Chapter 1 - The Battle of Blood and Blessings

“Ah… finally…”

Finally, After three years of suffering and isolation. I can finally see the moon, the oh-so-beautiful red moon.

It's one o'clock in the morning, and here I am… walking down the street in this desolate neighborhood in the outskirts of Paris, with blood on my clothes and under my fingernails.

“Is this what it means to be free?” I ask myself, as I follow the old Parisian streetlights, not knowing where they will take me.

After a couple of minutes of walking, I stop to look at the dark sky and take a moment to appreciate my newfound freedom, also making me remember the days I didn't know what freedom was.

I didn’t remember who my parents were, nor did I remember who I was. The earliest memory I have is from around three years ago, when I was twelve years old, I think.

I woke up in a cold, somber room, with only a bed and a desk in it, the desk was decorated with a dim light and some old books. I was confused, and scared. I felt as if I had just been born, although I knew that wasn’t that wasn’t the case. My body was too developed, my muscle memory was too advanced, and I could perfectly read the title of the books on the desk. I had lost my memories.

Before I even had the chance to investigate the room, the man who would soon ruin my life opened the door and let himself in. “Good morning, Blanche! Did you sleep well?” The nasal voice said.

‘Blanche? Is that my name?’ I thought.

The slender, grey-haired man, who was wearing a white lab coat and cinder goggles, approached me.

Intimidated by the creepy-looking man approaching me, I crawled further away from him and asked, “W-who are you?”

The man suddenly stopped approaching me and put his hand behind his head. His expression looked puzzled, as if he was thinking something among the lines of, ‘oops, I forgot about that.’

“I am Benedict Aubert, dear Blanche. And I am a scientist- no researcher, or was it lab rat?” The man scratched his head with both of his hands out of frustration, “Aargh, whatever. I’m Benedict, and I do experiments.” The man continued.

“You do… experiments?” I asked the man.

“Yeah, that’s right. I do experiments, so I'm an experimenter!” The man answered.

‘What is he going to do to me? How did I get here? Why do I not remember anything prior to today? Who am I?’ My mind raced.

“Blanche, did you know? Here in France, many believe vampires to have gone extinct during a war about 200 years ago in the late 17th century.” Benedict said.

Why did he suddenly start talking about vampires, or about a war that happened about 200 years ago?

“Vampires have always been less numerous than humans, however their power and their unfathomable life spans made up for their small numbers. But one day, near the end of the 17th century, newborn humans began to receive a plethora of powerful abilities, which they eventually started referring to as "blessings," was this a message from God to humanity, telling them to fight back? Nobody knows... but humanity knew that with those blessings, and their numbers, they could finally overpower the vampires, resulting in a war won by humanity. This historical event is known as 'The Battle of Blood and Blessings'. Benedict explained, as he took a scalpel out of the front pocket of his lab coat and proceeded to fidget with it.

His story caught my attention and made me curious about, “Blessings?” I asked.

As if he was waiting for me to ask that, he quickly responded, “Everyone in this world has been gifted a blessing, a blessing is a unique ability you receive when you're born. Some people have useful blessings, such as enhanced physical strength, superspeed, or even telepathy. While others... have rather useless blessings, such as the ability to grow hair 10% more quickly than the average person. You however, you don’t have a blessing,” He explained.

“I-I don’t have a blessings?” I answered, with Benedict once again predicting what I was going to say, he quickly answered me once more, “Correct, you’re blessing-less, do you know why that is?” He responded.

Without anything coming to mind. I said, “No,” to give Benedict the opportunity to tell me.

He suddenly got an evil smile on his face, “Well, dear Blanche. That is because you’re a vampire,” he told me.

Me? A vampire? “What do you mean?” I asked in disbelief.

“Don’t worry, I won't tell anybody about your existence, you're mine after all," he said, turning his evil smile to a devilish one.

I’m his? What is this guy talking about?

“MUAHAHAHAH,” he started laughing hysterically, “everyone kept calling me crazy, telling me to stop worrying about vampires. BUT HERE YOU ARE! A VAMPIRE, ALIVE AND WELL!” He said, before continuing his hysterical laughter.

Am I going to die? This man, he’s bad news! I have to get out of here!

“I'm sure that more vampires will appear, and they’ll start another war when they do!” Benedict told himself, looking frightened of his own imagination.

