Experiment [Part 2/2]
A few minutes later, they arrived next to the house and were in front of the door. Nobody was outside and the windows from the houses were closed or dark. Everyone was sleeping.
"Hand me that man, then knock on the door and when she opens it, jump on her and hold her down. Don't let her make noise or scream.", said Adam.
The man knocked on the door and soon a voice was heard.
"George?"
"Yeah it's me. Open the door, love.", said the man with a face full of despair.
The door was soon opened and an angry woman appeared from behind it. Her anger was soon replaced by surprise as her husband jumped at her and pushed her to the ground. She wanted to shout, scream, say something but he put his hand over her mouth. She never stood a chance against him.
The woman was petite and her husband was quite tall.
Confusion was filling her mind, she was scared. That was what Adam saw on her face as he entered the house, an unconscious man on his shoulder.
He closed the door and then put the man down on a table. The room wasn't that spacious and had a table in the middle with four chairs. There was a chimney, a cupboard and some ingredient shelves. There were some stairs that led to the first and only floor above, Adam guessed.
He stopped looking around and turned towards both husband and wife struggling on the ground.
The woman was trying to free herself, while the man was holding her down.
She bit his hand but there was no reaction from him, which made her stop.
Adam approached and then said.
"Do you still feel thirsty?"
"I'm horribly thirsty. I feel like I'm going to die.", said the man. Once again, the contrast between his calm voice and distorted face was striking.
"Then drink her blood.", said Adam while looking at the woman.
This immediately caused terror in both husband and wife. But the terror quickly faded from the man's face as he bit into his wife's neck.
The woman struggled for a moment, then went still.
Adam had been observing from the side.
'Why could she struggle that much, but when I bite people, they don't?', he thought.
He wanted to know more about himself, but the urgent question that nagged him was if those he turned could turn others the same way.
"Stand up.", said Adam to which the man complied.
His face was horrible to look at. Tears were coming down his eyes, snot drooling off his nose and blood all over his mouth.
"Do you still feel thirsty?", asked Adam. He somehow didn't feel like he was doing anything bad, even if he knew it was bad.
"No...", said the man in a calm voice.
"Good. Tell me if you feel thirsty again...Now go and tie your friend over there. Gag his mouth so he doesn't make any noise when he wakes up. Close the windows shutters too.", said Adam.
While this was being done, Adam sat on a chair.
"Good. Have a seat!", said Adam while smiling.
The man sat down but his eyes showed indomitable anger, a burning hate form the deepest part of his soul.
"Tell me. Do you know how to read?", asked Adam.
"I do.", answered the man.
This was good news to Adam as he really wanted to know what was in the book.
He took it out and put it on the table in front of the man.
"Read what's inside this book for me. Read slowly enough for me to understand, but not too slow. Go. And make sure you don't damage the book in any way!", said Adam full of expectations.
The man reached for the book and opened it, and then stayed silent.
"What's wrong? Read!", urged Adam.
"There is nothing in this book. It's completely empty.", answered the man.
This surprised Adam who grabbed the book from the man's hands and looked inside, and it did have words like the last time he had checked!
He showed the book to the man again and said.
"Do you see nothing? No words?"
"No. It's empty."
This confirmed that this man couldn't see the words. Maybe only true vampires could read this book? Or maybe just him? He didn't know for sure. But one thing he now knew was that he had to learn how to read. He didn't have much time but he would try.
"Teach me how to read, and do your best.", said Adam.
The man brought paper, a quill and ink, then a strange lesson started.
One was learning, while the one teaching was covered in blood and stared dagger at his student while talking in a calm voice.
During the following four hours, the man taught Adam the alphabet, showing him how each sound was transcribed. He then gave him written examples of words, which Adam had to try and read.
Adam was quite surprised at how easily he could remember everything. Once was enough for him to remember it, even if he was asked about it a while later.
He was enjoying the whole new experience of learning and gained more and more confidence as he could instantly remember what sound each letter referred to after only a few hours.
