Chapter 16: Julius
I carried the deer back to my camp and started to carve the deer for some fresh food.
All the while Julius stood a few feet away. Silently watching.
"Do you have questions or do you just want to stand there and stare at me like a creep."
I asked, not looking up at him.
"What is a vam-pire?" he asked
"Well, vampires are a pseudo-species of crystalized immortal beings who must feed on the blood of humans or animals to survive. It is impossible to not drink blood. the longer you go the more you need it until you lose all mental faculties and give into the thirst and go on a blood rampage for anything that has blood. But mostly after humans."
Looking up I saw Juliuse standing there with furrowed brows.
"So now I must drink blood to survive."
"Yes," I say standing to my feet.
"and unfortunately you won't be able to be in the sunlight where people can see you."
"Why?" he asked
"Well, when you turned you and your insides took on Crystal-like properties. So when you go into the sun your skin will sparkle."
And that opened the gates. He kept asking questions. From why he didn't need to breathe to why he could hear and smell better.
While I cooked the deer meat and ate the food I answered his questions as best as I could but Julius was a never-ending well of whys.
But I couldn't blame him.
I would have done the same if I was him. So I answered his questions as best that I could.
All the while I learned a few things about Julius.
He wasn't a killer. He disliked the idea of taking someone's life. In my opinion, it had to do with what happened to him and his family. And that he didn't want to become what killed them.
And that he was a smart kid. That was clear in the way he asked his questions or the way he talked.
He reminded me of Carlisle.
He didn't want to kill people. And his self-control was good enough for him not to instantly kill a human.
Hopefully, I can help him get his urges under control enough to bring him back to Rome with me.
I didn't want to ask him about his family just yet.
The last thing I'm sure he wanted was to be reminded of that right now. So I decided to wait and ask later.
After a few hours, he finally ran out of questions to ask about vampires.
And finally, he asked a different question.
"what now"
" Well, it's not going to be easy for you to be around people right now with you being a newborn. your thirst for blood will be a problem. Like right now even though you just drank all the blood from a fully-grown deer you still feel the need for blood. You seem to be very strong-willed or you might have a power that helps you with it." I say.
"so you can come with me and I can help you get it under control. I'm going on a camping trip into the woods for a few months before I return to Rome. And in that time I will help you."
I could tell just by looking into his eyes that he was still fighting with himself for the thirst of blood, just not as much as before.
"very well," he said.
"I will come with you."
"Well, I'm going to get some sleep if you want I have this," I say, grabbing a scroll from out of my pack and handing it to him.
"What is this?" he asks
"It's a play I wrote," I say lying down. It was a rip-off of the movie Ben-Hur. I wrote for fun.
Laying my head down on my pack I closed my eyes.
I wasn't afraid that he would kill me. He had more chances than once to do so and hasn't.
And well I can't die no matter what he did so I slowly fell asleep. Hoping that I woke up in one piece and not scattered all over the place.
I woke early just before the sunrise and looked around.
Happy to see that I was still in one piece. And wasn't drained of all my blood.
I looked over to Julius.
Julius was looking in the direction of the sunrise.
"Are you nervous?" I asked him.
Julius looked over at me.
"a little."
"There's no need to be Julius."
I knew he was afraid that he would actually sparkle.
It was just one more confirmation that he was now a vampire.
Slowly the sun rose. The rays of the sun hit his skin and he began to sparkle in the light.
Julius looked himself over and sighed in resignation.
After a few minutes, he looked back at me and said,
"That was a fantastic play you wrote by the way. It was a great blend of betrayal and hardship. But through constant hardships and pain, he was able to get his revenge."
I smiled at him and said.
"So you liked it, did you?"
" Yes, I did."
As we talked I put a metal pan in the still-hot Coles of the fire.
Once it was hot I laid some pieces of deer meat on the pan and let it sizzle.
Julius watched as I cooked.
It was silent for a few minutes. The only sound was the sizzling of the food when Julius spoke.
"And what about you? You seem to know a lot about vampires."
"Well, it has to do with the fact that I am older than vampires themselves."
Julius was clearly shocked at that, But before he could speak I cut I'm off.
"I am over four thousand years old. And when you have lived as long as me you tend to run into some strange stuff."
"You are four thousand years old? But how is that possible? Are you a vampire like me? But that can't be I can hear your heart. And you said vampire hearts stop working. So how did you do it?"
The last thing I wanted to do was tell him the truth so I said the same as I did in my journals.
"I don't know. I woke up in a forest without my memories. It took me a while to figure out that I was immortal. And well, I just can't seem to die."
"but…but," Julius said, trying to wrap his mind around what I just said.
"Yeah, you must have some pretty good luck. Out of all the people to run into you run into me."
Before Julius could ask more questions I spoke.
"I will answer your questions later but let me pack up and let's get a move on before I answer them.
"oh right," Julius said in a sheepish voice.
Once I packed up and made sure the fire was completely out we started our journey into the forest getting farther and farther away from any humanity.
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Sorry, it took so long to post. I've been really sick the last few days.