web hosting short URLs photo sharing

Velcome All, Mortal and Immortal alike.

Hello, My Beautiful Children of the Night. I am adding to/editing this page all the time and I feel the need to explain a thing or two to you. I am writing this off the top of my head from memory and as an evolving work. Thus a paragraph you read one day may have changed the next. I will tell you when I have changed it by updating the date just below this paragraph, and will date any additions I make. To see an example of this scroll down the page, you will see where I left off one day and started on another. I love all your email. If I do not answer you right away please do not think I do not care, this page is as much for you as it is for me.

Thank You,

D.

Sit back turn on some music (I prefer Troccata and Fugune in D Minor or Gotterdammerung / Sigfreid's Funeral Music) and enjoy this humble dissertation. I was born a Romanian prince, some several centuries ago. I was born to Vladimir Dracule, and named after my father.
Dracule is dragon for my father was the fiercest of the fierce, and thus I became known as Dracula: From the Dragon or of the Dragon. My life as a child was uneventful as I was pampered as all good princes should be, that is until the war with the Turks. I was taken from my land and given to a Turkish Sultan. It was to keep peace between our two lands that I was to be the ward of the Sultan. I was not treated badly for a prisoner of that time, I was chained most of the time but learned to avoid beatings by not being openly belligerent, but deep inside me a hatred of all that was Turkish grew in me every moment of every day. As did a hatred for my father who had offered me up to these people I considered, Monsters.

Then one night as I lay sleeping, the thing that would change everything happened. I was awakened by a woman whose beauty was beyond that of mere words, whose seductive powers was that of the great goddesses of ancient times. I was a young man no more than 16 years, and taken to the fancy of women by my mere nature, but this woman, this goddess, was unlike any I had known before. She loved me, and brought me out from the veil that is the innocence of childhood. She visited me in my chambers on two consecutive nights, before I was to learn of her true nature. By then it was too late for me to do anything to oppose her. And why should I? She brought to me news of my fathers failing health and told me that I would be returned to my most lovely homeland in the morning. To become the extension of my captors, a figurehead leader. So that the Sultan could drain the life?s blood from my beloved homeland. I wanted so desperately to go home that I would agree to anything the sultan offered, just to leave this place. The sultan knew this of course.

Then she told me of her plan, I would agree to the Sultans demands, but when I returned home I would change the course of events set into being by the Sultan, and my lover and goddess would help me through every step. She then said that I should enter into a blood contract with her, not an unusual arrangement for the time, but the method of this agreement was unique to my experience. I had no more than agreed to her suggestion, when she drew my head to her breast where just above the heart there grew a trickle of blood, and asked me to drink of her blood and join her in eternal life.

A lust grew in me that I could not imagine and mere words fail to describe a need to partake in this unholy communion. My mouth drew closer my lips trembling, my heart pounding as though it would beat down the very wall of my chest. My lips touched the place, and an ecstasy overtook me, I drew of her blood, I tasted the flesh, I at that moment knew all that was her and she me. We were forever joined, bonded in that blood that we now both shared.

She then asked me if I would surrender my life to her and her alone. I agreed. She lay me back against my pillow, drew my collar down and kissed my neck. I heard a low growling sound coming from my goddess and then, sweet agony as she drove her teeth deep into the flesh of my neck. A chill overtook my body and a shudder of utter delight came over me. When she was finished I lay drained and spent, she kissed my lips softly and bid me goodnight. I was asleep with the vision of her and her radiant beauty fresh in my mind.

The following morning I awoke to find my room empty with the acceptation of one servant come to wake me. Had it all been a dream. No, that taste of heaven or perhaps it was hell lingered in my mouth. I still felt a fever, a lust coursing through my veins that could only be the essence of this woman. And something, I did not fully understand had changed in me. Nothing I could pinpoint but something, perhaps everything was changed.

As I was told the night before I was to return to my homeland, and was to be king. My father had died, but the condition was to be that my rule would be in accordance to the Sultans wishes and if I were to disagree I would be taken captive again, and this time not treated so well. I will know if you do not do as I say were the sultan?s words. I pretended to cower to his commands. In my heart I knew it would be different terms that this monster and I would meet under next, her would bow down before me and beg for his life before I extinguished it. I could see it as clearly as if it were that very day. My trip home was completed under secrecy of night, much, I found to my liking, for when the sun arose I felt drained and tired, but when the night was upon us I was energized, much to the dissatisfaction of my guards and captors. I saw not my lover, for the many days it took to return home, and when I did arrive in my homeland she seemed to be of the stuff dreams are made of and nothing more, a figment of a young lustful imagination.

