THE LIFE: CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SIX: THIS IS WHAT YOU WANTED


          I awoke in a cold dark place. As I sat up and gained a little focus, I was staring at a wall made of stone and clay. Where am I? I blinked a few times and rubbed my eyes to banish the remaining sleep that was still lingering. I focused on the wall again. Clay and stone and writings on the walls that were unfamiliar to me. I felt a sharp chill in every part of my being. I was sitting on a bed of cold stone, but I could not remember how I got here. My eyes were adjusting more to the dark, as I continued to take in my surroundings. I could smell death all around me. I could hear something outside disturbing the wind. I could hear footsteps and raindrops. I climbed off of the cold stone, my bare feet stood in cold dirt. I took a few steps forward, looked to my left and then to my right. I could not walk any farther. Laying on the floor on either side of me, were skeletons. There were ten on each side of the wall. They lay on their backs with their arms folded across their chests. I was horrified! As I looked at each one I noticed some of the men held crosses, women held what was left of their infants, but most were lying there, as if they were sleeping. A crypt. I'm in a crypt. Just as the realization became apparent, the door of the crypt opened up. It was Victoria.

          "Child, you in here?"  I could hear the nervousness in her voice. I could hear her heart beating, as if she was frightened. She was carrying a dim lit lantern, as she shuffled about inside. I could feel her every move.  "Child, you hear me calling to you?" She was frightened.

I was standing no more than five feet away from her.  "I'm here, Victoria."  At the sound of my voice, she jumped and gasped and stood in place for a moment to compose herself.

          "I tell you, child, no matter how many times I comes to this place, it don't get no easier."  She sat the lantern down, and I could clearly see now that I had been laying on a vault. She looked at me and gave a long once over.  "How you feel, suga?"

          "Confused, scared, out of place. How do you think I feel? I woke up in a crypt, Victoria!"

          "Shhh. Keep your voice down. I ain't talking bout yo mental mind. How yo body feel?"

          "Why do I have to keep my voice down?"  I was agitated.

          "Cause you among the dead, child."

          "Doubt I would wake them no matter if I was to scream."

          "That ain't the reason. Now answer my question. How yo body feel?"  She walked toward me slowly.

          "Fine I guess. Victoria, why am I in a crypt?"  I walked toward her and noticed her recoil, as I got closer.

          "Because you dead, child." She was looking into my eyes, watching my emotions, waiting for me to speak, walking closer to me.

That news was very disturbing.  "Dead? How am I dead, and I'm standing here talking to you?"  She is crazy.

          "You lay here cause you dead. You talking to me cause I bring you back from the dead."  She waited for my reaction. When I did not say anything, she continued about her business.  "Now come on. I bring clothes fo' you to change into. I gotta get you outta here befo' first light."

I looked at her with disbelief.  "Victoria, what have you done? You faked my death so that I could run away? Was there another way to do this? A better way maybe?"  She was reaching into the homemade satchel, grabbing the clothes, tossing them to me. Most of the items fell in the dirt next to me or onto my feet.  "Victoria!"  I shouted angrily. My jaws clenched, and my eyes were fixed on her.  "Victoria, where is Jonathan and my baby? Where is my family?" 

She looked at me and then at the items that had fallen in the dirt. She looked up and met my cold gaze.  "Child, Jonathan and the baby up at the house. Now hurry and dress. We ain't got no time to be wasting."  She went back to her business, pulling other items out of another satchel.  "I fetched you some things for your journey. They be in this here sack."

 I could hear every word, but I did not understand anything Victoria was telling me. She walked toward me and grabbed my arm to get my attention. I jerked away from her, and I could see in her eyes how frightened she was.  Through clenched teeth, I asked again, "Victoria, where is my husband and my baby? Why are they not with you?"

Without any hesitation or pause, she said, "Because you dead to them, dat's why. Now get to moving. We gotta go."

She finished getting me dressed, as I stood motionless, like a statue. I could not believe what I was hearing.  "But, I'm not really dead. Jonathan has to know that."  I was starting to move slowly, as Victoria guided me through the doors of the crypt.

          "Oh, you really dead, suga. Believe me. Ain't nothing fake about it."

          "But how? Why?"

          "Child, you asked me for a way out. I give it to you. This is what you wanted. Remember?"  Victoria was pulling my arm and walking as fast as she could.

          "But.......

          "Listen child, that medicine I give to you while you was with yo sucka, was no medicine. It was bits of poison, so you was already dying, just slower. That be why I told you how to take it and when to take it. I had to make sure you didn't kill yoself befo' time. That be why I told you to take the last of it when yo water come outta you. I knowed you was bout to give birth. Everything had to be just right. I knowed it would kill you, but I had to be sho' the baby would survive. The last glass jar I give to you to drank was blood. Not just any blood. This be special, like magic blood. It been in my generation since the beginning. It be what bring you back from the dead."

Hearing this made me stop, and Victoria was startled. She looked to the east and became very nervous and agitated.  "Victoria, you know this was not the deal we made! You know this was not the deal!"  I became frantic and my body began to shake uncontrollably.

Victoria walked close to me, her nose almost touching my face.  "The deal was for me to help you escape the life you had, and I done that."  Her words were strong and firm.

          "But you never told me how."  I began to cry.

          "And, you never asked."  She stated as a matter of fact.  She grabbed my arm again and we continued through the graveyard, as if in a race against time.  " We gotta hurry fo' the sun come up."  Victoria kept repeating.

          "But, I thought......

          "You thought you was gone get something in this life for free", Victoria interrupted me.  "Well, let this be a lesson well learned. There ain't nothing in this life for free. Sides, I told you all magic come at a price. Now stop slowing us down with all this nonsense talking.

