John is crumpled on the artificially warm, wet grass, limbs broken and contorted in ways not meant, unable to draw breath. He hopes his newly restored mind is not damaged from lack of air. He sends vital essence throughout his body to start healing his many wounds. Healing this way is not fast, and he will be without air for a long time.
Something grows around, under, and over John, and his eyes widen in surprise at seeing such magic. He is now in a stone room, facing a giant door. No windows are in this room, not that he can see from his limited view. Unable to explain why, John feels the room is an antechamber, and the door he is facing doesn’t lead back out to the field he was just in.
Healing, and not John’s own, rushes through his body and he immediately starts to feel some relief. He is happy to have it, but wonders where it came from.
The room isn’t large, and John can’t see the ground or bottom parts of the walls or behind himself, but he knows he isn’t alone. He hears the slow heartbeat of another, and smells the man’s scent too.
Being so damaged and injured, John knows his own healing would take a very long time to heal him back to whole. He hopes the outside healing works faster. He worries greatly for his newly restored mind. John is of a belief that damage to his brain, at the very least, causes it to degrade faster.
John has always been fascinated by fire, and looking at it has always calmed his mind, so he stares at one of the many torches along the wall. Lost in the fire, some time goes by, and he is surprised to feel more healing enter his body. Outside healing, not from himself again.
Then John’s body is turned over, and he is laid on his back, and his head is righted, and neck made straight. He neither sees nor senses what does it, but it was done. He felt hands upon him, though he couldn’t see them. The other heartbeat never left where he still hears it. Next, his arms and legs are straightened out, painfully so, by the unseen force.
John is now in a position much more conductive for healing.
After a moment, John hears the heartbeat near him beat faster, then slow again. He also hears some shuffling and movement for a while.
Having nothing else to do while waiting, John just stares at the flame of a torch. When he is finally able to draw breath, he does so, much to his relief. This new healing is much quicker than my own, he thinks. Though his body and many bones are still unhealed, he feels much better being able to breathe. Every breath causes pain, but it is nothing compared to how the rest of his body feels. Once his need for air is satisfied, he loudly says, “Hello. Who is there?”
John receives no response back. He spends some time thinking of all the queerness that has recently happened, and of the strange conversations and events he witnessed. He is certain he knows what is happening and why.
John hears the man near him draw breath. Soon after the man says, “Hello. Who are you? You speak Japanese?”
The stranger is speaking in an overly masculine way. John thinks the man is using a deeper voice than is natural or usual. Maybe to sound tougher and more intimidating?
John does not like being at the mercy of others, or having others around him he does not trust while he heals and can’t defend himself. He decides to be friendly and well-mannered. There is no reason not to be, he believes. He wishes he could see the man he speaks with. “Hello, friend. I go by John now. I could be speaking Japanese. I’m unsure of the name of the language I speak.”
The man says, “You don’t know what language you speak? How not? And I said Japanese, not Japanese.”
“Languages come and go and change. I had a lot of issues with my mind before…all this. But now I’m healed of what ailed me, and renewed. What do you mean by Japanese, not Japanese?”
Annoyedly, the man replies, “No. Japanese, not Japanese.”
John thinks the man might be insane, but asks again. “Yes. What does it mean? Japanese, not Japanese.”
More annoyedly, the man’s voice raises. “No! Japanese, not Japanese. Japanese, not Japanese!”
John doesn’t understand what the insane man is trying to communicate, so decides to move past it. “I didn’t get your name. And if it was you, thank you for providing healing. And for the correction of my body and how it rests.”
A long moment passes before the man replies, “I didn’t heal you or move you. The same was done to me. Someone else is in here with us. I can’t sense them at all. Those things, the ascended, said three yet live. Me, you, and someone else.”
John smiles, “Well, I thank this other person I cannot see then. And you, friend, your name?
The man grunts. “I’ve had many. Which do you want? Of late, the mewling weaklings that kept me cooped up called me Hateshinai. I prefer something less pompous. How about Munashi. As good a name as any, and more accurate.”
“Munashi it is then. How queer is the situation we find ourselves in? Ha!”
The man also laughs along with John, “I would use a stronger word than odd.”
“I did. I said queer. Very queer.”
The man laughs again. “Stronger than very odd. A lot stronger.”
A very feminine, very high voice, whispers softly in John’s ear, “Don’t react. You are speaking English. He is speaking Japanese. Your words are being translated. Probably with the NCS thing. The Nana Control System. He isn’t speaking just modern Japanese either, he’s speaking an old version only nobility spoke mixed with modern. He didn’t ask if you speak Japanese. He asked if you spoke civilized. I don’t believe he has good intentions towards you. He feels…hazardous. I can’t explain it better. I wish I hadn't helped him now. Be careful.”
John takes a moment to reflect on what the feminine voice just told him. He thinks of a test for certainty, and to buy time to think over what he was told. “Queer means odd, but in a curious way you want to find out more about. Strange means odd in an indifferent, only notable sort of way. Weird means odd in a way you do not want to investigate, and want to remove yourself from the source of.”
The feminine voice whispers softly in his ear again, “None of that is true. Who told you that? Are those pajamas? Is that silk? Wow, they look super comfy.”
