< VI >





Nosferatu enters a beautiful office building.

The building is forty stories high.

It is post-modern and gives off the sentence to the common person walking by, “Those who meet in that building have money.”

Nosferatu enters the building.

A guard nods his head and says, “Hello, sir.”

Nosferatu looks at him with a sad look. Then puts a twenty dollar bill in his coat pocket.

The guard says, “Thank you, sir.”

Nosferatu says nothing.

He gets on the elevator and goes up.

He thinks standing in the elevator, “This is going to be lame.”

Nosferatu walks out of the elevator. He hears voices. Many voices saying different things, none of the things interest him. He knows no meaningful information is being spoken in there.

He enters the room.

There's a buffet of rare meats.

Glasses of fine bloods.

The room is full of finely dressed vampires.

A vampire named Leo yells, “All right, now we can get started.”

They go into another room with a table set up and seats against the wall.

A seat sits in the middle of the room.

The top ten vampires sit at the table. Minor vampires that cling to the top vampires and hope one of them dies so they may replace them in being a top vampire sit in chairs against the walls.

They motion for Nosferatu to sit in the chair in the middle of the room. It is a metal folding chair.

Nosferatu thinks, “Fuck, they are going to kill me.”

Everyone sits down.

Nosferatu sits on the metal folding chair and squints at the top vampires.

Leo who always leads these events begins to speak to Nosferatu, “Nasir is dead. He killed himself three days ago. He walked out into the sunlight and let it kill him.”

Nosferatu squints.

Leo continues, “Nasir was the Vampire king. He was the oldest vampire besides you. None of the living vampires are close to you in age. All the ancients have died by vampire hunters or killed themselves. Nasir was a great leader. He was always helping the vampires and made sure we stayed strong. You on the other hand, don't do anything. That is why we are having this type of meeting. Usually it was would be a ceremony and we would be crowning a new vampire-king. But instead we are having a formal meeting because from past evidence it doesn't seem like you would want to be vampire-king.”

Nosferatu looks sad and says, “Why is everyone criticizing me?”

Leo in an exasperated tone of voice says, “Because you have done nothing in years. Not since the fall of Rome have you done anything. It is like you've been depressed for 1500 years.”

“I used to wear an uniform.”

Everyone has puzzled looks on their faces.

Leo says even though he questioning in his head if he is dealing with a mad man. But sometimes mad men have power and still must be dealt with.

Leo says in a calm voice, “Nasir protected you for years. But Nasir is no longer here to protect you. The myths concerning who you were are boundless. But the history of who you are has strangely disappeared. Our historians believe you might be Osiris, Remus, Aristotle, maybe even not one but several of the Caesars of Rome. Is there any truth to that?”

“I am Nosferatu”

Many people in the crowd stared at the floor after that answer.

Leo continues, “You aren't going to answer? You were once a great man, a man of great power, but now you sit there pathetic.”

“I'm right here, you see me. This is what I'm doing, I'm sitting. No power here, no greatness, just a man sitting.”

“We want to know, what are the extent of your powers? How strong are you?”

Nosferatu takes his shoes off.

Everyone is watching waiting for something to happen.

Nosferatu takes his socks off.

Still everyone waits.

Then Nosferatu wiggles his toes and says, “I'm that strong.”

Leo says to the crowd, “I told you this was useless. He is nuts. But we have to do this,” Leo looks at Nosferatu, “Are you the original vampire, and how did you contract the virus?”

Nosferatu still shoelesss squints at him and says, “In 493 B.C. I was sitting on the side of a creek in Greece with my bare feet in the cool water. I put my cupped hands down and scooped up some water and drank it. I looked around and had a very pleasant feeling. A young sixteen-year-old girl was sitting next to me. Her face was soft and her dark brown hair hung down to her waist. She never stopped giggling. She has been dead for 2300 years.”

Leo after taking a deep breath says, “One last question Nosferatu, do you want to be the vampire-king?”

Nosferatu stands up and says, “I have always been king,” and walks out of the room.