He then tried to start reading and things got a bit awkward as he really wasn't used to it.
He would slowly read out each letter of each word individually, then try to connect them again into words.
It was slow, but at least he could partially read this way and he would quickly improve with more practice anyway.
The session was ongoing when George, the man teaching Adam, said.
"I'm starting to feel thirsty again."
This surprised Adam as it had only been four hours.
He was almost done with the man anyway so he asked him for some basic information about the town and was told it was one of the biggest towns around and was called Black Lily.
He also asked the man for a map but he didn't have one. But he could at least give him some information about the capital of Rosenwuld kingdom and the closest towns to this one.
Adam felt that he almost had no more use for this man, so he wanted to run one last experiment on him. He wanted to see what would happen if he went on without drinking any blood.
He would, however, squeeze as much utility from him as he could. So, they both kept doing reading tasks.
The man reported that he was feeling more and more thirsty as the minutes ticked and after about one hour or so, he started having difficulty speaking.
A period of time later, the man became like a beast with no signs of intelligence. Soon later, he started going into a state of slower and lower activity until he died.
It was a little while later that Adam heard sounds of activity outside. He guessed that the day was starting and people were getting on with their daily lives and activities.
It was also at that time that the man that had been tied up started waking up.
He looked around and when he saw the corpses of both George and his wife on the ground, he started panicking and trying to free himself.
Adam didn't want to attract any unwanted attention, so he went straight to the man and gave him a strong kick to the face. This immediately knocked him out.
Looking at the man, he noticed that he had soiled his pants...disgusting.
He was also surprised at how accurate those two women were at judging the drug usage which stopped working at around the time people woke up.
The world really was full of skilled people, and he wasn't one of them...yet!
He then double checked the door, made sure the man was tied properly and that he wouldn't be able to shout or make any noise before going upstairs.
When he got there, he found a bedroom with a two person's bed. There was a window but hopefully, it was closed.
He went to the bed, closed his eyes and fell asleep.
When Adam woke up, he went downstairs and found the man silently laying on the ground and not attempting to struggle free from his predicament.
They both looked at each other and the man seemed to be afraid of Adam.
Adam didn't care, though, and approached him silently, knelt in front of him before biting his neck. This time, he drank all the blood he could and didn't leave anything behind.
Once again, Adam felt his body growing stronger without having much understanding over it. The taste was great like usual.
Knowing that it would at least take a few hours, Adam took a seat and started trying to read the book.
He looked at the cover and it had no title. He opened the front page and there was a line.
"G..u..i..d..e...for...n...e...w...v...a...m...pires...by...A.B."
This wasn't much for others, but this was an achievement for Adam who didn't even know how to read yesterday!
He was however worried at how long he would take to read the book if he kept this pace. He wasn't worried about it previously, but now that he looked at it, the book seemed quite thick!
Hopefully, he would improve the more he read and his reading speed should only get faster and faster. Adam was about to turn to the next page when suddenly, the man he had just fed on started struggling.
'Isn't this too early?', thought Adam as he approached the man and said.
"Calm down."
The man immediately calmed down, so Adam untied him.
"Do you know how to read?", asked Adam as he wanted to make sure no one else could see those words.
But unlike the previous man, this one didn't answer.
"Answer me.", said Adam but he was only answered by grunting.
It would seem like the man had lost his intelligence, just like the previous one at the end of his short-lived life as Adam's servant.
This gave Adam a clearer image of his ability to turn people into his servants.
This most likely had to do with blood; the more he drank from someone, the faster they would come back to life, but they would be stupid like beasts.
The less he drank, the longer they took to come back, but they would be as smart as when they were alive.
He concentrated on the link he felt between himself and the man in front of him and could somehow feel some control over it. He tried to will the link to end and it suddenly cut off. It had worked!
The instant this happened, the man in front of him fell lifeless to the ground.
With his experiments over, Adam went back upstairs and started reading the book again. He did do so until the sun had set. Then he left the place as discretely as he could and went back to the inn.
He was eager to read more!