Carmilla

The Devil and Mrs Jones

The Dark Gift

From an unknown hand:

 

I read your articles on the Vampyre Ziku, and I must let you know that Ziku and his lesbian betrothed, Valmyra still walk the cursed earth.

My girlfriend, a lovely young woman aged 22, begun a couple of months ago to have nightmares; she dreamt that a shadow spread over and engulfed her body while she was sleeping, the result of which was a choking feeling. She found herself waking up and gasping for air.

As time went by, the shadow took a human form, and the gasping feeling transformed into sweet sensations and vigorous contractions resulting in arduous releases of nocturnal feminine passion. This midnight fervor was followed by languid mornings where my loved one grew weaker and weaker resulting in an inability to eventually leave her bedroom.

One night I decided not to sleep and kept post outside her room. At about 3 pm I heard the window shutters open, and felt a gust of wind creep through the closed bedroom door and into the hall. I soon heard a rustling sound and sweet moans of pleasure coming from my loved one, growing ever more passionate while beseeching for more and eventually leading to lascivious screams of pleasure from cataclysmically delightful implosions.

I rushed into the room and upon my horror, saw my love's sensuous legs wrapped around the vampire Valmyra’s neck, while Valmyra’s serpent tongue was exploring my love’s womanhood, whilst simultaneously draining my love from her lifeblood. Valmyra upon seeing me rose up in fury and dashed out the open window disappearing into the wondrous night.

But alas, my love also departed that night for the great beyond and became Valmyra’s undead loveslave, walking the grounds eternally with Ziku and the damned Valmyra, eternally searching for female victims to feed on, and initiate into the dark gift.

The Priest, the Rabbi, and the Widowed Man

"Oh Poet and Writer Lay down Thy Pen,

and Hear Yee a Tale of Ravishing Women,

and Once Mighty Men"

We left at around 5 pm and arrived at the main Cathedral of La Concepcion D’Oro  at 6pm just intime for afternoon mass.   Cardinal Hesseus greeted me, Rabbi Sadler, Eloi, Dr. Aldo beckoned us to stay for the mass, after which our meeting would begin. His Eminence also asked me if I could assist in the pipe organ, having heard that I had some skill with this divine instrument. I answered that if the fact that I wasn’t Catholic (being Greek Orthodox) wasn’t an issue, then I would be more than happy to oblige (in fact I was thrilled ‘cause the 120 year old organ was just tuned and in excellent condition, and I simply loved the instrument). Cardinal Hesseus replied that there was but one God and that it did not make any difference what denomination one was, especially when it came to the universality of music (he knew I was gonna play Bach..).  The good Rabbi added that since I would indulge in the instrument, he too will sit in the back of the Cathedral, being a lover of baroque and especially of the great master himself. 

 The mass concluded at around 7 : 30 pm, and the faithful having departed, his Eminence asked us to the well known north east angle of the church (the doors of the church having been sealed) and as we approached what looked like an ark representing the covenant between man and God, the Cardinal, Rabbi Sadler, Aldo, Eloi and I started to push the heavy slab. After considerable effort the heavy object gave way and slid across the marble church floor racing a semicircle and revealing under its base a staircase that we all followed down (except for Paco who stayed behind to Tyle the open entrance in case some Cowan decided to pry ). Hesseus pushed a switch and the staircase lit immediately (they must’ve put electricity in this underground retreat recently since I could still see the torch mounts and smell the kerosene). We arrived in the squared room, ‘bout 5 meters under the surface of the cathedral. The room was richly lit and had an ancient but amazing ventilation system sort of a Bernoulli type of system where the hot air made its way to the ceiling and through tubular tunnels reaching the surface and thus allowing cool air from another independent system at the floor to replace the hot air. Instant air conditioning with no  mechanical or electrical systems involved. Hesseus sat in King Solomon’s Seat, Sadler as Chaplin in the north, and all others in their places and the meeting began.

