textfiles/magazines/TYME/tyme0043.txt

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 =|  T.Y.M.E. - Twisted Young Minds Expand  |  #43 by Krowe  |   2/22/94  |=
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		      Chronicles : Chapter ][
		      \=-------------------=/
	
	The story continues again with the knowledge that the
female vampire had not meant to kill him at all.  She, being lonely,
had wanted to make a companion and did not intend for events to
turn out as they did.  She takes him under her wing and accepts 
him into her home.  And the story continues with Chapter II.
Previous text: Chronicles, Chapter I  Beginnings

			 CHRONICLES
		     Chapter II: Friendship

     How cruel is the night, so black, so empty.  You think that
you would be swallowed up by it.  Like the black hearts of
murderers, thieves, and my own.  The rain futilely attempts to
wash it all away.  She stands in the doorway, beckoning me
closer.  And now I know, I know that this will never end.  For it
hasn't even begun.

     I slide off the coffin and stand up.  Never moving my
eyes from hers, I walk towards her.  She looked exactly the same
as the night before.  Same silken skin, same eyes of bluest
crystal.  The eyes lie to me even now, as the truth comes to be
revealed.

     "What have you done to me?" I asked, shaking nervously,
"What is this hunger that you have given to me?"

     She still stands in the doorway, motionless, staring right
back at me, she sees through me, as if I was not there.

     "Answer me!" I shout at her.

     "You have no idea do you?" she asks me.

     She smiles at me, and then she turns around and walks out of
the entrance.  She beckons me again and I follow.  Hoping to find
out, make sense of all that has happened.  The rain persists, it
tries to wash away the blackness of my now darkened soul.  It has
no hope, and never will.  We start to walk deeper into the
cemetery.  

     "You have not figured out what you have become have you?"
she asks.

     "I know that whatever I am, is evil." I say back, "I do not
want to be this."

     "You have no choice now." She replies, "You are an
immortal."

     I stop walking, she does the same and faces me.  Questions
fly through my head like a bird through the sky.  Each one of
them with no answer.  

     "What?" I finally manage.

     "You are an immortal, nosferatu, vampire." She says,
"Whatever you prefer to call it, you are now the living dead."

     "How did this happen?" I ask her, still shaking.

     "That night," she begins, "I followed you, you were walking
out of the colonial taverne, drunk.  I watched you the whole
night, waiting for you to be alone.  I watched you copulate with
the whore.  I watched your every move, savoring your taste.  You
proceeded to find a place to sleep, yes?"

     I nodded in agreement.

     "I thought so." She says, "So as soon as I got the chance to
have you alone, I took it.  I followed you into the graveyard,
and I tried to feed upon you."

     "Yes." I said, "I figured all of that, but, how did I become
this, thing?"

     "You needn't be so harsh." She says, "After all, you're
still living aren't you?"

     "If that is what you can call this." I said, "Feeding off
the lives of others."

     She laughed out loud, with the same crystal voice of that
night.

     "They do the same to dumb animals, do they not?" she says,
"Cows, pigs, chickens, sometimes even horses.  It is no
different, it is really quite enjoyable."

     "Enjoyable?" I said, not quite still taking all of this in,
"How can you consider that the taking of lives is enjoyable."

     "As I said before, they do it all the time." She says, "They
even kill their own, they rape their wives, molest their children
and even kill their best friends.  What we do can be no
different.  We are above them though, we don't kill out of
malice, we don't kill for fun.  We kill to stay alive.  We are
the predators, they are our prey."

     I was shocked, I shook my head, not believing a word of it. 
I fell back onto the ground.  I thought of everything I had done
all my life, and I couldn't remember much.  To think, that all
this is nothing, all that I ever worked for.  The loves in my
life, the thieving, trying to survive on the streets of Boston in
the winter with no food, barely staying alive.  Only to have this
happen.  If I had known this, I would have killed myself long
ago.  But now it is too late, I am a vampire.  And I must do,
what it is in my nature to do.

     "Come," she says, with her hand outstretched towards me,
"let me show you how we live."

     I looked up at her, and grasped onto her hand.  She had
enormous strength, with which she nearly tore my arm right out of
the socket.  

     "What is your name?" she asked me.

     "Gabriel," I said, "Gabriel Coburn."

     "Coburn," she said, turning to me and smiling, "well
Mister Coburn.  I think we are going to have plenty of fun
together."

     She told me that her name was Elyssa.  She also answered my
question on how I became this, creature.

     "While I was feeding upon you, you bit me back.  You drew
blood and drank it.", She said, "From that moment on, you were a
vampire."

     "You said before that we are immortal.", I said, "Why then
must we take the lives of others."

     We walked out of the entrance of the cemetery and onto the
Boston streets.  The rain finally giving up on us, stopped.  

