Outsider

by W. Freedreamer Tinkanesh

  * * * * * * *

  "Anyone for a drink?" Stacee suddenly offered, flashing her dazzling smile– one that Sid admired greatly– to Joy. Jessie requested another gin, Sid opted for a beer and the vampire asked for a very red Burgundy. Preferably a dark and fruity red burgundy, one that would pass for blood, if it wasn't for its bouquet.

  Elizabeth's voice had a dark and smoky tinge that captivated Sid's mind, making her heart beat just for the moment. Sid didn't mind, as long as she could find a sort of emotional balance –her prerequisite for sanity–, and strangely so, her odd connection with the vampire provided her with it.

  Jessie and Stacee, rather than resuming their previous appreciative and depreciative commenting on the female crowd, focused their attention on the attractive Joy. Joy was smiling and responding in kind, but non-committally. Their flirting was an unknowing call to the vampire's fangs, but well behaved, Joy didn't try to bite. Whose neck would she have targeted first? Sid could be such……. Sid hadn't noticed her friends' interest; she was too engrossed in the music.

  An almost androgynous butch-dyke deliberately entered their field of vision, with impeccable timing with the enthusiastic applause of the audience. Under her black three-piece suit –a masculine cut–, shirt and blue tie matching her spiky, sapphire hair, tattoos and muscles hid. The tattoos were Jessie's work. The muscles were the results of regular hours in several gyms. She gave bear hugs to the tattooist and the gothic flirt, and strong handshakes to the writer and the vampire. She was there on professional business and as ever enjoyed it. As a freelance reporter she covered many gigs and other events tickling her fancy. Jessie introduced her to Joy under the name of Frank.

  "Like the Frank Chickens," Frank jokingly offered as an explanation. However, no one knew the Frank Chickens nowadays.

  Sid thought, as every time she had seen Frank: She must be wearing a chest-binder to look so flat-chested. Sid had considered the chest-binder, too, but she felt unable to breathe when wearing one. How does she breathe? She had always been too absentminded to question the blue-haired lesbian.

  "How are you coping these days?" Jessie enquired. Frank had lost her partner to mysterious circumstances. A mugging doubled with a murder. The police had never found the culprit, or never cared to. Frank was tough, and bored with widowhood after nine months of loneliness. Yes, she had loved her partner greatly and she missed her dramatically, but she was alive and wanted to feel so. Sid whispered a few relevant details into Joy's acute ears. Joy had fed on so many preys that she had no idea she was the unknown murderer. Madison had never connected the dots with that one.

  A fast rhythm subdued their chitchat. For a few songs, they paid attention to the singer. Jessie was standing very close to the vampire. Frank's shoulder was in contact with Stacee's. Sid was still nursing her first beer. Being off anti-depressants by now, her tastes in alcohol had changed again.

  Just before Elizabeth's last number, while some enthusiastic fans whistled and the singer talked, Frank leaned her head closer to Stacee's and whispered:

  "Hey Stacee, there is a good goth gig planned next weekend. I'll be on the guest list. Would you like to be my plus-one?"

  Stacee smiled, an amused light in her eyes, and replied: "Are you asking me out on a date?"

  Frank hesitated, considered, then launched herself: "Hypothetically, or theoretically, for sheer and devious curiosity, what would you say, if I was?"

  Stacee, her smile steady, answered after a calculated silence: "I think I would say yes."

  "Then, maybe I should. What do you think: should I?"

  * * * * * * *

  "Hey, Sid, good to see you!" Terri gave Sid a big hug and greeted Sid's friends: "Good to see you, everyone!"

  "How are you, Sid?" Dawn enquired.

  "Can't stay and chat, we're on next! Catch you later!" Terri interrupted swiftly and the Second Look women moved on through the tight crowd. Elizabeth Ashtead had finished the last song of her set and everyone had caught the word ‘vampire’ floating in between verses. A strange and almost sad ballad, the story of a lost love, a mixture of lust and blood. Joy used this golden opportunity and launched a conversation on the subject of her kind.

  Of course, the blood drinkers got first mention.

