Greetings stranger. I have not seen you around here before. A dead relative is it? I thought so. You can hear me can you not? Do not pretend you cannot. You want me to come into the light? Hah. No such luck, my friend. I do not like the light, or rather; the light does not like me. Perhaps you should come into the dark. Come, I will not hurt you, yet…That is it. Your eyes will adjust in time. Do you see me now? I am a strange creature, am I not? This skin, these eyes, these ears, these teeth…I am quite different to you, you see. You see my skin? So pale and ghostly, and my eyes so dark…so very dark. Do you see that my ears and teeth are more pointed than yours? Yes…For I am not human, you understand. Not any more…

How strange I must seem to you. A boy, all alone on a bench in a cemetery, so late in the night. I have my reasons. Would you like to hear my tale? I thought as much. Listen well, and I may be persuaded not to kill you. Oh, and believe me, I do not jest.

It began three hundred years ago, in Hungary, my homeland. I was born to a rich family: a young mother and a wealthy father, both in high status, in a house with many servants. I was a beautiful babe, so I was told. I had hypnotic eyes, my features were as perfect as those of a statue, but I was pale and thin. I had a blood red birthmark on my right shoulder, which I still carry now, in the shape of a knife pointing downwards. It would have been a fine life for a young boy, in our mighty house in the silver mountains, far from normal woes. I would have been a wealthy young nobleman with great estates to look after. But that was not to be. You see, my parents discovered very early on that I was not normal. When my delighted father took me out into the garden to show me to the servants, I began to scream. My lips and gums bled. My skin cracked and little streams of blood began to pour down my body. These terrible effects did not subside until I was carried back indoors. It was the sunlight that coursed it, every time that sun’s golden rays hit me I bled like red ink from an overfilled well.