Friends I Met Along My Travels Chapter 1

 When you're searching for something, or rather someone impossible to find, you often find unexpected treasures along the way. 

    Being mostly undead meant that staying in one place for too long was not an option. It posed too many risks, the biggest one being, exposing that you never age to the people who live around you. 

    Now, I will pause here, because I know some will question the notion of not aging. Yes, I was a child at one point in my life and grew up. A vampire, born as a vampire, does age, so does a turn one. It's just that aging is a concept that can't quite be fully explained by natural terms of human aging. A born vampire will start off as an infant and age until adult age, which at that point, they stay looking that way for centuries. For the turned vampire, they stay as they were turned for centuries as well. But, as the centuries rack up, the aging does happy in appearance for a vampire. The more the centuries have racked up, the older the vampire look in appearance.  But once they look to what human would describe as elderly (This can be anything from around 700-900 years and above), the aging stops, and the vampire continues on living. And to clarify, if they come from a vampire lineage that shapeshifting is a focal strength, then they can mask the age look to that of looking younger. But I digress, this is not a story about age.

    Because every couple of decades I'd have to relocate and sometimes even within a few years, if I think there is danger or the suspicion of being caught, I have come to meet various interesting people and being on my journey. 

    The first, is one, some may be familiar with. The green haired vampire. I'd encountered him on a beach in Santa Monica many decades ago. While I'm not quite sure how I happened to befriend another vampire [encounter is described via Alter's point of view in another chapter] we had become close friends. His name was Vesper, and he owned and ran a special bar. It catered to the eclectic, the supernatural and it was a place where many frequented for a variety of reasons, not just for drinking. From those that knew magic, to those that walked in the shadows, it was home to many that hid t themselves from the human world. I often visited Vesper at his bar, to catch up and also to see if any useful information had passed his way. For as many decades as we had known each other, and as many special of beings that have passed through the bar, we have yet to hear a credible clue on Akios whereabouts. But none the less, it's a place I go to spend time with a good friend and to get away from the loneliness of being someone who lives both known, yet unknown.

    Vesper's Bar was a place of familiarity and "home". No matter the decades that passed and the different places I would settle in for a time, I could always return there for familiarity and friendship, but sometimes, surprises as well.

    On one occasion of catching up, while sitting in the back, all of a sudden, we could hear a commotion coming from the front of the bar. One of the bartenders quickly came up to the booth we were sitting at and whispered in Vesper's ear. Vesper quickly got up and began heading towards the front of the bar. I quickly followed behind him, wondering what was going on. 

    At the front of the bar were 3 scraggly looking vampires. One had punched a customer to the ground and the other was waving a whiskey bottle around demanding for the owner. "Where's the owner?" One of them kept yelling.

Before, the vampire with the bottle could even repeat himself, Vesper had swung so hard, that the impact of his fist, made the vampire fly across the room and slam into the wall, causing a glass picture to shatter. This caused alarm among the guests, and they began to panic. "No need to be alarmed everyone, this will be over quickly" Vesper said in a calm voice.

    "I don't know who you are, or why you are here, but I suggest you leave now before you all end up on that wall for causing trouble here." Vesper said to the other two vampires.

"Oh, an arrogant one huh? We need to put you in your place then. Vampires shouldn't be running bars letting riffraff and other things mingle among us. We're here to shut this down" One of the henchman vampires replied.

"Well, that's your opinion. Just because you live by some old school laws about vampires, doesn't mean I can't run a bar that is open to everyone" Vesper replied. 

"Some turned vampire thinks he can bend the rules. We'll teach you a lesson." The 3rd vampire henchman said as he lunged at Vesper.

Vesper side stepped his attack and pushed him towards the door "You are getting out of here because you cause any more damage" Vesper said as he continued to push the vampire outside.

Once outside, the other vampire also came out and the one that had bit thrown to the wall, also appeared at the entrance as well.

"More space to tear you apart" the vampires said as all three of them began to swarm Vesper.

Vesper did a pretty good job of fending off the two that were attacking him. They were pretty even. The one who had just recovered from his blow still stood at the doorway. While the three were engaged in battle though, the initial attacker began to draw a weapon. It was pretty clear he planned to attack while Vesper was busy with the other two.

But before this vampire could jump into the battle, from behind, I grabbed his weapon and from behind, stabbed him through the chest. Before he could turn to see what happened, he evaporated into dust.

"Hey Vesper, here's a sword for you" I said and then threw it towards him.

"Oh, nice!" Vesper said as he caught it. 

It didn't take long for Vesper to pierce one of them through the chest and cause them to evaporate into dust. The third vampire, once seeing that his buddies had been defeated, began to step back. 

"Well, you can give up now, or end up like your friends." Vesper said to the lone vampire.

"You'll pay for this. This isn't the last you'll see of us. Why should a turned vampire like you have a special bar like that!" The vampire said then shapeshifted into a bat and quickly flew away. 

"Thanks for the help, Misa." Vesper said as he turned around.

"Well, that was something, wasn't it?" I replied.

"Yea....it actually happens more frequently than you'd think. Turns out having an interdimensional bar makes you a target to many people who want to claim its perks for their own." Vesper replied. 

"Well, I'm glad I was here to help. And I hope they don't return anytime soon" I replied. 

"He might be back with some buddies, but I'll be ready for them if they do. While, yes, many people eye the bar, the perk of having the bar is I have many strong friends to call upon!" Vesper said as we walked back into the bar. 

As with that, we enjoyed the rest of our evening, the patrons went back to enjoying the bar, and it was just another busy night at the interdimensional bar.