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Thursday, February 11, 2016

Of Vampires and Dreams

© Mark Carrel
Do vampires dream? If so, what does it look like?

A character in my vampire thriller Enura has a nightmare on the blood-stained sands of a distant shore. To get in the head of Lord Vangley of Vissorouy, I realized that only so much could be known by summarizing his experience. To gain my own, I would have to enter his world and discover the macabre things that linger there.

The nightmares of vampires speak of fear, of lost ability to love or be saved. Everything bleeds all the time, an eternal wound that never fully heals.

The following is an excerpt from On The Blood-Stained Shore Of Dreams (Vangley’s Nightmare):
If the sky bled, it would look as so: a jagged streak extending from horizon to horizon against the pillowy, flesh-hued clouds that move gently, as if breathing.

I gaze into the crimson wound, my back against the sandy shore. Blood trickles out in waves, swept up by the wind, widening the gash to my delight. "Let me taste of you, oh beautiful. Spare a few drops for me," I whisper to it.

I lie there, my mouth open. Like all things, I am met with bitter disappointment. She does not sprinkle me with her essence, leaving me to die on the shore.

Yet how can any of this be? For I am a vampire, and the sun my scourge. Bathe too long in it, and the flesh, once strong and true, fizzles to ash.

Fleeting as they are, there are moments when a servant of the underworld may stand unscathed in the sun. My first venture into the light came during an eclipse. Short though it was; ten minutes, if I were lucky. But ten minutes can spill an ocean of blood. A small town decimated in that short passage of time, such as it was.

But this...this eternal bleeding of the heavens speaks of something else. My skin burns not, the sun neatly tucked away. Might it last a bit longer this time than those ten frightful minutes? Or could this be for all times?

The reign of the vampire will one day come, the mortals relegated to the shadows as it should be. Is today such a day? O blood red sky, answer me...

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