The evening was proceeding smoothly.
At least that's what I initially thought when approached by a rather good-looking woman of Hispanic origin.
I had seen her a few times before, in the library where I went to draw, but even though we had exchanged stares, I never made a move.
One reason was that I didn't really feel the library was the best place to pick up girls.
The second, more important one, was that I was still recovering from my previous relationship and didn't feel confident enough to begin another right now.
I had just turned twenty-two, I had green eyes and dark-colored hair that were quite unusual for the state of Washington, explained by my European origins. This, associated with my rather lean physique and medium height had given me my share of experimentation with the opposite sex during my teens.
The last one had been more than that.
Which had been more than unfortunate.
Not wanting to think about that was the reason why I had decided to go to the club, even though both my flatmates, Marie and Stan, had bailed out on me.
It was unusual for me to mingle socially. The stares that Marie and Stan had given me after I invited them was a testament to that. And when I decided to go even though they had plans with their respective dates shocked them even more, to the point that Marie felt obligated to intervene.
« Ray, are you alright? » The question coming from the most goth lesbian girl you could ever meet, probably summoning Satan in her room at midnight, felt a bit weird. She'd become a good psychologist when she finished her major, but she would have to remove the piercings in her nose and mouth, and change her makeup and clothing from “dark” to “normal” if she didn't want her patients to kill themselves in despair just by looking at her.
I didn't bother answering and just smiled. I hated lying and even a small one like 'Yes I'm fine' felt unacceptable.
She didn't push it, but her own smile faltered.
She had been the first to warn me about my now broken forever relationship with Helene, the first one I had spoken to after it had ended, and the only one I had spoken about what had happened after that. She was clearly aware of what I was doing right now too.
I considered her my best friend, even though we had only known each other for three years.
Yeah, for me, three years was a short time, don't judge, I have understandable trust issues I assure you.
Stan, short for Constantine Kennedy (Who clearly has problematic parents if you hadn't guessed by his full name), I knew only since this year, when he had been picked up by Marie as the third occupant of the flat we rented together.
He was small, but buff, and had the typical physique of the high school captain of the football team.
Except that he was smart, hated bullies, and that I enjoyed his company.
I didn't confide in him as I did with Marie, but nonetheless, I would have liked for him to join me.
He wasn't as perceptive as Marie, and my newfound motivation to go drink alone seemed like a good idea to him.
“Sure, but be careful hey, don't go get shitfaced like you do every night.” He joked with a deadpan face.
As I had never been drunk in front of him before, I knew he was only teasing. It was hard to tell with him sometimes. I wasn't in the mood to laugh though, so I used my usual answer, I smiled.
“Try to find a nice girl eh? I heard it was the day to go to the Cranium today, you lucky bastard. I promised Michelle to go to the theater with her today so I really can't come. How I wish I was you.”
Marie and I grinned when he uttered the word theater. He was currently dating a freshman in theater arts, and considering he knew nothing about it, civic engineer student himself, he had to be pretty serious about her.
“Don't look at me like that!” Stan groaned.
We hadn’t said anything.
“Fine, I'll go prepare, but seriously Ray, try to have fun eh?” He winked at me, then fled to his room.
Marie didn't say anything but looked at me like my mother would.
“Don't look at me like that.” I repeated Stan's words.
“Ray, I really wished you'd wait tomorrow, we could go together...”
“No, no. I have decided tonight, and I know if I wait tomorrow, I’ll change my mind. I think I need it you know. Do something fresh. And I don't need a chaperone, just go meet with...erm...Debby?
“Susie.” She corrected.
“Isn't that the one from two months ago?”
“No, it's another Susie, and Debby was two days ago.”
I didn't comment anything else about Marie's expansive love life.
“In any case, I've had my share of troubles, I can handle whatever comes my way tonight, don't worry.” I continued.
“Even two turbo ninjas?” Marie asked playfully.
“What's a turbo ninja?”
“A robot ninja with turbo shoes on his feet.” She explained.
I nodded, impressed.
“I'd ask them to wait a bit before they murdered me violently so I could sketch them. Such raw movement I could extract from those unbelievable creatures.”
“Yeah, yeah, hold your horses Picasso. I see you'll be fine, as long as you still have this golden tongue of yours.”
I made her a perverted stare.
“Stop that, Boy.” She said with a grave, deep, masculine voice.
“And you stop playing so many video games, I don't get your references anymore.”
