Post by demona on May 2, 2009 18:32:40 GMT
so hopefully i can get the rest of it on here!
Marty sat in the small upmarket cafe, and was just finishing his steak lunch. He had used his time surveying the human world, to see if he really wanted to be part of it. So far he didn’t like it. He had seen more people like Michael, full of hatred and anger. People left to fend for themselves on the street, couples arguing and fighting on the streets, groups of kids hanging around on street corners looking moody and menacing, the world’s future criminals no doubt. The world now was not so different from the one he remembered from centuries ago. People still abandoned their nearest and dearest; they failed to make connections with each other. Marty didn’t hate the human world; it just constantly disappointed him, because it didn’t seem different to the vampire world.
Just as Marty was about to pay and leave, something caught his eye. A young couple sharing a dessert, it was obviously a first date. The guy sat there shifting awkwardly in his chair, uncertain what to say, scared in case he looked like a fool in front of the girl he was trying to impress, his hand was edging closer to hers, he was just dying to make physical contact. The girl sat there giggling at everything the guy was saying, playing with her hair, her hand also moving across the table. The two of them so obviously in love, so desperate to make that connection; somewhere deep inside of Marty his disappointment for the human world eased just a little.
Marty walked along the street and into the park, the afternoon was sunny and warm, he was glad he had brought his sunglasses with him, and he pulled up the cuffs of his jersey T-shirt to his elbows. The park was full on humans enjoying the sun. Men and women wearing suits sat on the grass with their coffee’s, reading files and talking on their mobiles. Groups of teenagers played with balls and Frisbees’, enjoying themselves. A pair of women in their early twenties on roller blades glided past him; he looked at their slender bodies packed into hotpants and strappy tops, their long legs shimmering in the sun; he smiled to himself thinking that the warm weather had its advantages. One of the girls looked back at him and winked.
“I may be human, but I’m still irresistible.” He said to himself as he sat on a bench. He looked at an elderly couple sat on a bench on the opposite side of the park path. Great, Marty thought to himself, I have aging to look forward to; losing my teeth and my hair; what’s so great about that? But then he heard the old couple laugh, he paused and looked at them again; they were happy, eating ice cream on a sunny day, reminiscing, perhaps, about the years gone by. They did not seem sorry that they had got old, or were near death, they just seemed happy that they had lived. Marty looked away and found a child noisily dragging its mother to the children’s play park. He allowed himself to follow their antics, turning around on the park bench to see the swings behind him, he watched the mother push her child on the swings. He saw the absolute love and adoration on the mothers face as she cheerfully gave up her time and energy for her child. The child had no worries or fears for the world he was in; he was just enjoying what he did, pure innocence. Marty’s attention shifted again, to a young couple walking up the path. The woman was pregnant, heavily pregnant; they stopped by the play park, looking fondly at the other parents and their children. The man looked at his wife, he proudly but gently patted her stomach holding their child, their eyes were full of hope for the future.
Marty closed his eyes, distant memories from the past swam in front of him, back many centuries to a life long forgotten where he had those same emotions, a name came to him, Mary-Louisa, a sense of love, of hope edged his mind, then it was gone. Those memories were banished to the past, a time long before he was made vampire, a time before Marty Strickland, before the Convocation and the Fury, centuries before the experiment. He opened his eyes and sighed. Marty began to remember that the human world, was not full of greed and dishonestly; of hatred and anger, of insanity. That was only one part of it, the bad part, but the human world also had another part, the part that seemed to make all the other stuff melt away, all the pain and suffering worthwhile. The human world had love in it, hope in it, connections in it and maybe, just maybe that meant the world wasn’t such a bad place after all.
It was late afternoon, when Marty decided he had had enough of the people watching in the park; plus he was getting thirsty. He stood up and stretched, deciding he would go back to Mansbridge, and invite Merrill out after dark, to experience the world as he just had, to remember that humanity isn’t bad, take away the nightmare that was Michael, and that there must surely be a way that Merrill could live in it with him without having to be human herself.
