The London Vampire | Teen Ink

The London Vampire

December 13, 2022
By mauve_felspar7, Fort Madison, Iowa
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mauve_felspar7, Fort Madison, Iowa
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It was a dark and very stormy night on the streets of London when all of the sudden a woman was screaming. Nobody heard her because everyone was fast asleep, completely oblivious to what was going on outside of their peaceful little homes. The woman was running from a man or something that looked like a man. The woman turned down an alleyway hoping to be able to trick whatever it was she was running from but the alley was a dead end with nothing to hide in or around. Once the creature caught up with her there was the sound of something piercing the flesh of a human with lots of screaming- until there was no screaming. The being disappeared into the gaslight of the streets of sleepy London like a cloud of mist in the wind.

The merry streets of London had been very bustling this delightfully sunny morning when Detective Ezrah Reed of the London Police Force was awoken by a radio call. There was a man over the radio saying that a dead woman had been found in an alley not too far from his home. He got out of bed and responded immediately with, “I’ll be right there!” He quickly got dressed and ate breakfast and ran to his car. He turned on the siren and drove immediately to the crime scene. Once he got there he met with the police commissioner who said they had found two marks on her neck. He got straight to work seeing that the marks looked like snake bites because they were directly next to each other with a very small space between them. Ezrah knew that this was the calling card of a vampire but kept that to himself. He told forensics that syringes were used to take the blood from the woman. She was completely drained and was very wrinkled like a shedded carcass. They couldn’t identify the woman due to her being without blood or any other bodily fluids.

Once his shift ended he went to the priest who was preaching. Ezrah waited for the session to end and walked over to the priest to tell him what was going on. The priest assured him it was a vampire who had killed the woman and gave a small crucifix to Ezrah for protection. Ezrah thanked him and went home. It was dark by the time he got home, so he started writing down his notes for the day. He took his crucifix out of his pocket and set it down on a nearby desk. A few hours had passed and he was getting tired now. His papers started to fly out his window due to strong winds. He ran outside to get his papers and tripped. He saw someone walking toward him, so he yelled out, “Hello?” No response. He was getting kind of nervous now so he got up and rushed quickly off. He had forgotten about his papers now and was just focused on getting away from the person. There was a corner coming up on his side. He almost ran past it when he was grabbed and he felt something puncture his neck. He felt his blood being taken from his body and he pulled a stake out of his pocket and stabbed the now-known vampire in the eye. It was stunned and blind in one eye, so he stabbed its chest multiple times. He thought it was dead so he got ready to run away but all of a sudden it came back to life and bit his ankle. After that, he blacked out.

He finally woke up and there was blood everywhere. He sat up and said, “My neck hurts like hell,” He looked around and there was a dead vampire next to him. After that, he got up and hid the vampire’s corpse in a nearby trash can, and ran home. When he got home he immediately locked his house door and looked for something that had blood in it his freezer because of his large sudden thirst for blood. He couldn’t find anything so he became dizzy and fell asleep on his cot. He woke up to a voice calling his name. But it wasn’t a normal voice. It was raspy and faint like it was coming from afar. His house was very cold and ransacked. He had no memory of what happened the night before. He looked in the mirror and he was very pale and could see his veins very clearly. The sun was shining very brightly today, and when he tried going outside he started to burn. He immediately ran back inside and just sat there. Confused. Wondering what had happened. Wondering why he had a thirst for blood. He laid down on his cot, hoping he could go outside soon.

Ezrah woke up to his alarm going off. He saw that it was dark outside so he stuck his hand out to see if he would burn but he didn’t so he decided to go on a walk for fresh air. He saw some rats so he followed them for a bit. After a while, he became thirsty again so he picked up a rat. His teeth started hurting, and he felt the urge to bite the rat. He did and started sucking the blood out of its little body. After a minute or so his thirst for blood was almost quenched. He threw the dried rat down and grabbed another. He drank the blood of that one too and his thirst was fully quenched. He continued his walk and eventually came across some vampire hunters. There was a balcony with a broken side on it so he somehow teleported to it. Almost like he was a cloud of smoke or something. He felt tingly after that but on the balcony, there was an open door so he went inside and boarded it up. There was a gun that he found so he cocked it and shot himself, hoping to die. Hoping to wake up with all this being a dream.

