Living Like A Vampire

by Jacky Dahlhaus

  Just to make sure he wasn’t kidding, I tried to break free from his grip.

  “Ah, a feisty one you are,” he said, tightening his grip on my wrists.

  You should have said that in a little, green alien’s voice. And no, I am just somebody who is very attached to her humanity.

  He must have seen what I thought from the look on my face as he laughed. He had the cutest laugh.

  “Let’s go,” he said. He let go of my wrists. He held me by my upper arm as he walked me back toward Ms. Black Widow.

  I tried to break free again, but his grip was too tight.

  “I really don’t know why you’re even trying,” he said. He looked at me with this smile on his face, his fangs only showing a little. He saw me looking at them and said, “Don’t worry, I am not going to bite you…yet.”

  “What does that mean?” I sneered. “Am I going to be the snack for on the road?”

  Another cute chuckle.

  “Now that’s an idea. I'll have to think about that one.”

  I wasn’t sure if he was serious or joking with me. He sat me down on one of the benches in the schoolyard.

  Ms. Black Widow had apparently gotten rid of Mr. Ugly Sweater in the meantime as he was nowhere to be seen.

  “He won’t bother us again,” she told Mr. Perfect. Her low female voice had a Russian accent, perhaps Polish, something Eastern European for sure.

  “I hope you ate his sweater too,” I said.

  She turned her head abruptly toward me, making her fake bob oscillate.

  Mr. Perfect laughed before he said to her, “This is a funny one, Sasha! We definitely have to keep her.”

  So, Ms. Black Widow’s name is Sasha. What would Mr. Perfect’s name be?

  Caught

  Most of the chasing had ended by now. I was sitting on the bench close to where the toilets were in the Arts building. It was never a popular place due to the smells wafting from the little windows. My back was turned to the larger area of the yard around the corner, where a lot of whimpering and sobbing was coming from. I could hear the occasional scream as more and more people were herded into the schoolyard.

  Now was the time the suckers would feed on their victims. I remembered how they had caught Sue, how they had dragged her to where the others were gathered, and how the whole group of suckers had fallen on their victims. Memories of the massacre made a lump well up in my throat. I assumed I was going to be added to the gathering pen, ending up just like Sue.

  Sasha stood with her arms folded in front of Mr. Perfect. “So what do you want to do, Caleb?”

  His name is Caleb. Nice.

  Caleb was looking away from us, not moving or making a sound. He appeared to be in deep thought as he brushed his hand through his hair. He had a gentleman’s haircut; short at the sides and back, and a wavy lock of hair on top that had fallen partially over his forehead, very stylish. A lock of hair fell over his forehead again as his hand moved to the back of his neck.

  Maybe he’s seriously contemplating taking me with him as a snack for on the road.

  I studied my captor. He wore sneakers, jeans, and a long, dark-blue, fisherman’s coat. He was handsome. His face was long, but not too long, and complemented by his strong nose and chin. I knew his eyes were the darkest brown, even though I couldn’t see them right now.

  I like the way he had looked at me with those gorgeous eyes.

  Oh my god, did I just think that?!

  This was my captor, the guy who was going to kill me or, possibly, stop me from being the person I was.

  How can I ‘like’ anything about this guy?

  A shiver ran through my spine. I was repulsed by my feelings for him and tried to think of reasons for feeling this way. I had heard of people falling in love with their captors, called the ‘Stockholm syndrome,’ but could this happen within a few minutes? I sincerely doubted that. Otherwise, they could put me in the Guinness World of Records book for the fastest Stockholm syndrome case.

  Whoopdeedoo, lucky me.

  I scrapped the Stockholm scenario, which was very unlikely. But then what? I knew I liked handsome-looking guys, but I wasn’t so shallow I'd fall for the first good-looking guy that bashed his eyelids my way. I did have a brain, you know, and it knew that there were more qualifications than just good looks to pass the bar for being a possible partner.

  For heaven’s sake, I’m not even looking for one.

  My continued reasoning didn’t stop me from liking this guy. Why was I reacting so weirdly? More questions flashed through my mind.