Marty walked back to where he had left the car, he felt light as air, but he had a strange thirst growing at the back of his throat and a hunger for something. He stopped off at a shop and brought a bottle of water, he finished it before he even got outside. Marty carried on walking, but still felt the thirst nagging at him. A faint growl and pain started in the pit of his stomach; he stopped momentarily and leant against the wall, holding his stomach. He looked up at the sun; even though he was still wearing his sunglasses the glare seemed piercing and painful. Marty carried along the road, rubbing his chest, his stitches wear itching. Well at least that shows I’m healing he thought, and then that thought stopped him dead. Marty looked about him, and seeing that no one was around, he moved into an alleyway and pulled off his shirt. Gently he pulled off the bandage that stuck to his skin, and looked down at his wound. He ran his fingers up and down the stitches, but there was no wound there. The pain in his stomach stabbed at him, and he doubled up in pain. Marty had felt this pain before, and he now recognised the thirst. “Oh no,” he muttered. He was still a long way from the car and the sun was still up. Marty pulled the shirt back over his head, making sure the sleeves were down; he moved out of the alleyway and started to jog down the street.
Marty collided with the bus stop sign as another excruciating hunger pain rocked in his stomach.
“Are you ok mister?” A young teenage girl came up to him, “You look really pale.”
“I’m fine.” Marty gasped. He looked at the girl, stood alone at the bus stop, vulnerable, helpless. Marty closed his eyes, and tried not to focus of the sound of heart beating.
“Mister?” She asked again
“I’m fine,” Marty repeated, “Can you tell me the way to..to...” he gasped as his tried to remember in which street he had parked the car, “Boor Street, please.”
“Take a left at the next block and then its three blocks down on your right.” The girl said, Marty nodded thanks at her, and carried on running through the streets.
The sun was starting to set, and had lost most of its heat, but Marty still felt the heat on his skin, it wasn’t quiet burning yet, but it was becoming uncomfortable. Gratefully Marty leant on Dr Murdoch’s car, slightly out of breath. He fumbled in his pocket for the keys, dropping them as he pulled them out of his trouser pocket. Marty grumbled as he went to pick them up, he crouched on the pavement, holding his stomach with one hand, he reached out with the other for the keys. A big black boot placing itself on top of the keys puzzled Marty. He looked up to find a large man, mid thirties and rough looking down at him.
“Think you’ll find these are my keys, my car.” He growled. Marty was not in the mood for being intimidated. He stood up and pushed the man off his keys, then quickly bent down to retrieve them. The man began to get annoyed not accustomed to not getting his own way. “Gimme your keys.” He yelled at Marty.
“No way.” Marty growled back. The man lurched forward to attack; Marty grabbed his coat at the neck and merely swung the man into the brick wall. The man sat crouched against the wall stunned that not only was his intended victim fighting back, but he had also sent him flying into the wall, with no effort whatsoever. Marty stood over the car thief, and saw the blood trickling down the side of his head. Marty licked his lips and closed his eyes suppressing his urges. “Go.” He told the man.
“What?” The man said utterly confused. Marty opened his eyes, red irises held the man in his place, scared of what was before him.
“Go now!” Marty yelled, pulling the man from his sitting position and then pushing the man away from him. The man ran down the street as Marty forced himself into the car.
Merrill walked into Murdoch’s office, he was sat there behind his desk reading a book, Merrill couldn’t see the title. Murdoch looked up at his student and then to the grandfather clock behind her, noting the time he said.
“You’re up early Merrill, sunset isn’t for another hour yet.”
“I haven’t been able to sleep,” she sat down in one of the comfortable armchairs on the opposite side of the desk. Murdoch nodded understandingly. “Where’s Marty?”
“I told him to go out and explore the daytime world; I’m not sure how long he will have the chance to do that.” Merrill frowned at her teacher, puzzled by his comment.
“What do you mean?” She asked. Murdoch picked up the book he was reading so that she could see the title.
“This is Ms Hackett’s latest book, on the genetics of being a vampire; I shudder to think how she has been able to do the kind of research to come up with the hypotheses she has written about.”
“What does it say?”
“In short, it appears that when a vampire is made, the virus carried from the maker inserts itself into the human genome, making the host genome vampiric. This change is irreversible. The new genome then allows the human body to undergo biomorphic changes, the turning, making the human into a vampire.”
“So what happened to Marty?”
“From what I can gleam from the book, it would seem that Marty must have had a near full blood transfusion with human blood, that, combined with the silver temporarily suppressed the expression of his vampire genes, allowing his human genes to take over so in effect making him appear human again. He is still a vampire thought and it will take time for his vampire genome to change his body back into its vampiric form. This is why Marty is seemingly human now, and will remain so until the vampire genome has fully replaced Marty’s human blood with vampire blood.”