Munashi replies, “I…I’m unsure of what you are saying.”
John says, as if he figured it out on his own, “We speak different languages. Our words are being translated, and not completely accurately. Now tell me, Munashi, what do you think is happening to us?”
A very long moment passes before Munashi says, “What do you think is happening?”
John replies very authoritatively. “As my people predicted long ago would happen if the Underworld was flooded with the souls of the weak and cowardly, the mighty Koram has finally lost the eternal battle. Demons have escaped the Underworld, and now overrun our own.
“Honestly, I lost faith in this belief long ago, but I am certain of the truth of it now. It explains everything. I even heard the demons talk about demons. Dark ones? They are very strong, and their souls are brighter than any man’s. This is a dark day, but I will fight back. All hope is not lost.”
Munashi laughs long and hard before replying, “Oh! Don’t make me laugh so! Not until I am more healed. Good man, I haven’t laughed like that in a long while. John, tell me, you said they had bright souls. You see souls?”
John hesitates but a moment before stating, “I do. And if my nose is right, I think you do too, and all that comes with it. I’ve had the power for a long time. And you?”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
John is curious why Munashi’s heart beats faster for a moment. “I haven’t heard it called that. The power. I think I know of you. Tell me, do you perhaps know others of our kind named Thomas and Maria?”
“Yes, brother! Thomas, I do know. He is a stout and true companion, and though I burdened him greatly, he stuck with me through very bad times.”
Munashi’s voice softens. “Honored elder, please accept my apologies for my poor manners earlier. I did not know who you were then, and I’m not used to being deferential.”
John smiles. “Think nothing of it, Munashi. I didn’t even notice. But now, tell me of Thomas. My mind has been clouded for a long time, and I owe him much. My memory is newly restored. I think I smelled him in the field with the demons. I hope I am wrong, and he still lives.”
Munashi clears his throat. “I’m sorry to say, unless he is the unseen entity in this room with us, he is dead. Along with Maria and all our kind I know of, besides you and me. They were all with us when we were crushed by that invisible weight. You did smell him out there. What of Maria? You must know her too.”
This news saddens John, but he has had a long time to get used to sadness and loss. His main regret is he is not able to pay Thomas back for his kind deeds and loyalty. “Who is Maria?”
“She helped take care of you. She is new, turned about a century ago.”
Confused, John asks, “Turned?”
“What you called the power. We all call it being turned. Like how you make hoppers. Do the rite. You turned Thomas, correct? He turned Maria.”
John understands. “By hoppers you mean what happens when we try to give the power to people without the red? I’ve always called them the mindless, but they do hop around. How did you know Thomas?”
Munashi says, “He’s done a lot for our kind. I can’t believe he never took the dregs. Maria was the same way. I know they both worked with the Catholic Church. Thomas had for a long while. He made a website where we all could talk. All the vampires of the world. Hidden right in a website for fake vampires. On a sub-forum for people claiming they were something called psychic-vampires, and could feed on people with their minds or some idiocy. Japan had some of these fools. Only until I found them. They were delicious. Ha!”
So many finding each other sounds wonderful to John, even if the rest of what Munashi said makes no sense to him. He says, “You knew more of our kind? How did you find each other?”
John hears movement and worries Munashi may get his mobility back before himself. Munashi says, “Honored elder, what is the last thing you remember?”
John thinks back, “My memory has been bad for a long, long time. The last time I remember being completely lucid for a long period was fighting with Charles the Hammer. What a king he was!
“I have many memories after with long gaps between them. Then just snippets. The most recent? There was a great war. They called it a great world war, and there was another soon after the first. I took a bullet in the head in the second one. A large bullet. I have nothing after that, and little enough before. I remember being a burden, but what was the alternative? Anything is better than the cold-dark.”
Munashi grunts. “I agree, honored elder. Anything is better. But we don’t have to worry about that now. They said so. It sounds like World War Two is where you took the bullet. Much has changed since then. Technology. It undid my country. Unmanned it. The greatest warrior society the world has ever known, now there’s hardly any men left in it.
“The same is true throughout the world now. The world went mad. Complete shit. Cowards and slow turtles run everything. With their filthy technology. But it helped us find each other.
“How Thomas found us all? I’m guessing technology. Like how the detectives on television shows solve crime. I never asked specifics.
“Six of us were found quickly, twenty years later one more was found. Can’t find reds with technology. We have to see them with our own eyes. We even have something of a genealogy. The one who turned you, Yan, we think also turned my master. I’m the oldest besides you. Over nine centuries.
“Thomas was over six hundred. Bodhi wouldn’t tell us his age, but Omar was turned by him almost four hundred years ago, and Omar is almost as strong and fast as Bodhi, so Bodhi can’t be older than Thomas. Maria, about a hundred. Another in Africa. Another woman. She wasn’t friendly, so we don’t know much about her. She was the last one Thomas found.”
Munashi sighs loudly before continuing, “All of us were outside. I smelled all the ones I’ve met. I was in the back row, and also saw an African woman, so that would be seven.
