Vampire adolescence

"There, kitty kitty kitty!" Jay called out to his pet animal.

The black cat curled its tail and stretched out its body before looking at us meaningfully and meowed ever so softly telling us to follow it. It smartly led us to the club.

It is said that black cats can sense the creatures of the dark.

Which was not why Jay had one. He was not afraid of other creatures of the dark (himself being a vampire), he just wasn't adventurous enough to get into a fight or have an interesting meeting with the others. Better safe than sorry. I objected, but it was also nice to have a place all to yourself with no other vampires on your turf.

And Myra - the black cat - was familiar with Jay from her birth.

It was delectable. The crimson blood that I vacuumed out of the guy's body through the puncture made by my canines was all I wanted, needed.

"There, there, Popsicles," Jay told me.

I groaned. But then I stood up for myself. With a silent snarl and baring of my teeth I said, "I am not done."

"If you kill him, you will have to answer to the Boss."

I carefully studied the guy I was feeding on. Yes, he looked anemic. No, he would not die.

"Okay, I'll find another, more amenable prey."

Jay looked at me once and I shut up. Someone was approaching us.

"Ooooh look, a goth club! What do you think we should go as, vampires or werewolves?" chirped a girl.

"I want to go as the Harbinger of Apocalypse. Vampires and werewolves are dumb."

"What you just said was dumb," said the chirpy girl.

"Would you stop it? We all know that we keep coming to this club because we need a way to kill time. And sometimes let a cute guy to take us home," said a serious looking girl. "Although *I'm* here for Mike Hampton," she said grudgingly.

Jay signalled me to stop moving.

Was Mike Hampton my dinner?

He had a name tag on. Which kind of said that he worked here.

Way to go, Poppy.

Mike was still in a drowsy state but maneuvering him to look as if we were dancing together was easy.

How would Jay know?

I kissed Mike on the face, wiped off his neck and tied my scarf around his neck.

"You'll thank me for this, Mikey," I said.

He was coming out of his stupor and said dolefully "Wha-a-at was tha-a-at... I feel so empty," and his feet skipped a beat and he fell facelong onto the girl's shoulder.

"Mike! What's wrong with you?" the girl said and looked around.

But there was no one around.

"Be careful there, Popsicles. Remember the fate of those who expose our kind to them," Jay said, before melting into the shadows.

He was older than her by fifty vampire years and so was more skilled. He appeared and disappeared skillfully. He drank blood skillfully. What other purpose did a vampire serve?

I had not watched a vampire fight, till now. I was only two vampire years old, and I needed more exposure - but only with someone older to help me out.

Jay changed me. He bit me and changed the world as I saw it. Earlier I had a life. Now, all I needed, wanted was... no surprise...blood. All day and all night long. Jay was my Vampire Godfather. So it fell onto him to show me the rope to hunting.

He told me that the thirst would go down after the first five vampire years.

I had no mother or father. I was 18years when I jumped off of a cliff to kill myself. Jay found me, took pity on me and the handicapped life I was going to live once someone discovered me, and he changed me.

Your emotions will be driven by blood, he'd said.

He was right.

But he was wrong, too. Because I still remember the guy I was in love with. He is still a human.

And when I remember him, remember Danny - a small twinge of pain still stays.

Oh, dear dear Danny. He barely knew when I existed that I existed. He was kind but dashing. Loved him for five years. He got married to my neighbour's daughter. He was five years older than me. So you see, that had something to do with it, too.

That small twinge of life made its way into my throat and the region where my amygdala used to be.

Have you slept with a vampire?

No?

I'll tell you, it's the most excruciatingly pleasurable feeling ever to have slow sex with a vampire who is latched at your throat, drinking from you ever so slowly, their rhythm matching each draught.

But I wouldn't do that to Danny. Because I know, I would finish him off.

The control.

The better you're at it, the better vampire you are, strength wise, wiseness-wise.

