Plot for the Priest

Once we reached the city of Utrecht we made our way to a cheap inn that was sadly enough on the same street of a couple of whore houses.

For some reason through the dirty hallways on the inn and the poorly decorated interior and the peeling splinters of the wooden bed frames in the rooms, I felt more comfortable that Jeroen was with me.

As soon as I sat down on my bed I heard a snap. Suddenly I fell with the mattress through the bed frame.

Normally I would have made a fuss about cheap accommodations breaking down on me. But the chuckle and laughter of Jeroen turned my angry looking face into a wide smile.

The banging through the walls from someone in the next room warning us to quiet down made us try to hold our breath as our faces turned red forcing ourselves not to burst out in laughter.

Even by misfortune you can make the light seem brighter. I guess it just depends on what you pay attention to that can turn something as simple as your bed breaking into a comic relief joke of the day.

We took the mattresses from the beds and placed them on the floor next to each other since we didn’t trust sleeping on them while they were still on the fragile bed frames.

We thought it would be best to rest until the daybreak. For we have traveled a great deal to reach Utrecht.

The next day Jeroen woke me by opening the sad looking stained curtains. From the window the bright sunlight poured in filling the room with it's cheery warmth.

With squinted eyes I looked about realizing the room was more pathetic than it looked the night before. However the sunlight added a nice addition to the unevenly bricked walls of the small room.

"Come on, the stores are opening. We need to go about and try to look more decent if we are to portray as wealthy men." Jeroen reminded me as he slipped into his shoes.

"I still think this is a poor plan. How do you know what the priest of the local church does in his free time?" I asked.

"It's not the priest were after Oscar, Remember the plan? To get the king on a chess board you need to take out the pawns." Jeroen replied putting on his shirt.

I smiled seeing him getting dressed. However I stood up and started to make my way to putting on my clothing.

"I'm sorry if I don't understand your metaphor. I... don't know how the game chess works." I said as I was combing my hair with my fingers, almost embarrassed to mention my knowledge of the game itself.

"What?... Really? Remind me to teach you one day." Jeroen answered back.

Once we had our clothing on we made our way to the market district. It was the first time I went to what I considered expensive clothes stores to actually buy something that would be tailored just for me.

Well being raised as a farm boy didn’t give me the opportunity or the necessity to enter these stores, for I was no business man or a trader.

All by and by we first went to a small body of water to wash ourselves with a bar of soap we picked off a market stand. Otherwise nobody would even consider helping us out if we wanted new clean clothing looking or smelling like something that fell off the manure wagon. At least that’s what Jeroen said as we were taking a bath under a walkway.

He also took some cheap clothing that was hanging out to dry from a clothing rack in a alleyway nearby to dress up in something more clean.

We then made our way to a tailor shop to have nice fitted tailored clothing.

The tailor took measurements of Jeroen as I sat waiting till he was done so I could stand on the pedestal and have my measurements taken.

When it was my turn to have my measurements taken I didn’t know what to do. My arms were flapping about and I was curious on how and why the man was walking around me for.

Jeroen stood in the corner laughing.

"Stay calm and listen to the man. Don't worry, he is just measuring you." Jeroen said a few times during his breaks of laughter. I realized how much fun Jeroen was getting out of this entire idea of dressing up and blending in.

The man started up a conversation or two about everything and nothing. He was a kind man and very gentle and extremely patient considering my lack of understanding on what he was doing at the time.

I had my arms eagle spread while he was making necessary measurements when I looked outside the window of his shop and saw guards hanging up posters on street lanterns and walls about the hunt of vampires and the danger as a warning to the people to excuse their murder like minded behavior toward random strangers who get captured and interrogated or cut down by their blades.

The shop owner peeked up out the window and looked up at me to see what I was looking at. He then looked back down to his notes and measurement and wrote down some measurement numbers.

"Oh I don't agree on their behavior toward the Vampires." The man said while fixing his glasses.

Jeroen and I suddenly paused.

"Well I believe that they are getting what they deserve, those devil spawn." Jeroen quickly replied.

The old man looked a little ashamed of his remark as Jeroen slowly placed his hand in front of his mouth as if his was standing like that the whole time.

