Bleeding Heart

Bleeding Heart


It probably happened on that night. It was June 20, 1767; Jean Chastel took his gun and finally killed the Beast of Gévaudan. Its reign of terror was finally brought to an end. There was a large party to celebrate its death at my hometown. My friend, Ancell and I were among the wilder group. We sang, drank, and cursed the Beast for all the lives it claimed.
“Good riddance!” Ancell cried as he spat in the dirt, “I hope it goes right into the inner circle of hell! What do you think Vry?” I took another swig from my mug.
“I think we’re going to need stronger ale to celebrate this,” I said, spilling the contents of my mug to the ground, “I don’t even want to know what this is! Oi wench, give me and my mate the best Irish Whiskey you have!” Abelle the barmaid looked at me angrily. She took our mugs and filled them. She then slammed them down with more force then necessary. Ancell and I laughed.
The rest of the night blurred into one incomprehensible mess. The next thing I really remember was waking up in my chair, and everything ached. I sat up.
What in the Good Lord’s name did I do last night? I thought, I stood up, and felt something soft. I looked down. It was the barmaid Abelle, pale and glassy eyes, the look of pure terror upon her face. I started to breath heavily. I ran to the curtains and opened them. The sun! Suddenly my skin felt like it was on fire! I shut the curtains. What in the world? The sun doesn’t burn! I went to the mirror.
I had a reflection at least, but I was different, I mean I had all my normal features, sandy brown hair, small angled nose, but I was deathly pale, and my eyes. They’re normally a friendly grey, but now they had the glint of a predator, and they were steely, and they had a reddish tinge receding into the pupil. I tried to feel my heart. Nothing. Suddenly it hit me; I fell back into my chair, stunned.
“Vampire…” I murmured. I was damned! Damned like the Beast of Gévaudan! A monster! I already killed one person! Who knows how many more I've killed?!
Get a hold of yourself Vry… I thought to myself, I tried to suppress my raising panic, what will I do? I decided to go to the pub to listen to the rumors, but first, the barmaid had to be disposed of. I covered her in a blanket and waited till nightfall. I put on my cloak and picked up the barmaid. I carried her to the lake and dumped her there. I then headed over to the pub.


“Did you hear? Five people went missing during last nights festivities.”
“Could the Beast be back?”
“The Beast is in the courtroom of Louis the XV.”
“Haven’t we suffered enough? What have we done to deserve this?”
I sat there sweating with my whiskey nervously. I didn’t like what I was hearing. I had already killed 5 people. I was putting off ‘feeding’ hopefully I’ll starve myself to death. After my hangover, the world was clearer. My senses were heightened, especially smell. I could hear a mouse scurrying across the room even with the people gossiping in my ear. I could hear Ancell coming in loudly as usual. He sat down next to me and ordered ale.
“Did you hear the rumors?” Ancell asked, I’m not surprised he heard, stories spread quickly in a small town.
“Yeah,” I muttered glumly
“Our favorite barmaid’s one of them.” He took his ale and took a swig, “I wonder what killed them this time.”
“They may not be dead,” I said hopelessly, “Maybe they’ll turn up.” Fate has an annoying sense of irony. As I finished that sentence someone barged into the bar out of breathe.
“They found one! They found one of the missing people in the lake!” Everyone got up and started heading for the lake. I followed them.


When we arrived, Asce was fishing the barmaid’s corpse out of the lake. Women and children started crying. Men started to shake their fists in anger. Ancell started to shake uncontrollably.
“The Beast is still haunting us!”, Gale cried. People started panicking.
“Calm down everyone! The Beast is dead. We all saw it.” Leon turned the body over and checked the body. I couldn’t help but notice the wound on her neck. Leon probably noticed it too because he started to back away from it.
“Burn the body! Dieu ait pitié de son âme! This is the work of a vampire!” That was when the village started panicking. Leon was barking orders. “Contact the King! Hide the women and children! Put together a hunting group! We shall purge our village of devil’s work once and for all!” Men started cheering in agreement, raising their torches high. I felt hungry suddenly. I clenched my stomach instinctively. I started to think that this situation was too dangerous for me. A panicked herd is a dangerous one. I ran off and hid in my home.


