Another Interview With a Vampire

[Monker]

Another Interview With a Vampire:
Interviewer: So, Lestat, tell me how you became involved in rock music.

Lestat: Ah, yes, rock music. So many people craving power and feeding off each other. A perfect profession for someone like me!

Interviewer: A perfect way to stay hidden, I suppose.

Lestat: Actually, no it's not. I am always sought after by those who crave power. Power seduces people into seeking things they would otherwise run away from.

Interviewer: Interesting. Can you talk about one example?

Lestat: Dennis! Poor Dennis. He never understood that it is a trade off. To receive such power, you have to give some things up. He wanted it all, but so much slipped through his fingers.

Interviewer: What power? What did he give up?

Lestat: Like others, he sought me out. Or, I should say, he sought 'us' out. He knew what power was. He had felt it. In his band, towards his fans, he felt it. The taste of power was very sweet and he wanted more. He wanted absolute power and control.

He searched for us for years. He found me while I was taking my evening feeding. As I recall, she was young and pretty...and too small to satisfy my hunger.

Our eyes met while I was still feeding. Neither my vampiric gaze nor the sight of my fangs sunk deep into the young lass' neck phased Dennis. He sat down on the concrete bench next to us, with his back to me, and waited for me to finish my evening snack.

After I had drained the last drop of blood, I tossed the limp, pale, cold remains of the body off the bench and moved next to Dennis, our backs still towards each other. I wiped the blood from my mouth with a handkerchief and asked Dennis, "Why are you here? Why are you not fleeing for your life at the site of a creature like me?"

Dennis replied, "I know who you are, Lestat, take me. I want to be like you."

I swung my legs over the concrete bench and pushed the corpse on the ground aside with my feet. I put my arm over Dennis' shoulder and put my face as close to his as I could. A drop of blood escaped from one of my fangs and ran off my chin. I stared at him for a moment and then whispered in his ear, "Do you know what you ask for? Is this really what you want to become, a creature like me?"

He then turned and looked me dead in the eyes and with a perfectly serious face answered.

"Yes."

With that I latched on to Dennis' neck and held him tight with my arms. I could feel his warm blood surging through my fangs and into my body. Our hearts beat in unison, "thump, thump, thump." As his blood was drained my heartbeat grew stronger, as his diminished. His life force was drained and became a part of mine. I could sense his ambitions, his desires. His power became mine. As he approached death's door, I released him before he entered.

He lay on the ground, in agony, and helpless. He moaned in pain and horror. I stood and over him, filled with his life force. I looked at him and thought he was pathetic. I felt pity for him. A person so used to feeling so much power, and craving more, now laying on the ground helpless and without any power at all.

"Now you have a glimpse of what it is to be a creature like me. I will give you the choice that I never had. If you do nothing, you will die, If you drink my blood, you will become like me."

I made a small cut in my wrist and offered it to him. Dennis grabbed my arm and began feeding. His heart became stronger and mine began to weaken. My wrist began to sting as the blood emptied into Dennis' mouth. When he had taken back his life force, I pulled my wrist away from his mouth. It was throbbing with pain. The deed was done, his request was fulfilled. I left him to discover his new life, and the sacrifices he had made.

As my blood mixed with his, he felt ill. All new vampires do. His desire for daylight struggled with his new instinct to remain in the dark. He went to doctors but the effect of vampire blood has not been discovered by modern medicine. Finally, he gave in and shielded himself from all sunlight, as all vampires must do. The sun is a vampires first sacrifice.

Dennis' fear of the sun clued his band in on what he had done. The power struggle within the band had gone on for decades. They would now have to deal with a vampire and its influential ways? Ha! The power of a vampire is not welcome in any rock band! So, they got rid of him while they still could.

Interviewer: Didn't Dennis fight this?

Lestat: Of course he did! He was persuasive. He did interviews. Some were quite humorous, if you knew where to look. "Bathwater drinkers?" How ironic he was use such a term while he was going about drinking the blood of fans to make them ultra-loyal to him!

The distance between Dennis and the band grew and grew with every effort he made to control them. He finally had to give up and settle things. He had to let the band go.

That was his ultimate sacrifice. I gave him what he most craved, power. But, to gain that power, he had to give up what he most loved, his band.

[styxmike]

WOW GREAT POST MONKER

[Monker]

WOW GREAT POST MONKER

Actually, I like this too. I'm going to rewrite this, take out the "Dennis", "Lestat", references...make it more generic. And, remove it from the first person/interview perspective. It seems like a good story is there for an egotistical, power hungry, manipulative, "rock star" character to meet a vampire...I'll submit it to Critters and see what they think. I've never written a 'horror' story before...Well, OK, maybe some people on these forums disagree with that.

[classicstyxfan]

Actually, as a piece of creative writing, I thought it was 1st rate Monk....
Not very flattering to Dennis, but an interesting perspective/metaphor
on the whole rock star / lust for power thing.......


Maybe you should consider writing a separate piece looking at things from the other side too.....just a thought.

[Monker]

Maybe you should consider writing a separate piece looking at things from the other side too.....just a thought.

Well, froy has that market cornered and I don't wanna step on his toes. His typing fingers, maybe, but not his toes.

I'm not sure how to explain it, but that's not how it works. I can't think to my self, "Self, write another story from this other perspective." It just doesn't work that way.

That is why I say what I say about Tommy's writing on Kilroy. Telling him to write from a perspective that he just doesn't relate to is not going to bring out his best stuff. It's no wonder to me why he struggled with it and hated it.

When I wrote this, i thought to my self, "Self, what really pisses off froy? Ah, "Killing the Thing That You Love" and the vampire thing. I can do something with that"...and it all came out within an hour...

Now, to turn that around and write about a band leader being kicked out of his band...Well, that would take a long time FOR ME to find an angle and write something decent. Froy does a good enough job of it, and I wouldn't want to be compared to his masterful "do you want fries with that?" work.

[classicstyxfan]

OK fair enough........I just thought it might make for an interesting read and all.

[sadie65]

It was an interesting piece, and I do understand why it would be hard for you to write from the other perspective since you more closely identify this as being more representational of the "truth".

Writers have to write what they believe. Readers, of course, don't have that limitation (mercifully)