It was the evening and it was sufficiently dark for Calla to move out of the hedge but she stayed there waiting. She watched families come and go and latched onto one irresponsible set of parents who left their young son unattended in the car whilst they went in.

He was napping in the back of the vehicle and Calla crept closer, taking great care not to be seen. She peered through the window and saw the young boy around ten or eleven years old. Smirking, she went to the boot of the car and opened in, sliding herself in and shutting it down so she was inside.

She couldn’t take the kid in the evening, police would be crawling over the entire premises within an hour and she’d be unable to move. And she intended to get her meal tonight, she just needed to deliver the boy.

So she decided to go along for the ride and kidnap the child from his home in the middle of the night. She could hear the family talking to one another with clarity as the car started up and they drove. Calla hummed in delight at the coming feast.

When the car came to a stop she waited for about an hour before kicking at the back of the back seats, knocking them forward. She tunnelled out into the main part of the car and unlocked the driver side door and checked her surroundings. It was all clear, so she strolled up to the house and listened by the door. She could smell the parents scents downstairs but the boy was upstairs, probably in bed because the light was off.

Flinging herself up a nearby tree, close to where the scent was coming from, she thought she could chance something.

‘Young boys are adventurous right?’ she thought and the whispers agreed with reservations. She might get a clean kidnapping or he could scream and she’d have to do it the old fashioned way.

She knocked on the window and heard a rustling from inside, and the boy walked to the window. She knocked again and he saw her and gasped but she put her finger to her mouth to tell him to shush. He opened the window and looked at her unsurely.

“Hello?” he said in a high voice, betraying his lack of puberty.

“Hi.” she said with a smile.

“Who are you?” he asked, probing her for information.

“Ah, would you believe young man, that I….am a vampire?” she questioned as she gave a curt bow to the boy.

“No you’re not.” he replied with a small laugh.

“I can prove it.” she said. “I have red eyes and pointed fangs.” she pointed to herself as she spoke.

“Haha, fake teeth and contact lenses.” he smiled at her. Normally humans would have a danger sense about vampires but she was in no way meaning to harm him, so he didn’t seem phased by her.

“I am a vampire.” she said with a slight pout, trying to endear herself. “I can prove it.”

“How would you do that?” he asked with raised eyebrows and excitement in his voice.

“Erm...I’m still young so I can’t fly yet.” ‘Vampires are bats right?’ “Or turn into a bat, but I can do some cool stuff.”

“Like what?”

“Erm...” she pretended to ponder. “I can make you a vampire. Oh, and I can run for miles with you on my back.”

“That doesn’t sound like much.”

“Well no, I’m young.” she said with a sigh. “But I can take you to meet an older vampire if you like. I could run you to town now and have you back in an hour tops!” she said with false glee.

“My parents wouldn’t like that.” he said sadly.

“But they don’t have to know.” she answered softly. The boy was quiet for a moment but he spoke again.

“How do I know you won’t hurt me, I’m not supposed to go off with strangers?” She scoffed at him and rolled her eyes in a playful way that showed she wasn’t serious.

“Erm...I could easily hurt you you know. Not that I will, I like you. But if I wanted to I would have already.”

“So you won’t drink my b-blood?” he stuttered out.

“Of course not! That’s a myth. Vampires like to eat things like steak, rare. Animal blood is divine.” she smiled and put on a dazed look. The boy still seemed apprehensive.

“Look, how about this. I’ll take you to see the old vampire, he’ll show you a few cool tricks and then offer if you want to become one too! Which you can refuse. But it’s so much fun, watch this.”

Calla began swinging herself from branch to branch and the boy smiled and laughed at her antics and silly behaviour.

“It’ll really only take an hour?” he asked for clarity.

“Of course! I give my word as a noble vampire.” she responded with a salute which made him giggle. He clambered out of his window and she took his hand and placed him on her back, piggy back style. She jumped down from the tree which made the boy hold his breath, before she took off at high human speeds, sprinting forward as her feet hit the ground.

After his initial fear, the boy laughed and enjoyed the breeze. He clung on tight afraid to fall. Soon they were in town and the boy’s excitement was growing as it’d been ten minutes and the woman vampire was still sprinting.

They were soon in an apartment complex where she set him down and took his hand.