“You're going to help me learn everything there is to know about vampires, so I can find a way to kill every last one of them. So that this time, they'll be gone forever!" He continued with a scary voice, as he moved the scalpel he kept fidgeting with towards my throat.

After a moment of intense eye contact, he pulled the scalped away again and returned it to his lab coat’s pocket.

"I'm going to let you rest for today, tomorrow we'll start experimenting," He said, as he left me in the cold room, all alone.

For the next three years, he used me as his lab rat for his twisted experiments.

Testing how much pain I could take, what I was resistant to, he even tested my IQ to see if vampires were smart enough to strategize against humanity. (which we obviously were).

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Some days he fed me normal food, on other days he made me drink blood, he noticed that blood helped me heal my wounds and get rid of fatigue. So he then decided to see if I was reliant on food and/or blood, so he proceeded to not feed me anything for next 7 months, until my body finally gave out and I entered a critical condition. He found out vampires have to drink a minimum of 50 centiliters of blood at least once every 12 months in order to stay alive. The reason why 7 months was my limit was because of the bad living conditions Benedict put me in.

The older I became, the more brutal his experiments got, like ripping off my nails to see how long they took to grow back, breaking my arm to see how long it took to fix and stabbing my thigh to see how long it took to heal.

During the times I wasn't being experimented on, I would either sleep or read books, books were the one and only light to my life, allowing me to feel like I was in another world. There was this one book book called 'Henosis' from Jean Lenoir, the book was about a weak protagonist who had to overcome various hurdles, as he progressively got stronger and became one of the king's royal knights, this was the book that motivated me to change my life.

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“Hey kiddo, are you alright?” An old voice says, disturbing my deep thoughts.

Huh, who’s there?

Oh it's one of the neighbors, Damn.

Those fucking neighbors. They were all aware of it, They all heard me cry for help all the time, I’m sure they did! But... they probably only saw me as a minor inconvenience that disturbed their quiet neighborhood.

“Yeah, I’m feeling better than ever,” I answer the old man.

I truly am feeling better than ever; because this is the first time in three years , maybe even fifteen years, that I've got a taste of freedom.

“What are you doing outside at this hour?” the elderly neighbor asks.

I can’t let him find out what happened, because that’ll be the end of my newfound freedom…

I quickly make up a lie, “I- I just needed some fresh air, so I decided to take a short walk.”

“Ooh, I see. Would you mind if I join you?” the old man asks, no- he’s not asking, 'I’m gonna make sure you actually go back home,' is what he meant.

“N-no not at all, please do!” Tsk… why are people already trying to rob me of my freedom.

“There's a place I'd like to go before I go back home, the moon looks beautiful tonight so I’d like to look at it a from a better place, Is that okay for you?" I ask.

“Ho-ho, the moon really does look beautiful tonight. Alright, let’s go,” he answers, after he turns his gaze to the moon, which is hidden behind a tree.

After a bit of walking and some pretentious small talk with the old man, we arrive at a more isolated area, an area with a perfect view on the full moon, an area where no one will find us.

“I’m sorry old man, but I really can’t have you take away my freedom just yet,” I tell the old man, as I look upon the moon.

“What do you mea-“

“I just killed Benedict, I finally killed that crazy son of a bitch, he's finally dead!” I interrupt him, as I turn my gaze to the old man.

The mans expression turns to that of a terrified child, "Y-your eyes... They're red!" He stutters.

“Do you have any fucking idea what I've been through because of him?” I say, as I leap towards him and insert my already bloody nails in his left eye.

"AA-AAAAH!" The man agonizingly screams.

"For be it my eyes, or be it your blood. Red will be the last color you'll ever see," I say, before I push my finger even deeper inside of his eye, so deep so that I can feel his brains.

“Y-you demon…“ The old man let out with his final breath.

“Me? A demon? If anything, you guys are the demons! Allowing a child to get tortured, day after day… for three years! Calling me a demon just because I’m different from you guys, how is that fair…” I lament to my now dead neighbor, under the oh-so-beautiful red moon, with my hand covered in his blood.

“Blood…” Benedict often made me drink blood to test what effects it'd have on me, but I’ve never sucked blood directly from a human before… “N-no, I mustn’t, this isn't like me!” I tell myself.

I have to hide the body before anybody finds it and calls the police.

“There, I’ll hide it in that bush,” I lift up the man’s corpse and drag him towards the bush I just spotted.

“This should give me some time to leave this neighborhood before the body gets found.”

