The Misadventures of the Vampire Rebecca Tabern - Chapter 1

The Eddonby Chronicles

The Misadventures of the Vampire Rebecca Tabern
By T R Shaw


© May 2008

Chapter 1

Sometimes being dead has its drawbacks, but as I looked at the six inch blade protruding from my ribs, I considered myself blessed. I had managed to put myself in the wrong place and at the wrong time, so what else was new?

This time it was a strung out hoodie who thought that I would be an easy mark. Boy, did he pick the wrong girl to mess with. I had hoped that a fist to the mouth would have sent him on his way, but no_ he pulled the knife and lunged at me. That’s crackheads for you, so unpredictable. I admit it. The little shit took me by surprise. The knife was in my side before I knew it.

It hurt like hell. Unfortunately, being one of the undead doesn’t make you impervious to pain, although I probably have a higher pain threshold than most. You would not have thought it though, if you had heard me. Pulling that sucker out of me, (No pun intended.) I screamed like a baby.

Now, for any prospective muggers out there just a word of warning_ a woman will fight like hell over the contents of her handbag. Vampire or not, that didn’t exclude me. Especially as it in my handbag was the sum of my entire possessions, with the exception of the clothes I had on my back. Which now where covered in blood_ mine_ and a hole in them to boot. I was furious.
“This happens to be the only jacket I own!”

My murderer, which he would have been if I hadn’t already been murdered several years before, took a step back in surprise and just stared at me. I think he was kind of hoping that I would fall down dead eventually, so he could take the contents of my handbag and purchase his next fix. He would have been disappointed. Not that I know much about buying drugs, nothing actually, but even I know that you need more that forty-three pence in twos and ones to get high.

I felt the ‘Rage’ begin within me, the sudden increase in muscle mass in my face. My incisors increase in length in my mouth. All the better to bite you with my dear. It’s not a good look for me_ and it hurts. My pupils dilated, so my retinas received more light. All the better to see you with my dear. The adrenalin surge is incredible. More muscle mass in my arms and legs, yet I felt lighter. Within seconds the fight or flight instinct would over power me. I fought for control, because Vampires don’t flee, they only fight, no matter of the consequences. In moments I would become all teeth and claws.

While I still had time, I took advantage of his fried brain trying to compute what he was actually seeing and I slit his throat with his own knife.

I feel pretty terrible about that, even though I was the victim. After all, he was someone’s son and who knows, he might have got himself clean and contributed to society. Shit, he might have even been the guy that cured cancer in a few years time, but at the time I was in a lot of pain and had a lot on my mind. I wiped the knife off on his sleeve and took it. I thought it might come in handy, considering my recent experience and besides there was no point in leaving evidence behind. I headed for the shadows. I didn’t want witnesses. It would take me a good ten minutes to come down again.

Now I know what you are thinking. I’m a vampire. Shouldn’t I have ripped out his throat and drank his blood rather than just slit it. Let me ask you would you eat a steak from a cow that had been pumped up with that shit? No_ I thought not. Besides Vampires don’t do humans. It’s against ‘The Code’. Don’t get me wrong there is always one Psycho who likes to live up to the myths and legends, but they are thankfully, few and far between.

By the time I reached Eddonby town centre, it was just after midnight on a cold March night. I might have been back to normal, but I had no money and nowhere to go, so I kept walking. I wasn’t aiming for Eddonby specifically. I equated distance with safety. I was just getting as far away as possible. There was no danger of frost that night, but my jacket was more stylish than practical. Fine for popping out of the car to the cash machine and back again, but as my car was at least a hundred miles away, so where my credit cards for that matter, I was basically freezing my baps off. I wrapped my jacket as tight as I could around me and put my head down. As I walked passed darkened shop fronts, a homeless guy sleeping in a doorway grunted at me. I ignored him and continued to walk. I had nothing better to do.

I was cold, hungry and had been forced to leave everything and everyone I cared about behind. Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse it started to rain. I stopped, held my arms out and looked towards the heavens.
“You’ve really got it in for me today haven’t you?”

There was a snort of laughter to my left and movement in the shadows. At that moment I wished I’d put the knife in my pocket and not dropped it into my bag.
“Rebecca Tabern.” It was a male voice I knew, but couldn’t quite place. “Well don’t you look a sight.”
The man stepped from the doorway.
“Ash? Is that you?”
“The one and only.”

I had thought my troubles were bad before Ash made his appearance, but him turning up, was taking it just that one step further. (Ladies_ a quick question_ Have you ever made a complete arse of yourself over a guy? If the answer was yes, then you know where I’m coming from here.) I had made myself look a complete idiot. I didn’t exactly throw my knickers at him, but I might as well have. I was outrageous in my pursuit of him...and when he finally succumbed to my charms. He dumped me after one night of passion, for some scag called Beth Armstrong. It was over twenty years ago, but the shame of it still burned like it was only yesterday.
“Great...my life is complete.” I muttered, suddenly inspecting my trainers. They were covered in god knows what, but it was brown and it probably stank.
“What are you doing here? You look terrible.”
“Thank you. It’s a look I always wear when I’ve been stabbed.”

