Cross Water Chapter 1

In Loving Memory
Bryant Turner Kudzsir
1978-2008

Cross Water

Introduction

Look… being a vampire, or vampyre as some of the kids are spelling it nowadays, is ignorable to a point. Vampires in this day and age are starting to merge into society. Vampires love to play themselves off as dark. They like to be dark and they like to be outcasts. They’ve “Embraced their heritage” I guess. They stay out of the sunlight; they wear all black, the whole shebang. Metal chains, piercing, everything. Frankly, it sickens me. I’m sick of the made up stereotypes. I’m wondering personally when people are going to stop victimizing themselves. I’m going to say this one time, maybe more but I want to put as much emphasis on this as possible.
We do not need blood.
Did you get that? Now let me introduce myself. I’m Fredrick Kudzsir I am a TV Repairman, I’m a widower and I had a son. I enjoy late-night swimming and I’m a vampire, as was my son, Bryant Kudzsir. Bryant spelled it Vampyre but was… not proud but happily accepting of his heritage. We were a fairly normal family, well, vampiric family. That is, until my son found the cure for vampirism.
Think about this. If you could tell all the Germans after World War II that they could all of a sudden, they could stop being German, what do you think they’d say? Many, a great many, would disagree with each other.
Black and White only describes two shades of the earth. Shades of gray are where we differ. Black and White aren’t that different to begin with, but color enters the picture and the whole screw comes loose. Should vampirism exist? Should we deny its existence? A person is only as simple as his views.
Highly philosophical issues, but that isn’t a story, it’s a discussion. What I am presenting you with, reader, are selected entries of my journal. Nothing has been omitted and this information has finally been declassified and I am free to release at my own convenience.
Contrary to what you may think of me, of us, of him by the time this is over, I am releasing this book because I loved… love my son. I was content with being a normal vampiric family and he wasn’t. He didn’t have the will you need to have and that wasn’t his fault. Without further delay, the history of the Night War.

September 4th 1997,

Well, he’s off to college. My dear Bryant. My flesh and… well, blood. I myself never went to college, I’m glad he gets the opportunity. My therapist told me I should start keeping a day to day diary, starting at any specific landmark soon. I assume this would be the best time. The house is truly going to be empty for the first time in twenty five years. Ms. Oakham tells me our condition matters more to getting over my wife’s death than I realize. My siphon has been a bit out of control lately to be completely honest. Nothing serious, I have never actually killed someone even though the rumors make it tempting. My doctor told me to think through this, why do we consider murder tolerable? I just told her that it’s because it’s one life. She hung her head and sighed. I’m assuming she’s not the first vampire she’s had. I would like nothing more than to just live ignoring my urges, it’s true. But it’s tough competition to the… taste. So I asked her, what did she want me to say? That’d I’m ashamed of myself? She told me to think about it.
It’s been three years since Avalon was murdered. I feel like I’m starting to get over it but I feel horrible that I am. I don’t want to forget her.
So Bryant is off to college and it’s a decent one too. Maybe, just maybe he can live a better life than I did. I want him to know that there are more pleasurable things in life than blood… but if my records are correct and time has taught us anything… he probably never will.

September 5th 1997,

Today is my first day of the rest of my life. Yesterday was the last day of the remainder of my life. I had two repair appointments today, that’s it. Business is doing better and admittedly, I attacked someone ‘round… nine-ish… in the morning. I feel kind of bad, that girl isn’t going to be getting to work today but my siphon was acting up a lot. It was a woman, she may or may not have had a husband but from the decorations, she was definitely a woman who had a child. That child is going to be confused and alarmed, wondering why his or her mother won’t wake up but then, a couple hours later, she’ll wake up, paler than usual and she’ll call a doctor. He’ll call it spontaneous anemia, saying that her body wasn’t producing enough red blood cells at the moment and that it’s not a big deal. He’ll know the truth… did I just ruin someone’s day? Maybe. The house is quiet and I have to put on the opera station just to stop that weird ringing in my ears that you get when it’s too quiet. I tried to read a book but I didn’t. I still had the taste of blood on my lips.
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And here’s where I butt in again. This is all happening very slowly. Yes, the Night War was started with a father and a son, yes, it starts here and yes, I am getting to the point. The point is that if you never know a person, you can never know their legacy. Bryant was a sweet boy, maybe a bit more polite than he had to be… in third grade, he saw a boy skin his knee and saw blood. He started freaking out and they called me to the school. I dared not tell them what was going on, I merely stated he was squeamish. What I’m trying to say is…
Well…
It was a lot simpler before we vampires had a choice.