Immortal Balance

The world as you know it and as I remember it no longer exists. It is time for you to acknowledge the fact that this world has turned into living nightmare, where once it used to be, if not perfect, but at least somewhat civilized. Now there is only chaos, an imbalance of the primal forces that govern all things. There is nothing normal about this world now. Here, humans like yourself are hunted, not quite at the bottom of the food chain, but certainly not at the top anymore. Here, humans like you are fed on by vampires like me and here, vampires like me and humans like you are hunted by the undead hybrids that plague this new, terrifying world. Our only option is to survive, and survive we must if there is any chance of us ever restoring balance to planet earth.

I run at an incredible speed, flying through the trees, my feet barely touching the ground. The creature behind me follows, also sprinting at an inhuman pace but still not quite matching mine, making it fall behind. Not long now, just a few more kilometres and it will be off my trail. The greens of the forest blur by as I increase my pace, adding sharp turns to my impromptu route, my body responding at the smallest thought. I am in total control of my body and mind alike, the biggest perk of being a vampire. Unfortunately, this power, as with anything that exists in this world, comes at a price. After all, the balance has to remain just that, balanced. The use of power has a negative effect and has to be counteracted. In humans, that means food and rest to gain energy and power. For vampires, it means blood and a lot of it. With the amount of energy I'm burning now, I know I will be absolutely ravenous later. Still, better to be hungry than dead.

The thing chasing me is a sire of the original hybrid, a mindless killing machine, created when some stupid human scientists decided to mix human and vampire genes to create a perfect race of mortals. Obviously, the experiment failed horribly. The result was a far cry from what the gullible humans were expecting. The mixture of both vampire and human genes in one being created too much strain in the hosts mind, body and soul, unhinging them, turning the hybrid clone that was used in the experiment, into a killer with only one instinct. Feed. One bite from the hybrid was enough to turn another human, and another, and another, with each if them siring their own hybrids in turn, creating an infestation in no less than a month after the original was created. Now, there are more of them than us, humans and vampires alike. The new breed has strengths and weaknesses from both sides. They can run faster than humans, but not as fast as vampires; are weaker than vampires, but can walk in the sun; and they gain strength from blood like us but still need to rest like humans. After the humans realized that they couldn't win a war against the hybrids, they formed a truce with the vampires. We protect them during the night in exchange for blood and our own protection during the day. Why do vampires need protection? The hybrids hunt us too, in fact, they prefer us, our blood is more potent than human blood, making them stronger. If they get stronger they can hunt longer, run faster, kill faster, meaning the end of vampires and eventually humans, meaning zombie apocalypse. Understandably, no one, except the hybrid-zombie-creatures wants that to happen. So, naturally, the enemies of our enemies became our friends. It's a strategy that has worked in the past and we can only hope it will work in the near future. If it doesn't, we are royally screwed.

Back to the forest now, and I can hardly hear my pursuer, it must be at least half a kilometer behind me by now. As soon as every last trace of pursuit is eliminated, I know I'll be safe. Another plus side to being a bloodthirsty monster, nothing can sneak up on you. If I can't hear it, the hybrid certainly can't hear me. Finally shaking it off my trail, I let out a breath I didn't realize I was holding. Every muscle in my body relaxes and I let my legs just carry me for a while without worry. Double checking that nothing is following me I turn sharply and head back to where I came. On my way back to home base I stop for a snack. As I mentioned before, using too much power has a downside and while the humans allow us enough blood to survive, they don't take too kindly to being sucked completely dry. Unfortunately, with my body starved of blood, it would take a lot for me not to accidentally kill my next human meal, so... Bunny blood anyone?

I finally stop running. Suddenly my muscles explode into violent cramps, the blood and oxygen deprived tissue protesting at every slight movement. My own beating heart burns with an intensity which I imagine a fire erupting inside my chest would feel like. The only way I can get it under control is to let my hunting instincts kick in, spreading my awareness through the leafy forest canopy. I breath in deep, tasting the air. My skin registers the tiniest shift in wind, the slightest rise in temperature, hoping to feel the warmth of a blood filled animal or the ripples in the air caused by its movement. My eyes scan the trees and the deep forest floor, seeing every colour, every detail perfectly, even in under the cover of night. My ears catch every sound, from the chirping of crickets to the rustle of wings, waiting for the enrapturing sound of a wet heart pumping life through a warm body. But perhaps most importantly, I sniff the sultry night, hoping to inhale that lovely elixir, my saviour and my curse.

