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The night was bitter. Endless were the numbers of stars that drifted in the twilight. The midnight sun was shining brightly down upon me as I stared onward into the galaxy. A few leaves rustled below as I could hear from my place on the damp tiled roof. My only source of warmth was the black trench coat which I wore every evening to greet my love, the moon. Ah, this love for such an untouchable object was the spawn of my waking thoughts-the shimmer that was constantly in the corner of my eyes. Day upon day I waited in solitude for night to come, just to gaze upon the beauty that was within the night’s sky.  Glorious elegance, such subtle radiance, and such passion in the stories it held. The rigid crevices were that of my waking immortal life, to no end were they, from wherever you were to see it.
That night would be not unlike any other night. I would have to prey upon an innocent soul, maybe twice, three times, only to return again in the darkness of the shards that draped above the piano, which stood as the centerpiece of my brilliant home. Much like all mansions in Venice, I of course had a piano. The instrument kept all of my rage, and all of my emotions within the keys I struck so violently. It broke the silence of my solemnity, which I did not care for, but of course, did not mind, for no vampire likes much company.
It has been, I think, two hundred years since I had left my master, companionless, but not fully alone. His name was Belenus, and a suitable name that was, for it originated in Celtic mythology, for “bright” or “brilliant.” I loved him. He had made me what I am today, and have been ever since, five hundred years ago-a powerful vampire, feeding upon anyone that would pass me in the streets, only to keep alive. Blood certainly wasn’t for show, and I could say that I didn’t long for it like an elegant white wine. I merely needed it for sustenance, you see. My loving master, Belenus, had given me the name that I introduced myself to you today, of Valdyr. Before, in my mortal days, so long ago, I was but the mere Jonathan, roaming the streets of Italy drunken and without a cause, usually passing out in a horse-drawn carriage or park bench.
As I had said, it had been nearly two hundred years since I had seen my master, or even heard from my master. I only wished to see his face again, shadowed under the light of the moon. The essence of his soft hair, so delicate between my fingers, would be a delight for the ages. I missed him so terribly. I missed him so much that I could not yet think of making a companion for myself: someone to teach and to have ask me the undying questions that newborn immortals always wish to know the answers to. In my heart I was still the student, though. A student that only wanted the comfort of his master’s soothing hands, dramatized by the subtle whispers that would subconsciously come about in each others presence.
Perhaps I should continue on with my story at the beginning of the end. I shall take you to the time in my immortal life when I chose to leave Belenus. Or rather, when he chose to leave me.

My master took me by the hand, his long talons digging into my palm, and led me to the garden in the back of the home we had lived in for three hundred years. It was a full moon, and I had hoped he had dragged home a special victim for me, as a present or something of the sort. Maybe he just wanted to sit under the stars with me until sunrise. I didn’t know. He had taken me from my writing in the den, so suddenly, and there was no time for questioning. When he did not speak at times such as then, there was no room for me to either. And so I followed him, unaware of the truth that was about to unfold. It was the time I had feared would come too soon, and indeed had.

“Such a beautiful night it is, Belenus,” I said lightly. “To what do I owe this great pleasure of sitting under the stars and Mother Moon with you?” We sat down on the bench amidst well-kept shrubbery.
“My precious Valdyr,” said Belenus, “You are so beautiful. What a great vampire you have become. I am proud to say you’ve learned many things, have you not?”
“Oh, but I have, Master. I have indeed. You’ve been a great teacher, and I look forward to more of your teachings. For everyday you teach me something new.” A few fireflies danced past us, providing only an inkling of light on our faces for brief seconds. Belenus took my hand with a smile.
“I shall, Valdyr, I shall. But you must give me time. I will always be here, and so should you, just as beautiful.” He paused and dragged his finger across my cheek. His nails scratched the surface of my skin so much as to provide an indescribable sensation. It was a feeling I would carry with me for the rest of my life. “I love you Valdyr. More than you shall ever perceive.”
He leaned in to kiss me. His lips were soft, but cold; colder than the air, but refreshing as such. A few wisps of his hair brushed gently across my skin. Our moment of love seemed to last for an eternity saturated with absolute passion. Suddenly, he rose to his feet, lifting my chin with the tip of his finger.
“You have to leave now, Valdyr,” he said out of context. “I hope to see you in another hundred years at least. But you must remember this: time is no matter. Love is what will bring you back to me.”
“But Master,” said I, “I don’t understand. You wish for my absence now of all times? I must ask why. Why, Belenus? Why must I leave you?”
“It is time for you to get a companion of your own. You know you have the strength. I know it. All in the house know it. It’s time for you to use your powers without my consent.”
I stood up. “I will leave. I will leave knowing I shall see you in a short time. But it is you, Belenus my love, who wishes my departure. Not I. I hoped this day would not come. I have only my tears to give you for all you have given me. Three hundred years of contemporary love and loyalty.” He raised his hands as to stop me, placing them lightly on my face. He spoke so closely I could feel his warm breath against my eyes.
“You have given me so much more than you claim to think.” He curled his fingers around my eternally wavy hair. “I leave you with one last kiss, until our next meeting, Valdyr.”
Once again his lips softly planted onto mine. I savored the moment to its fullest, knowing very well I would have to keep the taste in my memories.
“Goodbye, Belenus,” I said.
“Goodbye my love.” He turned and walked toward the house.

Two days later I lay in Rosebud Cemetery, mourning over my loss, listening to nothing but the spirits that would arise. I too was dead, so we found much to talk about. Dead to my Master was I. This was all I could dwell on.
In my time there I fed very little. One passer-by was all I victimized. The poor little woman had only come to visit her deceased spouse, in which I just so happened to be talking to the night before. He wasn’t very happy with me after that incident. How was I to know? I decided I should travel and move far away from that town. Far away from the boring lifestyle Venice had given me. As I caught a steam engine to end up in some place I was unaware of, I pondered thoughts of Belenus, and how we should meet again. One hundred years would be awful to travel without him. I did not want a companion. I had enjoyed being the student, but I figured those days were over. Swiped away from my soul with the chilling wind were they, and I would fail to return to them any time soon.

