CHAPTER 1

IN THE CITY, CRAWLED I

9-17-1997

In the darkness of time, that brief period when cities that never sleep, do, indeed, slumber for but moments, I stood in the threshold of madness and of unspeakable horror. Poised high above the city lights, standing on the edge of a mammoth structure reaching to the heavens, I allowed my gaze to sweep slowly over the lights below.

If one listened hard enough, filtering out the sounds of the vehicles, of the faint hum of the neon lights, if one listened hard enough, one could hear a deep, bassy breath - the beating of the heart of the city. All cities possessed one.

But if one could listen past that beat, one would hear an even deeper beating - a beating of absolute horror... The meaning buried inside the beating would become instantly clear to any that heard it - that evil, indeed, waited only for the moment to awaken and to tear cracks into the surface of the earth and with talons beyond razor sharpness, pull Itself to the surface and let the world know, its Master has returned to clain what is rightfully Its.

From the creatures on wing high above, to the nameless, faceless denizens that lurked in the sewers and tunnels below, the city smelled of life, of blood. Soon it would be tainted with a new smell. Fear...

It would fear an unknown being stalking its dwellers. Stalking and killing them, regardless of who or what they are - a priest in the confessional, a prisoner sitting in jail, a whore in a back alley, a little infant safely in its little crib in a room not yards away from where its parents sit and watch tv in the safety of their own house. Stalking, killing, and the taking of blood. Not a vampire, which is a mere mockery, a bastard-child of a superior being. Children, afraid to receive the power obtained from the taking of the blood and to pass it on. It had not forgotten their broken promises to It, and not a few of Its dreams were occupied with the thoughts of the undescribable pain and suffering Iit would inflict on them. The fools, if they only realized that the power they have now would be increased a hundred-fold if, after taking the blood, they passed it on to It like that had promised. Then they would not cower in the dark, hiding from the sun. The city would taste the fear, and soon, all would live in fear, making the blood taken be tainted even more with fear, which It too fed on.

I spat, my spit falling like a raindrop, to stain the city below. I laughed into the winds, then stepped off the edge of the building. Master waited for the taste of blood, and one does not keep Master waiting. Down the side of the building, I came, and in the city, crawled I...