Bliss in Darkness

Origins and Endings, Part 2

"We told your parents and brother you are dead. There is no reason for escape. You are a monster, and we are going to help you." I heard a calm, but hard voice speak. My vision was dark and tunneled. I couldn't make out anything in the room past my own nose. I was dizzy, and felt light headed and cold. I could barely feel my entire body, and it had that faint tingling sensation that happens when you cut off blood flow for too long. My thoughts went from internal to external as I heard the voice speak again.

"We have been watching you Charles. Ever since you were born we knew you would be... Special." The way he said special sent chills down my spine. I felt hate, Anger and pure rage building up inside me. This was only a flashback, and I knew that but I couldn't help but feel like ripping this guy’s head off. This was my past that I wanted to conceal? I felt like throwing up. She betrayed me. She didn't even give me a chance to explain myself before running off. And these... these men. They think I'm a monster? They told my family I was dead. And for what? I hate them. I hate everything. I especially hate John for bringing this out of me. I should have killed him.

"What am I?" I said trying to control my dangerous emotions.

"You are the last of a plagued race thought long dead. Your families genes contained the virus, and it was passed down to you. You hunger for blood, do you not? You get stronger at night and weak during the day? Your eyes are adapted perfectly for the darkness. You are broken. And we are here to fix you."

"So because I was born different, I am suddenly broken? Who are you? What is this place?"

"All in good time my friend. My name is Salazar. And like you, I was broken. But I have been mended, as you will."

"What if I don't want to be 'mended'?

"Then we kill you."

"..."

"I highly suggest you stop fighting us. I tried to fight back too, but this is the right way to go."

I did not wish to talk to this man any more. Apparently he didn't either, because after that last answer I did not hear his voice again. I opened my eyes once more to find myself in a large white room. The ceiling was covered in a very reflective glass, making the room even more bright. The light hurt my eyes, and seemed to lash out at my very soul. It made me weak, and I hated it. I wanted nothing more than to kill this Salazar and release myself, but that was impossible. I was trapped in here, and god knows what was going to happen to me. I was laying on a curved piece of steel, barely able to move. I then felt the clamps on my arms and legs. I wasn't going anywhere.

Another man entered the room, and in place of a suit he wore a surgical outfit complete with large goggles and a breather mask. He was like something out of a nightmare and I was powerless to stop him, whatever he was planning on doing with me. Behind him, another man in the same attire wheeled in a cage full of monkeys, and a rolling stainless steel tray.

"What the hell is this?" I said, my courage starting to falter, and anger taking its place.

The man answered with silence as he pulled out a white bag and pulled out several devices. The first, a plain scalpel. The second, a meat tenderizer. One by one he pulled them out of the bag until laying them on the tray until the bag was empty. In total, there were ten devices. The scalpel and meat tenderizer, as well as a pair of scissors, a pointed wooden stake, a steel hammer, three nails, a pair of pliers, a ballpoint pen, a small sheet of glass, and a staple gun. I was horrified. I knew that something bad was going to happen, but this was beyond anything I comprehended.

"Begin." An omnipresent voice said in a cold tone.

The man with the mask took the hammer and nails, and pounded them into me. I screamed out as one went through each hand, and one in my stomach. Tears came to my eyes from the pain, but I felt nothing but rage and hate toward the men that were doing this to me. It was torture, pure agony. And that was only the first of it. The man took the pliers, and removed the nails one by one until all that was left was 3 holes in my body and a bloody mess.

"Heal yourself." the same voice bellowed through the room.

Not willing to obey the man, but even less willing to suffer through this agony, I reached for the cage and my mind pulsed forward to the monkeys. I entered their minds and started to siphon their energy as gently as I could. The sounds of their screams echoed through the room and I felt awful for it. These innocent creatures were being put through the same pain these men had inflicted on me. It wasn't fair to either of us. I felt sick to my stomach, the emotions of rage and pain fighting an endless battle within me.

"Good. Next test."

Hours turned into days. Days turned into weeks. Weeks into months, and months into years. I lost track of time after the first two weeks. I lost the will to live. They would torture me, and I would heal. Over and over. It was a more refined version of what I had done to John, only he deserved it. I had done nothing wrong. The longer the tests went on, the tougher they became to survive. Every so often the men would leave to rest, and more would take their place eager to start their work. I never tired. They forced me to feed so often that I never needed rest. Countless monkeys died at my hand, only to be replaced by a new cage every morning. Screams echoed through my mind, and my heart was in pain as I slaughtered countless animals.

After what seemed like an eternity, they upped the ante. Nails and hammers were replaced by sharp metal poles and poisoned injections. They just wanted to see what I could take. The monkeys were replaced by actual people. They begged me not to kill them, but I had no choice. When I refused, they sent currents of electricity through the table I was laying on. They wanted to see what methods were effective in subduing me. I couldn't let them continue. I just couldn't. This was an offence to nature, and I would not stand for it any longer. After I killed my first child, I hatched a plan.

