Return of Cain

I often wonder what would have happened to me if I would not have picked up that rock and struck my brother dead. Abel, of course, would have been the bearer of many children, probably just as insipid and monotonous as he was. Our parents, the parents of a species I have grown to no longer love and no longer hate, would have worshipped Abel's children and grand children for as long as they were alive. But I would have been different even if I had not been banished. I would have been cast out, put aside and blown away by the wind. I would have borne bastard children, caused hate and decay, just as I have done in my banishment.

We all have a purpose, at least, we did back in the days when there were less of us. Though, we must still play some purpose. Even the lowly commoner; sitting at home looking out the window as his wife is in a hotel room playing with some other lowly commoner's husband. Yes, he plays a purpose. It takes some years to find out what their purpose is, others don't find out at all. I've spent countless centuries trying to figure out mine. Why was I put on this earth? Solely to kill my brother? Solely to be the first sign of a horrible omen? Was the first war ever waged between my brother and I? If that is so, I, the victor, must be given my prize. I must be given the knowledge of what my purpose in this world is. Instead, I was given banishment.

Nod* was not as light and happy as what was written in the Book. True, God did mark me so that no man could kill me, but does God not make mistakes? Why would he purposely put the fruit in the garden**? I know of one mistake that God has made. God not only marked me to not be killed by another man, he marked me so as I would not be killed by time, age, disease, war, anything that can cause death. Death itself fears me. God gave me eternal life, and with that life, I created a race of my own; the vampires.

It's true, I did lay with my wife and have children, and though I was banished to the land of Nod, my family was not. My son, Enoch, was the most devious of them all. He created an entire city for our new race. The city of Enoch, a bit repetitious and crude, but I give him credit.

Vampires were not the same then as they are now. It's taken years of evolution to create the vampire we know today. We remained in Enoch and Nod for a long while, exploring the banishment God had bestowed upon us. It's taken years of trial and error to get us to the perfection that we are now. And yet, the vampire race still has one imperfection that even the eldest of vampires does not remember; me.

There is a fear that comes with immortality. Not many can say that they've felt this fear, except possibly the older generations. The fear of watching everyone you love, everyone you care about, die in front of your eyes while you know you must live skirting death forever. That was when I realized that I had to share my gift with someone. I couldn't live alone.

When I created my first vampire, I knew I had to choose one that would live up to my standards, live up to what I thought would be the greatest army this world had ever seen. My wife and sons and daughters all died before I realized my ability to share my eternal life. That's why I chose the grandson of Enoch; Brezern. Brezern reminded me of myself all those years ago, with Abel. He reminded me of my human malice and hatred. I knew he would be the perfect warrior for my dark army.

I shared my blood with Brezern. But much to my own surprise, my blood changed Brezern into something that I had only seen in dreams. His canine teeth elongated, his skin paled, his eyes became clear and alluring. I watched Brezern change before my very eyes. When it was done, before me stood a monster of my own creation. For this first time, I was proud. But Brezern turned against me. He attacked me, burying his teeth into my neck, my life vein. He almost killed me, and would have if it weren't for God's mark which was still raw against me. In attacking me, Brezern was left in a state of ecstasy. I took advantage of him them, I slit his wrists and lapped up his own blood. I wanted to be and look like him.

It was horrible then, the feeling that overcame me. It was as if I was experiencing death, but I knew that was not so. I changed into something that Brezern even feared. I changed into what I am today.

So hideous was my face that I exiled myself from the land of Nod. I exiled myself from anywhere near the human race. For centuries, millenniums, I remained hidden in my own world. It was hard, with the human race like a plague upon this earth. I had to move many times to keep from their sight. I could feel that the human race was not alone on this earth any longer. Brezern had shared his new ability with others. He, like the humans, had spread his own race like a plague. The vampires, though hiding themselves from the human race, were as great in numbers as the humans. The earth smelt of death to me.

I watched the earth grow and change around me. The vampire population, growing and shrinking, a never-ending cycle. I hadn't known it for those years, but I was weakened. Weakened beyond anything a human could imagine. Far more weakened than anything a vampire could. But I refused to let myself be known, not now. My face and body the horrible reminder of my own greed, my own lust for power. I was a leech for power, and this was my punishment.