The hunting raid did not succeed in finding the vampire. After all I was the vampire, a wolf in sheep’s clothing. I was now in pain from starvation. I mostly hid in my house, clenching my stomach trying hard not to let myself give in. Suddenly, there was a commotion outside. It was a cloudy day so I put my head out the door to see what was going on. There were s stranger in the town. He wore black cloak upon a brown leather tunic. He had black hair tied up into a low ponytail. Even though he looked like he was in his 40’s his eyes told a different story. They were an intense brown; the eyes you expect to see from a wolf or an eagle. Brom the smithy walked up to the stranger, ready to strike at any moment. Even though they were 200 some yards away I could hear them perfectly.
“Can I help you, sir?” I couldn’t understand what the man said because it was in English.
“We don’t speak English, sir.” Brom said coldly.
“My apologies, young man,” The man said in perfect French, He was an Englishman obviously, but what was he doing here?
“My name is Sir Alexander Loddington,” the man continued, and I was in the country yesterday and I couldn’t help overhearing about a vampire.” Brom looked at Alexander suspiciously. He slowly lowered his hand toward his belt, which a Holy Cross was strapped upon.
“Fear not good fellow. I happen to be a vampire hunter.” My stomach did a belly flop. “I’m willing to track down this vampire and slay it without delay.” Brom relaxed. In fact he sighed. “I shall begin my search at once.”
“But it’s the middle of the day!”, Brom blubbered. Alexander chuckled and walked off.



I had to leave! I may have been kidding about wanting to die! I’ll just feed off the animals and then burn the bodies! I grabbed every scrap of clothing I had and crammed it into a sack. I ran outside. I hated to leave my friends, but I had no choice. In no time at all I was in the forest, dodging the trees and bushes.
Suddenly a figure lunged at me and caused a scratch on my arm. The Beast! I looked up. It was the vampire hunter! I caught the smell of blood. I realized it was my own blood. I got hungry suddenly. The hunter was crouched, ready to strike.
“Tell me young man,” Loddington asked, still tensed, “How old are you?”
“17,” I answered simply,
“No, no, I mean how long have you been a vampire?” I had to think about it a little bit.
“2 days,” Loddington stood up, rubbing his temples, muttering to himself in English. I stood there shaking. Was he going to kill me? Loddington turned to look at me.
“Who is your sire?” he asked
“Sire?”
“Who turned you into a vampire?” he explained
“I’m not sure, I was drunk at the festival, and then I woke up as this.”
“Such negligence!”, Loddington cried, and then continued muttering to himself in English. I was confused.
“Could you please explain to me what’s going on?” I asked
“Well, when you make a newborn, you need to teach them, otherwise they’ll go off at the first smell of blood.” I looked at him
“You’re a vampire as well?”
“Very well spotted! May I ask your name?”
“Vry, Vry Taylor,” I said
“Well Vry Taylor, I shall be your mentor. Come, we have a lot of work to do.”


Loddington explained to the town that he had killed the vampire while he was sleeping and that he would take me as his apprentice. Everyone was sad to see me go, and I was sad as well. After the farewells, Loddington took me to London to teach me how to control my cravings. It was the most painful training I’ve ever felt. He would expose me to blood and I was not to touch it. I failed a lot. Soon however, I was able to control my cravings. I could feed without fear of killing people.
After that, Loddington showed me hunting techniques. The first one was finding a human alone and feed then messing with their mind to forget. The other technique…well, it’s not used as much. It involves seduction. Apparently, it’s used for special occasions. Also it’s considered rude to interrupt this particular hunting style. Once I walked in on Loddington and he yelled at me.
Over the years, I grew indifferent to humans. They were like how I saw cattle. The world of the vampires was as complicated as humans; with politics and sports. However all the nations were united, apart from rebel groups. One day, they discovered a way to make vampires immune to sunlight. Soon everyone flocked to get this new antidote. Now sunlight was out of the equation.
When I was one hundred, I wanted to join the army. Loddington was reluctant at first. However he let me go in the end. The army’s training was even more intense then Loddingtons. Soon I became stronger than most vampires. The army’s goal was to wipe out the rebel groups and assassinate humans who came too close to revealing our world. I am now 261 years old and I’m a captain in the army. My team and I are on a mission in Congo. Now I have to leave. This is Captain Vry Taylor of the Sixth Division SIGNING OFF.