Contents:
My Myth of Vampires
Goth and Horror
History of SciFi in Horror
Zombies on the Rise in Haiti
Horror Religion & Voodoo
Torture from Limb to Limb
These are a set of articles that have been published online. They are an example of my writing style and I hope you check out my novel ‘Rhinehoth’ available on Amazon.com both in Kindle and paperback. Thank you and enjoy,
Brian E. Niskala
Copyright 2010 Brian E. Niskala
My Myth of
Vampires
by
Brian E. Niskala
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Vampires,
everyone loves them, but what makes sense vs. the reality check.
Stake in the heart: In the movies they are classically killed
with a stake through the heart. When it comes right down to it,
anything that gets a stake in the heart is going to die.
This
just makes sense and successful in most of the text and main stream
movies.
Holy
water:
Well if you are from the old world, something blessed is sacred by
God. Holy water through the history of early vampires has represented
a cleansing or spiritual awareness of God and his goodness. So thus
in earlier times, blessed or Holy water was looked at as a good
weapon against the Vampire. But today it burns them, mutilates them
even blinds them. But make a little sense of it, can holy water
really burn anything?
It’s just water right? But unless
you have a super rare allergy to water, I really don’t think
this is going to work by scalding a Vampire in his/her tracks. It
will probably really piss them off! Last films I can remember this
being a main stream weapon in was ‘The Lost Boys 1987’,
‘Bordello of Blood 1996’ with a much thinner, younger
Dennis Miller and ‘From Dusk to Dawn’ being a more recent
release where Holy water was used with some success.
Cross/crucifix:
Representing the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (Evil of man
being defeated by the grace of God) used prolifically as holy water
in early text and films. Let’s face the reality check here,
unless Vampires fear the cross is going to be staked into their
heart, I say there is nothing to really fear here or for that matter
of a Vampire’s hand touching it, turning it into flame as in
‘Fright Night 1985’.
Just think of it more rationally what we know about science as a whole. You need intense heat or a laser to spontaneously combust any wooden cross. Last two films the I can recall that a cross working in would be ‘From Dusk Till Dawn’ and ‘Dracula 1997’ Anne Rice kind of killed the cross’s power in ‘Interview with a Vampire 1994’ when Daniel Malloy (Christian Slater) asks Louis de Pointe du Lac (Brad Pitt) about his/vampires fear of crosses, Louis simply replies that he is actually quite fond of them. But a cross still shows up every now and then.
Garlic: Cloves of garlic around your doors, windows and around your neck, ok, I personally love garlic, but know people and animals that hate it, so really I think this one works, just hope you don’t find one that likes to eat the stuff raw. Last main stream film to use this was ‘Blade 2, 2002’ earlier myths have been that garlic since it grows as a bulb in the ground and with such a pungent odor reminds the Vampires from which they came, from human mortal dead in the ground to immortal undead above ground. But garlic as a whole still has some good staying power on film and in text.
Sunlight: A
clear cut good vs. evil, day-sunlight representing good,
night-darkness representing evil. Since humans basically sleep during
the night and a total opposite creature would roam at night (unless
of course you work for UPS or FedEx loading and unloading trucks in
the early hours) In older times before modern electricity and lights
most humans were home before sunset and stayed indoors. They knew at
night predators like wolves and vampires would roam the country side.
But here is something that is really controversial; some say
Vampires’ powers are weakened during the day light hours.
‘Dracula 1992’ as well as the Novel by Bram Stoker.
Other extreme is they will burst into flame and turn to ash if
exposed to sunlight or now the modern twist of UV light as used in
’30 Days of Night’. Logically, hey there are plenty of
animals that hate the sun, including me personally. So this I believe
to be true but to the fact, do we really believe they will burst into
flames? A more modern take was used in ‘Underworld’ where
“liquid” sunlight bullets were used. Not sure how you
would capture ultra violet light into a liquid, but then again
science does do some serious almost magical things, but come on
Hollywood, don’t insult us all the time with this one. (but
keep those movies coming!)
Mirrors: Early mirrors would have a thin coat of silver melted and poured to the back of a pane of glass. Silver also represented purity and as with werewolves and silver bullets, silver was also seen as a way to kill vampires or ward them off. Since most people had these mirrors with real silver on them, it was thought since silver was a purity metal that since Vampires represented evil that they would not cast their reflection since only a “pure” being could show its reflection in a pure metal. A big play on this was ‘Dracula 1979’ with Frank Langella and Laurence Olivier, perhaps my favorite film of the late 70’s early 80’s. Though the mirror not only did not cast a vampire’s reflection it also did not show their clothes either… hmm how does that work?
Turning into
bat/wolf: Well
I have seen women turn into something else right before my eyes. Mind
you, I love women but both male and female know what I am talking
about here. Caterpillar into a butterfly, tadpole into a frog, so on
that grounds, sure possible, as fast in the movies? See
description of “women”. The transformation of Vampires in
other forms of beings can easily be related into the thought of Satan
being as other people, demons, ghost or beings. So it was only
natural for literature and film pick this up as another dramatic
representation of Vampire’s powers.
Are
Vampires real?: Great
question, vampire bats, do exactly what Vampires are suppose to do,
drink blood with fangs, wonder around at night and scary the heebie
geebes out of us when you get a “fly by”. No questions
there, easily enough to adapt to another creature doing it because
they already have one that does. Have I met one, sure plenty, search
Facebook to find hundreds, walk down the street at night or check at
work for people who suck the life right out of you!
Quick,
short to the point, some light humor, to help bring us into the 21st
century with are eyes wide open.
Goth and Horror
Modern day Goth has evolved from the 80’s punk ties being first coined by a band manager Anthony Wilson of ‘Joy Division’. He described the band as ‘Gothic compared to the pop mainstream’ the scene eventually started taking on a more ‘Gothic’ look, dressing in darken clothing, mimicking the tall shadow filled buildings of the Gothic Period.
