Life of a Lost 2

Echo stood there standing in the rain, staring down upon the scene. There had been a car accident, and a man had died. The wife, who was with him, was screaming in agony and holding their daughter for dear life. It was a touching scene, thought Echo. Though she was internally numb and damned for eternity to continue an existence of pointless wretchedness, she still felt a pang of… something. 1

Unsure of herself, she cursed the night, the sky, the moon, and the stars overhead. It wasn’t really fair for this man to die, she thought. Why should he die and others far more evil and deserving of death continue to live? Curse the universe and curse the solar system!2

Suddenly, she heard a voice coming towards her. It was the voice of a man, a thick and strong voice that quivered with determination and veracity. Somehow, that voice had made its way to the rooftop, somewhere next to her.3

Echo looked around in curiosity. Who dare disturb her pondering? Whoever it is, deserves to be my feast for the evening, she concluded. The thought of warm blood on her lips made her undead heart skip a beat like it always does when life-forces enter her midst of brutality.4

“What is your name?” The voice came from a pale-white figure next to Echo. It was the ghost of the man who had just died.5

“What’s it to you, fiend?”6

“I do not bring harm, nor could I, not to a vampire.”7

Echo ignored the ghost. Like nearly all ghosts, this one was here as a result of unfinished business, or business that had been assigned to him upon passing over into the afterlife. She was not to be fooled. She understood the ways of the dead and the undead, the dark other-beings that haunt the living with utter impunity.8

The man continued to talk. “I have been given a task. I must fulfill it before I can move into the land of the dead and my spirit may rest in peace.”9

Echo stared dully. The man only stared back while talking.10

“I was told by the Angel of Death, who reveals his true name to no-one, that it is my job to help you find a way out of the immortal Curse of the Vampyre.”11

Echo stared in disbelief, her fangs protruding slightly as her mouth dropped. The red hair glistened in the rain as she listened to this – this ghost, this something – tell her that there was a way out of her eternal curse. 12

She could not believe it. Of all things should have imagined, this could not have been one of them. Exacerbated, she touched her fangs with her fingertips and kicked her black leather boots into the top of the ceiling. This man was clearly lying. If she weren’t already dead, she would kill him just for disturbing her. Now, she thought, it was her duty to hunt down the guy’s entire poor family and bring them all over to the dark side.13

“You lie!” And with a whish of her cape, she flew off to where her home was, the sewers under New York City. There was a nice opening off a pier in the Hudson Bay. This was where she slept when the sun was up, so the endless fire would not scorch her skin and send her into the land known as Limbo, a place far worse than the confines of her own eternal curse on Earth.14