A Modern Vampire Tale

Take 2

On a dark, mild fall night I decided to walk to a local bar. I walked from my place to the bar along the main street; the leaves that were left on the trees were rustling with the light breeze that was blowing. Winter isn’t far around the corner by the looks of it. My mind wandered and before I knew it I was standing outside the local bar. It isn’t the best one for it’s looks but its drinks and food are great. On the outside the bar is old and creaky looking, with bits of black wood falling away from around the windows and the doors full of dents from drunken men’s brawls. Outside there is a small patio with dulled down cream plastic tables and chairs covered in the reddish golden leaves that had fallen from a near-by tree, cobwebs crowded the corners of the entrance to the bar giving it a real spooky look in the dark night as the light from the bar shone through them. The music was a dull roar from the outside and as I stepped inside the smell of hot bodies and alcohol filled the room. I pushed my way through the dancing crowd and took a seat at the bar. From here I could see everyone dancing and sitting, the floor a shiny wood and the carpet around the bar a deep red, the bar was a dark wood, something that looked like oak, topped off with a golden coloured metal around the edges, the seats, although a little uncomfortable on the ass cheeks, were the same dark wood, with a slightly padded dark red leather top, finished off the golden coloured edging.

As I sat at the bar, I couldn’t believe the shit the DJ was blaring out of his machines. Although the bar is split in two, those that sit at the bar are subjected to this loud array of unholy noise that gets played from time to time. To be quite frank I’ve never understood what people, teenagers, like in this ruckus they call music, I mean, all this shit is, is some apparent musical notes, followed by some idiot screeching and screaming a bunch of words and some sound effects mixed together. As I turned to face the bar my eye caught a glimpse of a beautiful woman. She had Dark brown hair and the brownest eyes, a slightly pale complexion and a slim, toned body. I caught Joe’s (the bartender) eye and signaled for him to come over. Once he came to me I asked him to buy the lady her favourite drink and to put it on my tab. As he walked away towards her I looked him over once, a stout little fellow, with dark shaggy hair and a beard, tattoos up both arms and what looked to be up the side of his neck was a dragon. To look at him you’d think he was one mean ass-smashing dude, but once you get to know him you notice that his appearance has nothing to do with his shinning personality. I watched as Joe handed her a drink and as he turned round to deal with another customer, he winked in my direction. The woman smiled at me and walked over to greet me.

“Hi” she said with a coy smile, “I’m Natasha.” “Pleasure to meet you” I told her “My name is Eric.”

She commented to me about how the name suits me and watched as she quickly downed her drink, I called Joe over and bought her another one, knowing that there would be more of those to go her way.

At around 2am, Joe kicked us out laughing and carrying on all the way onto the street and as we walked away I turned round to give him a silent “thanks” and he nodded his head before having to draw his attention to two men in their early 20’s and walked over to separate their drunken sprawl.

A little way from the bar I took her into an alley and I told her that it was a short cut to my place and began walking by her side through the alley. The alley was only lit at both ends by the streetlights that were situated just at the entrances but in-between the two ends was total darkness, filled garbage bags cluttered the ground and several big garbage cans lined the alley walls. About half way through the alley there were too of the big garbage cans a few feet apart from each other, I pushed Natasha against the wall in-between the two dumpsters. The smell from them was rank, but this was the safest place to be able to do what I needed too. Natasha took my pushing in a sexually way and started to kiss me, her kisses were all wet and sloppy, no wonder she was in a bar trying to find guys, the only ones she could get with kisses like these would have to be mightily drunk. She leaned back against the wall and lifted her leg as high as her mini skirt would let her and wrapped it around me, she took my hand and placed it over her breast and I kneaded it gently through her black mesh shirt giving her a small amount of pleasure. With my hand keeping her busy I slipped the other into one of the pockets in my black leather jacket and pulled out a black and silver handled knife, although only small it was sharp and did the trick. In the blink of an eye I had shifted my hand from her breast to her chin tilting her head back and had made a small opening in her neck. I put my lips to the opening and drank, it tasted good, and knowing that you are taking someone’s immortality makes it taste all the sweeter. As I drank her life away she slid down the wall to rest on the ground, when I was finished with her I stood up, wiped the blood off from around my mouth and licked it off my hand. Incase you haven’t guessed, my name is Eric…and I am a vampire.

I took a slow walk back to my apartment and on the way I thought about how I came to be a vampire. I was born in London, England in 1703 to a baker and stay at home mum. I was one of 16 kids born, one of 7 to survive past childhood. A few of them died of a plague that is known now-a-days as yellow fever, some small pox, 1 still born and 2 that died within a few hours of my mother giving birth. We lived in a small crowded house above my dad’s bakery and at a young age were made to work to help bring in money. When I was around 15 or 16 I got a decent paying job down the street from where we lived as a shoemakers helper. I worked there up until the night I was changed. I was 22 years old at the time, black disheveled hair, 5’10 and fairly well built, it was around 8pm at night and I had just left the local pub with a few friends and was heading home when I met the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. She looked like she was from an upper class family and really didn’t fit in where I was, in the slums of London. Her hair was a golden blonde, tied up in the fashion of those days, her dress long, a dark blue velvet split down the middle at the front and a cream silk under the blue and all held together with a pink ribbon criss-crossed and tied in a bow. She gave me that “follow me” look and turned around to walk behind a wall in a well lit alley, I should have known it would spell trouble, but due to the few drinks I had had I let my guard down and followed her.

As I walked up to her she whispered “Let me show you the world, you have seen just a small part. Let me give you eternal life and you can see for yourself how much you are missing.” And with that she had me pinned against the wall with this inhuman strength, leaned in, licked my neck once and then bit me. From that point on I don’t remember much until I woke up from my undead sleep.