  Why am I so attracted to this killer? Is this a secret skill of suckers that the media forgot to tell us about? Do they hypnotize people to do their will?

  Then my inner me took a U-turn and told me the opposite of what I should be thinking.

  If you must get ‘turned’ by somebody, then why not by this guy?

  Fortunately, my mind me got the better of me.

  Oh, don’t you listen to that. You don’t want to get ‘turned’ by anybody.

  I tried to mentally slap myself in the face to shake me out of the reverie for this handsome stranger. My efforts were aided by Sasha, who grabbed me by my shoulders.

  “Why don’t you just finish her right now?” she said, looking straight at me.

  Title adjustment; Ms. Impatient Black Widow.

  As I looked back at her, I froze. Her stare was as cold as liquid nitrogen.

  Am I glad your stare can’t kill.

  I didn’t know what I had ever done to her, but it was clear she didn’t like me. I would have had to be as blind as a bat to miss the hatred in her eyes.

  I’m sure there’s something else going on here, and I’m not sure exactly what.

  Only now did it struck me how tall this woman really was. Much taller than me, and maybe even taller than Sue was, had been. Sasha’s short, black hair was swinging forward on both sides of her face, making her face seem long as well. That hair was way too neat to be real. It had to be a wig, fake. Just like her plastic top and her plastic coat and those fake-leather leggings and boots. They were all black and fake and unreal. In contrast to the threat she represented.

  Maybe it was the fact that she interrupted my thoughts about Mr. Perfect or the way she suggested Caleb should kill me this very instant, but something about her made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

  I really don’t like this woman.

  “No, I won’t,” Caleb said. “You keep her here, I’ll be back for her,” and with this he walked off, leaving me alone with Ms. Impatient Black Widow.

  I wasn’t so sure this was a good idea. I wrapped my arms closer around my body to fend off another chill.

  To my surprise, Sasha didn’t touch me. She let her gaze follow Caleb, who disappeared around the corner. I glanced in the opposite direction for a second, at the empty street that ran along the school, but decided not to make a run for it. I knew Sasha would outrun me easily with those long legs of hers, and I refused to give her the satisfaction of giving me a beating.

  I bet she’d outrun me even in those heels.

  She didn’t say anything to me until Caleb was gone from sight. “Great, leftovers for me again tonight.” She almost spat the words out.

  “You could always drink a bit of my blood,” I offered, trying to keep the situation light, hoping that her drinking my blood would make Caleb so angry he would punish her…severely...kill her even…maybe.

  Jeez, did I just wish somebody dead?

  Hey, she just wanted to have me killed.

  Sasha looked at me as if I’d just asked her to turn herself into a goldfish.

  “He said he would be back for you,” she said. “Your turn will come.”

  I was surprised by her resolute answer, and my mind started fast-tracking.

  Why are you so sure he will do that? Did you mean turn-turn or kill-turn? If you really don’t like ‘leftovers,’ why won’t you eat me? I wonder what spell he has on you. Would it be the same spell that he has o
n me? Uh oh, I hope you don’t see me as competition. This is not making me feel any better.

  We continued waiting in silence until we heard the screams rising from around the corner. We listened to it for a few minutes. Then I couldn’t take it any longer.

  “So,” I said, starting a new conversation with Ms. Impatient Black Widow to keep myself from freaking out. “How does it feel to kill everyone you meet?”

  She didn’t respond immediately. I didn’t think she was going to dignify me with a reply.

  “We don’t kill everyone,” she finally said, still staring in the direction Caleb had gone.

  That took me by surprise. “Oh, I thought you did. Aren’t you the ‘undead,’ killing everyone in your wake?” I asked, for a second completely forgetting they were infected with the Succedaneum virus which made them photo-phobic blood-suckers.

  She gave another derisive snort. “Of course not, we are ‘turned,’ changed into a better version. We aren’t dead. Dead people can’t walk around. That only happens in movies.” She looked down at me and made me feel like the dumbest kid in class.