Goth transformed from its musical sub-culture to a way of rebelling against the average daily grind of society. Today it has people from all cultures, careers and musical genre. It has become as mainstream has the Harley Davidson bikers now who are Doctors and Lawyers amongst them.
The core of Goth in its relation to horror was represented in ‘The Crow 1994’ with the now deceased Brandon Lee where the main character spawned make-up of long running veins of black vertically on his eyes and dark black hair with clothes to match. This tied the two together nicely and it stuck.
Gothic horror originally was coined as Gothic Fiction with it’s know start with a novel by an English author named Horace Walpole with his ‘The Castle of Otranto’ 1764. His work can be scene and emulated by such greats as Bram Stoker, Ann Radcliffe and the drug delusion and disease infested Edgar Allan Poe.
Goth really comes from the type of architecture called Gothic, which flourished during the medieval period. It can be dated back to 12th century France and late into the 16th century but obviously never lost its appeal. Gothic architecture is known for its high peaks, pointed arches, ribbed vaulted ceilings and flying buttresses. Their windows were often stained glass as in churches and cathedrals with long corridors and hallways. This is what primarily led to the dark eerie shadows cast down from their stained glass mimicking the blood of Christ as the reds cast streams of pooled red color on the floors and walls.
Dress of the day was bleak with earth tones and darkened color. Primary reason was to hide the stains of dirt and filth which was common since bathing and cleanliness was not high on the list, one of the main factors of the onslaught of bubonic plague otherwise known as the Black Death. These dark times of depression and death can still be felt in the architecture today.
After the coined term of Gothic to Goth, the dark images of ‘The Crow’ launched the Goth era into the main stream. Out casts who found themselves with-out an image quickly adopted the dark imagery and began the Goth look phenomena. Horror seemed to go hand and hand with this dark depressing look and lifestyle. Goth finally found a sub culture in society a place where the ‘different’ can finally find a sense of companionship, certainty and a sense of belonging. Their clothing is what separates them from the ‘norm’ of society, it is always dark, depressing and with a touch of outrageousness. Tall black boots, skin tight black pants, long black dresses and chains to accessories with are just a few examples. The vampire scene also follows closely to the Goth scene; the two are often confused but closely related. Both cultures wear similar dress but the main separation is usually the vampire scene works very hard on keeping themselves sheltered from the sunlight and pride themselves on being as pale as possible.
This mass of certain genre has launched films such as ‘Nosferatu
1922’ ‘Phantom of The Opera 1925‘, ‘Batman
1989’ ‘Edward Scissorhands 1990’ ‘The Crow
1994’ ‘The City of Lost Children 1995’ ‘Sleepy
Hollow 1999’ ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas 1993’
‘Dark City 1998’ ‘Blade 1998’ ‘Queen of
The Damned 2002’ ‘Underworld 2003’ to name more
than a few.
Tim Burton Directs most his films in a Gothic
manner, most obvious are ‘Corpse Bride’ ‘Nightmare
Before Christmas’ ‘Batman Returns’ most of his
films have this dark Goth feel to them. As his films sold millions,
the culture grew. The current director of Avatar James Cameron also
tied some the culture together with SciFi Gothic Horrors ‘Aliens
1986’ ‘Terminator series’ and ‘Dark Angel
2000-02’ TV series that helped launch Jessica Alba’s
career.
Horror may not be the choice of all Goth’s but
it has become synonymous with it.
The History of SciFi in Horror
Growing up in the 80’s for the most part, I found myself a Horror fan as much as the next kid. My best friend Wally and I joined a local movie-rental club; we would ride our bikes down to the movie place and rent every horror film the guy had. Being 13-14 it was great because he would let us rent the -R- movies with the gratuitous nudity in them. Looking back, I am still not sure if we rented them for the gore or the girls. But I think it was for the girls with the “cover” of the gore to fool our parents! Let’s not confuse gore with Al Gore who to me is honestly as scary.
Like most of the SciFi Horror fans, I stumbled across their complexity merely by accident. Attracted towards the cheesy ‘Firday The 13th’ (1980’s) films with almost zero plot and all gore, except for the fore mentioned gratuitous nudity. It wasn’t until our “Rental God” suggested ‘Alien 1979’ to us that we really thought we found something. It represented horror but in a whole different back ground with spaceships, people being blown out into the vastness of space and one crazy looking puppet that came screaming out of a guys belly! Now up until that time, I was never so scared until I saw that scene. Sure the cool hack ‘em up gore stuff was plenty scary, but this stuff made it hard for me to walk home at night! Crazy, I thought an ‘Alien’ was going to jump down from a tree and eat me, obviously far more less likely than a homicidal maniac jumping from behind the tree with a chain saw right??
SciFi horror stimulates our intellectual thought patterns, we know the technological back-drop does not exist, but it could in the future. It applies to our natural instinct to build something better, something fantastic. The sense of the horror behind that somehow makes it more developmentally credible.
Mary Shelley’s literary master piece ‘Frankenstein 1818’ is probably the oldest most widely known Scifi Horror that exists. It was way ahead of its time even for today, but somehow the crude science behind bringing Frankenstein’s monster to life is so credible. Even today we know it is impossible to re-animate dead flesh no matter how much ‘Re-Animator 1985’ tries to convince us! ‘Re-Animator’ believe it or not was a very loose, VERY LOOSE adaptation of HP Lovecraft’s story “Herbert West: Re-Animator” which is a good read if you like Lovecraft but who doesn’t?
