by Jamie Ott
Still, she never knew why he was keen to her until she spotted him, one evening, in the corner of the bar where Mica worked.
As he danced with a wanna-be manga girl, Starr noticed that, unlike his appearance during the day, in the evening it was almost like his inner ghoul had come out: spiked hair, tight black tee shirt, black jeans and metal tipped boots.
From across the room, Starr marveled at the metal bar that pierced his eyebrow, and the thick line of eyeliner, that was slightly smudged off.
The truth was Alec totally dug Starr’s style. Before, she didn’t know, but since being turned, she could sense animal attraction. Not that Alec was a perv, though; she could tell it was more of a nostalgia that he had when he saw her.
Countless occasions, she wanted to ask him who it was, she reminded him of, but didn’t want to cross any student-teacher boundaries.
Besides, she didn’t want to start any new friendships. One thing she always worried about was getting too close to outsiders.
She had a lot to hide.
~~~
As usual, Starr walked home after school.
Normally, she was alone on her afternoon walks, but, for some reason, Rachel and Chloe were up ahead of her.
Sensing that she was behind them, they turned and, seeing it was Starr, they made dirty looks at her.
Starr couldn’t help but think how silly they were. To think that they could get away with taunting her outside school, where there was no one to protect them.
Inwardly, she dared them to turn and say something, so she really could frighten them. It would be such a laugh to send them running, screaming down the street.
This was another difference between her, before she was turned and after. Before, the thought of scaring them was purely vengeful. Now, it was a sadistic pleasure, sort of like cat and mouse, serial killer and prey.
To be more specific, Starr found she liked playing with people. It really was a thrill to not only kill, but to push her food across her plate.
That first night, when she escaped them, she stalked her prey for thirty minutes before caging her.
Just like in the movies, the woman sensed she was being followed. Scared, and looking for a quick way home, she was stupid enough to walk down a dark alley, and it was a dead end.
Trying to suppress her laugh, Star decided to approach her.
The woman tried to walk past, but Starr, like picking up a wistful cat, grabbed her by the neck and threw her up against the wall.
The satisfaction she got when seeing the fear on the girls face was orgasmic. Pheromones quickly filled the air between her and the woman.
She could hear the woman’s heart beating.
Again, the woman tried to run past her, but Starr slapped her to the ground.
Grabbing her by the hair, she dragged her toward the exit of the alleyway.
Starr did this, not with the intention of letting her free, but for the sadistic pleasure of giving her hope that she could escape, if she gave one more good fight.
For a split second the woman was relieved, too. It was with great pleasure that Starr disappointed her belief that she could outrun her.
The woman was her lady-madam. Although Starr had never met her before, she could smell them all over her.
It was she who abducted girls and put them in that place. She helped subdue Marla, Mica and Shane.
Still, no matter how much she deserved what she got, the fact is Starr didn’t do what she did for vengeance. She did it for pleasure, and that was the vampire in her.
After she’d done with the lady-madam, she felt bad for a long time: dirty and disgusting.
Despite promising she’d never participate in such twistedness again, she sometimes found herself fantasizing about scaring those who feared her the most.
She wanted to bathe in the scent of fear.
Starr never acted on those impulses again; although sometimes she couldn’t help but taunt people, hoping that they’d take the bait and challenger her. Like exactly what would happen in a pack of wolves, or a lion in its den: hunting, breaking the weak, and challenging the strong.
Savage as it sounds, in her neighborhood, it was very much a reality.
The strong preyed on the weak, as is what happened with Starr and her older sister, because they were too sweet, like Lily.
The only difference between Starr and human predators was, despite her animal instinct, her morality was still intact. For that, she was grateful. She would never be a kind of monster like them.
Rachel and Chloe turned right at the stop light.
Starr, though she reminded herself again and again that she would not hunt, kill, drink fresh blood, or be sadistic, followed them from behind.
They continued to turn their heads, only they weren’t giving nasty looks anymore. Starr could see, in their eyes, and smell, from their pores, aggravation at the fact that she was behind them.
Rachel noticed the smirk on Starr’s face.
Her hearing wasn’t super like Mica’s, but her senses were still improved. She heard them talking about getting rid of her.
They were really starting to panic.
What were they up to?
Finally, they turned into a fenced off clearing. They were waiting for her, on the inside. Pretending she didn’t know, she walked in.
“Okay, Satan!”
Chloe grabbed her and tried to push her into the fence. She might as well have been trying to push a bolted down statue.
Inwardly, Starr couldn’t help but laugh at her attempt to be tough. She’d never thrown a punch ever in her life, and was clueless as to how to fight.
“Think this is funny?” she spat. “Stop following us.”
“You just spit in my face. Do it, one more time, and I’ll make you eat dirt,” Starr said calmly.
“Hey!” a tall girl in a black bustier-top with a black, long shag hair cut shouted.
Starr laughed at the surprised look on Rachel’s and Chloe’s face.