The topic in tonight’s meeting was death and the afterlife. Eloi, having lost his three daughters Mircalla, Mirllaca and Carmilla to the dark gift, was using the sublime degree as a gateway to first of all discover the fiend that took his beloved ones away from him (and of course seek ways, real ways, to destroy it, or him, or her,..) and reassurances of the existence of the afterlife giving him hope that one day he will again be united with his beloved ones. Specifically, through various methods of proof, it was evident that even when the body withered away, some form of consciousness and awareness continued.  

I exist  . I think and I feel. I suffer suddenly a fatal stroke. Does my existence simply vanish? Where a couple of seconds ago I was, am I simply from now on not? Does my being cancel itself out into nothingness just like that, or by some form of yet undiscovered physics am I projected into a different space and time?Am I conscious, then unconscious or do I simply stop existing and what do I feel throughout this ordeal?  

Or is it that before I am, and after I am not?? 

We concluded our deliberations and closed our labors at about 11pm (with the promise of Karma to all mal doers) and recessed for dinner. 

We left La Concepcion at about 2 am and I finally made it to bed at 6 am today. I could not but think of poor lovely Mircalla and how the color drained from her cheeks, within a three week timeframe, and how this rose withered and finally passed away. It may indeed take several lifetimes to find the doer of these bad deeds, but find him they will. 

I slept. 

The Vampire Ziku

The Balkans have always provided fertile ground for the supernatural and especially for legends pertaining to vampires and vampirism.

Epic novels such as Stoker’s Dracula and Le Fanu’s Carmilla have as their source tales from the Balkans, a region that's rich in folklore.It is a well known fact that Stoker’s Dracula (son of the devil in Romanian) used Vlad the Impaler as an inspiration and source, while Carmila, Le Fanu’s lascivious lesbian vampire has close associations with the blood thirsty lesbian Hungarian aristocrat, Elizabeth Bathory.

One of the less known bloodthirsty stalkers that terrorized the Balkan area, between the borders of Greece and all the way up to Hungary, was a vampire by the name of Ziku Silivaos.The main reason that Ziku is pretty much a stranger to world fiction in particular and to vampire chronicle writers in general, has to do with the general population’s disdain towards mentioning his name, or anything having to do with this particular night stalker.

Information about the vampire Ziku can only be extracted, with much effort, from Greek, Bulgarian, Romanian or former Yugoslavian peasants. Evidently, he operated effectively, if not efficiently, in all these parts of the European “gunpowder” region.Not only is information rare and available only orally, but any information pertaining to this vampire is strangely communicated with dismay, rather than fear. Indeed, it seems that most individuals that remember, through tradition or personal experience, anything about this vindictive bloodsucker prefer not to discuss details.

Ziku’s name or anything pertaining to his life and times, or untimely death is miscommunicated or not communicated because of general disgust with the individual, rather than fear.From the bits and pieces of information and confidential correspondence that exist in private unpublished material, Ziku the vampire had a reputation of being a conniving, craven, devious and untrustworthy individual when he walked the planet.His mischief and general ill treatment of individuals’ in need, and ill will towards humanity provoked anger and disgust in the towns and cities that he dwelled in, and outcries that reached the very gates of Heaven.

Ziku Silivaos provoked such anger, mistrust, disgust and contempt amongst his fellow creatures to the point that when he was finally stricken by gangrene, humanity spurned him, simply abandoned him and left him to rot away in his dark shadowy forgotten lair Silivaos called a home. His death went unnoticed and he was buried in an unmarked grave on hallowed ground.

As legend has it, his soul was turned away from St. Peter’s Gate, and barred from entering the pits of hell. He was effectively cursed to walk the earth in endless night, feeding on the living plasma of humans, rodents and reptiles.Some believe that Ziku the vampire was eventually trapped by Bulgarian peasants, disemboweled decapitated and incinerated, while others swear they have witnessed sightings of him in the Mountains of Voras and Gramos.

Most connoisseurs of the Ziku chronicles, however, believe that he is hiding in some shadowy corner, like some dark scavenger or rodent, quietly hissing away and patiently awaiting and anticipating more favorable times, the tide to change, or “the sea to give up the dead.”