“So there isn’t a cure for vampirism.”
“It would appear not.” Murdoch looked at his student, sitting in his chair, her eyes down looking at her clasped hands in her lap. “I was about to get something to eat, would you like to accompany me to the kitchen, we can talk some more about what has been happening over the last few days.” Merrill looked up and nodded.
Marty drove down the road, feeling his skin start to itch from the heat of the dying afternoon sun shining through the windows. The car lurched as another wave of pain stuck Marty at his core; he stepped on the accelerator, unsure if he could make it back to Mansbridge in time, unsure if he would die from hunger or the sunlight first. The car moved around the bend, and Marty saw a hitchhiker standing in the road. The car sailed past the young man, and then screeched to a stop. The hitchhiker picked up his bag and ran towards the car.
Essie enjoyed the sensation of her hair being stroked; she cuddled deeper into Karl’s strong arms. She knew this was dangerous, that they risked hurting each other again, but she desperately needed to make a connection. She had to prove to herself that she wasn’t like Michael, that she could make connections. When she had used her powers to persuade him to turn himself in, she had seen that his obsession with Merrill was borne out the failure to make connections in the human world. Vampires were obsessive too, was it due to their inability to make connections, a self preservation thing, when you were a vampire others frequently came into your life, but all to soon they were gone, no connections were made, no commitments? They were too difficult to maintain when you were constantly moving to avoid being caught for feeding on humans, also boredom prevented their kind from staying in the one place too long. But now, here in the experiment Essie felt she had allowed herself to make connections, but she feared that she would lose them, like she would lose Karl if he decided to go back to his human life. Was her connection to him strong enough to make her want to turn human too? Could she take that chance that she wouldn’t be abandon by him or worse she would want to abandon him?
Karl held on to Essie for dear life itself. He gently kissed her hair, wanting this moment to last for as long as possible; he had made up his mind, he would turn human, go back to his family. He had let down the experiment by attacking Dillan, and now he had a chance to make things right. He would miss Essie, but he now knew that they weren’t meant to be. Not as vampires anyway, forever was just too long. But what about a single human lifetime?
Marty looked at his passenger, obviously a college student backpacking his way around the summer break. He saw the pulse in his neck, and felt his fangs unsheathe. Marty swallowed hard.
“Hey thanks for the lift man. Do ya mind?” The hitchhiker said, lighting a joint.
“Not a problem.” Marty kept his gaze on the road, he had done this hundreds of times before, hitchhikers were easy prey, no one knew they were missing until weeks after the event and the trails were colder than ice by then. Now all Marty needed was a quiet shady spot.
The car slowed, and pulled into an off road area,
“What’s the deal?” The hitchhiker asked. Marty held on to the steering wheel breathing heavily, the pain in his stomach made him feel sick. Marty closed his eyes and rested his head on his hands tightly gripping the wheel.
“Whoa, you ok dude?”
“Get out.” Marty used every bit of his will power not to sink his fangs into the hitchhikers neck.
“What?”
“For your own good just get out of the f**king car!” Marty yelled as he lifted his head to look at the hitch hiker.
“Oh my...” The hitch hiker fumbled for the door handle, finding it he opened the car door and fell out; grabbing his bag he scrambled along the dirt floor a little way from the car and kicked the door shut. The car screeched its way forward into the distance. The hitch hiker vowed to himself never to do drugs again, his hallucinations were getting too weird, a guy with fangs and red eyes?
Marty moved quickly, moving as a shadow, through the Mansbridge Academy foyer into Murdoch’s office. He looked around him.
“d**n,” he growled at the empty office. Murdoch wasn’t there; there was no fresh blood for him to drink. He pressed his fists to his temples, “No,” he said to himself, “No.” He would not kill a human just so he could feed, he was better than that now; he knew he could survive without killing. “You’ve come this far,” he whispered, “only a few steps more.” Marty held his stomach, the pain wrenching his body his half. He staggered to the secret entrance to the cellar. The sun was still up he would have the place to himself. Marty stumbled part way down the slope ending up on his hand and knees, he scrambled to the gate, behind which was the blood store. He pulled himself up using the railing to a standing position, he paused only for a moment to look at the pouches of blood in the cooler, and his hunger took over. His vampire strength regained, he pulled the gate door from its hinges and threw it to the other side of the room. “Come to daddy.”
