Kevin Chen
Ms. Fusaro
Modern Mythology PD 02
The Chinese Vampire
This is a pitch for a television series. What you’re about to read is the pitch for season one of the show “Tale of Vampires” where our main protagonist, Eric Chen, is about to tackle the struggles of racism as the result of an unexpected pandemic. Please note that this is only season one. Everybody has their backstory, this is Eric’s.
The Chinese Vampire: Episode I – The Chinese Virus
Eric Chen, a Chinese-American Vlad High student, enjoys the sunset with his friends. Laughter and joy fill the air. Eric abruptly awakens from his daydream. Mr. Johnson discusses emerging cases of sickness in China. Connor, your stereotypical football jock, asks Eric if he has the “Chinese virus.” The class laughs, but Eric shrugs it off; Connor is a moron. From the hallways at school to public transportation, Eric notices more people glaring at him. One evening, he receives a mysterious notification from WeChat that reads, “PHASE ONE”.
I
The Chinese Vampire: Episode II – Troubling Times
In the following months, the cases spread all across Eurasia. Small businesses owned by Chinese-Americans start to close down from vandalism and threats. Eric's father, a pediatrician, is clearly distressed; his usual patients have canceled future appointments. Eric’s exhausted from school, where his friends seem to be avoiding him. The days go on. There are twenty million worldwide cases with a 33% mortality rate. Paranoia’s rampant. Everyone is required to quarantine themselves. Eric reads archived articles online that state that 0.01% of the infected are invulnerable to the disease. These isolated cases have one thing in common: the craving of blood.
The Chinese Vampire: Episode III - Welcome to New Asiatopia
Asian-Americans are assaulted and threatened daily. WeChat, an app upon which the Chinese community heavily relies, provides communication and updates. Connor shatters Eric’s window with a brick and shouts “Go back to China!!” Eric’s terrified. Suddenly a notification from WeChat appears, reading “COMMENCING”. Eric’s father enters the room and urges Eric to quickly pack their belongings. WeChat has ensured their safety. They enter an underground facility. There are several other Chinese families. Heavily armed guards are everywhere. An older gentleman introduces himself as Ming of “The Council,” which owns and operates the underground base. Eric finds the base suspicious. Ming welcomes them to New Asiatopia.
The Chinese Vampire: Episode IV – A Familiar Face Appears
The rules are simple. Number One - no questioning The Council’s authority. Number Two - everybody needs to contribute. The adults handle intensive labor. The children attend daily lectures on engineering before engaging in hours of cleaning. Eric sighs as exhaustion gets to him. ScallionStem, a schoolmate from Vlad High, offers assistance. Eric smiles with some relief. The two become good friends.
The Chinese Vampires: Episode V – Must Uphold Routine
Nearly two months have passed. Eric and the other members of New Asiatopia have adjusted to the underground lifestyle. The Council has been brainwashing everyone that they should follow routine via WeChat. Those that disobey the rules receive harsh punishments. One day, ScallionStem rushes to Eric. He catches his breath and says that Chairman Xi Jinping was in the highly restricted “Council” room. Why is the leader of China at this underground base? How did he get here?
The Chinese Vampire: Episode VI – Sleepless Evening
Eric’s unable to sleep. Having heard what ScallionStem said, his own curiosity grows. The lights are currently offline in New Asiatopia. Citizens are mandated to stay within their dorms. Eric hears a voice outside his dorm. ScallionStem and some new faces are awaiting him. The boys are planning to investigate further. They silently travel to the ominous Council room. Two soldiers stand outside. Some scientists enter the room with an authorization card. The boys receive a brief glimpse of incubators.
The Chinese Vampire: Episode VII – Commence Infiltration
In the next few days, ScallionStem organizes a plan to infiltrate the Council room. They sneak into a scientist’s dorm to retrieve an authorization card. Eric determines the perfect timing to strike would be 2:00 a.m. because the troops would go on their hour break. ScallionStem wants to avoid garnered suspicion. They wait a week. Their plan goes accordingly. They enter the illuminated Council room. Fear travels through Eric’s body. There are endless rows of incubators containing human-like creatures. A countless number of scientists are analyzing the creatures. Ming appears to stand next to China’s Xi Jinping.
