Chronicles of A Vampire Queen

[anasa]

My heart felt like it was submerged in icy cold water. My stomach churned as I turned to see the bearer of the hand on my shoulder. Luckily, the man was still asleep. Still, I daren’t sigh in relief for fear of waking him. Hands shaking, I removed the keys from his pocket and escaped across the stone floor.

I tried my best not to panic as I surveyed the area. I was now in a grand room with a high ceiling painted with reds, oranges, and golds, forming a mural depicting wretched bat-winged devils being triumphed over by a holy warrior wielding a blade of light. So, that is their version of the tale? I remember thinking, how depressing. Because that meant that I was nothing but an embodiment of evil, the devil herself come to unleash her hordes of evil upon the earth. For, indeed, I am a Vampire Queen. I am where the curse begins, and, according to them, where it must end.

I should have known better then to sneak into the vampire slayers’ stronghold. My bat servants made sure that I realized this. And I do. My life is far more important then all of theirs put together. Still, I’d always held the belief that inside my vampiric body beat the heart of a human girl. Vanessa was imprisoned and it was all because of me. I couldn’t let them execute her! Still, I began to feel chills down my spine and regretted coming alone.

To make less noise, I removed my boots and padded on sock-footed. I can remember the cold of the gray stones seeping through the bottoms of my feet and spreading throughout my entire body. As for the journey itself, all I can say is that I ran and hid and ran and hid in no particular direction, like in a bad dream. After what seemed like thousands of rooms and hallways, I finally stumbled upon a large iron door, locked and bolted, with Slayer protection spells written in blood for extra measure. My memory is somewhat foggy, but I believe I ran my thumb along the spell and licked a taste of blood off of it. As I suspected, it was human. For people whose mission was to protect humanity, vampire slayers sure were inhumane.

Placing my ear against the door, I listened for any prisoners. I was thankful that the myth that vampires have sharper senses then humans was true. I could hear soft whimpering, ragged breathing, shuffling feet, and a child crying. I broke the locks with ease and swung open the door, freezing at the horrific scene before me.

The only light in the room was the moon pooling in through a barred window. Prisoners were kept in cages all throughout the room. Some hung from the ceiling like bird cages and some protruded from the walls like the cages used to encase exit signs and fire alarms in my old school. My attention, however, was drawn to the floor of the room, which was really the barred ceiling of another cage that held several prisoners. In the brief moment that I took all of this in, all hungry eyes turned to me. A cloud of smoke dissipated into the freezing air as I inhaled and exhaled deeply, trying not to lose sight of why I came there.

Carefully, I crept over the bars, moving swiftly as the cold bit at my heels. Suddenly, something grabbed on to me. I looked down and saw a filthy hand with bloody stumps where two fingers had been chopped off, with jagged nails burying into my ankle. Trembling, I kicked it away and bolted to the wooden door on the other side of the room, making sure to keep my eyes up and ahead instead of on the groping fingers I crushed beneath my feet.

[anasa]

Luna desperately searched the papers around her feet. She already knew what had happened. Everyone in the court knew; but every time the story was told to them, it was in the blandest of details. Knowing-feeling-what the queen felt at the time made her feel as if she were now part of some secret club. However, her unfruitful search was interrupted by the loud clapping of the princess’s hands.
“We have put together the first chapter now!”
Luna rolled her eyes. She was far too cheery for a lady of her standing. Because the guests wanted a break, they asked for her to read it aloud, and she, always one to put on a show, pretended to be unsure.
“Oh…I don’t know,” she said in her sing-song voice, as if she were weighing the options, “Maybe we should wait.”
A loud, energetic reply came that was a mixture of approval and disapproval from those swept along with her little game. It was during said performance that Luna happened to see the only person who still seemed to be actually mourning.
“Oh, it’s you,” Luna grunted, “Weren’t you in the room with her? Why are you letting this happen? The queen surely would have hated all of this!”
“Well, now,” he replied, keeping his eyes on the princess, “If you cared so much about Angeline’s last wishes, then why would you read her story so hungrily?”
Luna gritted her teeth and looked towards the floor.
“Besides,” he added, “I don’t think Angeline ever truly realized how many people hated her. This way, her subjects can know her, and, perhaps, love her. However, there is one part that I don’t want anyone to see.” He gazed thoughtfully at the high, stained-glass ceiling colored green for this very occasion. “She’ll probably let me have it when I go meet her, but I don’t really mind.”
Luna began to say something when he snatched a page that she, having realized that it wasn’t a continuation of the previous ones, was yet to read out of her hands and disappeared as the charade came to an end and the princess cleared her throat to begin reading.

[anasa]

((I'm skipping forward for your convenience. In the actual book, the first chapter leading up to this point is re-printed.))

