The first time we ever fought vampires was when we were looking for a gun that shot magic bullets.
No, really.
Samuel Colt once made a gun and thirteen magic bullets that could kill anything with a single shot. Dad found out about it, and we realized that we finally had our kryptonite for the Yellow-Eyed Bastard. For the first time, we were on his trail and we had a line on a weapon that could make a difference. If we had to go through a nest of vampires to get that gun, we’d do it. And we did.
We were a little surprised even to find vampires, since Dad had been under the impression that a hunter buddy of his, Daniel Elkins, had killed the last remaining North American vampire. Guess Elkins had missed some, though, because we found plenty. And we weren’t sure what we were getting into, because the folklore about vampires is so vast and contradictory that it’s tough to sort out what’s really going to work from what some medieval monk thought he heard the local sexton say over a morning glass of sour wine.
Here’s a little background on vampires, before we get back to the Colt.
As near as anyone can tell, the first English use of the word “vampire” happens in about 1734, in The Travels of Three English Gentlemen, now known only as part of volume four of the 1745 Harleian Miscellany: “We must not omit Observing here, that our Landlord seems to pay some regard to what Baron Valvasor has related of the Vampyres, said to infest some Parts of this Country. These Vampyres are supposed to be the Bodies of deceased Persons, animated by evil Spirits, which come out of the Graves, in the Night-time, suck the Blood of many of the Living, and thereby destroy them.”
This is around the same time as the first great vampire scares in continental Europe, the most famous of which was an account of the post-death activities of one Peter Plogojowitz in 1725. The entire report, as filed by a local bureaucrat, goes like this:
After a subject by the name of Peter Plogojowitz had died, ten weeks past—he lived in the village of Kisilova, in the Rahm district [of Serbia]—and had been buried according to the Raetzin custom, it had been revealed that in this same village of Kisilova, within a week, nine people, both old and young, died also, after suffering a twenty-four-hour illness. And they said publicly, while they were yet alive, but on their death-bed, that the above-mentioned Peter Plogojowitz, who had died ten weeks earlier, had come to them in their sleep, laid himself on them, so that they would have to give up the ghost. The other subjects were very distressed and strengthened even more in such beliefs by the fact that the dead Peter Plogojowitz’s wife, after saying her husband had come to her and demanded his opanki, or shoes, had left the village of Kisilova and gone to another.
And since with such people (which they call vampires) various signs are to be seen—that is, the body undecomposed, the skin, hair, beard, and nails growing—the subjects resolved unanimously to open the grave of Peter Plogojowitz and to see if such above-mentioned signs were really to be found on him.
To this end they came here to me and, telling of these events, asked me and the local pope, or the parish priest, to be present at the viewing. And although I at first disapproved, telling them that the praiseworthy administration should first be dutifully and humbly informed, and its exalted opinion about this should be heard, they did not want to accommodate themselves to this at all, but rather gave this short answer: I could do what I want, but if I could not accord them the viewing and the legal recognition to deal with the body according to their custom, they would have to leave house and home, because by the time a gracious resolution was received from Belgrade, perhaps the entire village—and this was already supposed to have happened once before under the Turks—could be destroyed by such an evil spirit, and they did not want to wait for this.
Since I could not hold such people from the resolution they had made, either with good words or with threats, I went to the village of Kisilova, taking along the Gradisk pope, and viewed the body of Peter Plogojowitz, just exhumed, finding, in accordance with thorough thoughtfulness, that first of all I did not detect the slightest odor that is otherwise characteristic of the dead, and the body, except for the nose, which was somewhat fallen away, was completely fresh. The hair and beard—even the nails, of which the old ones had fallen away—had grown on him; the old skin, which was somewhat whitish, had peeled away, and a new fresh one had emerged under it. The face, hands, and feet, and the whole body were so constituted, that they could not have been more complete in his lifetime. Not without astonishment, I saw some fresh blood in his mouth, which, according to the common observation, he had sucked from the people killed by him. In short, all the indications were present that such people (as remarked above) are said to have.
