THE AUTOTROPH

My name is Martin Youngblood and it is happening again...

The iron rich red blood freely flows from my body. 

Today is going to be a very long day...

It flows like a river from my nose and my mouth.

As her hunger increases, 

My body chemistry begins to scream out anew... 

For her desire to sink her canines deep into my artery in my neck is strong tonight. 

My blood begins to thin in anticipation of her feeding upon my life lubricant.

The original bite site on the right side of my neck begins to pulse, and burn, 

As the supernatural forces infused into my very soul anticipates her voraciousness. 

I become so sick with the night madness that I almost run to her... to beg,

Upon my hands and knees, for the true death she will surely not oblige me with.

The debilitating start and stop hallucinations are the worst... 

More horrible than the unstoppable torrents of blood leaking from my nose and eyes and mouth.

My brain embraces a bit of madness as it controls the craziness inside my body!

I could easily vomit right now because I can taste her hungry essence tainting the iron in my blood.

Oh, the horror laced hallucinations... 

Of yellow flowers covered in the blood of screaming victims.

Of beautiful things turned ugly and awful by blood thirsty feral monsters.

Of day time turned into night time by a sun too ashamed to show its radiance. 

Of ancient trees in dark feral forests in foreign lands! 

Of cold and snow and volcanoes in the distance in other places. 

Hallucinations of wolves and deer and rabbits and bats of the night -- 

All covered in deliciously fresh sticky blood.

Hallucinations of men and women and children of the night stalked by... 

Black winged vampire creatures that rip them apart, 

While greedily drinking and sucking and lapping their blood from their bodies... 

Until they are desiccated lumps of dried human husks left for the ants to finish off.

I have seen her smile with full toothed glee as she watches me struggle!

She knows what I am seeing as I writhe on the ground while fighting my own mind.

The hallucinations always come hard right before she grabs me by my shoulders...

To lift me up to her lips like a feather-light rag doll before she begins to feed upon me!

In her thick homeland accent, she calls me her AUTOTROPH!

A full year passed in the throws of her perverse slavery before I grabbed the dictionary.

I then learned what it is about me that has allowed me continued life under her ownership.

My mutant body regenerates lost blood so fast that I am a perpetual food source for her!

It is obvious that she has what is unto a wild animal's ability in her senses.

It helps her to zero in on the extremely rare human AUTOTROPH.

She sniffed out the one in a billion human on the opposite side of the world,

He being me... possessing the blood curse I never knew I had inside my doomed body!

Oh, I remember that first night she approached me as if it were last night.

I stumbled out of the club with my new friend for the night.

Her name was Petra and she was one pretty bar hook-up.

We both thought we were going to create an excellent ending for this party Friday night.

As I placed my key in my car door lock,

Petra was suddenly ripped from my arms like a package snatched by a tornado.

I turned to gasp in horror as I watched Petra flying through the air...

Tossed away like trash that was now gone like she was never there.

And standing in her place was now a creature that defied description at the moment!

And suddenly, it was upon me... grabbing me in a steel vice grip by my shoulders.

A mouth full of huge teeth clamped down on the right side of my neck!

And as this creature began to feed on my blood... a perverse supernatural bond manifested!

And oh, that bond is chemical, too.

And when this creature had gorged itself with my blood,

It expanded its huge bat-like wings and flew us off to the place we now reside.

And I slowly received an old school education of old world vampirism and horror!

That night was three years ago, yesterday!

I do not know what happened to my car or Petra.

I do not know what happened to my apartment and my job.

And I do not know what has happened to my family and my life.

Well, my life is now in the hands of a vampire creature from Romania of 150 years ago.

I still do not know a word of the Romanian language.

This is a relationship of the prey feeding the hunter to keep the hunter at bay!

I do not desire to learn anything from this bizarre relationship.

It knows I want to escape these four wall of this room.

It knows the books and the television and the food is no proxy for my freedom.

It reads my mind when the hallucinations begin.

But, I am slowly learning to hide information in a deep chamber in my mind.

These mental journal words are stored there.

And I have devised a bold plan to escape my captor.

Her mistake was giving me a spiral bound copy of The Horrorwalker Travel Guide.

I now have the metal I need to pick this lock binding my ankle to the metal post.

She sleeps by the daylight hours!
Where she hides from the sunlight is a mystery to me.
But as soon as the sun sets, she is instantly on my blood...
Her presence forcing me to spiral into the unwanted state of mental degradation, again!


I have a good nine hours to break myself free.
And when I do free myself I will not be free from her advances.
It is obvious that she can track me down like a spirit wolf hunting a boar.
I will not be taken alive!

I do believe her kind probably lives forever!
I have concluded that she will feed upon my blood until I die.
She cannot turn me into what she is...
So, she can drain me every day... with impunity!

But I must have my freedom back because I am human!
I must return to what is left of my real world life, out there beyond these walls.
This old dilapidated paint factory will not be my final burial tome.
No, I need to get away from this ungodly spectacle of profane horror.

Ah, I just opened this thick industrial lock attaching me to this heavy chain.
I am out of here right now, Goddamn it!
I will not not even look back as I climb out of the window to the ledge.
The other roof is just over there... and freedom is the forest only yards further.

Wolfsbane is in flower this time of the year... and I know where to get it.
I will crush its poisonous leaves and flowers and spread the pulp on my neck.
Garlic is available all times of the year...
Even though I hate the taste I must eat a few cloves to put it in my system.


She is simply too powerful for me to physically best.
As pissed-off angry as she is going to be at me for escaping my chains,
I know she will not kill me... my blood is too delicious for her to risk my health.
But she will probably hurt me real bad... starting with biting my neck.

The Christian cross is completely ineffective against her.
Holy water might not affect her, too.
But silver affects her like acid melting a Styrofoam cup.
I watched her fingers burn when she touched the silver ring I used to wear.

So, three hours from now, is my final fate to be revealed?
When she attacks my neck and drinks a massive dose of the Wolfsbane,
Will she become sickened enough that I can kill her where she is writhing in pain?
Or, will I anger her enough that she might do something drastic to me.

If I survive this night intact and free I will put this long incident to paper.
My story is a warning to disbelievers of the horror inside this Horrorwalker World.
There ARE monsters living among, and feeding upon, hapless humans.
They are powerful, mean, hungry, thirsty and smart enough to enslave us, if they want!

I have a few hours to gather my weapons.
I am going to have to approach people I haven not seen in years for some help.
A whole lot of shock and craziness is about to go down in about twenty minutes.
I hope my brother, Jeff, is prepared to accept my sudden reappearance!

I will have to go far away from people for this final showdown.
God help the stray human who might happen to interfere with her anger.
This story is just beginning, and I have said this before and I will say it again...
This is going to be a long night!

MSY