Since there was no way to tell when it was night time in here, I spent a few days reading my cycle. I made mental notes of when I felt stronger and sharper. I lost track of time, but I always knew when it was dark outside my prison. I stretched my mind whenever I had time between tests to see how far my influence could reach. I didn't dare try to drain anything, but I discovered that it was indeed possible. No fancy technology and glass can withstand a force of nature such as myself.

I prepared myself for my final test. They brought in a gun this time. And an entire family of people. A woman and a man, and a boy who looked a year or so younger than me. This was when I would have to make my stand, there was no way in hell I could live with killing them. The time for escape was now.

He shot me three times. Twice in the kneecaps and once in the chest. I felt my life fading and knew I had to act now. I reached out to the cage that held the family, huddled in fear and love for each other. I reached out to them with my hand, but my mind was elsewhere. I had invaded the mind of several surgeons and one of the men watching on a screen from another room. And then, I made my attack.

I pulled all I could from the twelve men I took hold of. I used all their strength and energy to fuel my wrath. My eyes burned and my muscles pulsed with their new found power. I could not contain all of the energy. Little did they know, the constant testing they forced on me was effectively turning me into a killing machine. At first I had to physically touch the beings I wished to drain. After time went on, however, I discovered how to establish a neural link to my enemies to draw their vitality to myself. After my body could not hold any more power, I wriggled free of my restraints. I shouted at the family to close their eyes as I took the one man in the room and smashed his face against the ground, over and over, using my inconceivable amount of strength to purée him into a bloody, bony pulp. Once my rage slightly subsided, I turned to the family. I grabbed the lock and that's when I noticed something. There was something about these people. The man with his piercing green eyes... the woman's golden hair. Then I saw the boy. His eyes were blue, but he had seemed to develop slits for pupils just like I did. Then it hit me.

Over the past few years they had me contained, I gazed at the glass ceiling in the room. Watching myself change. I grew about a foot in height and my hair had become long and unruly. They never bothered to bathe me, or cut my hair. I looked like a caveman. My clothes were too small for me, my denim jeans only went halfway down my shins, and my upper body was naked and muscular. I'm not surprised my family didn't recognize me. I guess I was too caught up in my plan to recognize them either. I was certainly happy to see them alive and well.

"I need to get you out of here. Don't ask any questions, just follow my lead and you'll be ok." My voice startled me, as I have had no reason to speak for well over a year now.

I pulled on the lock, and had no problem breaking it off. I opened the cage and my family said thanks to their unknown savior. How I wanted to embrace them all and tell them, but now was not the time. I don't know what these people said to them, but if it means their safety, they can survive without me for a little while longer.

An alarm went off somewhere in the complex, but I wasn't able to pinpoint where. I asked my family if they had any idea to get out of here, and they gave me a negative response. I knew there would be more men coming, and I wouldn't be surprised if the whole army showed up to take me out before I escaped. I lead my family over to the knob-less door and pushed with all my might. My strength was being spent, and I was not going to drain off my family. It took a lot more effort, but I managed to push the door open enough for us to escape through.

We entered a hallway and much like the room that had been my world for two years, it was sterile, white, and bright. My brother and I squinted our eyes at the sight. I used my mind to reach throughout the complex to find signs of life. I drained a bit of energy from all of them and they collapsed. They obviously did not know the extent of my powers, or they would have been studying how to protect themselves from me, rather than testing what I could do. Fools.

I followed the life signs all the way through the complex where I found a large iron door, again with no handles or knobs. My strength was waning and I needed to feed if I could force this door open. I reached out with my mind, but there was nothing. Either they had found a way to block me out, or everybody had fled the facility. I sighed in defeat and started searching for another way out of the hallway. The search was cut short as the door popped open on its own. This had to be a trap, but I had no other option. I entered the room slowly and cautiously.

Unlike the other rooms which were bright, white and cramped, this room was large and circular, and almost pitch black.  Black panels of glass lined the walls and ceiling making this the most beautiful room I had ever seen. My eyes adjusted quickly and welcomed in the warming sight of anything dark. It was then I noticed a large terminal in the center of a room.

I cautiously approached it, knowing that I was still in danger. I didn't care, the whole purpose of this was to figure out who and what I was. I looked around for a means to activate the terminal when I heard a humming sound. It grew louder and louder until the terminals large screen began displaying numbers and letters. When it was done scrolling, it displayed one word.

"Topic?" I said. My family was right behind me, as interested in this thing as I was.

"Charles Petersen" I spoke, much to my families surprise.

"I said, no questions. I need to find out what this says about me." I asked after they were done assaulting me with questions.

The screen hummed to life once again, this time displaying a wealth of information about me, my past, and everybody I associated with. I skipped Claire's entry with a wince. I needed to save time. I read as fast as I could. I knew everything in the terminal. It was basic stuff really. I found out that it had been just over three years since they captured me. But there was phrase in particular that caught my eye immediately.

"Status: Alive. Infected. In custody." It read.

'Infected?' I thought, 'with what?'

"What is the infection?" I spoke loudly. The computer made a few beeping sounds and displayed another page of text. I read the first word. Vampirism.