I was to be ordained king the following day, I could not force myself to enter the church. It is my distrust of these clerics, who could have but refused to give me sanctuary I told myself. To them they believed I had converted to the religion of the Turks and was showing my independence from the homeland by not attending my own coronation. We were both wrong.

I was made king, and would tomorrow start ruling my land. I would guess it to be middle night when the vision came to me, my woman my goddess, there in the full moons light, beckoning me to come to her to hold her body, her body that felt so real so made of the stuff of this world. I could offer her no refusal. We loved each other. While we were one, she told me that she was not of this world, not anymore, and that I was not either. But that we were together now the stuff that children?s tales and superstition were made of. She opened my eyes and heart to the reality of my existence, my immortality. I will share this eternity with you she told me an offer I had only dreamt she would make.

What is your name my goddess? Alore, was her answer. I loved her more than any mortal could and she loved me equally.
I announced our marriage the following day. The church did not dare oppose me. My advisors (placed by the Sultan no doubt) silently opposed me, but even their whispers in other parts of the castle seemed like shouts to me, my senses had expanded. As had my hatred for all that was known to me before.

Alore and I spent Many years loving each other. There were no children born to us. That was not possible considering our true state, and for the best. My lands crawled with traitors, assassins, spies and other scum placed by the Sultan during the years of my asylum. But that would soon change...

At this point I want to clear up something that has been contributed to history, as fact but is not. I was not a tyrant, I was not cruel to my people. I felt a certain compassion for the people I reigned over. I did feed on humans, but only to sustain my life, no more evil than any thing that kills to survive. Is an eagle evil when it swoops down on a rabbit or snake to feed? Thus was my nature. It is true that I felt a sort of kindred with other creatures of the night, the same as another man may have for his dog, of his flock. I did kill on mass sometimes when it was necessary, one episode was when I took a hoard of traveling thieves and murderers who disguised themselves as minstrels and invited them to entertain me at my castle. I first offered them a feast the likes of which only heads of state had seen before in my court. The wine was drugged, and when all that partook of it were in a deep slumber I barred the doors and burned down the halls to sterilize my land of this pestilence that was over taking it. The same as I would have any plague.
In the war that ensued I took all Turkish prisoners and their dead and my internal enemies and had them impaled and placed on my borders. To show the invaders their fate if they dared enter my lands. This alone saved thousands on both sides for the war ended and my lands were sovereign afterwards. The name Vlad Tepish is one of respect and reverence. Not one of dread as it is translated today. If I were given the respect other generals and heads of state of history have, my name would be held in the same category with Sun Tzu or McArthur or Churchill. But because a person named Bram Stoker wrote about me, when he was of the same nature, a vampire, I am seen historically only as something to be fearful of and a tyrant.

My imprisonment was avenged, during the war I took my Sultan placed advisors and there families and imprisoned them, but instead of treating them well I worked them, most to death, building a grand fortress on my lands border with the Turks. And when the Sultan himself returned to his home, I came to him, in the night, slowly materializing at his balcony. He woke to see me standing there, he rubbed his eyes, and then smiled as if acknowledging his vision to be a bad dream. I assured him it was not. Before he could call to his guards, I was upon him. I placed my hand over his mouth and gently thanked him for it was he who had made my change possible. Then as he seemed to relax, thinking that I would spare him, my teeth hit their mark. I felt the warm blood coursing from his vein. I felt the life leaving his body and entering mine. The blood is the life, and what you took from me I now take from you I thought. Then it was done. I was avenged. My captor slain.

After many years of peace, I, for my land's sake had to abdicate the throne, after all I had quit aging. With Alore s help I kept up the ruse of growing older but that can only be maintained so long. So with the careful planing of my partner Alore I faked my own death and left my homeland, forever. This is why my tomb in Romania is empty. My apologies to the poor monk who guards it. If you ever get a chance to visit Romania please see it. It is most beautiful.

Over the centuries I have lived as a gentleman farmer, a nobleman from foreign lands, and under many other guises. I may be living right now as your next door neighbor.