After our vocal little back and forth, I finally decided to leave. It was early to go to the club, barely nine, but I wasn't expecting to stay long anyway. I knew that whatever pushed me to go out tonight, would soon disappear.
I loved nature and calm, and Redfort, the university campus/city where I lived (It was both the name of the university, and of the city), had lots of it.
Big mountains to the north, the sea to the west. That was why I stayed. The ugly, noisy city with bad traffic was the reason why I wanted to leave.
As it was, the campus was northwest, which was usually great for me, less so when I wanted to go to the Cranium, the pretty hype club in the middle of the city.
The bus, or even the taxi if I had the money, were unthinkable options at this hour of the day considering the heavy snow that fell the night before, so I settled for the subway. As much as it was dirty and stank like dead rats (I know how dead rats smell so I can back my words), it was fast, and the torture to my senses would be short.
I'd rather take a twenty minutes hell ride, than an hour-long purgatory one.
Still, I hated this particular subway line. I was too familiar with the 9-line. I had taken it often when I worked in a firm as a law student. It had been a horrible experience for me, as lying was sort of a prerequisite in that specific law firm. Add to that that none of it had been my choice.
Poor white kid that was forced into law by his rich family, I know, I know, such a cliché. Crazy how it still happened in 2020.
After a few months, I had enough, stopped my law studies, gave my resignation to the firm, and changed my major for art.
You can guess how it went with my parents.
However, as bad as my relationship with them got, they still paid for my tuition. For this, I was grateful to them.
Though we didn't talk anymore. I texted my mom sometimes and that was it.
For everything else, I was on my own. My dad probably thought I would have to come and beg them for more money, but as it was, the law firm had paid me a very hefty sum of money for a case they shouldn't have won.
The money felt dirty to me, but because I used it to never do it again, I felt justified in spending it.
Still, this heavy change in my revenue and quality of relationship with my parents brought something else.
I knew Helene liked to be 'well fed' and had a rather unhealthy relationship with money.
Not even Marie knew that about her, as my ex hid it well. She came from a poor family, and was convinced it was her job to get it out of it.
I knew because I was really good at seeing through lies.
Still, I hoped that with enough time and care, I could convince her money was not essential, and that we could build something without money in the center of it.
Because as much as I knew she was lying as to why she was going out with me, I also knew she had real feelings behind it.
But the moment I became persona non grata she became convinced she had to let me go.
I tried but failed, to convince her otherwise.
For a few months, it was okay. I could live with failure, even in relationships. I was of the belief failure was important, even more so than success.
What I could not live with was what happened afterward.
On the flip side, my art pieces were great now, my art teachers couldn't stop telling me how the tortured souls inside them made the colors and the brush strokes vibrate with passion.
Yay me.
I’d rather paint like crap.
I was still in the subway, and my eyes had gotten teary. A pair of high school students stared at me funny.
I was older than I looked, so they probably thought I was a student at their school, crying in public.
I didn't recognize their uniform. But if they had a uniform it either meant Redfort High or Teriapolis.
I had gone to high school in my hometown and was happy I had managed to flee the people there.
I wiped my eyes with the back of my coat and ignored their stares. My stop was going to be the next one anyway.
Cranium was a nice place. Even for someone who hated clubs as much as I did.
It had nice decorations, even though a bit too grunge for my taste. What's more, it was a spot for pretty much everyone, as many students as adults, and they even accepted high school students inside. It felt like a place where people from everywhere mixed together.
I liked it a lot, but it was still too noisy for me, and I always left deadly tired.
I passed the bouncer easily, as everyone was accepted unless the club was full, and steeled myself as I went deeper and deeper towards the loud sounds that were supposed to be music.
Once inside I immediately dodged right, towards the bar, which was furthest away from the ambient cacophony. They even had half walls, completely soundproof, with stools and tables. It didn't stop all the noise, but it helped a lot.
Here was where you found the old couples, the occasional teachers, the high school students, and the timid-can't-dance-art-students. I was the latter by the way.
I asked for a fruity alcohol, as I only liked “girly” drinks, and gave away my ID before the barman asked.
I didn't come often, but I knew how it went.
He looked at me for a while, probably thinking my ID was fake, but finally gave me my drink.
It was the first time I saw him here, I believed, but honestly, my memory of faces was abysmal.
I did recognize my library flirt immediately though.
The magnificent Hispanic girl, with not too many curves, but not too little either, arrived shortly after me. I knew she was studying in Redfort, but I didn't know her major. She was definitely older than me, but I didn't know exactly by how much.
