The Beginning

“WAKE.”

A voice thundered inside of my head. My eyes snapped open in the darkness, and agony followed. I opened my mouth and the scream building up in my chest got trapped as it got to my throat. Pain ripped through me, I couldn’t see, I couldn’t think, all that existed was agony. I fought in that darkness, my chest pulsing in rhythmic pressure, separate from the pain. I breathed in, feeling the air surge through me and flare the agony around my neck. I focused on the pressure in my chest, the only sensation that I could feel aside from the pain.

Somehow, I pushed the pain into the background, enough that I could think again. I didn’t know what happened, the last thing I remembered was the yelling, bullets ripping through me, the fight in the warehouse. Then pain, darkness, my neck on fire, burning. Tentatively I reached up, brushing my neck with a tip of a finger. I nearly passed out from the agony, the wound was raw, open still and wet. It wasn’t closing, so there was only one thing that it could be—silver. I had a silver inflicted wound going around my neck. It was silver poisoning, it was messing with my head.

I focused and pushed the pain away, feeling the dirt beneath my fingers. I was alive, and the silver was no longer present, I would’ve been dead already if it were. As clarity returned, I could take in my surrounding again. It was night, of course, for which I was thankful. I did not have the desire to burn to ash. In the corner of my eyes, I saw something, a black shape. I turned, wincing at the pain, but it was gone in the span of a blink. I was probably just seeing things.

I pushed myself off the ground, grunting from the effort as I got on my knees. I felt shaky, healing the silver wound had drained me. I took quick breaths, trying to find my center just as my sire taught me. The pain was in my head, it had no rule over me like it did a human. I settled my mind and focused on my breathing and the knowledge that pain was nothing but a warning. It did not take long for it to start to fade. A vampire’s control over their own body was absolute, though mine was not quite there yet, I was still a Fledgling. Assuming of course that they had mastered their thirst.

As the pain faded, other sensations washed over me. The scents were the first, things that I had never smelled before—alien in all the sense of that word. A touch of a scent that reminded me of fresh baked pastries was strung through the myriad of scents that almost made me want to sneeze. I blinked my eyes and saw that I was in a forest, or at least something that resembled one. Tall and wide trees surrounded me, lush canopy spread above me obscuring the sky, vines curled around the branches dangled everywhere. In the near absolute darkness, my eyes struggled to adapt. But I did notice the strangeness that I couldn’t quite explain. It did not look like any place I had ever seen before. It was not the Amazon, not the jungle of my home that I knew so well.

The leaves were shaped wrong, more elongated and thicker. Some plants grew out of the ground like giant strands of grass, others looked like mushrooms, growing out of the ground or on the bark of the trees.

Then before I could take in more than a surface look, my mind registered the sounds. The crackling of wood, the sway of leaves under the wind, and the sounds that I could not recognize, and mingled with them was a soft, barely perceivable… breath. I paused. A breath? How did it get so close to me? There was no time to wonder. It moved, quickly and with purpose that I recognized. I jumped forward, my legs carrying me as fast as the body of a young vampire could muster.

I hit a tree and cracked its bark, as something pounced behind me. I turned and bent my knees, staring at it with intent, then I froze. It was an animal, one that I had never seen before. It was staring at me with small round eyes that reflected orange light. Its skin was blue with stripes of purple. I could see the muscles moving beneath the smooth skin as it lowered its long sinuous neck down and tilted its head to look at me from a different angle. It had… fins? No, some kind of growths all along its spine and along its body down to the end of its tail. It stalked like a true predator, and looked like a cross between a big cat and a lizard. The animal was the size of a grown jaguar, larger perhaps. Its lips trembled, peeling back over sharp and long teeth, its tongue lashed around behind the cage of its fangs.

It hissed in my direction, the tone low and piercing. I saw its claws rise then come down to bite into the ground, parting the dirt as if it was made out of soft clay. It looked at me as if I was prey, as if I was inconveniencing it by being difficult. Those orange eyes glared at me and already thought about what I would taste like. That made me angry, I felt the thirst squirm inside of me, I was reminded of the pain around my neck and felt… hungry.