And so my search began. I had no plan, and very little money. I had arrived in a small town, unlike Venice on every aspect. There were very few mortals around the town at night. I knew I couldn’t stay here long. I remember laughing at the thoughts of vanquishing the entire town within a couple of days. It appeared that was how things were going to end up anyways. Despite this, I rented a small apartment on the waterfront, as to be ready to flee on a steamboat at any time.
The room was incredibly furnished, stylized with the ordinary early nineteenth century drapery and delicate artwork. All of this was grand, and of course only temporary. I became bored within hours. So bored, that I decided to visit the local Catholic church.
The outer interior of the desolate house of Christ was filthy and entangled with cobwebs. I brushed my hands up against the stone wall upon entering through the heavy creaking doors. Immediately, my eyes glowed and reflected the candles lit down the aisle. The structure of the crucified man seemed to glow and beautify the old walls. A sense of warmth and security washed over me. I couldn’t explain it, but suddenly I felt terror. My palms began to sweat as I neared the front of the church. Staring up at Him, my eyes began to burn and I developed an excruciating pain between them. None of this I could make perfect sense of. I knew this was not my God, nor my savior, and I was obviously not wanted here. I turned to walk out of the church with visions of merciful death within my mind. With this, I ran, and burst out of the doors into the night.
Staring into the moon, I felt all my senses revive, and was renewed. I smiled, for this was my savior. Out of habit, I ran my tongue across my sharpened incisors. I was hungry. So I scurried off into the night, past graveyards and elegant Victorian houses with the usual crosses and crucifixes. Did these omens frighten me? Of course not. I felt perfectly safe under the midnight sun, holding a victim in my arms, and sinking my teeth into the neck. The pure taste of his silky blood was more than enough to lighten my dull mood. I let the warm sweetness drown my sorrows, and within seconds it was gone. I stared at him, knowing very well at that time I could have let him become one of my kind. He would be my companion-my friend-and together we would get out of this bland town and search for-well, anything. We could even go to a few balls in the rich towns to the north and south. Together we would feed upon the innocents and laugh in the face of the traveling Catholics on the days of the Sabbath. All of this may seem very evil to you, but I was so much more than dreary nights of servicing my deadly kiss into the necks of many. I walked on.

Months had passed and it seemed I was bound to nowhere, and at a fast pace. My travels continued, and I found myself in the same discontented emotion at every destination. I knew I didn’t deserve this. What had I done to be shunned by Belenus? He had never forsaken me, nor I him. One night, seemingly darker than the others on a new moon, I wept. The tears washed down my cheeks and descended into the streets below the hotel balcony. It was my first immortal cry, and the first time I realized I needed to get over all of this, and give heed to my new life without him. I was ashamed in how loathsome I was acting. I was but a mere vicious killer wallowing in self-pity over a force I could not control, and I was letting it get to me. Time of course, was no matter, but I was wasting too much of it.

That night I gathered my belongings, which consisted of a few pairs of elegant velvety attire, a tunic, calligraphic pens and ink, and a pad of parchment that Belenus had given me. Flipping through the pages of expensive paper, I found not a single new piece of writing had I entered into them since my leaving the house. I made a note to myself to begin writing again, and perhaps write a letter to Belenus at the next destination. I hoped it would be the final destination.

“Hello, sir,” said a gentle female voice. Frightened out of my thoughts on the ship, I turned around to meet an unfamiliar face, which at the same time seemed so reminiscent of a vague shadow. Her hazel eyes were that of the autumn leaves, and her hair, stirred by the breeze was that of the night’s waters. Lips like roses lined her mouth. All of these features that seemed to create such a beautiful aura triggered faded memories that didn’t seem quite there. Almost like a remembered fairy tale from a mortal childhood. But what stood out above all was the shady red dress she wore, with straps lined with rhinestones.
“Good evening, miss,” I said, and kissed her soft pale hand. “Might I ask what brings you from your cabin on this cold night? No one else on the ship is active except you and I.”
A smile shone through on her velvety lips. “A strange force drew me to you. Although, I did not know you were present out here. I simply cannot describe it.”
“Have we met in the past? I seem to faintly remember your face. And a delightful face you have to set eyes upon.”
She laughed sweetly. It was an innocent laugh, and at that time, I figured she was an omen. But an omen sent by whom? And was this night to end with death? Or was it to begin life anew?
“I don’t believe I have ever seen your mesmerizing face before, but I cannot imagine life having never laid eyes upon you,” she said. A feeling rushed through me that I could only remember as something felt when with Belenus. I felt awkward, and so I did the only thing I could think of at such a moment.
I raised her hand and again pressed my lips against it. The thought of how sweet her blood must be raced through my head too fast even to process. Something reacted in me that I had never thought possible. My body ached for mortal blood, and yet rejected it at the same time. I then noticed the cross she wore around her neck. The gold glistened from the moonlight and shot toward my eyes. I felt a burning sensation, and tension in the middle of my forehead. Turning away from her beauty, I bent over the side of the boat pretending to have gotten seasick for an instant.
“Are you alright?” she said. I realized I had yet to learn her name. “You look sick. Should I fetch you a glass of water?” Her voice was still so innocent and worrisome. As much as I rejected her, knowing this might end in her death, something drew her to me, much like she had said before. My body was rejecting her blood, and my heart raced to turn my body to hers. And so I gave in to my heart, which some would argue I had nothing of the sort.
“I’m fine,” I assured her. “Just a small case of seasickness I suppose.”
She smiled once again into my eyes. “That’s good. I thought I had said something wrong.”
Until then I had forgotten about her necklace. Though, looking for the golden cross, I failed in finding it. “Surely it must be there,” I thought. I blinked a few times just in case my eyes were deceiving me, but still no cross. Only but a small charm shaped like a tulip.
“You look uneasy again,” she said. “Shall we meet again tomorrow morning after you have gotten enough rest?”
“No, no, I’m fine,” I said. “But it appears you have yet to give me your name.”
The wind whistled as it picked up speed, chilling us both. I took her hands to warm them like a true gentleman. After all, that is what I was, no doubt. An elderly couple walked by us, as if from nowhere, disrupting our conversation.
“Good evening young ones,” the cheerful woman said. “Chilly out here, isn’t it? Better get back inside soon, before you catch pneumonia!”
I nodded to her with a smile, but something caught my eye on the old woman as they slowly crept by. It was the same cross around her neck as I had seen on my lady. For a short moment, I believed I was merely hallucinating. I did not let this disturb my thoughts on that beautiful night for too long anyways. The couple walked past us, and disappeared onto the front of the boat, or perhaps went back to their cabin. I returned my gaze to the beautiful creature whose hands I held for her comfort.
“Mana,” she said. “My name is Mana.”
“That’s a beautiful name,” I said, “and fit for such a beautiful woman.”
“And might I ask for your name in exchange?”
“Valdyr. Valdyr is my name, Mana.”
She shivered, though the wind had died down. In the quiescence of the night, all that was heard in our comfortable pauses was the water splashing below the boat and the gentle breeze in our ears. A few bats flew overhead. Mana took no notice, but I heard them coming far before they reached us due to my preternatural hearing ability. How I wished I could have just swiftly jumped up, grabbed one, and sunk my teeth into it to taste the warm blood. I was hungry.
Without warning, Mana took my hand and began to lead me below deck to the cabin area. Unbeknownst to me at the time, her cabin had been directly adjacent to mine. That night I did not feed. After we had come in from the night’s chill I seemed to have forgotten that I was a vampire. She did not question my fangs, which I found odd, but ignored it. She was too beautiful to think any other thoughts.
That evening after a few long hours of deep, intricate conversation and intimacy, I remember dreaming-very vividly. The dream consisted of feelings and smells I had long forgotten until then. Never had I dreamt of such phantasmagoria.