     "That is the only necessity, well, that and another.", she
said.

     "What is the 'other'?". I replied.

     "Coffins.", she said. "We must sleep in coffins filled with
earth to rest. And our skin cannot be touched by sunlight,
otherwise we turn to dust."

     "Some immortality.", I replied sarcastically.

     "Otherwise, we cannot be killed." she said, ignoring my last
remark.

     She stopped walking, and I did the same.  She watched a
middle aged man walking down the road, he stopped to look at his
watch.  

     "There.", she said to me "Do you see that man?"

     "Yes.", I replied.

     "That," she said, "Is your first lesson."

     The man put his watch back in his pocket and continued on
down the street.  We followed, not to close for we did not want
to seem suspicious to him.  He rounded the corner, and we did the
same.  We were astonished to find him gone. We stopped and looked
around. But he was no where in sight.  We looked at each other,
shrugged and turned around.  Only to find the man behind us with
a gun pointed at my face.

     "What are you following me for?", he said. "If you are
thinking that you two are going to rob me, I think that you are
both sadly mistaken."

     I froze where I was, forgetting the fact that I could not
die.  She on the other hand, moved quicker than anything I had
ever seen in my life.  One moment she was next to me, the other
she was behind him.  The man turned around and dropped his
pistol.  She took her arms and twisted his neck.  I heard a loud
crack, and his body went limp.  She proceeded to bite into his
neck.  She stopped for a moment and looked up at me.

     "Would you like to join me?" She asked, blood trickling down
her chin.

     "I think that if I were to partake in such an act, I would
do it out of the sight of others." I replied.

     "True." she said.

     We took the corpse and carried it into an alley.  There she
took his arm and bit into it.  I went to where she had bit him on
the neck, hesitated, and then bit into his flesh.  The sweet
taste filled my mouth as we drained his body.  And the same
feeling of euphoria washed over me.  I had not a care in the
world.  We drank what was left of him and departed down the road.

Leaving the body in the alley, just in time for a coach to pass
by.  The coach-driver surely would have seen us in the alley so I
was grateful that we were swift in our feeding.  As we were
walking I began to wonder what kind of a life this could be.  I
mean, I don't have to kill innocent people, I can kill murderers,
and other such filth.  I thought about this more and more, and
began to like the idea.

     "We should go back to my home to sleep now, it is getting
late and I do not want to be outside in the sun." She told me.

     I agreed and she showed me the way to her home.  She lived
on the outskirts of Boston, in a nice mansion.  The whole place
was a wondrous sight.  She had a courtyard filled with the
reddest roses, and a fountain in the center of them.  I looked
further and saw a stable and a barn.  I saw horses running in the
field next to the house.  We walked up the pathway and in through
the huge oak doors.  She took a lamp from the wall and lit it. 
Beckoning for me to follow we walked down the halls.  The inside
was even more breathtaking the exterior.  Bookshelves lined with
more books than I had ever set my eyes upon.  In the drawing room
there was the most enormous fireplace I had ever set my eyes
upon.  The logs burning seemed to give off an unearthly glow.  We
moved farther down the hall until we came to a door.  The door
looked quite heavy and was bolted.  But Elyssa with a quick
swipe, a mere gesture of hr hand, and the door became unlocked.  

     She opened the door and before us was a staircase that led
down under the house.  The shadows seemed to dance like mad
demons on the walls as the lamp flickered from the cold draft. 
We came to the end of the staircase and a large room was laid out
before us.  Torches burned on the walls to provide light,
although the darkness seemed to snatch it away from them.  Two
coffins stood before us, both made of what looked like expensive
oak.  The light again made the shadows frolic upon the lids of
the coffins in their own macabre dance.  

     "This one,", She said, pointing to the coffin on the right,
"is yours for as long as you stay here, you are welcome to
anything in the house, and the servants will tend to your all of
your needs."

     "You mean, you would have killed me last night, but because
I am now what you are, I am to live with you?" I asked, "This
makes no sense."

     "Actually, I wasn't going to kill you." She said, "I need a
companion, someone to talk to.  You don't know how lonely it is
without another of your own kind."

     "What do you mean, without another of your kind?" I said,
"Aren't there more of us?"

     Her face suddenly became sullen, and her eyes told the story
of her loneliness, of how long she had been waiting to share her
life with someone.  Just to be with someone meant more than
anything else to her.  Not this house, or her expensive clothes
or jewelry.  She was completely and utterly alone, and I felt her
immense emptiness, and I too was saddened by it.

     "I have not seen nor heard of another vampire for over 65
years." She replied.

     She then opened my coffin, and had me lie down inside of it.


     "Tomorrow night,", She said, "shall be your first lesson. 
But for now, sleep.  I will be here when you wake."

     She then closed the coffin, and I slipped into the coma of
death.  This night I slept better than any of my mortal life.