After both the pope and I had seen this spectacle, while the people grew more outraged than distressed, all the subjects, with great speed, sharpened a stake—in order to pierce the corpse of the deceased with it—and put this at his heart, whereupon, as he was pierced, not only did much blood, completely fresh, flow also through his ears and mouth, but still other wild signs (which I pass by out of high respect) took place.
Finally, according to their usual practice, they burned the often-mentioned body, in hoc casu, to ashes, of which I inform the most laudable Administration, and at the same time would like to request, obediently and humbly, that if a mistake was made in this matter, such is to be attributed not to me but to the rabble, who were beside themselves with fear.
Around the same time, another vampire, this one named Arnod Paole, was stirring up trouble in his hometown of Medvegia, Serbia. Five years after his death, Medvegia was suddenly under siege, with seventeen people dead in less than three months. The emperor of Austria himself, Charles VI, decreed that an inquiry was needed. The results of the inquiry, called Visum et Repertum and signed by a number of military officers, including a regimental field surgeon, went something like this:
After it had been reported that in the village of Medvegia the so-called vampires had killed some people by sucking their blood, I was, by high decree of a local Honorable Supreme Command, sent there to investigate the matter thoroughly along with officers detailed for that purpose and two subordinate medical officers, and therefore carried out and heard the present inquiry in the company of the captain of the Stallath Company of haiduks, Gorschiz Hadnack, the standard-bearer and the oldest haiduk of the village, as follows: who unanimously recounted that about five years ago a local haiduk by the name of Arnod Paole broke his neck in a fall from a haywagon. This man had during his lifetime often revealed that, near Gossowa in Turkish Serbia, he had been troubled by a vampire, wherefore he had eaten from the earth of the vampire’s grave and had smeared himself with the vampire’s blood, in order to be free from the vexation he had suffered. In 20 or 30 days after his death some people complained that they were being bothered by this same Arnod Paole; and in fact four people were killed by him.
In order to end this evil, they dug up this Arnod Paole 40 days after his death—this on the advice of Hadnack, who had been present at such events before; and they found that he was quite complete and undecayed, and that fresh blood had flowed from his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears; that the shirt, the covering, and the coffin were completely bloody; that the old nails on his hands and feet, along with the skin, had fallen off, and that new ones had grown; and since they saw from this that he was a true vampire, they drove a stake through his heart, according to their custom, whereby he gave an audible groan and bled copiously.
Thereupon they burned the body the same day to ashes and threw these into the grave. These people say further that all those who were tormented and killed by the vampire must themselves become vampires. Therefore they disinterred the above-mentioned four people in the same way. Then they also add that this Arnod Paole attacked not only the people but also the cattle, and sucked out their blood. And since the people used the flesh of such cattle, it appears that some vampires are again present here, inasmuch as, in a period of three months, 17 young and old people died, among them some who, with no previous illness, died in two or at the most three days. In addition, the haiduk Jowiza reports that his step-daughter, by the name of Stanacka, lay down to sleep 15 days ago, fresh and healthy, but at midnight she started up out of her sleep with a terrible cry, fearful and trembling, and complained that she had been throttled by the son of a haiduk by the name of Milloe, who had died nine weeks earlier, whereupon she had experienced a great pain in the chest and became worse hour by hour, until finally she died on the third day.
At this we went the same afternoon to the graveyard, along with the often-mentioned oldest haiduks of the village, in order to cause the suspicious graves to be opened and to examine the bodies in them, whereby, after all of them had been dissected, there was found:
1. A woman by the name of Stana, 20 years old, who had died in childbirth two months ago, after a three-day illness, and who had herself said, before her death, that she had painted herself with the blood of a vampire, wherefore both she and her child—which had died right after birth and because of a careless burial had been half eaten by the dogs—must also become vampires. She was quite complete and undecayed. After the opening of the body there was found in the cavitate pectoris a quantity of fresh extravascular blood. The vessels of the arteries and veins, like the ventriculis ortis, were not, as is usual, filled with coagulated blood, and the whole viscera, that is, the lung, liver, stomach, spleen, and intestines were quite fresh as they would be in a healthy person. The uterus was however quite enlarged and very inflamed externally, for the placenta and lochia had remained in place, wherefore the same was in complete putredine. The skin on her hands and feet, along with the old nails, fell away on their own, but on the other hand completely new nails were evident, along with a fresh and vivid skin.