There came a time when war plagued the earth. I watched wars rage on, year after year. New technologies came about, science and math. I watched people fly, go under water, do all the things that a human should not have been able to do. I watched the humans destroy each other, one by one. In the process, they were destroying vampires.

It was in this time of war that I decided to come out of my hiding and see what had become of my children.

I came out at night. Taking in the scenery and collecting mementos on the way, things that reminded me of the ancient times. The place I had hidden myself had long since been forgotten by any human or vampire alike. I walked for a long while, soon finding myself in a city. I could smell them everywhere, humans. Their stench had fouled over the years. They now smelled of greed and power, as I had probably smelled in my times of Enoch. I had to hold my hand over my face in order for the stench to go away. It was awful. I could only chuckle at the thought of God's precious vision of man turning as foul as it had. Even the great floods did not stop man from spoiling; just as every meat does after time.

The ironic thing of my coming is that the first thing I encountered was not a human at all, it was a vampire. I could only laugh at the look of this vampire. His hair all tossled and sticking up in a line down his head. His face was covered in metal. His canines flashed visibly in the moonlight as he saw me. I could see the confusion playing across his face. I, must have looked a monster to this monster. The thought amuses me still.

"What is the year?" I asked, but this vampire just shook his head and said something in babble tongue. So, the language had evolved as well. I would have to study up on the times again if I were to ever fall back into the ebb.

Taking a step forward, I reached out and felt the fabric that clothed this young vampire. It was odd to my fingertips. The colors were remarkable. I imagined God was jealous that man could match his beauty making. It made me smile. I decided to ask this vampire what had become of my creation. I said a simple word to him that I knew he would understand, it was a name after all. "Brezern." The vampire shook his head, looking rather disgusted. So, Brezern created children but left no legacy? I decided to try something else. "Cain."

The vampire's eyes lit up then. He seemed to quiver with realization. Holding his hand out, he touched my face. I watched his eyes as he played out my face underneath his hands. Running it over the bumps and curves, the unnatural ugliness of me. That which is my essence, my hideousness. I could only stare at his neck. There was blood there, I could smell it.

The poor vampire didn't see it coming. I moved quickly, grabbing a hold of the vampire's shoulder and moving my face in closer. I sank my teeth into his neck. He let out a scream, but was quickly silenced when I ran my claws across his neck and ripped out his throat. I eyed the torn muscle and dripping cavity. I was reminded of Abel. I hadn't killed a soul since my own dear brother. For some odd reason, this felt right. I could withstand it no longer. I shoved my face into the blood pouring from this vampire's body.

I know now the difference between vampire blood and human blood. Human blood is salty, much like a fine meat or cuisine. It is more of a meal. Whereas vampire blood is sweet, like chocolate or a treat. As I stood there, lapping at this young vampire's throat, I felt his life and his energy flow through me. My vision swam in front of me, but I managed to keep myself upright. I let the body fall. It was like watching it through someone else's eyes. It couldn't be that I had done this. No, not like I had done to Abel. When that vampire's body hit the ground, I saw Abel's do the same as well. They were one, at that moment. Both my victims, both neither my enemies nor my friends. I felt confident, wise, in power.

I eyed the corpse. A vampire drained of his blood, it was lustrous. The skin paler than even expensive pearls. In the moonlight, it had a soft glow, almost as if it were reflecting off water. Though, there were no ripples in this water, no small animals or fluttering bubbles. Only a pale body and pale eyes staring lifelessly at the sky. I wondered then, if he was searching for God. Or had my vampires rejected God in their years upon this earth.

Holding my head as if it had been wounded, I opened my eyes and suddenly a light was shed upon the darkness of my absence. I knew things that I had never known before. I knew everything that this young vampire had known and learned. Not only had I consumed his blood, but his knowledge and his strength. I no longer felt weak. I no longer felt lost.

Still, I knew nothing of what had become of Brezern. I had to find out. With this new knowledge of what the vampire race was like, I knew that we had one enemy, the sun. But I also knew that I was no normal vampire. I was perfect. I had reached perfection in all but looks. It was because of this that I found I was immune to the sunlight. I could travel whenever I liked. I could take vampires in their sleep.