It was not until what you refer to as the Victorian Era that I was to know heartbreak. It was the rising interest in what was to be called the paranormal that brought interest in all things extraordinary and anything thought to be otherworldly. I was with my Alore living in London at the time. Communication was faster and more accurate than ever, and the occasional blood drained, victim, did not go without notice. It was a September night when the mob found us. We were feeding and in its throws Alore and I were less than cognizant of the occurrences around us. When I saw them it was too late. The men were upon us like a pack of wolves, I was stuck several blows that I fended off, but one of the men with a wooden pitchfork found his mark in my princess?s heart. She turned to dust before my eyes. I flew into a blind rage and killed many of them before they retreated. Before they could regroup I was gone into the night. And my love was gone from me.

I stayed in London for two more years, always hopping without hope that my princess would walk back into our flat. She never came home. I lived as a hermit of sorts for those two years, in a deep depression. I was seen a few more times by the populace, but never again did I let a mortal suppress me. If you look for a figure in history called Jumping Jack, that was I. They portrayed me as some sort of devil, who could leep over tall walls, and even the occasinal building. They even said I left cloven-hoofed footprints. I assure you I have an ability to leap over a wall of significant height, but that my feet look just like any of yours.

After that I left London, for Stockholm, the Swedish are a lovely people, with delightfully open minds. I could feed without killing, and as long as I was careful not to share blood go on forever unnoticed. (It is in the sharing of blood that other vampires are made, and with caution this is controlled, rarely a particularly young or inexperienced vampire will inadvertently cause another to become a vampire by allowing a crossing or mixing of blood to occur during feeding, but it is rare.) This is where the three bites myth comes from. It is also true that we do not have to kill our victims, we can feed on the same victim many times, just like mortals can donate blood. We often have to kill our victims to keep our anonymity. It dose not contribute to a long immortality to allow yourself to be identified as the undead.

Continued on 6/1/99

Stockholm would have been my home for a long time, perhaps forever. If it were not for a certain Dr. Van Helsink. Yes, there was an actual Dr. Van Helsink, he was a doctor of theology, not medicine, but I imagine he saw himself as a miracle worker in the many aspects, of the body mind and spirit. He was a small-minded man who took it upon himself to rid the world of what he considered to be evil. Namingly me and all that were like me.

He was at first nothing more than a nuisance. Occasionally showing up at inopportune times, like feedings. He even killed a couple of my, what he called victims, to keep them from eternal damnation. Little did he know that left alone these willing subjects would not have been any the worse for wear, other than perhaps a slight dizziness the following day. This went on for months, perhaps years, when he finally blundered into my resting-place. I am quite sure that this was an accident, for when I awakened, he was stunned into silence. I made an attempt to explain to Van Helsink that he was misguided, but his religious zeal kept him from hearing my words. After his third or fourth attempt at touching me with some ridiculous religious item, I had no choice but to take his life.

Here is how I remember the battle...

Added 6/11/99

It was the creak of the door that fist made me aware of van Helsink's presence, this was unusual, normally I can hear a mortal sneaking along like one of them could hear an elephant in the proverbial china shop. He had done his homework apparently. But none-the-less he was stunned when he rounded the corner, lantern in hand, into my crypt to see me rising out of my coffin. (Yes, I sleep in a coffin.) I could smell his fear, an acrid scent. I would reckon it to the scent of strong urine. with a touch of hydrochloric acid thrown in for good measure. But he advanced despite his fear. Shouting -Down with you devil! - And -screaming the Lord's Prayer- and waving a crucifix.
I tried to calm him, normally an easy task for me on a mortal, but he had worked himself up to such frenzy. I could not. He charged me with a container of, what I assume was holy water. I wanted to take it from him and take a drink of it to show him how silly and weak he was. But as I reached for the container, he, with the speed of a man twenty years his junior, swung with a wide arc a stake, aimed for my heart. It missed, but not by much, and it drove deep into my chest. My only thoughts were of the vision of my princess, the night she was taken from me. This Von Helsink that I had seen as a mere nuisance up until this point, suddenly looked to me just like the murderer of my most precious Alore.

I, almost without control, grabbed Von Helsink. By his right arm, the one that held the stake, and by his throat. I pinned him to the back wall of my crypt, his feet dangling, trying to touch the floor. He kicked at me. I laughed. I twisted the arm with the stake until I heard a crunching and a popping sound. The stake hit the floor. Tears came to Von Helsink's eyes, a tremble to his lips. The smell I smelled now was urine. I laughed. Then with slow precision, but before he could beg me for his life, I bit into his throat, not merle to puncture but to destroy. I could feel his warm wet blood as it ran down my shirt and jacket. He tasted better than I expected. Then I left his body for the rats. His students would come looking for him I knew, and even though I could probably take all their lives, it would be more of a bother than it was worth, and honestly I had grown tired of being hunted. Even by these ammeturs.

