Passing time ( part 2)

Host

Year 2480 BC

Time in the world: 1520 years, 7 months, 14 days, 9 hours

Name: Adam Anthony Gray

Age: 18 [immortal] (1538 years old)

Height:b6'3"

Over the past few hundred years, Egypt has started to grow, transforming from groups of small villages along the Nile River into a massive city. This development has provided me with the perfect place to sell my goods.

Over the years, I downsized from having over ten animals pulling carts to just one mule with a cart to carry my goods. It was a nice change of pace for me.

While I traveled, I learned all that I could, from primitive fighting styles to their culture, keeping records of where I went and what I learned about their cultures in journals.

That wasn't my main reason for traveling, though. I had learned the less I stuck around one area, the less connected to the people I would become. Why stick around to watch those you bond with slowly wither away with time?

That's why I didn't really care about what I sold or traded away. I wasn't in the merchant business to get rich. All of that aside, it was also a great way to see the world, to see things I could only ever dream of.

I didn't have a place I needed to be, and I was never in a hurry. I would get there when I got there.

Every now and then, I would stop somewhere for a few years just because I felt like it, and leave when I felt like it.

It's strange knowing that you're immortal. Time just doesn't have meaning anymore. A year is a blink of an eye to me now.

It's surprising how much some of these people are willing to spend on wolf or tiger hides. But as long as they are willing to spend, I'm willing to sell to them, making me one of the more popular stalls in the market.

Early on, I learned that with my looks, it would be impossible to sell to anyone in Egypt. Most people in these times were very superstitious, and anytime they saw my hair and pale complexion, they would think I was a spirit that possessed my body.

So I took on a new look. And no, I didn't cut my hair or dye it a new color. Over the millennia, I've become too attached to it. So instead, I always wore a head and face cover, better known as a keffiyeh. It was a long piece of fabric that I would wrap around my head and mouth, only letting my eyes show. I covered the rest of my skin, not wanting them to see my pale skin either. I tried to tan my skin a couple of times, but with my healing ability, it was impossible.

Of course, I still got strange looks, and my height didn't help, but I got fewer than I would if I didn't wear it. I sold animal pelts and small trinkets that I made on my travels.

Today was like any other. I had a stand in a large market that I could rent for a few weeks until I ran out of things to sell, then leave and let someone else rent it out after me.

It was late in the day, the sun was beginning to drop behind the horizon, and it became twilight. I was just about to start packing my pelts when I caught sight of a group of people moving through the market. All of them were dressed in the finest clothes available at the time, and all of them had gold jewelry covering them, from necklaces to earrings and rings. They didn't seem to walk but glided.

And I instantly knew what they were. I hadn't seen any before, but it wasn't hard to tell what they were. The group was vampires. And just my luck, they were heading right for me.

I stood and watched them move in my direction. Everyone gave them space to move, as if they knew what they were and didn't want to even look in their direction, as if just by looking in their direction, they could get killed.

But I just stood there and watched them come even closer, step by step.

Finally, they were standing in front of my stall, all nine of them—eight men and one female. I recognized one of the men and the woman instantly; it was Amun and his mate Kebi, just like they did in the movies.

Only Amun and Kebi stepped forward to look at the pelts; the rest of the men, my guess their guards, turned outwards, watching for any danger. They too were vampires, with red eyes and cold expressions.

And now I was face to face with my first vampires...