The Awakening Series: Split

Chapter 4: Vampire History

  7 years later...

  Well it turns out I'm not a vampire. I'm only half. My mum's genes and my dad's genes mixed perfectly. I am exactly half human and half vampire. However, like an ordinary human, if a vampire bites me, I will become a full-fledged vampire. I don't want that to happen. I like my cranachans. And from living with my Mama, vampires hate ALL food.

  When you are human, obviously you eat human food. Vampires drink blood. Everyone knows this. But once you become a vampire, all the food you once loved tastes like dirt. Fresh, warm blood is very delicious. 

  A few signs of vampirism in me have shown in these last few years. Such as a taste for blood. Also, I can't turn into a bat, but whenever I choose, I can make bat wings appear on my back. I have to be careful about how often I fly though, because there is always a chance of another vampire seeing me and reporting me to the council. When I fly, I usually do so with Mama because she can smell another vampire bat miles away and can tell me when we need to go back.

  Every human knows the myth that Dracula was the first vampire. That is not actually true. Yes Dracula was a real vampire, but it was actually his great-great-grandfather, Valentine who was the first vampire. The rest of his family before him were humans. He became a vampire because of a parasite-now extinct, bit him and laid its eggs inside his neck. When the eggs hatched the babies feasted on his blood. There was never a specific name for this parasite. The only thing that people know about it is that it is the ancestor of the botfly. There may have been other people before him who suffered the same fate, but Valentine is the first one that the species knows of.

  The venom that turns people into vampires is the same venom that turned Valentine. The first time he drank blood it was animal blood. He only drank blood that wasn't from a human. He drank human blood one time. His wife's blood. She was pregnant at this time. He only drank her blood because it was winter and he had very little flock left. Valentine was unaware that it would change her and their unborn child into the same creatures. He was one of the only vampires who sought to keep their identities a secret. Everyone else wished to raise an army of them and create a blood kingdom while they used humans as blood bags.

  Valentine and his wife did their best to keep the secret of vampires hidden. It should have been easy, considering the family were the only vampires that they knew of. It turns out that a wild boar who had been infected by the botfly ancestor bit several ordinary humans, who wished to raise an army. In order to be a real army they needed a leader. And that needed to be the first person born a vampire-Valentine's first son of Vladimir. The world's first pureblood. You were only considered a pureblood if you were born to vampire parents. Not one vampire parent and the other human. Not you were born human and got bit by one. It is both your parents are vampires when you were conceived, or your dad bites your mom before you are conceived. No exceptions. People with human mothers and vampire father, or vice versa, like me, either get all vampire genes, or all human genes. It is very very rare that the genes from the two parents mix perfectly like they did with me.

  As the world's first pureblood vampire, Vladimir became the vampire leader. Everybody loved him. They loved the way he ran the vampire world. There were no official laws for vampires, which was until there was an uprising of vampires who longed for human blood. Knowing what vampire venom did to humans, he wouldn't allow them drink the blood. Even though it tasted much better than animal blood. The change was horrific for them and these vampires and they wanted humans to suffer the way they did. Never feeling warm again. And never being able to eat human food and like the taste of it. It sucks really. Usually when a human gets turned, all they want is blood. They lose all emotion after that only a select few you keep them.

  I mentioned before that it's rare for vampire and human genes to mix perfectly. By that I mean it's so rare that I'm the first one ever. Valentine is still alive. Most people expect vampires who are centuries years old to look their age. But no, that doesn't make sense. If a vampire stopped aging, then why are they expected to look their age? For example, look at my Mama. She is 678 years old. So that means she was born in 1335. But she only looks to be about in her early twenties.

  How vampires reproduce and grow are strange. You see, females can reproduce, but only one time usually. Anyway, for the first 20 or so years of a female vampires life they are human. They grow slightly faster than humans. They get their periods between the ages of 7 and 17. They can have as many children as they want during that time. But once they reach the age of 18, they've become full-fledged vampires. This means that's when their bodies freeze and stop aging. During this process, the body releases one last egg and the uterus lines itself like it normally would. Except the egg never dies. It stays the same until she is impregnated. After she has conceived a baby, the baby either 1. develops faster than a human would if a vampire. Pregnancy is between 3 to 5 month period or 2. developed at a nine-month period of time if you are human. The first sign that I would be split in half is that Mama was pregnant for seven months. It is not possible for a human baby born from a vampire to be born early or late. She told me how much that freaked her out.

  Male vampires are slightly different than females. They get sperm always at the age of ten. Like the girls, they stop aging at 18. The difference though is that males still produce sperm after they stop aging. They produce sperm up until the day they die.

  And how they die? There are so many rumors about how they die. Such as sunlight, garlic, stakes, crosses, even pumpkin. But to be honest, there are only two ways to kill a vampire. two for the ones who were bit. One for the ones who were born. For the ones who were bit, you have to be bit in the exact same spot that you were previously bit. Which is mainly why they're bit in the most unusual places. Plus the bites hardly leave a scar so it's even harder to find that spot. The other way is to chop off their heads.

  In order to kill one who is born you have to rip out their hearts and leave it in the sun for a long time. In case you're wondering what the sun does do to us, it doesn't do a whole lot. Yes, it burns, after about 500 minutes. Which is roughly 8.3 hours. No it can't kill vampires. It's been tested before. Supposedly vampires are allergic to garlic and pumpkin and that is lethal. But in reality, vampires have no allergies. Stakes and crosses? How is a piece of wood supposed to kill us? And crosses don't do anything cause we're not demons. A lot of vampires are actually Christian and haven't missed a day of church for three centuries.

  How are vampires Christian? The same way humans are. They believe God created the earth and that Jesus is his son who died for our sins. However, it's usually the ones who were bit that are religious. It's their way of trying to hold on to a little bit of humanity. And for some reason, vampires are strangely find of the color black. Even though it attracts the sun and burns them faster. So yes, I too am very find of black.

  Oh yes, I almost forgot. I've gotten very fluent in speaking German. I can speak a few other languages as well. Such as Danish, Swedish, French, even Afrikaans. I believe Afrikaans was the hardest language to learn. Mama said it was necessary to learn all these languages in case I end up living longer than humans and if I need to change my identity, I already know the language. As of now I'm also learning how to speak Italian. German and Italian are my favorite languages to learn. My favorite countries too. So if you can tell my life is probably going to get very complicated. I also love anime. One I'm done learning Italian I'm gonna learn Japanese.