If you wanted to take over the world, you should have tried last year...

It was a grave mistake, looking back. We never even meant to try, at first: we'd been happy living in the shadows, picking humans off the fringes and blaming their own species for it. Then a few of us got greedy (well, greedier) and some of the youngsters let the power go to their heads, believing the humans' own fiction about how we could take over and enslave them.

So a bunch of us got together, vampires, lycans, demons, devils, and called themselves the Dark Circus. They wanted to make those fictions a reality. And a few centuries ago, it could have worked, maybe even a few decades ago. We've ruled in the past, after all. But not this time.

Now, the balance of power is in our hands.

The humans found out we existed just as the Dark Circus was putting the finishing touches on the plan of attack, and they had resources many of us couldn't have imagined. We were so sure, with all our powers – our pyrokinesis, telekinesis, mind control and charm, our shifting and warping. But the humans have always been good with tools.

At first, the Dark Circus was poised to win, but the humans managed to put together so many projects so fast – it was unbelievable. Their bullets slid off of the demons like rain water when the battle began, but within a decade, the tables turned, and suddenly it was the Dark Circus on its knees, begging for mercy.

Technology is a bitch, isn't it?

For time immemorial we've watched the humans, smiling and chuckling at their meager attempts to improve their lot in life. We thought it was so cute, that they thought they were at the top of the food chain – that they had no natural predators. We used some of their technology, and marveled at how quickly their civilizations changed – all because of their short life spans.

Then, things started changing faster, and faster – we couldn't keep up anymore. We still laughed, but for some of us, the laughter became uneasy – and now, no one's laughing anymore. The technology we once laughed at has enslaved us, has chained and whipped us.

We adapt to change faster than you can conceive of it.

We were so used to being on top, we forgot what it was to fight a real fight. We were so used to our ancient traditions, so comfortable in our secret hierarchy... We didn't realize that we lacked the speed the humans had; we hadn't needed to adapt in so long. We hadn't been challenged in ages, and we'd taken control so many times before – how were we supposed to know this time would be different?

Who's the top dog now?

The humans have won. Only the oldest, the strongest, the fastest, the smartest members of our kinds live free in the wild. The rest of us – the majority of us – have been subdued. We live in camps like the Jews in Hitler's war, or kept like pets or lab rats for the humans' entertainment or their insatiable curiosity. Even when not put to work like farm animals, our actions are monitored, and the humans are ready to make sure we don't get out of line.

The last few free – well, some of them have formed alliances with the humans, trading us as a commodity and watching their backs to see they don't end up in their own cages. Some of the others are trying to turn the tables against the humans and free us, begin again and take over once more. And some of them laugh, and say if we we are too weak to escape and too scared to die, then this is all we deserve.