All in all, I knew nothing, nor her name nor anything else.
I could guess by her hand-tailored black dress and branded shoes she was of the upper class, but that was mostly it.
That's when my luck seemingly began.
She saw me too and sat beside me.
“Good evening.” She said with a slight British accent.
“Hi.” Was this really happening? I was not up to go look for a new relationship, but I would have been a fool not to take this opportunity.
...aaaand I just made a fool of myself because I said nothing else for the next five seconds.
If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
“I'll take the same as you. It doesn't fit you by the way.”
It took me a few moments to realize she was talking about my drink, which was weird, I was usually sharp, even around beautiful women. Marie was a ten in my book, and her being 100% out of reach had been excellent training.
But if Marie was a ten, my new friend was an eleven.
Now that I was close to her, I could examine her brown skin, and it was perfect.
Unnaturally so.
“Why are you not a model somewhere?” I asked.
Yes, good, I was getting my golden tongue back in action.
“Oh, I am, or was, for a while. It was fun.” She didn't seem entranced by my charm.
She was being honest, I could feel it, so it made me relax a bit. I asked the barman for another drink and looked her in the eyes.
They were very close to being pitch black, so probably brown outside, the place wasn't well lit after all. Her pupils were dilated and that meant good things for me. Thank you, Marie, for the physiology tip.
I heard my best friend continue the lesson in my head. “...dilated pupils means attraction...or drugs, or really low light.”
I looked an instant at the colored bulbs dimly illuminating the bar...
Getting ahead of myself, was I?
I still couldn't stop a grin.
“So, mysterious stranger of the library, what do you draw all of the time?”
She had taken the initiative, which surprised me slightly. I was usually the one never shutting up.
“Oh, plenty of things, artsy stuff, landscapes, marinas, mountains, portraits, turbo ninjas...”
“Turbo ninjas?”
“It's nothing, just a joke between a friend and me.” For a moment, I could see something like boredom? In her eyes. She was probably not into pop culture or geek culture much, so I did not continue that subject.
“And you? What are you reading every day?”
“Biology. Genetics to be precise.” She didn't go into much more details than that.
“I see, so you're studying, researching?”
“Writing my PhD.”
Oh wow, way older than me then.
Before I could continue, she changed the subject.
“I always see you alone, no girlfriend or anything? You talked about a friend?”
“Oh no, nothing like that, just my roommate.”
She looked displeased by my answer.
“You've got roommates?”
“Erm, yes? Is that a problem?”
She was taken aback for a second.
“No, no, I was just... well hoping privacy.”
Oh...that was rather... direct. I wasn't used to it, but I didn't sense any deception in her words.
“Okay. You know, before we go any further, I just want to say that, well I had a pretty nasty break-up before, and well I don't know if I really want to...”
“...to get emotional?”
That wasn't exactly what I was going to say, but it was close enough.
“Something like that.”
“Don't worry, I'm not here to get married, just to have a bit of fun, and well I've seen you, I think you could be a lot of fun.”
Something about her smile, her magnificent row of white teeth, felt a bit uncomfortable. I was having second thoughts about the whole thing.
“I didn't even tell you my name!” she exclaimed. “I'm Miranda, you?”
She had just lied.
I would have missed it if not for the smile that bothered me just before.
It was very well-rehearsed, but my gut feeling about lies had never been wrong before.
Maybe she wasn't your normal hyper sexy Hispanic PhD girl.
“I'm Raymond, but call me Ray, I hate my full name.” I answered automatically. I always introduced myself like that, but maybe this time I shouldn't have.
“Ouch, rough parents?”
“You could say so.” I had only one desire now, and it was to...
“Tell me Ray, what do you think about a quick fuck, my home is not that far…”
… well maybe I could accept. She had been untruthful, but she could have had a good reason. Still, I was not the kind of guy to fuck on the first evening. Maybe I had been, but not anymore.
“Forget about that bad breakup of yours? You'd like that.”
She was not wrong. That's why I came here after all.
“Ok...sure...” My voice felt weird.
I paid for both of us and left with her. I could not stop myself from looking at her ass, hypnotically moving from left to right at each of her steps.
Something felt wrong though, but I didn't know what.
I usually tried to split the bill, that was it. I didn't like the idea that the man had to pay for the girl, especially with what happened to Helene. That, and I just didn't have the money for it now. I had just enough for food and my flat, I didn't want to work and study at the same time, so I had to be careful with my economies.
Why hadn’t I said something?
The question echoed in my mind, not getting any answers.
