I recently made a new friend at the Sonic Burger down the street from where I work, his name is “Jimmy.” he’s a young guy about 24 years old or so, recently married with a little kid.. For about the last three weeks or so I was stopping by the local bar and having a beer with him and the guys from where he works, we’d play pool and drink beer and complain about our jobs and bosses, you know “guy stuff” only all of this week ol Scratch is a no show at the bar after work.. So I see Jimmy at the Sonic Burger this afternoon, and he thinks maybe I’m pissed off or something, so I tell him that I quit the drinkin shit, and right away he showed interest and asked me if I had a support group.. To which I told him that I didn’t need one, I just decided that I’m not doing it anymore period.. Already made up my mind no more booze ever!! Period.. Over.. Finished. So we talked a bit while we ate lunch and Jimmy decided that he is gonna quit too.. So we’re gonna meet twice a week for lunch at the sonic burger and I’m gonna help him think of some cool things that he can do with his kid instead of drinkin, we’re gonna meet twice a week for lunch and he tells me that if he feels like drinkin again, he’s gonna tell me so I can kick him in the ass and send him home to his wife and kid.. Its gonna be a great summer.. Scratch.

By your very own actions you have taken the first fateful step towards oblivion.. Her blood still warm in your mouth the taste of her still lingering fresh there.. But here you are still chasing that which you no longer are and can no longer be Stroad, why do you resist it so? look at you, there in the dead of night on hand s and knees in the pouring rain, trying desperately to purge what is left of a broken soul that no longer exists. Try as you may, to cleanse yourself of her memory, it will do little to change what you have done or what you have now become, dismiss her, there will be others there to haunt you through your long dark and cold rainy nights. Only by then, you will be a more capable and worthy predator, and such haunting memories will no longer disturb you in such ways as they do in the here and now. On the contrary Mr. Stroad , such memories will only excite you all the more.. And they will come to you on those dark lonely nights when you seem to be endlessly searching, you will hear their distant painful screams, and on the rarest of occasions you will even see the faces of those lives that you vanquished from this life, they will come to you with questions, every time that you close your eyes, you will see them cursing your name for all of eternity. Yet here you are, convulsing, purging there on the ground trying to rid yourself of that human essence of the woman whose blood you siphoned from her young body, guilt is it now? Before … questions.. Now guilt? be done with it Deadman.. You have no time for such folly.. For soon the thirst will once again be upon you.. And you will once again quench it with great hunger.. But for now Stroad, you must rise quickly there is something out there in the darkness! Something is moving this way, a caravan of wagons? Voices? Reaching out through the storm calling out the name of who though? A child perhaps… Yesssss! a lost child Stroad.. A small wandering soul lost to the abyss..

They are gypsies or so it would seem, they call out to darkness and rain the name of Carmella, she is a twelve year old child who wandered off in to the night and never returned.. She is now lost to the storm, they search tirelessly for their missing young. But they do not have what you possess, you Stroad have instincts now, you can smell fresh blood from a hundred yards away, and fear shall hang thick in the air like a fog that hovers above a silent graveyard, fear too you can smell, but on this night it is not what you smell that draws your curiosity away from my haunting of you. This night it is something reaching out from the rage of the storm that you hear, that has caused you alarm.. The Gypsies do not hear it, but you do. And it is a voice that’s calling out to you from that place where the land meets with the sea, the voice is that of the child, you can hear her calling out from near the cliffs. And for the first time you forget about the pain of your personal torment and you push your way through the storm to find the torment of another. And so you go to the child Stroad, and do what exactly? Save her life so her people will think you the conquering hero? Or perhaps it is that you hope against all hope that they will not see you as the monster that you have truly become? And then she is there right in front of you and you dismiss all other sounds even those of the gypsies who have followed you here. The child has fallen over the cliffs edge and is clinging to vegetation roots growing from the sides of the cliff, but she is losing her grip, and so you reach down and grab on tightly and pull her to safety.. She is in your arms now Stroad, step easy Deadman, for the gypsies may for the life of them think that you mean the child harm, but it is already far too late for such rationale, as they lash out at you causing you to drop the child who then runs to the comfort of her mothers arms.. To escape the violence you must step back away.. But deadman has stepped much too far and now you are falling…. For what seems like an eternity.. The wind and rain engulfing you in its fury.. Your body driving hard into the rocks below.. And the crashing waves upon them that take you violently out to sea and sweep you away into yet another dark cold abyss… Now Mr. Stroad.. Perhaps you are truly dead …. Perhaps.. Or will you once again awaken yet another time to walk amongst the living……….perhaps……

FIN….