  "Ever heard of psychic vampires?" Joy eventually enquired innocently, looking directly at Sid, who was just listening.

  "They feed on energy, don't they." Stacee answered.

  The conversation went on. Sid hadn't blinked. Joy realized the writer had no idea she was one…….

  "The problem with psychic vampires, from a filming point of view, is that they're not very visual, so they could be tedious." Frank interjected.

  "What about special effects?" Sid jumped in.

  "I don't like psychic vampires," Jessie stated firmly. "They're very……. negative. They drain people from their energy and are more likely to kill than the blood drinkers." Sid looked at her quizzically. Jessie amended: "I am talking about the humans into drinking blood. The immortal kinds are just legends." She resumed her previous thread: "Psychic vampires are generally people into witchcraft and black magic."

  Joy smiled lightly. Sid was listening on, gathering information, sentences, storing them just in case. You never knew; a short story could well come out of it. But why was Joy staring at her so intently?

  "Anyone for another drink?" Jessie offered. "It's my round. O positive or A negative?"

  The group laughed and everyone tried to get something as red as blood, blackcurrant being a good addition.

  "What about you, Stacee?" Joy drew the conversation back to a semblance of seriousness. "When you think about vampires, what comes to your mind?"

  With laughter in her eyes, the long black hair answered: "Dark gothic women with pointy teeth." Sid felt dazzled by the wide smile and silent laughter.

  "Frank?" Joy re-directed her attention.

  "I'd say I like Anne Rice's vampires best. Most of them have wisdom acquired through the ages and they keep up with time. Do I like the idea of vampirism? From a literary point of view, it appeals to me. Blood-drinking in my daily –and nightly– life? I'm not sure."

  "Maybe you need convincing?" Stacee beamed a warm smile at the freelance reporter whose cheeks' blood flow suddenly increased.

  Probably an excellent timing for Terry Harley to start heckling the audience. Joy had regrets that no one had mentioned any vampire organisations or websites, but no regrets about the omission of Dracula. After all, he –and his author– had never experience femalehood first hand. Sid had regrets that no one had given her the opportunity to claim belief in the existence of the immortal blood drinkers. After all, she knew something they didn't!

  Soon, Second Look were rocking their audience and Sid was dancing, under the vampire's watchful eye. Joy could see how the ex-performer was feeding. A brief eye contact was enough to gain extra energy. Enough for Sid, and barely noticeable to the victims.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  After twelve years around the world, Toni felt a certain pleasure at seeing that London was still ripe with music, alive and pumping, rocking and breaking, beating with hungry hearts. Even if still reeling with the recent spree of a serial killer. Nonetheless, she felt very tired and very feverish; she felt the need for an unrestrained feed. Camden was alight with laughing people and awash with the tantalizing scent of blood. The sky was the lighter shade of blue she could handle. She felt hungry. The beating of hearts was almost deafening to her senses.

  A passer-by caught Toni's attention. She walked hurriedly, almost stumbling. A light whiff of fear tickled the vampire's nostrils. She looked almost as young as Toni. The vampire's feet automatically started moving, matching the step of the prey. Beneath the gothic looks (hair dyed black, black eyeliner, skin afraid of bright sunlight, long black velvety coat, bulky silver rings on almost every finger), the unknown quarry had features reminiscing of Dee-Dee. Her eyes were of the same grey behind the unruly hair.

  Dee-Dee was the reason br
inging Toni back to London. She had followed her to Berlin, Venice, Istanbul, Beirut, Karachi, Calcutta, Bangkok, Jakarta, Manila, Nagasaki, Honolulu, Mexico City, San Francisco, Vancouver, Toronto, New York, Dublin, and back to London, where once upon a time Toni had made Dee-Dee into a vampire.

  Dee-Dee was in London, Toni was sure of that. How many times had she missed the angry fledgling? Sometimes only by a day, sometimes barely spotting her confident stride at the end of a street, just before dawn. She hoped that this time, she would see her and they would talk, and Dee-Dee would understand.

  But right now, Toni needed to feed.