I breathe in deeply, taking in every scent, cataloguing each one with a single breath. I smell the thick, musky scent of the trees, the heady perfume of wildflowers and the clean, purity of a nearby stream. The stream. There, drinking deeply, a herd of deer have yet to notice my presence. I hear the delicious sound of seven fast, strong heartbeats. My mistake, I won't be having Thumper after all, Bambi sounds a lot more appealing. I listen out for the strongest pulse among the herd and sniff out the most potent blood. Both emanate from the same animal, the biggest in the herd, the buck. My sharp canine teeth throb, then lengthen as I think about my next crimson meal. I zero in on the buck's position, all my senses going to work. He's right on the water bank; I hear his long tongue lapping up the water. Once I have a lock on him I shoot straight in his direction, dodging trees, my feet moving too fast to break a twig, crush a leaf, or make any other sound. The buck doesn't stand a chance. I tackle the animal before he can react at all to my presence. He gives a startled cry as I pin him effortlessly. The rest of the herd is stunned into paralysis for half a second, then bolt when they realize that I am a predator, leaving me alone with my prey. The buck, struggling weakly under my iron hold, grunts with sheer panic, his eyes bulging and muscles straining. Once again my muscles seize up in agony, I need the blood, and I need it now. Without a second thought I sink my teeth into his giant jugular vein, tapping into his sadly finite blood supply. Hot and coppery, his blood spurts thickly into my mouth and I gulp it down greedily, too starved to savour it. The oxygen rich meal flows down my throat, warming everything it touches inside me. It settles nicely inside my stomach and its effects start to diffuse throughout my entire body. My oxygen starved muscles spasm in appreciation and burn as life is fed into them. My heart beats faster than normal, pushing the new blood everywhere, letting it nourish every crevice in my body. Ah, relief at last. It ends all too soon when I have drained the buck dry. I tsk in disappointment. I am sated but still not satisfied. Animal blood will suffice if needed but there is another taste my body craves, even now after all I've drunk. I need human blood, I need it now.

I take my time heading back to base, neither wanting nor needing to push myself. I still run faster than the world’s fastest human but I'm eons away from breaking a sweat. Eventually, after about 30 minutes of keeping this pace I burst out of the forest and into the town where the remaining humans and vampires make base in this area. I would tell you where, but right now it's every town for itself. Leading others here would be suicide because the more targets that gather in one place the bigger risk of detection and eradication. Maybe one day we will revert to feeling safer in larger numbers, but for now, there are only 23 humans and nine vampires at the base I call home.

We live underground like rats. The building we inhabit is an abandoned hospital most of us sleep in the morgue - the lower the floor the better. We've long since gotten rid of the bodies usually stored here, but the irrational fear of the dead waking still torments the humans. Maybe not so irrational, considering their roommates are vampires, but still, there is no time for phantom fears. Especially when real fears lurk just outside our door. Living the way we have for so long has forced us to learn a few things. Unfortunately, we usually learn these lessons after the death of one of our own. In any event, one of the things we've learnt is to make sure we have multiple exits in our current area of residence. Two reasons; one, and perhaps most obvious, is that exits are easy to block, so it always helps to have a few that are less obvious and therefore less likely to be spotted; and reason number two, which can be summed up into one word, diversion. If a hybrid comes too close to discovering our hideout, it's the duty of one of our own to lure it away. This unfortunate person is chosen by lot and has to run through a tunnel exit which leads to an opening in the earth, far enough away from the base to draw away suspicion of others, but close enough so that the creature will see him or her easily and give chase. Because of our speed, the vampires are always chosen and yes, you guessed it, I was the diversion earlier on.

Being a diversion sucks to say the least, there are so many minuses and only one plus, hardly fair if you think about it. First, there's the possibility that I could get eaten, then there's the chance that I could get bitten - not pleasant, from what I've heard - and even though I did make it back without a scratch, the other downside is that now I am unbearably hungry, even after the huge buck I drained. This fact however, leads me to the one and only perk to being the diversion of the week; HUMAN blood. We only get this this salty-sweet treat when absolutely necessary and although we have to suffer a deadly thirst to qualify for the privilege, for those few moments, after we've had our drink, we feel truly satisfied. That's something Bambi's blood could never do. I live for those moments and just the thought of it now has me in a frenzy, feverish with thirst.