  I couldn’t help myself and pushed my luck to get as much info out of her as possible.

  “Yeah, that’s true. You let some people live. I’ve seen it myself. So what makes you decide who gets to live and who dies then?”

  I made myself hold her stare. I felt my palms go sweaty at this direct question and sincerely hoped she couldn’t hear my heart pounding away in my chest. She hesitated before she answered. It seemed she was contemplating whether to tell me or not. I gathered she decided I was going to find out anyway. On the other hand, perhaps she was passing the time, but she started explaining it.

  “Most of us just feed on anyone, killing them in the process, leaving no one behind alive. They turn the strong ones, to make the pack bigger and stronger. Caleb doesn’t agree with this killing strategy. He doesn’t touch children, nor their mothers if they’re really young. Like the other, he does pick out the strong ones to live as well. There’s no other choice.”

  “That’s so nice of him, not killing the children,” I sort of said to myself.

  “They’re a burden to the pack with the amount they sleep and feed. And we need to keep the blood supply up for the future,” Sasha said as a matter of fact.

  She had a knack for making me feel very stupid and crushing my positive feelings for Caleb.

  Another title addition; Ms. Impatient Black Widow, Party Pooper.

  “What do you mean with, ‘there’s no other choice,’ with picking out strong ones like you said?” I asked.

  My mind took me back to the tent site where they had devoured everyone but hadn’t touched the man that had stood up for Sue. I couldn’t help it, I had to know.

  Sasha clicked her tongue and sighed, but she did answer.

  “We tried to turn everybody in the beginning. That was a disaster.”

  “Why?”

  “For a start, we became very hungry. We need to drink a lot at first. The worst thing was that most newborns couldn’t handle being turned. They killed themselves or they started killing us. They just couldn’t accept being one of us. You can see it in their eyes at the gatherings. That’s how we choose who gets to live and who doesn’t. We look into their eyes.”

  Well, that shut me up as I had no idea how I could fake the eye thing. I had no clue what she was talking about.

  Enough food for thought for the time being.

  Hooked

  Caleb finally returned from doing whatever he thought was more urgent than giving me ‘my turn.’ As he approached, our eyes met for a split second, and again there was this pang of something. My heart skipped a beat, and I got this sensation of happiness and hope.

  What is this stuff? Is this love? Does he feel it too?

  If he does, he certainly doesn’t give it away.

  I couldn’t tell if Caleb was feeling the same. The suspense was killing me, so to speak.

  “You go and feed now,” he commanded Sasha. As he did, he turned his face and wiped a blood smear from the corner of his mouth.

  Well, that has the same effect as having a cold shower.

  I nearly forgot that Mr. Perfect here was about to turn or kill me. I pulled my knees up and tried to make myself smaller. You never knew, maybe he didn’t see me all of a sudden.

  Yeah, right.

  The eastern sky was turning purple when he finally faced me.

  “It’s your time now,” he said in this husky voice. “You know it is, don’t you?”

  I nodded. I couldn’t say anything as my voice seemed to have skipped town for the moment. He held out his hand and helped me up.

  Why did I take his hand?

  Caleb pulled me a few steps away. His grip was firm but not painful. Still, I surprised myself when a sound escaped from my throat. He looked at me in alarm.

  Did I just see concern in his eyes? Is he worried he hurt me? Does he really care?

  Do you really care?

  “I’m okay,” I said, not sure if I’d said this to him or to myself.

  “Just turn her, Caleb,” Sasha said, interrupting, impatient, still there.

  I really, really don’t like her.

  Caleb looked around at her and snapped, “I thought you were hungry?” He dragged me further away from her.

  Good. It seems he doesn’t like her either.

  I wished I could gloat in her direction, but Caleb pushed me into a corner of the school building and put both his hands on my hips, blocking my entire view. I couldn’t turn away from him. I should’ve felt petrified, but somehow I wasn’t. He moved his face close to mine, our foreheads almost touching. His closeness made me feel warm and fuzzy. I was surprised by the heat I felt radiating off him. Then I remembered again that suckers weren’t ‘undead.’ They were alive, just like I was, with beating hearts and blood flowing. And I, too, would continue to be alive after I was turned.

