I Feed

After a moment of looking into its eyes, my prey stands quiet and still. My teeth flash for an instant in the moonlight before I sink them into its throat. The prey—a male, I note absently—flinches slightly but makes no noise. The rich, coppery blood flows into my mouth. It would be so easy to get lost in the warm flood, but I force myself to stay alert. I cannot afford to kill another one; too many dead, and even these pathetic humans would notice that there were many dead bodies showing up, drained of blood. When he starts to sway, becoming weak, I pull slowly, reluctantly away. There is a small trickle of blood on my chin, and I lick it off. I inspected my prey. His eyes were still glazed, and the bite has already stopped bleeding. Good. He won’t remember this. A noise! From where? I move into the alley as someone appears at the head of the alley. “Paul? Hey, Paul, you in here man?”

Another human. My prey shakes his head slightly, coming out of the trance I put him in. “Yeah, had to take a piss.” He walks out of the alley as I fade into a mist, drifting off.