I left Stockholm the following day wounded, with the help of a newly acquired friend. Renfield.

Before I tell you about Renfield, let me explain something.
Wounding: I can be wounded like any of you. I just always heal from my wounds. Like all my other senses though, pain is heightened. It is only my "strength of the dead" that keeps me from going mad with every injury. Whenever you get a benefit, heightened sense of smell for example, there is always a price paid.

Added 6/19/99

Renfield. Unlike the Movies and books you may have read, Renfield is quite sane. A little strange but quite sane. I met him while I was in Stockholm, it was on Blinten Strada (sic) he was sitting in a coffee shop (A relatively new thing at that time - tea was all the rage). He wore an all black suit and with his pallid complexion I could have mistaken him for the dead. With one exception, he was whistling and very loudly at that. He just sat there whistling sipping his cup of coffee with his head hung low looking occasionally at a newspaper he had on the table. The paper was in a condition that could only be described as a wad.

"What a strange little fellow." I thought to myself as I passed.
"I am not so strange." Came his reply.
Needless to say I was intrigued at this "interesting" looking chap that had apparently just read my mind!
"I am fine." piped Renfield
My Question "How do you do sir?" Had not yet left my lips!
"That is an interesting talent you have there, friend." I said .
"Not any more so than those you posses." Was his reply?
"What could you know of me." I insisted.
"Everything, well at least everything you just thought of that you hoped I couldn't see." He said slyly.
"Well, should I then" I said playing along with him for now.
"Kill me, no. I will come in handy, and very soon to." Mashing his sentence between bars of whatever it was he was whistling.
"So, you are a seer as well as a mind reader?" I put to him.
"If that is what you call it I suppose I am. I have always just thought of it as intuitive." then a slurp from the cup punctuated his sentence.
I having never seen such talent in one not obviously associated with the black (not really black just magical) arts started to ask if I could join him.
"Yes, please sit, I don't get to many other opportunities to speak with someone of your nature." he said before I could air my question.

Added 7/26/99

Hello again children, I have to apologize for my absence, it seems the server I am using for this page did some upgrades and my browser decided that we were no longer compatible. But I believe that is over now. So on with my story...

So I sat, he offered me nothing to drink, and said with a smile and a thick accent "I never drink...wine."
I almost burst into laughter, thinking, "hey that's my line".
Within moments he and I had become friends, his talent was remarkable, allowing me to finish my own sentences when it made the story more interesting and finishing them for me when it was in the interest of time.

"Come we have to go now. Van Helsink's students are looking for you and the sun will be up in a few moments." He said gulping down the last of his coffee." We will have to go to your flat."
I cannot tell you why but I almost immediately trusted this strange little man, it seemed that with no ability to hide anything from him there was any need for distrust.
As we rounded the corner off the street leading toward my house, I could hear the foot steps of Van Helsink's students at the far end of the Street we had just left, That was the first time I had truly benefited from Renfield's interesting abilities (And it would not be the last)

I awoke just after sundown the following evening, to the sound of Ren whistling that same strange song, as soon as I entered the sitting room where he was; he said, "sleep well?"
"Like the dead" I replied with a grin.
"We are leaving for London tonight, I have made all the necessary arraignments. You can no longer stay here in Sweden with Van Helsink's students looking for you, and if you do not heed me they will find you.
"What do you want in return for your help?" I asked, expecting to hear "immortality" or something like it in return, but instead he replied "Companionship."
"Because of my talent I have no one, people are so afraid of the 'strange and unusual' you are not. Just as I know I have no need to fear you, you have no fear of me" His face turning grim during his little speech. "Plus, You are the only one I know with more reason to be shunned by mankind than I, and I find that an endearing quality" he said grinning.
Ren's plan went off without a hitch, he knew in advance how much to bribe the captain of the ship we took, to keep the boxes we brought from being "accidentally" looked into or disturbed.
We brought just what was necessary for survival, earth from my homeland, about one tone in six containers and my coffin. Renfield packed a small bag; I did not see him do it, so it may have been packed for days before we met. I always wanted to ask him about that, but never got the chance.