He woke up, feeling extreme pain in his chest. There was blood all around him, and he had a hole in his chest. He realized that none of this was a dream. Everything was real. He can’t die. Not by a gun at least. It was too sunny to go outside so he stayed there until it got dark again. Once it got dark he peeked out every window of the building he was in, hoping the vampire hunters were gone. They were so he unboarded the door and went back outside. He dropped down and started hearing the voice from a few hours back. It told him to concentrate and use his sense of smell and sight more than every other sense. He did what it said and then opened his eyes. There was a large pool of blood with a trail. The voice told him to follow it, so he did. It led him to the Dixon Docks. The trail ended at a small boat with a body in it. Ezrah checked to see if the man was alive or dead. He was dead of course. Ezrah decided to concentrate some more to see if there was more blood, to see if there was a clue as to what killed the man. There was more blood so he followed it and the trail led him to what looked like a man. But it was not a normal human. It looked almost White. It looked like it was eating something. Ezrah crept closer and asked if the being was okay. It immediately turned around and jumped on him. It started drinking his blood. Ezrah got a glance at him and he could tell it was a White. He kicked it off of him and immediately started fighting it. He found a machete so he rushed over to it and grabbed it. He dodged the White’s attacks and then took his chance. He bit the White, regaining his lost health. The White was weakened now, so Ezrah cut its head off, making sure it doesn’t come back to life. He found some glass vials and collected the White’s blood to analyze at the police station. He left and headed back to the safe place he now calls home.

When he got back to the safehouse it was around 2 in the morning. He decided to sit down on the cot when all of a sudden the voice came once more. It told him to relax and think about what vampires can do. Ezrah was getting fed up with the voice telling him what to do so in response to the voice, he said “Who do you think you are? Why do you feel the need to tell me what to do all the time? You’re just a voice in my head that my mind is making up!” The voice didn’t like this so he responded with, “I am the one who sent the vampire on you. Don’t you want to live forever? I am trying to help you evolve to survive. I recommend you listen to me from now on. Now, relax. Think about what abilities vampires have. They can draw blood from themselves to heal. They can conjure blood spears to throw at their enemies. Don’t you want these abilities to fight back against the hunters and help your new brethren?” Ezrah liked the thought of being able to actually fight and not just run away from the hunters, so he responded with, “Yes. Yes, I do.” He did what the voice said and relaxed, thinking about what vampires can do. He thought about the blood spear. And the ability to heal himself without having to drink someone or something’s blood. He asked the voice how he can get these abilities and the voice said to just concentrate on which ability he wanted more. Ezrah responded by saying he wants the ability to draw blood from himself and heal. The voice said that he just has to go to sleep while thinking about that and he’ll have the ability to the next day. Ezrah went to sleep while thinking hard about that.