"Oh you have got to be shitting me..." Is this what I am? Am I straight out of a tale meant to frighten small children? I continued to read.

"1462 A.D. Vlad Dracula the third desired revenge on his enemies. During his bloody conquest, he hung tens of thousands of corpses on stakes in the ground. Every night, he drank their blood and prayed for their power. In the blood of the thousands, he found that power. Through careful experimentation, and countless deaths, Vlad found the secret of immortality. He drank his mixture and dubbed himself Count Dracula. In the days before science the masses believed Vlad to be cursed by the heavens for defiling the living, but in reality, he had developed a complex symbiotic virus. By drinking the blood of the infected, or simply being born with the proper genes, people associated with Vlad befell the same curse. Over the generations, all the 'vampires' were slain, but there was no way of discovering whose genes were tainted. Charles and Connor Petersen are the only known 'Vampires' in existence today, and are both in humane captivity."

"Humane captivity?!" I yelled as I smashed through the console. I ripped it from its pedestal and threw it aside. The past three years of torture and death finally got to me. I snapped. I screamed at the top of my lungs in a blood-fueled rage. Several men walked in with their guns drawn and I didn't even think twice before draining them of their energy and drowning them in a pool of their own blood and entrails. My family watched in horror as I used the first man's gun as a spear and rammed it through the eye socket of another. Armed guards continued to pour in through the doors of the room, and just as fast as they could come, I used their own strength to destroy them. They would have to use another tactic to break me, and that is exactly what they did.

Three shots. That's all it took. One entered my father’s skull. The other pierced my mother’s heart. The third hit Connor in the back. My mind went blank. I took Connor and ran, barely hearing my mother’s muffled screams as she bled to death on the cold glass floor. I killed more than thirty people on my way out of there and never looked back once. As I exited my prison for the first time in three years, I stopped to look at the surroundings before running out the gate and into the desert beyond.

Barely breathing, Connor and I were picked up by a truck who saw us from the highway. We were bloody and bruised, but we were alive. I had nothing but anger now. Nothing but my thirst for revenge. I wasn't to learn that I had been transported to the deserts of Nevada. This is where the government keeps all its dirty secrets. I wondered if that was the infamous Area 51.

We sat on a hill overlooking Las Vegas. For the first time in years, I spoke to my brother.

"There's no time like the present, Connor."

"Yes, but I still can't believe they're gone."

"Neither can I dear brother... Neither can I."

"Do you think everything will be ok?"

"Perhaps. Redemptio per adversitatem invenitur."

"Through adversity, there is redemption?"

"Precisely."

As weeks rolled by, Connor and I were on the run. We had no money, and we did not want to risk associating with our extended family. They knew everything about us. We couldn't live like this any longer. I couldn't. I needed revenge. And I decided to pay a little visit to the one who started all this.

We finally arrived in Utah approximately two months after our escape. Using a combination of hitchhiking, stowing away on trains, and good old fashioned walking we finally made it back to where our lives began. I strolled up the street hoping to have a word with my dear friend John. I knocked on the door. A small child answered. As it turned out, John had a family all his own and they now lived in that house. Good. I killed their daughter. And his wife. And looked him dead in the face as I squeezed his life out like I was wringing out a wet towel.

Then, came Claire. I had Connor ask her to go to the old oak tree at dawn. She obliged.

There she was, still looking as beautiful as ever. But she had betrayed me. I needed to do this. I walked up to her, and she was frightened by my appearance. I told her that three years of constant torture will do this to you.

"I loved you. And you ratted me out to them."

"No! Please don't do this Charlie!"

"I'm sorry Claire. It is necessary."

With that last word, Charlie brought forth his horrible energy and drained the life from her as she screamed in pain. He had a smile on his face, and licked his lips. It was then Connor could not bear to watch this destruction any longer.

"What the fuck are you, Charlie? How could you do that to her?!"

"It was necessary to bring about the destruction of our enemies." Charlie said with an emotionless tone.

"That's too far. We agreed remember? No death of the innocent! That was the deal, you murderous fuck!"

"There was never a deal. This is MY power, MY life and it was MY decision to make. Besides, she was no innocent."

"No! Damn you to hell Charlie. I'm done. I quit. We are becoming the very thing we sought to destroy! Remember our family? Remember their screams?! Do you?"

"Yes. I do. But come tomorrow, I won't remember a thing."

I had made up my mind. I was going to erase the past six years of my life, hoping to never again think of the death and pointless waste of life that I had witnessed and caused. I found an old native american healer. Perfect. We concocted the potion together, and then I ended her life. Wouldn't want any loose ends.

"Here's to the end of a shitty life." I said in a barely audible whisper to myself as I stood in the doorway of my former home.  I chuckled as I drank the thick syrup.

Authors notes: Here's a nice long one for you. This was very depressing, but that's the past for ya. What remains to be seen is how all of this will effect Charlie in the long run, and what he will do when he finally returns to his body in Equestria. Nightmare moon on a pike anyone?