"I don't believe that God would create something and then have them killed off by church fanatics." The old man replied.

"But yet again who am I but just a simple old man right?" He continued.

I couldn’t help but feel more uneasy by this conversation. So I tried to change it by mentioning something about local birds or something in the area until Jeroen interrupted me by asking what the man knew about Vampires.

The man gave a slight motion to follow him to his office which was the small room in the shop.

"I know who you are." The old man said to us.

Jeroen removed his hand from his face and started to look more worried as if he had to think of something quick such as getting rid of this old man.

"Don't be worried, my grandson Bert-Jan has been taken in by those guards in order of the church for he is what they call an "abomination". I was upset to learn of this, for he was only slightly different than the rest of his fellow age members. But he is a sweet sweet boy." The old man told as tears were emerging from underneath his glasses. He took them off for a split second to wipe his eyes and looked up at us again.

"What would you want us to do?" I asked

"I want you to stop this madness and rescue my grandson and take him with you. He is not safe here any longer." The old man replied

Jeroen didn’t look to eager of his plans and snapped back. "No, no, no this will not do. Oscar we came here for another reason. Not for a rescue mission that will lead to our capture."

"He is one of us, we shouldn’t let this happen." I snapped back at him.

"And that is what we are doing, working to prevent this from continuing not dragging along another for the ride. Our plans wouldn’t work if our heads were departed from our shoulders." Jeroen replied.

"Please?" The old man continued. "He is just a 17 year old boy who hasn’t even harmed a fly. And the clothing you need for whatever mission you two are on will be for free."

I looked to Jeroen and asked him to reconsider, that 1 more will mean a larger number and thus we will have more protection for each other. Jeroen reminded me that a larger number means more baggage and more baggage means more weight. But after a short convincing speech from me and the old man Jeroen reconsidered as he rolled his eyes. He reminded the man that the clothing have to be of good quality before he goes after the boy.

The man thanked us and in two days our clothes would be finished and ready to pick up.

That night in the inn we had a hard time sleeping as we were busy changing our plans making Jeroen more frustrated that what he considered a flawless plan is now one with plot holes. But we changed it nonetheless.

Plus our sleeping habit didn’t occur to us since the temporary neighbor had paid company to keep him warm that night, and thus making unnecessary loud noise to which even our feathered pillows couldn’t filter that I pressed tightly over my ears trying to get some shut eye.

After a long unusual party next door I was finally able to close my eyes and dim away for the night.

Cabin in the meadow

For the first time in my life I didn't feel like a freak of nature. This also must be because of the fact I finnally met someone else just as I.

Even though I was upset about the fact of what had happened the night before I slept rather well with a smile on my face.

When I woke up I thought I was still at my home near Muiden. I looked around and almost forgot the horrid things that have happened until I remembered soon after that thought I was at the home of some vampire named Jeroen.

However Jeroen was not in the house. I got up quickly and grabbed my vest and was ready to make my leave. I didnt think I would be safe all by myself out in the world. Esspeccially in a home I don't know.

Before I knew it he would have gone to a town nearby and warned the guards or priests or whoever that I was here for some money.

I made my way out the door of this cabin like home, when I suddenly realised I didnt know where I was. The cabin is in a large opening of a thick forrest. A meadow with dandilions and life all around.

There was even a small stream that made its way through the large field.

I stood for a second to look at everything to find a way back or a way out of this place.

So then I started to make my way toward the forest. I know it will lead me somewhere. I was holding my vest and shoes as I ran hoping to be a while away from the area before putting them on. Who knows how much time I had. I couldnt trust anyone.

After a few footsteps further I heard a young voice yell out that send shivers down my spine instantly.
"Hey!"
That one second I thought I was too late and just froze there when suddenly I realized it was the voice of Jeroen.

I turned my head and saw him shirtless standing at least a couple hundred meters away from me in the small stream with his pants rolled up.

"Leaving already?" He said as he walked out of the stream.

"You could at least waited till after you ate before saying goodbye." He said right after with a sweet smile on his face.