Days went by and night after night I fed upon the vampires. I tried to feed on a human, but the sour taste of their blood was not appetizing to me. So, I continued to feed on the vampires.

It was a month after I had returned that I ran into someone I had not expected to see. My granddaughter, Aibel. We met in the streets, during the night. She looked beautiful and pure, just as she had those millennia ago.

"Cain." She had said to me, while I was feeding on a vampire in my arms. Turning, I stared at her. She looked angry with me, yet happy to see that I had not perished.

"Aibel, what a pleasant surprise." I found that I liked this new tongue. I could speak seven of them now. I was willing to go wherever it took to learn the rest. Babel*** would be restored in me.

Aibel took a step forward. "Cain, why are you destroying the very species that you created?" She asked.

I laughed at her then and threw the empty vampire aside. His body cracked on the ground and I saw Aibel's eyes dart towards it, but then come back to me. Smart. "Created? Are you sure that it was I who created this race?" She looked worried. "Tell me, granddaughter, what has become of Brezern."

Anger played across her face then, and I could pick up a sense of longing that she had for years. Her lips quivered, as if she were taking in breath. I knew better. Vampires didn't need to breathe. She was scared, as well she should be. She whispered the next words. "He, like yourself, was taken over by greed and power. He ran the city of Enoch with an iron fist. He was a tyrant. He spread your creation of a race throughout the city until the full of Enoch were vampires. Brezern knew we had to move out of Nod, to live with the humans so we could feed. But God came and found out what Brezern, and you, had done. He cursed our race and made it so the sun would burn our flesh. Brezern died when he thought God too weak to fulfill that curse. The rest of us became night dwellers."

"So Brezern is dead." I whispered. I thought for a while. This made things awkward, but I understood the purpose of his death. I was happy then. I knew that if it were not true, I would kill Brezern myself. He had done this to me, not my greed; it had been Brezern himself.

"Please, Cain, we are your creation." I laughed at her again. "The human's rule of this earth is almost spent. There will come a time when vampires will rule this earth. You must join us Cain, you must help us overtake them."

I thought then of what it would be like for vampires to rule instead of the human race. Isn't it that vampires needed humans to survive? They would kill themselves in their quest for power, just as Brezern had done and just as I had almost done. I looked at Aibel then. "I cannot." I said to her. "I was afraid I would have to live eternity alone, watching everyone die in front of me. I see now that it would have been better that way. It would have been better if Abel had lived and I had died."

Aibel's face took on a look of anger. I could only smile at her. "If you will not join us, Cain, then you will have to be destroyed." Aibel came forward then, with such speed that I did not even catch her until it was too late. She was upon me quickly. We tumbled to the ground and she dug her canines into my throat, digging it out and scratching at my already hideous face. Her fingernails dug up my skin. My face, streaked in my own blood, was becoming a more hideous sight because of her clawing and digging. She screamed at me when she saw I was not weakening. Her scream pierced at the night. What a human would have thought of it all had they seen this spectacle. She ripped at my throat with her teeth, pulling away flesh and muscle. I just let her do it, wondering if God's mark was gone now and I would truly be rid of this curse.

But it was not to be true. When Aibel had tired herself out, trying to kill me, I grabbed her wrists and flipped her over, so that I sat on top of her. She struggled a little, but she was weakened now. "Don't you understand that I cannot die?" I whispered to her, leaning down and putting my face close to hers. I watched my face heal itself in the pupils of her dark eyes. It had returned to it's first hideous state of being in a matter of seconds. "Do you know what I have come to realize in my years of solitude?"

Aibel spit at me and when I didn't continue, she harshly asked, "What?"

"That God made only one mistake in his entire time of being." The look of shock on her face made my insides laugh. "God put the fruit in the garden so that Adam and Eve could have knowledge. Without it, they would have not the sense to bear children. Not a mistake. God banished me and gave me eternal life because he knew that I would create this species. Not a mistake. He knew all of the things I would do. God was planning ahead, because he realized his mistake right after he performed it."

"What is your purpose Cain? Why would he do that?" Aibel cried. I pitied her then. What a cause she fought for. She had spent just as much time being a vampire as I had, yet she still didn't see the truth behind it all. It was a cruel truth. I would end her suffering.

