Diary of a Vampire

by ‘The Storyteller’

Who is Teresa Devereux?

Teresa is a delicate woman, aged 26 yrs. She is 5 ft 6 inches, small with fine pale features. Although she has natural beauty, she hides this in plain grey suits with long skirts, wears no makeup, and wears her long mousy hair in a severe French roll. She has no confidence in her looks, and just wants to ‘blend in with the crowd’. She sometimes thinks she is invisible, as she never attracts much attention. She is a loner who has never had any friends. This is despite her longing for someone, _anyone_ in her life, but she has few social skills, and finds it hard to approach people.

HERSTORY

She was born into a well to do family, an only child. Her father was a financier with a top city banking firm who married the Directors daughter for advancement. Her mother was perfect in every way, or so it seemed to others. She had a pristine home, entertained influential guests with ease, was extremely well groomed, and had a wonderful family life. She needed for nothing, being both born into money herself, and having a husband who provided an exceptional income to support her.

In reality she was a cold hearted person, constantly criticising Teresa for her ‘less than perfect’ looks. (Teresa was an attractive girl, but her mother was concerned that she would grow up to be more beautiful than herself, which to her was unacceptable) Her mother chided her if she ever spoke, as ‘children should be seen and not heard’. She rarely showed any affection to Teresa or her husband at all, unless it was part of ‘the show she put on for others.

Teresa had a special bond with her father due to this. They would often go for walks around the grounds, just to be together. He was loving, and often hugged Teresa and told her how much he loved her. They found solace in each other.

Teresa was 8 yrs old when her father died of a heart attack. The strain of his work and the conflict at home with his wife took it’s toll, and Teresa was left alone. She had always been able to get anything she wanted from her father, all it required was her smile and glint in her eye, and her father could never say no to her. Now all that she wanted was her father to live again, the one thing she knew would never happen. In her sorrow Teresa felt guilt over her manipulation of her father, and that side of her lay dormant for the many years to come. She yearned for a replacement father figure, someone who would look after her, someone who would protect her and love her without condition. Could there ever exist such a man who could live up to the standards she set?

She tried to get close to her mother, but she was completely untouchable. Eventually Teresa stopped trying, and retreated to her own shell. She was shipped off to an all girls boarding school until the age of 17. She was rarely invited home for Christmas, and often was the only girl left at the boarding school over holidays.

Every year, the school would arrange overseas vacations in various European countries over the summer break. She enjoyed the adventure of discovering new cultures, her favourite being Italy. She had picked up a basic understanding of the language, and would sneak out on her own to wander ancient cities and take in the magnificent sites. Some of the other girls would sneak out to rendezvous with local boys, but Teresa had little interest for them. She found it difficult to even start a conversation. This lack of social interaction made Teresa very shy and reserved when around males.

On returning home before her 18th birthday, she found her mother to be only a shell of a woman. The home was beginning to run down, and now there was only one maid to look after everything. Even though her mother was by no means elderly, she seemed much older than her 48 yrs. She never left the house now, and was frail and sickly. Her heart had not warmed any over the years either.

Teresa found a job at the city library, doing computer cataloguing out the back. She had a knack with computers, understanding them better than humans! In her job she rarely had to interact with the general public, and enjoyed the solitude with only brief interactions with other staff. Having such an array of literature at her disposal, she read a variety of subjects, ever increasing her knowledge of the world around her, even if it was from a printed page. In the quiet environment at work her hearing became quite sensitive, to the point where she could recognise each individual co-workers footsteps as they approached her desk. She worked from 7 pm to 3 am, when most of the shipments of new books would arrive. She didn’t mind the hours though, as she enjoyed the moonlit night walks back home, with only the shadows for company.

After a year working at the library, she was walking home through the park (her shortcut) when she noticed a group of young men ahead. They were skinheads, wearing tattered clothing, leather jackets with the words “Anarch Angels” on them, and boots. She altered her path, only to have them alter theirs. She tried to walk past them with her head bowed, but they started to talk to her. She ignored them, but before she knew it, they had grabbed her and forced her to the grass. In her mind she kept repeating “this can’t be happening” over and over, yet she knew it really was. Only one of the men had time to rape her as the others watched. A male passer-by yelled at them and threatened to call the police. The men ran off, and the kindly man bent down to assist Teresa to get up. He asked if she was all right, and offered to take her to the hospital, but she declined and ran off towards the comfort of her home. She never told anyone of this, feeling too much shame at what had happened. She had been a virgin, and felt complete self loathing. After the initial shock of what had happened wore off, she was overwhelmed with hatred, for what those callous creatures had done to her.

