A Black Vampire's Tale

I was so busy staring at Thomas that I did not sense Sarah creeping up behind me. I heard her and turned as she lunged at me. Her eyes were yellow and her sharp fangs were showing. She wore the face of the ghoul, a ghastly face. A monster's face. I struck her with all my might and sent her flying. I would show restraint against anyone as long as they weren't a lethal threat to me. I would never kill a human or a fellow vampire unless my life were in danger. But this ghoulish woman was disgusting and a monster in my eyes. Something that should never have been allowed to exist. A monstrous aberration. A creature out of a nightmare. The female ghoul lay on the floor and I stood over her. For a second, I felt remorse. If only I had stopped Thomas from turning the lovely Sarah into a monster, none of this would be necessary.

Unfortunately, this moment of hesitation almost proved to be my undoing. Thomas rose from where had fallen and flew at me. He was armed with a sharp piece of wood. As I drove my heel into the ghoul woman's chest, Thomas drove a stake through my belly. I roared in sheer pain. Pain the likes of which I had never felt before. I had fought against the most dangerous men and women this world had ever produced. I faced the strongmen of Sparta in ancient Greece and the fearsome female warriors of the Amazon nation near the Black Sea. I had warred against my fellow vampires when their predations threatened innocent humans. Never had I ever been struck like this. I fell.

I lay there on the floor, wounded and helpless. My precious blood was rushing out. Thomas stood over me, side by side with the ghoul. I had fallen because this treacherous woman had turned my faithful male lover against me. I had been so busy trying to destroy her that I hadn't seen his treachery coming. How my mistake had cost me. There are quite a few ways to kill a vampire. A stake through the heart will kill any vampire, regardless of age or power level. Fire and decapitation have also been the end of many a vampire. There's only so much our regenerative powers can do. The ghoul woman looked down at me, and I shuddered. Was Thomas going to allow this female monster to devour me? This would be by far the worst fate I could imagine. Many a vampire, when he or she had fallen before a pack of ghouls have begged for death. None of us want to be the meal of these beasts. The female ghoul licked her lips at the prospect of devouring my vampire flesh. I prayed to whatever God mortals prayed to that He spared my life.

Just as Sarah prepared to take the first fleshy bite from my body, there was a lot of noise. I heard the voices of angry men outside. They were shouting that they had the place surrounded. I didn't know what was going on but I was grateful. Thomas and Sarah ran away rather than stay and finish me off. The men outside were a bunch of angry farmers who had seen Thomas steal several of their cattle heads to feed the growing needs of his ghoul woman. The men came inside, intent on shooting the bastard. Instead, they found me. A black man lying in a pool of his own blood. That's all I remembered before passing out.

When I came to, several days had passed. I was at the small nearby hospital, in the care of doctor Louis Jameson, son of a soldier from the north. He was quite sympathetic to black people. He had taken care of me while I was recovering. I looked up into the face of the man who had probably saved my life. He was a tall, plain-looking man with blond hair and pale blue eyes. He was in his early forties. I smiled at him. If only he knew what I was!

I hadn't met too many whites who would gladly rescue a wounded black man. Such people were rare in the 1890s and are probably rare today. I survived that nightmarish incident with Thomas and Sarah. Where they had gone, I did not know, nor did I care to know. I had made so many mistakes. I had turned an ordinary man into a vampire of unprecedented power. This vampire had turned his fiancée into a ghoul and together, they had toppled me. They had nearly killed me. Can you imagine? Being alive for thousands of years and surviving all kinds of hell and then almost getting killed by a treacherous woman and her misguided male accomplice? What a dumb way to go! No, sir. No more. I would never turn any humans into vampires again. And I would show more appreciation to the humans, from here on in. It was a group of humans who had rescued me from the monsters, though they hadn't known that I wasn't exactly human anymore. It was a human healer who saved my life and nursed me back to health. It had taken all of my body's regenerative powers to save me from the jaws of death.

This experience has changed me. I am still very much a recluse, but these days, I shun my fellow vampires. I always thought my kind was superior to the humans. Vampires were eternal and acquired great wisdom and knowledge over the centuries. When you're immortal, and thus above the everyday fight for survival, you rise above the pettiness which plagues mankind. I have found out the hard way that my undying brethren can be just as treacherous and deceitful as the humans. It's not a comforting thought. Still, why should immortals be beyond good and evil? Sooner or later, all sentient beings fall somewhere between those two categories.

I have changed a lot over the years. The twentieth century came. It was a time of great change for people of both sexes and all races. I watched empires rise and fall. I watched men and later women go to the moon. I watched the never-ending battle of the sexes and conflict of the different races and religions plague the world, particularly North America. I changed with time, as we must all do. I've met some great men and women in my days and some not so great people. I've seen evil in all its forms and I know that this is not what I am. A long time ago, I considered myself beyond good and evil. These days, I consider myself somewhere in the middle. Just like the majority of the human beings walking the planet.

I had thoughts of revenge against Thomas and Sarah for a long time. You won't believe how much I hated them and how badly I wanted to catch them. The desire for revenge has never completely left me. I don't know if they're still together. Ghouls live forever, just like vampires do, unless they are slain. Did Thomas, the fledgling Texan vampire survive the turn of the century with his ghoulish female companion? Or were they dead and thus beyond my reach? I do not know. I don't know what I'm going to do to them if I ever run into either of them again but it certainly won't be pleasant.

Yes, you might think that I should move on with my life. I have. I have moved on with my life more times than I care to remember. That's what happens when you have eternity. I am walking through the twenty first century. Times are changing. Life is tough for men everywhere. The humans have discovered what I have always known, that power corrupts anyone, man or woman. Bad leaders of either gender can unleash hell on earth if their followers aren't careful. There are many powers, all of which are human, which seem to want to destroy this planet. Men and women in their endless pursuit of power would destroy this world which I have lived in for millennia. This is something I cannot allow.

My name is Zabrok Tarosh and I am a 4000-year-old vampire. I am a proud son of Africa and I am immortal. Many are the men and women who have sought to destroy me over the ages. As you can see, none have succeeded yet. And maybe none of them ever will. Earth is my home, has been for a long time. Although there is immeasurable evil at work in the hearts of its inhabitants, some of them are decent souls. I've met some decent men and decent women in my days. In fact, one of them saved my life. This is the world their children and grandchildren inhabit. This is my world. Anyone foolish enough to try to destroy it will have to deal with me. And you really don't want to piss off a man who cannot die...it's a fight you can't win.