He began laughing again. I tell you, I really wasn’t in the mood. I gave him my hardest stare. The one that would have had Paddington Bear quaking in his Wellingtons and I got my first good look at Sam Ashton for the first time in two decades. He hadn’t changed much. He was still to die for, he still wore his dark hair long and he still had the goatee. I hadn’t really expected him to have changed. He didn’t look a day over thirty, even though he is three times that age. We are not immortal, but we do have a longer life span than other humans.

I’m shattering all illusions here aren’t I? Okay maybe its time for a little background. Some of what you hear is true; Vampirism is caused by a disease. References are made about it in ancient Egyptian writings. Scholars think it has been around for over six thousand years. It is passed through blood and other bodily fluids, such as saliva. Yes, you can get it from a bite, but also from an open wound and yes, rough unprotected sex would do it too. It’s the world’s first sexually transmitted disease. I know that’s not particularly romantic, but a fact none the less. Only death cures us. One in twenty people survive contracting the disease. It’s a disease that rearranges DNA into a specific pattern. It changes us, we suffer the ‘rage’ and the disease never leaves us, we just become carriers. But don’t be fooled into thinking it doesn’t make us human. We are human, research has found that there could be, in the future, naturally occurring Vampirism. All humans are Vampires deep within them. According to some, we are the next leap in human evolution. God I hope not.

When Ash had stopped laughing he did have the good grace to ask me if I was okay. I curbed my temper enough to give him a polite, if not curt answer.
“I’ve had better days.”
“Are you sure you are all right? Let me see.”
He took hold of my arm. I pulled away and kept my arm tight to my side. I flushed with embarrassment, not because I had suffered the indignity of an injury, but because his touch still had the same effect on me as it always did. I prayed I wasn’t showing it.
“No! I’m fine thank you.”
“You still haven’t told me what you are doing here.”

I wanted to tell him, but I couldn’t. He might not have understood. He might have turned me in. I desperately wanted to tell someone, anyon,e my side of the story, but doing so might have put them in danger too.
“There was a misunderstanding...and now I have no where in particular to go, so if you don’t mind...”
“Wait!” He stopped me and looked my up and down. “You look like you’ve been dragged through several fields, you have no car and no luggage...So what are you telling me? Ha! They threw you out. Rebecca Tabern. The High Council’s valiant defender of The Code. Nemesis to all us lesser creatures. Thrown out! Well this had made my century.”
“Fuck you! You piece of shit.” I yelled and stormed off. I couldn’t help it. It could have gone either way_ the Rage, or_ tears. They burned in my eyes. I may have been a source of cheap amusement for him, but it sure as hell wasn’t funny for me. I had lost everything, my family, my friends, my job, my house, my car_ even my bloody overdraft.

I hadn’t gone ten feet when he was in front of me. All six foot two inches of him. Did I mention we’re fast on our feet?
“Come on...” He said. “...you have to see the funny side of it.”
“Do I?” I pushed passed him. He grabbed my arm and swung me round to face him.
“You must have really pissed them off...Are you crying?”
“Just leave me alone.”
“You are crying!” He let his arm drop. I think he was really surprised at my emotional outburst. “Hey...it’s not that bad you know.”
“Yes it is.” I said scrubbing my face with the sleeve of my jacket. He was right, I must have looked terrible.
“Believe it or not...life does continue on the outside.”

Then he put his arm around me and hugged me. If I wasn’t so miserable and my hormones so mixed up from the change, I’d have probably pushed him away, telling him to take his filthy, lying, cheating paws of me. But as it was, I buried my head in his chest and bawled my eyes out. He smelled of warm leather and expensive soap. Resisting the temptation to linger that moment longer, I regained composure and pulled away from him.
“Why are you being so nice to me?” That’s me, suspicious to the last.
“As opposed to ripping your head off for what you did to me, you mean?”
“What I did...?” He cut me off.
“That was a long time ago...besides it’s not often I’m witness to the Great and the Good taking such a fall from grace. I consider it a time for celebration.”
“You’re a jerk. Do you know that?”
“Yeah...and I’m really good at it. Are you hungry? You look hungry...Welcome to Eddonby.” He said with a wave of his arm. He grabbed me with the other and started leading me across the road. “You’re going to like it here Becca. It’s a quiet little town...small, perfectly formed and a beacon for all kinds of misfits, lost souls, monsters, demons and such like. For some reason they all find their way here eventually.”
“No wonder you fit in so well.” “You’re a funny girl Becca. It’s the reason I like you so much.”

