Ah, but I forgot to introduce myself. I apologize for my bad manners. My name is Maurice, and I have been a vampire for 212 years. The story of my human life and what led me to be a vampire is not important, so I will not bore you with the details. There is one aspect that is necessary to talk about, though. You see, as a human, I was incapable of emotions. I was, empty, I guess you would say. I never knew the emotions of love or hate, happiness or sadness. I was, for all intents and purposes, a blank canvas. I do not know why I was that way, for nothing traumatic ever happened to me. I had a loving family, some friends, and quite the boring life actually. I just never felt anything. Upon my change to my current life, and learning about the emotions of my new family, I hoped that for once, I would know what love felt like. Alas, my emotionless state continued into my new life, and up to recently, I still hadn’t had a single feeling.
Ah, I can see you scowling at me now. Here I just went off about how vampires have more knowledge of passion and pain then humans, and now I just admitted that I, a vampire, have worse emotions then you do. In all actuality, I am the only one of my kind, and therefore a freak, I guess. However, it is because of my ability, or inability, that I am the Death Dealer. Since I feel no pain over the loss of loved ones, it is my job to enforce the laws, and to execute complete death when necessary. Needless to say, the ‘60s were quite the busy time for me, and it is actually where my story finally starts.
Several of my family members got caught up in the movement, and therefore it landed on me to clean up the mess. It was my job, and didn’t really bother me one way or the other. But there was one case that was different. A young vampire named Seth, only 45 at the time, was one of those that felt emotions so strongly that he could affect those around him. Well, everyone except me, of course. Anyway, he was still in the process of learning to control himself when he fell in love with two humans, a man and a woman. Not common, but, not unheard of either. All of his little gained control went right out the window, and he devoted himself to them entirely. He lived with them for a time, one of the many nameless wanderers during that period. I want to believe that they all were happy, that they did love Seth at least a little. The problem was that they were solely committed to each other, and they could never give him the same devotion that he desired. Over time, his need drove them apart, and the humans left. Right before I executed the boy, he asked me to watch over his loved ones, to make sure they led a long and fulfilling life. I didn’t understand at the time how he could still care about the ones that had, in all essence, broken his heart. I am still unsure as to why I agreed to his request, but I gave him my promise that I would protect the human couple and their offspring to the best of my ability.
In all honesty, I forgot about the promise for a short amount of time. Those were such chaotic times for us, that that one small death, that one small promise was pushed to the back of my mind. It wasn’t until the elders brought everything back under control, and the new law was instated, that I remembered the boy, and decided that even though I couldn’t feel the pain of his passing, I could instead use my promise as a remembrance of him. In all my years as a Death Dealer, his is the only one I’ve wanted to remember. I never really thought about why, I just accepted it. Strange, huh?
And so I went in search of the human couple, Sam and Sarah, and watched them from afar. In the intervening years they had bought the stereotypical house in the suburbs with a white picket fence. They had a little boy, whom they had named Seth. I visited them once, when young Seth was around 6 or 7, to tell them of the passing of his namesake. I was curious to see how they would react, these humans that a vampire had died for, and to try and understand why they were remembering him through their son. They were truly saddened, and told me they had known he had passed away some time ago. When I asked how they knew (vampire deaths are kept strictly secret, as I’m sure you could guess,) they said they had felt it. That was why when they learned they were going to have a son, they decided to name him Seth. Their own remembrance of a sweet boy they had loved at one time. They were one of the few humans I’ve ever met who were capable of the same emotions as my brethren. I understood a little better why Seth wanted to protect them. It wasn’t just because he loved them, he wanted to protect the love they had for each other. He wanted to protect the love they could bestow on others, as they had for him, for a brief moment in time.
I never visited with Sam and Sarah again. It was too dangerous, even for an emotionless vampire like me. I watched little Seth grow into a young man that I believe his namesake would be proud of. He had a little sister, named Elizabeth, and was different from Seth as night and day. Where Seth was sweet like his namesake, Elizabeth was a little terror that continually got into as much trouble as she could. I saved her life more than once as I watched her grow. In all honesty, I’ve forgotten the number of times I’ve pulled her out of situations that would’ve caused her and her family great pain. I’ve heard of humans rebelling when they became teens, thinking they are adults and trying to break out from under their parents. Elizabeth started rebelling when she was 5. Even though she was always showered with love, she constantly fought back. I never understood Elizabeth and why she reacted the way she did. Maybe that was why I was so fascinated with her. She was an enigma, like me.
Seth and Elizabeth actually got married on the same day early in the year 1984. Seth because he was in love with a young woman named Trina, Elizabeth because she got knocked up by a boy in her senior class. They said they were in love, but I didn't believe it. Elizabeth didn't seem capable of that emtion, at least, not the one strong enough to get married for. Nonetheless, the deed was done, and eight months later she had a little girl named Emily. I stole into the nursery the night after her birth, curious as to what an offspring of Elizabeth would be like. As I looked down at the sleeping baby, I had a premonition that my life, what there was of it, was going to drastically change. As it turns out, I was right.