text: I never knew pain until the day the earth caught fire. I watched as oceans fell and the mysteries of the deep revealed themselves. I saw the sun become a merciless killer. It surfaced turned red. Giant balls of fire turned cities into ashes. There was no rain. No relief from our mother. The terrains we once traversed had become desolate. Haunted by the ghosts of those souls we used to hunt. Emergency broadcast systems ran for weeks until the power grids collapsed. There was no food for the humans to consume so they turned on each other. I watched as man ate his neighbor. Mothers butchered strangers to feed their younglings. My clan found shelter in an abandoned mine. The nights above had grown shorter as the sun burned towards a luminous climax. My clan was hungry. It had been weeks since we fed on the blood of a human. Today we laid our sister Morwenna to rest. Her pale skin had the look of rot wood. There was no beauty in death. Only the foul stench of something that no longer belonged on this cursed earth. Wolfe and Cassius were the strongest of us. The two clawed out a grave for Morwenna in the dirt. The women in the clan - Effie, Wren, and Imogen - kneeled beside her and prayed. Crow was equal to my age and the more spirited member of the clan. But unlike our older sisters, religion did not take to her. I felt it my duty to keep the word of our kind alive. The Scriptures of Delphi were filled with prophecies, visions, and stories as told by the Oracles. The Vampire Bible was one of those stories and I kept it close to my heart. It was in these moments, these quiet moments of death that I looked to the scripture for guidance. Thorne was our leader but even he found it hard to keep faith. The eldest of us was Blackwell. He required the aid of a walking stick and his back was hunched. He was closer to death than the rest of us. If he did not feed soon, he would be joining Morwenna in the afterlife. Thorne stood over our sister and with the crackle of his voice he spoke these words: *We pray to our God Ambrogio to watch over and guide our sister in the underworld*. Ambrogio was the first of our kind. Our guiding light amid all that was dark. He had been cursed into the darkness by Apollo and blessed into the pantheon of legends by Artemis. Night had fallen. It was as if the stars had died. I missed tracing the constellations in the sky. The moon itself had disappeared altogether. The night sky’s flashlight. We had to rely on our failing senses to guide us. Thorne led us across a misty, ravaged farmland. Fossilized tractors. Barns burned to ruins. Barrels of hay now literal dusts in the wind. Wolfe and Cassius kept a close watch of Blackwell as he struggled to keep up with the clan. We had to move swiftly before the sun appeared again. We had to find food. Then the mist took shape and formed into ghosts. Farmhands trapped in a never-ending time loop of hard labor and cattle raising. A farmer stuck in a perpetual state of shock as blood ran from the necks of his wife and child’s ghosts. The ghosts in this world were like recorded holograms unaware of their surroundings. Crow spun around the farmhands like a ghastly black swan. I stood and watched the farmer. I became transfixed on the terror in his ghostly eyes. I pitied him. Not for his death. But for his weakness. He lacked the strength to survive in this world. The growls in my stomach became nauseating. I fantasized soaking myself in the blood of his wife. My tongue was beginning to forget the taste of blood. We made our way up a hill where to our surprise Thorne had spotted a lone human down below. The human was covered in filth. Its hair straggly. Its teeth yellow and rot. It appeared impaired, inebriated even as it stumbled towards a low burning fire pit where a **human leg roasted**. The human sliced off the meaty parts of the limb and gorged on the tendons and tissue. A pig in the trough. Then it became irritable, stomping on the dirt beneath its feet. It laid next to the fire pit. Its body tremored. This human was sick. I’ve seen it happen to others once they began to taste the flesh of its own kind. If it was really bad off, then its blood would be poisoned. But the hunger outweighed the risk. Before Thorne had decided, Blackwell had already plodded his way down to the human. He raised his walking stick high up to the heavens and struck it down into the human’s beating heart. Blackwell fell to the ground as the human flopped about like a suffocating fish. Thorne signaled for the rest of the clan to join him. Wolfe mercifully snapped the human’s neck. Thorne and Imogen helped Blackwell over to the human’s neck. He would feed first. The dull edges of his teeth clung to the arteries in the neck for dear life. I saw the sense of relief and elation in his amber eyes as the ichor flowed through the pulsating veins in his cold body. Imogen took the other side of the neck. Wren and Effie bit into the human’s wrist. I, Wolfe, Cassius, and Crow took the legs. Thorne grabbed what was left of the roasted, severed leg and sipped what little droplets of blood it had to offer. In