My First Experience with Vampires

It's difficult to describe your reaction the first time you meet a vampire. Many things go through your mind at once. On the one hand you try and rationalise it any way you can, on the other however there is a twisted fascination because it challenges everything you thought you knew.

If vampires exist, what else is real? You now know that life after death is possible, that creatures who defy the natural order exist, and that mankind does not rule the world in the way we would like to believe.

Above all else however is the terror of not just facing such an unforgiving, relentless monster, but of knowing that thousands of others like it are out there, hiding in the dark.

My name is Ferne Shelley and this is how I came to learn the truth about vampires.

My first encounter with the undead occurred in the quaint little town of Lista. I had just finished my Psychology degree at The University of Essex. I must confess that I had largely become a student in the first place simply because I wanted to put off going to work for a couple of years. In many ways this trip was supposed to just be another way of postponing my inevitable move from being a carefree, happy go lucky student, to the trenches of a 9-5 desk job.

I had three real friends throughout my time at University, Marie, Claire, and Diana. They were really the first friends I ever had. I was always something of a loner as a child, and I was picked on a lot throughout my childhood and my teenage years. I remember being so happy in my last year at school simply because everyone just forgot who I was, which sadly was a step up to how I had been treated before.

My relationship with my parents had also been somewhat cold too. They were never cruel, but at the same time they never really paid that much attention to me either. I remember wanting to confide in them about what was happening at school, but they just weren't interested in any meaningful way.

They always struck me as being the type of people who didn't really want to give up the rich social life they had before I was born. Even when I was a young girl, I can remember them leaving me with babysitters and relatives to go on holidays and even just nights out.

When I went to Uni it was like being transported to an entirely different universe (well at least that's what it felt like at the time. When I did visit another universe years later it was a somewhat different experience)

I'd been mistreated for so long that someone being polite was an alien experience to me. All I really wanted was to matter to someone.

I finally did find someone who loved me for who I was not long into my first year at Uni, Claire Jane. She was a lot more confident than me, she had a boyfriend named Michael who had been her high school sweetheart, but I still got the impression that she was desperate to meet new people as well.

It was easier for her than me, as she was such a friendly, nice, chatty person and it was through her that I would meet Marie and Diana. All four of us were in the same class, and having already loosely known Claire, she asked me along with Marie and Diana to go for a drink one time. The four of us ended up becoming fast friends and my time with them for the next three years would go on to be the happiest in my entire life.

No one made me feel as sure and confident of myself as Claire did. Really she was the cool, older sister I never had. (Even though she was two years younger than me, she just always seemed so much more mature). I thought we would always be friends, with the both of us going down to the pub as old ladies, but sadly life would take us down very different paths.

It all began on our trip through Europe in the year 1979, (twelve years ago) which started badly, when we soon became lost in the German countryside. Sadly whilst Claire was a wonderful woman in many ways, she didn't have the best sense of direction. To be fair we were all to blame however. We didn't really have any proper plan. We had just hoped to travel through the German countryside, visiting small towns along the way, but we just weren't prepared.

The long, dreary trek's through the dark, across German roads weren't exactly what I or any of the other girls had in mind when we envisioned this trip. I thought it would all be having fun at German festivals, getting drunk, maybe meeting some cute German guys.

When we finally reached the town of Lista it was such a relief, though if I had known what was about to happen to the town, I would have turned and run as fast as I could in the opposite direction.

Lista was a beautiful place, with a real innocence among its town folk, which may have been why the vampires had enjoyed targeting it for so long. The pack of vampires that had terrorised the town were led by a particularly vicious member of their kind named Caros, who had been turned sometime in the 15th century.

He was a survivor, having lived through the rule of the vandals (Demonic rivals of vampires who ruled Europe for many centuries) and both world wars. Unlike most other members of his kind he did not join the side of the Nazi's during the conflict. Not for any moral reasons of course. Being a born survivor he wisely kept himself out of both World Wars and simply continued to prey on small rural areas.

