Drink

I am not what people think I am. Few people are in my experience, though there is little in me that could still be called human. I am mostly grateful for their impressions – it makes things so much easier when they look into my open,
smiling face and see the simian rather then the shark.

There is no doubt that I have changed over the centuries, evolved since my Father chose me so long ago, in that stench ridden battlefield, blood and bile dripping in equal measure from my wounds. At the time I thought him an angel of light, leaning over me and making the surrounding scene suddenly so much clearer.

Ha! That takes me back. My Father – I have not thought of him in a long time, we shared neither blood nor breathe, merely the same immutable thirst and the strength of will to quench it. It is almost ironic – he always said that it was my bloodthirstiness that led him to turn me, my determination, my cruelty. In the end it was those qualities that led to his downfall – when I had strength enough I devoured his mind and ate what was left of his soul. I felt no pity, no remorse – even while I lived I had no use for such emotions. He should have seen it coming, even as he wrenched me from the obscuring darkness of the grave, he should have known even then that I would turn on him – a shark always works alone.

And so Nosferatoe was no more. But others took his place, other children perhaps, drawn out by my Father from the stinking mess that surrounds us, or else begotten of the flickering darkness that grew since Eden fell. I ate them all, regardless of their origin – the strong, the weak, the hidden and the brave – all passed across my table, both predator and prey. I dined richly on their souls, devouring every inch, every memory, until I became the all in all, the Last, the True, the Only.

When all were gone I rested, sated on my brethren. I turned and slept and dreamt the world beyond.

When I awoke the world had changed. Man was no more by nature bound, but bound it – heat and cold, light and darkness all shone so bright from his palaces of industry. Stars and soil and sea, he had reached all and crossed all and beaten all – all things were his, but he will never own me. He had forgotten to fear the smiling face, the lurking darkness, he thought at last that he was safe, but he had only begun to fear.

And so upon the heedless hordes I fell, without trial and retribution. But humans are not human if they cannot learn anew – each evening passed, and turned to dawn – I waited for the mob, the screaming crowd upon my door, the wood to stake my heart. A week went by, a month, a year and still no change. I waited as the decades passed, still drinking of my fill. Each heart I ate, each person gone, I wondered if they knew. How could they not? I stole their children in the night, and slew their heroes by the moon. And then at last it came to me, the reason for their plight. Oh how I laughed! Oh how I joked! I grinned into the dark - I maybe evil, callous, cruel, but I can only drink their souls – it is up to them to find them.