Tuesday, July 9, 2013

TRANSFORMATION OF A ROMAN VAMPIRE DURING THE REIGN OF THE GREAT MARCUS AURELIUS ... 7/09/13

They led me into a tiny chamber with murals on the walls, simple, old, graffito from the time of Scipio Africanus. Apparently the space was used for military brotherhoods beck then. I don't know when the vampires came and there were none I could ask. Truly old specimens were very rare. We are trained and made to be lethal tools... equipment for great men. And 'great' in my time has little to do with good deeds or worthy acts. The term means 'rich in dignity' and dignitas, as we know it means something like a deep, secure power. Morality... true morality... has yet to be discovered by most people. The Jews have it. So do the Zoroastrians and the Gnostics. And when I say 'Jews,' please know I also mean the trinitarian congregations one finds in our cities, especially among the Greeks and Phonecians. But  we live in strange times and people are scared. The Empire shrinks... not much, yet it does. Primitive hordes press in on all sides. Inflation is everywhere. I can only imagine how much they'll charge for me. The Dalmatian tells me lamia sanguine go for upwards of two hundred thousand secterces... half a year's income for lesser nobles, such as those comprising the order equester and such.. and twenty five percent for men of senatorial rank. I'll be housed in smart quarters and dressed in fine soft woolens... thin and light. 'Challis' I believe you call it. Odd communicating with you. I'm told you have machines and automatons capable of many things. I'm told more than a handful reach one hundred years, in your time, or close to it. Tiro, the slave bought as brother to the great Cicero reached a hundred years. I know of no other and even he lived over three hundred years ago. But I ramble on, because I am scared. 

I am anointed in sandalwood. My feet are rubbed with myrrh. My hair is cut short, forming a petal-like cap over my scalp. And I wait, bare and unadorned. They gave me meat... Boar, I think it was, from the Trans-Alpine forests up beyond Medio-lanum.... raised on acorns and truffles. My cut was quite delicious. Yet they say the blood is even better. One of the nominees killed himself..... Broke a glass and swallowed the shards. Then he laughed as  blood filled his mouth and ran down on his legs. Three roman hours later he died, depriving his master a probable fortune. Money, money, money.... Everyone wants money. Newly poor matrons allow themselves to be ravished by animals for the predilection of the mob, writhing under the coarse embrace of a pan troglodytes, or a small, well formed pony. The Amphitheater Flaviani always has such varied fare. And  'beast and lady' shows are quite popular.

I think I'll be getting a vampirina. I think she'll do the deed. I hope she understands the intricacies of such a feat, for not all survive. Some bite too hard. Some drink too much. A bit of blood must remain... just a little. They can't take it all. For if true death occurs, vampirification cannot take place. 

It's cold. I'm shivering. I wish she'd come. I wish she'd come. I want it to be done. I want it to be over.

Please don't make me tell you more. I just want to sit here, by myself, watching orange shadows dance across the rough, white walls, until 'the change' takes place.

May the God of the Jews, or the Zoroastrians, or the Gnostics, or whoever help me. 

Now shut up and leave me alone.
(more next time)

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