He woke up to his whole body severely burning. He didn’t realize that when he got back to the safehouse the curtains were open somehow. He immediately closed them and put out the fire that was on him. He was burnt and in pain now, so he tried to get the tub faucet to work to try to cool himself down. To his surprise, it worked. So he got undressed and started relaxing for a bit. He fell asleep a few minutes after. While he was asleep he saw many things. Most of them were things that are to come to pass. The last dream he had was just a woman screaming. That was what woke him up. He wasn’t even aware that he fell asleep. But he attempted to peel the burnt skin off. It hurt badly. He didn’t want to continue due to the pain but he had to get it off, so he continued until everything was off. The water was making him hurt now but he had to get clean. He hasn’t bathed in 3 days. He washed until he was clean, and then got out and got dressed. He saw that it was dark out again so he decided to head to the police precinct to analyze the blood collected from the White. When he got there, his old friend Johnathan Scott was there. They were war buddies. When Ezrah saw him he yelled out, “Johnathan? Is that you?” Johnathan immediately turned around and yelled, “Ezrah! You’re alive! You haven’t been at work for 3 days now. What’s going on? Are you alright?” Ezrah didn’t know what to say so he just said, “I’m very sick. I don’t recommend coming near me.” Jonathan asked if Ezrah had heard about the vampire hunters and if there truly are vampires running around London. Ezrah said that he couldn’t answer that question but that Johnathan should get home due to the vampire hunters. He also asked if he could let Ezrah in to analyze something in the detective department. Jonathan said, “Ezrah, you’re in luck. I was just about to lock up. Here’s the key to the detective room.” Ezrah thanked him and went inside to analyze the blood. He got to the detective wing and unlocked the door. He searched around for a few minutes until he found the analyzer and put a drop of blood under it. He activated the analyzer and since it was gonna take a little while, he decided to search around the room. He found some documents that had his last name on them so he put them in his coat for later. He saw something else but didn’t get the chance to grab it due to the analyzer going off. Ezrah walked over to it and it said, “UNKNOWN SUBSTANCE DETECTED” Ezrah was stumped. How is it an unknown substance if it’s blood? Ezrah heard something fall from behind him so he turned around and concentrated. Wondered if he could see where something living was since he could see blood from the dead. It turns out that he could. It was a rat so he went over to it and looked at it for a minute. He was thirsty so he bit it and then he was on his way. He tried leaving the precinct as fast as he could since the sun was coming up and the officers were going to be getting up soon. He got back to his safe house just before the sun started shining. He decided to try to evolve again so he sat down and thought about having the ability to draw more blood from creatures he comes across. He lay down thinking about that, and the next thing he knew, he was asleep.

Once Ezrah woke up, he heard someone beating on the door to his home. He got up immediately and went over to see who it was. Once he opened it there was no one there. He got ready to close the door when all of a sudden he was hit in the head with something. He was knocked out so he couldn’t fight back against whoever hit him. He was awoken by a kick to his leg. He tried to move his arms but he couldn’t because he was tied to a chair. A person was speaking to him from the shadows. Ezrah called out saying, “Who are you!”  The person speaking to him said that that is for him to discover on his own. Ezrah was confused and angry. He tried to shift out of his ties but he couldn’t. The man said, “Stop struggling. There’s no use. Ezrah Reed. England Police Detective.” Ezrah responded, “How do you know who I am!” The man said, “Oh Ezrah. I know everything about you. I know you served in the military. I know you’re on the run from the vampire hunters because you’re one of them.” Ezrah was very confused. He didn’t know where he was. He didn’t know why he couldn’t use his powers. A strange man was talking to him. Someone walked over to him and stuck a needle in his arm. After a few seconds, he got dizzy and then blacked out.

Years passed as Ezrah was trapped in the place where he was taken. He was tortured. Questioned many different things. If he didn’t answer he would be burned. He would be stabbed. He was killed and then brought back to life over and over again. The people torturing him are always asking how he became a vampire. How he can come back to life over and over again. Almost every time he wouldn't respond. Because he didn’t know how to. He didn’t know how he became the way he is. He wished he could answer so that the pain would stop. Eventually, he had enough so he killed a couple of people who were escorting him to a torture room for questioning. He turned into smoke and vanished into the shadows. He stayed there until it was safe to come out. After a while, he came across a door that had a sign on it that said exit. He was relieved that he had finally found a way out of this hellish place. When he got close to the door he heard yelling coming from behind him. Somebody yelled, “There it is, men! Kill the bastard!” A large group of people that had crossbows and torches started rushing toward him. He saw his chance to escape and he took it. He opened the door and started running. It was sunny outside so he began to burn. It was also snowing. He slipped on some ice and slammed his head into a rock. He was knocked out once more.