Robert Louis Stevenson who wrote ‘Treasure Island’ also wrote a SciFi classic novella ‘Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ published in 1886. This has been done and re-done as well as the main character(s) have been seen through-out cinema and literature. This is one classic that even today we use its abridged title in everyday life “He/she went all Jekyll and Hyde on me” or any variant of the phrase. I am sure we all know someone with this case of occasional psychosis.
The 1930’s saw the breakthrough of various forms of technological in filmography, make-up and special effects. Making the 1931 film ‘Frankenstein’ by James Whale come to life. Even seeing this film in the 80’s would give you nightmares. Progression moved a bit slower after that led to other releases but no significant breakthroughs until ‘The Day the Earth Stood Still 1951’ not the remake done with Keanu Reeves which I thought was entertaining, but nothing compared to the 1951 classic which must have been immensely impressive on the early silver screen. With the towering robot standing, shooting out its light ray laser. Not impressive by today’s standards, but still a good SciFi classic that will bring a grin to your face.
Almost standing light years ahead of its time was the 1953 Radio remake ‘War of the Worlds’ done in film. I have heard the radio cast which was originally done on October 30, 1938, so scary was the original SciFi horror on the radio, it had people calling their local police frantic of an actual alien invasion! Can you imagine! This HG Wells adaptation of his novel is a quick show how horror and SciFi are a match made in literature and cinema heaven.
Cinema moved quickly with literary hits, ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers 1956’ with 3 following remakes, 1978 and a closely related ‘Pupper Masters 2002’ and ‘Invasion 2007’all based on the novel by Jack Finney in 1955. ‘The Thing 1951, 1982’ based on a short story by John W. Campbell published in Astounding Science Fiction Magazine, August 1938 issue (good luck finding it, I have been looking for years!) the 1982 film version is a personal favorite of mine and may actually be my favorite SciFi Horror next to ‘Aliens’.
Two movies that seem to always be on the top of most of the top lists for cinema SciFi Horror are ‘The Fly 1986’ and of course ‘Alien’ though I prefer ‘Aliens’ for the darker dreary feel. ‘The Fly’ also a remake from the 1958 with the immortal Vincent Price, this which has a more interesting twist to it…
“Help me!”
With the release of ‘Avatar’ with its life like digital 3D it is to be seen what other literary SciFi Horror will see its remake or new release with spectacular computer generated SciFi effects that will make the space creatures jump right into our lap as with all our intellect and reasoning we will have no doubt that could actually happen.
Zombies on the Rise in Haiti
The recent 7.0 earthquake in Haiti on January 12th 2010, which caused massive devastation in and around the capital city of Port au Prince is a tragedy and my heart goes to the people who have to suffer after this natural disaster. But it is feared there will be a rise of zombies.
I am sure George Romero is not on the next plane down there to capture zombies for use in his next film, but in Haiti it is a known fact of the existence of zombies. So much so there is a Penal code for such events.
Haitian
Penal Code:
Article
249. It shall also be qualified as attempted murder the employment
which may be made against any person of substances which, without
causing actual death, produce a lethargic coma more or less
prolonged. If, after the person had been buried, the act shall be
considered murder no matter what result follows.
As bizarre as the law may seem, it would not have been put into law, unless there was a considerable awareness of such facts and phenomena as zombies or a zombified state of being. People of Haiti truly believe there are zombies amongst them. Not a few or a hundred but in the thousands!
Haiti is known for being the poorest country in the western hemisphere. With this comes the lack of financial revenues to build a school system that we are accustomed to in the United States or in most developed countries. With lack of education come the uneducated spreading rumors, fantastic stories and developing folklore. With their medical system being sub-standard to what we know as modern medicine, it is easy to believe people would be pronounced dead, but later come back from a comatose type state. Up to this most recent tragic earthquake people were still “buried alive”. The horror of being in a coma, to only wake being buried in the ground in a coffin gasping for air with the tons of earth over you pinning you into an eternal slumber silence & darkness.
Voodoo is still a common practice in Haiti with their witch doctors performing miracle cures or tragic accidental deaths. The art of zombie making or witch doctoring was brought to cinema life with the release of ‘Serpent and the Rainbow 1988’ which brings you through a journey in this mystical art and it’s so called victims. Voodoo with its ties to Africa when Haiti was massively populated by the slave trade took on a life of its own. Witch Doctors would bring people “back from the dead” with ceremonies and witch craft. Some research was found that different type of native pharmaceutical compounds were used to put people into a coma type sleep, being dead and then resurrected by the witch doctor who then would seemingly be in control of the zombie who was indebted for returning them to a conscience state of zombieism.
From 1957 to 1971 the Haiti dictator Papa Doc Duvallier rumored to the population that he had an army of zombies under his control to tighten his hold of the uneducated population ruling by fear. Since Duvallier was a devoted voodooist he was never challenged or questioned on this. People who were questioned always knew someone, a friend, someone’s father, a mother’s cousin, ect. who swore they had seen one of these zombies but no had person to person of face to face.
Most cases of people turning into zombies were results of high fevers that lasted days causing mild brain damage, so even when the person would recover from the fever, they were never quite right their speech would return to a degree but not their mind. So it was even more perceived they had died and turned into another form of human or turned into a creature or zombie. Rabies also wildly untreated because the lack of medication in the poor country would also create a state of someone suffering brain damage and never returning to a healthy state of mind.
Some more elaborate zombification used venom from a pufferfish would be used. This concentrated nerve poison would put a victim into a state where they are aware of their surroundings, but unable to move or obviously even communicate. If the dose is given in an improper amount, permanent paralysis can result. But those surviving the ordeal, would actual be brought to a hospital, clinically diagnosis as being dead even though just unresponsive. The voodoo practitioner would claim the body and have it buried while the whole time the victim is aware of what is happening and is fully perceived as being dead and buried. After a time the voodoo practitioner would dig up the victim and have them revived and perceived as rising from the dead as a zombie. The victim was then enslaved to do the zombie practitioners bidding for fear of returning to the “death state “Most would actually suffer nerve damage and have various symptoms of paralysis making them even more convince they had been changed.
