by James Bailey
too.” She said.
“Um, but you don't like McDonalds.” Jack said.
“You're right.” The woman said her smile broadening, baring her teeth and revealing a pair of gleaming white fangs that slowly extended from her gums.
Jack's eyes widened in shock and he reached up and yanked her arm off of him then turned and began to run for the stairs.
“Oh Jesus! Oh Jesus!” Jack repeated as he moved.
Jack reached the stairs and began to climb them, scrambling up on his hands and knees when his head bumped into something. Looking up he realised the woman was standing above him, looking down with that same false smile. Jack sprang back in surprise, forgetting he was halfway up a flight of stairs and tumbled down the dozen steps he had climbed, twisting his ankle and smacking his head on the ground.
Shaking off his injuries Jack began hobbling towards another set of stairs on the far side of the platform.
Jack felt a rush of air brush past him and the woman was standing in front of him again.
“What are you!” Jack shouted as he stumbled backwards.
“You know what I am. Your lost friends knew what they were looking for too. There is no point running Jack.” The woman said softly.
Jack kept backing away in horror.
“I am what you were looking for aren't I? What you have been searching for? Dreamt about?”
“Yeah but I didn't really think you'd be real, not like this anyway!” Jack said, stopping as he backed into a concrete pillar.
The woman laughed softly. “Like this? A woman?”
“No! I don't know!” Jack said fearfully wondering to himself if he could talk the creature down.
“What did you expect? That I would recognise someone who wished to join my kind, devote themselves to me, to being a vampire?” The woman said, stepping forward slowly.
“Well... yeah I guess.” Jack said with a tentative shrug.
The woman's fangs extended further and her mouth opened. Jack closed his eyes and let out a little squeal as he felt a rush of air blow past him again. Slowly Jack opened one eye and heard a muffled scream in the distance. A blur of movement raced down the nearby flight of stairs straight towards him and suddenly the woman was back holding a middle aged man in front of her, one hand holding him up, the other clasped around his mouth so he couldn't speak.
The man's eyes were wide in fright and Jack could hear him attempt to scream from behind her hand.
“This is what you want boy?” The woman said, her smile now gone and her eyes flashing with rage. She opened her mouth wide slowly, showing Jack the full extent of her long, sharp, gleaming white fangs. In a move so fast Jack could barely register it the vampire sunk her fangs into the man's neck. The man's body stiffened and he began to scream again but his voice quickly faded. Jack watched on is horror as the man's skin slowly faded in colour to a dull grey, his eyes sinking into his skull. A single drop of blood ran down the man's neck.
As quickly as she sunk her teeth in she pulled back, baring her now blood red fangs at Jack before closing her mouth. She glanced at the desiccated corpse in disgust then threw it onto the train tracks nearby. Jack watched in shock as the body disintegrated as it hit the tracks, leaving nothing but ash.
“Not surprising how we keep ourselves so secret now is it?” The woman said with a smile, looking like nothing more than any other woman now, her skin colour was a little more pink being the only hint that she had just fed.
Jack was frozen in fear, glancing at the ashes slowly blowing away in the breeze then back at the vampire in front of him.
“Are you prepared to do that every week? Pick a random person out of the crowd, suck the life right out of them and then throw them away like an empty coffee cup?” The woman said.
Jack just stared at her.
“Are you ready to never see the sun again, shut away inside until night arrives and only then emerging to feed. Your skin will be so cold that you will never feel the touch of a woman again, never see your family again without thinking of them as food. Can you do that boy?” The woman continued, slowly walking towards Jack.
Jack shook his head silently, tears beginning to run down his cheeks.
“I ate your friends boy, one a week, I do like it when my dinner comes to me. I like you though boy, you are still young, you have a chance to be something.”
Jack whimpered in fright.
“Do you want to live Jack? I can turn you if you like, tomorrow night you will wake up like me. You can join me here hunting the tube every night. We can move on eventually, find an abandoned house to hole up in during the day then prowl the streets at night for someone to drain dry. Would you like that Jack?”
Jack shook his head then plucked up the courage to speak.
“I... I want to go home please.” Jack said in a quavering whisper.
“You want to go home then?” The woman asked with a small smile.
Jack nodded, tears flowing down his face now. He could hear a train approaching in the distance.
The two stared at each other as it pulled up next to them, blowing away what remained of the man.
“This is your train Jack.” The woman said.
Jack slowly walked through the open doors, never taking his eyes off of the woman even as the doors closed. As the train pulled away the woman waved a hand in farewell, Jack instinctively returned the wave then the train entered the tunnel and the woman vanished from view.
Collapsing in a nearby chair Jack sobbed the whole way home, his body shaking at what he had seen. Jack felt his phone vibrate again and pulled it out to see the message.
Well? Did you find a vampire? Brian said
Jack's fingers poised over the keys before he responded, thinking what to say.
No. Jack replied.
