THE EMBRACE

It was around 1230 AD. A time when darkness has ruled over our lands. A time when people live in fear about the strange and the unexplained. A time when faith is your only salvation. My story starts here, in Lemi, a small town near the city of Lappeenranta, in South Karelia, the south-eastern part of Finland. My journey to that unknown place…darkness.

It wasn’t always this dark. I remember my childhood. Growing up in the basking sunlight. Enjoying my childhood playing in the fields with my friends. I used to enjoy the mornings. I enjoyed viewing the beautiful blue skies and white clouds that formed into different shape and sizes: small bunnies, mountains, flowers and birds.

And the people. There were a few people who didn’t know my family. We own a small farm in the outskirts of Lemi. My parents were known to be the best farmers in our town. They sold the best crops and the healthiest herd and poultry. My parents were well respected by their fellow farmers and I had so many friends because of this.

As you may figure, life couldn’t go any better than this. So it could only go bad or worse. My family’s life, tradition and culture, gone in a week’s time. The Soujanen family ends with me. And all because of HIM.

I had a bad feeling about him the moment he stepped inside our homestead.

Rumors of Cain’s children living among us were spread wide throughout Lappeenranta. But father said that they were only rumors. No vampire would be interested in a farm such as ours or any other farms located in Lemi.

“Why would they?” I remembered him say before that fateful day. “This is a farming village. There is no gain in using poor farmers like us. They would just get bored with us and leave immediately.”

He was right about getting bored. But leaving was another matter.

It was that time of the year when many weary travelers pass through our small village on their way to Helsinki for the annual festival that was being held there. And it was customary to let these travelers into our homes and treat them like they were a part of the family. And it was in that night that a stranger appeared at our doorstep.

It was raining hard that night. My family was in the small living area when there was a knock on our door.

“Who could be traveling at this hour of the night?” My mother wondered.

My father opened the door to see a man in a hood and he was hurt bad.

“Please,” he begged. “I need a place to stay, just for the night.”

But he collapsed before any of us could respond. He was as pale as the moon and even though drenched to the bones, you can see the handsome features despite the old age. The look on his face told me that someone was chasing him but I have no idea what or who.

My parents being the kind people that they were gathered him up and led him to the small room that was specially made for this time of year. Since there were many travelers passing along Lemi, my father built a room suited for travelers.

That night I wondered why this man was so pale. Father said it was because of the loss of blood. He also said that the man might have been a rich merchant and that he had been robbed and should have been left for dead on the streets.

That was the only time my father made a mistake about people. And because of that mistake, I will never see him again.
And so Marius became a part of the household until he was strong enough to leave…unfortunately, he didn’t.

My mother was the one who nursed him back to health. She was the one who dressed his wounds and gave him food everyday.

“Such a strange man, that Marius” I heard my mother said to one of our neighboring farmer’s wife. “He doesn’t want the windows to be opened during the day. He keeps to himself most of the time and only comes out of the room during dinner.”

I should have seen the signs. I have read about them before in the town library. Cain’s children were cursed never to walk in the light among the Children of Abel. The Higher Being has cursed these creatures never to experience sunlight. But still I did not warn my parents. I still believe what my father told me that vampires would not want to have to do with this farming village.

I don’t feel comfortable when Marius is around. Every night he joins the family in the living room and had small conversation with my father while my mother mends the clothes and I reading near the fireplace. But that fateful night, he approached me instead of my father.
“Good evening, Engkeli,” Marius said soft voice.

His presence has such power and intensity that it took all my willpower and reserve not to bow low.

“Good evening, good sir,” I answered and smiled back. I was about to go back to my reading but he decided to sit down and join me. I can see that he has difficulty while he’s near the fireplace but still he stayed.

My parents did not see anything wrong with the situation. At their point of view it was just a friendly conversation with the guest of the house. But I had this strange feeling that it was more than just a mere “friendly conversation”.

Marius was curious of how literate I was. He kept asking questions on what I had read through the years or what languages I know. He seems curious that at my age of sixteen, I know so many things. In his eyes, he wasn’t only curious. He knows I have a potential, but he is thinking on how to use it.
As the night wore on, I told my parents that I would retire for the night. It was still early from the usual time that I go to sleep but something inside of me said that I should leave the living room. So I did. It was the biggest mistake that I had made.

I was already in my room when it started. Marius had planned the whole thing so that it would be easy to be put to action. Marius attacked my parents when I left the room. I didn’t even hear them scream. But when I went down to get a glass of water, I found them. Dead. They were where they were sitting when I left the room but their head is tilted at a different angle and you can plainly see two puncture holes that can only be explained by vampire bites.

“Mother? Father?” I said, not believing that they are already dead.

“They cannot hear you anymore, Engkeli,” someone from behind me said.

I turned around to see Marius, not hiding his true nature anymore. The evil being that has killed the people who took him in when he was injured.
“How could you do this?” I asked in anger. “They took you in. They saved you from the people who attacked you. They never did anything wrong. Why did you have to kill them?”

Marius walked slowly towards me. My anger was so intense that his presence did not disturb me like that time when he approached me near the fireplace. When he was already at arm’s length, he said, “they were a hindrance. They should not be the keepers of such a talented child such as you.”

“So you just killed them?” I remarked. “Is that all they were to you? Pawns in your game?”

“You can say that,” he answered. “You can also say that I have saved you from the life that they have given you.”

“I love my life,” I said. “You have no right to tell me what kind of life I should be leading. You’re not my father. You just killed him.”

“I have nothing to do with you, sir,” I continued to say. “Kill me now. So that I may join my parents in the afterlife.”

He laughed at my statement. He picked me up by the face with only one hand. Oddly, his face was peaceful. As if what he did, did not bother him in any way.

“I will not kill you, Engkeli,” he replied. “You are gifted. We must use that gift. You will thank me when you realize what I say is right.”
And then it was over.

I woke up the next night craving for blood. I have become his childe. I had become a vampire.

I was on my bed. Marius was sitting in a chair right beside the bed. Vampire blood boiled within me. Anger and hatred for what I have become was seeping through my being. I have no love lost for this monster. But someday, I fill find a way to kill him. It’s not impossible. But it will be difficult. I have read literatures that tells me of childes killing their sires. I have to find a way. I cannot live like this knowing the monster who slaughtered my parents have given me another life to live.

I will find a way. But for now, he would regret the day he made me a vampire.
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This is the back story of my vampire character Engkeli. I meant to write stories of her adventures before, I've finally got to do it now. Now if I can only remember the stories that were written in that diskette...