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I am Albion. Attentive readers may know my name. I fly through the tale from time to time. I am one of the elferinos and elferinas and a vampire of sorts, but only of sorts.... A Peter Pan by moonlight. I'm sure you know Marianne. Many wealthy people here abouts payed ten thousand dollars to hear her story. She told it in a house just down that cobbled lane over there. You can still hear the echo. Well, night-folk can, I mean. Echos never fade for us. They get tiny and quiet and brittle, but they're always there. I hear Abraham Lincoln addressing the crowd 'round The Pennsylvania State House. You may know it as Independence Hall. I hear old char women scream as the notorious ghoul, Johnny Jump Up, drags them to the roof tops for a midnight feast.
The world's a hard place. I can tell you that. They sealed me in an leaden box. I was a captured little elferino... a vampire boy, snatched up in a net wrought from fine, lead filaments. Night-folk cannot sublimate through lead. I don't know why. We just can't. I felt them seal it shut. I could feel the heat... the molten lead. You see, the box was like a cube and I was all curled up hugging my knees. Movement was impossible. I had burns on my arms, the sides of my shoulders and my scalp. They tore off my clothes and forced me in. This was in Normandy, but that's not important. Well, it sort of is. Most New World elferinos and elferinos come from Northern France or the Low Countries (Belgium and The Netherlands)... Witch hunts and all... They were big then. We didn't burn, though. They didn't want to foul the land with our ashes. They got another boy when they grabbed me. He'd just been turned the night before. I don't know what happened to him. Most were taken out in boats and thrown into the sea. The lucky ones washed up here, or in Cuba, or Haiti, or someplace like that. Currents helped. The whales helped. We know them as 'Princes of The Sea.' Princesses too, I guess. Enchanted folk, I mean. The whales would nudge us along... around rocks, or impediments. I was under the waves almost thirty years.
Sixteen thirty four... that's when I washed up. Philadelphia was already there. It just wasn't Philadelphia yet. Swedish people lived around here... maybe some Dutch too. How do you think the Schuylkill River (Center City's 2nd waterway) got its name? Some soldiers rescued me. They broke the box. I didn't cry, or anything. I was numb... frozen... locked in position. But my mind was a thousand leagues away. Night-folk can do that. We go into dream-like stupors. I was home in Normandy. God knows what they thought when I fell out. No treasure. Just me.
I bit one right away for the blood. The other ran into the woods. Elferinos rarely kill... almost never. He was a big musketeer. Too much blood for me. He lived. A smaller man, or a woman might have died.
Listen to me, going on so about myself. Do you have anywhere to go? Your face will bruise, you know. I can 'do something' to that guy if you like. You're not scared of me are you? My eyes shine... the pointy ears. That gets people sometimes... mortal people, I mean. Don't cry. I won't hurt you. And you'll be safe with us. (He puts his arm across her back... They just sit there, on the white, marble steps of a Philadelphia row house. The woman inside is dead, but Albion didn't do it. She just died. He sensed that and came to comfort her spirit. But then he found the girl. He helps her up. They walk off. The ghost of the dead woman peeks through the drapes and watches as they go.)
Elferinos and elferinas are basically good souls and often defend the helpless. Are they 'vampires?'... Yes, but 'magic' is a funny thing...
Well, not 'funny' but strange.
If a word or term used here confuses you, please 'comment' a question, or click TWITTER and ask Billy there. Click HERE to wander through all episodes of Vampire Wonderland. Some parts are barely even paranormal.
Thanks for your support.
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