It’s 3:30 am.  There’s a clock somewhere in the chateau and it chimes every fifteen minutes.  I listen to it, wait for it, marking time as it passes.  Especially in the darkness.

Night is the time of the vampire.  That is why it terrifies me so, making each minute, each second, stretch into agonizing lengths crackling with the urgent sense of time moving forward, taking me unprepared to the time when I will confront Marius.  And what else, I dare not imagine.  Something else, something more terrible, more mysterious.  More evil.

I am so afraid.  This is my terrible secret.  I am supposed to be brave.  Everyone depends on me.  But I am not brave.  Here in the darkness of my tower room in this strange chateau, with that darkness-smothered clock damning me with each tick , I cower.  And I think about the night of Beltane, when I must return to England, and meet my destiny

When the time comes, will I know what to do?

Recorded 10/27/1856 from Magdalena Koboyev, age 87, at her home in the village of Taraz in the Jampbyl region of Kazakhstan.  The tale comes from her grandmother, whose mother told it to her.  The incident occurred several years before Magdalena’s grandmother was born.

It was the first snow, family was at home, father still not returned from the fields.  Nightfall had come.  New baby in cradle by the door and three other children helping with dinner preparations.  Mother at the hearth. 

Two sisters from the village who had died a month previous suddenly appeared at the cottage door, bursting violently into the room and taking the occupants by surprise.  They appeared as wild animals, hissing and crouched, and began to attack.  Mother immediately realized they were vampires.  One of the sisters cornered the three children and mother who cowered by the fire, while the other sister went immediately to the cradle, picking up the baby–a boy named Iacob–and–beginning to feed from it.  Lucy’s mother grabbed her dead father’s silver-topped cane, which she had kept mounted on the wall as a keepsake since his passing and began to strike at the sisters.  Magdalene stressed the amount of blood, of the child and the vampire sister. 

The father returned fortuitously at this time and was able to kill one of the vampire sisters.  The other sisters ran off.  The babe survived, covered in blood.  In view of the subsequent life changes that occurred, the boy must have ingested some degree of the vampire sister’s blood. 

The attack occurred 93 years prior to my interview.  The boy had grown and outlived his brothers and sisters, and even most of their children.  He retained the body and appearance of a sixteen year old adolescent.

Magdalena did not know the present location of her uncle.  The family shuns him and regards him as a demon, although she admits she never knew him to commit any acts of vampirism, nor did he suffer any accusations of such.

Attempts to locate Iacob have been unsuccessful.

Entry:
Kisilova, Serbia
1725
July 15

Travelling to Kisilova following reports regarding Peter Plogojowitz.  Information is scarce.  Shortly after burial, Plogojowitz reportedly returned to his cottage and murdered his son.  Following this, a plague razed the village.  Nearly a dozen victims of sudden onset of a mysterious illness (pernicious anemia?)  On their deathbeds, victims made claims that it was Plogojowitz who had killed them (how? bite marks on the bodies?  no specifications given)

July 23

Arrived in Kisilova three nights ago.  Villagers are aware of vampirism, and are talking about “Turkish times” when such things were common.  I have contacted the local priest and offered my services.  However, he wishes to await permission from Austrian authorities. 

July 24

Met with the Imperial Provisor, who will not agree to a vampire hunt.  However, he is wary of the growing sentiment among the villagers, which is heightened following Plogojowitz’s wife’s claim that the man visited her demanding his shoes.  She has fled the village.

July 27

The village will not wait for word.  The priest is forced to exhume the body.  We will do so tonight.  I will accompany the exhumation party along with a priest from the nearby larger village of Veliko Gradiste.  Exhumation will take place at dawn.

July 28

This morning we unearthed the body of Peter Plogojowitz.  Found the body to have no signs of normal decomposition.  The hair, skin, nails, and beard were grown.  The stench, coming from the grave was strong, causing several of the villagers in our company to falter.  Despite this odor, there were no signs of decomposition.  Quite the opposite—the complexion was flush, lips red and there were traces of blood on the mouth.  The body was still.  The vampire did not awaken by the noise or disruption of its lair.  It was quite sated, possibly, and in a stupor.  I took lead, knowing what to expect.  This was fortunate, for when the fiend awakened I aided the priests and villagers, who were appalled and repelled by the strength and vigor of the corpse (I concluded many of them did not expect to find Plogojowitz to be undead and were paralyzed with shock and fear).  The vampire was a monster, probably taken unwillingly into its state as strigoi mort.  It was very strong, but with the help of the others, who thankfully recovered their wits, I was able to stake the corpse to the ground.  We then removed the head, salted and burned it.

August 8

No further disturbances have been reported