The path led me to a glistening stream, which seemed to radiate colors of amethyst and turquoise. I leaned over it to view my reflection, but it wasn’t me whom I saw. I had never seen this person in my life. Surely this couldn’t be me, I thought. In seconds, he, or rather, I was gone from the ripples of the water. I looked up into the blue sky-into the sun. It neither stung nor burned my eyes, but simply gave me a sense of warmth that seemed so distant.
I heard a faint noise from behind.. Turning to my left, I found that the stream had disappeared, much like my reflection that it once held. What had become of it was something I had never seen before. It resembled a bodhi tree, but at the same time was not. From the branches swung extravagant beaded ropes of silver, gold, ruby, emerald-and every jewel in existence. In my excitement I raced toward the jewelry tree and grabbed a decadent string of diamonds. It quickly disappeared right from my very hands.
The sky grew dark. I searched again for the friendly sun, but found only grey skies, if you could even call it that. I looked up into a world of endless nothingness. I grew saddened in the fact that this nothingness was empathetic of my heart. The teardrops descended down my cheeks and planted themselves into the crisp green grass. I started to feel lost, hopeless, and even infantile-like a child lost in a mall screaming for his mother. I did just that. I screamed.
“BELENUS!” I cried, over and over. “BELENUS!”
I cried his name so many times that I began to cough up blood and mucus. My blood stained the green grass to new shades of reds and black. Soon the entire meadow became flooded in blood. On every side of me there spilled pools of my sour insides, and yet there was some sort of invisible bubble of division between me and the substance. It wouldn’t stop. My wrists were slashed and spilling out everywhere. Why wasn’t I dying, I wondered. Why wasn’t I dying? Why wouldn’t I just die?
“BELENUS!”
Suddenly the skies opened up and again revealed my love for blue. From the Earth sprouted new roses and tulips, of all colors imaginable. Soft colors swirled about me. Sent from the blue in the sky were shades of coral, magenta, and crimson. A deep voice boomed overhead. “Valdyr,” it said. “Valdyr…”
It was the voice of Belenus! Everywhere I turned there was a new color and a new emotion. Where is Belenus, I thought. Where is my love? “Valdyr,” it spoke.
Suddenly I found myself running and screaming his name down the same path that led me to the stream. Deep into the forest I ran, and then found nothing but absolute darkness had engulfed me. A pungent smell sunk deep into my pores. I felt sick, almost like I had been struck by the plague.
Out of this miserably darkness came the feeling of light caressing fingertips on my lips, and the scent of lavender nourished my sickness. A blinding light came from the darkness. “BELENUS!” I cried once more in my hopelessness. I decided to turn back. I continued to run, but I must have been running absolutely nowhere because the colors did not return. I remained in darkness, and if I were to turn my shoulder, a golden light would burn my eyes straight from their sockets. So I cried. “Don’t cry, my love. Time is no matter. Love is what will bring you back to me,” he said.

I woke up in a cold sweat. My subconscious tears had imbrued the pillow on which I lay. Mana was sound asleep next to me, as an angel sent to comfort me. I concentrated on her smooth skin as her aura appeared. It glowed purple. I closed my eyes, trying to forget the dream. I fell asleep within seconds, resting my head against Mana’s chest for security. Sounds of him led me to rest peacefully for the duration of the night.

Mana’s angelic voice awoke me from my long-needed but short rest only an hour later. Her luscious lips spoke words that I could not yet comprehend. I blinked a couple of times to attempt bringing myself to hear her as she shook me gently, as if I were a porcelain doll in her childhood toy chest.
“Valdyr, my darling,” she spoke redundantly, “we’ve arrived at our destination, and the moon is still waiting to greet us in the enchantingly black sky! Arise, Valdyr! Arise!’
Leaning up, I found myself confused, locking lips together with this woman whom I had only met a few hours ago. I didn’t know how she knew my destination. Unbeknownst to her, I was an estranged killer with the need for blood, and her bare neck wasn’t helping my case. I started to think about just taking her right then and there-ending her life and starting one anew. If her lips were that sweet, her blood would certainly be even sweeter. Glancing at the neck in which she wore a string of pearls around now, I got very excited, much like at the time we had made love hours before. And still, my body rejected her.
“So,” she started, “we must be going! The day shall be breaking soon, and we must find shelter until nightfall, yes?”
“Mana,” I finally spoke. “How did you know ____________ was where I planned to stay?”
She looked around the room, possibly searching for something. “I just know.”
Mysterious. Truly curious, this girl was. And she must have only been around nineteen, maybe even eighteen years of age I guessed. I decided not to ask her out of sheer manners, because if I were to ask her, she might also ask me in return, and a true vampire never reveals his or her real age. Whatever age she was, she was beautiful. Something about her made me wonder, though, why she was so drawn to me as I was to her. Why, and how did she know my destination? Why did we each share a love for the moon, and a dislike of day? Then I started to wonder if she, too, was a vampire. No, it couldn’t be. What I had planned to find on this odyssey was somebody willing to turn, not a voluptuous vampire that I would soon have to shun for a disciple.
We gathered our things and headed for the town. She was correct about one thing, it was still very beautiful out, with the moon, in waning gibbous, shining brightly above us. We began walking down a boardwalk that for the night was dead and unlit. Shops were empty and lights were black. It seemed the entire town was black, and that we were walking in a desolate pointillism portrait of a ghost town. The only color that was present was that of Mana’s red dress. I decided then, that this was my town. We soon found shelter in a cemetery, invisible to any living soul that would pass by come daybreak.