London, had not changed much, since I had been there still as seedy and marvelous as I had remembered, a terribly dreary place sometimes, it is no wonder that so many of my kind find themselves there. Renfield owned Carfax Abby, for years before I knew him. It was comfortable enough for me, and Ren and I lived there many years, he always working to renovate the place, at least that is what he said, to justify his presence there, but he always managed to hire the laziest workers in Great Britain to keep the work from ever being finished, I think he liked it as disheveled and ruinous as I did. He quickly became my daytime eyes, ears, hands and body. Something I had never had before.

Because of his gift we were never wanting for anything, he could turn a shilling into a fortune in a day.
Quite handy when my fortune started to dwindle.
And he always knew just what would please me, one night he returned a little after dark with a lovely young blonde woman, I would guess about 19 years of age
He had found her in the streets, trying to sell herself.
Seeing her naive smile and her shy manners I guessed that he had "rescued" her, from losing her innocence, or what was left of it. Renfield poured her a rather large glass of Absince (am opium based drink, quite delicious, tastes of fruit, and champagne, but warmer in effect) she drank it fast, too fast, and looked as if she would fall in a swoon. Ren was there to catch her, he aided her to a large couch we had in the library, and told her she could rest there for now and he would be back straight away, to care to her needs He pulled me into another room, with the glint in his eye one would expect to see in the eye of a naughty six-year-old boy. He was bubbling with excitement, when he said; " I want to see you take her."
This was a new game and a request he had not ever made before...

Added 8/2/99

"You are truly insane, "I said
"No, not insane, something entirely different" came his reply between his smile parted lips
"Why? Why would you want to see such a thing?" I asked
"Because it is something I have never before seen, and I am curious as to how willing this little trollop will be to give her soul over to a strange. I wonder if it will be a easy as she thought giving her body would be."
Renfield had an interesting hobby, he would watch people in unusual positions, and see how they got them selves into or out of them. He used to say human nature was the only thing he could never see clearly, he could see beginnings and ends but never the stuff that made up the in between.
"I must attend to our guest.? Ren said, "You wait here I want to introduce you properly." He then left the room. I could hear him in the other room speaking to our lovely houseguest. "I want you to see something.? He said. "You must not panic, and you must give yourself freely, like you were willing to do for me when I saw you on the street." "I ... do I... Who?.. "Then weeping was her reply. "Now, now.." came Ren's voice,"no need for tears my dear, I simply want you to see something marvelous." His voice could be quite soothing and it sounded to me to be working. "Master!" came his shout, as if I may have been far away in the Abby.
"Yes." I said as I entered the room
"I want you to show her." he said "Show her everything, show her why you are the master, show her why you are a god."
Panic seemed to be over taking the young girl as Ren accented the word "God".
"Easy child." I said "Easy now, we mean you no harm." Focusing on the part of her mind that was panicked, I could see the relaxing sounds of my voice starting to work, "relax now, ease your self." Her lips parted, they were the color of ripe berries, and I wondered how they would taste. Then it struck me, I had, had no such feelings since losing my princess, and I felt as if I had just read Ren's mind. This was an offering, not to my need to feed, but to the melancholy that had taken my heart, and by playing his little game, Ren had caused me to see her beauty and not just to look upon her as a meal.
"That's it!" Exclaimed Ren. "I will leave you two alone now." He said through a wide smile, and then he left the room.
I looked at this lovely young girl for what must have been an hour, stroking her hair and watching her breath, I remembered how it was to feel.
"I am ready now." She said, looking up at me through half open eyelids. "Take me away from this place life has taken me to. Free me" She exposed her long and lovely white neck.
I bent over her and my teeth found their place. The hot nectar of her life coursed out of her and into me, I drew slowly upon it, tasting every drop of her life's essence.
Feeding had been little more than a necessity for so long, I had almost forgotten the exquisite pleasure of it when it was savored slowly.
She moaned lightly as life left her, and as I set her back upon the couch a smile braced her lips, and she exhaled and was dead. A shiver of ecstasy shook my body; I lay there spent and at the same time fully energized.
"Oh that was more marvelous than I could have imagined." came Ren's voice from somewhere behind me.
"Did you see the whole thing?" I inquired
"Yes, every delicious second. It was marvelous how easily she gave in when she realized what she was giving up, and that you could mercifully save her from the life she had chosen."
"Is that what I did?"
"Oh, that and more, she loved you in the last moments of her life... and you loved her, didn't you?"
"You're the goddamned mind reader, you tell me!" I shouted at him
Somehow feeling he had seen something that was private
"Do not be unkind to you humble servant. I was merely wishing to share that with you. It was my way of experiencing your immortality, or a piece of it. Do not be angered, I thought it was lovely, and you will know I did it for you as much as me soon." he said bowing slightly as he left the room
"Get out and leave me alone." I was thinking, "God, I hate it when he does that." I said to myself
The though and feeling of the life I had supped on from that girl stayed with me for the rest of the night, a warm sensation that filled me. And despite my temporary anger with Ren I was truly glad he had brought her to me... Of course he knew I would be.