With this tragedy of the earthquake, with people being presumed dead and rising from near death, it will been seen by the Haitian masses as their loved ones being dead, buried and rising again.
Horror, Religion & Voodoo
With Haiti’s devastating events still in the news and as you may of guessed I am a historian and love to build the relationship between my love of horror, history, religion and of course politics, but I like to forgo the latter in this forum.
Horror historically always seems to hover around the aspect of religion, good defeating evil for that matter all early wars evolved around religion until the true discovery of using petroleum as a fuel, now we fight about religion and oil but I am almost crossing the line about politics!
The 1791 Slave Rebellion in Haiti is a classic example of good defeating evil sort of… People of the day held religion as their highest priority. Although owning slaves was viewed as a simple business decision with no thought of human life except on how to breed slaves to make bigger stronger workers.
Quick history of Haiti, Haiti was originally Hispanola named by Christopher Columbus Dec 5th, 1492. Its native people were small in numbers but soon over ran by ships carrying loads of slaves to work the fields growing sugar cane. Originally a Spanish colony, it was taken over by French buccaneers who used the island of Tortuga (1625, an actual place not only in The Pirates of The Caribbean), as a launching ground for raids on Spanish ships. France quickly made claim to the island but the Spanish held on in the areas that became The Dominican Republic in later years. Sugar expanded to indigo and cotton. This flourishing business gave great wealth to France and the slave owners drove their slaves hard in darkened misery of endless days of work. Voodoo was the chosen religious practice chosen by the slaves something that the so called Christian slave owners would try to beat out of them.
By 1791 the slave population reached a staggering 790,000! With only 32,000 being white. Some slaves tried planning revolts, but were slaughtered, gutted and hung around the cities and plantations to warn the other slaves to ‘stay in line’ others were so savagely beaten by their Christian owners that they would remain crippled for the rest of their lives.
Voodoo was a pagan ritual seen as a type of demonic practice or ‘pact with the devil’ as the recent Pat Robertson so affectionately yet irresponsibly reminded us of and caused our wonderful Dai Green to send that nice email to the 700 Club, Pat Robertson’s launching ground for his cult like practice of evangelism. Voodoo in fact is a blending of African religious beliefs and Christianity which was forced upon the slaves as they became the property of their Christian owners. As the generations of slaves progressed so did the blending which eventually became known as voodoo.
1791 led to the breaking point, Boukman Dutty a self educated slave and voodoo high priest (witch doctor) led the successful slaughter of the white dominance on the island. Boukman was large in stature with a rage unlike anything the Christian’s had seen, leading them to believe even more that voodoo had made his rage so intense to lead the hundreds of thousands of his people into revolt. He was viewed as being invincible by his followers and many French as well.
Such a rising could only be seen as a ‘pact with the devil’ in the eyes of the French Christians. The Christian slave owners could not fathom their God would let such a uprising against his Christian followers, they only knew this had to be the devils work.
Boukman on the eve of the first organized attack slaughtered a pig in sacrifice and ‘cast aside the image of the God of the whites.’ Being interpreted wrongly as a revolt against God but in fact a revolt against the white God who was seen by the Boukman’s followers as letting it be ok for a human to be slaved to another human. Simply put, practice what you preach. Saint Domingue saw some 1800 plantations burned to the ground and 1000 slave owners savagely killed ripped to pieces, burned alive or dragged to their death in one of the bloodiest horrific uprisings to date. Rumors of slave owners were reported to be used in human sacrifices with various body parts being consumed by Boukman’s followers adding to the intense state of horror felt by the French colony. It was viewed as Boukman was demonically possessed by the devil himself.
The uprising ceremony is remembered as ‘The event of the Bwa Kayiman ceromony’ it forms the important part of the identify of the genesis of the Hatian people. Still viewed as a ‘pact with the devil’ by many Christians who do not understand its meaning or heritage.
Boukman a few months later was caught by the French, brutality tortured in public until his death and dismemberment where his head was put on display to show his disciples that he was indeed defeated and he was not invincible as previously thought.
August 29, 1793 slavery was abolished in the Northern territories of Haiti and eventually completely by 1794. The United States took nearly 71 years (1865) to follow France.
Torture from Limb to Limb
I am not talking about Sadism and Masochism or affectionately abbreviated S&M a favorite past time of… well that is a whole other story…
Torture can be perceived as one of the earliest forms of entertainment. Very popular during the Medieval ages and still popular today with the popularity of the Saw Series of movies whose total budget for all 6 films was $47Million but has taken in a cool $731million+ or close to a Billion dollars worldwide! Oh yes, one cannot find enough ways to torture ourselves for the pure entertainment of others.
Anyhow, the long history can be dated back as far as recorded human history and far into the future as we crave to watch the pain of others as it shows how vulnerable we actual are. Be enjoy our safety in our society but the rush of pain, the power of inflicting pain to someone else, is to be craved by all.
Number 1 on our list probably the most easily recognized and probably one of the simplest is ‘the Rack’, not to be confused with a slang term for a part of the female body!
This large device was simple to use, yet inflicted enormous amounts of pain and suffering.
Either end of the device had a crank that was turned, attached to each limb. One’s joints would make that horrifying “POP” as the joints would nearly explode under the strain. Often used in Witch hunting (Another favorite pastime ;) if the victim would survive, they would be freed. Though I do not understand what would be left?? Various other forms of this are used and for variety sack people would be burned, skinned, boiled just short of deep fried and otherwise stabbed while left in these compromising positions.
2. The Guided Cradle AKA The Judas Chair
Un-clear how long a subject was made to sit on this handy piece of workman ship, but I am sure it was not very long and if you survived, I am sure constipation was never a problem again.
