Prologue - The Beginning of the End

11.25pm Jan 12th 2001 - New York City.

It had been a century of eternal longing, of ceaseless searching, and Joshua’s resolve was wearing thin.

The old wheelchair creaked and clonked, rising and falling with each uneven flagstone as he pushed the aged woman down the cold New York street. A yellow cab passed. Its headlights momentarily illuminated the craggy wrinkles of Emily’s face. Casting long shadows that traversed deserted doorways, the cab continued down the street and was gone.

It was late.

Way off in the distance an all too familiar soft cyan arc, like a slow motion electrical short in some remote equipment, illuminated an activity too far away to see, but Joshua knew what it was. He frowned as it faded with the sapping of another tormented soul.

Emily pulled the shawl more tightly around her shoulders.

They needed to get home, but within a few minutes another cyan spark, two or three floors up to their right, sizzled into life. It softly illuminated a room with a ghostly hue. The shadow of a couple, strained in that sinister embrace, played upon a wall and then was gone.

The parasites were everywhere, especially at night, living off humanity, dulling the consciousness of man, spreading avarice and decay. But it seemed like only Joshua recognized their activity. Their numbers had escalated out of control. Yet they rarely stood out from the crowd. They were always in a shadow, at a distance, round a corner, but constantly, he felt their presence. Like cockroaches, he didn’t need to see them to know that they were there.

Joshua wondered, did he have the strength to make it through another day? Despite his attractive young appearance, he was tired. Tired of waiting. Tired of searching. Tired of just continuing without that which he desired most. He had seen so many things, witnessed so many changes. He had sat on the sidelines as humanity mechanized and evolved, unable to respond in any significant way, watching as modern society embraced the temptations of speed and greed and, day by day, became more vulnerable to the darkness that consumed it.

He negotiated the wheelchair over a few curbs, turning from Bleeker Street into Cornellia. Most places were closed, but the Home Restaurant was still serving chocolate pudding and onion rings to a few late patrons who sipped their coffees before the cold shuffle home. It seemed such a mundanely normal scene until, as the light of the diner faded and they progressed through the gloom, the shadows of a narrow alley burst into life with the fizz and crackle of yet another extraction.

Starkly illuminated amongst the trash cans was a young woman, her body arched in alarm and submission. Towering over her, his face buried in her exposed and bloody neck, a turnling consumed a portion of her life. The aura of cyan energy drifted from her as he drank. His being absorbed her essence like a vacuum.

Joshua’s reaction was instinctive. He leapt into action.

Abruptly, the arc of energy ceased. The vampire turned. In the fading light, the beast’s face was little more than a shadow, but his eyes shone with luminescence, like a cat’s caught in headlights. He dropped the girl’s limp body, darted into the darkness, and scrambled over a rickety fence.

Energized, adrenalin pumping, Joshua rushed past the prostrate victim.

He leapt at the fence, rolling over it like an Olympian.

The clatter of metal alerted him to the creature clambering onto a shuddering fire escape.

Like a cat, Joshua sprang in pursuit, peering up at the sinister figure as it hurtled upward toward the rooftop.

With grim determination etched on his gauntly handsome face, Joshua raced on. He climbed, wondering if the building was taller than it looked from the ground. Was it five stories? Six? He hadn’t counted. His heart pounded, and his ardor to confront this beast urged him ever upward.

The sharpness of the night breeze chilled his face as he burst onto the rooftop. Emotions cooled as he searched for movement through the gloom, past the whirring compressors and utility structures.

His quarry dropped off the roof’s edge, down a floor onto an adjoining building.

Eager to close the gap, Joshua raced after him. He took the leap with athletic ease.

The turnling glanced back, surprised to see that Joshua was staying with him. This was a first. Never before had he been run off, let alone chased. Who was this guy?

Leaping down another floor to yet a lower roof, he raced across to the next ledge. A gaping chasm separated the structures. Now he would lose his pursuer for sure. With inhuman strength, the vampire took the leap, sailing across the abyss and scurrying on.

But Joshua didn’t hesitate either. He hurled himself across the divide, landing on the very edge, teetering precariously as he scrabbled to retain his balance.

Some distance across the roof, the vampire broke through a decrepit wooden door. He raced down into a dark, dank, stairway.

Joshua shot after him, silhouetted in the moonlight, before descending into a foul smelling building.

It was derelict.

Rats scurried into the shadows as the stairs opened to a grimy hallway. He had lost sight of the beast. Fearing it would get away, he leapt over the stair railing. He could see an open window at the end of the corridor. With a spurt of speed he hurtled through it, only to find himself plummeting two floors.