Merrill followed Murdoch into his office, and was about to speak when they both heard the sound of crashing metal against a stone wall. Momentarily they looked at each other, puzzled; then ran to the cellar.
“Oh my God.” Merrill exclaimed as she came to a halt in the main room; Murdoch followed her a few moments later. He uttered a cry and then began to gag, as he felt the sandwich he had just eaten rise up. Merrill covered her mouth to stop any unnecessary sound, as she slowly approached the vampire sitting against the archway wall.
Merrill moved slowly towards Marty, he was surrounded by empty blood allotment pouches; Merrill counted at least seven before she gave up. The floor was covered in splatters of blood, little pools of it formed where blood packets had fallen to the floor before they were completely empty. She looked at Marty his eyes red, and full of shame, his face covered in blood, as were his hands, and his clothes.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered, “I was so hungry, I couldn’t stop.” Merrill noticed his hands were shaking as his gaze drifted down to another empty blood packet in his hands. Merrill read his mind and smiled; thankful that he had drunk their blood supplies rather than feed off a human. Her heart felt hope for the first time in ages that they could all complete the experiment and choose not to feed from humans. She crouched down in front of him, her shoes sliding in the red liquid about her. She took his hands in hers, and he looked up into her blues eyes.
“It’s ok Marty,” She said in a caring voice, “Let’s get you cleaned up.” She helped Marty to his feet, blood stains transferring to her clothes and skin. The sound of curtains drew their attention.
“Honestly can’t a vamp get any sleep around here?” Karl said sleepily moving forward, he stopped dead in his tracks as he surveyed the scene before him. “What’s going on?”
“Is it safe?” Essie said peering out from the girl’s dorm, “I heard a crash.”
“It was Marty,” Murdoch said recovering his composure, “returning to his old ways.” Essie instantly got what had happened, and nodded silently. Karl stood bewildered.
“So Marty’s a vampire again?”
“Yes Karl,” Murdoch answered, “It was a temporary state whilst his body recovered from being shot with a silver bullet and his blood being replaced with human blood.”
“So there’s no cure for being a vampire?”
“I’m afraid not.” Karl’s head sunk and he stared at the floor. Essie moved towards him, placing her arm around his muscled shoulders.
“Come on Karl,” she said to him, “Lets clean up the floor, whilst Merrill cleans up Marty.” Karl looked up at Essie, his eyes glistening and nodded. Essie led Karl aside, passing Marty and Merrill; Essie moved towards Merrill and whispered in her ear; “Don’t make it too easy for him”.
Merrill and Marty walked to the bathroom their arms wrapped around one another; Drew stood in the shadows watching them; “Marty” he said softly; the pair stopped and looked at Drew, “it’s good to have you back, and” he paused, then sighed, “and it’s good to see Merrill happy.” No more was said as Drew retreated back to the shadows.
Merrill moved into the bathroom, and turned on the shower, letting the water pour over her hand, waiting for it to get hot. Marty put a hand gently on her shoulder; Merrill kept her back to him.
“The human world isn’t so bad Merrill, I know there are awful people in it, but it’s not all like that, it’s just a matter of choices and recognising the connections we have with each other.”
“I know and I want to make those connections.” Merrill removed her hand from the shower and turned round, she saw Marty half naked again.
“So, fancy carrying on where we left off?” Merrill looked at Marty, his cheeky grin showing through all the blood. Marty was back, where he should be; both of them had spent time in the human world, had seen its good and its bad, and both now knew that to be successful in the experiment, there was no need to turn human, but just make human connections between themselves.
“Maybe some other time.” Merrill said as she moved around him, and out of the door, shutting it firmly behind her, a smile on her lips and hope in her heart.
The last few nights have been eventful for my night students. I had feared that the experiment was failing, but two of my vampires have successfully lived amongst human, experienced their lives, their pleasures and pain, the light and the darkness of the human race. They have witnessed both good and bad of the human race and have learnt that perhaps they are not so different after all. The transformation to vampire disconnects them from emotion and the ability to distinguish between basic survival urges and that of decision. My vampires have proved that they can now decide to suppress the most basic vampire urges of feeding on humans. Even more that have begun to realise that by connecting with each other they are becoming more human and less like the vampire legends of old. The experiment is progressing well, and I feel they are ready to start the second phase of the experiment and allow them to interact more often with humans; the question remains are my day students ready for them?