Naturally, when a vampire is in a feeding frenzy, she will do anything for that special meal. But one thing a vampire cannot do is let anything get between her and her meal. So, naturally, I barrelled through the vampires keeping watch at the main tunnel entrance of the hospital. Stupid creatures, shouldn't have gotten in my way. They know as well as I do that any nightwalker who has exerted themselves to such an extent, is not a force to be reckoned with. Speeding through the grimy white corridors, I head toward the morgue and expand my senses. Surprisingly, I sniff out a few humans in one of the patient wards. Three hearts beat steadily around a forth, beating erratically and stuttering. Curious. I flit through the open door and stop soundlessly, watching the humans for a minute. Three of them sit around a single dirty cot, looking down at the sickly young woman lying unconsciously in it. One, an old woman, has head pressed into the blanket by the obviously dying girls hand. The second, also a female, looks too young to be burdened by such a tragedy, and tears roll down her face which bears a striking resemblance to the face of the sick girl. The final human, the only male in the room, notices me.
"Vampire, what do you want?" his voice is haggard and raw with emotion.
An old woman sitting next to him, snaps her head up and stares at me, whimpering in terror, her eyes widening, her gaze pleading. The male just looks at me with a tired, resignation. I study his face for a second. He has some nerve, speaking to me in that way. Then I realize that that the sick human in the middle is his sister. Grief over her condition has made him reckless and foolish. The old woman, his mother, grabs his arm and whispers that he should apologize. His healthy sister, sits frozen in shock, her heart-rate accelerating, while her twin lies oblivious. The man's gaze never wanders from me and his jaw sets in a defiant grimace. He has no intention of apologizing. Bold, this human, and very strange, it's almost as if he wants to die.
"Vampire, you didn't answer me. What do you want?" his voice is terse.
"Luca, please." his mother cries. She is too terrified to even look at me. The male human ignores her. This is beginning to annoy me. The male is obviously too stupid to understand the concept of mortal danger and I am too hungry to educate him with words. I lunge at him and in the blink of a human eye I have him in my grasp.

Without a seconds hesitation, I bite into the soft, yielding flesh of his neck, cutting past the tangy taste of his skin and through the thin wall of the huge blue vein in his neck. My sharp teeth make the perfect hole-punch and almost instantly, my mouth is filled with hot, salty, human blood. Nothing in the world can compare to this. My heart races faster than it did with the buck. My pupils dilate and my body relaxes fully for the first time in weeks. The human I drink from, shudders in my arms, trying in vain to break free. Stupid, persistent male! His struggles are an annoyance, not allowing me to fully savor my meal. No matter, every movement he makes pumps more of his red life into my mouth. I lock my grip on him and focus on the feel of his blood running through my body. It moves quickly down my throat, burning every part of me it touches, healing every part. Then it pools in my stomach, giving it a full, content feeling, which no food has been able to for almost as long as I can remember. The oxygen stored in the blood is then filtered through my stomach lining and into my bloodstream, like nutrients are in humans, feeding my body, one muscle at a time. First, my organs, then my heart and torso, my arms and legs next, before finally, blood is pumped into my brain, the release making me dizzy. I've enjoyed this feeling all of ten seconds before my pleasure is pulled to a brutal halt. A thick, solid pain hits me hard in the chest. Something sharp, wide and splintery has been forced past flesh and bone, into my right lung. The old woman screams.

Dizzyingly intense pain explodes in my chest, making me hiss in agony. I release my prey and inspect my wound. A long jagged piece of wood is lodged deep inside me, pushed inside by a strong muscled arm. That retched male human has staked me! I reach to pull it out and snarl as he presses it in deeper. My freshly revived blood is trickling slowly past the wood. The human, Luca gives a satisfied grunt then pulls the wood out roughly. A fresh explosion of pain and I can feel the life pumping out of the gaping wound in my torso. Blood invades my lungs and starts to pour out of my mouth. I'm dizzy now, dying. The hunter has become the hunted.

The screaming dies down as I sink to my knees in exhaustion. I press the filthy material of my tattered shirt into the wound hoping to staunch the flow but I can still feel blood escaping. I am definitely about to die. The knowledge of this has the two sides of my mind warring over control of my emotions. The vampire side is resigned, at peace with the concept of my death, and why not? I have lived a very long life. My human side screams in defiance of this, arguing that no amount is long enough, not when it comes to life, not when it comes down to truly living, something I have not fully experienced yet in all my years. The human side wins the battle and sheer panic overrides my cool acceptance. Not yet, I'm not ready, please, please. Please. I am not ready to die.
"Luca", the old woman croaks with fear. "What have you done?"