3. The Spanish Donkey
Usually the victim was naked with various amounts of weights attached, the lighter you are, the more weight was added, an interesting way to cure obesity back in the day I guess… as you can imagine the victim would soon be split in half be their own weight or with the added help. I guess if you could clench your ass long enough you would survive a bit longer, no Stairmasters back then to help!
4. The Saw
Probably the most gruesome and blood spattering. This would require two men on either side to just do what looks natural when you have a saw in one’s hand. It wasn’t until the chain saw came out that you could save some money on the labor and use one guy.
5. Revolving Drum AKA Cheese Grater.
This device had variable speed. The slower the more torture, the faster the more fun? Funny as I was searching for this one, I came across the hand held version… so cute!
6. The Chastity Belt
Well not really a torture device, but after looking at it, no sexual contact or self-pleasureing could be done apprently, so torture in itself, women my heart goes out to you. Something I always questioned on this little device… Number 1, ok it just leaks out, Number 2?? Again not a torture device per say but damn! Though if you want a little web searching fun, just type in Chastity Belt in Google for some intresting laughs! Maybe also an early way to practice weight control?
What trully made me classify this as a torture device is when the men would go off to fit in a war or the crusades, they would be gone for months if not years! Can you imagine!?
7. The Chair of Torture
About as comfortable as a church pew I would say, but just short of the endless amounts of fun this one is, it would always be cut short on the amount of blood the guest was able to hold in until complete blooding.
8. The Head Crusher
Plain, simple what a show! I am sure this one had a lot of bets on where the blood would come from first, the eyes sockets or the ears, maybe even the mouth as the brain was pushed into the sinuses.
9. Iron Maiden
No, not the heavy metal rock group, though one or two songs they have were torturous…
One version was seemingly to encase the victim in the coffin and let them scream to death from starvaion. Though less fun than the versions with sharp objects strategically place to gouge the eyes, limbs and various parts of the body, while inflicting great pain, but causing the victim to stay very much alive to eventually bleed out.
10. The Crusifiction
Thank you Roman’s for this one. Every one who has gone to Christian/Catholic church sees this one right in front of them.
Your heart has to go out to Jesus on this one. If you want an idea of the true agony, rent Passions of The Christ by Mel Gibson, I gurantee you will be shouting at the screen “For the love of God stop! No more!” if you can bear to watch. This will give you an idea what anyone would of gone through at the early times of Christ and the Roman Empire.
Victims were always beaten, sometimes made to carry their device and then hung to die. If they did not have their hands and feet tied to the cross they were nailed into place. Which has struck a lot of contrevesy. If you actually nailed through the hands, the weight of the individual would be enough to rip through the hand’s delicate bones. A much more placement of the nail would have to go through the wrist right before the hand joint. Feet placement was not that critical but all the same painful. Though it sounds like I speak from expereince, never the less there is an aweful lot of research done on this process.
Victims would die in agony, slowly bleeding to death or just die from exposure. Vitims were sometimes feed and watered to prolong the pain and suffering. But it all depends on the crime and mood of the Roman soliders at the time. This was a favorite for centuries.
Written
by: Brian E. Niskala, Author of Rhinehoth, a Dark Gothic Horror Novel
available on Amazon.com, Fan page on Facebook: Rhinehoth
Rhinehoth Copyright © 2009, Brian E. Niskala
Rhinehoth
Centuries ago a great castle was built in the mountains of Germany’s Black Forest. It’s ancient guardians still thrive in its walls forever protecting it’s dark secrets, holding captive an enemy that threatens their very existence. Foretold is a story of an ancient warrior that is to return to the castle to free the captive Vampire Prince.
Simon Roberts was a petty thief who fled England to escape Scotland Yard after a series of unsuccessful jewelry store heists. He was recruited to do a job in Germany where he was to simply drive the get away car while providing a look out. He thought this was going to be an easy job and a way to break into the German crime scene. But things go terribly wrong and he ended up being the only survivor of the botched heist. Simon is quickly sentenced to a prison called Rhinehoth. This is where Germany sent the worst of the worst, surely not a place for a petty thief such as himself.
Rhinehoth is a great German castle that was converted in the late 1930’s to a Stalag for war criminals of World War II. The converted prison’s modern day inhabitants are relentlessly tortured, starved and sleep deprived. This contributes to the prisoners’ delusional visions that help hide the truth and keeps Rhinehoth’s secrets. Their captors are the army of Werewolves who have survived the centuries off the very flesh and blood of Germany’s worst forgotten criminals.
Simon, imprisoned becomes plagued with visions from his subconscious ancient past with confusion of his modern day consciousness. He discoveries through his visions that he is the ancient warrior, Guthrie who has come to free the Vampire Prince and all the captives while saving the world from a dark plan of biblical proportions that has been orchestrated over the centuries!
A Special Thank you to the following:
Cover Artist:
Michael McAlick
Cover Design:
Prabhu Dorairag
Layout Artist:
Srinivasa Raja Iyengar
The following especially helped in my research for Literary Agents, Publishers and everything else I needed help with during the process of my insanity/writing.
Research Assistants:
Jacquelene Sena Thelma Nuguid Neelu Sree Archana Ravindran
Thank you to my family who has supported every crazy book idea, invention or idea.
