Part Six: Dining With Mefisto (draft)

Part Six

Dining with Mefisto “It must have been terrible for you. Though to an old romantic such as myself it is perhaps the most beautiful becoming I have yet heard. Such powerful love and passion mixed with a young vampire’s uncontrollable thirst and the pain of a betrayed lover. It is quite the tale.” “It has haunted me for almost two centuries you heartless beast.” I replied though without conviction. “And now I hope that you can stop running. I am that which you have been seeking. I can guide you and offer you purpose.” “What purpose? What are we but Satan’s very own spawn, a plague upon humanity.” “We must feed, this is true but we are not a so great a plague upon humanity. You lived through the war that ended human civilisation and devastated most of the life on this planet. No, humanity is it’s own plague. We are but the cure. If there be a God and a devil, it was God who put us here.” “We are an insult to God.” “God and his church are insults to us. We are the true gods of this earth, not some invisible man in the sky. We have power to change the world. Where was God when the nations of this world destroyed themselves? Where is he now as the earth continues to decay?” I sat silently for a moment thinking upon his words. I had not belonged to a church in life. I had been christened a Protestant but that was when I was a baby. It was the last time I ever entered a Church. My marriage had been outdoors. Rarely had I prayed. But since turning I had cursed God frequently and the war only intensified my bitterness. “I would like to explain to you what it is that I am trying to do here but first I think we should dine. You have had but one meal this evening and since then you have used a lot of blood. I must say I was impressed by how quickly you recovered from your scuffle with my men. I think that you gave them a bit of a scare when they saw you start to recover almost instantly. That is why they thought it best to keep you in chains. You must forgive me if they treated you badly. They are young and of poor upbringing but they are fine soldiers.” “Soldiers! What in God’s name do you have soldiers for?” “Our subjects need to be protected, both from themselves and us. In return for their loyalty I offer protection.” “So those people where coming here for you. They are your subjects?” “Yes. They do not know what I am but I offer them hope.” “I so what, like the Aztecs they offer themselves to blood thirsty god’s.” “Not themselves, their children.” “That is monstrous, what woman would willingly give her child to be slaughtered.” “Very few. We have an orphanage where we take in children. There are many orphans in this city of whom no one cares. Thus no one asks questions when they disappear. Of the children that are given willingly by parents who have not the means to keep them, we keep them alive for appearances. Thus we invoke no suspicion. To them we are just kindly angels.” “Such deception sounds awful to me. They will discover what you are and they will revolt. Perhaps conspire to kill you.” “Will they? What have we offered them but a better standard of living and protection from bandits? We have established libraries, greenhouses, police, clean water, bathing

facilities and much more. No they will not revolt even if we are discovered for what we are. What would they do? Return to an existence of constant struggle and death.” I was silent. The whole concept went beyond anything I could possibly have conceived on my own: Vampires playing the benign God and hope of humanity. I thought of us as nothing more than a scourge, devils that pray upon humanity in the night. We were creatures of nightmare and horror. “Yes, for aeons we have lived as parasites. But the fall has offered an opportunity to change that. I lived when the Pharaohs still ruled ancient Egypt, before Homer was even born. I have seen humanity put its vast potential towards little more than dominance and devastation, war and tyranny. The Last World War was the pinnacle of this. I cannot allow humanity to continue unguided. I am amazed that even we survived that war. When war first broke out I thought that I would walk alone for aeons in the dust of human civilisation, until finally through hunger I wasted away. But this did not occur. Much has survived though so much has been lost. I suspect no more than a few million people are alive today. Their numbers are on the decline you know. There is not enough food and most pregnancies end in stillbirths. Have you seen the generations born after The Fall? Few are born without defects; fewer still survive until adulthood. Humanity will become extinct within a few centuries at the current rate. Mammalian life itself is failing and vast tracts of the ocean are dead. The life forms that thrive today are of a wholly new nature and make me think of the writings of H.P. Lovecraft.” I had seen such creatures, black things that live in the polluted waters of the world. They filled me with a primal terror. I suspect that they could not kill me but something about them wasn’t right. They were unnatural in ways unimaginable. These creatures seemed without form. Black writhing masses tentacles, eyes and teeth. “Perhaps he knew of things that even I was previously unaware, though I suspect the similarities are coincidental.” Said he. “Now we really must dine. Though you speak nothing of it I know that your hunger is burning you inside.” At this he produced a small bell and let it ring twice. Within moments the doors opened and Vaughn entered leading a naked man by a leash around his neck. The man had the worn rugged look that was typical of these times. He had been washed and his head and face shaved clean. I could no longer ignore my hunger. The man’s scent had washed over me. He was afraid. He seemed to have some conception of what we were. “This one was discovered stealing from his neighbours. Where you not?” “I… I… my children. They had no food, we were starving.” “You know the punishment for theft. I have made such things very clear.’ “My children Sire.” “And what of your rations? Ha. Gambled your family’s rations for a month did you not? No, you will not receive pity here.” The man said nothing. “Bring him forward.” Vaughn brought the man to the table. The tension building inside of me was mounting. I wanted to taste the man’s blood. He stood close to me now standing before Sire. “Kneel!” The man did as commanded. He was sweating. His fear was a delicious garnish to my hunger. “For your crimes your life is forfeit as are the lives of your family as is written in the law.”

“But Sire not my family. Take my life but spare them.” “Would you prefer I had Lenore here kill them in front of you? Vaughn fetch the wife.” “Please God no…” “Then accept your due punishment with dignity man.” At this he wrapped his hand around the man’s throat and lifted him onto the table. The man struggled vainly under vampiric strength. This excited me I wanted him then and there. I didn’t know if I could hold back my hunger. “For you my dear.” At this he let go of the man and I had him. He had wet himself. I could feel it through my dress as I took him in my arms. Seldom had my hunger been so intense. I bit into his throat let the blood flow freely into me. It came as a powerful relief. Pleasure, sensual all consuming pleasure exploded through my body. I saw his family living in a small but relatively comfortable apartment that had been supplied to them by Sire. He worked clearing the ruins for development. His wife and children produced fabric. Though it was illegal he had taken to drinking heavily. Drinking was tolerated but barely. Foul tasting alcohol was not cheap. Most workers drank a little to numb pain and help them sleep but this man like many others had taken to drinking heavily and was using his family’s food rations to pay for his habit. This month he decided that if he could win enough in a gamble he could continue to drink and his family would not have to go hungry. Instead he lost it all and became desperate. He knew his neighbours were frugal with their rations and keep a little aside each month. He decided he could take a little and they would not notice. He was caught in the act, the police (if that’s what you call the mortal security of this strange society) summoned and he was passed over into the hands of the Dragul (the name used to describe those were wore the dark robes). He died in my arms and I laid him upon the cold floor. “Well I suspect we can now get back to business with only a couple of hours before dawn I still have much wish to speak to you of and hopefully convince you that this is your new home.” I was still flustered from my meal. Vaughn was dragging away my victim by one leg. “And what if I refuse to accept this as my home?” “Should you refuse to devote yourself to the greater good of humanity, as one of my vassals, and choose instead to return to a life of the vagrant parasite, I shall be forced to drain you of life and incinerate your remains as I have done with all the others who have refused me.”