I must have made the dumbest looking face ever from the shock a few seconds earlier. The chill still was running up my spine but was luckily fading. Within seconds he was standing at the door of his cabin motioning me to come back in as he walked inside. I smiled and then walked toward the door and made my way back in.

"Oh you’re staying? Shocking." He said in a sarcastic tone.

"Anyway were not going to eat much but I hope you like potatoes." He continued.

I didn’t realize how tan he looked out in the sunlight. I looked rather pale compared to him, I always worked inside the house when I still had one. But for someone his age, he had a nice physical body.

So we ate and talked some more about what happened the night before and about his life.

His parents threw him out of his home when he was around the age of 5. The orphanage didn’t want to take him in because he didn’t act or look natural. So he made his way through towns stealing and living off scraps until he started to get the urge of something more.

He explained that when he had this specific urge he just knew what to do. A woman was walking through the ally he lived in when he couldn’t help himself any longer. He bit her in the neck the same way I did and fed off her blood. He did mention he stopped when she became weak. He didn’t want to kill her and he was freaked out by the fact he even considered doing something like that. But afterward he felt more alive than ever before.

Apparently he was 20 years older than I and has been doing this kind of thing for quite some time. He realized that his age didn’t seem to catch up when he reached 30. He still looked like a boy of around 20 years old.

He showed me his birth certificate he had stashed away. I was astounded to see this.

"So it must be true that once we start feeding the age of our bodies’ just stops?" I said in a more asking kind of way.

"That is what it seems. I have no idea if this will last or not, or if it's just something that got passed along from my family." He answered.

"But years later I went back to my parent’s house to see them. My father was a priest as well and claimed to have never had a son. A few months ago I saw him again. He is much older, but he still damned me. He claimed I was a vampire and that I should burn in the fires of hell." Jeroen explained as he looked at his birth certificate.

"I knew there had to be more like me, so I went looking. Eventually I found you." He continued. He looked into my eyes as I must be the only person who understood him.

"There has to be something behind all this madness." I said
"We just need to look in the right places. So far we know priests are involved." I continued on about my theories.

We eventually came to the conclusion that we need to catch a priest and interrogate him.

But now we have enough time to just relax for a bit before we did anything.

Later that night I sat in front of the fireplace when he was already in bed. I started to cry about my mother and my aunt and uncle and cousins, how so suddenly the church can change your life forever.

For the fact that I was the actual son of that priest who had my family killed sickened me. And how killing him didn’t satisfy my lust for revenge, when suddenly I felt a warm arm wrapping around my shoulders. I looked up as Jeroen sat down next to me.

I wiped my tears as he pulled my face toward him. His sad eyes told me he understood what I was going through.

He leaned in as he gently placed his lips against mine. A warm cozy feeling surrounded me as I realized I have never been kissed before.

I never knew what love was like, or how it felt. But at that moment you just know.

Just by the beating of your heart when something like that happens, or that fuzzy feeling you get in your head, or that light feeling you feel in your stomach. I just knew, this is the man who will love me for who I am and not what I was.

"It's okay to cry every now and then. Boys can cry as well." He said softly.

He held me all night as I cried. I knew only a man who loves you would do that.

The next day we prepared ourselves as we were going to go kidnap a priest. I laughed when we said that out loud because it sounded like something out of a comedian novel. But we got prepared and made our way to a city close by.

Utrecht.

The Charming Samaritan

I ran into the forest as far away as I could. Suddenly the fast beating of my heart had slowed down, and thus my unnatural fast pace forward.

It was the first time I became confused. I never felt the urge to taste human blood before, or the power to move so quickly. I know it had something to do with my heart beating so quickly. I felt the pounding of my heart in my head before I took the life of that Spanish Priest who had my mother killed.

However my feelings were all scrambled. I had all kinds of emotions pouring over each other like 7 different kinds of dye stirring in one pot.

I eventually stopped in a small opening between the trees. The moon was full and the bright blue-silver light was shining on me.

I fell to my knees and started to weep for the first time in my life.

"Wat ben ik?" ( "What am I?" ) I said to myself as I looked at my hands as tears from my face fell right into my palms.

