Believe Me

It's her again.

Zack sat perched on the edge of his bed as he watched a woman discreetly exiting her house. He frowned as she took a few steps out away from her front step, stopping to inhale deeply the night air around her. She was a tall woman, curvy in all the right places. She was dressed in a black halter dress that reached down just above her knees, revealing her long and pale-skinned legs. All of her was pale, almost as pale as the moon high above in the sky. It was almost freakish, but also hauntingly beautiful... just like her.

She's going to the club again, Zack thought as the woman made her way to her car, a Mercedes Benz that was just as black as her dress. She clicked the unlock button on her keychain and the car beeped, lighting up the neighborhood for a split second before darkness engulfed it once more.

Zack hid in the shadows of his dark bedroom, watching from his window as she got into her car and drove away down the empty street. He frowned in thought, staring up at the full moon as he did so.

Every night was the same ever since that woman moved in next door three months ago. She would come out of her house dressed scandalously and head out to some party or club – at least that is what he assumed based on her attire – but only at night. It shouldn't be that mysterious; she looked to be around her mid-twenties and that is just what twenty-year-olds do he supposed. What struck the young man as odd though was that she never came out in daylight and whenever she got home she had some drunk fool draping all over her and once they were inside the man would never come back out.

At first, Zack had just thought he just didn't see the men leave, but after a few sleepless nights of just staring out the window, he noticed the men never actually left her house once they were inside. Every night was the same: she went out somewhere where she would meet some drunk idiot and bring him to her house, and he would never be seen again.

What does she do with them? he wondered.

He tried to tell his father about it, but the old bastard just waved his son's suspicions off and went back to watching TV.

“How could such a sweet-looking woman be anything other than a Saint?” his father would say. “Stop spying on the new neighbor, ya weirdo.”

She's not a Saint, Zack thought resolutely with a scowl. She's... something else. Why won't anyone believe me?

His nightly watch had begun when he saw a newspaper article about one of the men he had seen go into her home. The man was presumed missing, not having been seen since the night before. His suspicions were confirmed when he saw that article. There was something wrong with his neighbor.

He tried showing his father, who again just brushed it off as Zack's imagination. His friends also did not believe him when he tried to tell them what was going on. Everyone thought he was having a mental breakdown at best, or they thought he was being a pervert at worst for spying on his attractive neighbor.

No one believed him, and it frustrated him immensely.

He watched her, waiting for her to slip up. He would catch her in her dastardly act and prove to everyone he was not crazy. They would see that he had been right all along and that they should have believed him.

As he watched her, something began to brew within him.

Over the few weeks of keeping his eye on her, he has found an odd sense of interest growing. Not the interest of catching her and becoming the new hero of his quiet little suburban town, but a more... affectionate interest. He was attracted to her by some force that he could not perceive. Was it sick of him to be attracted to a possible killer?

Maybe he was just a pervert after all.

He shook his head, doing his best to rid himself of these thoughts and focus on his task. He contemplated the inevitable events. She would do the same as the night before, and the night before, and the night before. She would return home with some inebriated guy and seal him away within her home forever. He would document the men she brought home, as he always did, hoping that when the time came he could prove she was the one abducting them.

Every so often he would notice, as she dragged the poor soul into her lair, her eyes wandering upward toward his window. His breath would hitch and he would hide, praying she didn't see him on the nights this would happen. But he had a distinct feeling she did see him and that she basked in the glory of an audience.

Just like on those nights when she looked up at him, his breath hitched as he saw her car come back around onto the street, her lights momentarily lighting up his window to make him feel like a deer caught in the headlights. He quickly ducked his head out of view of the window, praying she had not seen him.

What was she doing? It hadn't been long enough for her to capture another victim.

 He peeked through the window just as she pulled into her driveway, killing the engine of her car and stepping out of it – her high heeled shoes clicking against the pavement. She slammed the door shut, all the while being watched by Zack, and turned around.

Zack gasped as she stared directly up at his window, a smile formulating on her lips as he watched, with horror, her eyes turn black.