The Chinese Vampire: Episode VIII - Grave Danger Revealed
The focus is on Xi Jinping. The boys are puzzled about his presence in New Asiatopia. Finding some conveniently located files, ScallionStem takes a look at what appears to be statistics and diagrams. Eric, having aced the AP Statistics exam, offers assistance interpreting the data. He can’t believe it. There are apparently 15,000 humans remaining on earth. Eric doesn’t understand “Project CoronaVampirus,” which appears to have failed. Footsteps approach. “Freeze!” says a thundering voice. The boys are in trouble.
The Chinese Vampire: Episode IX - Project CoronaVampirus
Eric can’t move. The troops have tied their limbs with rope. Worried for their lives, ScallionStem says that they won’t disclose any information to the others within New Asiatopia. Chairman Jinping laughs as he steps forward. Eric demands to know what the files mean. Ming remorsefully admits that Project CoronaVampirus was never intended to eradicate 99.99% of the world’s population. China was on the verge of creating the world’s most powerful army. Their “Feng Shui” serum was projected to enhance the human body to be capable of running faster, lifting objects triple their weight, and more. The scientists apply anesthetic gases to the boys. Eric falls unconscious.
The Chinese Vampire: Episode X - The Vampire Awakens
Eric regains his consciousness. What happened? Several corpses lie in front of him. ScallionStem and his friends are dead. There are gunshot wounds. Lifeless soldiers are everywhere. There are two holes in each of their necks. Eric looks down at his blood-soaked hands. Is he responsible? Eric’s head is spinning. He feels sick in his stomach. Ming enters. He explains that Chairman Jinping authorized the serum to be injected in Eric and the others. Eric is furious. His eyes blaze a crimson red. Eric storms out of the room and all Chinese personnel fly multiple feet away. Soldiers approach with machine guns. Eric knows he can’t deal with them all. Knocking down the main entrance, Eric looks back at New Asiatopia and swears vengeance. The moonlight illuminates the lifeless Earth. Eric looks at the overhead clouds, a nostalgic sight.
SECOND PLACE - DEJON KURTI
Dear Netflix and Affiliates,
I would like to first thank the board of directors for taking the time to review what I believe will be the rebirth of vampirical stories in our time. The movie I’ve created, Bloodborne, is a film dedicated to putting the complex nature of these beings—humans turned killers—on the big screen in an attempt to not only display their frightening nature, but to highlight self-questioning and purpose in a universe as vast as our own. It is without a doubt that this will be a thriller packed with terrifying moments, but what will distinguish this movie from the rest is the emotional connection and understanding audiences will share with creatures who were designed from the start to take over humanity. The narrative I’ve created for you is only a small glimpse into the movie and will hopefully clarify some key questions you have. We will be following the story of John Bray (as told from his perspective), a vampire-turned-protagonist who realizes what he must do. John, along with his friend Alison, are on a mission to stop the Dark Covenant—a following of vampires dedicated to restoring dark forces upon our physical world—from unleashing death across the globe. While this is only a general gist of the plot, I hope each of you will creatively think about the many different possibilities this brings to the table.
Yours Truly,
Dejon Kurti
----
Bloodborne
By Dejon Kurti
As expected, the monastery was empty. Every fiber in my being hoped that France was where we’d learn the truth about what those cultists had planned. I still remember Father William’s last words:
“God creates no two creatures alike, John. Your only mission is the one you choose.”
The image of his mutilated body, his face almost unrecognizable then, still haunted me.
In many ways, I still didn’t know what I was. The countless times I had fed on innocent people to supplement my neverending existence, the joy I took in slowly watching the life leave a person’s body as quickly as their blood drew into mine—these were experiences that seemingly confirmed the evilness I embodied. Alison and I weren’t like the others though, fanatically obsessed with Satan and reclaiming the underworld’s glory in our time… Whatever that meant.
“Ah, Sénanque Nabbey is as beautiful as the pictures make it out to be.”
“We don’t have time to take pictures, Al. Sun’s going down and they know what we’re searching for.”
She rolled her eyes and followed me past the lavender field. When we had reached the entrance, the doors were already open.
