Tome of Apeula (eBook)

THE VAMPIRE KING

That was when he appeared. The source of the madness that had overwhelmed our modest ape brains was emanating from this wicked creature, who had nonchalantly strolled through a camp of gorillas as if we were no more than harmless little monkeys.

Oh, I know him as a glorious hero now, but in that moment, back when I was unable to comprehend the power and grace of the man-shaped being that had blessed our worthless, mud-smeared, flea-bitten lives with his presence, my every sense was shadowed by unyielding fright.

He walked like a man, but his flesh was white as clouds on the sunniest of days, and his skin radiated a glowing, reflective sheen as fish scales so often do. He wore clothes like a man, but his cloak was of a deeper black than a gorilla’s fur, and it was lined with fine golden threads that displayed a myriad of interwoven details as the sunlight flickered as it touched his clothing. He talked at me like a man, which I obviously would not have understood in any case, but the dreadful sensation that dripped from each noise he uttered made every organ in my ribcage reflexively jump in revulsion. He had the face of a man, yet his shadowy eyes seemed to remove light itself from existence, as the night pulls the warmth and brightness of the day from the land at sundown.

The tension was unbearable, but as soon as this demon stopped to take an apparent interest in my youngest child, abandoned in a panic by one of the worthless she-apes that I had previously mated with, my innate animal rage beat my anxiety into submission- I leapt from my mossy boulder, rushed at the man-beast, stopped just short from where it stood, and bellowed a mighty roar that shook the jungle to its core.

Be it an aggressive, venom-fanged viper that had slithered too closely to my family, a bumbling lost rhinoceros stomping on anything in its path in the hopes of reuniting with its missing herd, or other creature foolish enough to provoke me into taking action, any animal of the rainforest would have run screaming for its life at this point. Yet as I towered over the lanky, ashen monster with my teeth bared, ready to crush it like a caterpillar under my clenched fists, I distinctly remember the cruel smile it flashed at me the moment my arms began to swing down upon its skull.

I hit the dry, leafy ground with a slam that made the trees quake and the birds scatter into the blue skies above, but the man-thing moved faster than a cobra’s strike. I whipped my head around in confusion, fury, and fright as the evil thing watched my futile attempts to hit him with quizzical interest.

I began to panic, and my muscles ached as I wrenched a half-buried rock from the soil and chucked it at him, but even as my makeshift weapon punched through the trunk of an old tree, he effortlessly evaded it as if I had the speed and power of a dead tortoise.

There was no other option- he was incredibly fast, but I was stronger. If I could get my paws on this foul creature, I would end him. To save myself, to save my family, I stared deeply into those unfeeling black eyes, paced circles around the villain as I bravely stood tall upon my knuckles, and although it felt like an eternity, I bravely conquered the urge to flee as I inched closer and closer to the speedy monster.

I sneered, drooled, glared, and bore my fangs at him, but he returned my threat with a bone-white smile of delight at the sight of my hostile performance. I pawed at the dirt as I slowly edged even nearer. My nostrils burned with the unmistakable smell of death as I closed the gap between me and my ghoulish opponent, but I had one final, desperate strategy to use against this menacing trespasser.

I lunged at the terror, slinging the sandy soil that I had collected while pacing about into the fiend’s unblinking, hideous shark eyes to blind them, and grabbed his tiny human-like arms in my giant, powerful hands, and began to mercilessly crush his bones in my palms- but he did not react with pain, but amusement. My facial expression quickly devolved from a merciless, hateful snarl, to absolute panic as he lifts me up by my own arms, and… while I do not remember every impact, the lithe man-creature viciously hurled me against rocks, trees, and pummeled me against the cold, hard earth within a matter of moments.

I went from being the mightiest beast in a forest of bloodthirsty crocodiles, merciless hippopotamuses, and bone-crunching hyenas, to a battered, whimpering furball, and as my senses came back to me, the jungle was eerily silent, save for the maniacal cackling of my vile tormentor. I believed that my perception of strength was completely shattered at that point, but as he grabbed my throat and raised me into the air with only one of his boney, gangly hands while revealing his vicious smile of knife-like teeth, I experienced genuine power as he sank those very fangs into the base of my neck. I began my journey into a wondrous, new universe of shadows and genuine understanding as I faded from consciousness.

