7My name is Nicolas De Renolde, I am a Vampire. This is my story, as I tell you, you must realize that in the 18th century, there was difference in what was, and what is today. I was born into a family of, eventually 8 children, including myself. Back then it was impressive, but common to have more than 1 or 2. What was more impressive was that my mother and my father were still living and well, and all 8 children were safe and healthy. Most of the tales you will hear have had dieing children, or parents, to signify the hard times we had to endure. Truth of the matter is, most of the people with money, as we had, had little hard times.
New Orleans was my home; from the time I was born, to the time I died at the age of 23. Yes, 23 was a young age, but you have to think of what "Died" has to mean. This was when I became the "Undead" as some call it. But I am getting ahead of myself.
When I was born, I had a full head of strawberry blond locks, treading almost past my ears. My eyes were green, sometimes blue, depending on what I chose to wear. The more vivid color I wore, the more lustrous my eyes would become. My skin had always a white hue to it, nothing much happened when I was "changed." I was almost reaching 6'3" in my height.
I have 5 sisters and 2 brothers. All of my brothers had darker hair then me, and my sisters all had light hair. I was one of the middle children in the family. The youngest of the boys, I was the fifth to be born among the family. It was first my brother Christopher, then Timothy, Leeann, Elizabeth, Myself, Falane, Stephanie, and Kristina.
All my brothers, having dark hair and dark eyes, I was am outcast to them within my looks, and even with my manner of how I wanted to live my life. My sisters, all but one had natural light brown or blonde hair. Only one possessed the same hair as my mother had.
Falane, my younger sister, had fiery red locks of hair, and blue eyes, as my mother possessed when she was younger. My father had in his childhood, blond hair, but it was faded away to dark brown and eventually gray. Falane was the most beautiful of the girls I knew in my family, and she fascinated me the most.
She was one year younger then me, but it seemed the other way around. When there was trouble between the children and my mother couldn't handle it, Falane would use only a few simple words and everyone would calm down. Her small little form was odd to look at when you could feel the frightening power she kept within herself. Not necessarily physically was she strong, but mentally. If you got into an argument with her, it was as if she could make you pass out just with one thought.
I spent most of my hours with my older brother Christopher. He was my friend, as was Timothy, but Christopher and myself were the hunters. We always gathered food for the family, whilst Timothy was off gallivanting with a girl that just came in to New Orleans from Alabama or Georgia. Timothy was the middle brother, between Christopher and me. Gathering food usually meant riding out and finding pheasant to kill and bring home, or to just fish. But the pheasant was better then any catfish that I had ever tasted. Also, on special occasions, Christopher and I would hunt for Alligator and things of that sort and it was actually very tasteful.
My brother and I would always be away in the forest, while my sisters were in their rooms, doing there hair, all save Falane, who was reading her book or looking out the window for our return.
Christopher was a large man, not fat, but muscular. He was much broader than I. His shoulders were bigger, and his legs were stronger. His hair was thick and black. His eyes were a deep brown and his skin was milk white. His cheekbones were high and deeply cut out, he was like a husky Russian statue that tumbled into a French home.
Christopher and I rode on two of the best horses my family had. He had his white stallion and I had a gelding of chestnut coloring. They both were fast, and easily maneuverable.
Life was easy, we had more money than most of the people in New Orleans. After all, you were either poor, or wealthy. There was no middle class at this time. At times I would be interested in watching my brother Timothy, pick out his colorful silk clothes to wear out to dinner with a girl that he met. He would tell me of nights were they shared something special, though he never told me exactly what they did after they went to dinner. I didn't bother to ask him, I knew what the answer was.
I entertained myself with watching Falane, spin her fiery curls of hair in her right index finger while she read a new book and held it in her left. She was beautiful, truly stunning. She probably had more suitors than all of my other sisters put together, though she never paid them any attention, and I admired her for this. My mother would always rave at her, "You will never find a good husband if you don't try," or "You will never become happy if you don't get your nose out of that book and look for something important, like a husband and children." She would give my mother an angry look then return to her book and ignore her further inquiries.
Nothing exciting happened in this dull 18th century New Orleans. Then, one night, everything changed.
Christmas eve, Christopher and I were out hunting, as usual, out in the trees between the bogs and forest of the outskirts of New Orleans. I was up in my room, getting my things on. I picked up a pair of pants that were tight to my legs; they were brown and had no design on them of any sort. I put on a yellow shirt with a lace neckline, then a deep blue velvet jacket. It never accrued to me that I over dressed for hunting.
I walked down the large stone steps from the boy's rooms and into the gigantic hall, and main room, of our old mansion. I looked at the stonewalls, edged with memory, and the suits of armor and the paintings that signified what time it was and who had leadership over this home and family. There was a fire in a center fireplace that blazed bright enough to light the whole room. Before it was 2 couches of red velvet and one blue velvet chair with gold lining. In it sat my sister, Falane, reading of course.
I stopped for a moment; I watched the flame sweep across her face, the shadows carved into her small, but high cheekbones and tiny pink lips. Her blue eyes focus on the book, and her brow furrowed. Her curls hung around her face, as she played with one strand in her right hand, holding the book in her left. She was wearing a blue silk nightdress, with lace around the legs, arms, and neckline. As I passed her to get to the door, she did not look you, but acknowledged I was there by giving me a low moaning noise of hello. I didn't make any reference that I had heard her, I just ignored this and walked on.
I leaned against the door and waited for my brother, Christopher, to come down the stairs. In moments, as if he heard my thoughts, he came running down. He was dressing in blue pants and a cream colored shirt. He had on his green jacket and brown boots. He looked at me and smiled, and then he turned to Falane.
"Tell mother we went hunting, she will go mad if we are not here." He laughed.
She looked up from her book.
