Bleeding Heart

Bela became drawn to the mountains; the solitude and the thin air suited him to conduct his experiments and studies. The mist was the breath of the mountains; Bela could hear what sounded like voices in its vapors. He would go for walks in the night to follow the sounds. It sounded like someone was calling to him, ‘Bela, Bela’; sometimes in a husky voice, at others, shrill and high pitched. Bela was a rational man, this had to have an explanation.

He would awake to find himself in his bed, cold and shivering. He felt breathless, yet, weightless. Had he been dreaming?

He was compelled to go out, night after night; on this nocturnal venture, he was drawn by a greenish glow in the prickly, dewy atmosphere. He followed it and it seemed to move further away the closer he came to it. But there was something illuminated in the hollow of a tree. There, he found a piece of jewelry, it was a watch with a gold, coiled serpent as the band, it’s watch face was its head with two gleaming, green eyes. This time, when he awoke, the serpent watch was still in his pocket. He put it on his left wrist and would wear it thereafter.

The next night, he found he was not alone. The silence was disturbed by the sound of snapping twigs behind him. When he turned to look, he saw nothing; nothing except a greenish, swirling glow. The air became heavy with a smell of over ripe melons.

Then, the vapor disappeared; when he turned around, he was faced with a man. He slowly approached him, Bela tried to speak but his lips would not part. He tried to run but his feet were cemented in place.

“It is I, little brother. Don’t you recognize me?”

“Ben??” he said at last.

Grey blue skin, blood-stained eyes; long, protruding canines and a smell of rotting flesh surrounded him.

“You’re not dead?”

“I haven’t been feeling myself these nights. You look so surprised!”

“What’s happened to you?”

“You could say, I’ve got a new lease on life. But I need your help.” Ben moved ever closer to Bela.

“You see, I am now a creature of the night but a creature like me can’t survive on rodents, small animals and babies left unattended in their cozy little cradles. I need a man.”

With one swift action, Ben sunk his fangs into Bela’s neck. Bela swung at him and fell to his knees. Bela latched onto him like a leech and gorged on his brother. Bela was no longer fighting when his brother finally released him. He became fixated on the serpent watch and tried to take from him; he growled as even his super human strength could not budge the serpent entwined around his brother’s wrist. Bela managed a faint smile.

“Awfully tasty, my brother. Don’t go too far, I’ll be back for you. I will conquer you now and for all eternity.”

Ben was true to his word, he came for this brother night after night. Though now terribly weakened, he knew his brother would be waiting for him, he returned to the forest, hoping to find who had left him the watch.

There came a night, he found himself to be awake in a white room filled with brilliant light. He was lying on a table. He was unable to move his body, but he could turn his head from side to side. To his left, he could see shiny, slender, silver instruments laid out on a metallic table. To his right, there were enormous, glass containers filled with a solution and specimens he could not identify. Looking beyond, he could see there were no windows, anywhere; only more, gleaming, whiteness. He heard voices but couldn’t make out what was said or what language was being spoken when he heard, ‘I will translate.’

A tall figure approached and loomed over him. He was cloaked and hooded; Bela strained to see his face. He pulled down his hood. His skin was a rich coffee color, his eyes were a luminous, dark green, he had a high forehead with a thick mass of close cropped curly, coarse hair and intensely white teeth shown when he spoke.

“Bela Cojocaru,” his voice was deep and resonant, “I am called Khet. My people are the Africanus. We have followed your species for many of your earth centuries and we have intermingled or bred with your kind. It is time to take things to another level; you are chosen.”

“Chosen? For what? Where am I? What is this place?”

“To answer your first question, we know also your sibling, Beniamin Cojocaru. We have tracked both you and your brother’s movements for many years. He has become a night creature; this was our plan for him. Becoming an immortal was a necessary attribute. But he has proven to be unsatisfactory for our purposes. He shows pronounced determination and prowess but lacks your intellect; your knowledge and capacity for learning are much desired attributes.”

“You said my brother is a night creature… and he’s immortal?”

“Shtriga in Albanian, Vrykolakas in Greek and Strigoi in your own language.”

“But he has bitten me! Repeatedly!”

“Yes, this was also in our plan.”

Bela tried to lunge at his host but was still unable to move.

“Yes, you too, are immortal. As I have mentioned before, we have bred with your species in the past, creating what your ancestors have called the Nephilim or giants or sons of gods. But my people are dying out and we saw an opportunity to go beyond straightforward survival. It is necessary for us to alter your gene sequence with ours. You will carry the new code into the offspring you generate. You will be one of many such interventions. Your species believes there was one man and one woman that spawned all of mankind when in fact, there were many Adams and many Eves, and we have played a vital role in the development of your kind.”

“You are going to… alter… my gene sequence?”

“To put it simply, it is necessary to mix what is your physical makeup with our physical makeup. This has already been done. We have been injecting you in your abdomen over a course of time with viral vectors carrying the recombinant DNA of our people; a viral genome which carries the foreign genetic material will form new genetic material for incorporation into you, the host organism. It gives you an edge over your brother, sustained existence in sunlight. A super immortal, if you will.”

“And this watch, is it also from you?”

“Yes.”

“For what purpose?”

“A gift.”

“A gift?”

“A small joke. It is the symbol of the Africanus, my people, now your people. The serpent is the spiraling energy of life force that is now within you. The serpent rises within us. As for your final question, you are onboard our mother ship.”

“Ship? Are we at sea?”

“Have a look for yourself.”

Khet pressed a control in his hand and an opening appeared in the white wall. Bela saw blackness and sparkling star lights.

“What sea is this?”

“We are in the Thermosphere, 100 miles above your planet.”

The veins in Bela neck were beginning to bulge with his attempts to rise from the table. “Your attempts for movement are, now, futile. I will restore your mobility when you are returned to your planet.”

“What if I don’t cooperate with you, what if I take no mate… have no children?”

“That would be fruitless.”

Bela’s face grew red.

“A small joke. Defiance is a wasted effort. You will mate, you will reproduce… many times.”

“What’s your real purpose here?”

“I would have thought you’d guessed it; world domination.”