This tale requires a wee bit if an explanation, back in 2004, as part of a Soul Food Cafe project I was to write an article on the Red Death ( a la, E. A. Poe’s tale, “The Mask of the Red Death”.  The first article is the one I wrote in 2004, the second one is the update I wrote in 2007. 

Fatalities from the Red Death Rise Sharply
by Gwen MyersUPI: (Budapest, Transylvania). A mysterious illness is decimating Clan Dracül. The descendants of Vlad (the Impaler), once quite numerous, are dwindling at an alarming rate. Clan Dracül once flew at over 10,000 strong.

Due to fatalities from the ‘Red Death’, as it is being called, there are barely 2,000 adult Dracül able to take wing and feed. The Eldars and flightless young are the hardest hit by the Red Death. The Eldars feed least often and suffer the worst deaths from the disease. The young slowly die of starvation when the parents die of the Red Death.

Researchers, in lightproof laboratories, race to find a vaccine or cure while the population is still large enough to prevent inbreeding. Clan Dracül has not forgotten the horrors and sports that marred earlier generations, and does not wish to return to the era of infanticide and heartbreak.

The symptoms of the Red Death include deep red colouration of the face, difficulty in feeding, loss of primary and secondary fangs with concomitant inability to feed and death by starvation.

The only correlation found thus far is a possible similarity in the habits of food. A great number of the prey of Red Death fatalities are known among the prey as “Tweakers” and it is theorised that a commonality among the “Tweaker” prey may be the root cause.

As a precaution Clan Dracül members are advised to avoid prey that smell or behave abnormally. A strong medicinal smell or extreme restlessness seem to be signs of “Tweaker” prey and as such should be avoided.

There is a growing concern in the Council of Clan Dracül will need to create “New Blood” to remain vital and viable in the Vampyrric community. The persecutions and wholesale slaughter of the first “New Blood” search are fresh in the memories of all Vampyrric Clans. There has been enough intermarriage between Vampyrric Clans that for Clan Dracül to survive, the “New Blood” search, may have to be undertaken soon.   

My friend Shiloh put this tale up on her website and I got an idea for a follow up article: 

(from the Transylvanian Journal of Vampyrric Medicine) 

CORRELATION AND CURE FOUND FOR RED DEATH

By Gwen Myers

 UPI: (Budapest, Transylvania) The Transylvanian Journal of Vampyrric Medicine  announced last Tuesday, 23, October, 2007 that the causative agent for the affliction known as “The Red Death” has been isolated, and a cure found for this scourge of the 21^st Century. 

The early theory of a commonality in the habits of prey proved to correct when researchers isolated the compound “Methamphetamine” from the blood of prey.  This is a recreational substance that is both highly addictive and destructive. 

Apparently the prey exhibits many of  the same symptoms as do the Vampyres, and the compound can cause fatalities amongst the prey. 

The intensive study isolated a treatment , beginning with the rare practice of both transfusions and dialysis of anyone exposed to the tainted prey, for not less than a full lunar month, and intravenous feeding until the individual is well enough to be fitted with a crown  of primary and secondary fangs.  It is agreed that anyone who has ingested the tainted food be checked frequently for at least one calendar year to prevent  a relapse of the disorder. 

This type of treatment has even revived those Vampyres in the first stages of the Premature Hibernatory Phase Syndrome, once thought to be incurable and always fatal.  As is commonly known, vampyres that suffer from Premature Hibernatory Phase Syndrome  will fall into the Hibernation phase of Vampyrism when they do not have the reserves to support their bodily functions and when the reserves are depleted the vampyre dies of starvation. 

This is a breath of hope for Clan Dracül, along with the offer from unrelated Clans the world over  to volunteer  their younger vampyres to Clan Dracül , both to swell their ranks, and prevent inbreeding as well as the need for a “New Blood” search. 

Even with this miracle, Clan Dracül may take centuries to regain their pre-Red Death size of 10,000 on the wing.