“We need to be quiet. The old one can hear all the noises we make and we don’t want to be rude.” The boy nodded and walked hand in hand with her as they climbed up the stairs. Calla allowed the compulsion to slip back over her, the whispers keeping it from truly taking hold. Her eyes glazed and she knocked on the old vampires door and went in. He was sat where he had been before and the sides of his eyes crinkled as he saw the boy.

“Come here child.” he said whilst a smile formed. He knew compulsion was effective but he’d never had the chance to test the limits. He hadn’t long been a Childe and had survived in solitude so there was much left for him to learn.

The boy walked forward as compulsion over took him and his eyes glazed over. The old vampire wasted no time sinking his fangs into the boy as Calla stood still at the room’s door. When she saw the vampire's eyes roll back from pleasure she broke the compulsion and propelled herself forward. Drawing the two knives from her hoodie pouch, she jammed them into either side of the vampire's head.

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The compulsion on the boy dropped as the vampire fell to the ground, unmoving. The boy began wailing in pain but Calla tore off his t-shirt, gagging his mouth and tying his hands behind his back. He wriggled and kicked on the ground but was already weak due to the shock of the fangs penetrating his body. The smell of his blood wafted through the air and Calla began to salivate, but shook it off.

Calla found the largest knife she could in the kitchen and severed the limbs of the old vampire, bagging them and putting them in the freezer. As she bagged them she saw them begin to wriggle and squirm to his body but they couldn’t once placed in the freezer.

She bound his neck with shoe laces, and tied him to the radiator pipe, he was unlikely to be able to break it with only his neck strength. Calla then drew the knives from his head and the boy watched on in horror as the mutilated vampire's wounds stitched closed.

When he awoke he was furious and hissed at her.

“Hello to you to.” she said calmly as she took up a seat beside him.

“You bitch!” he shouted, but the other residents were used to the screams and howls that came from his room. He flailed about before looking down to see himself armless and legless.

“What do you want?” He growled out as the boy whimpered in the background. The old vampire knew he wasn’t being kept alive for fun.

“Information.” she stated. “Give me what I want and I’ll let you live. I’ve no reason to see you dead.” Except to eat you and become stronger, she thought.

“How did you break the compulsion?” he asked immediately, remembering she should have been under his control.

“Ah ah. I’ll answer when you answer a few of my questions.”

He grit his teeth and nodded, trying to keep his rage down.

“What are you?” she asked. “I know you’re a vampire, but your blood...I noticed when I was cutting you up, it smelt different.”

“Ah...” he said with a chuckle, letting his feelings subside. “You’re new of course.” he muttered. “I am a Childe vampire, we have ranks amongst our kind with newborn, yourself, being the lowest.” he said smugly.

“I see. So newborn and Childe are the first ranks? You’re not much stronger than I am.” she responded unfazed by his mocking.

“I know of four ranks. Newborn, Childe, Blood-letter and Elder. Other than that I don’t know but there’s probably more. Some vampires have lived for thousands of years after all.”

“I see, and how do you become a Childe?” she prodded him for more information, but the whispers answered. Eat. Consume. Devour.

“The only way I know of is time. The same for Blood-letter and Elder, to reach a higher rank you just have to wait.”

‘So consumption isn’t common knowledge, at least around here. It explains why he didn’t eat me on sight.’ That was good knowledge to have.

“Now, how did you escape my compulsion.” he demanded of her and she felt no problem answering him. She’d gotten some information she needed and would happily dispose of him now.

“It’s the whispers you know?” she said as she pointed to her head. He looked at her confused, before rage took over his features.

“How dare you mock me!” he shouted as his torso thrashed about. Calla swept down and stuffed his mouth full of fabric from the floor and pierced his neck with her fangs. She cringed as she slurped his blood, the taste no better than the first time, but at least it was different.

When she was done, his body was shrivelled and unable to move, but she didn’t want to take any more chances. She plunged a knife into the top of his head and another into his heart before dragging him into full view of the window.

Before she convinced herself not to, she ran to the freezer and pulled out his limbs. She drained them all of their blood before setting them beside his body. He looked like a grey prune and Calla smiled before turning her attention to the still whimpering boy. He had now managed to crawl halfway across the room.

She removed his gag and he stared at her petrified and unable to speak.