So you have once again found yourself in good favor of whatever dark god you choose to worship if any at all, it is by the greatest chance that you have managed to elude the swift hands of fates justice, to find yourself again walking amongst the living. And not so long ago in the realm of the recent past, you were nothing more than a frightened animal running with great desperation to avoid the hands of an angry mobs justice. The mist that lie on the damp cold ground, still runs through your mind as you can not remember how you managed such a feat as escape.. And yet, here you find yourself following such instincts that allowed you to avoid capture that cold rainy night not so long ago.. It is those same instincts now Mr Stroad that push you forward.. Driving you to the edge of insanity and back.. Forcing you .. Hungering for acts of madness.. Bloodlust Mr Stroad.. It haunts you while you sleep. While you dream your precious undead dreams.. Dreams.. Of the longing for life, the life that you lived once as a man, a man? That which you will never again be. For now once again you feel it driving you.. Towards that edge, that place where that dream finally leaves you to the cold dark rainy silence that has become the remnants of your long dead life.. Back into the here and now are we? So good of you to rejoin us Mr Stroad, back into this reality… your reality.. And just in time too.. For new blood waits to be drawn in this city tonight.. And a new victim awaits.. You can hear her footfalls onto the rain soaked cobblestone street .. In the distance the dim light that faintly flickers from a street lamp will offer no refuge for your victim.. And now as you draw near her you can feel her pulse slowly quicken as she begins to feel your very essence… she too is beautiful.. Perhaps as such as was your last… Anna was it? But do not get lost in your thoughts of conquests past.. This one here and now is truly worthy of your undivided attention.. The hem of her long dress splashes in the rain puddles beneath her feet as she hurries her pace, the bustle beneath her dress seductively bobs and sways as she begins to run as she now senses the impending danger that you pose to her.. She is getting away Stroad!! Don’t let her get away!! For it is upon you .. The blood .. You can feel it coursing through her veins.. And it again drives you to catch her… and she stumbles and falls on to the deserted street and now you are on her like the hungry wolf to the sheep.. Her fear of what you are going to do has paralyzed her.. And now she has no voice with which to scream.. She is yours .. Take her..

You take her swiftly into the back of the dark alley to avoid detection from prying eyes, and you take her to the ground, but it is that faint echo inside of you that longs to be human once more that causes you to be gentle with this fragile beauty.. You can hear her whimpers being choked inside of her throat as she tries to cry.. But her fear of you will not allow it, you hesitate.. But soon the savage returns as you rip her clothes from her beautiful body exposing her delicious flesh to you.. But you are mesmerized .. And the man returns briefly as you cup her full ripened breasts in both hands, her perfect red nipples when touched stiffen against her very own will as if begging to be suckled.. But in truth Stroad, it is not the pleasures of the flesh that you crave so deeply, what you desire courses through her body like a raging torrent, and soon you will have it flowing freshly warm and sweet between your bared canines. But alas Stroad, it is not to be, as you have taken much long with your liberties on this victim, for the prying eyes that you so feared have discovered you.. And their angry cries have carried your curse on the end of a shrill scream that echoes downs the deserted street and into the sleeping ears of mere mortals that will once again draw close to your heels as you are forced to flee the scene and once again slip away from capture into the endless bottomless darkness of the cold , cold night that has become your life….. This one will live Stroad, live to wonder why in humanity’ s name would a Vampire hesitate so? Why indeed? Perhaps it is that cursed mortal heart that yet beats a faint rhythm, a pulse that may defy your very existence, as you struggle with this terrible fate that follows your curse, neither alive nor dead nor in between.. Your life is simply that you just are…