2. There was a woman by the name of Miliza (60 years old), who had died after a three-month sickness and had been buried 90-some days earlier. In the chest much liquid blood was found; and the other viscera were, like those mentioned before, in a good condition. During her dissection, all the haiduks who were standing around marveled greatly at her plumpness and perfect body, uniformly stating that they had known the woman well, from her youth, and that she had, throughout her life, looked and been very lean and dried up, and they emphasized that she had come to this surprising plumpness in the grave. They also said that it was she who started the vampires this time, because she had eaten of the flesh of those sheep that had been killed by the previous vampires.
3. There was an eight-day-old child which had lain in the grave for 90 days and was similarly in a condition of vampirism.
4. The son of a haiduk, 16 years old, was dug up, having lain in the earth for nine weeks, after he had died from a three-day illness, and was found like the other vampires.
5. Joachim, also the son of a haiduk, 17 years old; had died after a three-day illness. He had been buried eight weeks and four days and, on being dissected, was found in similar condition.
6. A woman by the name of Ruscha who had died after a ten-day illness and had been buried six weeks previous, in whom there was much fresh blood not only in the chest but also in fundo ventriculi. The same showed itself in her child, which was 18 days old and had died five weeks previously.
7. No less did a girl ten years of age, who had died two months previously, find herself in the above-mentioned condition, quite complete and undecayed, and had much fresh blood in her chest.
8. They caused the wife of the Hadnack to be dug up, along with her child. She had died seven weeks previously, her child—who was eight weeks old—21 days previously, and it was found that both mother and child were completely decomposed, although earth and grave were like those of the vampires lying nearby.
9. A servant of the local corporal of the haiduk, by the name of Rhade, 21 years old, died after a three-month-long illness, and after a five week burial was found completely decomposed.
10. The wife of the local bariactar, along with her child, having died five weeks previously, were also completely decomposed.
11. With Stanche, a local haiduk, 60 years old, who had died six weeks previously, I noticed a profuse liquid blood, like the others, in the chest and stomach. The entire body was in the oft-named condition of vampirism.
12. Milloe, a haiduk, 25 years old, who had lain for six weeks in the earth, also was found in the condition of vampirism mentioned.
13. Stanoika, the wife of a haiduk, 20 years old, died after a three-day illness and had been buried 18 days previously. In the dissection I found that she was in her countenance quite red and of a vivid color, and, as was mentioned above, she had been throttled, at midnight, by Milloe, the son of the haiduk, and there was also to be seen, on the right side under the ear, a bloodshot blue mark, the length of a finger. As she was being taken out of the grave, a quantity of fresh blood flowed from her nose. With the dissection I found, as mentioned often already, a regular fragrant fresh bleeding, not only in the chest cavity, but also in ventriculo cordis. All the viscera found themselves in a completely good and healthy condition. The hypodermis of the entire body, along with the fresh nails of the hands and feet, was as though completely fresh.
After the examination had taken place, the heads of the vampires were cut off by the local gypsies and burned along with the bodies, and then the ashes were thrown into the river Morava. The decomposed bodies, however, were laid back into their own graves. Which I attest along with those assistant medical officers provided for me. Actum ut supra:
(L.S.) Johannes Fluchinger, Regimental Medical Officer of the Foot Regiment of the Honorable B. Fürstenbusch.
(L.S.) J. H. Sigel, Medical Officer of the Honorable Morall Regiment.
