In the year 1100, one being rose from hell through a crack in the earth. His name was Dracula, the vampire, and in the year 1150, he was subsequently defeated by a man of the Dire family born in the kingdom of Jerusalem.
On Saturday, July 19th, 2025, Daniel Dire woke up from a relatively normal night's sleep. This day was special, or more like a day's sleep, as Daniel was essentially nocturnal during the summer. It was his 16th birthday. But he didn't have any particular plans for the day other than hanging out with his friend Jeffers all day and messing around in their town of Jefferson, Texas, which was situated about 2 hours away from Austin, Texas. Though when he did get out of his bed, he did have a weird, nauseating feeling in his stomach that he could not particularly explain away, but he resigned to the fact that it must have been nothing after it had passed. He then got up, ate his normal breakfast, and got dressed. He then called Jeffers, and they agreed to meet at the 7/11 down the street from his house at around 11 pm that night, which was 30 minutes from when he called. Most kids would have to let their mom or dad know that they were going out at that time of night, but Daniel did not have a mom or a dad. All Daniel had was an aunt, who worked the night shift as a nurse at the local hospital; her name was Jesse Dire; she was 35 and had been taking care of Daniel since he was 2 years of age, after his parents' mysterious disappearance. Their disappearance was particularly strange because their car was found on the side of the road covered in blood and with signs of resistance, but no bodies had ever been recovered, and it had been a cold case ever since. No matter how much Daniel pried, his aunt would refuse to give him any details on the matter, so he had pretty much given up on getting information out of her.
When Daniel arrived at the 7/11, Jeffers was already there, somehow, even though Daniel lived much closer to the gas station convenience store, and they had seemingly left at the same time. However, this didn't particularly take Daniel by surprise, as that was the kind of friend Jeffers was. "So what's the move?" Jeffers asked, "Oh, what we normally do, I guess, steal slushies then walk around town." Daniel responded. They walked into the 7/11, and it seemed normal at first, but Daniel could immediately feel that something was off. Daniel and Jeffers went about their business normally anyway. They took whatever they wanted from the convenience store, as they always went during Chad's shift. Chad had gone to their school when they were freshmen; he was now 25. (he was held back several times.) Chad would essentially let them take whatever they wanted for free, as he didn't actually care about this job and only had it because his mom forced him to work while he still lived with her. As Daniel and Jeffers went about their business and moved to the slushie machine, they noticed someone else inside the convenience store. A boy about 5'11 so about 3 inches shorter than Daniel but in moderately better shape, though Daniel had been in good shape his whole life without even attempting, he had maintained defined muscles and an 8 pack since the age of 12 without ever lifting a weight, and in p.e. whenever he tried any physical activity was extremely easy for him, but he was never superhuman in any regard. The boy also seemed about their age. In fact, Daniel recognized him from school a few years back, but it had taken him a moment, as they had only gone to middle school together, and back then, he was a very fat child. "Get the fuck out of here," the boy said to the two of them as they crossed paths with him. "What?" Jeffers asked, "Get out if you wanna stay alive." The boy continued to establish. "Nah, I don't think we will." The boy attempted to grab Daniel, but Daniel turned away from his grab and punched the boy, knocking him out clean to the floor. "Oh shit!" Jeffers exclaimed, "Why'd you do that, man? Is he alright?" Daniel stuttered before saying, "I didn't mean to do that shit, but you saw him, he tried to grab me first! It was self-defense, I was defending myself." Daniel stopped for a moment, "Let's just get our slushies and leave." They got their slushies and walked past the front counter when Chad spoke in a weird voice, "Stop, stop right there." Daniel and Jeffers stopped and turned in surprise. He'd never stopped them before, or to the best of their knowledge, done his job in any capacity in the 6 months that he'd worked at the 7/11. As soon as Daniel turned to fully face Chad, he saw the fangs sticking out of Chad's mouth. He was no longer human; he was clearly a vampire. He sprang from the counter and leapt at Jeffers, most likely because he was the more visibly weak of the two, but Daniels stepped in the way and punched Chad square in the jaw, knocking him flying through one of the shelves that held candy. Jeffers stepped back, and Daniel looked forward. Chad rose, not a hint of pain or confusion on his face, only savagery like that of a starving animal. Chad most likely hadn't known he was a vampire until he was so starved of blood that his animalistic instincts took over, and he could no longer contain himself until he fed on the flesh of a human. Daniel, noticing this, turned to Jeffers and said, "We gotta run." They both sprinted out of the gas station at the same time, dropping their slushies along the way. They ran across the street and turned a corner, entering Daniel's neighborhood. They turned and hid behind a clubhouse at the local park as they heard the growling and animalistic vampire not far behind their tail. "What are we gonna do?" Jeffers asked in fear, "I think our best shot is to fight him, as running doesn't seem to do anything to tire him out, and you're in terrible shape." Daniel responded. "Not everyone is born a freak like you," Jeffers said. He had known Daniel long enough to note his insane athleticism and physique with almost no physical activity or healthy eating whatsoever. Then Chad sprang behind them and grabbed Jeffers from behind, yanking him back to the ground, but Daniel immediately jumped on the vampire, and they grappled for a moment before Daniel kicked the vampire off of him, sending him flying through a swing-set, completely destroying it. As the vampire rose, it shook its head around growling as if it could lose its temper anymore. Daniel breathed heavily, though he noticed he wasn't particularly tired as soon as he had a second to catch his breath. Before today, he hadn't shown any physical capabilities close to this whatsoever; this was superhuman. Daniel and Chad circled for a moment. Chad hung his torso so low that his hands were almost touching the floor, but Chad's posture did not hinder his legs at all; his low posture only came from his hips and lowered spin. He let his arms hang near the ground as if blocking his legs from a possible attack. As they slowed to a stop Daniels body instinctually moved into the kung fu stance of the crane, Daniel had never practiced kung fu a day in his life and had never even heard of the crane stance, but his instincts were so much so of a natural fighter than his body instinctually moved in the crane stance another sign in the noticeable change in his abilities that day that had occurred in his body. Then, suddenly anticipating the vampire's movements daniel charged at the vampire and they collided with Daniel punching it in the face, the vampire's face absorbed the hit and grabbed around Daniel's waist, picking him up and yanking him to the ground, but daniel rolled through his collision the ground and sprang out of the vampires grasp, front kicking him in the face knocking him backwards but the vampire landed on its hand and used them to redistributes wait across the ground while moving on all fours. Then it jumped up at daniel but daniel out smarting it, moving his leg to hook the vampire and smashing its head on a rock on the ground, and with that chad stopped moving.
Daniel and Jeffers stood there for a moment in shock at what had just occurred before Jeffers said, "I didn't know you knew martial arts." Daniel thought for a second before responding, "I don't." Jeffers then asked "What were those moves then?" But Daniel was confused, "What moves?" "Ah, whatever." Jeffers paused for a moment, "What are we gonna do about him, I mean, you kind of just killed a guy, and if the cops ask me, I'm one-hundred percent gonna rat you out." "ahhh man, you're such a hoe." Then Daniel noticed something out of the corner of his eye; it almost seemed like Chad's head was recovering. "Hey, does he like regenerating?" Daniel said, pointing at Chad's head. Jeffers' face turned to shock as he realized the same. Chad's head was regenerating at a rapid rate; he'd be back and fighting in less than 4 minutes. Jeffers put both his hands out in the direction of Chad and turned his head to Daniel and said, "What the hell is he?" Chad continued to regenerate when Daniel said, "I think he might be a vampire." Jeffers face shrivels up before he spits out "bro your tweaking." "No, wait, but hear me out," Daniel continued, "look at his teeth." Daniel says, pointing at Chad's exposed thangs, "and the fact that he is actively regenerating from what should have been a lethal injury. right in front of our eyes!" Then they suddenly heard a voice behind them, "well i can tell you for a fact that that is most definitely a vampire, and he is also very much not dead." The voice came from a girl their age. She was dressed in all black, her skin tone that of caramel, and her messy black hair was tied up in a bun behind her head. She pulled out a knife and decapitated Chad. His body turned to ash and rose towards the sky until each cinder was too distant to be made out by the human eye. "Though I am very impressed by your skills, what was it?" she said, turning to Daniel and Jeffers, "It was him!" Jeffers spat out, flustered, pointing at Daniel, "well this wasn't just any vampire," she said as she put her knife away, "That's what's called a daywalker vampire, there are different types of vampire, like for example a named vampire which retains its personality after being turned, but still has the blood lust of what we'd call a drone, which is similar to a zombie, there are also of course day walkers who are slightly weaker than a normal named vampire, but they can maneuver in the daylight freely." She paused for a moment eyeing Daniel, "we'll have to keep an eye on you." she ended, before walking off and disappearing into the night. "Who was that?" Jeffers asked, "She was scary but in a way that kinda turned me on." Daniel turned and gave him a groan, "You're such a perv dude." Jeffers began making a humping motion in the air, "I think that's enough for me tonight, I'm going home." Daniel said, turning and waving his hand at Jeffers, "What, but it's your birthday!" Jeffers yelled, frustrated, but Daniel didn't answer. He just decided to go home.
When Daniel got home, the front door was open. After what he had just experienced, Daniel was ready for pretty much anything. He quietly snuck into his house only to find his aunt, drunk, passed out on the couch. She mumbled, "They let me head home early tonight, and I got a drink when I got home." Daniel sighed in relief, though most people would probably have concerns for the mental health of his aunt. He was just relieved she wasn't some undead creature of the night. He walked to his room, and he heard his aunt mumbling, "Oh yeah, there's something from Dave there too, for your birthday." Dave was what she called her brother, who happened to be Daniel's deceased father. When he got to his room, he saw a large box sitting right on his bed, wrapped with a bow on top of it. He unwrapped the box, took the bow off, and opened it. Inside the box was filled with wooden stakes, vials with water labeled "holy", and crosses. There was also a note.
"Dear my son,
First, if you are reading this, I am dead. Daniel, you've grown up so much, and it's on this day, your 16th birthday, that you have become more than human, but first, there are other things I must tell you. A long time ago, a being rose from a crack in the earth. It was a vampire, and it was the original king of the vampires. It was the strongest vampire ever and its name was dracula, but one of our ancient ancestors was able to defeat it, but it was so strong the only way to defeat it was to split it into two bodies on which contained the consciousness and some of the strength of the king of the vampires and the other which had the true strength and its demonly essence. The body that contains consciousness still walks the earth, and its name is Dracula. It is your responsibility not to let him accomplish his plan to reunite with his body. There's so much more to say, but I don't have nearly the time to write it down. Find Michael; he can tell you everything else you need to know. I'm sorry I wasn't there for most of your life. Your mother and I love you.
From your father
David dire."