A Vampire’s Guide to History: Volume 1, Chapter 1-5-ish, Rough Outline
Patrick Lyle Hartford thought he had his life all planned out. After obtaining his Bachelor of Arts degree at Oxford he is now, at twenty-four, set to focus on his graduate studies in architecture. He’s a diligent student who has worked his whole youth toward the chance to make enough money to retire at forty and enjoy a quiet, secluded life in the countryside. But everything changes on a late night heading home from a central Oxford pub.
Never a big drinker Patrick is stone-cold sober when he crosses the street and a car takes the corner at speed. It hits him. Patrick blacks out.
He wakes up in his dorm room, feeling strangely fine. He thinks he must have dreamed what happened but finds a note: I’m sorry. I couldn’t let you die. You’re a vampire now. Avoid direct sunlight. Best wishes, Victor. PS. Don’t tell anyone you’re a vampire.
Patrick, who doesn’t have a superstitious bone in his body, doesn’t believe the note to be in the least true and figures his mate Gavin is having a go at him. But when he goes to pull the curtains back from the windows something deep within him won’t let him.
Literally.
He goes to the mirror, expecting there to be no reflection, but to his relief there is. He goes to the door of his dorm room but can’t turn the doorknob. No matter what he tries, he can’t leave the room. He’s trapped. The note remains on his desk like a small, white rectangle of foreboding. He reads it again.
A tentative sense of acceptance sets in.
Patrick is now facing two big problems.
The first: he’s suddenly very hungry.
The second: it’s nearly 10am and he’s going to be late for his introductory class to modern architecture. Way to make a solid first impression.
He texts his girlfriend Sally. She can’t come over, she’s working and then she has evening classes. She can come after, though.
He remains in the room. The hunger subsides somewhat if he just lies perfectly still on his bed. He drifts back to sleep.
He dreams. No, he realizes he’s remembering. Very clearly. More memories come back to him as though his brain is a book and he’s turning the pages. In fact, he can remember the title of every book he’s ever read and if he focuses he can remember what was in them too. Can it be possible? Has vampirism afforded him retroactive photographic memory?
The idea of accepting his fate and making the most of it is growing on him by the time his girlfriend arrives but with her arrival everything takes a darker turn. The hunger returns; he ends up biting her. She freaks out and when he tries to explain she point blank tells him to get off the internet and whatever forum he’s gotten caught up in and wake the fuck up. Fetishes are fine, for Christ’s sakes, but he can’t go around biting people! She leaves. He goes after her, realizing he can leave the room.
The sun has gone down. Patrick deduces that the forced entrapment was a safety measure of some kind to keep him from harming himself.
He’s still terribly hungry and realizes he needs help before he hurts someone else. He goes to see his friend Gavin.
As it was with Patrick, Gavin is not into the esoteric even a little bit and has a hard time believing that Patrick isn’t pulling his leg. Like, where are the fangs?
After some examination it turns out no fangs can be found. Patrick doesn’t know why they’re not there. Maybe they only appear if he bites something? Gavin asks if he can feed on any blood or only human blood. Patrick isn’t enjoying the inquisition since he doesn’t know anything.
No, that’s not entirely true. He knows that he’s hungry and bite-y and scared he’ll attack some random person on the street unless Gavin helps him figure out a better course of action. Seeing the wild look in his friend’s eye Gavin starts to take Patrick a tiny bit more seriously. He suggests Patrick call his dad, since his dad is a doctor and probably has access to blood of all sorts.
Patrick half-panics at the mere idea. He can’t call his father and tell him he’s been turned into a vampire and to please prescribe him some blood. And Gavin knows Patrick’s mother would call the village priest on him, they’ll think he’s possessed. He’ll end up tied to his bed with holy water tossed in his face. No, he can’t tell his parents about this. He can’t involve them. Not ever.
To solve the hunger issue they do a bit of research, trying to see if they can stumble across a legit vampire forum online - no dice - and then Gavin suggests they try their luck at John Radcliffe Hospital. If it’s blood in a bag that Patrick is after then that’s their safest bet, isn’t it? Oh what a tangled web is woven when trying to figure out exactly what excuse to use in order to even get close to the blood storage.
They try - they epically fail. But they do meet a medical student named Tobias who has something wolfish about him and has a role to play as our story continues.
Patrick returns to his dorm room still hungry, increasingly frustrated, and growing tired since the sunrise is approaching. He realizes he never reached out to his professor with an excuse for missing class. He knows he’s in the shit house and from what he’s heard of Professor Memphis the shit house involves essays of critical analysis on the importance of time management.
Then he notices something on his desk. Next to the note left to him by Victor is a sealed envelope with gilt borders. He opens it and pulls out a printed invitation. It only has an address on it. No time, no further information. But he knows in his gut who its from. He’s about to meet with his new kin. He’ll be able to ask his questions and get some answers. And hopefully he’ll be offered someonething to eat.