mere minutes we had drained every ounce of blood from the human’s body. But our hunger had not been satisfied. In a panic Blackwell licked up the blood the human had gargled from its mouth and unto the ground when he stabbed it. Throne was too ashamed to watch. Wolfe and Cassius went to help the old vampire up, but Effie waved them off. I read through the scriptures as we shuffled on across the dead earth. Hoping to find something uplifting. Something that could help guide us. Then I heard a familiar howl in the night that gave us all pause. It was the howl of a wolf... We had just emerged from a tunnel deep beneath a ruined city. Thorne had caught the scent of a couple seeking shelter and food in an old strip mall. I remembered the embers that fell from the sky. Ashes of snow littered across the ground. Crow was fascinated with the small burning coals of fire and allowed drops to singe her flesh. Morwenna had been sick for quite some time and had trouble keeping up with the rest of the clan. Wren and Effie flanked and shielded her with scraps of metal from the raining embers. Blackwell had no hunch then and walked without assistance. Wolfe and Cassius were the first to enter the dilapidated building. Blackwell was right on their heels. Imogen was the first to sense something was off. She had always been intuitive. Then I smelled it too. The smell of wet fur. It all happened so fast. Blackwell went down first. The flesh of his back torn apart by the razor-sharp claws of a gray wolf. Then four more attacked. All rabid and ravenous. The wolves had claimed the humans as their prey. Thorne wrestled the first wolf off the back of Blackwell. I watched as he beheaded the creature with his long, massive hands. Wolfe and Cassius tackled two of the grays. Wren guarded me and Crow. We being the youngest, they felt it their duty to protect us. Imogen and Effie had their hands full wrestling the alpha female of the pack. Thorne stalked the leader - the alpha male. The alpha watched Thorne’s movements. Calculating. The alpha then lunged forward with its salivating tongue and long, keen teeth. Thorne side stepped the beast and snatched it by its tail. He swung and launch the alpha into a wall with a thunderous clatter. Imogen and Effie pulled and ripped the alpha female in half. Cassius delivered blow after blow to the head of his gray until it laid motionless. Wolfe bit into the neck of the other gray and drenched himself in its blood splatter. The wounded alpha limped away. Wolfe wanted to purse it, but Thorne called him back. Effie sauntered over to the human couple that was huddled behind a desk. The male was deceased. His corpse mutilated. The female was in a state of shock and rocked back and forth. Effie gently stroked her face and gave her a false sense of comfort. She snapped the female’s neck in one quick motion. That was the last time we fed before tonight. The howling grew closer as we watched a lone gray wolf limp forward in the shadows. It was the alpha male that Thorne had crippled. Thorne left us and marched towards the dying gray. It had been looking for death but could not find it. It wanted to be relieved of its pain. Thorne offered his enemy mercy as he hugged his arms tight around the gray’s neck. He squeezed tighter and tighter until there was no more life left in the creature. We continued our hunt further into the night. Crow hummed a familiar tune to lift our spirits. The rest of the women joined her until the humming drowned out the dreadful silence. I threw in a couple of ad-libs that I remembered from the jazz era. I even got old Blackwell to smile for a moment. Just one moment where he didn’t have to face his own mortality. Then a strange light from over the horizon interrupted our song. Thorne feared the worst, but it was too soon. Yes, the nights had grown shorter but never did the sun find us this fast. The light became brighter as it rose across the hemisphere. Thorne yelled for us to run! But there were no tunnels or abandoned mines in the vicinity. No old homes or buildings. Just miles and miles of nothingness. I spotted a rock formation with a small pocket and made haste. A few others spotted old planks of wood. I slid into the rock formation with Crow and Effie. Wolfe clawed into the earth hoping to dig himself a grave. Imogen and Wren found a small, shaded area under a hill and smashed close together. Cassius grabbed the old planks of wood and covered himself and Blackwell. But Thorne stood and greeted the sun as it took its seat at the throne in the sky. The skin on his flesh erupted into flames. I watched his eyes in those final moments and pitied him. Our leader had lost all faith and left us to fend for ourselves. The hours passed. Wolfe’s charred remains slowly broke apart and fell into the hole he hadn’t’ finished digging. Imogen and Wren huddled close together under the shade of the hill. The tips of their toes barely escaping the sun’s rays. Cassius’s arms trembled as he struggled to hold up the old planks of wood over him and Blackwell. His hands smoldered. He cried out to us, “Ambrogio has abandoned