I have been around for longer than I care to count. My name is Athena, or at least that's what how you humans would say it. What brings me to these pages tonight is that I feel it is time to record some significant history, history of both my kind and of yours. A History that is vital to both of our survivals. If you are reading this, you know what I am alluding to and you know what is at stake. You know the struggle that all of mankind faces, but I'm also quite certain you have no idea what exactly is happening or why.
So what is my kind, you may ask? Well, I believe you have many names for us monsters, demons, immortals, bloodsuckers, and vampires are just a few.
To finally set the record straight for one last time, we are not demons. We are not those vile creatures made of mud and shadow. In fact, we are no more monstrous than any of you. Yes, I suppose that you did make up the vampire nickname just for us, but you have us so very confused with your fantasies. Let's just be honest here, you've let your imaginations run wild over the past few centuries. It's not your fault. Human beings love drama. They always have, and what's more dramatic than something you don't understand?
A long time ago the world used to be far different. There was a time when the world was younger and not so filled with sin and hate. You used to know us. You used to look to us for guidance. You used to not fear us as you do now, but as all things inevitably do, the world changed.
I have to admit, the stories you have recorded of us are quite amusing to hear. I guess because of how far they are from the truth. Now it's time to separate fact from fiction. It is time for you humans to get your heads out of the clouds and stop making up stories about us to entertain yourselves, control the masses, and explain the weather. The reality of what we are is so far from your silly little fairytales. The stories have become so twisted, it is hard to unravel the truth from the facts.
I think I'll start with the fact that we were never human. Just the very thought that we came from YOU, makes my blood boil. The reality is that we are far older than your planet, all the stars in the sky, and even time itself. There are only six of us on Earth: Michael, Jason, Reese, Lash, Alcar, and myself. We are the fallen. Angels exiled to your world, perhaps for punishment, to teach us a lesson, or to give us what we wanted. In truth, I don't know the exact reason. Maybe it was a bit of all three. God doesn't make a habit out of explaining his actions.
I know the stories you've heard about Lucifer, but he is not one of us. His sins came before ours. His motivations were more sinister, and for that he was all together abandoned by God and dwells in his own realm. We on the other hand have not lost all of God's favor. We do not crave power or wish to exterminate your kind. Our sins were those of which you all commit daily. We were jealous of what you were given. We wanted to be able to taste and to sleep. We wanted to be able to feel the hot sun kiss our skin. We wanted to feel winter's cold bite on our cheeks. We even wanted to feel the sharp aching sensations of pain. We wanted anything to break up the never ending monotony that was our existence. That was our sin. We asked for this curse, and we were given exactly what we asked for.
We were cast down from the heavens to live among you and we have been here for longer than even your most primordial calandras date back. We were here before you even had a concept of time. We were given human form and human desires. Now we can taste, now we sleep, and now we feel. It's the feeling that makes this curse so awful. You mortals dream of immortality. Your dream is our nightmare.
In present day, we all live in different parts of the world. All of us, that is except Michael and Alcar. The two of them live in modern day Romania together, for they have always been close friends. The 6 of us only meet up every two hundred years. Other than that, we never see one another. We live our lives in solitude, hidden away from the outside world.
Imagine having to hide away, thousands of miles from the only faces you've ever known? The only people who know your history. The only ones who could understand you. We cannot put ourselves in the public eye for any large amount of time because of our perpetual youth, which eventually would raise more than a few questions.
We can go out during the day, but we rarely do. It's harder to make our faces out at night. Don't misunderstand, it wasn't always this way. In the early years after our arrival we all lived together. We were praised, even treated as gods. The world loved us and we helped make it a better place.
We created a great empire, that united the civilized world. This was easily done because the population was so few then and earth was still joined in the supercontinent, I believe your historians now refer to as Pangaea. Our rule spanned for thousands of years. This was before your kind developed the written word, so you will find no written record of that time. Memories, however, did exist and many miraculous stories were told about us, some of which still exist today. They have been passed down through time and through different cultures, but they are still our stories. Sometimes our names have been changed, sometimes the place, but still, the point is the stories happened.