To my Wife, Cynthia, for being my partner in everything, mother of our 4 children, Kyle, Brandon, Emily and Olivia and supporting me no matter how crazy she thinks I am.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Court
Chapter 2: Welcome to Stalag Rhinehoth
Chapter 3: Wash Those Floors
Chapter 4: Discovery
Chapter 5: Kitchen Duty
Chapter 6: The Visitor
Chapter 7: Back in the Infirmary
Chapter 8: Lost my Hat, Manchester United
Chapter 9: Identity Told
Chapter 10: Dreams of the Past
Chapter 11: Asmirelda
Chapter 12: The Journey Begins
Chapter 13: Crucifixion
Chapter 14: Castle Rhinehoth
Chapter 15: Down Into The Bowls of Hell
Chapter 16: Time for a Drink
Chapter 17: Back to Hell
Chapter 18: Dawn of a New Moon
Chapter 1: Court
“The defendant is found guilty!” as the gavel fell with a load BANG, filling the court room, the defendant flinched at the sound of the gavel as he tried to hold his heart felt sorrow back, he slouched in his chair as the curve of his back met the chair as the gavel seemingly in slow motion hit the judges desk one more time.
Simon Roberts of Manchester England was just found guilty by association of murder. He drove the get away car for a band of hoods that tried knocking off a jeweler on the East side of Berlin.
But what Simon was not aware of was that his small band of brothers picked the wrong jeweler to rob from. The jeweler was well armed with a ferocious temper a seemingly small detail that was left out of the planning.
Simon sat motionless as he slipped away from the moment to the night that ended him in court.
Simon slowly drove the car up to the front of the jewelry store. The cobbled road was practically right next to the store that had a very narrow sidewalk. Simon rubbed up next the worn cobbled curb that slightly jostled the car. The store owner could be seen, walking towards the back of the store as the 3 men pulled down their dark masks, pumped their shot guns and left the car. Simon with no mask, just a sweat stained Manchester United ball cap that he pulled down to help cover his eyes and slouched in the front seat just to be slightly out of site.
Gun fire broke out almost immediately, as if the jeweler had been expecting them. The would be jewel thieves' opened fire at the 1st sign of the jeweler's rage as he reached for his gun, but it was too late for ALL of them. The three thieves each got mortally wounded, but not before one of the thieves got off 1 important mortal shot, enough for him to escape and enough for his victim to breath his last breath.
Simon, flinching through the gun fire had opened the car door as the one surviving thief leaped from the store with his very life; he fell just short of Simon's get away car. Simon could hear the distinct, loudening sound of the Berlin Police coming closer. He blinked, wiped his face with his bare but sweating hand and dropped the car in Drive as he saw his last remaining brother laying on the wet pavement, taking his last gasp of life, his hand was reaching out for Simon to save…
Simon hit the gas propelling the car forward, the open car door slammed shut from the motion. A light mist that had fallen made it impossible for him to keep the car in control and he swerved to avoid a blinking construction sign, but it was too late and he was far beyond brining the car straight to avoid the cement pylons blocking some re-routed gas lines.
He hit the pylons with such force, it split his car wide open as he was hurled out making a large thud as he hit the pavement like a raw piece of meat. His head came to rest on the cobbled curb with a bone crushing crunch. He had been in the hospital for weeks to heal his injuries mostly going in and out of consciences due to the bad concussion. Surprising he had only a small fracture to his head considering the force of the impact amongst his other bruises and bumps from the violent ejection.
Simon blinked back into reality, he leaned toward his lawyer, a seedy looking man who obvious as a State appointed attorney looked as though he had forgot his razor and a bar of soap for that matter. “Where am I to go now” he asked
His lawyer, clearing this throat, leaned in close to him and said, the “Rhine” his breath made his nose hairs curl, he pulled back and covered his hand over his nose and mouth and muttered to his attorney again.
“What is The Rhine?” Simon muttered still covering his nose.
The dirty attorney just leaded back and showed his gnarled teeth so bad it almost appeared a worm crawled between each molar, Simon would find out soon enough.
The back door or the dark gray van closed with a metallic BOOM! Simon flinched yet again. Simon, shrugging back into his seat, tried not to look around, but his curiosity was getting the best of him as he looked to see who else was with him. He saw a dark figure, wheezing as if having a terrible cold; Simon looked harder trying to gain focus of the peering figure from the darkness of the rear cabin of the van.
Musting up a few courageous words, Simon began to ask, “Who else is in here?” his voice quivered.
Gnarling in his own saliva the voice began to speak, “They call me father time” as he leaned forward into the dim light, wiping some of the saliva that was dripping from a scar in his lip. The man hesitated; he paused for a moment as to recognize Simon. “Siegfried, as named by my birth parents, Siegfried Uhrmacher at your service” ironically as he stuck out his hand it was in shackles but oddly with some sort of other mechanism that looked mechanically geared and clumsy. Simon was not sure what to stare at or rather look at, the strange shackles, the out reached hand or the scar where saliva seemed to drip out of.
“Oh, yes, my name is Simon, Simon Roberts,” Simon hesitated, wanting to add, “as my birth parents named me” but felt it would be off color considering the events both were going through, not to mention there was no room for humor in their predicament.
After a brief hand shake, Siegfried leaned back once again into the darkness, “Oh, yes, Simon Roberts the botched jewelry heist get away driver, yes, dreadful event that whole matter, how is it you survived the whole thing?” Siegfried wiping some more drool coming from his scarred lips.
Simon, still peering into what light is present at the weird device on Siegfried's wrists. Trying to contain himself, but visibly not hearing the question “Um, not to be rude, but what is that gear thing on your shackles?”
Siegfried leaning forward with his shackles almost right into Simon's face, “Well you see, I am a bit of an escape artist, so they have devised this little toy, to help deter me from trying anything.” Laughing under his breath.
Simon moving back a bit to better focus the device, he moved his glasses a bit further down his nose to focus on the cuffs. He peers through a light beam that is coming from the front bared window, but the drivers of the van open their doors and shout into the back.