us. Forgive me brothers and sisters”. He nodded to Blackwell who had long ago accepted his faith. The old planks of wood fell to the ground. The two vampires embraced each other as they went up in flames. I shouted, “Keep faith! Ambrogio will deliver us from this wickedness”! I watched as the light faded from Crow’s eyes. She inched out into the sun. I grabbed her arm and yanked her back. She looked at me with sadness. She too wanted an end to this suffering. But I was not ready to lose one more. I was awakened by the sound of loud voices. Wren, Imogen, and Effie stood under the darkened sky shouting at one another. Crow was still asleep, and I felt a need to keep her that way. At least until the yelling subsided. The clan, if you could still call it that, was at its wits end. I offered up a prayer, but before I could open the scriptures Crow snuck up from behind him, grabbed them, and tossed them into the dark void. She like the others had had enough. But who are we without our faith but mere savages? Imogen said that we were on our own. There is no more food. No shelter. No salvation. No Ambrogio. When the sun came up again, we would die. But I was not ready to be greeted by death. I needed to come up with a plan and quick. I closed my eyes and prayed for the final time. That’s when the first bite came. Crow bit into the neck of Effie. She never saw it coming. Never imagined such a twist of fate. Then it was as if Crow’s madness became contagious. I watched as Wren and Imogen attacked one another. I stood in disbelief as the last of our clan descended into cannibalism. Crow fed on the blood of Effie. Imogen the stronger of the two, fed on Wren. It was as if the taste of the blood of their kin drove them insane, the same way it did the humans. I didn’t even recognize my sisters anymore. Crow and Imogen eventually turned on each other. Two voracious beasts ripping and tearing into each other’s flesh. Imogen fell to her knees and reached out to me. Crow punched through Imogen’s chest cavity and wrenched out her heart. She licked the bloody organ and squeezed it like an orange. I knew Crow would come for me next. I knew that this would be the end. It was as if I were in a dream. The rapacious monster that now possessed my poor sister’s soul showed no mercy as it lunged towards to me. I fought back tears as I grappled with her. Two soulless creatures fighting for a chance to live at least one more day. Was it worth fighting the inevitable? I tried not to let such thoughts pollute my mind as I clawed at her skin. I would not let my faith waiver. I screamed as her teeth pierced my neck. I could feel the life being sucked from out of me. I noticed a piece of the old wood plank within my reach. I grabbed hold of it and thrusted it into her skull. She released me from her jaws and fell over. I hammered the old plank of wood into her skull until it was crushed to dust. I hid in the old rock formation for one more day as the sun berated the surface. When night fell, I walked to what felt like the edge of the earth. It was as if the night dragged or maybe I had just gone delirious. I swore I saw the ghosts of my elders. Cassius and Wolfe wrestling in the dirt. The sisters crocheting each other’s long dark hair. Thorne meditating. The old vampire Blackwell shuffling about. Crow prancing around under the midnight sky trying to will the moon to come out and play. I missed my family. I was alone and afraid. The sun was approaching when I reached what had once been the ocean shore. That’s when I saw a strange sight. Surely I could no longer trust my eyes. What laid ahead of me was a ship. A ship that must have crashed from the sea long ago. My fingers glided across the words etched on ship’s wooden hull - *D E M E T E R* A stray dog bolted from out of the ship and startled me. I climbed aboard the main deck. That’s when I saw the bodies. Corpses that had been rotted for quite some time. The odor was unbearable. I counted at least a dozen. Their skin had ashen. I bit into the arm of one. There was no blood. No blood left in any of them. I could see the red giant beginning to scare away the darkness. I crept below the deck. I would be safe here until the night called again. There were boxes. Large boxes. Too many to count. I satisfied my curiosity and opened every last one of them. Inside was earth. Soil too fresh to be old. But its what I saw in the back of the ship that gave me chills. There rested a cadaver with a captain’s hat. Nestled in his hand was a crucifix. Next to the dead captain was a coffin made of black walnut. Dark. Hard. Dense. I opened the coffin and saw the most immaculate creature that I had ever laid my eyes on. A vampire with hair as dark as night. Its face appeared to have been sculpted by the great Michelangelo. Its icy pale skin had more life in it than a thousand stars. I then heard a voice in my head. It was deep and soothing. My prayers had been answered. His name was Dracula. If Ambrogio was God then Dracula was his son. His eyes opened and met mine as it filled with tears. I was no longer alone. I was no longer afraid.