Dear Belenus,

It has been too long already without having seen your face. Not a day goes by that you aren’t floating somewhere in my deep thoughts. I see your face in the water near harbors. I hear your voice in the predators of the night. I feel your hands on my chest with the gentle breeze of the whistling wind. I find your scent on almost any flower, tree, meadow, or freshly lit fire. I need to see you, Belenus. I need to hear your voice in my ear. I long for your evangelistic embrace once again, my love. I don’t know how I can bare these years without you, and for some selfish reason I hope you feel the same.
I’m in ____________ for now, and I think I might stay here. I have yet to find a companion, and I have fed very little. I met a woman. She’s breathtaking and full of grace, much like you. I may come to love her, and that scares me, because I feel I’m not being loyal to you. I know you would tell me to love her with every ounce of love in me and untie the stitches that hold me to you, but I cannot. I fear that someday you may leave my thoughts, as well as my heart. Never leave me. Never leave my heart.

Love for all eternity,
Valdyr

At some point, Mana broke into daylight and mingled in the small town, and also mailed my letter. When asked why I would not step foot into the sun, I told her I merely had a skin condition that would not allow such ultraviolet rays to come in contact with me. She was very bright, but very naïve, and listened to everything I would tell her. If I had told her I was man-with-skin-disease by day and Loch Ness Monster by night, she probably would have believed me.
While she was gone during the day, I fed on passer-bys of the cemetery. Luckily for me, there was somewhat of an arch creating a shadow on the sidewalk outside of our tomb, which made it easy for me to simply grab and break the necks of many while Mana was away.
I decided to never show myself in public, save the night. If someone were perhaps to see me during the day in the depth of my shadows, they would be gone within seconds. I did not take kindly to onlookers. The night, conversely, was our time to dance. By our, I mean Mana and I. We drifted freely across the town, simply wandering as the dirt and dust floated from our shuffling feet up into our tickled noses.  Down at the harbor the water glistened and sung with the moon. The shimmering reflection seemed to be breathing glitter of all colors into the air, welcoming a refreshing scent rarely experienced.  Cool and revitalizing the waters were to our bare feet. The night’s reticently loud moans brought me strength and energy. Sitting at the shore with her brought such phantasmagorical imagery to my entranced mind. Metaphors of love, lust, and life chilled me to the bone. The metaphors, though, did not facilitate my wonders of what “life” really was. In particular, my immortal life. Life is clandestine, I thought, purely clandestine.
“Do you believe in God?” Mana spoke abruptly with her head tipped toward the velvet sky above us. She gave me a nudge after I failed to produce an answer.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I must have drifted off in thought.” She returned a blank stare as I searched for words. “God? Which god do you speak of?”
Mana pointed to the sky with a look of wonder struck upon her glowing face. “Up there. In the heavens. Do you believe in Him?” My palms began to sweat. Did this mean she believed in this so-called-God? Was I supposed to lie and say yes, just to please her? “Because I don’t,” she finished to my surprise. I searched her eyes for truthfulness and touched my hand to her shoulder. She did not return my gaze.
“Mana,” I whispered. Just then, a very large ship, gone unnoticed until then, sent a rush of oncoming waves to the seawall and crashed against our legs. Mana shrieked at first and then continued to laugh in astonishment. I smiled along with her as we moved away from the seawall and lay on the soft grass, staring up at the inestimable stars.
For a moment we each laid in silence, too fascinated to speak. Then she took my hand in hers. I turned my head and gazed on at her beautiful face. A soft streak of hair was laying feather-like on her lips. I brushed it aside and kissed her. Warmth spread through my deadened veins like powerful morphine.
“You were saying something?” she mumbled. I tried to remember. I couldn’t remember. What was I going to tell her? Was I going to ask her something? Think Valdyr, think, I thought to myself. I foolishly searched her eyes for a hint. My eyes then wandered to her soft lips, shaded perfectly by the night’s moon. My look traveled downward to her cute dimple chin, and then to her girlish neck. Ah, what a beautiful neck, I thought; veins so subtle yet so…
“I’m a vampire.” I clamped my hand over my mouth in horror. “I-I-I mean, no, ah, what’s that? I don’t know what I was thinking. I’m terribly sorry. Disregard that-please.” I continued to ramble and she put a finger to my lips.
“Valdyr,” she began, “do you think I’m that dense?” She gazed at me with those loving eyes of hers. “I know you’re a vampire.”
I was shocked.
“You knew all this time and you made me keep thinking that I would screw everything up if you found out?”
She backed away and winced. “Y-yes…”
I laughed and playfully kissed her. “And you’re not upset?”
“Why would I be upset?” She flashed me a smile.
“You have no idea how much that means to me, Mana.”
The wind blew our hair and thus did the leaves on the trees swing also. The grass around us remained cold as my hands. I shivered and she took my hands in hers to warm them.
“I think I love you, Mana.” Strike two, I thought to myself. I was really considering just not speaking for a few hundred years. She must have caught the look on my face when I realized what I had said, because she giggled like the young girl she was, so fragile in her age, and planted a loving kiss on my cheek.
“I know, Valdyr. I’ve known since I first saw you.” She paused. “And I love you too.”