My mind was traveling so fast I could hardly keep up with it. My husband. My baby. My life. All gone. Gone because I was too selfish to realize that my life was not bad at all compared to this.  I stopped again, which infuriated Victoria.  "I ain't gave my baby no name. How they gone know what to call her?"

Victoria's frustration was increasing and her patience thinning. "Tell you what, you wanna name yo baby, fine."  She tore off a portion of her apron and pulled a jar out of one of the satchel.  "Open that jar, dip yo finger in that blood. The first thing come to yo mind, you draw it on this here cloth."

          "Why I got to draw it? I can just write it."

          "You draw it cause I can't read, and you draw it cause Miss Katherine don't know you can. We don't need her thinking you was teaching all the niggas how to read now do we?  You draw it out,  I shows it to yo husband, yo husband will respect yo wishes."

I was reluctant to abide, but it was all I could do. I knew what I wanted my baby to be called as soon as I held her in my arms. I dipped my finger in the blood and drew a symbol on the cloth, as Victoria told me to do.  "Victoria, what am I? How am I dead and alive at the same time? Everything about this seems wrong."  Victoria placed the cloth in her bosom, and we started back on our journey to what seemed to be nowhere.  "How will I survive on my own. I'm only seventeen."

Without missing a step, Victoria explained to me, "You only sixteen.You died the day befo' yo birthday. Remember?"

I thought for a moment and realized she was telling the truth. My baby was born the day before my birthday.
"So, what do you mean by this, Victoria? I'll never have another birthday?" I was still confused and scratching my brain for answers because Victoria was not giving me anything I could use.

          "No more birthdays for you, child. I don't know how many times I can 'splain to you that you be dead. Dead folks don't have birthdays."

          "But, what about my life. How will I age? How will I........

Victoria stopped again and looked at me. I could see her frustration replaced with pity.  "Suga, you will never age another day in yo dead life. Fo' you, this is it. You are no longer a human being. You can no longer walk among the living in the daylight. You what my ancestors call Ambrogino. That be the meaning of little immortal one."

          "But, I don't know what that means. Victoria, what am I?"  I felt exhausted in my mind.

          When we stopped again, we were at the gates of the cemetery. Victoria took three satchels off of her arm and gave them to me. She looked at me, as if to explain everything I needed to know, and said, "I calls you vampire. You be a creature of the night. Yo food, as you know it don't matter no mo'. Yo food be blood now. This will be the only thing that keep you strong. You will feed on any living animal. Neva feed on anything dead, cause that will kill you foreva'. Neva feed on humans. Humans will fo'eva be off limits to you. This is very important, child. You gotta hunt yo food from now on. When you feed, be sho' to stop before the animal dies or you will die with it. Your pure senses will teach you how. Yo shelter will be anything dark and cold. The colder and darker the better. You sleep in the day and hunt at night. You ain't eva gone be able to walk in the sunlight like you did befo'. The sunlight ain't yo friend. Yo body is not what it was. Ain't nothing bout you what it was. You gotta protect yo body at all costs. If you find yo'self hurt and you start to feel ill, you have to get to living blood right away to heal or you will die foreva. Yo body will heal, because the living blood is yo lifeline to this world.
          When you be out hunting, beware of all things round bout you. Everything will look different to you until you gets used to it. You will always have people after you, looking to destroy you. Cause of this you ain't gone be able to stay in one place for more than ten years. Remember yo looks will neva change. The way you look now is the way you will look for the rest of yo days on this earth. You can neva let no person know what you is. There be others like you, but not many. Most been caught and burned. Some got they heads chopped clean off. Both killings be a true death fo' you. Some may try to stab you in the heart. This will not kill you, but it will make you not be able to move. If this happen, you won't be able to pull out whateva they stab you with. If ain't no body around to help you, you will die of starvation. Make no mistake, child, in this new world you in, ain't nobody yo friend."  Victoria turned to look into my eyes, "Nobody yo friend."  She repeated.
         "Member to rely on yo senses from now on. This will give you a upper hand on thems that hunt you. Yo senses be like animals now. You can hear like wolves and catch a scent like em' too. Yo eyes be like thems of the eagles. You have the strength of 100 mighty men. You gotta teach yo'self how to control it. That kind of strength got to be yo best kept secret."

          "Victoria, why do I keep hearing bells or something like music in my ears, when I speak?"

          "That be the sound of your own voice. The sound will linger about, but you gots to learn to tune it out."

          "But, I don't understand. It's such a beautiful sound. Why is this the first time I am hearing it?"

          "Because you finally understand the world you be in now. You finally understand that you be different from what you knowed yesterday. You finally understand that you be a vampire.  Yo voice is for charming your way to safety. It be calm and serene like. Almost like music. When you need to use it, you will know how." She explained in haste, as she looked to the east again.

          "Is that how you hear me? Do I sound like music to you?"

          "No. You hear it cause it be you. You get used to it. I don't hear it cause I be the one who made you what you is. I be safe from you."

          "What about the others? Are you safe from them too?"

          "Only the ones I made. No mo'." When she knew she could explain no more to me, she gave me the last important piece of advice.  "When you get to where you is going, you can't neva marry, you can't neva have relations with another human again cause you ain't one. You can only have relations with yo own kind and they be few and far between. You can't neva be with child again because everything in you is dead. If you got mo' questions, ask me now. The sun bout to come up."

But, I had so many questions. "No questions. I understand."  I lied.

"Good! Remember the deal. Once you gone, you stay gone."  And, with those words, Victoria turned on her heels and started her journey back through the cemetery and toward the mansion. Back to my husband and my baby. Back to the life I was now leaving behind forever.