I'm crying for my aunt, uncle and my cousins. I'm enraged at the priest and the stupidity of the religious church guards believing in the lies of the church. I was angry at the priest for doing what he did in the name of some hypocritical religion to hunt me down and murder so many for it.

Suddenly I heard leaves rustle in a tree nearby. I stood up and shouted; "What do you want from me?! I'm done running!"

When suddenly a young man jumped out of the tree and walked calmly into the moonlight.

"Really? Well I'm not. I'm just getting started." He answered back.

As he moved closer I saw his wide grin and his arms and hands were open as if expecting an embrace to show he had no intention of harming me.

"I have been following you from time to time. But nothing can compare what I saw you do tonight." He continued.

Right now I was able to see his fangs shimmer by the moonlight as he smiled. He placed his arms back down as he got closer.

"By that dumb look on your face I bet you've never seen another vampire have you?" He suddenly said.

"The name is Jeroen Abdije." He said as holding out his hand to greet me.

"Oscar... Oscar van Oudenheuvel." I replied.

I know I had loads of questions about myself I wanted to ask, but by looking at him I know he wasn’t much older than me and may be just as confused as I.

"I can tell by the way you reacted to the priest that he was your first?" He started suddenly as if he could read my mind.

"As a matter of fact yes he was. I never..." I said before I was interrupted.

"Never had the urge or that feeling you needed to feed off of him?" Jeroen continued.

"That is because on a certain age your lust for blood starts boiling, and that will be the age you start stopping on growing. You will look around 20 forever."

This time I know he knew what he was talking about. However I had many questions to ask him.

"What's going on with me?" I decided to ask first.

"We'll have more time to ask questions and answer later. But first we need to get back to my place." he replied.

"Come on, I have a place to stay and your more than welcome to come over." He said.

I never felt more than a welcome feeling from anyone else other than my family. He reached out his hand and smiled. His smile seemed so sweet and charming. And where else can I get a more understanding of myself than with a more experienced vampire? I grabbed his hand and we made off through the forest toward his home.

When we reached his home that seemed like in the middle of nowhere he let go of my hand and jogged a little in front of me and turned around as he continued walking backward for a bit.

"I'll place some wood in the fireplace. It'll make you feel right at home." He said as he turned around and walked into his cottage.

As I walked inside he was lighting the fire. I shut the door and made my way to his living area and sat down on a small wooden chair.

"So how did you find me? And how did you know who... I mean what I was?" I asked him.

He stood up as the warmth of the fire filled the room.

"Well, like I said before I was watching you for a while. It's just a sense I had. And to confirm if my senses were right I hung out a bit to see if you will make any leap into revealing yourself. So in a way I was a little bit glad you were who I thought you were. Sorry about how things turned out though." he said as he made his way to the seat across from me.

"So in a way we both have questions about our own being that needs answering. But all will be revealed in due time." He continued.

"I just don't understand why the church would start a hunt for people like us. I never harmed anyone." I said as water started to blur my vision.

"Now now don't cry." He said as he sat forward.

"The church is afraid what they don't understand. One thing is for sure, if we don't feed like the way you did tonight, we will die within a few months. I bet if we are older that it would make our age appear quicker. But so far I only met one other vampire. That is what they call us. However she was not as keen into meeting others like ourselves like you are. I bet she was just as confused about her being as we are." He continued.

We spent the whole night talking and laughing. For a moment I almost forgot whatever happened the night before. I enjoyed our conversation and his charming sweet laughter made it more the while to tell funny tales. The way he would look into my eyes made my heart beat faster which gave this light feeling into my stomach. It wasn’t the same feeling I had with the priest. But I do know that I wanted to be with this guy for a long time. We will have to stick together if we are to survive.

Eventually I mentioned on what the priest told me, about the hunt for vampires being the doing of the Pope. In which we talked about our next move. His idea was to recruit and find more of our kind and help them understand and to find out what the pope was after. But at this particular moment we were so tired of talking all night that we fell asleep in front of the fireplace before daylight had struck through the windows.