A door slamming brought me back to the real world and out of my daydreaming, just to realize that I was sitting on the steps that lead into my apartment building. You know? Being a vampire, people assume that I’m like those fake vampires out of the movies. First off, forget that shit you see in the movies. I don’t wear that stupid frilly stuff…well…not anymore. I admit that I did wear it centuries ago when I was with my maker and it was the fashion, but times change and so do we. Garlic doesn’t do fuck all except give someone foul smelling breath, crosses only have an effect on me if the person has any faith, fortunately in today’s society that is a rare thing. Of course where there is bullshit there is also truth. I can be killed by sunlight, a stake through the heart or decapitation. And yes I do have a coffin, but I rarely sleep in it as I have a bed and couch in my apartment, if you don’t keep up with the times its easy to get found out! Sighing, I got up and climbed the rickety stairs to my apartment, walked in the door and sat in a chair facing out the window. As I sat and watched the world go buy, I could see the few remaining leaves flutter in the wind under the streetlights. The clock struck 6, the sun will be up in a few hours so I picked myself up, walked into my bedroom, pulled over my black outs and tried to walk back to the bed in the dark only to walk into the corner of the desk I had. I reached my bed without any further injuries and slipped down in-between my covers to fall asleep.

As I fell into a deep sleep I started dreaming about the past, back to my first night. Like I said before hand, I don’t remember much of what happened between the time I got made until the time I woke up. I remember the smell of dirt and the darkness surrounding me, then as my eyes got used to the light I realized I was inside a coffin. Fear engulfed me, thinking that my father had buried me alive. It was then that I heard footsteps on the ground around my coffin and quiet digging sounds that continued until I heard the clunk of the shovel as it hit my coffin. After that point all I heard was hands brushing the dirt off the rest of the coffin, before the creaking of the lid caught my attention. As the lid was lifted I saw the woman I had been with the night before, or was it two nights before? I can’t remember, but she was standing there in the same styled dress, just different colours, with a lantern in her hand. She smiled a soft smile and moved her hand towards me “Come on” she whispered. “Are you ready to see the world?”

I took her hand as she pulled me out of my coffin, closed the lid softly, handed me a shovel, picked up the other and started to drop the dirt back into my grave. I helped her and in no time we were finished. I stood back and looked at my head stone. It said

ERIC FLEMING

18TH JUNE 1689 – 29TH DECEMBER 1711.

IN GOD’S HANDS MAY YE REST IN PEACE.

As I looked around the graveyard, I noticed that there had been a small sprinkling of snow; it must have fallen while I was in my undead sleep. The cold crisp air stung my nostrils, but at the same time I could smell and hear all sorts of things that I could never have done before. I could still smell the dirt that had been freshly dug, I could even smell the snow, hear it as it twinkled under the light of the moon and stars. My senses were all in first gear, and then it hit me. It wasn’t like a small punch in the gut either; it was like a horse and carriage had hit me. The pain was unbearable, so much so that I doubled over, my knee resting on the soft dirt, my arms wrapped around my stomach. Id never felt so much pain before, I had no idea why I was in it, but it didn’t faze that woman at all. She knelt down beside me

“hush little one. Mama knows what will cure that unbearable pain. Come with me, I have just the thing.”

With that she threw a cloak over me and we walked silently out of the graveyard. We walked down narrow streets, by looking at the walls and the cobbled stones I knew which streets we were on, but to be honest, it didn’t really click if you know what I mean. She took me up to a window of a place and told me to look inside, there, at the big wooden table, was my family. My dad sat where he usually did, at the head of the table by the fire, my mum to the left of him, Danny, my older brother sat to the right, my older sister Rachael sat next to my mum, Bethany next to her, young Catherine sat next to Bethany, across from Rachael was an empty chair, my chair, beside that was my younger brother Leland. In a small basket next to the fire in-between my parents was my baby sister Chloe. She was the last to be born in our family. Although I suppose none of them lasted through child-hood. The pain hit me again and my maker, known to me only as Betha took my arm at the elbow and led me down the alley behind my fathers shop. Behind this alley there was always one lone man that had no home. It had been burnt down in a small fire, that killed his wife and children and left him homeless, my dad always used to give him a loaf of bread each day, made just for him. Betha walked up to him and he stood up and acted like he was infront of royalty, she talked to him for a few minutes and then turned to me with a devilish look in her eyes before she turned into this thing with fangs. With that she quickly grabbed the man and buried her fangs into his neck drinking his blood. As I saw some of his blood running down the side of his neck I felt myself turn into the same thing she was, the pain came back full blast and I watched as she stopped, let some more blood run down the side of the man’s neck before signaling to me. It happened so fast, I moved to bite this man, a man that had done me no harm and drink his blood. As I did so the taste was incredible, the sweet blood, full of immortality dulled the pain to a small ache as I drank him dry. As the guy fell to the ground, drained of his life source, it hit me then that I wasn’t human, I turned to look at Betha who just walked into my arms “hush little one. You are no monster, to see the world people must make sacrifices, and we, must drink blood,” she said as she licked the blood off her lips. “I know the hunger is still inside you, but we must get going before the sun rises, come on, follow me.” She whispered as she kissed me, a kiss so full of lust and passion that I could not do anything but kiss back. Afterwards she took my hand and led me through to the other side of the ally, I knew where we were, we were near a house of a friend of mine, we passed right by the door when it opened and out came Colton. He saw me and just stared with a look full of fear and then anger he picked up something to throw at us …… I woke with a start as I recalled the look Colton had on his face. He must have been getting ready to go to the shoemakers; he always had the opening shift.