The Ultimate Vampire Resource and Directory

[DOCUMENTED/REALITY + ASTRONOMY/ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCE + HISTORICAL/MYTHIC IMAGINATION + FICTION/MYTHIC + POETRY]
The vampire understood:
night.
Black.
Silver Moon.
Stars.
Cloud.
Shadow.
For centuries,
night obeyed:
expectation.
Then the sky turned:
green.
The vampire stopped:
walking.
Above him,
light moved like:
curtains.
Green.
Then pale:
red.
Then something between color and:
ghost.
He whispered:
"What creature is that?"
No creature answered.
Because above the ancient vampire danced:
an aurora.
He had seen:
war.
Fire.
Lightning.
Comets.
Eclipses.
But this—
this looked like the sky itself had become:
alive.
The vampire knelt.
Not from:
worship.
From:
astonishment.
Immortality had made surprise:
rare.
The heavens returned it.
A human beside him smiled.
"Beautiful."
The vampire:
"You're not afraid?"
"Should I be?"
"The sky is moving."
"It does that."
"Not like this."
The human laughed.
The vampire did:
not.
Not yet.
Centuries earlier,
perhaps he would have called it:
spirit.
Omen.
Portal.
Battle in heaven.
Blood of gods.
Some cultures historically created their own meanings and stories around auroral:
phenomena.
Those traditions deserve their own:
contexts.
Our vampire has only:
his imagination.
And his imagination is:
terrified.
Later,
science teaches:
him.
Earth possesses a magnetic:
environment.
The Sun releases charged:
particles.
Interactions involving Earth's magnetosphere and upper atmosphere can produce:
auroral light.
The vampire listens.
"You're telling me the Sun did this?"
Scientist:
"Ultimately, solar activity is part of the process."
The vampire stares at the green:
sky.
His ancient enemy—
the Sun—
was painting the:
night.
That offended him.
For centuries,
he believed night was where sunlight had:
failed.
Now he learns the Sun can reach into darkness through:
physics.
Even after sunset,
the relationship continues.
Night and day were never truly:
enemies.
Only positions.
Only:
geometry.
Only Earth turning beneath:
a star.
The vampire watches another:
aurora.
This time,
he knows.
Charged particles.
Atmosphere.
Magnetic field.
Atoms and molecules interacting.
Physics.
Does knowledge make it less:
beautiful?
No.
Now beauty has:
mechanism.
Mystery has:
layers.
He raises:
hand.
Green light appears far beyond:
reach.
For once,
the vampire wants something it cannot:
touch.
Immortality gives time.
Strength gives power.
Wealth gives access.
None gives:
the sky.
"What does it mean?"
A child asks.
The scientist explains:
physics.
The poet says:
wonder.
The old stories offer their own cultural:
meanings.
The vampire says:
"It means I still haven't seen everything."
Perhaps that is the answer he:
needed.
Imagine living:
forever.
Eventually familiar things become:
routine.
Cities rise.
Cities fall.
Humans repeat:
mistakes.
Moon returns.
Night returns.
But then the universe produces something you have never:
seen.
And suddenly eternity becomes:
interesting again.
The vampire sits beneath:
green fire.
No heat.
No burning.
No supernatural:
curse.
Only atmosphere and cosmic:
particles.
He laughs.
The human beside him asks:
"What?"
"For eight hundred years I hid from the Sun."
"And?"
"It waited until night to find me."
The aurora moves.
The vampire does:
not.
For once,
he does not hunt.
Does not hide.
Does not remember:
dead friends.
Does not worry about:
tomorrow.
He simply:
looks.
Perhaps even immortals need moments when time:
stops.
Hours later,
the light fades.
Black sky returns.
The vampire feels unexpectedly:
sad.
Then remembers:
immortality.
He can wait.
Another night.
Another year.
Another solar event.
Another chance.
But the human beside him cannot wait:
forever.
That changes everything.
The vampire looks at:
them.
Then back at:
sky.
Beauty is different when one observer has:
eternity
and another has:
decades.
Maybe humans look harder because they know they cannot see:
everything.
The vampire suddenly envies:
them.
Before dawn,
he leaves.
The aurora remains inside:
memory.
For centuries he thought darkness was beautiful because it hid:
monsters.
Tonight,
darkness was beautiful because it revealed:
light.
And perhaps that is the strangest lesson a vampire can learn:
Night is not merely where light:
ends.
Sometimes night is the only place where certain lights can truly be:
seen.
— PauloAlves