Alcar, Jason, Reese, and Lash were great rulers, but Michael refused to govern anyone. He did however become a legendary warrior. Even with that reputation he was merciful and never killed a human.
I am somewhat ashamed to admit that I am the origin from which the stories of Athena, Aphrodite, Hera, and countless other goddesses were derived. I was an inspiration to all women, and the men all gawked at my beauty. Even Reese, Jason, Alcar, and slash were infatuated with me, but never Michael. I guess that's were our downfall began. These human emotions had hold of us all. Michael seemed to be the only one who could control his. Sometimes I wondered if he suffered from their affliction at all.
The four fallen fought over me among one another. Jealousy, vanity, and desire for flesh overpowered all logic. This caused the four of them to stop being such great rulers. The worst part is, I couldn't bring myself to care for any of them in the same way. The only one I wanted was Michael, and he was the only one I couldn't have.
He became my obsession, but no matter what I did he never wanted me. The desire for him drove me insane, so I concocted a plan. I decided to see if I could make him jealous by marrying a mortal man that I did not love and who did not truly love me.
His name was Narcissus and he was beautiful. He was perhaps the most beautiful mortal god had ever created, which I thought would be perfect for making Michael jealous, but I was wrong. I don't think I have ever been more wrong. I now know you can't trick someone into loving you and you can't make someone jealous who never desired you to begin with.
Narcissus may have been outwardly flawless, but on the inside he was cold, vain, cruel, and greedy. When I chose him, I had no idea his faults were so many, for at first he was charming. At first everyone found him charming. He said all the right things and performed all the right actions, but he married me because he was obsessed with beauty and knew our union would bring him great power. His affections were flattering, even if I didn't return them, and I reasoned his life was limited anyway. The events that unfolded after our marriage, I never saw coming.
You see, there was a great hole in my plot. When we first arrived here in your world gods messenger Ameth, told us that if we found someone we loved and if they truly were worthy of it, we could change them. That if he or she met those stipulations we could make him or her into one of us. However, you will recall that I did not love my husband and he was not worthy of the change. I also had no desire to change Narcissus.
Seventy years was nothing to me, but I could not be bound to such a man for all eternity. The problem was that everyone, including Adonis kept asking me that if I truly loved him, why then did I not change him.
I resisted for four years, making excuse after excuses, but my excuses were running thin and Narcissus was still aging. Finally I submitted. I let Narcissus drink from my blood, and he changed... but not into one of us.
His outward appearance finally matched his inward and he became a monster. At first, none of us noticed anything out of the ordinary. The change was a slow one, but after a week just the light of day began to burn his skin. His reflection no longer showed the blue eyed, golden haired man, but something hideously twisted and ugly. Then at night, he started hunting people, and draining every last drop of their blood. My husband became the embodiment of a nightmare.
It was Michael who ended up slaying him before he could cause anymore harm, but it was too late. Right after Michael rid the earth of the abomination I had created, god's messenger Ameth appeared. Ameth told us, the fallen, that because of what my carelessness had caused, we would all be burdened with the blood thirst I had bestowed upon my husband.
We were to have this thirst once every month when the moon was full. So from that time on we have all thirsted for blood. We negotiated that we would never kill anyone, and that we would only feed off of the black of heart. Our victims included rapist, murderers, abusers, and manipulators, but they would never go home with more than a few scratches, a bite mark, and a story of a wicked man-eating monster that attacked them.
At first no one believed them, but as more and more people were attacked, fear and belief began to spread. Soon they figured out the six of us were responsible for the attacks, and the manhunt began. It didn't take long for the entire empire to turn against us. After the recent neglect of their rulers, they had been searching for an excuse to uproot us from our seat of power. So we all split up vowing to meet once every 200 years at a place of Michaels choosing. Our feeding was less noticeable that way and in time the world all but forgot about us. The continent split, different cultures and religions formed and we faded from memory. Each of us at sometime making brief appearances in history causing other legends and stories to be formed.
So I guess I am to blame for most of our trouble. Our less than flattering reputation is my fault. That was our beginning. That was how our true curse came to be, but enough about us. I am here to tell you a different story. This is the story of Michael, the just warrior that I was so captivated by all those years ago.