Dr R Murdoch
Marty sat in the small upmarket cafe, and was just finishing his steak lunch. He had used his time surveying the human world, to see if he really wanted to be part of it. So far he didn’t like it. He had seen more people like Michael, full of hatred and anger. People left to fend for themselves on the street, couples arguing and fighting on the streets, groups of kids hanging around on street corners looking moody and menacing, the world’s future criminals no doubt. The world now was not so different from the one he remembered from centuries ago. People still abandoned their nearest and dearest; they failed to make connections with each other. Marty didn’t hate the human world; it just constantly disappointed him, because it didn’t seem different to the vampire world.
Just as Marty was about to pay and leave, something caught his eye. A young couple sharing a dessert, it was obviously a first date. The guy sat there shifting awkwardly in his chair, uncertain what to say, scared in case he looked like a fool in front of the girl he was trying to impress, his hand was edging closer to hers, he was just dying to make physical contact. The girl sat there giggling at everything the guy was saying, playing with her hair, her hand also moving across the table. The two of them so obviously in love, so desperate to make that connection; somewhere deep inside of Marty his disappointment for the human world eased just a little.
Marty walked along the street and into the park, the afternoon was sunny and warm, he was glad he had brought his sunglasses with him, and he pulled up the cuffs of his jersey T-shirt to his elbows. The park was full on humans enjoying the sun. Men and women wearing suits sat on the grass with their coffee’s, reading files and talking on their mobiles. Groups of teenagers played with balls and Frisbees’, enjoying themselves. A pair of women in their early twenties on roller blades glided past him; he looked at their slender bodies packed into hotpants and strappy tops, their long legs shimmering in the sun; he smiled to himself thinking that the warm weather had its advantages. One of the girls looked back at him and winked.
“I may be human, but I’m still irresistible.” He said to himself as he sat on a bench. He looked at an elderly couple sat on a bench on the opposite side of the park path. Great, Marty thought to himself, I have aging to look forward to; losing my teeth and my hair; what’s so great about that? But then he heard the old couple laugh, he paused and looked at them again; they were happy, eating ice cream on a sunny day, reminiscing, perhaps, about the years gone by. They did not seem sorry that they had got old, or were near death, they just seemed happy that they had lived. Marty looked away and found a child noisily dragging its mother to the children’s play park. He allowed himself to follow their antics, turning around on the park bench to see the swings behind him, he watched the mother push her child on the swings. He saw the absolute love and adoration on the mothers face as she cheerfully gave up her time and energy for her child. The child had no worries or fears for the world he was in; he was just enjoying what he did, pure innocence. Marty’s attention shifted again, to a young couple walking up the path. The woman was pregnant, heavily pregnant; they stopped by the play park, looking fondly at the other parents and their children. The man looked at his wife, he proudly but gently patted her stomach holding their child, their eyes were full of hope for the future.
Marty closed his eyes, distant memories from the past swam in front of him, back many centuries to a life long forgotten where he had those same emotions, a name came to him, Mary-Louisa, a sense of love, of hope edged his mind, then it was gone. Those memories were banished to the past, a time long before he was made vampire, a time before Marty Strickland, before the Convocation and the Fury, centuries before the experiment. He opened his eyes and sighed. Marty began to remember that the human world, was not full of greed and dishonestly; of hatred and anger, of insanity. That was only one part of it, the bad part, but the human world also had another part, the part that seemed to make all the other stuff melt away, all the pain and suffering worthwhile. The human world had love in it, hope in it, connections in it and maybe, just maybe that meant the world wasn’t such a bad place after all.
It was late afternoon, when Marty decided he had had enough of the people watching in the park; plus he was getting thirsty. He stood up and stretched, deciding he would go back to Mansbridge, and invite Merrill out after dark, to experience the world as he just had, to remember that humanity isn’t bad, take away the nightmare that was Michael, and that there must surely be a way that Merrill could live in it with him without having to be human herself.