Just as I’m about to walk away from the place where I just murdered a man, I hear a voice behind me “Hey you! Yes you, are you a vampire?”

Crap! Did he see me kill the old man? What do I do?

“Don’t worry, I’m not your enemy,” the voice says, after seeing me panic.

I turn around and see a face I’ve never seen before, an above-average looking man, a really tall man with platinum blonde hair stands before me.

“W-who are you?” I ask the stranger.

“Like I said, not your enemy,” The stranger answers.

He doesn’t look scared despite just having witnessed me murder a man.

Just who is this man?

“But damn… Vampires really do exist, I knew it!” The man adds, with glittering eyes looking like those of a kid who just got a new toy to play with.

“W-what makes you think I'm a vampire?” I attempt to bullshit my way out.

“I just saw you pierce someone's eye with your finger, and the way you looked at that blood… It’s obvious, you’re a vampire!” The man says as he points to his left eye, imitating the old man I just brutally murdered.

I don’t want people to find out about my true nature, what’ll happen if the world finds out about me? Will I be experimented on again? Or will I just be killed this time?

It’s too risky… This man, he’s a problem. I have to kill him!

“Woah there calm down kid. I know what you’re thinking but killing me won't do you any good. Also, I’m not your enemy, remember?” The man continues, as he uses his hands to express himself, gesturing me to calm down.

“Why should I believe you?” I ask.

He doesn’t even know me, what is he thinking, talking about not being my enemy?

“Hmm… say, do you like reading?” He asks me.

Huh? Reading? Does he not realize the situation he’s in? I’m about to kill him and he’s asking me if I like to read?

“Aah, come on just answer me.” The man adds after noticing my frustration.

“I- I do.” It's embarrassing, talking about this with the person I’m trying to intimidate…

“Then you must have heard of Jean Lenoir, right?” He asks, in an annoyingly proud tone.

Jean Lenoir? That famous author? “I have, what about him?” Of course I know Jean Lenoir, he is the reason I was able to keep my sanity for the last three years!

“Ha-ha! Nice to meet you! What’s that? Oh you want my autograph? Sure, no problem! Did you bring a pen?” He boasts proudly, placing his hands on his hips and lifting his chin up.

"Heh?" I let out. He's the same Jean Lenoir that kept me sane? This guy? B-but, he's so annoying!

“Are you really Jean Lenoir?” I ask, not believing my eyes.

“Correct!” He answers with a smirk on his face.

“…” I can’t tell him, that’s… too embarrassing!

“You see... I’m actually working on a new book…” Jean switches topics, as he repeatedly taps the tips of his two index fingers together.

“So?” I respond, why is did he start acting shy so suddenly though? It’s making me feel uncomfortable…

“And you see... it’s actually about vampires,” he answers, while still tapping the tips of his index fingers together.

“GOD, JUST GET TO THE POINT ALEADY!” I let out as I finally lose patience.

“If you don’t have a place to stay, come live with me! All I need in return is for you to teach me more about vampires!” Jean offers, as he finally stops the awkward finger-tapping.

“You're asking me, to come live with you?” Is this guy serious? He’s offering a vampire to live with him? Did he forget that I was trying to kill him just a few minutes ago?

“Yeah, you don’t have anywhere else you can go, right?” Jean says.

“I- uh... No, how did you know?” I regrettably admit.

“Well, you killed whoever you were living with, right? Meaning you can’t go back there now,” He explains.

“You heard that?”

“Hehe” Jean smirks.

“I know I can’t go back there, not like I'd want to do that anyway.” I say, softly.

“Well, then you should accept my offer and come live with me, I have enough money to cover for someone living with me, all I need you to do Is teach me about vampires so I can write the best vampire-themed book ever!” Jean explains ambitiously, while coming closer to me.

“So whaddya say?” He adds playfully, As he puts his hand on my shoulder.

"Will I be able to live a normal life, living with you?" I ask. Because that's all I want, to live a normal life. Just that is more than enough for me.

"A normal life? No chance. But I can guarantee you It'll be fun!" Jean promises.

It'll be fun? It's either that or having nowhere to go, so the answer is obvious.

“I’ll take you up on that offer then, I guess.” I answer, knowing I have nothing left to lose.

"Then from now on, I will be your guardian!" Jean says excitingly.

I look at him as I can finally relax and drop my guard.

"Oh- your eyes changed colors! So dark grey is the color your eyes really are hmm," he adds, already trying to learn more about me.