TO BE CONTINUED~!~!~!~! possibly..:\

Description
The night was bitter. Endless were the numbers of stars that drifted in the twilight. The midnight sun was shining brightly down upon me as I stared onward into the galaxy. A few leaves rustled below as I could hear from my place on the damp tiled roof. My only source of warmth was the black trench coat which I wore every evening to greet my love, the moon. Ah, this love for such an untouchable object was the spawn of my waking thoughts-the shimmer that was constantly in the corner of my eyes. Day upon day I waited in solitude for night to come, just to gaze upon the beauty that was within the night’s sky.  Glorious elegance, such subtle radiance, and such passion in the stories it held. The rigid crevices were that of my waking immortal life, to no end were they, from wherever you were to see it.
That night would be not unlike any other night. I would have to prey upon an innocent soul, maybe twice, three times, only to return again in the darkness of the shards that draped above the piano, which stood as the centerpiece of my brilliant home. Much like all mansions in Venice, I of course had a piano. The instrument kept all of my rage, and all of my emotions within the keys I struck so violently. It broke the silence of my solemnity, which I did not care for, but of course, did not mind, for no vampire likes much company.
It has been, I think, two hundred years since I had left my master, companionless, but not fully alone. His name was Belenus, and a suitable name that was, for it originated in Celtic mythology, for “bright” or “brilliant.” I loved him. He had made me what I am today, and have been ever since, five hundred years ago-a powerful vampire, feeding upon anyone that would pass me in the streets, only to keep alive. Blood certainly wasn’t for show, and I could say that I didn’t long for it like an elegant white wine. I merely needed it for sustenance, you see. My loving master, Belenus, had given me the name that I introduced myself to you today, of Valdyr. Before, in my mortal days, so long ago, I was but the mere Jonathan, roaming the streets of Italy drunken and without a cause, usually passing out in a horse-drawn carriage or park bench.
As I had said, it had been nearly two hundred years since I had seen my master, or even heard from my master. I only wished to see his face again, shadowed under the light of the moon. The essence of his soft hair, so delicate between my fingers, would be a delight for the ages. I missed him so terribly. I missed him so much that I could not yet think of making a companion for myself: someone to teach and to have ask me the undying questions that newborn immortals always wish to know the answers to. In my heart I was still the student, though. A student that only wanted the comfort of his master’s soothing hands, dramatized by the subtle whispers that would subconsciously come about in each others presence.
Perhaps I should continue on with my story at the beginning of the end. I shall take you to the time in my immortal life when I chose to leave Belenus. Or rather, when he chose to leave me.

My master took me by the hand, his long talons digging into my palm, and led me to the garden in the back of the home we had lived in for three hundred years. It was a full moon, and I had hoped he had dragged home a special victim for me, as a present or something of the sort. Maybe he just wanted to sit under the stars with me until sunrise. I didn’t know. He had taken me from my writing in the den, so suddenly, and there was no time for questioning. When he did not speak at times such as then, there was no room for me to either. And so I followed him, unaware of the truth that was about to unfold. It was the time I had feared would come too soon, and indeed had.

“Such a beautiful night it is, Belenus,” I said lightly. “To what do I owe this great pleasure of sitting under the stars and Mother Moon with you?” We sat down on the bench amidst well-kept shrubbery.
“My precious Valdyr,” said Belenus, “You are so beautiful. What a great vampire you have become. I am proud to say you’ve learned many things, have you not?”
“Oh, but I have, Master. I have indeed. You’ve been a great teacher, and I look forward to more of your teachings. For everyday you teach me something new.” A few fireflies danced past us, providing only an inkling of light on our faces for brief seconds. Belenus took my hand with a smile.
“I shall, Valdyr, I shall. But you must give me time. I will always be here, and so should you, just as beautiful.” He paused and dragged his finger across my cheek. His nails scratched the surface of my skin so much as to provide an indescribable sensation. It was a feeling I would carry with me for the rest of my life. “I love you Valdyr. More than you shall ever perceive.”
He leaned in to kiss me. His lips were soft, but cold; colder than the air, but refreshing as such. A few wisps of his hair brushed gently across my skin. Our moment of love seemed to last for an eternity saturated with absolute passion. Suddenly, he rose to his feet, lifting my chin with the tip of his finger.
“You have to leave now, Valdyr,” he said out of context. “I hope to see you in another hundred years at least. But you must remember this: time is no matter. Love is what will bring you back to me.”
“But Master,” said I, “I don’t understand. You wish for my absence now of all times? I must ask why. Why, Belenus? Why must I leave you?”
“It is time for you to get a companion of your own. You know you have the strength. I know it. All in the house know it. It’s time for you to use your powers without my consent.”
I stood up. “I will leave. I will leave knowing I shall see you in a short time. But it is you, Belenus my love, who wishes my departure. Not I. I hoped this day would not come. I have only my tears to give you for all you have given me. Three hundred years of contemporary love and loyalty.” He raised his hands as to stop me, placing them lightly on my face. He spoke so closely I could feel his warm breath against my eyes.
“You have given me so much more than you claim to think.” He curled his fingers around my eternally wavy hair. “I leave you with one last kiss, until our next meeting, Valdyr.”
Once again his lips softly planted onto mine. I savored the moment to its fullest, knowing very well I would have to keep the taste in my memories.
“Goodbye, Belenus,” I said.
“Goodbye my love.” He turned and walked toward the house.

Two days later I lay in Rosebud Cemetery, mourning over my loss, listening to nothing but the spirits that would arise. I too was dead, so we found much to talk about. Dead to my Master was I. This was all I could dwell on.
In my time there I fed very little. One passer-by was all I victimized. The poor little woman had only come to visit her deceased spouse, in which I just so happened to be talking to the night before. He wasn’t very happy with me after that incident. How was I to know? I decided I should travel and move far away from that town. Far away from the boring lifestyle Venice had given me. As I caught a steam engine to end up in some place I was unaware of, I pondered thoughts of Belenus, and how we should meet again. One hundred years would be awful to travel without him. I did not want a companion. I had enjoyed being the student, but I figured those days were over. Swiped away from my soul with the chilling wind were they, and I would fail to return to them any time soon.

