AtoZ day 7: G is for Grave, Geyal/Gayal, God of Vampires

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Grave

Vampires are a very grave and serious issue. Okay, sorry, couldn't resist the play on words :).

So, vampires and graves. In some legends the grave is very important; the vampire must return to it before every sunrise or they will be destroyed. For others they must travel with their coffin and have dirt from their grave inside it so they have a safe place to sleep during the day. For more still it is simply the coffin that is important. Then there are those like some of Anne Rice's vampires where escaping from the grave is the first test of strength and worthiness.

Whichever type of vampire we are talking about, there is no getting away from the fact that the majority are undead. They have all been through the grave even if they are not tied to it. It is part of what makes vampires so creepy.

If you became a vampire do you think waking up in a coffin underground would be the scariest part?

Creature Feature:

Geyal/Gayal

This vampire is created if a man is not given the proper burial rites after his death. He rises from the grave and seeks out the son of his former friends and is also fond of attacking pregnant women according to The Encyclopedia of Vampire Mythology.

The VampireAZ says the Gayal may be laid to rest by performing the proper funeral rites, but The Encyclopedia of Vampire Mythology is not so sure, saying this only makes it less violent.

As Vampire Underworld points out, the fear of someone becoming a Gayal usually makes sure the proper rites are performed after death even if the person has no family to do so.

Movie Recommendation:

Title: God of Vampires
Rating: 18
Summary: A hit man, Frank Ng, is given a contract to kill what he thinks is a Chinese Mafia boss. Unfortunately for him the man is in fact a master vampire who starts killing everyone Frank so much as talks to.
Why you should watch it: On my copy the sound is very odd which is a problem, but I still enjoyed the film. It's very bloody, so don't watch if that bothers you, but it's very interesting to see a different take on vampires. These are not Dracula types, these are Chinese vampires and they're nasty. I also loved the ending. (No idea about the front of the DVD - it has nothing to do with the plot as far as I can tell).

Grave Business 

(#7 in The Diverse Life of Ianthe Jawara, Vampire)

by Natasha Duncan-Drake

As soon as her business for the evening was concluded, Ianthe had only one plan. She knew it wasn't a good idea. In fact if Alex had known what she did every time she dreamed of the night he turned her, he would have forbidden it.

It was full dark as she left the house and walked to the garage. Her car was a sporty little number and it purred into life as soon as she hit the start button. She was going to have to drive fast if she wanted to reach her destination by dawn. This time, however, she was prepared for when the sun would come up, so she wasn't overly worried. Her glasses were in her bag and the car had ever so slightly tinted windows which would take out the worst of the sun's glare even if she was out too long.

When Alex had turned her he had immediately up sticks and moved them over one hundred miles from where she had lived. Cutting off all ties to her previous life had been one of the hard and fast rules. Since she didn't want anyone being killed because they knew too much, she obeyed it.

However, there was one thing she had needed to do eventually and it brought her a strange kind of comfort, so she did it whenever she was really unsettled.

The countryside swept by without her really noticing as she bombed down the motorway. She was so focused on her destination that she didn't take stock of anything else.

She had been born and bred in a small rural market town and had only moved to the nearest city to work and eventually to train as a teacher when she had decided on a career change. It was her old home she headed to.

She hadn't lived there for ten years now, four of those working away and six after her change of circumstances, but it still felt like home. The roads were achingly familiar. It wasn't often she allowed herself to remember her old life, but it made her feel connected as she passed the local primary school where she had spent so many happy years.

Familiar places weren't her goal, however. She was headed somewhere that she had always avoided as a child.

She had been found murdered in the hotel room where Alex had bitten her. Then some auto suggestion here and there had left the case cold and her buried in the local cemetery.

Parking her car, she locked it and put her keys in her pocket before walking to the locked gates. A small jump and she was over the wall and into the quiet dwelling of the dead.

She had only been here once with Alex when he had dug her out of her grave and called her back to consciousness. It was all very dreamlike in her memory. The first few weeks had all been like that as she became what she had been made into.

It was cloudy so there was no bright moon or stars, but she picked her way between the graves without trouble. Everything was black and white around her, but there was enough light for her sharp eyes to see. When she had risen there had only been a wooden cross to mark her resting place, but now there was a headstone. She had never realised you had to wait six months to put up a stone so the ground could settle first. It was amazing what you learned after you were dead.

Her name on the stone still made her heart catch. It rammed home that she was really a vampire, but it also settled another part of her mind. This stone with the fresh flowers in front of it let her know she had been real, she was loved and the person she had been lived on inside. She was different now and she could never go back, but part of her was still the same.

As she stood there she let that knowledge seep into her bones.

Alex had taken her life and given her a new one, but he could never change who she was.

The wind switched direction, ruffling her hair. It was cool and with it came the hint of something. Being absorbed in staring at her grave it took her a moment to realise what it was, but then her head shot up. She smelt men's cologne.

Stilling completely she listened.

The sound of insects crawling in the grass, a slow worm winding on its way and a sleepy bird all made it to her ears, but nothing else. She waited, motionless, for at least a minute and there were no suspicious sounds. Her mind was full of the memory of the man she had seen outside Cal's the morning before, but she could hear nothing that could be a man at that moment. Finally she moved. Sometimes people liked to tip things on the headstone when they were remembering their loved ones; that could have been what she had smelt. However, she was no longer relaxed. The incident had broken the spell of bizarre comfort she took from seeing her well cared for grave.

Turning she headed back to her car.

There were footprints in the gravel outside the gate, but she had no idea if they had been there before. She refused to let her imagination run riot. She would go home, she would sleep and then she would go and see Cal and he'd probably tell her the man she had seen outside his place was just an old friend. Then she'd let him laugh at her for her paranoia.

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A few of us discovered that we all had supernatural themes for the AtoZ so we got together and did a mini list. If you also have a supernatural theme (ghosts, monsters, witches, spells etc), please feel free to add yourself to the list.

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