Lista had been his latest target. For months his vampires had been visiting the town every night, dragging people away, men, women, children even infants. Their victims remains would usually be found strung up in trees near the town for their families to find the next day.

The people at first were too scared to do anything against the monsters. Some of the villagers even thought they could appease the vampires, but when it became obvious that the demons couldn't be bargained with, the people finally fought back.

The vampires having believed that the townsfolk had been terrorised to the point where they were completely docile, were completely caught off guard when the people of Lista pelted the beasts with bottles of holy water. Overwhelmed, the vampires were driven by the villagers to a massive pit they had dug during the day, filled with stakes. The vampires that fell into it were either impaled or burned to death, by being doused with holy water. Caros however was wise enough to flee as soon as he saw the holy water. (Vampires are notorious cowards.) Whilst most of his men were killed by the villagers, unfortunately however Caros just became eager to get the villagers back for this humiliation. It wasn't just petty revenge. Having built a reputation as the supposed king of the vampires in the local area. Caros could not allow this humiliation to go unpunished.

The villagers meanwhile foolishly believed that they had seen the last of the vampires, and celebrated afterwards.

When we arrived it had been two weeks since the vampires had been "defeated" and the town was still celebrating. We saw was a mass of people gathered round an effigy of Dracula being burned, and there was also a festival in the streets with people wearing Dracula masks and even children holding up crude drawings of vampires with stakes through their hearts!

I remember thinking it was odd, but I assumed it was just an obscure festival like Day of the Dead. It seemed quite charming in a way and we even took part in some of the festivities before finding a hotel for the night. A warm cosy bed, a nice little town, with an eccentric, quirky festival I could tell people about back home. I honestly thought this holiday was finally beginning to pick up. I have tragically never been more wrong about anything in my entire life.

Caros had slowly been building up his forces in the fortnight since his humiliating defeat. Snatching hitchhikers, stopping cars going down the road and pulling their unfortunate occupants out and turning them into vampires. He also recruited numerous vampire clans from the local area, who again feared him and knew of his reputation as the "king", and called in favours with other vampires from all over Europe to help bring about his revenge.

However what really gave Caros the edge was the fact that he was able to take control of the towns only priest, a man named George. Caros' breed of vampire who were known as Nosferatu, had the power to take control of any human being that they bit.

Even the strongest wills couldn't resist the power of a Nosferatu and Caros had bitten the priest on the night his forces were repelled.

The poor souls that the Noseferatu's take control over are still awake, they are just unable to go against the vampires commands. The priest wanted to warn the town that the vampires were planning another attack with all his heart and soul, but he just couldn't. Under the vampire kings command he would perform a black mass ritual to deconsentrate all of the holy water. (A ritual which involved him butchering a woman the vampires had captured.) He also obviously would not bless any more water either.

Caros and his now larger group of vampires decided to strike the people of Lista during the night, just after the party.

It was an absolute slaughter. The vampires butchered the people still in the streets, and burned down houses in order to drive people out (as the vampires could not enter a house without an invitation). Without the holy water to burn the vampires from a distance, there was no way anyone in the village could fight back.

I remember waking up to the sound of screaming in the streets. At first I assumed it was just people getting a little bit too rowdy during the festival, but then all of a sudden, something came crashing through the window.

Panicked, I instantly rose from my bed, still somewhat dazed and half asleep. I could see through the smoke which soon filled the air, that there was a fire at the end of the room. I realised what had happened as insane it may have sounded. Someone from the streets had thrown a petrol bomb in through our window!

I turned to wake Claire who was lying next to me. We had been lucky enough to get two rooms, one for me and Claire and another for Marie and Diana. Clare began screaming at the sight of the fire, but thankfully she didn't let her fear overwhelm her and jumped out of bed whilst making sure that I was right behind her.

