Claiming My Vampire Birthright (a dream)

I'm occasionally a bad ass in my dreams, kicking butt and taking names. I think in this case it was from going to bed hungry (I get cranky when I'm hungry), but who knows, maybe I have a bit of the blood thirst. ;-)

I'm staying in a large old Victorian house with relatives, learning about the family history through the conflicts they have with each other and by asking questions. An older woman explains much to me. My grandfather is a vampire. He is a dangerous man who sleeps during the day in the ground under the house. As his progeny, I'm a vampire too, but it hasn't been activated in me. Like some genetically passed traits, it needs to be triggered before it manifests.

He is coming for my daughter. She is a beautiful little blonde girl, about six years old. I grab her and her playmate and rush them into an upstairs room. They're terrified, crying and whimpering. I lock the bolts on the door, but I don't feel confident this will hold him back. I cover the girls in blankets at the back of the room to hide them, and I shush them, trying to keep them from giving our location away. The playmate is too scared to stop crying, so I tell her to use the blankets to muffle the sound. This doesn't help much. I whisper fiercely, "I will protect you!" I realize as I say it that there is nothing I wouldn't do to keep this man from them. I hope they will quiet, knowing I'll stop at nothing to save their lives.

The dream shifts, and my grandfather has taken my daughter despite my resolve. I'm furious. I will claim my birthright as a vampire and use that power to destroy him! He is ancient and powerful, but I have a determination that he will not be able to match. I turn on the vampire gene, partly by willpower and partly by screaming my rage to the skies with a reverberating, inhuman vampire screech. I'm not entirely sure I'm not just pretending to be a vampire, but the screams are disturbing nonetheless.

I return to the room where the elders told me my family history. I'm sure they will be displeased with my decision to become a vampire, but it had to be done. A male relative sets two of my toes on fire. I put them out, annoyed. He says, "You are a vampire now, they will never go out," and indeed, much like those bothersome birthday candles, my toes light up again. The only way to keep the fire from consuming my whole body is to keep moving. So long as I'm moving, the toes will stop burning, but when I'm still, the fire starts again. This is part of being a vampire. I decide to use this fire to kill my grandfather.

I go looking for him in the house, which is now a castle. I have powers of telekinesis and great strength. I rush through rooms and courtyards, where people with weapons try to stop me. Most of them are defending themselves out of fear, but some are on his side, trying to stop me. They shoot guns at me, but I'm invulnerable to bullets. Sometimes the shots sting, but that's all. I yell, "Go ahead and shoot me! You can't stop me!" I throw the bullets back with such power that I shoot them without need for a gun. Others throw darts at me, which I return the same way. There are men I toss aside like dolls to get out of the way. One, I bite into his neck and drink the blood, to know fully my vampire heritage and claim it's power.

I tear down walls looking for my daughter and use telekinesis to get past barriers. Nothing will stop me. Sometimes this feels like a movie set with props made of cardboard so I can do this. At other times, trying to force things with telekinesis doesn't work, which leads to physically tearing things out of the way.

I see an omniscient vision of my grandfather. He is on the roof of the castle. It is very high and overlooks a breathtaking view. He is confident in his power and waiting for me. When we're back to my perspective, I sense his location and start looking for a way to get there.

I find an apartment within the castle that belongs to a woman and her family. I haven't eaten solid food since becoming a vampire, and I feel horrible. I didn't think vampires had to deal with this! They don't even eat food, right? The woman has breads and such laid out on a platter, and I ask for some. She is kind and offers me other food as well, but I just grab a hunk of bread and continue seeking the way to my grandfather. And then I find it, stairs hidden in an alcove at the back of the apartment. I go rushing up the staircase to kill him.

The dream ends here, leaving the epic battle between vampire and granddaughter unresolved. Thankfully, the characters in the dream are only dream-kin and don't accurately represent real life family members. ;-) Comments and interpretations are welcome.