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~~Rain~~ · **06-14-2014, 10:49 AM**

If you're gonna tell a story, you better tell it right. To tell it right, you have to tell it from the beginning.

My story began on October 31st, 1980.

I was told by my mother, that the day of my birth was a blessing. That the very moment she held me in her arms, the second she gazed into my eyes for the first time....That that was the day her life began.

I was told by my father, my birth was a curse. That the day I came into this world....his life became a living, breathing hell on earth.

I'd like to Believe both of those statements hold some modicum of Truth.

My early years are but a distant memory, clouded within the furthest reaches of all I knew in that other life. I've tried to bring them back to the forefront, but it is as if they are barred away, trapped in a cage. Behind a padded lock, the key lost with time. For now, that is where they shall remain.

The next few years come and go, like faded pictures, black and white, traversing through my mind in glimmers. I pause, from moment to moment, and I feel it hit me. Flashes. And then they're gone.

My first memory, my very first concrete memory that I can hold onto, keep close to me, and never forget....I WISH I could forget. The very first, solid moment from that previous life, that still resides in the body of this new enitity.....is the one moment I wish I'd left behind.

October 31st. 1988.

I still remember, All Hallow's Eve. It was the day, the ONE day I cherished more than any other. For it was the day I could be absolutely anything I could imagine.....I could step through my front door, and walk into this world without fear of judgement. The day I could truly be whomever I wished to be.

Because everyone else was doing it.

That day, I became the vampire. I had always taken in their mythos, I had always followed everything, and anything I could pertaining to the vamp. I did not care if it was Bram Stoker, Interview With A Vampire, or even Twilight.

One of the very few similarities between myself and 'The Storm'? Is that my mind is still open. Part of my heart may be cast to the winds, but where there is life, even a FRAGMENT of life......there is love. And that is what I found in the vampire. That is why one of the men....one of the ENTITIES that cast the greatest impact upon my career, was The Dhampir, the Blood God, The Immortal Vlad. He had a gal by the name of Claudia. A gal he 'turned'....and together, they ruled an Underground. This was years before Twilight had been released, this was real life. This was 2004, and when that film arrived, they looked upon it as a joke.

I looked upon it as a biography.

They were looked upon as the epitome of decay. Of evil, of all that is wrong with this world......I looked upon them, and I saw hope.

I saw a couple I wished my mother and father could have been....

Night, after night. Beating, after beating. I heard her cries, I FELT....her pain, because I could not help it. I could not help to feel it, and I could not help her. I heard her scream.......

.....One night, I saw him. I stepped through the front door, on that night, after trick-or-treating. After gathering all I could with a smile spread across my face, and my heart filled with joy.

In an instant the smile was wiped clean. I'd never seen it, not up close. My bedroom was on the second floor. I heard the cries, I felt her tears, for they were the same as mine.

1988, on my most cherished of days. I stepped through the front door.....and my world shattered apart before me. They were screaming, both of them, louder and with more fury than I had ever witnessed in my life. Before or since. As if the two were entities themselves, locked within battle, clashing with one another. Waging some sort of cataclysmic war, some struggle that reached far beyond husband and wife..... The veins in my dad's neck looked as though they could pop right through his throat, her eyes were filled with rage, and the reason.....Was because my father, Frank Gordon, had cheated on my mother, Beth, with my babysitter. Jessica.

I did not need to witness any physical brutality on that day. Fists, broken bones, torn flesh, they did not present themselves to me, but they did not need to. This scar left its imprint upon me for the span of two lifetimes, and not a single physical blow was traded. For every scar that had come before that moment shown themselves within her eyes. My mother had taken all she could. After thirteen years spent with the man who claimed he would give her everything....only for her to end with nothing? She fled. A characteristic I would take with me for years to come. A habit that is extremely difficult to break.

But..........she told me.

"....I know it looks bad now, hun. I know that the days ahead will be hell....but promise me one thing. Even in the darkest days, remain strong. Remain steadfast, and do not, EVER, no matter how things may appear....never, ever, give up. I Believe you have the strength inside of you to be the man your father can't be....or at least, the man he hasn't been for quite some time.

"Reeve, you must trust me. I will come back for you. One of these days. I cannot tell you why, I can't tell you how I know. But one of these days, I will return. But for now, I must leave....I know you can pull through this. You're so strong, so smart... If you just Believe, my son, you can do such great things. Keep moving forward. Keep believing. And keep my spirit within your heart... for I will always be there.

"I love you, Reeve... Goodbye for now."

She left. But not before bestowing upon me two gifts....The black baseball bat my father had bought for me....back in the days she told me he was different. I cannot recall them, but her words have stayed with me, into eternity. And the other gift? A black rose. Contained within, glistening, purple buds......She told me, one day, she would return.

And that is a promise I have carried with me into this brave new world.....

Looking back on all of it, in this moment of now.....I finally realize WHY that is the very first moment lodged in my mind....

For it is where it all began. The more I realize this, the less it pains me.....and the more it fuels me.

Lesson Number One.....

[Slowly, the camera opens from a field of black. We find ourselves upon a castle courtyard.....but the figure that stands before us, is not one we've seen till now.....]

[Image: reeve-vlad_zps9db469b3.png]

"When you don't follow what everyone else is doing?

".....Every day is Halloween."

~ ~ ~

"See you in your dreams..."
~Vlad

|to be continued|

Threaded Mode \| Linear Mode History Lesson. Part One. Hemorrhage.
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