We both headed for the door which the fire hadn't reached yet. Out in the hall everyone had fled their rooms, including Marie and Diana as they had all been petrol bombed. All of the guests and staff hurried down the steps in a stampede through the hall, down the steps and out into the streets.

Outside looked like a war zone. Buildings on fire, people running through the streets in sheer panic. Straight across at the other end of the road, I could see a figure standing over a woman seemingly biting her neck!

The woman was clearly dead. Her throat had been torn clean out, blood was dripping down the pavement and onto the street. The figure standing over her then looked up at us, all huddled together, utterly petrified.

The figure's skin was completely snow white, its eyes meanwhile were just as red as the blood dripping from its mouth. It had no hair and every tooth in its head was razor sharp, though its upper canines were far longer than the rest of its teeth. The monsters clothes were ratty, and torn and slime dripped from its fingers. I could hear a squelching sound as it walked, barefooted and slowly towards us. It actually left a slime trail behind it just like a slug.

The smell that came from the creature was overwhelming. It practically choked me. Honestly I wanted to be sick just looking at it.

We all began to back away slowly from the monster, when all of a sudden one of the women at the back screamed. I turned and to my horror saw four similar creatures crawling down the walls of the flaming hotel like spiders.

I couldn't believe what I was seeing, but before I could take it in, the monsters suddenly jumped through the air and landed on several people in the crowd, including the woman who had screamed. The beasts ripped their throats out in seconds with their bare teeth! We all ran. Marie, Diana and Clare all kept close to me. As we fled through the town we saw people being cornered, beaten, torn apart by ravenous monsters, but there was nothing any of us could do to help them.

We could hear the creatures roaring and hissing behind us, but none of us looked back. I was just so terrified I had no thought other than to get the hell out of this place!

That began to look like an impossibility however. At the end of the road we could see five of the creatures completely covered in blood and entrails blocking the way forward. We all stopped and froze. There was seemingly no way of escape. As I turned round I could see more of those hideous things coming up the other direction. I still couldn't even believe the situation I was in.

I almost felt like laughing at the absurdity of it all, when suddenly the monsters began to wince and cower. I turned around to see a young man standing in the road wielding a cross. He had come out of one of the houses. He was reasonably young, probably close to my age, had thick black hair, and was quite tall and athletic looking. He told us to follow him and we all instantly agreed. The fact that he didn't have fangs, red eyes or stunk definitely worked in his favour!

He ran through the house he had come through on the left end side of the street. Though it was burning he still went through it as the flames hadn't consumed the whole house.

Marie was a little hesitant to follow however which would prove to be a fatal mistake. She was scared of the flames, but as Clare reached out to try and help her, one of the brutes snatched her from behind and pulled Marie backwards. Another two then jumped her and they all began tearing her apart. The man who helped us said that there was nothing we could do for her and sadly he was right. That still didn't stop us from having to pull Claire back.

After we made our way through the house we reached the garden. On just the outside of the garden there were the remains of a family. Clearly the occupants of the house who had tried to escape the fire and been pounced on by vampires waiting outside.

We continued to run down the street passing more burning houses, with the man who had saved us waving the cross in the direction of any vampire that came near.

Eventually we reached our destination, a the bomb shelter in the garden of another burning house.

There was a second man in the shelter. He was much smaller, somewhat out of shape with grey hair and clearly a lot older.

He didn't look pleased to see us at all. In fact he started to scream at the younger man.

"Brian what on earth are you playing at? Rushing out there, when the town is being torn apart by those monsters! Always desperate to play the hero aren't you? For all you know these three women have been bitten and are under their control."

Brian tried to assure the older man who was called Alan, and was Brian's father that he was sure we weren't vampire stooges. Of course I couldn't understand a word they were saying, but fortunately Clare who could speak German was translating for me and Diana.

Brian and his father kept arguing after we were let in the shelter. Eventually Claire suddenly interrupted them and asked "Excuse me, what do you mean under their control?"