My head rolled over sleepily and then…
It’s hard to say. Perhaps my mind blocked it out as some defense mechanism, or perhaps our dinner had been poisoned by that devil, but the next thing I remembered was stumbling off into the wilderness, lost and so terribly alone and afraid. Every tree branch was reaching out to hit me or snatch me away, and every rock was waiting to trip me and bring me to my knees.

That was when I felt wings beating against the back of my head. I screamed and fell. Many people have asked me what I was thinking when it happened, and are disappointed when I say “nothing,” but that is the simple truth. I thought nothing and I felt nothing and I heard nothing. The entire world was silent to me, except for the bite. I simply understood that it had happened. As the bat flew off into the night, I understood that it had bitten me at the base of my neck, that I was going to die, and that it, too, was going to die, its purpose served. However, I was still unaware of what that purpose was. As I watched the bat, silhouetted against the blurry coin of the coin, I numbly realized that it was half my size, and that it was beautiful, dancing silver and red through the night sky. Memory is a very curious thing, isn’t it?

[anasa]

In any case, I awoke several hours later, much calmer then before. According to Renfield (though I have no recollection of it,) I had stretched, stood up, and brushed myself off saying, “Okay. Let’s recap. My family’s dead. I was attacked by some crazy bat, and then I was dead. But now, I’m not.” I then inhaled and exhaled deeply and said “Breakfast time!” Once again, I have no recollection. I, for one, can not imagine myself doing something so heroic. However, I do remember searching for food and, finding none, discovering a nearby pond where I drank and washed the stench of death off of me (in that order, of course.) I considered washing my clothes, but was filled with such an inexplicable rage when I laid eyes upon them that I decided to bury them. They were awfully torn, after all.

[anasa]

It was at this time that Renfield decided to reveal himself. He descended from a nearby tree and landed in a perfect servant’s bow. I jumped back in shock, for here before me was a bat-like figure even larger then the one I saw the previous night, with the head of a human and large, pointed bat ears growing out of a crop of thin silver hair, which now gathered mud as he kept his head on the ground. He was otherwise a perfect bat specimen, except for five finger bones protruding from the top of his wings, including-though I wasn’t close enough to notice at the time- a thumb. I remembered the bat from last night and ran as quickly as my bare feet could run, despite the cuts and blisters inflicted upon them from my previous flight.

Looking back, I can only laugh at my naked “dash for safety.” No matter what direction I ran in, Renfield would be there before me, bowing and patiently waiting for me to address him. I would see him, scream, and change direction, see him, scream, and change direction, and so on and so forth, until I was finally so exhausted that I merely fell on my hands and knees, panting.
“You suck!” I exclaimed weakly.

[anasa]

((That scene is hillarious if you picture it like it's in a movie! XD Of course, the nude shot would probably bump it up to an R-Rating. ))

[anasa]

Gently, Renfield helped me up and stroked my head with the bony tips of wings. I let him. I didn’t care anymore. He then raised his head and let out a sound so high-pitched and loud, I felt as if my eardrums would burst. As the sound escaped from his mouth, we traveled with it, and the world around us became a thousand different colors blended into one. Over the years, I have become accustomed to echo flight, and would think no more of it then a human would of traveling to work in a car each morning, but after my first flight I felt as if I had been hit repeatedly over the head with a large brick. I couldn’t even feel the dirt underneath my palms when I landed. Instead, I simply recognized that there was an abundance of brown, and there I lay for a long time until my senses returned to me.

When I was finally able to stand, I found Renfield, once again waiting patiently for me. I glanced around at my surroundings and found myself in the charred remains of an old home, atop a grassy hill that was a surprisingly intense green, making it seem like it were in an entirely different world then its bare and blank rocky surroundings. Although I was still too numb to feel it, there was a mighty gust of wind that swept through the desolate landscape, bending the only tree that could be seen for miles. The tree was merely a few feet away from where I stood, but seemed as if it were far off in the distance, for, despite its tiny stature, it was fully branched and leaved, a healthy green that blended into the vibrant grass around it.

All of this I absorbed hungrily. At home, I often was guilty of the habit of crawling into my bed and hiding myself within its covers whenever I was stressed, sad, frightened, or simply feeling lazy. Whenever I did this, I felt like a butterfly resting snugly in its cocoon. My bed was my one true home, and yet all of those nights combined could not compare to the wonderful feeling of belonging that I encountered on that first day.

[anasa]

The moment was so puzzlingly beautiful that I should’ve thought of something dramatic and memorable to say, but nothing came to mind.

“Where am I?” I asked blandly.

“Your palace,” he said, bowing, “My queen.”

“That can’t be!” I exclaimed, thinking that perhaps he had mistaken me for someone else, “I’m human, not…whatever you are! Besides, this is hardly what I call a palace.”

“What would you call a palace, my queen?”

“I’m not your queen! Seriously! I need to go find the police, and I need you to stop making my story so unbelievable!”