Continued on 9/16/99

It was the fall of 1867 and a lovely time to be in London, the weather was truly horrible, which kept the mortals, for the most part off of the streets, and allowing me free movement around the quickly growing city.
I am sure you all have heard how "we" can move without being seen, by moving too fast for mortal perception, or in the form of a mist, which by the way is tantamount to being invisible in London's foggy evenings. Another reasons my kind love this city.
But I liked to roam in human form. I found it, somehow, nostalgic, to move about this way.
I was rounding a corner near Piccadilly and ran into Ren (literally). It was like he had just materialized. "You startled me!" I said, a little annoyed at myself for not knowing he was there.
?Come, quickly, I have someone you need to meet." Renfield said, grinning at his ability to sneak up on me and looking more than a little pleased with himself.
Who now? I said. "Another little lamb turned street whore?" Feeling still a little violated at Ren's voyeurism.
"Oh, no. This is someone with which you have a certain destiny" His grin growing wider.
He took my hand and led me to a house on at the end of a long street. There was the light of a lamp clearly visible in one of the windows. And my curiosity, I have to admit, was getting the better of me. One thing about my time with Renfield, he always found ways of making it interesting.
I levitated up to the window and saw inside a young man, of about twenty years, the room he was in was filled with books and manuscripts, and he sat at a table off to a side scribbling feverishly in a well-worn tome.
"Who is he?" I said to Ren.
"A friend." He said.
"Of whom? You or I" "Both soon."
"You and your mysteries tier me." I said flatly
"Oh, you love it and you know it" He said knowing he was right.
"Well go knock on the door and see if our 'friend' will let a Vampire and a loony in, at this hour of the night." I said, now smiling myself
"No need to knock, he is expecting us." Ren said bounding up the stairs to the front door like a child taking a parent to see something he was proud of. "Well come on. We only have a few hours before you have to be back." Ren said, now sounding like the parent. He apparently reading my last thoughts of him and the steps. All I could do was grin and follow. Ren, like always, was right, I loved his little mysteries. They kept immortality from being boring, a fate that comes to more of my type than not.
Boredom is the main reason the planet is not overrun with Vampires, after a few centuries, most of us just simply grow bored and retire underground, or turn to vapor and go out into the cosmos. The latter being, the vampyric version of suicide. Our innate sense of self-preservation does not allow for any other way for most of us. But it is said to be a very beautiful way to spend what is left of eternity, a sort of nirvana if you will.
I entered the house right behind Ren. He was almost skipping he was so excited at this latest game.
He said entering the room, "I have someone I think you would like to meet." to the stranger. Who seemed a little annoyed to be taken from his work. "This is Prince Vladimir Dracule, the one you have been dreaming about. Master meet a friend. This young man's name is Bram, you and he have a lot to discuss." Ren said with a little bow backing up so the stranger and I could fully see each other.
It was interesting to see the stranger?s face, it went from a look of unbelief, to one of terror, to one of joy. Apparently he knew more of me than I did of him and like always, Ren was smiling and enjoying his little game. I enjoyed it too.

