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IT HAPPENED IN HALLOWEEN
Bernardo was a slightly uncommon vampire. Although he was turned
into vampire already more than a century ago, he had not yet got
used to the idea that his place was with other beings of ultragrave,
zombies, black poltergeists and other vampires like himself. He was
fascinated by the world of the mortals, and whenever he could he
enjoyed walking along the night scenarios of the city welcoming new
tendencies, expressions and customs that, logically, changed over
the time.The latter times turned out to be the best for him.
Although during his walks his slightly cadaveric look could have
revealed his real nature, in order to keep himself unnoticed he had
adopted Marilyn Manson fans’ fashion so successfully that he had
been stopped on the street more than once. People asked him for the
shop where he bought the black dusty frock coat he usually wore, or
they asked for the brand of make-up that gave him such a successful
air of dead. The places where he used to gather to listen to the so-called
Gothic rock were actually populated by so many weird people that he
was seen just as one of them.
Being a vampire, as well as all the things in this world (and in the
other), has its advantages and its disadvantages and Bernardo, who
was a naturally positive being, was trying to make use of the first
ones while minimising the others. The problem of having to feed
himself out of the others’ blood was not such a problem, because he
did not need big quantities of blood to live. Apart from that, just
as people can donate blood from time to time because the human body
is able to restore it easily, they could also get rid of some
whenever Bernardo was starving. Of course, he bore much in mind not
biting the same person more than three times, as this person would
then turn into a vampire and there would be too much competition.
This was a commonly respected agreement that was taken back in the
first assemblies of the Clan.
The legend that says that vampires cannot die is only this - a
legend. Logically, if they are hungry but they are not fed they can
die of hunger, as they also do if they are exposed to solar light
for too long. Another possible reason for dying would be having
their body excessively burnt in a fire, and also, obviously, the
known wooden sticks knocked into their hearts. However, there was no
vampire who allowed anyone to practice this slow and painful method
to himself without putting up an obstinate resistance. As a plan to
finish with them, therefore, it usually turned out to be a bad plan.
However, vampires’ difficulties followed other courses. One of the
disadvantages of absorbing others’ blood is that you also receive
the energetic mark of the person, with the cravings and distastes
that characterise his or her personality. Depending on how deep this
was, Bernardo, who was a very sensitive guy, could spend the whole
week feeling the same the given person felt. Depending on who this
was, sometimes this could be quite uncomfortable.
As a proof of this, the penultimate person he had bitten was an
approximately twenty years athletic boy who was jogging around the
park of the city when it was getting dark. The technique was simple:
appearance, hypnosis, bite (of course not in the jugular, as it was
too evident), and farewell. After a light daze, the boy kept on
running as if nothing had happened, with only a pair of stings in
the arm like a big mosquito or a small spider. Well, it turned out
that the boy was a super fan of climbing mountains, and Bernardo
suddenly started to be keen on it as well. It is commonly understood
that certain hobbies can be quite incompatible with the schedules of
a vampire. To make matters worse, if climbing in the daytime is
already quite dangerous, doing it at night, in spite of possessing
better night sight, is even more dangerous. After fourteen attempts
at the biggest peak of the Carpathian mountains and his consequent
slips and falls from considerable heights, Bernardo's body was so
battered he could not go out of his house for a long while, and when
he did it at last he was only a stagger shade.
In front of such bad results, his partners advised him to devote
himself to old people, saying that in such ages desires and hobbies
are often attenuated or they can even disappear. However, Bernardo
loved risk and novelties, so he did not pay any attention and stood
firm in his decision, which did not make things better but worse.
The following guy he bite after the athlete was a passionate
politician in time of elections, and this really became
uncomfortable. Suddenly, the craving for power blinded him and began
to promote himself by organising meetings where he bravely
criticised all the decisions and projects of the Vampiric Assembly.
He did so with so much determination that his friends, in order to
avoid further complications, had to cheat at him by making him drink
a small glass of blood from a yogi who was a marijuana addict.
Thanks to the high drug concentration, they managed to attenuate so
much political obstinacy before the Power intervened in the matter
and the situation became worse. However, the real mystical
experience still had to come. It happened in a Halloween night when
most of the city was celebrating the deceased with costumes, alcohol
and music. Bernardo, who was in the tavern drinking Orujo(1) with a
group of human friends, managed to bite one of them -Julián- in a
moment of solitude when he went outside the bar to talk on the
mobile. Just after finishing, he started feeling an irresistible
longing, an anxious sadness, an unsatisfied desire that drowned any
thought not related to the girl Julián was dreaming of. Since then,
due to contagion, she also was in Bernardo’s dreams. Obtaining the
address of the girl was not difficult, as Julián spent a lot of time
spying the movements of his beloved, so he just needed to follow him.
Being alone with her for a while was already more complicated, but
the most difficult thing was managing to bite her four times without
being any hungry. His only desire was to turn her into a vampire in
order to marry her and enjoy her company forever.
It was horrible. He did manage to marry her, and he was happy for
the first three days, but on the fourth he was already completely
tired of the story. As it had happened other times, his pressing
feelings disappeared, but this time she stayed there, attached to
him, bothering his life-death forever. Bernardo’s walks and
adventurous life were finished. All this for no other reason than
not taking into account the good advices his friends had given to
him. It truly was a pity.
(1) Strong Spanish liqueur made from residue of grape skins after
pressing (N. of the T.).
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