This hijueputa thought to ambush me? I snarled at it without consciously meaning to, baring my fangs in a primal and instinctual gesture. The thirst was rising, my control of it was slipping. My nails bit into my palms as I fought the thirst, then realized that at best I could point it in the right direction and ride the wave. The silver poisoning was messing with my control. I got lower to the ground and it bent its knees in response.

I knew what that meant, it was preparing to pounce. I moved before it did—not by much. It was fast, faster than any animal on Earth should be. It was as fast as I was, and I was a vampire. Only a shifter or an older vampire should be able to move that fast. I dashed by its side, felt the air on my neck from its swipe.

Its claws stabbed into the bark of the tree where I had stood a moment before, then ripped it apart. Before I could react, it pushed off the tree and came straight at me. I stepped back, but wasn’t fast enough, one of its claws caught me across the chest. It ripped my shirt and sliced straight through my right breast.

The fucking malparido, piece of shit. The thirst howled, pain lanced through me, and I endured, even though the anger made me want to lash out. Calm, I told myself, it was not a dangerous wound, it was not made with silver. I didn’t dare take my eyes off it, my jaw clenched so hard that I tasted blood on my tongue. It continued its assault as soon as it landed. I dodged its clawed swipe by rolling to the side. I could see the fucker’s muscles buckling, tensing, and I anticipated its movement. It was slightly faster than me, but I was still a vampire. And though weakened, wounded, and tired, a vampire was always on the top of the food chain. I evaded its attack by a hairbreadth.

I waited for my chance, and as we trampled the bushes that cracked like dry twigs and smashed through roots, I got it. The animal landed on an exposed root, the dark wood weathered and cracked in places. I grinned as it gave out and splintered under its weight, as it made the beast stumble forward. I dashed at it. It lashed out with its head, and I avoided its jaw snap close as it tried to catch me, then I slashed with my hand. My nails weren’t quite claws, but they were tough and sharp. I gouged five lines across its side, parting the smooth but thin skin. Blue life fluid flowed freely, trailing from the shallow wounds I opened up. I grinned at the sensation of drawing blood, I loved this, the feeling of power that being a vampire gave me. But I also realized that an attack like that would’ve carved open a much deeper wounds on anything else. The animal's skin was strangely tough.

The scent of it hit me like a train in the face. So unlike any blood I had ever smelled before, and yet still indubitably blood. I stopped for a moment, the aroma of blood making me remember just how hungry I was. The thirst rose like a starving hound, it had no other thought in it but to consume. My stomach rumbled and saliva filled my mouth, my incisors ached. Vampires could drink animal blood, it just didn’t have all the nutrients that we needed, but it could get us by. For a moment I felt the thirst react in a way I had never felt it react to animal blood. The gaping maw at the center of my stomach was back, the need to drink all the blood I could get my hands on, a sensation that I had not felt since the early days of being turned.

I was young, but I had thought that I had conquered the urges. The blue blood called to me, and though it came from an animal, I needed it. My eyes locked on to the wound and the dripping blood with a single-minded purpose guided by the thirst. Which made me miss the animal’s retaliatory strike.

Its tail whipped around and slammed into my stomach, sending me flying through the air. I crashed through plants, branches, hit a tree trunk and ricocheted away, only to get stuck in some vines. I groaned, noticing my own blood dripping from my chest. The wound was already closing, but it was slow, far too slow—silver. I needed blood. The thirst burned, and I channeled it as much as I could.

I heard the animal growl as it was running after me, and I pulled on the vines, ripping them out with a growl of my own. I fell to the ground and landed on my feet. The animal jumped over a bush, its jaws and claws open wide. I rolled beneath it, raising my hand to cut its belly as it passed, tearing deep into its guts. I carved new lines across its stomach, and a drop of blood landed on my face. I blacked out for a moment, the images of blood and pleasure flashing through my mind. The animal crashed to the ground and snapped me out of my reverie. It whined as I turned and advanced on it. I rushed in, wishing I had a machete or at least a knife, but my strength and nails would have to do.