Now the thing is like food. You eat too much, you get obese. You eat less, you get thin. You eat just right, exercise right, you are amazing.

I never go near Danny's home without having a good meal.

Jay would be there with me too.

They say vampires don't cry.

"What, again?" Jay asked when I veered off course towards where Danny stayed.

"Just this once, Jay," I said and looked on as the light in his living room showed me what he was doing. There, he was, sitting comfortably on a chair holding a newspaper.

"Take me home, Jay," I said, closing my eyes. My bloodlust would increase when I was confronted with amorous feelings of any sort.

"Soon these days, you need to plug some common sense into your head," Jay said. "We can't be seen here, so often."

"I am thirsty again," I said after leaving the place.

"You've got to wait till tomorrow."

Myra curled against Jay and meowed softly, reconfirming what he said.

"Maybe I can do one solo," I said, bringing up my courage.

Jay shunned me with a caustic glance.

"Okayyy," I said, "then let's get out of here!"

Nights were the worst.

Vampires can't sleep.

Vampires can't walk in the daytime either, but our genetics as a vampire ensured we would be woozy and dozing throughout the day. So get a safe place and stay there in the morning. As for where, we have built an underground resting place just below the graveyard.

It's the best. Those whose bodies weren't found, rituals were made with the empty caskets and coffins buried. On the slightest off chance they were alive and undead, they could choose their resting place below their coffins.

Me for example. They didn't find my body, so they just buried a coffin in my name. A small ceremony and that was it.

Embracing death, here I lie. Poppy Smithsfield.

And that was the truth.

Only I was not dead, as much I was undead.

As I was saying, nights were the worst. Those whose vampire years were more than ten could start journeying on their own.

Which means I would need to wait for another 8 years till I could even think about going on my own.

So I would quench my thirst in my nightly prowls and wait for the rest of the time under my grave.

No one in this turf was as young as I was. So Bertha and Bertie (who were twins when alive) were the nearest to my age. They were 20 vampire years old.

"Aww the poor dear," they said when they saw me, "look how thirsty you are."

I pursed my lips and pretended not to hear them.

"Once in a while, we can ask Jay to let her come with us," they said.

I perked right up.

"Really?" I asked.

They laughed. "Got you!"

I slumped and cursed. "One of these days, we'll see who has the final laugh," I whispered.

They left the Home out into the world.

While I sat here, all alone, scheming.

3 days later

Jay had gone outside with Myra. He wasn't going to be in the Home for that night. The time had come, to unleash myself into the world!

I wore a dazzling green dress fashioned like the dress from Gone With the Wind. All that Scarlett could have been but wasn't. She would have been a feisty vampire.

I climbed up my bunk into a hollow sounding tunnel that marked the exit. I sank into the darkness and just as Bertha and Bertie came by, I followed them silently out the exit that they knew how to open but I didn't. Going out was difficult. Not coming in. Because all the vampires would be allowed in before dawn. They would come by just as the dawn struck. Not every one was like Jay, always early and too, too careful.

The first thing I noticed when I got out was the blaring horns and the lit streets. I could dance with happiness because this wasn't where Jay would ever take me even with him. Apparently the young like Bertha and Bertie preferred such places. There were so many nightclubs here and ooh, one masquerade ball!

'Relax, Poppy,' I said to myself as a dozen enticing smells reached me, and I was thrown into the crowd that almost carried me towards the lit parties.

My dress was perfect for the masquerade ball, so I daintily carried myself towards the masks that were given to the guests in the party.

"Excuse me," I said.

"Yes, miss. Is your name there?"

I faked a blush and said, "No, but I need to see someone who is there inside. Could you let me in?"

Two women booed at me.

I was getting too much attention and it was now or never.

I smiled at the man, looked deep into his eyes, proffered my hand, which he accepted. I gently nicked his hand with my nail and bringing his hand to my mouth gently took a sip, and made it look like I was kissing it.

"I am sorry, I Am in the list - under the name Smithson."