It was as if her pupils expanded to engulf the rest of her eyeballs. The whites of her eyes were swallowed by the blackness, now nothing more than dark pools that threatened to suck him in.

What is she?

The woman suddenly faded from existence, her body shimmering for a second before he lost sight of her. He gasped a second time, watching as something dark flashed before his eyes and his window swung open on its own with a crash.

Knocked off his bed by the shock of it all, Zack gaped at the open window, feeling a chill run deep into his bones as the wind poured into his room. What the hell had done that?

“Hello there.”

Zack's neck nearly snapped at how fast he whipped his head around at the sound of the sultry voice. There, standing in front of his closet shrouded in shadows, was the woman from next door.

“How…” he stammered, swallowing his shock thickly, “how did you get in my room?” She had just been on the street; how did she get up into his room so fast? Had it been her who opened his window?

Her lips curled into a smile. “No worries about that,” she said softly, taking a step forward. The movement startled him, and he pressed himself against his wall to gain some distance from her. “You've been watching me, Zack.”

His eyes widened. “How do you-”

“A trivial matter for someone such as I,” she cut him off, her smile turning more sinister. “I've been watching you too, Zack.”

“You have?”

“Oh, yes I have,” she said, still smiling at him. “You've noticed my… habits, haven't you?”

Zack was speechless. How did she know? She had spotted him a few times in the window, possibly yes, but how did she know he had been watching her? How did she know his name? What was she?

“You have,” she hummed in response to his stunned silence. “I can see it on your face.”

Zack gulped. “What… uh, what are you going to do to me?

Her smile broadened, her teeth now glinting in the moonlight.

He watched in horror as her canines elongated slowly, sharpening into little pinpricks. His eyes widened as he felt his heart racing in fear. She giggled as he pressed himself more against the wall.

“You want to know what I did to all those men, right?” She ran a pale pink tongue over her fangs. “I know you do… I can see into your mind.”

“You can read my mind?”

She nodded. “Yes, I can. I can see into your very soul, Zack. And I like what I see.”

Zack stared at her as she just grinned at him. How could she see into his soul? How could she read his mind? What was with those teeth?

Realization struck as finally he put it all together, his heart now hammering against his ribcage so hard he was scared it would burst. Panic flooded his body as he inched toward his window.

“No.”

In the blink of an eye she had him pinned against the wall with unimaginable speed and strength. He gasped, feeling her fingers curl around his throat with an ironclad grip. He choked, wheezing as she applied pressure.

“You can't leave, not yet...” she whispered into his ear, leaning in so that their cheeks touched. “I have plans for you.”

Zack felt her cold skin against his and shivered at the contact. Her voice was like silk, confident and smooth as she spoke. He opened his lips, trying to plead for his life when she suddenly pulled her hand back from his throat and faced him.

His eyes nearly popped out of his head as she slowly leaned in and kissed him.

Her lips were as cold as death, soft yet forceful as she claimed his lips. He felt his eyes roll as her tongue darted into his mouth, tasting him.

“Virgin,” she hummed once she pulled back from the kiss, leaving him dazed and confused. “I can taste it... so sweet.”

Zack was not crazy. He was seeing this, was feeling this. This woman… he had been right. She was a killer.

A vampire.

“It feels good, doesn’t it?” She smiled at him once again with those fangs of hers. “It feels good to be right.”

He shook his head in answer, unable to speak as his vocal cords were tied in a knot from his fear.

She giggled again. “I can hear your heartbeat,” she leaned in. “It's beating so fast.”

It was. He could feel his heartbeat in his fingertips it was roaring so fiercely in his chest. Her proximity did nothing to help, nor did the way she grinned so maliciously at him.

“Let's make it stop.”

Her eyes changed to that black he had seen earlier; her irises and sclera being engulfed in the blackness as she barred her fangs.

“Zack...”

He lifted his eyes to meet those black pools, quiet resignation now settling into his soul.

This was it.

He had nowhere to go.

She smiled at him, leaning in to whisper in his ear.

“Welcome to the fold, my dear.”

Zack closed his eyes as he felt her fangs sink deep into his neck.