  * * * * * * *

  Jade hurried through the busy crossroad, leaving a Building Society on her left, the Last Inn on her right, without checking out the gig list for the Everlasting (she had seen the Ghost of Lemora playing there a few months ago and the Theatre Des Vampires only a few weeks ago). She passed a few shops, one selling Doc Martin boots, and almost tripped in her knee-high New Rock boots. She was late, and her girlfriend was very certainly angry. Fifteen minutes. More traffic than usual had delayed her bus already moving at the speed of a snail.

  At last, she reached her destination. The portrait of a spiderlike woman was gracing the wall next to the entrance of the Black Behemoth, a pub with a rather alternative clientele. She walked in and an Inkubus Sukkubus track hit her ears. "Can't get you out of my head." She was glad to see the evening was still quiet, and scanned the drinking and chatting pale goths and cheerful punks. She recognized a few regulars and felt relief at the sight of Janeane and her Cruella-Devil hairdo behind the bar. She walked to the end of the pub, stared at the savaged female cyborg guarding a corner of the stage, but didn't spot her dreaded girlfriend anywhere. She sighed, almost with relief. The cyborg stared back, undisturbed.

  * * * * * * * *

  Toni stepped in and took in the decoration. Some bat tinsels forgotten after Hallowe'en were still dangling from the ceiling wallpapered with band-promo posters. A sleeping bat, made out of rubber, was hanging by its feet behind the bar, next to a couple of grinning skeletons. Here and there along the walls, skulls were laughing at everyone. Toni smiled lightly at the colourful mohicans and the black dye darkening much hair across the pub. She was not the only one favouring a black, dust-dragging leather coat. Her prey had eventually slowed down after staring all around, and was now getting a red drink from a barman whose velvety outfit would have been perfect to get him a butler job with Dracula.

  Toni was quickly served, too. Her barmaid was not of the smiling kind. She had stars tattooed on each temple and on the sides of her neck. To Toni, she looked like a beautiful skunk.

  Jade had sat at an empty table and got a dog-eared paperback out of her black, velvety shoulder bag. Two men dressed in standard black clothes and leery smiles approached her table, ready to inquire about the vacancy of the two other chairs, but before they got beyond opening their mouths, Toni was standing next to them with a look in her eyes dark clouds would have been jealous of. They quickly steered away, while Toni claimed her new territory. The young goth hadn't had a chance to notice. She was heavily absorbed in ‘Memnoch the Devil’, a novel by Anne Rice, a classic that most vampires had checked out.

  A sudden, sharp noise made Jade jump back to reality. In a flurry of panic she started fumbling with the contents of her bag while the sound of sharpening blades kept on ringing, louder and louder. At last, she found her mobile phone and answered its call with a worried tone:

  "Where are you?"

  Toni's acute hearing had no problem catching the reply: "I can't make it tonight. Have you been waiting long?"

  "What's happening?"

  "Oh, nothing. Everything's fine. Just more work than I expected." A silence. What a feeble excuse, Toni thought, sensing lies in these few words. "I'll catch up with you tomorrow. I'll ring you, ok? You take care."

  Before Jade could add a word or even sigh, her girlfriend had abruptly ended the communication. Sadness spread across her face. She did not know how to feel: disappointed to be let down at the last minute, or relieved that she had not to face her girlfriend's anger for her lateness. It was only then that she noticed the young woman sharing her table. She was not reading or staring at anything especially. She seemed to be lost in another world, in between long sips of her pint of snakebite. Another one into lager and blackcurrant. Jade thought she looked very young and so innocent, and went back to her book and her own drink, without much enthusiasm. She'd probably finish her drink and leave. The DJ had just selected a jokey Bow Wow Wow number.

  * * * * * * *

  When Jade found herself with less than two inches left to drink in her pint glass, the voice of the Smiths started to claim: "I am the sun, I am the air" and a stranger's voice offered: "May I buy you a drink?"

  Jade looked up and into the green eyes and friendly smile of the attractive woman with very white teeth, who looked as skinny as a scarecrow. She hesitated. What would her girlfriend think? But her girlfriend was elsewhere, busy working, or so she had said, and she didn't need to know. After all, it was just one drink.