Ezrah woke up to a woman. A pale woman. Ezrah had a very bad headache so the woman came over to him with a drink or soup of some kind and told him to drink it. She told him it would help the pain. Since it was supposed to help the pain he drank it. It had a very foul taste, but he got over it pretty quickly. After he drank whatever it was that the woman gave to him, he asked who she was. She said her name was Sarah. Sarah Cowles. After she told him her name, Ezrah asked where he was. She said he was in her home, and that he had been knocked out for 3 days. She also said that while she was walking around she found him lying on the ground, seemingly dead. So she picked him up and put him on an extra bed in her home. Ezrah was pretty confused but everything slightly made sense. He does remember that he escaped from a building or something. And that many men were asking him questions about how he can’t die and how he became a vampire. Sarah told him that she knew what he was and that she was a vampire too. Ezrah was so confused. He had no idea what to think. He was both amazed and confused. He thought he was the only living vampire around, and he was confused as to how Sarah had managed to survive with the hunters running around.

Ezrah spent many weeks at Sarah’s home, training. Learning how to control his abilities.  How to control his thirst for blood. Hiding away from the hunters. Searching for others like him. He found a couple of vampires, one of whom almost died. A few weeks after Ezrah had been staying at Sarah’s home, she became very sick. Ezrah and the two other vampires he had found tended to her, each taking turns helping her eat, drink, and watching over her while she slept, just in case something were to happen to her. Sarah passed about a week after she got sick. Ezrah heard from one of his trainees. He had gone out searching for more vampires to give refuge to and had found none. Since it was getting bright he had headed back to the place where he was living when one of his trainees told him that Sarah had died. Once Ezrah had caught wind of this, he told the two other vampires to prepare her body and bury her. It wasn’t the vampire way, but Ezrah found respect in it. He and his fellow vampires buried her with some of her favorite belongings, one of which is a picture of her and her husband, who had died many years ago. After they had buried her, they paid their respects to her and thanked her for allowing them to stay there with her. Ezrah had used some dark magic he had learned from her to create a fire that could only be put out by the creator and all three of them slept outside in a form of respect. Ezrah had of course put a protection spell on him and the other two vampires so that they wouldn't burn up in the sun until it wore off. Ezrah had started to feel a slight pain so he checked if the sun was still up. It was and noticed that the spell had worn off so he told his disciples to hurry into the house. They were confused for a minute or so because they had just woken up from sleeping next to Sarah’s burial. They got up and went inside Sarah’s old home. Once they got inside, Ezrah and his two disciples closed the windows making it look like nobody lived in the house to keep the hunters and other curious people from going up to the house. Ezrah realized that he never asked his disciples what their names are, so he chose to now. The male disciple of his said that he was Andrew Clem. The female disciple said her name was Ella Fleming. A few more weeks passed when Andrew was able to go out and search for fellow vampires as Ezrah does. Both Ezrah and Ella made a small but meaningful party for Andrew. He set out one night to search for others. He wasn’t lucky the first couple of times, running into hunters, Whites, and dead vampires. But one day he found one. At least, he thought he did.. Bleeding out, but alive, he took her home immediately and told Ezrah that she was hurt. He stopped the bleeding with some magic that he’d learned from Sarah. She was still really hurt, but she would live. She had passed out from the amount of blood lost, so Ezrah laid her on an extra bed that he had. About 6 weeks had passed when she woke up. She wanted to sit up but hurt far too much. Ezrah was talking with Ella when he noticed that the girl had woken up. Ezrah told Ella to get Andrew and Ezrah went over to the girl to tend to her. Andrew came running in and rushed over to her. He asked Ezrah what to do and Ezrah said he needed to do this on his own since he found her. Andrew sat there for a minute and remembered that Ezrah had taught him some ways of healing people with magic. He asked Ezrah to make him a certain potion for her to drink. Ezrah did what was asked of him and made the potion. Once it was done, he went back over to Andrew. He gave the potion to Andrew and Andrew told the girl to drink it. She was a bit iffy about it at first but she decided to drink it. It tasted horrible. But she wasn't in as much pain as she was before. She thanked him and tried to sit up. She couldn't because she still hurt far too much. She rested for a couple more weeks before she woke up again.