I didn't even realize arriving at 'Miranda's' house. I didn't even register entering her car.
It was a fucking Ferrari. How the hell had I missed that?
Her house was not close at all. We had to be outside of town right now. It was big, modern, completely isolated and with no neighbors in view.
The moon was high in the sky and my surroundings were visible through its shine.
This place had a magnificent view of the sea.
I wanted to stop to take the air, the nature, but couldn't.
I followed her up the marble steps towards a mahogany door.
What the hell had I gotten myself into?
I may have inadvertently lied to Marie. This seemed a situation I couldn't get out of.
Since I wasn't sure I had control over my body.
Once inside, the first thing that struck me was the smell.
It was coming from the door just in front of the entrance. I guessed a closet or a cellar.
It smelled like dead something.
Definitely not rats.
“You can leave your clothes here.” Miranda said.
I began to undress. Not only my coat but everything.
Houston, we have a problem, command systems are offline.
My inside joke didn't even make me laugh.
She watched me. Unphased.
Once completely nude, she took her time to watch me.
Her eyes were still as black as before. I didn't understand, when I had seen her a few weeks before in the library, her eyes were anything but this color.
She looked famished.
With that realization, I finally had a faint idea of what was happening.
I didn't know what she was, a cannibal, serial killer, rapist ghoul, or alien, but it was definitely bad news for me.
And seeing as I still couldn't move, I couldn't even reject the idea she could be all of the above.
“Follow me Ray.”
I followed her, entering what seemed to be the living room.
Its furnishing was impeccable, like the rest of the house, but where a normal rich people's house would have had paintings, or statues or dumb modern art only valuable to them, my monstrous host had pelts. Lots and lots of animal pelts. I recognized bear, deer, wolf even. The worst of it was above the large glass window showing the outside garden.
“Cat pelts?” I screeched.
She looked at me, surprised.
“You can still talk? Impressive.”
For some strange reason, I felt that with the loss of control over my body, my mind was instead gaining back its own freedom.
I had had my fair share of girlfriends; I had watched vampire flicks.
“Y...you're a v..vam...” I struggled to open my mouth.
She looked genuinely surprised.
“Wow, not many realize this, even less so with such calm, and you can still talk! I really like you cattleboy.”
I had a bad feeling about my future at the word cattleboy.
She came closer to me.
Her scent. Her scent was divine.
NO
WAKE UP.
I stepped back. She did too, her mouth aghast.
I suddenly felt cold. The house had no heating I realized. It was 14 (-10C°) outside, probably barely over 30 (-1C°) inside. And I was naked.
“You can MOVE? Oh my god, I've found myself a Conscient, how exciting.”
Conscient was the French word for aware, I remembered that specific word because its meaning wasn't anything like its English counterpart conscience. Living so close to Canada, I had studied some French, but the accent she had used for the word was distinctively France French. And I hated myself for thinking it was attractive.
I had no idea what it meant in this context though. I hoped something that would make her rethink about eating...
“Too bad you found me, I...I would have turned you I think...before...”
She seemed lost for a moment, puzzled. I forced myself to take another step back but couldn't. I was beginning to tremble, the cold assaulting me viciously.
I could barely move and I was quickly losing all of my body heat. With no clothes on, even if I managed to escape, out there in the wild, with nearly 20 inches (50cm) of snow, there was no way I would make it back to town. And I had no recollection of any nearby buildings.
“...Now I'm just dreaming of how you'll taste... maybe if I can stop myself...yes if I can stop myself then...then I'll turn you...if not...” She was looking at me like I was a steak.
I could guess what this meant.
She was not going to stop.
I was dead.
“...what are you going to do with my body?” I asked. Trying to make her focus on something else.
“...Mhhh” She got close again, touched my neck. Her hand was colder than my skin, which seemed impossible right now.
“...well you're a sad...lonely boy... abandoned by his elders...very few friends...” She stopped her nose next to my jugular and inhaled deeply.
I couldn't help it, but I felt myself get hard. I wasn't aroused, at least not like I normally was. Her scent was intoxicating.
PROBABLY AS INTOXICATING AS YOUR BLOOD.
The voice broke her smell spell, but I still couldn't move. She didn't seem to realize.
I could feel that we were not alone.
I could feel...animals?
I was becoming crazy. But well, I was on the verge of being eaten by a vampire. Who could blame me?
I looked at the pelts. They felt alive somehow. But not in a good way.
More in an “I'm screaming It's hell and it won’t stop” sort of way.