Brian spoke softly to Claire and said "Those monsters, vampires, have the power to put anyone they bite under their control." He began to tear up and couldn't look at Clare anymore. "One of them bit my, my mother. They snatched her just outside our garden. Dad tried to help her, but he had been cornered by the flames. They'd already petrol bombed our house. I was lucky to get out of my room alive. I could see what they did to my mother from my bedroom window however. They forced her to, to murder my sister!"

Claire was in shock. I could see Alan at the other end of the room weeping uncontrollably, his head in his hands.

Brian continued "When they bit her they threw her and Sarah together. Mum and Sarah they hugged for a while. She even told Sarah that it would all be okay and then suddenly she threw Sarah to the floor. The vampires then handed mum a hammer and she, she"

He didn't finish but he didn't have to. Once he had regained his composure he explained that this bomb shelter was built during the second world war and that even the vampires couldn't get through it. Brian said that it was best to wait here until some help arrived.

That could be months however I thought, assuming it ever did arrive. Sadly this was our only option. The streets of Lista were a literal war zone. None of us dared to brave them again.

The night was long and difficult. All five of us hardly spoke a word, though all of us took it in turns to cry. We had all lost so much that night.

I tried to remain calm and brave, but at times it hit me that I would never see Marie ever again. Then it would hit me that it was because of vampires! What was I going to tell her parents? It would get too much for me, and I'd break down.

I didn't sleep at all that night. When dawn broke, Alan and Brian were the first up and told us that we needed to go now.

The vampires could not go out during the day and so if we were ever to escape, now was the time. Brian, ever desperate to play the hero went out first just to see that there were no vampires.

Brian and Alan's house had been burned down. The streets were littered with bodies and pieces of bodies, blood literally caked the pavements, and most of the houses were in ruins. The stench of death was everywhere.

As we walked nervously down the street Claire suddenly tackled me to the floor. I looked up to see a car driving at an incredible speed down the road, before it smashed into a house on the other end.

Claire saved my life, whilst Alan, Diana and Brian had managed to jump to the other side. The car had come so quickly from around the corner that I didn't even notice it. As I looked around I noticed a large group of people at either end of the street. The people were covered in cuts and bruises. Clearly the vampires had been torturing them all night, but the bloodsuckers hadn't killed them as they wanted these people to be their eyes and ears during the day time.

We all instantly headed back to the Shelter with the vampire's human servants in hot pursuit.

Fortunately we all made it in time, but not only was it apparent that there was now seemingly no way of escape, but the vampires also knew where we were hiding!

As we cowered together in the shelter one of the vampires servants spoke.

"You can't stay in there forever. This place belongs to our Master now. When he rises tonight he will find you and you will die like the rest of this miserable town, alone, scared and in agony."

A part of me felt like opening the door and just getting it over with, rather than slowly rotting away in here.

Brian however was sure that someone would find us and said we just needed to wait it out. There was about two weeks worth supply of food for five people in the shelter.

As we sat in the shelter, terrified that the vampires servants could break down the door at any minute, Claire broke the silence and asked, somewhat nervously who the vampires Master was?

Alan spoke, his voice quivering "You don't want to know. And I hope for your sake you don't have to"

Alan revealed that there was a pistol in the shelter. It had been placed here by his father, in case they were buried alive during an air raid, and could take an easy way out.

Sadly the gun would be of no use against any of their tormentors. Guns couldn't kill vampires, and there were only 6 bullets in the gun, but close to 50 humans under the vampires control.

Alan told us that he had contemplated using it on himself last night. "After what those monsters did to my family I thought it would be easy just to end my pain. One quick shot to the head, then its over, the monsters couldn't hurt me any more. But I couldn't bare the thought of leaving my son alone to face this horror."

He was still angry about Brian's recklessness but also knew that had it not been for his son's bravery then we would all be dead now. He was proud of Brian, but after telling him so, still begged his son not to ever do anything like that again. Of course given the type of person Brian was, he also knew that his warning would not be heeded.