Ezrah was roaming around London trying to find someone he was told to see about the voice he was hearing a while back. He hadn’t heard from it in a long while but he had a feeling it had something to say, but it didn’t want to deal with him currently. Ezrah had been given a piece of paper with a name on it that he recognized. It said “Maria Ashbury” He wasn’t sure where he knew that from because of his loss of memory but he was determined to find out who she was. He was also given a street address. It turns out that the address was near his old home before he was turned by the vampire who had attacked him. At least, he thought it was the vampire. He had been knocking on every door he passed on his old street trying to find Ms. Ashbury, the woman Sarah had told him about, asking everyone who answered the door if Ms. Ashbury lived there and where she did live. Eventually, he found her and she looked very pale, just like him and the three friends he had met. When she answered the door the voice had finally said something. It said, “Look, Ezrah. It’s her. The one you’ve been searching for. Ask if you can enter.” Ezrah was starting to get sick of the voice essentially telling him what to do. But since the voice would just keep telling him to talk to her if he didn’t, he talked to her. He didn’t even have to ask to go inside because she pulled him inside and looked back and forth outside making sure he wasn’t followed. She sat him down on a couch and asked what he was doing there. He told her about everything. About getting attacked by a vampire. Getting bitten. Being chased by hunters. Fighting whites. Everything. Especially the voice. He was there for hours, talking with her. She wouldn't do or say anything. Just listen. Once he finished, she told him that she had never heard anyone talking about a voice. She had gone to get a book or something and when she got back she flipped to a page. She read it and then handed it to him to read. It turns out that he was the chosen one. The one to destroy the world. In the book, it said that every time mankind needs it, someone by the name of Ezrah Reed always destroys the world, and resets it. It’s been happening since the dawn of humans. It’s supposed to happen again on December 12, 1982. Mankind will die and be reset by his hand. Ezrah was completely speechless. He didn’t know what to think. The fact that HE was supposed to kill off mankind. And that he’s been doing it since the dawn of mankind. He didn’t want to do it, but he knew that he had to. Because it was what he was meant to do. Ezrah was both shocked and confused. He didn’t understand why he had to destroy mankind over and over again. He felt that the humans didn’t need to be erased and restarted. Again. I mean, sure, there are bad people out there but even then he felt they deserved some shot of redemption. You know, if you think about it, maybe they just have stuff going on. Or maybe they need mental help. Ezrah was telling Maria everything that popped into his head relating to ending humanity. His memories had started to come back and he has a daughter. And a wife. He didn’t want them to die because the universe said so. He was starting to raise his voice with Maria and she said that he had to because otherwise a “higher power” would do it for him. He didn’t know what it meant but he left. He had to run home because the sun was coming up. By the time he had gotten home, he was burned. Not too bad but he was. He had cleaned himself of the burned skin again and when he was finished he saw that the girl who was hurt was up and about, cleaning and talking with Ella. Ezrah went over to Ella and asked what the girl’s name was. Ella told him that her name was Aila. She never said her last name. Just that her name was Aila. Ezrah noticed that she had the same mark on her shoulder as Ezrah did. Ezrah went up to her after he noticed the mark and asked where she got it. She said she had no idea and that she didn’t know it was there. Ezrah had also noticed that her ears were pointed, almost like an Elf. Ezrah wasn’t sure if he should ask her about it or if he should just ignore it. He decided to ask her about it. Not directly, but by asking who her parents were, and where she used to live. She said she used to live in the forest outside of Lunden. Once she said that Ezrah had a feeling that she was an Elf. He headed to the church where the priest had given him the crucifix a while back. As always, the priest was there, waiting for anyone to come to confess or ask for forgiveness. Once Ezrah walked in, the priest could tell that something was wrong. He told Ezrah to tell him about what had happened and about what he was destined to do. The priest listened and said that he had been chosen by Lucifer himself. Ezrah didn’t like the sound of that so he asked if there was any way to stop it all from happening. The Father said that there was a way. But it was very dangerous and he would have to get approval from the Pope in France. He said he wasn’t sure how long it’d take to get a response but Ezrah felt that he had to get approval before December 12, 1962. It didn't seem that long though. The priest said that the best he could do for Ezrah until he gets approval is to baptize him. That would also be dangerous and painful but there’s a higher chance of it working. Ezrah agreed so the priest took Ezrah into another room and prepared him for the baptism. The priest stepped into the baptismal water and then told Ezrah to. The priest grabbed Ezrah and dunked him under the blessed water. He said a few things in Latin and then lifted Ezrah back up. He told Ezrah that he was baptized and that he should leave before hunters come by looking for him. Ezrah thanked him and left. While Ezrah was walking back home, he saw a turn he hadn’t ever seen before. He decided to go down it and he came across a sign that read “Hallowed Forest. Enter at your own peril” Since he was a vampire and had been training for many years, he felt that he would be able to survive there for a little while. He entered the forest and walked around a bit. He noticed smoke coming up from an area in the forest not too far from where he was. He decided to go over to it and when he got there he saw Elves. He didn’t expect them to be there and he noticed that the fire one of them was tending to be blue. Unnaturally blue. He wasn’t unsettled by it, merely confused. Why were Elves here? Are they related to Eila? Why hadn’t he ever noticed that there was a forest near where he used to live? He went up to one of the Elves and said hello. It was a She-Elf and when she heard him she stood up real fast and pulled out her bow. She pulled back, ready to fire. Ezrah told her that he meant no harm and that he was just curious. He asked her for her name and she responded in what sounded Elvish. Ezrah didn’t know Elvish whatsoever so he said that he didn’t understand. She repeated what she said in Elvish, but a little louder this time. An older Elf came out from a tree house and said “Who are you? Why are you here? How did you find us?” Ezrah told her that he was roaming through the forest when he saw smoke. She looked at him for a minute and then told the She-Elf to lower her bow. At least, that’s what he thought she said. She lowered her bow and said that her name was Arya. The older She-Elf told Ezrah to follow her to her village, so he did. He decided it was probably best to not go against her. When they got to the village, Ezrah saw things he never thought existed. Elves were everywhere. They were building houses in the trees, they were tending to multi-colored fires. Ezrah had thought it was beautiful. The Elder Elf took him into one of the many houses in the trees and said that he never did tell her his name. He told her his name was Ezrah, and that he was a vampire who had been chosen by Lucifer to destroy all mankind. The elder seemed confused but also like she understood what was going on. Ezrah couldn’t tell so he decided to go ahead and ask if she did understand. The elder said she did and that her ancestors talked about this in ancient scriptures. She said that to understand how he could stop it, he first needs to see what it will be like if he can’t stop it. She made a potion of some sort and told him to drink it. He did and then he passed out.