“Achtung, fasten your seatbelts sweeties!” With that the van lunged forward and the small barred window that gave light was slammed shut as the sheet metal slide, slid across almost sounding like a razor cutting through paper. Simon tried to peer for any wisk of light to better see, but it was hopeless. Siegfried had already slipped back into his seat, gnarling at his saliva drip and Simon, he too just kind of faded into his seated position. Siegfried began to speak, “Well time for some sleep Sir Simon, the last good sleep you will have for quit some time” Simon, just exhausted from the days events just mumbled “Where is this place
were going?” Siegfried, in a chuckle “It is not where, but what…” Simon just fell asleep as the rhythm of the tires drowned out any other audible noise. After a seemingly long hours drive, Simon is awaken by the change in the rythmatic
rumble of pavement to the crunching of loose gravel below the tires, groggy he drifts back to sleep with the faint sound of Siegfried sucking in his drool from his scarred lip. He thought he heard one of the guard drivers say “Schwazwald” which was a phrase meaning “Black Forrest” but Simon was not familiar nor did it register as his eyes lids fell drowsily closed.
A few moments later as it seemed, Simon is awakened by some ever increasing bumps and jumps in the road or was it a road any more. The hatch barred window had slide open from the turbulent driving so Simon could peer out to what seemed a great structure that looked as though it was built out of the side of the mountain. The half moon glow hung over the structure on the clearest of nights, yet a low lying fog seemed to form in the headlights of the van, as he leaned more forward peering into the driver compartment, he could see the clock showing it was well after 4am, they had been driving for hours all night long. The van began to slow to a stop with the pavement crisply cracking underneath its wheels and the slight brake squeal.
“Atchung!” the guards shouted through the open barred window, Simon glanced over at the way of Siegfried who had a fowl stench of wet dog, he could hear him snicker and his shackles sounded as if they hit the floor just as the weird geared mechanism made a whizzing noise as it sounded like it was collapsing on to itself.
Simon jumping back trying to make out the silhouette in the darkness, was there a large dog in the van with them, had he missed something, did they pick it up on the way? Hit a dog on the way putting the injured body in with them, how could he of missed that. Was he drugged??
“Siegfried!?” Simon shouted
“Calm down Simon, it is I” Siegfried's drooling gnarling voice said, “All is well”
The silhouette seemed to fade in the darkness regaining its form, Simon's eyes had
obviously been playing tricks on him in the early hours of the mountains dawn.
The fog seemed to stretch into the back of the van as the guards opened the rear doors. To everyone's surprise the shackles laid o the floor, with toughs of black hair entangled in them as Siegfried leaped forward at the guards tackling on to the ground as he lunged forward but still his ankles where shackled tightly into his skin, with burps of blood oozing from them, it had looked as if they imbedded themselves into the skin and the gears on these too where making a clicking noise as he lunged.
Siegfried whined “They twist into my bone, release me!”
The guards quickly rose to their feet as they pushed back almost into fear as they pulled forth their lugers an obvious antique weapon but seemed to serve them well. Their leather black gloves made the wringing, tightening sound as the gripped their pistols for dear life, but the look in their eyes was fear, clear unwavering fear. But with them both armed at the gates of the prison with snipers in sight in the raised turrets, Siegfried shackled tightly by his ankles to the van, what was there to fear?
Simon just glanced down at the loose shackles that once where on this old man's wrists, he thought “Where and how did he get out of those things and where did those black hairs come from?”
More guards came from the now lowering draw bridge to help assist in Father-time's re-introduction to Stalag Rhinehoth some had pistols drawn, more others had rifles all aiming at Siegfried's head all where shouting “Zurückkommen!, Zurückkommen!! ”, repeating the phrase as loosely Simon could translate as “Get back!” Simon still sitting watching the whole spectacle unfold, just sat back in his chair and turned his head for he knew what would come next….
The guards got control of Fathertime, he sat back in his seat, the guards moved in quickly to remove his chocking leg shackles that had imbedded themselves underneath his skin. With an un-human howl not made by any known creature, the shackles where pried free from his body. Simon flinched the whole time, gripping his eyes closed as the sounds of pain and anguish poured from his road trip mate's throat.
Siegfried was pulled from the van, with nooses thrown around his neck and body with long batons used by dog catchers to keep their distance from a rabid dog. Simon finally turned to view where the bloody shackles laid… “there is so much blood, from 1 man, from an older man how is that possible?” Simon gasps as he tried talking to one of the guards.
The guard only sneered at Simon and replied “he is no normal man” but the guard was quickly slapped by Klaus Wache a huge man with a slightly curved upper back from more time spent pumping iron on his upper body than his lower. He had a dark beard that seemed thick and no matter how often he shaved it would be grown in a few hours later.
Klaus glared at Simon and said “are you waiting for a special invitation inmate?!” Simon froze, Klaus stared at him with almost red eyes “GET OUT!” Simon stumbled to stand but ended up falling out of the back of the van, since he had been sitting so long, the blood had rushed out of his head to his lower extremities to try to function his legs.
Klaus bent over with his massive hands and grabbed Simon by the head, pulling his body in the erect upright position. Simon in his British whit replied “Thank youuu…” but you could hear the strain in his voice.
Klaus, laughed at the site of this feeble man.
As Simon turned, the fog seemed to lift showing the long fall from an apparent moat but as he starred deep through the mist, it was not a moat at all, but rather a cavernous fall so far it was hard to see the bottom. As Simon tried to stare upwards a light mist falling made him squint and hard for him to see the top of the prison that was more shaped like a castle than a prison and behind that he could see the long stretching mountains filled with snow covered pines. As breath taking as it was, no time to sight see, he was being shoved forward by the guards towards the draw bridge that had been lowered for them.