The man looked woozy and barely checked the name list before giving me a mask.

"Thank you," I smiled.

"Certainly," he said, looking a little confused.

But soon he shook it off and came back to reality. But the strange, beautiful lady was gone.

I held my mask to my eyes and scouted the room for the best target.

"Stop looking at her like that," some girl said to her boyfriend as she passed by.

It was my turn to be smug, but alarm bells rang in the back of my mind. Was I becoming too noticeable?

I dissolved into the darkest corner of the room when someone approached me and said, "I can't believe you are wearing that."

"Wearing what?"

"You look like the perfect Scarlett O' Hara to me."

"Do I?" I said, mulling over whether I could make this guy my dinner.

"Can I ask you for the next dance?"

"May be," I said and smiled.

He took my hand and gently pressed it to his lips.

Before I could say anything else, he waltzed me off to the centre of all activity. His steps were perfect and before I knew it, he matched my clumsy steps with his own and tendered his way between everyone else's.

He was such a gentleman. Maybe I shouldn't have chosen such a person.

"It's hot and stuffy here," I said. "Can we go where there's not so many people?"

"We can go over there," he said, pointing towards a door where people seemed to vanish into dark, perhaps to get more intimate with someone out of the view of the others.

I nodded enthusiastically.

When we were there, he hugged me and said, "Tonight will be a night you will always remember."

I said, "Ditto," and plunged at his throat.

Only I wasn't prepared.

He was holding my neck with his bare hands. A snarl escaped me as I tried to escape his grip.

I couldn't move.

"You were so pretty. Too bad you met a warlock," he said.

I tried to nip his hand but I couldn't reach up.

"Max!" someone cried.

That someone whispered, "You found one!"

I lunged at his forearm and got lucky as I stole a sip. But right in the next moment someone hit me hard and I fainted.

The next day

It was night again.

And I was in a cart that said, "Impy bargains for A vampire!"

"What the heck!?" I cried and tried to get out of the shackles that had me bound.

"Max!"

There was shuffling of feet when he came in.

"I told you I was a warlock," he smiled.

I snarled at him.

"Oh relax, we are selling you to someone who will treat you as nice as you could possibly hope to be treated."

"Sell me," I said slowly.

"Sell me?" I cried.

"Yes, we have found you a nice human who will take care of you. Provide you with blood, day in and day out, keep you healthy."

I couldn't believe my eyes.

"Danny?"

He smirked.

"Yeah. So you noticed," Danny stood where Max had stood.

"All those days when you visited me... I wanted to tell you, but you were a vampire."

"What about the days when I wasn't a vampire?" I asked, about to cry.

"I had no reason to tell you, dear, you were just an orphan with a crush on me."

"With your blood, I can shell out the reason for which you can live longer than warlocks and witches. Selling you was an extra."

"I see," I said, quietly...

'You now have warlock blood inside you, Popsicles. Don't give up,' a voice said that terribly sounded like Jay's.

I could see Myra through a window at the place I was shackled.

"Wha-" "Aaaaargh!" Danny shouted as Myra latched at his throat.

Warlock blood?

'We are what we eat,' the voice said.

I tried to open the cart and it came open.

I lunged at Danny.

Myra came off.

"Better late than never, Danny. Goodbye," I said as I drank him dry.

His limp body fell aside.

I wanted to cry. But I couldn't.

Jay came in through the shadows.

"It's okay, Popsicles. There'll be plenty of real love. Where you won't be sold off, where you will be treated respectfully."

"You mean where I will find a good meal," I said.

"Where you'll find good company," Jay said gently.

"Look at us," Jay said nudging Myra.

"Wha-at," I exclaimed as the black cat turned into a lady.

"She is my bewitching witch," he admired.

I closed my jaw that had dropped at this.

Unlike what people may say, witches or warlocks and vampires made good pairs...

"So Danny and I could've-" I went to say..."-If he wasn't such a jerk, maybe," Jay finished.