1

            The smell of garlic-butter and chives was still thick in the air. The basement kitchen hadn’t yet been taken over by the smell of death and decay. The half eaten body of the Sioux Chef was nearly hidden under the large industrial oven. The body parts of bus boys and waitresses were strewn across the smooth tile floor. A wok was dumped on the floor leaving a small fire exposed. The walk-in freezer door was hung wide open, buckets of food were tipped over from the broken metal shelves. The break room where a small picnic table once was now holds the body of the restaurant owner, torn at the pelvis. The kitchen’s dishwasher was on, but the backed up crates used to hold the dirty dishes had jammed the conveyer belt causing a high pitched squeaking from the inner parts of the machine. Bus tubs were on the floor filled with broken plates and stained silverware.
            Only a single person remained alive in the Bright Ridge Restaurant. Leaning against the windowed wall, bleeding, but still conscious, Vis The Skeletal slumped. The only thought running through his mind, I knew this day would come. Get UP! Move, NOW!
            His mind screamed at his limp body, but his body failed him. Vis knew he needed to stay conscious to survive. Somewhere in the background, Jessiana, holder of Le Necronomicon, the Master of Cerberus, laughed.Vis slipped into unconsciousness, thinking about a time that passed long ago.

***

“Vis, Vis wake up!”
            “Huh? Okay, fine, I’m awake.”
            “Get up NOW!”
            “Dad, shut up, I’m awake.”
Henron, the father of Vis, was now ready to show his son the family tradition. The family secret that was withheld from Vis until his nineteenth birthday, was finally about to be passed on.
“Vis, do you know what today is?”
“Ya, I’m nineteen, so?”
“Do you know our family history?”
“Sure, we moved from Boston to Lowell back in ’27. You bought this castle for cheap. You coached little league and Mom taped all the games.”
“Well, okay, ya that’s our history,” Henron laughed. “But do you know why you were always better than everyone in baseball at batting, fielding and well, just better?”
“You kicked my ass into shape, remember?”
“Vis, you’re a hunter.”
“Wait, that’s why I’m better at baseball?”
“Well, it’s a little more complicated than that.”

***
            The pain was almost gone, Vis was slipping into darkness. The echo of Jessiana’s laughter was almost deafening in the cold room. His vision became a blurred outside with a dark light at the end. A smirk came to him as he thought, a dark light; I thought I’d see a white light.  Vis lifted his tired arm up to the edge of a table and tried to pull himself up to his feet, but his strength gave out on him and he collapsed to the floor and fell into unconsciousness.
***
         “Vis, there is something you need to know,” Henron said.
            “I’m hungry, are we out of food or something?”
            “You are like me and my father and the many before us. This is a… you could say, tradition.
            “Dad, what are you talking about?”
            “Umm, okay, one of your ancestors who lived in Southern Europe, stood up to a being. Its name was Drakus. He was born a human, I guess, but he was inhumane and he was, well… different. He drank the blood of the living; he was in essence the first vampire. Throughout the ages, our family has sought the bloodline of Drakus to put a stop to vampirism. Before Drakus was slain, he passed his genes onto another, and so the story goes.”
            “Dad, quit it. What’s going on?”
            “Listen, Mihail can explain this better, but you know what you need to know for now.”
            Henron told Vis to go to the chapel that was in back of the house. There Mihail would be waiting for him to explain what was happening to Vis.

1 Vis (viz) The Skeletal - A vampire hunter from the Lexington family. His name, The Skeletal, originated from his quest to defeat the undead skeleton army of York.

2 Jessiana (hess- e- anna) - The vampire who has taken control of the Necronomicon, or better know as the Book of the Dead. She went down to the gates of Hades and took control of The Cerberus, the three-headed dog that guards the gates of Hell.

3 Henron (h-en-ron) - the father of Vis and former vampire hunter.

4 Mihail (me-hail) The Cloaked Father- Mihail once was a priest in the beginning of the century, but after an encounter with a vampire, he ministered to the Lexington family exclusively. He believes that the Bible is the strongest weapon against vampirism.