The drawbridge was old wrought iron with dark heavy timber flanks, weathered but almost hardened like steel. There where so many iron strips in it, it was more metal than wood, it looked centuries old. The iron links that lowered the draw bridge where massive, the chains lead themselves up into the mouths of Griffins whose wings stretched across the massive door. The guards looked up to nod at the guards who worked the capstan's that raised the bridge. It took 8 guards in total to raise the bridge, 4 per capstan on either side of the massive door that was the bridge to the outside world.
Simon wondered how that it was manual rather than an electric winch or hydraulic piston. Just then Klaus smacked him in the back of the head with his leather gloves, “You see, it takes 8 large men to winch up the door, probably 10 prisoners, a lot harder to get 10 prisoners up there without being shot rather than some electric button!”
Simon trying to reach his head to sooth the smack, Simon thought “Had Klaus read his mind or is that what everyone thinks?”
As the crossed the Threshold to Rhinehoth it was apparent this was not ordinary prison, the court yard was antique, cobble stoned, weathered, dark and grey. The watch towers where blocks of granite carved with various demons, dragons and the such. Each eye of the creatures where the look out windows where the guards peered through with their rifles. Every so often you could see the laser sights stream across the floor of the court yard just enough to let you know, they where up there, watching, staring, studying.
Klaus stopped him some where in the middle of the yard as the drawbridge came slamming shut. Simon looked over his shoulder to see the massive door create a whirling mist of the rain falling down on them. A fog began to roll our of a door across the yard as a large black horse, looking to be bellowing steam from its nostrils approach them. It was saddled and massive, every muscle could been seen rippling as it cantered toward them. Simon flinched yet again as it became ever so close. Klaus reached out and gripped its reigns. Patting the horse on the nose, Klaus rubbed it, reached in his pocket and pulled out a cube of sugar to feed to him. “This is Arnie,” he rubbed the horses nose “he is the best horse here. He is one of many, we keep them to patrol the rough forest. Not that you will escape Häftling!”
Simon thought Häftling was German for gentleman or something, but he knew it was nothing more romantic that “Prisoner” he looked further around as Klaus guided him with his pointing hands, showing each of the guard's towers, machine gun turrets and the flickering of the laser sights on the ground and walls as the guards routinely projected.
Simon just looked down at his feet in submission knowing there would be no way out. But what of his newly befriended van mate? Siegfried who was escorted in ahead of them, there was no sign of him, surely he had escaped, there was hope but Klaus took a swing with his Billy club to the back of Simon's legs, THUD! “Oh where's my manors, Welcome to Stalag Rhinehoth !”
Simon was dragged on his knees to a dark corner of the yard where he entered a door with an abrupt SLAM. His welcome beating had begun.
Chapter 2
Welcome to Stalag Rhinehoth
Simon awoke a few days later, to a dripping sound coming from some where off in the distant. He felt cold and could feel the cold enter his chest as he took a deep breath. His eyes began to focus and he peered around with his still weary eyes, he saw a rat in the corner gnawing at a stale piece of bread that may have been his breakfast, but he was not sure, maybe the rat was his breakfast for all he knew. He pushed himself to his feet, weak from the beatings a day or two ago, his hands and knees had dried blood from something he could not remember and his cell reminded him of something from a book he had often read as a boy, The Count of Monte Cristo, a book, he will soon want to forget as it starts off as a man imprisoned for life, the man is annually beaten, starved to a bag of bones. He eventually escapes more than a decade later but his family and friends have forgotten all about him. Simon could not bear the thought of one year, let alone a decade or even life for that matter. A book he once enjoyed reading with his imagination is his imprisoned reality. He tried to stand upright but struggled from laying on the floor unconscious for a few days. His back was bruised, he was hungry and weak. He looked down at a plate and bowl next to where the bread was taken from by his rodent visitor. The bowl was shallow but looked to contain some sort of soup, green, almost a florescent green. He held himself back from gagging as it seemed a rat had drowned in it, something he had not seen at eye level crouched on the floor.
He turned his head to the opposite side of his cell. It appeared he has a bed on the floor, a mattress, pancake flat, that molded to the contours of the floor. It appeared to have a stained shroud of all the men who had slept there before. He knew why he had probably unconsciously chosen to sleep on the stone floor.
A hole in the cobbled floor was used as his toilet. Water ran from the open window down a groove cut from years of wear. The flow of water ran right into his toilet an obvious modern convenience of turn of the century plumbing. The water in the toilet looked deep and muddy. It certainly was not mud from its smell. A window let in stale air from the jagged hills and spiked peaks of the mountain range behind the prison, oddly enough being winter, he is cold, but not freezing despite the open barred window, he has to stand on his toes to see out of the window but he notices that it seems to be mid morning but the back of the prison casts out the sun, not to mention the constant cloud cover at the altitude they where at, his lungs felt the thinness of the air. Simon can see the lights on the hill showing each individual cell, almost painting a picture of each cell as you can see the inhabitant's shadows alive with animation. A few cells, it was apparent prisoners where pacing in despair, though he can see only see the shadows.
Simon falls back to flats of his feet as he hears the guards coming down the hall, his
cell opens, the large iron door had a small window letting in some cross lighting to just illuminate his room from darkness, it opened to expose him to his new outside world. He stands softly hoping not to be beaten any more.
“Kommen,” Klaus motioned with his hands for him to come out. Simon obeyed skittishly flinching anticipating more pain. Out in the hall, it was unimaginably bright considering it looked to be on one of the lower levels that he could tell from looking outside through his small barred window. He squinted from the brightness. He was not hand-cuffed or shackled as he expected, but just walking down the hall that seemed too dim as he walked, he was confused because the light first seemed to come from old light fixtures and now looked as though it was coming from torches mounted to the walls, the smell of kerosene was also present as well as a vial putrid smell. He could hear other prisoners suffering from each door he walked past, their moans went right through him. Some where making sounds of deep gut wrenching vomiting as he could hear volumes of the liquid hit the floor.
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