All of the pelts seemed to meowl, howl, or grunt in agony.
“What are you looking at...Ray?”
“The...pelts...they...”
“Do they talk to you? Do they beg for help? There are not only vampires in this big world you know, not that you're going to meet, any of them...of course.” Her voice was now outright creepy.
I knew I had only a few moments.
I know what people would think. She had not been clear on what she was going to do with me, but it seemed obvious.
I was sad, maybe even depressive since the death of Helene. She was going to make it look like I killed myself.
Most likely cutting my veins.
No one would even bother to investigate.
I would be like Helene in their minds.
Like my brother.
I raised my head as high as I could. My neck open to be taken.
Miranda watched me do it hypnotized, I heard what must have been her canines stretching in a horrible screeching noise.
I slammed my forehead on her face, as hard as I could.
It felt like hitting a metal wall.
But I didn't care.
Something inside me had snapped.
I would not. Could not, give up. Not like Helene. Not like my brother.
I would die fighting. That was who I was.
I was half expecting her to be completely unharmed after my headbutt, but it seemed movies had some of it wrong.
Miranda was stumbling, blood pouring out of her mouth. I saw her tongue, cut clean on the ground. Which explained why the bad words coming from her mouth were unintelligible.
I had regained full control. Now what to do with it. I could barely stand, the headbutt had left me confused and dazed.
TAKE ME
I looked at the wall. I felt the white as snow pelt talk to me. It was the only one talking human words. I moved towards it, half expecting it to be nailed to the wall. The moment I touched it; it fell into my arms.
I felt a weird tingle.
Was it a magical pelt?
That would be the best, the childish part of my mind said.
But only for an instant, as I felt two gigantic knives piercing my neck, an immense weight on my back.
“U..ouuuuu. U..ooooo...aaaaa....eeeeeeeefffff.” Shouted Miranda, sucking hard, while her own dark cold blood was getting all over me.
No matter what I did she was fixed on me. I hit a wall, trying to crush her. To no avail. I couldn't get to her and didn't want to drop the pelt, the only thing that would keep me warm if I managed to dislodge her.
I dropped myself on a beautiful crystal table, she made a pained noise for a second, but nothing changed.
I got up, ran towards a tv bigger than any I had seen before, and crunched ourselves into it. It fell on both of us. I got back up, sliding the tv away with difficulty, but she still hadn't budged, continuing leeching away my life force.
I felt myself becoming weak.
Dark spots appeared over my eyes.
I fell to the ground, exhausted.
Now, white and blue flashes moved around in my peripheral vision.
The colors seemed to dance around.
For a second the monster stopped sucking.
I tried to sit up, my hands still clenching the white pelt. Her living room was devastated.
The lights outside were still there, moving erratically.
Those were not a trick of my eyes, it was…
“POLICE!” A loud bang thundered from the front door. “Miranda Taylor? We have some questions about someone who was last seen with you tonight.”
How was that possible? No one could have noticed my disappearance already. I looked confusedly at an old timey clock on the wall. Three in the morning.
How long had been this drive? Where was I?
Of course, Marie had called the cops. She knew me. I never, ever, came back late to the flat without telling her. It was a rule she had created for all of us. It had slipped my mind, as I never came back late.
She was my goddess.
“HELP...” I began shouting.
A hand with unnaturally long nails pierced my right cheek and covered the rest of my mouth, preventing me from more.
But what I had done was enough. She must have been as confused as I was about why the cops were already here. I had been the fastest to react.
Beating supernatural creatures at reflexes, go me.
I heard cops bursting inside.
We were out of sight, but in a few seconds, they would get into the living room and...
“Dumb cattle. I'll have to move away because of you. Stay Here.” Miranda, whose tongue was supposed to be cut clean, spoke clearly. Her voice was more menacing than anything I had heard before.
She let me go and walked calmly towards the police officers.
I felt the pull of her order but was used to it now. I ran towards the garden, pelt in hand.
I knew that if I stopped, If I hesitated to look back, she would catch up to me.
I didn't bother finding a door leading outside. I jumped, and fueled by adrenaline like crazy, I burst through the window as I heard the first gunshots and screams behind me.
I had a moment of utter terror as I understood that the garden was way more down than I had anticipated and fell for a few meters.
We had climbed marble stairs to get inside the house! Dumb me, we were on the equivalent of the second or third floor.
Fortunately, the snow cushioned my fall, and not hesitating, I got back up, wore the pelt over my shoulders, and began running.