“My queen, it’s best not to be associated with any humans in your present state.”

“But, I am human!”

At this point, tears were washing my cheeks, and I was so miserable and scared that I lost control of myself. I don’t remember what I said or did, only that I was screaming as loud as I could and sobbing whenever I stopped to breathe. Then, something extremely peculiar happened.

I looked up and saw the ever-patient Renfield, but this time against a different background. Instead of a deserted skeleton of a house, we were inside a completed house; a house with cheap wallpaper, a house with mysterious stains on the carpet, a house with over-stuffed furniture, a house with pictures of family members, smiling in a way that they only smile for photos, hanging in a neat row on the eastern wall-my house.

I looked down, with no complete surprise, to not see my naked body, but myself dressed in an oversized T-shirt, a long skirt decorated with a floral pattern, and a piece of thin fabric tied like a belt around my waist. This was the kind of outfit I wore on a daily basis.

“Are you trying to torment me?” I asked, tears still blurring the room, but breathing steady again.

“The palace changes depending on the wish of its master,” Renfield answered, “If anyone’s tormenting my queen, it’s my queen.”

“I bet that was a pain to landscape,” I retorted.

“No, it was a vampire.”

“Huh?”

“A vampire did the landscaping.”

I rolled my eyes and decided not to try to explain.

“You are this house’s master,” he went on to say, “Was this not what my queen wished for.
I nodded. It was.

“Please,” I said, noticing that I was on my knees and standing up, “Please tell me what’s going on!”

“Let’s see here…” he said, looking as if he were spellchecking every word he was about to say, “Do you know what a vampire is?”

“Let’s see here…” I said, scratching my chin, “I haven’t been living underneath a rock, so yes.”

“Good,” he said, oblivious to her sarcasm, “Then, you know how a vampire is made, don’t you?”

“It’s when a human gets bit by a vampire.”

“Yes. And how did that vampire come to be?”

“I suppose it was once human, too, until it got bitten.”

“And how did the vampire who bit that vampire come to be?”

“It was bitten, too! Now, are you going anywhere with this?”

“Of course I am, my queen. How far back do you suppose the chain goes? There had to be something that began it all.”
Suddenly, I understood.

“I’m where it all begins, aren’t I?”

[anasa]

“Yes. Every 300 years, the tri-centennial blood-bringer is born randomly among the vampire bats. It, unlike the others, can only drink the blood that perfectly matches its own. Any other kind is bitter to it, and will be spat out no matter how hungry the blood-bringer may be.”

“That huge bat was the blood-bringer?”

“Precisely. It is very rare that a blood-bringer will be able to find the one it hungers for at all, but once it does, it dies, and the disease that it carried with it is passed on to the one it fed off of.”

“What disease?” (Although, I already knew.)

“It has no scientific name, but it is referred to as the ‘curse of the vampire’ by humans. The second generation of the ‘curse’ gains the ability to spread the ‘curse’ throughout the world and recruit more vampires.”

“No way!” I backed away, holding up my arms, “I can’t turn people into vampires!”

“You can, and you will, or you will die. You are the Queen of all vampires, and because of that, your body will go through severe hardship. Sometimes it will produce abnormally large amounts of blood, and sometimes it will produce hardly any blood at all. The only way to keep this in balance is to use your royal subjects for your own health.”

“And what about them, huh?! Do you think they want to be turned into monsters?”

Renfield’s face showed emotion for the first time by becoming dark and spiteful.

“Vampires are not monsters. As a bat servant, I am required to not voice any of my opinions unless your life depends upon them, but in this case I must make an exception. As I see it, both humans’ and vampires’ opinions about each other are entirely false. Humans see vampires as cursed human beings who are constantly bloodthirsty and on the prowl-monsters that must be destroyed before their evil spreads any further. Vampires see themselves as superior beings-a race separate and higher up then all others. They think that humans are beasts who are bent on destroying the world with their unholy machines, and are jealous of vampires for being so hard to tame. The truth is that neither side is entirely good nor entirely evil, but is simply under different circumstances.”

“I see…” I said softly, now feeling guilty, “I guess it was dumb of me to say that. But, I have to ask…where is everybody? I mean, if vampires really do exist, then why doesn’t anybody ever see them?”

“Ah,” he sighed mournfully, “That is because they are all dead.”

“Dead?!” I yelled, “Why didn’t you say so earlier?! What happened to them?”

Renfield covered his face with his wings and began shivering.

“Are you angry at me, my Queen?”

I stopped and sighed, forcing myself to regain composure.

“No, I’m not. I’m just curious. What happened to them?”

