I arrived back at work just before the clock struck one. Mr. Fredrick was in the back talking to someone in his office. I used my superior senses to listen in. I recognized both voices, one was Mr. Fredrick, and the other was a detective named Alister Douglas. He works for the police investigating different crimes around the city, but we only see him when he in on a murder case. I figured he, or someone like him, would be around today.
“Yes you’re exactly right detective, it was definitely murder, and they were all just like the group. Drained of blood, but this time I found something else. A foreign chemical of some kind in the neck. I’ve already sent it to a laboratory downtown to see if they can figure out what it is.” Mr. Fredrick explained.
“Did they say how long until an analysis would be available?” Detective Douglas asked.
“A day or two.” He answered. I kicked myself for leaving any trace at the scene, let alone some of my venom.
“Your reports will be helpful Theo, they always are.” The detective said. They had known each other since childhood, so in private they were on a first name basis, but in crowds they always used titles or last names.
“That’s because I’m the best Al.” Mr. Fredrick joked.
“The last group that this happened too were all scum of the Earth. It wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if these people were just as bad.” Detective Douglas stated.
“Maybe, but that doesn’t change the fact that someone out there is killing people he deems bad and then draining them of blood. Whomever this is might get tired of, or simply run out of, bad people.” Mr. Fredrick told his friend. Those two were like two sides of a coin, the detective always looking at things coldly, and the mortician who sees things as they should be rather than as they are.
They finished their talk by discussing details and similarities between the two cases. Then detective Douglas said he needed to get back to the station to file some paperwork. They exited the office, the detective passed me on the way out, but we didn’t know each other well, so he simply waved and said hello. A moment later Mr. Fredrick walked into the front room where I was organizing the filing cabinet in and said, “oh. I thought I heard you come in. Did you enjoy your lunch?”
“Why yes, I did. I went to that seafood place you told me about last week.” I lied, although I had eaten there before so I knew what they served.
“What did you get?” He asked.
“Crab cakes,” I told him.
He let out an envious, “oooo.” We spent the rest of the day doing paperwork, checking bodies a second time, and cleaning up. The clock chimed five and we closed up. “See you tomorrow Vlad.” Mr. Fredrick said, and we parted ways. I was elated to finally be able to drop the awful fake smile I have to wear all day. I rubbed my cheeks to relax them again. I walked to my house and changed out of my clothes and into my hunting clothes. My dark hooded jacket, but now instead of dress clothes under it, a union-style undershirt, dyed black denim trousers, and black custom-made pointed-toe boots; they had small holes for the claws at the end of my toes to come out of. I also take along a black scarf just in case I need to cover my face. I still had another three hours till nightfall, but since I have never been spotted I knew there was nothing to worry about if I went out now. Before I left, my telephone rang, it startled me as I still wasn’t used to the confounded thing.
I answered, “Hello, this is Vlad.”
“Good afternoon Vlad, this is Police Chief Warren. Would you mind coming into the station tomorrow after work? We would like to go over some of the reports on the last groups of bodies that appeared this morning. Would you mind coming at about six?” The chief asked.
“I don’t mind at all. Do I need to bring the reports?” I asked him.
“Mr. Fredrick dropped off copies earlier today, so no need.” He responded.
“I will see you tomorrow then, have a nice day.” I said and hung up the phone after he wished me one as well. I wondered if I had left some sort of noticeable irregularity behind in the reports, or if I had mistakenly left more evidence like the leftover venom from one of my victims last night. Truthfully, it didn’t matter either way. If worse came to worse, I could always back up and leave, just disappear like I had done so many times before.
Putting the questions and worries out of my head, I left home and made my way to the docks to scope out the areas that would be best suited for a sale of people. It was about half an hour before I arrived, since it was still light I couldn’t take the rooftops or run at my top speed. If I had done those things I would have arrived in about eight minutes. I stalked around, trying to blend in with the rest of the people going about their business. There were fishermen unloading their catch, people lining up at nearby restaurants for meals, and a few local police patrolling the area. I didn’t understand why someone would choose this place for such illegal activities. It was busy and crowded, and even if nighttime thinned the crowd to empty, people on boats and patrolling police could still happen across the event and arrest everyone. I felt an uneasiness in my stomach that told me something was off with the whole ordeal, but with innocent lives at risk I concluded I had to at least try.
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You may be wondering why I’m worried, vampires are immortal right? Wrong… I think, I don’t actually know because I’ve never actually died. Remember I turned while I was still alive, and it’s not like anyone, even during the wars I fought, ever got close enough to kill me. I operated in the shadows and at night, mostly sneak attacks, and ambushes, rarely on the front lines. And on the occasions I was on the front line I was doing more eating than fighting; their soldiers, not ours. After a good deal of passing the time and doing my best to scout the area, night fell, and I could get to work.