Before it could recover, I slashed across its side again in a wild attack. I felt my nails scrape against its ribs, opening new wounds, spilling its blood. Its tail lashed out, and I ducked beneath it this time. It spun on the ground and lashed out with a claw, I caught it with both hands, and then its head snapped out and bit my thigh. I screamed in pain as I felt its teeth gnaw on my bone. My vision went red, and I lashed out with my other leg. I kicked it in the throat, using all of my significant strength. I felt the throat give but didn’t hear the cartilage breaking. The animal did however let go of my thigh. I jumped back, landing on my good leg and glanced down, my pants had large holes in them and the wounds beneath were deep, torn flesh ripped muscle and so much red, my lifeblood was leaking out.

Analyze, pick the shortest path between you and victory. The words of my sire echoed in my head.

For a moment, the sane part of me had a thought that maybe I should run, even though that would disappoint my sire, but the deeper part of me that was the vampire felt the rush of the fight—and the thirst wouldn’t let me anyway. I was a predator, and I didn’t run from anything. I needed blood, now, one of us was dying soon. My vision was swimming with red. The animal got back to its feet, hacked and coughed a few times, all the while it kept its eyes on me. If only I had even a sharp stick, but I didn’t have the time to look for one. I just knew that if I took my eyes off it, it would pounce.

Or perhaps it would decide that it had enough, it was bleeding, and I had hurt it. I couldn’t go on for much longer, I was too tired and too drained. Blood moving through my veins was pulsing in my ears, I could feel my heart beating inside of my chest as if it were a drum, the strange pressure inside of it adding to my unease. If I didn’t get blood soon, the thirst would take over fully and then… then I would lose myself.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

I had to end this quickly. I was the one that charged this time. I took the animal by surprise; it probably didn’t expect that. I roared as I attacked, spittle flying from my mouth. It tried to dash away, but I managed to maul its backside. Its tail swiped, and I ducked and stepped to the side, hands rising at the same time to catch the tail. Then I pulled. It didn’t expect me to be so strong, it fell as I pulled it back, then I jumped on its back. I raised my hand and put my fingers together in a knifehand as my sire taught me. Then I stabbed into the animal’s side. I pushed through the skin, in between the ribs and inside its body. It roared, and its long neck swung around, its jaws open to swallow my head. I raised my other arm and pushed it deep into its mouth sideways as it tried to snap at me. It closed its jaw, but couldn’t quite bite down.

I locked myself around its torso with my legs, then I screamed in its face as I pulled my hand out and stabbed it back into the wound. Once, twice, again and again. I lost myself in the thirst and the beast's pain. It jumped around, trying to dislodge me, but my grip was firm. It smashed me against a tree and I felt a bone crack. With a roar, I stabbed my hand into its body again, then started grabbing things inside its body and pulling them out. A line of guts came out with my hand, ripped apart and trailing blood and viscera everywhere. My hand stabbed into it again, and I grabbed a rib, then pulled breaking it and ripping the skin as I tried to pull it out. It fell and the rib coated in blood slipped my grasp, it tried to roll and I pulled the arm that was in its throat to me, then I opened my mouth wide and bit its throat, fangs tearing through tough and leathery skin. Warm blood spilled into my mouth, on my tongue, down my throat.

Foreign taste, exotic, alien, but still blood, still… euphoric. I ripped its throat with my teeth, biting and pulling until I tore through the hollow inside. Then, after I felt it slow, did I allow myself to bite down deeply. I drank, and I drank, losing myself in the moment and the taste of this new blood as my thirst was sated. It refreshed me more than I thought was possible, more than any animal blood had before. And then the memories hit me, it came through the fog, as it always did. Vampires could get glimpses of the memories of the ones whose blood they were drinking, if it was still alive. The older the vampire the more they could experience. I was young, so the only thing I got was flashes, images, of the animal’s most recent memories.

I was jumping through the bushes, hunting a small prey. Alien scents assaulted my nostrils. I was climbing a tree. I heard a call from nearby. I walked down and saw another of my kind. It towered over me, its size enough that I could snuggle safely against its stomach. I ran through the jungle and smelled a new scent. I investigated and…

The memories ended with the fuzzy images of our battle. I pulled my hand out of the animal’s body and then dislodged my other arm before standing up beside the corpse. I looked down at the animal in disbelief. It was a… cub? And its mother was… My anger fled and suddenly I felt very afraid. I looked around at all the destruction that our battle had caused. I imagined all the noise that we had made. I listened and I heard the sounds of other animals, now with my senses back they were clear, but far, in the distance. And… foreign. I couldn’t recognize any of them. Just as I recognized nothing in the memories of the animal. I’d never heard about anything like it on Earth. I stood up and looked around, seeing just how strange the jungle around me was. The trees were too big, the leaves were shaped oddly, the ground was covered in plants that rose out of the ground shaped like tubes with tendrils spreading from the hollow tops. This wasn’t the Amazon.