With a resounding CRASH, the makeshift galvanized roof of a workman’s hut broke his fall. He tumbled head over butt the last eight feet, landing in the mud below.

He lay, momentarily winded, yet acutely aware of the wet sludge seeping up through his clothes.

Catching his breath and shaking off the pain, he staggered to his feet. Debris littered the ground around him. There were stacks of wood, piles of blocks, bags of cement, and the remnants of that workman's hut. This was clearly a building site and it was filled with perfect hiding places.

Joshua’s keen senses scoured the darkness. Nothing.

The sound of cats fighting in the distance cut through the night.

Quietly, cautiously, he poked around, investigating each possible refuge for the evasive creature. Had it escaped? Or was it still lurking somewhere within the shadows? Methodically he worked his way through the compound, until finally his eye fell on a stack of timber covered with a tarp. There, to one side, he glimpsed something. He looked closer. It was unmistakable. The tip of a shoe poking out from below.

Ripping the cover aside with the fury of a hurricane, Joshua stared down into the squinting eyes of a shabby youth. Was this his quarry? Or could it simply be some homeless guy?

The young man trembled, startled and scared. Joshua was confused.

“Please, don’t hurt me!” the youth spluttered, sweat beading on his nervous brow.

“Are you him?” Joshua hauled the young man up, swung him around and pinned him against a wall. “Are you one of them!”

“One of who?” the confused guy replied.

“Where’s the hive?” Joshua barked urgently.

"Where's the what?" The stranger appeared bewildered, but Joshua was relentless.

“Is Kraakos still in New York?” He barked, a twinge of desperation in his voice.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” The down-and-out was itching to leave, “I just came in to shelter from the cold. I’m sorry if I shouldn’t be here.”

Doubt invaded Joshua’s mind. Now what? He couldn’t dispatch an innocent. Nor could he let a vampire go. Uncertain, yet certain he had to make a decision, he pulled a syringe from his pocket, flipping off the safety cover with his thumb.

“Let’s see,” he muttered. The long needle shimmered in the moonlight.

“What are you doing?”

“It’s a test” Joshua explained.

“No, I, I don’t like it. Don’t hurt me. Please” The youth was panicking.

“Stay calm,” Joshua replied, “if you’re human, nothing will come of this. It’s harmless. If you are not…” he expelled the air until a tiny stream of liquid squirted out.

“What is it?” The youth was almost in tears. His hands trembled.

“Holy water.”

A drop welled in the tip of the hypodermic. For an eternity it hovered on the brink before falling from the syringe. The homeless guy squirmed as it hit his skin. A split second passed. Then smoke rose in a tell tale column. His flesh blistered.

With super human strength, the vampire turned on Joshua, flashing his fangs with a snarl. To his surprise, in response, Joshua’s fangs locked into place too.

“What the hell?” the turnling snorted. “You’re one of us?”

“No. Not in a million years,” came the response.

In an instant they were at each other, fighting within that filthy yard like two wild dogs, using anything at hand to aid their attack or defense.

One moment Joshua had the upper hand, trying to plunge the hypodermic into the beast. The next the vampire had Joshua down, trying to rip out his throat with his wicked fangs.

They fought furiously, smashed everything in their way, then crashed into the makeshift fence which buckled and gave way.

The heated battle continued as they tumbled back out into the street.

Lifting Joshua into the air, the vampire smashed him down into a stationary car, shattering the windscreen and trapping Joshua’s head in the laminated glass.

As the young vampire snatched up a sliver of broken wood from the gutter, Joshua struggled to free himself.

The hypodermic dropped from his hand.

In a flash the vicious creature was back on the car bonnet, towering over Joshua, poised to stake his pounding heart.

Caught within the glass, cut and bleeding, there was little that Joshua could do. Was this it, the end of his struggle with fate? Would he finally know the long sleep that had eluded him for so long?

There came a sickening thud.

The vampire’s chest erupted.

A silver shaft passed through him from behind. It lodged, protruding from his torso. He looked down at it, in pain and disbelief, distracted momentarily by the rippling blue emission that seeped from his failing body. The aura illuminated his face, then faded, absorbed into the cold night air.

So it was that his inner being departed.

The silver shaft tumbled from his torso, landing with a clatter on the bonnet of the car. The corpse that had contained him, toppled lifeless into the gutter.

Finally free, Joshua stared at the shaft, a long silver crossbow bolt. He clambered down from the bonnet and passed it to Emily who sat in her wheelchair by the shattered fence. He didn’t glance at the crossbow in her hands, partly masked by her shawl.

He simply said, “Thanks Emily.”

A wry smile crept across her aged face as she quietly replied, “You’re welcome dad.”

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