“You’re okay.” she said as she pat him on the back, but her blood covered mouth and pointed fangs now looked incredibly scary. She carried him to the bathroom and sat him in the bath and ran the hot water. It was warm and she began to clean him up with a sponge as his arms were still tied behind his back.

“You’ll be okay sweetie.” she said in a motherly tone but he didn’t feel safe. His brain screamed at his to do something but his mouth wouldn’t move due to the terror he was feeling. Calla stripped off and got in the bath behind him and hummed, rocking the lad. Chills ran down his spine as she focused on cleaning his neck.

“I wonder,” she said. “Do you prefer left or right?”

“W-what?” he squeaked out.

“I’m more of a lefty.” she said ignoring him. “How about you?”

“R-right?” he saw as she tilted her head and pondered to herself.

“You think right is good?”

“Y-yes. I’m r-right handed.” he was stone still as he waited for her to leave him alone.

“Ah. Right it is then.” Before the boy could say anything else she had wrapped him in her arms and sunk her fangs into the right of his neck. She moaned a little at the taste of the blood as the boy’s body flailed and jerked. The high-pitch of his screams made it all the more pleasurable for her as it reverberated through her mind. She savoured the sounds as well as the taste and texture.

It wasn’t long before she was done as he was already half drained. She flung the corpse off herself and let it smack against the tile flooring. From the crack she knew some bones had broken but the boy was already dead. She emptied the bath and stood under the shower head and cleaned herself down, using soap sparingly as the scent was unappealing to her. At least the old vampire had scentless soap, probably needed the normal stuff for when he was out around humans.

She looked herself in the mirror and saw she still looked as she did.

'So strength won't change my appearance.' she mused in her mind. She looked at her teeth and fangs and her eyes zoned in on all the small details. They were flawlessly white despite her blood drinking.

'Maybe my saliva naturally cleans teeth?' she thought with a grin. 'Could make a fortune if I bottled it.' That was a plan she might work on later.

When she was clean she didn’t bother to tidy up the apartment as the body was unlikely to be discovered for a few days, and if it was it wouldn’t lead to her. She went to the kitchen and found a bin bag and stuffed her old clothing inside.

‘If I go through clothing like this I’ll need a new bag every three weeks.’ she frowned as she thought. ‘If I can get the money I could but something in or around the city that’ll let me make feeding more...clinical. I’ll be able to wash my stuff at least.’

She took the bin bag to the main room and looked down at the old vampire once more, smirking at him. Approaching his desk, she found his wallet and phone, taking both. She couldn’t find any car keys so she assumed he had none. The whispers agreed they needed to make it look like he had fled, so she approached his body once more and stripped him of his clothing, and bagged it.

She took large amounts of clothes from his room, along with some sets of shoes, and stuffed them in too. Finally she took the cash out the wallet and cracked the sim card in the phone as well as the phone itself, placing them in the bag.

Taking a moment to think, she realised she was undressed and picked up her duffle which she’d left on her initial visit. She dressed like she had before, but wore a maroon hoodie instead. She searched his apartment for anything else she might need, finding a few strange books which were unhelpful. The man also had a room dedicated to strange symbols with the moon in the centre of an eye, but it didn’t mean anything to Calla.

She did find a watch, and she’d never been so thankful for one before. It was cheap and rubbery, but it was waterproof, digital and accurate. Looking it over, she realised the time was four in the morning, not enough time to embark on the next leg of her journey. It was still early autumn and the sun began to rise around five.

She covered herself over with a blanket and retreated to the corner of the main room, away from any chance of sunlight, with her duffle and bin bag. She waited patiently as she looked at the old vampire’s corpse.

Calla waited for day light to break into the apartment and when it did she found herself fascinated once more. The wriggling of his limbs earlier had made her giddy, but the current sight of the light hitting his body mesmerized her. He took a couple of minutes to burn, far slower than her Sire. At first his skin became scorched and ashy, but he didn’t suddenly burst apart. He whittled down until his body was no more.

‘Perhaps increasing in ranks covers over some of our weakness? Maybe if you reach a high enough rank you become like the vampires in the movies, able to move in a blue and stop cars with your bare hands.’ Knowing her line of thought, the whispers responded.

Feed. Eat. Consume. Devour. The whispers spoke into her mind. And she would.