Blood, Ash and darkness

September 1609
As the men left together with the priest from Amsterdam to protect the foul tempered priest from the so called monster that I was, one of their men laid there dead on the ground together with the family who raised me.

The only thing that ran through my head was to bury them together. However my time was running out before the Vampire hunters that came to the city a few weeks before would arrive to aid the Catholic's mad quest to hunt me down and have me executed as a "Vampire" in the massive market square in Amsterdam.

I carefully placed their bodies inside the house and set it aflame. The fire was clearly seen from Muiden, a town not far from where we lived.

After that I made my way to Amsterdam to meet up with this Priest face to face. In my rage only one thing went through my mind. When the priest came close to my face I recognized the same birth defect on his face that I too carried.

A cleft lip.

The more I thought about it, the more similarities I saw in him in myself, just by that one time I saw him.

I never met my father Johan, so I had nothing to compare my physiology with. But all those things started to matter less and less as I almost reached the city.
I felt my fangs growing sharper as I made my way through the streets when suddenly I smelled a familiar scent. The priest was close.

Like a dog I followed the scent till I saw him in eye distance standing in front of a home and two men dragging a woman outside. It was hard to tell who she was with blood oozing down her face. However her scent was more than familiar. It was my mother Hilde van Oudenheuvel crying and unable to stand.

From the great distance I stood I still was able to hear what the Priest was saying, even though he leaned forward to talk to her face to face.

"You had a child and didn’t register?" He said as Hilde looked down

He leaned more forward to her ear to whisper.

"You had my child and let it live?" Then he straightened himself and talked louder.

"You had an abomination, a devils pawn and have it walk this world?"

He signaled one of the men with a head nod when one of the men drew his sword and sank it into her back.
"By the name of his holiness Pope Paul the fifth you are to be executed. May god have mercy on your soul" The priest blathered out.

I couldn’t believe I just stood there and watched as my own mother died. With fury I ran toward the scene. It was as if time had stopped once again as the men didn’t even notice me. I made my way behind one of the men who was holding the sword and twisted his head backward. I then made my way to the other who stood by and made an upper kick to his jaw. Right after I made my way to the Priest as time started to catch up once more.

Two thuds on the ground behind me as the two men fell dead to the floor. I kept my eye focused on those of the priests.

"You murdered my family, killed my mother, and the most pathetic thing of all is that you knew I am your son." I said as the priest curled his hands and tremored.

"You are supposed to be a man of God! An example of the Church! You hypocrite!" I started yelling.

"Ple...please don't kill me. I am your f...f...father." The priest stuttered

"You are strongly mistaken, you were just a seed that brought life to me." I snapped back at him.
"My name is Oscar van Oudenheuvel, Son of Hilde van Oudenheuvel. I want to know... Who sentenced my death and the death of my family?" Tears rolled down my cheeks as my eyes stayed focused on the priest.

"It was that of his holiness, Pope Paul the fifth." He continued.

Suddenly the shock of it all started to hit me emotionally. I just didn't care anymore about holding myself back. 

"Do you want to know which one of the many lies you said that actually was true?" I gently said as I kept my focus on the emotions of the priests face.

"We do need blood to survive. And you're what I want!" I yelled.

I grabbed him by his shoulders and quickly sank my teeth through his thick collar into his neck. I felt his life slip away as I stopped. His lifeless corpse fell to the ground when suddenly I heard people screaming from a distance.

"A Vampire! A Vampire!" They started yelling

I quickly made my way out of the city into the darkness of the night.

First Blog "Tales of a dutch vampire"

May 21 1588, the year and date when I came to this life.
Like many births, mine wasn’t any different.  However one thing was for sure, I wasn’t like most children. Most people claimed I should have never been born. I sometimes agree to those claims.
For what made my birth unnatural was the fact I was born onto this world a vampire.

It was in a field somewhere near the great city of Amsterdam at the time of the Spanish invasion. My father Johan van Oudenheuvel was on a crusade to England by the king of Spain Philip II. Who was trying to overthrow the Queen of England. Her catholic half-sister had been executed the year before my birth which didn’t help the mad king from stopping his Crusade.