And so my search began. I had no plan, and very little money. I had arrived in a small town, unlike Venice on every aspect. There were very few mortals around the town at night. I knew I couldn’t stay here long. I remember laughing at the thoughts of vanquishing the entire town within a couple of days. It appeared that was how things were going to end up anyways. Despite this, I rented a small apartment on the waterfront, as to be ready to flee on a steamboat at any time.
The room was incredibly furnished, stylized with the ordinary early nineteenth century drapery and delicate artwork. All of this was grand, and of course only temporary. I became bored within hours. So bored, that I decided to visit the local Catholic church.
The outer interior of the desolate house of Christ was filthy and entangled with cobwebs. I brushed my hands up against the stone wall upon entering through the heavy creaking doors. Immediately, my eyes glowed and reflected the candles lit down the aisle. The structure of the crucified man seemed to glow and beautify the old walls. A sense of warmth and security washed over me. I couldn’t explain it, but suddenly I felt terror. My palms began to sweat as I neared the front of the church. Staring up at Him, my eyes began to burn and I developed an excruciating pain between them. None of this I could make perfect sense of. I knew this was not my God, nor my savior, and I was obviously not wanted here. I turned to walk out of the church with visions of merciful death within my mind. With this, I ran, and burst out of the doors into the night.
Staring into the moon, I felt all my senses revive, and was renewed. I smiled, for this was my savior. Out of habit, I ran my tongue across my sharpened incisors. I was hungry. So I scurried off into the night, past graveyards and elegant Victorian houses with the usual crosses and crucifixes. Did these omens frighten me? Of course not. I felt perfectly safe under the midnight sun, holding a victim in my arms, and sinking my teeth into the neck. The pure taste of his silky blood was more than enough to lighten my dull mood. I let the warm sweetness drown my sorrows, and within seconds it was gone. I stared at him, knowing very well at that time I could have let him become one of my kind. He would be my companion-my friend-and together we would get out of this bland town and search for-well, anything. We could even go to a few balls in the rich towns to the north and south. Together we would feed upon the innocents and laugh in the face of the traveling Catholics on the days of the Sabbath. All of this may seem very evil to you, but I was so much more than dreary nights of servicing my deadly kiss into the necks of many. I walked on.

Months had passed and it seemed I was bound to nowhere, and at a fast pace. My travels continued, and I found myself in the same discontented emotion at every destination. I knew I didn’t deserve this. What had I done to be shunned by Belenus? He had never forsaken me, nor I him. One night, seemingly darker than the others on a new moon, I wept. The tears washed down my cheeks and descended into the streets below the hotel balcony. It was my first immortal cry, and the first time I realized I needed to get over all of this, and give heed to my new life without him. I was ashamed in how loathsome I was acting. I was but a mere vicious killer wallowing in self-pity over a force I could not control, and I was letting it get to me. Time of course, was no matter, but I was wasting too much of it.

That night I gathered my belongings, which consisted of a few pairs of elegant velvety attire, a tunic, calligraphic pens and ink, and a pad of parchment that Belenus had given me. Flipping through the pages of expensive paper, I found not a single new piece of writing had I entered into them since my leaving the house. I made a note to myself to begin writing again, and perhaps write a letter to Belenus at the next destination. I hoped it would be the final destination.

“Hello, sir,” said a gentle female voice. Frightened out of my thoughts on the ship, I turned around to meet an unfamiliar face, which at the same time seemed so reminiscent of a vague shadow. Her hazel eyes were that of the autumn leaves, and her hair, stirred by the breeze was that of the night’s waters. Lips like roses lined her mouth. All of these features that seemed to create such a beautiful aura triggered faded memories that didn’t seem quite there. Almost like a remembered fairy tale from a mortal childhood. But what stood out above all was the shady red dress she wore, with straps lined with rhinestones.
“Good evening, miss,” I said, and kissed her soft pale hand. “Might I ask what brings you from your cabin on this cold night? No one else on the ship is active except you and I.”
A smile shone through on her velvety lips. “A strange force drew me to you. Although, I did not know you were present out here. I simply cannot describe it.”
“Have we met in the past? I seem to faintly remember your face. And a delightful face you have to set eyes upon.”
She laughed sweetly. It was an innocent laugh, and at that time, I figured she was an omen. But an omen sent by whom? And was this night to end with death? Or was it to begin life anew?
“I don’t believe I have ever seen your mesmerizing face before, but I cannot imagine life having never laid eyes upon you,” she said. A feeling rushed through me that I could only remember as something felt when with Belenus. I felt awkward, and so I did the only thing I could think of at such a moment.
I raised her hand and again pressed my lips against it. The thought of how sweet her blood must be raced through my head too fast even to process. Something reacted in me that I had never thought possible. My body ached for mortal blood, and yet rejected it at the same time. I then noticed the cross she wore around her neck. The gold glistened from the moonlight and shot toward my eyes. I felt a burning sensation, and tension in the middle of my forehead. Turning away from her beauty, I bent over the side of the boat pretending to have gotten seasick for an instant.
“Are you alright?” she said. I realized I had yet to learn her name. “You look sick. Should I fetch you a glass of water?” Her voice was still so innocent and worrisome. As much as I rejected her, knowing this might end in her death, something drew her to me, much like she had said before. My body was rejecting her blood, and my heart raced to turn my body to hers. And so I gave in to my heart, which some would argue I had nothing of the sort.
“I’m fine,” I assured her. “Just a small case of seasickness I suppose.”
She smiled once again into my eyes. “That’s good. I thought I had said something wrong.”
Until then I had forgotten about her necklace. Though, looking for the golden cross, I failed in finding it. “Surely it must be there,” I thought. I blinked a few times just in case my eyes were deceiving me, but still no cross. Only but a small charm shaped like a tulip.
“You look uneasy again,” she said. “Shall we meet again tomorrow morning after you have gotten enough rest?”
“No, no, I’m fine,” I said. “But it appears you have yet to give me your name.”
The wind whistled as it picked up speed, chilling us both. I took her hands to warm them like a true gentleman. After all, that is what I was, no doubt. An elderly couple walked by us, as if from nowhere, disrupting our conversation.
“Good evening young ones,” the cheerful woman said. “Chilly out here, isn’t it? Better get back inside soon, before you catch pneumonia!”
I nodded to her with a smile, but something caught my eye on the old woman as they slowly crept by. It was the same cross around her neck as I had seen on my lady. For a short moment, I believed I was merely hallucinating. I did not let this disturb my thoughts on that beautiful night for too long anyways. The couple walked past us, and disappeared onto the front of the boat, or perhaps went back to their cabin. I returned my gaze to the beautiful creature whose hands I held for her comfort.
“Mana,” she said. “My name is Mana.”
“That’s a beautiful name,” I said, “and fit for such a beautiful woman.”
“And might I ask for your name in exchange?”
“Valdyr. Valdyr is my name, Mana.”
She shivered, though the wind had died down. In the quiescence of the night, all that was heard in our comfortable pauses was the water splashing below the boat and the gentle breeze in our ears. A few bats flew overhead. Mana took no notice, but I heard them coming far before they reached us due to my preternatural hearing ability. How I wished I could have just swiftly jumped up, grabbed one, and sunk my teeth into it to taste the warm blood. I was hungry.
Without warning, Mana took my hand and began to lead me below deck to the cabin area. Unbeknownst to me at the time, her cabin had been directly adjacent to mine. That night I did not feed. After we had come in from the night’s chill I seemed to have forgotten that I was a vampire. She did not question my fangs, which I found odd, but ignored it. She was too beautiful to think any other thoughts.
That evening after a few long hours of deep, intricate conversation and intimacy, I remember dreaming-very vividly. The dream consisted of feelings and smells I had long forgotten until then. Never had I dreamt of such phantasmagoria.

