Soulstice: Luna's Dream. Lance Jr. Dow

not so surprising anymore. I’d rather watch YouTube. I love books, even if they are all by or about humans they are still like a voyage of discovery too. History is my favorite. Nothing like cuddling up on the sofa and going somewhere: or learning something you didn’t already know. Even if someone tells you something about a book, well they can’t spend hours and hours telling you everything-- you have to read them yourself.

      Movies? LOVES EM! At the theater-- has to be at the theater. ‘Cause you sit in the dark of course. I do my thing in the dark and what do people think? They’ll be thinking, “Look at those two. She’s giving that guy (or girl) a little kiss on the neck. Isn’t that sweet?” Only I’ll have two one-inch self-retracting micro-serrated fangs sharper than a piranha’s buried to the hilt into that neck, piercing the external jugular. Blood right from the brain. Warm, delicious, blood. The human brain working at billions of calculations per micro-second heats the blood to the perfect drinking consistency. I can regulate the flow between my upper and lower incisors from a trickle to a gush. If I’m in a hurry, then it’s totally a gush. If I’m relaxed and I have more time to enjoy and savor, then it’s like mid-trickle. The best thing is I can watch the movie while I’m doing it and I don’t have to go to the concession stand!

      There are other kinds of vampires besides just the plain ‘ol cruel ones and us normal, and dare I say, kind ones (like me). These are ancient forms of vampires that still exist, although they are very few in number, thank God. These are the vampires of your nightmares.

      They are still true nocturnals and can’t live in the sunlight. Their skills are primitive and they are more like scavengers. They don’t wear clothes because they don’t need them. They aren’t part of vampire society and live solitary existences living on the fringes of humanity. They’ll shelter in caves, abandoned buildings up in the shadows or in pitch black basements. They prey on the less-fortunate humans-- homeless and such that are easily taken and forgotten about by the human world. If you live in the deep woods you are also on their menu.

      “Hearteaters” Vampires that take people right at the source… the heart. I saw this only once. It was last year when I was out by myself and stumbled upon the scene. I never want to see that ever again. I swear it made my heart stop cold for a moment. I don’t even want to describe to you the totality of what I saw but it has to do with a ripped open chest and lots of blood. I took off immediately. My mom told me I was lucky that I did. These vampires when feeding are in a blood-frenzy, and they’ll attack anything, even other vampires, until after the frenzy passes.

      “Fleshsuckers” Vampires that strip the flesh off and rip the organs out and suck every last bit of blood from them. I definitely do not want to ever see this. Luckily you are dead when this happens. I say lucky because these vampires have no venom. They kill you first before all the other stuff happens by biting your throat like a lion, and cutting off your air supply. Then, they’ll carry you off as your blood locks into the cells of your flesh and organs. Now, you’re like a personal pantry-- today a leg, tomorrow a kidney, and next week the liver. You get the idea.

      “Slurpers” A mutant-form of vampire. They inject a different kind of venom - like a spider’s venom that breaks down the flesh and bones into a soupy mess - which they then slurp up. The bodies are never found as the venom thoroughly breaks down everything. You might find some hair, but that is all you might find. Here again, you are lucky as the venom quickly makes you unconscious-- before turning you to soup.

      So now, you know that vampires exist and you know something “real” about vampires. I’m so breaking the code here telling you all of this, but I can’t stop myself now. I’ve so wanted to tell someone for so long. You have to keep it a secret though. Promise me. It’s just our secret.

      I’m feeling good right now. Relaxed and refreshed. I just finished a nice lull-- the rest state our bodies go into whether we like it or not due to our high metabolism.

      I’m gonna chill here in my room to some good tunes before I go out. It’s now near the end of November here in Crescent City. If you haven’t Googled it yet, that’s in Cali baby. Northern-Northern California. The boonies. But I love it here. Mystical. Mysterious. Wild. Awesome.

      November is my favorite time of the year. The leaves turning colors; I love to watch the leaves change colors. My favorite colors of all are the burnt reds, magentas, burgundies and browns. What a palette God uses to show His gloriousness. I love the mix of smells in the air. So Earthy. Musky. Spicy. Especially in the forests. And as you near the coast, you add in the smells of the sea. It’s all downright… sensuous. Yes, I said that. I’m fifteen and I’m getting feelings like that.

      The Redwoods. They are like the gods of the planet. If I put my hands on them I can feel their sap flowing like a river to their branches and up to their sky-touching peaks-- a river that pulses with a century’s worth of living. What they must have seen in their lifetimes.

      I’ve heard tales from an old, blind, Indian living in a teepee in the backyard of his son’s very modern home, that some of these redwoods are old enough to have seen the last days of the dinosaurs.

      That might be just a tale, but there’s something so ancient and mystical about the tale, I want it to be true. I love the stories my dear friend tells me. It’s all about the old days. Some are stories passed on by his people over the centuries. Anything old I love. So I love our time together.

      We are forbidden to have human friends (the code) but no one knows about our conversations. They take place early in the mornings outside his teepee before I head to school-- little does he know what I’ve been doing before I come to visit him.

      If our venom worked to repair human sight, I’d bite him in a second. Unfortunately, it only helps blood-related and immunity-related diseases and problems. If you’re healthy the venom will give you immunities, or strengthen immunities and forestall, stop, and even reverse cellular mutations that cause things like cancer. Also, it slows the cellular aging-process. If you don’t step in front of a bus or jump out of a plane and the parachute doesn’t open, you’ll live longer. So vampires shouldn’t bite any humans they can’t really stand! I don’t! Haha!

      Get this though-- biting the old, blind, Indian (Frank is the name he has given me – which I can’t get myself to use) let’s say to help him live longer… would break the code. It makes no sense sometimes. Our venom causes humans to live longer, but we can’t use it to help them live longer. Can you relate to this my human compadres? Do you have nonsensical laws like these to live by as well? How could biting an old, blind, Indian living in a teepee cause a rift in the code? He’s just an old, blind Indian people!

      Now you know why I’m sharing this with you. It’s my form of therapy. Let’s see where I can go with this.

      DINOSAURS!

      I agree with you. My mind does not travel in a straight line, it kind of bounces around the cosmos. That makes the journey much more interesting don’t you agree? I’m not here to bore you after all. My English literature teacher says the number one rule of writing is “Don’t be boring!”

      Imagine living in the time of the dinosaurs. That would have been very exciting and interesting, don’t you think? DANGER, WILL ROBINSON!

      I expect that vampires could have managed to live then if we had a source of sustenance that worked for us. Most likely in a type of pack to defend against or fend off attacks from the meat-eaters. I’m willing to bet I could have held my own with a velociraptor like in Jurassic Park. But a pack of them? I don’t know. That’s like taking on the “Killer Bees” alone. One-on-one, I could’ve held my own with a velociraptor. T-Rex? Yeah, just maybe a T-Rex too. I could’ve punched my fist right into its brain, jugular, or heart if I could get to it. I have the strength to pull its jaws apart. I’d just have to be standing inside its mouth to do it. I’m a whole five-feet three inches of vampire.

      Lily… fo’ sho’. Her skinny legs and form is like one wound-up spring. When it’s sprung… WATCH OUT! I’m glad she’s my BFF. We disarm people. They underestimate us, which is good. And that will most definitely come in handy if there ever becomes a need to take on the Bees. Lily is like a domesticated vampire though. She