My chest pulsed, the pressure inside made me fall to my knees and spasm. I slipped to the ground, and groaned. It wasn’t pain, not exactly, I just didn’t know what it was, I had never felt anything like it. I looked down, saw that the wounds on my breast and leg were healing, skin weaving itself back together, but raw still. It was fast, the blood I just drank filled me with power. More than I would expect from an animal, more than perhaps even human blood would’ve. But there was nothing on my chest where I felt the pressure, no visible wound. Was it because of my neck, the silver? I need to remember.

The pressure didn’t abate, instead it continued to pulse in rhythm, faster and faster. I put a hand over my chest and felt something inside of me reach out. Then I felt like I was spun around, my vision darkened and I felt like I was falling.

A moment later I hit the ground, but felt no pain on impact. I looked down and saw that my clothes were now whole. Though I still felt the pain of my wounds, I saw no sign of them. Confused, I raised my head and looked around. I was in an endless nothingness, a scape filled with gray mist that was familiar to me.

Suddenly, memories flashed through my mind. The meeting with the rival cartel, a gun leaned against the kid’s head, and then bullets, fangs and claws, roaring in my head, fighting and blood. I reached to my neck slowly as the memories came back to me. I remembered everything. I fought an Adult vampire and a wolf, I killed them. That shouldn’t have been possible. A Fledgling like me shouldn’t have been able to match an Adult vampire, much less a wolf at the same time.

I fell to the ground in this strange space, feeling the weight of all the memories.

I saw my sire look away as they brought the silver noose and put it around my head. Then there was only pain, and the light. It came from the sky, turning night into day. I remembered thinking that it was the sun, that I was going to burn. Yet I remembered only the agony and falling. Then I was here, in a place exactly like this, gray mist surrounding me and floating words in front of me just before I passed out.

It asked me to choose, and I lost consciousness. I raised my head feeling angry. They hanged me because I killed our enemies. All the years of service meant nothing. They abandoned me at the first moment I stumbled. The Master had said that I failed, but I—No, I didn’t fail. A girl was dead, another of our own. We should’ve fought them, made examples. Instead—

I shook my head and pushed the anger away, clearing my head. I was not in a place or situation to think about it. I looked up and at this strange place around me.

“Hello?” I called out, now feeling really afraid. Was I dead? Was the beast just a test before I got sent to hell? Hanged with silver, and left for the sun to burn. No vampire could survive that.

There was no response. I stood up and looked around, then took a step and the mist shuddered. A world started to form around me, coming into being out of the mist. First yellow floorboards, then green over them, then walls made out of wood. A square room five meters across. There were no windows, only a single source of light in the center of the ceiling, a half sphere that cast a gentle yellow light to illuminate the whole room. The ground in front of me rippled, and I jumped back. Three pedestals rose from it, the center one the height of my chest, and the two on its side were about hip high.

I took a step back as suddenly plaques appeared, one on each of them, then the plaque in the center started to glow and strange symbols etched themselves on it. Once the etchings were done, I felt a pressure inside of my head, and then the symbols changed, they shimmered and became words that I could understand.

I blinked, then took a step forward hesitantly, then another until I was standing close enough that I could read what the plaque said.

Choose your Mask

Thug (Physical)

— Violence is the cure —

Servant (Physical, Esoteric)

— To serve is a privilege —

Student (Weave)

— To learn is to grow —

Drainer (Weave, Esoteric)

— Take what they leave behind —

What. The. Actual. Fuck. I read it all again, then raised my head to look around the room, a sinking feeling coming over me. This was familiar, though it was insane. Pick a Mask?