The path led me to a glistening stream, which seemed to radiate colors of amethyst and turquoise. I leaned over it to view my reflection, but it wasn’t me whom I saw. I had never seen this person in my life. Surely this couldn’t be me, I thought. In seconds, he, or rather, I was gone from the ripples of the water. I looked up into the blue sky-into the sun. It neither stung nor burned my eyes, but simply gave me a sense of warmth that seemed so distant.
I heard a faint noise from behind.. Turning to my left, I found that the stream had disappeared, much like my reflection that it once held. What had become of it was something I had never seen before. It resembled a bodhi tree, but at the same time was not. From the branches swung extravagant beaded ropes of silver, gold, ruby, emerald-and every jewel in existence. In my excitement I raced toward the jewelry tree and grabbed a decadent string of diamonds. It quickly disappeared right from my very hands.
The sky grew dark. I searched again for the friendly sun, but found only grey skies, if you could even call it that. I looked up into a world of endless nothingness. I grew saddened in the fact that this nothingness was empathetic of my heart. The teardrops descended down my cheeks and planted themselves into the crisp green grass. I started to feel lost, hopeless, and even infantile-like a child lost in a mall screaming for his mother. I did just that. I screamed.
“BELENUS!” I cried, over and over. “BELENUS!”
I cried his name so many times that I began to cough up blood and mucus. My blood stained the green grass to new shades of reds and black. Soon the entire meadow became flooded in blood. On every side of me there spilled pools of my sour insides, and yet there was some sort of invisible bubble of division between me and the substance. It wouldn’t stop. My wrists were slashed and spilling out everywhere. Why wasn’t I dying, I wondered. Why wasn’t I dying? Why wouldn’t I just die?
“BELENUS!”
Suddenly the skies opened up and again revealed my love for blue. From the Earth sprouted new roses and tulips, of all colors imaginable. Soft colors swirled about me. Sent from the blue in the sky were shades of coral, magenta, and crimson. A deep voice boomed overhead. “Valdyr,” it said. “Valdyr…”
It was the voice of Belenus! Everywhere I turned there was a new color and a new emotion. Where is Belenus, I thought. Where is my love? “Valdyr,” it spoke.
Suddenly I found myself running and screaming his name down the same path that led me to the stream. Deep into the forest I ran, and then found nothing but absolute darkness had engulfed me. A pungent smell sunk deep into my pores. I felt sick, almost like I had been struck by the plague.
Out of this miserably darkness came the feeling of light caressing fingertips on my lips, and the scent of lavender nourished my sickness. A blinding light came from the darkness. “BELENUS!” I cried once more in my hopelessness. I decided to turn back. I continued to run, but I must have been running absolutely nowhere because the colors did not return. I remained in darkness, and if I were to turn my shoulder, a golden light would burn my eyes straight from their sockets. So I cried. “Don’t cry, my love. Time is no matter. Love is what will bring you back to me,” he said.

I woke up in a cold sweat. My subconscious tears had imbrued the pillow on which I lay. Mana was sound asleep next to me, as an angel sent to comfort me. I concentrated on her smooth skin as her aura appeared. It glowed purple. I closed my eyes, trying to forget the dream. I fell asleep within seconds, resting my head against Mana’s chest for security. Sounds of him led me to rest peacefully for the duration of the night.

Mana’s angelic voice awoke me from my long-needed but short rest only an hour later. Her luscious lips spoke words that I could not yet comprehend. I blinked a couple of times to attempt bringing myself to hear her as she shook me gently, as if I were a porcelain doll in her childhood toy chest.
“Valdyr, my darling,” she spoke redundantly, “we’ve arrived at our destination, and the moon is still waiting to greet us in the enchantingly black sky! Arise, Valdyr! Arise!’
Leaning up, I found myself confused, locking lips together with this woman whom I had only met a few hours ago. I didn’t know how she knew my destination. Unbeknownst to her, I was an estranged killer with the need for blood, and her bare neck wasn’t helping my case. I started to think about just taking her right then and there-ending her life and starting one anew. If her lips were that sweet, her blood would certainly be even sweeter. Glancing at the neck in which she wore a string of pearls around now, I got very excited, much like at the time we had made love hours before. And still, my body rejected her.
“So,” she started, “we must be going! The day shall be breaking soon, and we must find shelter until nightfall, yes?”
“Mana,” I finally spoke. “How did you know ____________ was where I planned to stay?”
She looked around the room, possibly searching for something. “I just know.”
Mysterious. Truly curious, this girl was. And she must have only been around nineteen, maybe even eighteen years of age I guessed. I decided not to ask her out of sheer manners, because if I were to ask her, she might also ask me in return, and a true vampire never reveals his or her real age. Whatever age she was, she was beautiful. Something about her made me wonder, though, why she was so drawn to me as I was to her. Why, and how did she know my destination? Why did we each share a love for the moon, and a dislike of day? Then I started to wonder if she, too, was a vampire. No, it couldn’t be. What I had planned to find on this odyssey was somebody willing to turn, not a voluptuous vampire that I would soon have to shun for a disciple.
We gathered our things and headed for the town. She was correct about one thing, it was still very beautiful out, with the moon, in waning gibbous, shining brightly above us. We began walking down a boardwalk that for the night was dead and unlit. Shops were empty and lights were black. It seemed the entire town was black, and that we were walking in a desolate pointillism portrait of a ghost town. The only color that was present was that of Mana’s red dress. I decided then, that this was my town. We soon found shelter in a cemetery, invisible to any living soul that would pass by come daybreak.