My awareness sparked on and off for a time before I began to come to, my vision cleared, and I had the ability to move my badly-beaten body once more. As I lifted myself from the leaf litter, I realized that the all-powerful abomination who had reduced me to a hairy pulp was elegantly sitting upon the corpse of a bloodied, dead gorilla. A new wave of anguish hit me, not simply because he had the patience to wait around for me to awaken, nor because he had slaughtered one of my fellow apes…

“Hmm… This is a familiar, but unique flavor- like man and… perhaps veal? Either way, it’s an acquired taste, but I could-” He paused, glanced down upon my shattered form, unveiled his warped reptilian grin once more, and spoke again, “Oh? Are you awake, gorilla?”

I was horrorstruck because I could understand the Vampire King’s speech…

He inquiringly turned his head and softly asked, “Do you understand me? If you do, lift your head and nod.” A moment ago, I had no comprehension of the language of man, yet I was instinctively bobbing my head to demonstrate to him that I somehow understood his queries.

The Vampire King laughed once more as he realized that his experiment was a success and continued, “Excellent! I was not entirely sure that the uplifting would take hold in something as beastly as yourself! What a discovery! An invaluable discovery!” I was not entirely certain if he was talking to me at that point, or simply echoing his priceless observations aloud, but I was still sprawled out on the filthy ground. I may have had a nose full of dead leaves and dirt, but between the shock I had felt from having been mentally thrown into an entirely fresh reality of conceptualizing and insight that I could never had fathomed as an average ape, and the awe-inspiring strength of the master vampire lounging before me, I dared not move a muscle.

My very sanity was racing to determine if I was simply experiencing the ultimate nightmare and how to awaken from it, but I could not look away from the majestic vampire; he sat upon the chest of my fallen comrade and looked down upon me as he drank from a pair of puncture wounds on the dead gorilla’s wrist. His skin was white as elephant ivory, but his flowing hair was dark as the night, which fell behind his somewhat pointed ears, and disappeared into the depths his hood. When the Vampire King spoke and smiled, his serrated saw-like teeth were on full display, and while his pearly fangs and the fact that his limber, slim body hid the ability to toss me about like a plaything were both truly unsettling, it was his soulless, otherworldly eyes and the palpable, frigid atmosphere of darkness around his graceful form that instilled horror within me. He was adorned with a black silken hooded cloak that covered his body, which featured a myriad of thin, delicate patterns spun from golden fibers, as well as a collection of gold, silver, and platinum rings each topped by a rainbow of glittering gemstones that bejeweled his slender fingers, which shone brightly in the sunlight as he carried on with his important monologue.

“Rise and listen well, gorilla- I do not plan on staying in this untamed land for much longer, and I have much to share with you.” I sat upright on command, wide-eyed and frightened, but I rose like an obedient pet and listened closely to my new ruler.

And so I remained seated and hung onto every word in awe as I learned the all-important reason why I was now enlightened with the ability to comprehend his spoken language: “I do not know if you know of the likes of mankind, however I-“ I began nodding, and he continued, “Good! I may look like a mere mortal man, but I- we are more than men. We are vampires.” I wrinkled my brow in confusion, as up to that point, I had only known life as an ape…

“We are superior to men in every way, you and I. Vampirekind is stronger, faster, and our eternal lives have given us the chance to collect wisdom, experience, and abilities far beyond the pitiably short lives of our feeble world’s cohabitants. I am certain that you felt my presence in a way that all animals do on instinct- I understand. I may look like a man, but I am far beyond them.” As calm and composed as he was, even I could detect a hint of disgust as the Vampire King compared his dark majesty to his pedestrian human prey.

“You will learn and grow into your newfound vampiric skills soon enough, and I will see to it that you do so in due time, gorilla.” The legendary vampire explained, “But I will continue upon my own adventures first; you see, even one as powerful as I can be exiled… Men are similar to insects. They are small, insignificant, and can barely comprehend a drop of the infinite complexities of...