The Nosferatu Scroll

60

Angela had thought that the second section of the Latin treatise was bizarre enough, but the contents of the third and final part of the text were shockingly brutal.

It began simply enough with a declaration that it was possible for anyone who so wished to join the ranks of the ‘favoured immortals’, as it described vampires. But, the author cautioned, the process was lengthy and required the utmost dedication and commitment. As she translated the next few lines, Angela realized that dedication and commitment were only a part of it. The aspiring vampire also had to be prepared to become a genealogist, a grave robber and, finally and most shockingly of all, a rapist and murderer.

First, she read, it was essential to identify one of the most important of the vampire families. That concept seemed bizarre enough on its own. It suggested that vampires could breed just like normal people, and sparked a whole new line of thought for Angela. Would it be enough, she wondered, if just one parent was a vampire? Would that be sufficient to convey immortality and unpleasant dietary requirements on the children? Or did it have to be both parents? She shook her head. She’d become so immersed in this ridiculous piece of mediaeval fantasy that she wasn’t thinking straight.

The reason for identifying a vampire family was then explained. Vampires, the author went on, had the ability to discard the body they were inhabiting and take over another one, when the first body became infirm or so well-known that continuing to live the lifestyle of a vampire became impossible.

When she’d translated that, she sat in thought for another minute or two. What could it mean exactly? And then it dawned on her. This was the crux of the matter. This was the explanation – both the reason and the justification. This was how people who believed in the reality of vampires were able to reconcile the claim of immortality with the fact that alleged vampires did actually grow old and die. It wasn’t that they died, in the usual sense of the word. Rather, the author was suggesting, their essential life force was able to move from one body to another, and they simply discarded their previous body when it was convenient for them to do so.

Quite how you reconciled the completely different personality of the new host for the vampire’s spirit with that of the previous person, Angela didn’t quite understand, though perhaps the explanation was a lot simpler than that. Maybe people just looked for similarities in behaviour or appearance or anything else, and made the assumption that the vampire’s spirit now inhabited a new host. And, as proving a negative is always virtually impossible, any protestations of innocence made by the new alleged vampire would be dismissed.

The important thing, the author then explained, was that once a human body had been inhabited by the immortal spirit of a vampire, a part of the vampire’s essence would be retained in the flesh and bones, and especially in the skull.

There were two reasons for identifying the family of a vampire, he went on. The first was so that the corpse of a former vampire could be located and part of the skeleton, ideally the skull, obtained for the ritual. That was the first mention of any ritual or ceremony, but Angela was quite sure it wouldn’t be the last.

So the first thing the aspiring vampire had to do was find the tomb belonging to a person who had been a vampire, break into it and remove the head. That was distasteful enough, but it was only the beginning.

A section of the skull then had to be removed and ground up into a powder, as finely as possible, so that the essence of the vampire’s spirit could be released from the bone. But this operation would only be carried out once the other essential component of the formula had been identified and obtained.

This was the other reason for identifying the vampire family, because in order for the essence of the vampire’s spirit to be released from the bone and then recaptured, the ground-up skull had to be mixed with the fresh blood of a female descendant of that same family.

The author digressed slightly at this point to explain, using quasi-scientific reasoning, how the female line retained the spirit of the vampire more strongly than the male line. The explanation frankly made no sense – like almost everything else Angela had translated – but it seemed to involve a woman’s periods, when she, voided her excess of blood to summon a noble vampyr and signify her willingness to be taken. The blood of a female child was of no use, for the essence is not yet sufficient strong in her, and nor was the blood of a woman past childbearing age, or even that of a woman who had given birth. She should bleed but be without child, as the author succinctly put it.

The unknown author then moved on to the details of the ritual itself. First, a section of the skull was to be ground exceeding fine and placed in a suitable container. Only then was the girl introduced to the proceedings. Her body was to be washed thoroughly and she was to be immobilized in a position convenient for all. At least two people had to take part in the next phase of the ritual, for one would have to rape the girl, to ensure her blood would flow sufficient free , while the other person would bite into her neck to open the veins and allow the bleeding to start. The text recommended allowing the blood to flow until the heart could pump no more – which would obviously mean that the girl would die as part of the ceremony – for her sublime ecstasy in surrendering her soul and spirit would help guarantee the success of the proceedings.

The blood was to be collected in a suitable receptacle and mixed with the powdered bone of the skull, and the mixture then drunk by the participants. The author cautioned that it might be necessary to repeat the process several times before success would finally be achieved.

At this point, Angela put down her pencil and sat for a few moments just staring at the Latin text. The document, ludicrous though its suggestions undeniably were, was essentially a recipe and, to a certain extent, a justification for repeated rape and murder, enshrouded in a quasi-religious ritual.

Then she started translating the final section dealing with the ritual, and found herself totally engrossed in the text. There was, the author asserted, a further refinement that was essential if success was to be achieved. As well as the ground-up bones of a long-dead vampire and the fresh blood of one of the creature’s lineal descendants, the mixture also required the addition of blood taken from another woman, from someone who had never had any connection with any of the vampire families, but who otherwise met the same criteria. This infusion of blood, the author said, would give added strength to the mixture, and was to be extracted from the subject in the same way, by multiple rape and severing the blood vessels in the neck.

When Angela read that, she closed her eyes and shook her head, wondering how she could subtly alter the translation to avoid the inevitable conclusion from being drawn.

But as she reached for her pencil, she realized that Marco was standing directly behind her, and had already read exactly what she’d written.

‘I knew that we’d find a more entertaining way to kill you than just a bullet,’ he said. ‘You’ll be able to take your turn on the table tonight.’