vampires. Few us actually got tattooed, of course, it was always makeup. When you live for as long as we do, permanent skin alterations seem less appealing. Arianne and I wore the same knot design across our nose and cheekbones (on that day, anyway), my mother wore something resembling a phoenix on her forehead, but Jennail's face was almost unadorned, except for the most elegant of faint swirls around her eyes. My father knew her from work, and when Vanessa said that her husband was a lucky, he quietly informed her that Kvornan died of old age before Maria was born, certainly before Arianne and I came into the world. For the first time I understood how long vampires live, how ageless they were. Kvornan and Jennail had married in their early twenties, the age Jennail still looked now a full decade after Kvornan had died an old man.''

''Jennail, Jennail, my lost love. Two families were enough for you, but if you had stayed, I would have made our family last forever. Why did she leave me? Was I not enough for her? Even when we were married, she always talked of him, her first love, and now I see he was her only love. She married me for my money, for the prestige it gave her at the coven, but I loved her! I thought children would soften her, make her love me, but she loved only them. There wasn't the room in her heart for another husband, Kvornan filled all of that space. So beautiful, so cold, I suppose she always saw me as that child. I was always so much younger than her.''

''I've digressed again, getting ahead of myself. As I said, it was my birthday party was a mild success, but here is a picture from later in the night, while my father played to us on the violin he had loved so much as a child. There I am, in my long black coat and newly grown sideburns. As you can see, the design of the makeup tatoo I wore changed quite frequently. I was so full of hope and excitement then. I wanted to become a vampire immediatly, but my father made me wait unitl the day before I left for university. He was right, of course. You can complete university work online at night, but not schoolwork.''

''I havnt talked about my sister in a while, but her life was happy and, for the most part, unremarkable. Of course, Maria didnt always think clearly when it came to men, but no one is perfect. Maria was dating Eric Morrison, our neighbour. I must say I did approve of Eric, his family were from our social class, she could have been very happy with him. I wouldnt dream of making anyone marry for reasons other then love - but its a shame she didnt love him. Maybe she did, for a time, but over the years I grew to think she only really loved Rodrigue, although they never married or had a proper relationship. Maria cheated on Eric with Rodrigue, and they were eventually caught. Not just by Eric - also by Lexi, Rodrigue's girlfriend at the time. Maria and Rodrigue decided they shouldnt be together for a while, but I think they wanted to be together after all the fuss died. If it wasn't for Jasper, coming between them, and then Rodrigue, coming between Maria and Jasper... Wheras Maria's mistake pushed her and Rodrigue apart, it brought Eric and Lexi together. They understood how each other felt, so they dated for a while, but that relationship ended as well, though on better terms. Eric married eventually, in fact his child married one of Maria's, I was there. I watched, hiding in the shadows, as the sun shone down on the rest of my family.''

to be continued

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