However near the great city of Amsterdam I was born in a farm home of Mieke Watersloot. Hilde van Oudenheuvel and her sister Mieke Watersloot who birthed me saw that I was no ordinary human. Mieke was to take care of me and raise me as her own and named me Oscar since my mother Hilde became pregnant after Johan had left to England with the fleet.
Most wouldn’t agree on the birth of a bastard child, plus my mother would have been called a harlot, and been cast out by the church. As soon as she found out she was pregnant she made her way to her sister explaining her situation. A Spanish priest that came along during the Spanish invasion took advantage of her. He had her Husband Johan sent off to England and made his way with her.
He claimed if she told anyone he would have her decapitated. And if anyone would find out of his impurity the same fate would apply.

By the name of Oscar van Oudenheuvel Mieke and John Watersloot took me in as one of their own. They knew of my disorder and didn’t treat me like anything abnormal.
So in a way I was a farm boy together with my 2 older cousins we played in the farm fields. They didn’t like me for a long time due to fact I wasn’t actually human. But when I saved one of them from drowning in the big Ijsel Lake they respected me. I pulled my weight around.

One black day my mother came by to tell the horrid news about her husband who had been killed by a storm at sea. 24 naval Spanish ships have been wrecked at the coast of Ireland. It took several years before the news came to her. I was about 9 when I heard the news, and the news took that long to reach her.
She fell apart when she received the news late knowing that all those years he would never return.

Many many years later when I became around the age of 20, a witch hunt for a foul named creature called Vampires emerged. Signed by the hand of the pope Paul V he doomed the birth of children with my disability. Their entire family would be executed and the child burned for everyone to see.
The people in the village nearby helped the religious party locate my whereabouts.
They made sure lies had been posted everywhere about what we actually are to scare the humans to give up the children with the symptoms of vampires .
Such as demon spawns, night hunters, murderers, immortal, fangs, bloodsucking, bat like and also other things such as “The purity of the Sunlight would burn them alive.” They didn’t tell the part when they place the boys and girls on the pedestal in the market place set for execution right before dawn they pour oil right underneath them that they set aflame as soon as the sun hits them. And thus creating the illusion to the simple minded Christian folk that they actually were everything they said we were.

Cleverly they mentioned we were night crawlers because when the parents or people who loved the children would travel through the night to escape from the madness. A curfew was set, and every house checked every night to find out if someone would run from this idea.
They treated Children who were vampires as an infection that needed to be dealt with. Everyone was in quarantine.

It wasn’t long before they were appointed to our direction. They checked all through the house until they found me, a 21 year old boy.
Five men came into our home with the Priest from Amsterdam. One of the men told us all to line up as we were to be inspected. They checked all of us and thought we looked alright.
They thanked us for our cooperation and almost made their way out. Until the priest yelped as he grasped his bible close to himself.
“Didn’t you forget to open their mouths?”
One of the men was a good friend of Mieke. He thought it was unnecessary since he knew who we were. But the priest insisted.
“Check the Youngest one first!” He yelped again.
The man opened my mouth to check my teeth. He looked down and closed my mouth again.
“Why didn’t you tell me Mieke?” he said to her.
“He is just a boy! He’s not sick. He’s just different! He’s my sisters son.” She said in panic knowing what they thought.

The priest pushed the man aside.
“Let me see!”
he opened my mouth viciously and his nostrils flared with anger.
“You were hiding a spawn of satan? You raised this abomination?” He yelled at Mieke and John.
“You know what to do.” He continued as he walked out the door. The men dragged us all ouside and killed John in front of us all. My cousins were crying, Mieke was next, then the two boys next to me. I held one of their hands and told them they were going to heaven with their parents.
The priest turned to me and told the men to tie me up. However I stood up and suddenly time seemed to go very slow as I made my way to the sword in one of the men’s sheaths. They seemed as if they were not moving as I pulled out the sword and stabbed one of them in the chest. After that time seemed to catch up and they were shocked to see me with a sword covered in warm scarlet.
The priest ran for his life and demanded the other 4 men to gaurd him as he made his way back to his carriage to head back to the city and call the vampire hunters.
I swore to avenge the deaths of my family.