(Update: May 7, 2009)

I finally stopped thrashing once enough blood had drained from me. I felt my body tire and go numb; the pure horror of what was happening to me sent my thoughts into a panic. I couldn’t make sense of it. I was only certain that I was about to die.

The thing ripped into my neck, its fangs tearing giant holes through my arteries. I could feel the warm blood pumping down my neck and back; I’d never seen so much blood come out of me. Tears streamed down my face, and I tried to shout, but my windpipe had likewise been ripped open. All the air just bubbled out pathetically from beneath the gushing red.

He was drinking my blood. What kind of fucked up person would do such a thing? He had fangs, I could feel them sinking far into my muscles. My mind had gone as numb as my body at this point, unable to even entertain the thought that I was about to die from a vampire. Instead, I just stared into the night sky, contemplating how I was seeing the world for the last time.

The thing biting me suddenly let go, and whipped his head around; I could tell someone was there by the way he was looking at them, though I myself couldn’t see the newcomer. The creature snarled at him, baring its bloody fangs; the thing didn’t even look human, it was disfigured and wrong. I didn’t know anything like it actually exist.

Whoever the stranger was, though, he felt calm. I can’t explain how or why I picked up on such a thing, close to death as I was; I think it was the way his footsteps fell steadily, confidently. He spoke in an even tone to the creature, as if this scene were nothing out of the normal.

“Is this what we’ve diminished to?” he asked. “Feeding on the young mortals, barely begun in life, helpless and easy prey… your kind makes me sick. You degenerate monsters have no notion of what it truly means to be children of the night.”

“Back off!” spat the creature, blood dripping from its chin. “You can’t fuckin’ tell me what I can or can’t do, asshole!”

“I will tell you what you should do, if you value your pathetic existence. Leave her now, child, or I will show you what a true vampire is capable of.”

Blood continued to spurt out the side of my neck as the creature tried to judge the situation, and my vision faded as it seemed like an eternity passed. It stared at the man, as if trying to size him up, until it finally let my head drop with a crack onto the pavement and scattered out of view. I rolled over with a gasp, trying to get a look at the man who had saved me. I caught a glimpse gray hair, and a large coat… then he turned and began to walk away, as rain further dampened my vision.

I blinked as the drop hit me, giving me the tiniest. I lifted an arm; I had forgotten that my hand was broken, and it flopped painfully as I tried to grab at the air. Somehow, I got to my feet, holding my neck with my other hand. It was a useless gesture; the blood flowed from between my fingers, dripping down my arm with the increasing rain. I stumbled forward, getting only another few feet before I collapsed. I reached out desperately with a bloody hand; I caught the edge of a coat, pulling the stranger back to me. I couldn’t even look up at him; I couldn’t believe I was going to die any second. I had only enough effort to hold the man’s long coat in a death-grip, the last person I’d ever see while I was alive.

He flicked his coat, and my grip was broken. My arm collapsed to the ground, as the man continued to walk away. I tried to shout again, but the air just poured uselessly from my throat. I continued to rasp, desperately pleading my way out of death; the only thing I could do now. My body was limp, my vision gone, my heart slowing. I kept rasping, making no words, just trying to keep living.

“Ihhhh… Lhhhiiiiiii… ..vvvvhhhh… “

“Liiiiivhh… .”

I didn’t even notice the footsteps stopping. They must have, though, for the man walked back towards me, to stand over my bleeding figure. I stared up at him with glassy eyes, though I couldn’t see him by this point. He just stood over me, staring down, observing me in my last few moments of life.

“You can’t live,” he finally spoke. “You can keep going, but you won’t be alive. I think you would actually prefer to die… but the choice is yours. I only offer this to you as you are at the end. Your will to survive is strong, but that is as much a curse as a blessing. You can embrace death, and sleep… or you can stay awake.”

He paused, and somewhere in the dim recesses of my dying brain, I realized he was waiting for me to respond. I couldn’t even feel my head, much less move it. Looking back on the situation now, I have to laugh at the sheer insanity of it. But at that moment… I wanted to live. He said I couldn’t anymore, but I still didn’t want to die. I couldn’t yet. There was no way. I managed the tiniest of nods, but he understood it. I heard a strange noise then, and something dripped across my face. It was cold, and sticky, and when it touched my mouth it gave me a strong urge to gag. At first I coughed it up.

“Drink,” commanded the voice through the darkness. Desperately I obeyed, opening my mouth to let the cold, disgusting liquid pour in. It shot like ice through my veins, making my eyes grow wide in shock. The sudden sensation stung me, and the pain brought my consciousness back from the darkness. The liquid was still disgusting to taste, but who cared? I wasn’t dying. I began to drink more, opening my mouth wider to catch as much as I could.

I could feel my arms and legs again; the ice didn’t stay inside my veins, it shot throughout my entire body. The tiny fibers of hair on my body stood on end, and goose bumps spread over my skin; I could feel again, and more. I could feel every inch of my body tingling with ecstasy. I raised an arm and reached out towards the source of the liquid. I grabbed the man’s arm, and pulled my mouth up to his exposed wrist; I bit into the cut greedily, sucking as hard as I could and swallowing as much blood as possible. I wasn’t dying. I went wild with the revelation that I wasn’t dying.

It was the last thought I had while I was alive.

The man grabbed my shoulder and threw me back, shouting, “That’s enough!” I hit the ground hard, but sprung up instantly onto all fours, baring my teeth at him. It felt savage, wild… I never did things like that normally. But I did then, and it felt good. Instinctive. But… the way the man looked at me, it was the same way he had looked at the creature that tried to kill me. I stopped then, realizing what I was doing. A bit of my consciousness trickled into to me, and I covered my teeth. I could feel them shrinking back into my gums; I realized that when I had growled, they grew. Once again my sensible nature abandoned me, leaving me confused. It didn’t seem real.

Suddenly, the man turned and began to walk away. I stared after him, incredulous at the man’s seemingly indestructible compose. Was he just going to leave me here, after all that? I rose to my feet and followed him into the night, and though he never gave me a second glance, I knew it was what he wanted me to do. I wondered curiously where this man was going to lead me.

That had been the last night I’d spent alive.