The girl looked tough, like a woman from the amazon. Beautiful and fearless, a conquer-ess, thought Starr.
Quickly, they backed away, turned and ran.
Behind the tall girl was half a dozen, just as tough, looking people who were about Starr’s age.
“Thanks,” said Starr smirking.
“No problem,” said the girl.
She turned and went back to her group.
Starr watched her and her friends for a moment.
Rowdy, they were, as they huddled together talking and laughing loudly.
One boy who sat amidst them particularly caught Starr’s attention. He had a plain look, but gave off a strong scent of danger.
From somewhere inside, she felt her demon give off a light growl. This was something that happened when she felt she was in a dangerous situation.
He was just a kid, though, she said to herself. And he wasn’t doing anything bad.
Writing him off, she left the clearing and went back to the clinic.
~~~
As she walked up to the clinic’s entrance, she saw Mot outside smoking again.
“Always, outside smoking,” she said irritably.
“I like to smoke,” but Starr was starting to wonder if something else were going on.
“Do you realize how delicate things are for us? If we want to continue the way we are, we have to be careful. You, hanging out here, day and night, is not good.”
“Yes, yes, okay. I move over there,” and he walked to the end of the block.
Inside the clinic was chaos, as usual: there was ceaseless noise and racket.
Danny and Kay, two kids Marla and Shane picked up off the streets, months ago, were sweeping the waiting room while Misty, a girl who followed Kay to the clinic one day, and who was the youngest at the clinic, was dusting.
Starr went to her room and set her things down.
“Starr?”
“Yes?”
“Do you have any money for the new generator? I went ahead and talked to your friend, Michael. He’s gonna help us out, but it’s gonna cost $300. I got $250, off me and the others.”
Of them all, Marla was her favorite to hang with. She was a straight shooter and they had similar tastes in clothes and entertainment, plus she often shared the same sense of humor as Starr.
Sure she loved Shane, too, but it wasn’t the same because it was hard being friends with someone who always knew the truth of what she was thinking or feeling.
Shane knew this, though, and she was trying to learn to restrain herself, as she was new to being such a powerful empath and telepath, as she seemed to be a little of both.
Nevertheless, according to L.S. Credenza, vampires, like Shane, could learn to control their empathy and telepathy with practice. Unfortunately, Credenza didn’t write how it could be done, so Shane was left to figure it out on her own. Fortunately, zen masters and yogis had studied these matters for centuries, and it was all a matter of mental discipline.
Shane was getting better at controlling it, though, but there were times when she’d slip up, and it would make them uncomfortable. Like the time when they were talking in the staff room of the clinic, and, all the sudden, she started crying and beating the wall. Turned out, a little girl they’d picked up, off the streets, was having a tantrum in the next room; it was her power of empathy picking up the girl’s vibes, and causing her to act exactly as the girl. She went home the next day, to Shane’s relief.
Then there was the time they were all having dinner in the waiting room. Marla was having a flashback to her father abusing her in the bath tub. All of a sudden, Shane said, “Why did your father tell you to get into the bath tub when your mother had already bathed you?”
Shane, telepathically, overheard part of the replay Marla was having of the conversation with her dad and, without meaning to, embarrassed her, greatly. Since that night, Marla had been a little wary of her.
Lastly, Shane had a bit of a breakdown, and locked herself in her room for a week straight. Screaming, crying and beating the walls, until Starr brought her back her first 24 disc zen master’s collection: remedy to tranquility.
She listened to the discs for three days straight before coming out of her room. It was only then, that Marla truly forgave her for being what she was. Of them all, Shane really did suffer the most.
Now Shane’s room was littered with discs on meditation, and she even downloaded over a thousand different meditation tracks, called white and brown noise, from the internet to help her block out mental noise.
Despite the issues with Shane’s telepathy and empathy, Starr and the others truly felt that her abilities were the most useful of them all, and felt that she’d saved their necks too many times to fully discredit her.
It was her who had gleaned malicious intentions from the drunken teenager who’d followed Mot home, one day. Shane knew, instantly, that the kid was severely addicted to drugs and wanted for robbery. The rest of them could have sensed he was bad news, too, if it wasn’t for the fact that he was masked in alcohol and sweat.
One night at a club, their superhuman senses unfocused due to being surrounded by a hundred people at once, it was Shane who heard the thoughts of a serial killer who was attracted to Mica.
They didn’t believe her until they sensed him following them home, afterward. There was no choice but to kill him. They could defend themselves, but what about the other girls in the clinic?
Yes, it was hard to be around her, sometimes, but every time their superhuman senses failed them, Shane’s power saved them.
Like a team of superheroes, they each had predispositions that, when together, made them invincible.
Even Mica, who drove them nuts with her yammering and was always on the go, was important to their group. Her ability to hear across rooms, and even through walls, enabled them to outwit others and, in incidents passed, to know other players moves before they made them. This was important, as people were prone to saying and doing things, contrary, to what they thought.