Dear Belenus,

It has been too long already without having seen your face. Not a day goes by that you aren’t floating somewhere in my deep thoughts. I see your face in the water near harbors. I hear your voice in the predators of the night. I feel your hands on my chest with the gentle breeze of the whistling wind. I find your scent on almost any flower, tree, meadow, or freshly lit fire. I need to see you, Belenus. I need to hear your voice in my ear. I long for your evangelistic embrace once again, my love. I don’t know how I can bare these years without you, and for some selfish reason I hope you feel the same.
I’m in ____________ for now, and I think I might stay here. I have yet to find a companion, and I have fed very little. I met a woman. She’s breathtaking and full of grace, much like you. I may come to love her, and that scares me, because I feel I’m not being loyal to you. I know you would tell me to love her with every ounce of love in me and untie the stitches that hold me to you, but I cannot. I fear that someday you may leave my thoughts, as well as my heart. Never leave me. Never leave my heart.

Love for all eternity,
Valdyr

At some point, Mana broke into daylight and mingled in the small town, and also mailed my letter. When asked why I would not step foot into the sun, I told her I merely had a skin condition that would not allow such ultraviolet rays to come in contact with me. She was very bright, but very naïve, and listened to everything I would tell her. If I had told her I was man-with-skin-disease by day and Loch Ness Monster by night, she probably would have believed me.
While she was gone during the day, I fed on passer-bys of the cemetery. Luckily for me, there was somewhat of an arch creating a shadow on the sidewalk outside of our tomb, which made it easy for me to simply grab and break the necks of many while Mana was away.
I decided to never show myself in public, save the night. If someone were perhaps to see me during the day in the depth of my shadows, they would be gone within seconds. I did not take kindly to onlookers. The night, conversely, was our time to dance. By our, I mean Mana and I. We drifted freely across the town, simply wandering as the dirt and dust floated from our shuffling feet up into our tickled noses.  Down at the harbor the water glistened and sung with the moon. The shimmering reflection seemed to be breathing glitter of all colors into the air, welcoming a refreshing scent rarely experienced.  Cool and revitalizing the waters were to our bare feet. The night’s reticently loud moans brought me strength and energy. Sitting at the shore with her brought such phantasmagorical imagery to my entranced mind. Metaphors of love, lust, and life chilled me to the bone. The metaphors, though, did not facilitate my wonders of what “life” really was. In particular, my immortal life. Life is clandestine, I thought, purely clandestine.
“Do you believe in God?” Mana spoke abruptly with her head tipped toward the velvet sky above us. She gave me a nudge after I failed to produce an answer.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I must have drifted off in thought.” She returned a blank stare as I searched for words. “God? Which god do you speak of?”
Mana pointed to the sky with a look of wonder struck upon her glowing face. “Up there. In the heavens. Do you believe in Him?” My palms began to sweat. Did this mean she believed in this so-called-God? Was I supposed to lie and say yes, just to please her? “Because I don’t,” she finished to my surprise. I searched her eyes for truthfulness and touched my hand to her shoulder. She did not return my gaze.
“Mana,” I whispered. Just then, a very large ship, gone unnoticed until then, sent a rush of oncoming waves to the seawall and crashed against our legs. Mana shrieked at first and then continued to laugh in astonishment. I smiled along with her as we moved away from the seawall and lay on the soft grass, staring up at the inestimable stars.
For a moment we each laid in silence, too fascinated to speak. Then she took my hand in hers. I turned my head and gazed on at her beautiful face. A soft streak of hair was laying feather-like on her lips. I brushed it aside and kissed her. Warmth spread through my deadened veins like powerful morphine.
“You were saying something?” she mumbled. I tried to remember. I couldn’t remember. What was I going to tell her? Was I going to ask her something? Think Valdyr, think, I thought to myself. I foolishly searched her eyes for a hint. My eyes then wandered to her soft lips, shaded perfectly by the night’s moon. My look traveled downward to her cute dimple chin, and then to her girlish neck. Ah, what a beautiful neck, I thought; veins so subtle yet so…
“I’m a vampire.” I clamped my hand over my mouth in horror. “I-I-I mean, no, ah, what’s that? I don’t know what I was thinking. I’m terribly sorry. Disregard that-please.” I continued to ramble and she put a finger to my lips.
“Valdyr,” she began, “do you think I’m that dense?” She gazed at me with those loving eyes of hers. “I know you’re a vampire.”
I was shocked.
“You knew all this time and you made me keep thinking that I would screw everything up if you found out?”
She backed away and winced. “Y-yes…”
I laughed and playfully kissed her. “And you’re not upset?”
“Why would I be upset?” She flashed me a smile.
“You have no idea how much that means to me, Mana.”
The wind blew our hair and thus did the leaves on the trees swing also. The grass around us remained cold as my hands. I shivered and she took my hands in hers to warm them.
“I think I love you, Mana.” Strike two, I thought to myself. I was really considering just not speaking for a few hundred years. She must have caught the look on my face when I realized what I had said, because she giggled like the young girl she was, so fragile in her age, and planted a loving kiss on my cheek.
“I know, Valdyr. I’ve known since I first saw you.” She paused. “And I love you too.”

TO BE CONTINUED~!~!~!~! possibly..:\