Trying to be good

The stars were beginning to appear in the sky, they looked timid. She still had to wait, it was not yet full dark and what little light there still was would burn her. She turned away from the window. The special UV filtered glass had been the best thing she had ever bought. She had always loved the sun. She was determined to kill the son of a bitch who had cursed her with vampirism. She sat in the chair and stared aimlessly at in the direction of the TV, ignoring her stomach growling. It was like her hunger knew when it was nearly safe to go out. Finally it was time and she stepped outside. The smells hit her, She did like the nasal and eye sight upgrades. The strength came in handy too. It was actually pretty cool to be a vampire, mostly. The whole blood drinking thing and the lack of sunlight really let the condition down though. Who would be breakfast, lunch and dinner tonight? She didn’t like to eat just anyone, she tried to find people with low morals. A difficult task as she lived in a nice place. She had tried being a ‘vegetarian’ vampire and only eating animals but, the blood didn’t taste nice to her so she had to eat people. she decided to walk into town. It was a Friday night, maybe she’d get lucky and find some drunk guy hitting his partner.

she was approaching the first pub when an ex work mate stumbled out. They hadn’t got along. He was on her revenge/kill list. She smiled.

“Hi, Henry!” she greeted him warmly

“Louise, hi.” he said as he tried to shuffle past her, she watched him walk towards the bank to his home. She smiled again, plenty of dark spaces between houses in that direction. She was starving and couldn’t wait long. she walked behind him until the first dark cut and pushed him in. Checking that they hadn’t been seen.

“What are you doing?” He asked

“Killing you. You really should have been nicer to co-workers.” she pushed him against the brick wall and sank her fangs into his neck. It felt so good. Her hunger satisfied for the time being. she let his body fall to the floor and wiped her mouth with her hoodie sleeve. One more ticked off the list. She didn’t deliberately go looking for the people on her list, but it was nice when she bumped into them. She booted him once before she left his body lying there to be found by a jogger or a dog walker the next day, They were the ones that always found the bodies.

Town was quiet, she didn’t see anyone misbehaving. She was getting peckish again, she needed to eat at least 3 people per night to feel full. She wondered if there was anyone else like her in the area. The person who had bitten her had done so from behind, she hadn’t seen them. It had been a cowards move. She pushed it from her mind. During the day she hated that person. But, on a night she wanted to thank them. She decided to go for a run around the riverside walk, stretch her legs for awhile. She was no faster at running as she had been before, she didn’t think, It was the stamina she liked. She never got tired or sore the next day after working out. The night was cool with a slight breeze, she felt good running around the circular path. No one was walking on it. She hadn’t expected anyone to as it was not lit. She finished near the student bars, Maybe the students were annoying the residents tonight. She didn’t like the over privileged students who thought money ruled the world and they could do as they pleased. They were behaving themselves as well. At this rate she would have to pick someone and hope they were a bad person.

She wondered back to the main part of town where the bars were, She could use a drink but food and liquids made her want to throw up now. She was on a strict blood only diet. Depending on how she was thinking being a vampire was definitely a love/hate thing.

She heard a scream in the distance. Finally, she thought. she ran towards it, her internal satnav directing her to the screams location. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing at first, It was a man chasing a young woman around an enclosed parking garage, like a cat playing with a mouse before it pounces. It was the man she was staring it. He was like her. He was a vampire. The young woman saw Louise and ran over seeking the comfort of another female. Louise could feel the woman’s terror, hear her frantic heart beat pulsing through her veins. Louise felt her mouth fill with teeth. She wanted to kill this woman more than she’d wanted to do anything before. She looked at the man, he was looking at her amused.

“Such control from one so young, I wasn’t planning on sharing, but I could.”

Louise willed the teeth back into her gums as she fought to control the blood lust, if only just to prove the point that she could. The woman had gone silent in her arms. Louise looked at her.

“Run.” she said. The woman didn’t need telling twice. The man growled.

“Why did you do that? Her Adrenalin would have made her taste so sweet. ” he said

“I don’t want to be a monster, just because I am one.” she replied.

“Foolish child, ungrateful of the gift that has been bestowed on you. Not everyone survives the blood rite needed to be reborn.” He was walking towards her, she was nervous but, tried not to show it.

“Then the gift giver should have asked it I wanted it before making me what I am.” She said.

“not to worry, ” he said with a smile “I can take it away from you easily.”

He struck her face like a concrete slab and she flew backwards into a supporting pillar of the structure. He was in the way of the exit, her only option was up. She ran up the ramp, head foggy from the blow. She heard him chasing her. Only idiots run up the stairs! She thought, but it was too late, She ran for the stairwell to get back to the ground floor but the door was locked, she kicked the door but it wouldn’t budge. She ran further up to keep out of the mans way, up to the roof. 7 floors above the ground. She looked down. she heard him behind her.

“no more room to run little one.” He said simply.

She turned to face him. Vampire v Vampire she thought, I can take him. She stood in a stance she could remember from her brief time in karate lessons as a child. He looked at her, laughed then ran towards her. She tried to dodge but was too slow, he rugby tackled her to the floor. straddling her feeble, to him, attempt to get him off her. He laughed again. Her nail caught his chest and he screamed, then punched her nose so hard she though her head would go down a level. She was dazed and had double vision. He waited until she could see again then he pulled out a wallet from his back pocket and took out a card.

“This is a wooden card. Think of it like a stake. I don’t like to kill my own kind but you seem too soft to survive, so this will be a blessing.”

He put the card above her heart long ways and started to push. It pierced her skin easier than she would have imagined. Plus it burned. She didn’t want to die. Not again, not like this. Not death by a wooden fake credit card! She summoned her strength. She felt her skin crawling, she felt powerful. She let the demon inside her out and pushed the man and his deadly stupid wooden credit card away from her then she ran. Straight over the edge and down 7 stories. (FACT: newborn vampires are stupid, that’s why you don’t see many. It can take up to 50 years before human mind and vampire essence fully merge so when a person does call upon the vampire for help. The person will lose control temporarily and the vampire will do something stupid, like keep fighting a fight It can’t win or run off a roof.) Louise hit the ground on her back. It hurt. No other words are needed to describe it. She looked up at the multi storey, she didn’t see the man looking down at her. She tried to get up but only her arms would work. Oops. She hoped she would not have to lie there too long until she healed enough to get up. She heard a noise beside her and shifted her eyes. It was the woman she had saved. The woman knelt beside her.

“Thank you for saving me, you aren’t like the others.”

Louise swallowed and looked mournfully at the woman. Unable to move. The Woman stroked Louise’s hair away from her eyes. Louise looked the woman in the eyes and could see the kindness in them. She moved her lips but no sound came out. She motioned for the woman’s ear. The woman bent down to hear Louise’s last words. She’d been wrong. Some humans will never learn. Louise thought as she bit into the woman’s neck, feeling the blood speed up the healing process. When she was done she cast the woman’s body to one side and looked in her handbag to find her purse. She opened it and took out the cash money. Then she saw the ID.

“Fuck.”

Melissa grange. Midwife. Her first innocent kill had been a woman who brought life, food. into the world. oh. Dear. Realising the vampire had changed her perceptions. Killing bad people was all well and good. But, the Adrenalin that was left in that woman’s body had been a nice treat. She could play cat and mouse every now and again. She lay there looking up at the stars. They seemed more dangerous than the had before. She lay there watching them. Waiting for the man to come back. Maybe her could teach her a thing or two. This could be the first night of the rest of her death.