Chapter 4: Here and now

I know, I know... seems kind of strange jumping from my Frieztang to right now, but high school and college were rather "normal"... normal for me anyways. Not much happened outside of the usual adolescent fun. Yes, there were some exciting times, like the time the big jock boy of my high school decided I had looked at his girlfriend too many times, but nothing came of it in the end. She was already thralled to me by that point and a simple demonstration of my advanced physical presence dissuaded him from further protests.

College was rather ho-hum, except for med school, which proved at least challenging mentally.

Yes, I chose to follow my father's footsteps and become a physician and I am now just finishing my residency in Emergency Medicine. I have a lead on a spot with a major group practice here when I'm done, so life is good so far.

I have pretty much cruised through life, feeding when and where I liked, enjoying all that both vampiric and mortal worlds have to offer. Only recently have things gotten interesting.

Yesterday, I was in the middle of my shift at the ER when a patient came in with a severe case of dehydration and extreme drowsiness. At first glance it appeared as many cases like this do, someone overdid it with either drugs or alcohol, went on a bender so to speak. I ran the usual labs and toxicology screenings figuring I could just give them some fluids and vitamins and send him on his way. When the labs came back, everything checked out okay... a little too okay. All his electrolytes were normal, blood tests also came back normal, and the tox screen came back clean as well. Something inside me said to look at him as a vampire would. This was a little tough for me, not being gay and all, but with a casual glance at his aura, I saw it... the telltale signs of a feeding that went on way too long. His life force had been drained too much; he lacked the essence of life that makes up much of the mortal aura.

We vampires are taught from day one at Exonous when to stop feeding, why we should not go too far, unless the situation is extreme. Here was a case of one of two possibilities: one, there was a fellow vampire out there who had been starving; or two, the worst case scenario, there was a rogue vampire out there who didn't care.

I saw worst case because, while for millennia, we have lived side-by-side with you mortals, most of the time peacefully, there have been times in our history where a rogue has gone amuck and caused all kinds of issues for the rest of us. There are vampire hunts conducted by overzealous clergy, which sadly to say, have taken more mortal lives than vampiric through mistaken identity.

It usually starts like this; one person dies because of overfeeding by one vampire. That vampire then become gluttonous and proceeds to take another, then another, and so on. This usually occurs within a distinct geographic area, which usually causes a widespread panic there. People, mortals that is, start looking for a scapegoat. In these days, an infectious disease would be where most medical personnel would start their investigation, simply because they would not suspect the real cause. In older days, we vampires, or, sometimes witches, would be the hunted because of the ancient tales. Anyways, you've probably seen the movies... lynch mobs roaming about with torches and wooden stakes.

I mentioned earlier that we are immortal, and for all intensive purposes, we are... if left to our own devices. We cannot be killed by anything of this earth we live on, not bullets, not knives, not car accidents, nothing, not even another vampire. However, a smart cookie amongst you mortals, his name was Augustine, you may have heard of him from time to time, thought it out.

You see Augustine was one of our biggest "customers" so to speak. In his younger days in Africa, he became a thrall of a vampire by the name of Zuma. She kept him around for quite awhile, but tired of him as he aged and became, shall we say, less "performance enhanced" and she de-thralled him. Well, old Augie so enamored with Zuma, that he took offense and vowed his revenge. There was a report that a strange lump of metal had fallen from the sky around two miles from his village. Knowing that she could not be harmed by anything terrestrial, he found it and contracted a blacksmith to fashion a blade out of it for a dagger that Augustine finished. Once he had his extra-terrestrial weapon, he found Zuma and stabbed her repeatedly. The space metal drained all the essence from Zuma and she did die. Once she was dead, Augustine repeatedly raped the corpse. A few days later, he became celibate and started writing his discourses on original sin. From time to time throughout history, the dagger has been lost and found many times. This was the only way to stop a rogue vampire. Rogues will not reason, they will not cease, they will only become worse until they are caught and destroyed. Perhaps you have heard of Jeffrey Dahmer? He was the last one I remember. Yes, someone with the Augustine Dagger killed him in prison, and that was the last time we knew it had been around.