Marty walked back to where he had left the car, he felt light as air, but he had a strange thirst growing at the back of his throat and a hunger for something. He stopped off at a shop and brought a bottle of water, he finished it before he even got outside. Marty carried on walking, but still felt the thirst nagging at him. A faint growl and pain started in the pit of his stomach; he stopped momentarily and leant against the wall, holding his stomach. He looked up at the sun; even though he was still wearing his sunglasses the glare seemed piercing and painful. Marty carried along the road, rubbing his chest, his stitches wear itching. Well at least that shows I’m healing he thought, and then that thought stopped him dead. Marty looked about him, and seeing that no one was around, he moved into an alleyway and pulled off his shirt. Gently he pulled off the bandage that stuck to his skin, and looked down at his wound. He ran his fingers up and down the stitches, but there was no wound there. The pain in his stomach stabbed at him, and he doubled up in pain. Marty had felt this pain before, and he now recognised the thirst. “Oh no,” he muttered. He was still a long way from the car and the sun was still up. Marty pulled the shirt back over his head, making sure the sleeves were down; he moved out of the alleyway and started to jog down the street.
Marty collided with the bus stop sign as another excruciating hunger pain rocked in his stomach.
“Are you ok mister?” A young teenage girl came up to him, “You look really pale.”
“I’m fine.” Marty gasped. He looked at the girl, stood alone at the bus stop, vulnerable, helpless. Marty closed his eyes, and tried not to focus of the sound of heart beating.
“Mister?” She asked again
“I’m fine,” Marty repeated, “Can you tell me the way to..to...” he gasped as his tried to remember in which street he had parked the car, “Boor Street, please.”
“Take a left at the next block and then its three blocks down on your right.” The girl said, Marty nodded thanks at her, and carried on running through the streets.
The sun was starting to set, and had lost most of its heat, but Marty still felt the heat on his skin, it wasn’t quiet burning yet, but it was becoming uncomfortable. Gratefully Marty leant on Dr Murdoch’s car, slightly out of breath. He fumbled in his pocket for the keys, dropping them as he pulled them out of his trouser pocket. Marty grumbled as he went to pick them up, he crouched on the pavement, holding his stomach with one hand, he reached out with the other for the keys. A big black boot placing itself on top of the keys puzzled Marty. He looked up to find a large man, mid thirties and rough looking down at him.
“Think you’ll find these are my keys, my car.” He growled. Marty was not in the mood for being intimidated. He stood up and pushed the man off his keys, then quickly bent down to retrieve them. The man began to get annoyed not accustomed to not getting his own way. “Gimme your keys.” He yelled at Marty.
“No way.” Marty growled back. The man lurched forward to attack; Marty grabbed his coat at the neck and merely swung the man into the brick wall. The man sat crouched against the wall stunned that not only was his intended victim fighting back, but he had also sent him flying into the wall, with no effort whatsoever. Marty stood over the car thief, and saw the blood trickling down the side of his head. Marty licked his lips and closed his eyes suppressing his urges. “Go.” He told the man.
“What?” The man said utterly confused. Marty opened his eyes, red irises held the man in his place, scared of what was before him.
“Go now!” Marty yelled, pulling the man from his sitting position and then pushing the man away from him. The man ran down the street as Marty forced himself into the car.
Merrill walked into Murdoch’s office, he was sat there behind his desk reading a book, Merrill couldn’t see the title. Murdoch looked up at his student and then to the grandfather clock behind her, noting the time he said.
“You’re up early Merrill, sunset isn’t for another hour yet.”
“I haven’t been able to sleep,” she sat down in one of the comfortable armchairs on the opposite side of the desk. Murdoch nodded understandingly. “Where’s Marty?”
“I told him to go out and explore the daytime world; I’m not sure how long he will have the chance to do that.” Merrill frowned at her teacher, puzzled by his comment.
“What do you mean?” She asked. Murdoch picked up the book he was reading so that she could see the title.
“This is Ms Hackett’s latest book, on the genetics of being a vampire; I shudder to think how she has been able to do the kind of research to come up with the hypotheses she has written about.”
“What does it say?”
“In short, it appears that when a vampire is made, the virus carried from the maker inserts itself into the human genome, making the host genome vampiric. This change is irreversible. The new genome then allows the human body to undergo biomorphic changes, the turning, making the human into a vampire.”
“So what happened to Marty?”
“From what I can gleam from the book, it would seem that Marty must have had a near full blood transfusion with human blood, that, combined with the silver temporarily suppressed the expression of his vampire genes, allowing his human genes to take over so in effect making him appear human again. He is still a vampire thought and it will take time for his vampire genome to change his body back into its vampiric form. This is why Marty is seemingly human now, and will remain so until the vampire genome has fully replaced Marty’s human blood with vampire blood.”