(L.S.) Johann Friedrich Baumgarten, Medical Officer of the Foot Regiment of the Honorable B. Fürstenbusch.
The undersigned attest herewith that all which the Regimental Medical Officer of the Foot Regiment of the Honorable B. Fürstenbusch has observed in the matter of vampires—along with both medical officers who signed with him—is in every way truthful and has been undertaken, observed, and examined in our own presence. In confirmation thereof is our signature in our own hand, of our making, Belgrade, January 26, 1732.
(L.S.) Büttener, Lieutenant Colonel of the Honorable Alexandrian Regiment.
(L.S.) J. H. von Lindenfels, Officer of the Honorable Alexandrian Regiment.
But that wasn’t the beginning of Europe’s vampire troubles. As far back as the sixteenth century, various local governments in Europe were handing out bounties for the hunting and killing of vampires and loups-garou.
Oh, and the mirror thing? Near as we can tell, that’s one of Bram Stoker’s inventions. Same with turning into mist and the rest of it. Vampires, when you get right down to it, are pretty simple. “Crosses won’t repel them, and sunlight won’t kill them,” Dad said—although they do sunburn wicked fast and don’t like to be outside in broad daylight. And we found out that they need to drink blood to survive and can only be killed by beheading, although dead man’s blood will poison them and slow them down. Oh, and they can be killed by a bullet from the magic Colt. Anywho, here’s what happened:
We were in Nebraska, looking around for something interesting to kill, when we ran across a newspaper obit about Daniel Elkins being killed. The name rang a bell, and there it was in Dad’s journal. So we headed to Manning, Colorado, to check it out, and found a ring of salt around the front entrance to the house. First clue: Elkins knew something about something.
Then we ran into Dad, who had come for the same reason we had. But he had another reason, which was that he was looking for the Colt. We figured out that Elkins had been keeping it, which meant that whatever had gotten him, that was who we had to take the gun from. Elkins’s journal was a trove of information on vampires: they nest in small groups, eight to ten, and send out individuals or smaller groups to hunt. Victims are taken to the nest, where they’re kept alive for as long as the vampires can restrain themselves.
No way to live, if you ask us. And for their victims, no way to die. And in this case, it was worse, because these vampires had killed a hunter. That made it a grudge match, especially for Dad. Elkins was one of the first to show him the ropes, introduce him around to other hunters. Now Elkins was gone, and there were some vampires who had to pay.
That first hunt, we killed us some vampires—arrows dipped in dead man’s blood to slow them down, and machetes for the finish work. Along the way, we saved a few people from becoming a permanent lunch—and we got the Colt. Although we had to waste one bullet on the leader of that nest, a tough guy who called himself Luther.
The other thing we did was become a family again. Winchester and Sons, at your service—if only for a while.
The next time we saw vampires, Dad was dead.
And as if that wasn’t enough of a shock, the vampires weren’t all that bad.
This was in Red Lodge, Montana, after we’d lost the Colt, and we’d lost Dad, and we were starting to get the feeling that war—the Demon War—was really on the horizon. In other words, things were pretty freakin’ crappy. We’d heard about a couple of decapitation murders and some cattle mutilations happening out in the boonies of Montana, and with nothing better to do, we headed up to Big Sky Country.
A little note on cattle mutilation, since that was one of the things that first alerted us to the strange doings in Red Lodge. Cattle mutilation is not performed by little green men. Or little gray aliens. Cattle mutilation is either performed by sicko human beings, of whom there are plenty, or it’s a product of people wanting to see what isn’t there. They get our attention because sometimes people who mutilate cattle are up to other things as well, like for example throwing on cheesy black robes and chanting “Hail Satan” while performing human sacrifices. But aliens? Somehow we doubt they’d travel a hundred billion miles just to go Mengele on a bunch of cows. So before you start in on that story about those crazy lights you saw in the sky that one night you were barbecuing on the back porch? We should tell you: UFO people are crazy. I want to believe—fine. Believe. Do whatever. But there’s no such thing as UFOs. It always turns out to be something else. A hoax or a weather balloon—or something up our alley. Something supernatural.