  How bad can it be?

  “I am going to turn you now,” he said. His voice resonated more emotion than I’d ever heard in any of my short list of past boyfriends.

  “I know,” I whispered and looked up into his eyes. His pupils were almost as big as his irises which were almost as dark as his pupils.

  “I have no choice,” he said, and there was this hint of an apology.

  No choice, no choice? Yes, you do. You just don’t want to make the right one. It isn’t as if somebody is holding a gun to your head, geez.

  There was no connection between what was going on in my head and what came out of my mouth.

  “Will it hurt?” I asked, surprising myself again.

  He moved his mouth closer to my neck, nuzzling my skin. He then pulled down the zipper of my jacket and pulled the collar away to expose more flesh.

  “Only a little, at first,” he said.

  I was feeling anxious now, excited by his warm closeness and fearful of what was about to happen. Unable to resist, I moved my head away from him, to give him better access to my jugular vein. He moved my hair back with his hand, his fingertips lightly stroking my neck. My eyes closed as a shiver of ecstasy went through my body. His touch gave me goosebumps. His lips touched my neck, and my heart began pounding like a maniac. When his lips parted, I could feel his fangs on my skin. I could barely suppress a groan, this was so intense. Deep underneath his fangs, my carotid artery beat like a drum. Boom boom, boom boom. I wanted this moment to last forever. As he widened his jaws, he gently increased the pressure with his wet fangs. My whole body stiffened from the pain when they pierced my skin.

  “Caleb,” Sasha said from not too far away.

  Go away, woman!

  Caleb hesitated but decided to ignore Sasha. As he deepened his fangs a little more, Sasha shouted again.

  “Caleb, you really need to come. Now!” Her voice was laden with urgency.

  Abruptly he withdrew his fangs.

  “What?” he yelled annoyed as he turned away from me.

  We both looked at Sasha,
and she stood there with a blank look on her face as if frozen solid. Caleb looked at the sky in the east and back at Sasha. Sunlight was already on her legs, creeping closer to Caleb by the second. He looked back at me and again toward Sasha.

  “Shit,” he said and he ran to grab her. His pull released her out of the sun and her pre-epileptic aura, and they ran away in the opposite direction of the sunlight.

  Alone?

  I was abandoned, standing in the corner of the school building. My nostrils flared with my heavy breathing. I needed to get oxygen to my brain as it wasn’t computing. It was trying to figure out what had just happened but couldn’t get a grip. I was about to get turned by the love of my life, my soulmate. Yet I was still here, alone, and still human.

  My hand went to my neck, and I felt there was no blood being pumped out, just the sticky wetness of the blood oozing from the wounds where Caleb’s fangs had pierced my skin. He hadn’t gone all the way, hadn’t pierced my jugular. I pulled my hand away from the stickiness. Still trying to get my mind around the situation, I sank down in the corner. After wiping my bloody hand on my jeans, I zipped up my jacket, collar and all, covering my neck. My arms then hugged my knees. I was alive and, to my amazement, was still a normal human.

  My memory went back to the moment when Caleb had looked back at me for the last time. What had been in his eyes? Was it love, pity, anger? I couldn’t say what his thoughts had been when he had left me. I was such an emotional mess.

  Why hadn’t he said something like, ‘I’ll be back’ or even, ‘It was nice knowing you, babe? Have a nice life…’? Anything. What was I to do now? Would I ever see him again? Should I go look for him?

  Surely not, that would definitely get me killed. I can’t walk up to the first sucker I can find going, ‘Say, do you perhaps know a sucker called Caleb?’ Ridiculous.

  I sat in the corner of the school building until the sun touched my face. The warmth of it made me smile. Again, I realized my luck of not being turned, and that I should be glad. I got up, got my panties out of my butt, and dusted off my pants. My hands and knees were in a terrible state, but I didn’t care. As I started walking, my legs felt stiff from the grazes.