“So there isn’t a cure for vampirism.”
“It would appear not.” Murdoch looked at his student, sitting in his chair, her eyes down looking at her clasped hands in her lap. “I was about to get something to eat, would you like to accompany me to the kitchen, we can talk some more about what has been happening over the last few days.” Merrill looked up and nodded.
Marty drove down the road, feeling his skin start to itch from the heat of the dying afternoon sun shining through the windows. The car lurched as another wave of pain stuck Marty at his core; he stepped on the accelerator, unsure if he could make it back to Mansbridge in time, unsure if he would die from hunger or the sunlight first. The car moved around the bend, and Marty saw a hitchhiker standing in the road. The car sailed past the young man, and then screeched to a stop. The hitchhiker picked up his bag and ran towards the car.
Essie enjoyed the sensation of her hair being stroked; she cuddled deeper into Karl’s strong arms. She knew this was dangerous, that they risked hurting each other again, but she desperately needed to make a connection. She had to prove to herself that she wasn’t like Michael, that she could make connections. When she had used her powers to persuade him to turn himself in, she had seen that his obsession with Merrill was borne out the failure to make connections in the human world. Vampires were obsessive too, was it due to their inability to make connections, a self preservation thing, when you were a vampire others frequently came into your life, but all to soon they were gone, no connections were made, no commitments? They were too difficult to maintain when you were constantly moving to avoid being caught for feeding on humans, also boredom prevented their kind from staying in the one place too long. But now, here in the experiment Essie felt she had allowed herself to make connections, but she feared that she would lose them, like she would lose Karl if he decided to go back to his human life. Was her connection to him strong enough to make her want to turn human too? Could she take that chance that she wouldn’t be abandon by him or worse she would want to abandon him?
Karl held on to Essie for dear life itself. He gently kissed her hair, wanting this moment to last for as long as possible; he had made up his mind, he would turn human, go back to his family. He had let down the experiment by attacking Dillan, and now he had a chance to make things right. He would miss Essie, but he now knew that they weren’t meant to be. Not as vampires anyway, forever was just too long. But what about a single human lifetime?
Marty looked at his passenger, obviously a college student backpacking his way around the summer break. He saw the pulse in his neck, and felt his fangs unsheathe. Marty swallowed hard.
“Hey thanks for the lift man. Do ya mind?” The hitchhiker said, lighting a joint.
“Not a problem.” Marty kept his gaze on the road, he had done this hundreds of times before, hitchhikers were easy prey, no one knew they were missing until weeks after the event and the trails were colder than ice by then. Now all Marty needed was a quiet shady spot.
The car slowed, and pulled into an off road area,
“What’s the deal?” The hitchhiker asked. Marty held on to the steering wheel breathing heavily, the pain in his stomach made him feel sick. Marty closed his eyes and rested his head on his hands tightly gripping the wheel.
“Whoa, you ok dude?”
“Get out.” Marty used every bit of his will power not to sink his fangs into the hitchhikers neck.
“What?”
“For your own good just get out of the f**king car!” Marty yelled as he lifted his head to look at the hitch hiker.
“Oh my...” The hitch hiker fumbled for the door handle, finding it he opened the car door and fell out; grabbing his bag he scrambled along the dirt floor a little way from the car and kicked the door shut. The car screeched its way forward into the distance. The hitch hiker vowed to himself never to do drugs again, his hallucinations were getting too weird, a guy with fangs and red eyes?
Marty moved quickly, moving as a shadow, through the Mansbridge Academy foyer into Murdoch’s office. He looked around him.
“d**n,” he growled at the empty office. Murdoch wasn’t there; there was no fresh blood for him to drink. He pressed his fists to his temples, “No,” he said to himself, “No.” He would not kill a human just so he could feed, he was better than that now; he knew he could survive without killing. “You’ve come this far,” he whispered, “only a few steps more.” Marty held his stomach, the pain wrenching his body his half. He staggered to the secret entrance to the cellar. The sun was still up he would have the place to himself. Marty stumbled part way down the slope ending up on his hand and knees, he scrambled to the gate, behind which was the blood store. He pulled himself up using the railing to a standing position, he paused only for a moment to look at the pouches of blood in the cooler, and his hunger took over. His vampire strength regained, he pulled the gate door from its hinges and threw it to the other side of the room. “Come to daddy.”