I could only smile at her. I put my mouth to her ear. "Do you remember the floods, and how God promised to never again bring such destruction on the earth?" Aibel nodded beneath me. "Well, he kept his promise, but then again, he created me before he created the floods. I will bring destruction on the earth. I am God's clean up crew for the one mistake that he made."

Tears brimmed at Aibel's eyes. "What mistake was that?"

"The human race." I laughed, pulling Aibel up. I held her wrists as she struggled. Sitting on her legs, she squirmed beneath me. I smiled at her. The poor fool. "You have made it easy for me. Vampires are destroying humans every day, at a rate that is unimaginable. It is my job to destroy vampires. You may see it Aibel, but no one else does. Vampires will keep destroying and changing humans until there are no humans left. When that day comes, they will starve themselves. I will be there, Aibel. I will be there to help God restart the earth."

"What makes you so sure Cain? What if you're wrong and God really wants to destroy you? What if YOU are his greatest mistake?"

There is no doubt in my mind that Aibel was trying everything in her power to escape the truth. You would too, if you were looking death in the face. I still feel sorry for her, just a pawn in this game. But we are all pawns, forseen to walk the paths we walk, forseen to build the things we build, forseen to be what we have become. Each pawn plays it's own purpose in the game. We each have our own, some greater than others.

I smiled at her then. I reached into a pocket and pulled out a stone. My memento. "Do you see this? This is the same stone that I killed my brother with." She seemed confused. "I found this stone on my first day out of hiding."

God works in mysterious ways. We think sometimes he makes mistakes. When he takes a loved one without warning, when he gives us bastard children, when he just does something that we don't like. But God knows exactly what he is doing. Everything he does is done for a purpose.

I pulled Aibel closer to me, pushing her hands behind her back. Her neck was near to my face. Tears brimmed at her eyes. I never thought it possible for a vampire to cry. The ones I had drained had been cocky, full of themselves. I guess things change when you've been alive as long as Aibel had. All those years, protecting and loving the very thing that I was here to destroy. I put my forehead on her shoulder, shaking my head and sighing. She whimpered slightly.

"This will never happen." She whispered. "They will find you out and kill you. I've seen this before Cain. You won't do it." Her voice held anger and sadness all at once. I lifted my head and looked into her eyes.

"You're wrong. It starts now." I reached my head in suddenly, biting into her throat. She didn't have time to scream, or even yelp for that matter. Blood gurgled on her red lips, dripping down her chin onto the side of my face. A drop fell in my eye, but I blinked it away. Aibel's blood was the sweetest I had ever come across. Maybe it was because she was family and the blood of family is always the best. I had hinted towards that with Abel. As I continued to drain her, taking in chuncks of flesh as they caught in my jagged teeth, I watched her eyes dart around for some kind of savior.

It's funny. When Aibel was a little girl, I took her on my knee and told her about God, Adam, Eve, and especially about Abel. She loved Abel the best. She would make me tell stories of him over and over again.

Aibel gurgled on her own blood, spitting it out across my face. She was almost finished.

I told Aibel about how God makes mistakes all the time. How he carelessly uses his power to do whatever he wishes. I made it a lesson to her. It's not the power that makes the difference, it's what you do with it that does. She grew up with that.

Aibel's eyes rolled back and I let her fall. Her head cracked on the ground and she lay still. Her body pale, just like my first kill, just like my brother. I stared at her and everything she had become. There was no fault to be pointed at. There was no hate or anger to be shared. Aibel was a pawn, just as Brezern, Abel, and I had been.

Mistakes will be made. God made only one. He had not the heart to redeem himself on his own. Somewhere, in the back of his heart, he hoped that his creation would become what he had wanted them to become. But they haven't, and they never will. Beings that kill each other, hate each other, have jealousy, murder, rape, war; these are not the visions of God.

I will help God clean up his biggest mistake. I will help God rid the world of humans and vampires alike. I see now what my destiny is, what is has been from the beginning. This is my purpose, this is my reason for being, the reason behind everything I have ever done to forsaken myself and the ones I love. It all started with Abel.


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Notes: *Nod was the land that Cain was banished to after he killed his brother Abel. (All of this is in the bible.)

**The garden refers to the Garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve ate the fruit that gave them knowledge.

***Babel is referring to the tower of Babel, when all languages were separated.