“Vampires and humans lived in seemingly separate worlds,” he said from behind his wings, “Until one vampire had gone for too long without blood and, in desperation, fed on a nearby human priest. The rest was a never-ending cycle of revenge on both humans’ and vampires’ behalves. Finally, the humans used the oldest trick in the book: making their enemies appear evil. Urged on by self-glory, the vampire slayers were born, and while priests put on flashy shows of ‘exorcism’, vampire slayers massacred entire vampire villages. By the end of the 19th century, all vampires were extinct; and now the 21st century as come, and has brought with it a new beginning.” When he said this, he poked his head out and smiled proudly at me. “My Queen has come to re-establish her people.”

I run this talk with Renfield over and over again in my head, even to this day. My memory might be playing tricks on me, but to me, it seems that I can recall every word, movement, and detail. Renfield is the only other one who would know, and, of course, he would not correct me if I were wrong. Still, the exact wording and gestures is not important, but rather this one vital moment…the moment I agreed to be Queen of all vampires, truly convinced that I could heal the severed bonds of long ago.

[anasa]

Those last words drifted like a steam up to the high ceiling as the mourners stood in silent disbelief. They looked at the corpse before then, amazed that the same person who had oppressed them, made them work like slaves, and forbid them from ever mingling with humans could have written such words. Most believed it to be a hoax, but some, such as Arthur, readily accepted it.

“Incredible!” he breathed, “This makes me want to find the rest even more!”

“Well, said, Arthur!” said the crowned princess, smiling at him like one might smile at a young child, “Let’s all share his enthusiasm and gather the second chapter!”

Arthur heard his twin sister’s aggravated sigh, which cut into his heart like a hot knife. He had no idea why she hated him so much, seeing as she was one of the most important people in his life. Perhaps she hated him because he readily accepted all of the responsibilities she despised, or perhaps it was because he didn’t try to act tuff like the other vampire men who bragged constantly about how many humans they killed.

Arthur had never fit in with the other males of the castle, but, for some reason, all of the castle women adored him. They invited him to eat with them, to play cards with them, to go to parties with them…they even confided some of their darkest secrets in him! He prided himself in being able to keep quiet, but so many vampiresses pressed him for juicy gossip that he began to tell small little stories, that, to him, seemed to mean nothing. They were always trivial things like who mistakenly wore yellow to afternoon blood, but to the castle women, it was scandal. On top of that, he never looked at or talked to them in any lewd way whatsoever, so they always felt comfortable around him. The only vampiress who was not practically in love with him was the one that he loved the most-his sister, Luna. When they were little, the two of them were inseperable. At night, they would devise schemes to escape lessons or play pranks on their teachers, enduring their scolding and punishments as bravely as lions, knowing that at least they were going down together. At day time, they would imagine escape routes and dream of a better future. But, as the years went by, Luna began to grow away from him, like a branch splitting apart at its end, to the point where he sometimes wondered if he even knew her anymore.

Wanting to take his mind off of his family problems, he started gathering up as many pages as he could. He would then turn the pages in to the princess, whose kind smile and gentle words always filled his heart with pride and relief. After a while, he decided to take a break and read the pages that he held in his hands.

I felt a sharp tug at the bottom of my pants leg and fell forward, reaching my hand out for the door. My hand fell upon the door knob as the weight of my body turned it. I kicked the hand away and, doing my best to ignore the sobs and screams of the prisoners in the cage below me, shoved the door open and raced inside. I panted, standing still as a statue as I laid eyes upon Vanessa-weak, starving, beaten, and in the grasp of him. Anselm. My heart skipped a beat.

“Anselm!” I said weakly, “Wh-What are you doing here?”

“I’m here because Vanessa was my best pupil,” he said in his rich, masculine voice, “I can not abandon her when she is in danger, even if she is a prisoner.”

I let out a sigh, which was either of relief, or admiration, or both.

“Well, I’ll call for Renfield,” I said, smiling like a dolt, “Oh! You don’t know Renfield do you? He’s my bat servant!”

You idiot! I remember thinking, This is not the time to be blushing and flirting! Vanessa is in DANGER!!

“Oh?” Anselm said, the moonbeams illuminating his fiery red hair, “We seem to have a misunderstanding.”

My heart sank sickeningly into my stomach as I heard the cocking of a gun.

“My pupil is in very grave danger, and I’m looking right at her.”

[arrucard]

((>.>; Now thats awesome ^^ I can't wait for the next one ^^!! So engaging and some other words that sound sophisticated that I don't the meaning of.. but yes I can't wait for the next one! I DEMAND MOAAARRR +w+ ))

[anasa]

lol. That's the reaction that my friend Jamie had when I showed her the story a while back. She pretended to strangle me and demanded that I write more.

[anasa]

My favorite part of this part is the vampire's "afternoon blood".

[arrucard]

((heheheh +w+))

[Lan]

I just can't read the whole thing. This is one of those stories where you have to read every word. I find myself skipping like one sentence then going, "Hey, who the heck is this, or, how did this happen?"