The author's comments:

This is all I have for now

Back at the house, Ella worked with potions, enhancing her ability to use them. Andrew had left to find more vampires, so Ella was left alone with her thoughts. As she was practicing she heard some people talking, so she stopped what she was doing to see who it was. As she was getting ready to see who it was, she heard a much more deep voice bellow, “Go search that house,” A man with a higher pitched voice responded with a yes, sir and he started over to the house Ella was at. Ella decided to distract the man by using a potion she made that makes low moaning-like noises. The man asked out, “Who’s there?” No response of course, so he went over to the noise instead. Ella was waiting for the right moment to strike from the shadows, planning her attack on the man. Ella saw the perfect moment to strike, and she did. She snuck up on the man and bit him, draining him of his blood. Once he was dead, Ella dragged him into the bushes that were around and hid his body. She quickly rushed over to where Aila was, trying not to get caught. She made it over to Aila and woke her up. Aila grabbed her bow and used some elven magic to conjure up arrows that had poisoned tips. They both went over to hide in some bushes again, and Ella told Aila to go hide in the trees, taking the hunters out from above. Ella said that she would stick to the bushes, taking out hunters that are away from the main group. They worked in unison, taking out hunters at nearly the same time, making sure they don’t get caught by other hunters. Eventually, they took out the last hunter a little bit before Ezrah returned.



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