Alison looked at me and gave me that nod of hers. The sun was still up, though setting quickly—if they were here, they were here as humans. We pulled out our pistols and quickly scanned the main hall, moving with intensity and focus down the room.
“I’ve got nothing.”
“John, come here,” Alison had said shakily.
Three monks rested at the base of a cross, dead. Their necks had been slit and they were left to bleed out, but there was a path of blood behind them. Judging by the darkened color and strong odor, the blood wasn’t fresh—this had occurred two, maybe three days ago. The way their necks had been cut too… That wasn’t a vampire’s mark. The sheer size of the impact wound alone indicated some kind of claw or talon.
“They died to something else, Alison.”
“Do you want to wait for the sun to set before we follow the blood stains?”
I saw the concern in her eyes almost immediately.
“The Dark Covenant is on our trail. We don’t have time to waste—trust me, the devil isn’t here.”
I was good at even deceiving myself of my own confidence.
We followed the path down a spiral staircase dimly lit by torches until we reached a locked door in the depths below.
“Flashlights out.”
I shot the lock and kicked the door open. Alison took the lead and we quickly cleared the corners. It was yet another hallway, but I had an eerie feeling. As I shined my light across the stone walls, I saw marks and engravings. After what felt like an hour of us walking, we saw a large, open room filled with bookshelves and dimly lit by candles.
It was a library.
Alison and I steadily walked across the oakwood floors. I slowly moved my hands across the books that lined the shelves, feeling their dust against the tip of my fingers. As we neared the center of the library, I felt my fangs coming in.
“Sun’s down,” whispered Alison.
When we turned the corner, the first thing that caught my eye was the pentagram drawn with blood. A dark, scorching fire blazed in the center, but near it was a large black book.
I bent down and wiped the ash off its cover to reveal what we had been searching for:
The Metaphysical Connection to the Underworld.
This was the key to opening up our world to the one hidden beneath it, but more importantly, it was ours at that point.
“Mr. Bray and Ms. Loft, what a pleasure to have you join us today!” Vlad shouted from one of the balconies above.
“Did you hear them?”
“I guess not.”
As we looked up, vampires slowly appeared in each of the balconies that surrounded us.
“You two are smart, I’ll give you that. You somehow figured out that the book of uprising laid here. It’s a shame you’ll be handing that over.”
I grasped the book firmly now.
“Are you sure about that?”
We were easily surrounded with the likelihood of the entire monastery above being surrounded.
Vlad’s smile quickly faded as he stared me down.
“So be it.”
A vampire immediately jumped at us from the balcony to my right. With speeds I didn’t know I was capable of, I shifted the weight of my body to thrust the book into his rapidly-approaching neck.
It was safe to say he was dead.
The rest of his henchmen started dropping down from the balconies into the depths of the library. Our guns were worthless—a vampire’s speed and reaction time forced you to engage in some kind of melee if you wanted to kill one. There were only three guarantees I knew of: a snap of the neck, a blade through the heart, and fire.
Two lunged at Alison. She quickly dodged one and roundhouse-kicked the other into a shelf. I turned to see another two coming from behind us. I quickly strafed left, tripping one, and threw the book at the other. Before he could even get up, I snapped his neck with outstanding force and flew into his ally. He threw me off him and landed two blows to the body only to have me catch his arm on the third and tear into it with my teeth.
His screech lasted only a second before Alison took off his head.
“Alison, I’m gonna use the book.”
“Are you crazy? The only rift you’d create is one down there.”
“Better than staying here. I’ll close it as soon—”
Before I knew it, I was hurled all the way to the pentagram. I looked up only to see a blur of black come at me before Vlad had me in a chokehold.
“You’re a VAMPIRE, John. Why are you so insistent on protecting these mortals?”
“Be-because man is still good.”
He hissed and before he could plunge his dagger into me, was shot by Alison in the back. It barely hurt him—I could see that—but it got his attention.
I kicked out his right knee and threw him into the eternal flame behind us.
It was then we saw a dark-blue, winged beast with an upper-body as strong and wide as the legends we’d seen in New York City.
“Oh my God.”
“I hope your Romanian is good John.”
I grabbed the book, screamed “deschide limitele iadului,” and everything changed.
We had gone to a much darker place.