     My eyes open, the darkness surrounded me with its protective
shroud.  I remembered where I was, and I half believed I was
actually here.  I slid off the lid of the coffin and peered out. 
Sat up, and noticed that Elyssa had already risen.  I climbed out
of my bed, and looked about me in wonder.  The shadows jumped and
scattered about in their own macabre dance.  I was delighted by
the vision before me.  The whole chamber seemed to be alive.  I
took one of the torches and started up the stairs.  I felt
exhilarated as I walked up the stairway, like this had been the
most satisfying time in my life, just waking up from my sleep
seemed to be so refreshing.  I reached the top of the stairs and
grasped for the bolt of the door, and unlocked it.  The aroma of
the house hit me full force.  It smelled sweetly of strawberries
and exquisite perfume.  I closed and bolted the door behind me
and wandered down the hallway.  The pictures on the walls looked
as if they were alive and looking at me, gesturing to me.  I paid
them no mind and went on, quietly laughing to myself of this new
world I was brought into.  

     One of the servants of the house walked by me and I stopped
her, inquiring where Elyssa was.  Her dress gave off the most
radiant colors of purple and blue as she moved, and her face was
even more a jumble of hues of pink and white.  She smiled at me
and pointed down the hallway and told me that she was studying in
the library.  I thanked her and wandered down the hall again. 
All the servants of the house were white, and I was wondering of
this, because all servants I had ever known of, except for the
butlers and maids in England, were all colored.  I walked into
the library and was taken by the beauty of the gigantic room. 
Books lined every wall, and of every size.  Windows reached from
the floor to the ceiling and beyond them was the beautiful night
sky of Boston, just a few miles away.  there were two chairs in
the middle of the room, with a small table in front of them.  The
chairs were sitting across from each other, and Elyssa sat in the
one facing myself.  She was reading by the light of the lantern
and seemed to be lost in her book.  I walked over to the chair
across from her and sat down.  She looked up at me and smiled,
closing the book and setting it upon the table in front of us.

     "So how did you rest?" She asked, "Peaceful?"

     "Very," I replied, "Better than I have ever slept in my
life."

     "That's good to hear." She said.

     Another servant came into the room, carrying a basket of
fresh smelling flowers.  She asked Elyssa where she would like
them and Elyssa told her to put them by the window sill.  The
woman did as asked and left the room.  I still wondered about why
she had not colored servants instead of white ones.

     "Why is it that I see not one black servant in the house?" I
asked.

     "I do not believe in slavery of others." She replied, "I
believe it to be an abomination of the right of every human, or
inhuman being, to choose to do as they will."

     "But," I said, "these people..."

     "They choose to be my servants, and I treat them well and
pay them for their services." She interjected.

     "Do they know of you?" I said, halfway confused, "Do they
realize what you are?"

     "Of course," She replied, "They are very loyal to me, and I
would not hire anybody that was any other way."

     "Do they know of me?" I said.

     "Yes," She said, "Otherwise they wold have driven you from
the house."

     "I see." I said.

     She told me not to ask so many questions and not to worry
about anything.  All my inquiries would be answered in time.  I
asked her when we were going out that night.  She told me soon,
that she had matters to discuss with the servants of the house
about my residing there.  She excused herself and went about her
business, telling me that I was free to look at anything I like. 
I got up and went over to one of the enormous bookshelves,
grabbed one of the rolling ladders, and looked for something to
read.  I didn't recognize most of the books there, so I grabbed
the first one that I did.  And sat down to read.  

     About an hour later she came back and told me it was time to
leave.  I closed my book and set it on the table next to hers. 
She turned and I followed her down the hallway into the foyer. 
The servants rushed up to me and led me to a dressing room, where
they stripped me of my rags and put on me elegant clothing.  A
white frilled cuff shirt and black trowsers, and also a silk vest
and a black coat.  Also they fitted me with black shoes and
stockings.  They sprayed me with elegant perfume and led me back
into the foyer.  Elyssa smiled in approval of my new dress, and
we walked out to the courtyard where a carriage was waiting for
us.  The carriage driver hopped down from his seat and opened the
door for us.  I lifted Elyssa into the carriage and I stepped in
after her.

     The starry night sky was beautiful as we rode towards
Boston.  I don't think that I pulled my eyes from the sky, gaping
at their beauty, until Elyssa's sweet voice broke the stillness. 
She told me that we were going hunting in one of the most elegant
parties in the honor of Mister John Adams.  Politicians had never
really pleased me, but I went along with it.  As we grew nearer
to the town I could smell the sweet flesh and blood of the
mortals that walked the streets.  And thirsting heavily now, I
could not wait for my first lesson.


	Please E-mail me and let me know what you think of
the story so far.  I can be reached at Exodus BBS (707) 935-6867.

	Thanx.

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