< IX >





Nosferatu drives down a dirt road deep in the woods of Pennsylvania. He is going to Alexis' his old bodyguard.

Nosferatu found Alexis in 272 B.C..

He was traveling through Turkey and heard of a story of a twenty-year-old woman whose family was attacked by bandits. The bandits killed her whole family in front of her. She escaped carrying a sword, bow, and arrow. She lived in the forest for several weeks alone eating nothing but bark off the trees and drinking water from puddles. She found the bandits eating together one night beside a fire, seven total.

She shot five arrows in less than ten seconds and hit the heart five times.

There were two left.

They ran into the darkness to face their enemy.

She sliced each of their heads.

She walked into the village covered in blood.

She was not crying and no one has ever seen her cry.

Nosferatu heard of this: he knew if a mere human could inflict such violence if she contracted the vampire virus that would make her even stronger. For the virus gives the vampire twenty times the normal strength and ups their hand eye coordination tenfold.

Nosferatu found her sitting on a tree stump beside the house where her family lived.

He went beside her, smiled, and bit her politely.

When she awoke a vampire the next day he told her he was her family now. She said, “Thank you.” And she became his body guard.

Alexis now lives in a cabin in the backwoods of Pennsylvania. She has lived alone for many years. She is basically illiterate and suffers from several emotional problems.

Nosferatu knocks on the trailer door.

The door opens and there stands Alexis.

She hugs Nosferatu and says, 'Nos, you need me. You can use me.”

“Yes.”

She releases her hug and they walk into the cabin.

A fire is lit, deer antlers hand on the walls, a giant moose head hangs in the middle of the antlers.

Nosferatu sits on an old couch.

Alexis starts a pot of coffee because she knows that is what Nosferatu likes.

Alexis says, “I did five thousand push-ups today.”

“That is good.”

“It took awhile, but I eventually finished. I have never stopped training.”

“I know you are a good bodyguard.”

“We used to wear uniforms.”

Alexis hands him a cup of coffee and says, “We will wear them again Nosferatu.”

“I hope so.”

“Follow me.”

Nosferatu follows Alexis outside into the darkness.

Nosferatu says, “It smells wonderful out here, the wind is soft, and I don't hear an unpleasant sound.”

She smiles and says to the forest, “Come meet my friends.”

A minute passes of nothing.

Then several deer come out of the darkness and walk up to her.

She pets the deer and says to them, “You are my friends aren't you? I like you,” she says to Nosferatu, “Look these are my friends now. I have been alone for a very long time. I made new friends.”

“I need you now Alexis.”

“I have not been used since World War 2.”

“You must protect me.”

She puts her face close to the deer's face and the deer licks her face. Then she licks the deer's face.