Teresa was generally non confrontational and calm when verbally abused or attacked by insensitive people, being able to ignore slights against her. This horror to her soul was unacceptable though, and she decided that one day she would seek revenge, and try to gain back that part of herself she lost that night. She didn’t know how or when, but she knew the day would come.......

As self protection, she decided to learn one of the martial arts. She hired a personal trainer to teach her aspects of ‘Silat’ in order to defend herself. She had private lessons in the club hall before work twice a week for a year. Now at least she felt confident enough to be able to fend off another attack, should it happen. Her boarding school classes were also useful, as she had taken gymnastics for 4 yrs, making her very flexible and agile. Being small in stature, she had little strength to directly defend herself. What she lacked in brute strength, she made up for with her agility, enabling her to dodge an attacker with the grace of a ballerina. While she no longer took lessons, she continued her skills by practising in the moonlit grounds of the mansion, running and tumbling around the overgrown gardens, and sparring with an old tree trunk. It helped to keep her fit, and released some of her growing frustrations with her stifling life.

At the age of 51, her mother died of pneumonia. Teresa felt nothing, how could she? This woman was really a stranger to her, even though she had given Teresa life. The house was now far too big for just herself, yet the grounds held memories of her father there, so she was reluctant to sell it. She arranged to have a self contained flat built into the roomy basement. The furniture in the main house was covered in dust sheets, and the maid now only came once a month to clean the dust away. Even then Teresa didn’t have to interact with her, as she paid her wage straight into her bank account. Teresa had her own separate entrance to her flat, and never bothered to enter the main building now. It stood barren, and seemingly deserted.

While at work one night around 11 pm, she was putting newly catalogued books into the main library shelving. She heard light moaning in the next aisle and as she peered between the books, she could see a woman sitting on a chair half undressed. The main library was open until midnight, but there were rarely people there this late. There was a man kneeling between her feet, kissing her and running his hands over her body. Teresa was mesmerised by this, and although she felt ashamed, she was also strangely excited, and could not tear her eyes away. Just then, the woman looked up, and looked straight into Teresa’s eyes. She smiled slightly, and moaned even louder, all the while looking straight at Teresa! Teresa noticed the sexy lingerie the woman was wearing (now quite obvious due to her state of undress!) and longed to feel what it would be like to wear them herself. The scene in front of her continued for a time, then the woman winked at Teresa, neatened her clothing, and left with the man.

In the next few weeks Teresa ordered several thousand dollars worth of lingerie, and even make-up. She now always wore lingerie under her plain suits, and would sometimes smile to herself knowing what she was wearing out of the sight of others. Of course, her upbringing meant she could never find the courage to be daring enough to let anyone else see the beauty that she truly was. Teresa was beginning to explore aspects of herself she hardly knew existed.

After that episode, she began to take a new interest in people. She would often quietly watch the people in the library as they scanned the pages. She would make up stories to herself about what their lives may be like, and she felt a strange curiosity about their internal thoughts.

One night a shipment of books from a deceased estate arrived. As she neared the bottom of the crate, she found odd pieces of extremely old parchment. Carefully she placed them down and scanned the writing. They all seemed to be pieces from the same book. They spoke of otherworldly beings, and mentioned blood a lot. Perhaps they were from some sort of ancient occult book, filled with paranoid writings from a long dead author. She decided to keep the pages, for her own interest more so than anything. They were of no use to the library, so she had no hesitation in taking them home with her that night.

Paranoid was a word she was beginning to experience more and more lately. Often she would sense that someone was watching her. In the grounds of the mansion, at work, even walking along the street. Whenever she turned around, there was never anyone there. Perhaps her solitary life was eating away at her sanity, and she worried she would end up as her mother had, a mindless shell.....

THE EMBRACE.....