  "Yes, that would be nice."

  "Snakebite, is it?"

  "Yes, thanks!"

  By the time Toni got back to their table, the crowd having thickened, but no one having tried to interfere with Toni and Jade's building intimacy, the satanic Cradle of Filth had taken the soundtrack over. Jade had shed her velvet and Toni could see scars, some already white, some still red, creeping out of the three-quarter sleeves of a hugging, black T-shirt. An abusive girlfriend and self-harming? I will take you away from your misery. Toni rested the two pints on the wooden table and next dropped her leather.

  Soon, they were entranced in an animated conversation, with very little help from Toni's hypnotic power. Jade was easily talking about herself, Toni's looks of innocence making her look even more trustworthy. Alcohol aiding and abetting, Jade was getting increasingly personal in her details.

  "Maybe she isn't working late tonight," she said suddenly.

  "Your girlfriend?"

  "Maybe she is with someone else."

  "I think your girlfriend doesn’t deserve you."

  Jade looked at Toni with surprise and eventually, her speech slightly slurred she queried: "What do you mean?"

  "From what you told me, your girlfriend is not such a nice person. You're sweet. You deserve a woman who really cares."

  Jade lost herself in Toni's eyes for a minute before looking away. After a long silence, with sadness in her eyes, she articulated: "I think I've drunk too much. I should go home." She stood up clumsily and dropped her book on the floor when she turned around to reclaim the velvet from the back of her chair. Toni picked it up: "I've got it!"

  "I'm so sorry! I'm so clumsy! I should have left ages ago!"

  "It's ok," Toni grabbed Jade's right hand to stench the flow of panic. "It is really ok." She smiled a gentle smile that stopped Jade's features in mid-expression, and went on. "I think I should take you home. It's my fault if you got so drunk. Come on. I'll get us a cab." She grabbed her coat while her prey obediently gathered her things.

  * * * * * * *

  Jade's lips tasted soft when Toni kissed them after closing the door of the goth's room.

  The vampire gently undressed the young woman, who was too surprised to act otherwise. She accepted the hands caressing her body while pulling up her T-shirt and zipping down the long skirt. She accepted the mouth gently kissing her legs when Toni took the boots off her feet.

  As gently, the scarecrow laid her down on the bed and quickly proceeded to free her own body with the now unnecessary clothing. Jade looked at the pale body, the small breasts, the slender legs, amazed to find herself in the company of such a beautiful woman. About to make love with such a beautiful woman.

  * * * * * * *

  Her girlfriend was never as gentle, making sex a quick affair where Jade's pleasure was of little consequence.

  * * * * * * *

  Toni was the te
nderness incarnated, never biting, but gently nibbling Jade's nipples, never scratching, but her hands like fluttering butterflies. Jade sighed. Eagerly drinking kisses from Toni's mouth, she was discovering that love could feel good and even wonderful.

  When Toni's fingertips came in contact with her clitoris, Jade almost tensed, she was used to get two or three of her girlfriend's fingers in her vagina, pumping hard, fast and painful. Toni's fingers were gentle and pleasuresome.

  Jade relaxed and moaned, simply enjoying the feel of Toni's mouth kissing every inch and every scar on her skin, letting her body move with the rhythm of sensations. In Toni's embrace, she was discovering pleasure, she was discovering freedom of expression.

  Jade moved her legs apart to let Toni kiss her vulva. She felt the tongue licking and the mouth sucking, ever so gentle, ever so pleasurable. She moaned, louder, and when she reached orgasm, cried out.

  They made love again and again throughout the night, enjoying each other's body with a passion Jade had never known. She relished in Toni's pleasure as much as in her own.

  "you are so beautiful," she murmured into Toni's ear.

  "I promise you, my sweet one, you will never suffer again."

  Jade's grey eyes looked up into Toni's green eyes in a new and long silence. Toni's mouth found Jade's for another tender and deep kiss, then followed the throat, tongue gently licking the skin. And at last, Toni's fangs came out and into Jade's jugular.

  Jade never felt pain while Toni drank her life away.