Chapter 2

The Impaler

“Who-where am I?” I questioned, as I woke up with a wound on my chest, not knowing what happened.

“Good evening, Prince Klei.”

“Klei… how did you know my real name? My name now is Voltaire. Wait… you look familiar!” I said as my vision slightly adjusted to the pale man reflecting the firepit, “You look like someone from that one painting in a Romanian Museum. My good friend took a photo when he went to find… Draculea?”

“Yes, it is I, Dracul.”

“From the Dracul Clan!”

“For real? On God? Dead ass?!”

“I am familiar with your sense of humour, Prince Klei. It must mean you are thirsty, my friend.”

When my vision finally went clear, I saw his face. It was the same face as the painting of Vlad the Impaler. That moustache, his cape, his ring, and his glorious hat and long black hair. Glorious! But no, history’s painting got his face wrong, and he doesn’t seem to look like the ones from the movies. He literally looks extremely handsome!

He pointed the stick that he was using to make the firepit brighter towards the tied-up woman. “You seem to be craving for it, my friend. Go, have supper.”

I could not help myself, after a long night, wasting all of my energy, just to be almost killed and lose a lot of blood from such, I had to bite that precious neck of that young virgin woman, a thick rope tied around her body and mouth like a gag-ball and a bondage kink, her salty sweat dripped down her neck, my eyes glow bright red, then I sank my fangs into her neck, drained her dry, and killed her.

After snapping back to reality after finally feeding, I took a step back, and felt guilty for what I’ve done. I was shaking and it was the first time I ever killed someone in my life. As a vampire, I’ve only taken a bit of blood from my human victims, but not this far!

Draculea reacted to what I did. “Don’t feel bad for your victims, my friend. Once you are ‘beast’, you are no longer human. The humanity that is stained in your non-existent soul is none but a burden to you, my friend. It will only haunt you for the rest of your eternity if you do not throw that away. Accept your inner beast, and become beyond just beast, and be a god. You are an immortal being that only other more powerful vampires can kill, perhaps the witty daylight assassins, to which we call them..., ‘humans.”.

He continued to tend the fire with the stick.

I tried to keep my composure. To which I easily did because I’ve fed enough blood to keep my hidden one curse ‘sane’. Then, I spoke to Draculea and said, “What are you doing here? And how did I get here?”

Despite seeing the real deal, the emperor himself in the flesh, I was too panicked to show my etiquette skills of formality. That is when he replied with, “My friend, you don’t need to be so formal, despite you aren’t, I know you will try to be.”

“How did you-”

“Let me tell you a story about Ambrogio and Selena. Sit down.”

“My Emperor, I do not think this is quite the time for that-”

“Sit. Down, my friend.”

“Alright… alright… I sincerely apologise.”

“No need to be so formal. You are a guest here, as we all are vampires from the golden age. We are hospitable to our guests, and we must not come into an abode without an invitation. Free spirited youths do not understand such ethics to do so nowadays in the modern world, it is full of filth and disrespect. That is how I managed to keep my appeal as a humble host to any of the youth, vampire or human. Even werewolves and other creatures of the undead.”

I sat down beside him. That’s when he told the tale of Ambrogio.

Ambrogio was an Italian painter who left his work to be an adventurer, as he went to Greece to find his fortune, which was advised by an oracle named Delphi. He arrived in Greece in confidence, arriving at his final destination which was the temple of Apollo, the God of The Sun. There, he met an oracle of Apollo who can see the future named Pythia, where she gave cryptic words, “The Curse, The Moon, The Blood will Run...”.

Which, of course, it made him not able to get some sleep for the entire night, trying to decipher those words. As the dawn made the sun rise over the horizon, he met a beautiful maiden of the temple, which was named Selena. Selena was the one that was taking care of her sister Pythia during her spiritual states where she is vulnerable as she tries to seek the secrets of the universe through deep meditation. For the next few days,

Ambrogio would visit Selena every day as they both fell in love sooner after.

Ambrogio asked Selena to marry him and come to Italy with him. As she said yes to her proposal, he promised to prepare for everything as promised to come to meet her outside the temple at dawn tomorrow morning.

Apollo was enraged by such an act, as Apollo was in love with Selena and should he try to take away one of Apollo’s maidens will be cursed. So, Apollo cursed Ambrogio for burning into the sunlight so he can never meet Selena in the morning. He had no other place to go, so he went into hiding in a cave where he stumbled upon Hades, The God of The Underworld. Hades listened to Ambrogio about his story, so he made a deal by gambling with him. If Ambrogio managed to steal Artemis’s bow and give it to Hades, if done so, he promised to protect both Ambrogio and Selena. So, Hades gave him an enchanted bow with eleven arrows for him to win a hunting trophy as an offer to Artemis, so he could win her favour, deceive her into stealing her bow. But in exchange, he has to leave his soul to Hades as he goes off to steal the bow, if he fails this, he has to be in the Underworld for all eternity, if done well, his soul is granted back as well as for both of their protection, he and Selena.

All Ambrogio did to at least get in touch with Selene was to write in parchments and leave them where Selena is meant to wait for him. So, he went to hunt. He took down a duck with an arrow, then used the blood as ink, and used the feather as a pen. Then, he wrote down a message for Selena about everything that happened and left the parchment there.

