The Ultimate Vampire Resource and Directory

incomplete story

Chapter 1

Deep inside of a large cave, the Portents lounged around in various stages of repose waiting, whilst Death sat on his throne. There were but sixteen Portents in all of eternity; nine being male and the other seven females.

Meraud and Fearghas were playing a game of chess, whilst the other Portents amused themselves with other distractions. Meraud enjoyed playing chess against Fearghas for two reasons, firstly, because he took it so seriously and secondly because he challenged her. Although there was a third reason which she could not admit to herself and it went unacknowledged. This was that it was a way of monopolizing his time and for some reason she could not understand, she needed to spend as much time with him as possible. Meraud admired and respected Fearghas more than anyone else she had ever known. She spent many hours with him asking questions about the lore of Portents just so that she could be in his company and hear his voice.

Fearghas seemed to Meraud to be as intense and serious, as she was emotional and erratic, although there was a wildness that seemed to threaten to break loose from him occasionally that was thankfully kept in check. She usually felt slightly naïve and self-conscious when in his company so as a consequence, she generally would listen rather than speak with him. Meraud felt that she could not ask Fearghas anything personal and had to content herself asking questions regarding Portent duties so consequently, she knew very little about him. Meraud supposed Fearghas was insular because he was one of the Portents who had no siblings. The oldest Portent was Kensa, one of Meraud’s sisters and there were four other Portents older than Fearghas. Regardless of this, Fearghas always seemed to take the lead and all of the Portents deferred to him and always respected his opinion.

Sometimes when Meraud was alone in her room, her thoughts drifted to Fearghas and she would try to imagine what he was doing. At times, he entered her dreams and she would wake, embarrassed and flustered. She would not be able to look Fearghas in the eye the next day when this would happen.

Portents are the immortals whose purpose it is to serve Death. They are drawn to the site of impending disasters; called wounds upon time. They spend time going to an from the site gathering all of the names of the mortals who have been marked by Death as destined to die at the impending disaster.

Once a mortal is listed there is no avoiding that they would in some way fall victim to the tragedy. Portents must seek out each marked mortal because it is rare that they will be located at the site of impending disaster until the wound is to happen. Sometimes it is difficult work to trace them.

Death shifted position on his throne. One half of Death’s face was white with the other half black and in his hand, he held a long walking stick with an opaque crystal like ball on top. Fine threads of a web were forming, weaving over this ball. It was a painfully slow process.

Before Death was a large ornate wooden table carved with mysterious patterns. In the middle of the table was an indented circle which looked rather like roulette. There were many coloured small balls placed around the outside of the circle but all was still. In front of Death and to his right were two rows of seats of carved out stone and sitting upon them were the Reapers. They were cloaked figures with skeletal hands and faces. There were fifty seats in total but only thirty three were seated.

The Reapers would personally attend to individuals and small scale wounds and called upon the marked mortals. The Reapers never attend to the numerous deaths that come from the large wounds upon time as this was the function of a Portent. Once Portents collected names, they were handed to death. They marked must then travel toward Death who would await them. The job of the Reapers, on the other hand, is to escort the individuals on their journey to meet Death.

Death pulled the web from the ball and flung it into the air. Once airborne the web grew in size bigger and bigger. Death spoke out, “Crash, bending metal.” The web took on a life of itself and it rose further upward floating eerily toward the top of the cave.

The first Portent to rise was Fearghas, always eager to be active. Meraud seemed to unconsciously follow his lead and she moved to stand near him. Then one by one the rest followed until they had all risen from their repose to gather around Death. “Leave now Portents, go to the wreck. Bring them to me.”

The purpose of the Portent was as endless as they were immortal. One by one the Portents began to fade away until they had all transported themselves to the site and only Death and the remaining Reapers were left behind.


Chapter 2
Two weeks later, sixteen motionless figures were standing in a row along the back of a train station. They looked as though they were humans but they were in fact immortals. To their right was a passenger train, traveling at a respectable speed toward the train station. Far to their left and fast approaching the station, was a freight train on the very same track as the passenger train. Both drivers saw each other and the impending collision and started breaking. The screech of metal drowned out the horrified screams of the commuters waiting on the platform. The freight trains’ excessive speed was too great to avoid impact and both trains slammed into each other, the impact raising both engines and their front carriages from their tracks. Both drivers were killed outright along with all of the passengers in the front passenger carriage. Many survived in the passenger train’s second carriage but most sustained various injuries.

The Portents had been positioned directly opposite the point of impact and were witness to the entire tragedy. From their perspective, there had been an enormous web waiting suspended in the sky and at the point of impact, it fell over the entire disaster. The threads that had been splayed outward toward the Portents began to disappear as each life was ended. Not one of the sixteen moved or changed expression until a young boy died in an attempt to save another. Two of the Portents reacted; one the youngest Portent, Meraud was overwhelmed by the sadness, the other, Fearghas, reacted to Meraud’s pain.

Chaos ensured everywhere else, screaming, crying, running. Some brave people attempted to climb down to the buckled train from the station to assist in rescuing the survivors. After about 30 minutes, the line of sixteen started to break up and they began to speak impassively to one another. To a regular commuter, this line up of the sixteen may have been witnessed each day at the same place on the same platform for the last two weeks but such is the nature of mortals that they do not tend to notice the supernatural.

Meraud, glanced at her two sisters, Kensa and Steren. They were impassively discussing one of the mortals who had just passed away instantly in the train wreckage. It was easy to tell the three were sisters as they looked quite similar, only Meraud’s face was more heart shaped than the older two. Another differing feature was that the two older sisters had blue eyes but Meraud’s were of an intense green like the deep ocean. This is why some say that she was called Meraud as her name meant the ocean. This also suited her as she was more volatile and sensitive than her sisters. Meraud was known as the most unpredictable of all the Portents and as such her duties were often more difficult to fulfill than they otherwise should have been. Aside from their differences, the three sisters all had long dark hair and sensual, curvaceous bodies.

Meraud had been touched by the show of human dignity and compassion that had taken place before her. As a witness to human suffering, she had seen human nature tested at its very worst and very best. That they could meet these disasters with dignity and heroism was impressive to her. Some mortals on the platform risked their own lives in an attempt to save others who were trapped inside of the wreck. She was particularly touched by the plight of a young teenage boy who had climbed into the wreck through a window. He had then tried to pull a woman toward the window so that others, who were stronger, could pull her to safety. Meraud was disturbed when she came to grasp that he was marked to die himself. He fell to his death from the wreck when he tried to clamber back out of the window, falling between the station and what was left of the train. All of her existence was to witness mortals tested in their lives to which they could rise to the challenge and display greatness and courage or they could fail themselves and others. Meraud felt suddenly humbled and wondered what her greatness was.


Fearghas had been observing Meraud to assure himself that she was alright since the teenage boy’s death. He finally assured himself that Meraud was coping but resolved to keep an eye on her in case her reaction would be delayed. He understood the burden that it was to be a Portent and knew that Meraud had been affected when she witnessed this death. Fearghas wanted to shield Meraud from the harsh reality of the Portent life. She had matured some time ago but was emotionally still young. He was drawn by her beauty and her sincerity. He wished for her to remain as she was but knew that they faced grief every day of their immortal lives; it was inevitable that she would loose her sweetness.