Mica had a serious thing for fashion, though. One day she’d be wearing furry Uggs, and be a spitting image of Paris Hilton, and the next, a Prada model, or the epitome of emo-scene. Whether Starr liked her look of the day, or not, she always got the best clothes from her connections, and always got the best seats at fashion week. Starr and the others were always itching to get a peek inside her wardrobe, which Mica kept sealed with a make-shift cement closet that, not even she could break.
Starr walked over to her desk and, from the top drawer, pulled out a small stash of cash.
“Are you waitressing at Billie’s tonight?” she ran her hands through her long brown hair. Her eyes were the color of bluish crystal, as she stood under the fluorescent lamp, lamps which they hung in the hallway and were battery operated. Once they’d get a generator, they could get rid of them.
“Yeah, I have an hour before I gotta go. Are you going to work, too?”
“Yeah, I’m going to drop off this cash, first. Michael will drop by later with the generator. Since you’ll be at work, I’ll ask Shane or Mica if they’ll be here.”
“Or Lily, she’s trustworthy.”
“When you get off, if you aren’t too tired, stop by! You know I get bored, working all night. Seth will be working tonight,” she looked at Starr as though she tossed her a lure with a diamond hook.
Seth was a hot guy who Starr had been crushing on for a while, now. With a face like a model, nearly black hair and shamrock green eyes, it was hard to stop looking at him, sometimes.
Starr smiled and shook her head, “Alright, maybe I’ll stop by after work.”
~~~
That night at Billie’s was another delightful disaster. A wannabe biker came in with his ‘bros’ and thought it would be awesome to do a beer funnel upside down, in between the tables. During which, he nearly choked to death on his half regurgitated steak, which Billie was kind enough to order her to clean up.
Maybe I should go work with Mica?
There, the girls don’t have to clean up puke; that was the barback’s job.
She was so tired of the scum that came into her place. Not that The Gaul club was so much better, with its many creepy frequenters, but, at least, she’d have some respect.
Walking along, she sensed that someone was behind her. Her nose told her it was the girl from earlier that day.
Starr turned around, but she wasn’t in sight. Her new senses never fooled her; she was probably hiding.
“Come out, now. I know who you are, and I know you are there,” she said calmly.
From out of the shadows, she appeared.
“I’m gonna give you, this one time, a warning. I’m a very dangerous person, and I advise you not to threaten me or you will be dead quicker than you can blink.”
“I’m not threatening you.”
“What do you call following someone, and then hiding when they turn to acknowledge you? You must think I’m stupid.”
The girl said nothing.
From the girl, Starr couldn’t sense any malicious intention, but she had been fooled before. Sometimes, people’s body chemistry changed, giving off a distinctive smell when they were lying or up to something shady, but sometimes they didn’t.
Starr supposed that it was an advance in genetics. Shane agreed with her but said it could also be human conditioning. In other words, when a person does wrong for so long, they may lose their sense of morality, leaving them unable to feel things like regret and fear, despite knowing their actions are wrong. If such a person was not the result of genetic advancement, then he or she may be a most broken specimen of human.
She had already come across these types, and they weren’t hard to miss in her neighborhood where most of the vermin of the city resided.
Starr didn’t fear the scentless ones out of weakness, but she just didn’t like not knowing what a person was likely to do
from moment-to-moment. One minute, this cold, cold person would be a best friend and, the next, put blade in that same person’s back.
Which one was this girl? Given her position, it was better not to take a chance.
And with that thought, she said, “Go, now!”
The girl watched her a moment, and then turned. Starr watched her walk down the street a moment before going on her way.
Starr continued on to the hotel where Marla worked. Inside, she said hello to the desk clerk and walked to the back where she knocked on the door of an office.
“Come in,” came Marla’s voice. “I smelled you when you entered the building.”
Her head was on the desk and her eyes were closed.
“What are you doing?”
“Trying to remember what it was like to sleep. I haven’t slept in seven days, you know?”
“Well, you’re lucky. Think of how much you could get done.”
“Yeah, but after a while, it gets boring to always be working on something. Night life sucks; mostly wierdos are out and about.”
“Have you thought about trying a sleep aid?”
“Yeah, I took some Ambien. All the rumors about the Ambien zombies, I figured why not try it.”
“How much did you take?”
“The whole bottle.”
“How much sleep did you get?”
“Three hours.”
“Jesus, Marla. That would put a normal person to death.”
Suddenly, she shot up, over jerking her body, tossing her brown hair onto her back.
“Let’s get a drink. Maybe I’ll get drunk and get some zzzz’s”
“Marla, alcohol doesn’t affect us anymore.”
“Oh yes it does. We just have to drink a lot of it.”
“Maybe you should just get a hobby. Ever think of that? Or a second job? We could really use the money.”
They stepped into the elevator and went up to the seventh floor where a large empty restaurant was dimly lit by the backlights of its bar.
Behind the bar, was Seth setting up glasses.