The day was long and hard. There were so many times when I felt like opening the door and just running through them, but every time Brian and Claire would calm me down.

Claire as always was my rock. She had saved my life, but even more incredible was the fact that she was somehow managing to keep calm throughout most of this nightmare. She'd even try and steer the conversation back to normality, talking about the things she was going to do when this nightmare was over like marry Michael, and try and find a job teaching.

That had been her ambition as she had always loved children, though to be honest I think she just liked the idea of having all those holidays off. Diana had ambitions of wanting to be a writer meanwhile, whilst I sadly didn't really know what I was going to do with my life, though again I didn't really think my future was guaranteed at that point anyway.

There were moments when even Claire couldn't keep her cool however. She cried about Marie several times. Whenever she started crying, me and Diana couldn't control ourselves either.

When night finally fell we sat there waiting for the vampires Master to show up. Alan assured us that even he couldn't get in here by force, but he was still terrified of what hideous trick the demons would try and pull on us next.

Sure enough the vampires Master (whose name I did not know at this point) soon arrived by the door with a group of his most vicious servants.

They had been able to enter the garden as it had been completely destroyed and therefore no longer counted as a private residence. We could tell the vampires had arrived even before Caros issued his demands by the stench that arrived with them. Caros spoke in a loud and booming voice.

"Poor, pitiful creatures, clinging to life, when you know its pointless. Come out now and I'll make sure that it's quick" He said.

Just then I could hear the rest of the vampires burst out into fits of hysterical laughter, followed by a massive slam on the door which startled us all.

Caros spoke again "Very well then, how about I make you a trade? One of you come out here and I don't tear this young woman and her child to pieces."

We could hear a child and a woman screaming outside. Brian went to open the small window on the door to see for himself. Alan had warned him against it, telling him that it was a trick, but again Brian didn't listen to his father. Brian saw a young woman, bloodied, her left eye black and swollen, hugging her screaming child who must have been no older than three.

Caros spoke again "We'll kill both of them unless you come out NOW. We'll make them suffer. You'll hear the sound of them screaming for mercy. I'll force the mother to watch as her child dies!"

Brian headed for the door. Alan instantly jumped in front of him and pushed him back.

"I cannot believe that you would be stupid enough to fall for that trick. If you open that door you will kill us all. That woman is clearly under their control." Alan said.

Brian however could not leave a young woman and her child at the mercy of the vampires and tried to assure his father that he wasn't simply going to walk out there and expect the vampires to keep their word. He was also confident that even if she was under the vampires control he could handle her. Brian also still had the cross he had used to fight off the vampires that had cornered us earlier, and hoped to use it maybe scatter the bloodsuckers around the mother and her child.

Alan was still against it. Claire also offered to go instead, which Alan was still against. Obviously he cared more for his son's well being than any of us, but he thought it was an insane idea for anyone to go out there.

Diana and I contributed nothing to the conversation of course as we couldn't speak German. I probably wouldn't have been brave enough to go out there at that point, in fact I know I wouldn't.

Brian couldn't be bothered to argue with his father anymore and after picking up his cross he headed out the door as his father shouted at him.

Outside the vampires instantly swarmed Brian, but as soon as he lifted the cross they began to cower. He quickly reached for the woman and the child. However as he headed to the door Caros placed his hand around the cross and even though it visibly burnt his hand, the vampire snapped it to pieces effortlessly. The girl and the woman then fled towards the shelter, leaving Brian behind, whilst Claire and Alan ran to the door, but there was nothing they could do. Alan did empty two shots into Caros but the blood sucker didn't even acknowledge them.

Caros toyed with Brian for a while, breaking both of his arms before tossing him into the rest of the vampires who swarmed the young man and tore him to bits. Alan screamed in anguish as he kept firing at the vampires, and it was only Claire shutting the door that prevented him from running out into them.