"And what should I say to her? You just went hunting? She will wonder why. Did you not get the dinner earlier?" Her question cut through him, I could tell by the way his face changed from laughter to annoyance. I all but smirked in his change of tone.
"Why must you be so difficult!" He shouted, and pulled me out the door.
Falane gave no glance up as I watched her and was pulled out the door by Christopher. He was not exactly Falane's biggest admirer. He hated that she was ALWAYS right and that she ALWAYS had a special way of saying what she meant in the littlest amount of words as possible.
We walked out to the stables, and the boy already had our horses ready. Christopher handed him a single silver coin and he mounted his rained horse. I did the same, though not giving the boy any coins. He started off.
Christopher had his gun at ready as we galloped into the forest of willow trees and moss that grew on them, hanging down as if to grab us as we rode by.
The willows moved about in the wind, silently brushing the ground and passing animals with their golden strands of leaves. It was almost like hair, I wanted to shout at Christopher to stop so that I could jump from the horse and just walk under the willow and let it brush my hair, but I knew he would only laugh, so we continued.
Suddenly, Christopher stopped. I had jerked my own reins of the horse and it reared then stopped right beside Christopher's. He put his hand up to his mouth, then singled his index finger out and made a "Keep Quiet" signal. I nodded to him and looked into the darkness.
The ground was covered in moss, and some was in swam. The trees around us were now gone, we stood in an open space among the woods. I felt a child go down my spin that made my body all over for an instant tremble. The willows were still, the grass had not a movement, there were not even crickets giving us there musical tunes of the evening.
I tugged slowly at Christopher's jacket. He jerked his arm away and turned his horse around in the direction we had come.
"Lets go home, we have enough food for tomorrow." He said slowly.
His eyes told me there was something to fear around us. It was all to quiet, and I could sense my fear, as well as I could sense his own. I do not know why we were afraid, I didn't know at the time what was coming.
Suddenly his horse reared up, and he fell backwards. My horse did nothing of the sort. After he fell down, however, I jumped from mine and both the horses ran back to our home.
I made a scuffling noise as I picked him up and he brushed himself off. He looked in the direction the horses had disappeared too, and he growled.
"Wonderful!" he said. "Simply glorious!"
He threw his hands in the air and spun around in a circle until he came face to face with me.
"What do you propose we do now, mousier?" I said, mocking him almost.
"Nicolas, I do not know." He sighed and stopped his senseless dancing.
He turned around slowly, then quickened at the end till he was facing the direction we were when we came to the grove, away from our trail home.
"Did you hear that?" he said slowly, "Something moving out there, Nicolas."
I looked around with him, I did not see anything, and for a moment I thought he was playing tricks.
"Come on Chris, you know this will not work, I am now 16 and you are 18, act your age!" I said to him.
His face hardened from fear to anger, then back to fear. He glared at me for that brief moment of fear, before returning his thoughts to the trees about 30 feet away from us, surrounding us.
They seemed to move in, to close around us. With their motionless branches, ready to lurch forwards and render us helpless by tying us up and leaving us for the alligators. Their gold leaves sparkled in the moonlight, and their bark seems black as the think blanket of night around us. Everything was cold, even though it must have been about 75, the coolest.
I looked at Christopher again.
"Lets go home." I said as once.
I turned away from him started to walk home, until something grabbed my arm. It wasn't Christopher, it was something else. I sensed it with all my body. My blood became hot, my tongue pressed the roof of my mouth, and my arms fell like dead weight to the sides. I dared not to turn around. I tried to hear Christopher, if it was him, if it was him breathing. But there was no breath to be heard, no sound of life.
I turned suddenly, with force I punched whatever it was in the nose. I heard a crack, a break, and realized it was a man. Christopher was laying on the ground, there was blood seeping through his mouth and climbing down his neck to the moss ground.
I let out a gasp and looked at the creature that I hit. It was fast up, it recovered quicker than a man would have, and I darted away before I could get a look at it's face. I started to run. I heard no footsteps behind me. Though I now hear the swaying of the willow trees as I ran through them and past the forest.
I ran, I ran so hard that I could barley breath. But the 1 or 2 miles went by in almost as blur as I just leaped a crossed the puddles and small area's of swam and avoiding anything that looked like a snake or gator , I sprawled my legs out in the air and bounded and leaped.
I was so tired, I thought my legs would give out. But I heard it, I heard it coming for me, through the trees and over the branches. I looked up in the moonlight and there it was, it jumped from a branch and it was on me before I knew it. It grasped it hands around my neck and sent me tumbling to the ground with it. We landed with it on top of my. I tried to claw at it but it sat on my legs and had my arms to the sides of me as I lay still. It bite into my neck with its sharp teeth. That's when I realized, VAMPIRE.
I don't really know what happened then, but I knew I was kicking and shoving at it, cursing and calling upon god, the devil, whoever would help me. I pleaded with it not to kill me. And I still fought it. I realized my legs from under it, and kicked with all my power to its groin. I felt the release of the teeth, and I jumped up from the ground.
A wave of fire went though my head as I leapt up. I almost wanted to collapse again, my head hurt so badly. My limbs were a mass of lifeless objects, I struggled to run, I really did. My thoughts were then, "Why not let it take you? Why not let it kill you that way you wont have to explain your brothers absence and worry your family."
I thought of this over and over as I kicked at myself to run faster ad faster. Eventually I gained my thoughts back and I knew I was an idiot for being foolish in wanting it to take me. I ran faster, but I did not hear it approached me again.
I came into the courtyard of my home, the mansion. I collapsed on the porch, my hand flew to my neck, and felt the blood dripping down onto my coat and lace. My hair must have been stained with blood. But the one thing that effected me most, was my brother, laying on the ground, dead.