It has been forty-four days, Ambrogio could not get to contact Selena personally but kept leaving love poems in bloody parchments for Selena to read until he finds a way to meet her as he is hiding from the sunlight.

That’s when Ambrogio won Artemis’s favour after Ambrogio offered the dead swan as a tribute to her. Artemis, The God of The Hunt and The Moon, Apollo’s sister, finally appeared to him. It seemed impossible for Ambrogio to steal Artemis’s bow. He thought she would be honoured to help Ambrogio with his current situation and convince Apollo to remove the curse. On the forty-fiftieth night, he had one last arrow to kill a swan as the final tribute if he would to finally get Artemis to convince Apollo. Sadly, he missed and cried in devastation.

Artemis saw his dedication to her. She lent her silver bow and was given a chance to kill that one last swan and leave the final note to Selena before he finally marries her.

Ambrogio took the pity, but he ran off, stealing her bow to come to Hades to finalise the deal. Artemis realised she was being deceived this whole time. She felt infuriated and cast a curse upon him to make him burned by silver.

Ambrogio fell onto the ground, yielding in pain because of the silver bow he was holding. Yet, he begged for mercy and asked for forgiveness. As Artemis was about to finally end his suffering, he explained that he had no other choice because Hades made him do it. That’s when Artemis pitied him once more, and in exchange for his efforts, she made him as strong and fast of a hunter as she is. So, he can write more love poems using the beasts of every animal he finds using his fangs. Making him the apex predator and the alpha of the entire food chain of the animal kingdom. She made him immortal, so he didn’t have to die to be with Hades for all eternity. That’s when he thanked her, went to escape with Selena and fled to Italy. But in one condition, they have to swear to worship Artemis in exchange, and her, for eternity. Another catch was that her being a virgin goddess, they can’t have sex nor do anything sexually related, since now they are her followers.

The final note he made with the swan he killed was to meet with Selena at the dock to escape and finally be free together forever.

Which, of course, explains why vampires only feed on virgins.

***

“Wow…” I expressed.

“Indeed so, my friend.” Draculea responded, “Indeed so…”

“How is this related to the current situation?”

“You already fixed the situation. Now all vampires can live in peace.”

“If you disappeared in that castle, what did you do all this time?”

“I fled, stayed hidden until a special someone that had been given the legacy, enthroned to do what I wanted. Which was to settle the differences between the two clans. An Emperor…, what an absolute jest! I gave my crown to your master, but he was too much of a coward to do so, so he ran to you, who had all the potential to do the job right. I knew he could do it, but he was too afraid to get killed, as everyone behind the front lines. I was already done being emperor.”

“So, who is the King?”

“The emperor was pronounced dead, which was a conspiracy everyone was meant to believe, so it would turn into a cold war instead of an ongoing raging one. Savages! The truthful reason for this is to find someone who can do the job if your master can’t. Now I can come out.”

“How about the person that nearly killed me?”

“A stake driven into the heart is not enough to kill you. They tried burning you, decapitating you, but they couldn’t do so, until I appeared to them. And oh boy! The look on their faces when the legend returns! HAHAHA!”

“That is not the laugh I expected from THE Dracula.”

He glared at me for a moment and I went from giggling to quiet.

“HAHAHA!” He laughs again, “That was just merely, but a jest, my friend. Such tomfoolery has got you!”

“Ha… ha… nowadays we just call it trolling.”

“Trolls? Those have disappeared a long time ago. Legend says they are still around in these very woods.”

I looked around me and this was the first time I realised we were in the middle of the woods. My perception is extremely bad, after what just happened earlier.

“Earlier?” He spoke.

“How did you-”

“Now you know how it feels like for someone to read your thoughts, quite privacy intrusive. Am I correct, Klei?”

“Yes… but I can’t help myself. I don’t do it on purpose. It just happens.”

“So, tell me, how did your premonition fail to let you know you are about to be killed?”

“Except I didn’t, because you said I’m somewhat beyond immortal.”

“That was a jest, friend… anyone can die. Even gods. A mere stake can’t kill you, remember that.”

“How long have I been out?”

“A hundred years now…”

“H-Huh…?!” I started to hyperventilate out of panic. “You’re not joking this time, are you?!”

“Unfortunately, not anymore… you’ve been out for too long. A hundred years feels like five hours for you now, since we are all vampires.”

“Like how I’m about to write this entire legacy of mine in a book that no one will believe within a span of five hours and an entire chapter took a hundred years.”

“Ah, yes! The prodigy of all writers at a young age, since you were first bred to be a vampire by an unknown vampire. What if I told you that was me?”

“What do you mean…?”

“You don’t need to know that for now. This might seem to be like a dream all to you, but I can assure you, this really happened. Not in an alternate timeline, but here in this very reality, while you are writing this very chapter in that very book on your little electricity-driven typewriter, it actually happened by your dream walking form. You wouldn’t dare come back to such a reality until you meet your master again, now, would you?”

“I…”

“Go, there is nothing left to do here. I will come call you to your portal of your dream walking self into that… what you youngsters call a ‘computer’ once you meet your master.”