Added 10/9/99

"What can I do for you?" I asked this poor creature. He looked as if he had not slept for days.
"It is you, the Man" came a shaky reply. "I - I have dreamt of you. You- you are the monster...'er -a- Master." He said looking as if he would faint. "I have written down an account of my dreams. -Would you care to read it?"
At this point I was a little more than curious as to what this poor mortal had been writing. It was obviously about me, but what. "Of course." I said "But first, relax. You are in no danger." He started to regain color almost immediately once that was said. What he had written was a mostly accurate account of my life, with all but a few things left sketchy.
"Very entertaining dreams." I said handing the manuscript back "How long have you been having them?"
"Since childhood... master."
"And what do you plan to do with these writings of yours?" I said in the kindest tone I could.
"Yes! What exactly!" said Ren in a rather loud accusing tone. Then as Bram wheeled to face Renfield, again looking as if he very well may hit the floor unconscious. Ren grinned at him and said. "I was growing bored with you two, that excited things a little. Don't you think?" His glance going to me. "It seems that Bram here has been dreaming of you and your exploits, and just knew that you were coming for him. That is why you wrote everything down isn't it?" Ren stated suddenly looking very serious again.
"Well,,, Yes,,, but I-I never told you that. How did you know?" Bram's voice was growing weaker and more tremulous by the second. "I quit asking him how he does that years ago." I said placing a hand on Bram's shoulder to soothe him.
Instead of relaxing he groaned a little groan and slid to the floor unconscious!
"Oh! That was rich!" came from Renfield with a cackling laugh rolling out behind." Did you see the look on his face when you touched him? I thought his very soul would leap from his body and go running around the room screaming like a banshee!"
I looked at Ren sternly, "Why torture this poor man? It is obvious that I am going to have to take his life. Is it necessary to torture him as well?
Ren looked at me with a combination of hurt and shock on his face "No, no! You don't. Let me tell you my plan..."

ADDED 12/23/99

Ren then proceeded to attempt to explain how human nature caused people to deny the things they truly feared..."It is like death, it is always coming for someone else..." Then he said" Listen, if we make you famous, nobody will believe in you, vampires maybe but not you. It is all so very simple."
I was getting a headache trying to follow his logic, but in the years I had known Ren he never put me on a wrong track.
"Let him write his book, but we need to guide him a little. So he does not reveal anything too embarrassing. Did you know he knows how you were created? How you killed Van-what's-his-name? He knows much, but just as you or I would remember a dream, it comes to him a piece at a time in his waking hours. We can help those memories form, help him to develop a story line that would throw off those who would seek you."
So there I was looking at the unconscious form of the man who would make me immortal in the dreams and nightmares of those to come. An interesting proposition. "Yes, but how will he write anything if he is in that state." I said pointing at the crumpled body on the floor. "Just watch,? said Ren pulling some salts from his pocket.
Barm started to stir, and Ren said in a comforting voice, "I think you have had a convulsion. Bram, are you alright?"
"Yes, I had this terrible dream, the Man himself was here." His eyes, starting to open. "He touched me and his hand was cold as death." eyes a little more open pushing the salts away." He - He- he" almost slipping away again at the sight of me.
"No, No, No!" Ren said shaking him a bit by the shoulders, this is my friend, a psychic named Albert Ucard. He has come all the way from the Carpethias to hear of your dreams. He has studied with the greats of mental sciences and is very interested in your story."
Bram seemed to snap back to reality. "You mean he isn't a - a "
"A vampire? Why most certainly not." Ren said with a little chuckle.
"Does he look like the man from your dreams?"
"Yes, very much so." Bram said a little shaky
"A simple case of transposition" Ren said, with just a hint of VanHelsink's accent.
I could not help but to grin a bit.
"He thinks you should put your dreams down on paper, like you have been, but in a story. As sort of a way of cleansing your psyche of its daemons."

ADDED 12/26/99

"You seemed to be in a swoon when we entered the room." Said Renfield. "Are you feeling better now?"
Seeming very confused at the evening?s events Bram said, still quite shaken. "That was a dream..." his stare going to some recent memory, then with a shudder. "It seems so real... This night is truly the culmination of my, my visions, of my dreams. It just all seems so real"
"Relax now." Ren said. "Take a moment to gather yourself, and we can start at the beginning."
It took longer for him to seem to come back to the here-and-now than I had expected it to. He was truly a haunted soul.
After several long moments Ren said. "Why don't we come back tomorrow night? Say around seven bells, after you've supped. We can go over all of it then."
Ren as always was looking after my well being. The sun would be up in just a couple short hours and there was so much to discuss. We took our leave. All the way back home Ren and I, talked about Renfield's plan. It was ingenious. Bram would write a horror story, with just the information we wanted in it. Then even if my identity were accidentally reveled, I would be written off as impossibility, just a story. It was perfect.

The world was changing and Renfield knew it. It was no longer the place of superstition it had been when I was created. Surely the innate human trait of superstition was still alive and well, but it had changed, from the stories of dragons and monsters, to one of the here and now, one of ghosts of the recently departed and mystics and phrenology. All of which were quite laughable to Ren. The time was right for me to become, nobody, a children's story, a myth.
It took near six months of evening visits to Bram's flat to refine our little story, into what you know today. There were only a few points that Ren could not talk Bram into changing. VanHelsink's name for one.