Years ago, when I studied in the States, I got addicted to mobile games. I’ve spent half of my allowance in the predatory pit of that kind of entertainment. This was familiar to me. Woken up somewhere else, attacked by an animal I had never heard about, and now I had a choice before me. Yeah, I knew this premise. Except it was ludicrous. I was either dead or dreaming. Except vampires didn’t dream, and this felt too real.

There were no screens floating in the air, nor could I bring any kind of a status up. Though, there was a window before, unless my mind and memories were playing tricks with me. I leaned down and looked at the plaque in detail, it seemed like it was made out of gold, while the pedestal itself was gray stone, simple and seamless. The other two pedestals were the same, only shorter. I looked around the room.

It resembled the small house that was my sire’s home. The floor was green, grass woven around rice straw—tatami. This did look like a room made in the style of my sire’s homeland of Japan, or at least what it used to be before it sunk beneath the waves. The wooden walls around me had a cozy atmosphere that had always put me at ease.

My breath quickened as I saw no escape from the room. The pressure inside my chest came back, and I stumbled, I felt drawn to the pillar and the plaque. Tentatively, I approached it and read what it said again. What did Esoteric mean? What was Weave? Physical? I had some ideas.

This couldn’t be happening. The pressure pulsed again, and somehow I knew that I had to choose. My breath came faster now, I was hyperventilating, my neck burned, and my wounds ached. The thirst sensed my panic, I could feel the lock on the pain of the silver I had made slipping, I knew that only agony awaited me, so I reached out with my hand.

A Thug? It was what I had to do.

A Servant? Yes, serving was all that I knew.

A Student? Once, in another life, no more.

A Drainer? I didn’t know what it even meant.

There were no good choices, but I didn’t want any of those that represented what my life had been like until now. I didn’t know where I was, I didn’t even know what was happening, if it even was truly real. Just once, even if it was in a dream, I wanted to be more than what life had made me. I touched the words that were a mystery.

Immediately I felt the pressure in my chest abate, and something shift deep inside of me. The pillar shook, the words on the plaque sank into the golden plate and then light bloomed on top of it. I covered my eyes until it dimmed and then looked back. A mask rested on top of the pillar. Immediately I knew that it belonged to me, I could not explain the knowledge, but I knew that it was a reflection of who I was.

It was mostly black, with some emerald green and gold. The surface was smooth and almost glass like, or perhaps obsidian. The black parts seemed to almost eat up the light coming from above. Teeth were visible, with vampire fangs. The mouth reminded me of some of the masks that my sire had, priceless art pieces from Japan. There were two small horns on top of it, and another two where the ears were supposed to be. It was a terrifying looking thing.

For a moment, I thought what I had done with my life to deserve something like this, but then I bowed my head. I was not a good person. I had killed people—a lot of people. I was technically a drug dealer, and a murderer, and I tried to be a good person. I tried to kill only those who were in the same line of work as me. But I made mistakes too, I…

Under the mask, new words were etched on the plaque.

Mask of the Drainer — No Investment; First Carving

I didn’t know what any of it meant.

The plaques on the two smaller pillars changed too. The choices that I hadn't picked were now etched there. I narrowed my eyes, wondering if I could choose them too, but I didn’t move to do so. I didn’t know nearly enough about all of this to make another decision. The sensation that made me feel drawn to make a choice wasn’t there now.

Now, I was trapped in a room with no doors or windows. One thing was clear to me though, something was doing this. I looked at the Mask, almost reaching out to touch it, but then I thought better of it. I didn’t know what it was.

“Can I leave now?” I asked, and as soon as I had the thought, I felt a pulling sensation. The world twisted around me, and I opened my eyes.

I was on the ground next to the corpse of the animal I had killed. I rolled to my feet and winced as pain lanced through my leg. I glanced down and saw that scarred tissue covered my thigh, but it wasn’t fully healed yet. A wound like that should’ve closed in minutes, instead it still pained me. The silver wound around my neck had weakened me too much.

I shook my head and focused. I didn’t know where I was, I didn’t know what happened, my memory had holes in it or delusions. So I made a mental list of priorities. First, survive. Second, figure out where I was. And third, find out what happened in the first place.

I glanced at the animal, at its powerful claws, and I got an idea. I moved, there was no time to waste.