I don't remember the pain but I do remember the
coldWhich you might call pain anyway, even though it gets to the point where you can't feel it anymore after you've been trudging through snow all day - when the cold becomes a burning somehow
When it penetrates your skin so you can feel the difference between the heat inside you and the cold on top of you
When you touch your skin and it's like it isn't really yours —
Not that that was anything new to me – it wasn't like this was my first winter, or even my first deep winter – but it's just what stuck with me
— I guess it might have something to do with those hours I spent laying in the snow until the heat inside me had all run out
Then I really knew what winter cold was, because I was winter cold through and through
Though I'm getting a bit ahead of myself, because there was the pain, even if I don't remember it: I was staring through my scope at four soldiers, watching them talk about something I didn't know
(I can understand German but I can't read lips)
Though every once in a while a word would drift up to me and - if I had to guess - they were arguing about whether or not it was a good idea to press forward
(which it probably wasn't)
And I was waiting for the signal that would tell me to go ahead and shoot them all dead, but the signal wasn't coming and I had been on that ridge for what seemed like h o u r s, my fingers damn near frozen to the trigger
When I saw something move just out of the corner of my eye, and I looked up to see what it was and then that's it —
I didn't hear a bang, didn't see the bullet that should've been entering my brain, didn't feel as it broke through me, or as my blood pumped itself through the new hole in my back
I just woke up in the dark,
Cold as the dead man I was.
Charles Reed
1942 Reed enlisted in the army at 19 and was stationed overseas. During his second winter of the war, he was killed in action by a sharpshooter. A few hours after his death he was found and turned by an unknown vampire. Reed was unaware of what had happened at first, and it took him several days to realize that he had become a vampire.
1945 After the war, Reed remained overseas. With no other vampires to assist him, it took time for Reed to become proficient at feeding and remaining hidden. Eventually, however, he hit his stride, and began to think about building a new life for himself outside of simply focusing on surviving. So, through a bit of luck and a bit of planning, he managed to accrue a good amount of money.
1991 Having become a very wealthy man, Reed decided to hire someone to manage his affairs during the day. This ended up being Sylvia, a young girl traveling abroad from Reed's home country. The two eventually fell in love, and remained together for the rest of Sylvia's lifetime.
1996 At 73, Reed began to suffer from erratic memory loss and mood swings. He would ultimately learn that this was due to him being a vampire, and had such on early onset because of his time spent truly dead.
Reed was always on the look out for other vampires. Having never even met his own maker, he always felt somewhat isolated in his condition. He wasn't particularly bothered by it, though; he found it ironic that, as a human, he would have been awarded for the lives he needlessly took as a soldier, but now that he had to kill to survive, he would be viewed as a monster.
Vampires
General Vampires are stronger, have keener senses, and heal faster than humans, but not necessarily to an inhuman extent. They must drink blood to survive, and have fangs which slide out when needed. Drinking from a human only kills the human if too much blood is taken. Sunlight is painful to vampires and is generally avoided. They cannot enter residences without being invited.
Life Span Vampires are not necessarily immortal, but merely very long lived. The typical life span is around 500 years – so far as anyone can guess. At the end of a vampire's life, they suffer from widely swinging moods and random memory loss. This is typically regarded as the death of the human persona, as after these problems pass the vampire is clearly a different person, still aware of its past life but now detached from it and overall a much colder and more animalistic individual. This is presumably when the vampire dies, but there is no concrete evidence that this is true; some believe it is actually the birth of the true vampire, and that they are simply such good hunters that they are never seen again.
Society Vampires are very cultish and do not mingle freely with humans. They are strict about maintaining a steady population, and do not allow new vampires to be made freely. Each continent has its own cult of vampires, within which the members generally all know each other. There are occasional deserters, which also sometimes turn humans into vampires outside of vampire society, such as in the case of Reed.
Glacier Popoko
Syfyri