Others of my ilk have asked me about Willamina several times over the centuries. To you the reader of this page I will tell you this. What was written in the book is not accurate, but was rather revealed in the Movie of the same title, that recently was released. But more about that later.

Within a year the story of my life was published, and was an almost instant success. Renfield's plan worked like a charm. I was now and would forever be in the eyes of humanity, anything but who I am. A few times Renfield actually introduced my as "Count Dracula" always to the amusement of our hosts. It was just one of the many games he played with human reaction.

It was not for several years that I visited Bram again. It was a cold evening, I remember it as being in the fall. Bram was sitting at his desk, much in the same fashion he had been the first night I saw him. I opened the window, on the second story that looked into his study. It was without sound that it opened. When the cold draft of the open window came to Bram's attention, he looked up to see me standing there in my material body. He smiled, I expected terror, but instead he smiled!
"I have been expecting you. I am surprised that you took so long to visit me." He said without the weakness in his voice that he had, had the night of our first meeting.
"Have you slept well, without your troublesome dreams?" I asked "Yes, my master." Was his reply? " I have found the peace you promised."
"Amazing strength he has" I thought, "Renfield was always so right."
"Do you know why I am here?" I asked.
"Yes, master. You have come to take me home."
I had not thought of it that way, but he was right. I was there to repay him for his service, with immortality.
I had lost Renfield earlier that year, and I was lonely. I wanted Bram to say he wanted immortality, that he wanted to venture the centuries with me, his master, and his willing teacher. Almost as I had been Renfield's unsuspecting student.
He walked the few steps across the room to me, exposing the vein in his neck that his dreams had told him was where I took the blood of life from.

" I am ready master. Drink" He closed his eyes and seemed to sigh as my teeth found their mark.
I started to draw the life's blood from his mortal body. As I did so, he held me close, with all the strength he could muster. I felt his grip start to weaken as the life ebbed from him.
"It is time.? I said, " You must drink from my vein now!"
He tried to pull my head back to his neck. "No" came the word, weakly as if from a sob" I will not live the nightmare"
" No! Bram, please." I said astonished, begging." You must drink or you will die." "I - I need you. I cannot be alone, please don't let me be alone."
"Go to hell" he said through the bluish lips that would soon be lifeless.
I opened the vein in my wrist and tried to thrust it into his parted lips. With an amazing reserve of effort, he pushed my arm away, and said again "Go to hell!" Then the life left him.
?NO! NO! NO!" I screamed "HOW CAN THIS HAPPEN AGAIN! I CURSE YOU MOTHER! I CURSE YOU MY CREATOR!" I fell to my knees sobbing.
Renfield had refused the gift too. He had died in my arms. He had succumbed to an illness of mortals, and would not let me give him eternal life. He had broken my heart that night. He was my closest friend. And now I guess, that my attempt to bring Bram into the realm of darkness was my attempt to replace Renfield.
It was in the third night of his illness, that I came to him. "You are weaker,? I said. "You told me that you would get better"
"I am getting ... better." he said, with the little grin I had come to identify as his way of revealing his inner sarcasm.
"Do not lie to me." I said a little angry.
"I am dying" he said, "All the visions, the troubling visions are gone. There is only peace in my sight now."
"Please stay with me. Please let me give you the gift. I did not know how empty my heart was until you came to fill it."
"I have always done your bidding, have I not?"
"Yes.
"Then let me have peace"
"But I will be lonely."
"Yes, you will be, but that is your burden, that is your true curse. I have always known it to be so." He sounded so weak.
"I will not let you go! I will not let death take you! Not when I have the power, to keep it from you!'
"Do you remember when you asked me if I wanted to take the gift of immortality from you?" he said.
"Yes"
"Do you remember my answer?
"Yes" he had told me no.
"Then if you love me allow me my wish, and allow my peace."
I, not being able to imagine existence without my friend, left the room, mad as hell. Thinking that as he grew closer to oblivion that he would change his mind.
As I stomped from the room like a spoiled child, I heard him whistling that funny little song, that he was when I had met him. I stayed away from him all that night, and just as dawn's rosy red fingers breached the morning sky, the whistling stopped. I never heard it again.

That is all for now... please come back soon as I will be continuing my story.

Now check out my book selections

Books/movies

View My guestbook Sign my guestbook

home|Vampire Links|Books and movies|My Story|Pictures of the Children of the Night|Vlad's eBay ( I sell rare and antiquerian books there)

Ready to go? Try this.

Search the Net:
Search for Max hits: