Wangst

“Decadence hath many names,
And many of them I now answer to,
For when hoisted by my own petard,
Why blame should I the trickster world?”

This wasn't my idea of standing on my feet.
To be a lackey, who lacked servility.
To be the angry and reckless girl I am,
Rather than the sensible woman I thought I really was.

I am a cog in the wheel, a necessary one,
As I knew I would be one day,
But realized I perhaps too late
That necessity does not imply importance.

Another in my place would had more patience,
To either tolerate or quietly jump ship,
But alas! not I, I'm afraid to say,
Going quietly isn't really my forte.

So I take to Drama, and with much fanfare,
I proceed to undo all that I've done,
Forsooth I say, 'What is reputation!
If not the unfaithful shadow of true character?'

“It's not really all that much of a deal,
It was just a job that was well done,
By them, who made me hate myself
So much that just to spite the face,
I would very gladly cut off the nose.”

The Trite Tale of the Brooding Bloodsucker

GRAPHIC VERSION


4 fingernails, hard as diamond leave the bark of a tree scarred

MALICE BE MY ORNAMENT

Pan left to right on a ruined village with bleeding corpses on the streets

EVIL BE MINE PRIDE

Pan toe to head (in profile) of a silhouette of The Vampire Protagonist (our hero) – a tall young man on a wind-lashed slope overlooking that village

FASHIONED IN THY VERY IMAGE

He turns

I SHALL TURN THY TIDE

The moon rising over dark and creepy woods

THUS SCHOOLED IN THE SONGS OF THE WILD

A black and white photo in the flickering candle light – blood trickling down the top. Subject: our hero when he was still human, with his fiancée

I DROWN MEMORY AND NATURE

People screaming in terror, running helter-skelter, seeking refuge in churches (or temples). A very scared woman (a la The Scream) pointing towards someone

PEOPLE KNOW ME AS THE DEVIL’S CHILD

A clergyman (or a Hindu priest) declaiming from a pulpit (or the steps of a temple) addressing a huge crowd. Pan out to the church tower (or shikhar/gopuram)

AND I CONTEST NOT THEIR PRELATURE

A bunch of kids (they could be in college) around a bonfire – camera seeks out our hero, dressed in jacket and jeans – dark colours, sitting apart from the crowd – final frame has the bonfire on the right and the hero on the left

PERHAPS THAT’S WHY, FROM THE DEPTHS OF HELL

A gust of wind, hero pricks his nose and turns – cut to The Hapless Belle (our heroine) who’s walking in

WAS SENT MY WAY, THIS HAPLESS BELLE

Hero stands up and looks at her

HER VISAGE SWEET, FOR NO FAULT OF HERS

Cut to hero’s eyes wide with shock

BURNS INTO MINE EYES

Heroine stops in her tracks, having noticed the hero

SHE KNOWS NOT WHY, BUT STILL AVERS

She opens her mouth, apparently in greeting, but the hero turns on his heel

OF OUR LONG-FORGOTTEN TIES

Hero throws away a corpse he’s freshly drained

KNOW SHE CANNOT MY EVIL WAYS

Flashback: Hero’s fiancée, from the photograph, revealing her fangs and biting him

NOR OF MY BLOODY PAST

Hero watches heroine surreptitiously from the shadows…

BUT WITHOUT HER SCENT I AM SPENT

…and she suddenly feels his presence and looks around, at which point the hero flees to the woods at preternatural speed and stops at a tree trunk, where he thinks of her and collapses to the ground

AND WITH IT I CAN’T LAST

The hero’s thoughts: torn between the gorgeous fiancée of the past and the beauteous heroine of the present

RENDERED HELPLESS BY THE VAGARIES OF TIME

Hero breaks something (a mirror?) in frustration – splinter cuts his hand – cut heals instantaneously

INURED TO THE STRENGTH OF THE AGES

Hero collapses to the ground screaming, looking towards the heaven

I AM CRUSHED AND ROBBED OF REASON AND RHYME

Hero on the forest floor, lying like the dead, the dilemma still looming

AND LEFT, A CARRION OF IMAGES

Heroine with a lantern, separating from a search party, makes her way to the very spot where the hero is lying prostrate

MEANWHILE SHE MAKES, UNINFORMED, HER AMOROUS ADVANCES

She stops when she reaches him and bends down (to take his pulse?) – he opens his eyes and slowly sits up, unable to move away or to take his eyes off her

UNSLAKED THAT I AM, I CAN’T HELP MYSELF, AND I RETURN HER GLANCES

Cut to a dark alley scene, heroine walking alone, street gang at her heels – she starts running

THUS DOOMED IN LOVE, THIS WAY OR THAT

Hero jumps out of nowhere, heroine walks into him – he steadies her and faces the bad guys

I ALLOW MYSELF THIS PLEASURE

Fistfight; hero throws the last goon bodily out of the frame

I THROW THE FUTURE TO THE WINDS

The couple embrace, the fiancée comes out of nowhere and looms at the corner of the frame, glowering at the scene

AND THE HERE AND NOW I TREASURE

ENDSCREEN: “THE BEGINNING?”