The Godsend Backfire: The Beginning by Harold Straugh (best e reader for academics TXT) 📗

had changed in a hundred years.  The huts went to bigger huts and some people were using a new technology at the time, cement-like blocks. I stumble upon my first cement-like building.

I ran my fingers around over the blocks feeling the textures.  My fingers moved up and down with the nooks and crannies. The building was only a story tall, with a high-pitched roof. There were windows but no glass.  I looked in and there were wooden benches lined up. Once again, I was interrupted by a townie.

“It’s a beauty isn’t it?” she asked, catching me off guard.

“It is, yes, but what is it?” I said, I find it odd now that was in awe of a building.

“It’s a place of worship, I built it by hand,” she said.

“You?” I asked somewhat insulting her.

“Yes, me? Do you not think a woman could have done it?” she said. She was tall for a woman, very masculine in build.

“I stand corrected,” I said, “So a place of worship? Who do they worship?’” I asked.

“Jehovah of course.”

The answer caught me of guard, in my ventures I had totally forgotten about Jehovah, he had forgotten about me, so why not?

“Have you noticed any demon’s that come out at night and feed from the living?” I asked.

“It’s the reason I built this place.”

“Oh really?” I asked and looked at her, my eyes must have taken her off guard.

“You’re so…white, even your eyes, are you a demon yourself?”

“I’m guess you can say that I am, but I stop demons as well.” I said, “Don’t be afraid of me, I won’t hurt you unless you hurt me,” I said.

“We just haven’t had the best of luck with strangers, those demons were strangers once.  They came in the night, one in particular, he was bald….”

“I know you are talking about, I took his head and buried it where only I know,” I said and looked at the masculine lady, oddly was attracted to her.

“Did you? Or are you just saying that to gain my trust.”

“I don’t care if I gain your trust or not, at a blink of an eye I could be out of here and the “demons” as you call them in these parts, will kill everyone or change them.”

A scary thought of how many people Derium had changed in a hundred years occurred to me. I thought on the bright side at least I would be kept busy.

“The problem is, the demons like to come here and hang out at night, some people want to come in here and worship at night and they can’t.”

“Can’t they just worship from their huts?” I asked, it was bothering me.

“They didn’t feel safe in their huts, now they don’t feel safe here.”

“I will end them,” I said with a smile on my face, “is there a quiet place, besides in here, that I can sit?”

“There is river on the edge of town,” she said and pointed.

“Walk with me and if I see any graves, I will show you what to do. What is your name?”

“Noemi” she said but she did stick out her hand, instead she hugged me. I kind of patted her back and that was the extent of the hug, “You are scary looking, but you are nice.”

“I can say the same about you,” I said, she cocked her broad, squared jawline and raised an eyebrow at me.

At first, we said nothing as we walked.  Noemi, I think, still hurt from saying she was scary looking, walked a little in front of me. Then she spoke of, “How do you know of these demons?”

“These, vampires,” I corrected her, “come from my brother, he done a bad thing to me a long time ago and I swore I’d get him back.  I found him, kicked his head off, buried it and now I’m going to wipe out his race.”

“They’re all over, hundreds, thousands of them,” she said, her deep voice had a concern to it, “You’d have to live forever to kill them all.”

“That’s what I plan to do,” I said. I had no problems back then telling people I was immortal, there was much to believe in back then, it was acceptable. Now days, I don’t say it as much.

Baja back then was nice, open, green, nowadays its all houses and business.  Trees were abundant, which was concerning because they were so thick in spots the sun couldn’t shine through.  A vampire could easily stay there, but I didn’t see any more graves on my way to the river with Noemi.

We finally came to the river, it was huge, the part we stared at had a massive bend to.  The water rippled over some rocks, it sounded relaxing.  The sun reflected off the water and Noemi had her hands up, shielding her eyes from it. I didn’t seem too bothered by it, honestly.

“Does this river provide you with much fish?” I asked, thinking back on my day so of Sodom and Gomorrah.

“Often yes, but that river has swept away many of people, so are careful.”

I don’t know why I was talking, I still had a grudge against mortals, but these weren’t those people and I wasn’t trying to be so hateful. Once hate fills your heart, its all you think about.

Noemi walked off into the woods and used the bathroom, which was something I wasn’t used to.  I was used to women just pissing in front of me if they needed.  She foraged around a little bit then came back with a handful of what looked like cherry tomatoes and tossed me one. I ate it, but it wasn’t a tomato, it was very sweet to me.

“What are these?”

“Seabuckthorns, but I call them buckies. My grandma said we use to not have them around here. Then