5th May 2008

So I spent my bank holiday huddled over my laptop working on Mr Sandman, it’s going fairly well at the moment. I reckon I am almost one third of the way through, with twenty chapters plotted, fifteen drafted and I don’t feel bogged down about the rest of the story, so I am taking that as a good sign. There is however, a long way to go.

The draft of ‘Within’ is at the ready to be edited stage. There is a lot to be edited! I didn’t have it easy with this book. I don’t know whether it was because it was my first, but the entire thing was one hell of a hard slog. I don’t like it the way it is. There is a major rewrite required, it was a definite case of the ‘muddle in the middle’ syndrome and I am not 100% convinced I’ll be able to fix it.

I have never run a marathon, or trained for one, (the closest I come to exercise is trotting to kettle and back), but I imagine that writing this thing was like running three marathons, one after the other. I started off with a great deal of enthusiasm and then all of a sudden hit a brick wall. I kicked that down, only to find another brick wall in its place. It has been one brick wall after another. I’ve left it for a while and come back to it. I’ve asked for advice, sounded people out for ideas, scrapped entire chapters and killed off characters...you name it, I’ve done it, including hovering over the shredder with the manuscript.

It’s been horrendous! There was a point when I thought ‘Oh sod this for a game of soldiers_ do I really need this stress in my life? Who wants to be a writer anyway?’

It has taken me eighteen months to get a first draft. I cried when I typed the words ‘The End’. I had it all planned. When I reached the end of the first draft I was going to get a tub of Ben & Jerry’s Fisch Food ice-cream and the biggest bottle of Barcardi in the world and celebrate_ but no_ I was in floods of tears and nearly suicidal.

I am sick of the thing. So it’s stewing away in a box under my desk. I feel it malevolent presence, permeating through the oak vaneer. I just keep kicking it and thinking when I am stronger I’ll edit that B***tard! I am NOT giving up on it. It has cost too much of my time to do that.

I have learned from the process though_ two very valuable lessons. Firstly, I can write a book. Yes, it may be terrible and I may, at the moment hate it, but I did write it from the title right through to ‘The End’. This is a biggy for me. I am the world’s worst procrastinator and in those psychometric tests I get a nil score on being a completer-finisher!!!

The second lesson is that I wasn’t particularly organised while I was writing it. Because there were periods when I didn’t write, I forgot important details...then when I finally remembered them, I had to go trawling through the manuscript to figure out what exactly they were. My research technique was lousy too. So this time I’m being more methodical about it.

If there was a third lesson, it is the fact that I am writing a second novel. I have another story in me. Always a good thing for a novel writer, don’t you think?

I have a day job. Most writers do...but I have been on leave all last week, which means I’ve been able to put a lot of time in at the laptop. I’ve been getting up at about 10am. I’m on holiday, so a ‘lie in’ is the law. After a cup of coffee, provided by my other half, and a quick walk of the dog, I’ve been hitting the manuscript by about 11am. I have been having a break at about 1pm, gone into town to the local coffee shop with a notepad and my notes and just letting the creative juices flow for a couple of hours in the afternoons. I’ve come home had some dinner and gone back to the writing until I get fed up, which has been fairly late. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it...and I have been convinced into thinking that, yes...I’d like to do this for the rest of my life!

It’s the business end of the writing I’m having trouble with. I need to make the contacts. I need to network. And I need to build a CV. How the hell do you do that when you want to write novels? I like writing short stories and articles and I’ll go as far as saying I have written a couple of half decent ones, but they take up so much time. If anyone has an answer I’d love to hear it.
Tomorrow, I’m back at the day job and with a more ‘connectable’ internet connection. I’ll be starting off with the networking again, so if you see me...come and say ‘Hi’. I’d love to chat with you for a while.

3rd May 2008

Hello! Welcome to my Blog. Hopefully this will become much more than an ordinary blog. This is The Eddonby Chronicles Central Control.

My name is Tina Shaw and I’m a writer.

If you are interested then read on. If it’s not_ then thank you for visiting and have a great life!

I’ve got several writing projects on the go at the moment. I’ve finished my first book, which has the title of ‘Within’. It’s in the editing stage at the moment. I’m well into the first draft of my second book called Mr Sandman and I’ll keep you updated on the progress of both books.

I have been asked to write four short stories for a Arts Magazine

I am writing a craft ‘how to’ book, with only a working title at the moment, which will be available on-line and in paperback – details coming up shortly...and last but not least I am writing a ‘My Space book’ called ‘The Misadventures of the Vampire Rebecca Tabern’, which is open for reading and comment by the entire MySpace community – so feel free to read. Chapter one will be up in a moment.

For those of you who know me out there and wonder where the hell the panda went to!!! I wasn’t very well...I’ll not bore you with the details, but life got a little complicated for about six months, so I kind of fell off the virtual planet for a while...but I’m back feeling almost normal and I am writing again!