Merrill followed Murdoch into his office, and was about to speak when they both heard the sound of crashing metal against a stone wall. Momentarily they looked at each other, puzzled; then ran to the cellar.
“Oh my God.” Merrill exclaimed as she came to a halt in the main room; Murdoch followed her a few moments later. He uttered a cry and then began to gag, as he felt the sandwich he had just eaten rise up. Merrill covered her mouth to stop any unnecessary sound, as she slowly approached the vampire sitting against the archway wall.
Merrill moved slowly towards Marty, he was surrounded by empty blood allotment pouches; Merrill counted at least seven before she gave up. The floor was covered in splatters of blood, little pools of it formed where blood packets had fallen to the floor before they were completely empty. She looked at Marty his eyes red, and full of shame, his face covered in blood, as were his hands, and his clothes.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered, “I was so hungry, I couldn’t stop.” Merrill noticed his hands were shaking as his gaze drifted down to another empty blood packet in his hands. Merrill read his mind and smiled; thankful that he had drunk their blood supplies rather than feed off a human. Her heart felt hope for the first time in ages that they could all complete the experiment and choose not to feed from humans. She crouched down in front of him, her shoes sliding in the red liquid about her. She took his hands in hers, and he looked up into her blues eyes.
“It’s ok Marty,” She said in a caring voice, “Let’s get you cleaned up.” She helped Marty to his feet, blood stains transferring to her clothes and skin. The sound of curtains drew their attention.
“Honestly can’t a vamp get any sleep around here?” Karl said sleepily moving forward, he stopped dead in his tracks as he surveyed the scene before him. “What’s going on?”
“Is it safe?” Essie said peering out from the girl’s dorm, “I heard a crash.”
“It was Marty,” Murdoch said recovering his composure, “returning to his old ways.” Essie instantly got what had happened, and nodded silently. Karl stood bewildered.
“So Marty’s a vampire again?”
“Yes Karl,” Murdoch answered, “It was a temporary state whilst his body recovered from being shot with a silver bullet and his blood being replaced with human blood.”
“So there’s no cure for being a vampire?”
“I’m afraid not.” Karl’s head sunk and he stared at the floor. Essie moved towards him, placing her arm around his muscled shoulders.
“Come on Karl,” she said to him, “Lets clean up the floor, whilst Merrill cleans up Marty.” Karl looked up at Essie, his eyes glistening and nodded. Essie led Karl aside, passing Marty and Merrill; Essie moved towards Merrill and whispered in her ear; “Don’t make it too easy for him”.
Merrill and Marty walked to the bathroom their arms wrapped around one another; Drew stood in the shadows watching them; “Marty” he said softly; the pair stopped and looked at Drew, “it’s good to have you back, and” he paused, then sighed, “and it’s good to see Merrill happy.” No more was said as Drew retreated back to the shadows.
Merrill moved into the bathroom, and turned on the shower, letting the water pour over her hand, waiting for it to get hot. Marty put a hand gently on her shoulder; Merrill kept her back to him.
“The human world isn’t so bad Merrill, I know there are awful people in it, but it’s not all like that, it’s just a matter of choices and recognising the connections we have with each other.”
“I know and I want to make those connections.” Merrill removed her hand from the shower and turned round, she saw Marty half naked again.
“So, fancy carrying on where we left off?” Merrill looked at Marty, his cheeky grin showing through all the blood. Marty was back, where he should be; both of them had spent time in the human world, had seen its good and its bad, and both now knew that to be successful in the experiment, there was no need to turn human, but just make human connections between themselves.
“Maybe some other time.” Merrill said as she moved around him, and out of the door, shutting it firmly behind her, a smile on her lips and hope in her heart.
The last few nights have been eventful for my night students. I had feared that the experiment was failing, but two of my vampires have successfully lived amongst human, experienced their lives, their pleasures and pain, the light and the darkness of the human race. They have witnessed both good and bad of the human race and have learnt that perhaps they are not so different after all. The transformation to vampire disconnects them from emotion and the ability to distinguish between basic survival urges and that of decision. My vampires have proved that they can now decide to suppress the most basic vampire urges of feeding on humans. Even more that have begun to realise that by connecting with each other they are becoming more human and less like the vampire legends of old. The experiment is progressing well, and I feel they are ready to start the second phase of the experiment and allow them to interact more often with humans; the question remains are my day students ready for them?
Dr R Murdoch