We could hear Brian's agonised screams from inside, but fortunately they didn't last for long. Brian was at least luckier than most of their other victims in this respect.

Alan meanwhile sank to his knees. He didn't even cry, he just looked completely broken.

I tried to comfort Alan, whilst Diana and Claire meanwhile went over to see the woman and her child, but the child ran away from them and cowered in a corner. Diana tried approaching the boy again, but this time when the child turned round, Diana saw the awful truth. The child was a vampire! It had buried its head in its mother's breast before, and had been dressed in gloves and a hat to conceal its true nature. Its mother was human, but she was completely under the vampires control just as Alan thought.

Now Diana could see its hideous white face, massive fangs and bright red eyes and before she could move away the monster sunk its fangs into her throat. Within seconds it ripped her entire throat out. Claire and I ran over towards Diana, but it was too late. She bled out in a matter of seconds and was dead before we could even begin to help her. Brian's heroic sacrifice had not only been for nothing, but it had cost Diana her life.

The vampire child soon attacked Claire too. Despite being just a child, it still had a much greater strength than either of us.

Before I could even try and help Claire, the child's mother punched me in the face. I'd never been in a fight before and I was instantly sent crashing to the ground, my nose bloodied.

As I lay there on the ground, she grabbed me by the throat and began to choke the life out of me. I suddenly heard a bang, and her blood splattered on my face as she fell to the floor.

Alan was standing behind her with the gun still smoking. The vampire child turned around after the shot and ran towards Alan. Alan however managed to knock the beast towards the floor by hitting it in the face with his gun. He then impaled the Demon child right through the chest with a makeshift stake he had created from a chair leg that he hammered through with the butt of his gun.

Upon being staked the vampire crumbled into nothing but a tiny little pile of ash on the floor. Alan then put the gun to his head and blew his brains out.

There was nothing anyone could have said to talk him out of it. The vampires had destroyed his entire life. I just wish he hadn't given the animals the satisfaction.

I felt like passing out from the shock of everything that had happened, and the pain in my nose was overwhelming. A combination of the pain, as well as the sight of Alan's brains splattered on the wall, and Diana's blood dripping from her throat actually made me vomit.

Claire helped me to sit down and checked my nose to see if it was broken. She lightly pinched my nose and when that hurt like hell she concluded that it was broken. She clearly wasn't a medical student!

There were bandages in the shelter but as she plastered up my nose I could see a bite mark on her arm. The vampire child had managed to get in a lucky bite during the struggle.

It was the final straw. I instantly started crying. Clare realised what I was upset about and put her arms around my shoulders.

"The vampire who bit me is dead. I am no longer under its control. We don't know if the bite is fatal or not. Just because it's that way in the movies doesn't mean"

I interrupted her. Barely able to speak through the tears I told her that I couldn't imagine my life without her. Claire then told me firmly that if need be, I would have to kill her.

At that point I wished that Alan hadn't used the last bullet on himself. I hugged Claire as hard as I could. I swore to her that I wouldn't let anything happen to her, but it was all pointless.

Over the next few hours Claire began to weaken, her skin turned white, her eyes began to go red and her teeth began to enlarge.

I held her in my arms. My best friend, the person I loved more than anything else in the world, as her life and everything she was, was slowly eaten away by a Demonic force.

She was brave at first, but as her condition worsened she began to cry. She screamed that she didn't want to die, she was only 22, she wanted to marry Michael, she didn't want her parents to go through losing their only child. Her final words to me just before she was completely consumed were,

"I can feel it, its all going away. Everything I am, I feel like I am already dead. Oh god this is what they feel like all the time? They can't feel anything other than wanting to hurt people. Please don't let me live like this Ferne. Please kill me!"

Within seconds she was gone. I hadn't even had the time to grieve for Diana before Claire was taken from me too.