I extended the claws on my fingers and toes and used them to rapidly climb a wall and reach the building’s roof. I didn’t want to just jump to the top because if the landing was hard and the roof wasn’t sturdy I might have gone straight through. These docks are old and not well kept, so I moved with caution and crawled along the walls like an insect… a blood fueled, incredibly dangerous insect. There were windows along the floors that I used to peak in. This method of checking the warehouses took a lot of time, but one by one I cleared them. I used my hearing to listen for heartbeats and footsteps, my smell to check for trace scents, and my ability to see even in the darkest of rooms to look around from the shadows. There was no moon out tonight, so it was nearly black as pitch or tar outside and inside. There existed no streetlamps in this area, making it even better to prowl in. Looking around I realized why they chose this place at this time; it was so dark and had so many places to hide that passing police or ship crews would never see them.
I spent two and a half hours searching the warehouses with no success. Rather than call it a night, I went on the hunt in another area of town that has a lot of crime. While I was leaping from roof to roof, I spotted a mugging in process, at least, that’s how it was supposed to look. The police have been employing more and more outlandish strategies in order to catch the elusive “Vampire of the Night” as they called me. Last month I almost fell for it, that was the first time I had seen such a trap. It was made to appear like a woman being stabbed to death in an alley, but as I approached I didn’t hear the sounds of a slowing heartrate, or labored breathing that comes before death. I also smelled a pungent odor of tomatoes and realized they had crushed them up to look like blood. Rather ingenious actually if I do say. I watched these new people struggle for a while before giving up their charade and walking away together. I couldn’t help wondering to myself how many real crimes they could have been stopping while they attempted to catch me.
I went on my way once again and found a real crime not three buildings over; a murder of all things while the police were so close. It was almost laughable. I didn’t hear a heartbeat or breathing from the male victim on the floor, which made sense as all his blood was on the ground. The murder began cackling with laughter and talking to himself about finally being rid of the vermin nuisance. I used my claws to crawl downward along the wall, for a moment I was worried he might have heard the *snick snick* of my claws digging into the bricks, but he was too busy laughing to notice.
“Vermin?” I asked in an intentionally sinister sounding and purposefully louder than normal whisper. I was trying to put on a bit of a show. In my old age I find myself becoming much more theatrical. He whipped around in terror, surely thinking he had been stumbled upon by an officer but was even more scared when he saw the dark outline of a shadowy figure hanging impossibly upon a wall upside down. He tried to take a step back but fell over the dead body he had made mere moments ago. He landed squarely into the dead man’s bloodied lap.
“W-what are you?!” He shouted. To him I must have looked wholly inhuman, especially in the dim glow of the streetlamps around the building’s corner. From his point of view, I imagine he saw incredibly pale skin surrounding dead eyes, a dark body mass, created by my outfit, and long monstrous claws that sank into the wall. I probably looked like an impossible unholy creature. I slowly pulled down my scarf revealing my now extended fangs and the rest of my pale and frail complexion; I must have seemed almost a skeleton.
“Why did you kill him?” I asked the quaking murderer.
“H-he stole t-the lady I was courting. He kept getting in the way…” He answered to the best of his ability, but he was much too busy cowering to think properly.
“And that is why you called him vermin and a nuisance?” I asked, though I had already known that it was.
“Y-yes,” he responded. I had seen men like him before, many times throughout history. I even employed some of them due to their prowess on the battlefield; back when I was still running countries.
“Freeze!” A voice from the street called out. I quickly covered my face once again with the scarf and dropped down to the ground. I had to let my feet go first and then my hands, which caused me to flip and land right side up. I then slashed the throat of the murderer and lifted him onto my shoulder in one fluid motion, before jumping to the roof tops. “What the?!” The voice yelled and the sound of two gunshots followed. I felt a sharp pain in my thigh and figured I had been shot. I landed on the roof and quickly made my escape, bleeding murderer in tow. I jumped and landed from roof to roof, until I sat for a moment and drained the man dry as fast as I could, not bothering to inject any venom due to him already being out cold. I examined the wound in my leg, the bullet was still in and it hurt badly, but nothing I haven’t felt before. I had already been shot countless times by many people, mostly assassination attempts in previous lives.
I dug out the bullet and examined it. There was some blood on it, but not mine. After I eat, I take some of the person’s blood into my own veins; normally I wouldn’t have any of my own. My lack of blood is what makes me seem so pale and fragile, but if I eat enough people, I will begin to appear strong. I know this from the early days of my change. When I first changed, I looked young and handsome, but for a while I refused to eat blood, I grew almost too weak to move, and was only saved when a nice stranger happened upon me in the woods and offered aid… he was delicious. After that I went on a rampage I looked completely normal again within a week. I threw the bullet away and it tumbled down a drainpipe. I then stood up and went home, leaving the man there. At that point, I had had enough excitement for one night, and didn’t want to risk stopping by the morgue because I deduced that the police could be waiting for me there.