“I only had a short glimpse between awakening and being crushed, but there was a tree creature right behind you – a very strange sight I would love to have studied more. I glimpsed something else but couldn’t be certain of what. The tree creature turned into some sludge, and the others of our kind disintegrated to nothing more than bones and ash. I could only see your back and no one else after the great voice spoke. Obviously, our spirit companion lived, though I could not see him then or now, nor smell him, nor see his soul. Which makes sense if he is a spirit.”
A whisper in John’s ear says, “I’m not. Not really. A spirit, I mean. I’m definitely not a he.”
That was a lot for John to take in. Web-sightings and cowards running everything. The part regarding the cold-dark made absolutely no sense to John, and he wants to ask about it.
While John is pondering what he has been told and forming a reply, Munashi asks, “Honored elder, just how old are you? Thomas said you’re as old as the Roman Empire. He thinks twenty-three hundred years. He’s wrong though, isn’t he? You can’t be that old.”
John pulls himself from his pondering, collects his thoughts, and replies. “As I stated earlier, my mind was a good way towards gone by the time I met Thomas. I’m not sure what I said to make him believe that. The Roman Empire was around for a bit by the time I moved there, but even the city of Rome is not old to me. My mind was deteriorating even then.
“In my earlier days we were open about what we are and worshiped for it as gods. The man who offered me the power, his name was Ahn, not Yan. We ruled the area I was born to for a long while before moving south and east. Even swords weren’t around back then. Not for a while. Not until the rise of Agade.
“The first really big city I saw was Gubla. You could fit at least three of the whole kingdom I was born in within that city’s walls, and it overflowed with people. Do you know the city? It was still around the last time I remember being in that area. Kayhamut called it Kebny, and Athens called it Býblos.”
Softly, Munashi says, “No, honored elder, but I never studied geography all that much.”
John continues. “We ruled many places at many times. Then Ahn never came back, and I waited a long, long time. Then I went looking for him and traveled all over. I finally found my Lilitu, and we traveled to the queerest places together. I loved her so, but it was too much. She’s in the cold-dark now, and it breaks my heart.
“Nearer my Lilitu’s end is when we had to start hiding what we are. Old women prattling on with their nonsense. Rome came much later. Things moved fast after that. Cannons. Thomas. Firearms. Faster and faster. I saw metal machines flying in the sky. Great explosions that could kill me outright. The bullet that hit my head – one man was firing the machine loosing those bullets, and so many came at me. And…”
John stops suddenly, as he was getting worked up. Whenever feeling strong emotion his belief has long been it is best to stop, and collect himself, and regain control.
The room is silent for a long spell. The silence is broken by the feminine voice whispering once again in John’s ear, “So, vampires are real? That’s crazy! There aren’t any stories about me. Not really. Not any close to being accurate, at least. A lot of stories about bits of me though. Maybe even more than vampires, but they’re all wrong. Like, one has me with green eyes. Everyone knows my eyes are amber. That story puts me in a green dress, so maybe that’s why they said my eyes are green.
“Oh, you were in the sun so that doesn’t kill you. Stake in the heart? Can you see your reflection in a mirror? Can you change into a wolf and a bat? Oh, a cloud of mist too? Do crucifixes and garlic and holy water hurt you? And fly? Please say you can fly!”
The voice’s excitement cheers John out of his sour mood, and he says, “No, no, the sun does weaken us, and can calcify our skin, but that is easy to avoid. A few moments of shade, or smart clothing, and problem solved.
“My heart has been damaged many times, but I’ve never had a stake through it. I try to avoid being injured as best I can. No to the rest, though I wish I could fly and turn into a wolf or a bat or…what did you say? A cloud of mist? No.
“Strong scents and tastes, like garlic and horseradish and some peppers, are overwhelming to my senses so I avoid them, but they aren’t harmful to me. We don’t drink blood either. Or not all that much. You always get a good stomach full, but only those new to the power have a hard time removing life essence and take too much blood in.”
Munashi says, “Honored elder, I don’t want to sound ill mannered, but I know all that. Why tell me? I told you I was nine centuries on this world.”
John laughs, “My apologies, brother. I was talking to our other companion. I hope we can all be friends. Why don’t we…”
Munashi interrupts. “You told a stranger, not of our kind, our weaknesses? Elder, why?”
This question cuts John deep, as he knows being so trusting of a stranger is not smart. He does not fully trust Munashi even. But this stranger has helped them both, and healed them too.
When John was young he was trusting, and life eventually taught him not to be so. He knows he learned to be far more secretive, and cunning, and devious, but he never liked it, and his refreshed mind is much more like it was when he was first given the power than how it was trained to be over his long life.
As he thinks of a suitable reply and apology, John is startled by words suddenly appearing in his eyes. Words In a script he has never seen the likes of, but fully understands. The script is somehow both very simple and extremely complex all at once. The words he see say –
Welcome to the Tree of Life! You have 99* unread notifications.
You are in a Tribulation! Congratulations! Tribulation commences in 107:38 USACS minutes. To change time units to another system of measurement, such as universal standard (US), focus here.
This Tribulation will require you to [defeat all Dark Ones]. Failure to do so in the required time limit of [11 USACS Hours] will result in [death]. Enjoy!