THIRD PLACE - ALLEN VAIMAN
Period 7
This is a pitch for a new series about a particularly unlucky young man and his eccentric vampire squatter. In this sitcom style format, the boy will have to deal with his unwanted “roommate” as he manages a completely normal life in college. The goal of this pitch is simply to catch interest and flesh out some of the mechanics of how the supernatural will work.
----
Have you ever heard weird creaking noises in the night? Felt like you’re being watched by someone who’s not there? Or perhaps you lost something that you swore you knew the location of, just find it years later lying somewhere else? Maybe you’ve woken up groggy despite having 12 full hours of sleep? Forgotten why you’ve walked into the room? Stubbed your toe? All of these are minor inconveniences that happen to us ALL the time but seem to have no rational explanations. That is until you realize that you may be living with your own personal vampire and you didn’t even know it! Now I hear you saying “You’re crazy. These are all just things that happen out of coincidence. I’ve never seen a vampire running about behind me causing me minor woes!” and to that I say you’re right! You haven’t seen them because they live right behind you in the exact place that you don’t see: your shadow! Vampires are lightning quick parasites that can live in the spaces of our world where there is no light in perfect fluidity. Shadows, alleys, dark thickets - they can move between them as smoothly as water without us noticing. That's why they have almost omnipresent powers during the night. They do have one fatal flaw though. In typical vampire fashion, they burst into flames if they are trapped in direct sunlight with no access to a nearby shadow. They must also temporarily shift a part of themselves into a physical form to grab objects and cause mischief in our realm, but with enough power they can drag things into their shadowy depths with no problem. Of course this is much harder with larger objects. Your car keys might disappear sometimes, but obviously your car doesn’t just vanish. That is unless you are the host to a particularly powerful vampire!
That’s right, some of us are haunted by an almost supernatural affinity for “bad luck”, an inexplicable phenomenon we’ve chocked up to simply being accident prone. But what if I told you that those misfortunes are feeding a particularly mischievous bloodsucker! The reason our vampiric poltergeists try to unsettle us is because blood is easier and more nutritious to suck if our minds are shaken by fear or stress. You’ve definitely tasted the high of an adrenaline rush, and vampires can taste it too; your adrenaline rush to be precise. The mini heart attacks you get at not finding your phone in your pocket are delicious midnight desserts for your parasitic friend and of course paramount to sustaining their powers. But the last thing a vampire would want is for you to have an actual heart attack because if you happen to die, they would go down with you. After sucking some of your blood (which is actually a painless process, I’m sure you haven’t noticed a few mosquito bites before) a vampire becomes bound to their host. The only way to undo this contract is for a host to release the vampire using their name which allows them to roam free and look for their next host. But a vampire’s name has great power over them and it’s risky, even fatal, business giving it to a host they can’t trust, so many resort to trying to trick their host to release them.
Our new series will revolve around this key plot point. We follow the life of a particularly unlucky college student whose life is riddled with paranormal misfortunes. Tripping while getting up and tripping again levels of bad luck. But Drake Youla has come to accept his poor luck and writes it off as a part of his great-great-great grandfather’s alleged “curse”. That is until one night, the vampire takes a page from Drake’s book and manages to trip while trying to sip his blood after a day of mischief. With his cover blown, the vampire sees no reason to hide from his host anymore and explains a fraction of the situation to Drake out of sheer pity (and loneliness, there aren’t exactly many vampires to talk to during the day). With his interest piqued, Drake sets out to dig up his old grandad’s books and memoirs for any clue on how to rid himself of the nagging voice that will no longer leave him alone. The series will follow Drake’s day to day life with his new vampire buddy including their quarrels, shenanigans, and Drake’s attempts to convince his friends that he is not clinically insane and that they too are being exploited by vampires. This light-hearted sitcom/dramedy will see Drake and his vampire develop a love-hate relationship with each other as they struggle with their own issues, Drake maturing into an adult from a reckless freeloader and his vampire’s constant battle with immortality and loneliness. The show’s finale might end with Drake learning the vampire’s name and being faced with a dilemma: he could let his new best frenemy go and live on with a normal life, but he worries that his immortal buddy will be forced to live in isolation again, haunting his next host and continuing the vicious vampire cycle.
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