I walked away from her corpse and headed for the stake Alan had made, but when I turned around I saw that Claire had already risen. The sight of my friend as one of those things was the most horrifying sight I will ever see in my life.

I foolishly hoped that I might be able to get through to Claire. If I had known then what I do now I wouldn't have hesitated to stake her, but I just didn't want to admit that Claire was gone.

Claire began to speak before I had a chance to say anything. "Don't worry old friend I will make this quick." She said.

I foolishly tried to reason with her. I told her to remember Michael, remember her parents, and remember that I loved her like a sister and always would.

She laughed and said back to me. "Don't worry I won't change you. I couldn't spend eternity with you, constantly prattling on about your sad little issues and insecurities. It would also just be too be cruel to make anyone live a life like yours forever. It's not like the vampires would accept you anyway. No one has."

I cried, as Claire laughed and continued to mock me. "There you are crying again like a little girl. That's your solution to all your problems, just to cry and whimper and whine to whoever is unfortunate enough to be near you."

I wasn't crying for the reasons that she thought however. I cried because I realised that Claire was truly gone. She would never say such a thing, even on her worst day. She loved me like a sister. If there was one thing I was sure of it was that.

I ran to the door. Whilst I knew this monster wasn't Claire, I still didn't want to be killed by a monster that bore the face of my friend.

I managed to make it out of the shelter and to my surprise all of the vampires were gone. I didn't stop to think why however as Claire was coming after me.

As I ran out into the streets I still saw no vampires? What had happened, had they got bored of torturing me and ran away? Just then as Claire came charging at me an arrow suddenly shot straight into her back. It narrowly missed her heart. As she fell to the pavement she pitifully started to beg me for help, but again I was not fooled. I knew the real Claire had died in the shelter. I just wish I had had the courage to slay the monster baring her face there and then. I was too scared to even look at her, and the blood sucker, being crafty and cowardly like all members of its kind soon reached up, overpowered me and used me as a human shield, stopping her attackers from firing any more arrows, before she then jumped onto a nearby roof top using her new inhuman strength and then across several more until she was out of view.

Two men armed with crossbows then came running out of the ruins of one of the houses and cornered me.

These men were from Rentros an organisation designed to track down supernatural creatures. They had managed to slay many of the attacking vampires, though sadly Caros had escaped (and taken down six Rentros troops before hand). The Rentros men would take me and the few survivors in. Among those who survived the slaughter included Brian's mother, Carla, who the vampires had also kept alive to further torture. They wanted her to live for a few days knowing what she had done to her daughter.

According to one of the Rentros men, it was a favourite activity of vampires to make people murder their loved ones. He felt that vampires enjoyed dragging decent people down to their level.

The Rentros men provided an official cover for the story and sent us all home. My life would be a black pit of despair for the next few years however. Without Claire, Diana and Marie the loneliness was unbearable. Even to this day I have never made friends quite so close. Eventually however I would overcome my depression and join Rentros.

I wanted to make the vampires pay. It felt like that was all I had left. In a way the vampires had dragged me down to their level after all. I'd spend years training with Rentros, honing my skills and body and learning everything I could about the monsters until I was able to kill them.

However as the years passed I came to view them with pity. I saw that actually they were pathetic creatures, unable to feel anything but hatred. Slaying a vampire came to be an act of mercy for me.

I would also sadly have many more meetings with my former best friend Claire, who would soon go on to become my greatest enemy. I will kill her. One day. I know her better than anyone else, I know how her mind works. Even when it has been corrupted by a Demonic force.

I tell this story to let you all know how important it is to have knowledge on what is really out there. If the me of today were trapped in Lista, my friends would still be alive. The greatest trick the devil played was in convincing you he didn't exist and it important that you do not fall for it like I did.

There is a war going on and whilst some people can get away with sticking their fingers in the ears and pretending it doesn't exist for a time. Sooner or later unless they are not vanquished, the vampire horde will catch up with all of us.