First thing that happened in Red Lodge was that we alienated the sheriff, but that’s practically standard operating procedure. The second thing was that we wormed ourselves into the morgue under false pretenses to check out the dead girl with the detached head. That’s when we discovered that the dead girl had been a vampire.
Okay, we thought. This is interesting. Maybe six months before, we’d been convinced that vampires were as mythical as unicorns, or if not mythical, then extinct. The dodo birds of the revenant world. Now we’d seen them once and had real, dead evidence of another nest.
The third thing that happened was that we met Gordon Walker.
We learned a lot from Gordon. We learned that there’s an etiquette among hunters, which we’d never known because the Winchesters had always hunted on their own. Later, when we’d met Bobby Singer and Ellen and Jo and some others, we realized that there was this whole subculture of unrecognized heroes out there. Risking their lives every day to eliminate threats that most people wouldn’t believe in, even when the fangs were sinking into their throats. Speaking of fangs, that’s what Gordon called vampires. He seemed to think there were a lot of them, which told us something else about hunters; they don’t communicate too well. Daniel Elkins and Dad had thought the vampires were gone, but here was Gordon acting like they were behind every tree.
Another thing we learned from Gordon was that a hunter doesn’t want to share a hunt. At least he didn’t. But Gordon wasn’t normal, even for a hunter.
What is normal for a hunter? They—we—tend to be cut off from most normal societal institutions like job and family. They also tend to be in this line of work for personal reasons. Maybe some kind of supernatural baddie killed someone close to them, which can make a person a bit single-minded. Obsessive, even. This we understand. Gordon was a little different, though. He liked the work. We take pride in doing our job well, and take satisfaction from reducing the amount of evil in the world, but Gordon liked the work. A little too much.
How do we know this? Because we found out during the course of investigating the Red Lodge situation. Turned out that the vampires were responsible for the cattle mutilations, and Gordon was responsible for the decapitations. Of the vampires. Who weren’t feeding on people because they were sick of being hunted.
Whoa.
Vampires not feeding on people? Doing the right thing by sublimating their desire for human blood and killing cattle instead? And a hunter killing things that—we had to swallow hard to admit this—weren’t evil?
This was one of those more-things-in-heaven-and-earth moments. You just never know what you’re going to find when you go on a job.
At first it was pretty hard to believe, even though Sam had firsthand evidence: the vampires had kidnapped him and then let him go, just to prove their point. Gordon definitely wasn’t buying it, and then we caught up with him torturing one of the vampires to force her to reveal the location of the others. That’s when we really knew that in Gordon, that hunter instinct had burned through his sense of right and wrong. He had his reasons: vampires had attacked him in his home when he was just a teenager. Beat the crap out of him and taken his sister. Turned her.
So he left home, learned how to track and kill vampires, and hunted down his sister. Or, in his words, the monster who used to be his sister. And he killed her.
That’s enough to make anyone a little dark. But a hunter who starts to like torture? He isn’t all that far from flipping over and becoming a tool of exactly the forces we’re all trying to exterminate. When you begin to enjoy inflicting pain—which isn’t the same as the grim satisfaction you take from eliminating evil—you’ve turned into something else. Something bad—maybe just as bad as the things you hunt. You look in the abyss, the abyss looks back.
We faced off with Gordon over this and ended up doing two things we never in our lives imagined we’d do. One, we got in a serious no-quarter fight with another hunter; two, we let the vampires go.
Next time might be different (the next time with Gordon sure was, but more about that later). It’s not like we’re going to go around assuming the next vampire nest we run into will be full of vegetarians. Anything that preys on humans is our target, and our best guess is that the next time we find a vampire, it’ll be sucking the blood out of people instead of cows. In which case we’ll take its head and move along to the next thing.
And everything will be back to normal.