Chapter 1: Vampires
By Phil Bowman
There she lay, so quiet, so peaceful. Breathing slowly, her chest
heaving up and down steadily. She was beautiful. Her wispy, long, blonde
hair was spread across her pillow and over her shoulders. On her back, half
covered by a silky white sheet, her head turned away from him, and he began
to make his move. He moved in, slowly, his mouth open and his fangs bared...
but he couldn't do it. He simply could not bring himself to, and he blamed
himself. He knew when he started after her that it could not last, and he knew
the longer he put it off, the harder it would be. 'Too human' was a phrase made
all too familiar to him. His friends had no qualms against killing (nor any
emotional attachments to) any mortals.
As he got up and dressed, he thought about how much he would be teased
for this. To have to crash at the Cave again tonight would bring him more grief
than it was worth, he thought as he got dressed. He took out his pad and
pencil to write a lie to her for the third night in a row.
"Dearest Carrie,
Sorry to do this to you again, but I didn't want to wake you. Please
lock my apartment when you leave.
Love,
Johnny"
Another lie, the last in a series of many. He left the note on the coffee
table of his dark basement apartment and departed.
Outside, dawn was threatening to break. The sky was had gotten lighter
from the sun which had not yet risen over the horizon. The dirty, cracked,
well-trodden sidewalk had a darker shade to it from a recent rain. Although it
was fairly light out, there were still heavy shadows because the streetlights had
already shut off. He made his way down the street, the metal tips on his
black boots making a loud clicking sound that reverberated off buildings and
down alleyways, announcing his presence. He took a left down a filthy
alleyway, and down three sets of stairs to a large metal door. There was
complete darkness there, as there were no lights and it was hidden from the
sun's glare, but Johnny could still see. He knocked on the door three times,
and it was promptly opened to the length of the chain lock on it. The large
man behind the door saw and recognized Johnny, and let him in.
Various greetings resounded from the Cave's occupants, four men, including
the one who let him in, and two women dressed similarly to Johnny himself: all
black with a couple of them wearing capes. Everyone in the room had a very
similar look: very pale skin, strange colored eyes that seemed to change
colors depending on the angle from which you look at them, and jet black hair.
The room was dimly lit, as there were no windows, with a short string of
candles along all four walls of it, obviously the living room. The flickering
light emanating from the candles made dancing shadows, obscure clones of the
furniture casting them. The room had only two large couches, a wooden end
table, a matching coffee table, and an old television. The walls that once
were white were now yellow from age. Each of the women was attached to one of
the men, taking up one of the couches. The other two men were sitting on the
remaining couch, where Johnny himself sat.
"So, John boy," said one of the women. "You wussed out again, eh?"
"Shut up, Amy. I -- I'll do it tomorrow."
"Hmm.. That sounds familiar," mocked one of the men sitting on the couch
with him, "Now, where have I heard that before...? Oh, yeah. Didn't he say
that yesterday, too?"
"Yeah, and the day before?" Amy added and smiled, her fangs shimmering in the
low light. Everyone was having a good time at Johnny's expense, but he was
tired of hearing this.
"Look, guys. I just need to stay here this one last night, I swear I'll
do it tomorrow."
"You're always welcome to stay here, John," the man who let him in said
kindly.
"You're the only one on my side, Andy." He chuckled slightly.
"Hey, why don't you just make her into a vampire if you like her so much?"
said a man sitting with the other woman with a not-so-bright look on his face,
as if he just thought of the idea.
"Steven, you're a moron. Didn't we discuss this yesterday?" snapped Johnny,
irritated.
"Yeah, but Steven wasn't here," Andy jumped in.
"Oh, uh, sorry, Steven. I don't want to because I don't want to put her
through that. You guys remember when you did it to me and I couldn't handle
it. I still hate it. I just don't want to put her through that.... Besides,
I wouldn't do that to someone against their will. It's just not right."
"Oh. Okay." said Steven after a bit.
The buzzer rang and an evil grin came across Andy's face. "It's the pizza
man." The rest of the group smiled, too. They knew what he was going to do.
He concentrated for a second, and his round pupils distorted into cat-like
slits as he made an amazingly evil, angry face. His now demonic appearance
defied his earlier, very friendly-looking one. "This is what I love about
being a vampire."
He flung the door open, lunged at the pizza man and was rewarded with a
scream of terror as the frightened delivery boy scrambled up the stairs after
dropping the pizza. Roaring laughter echoed around the room from everyone
within. Andy took the pizza and deposited it on the coffee table, his face
returning to normal. He shut and locked the door, and returned to his seat
next to Johnny.
"You're such an asshole, Andy," said one of the girls, still laughing. The
only response she got was more laughter, from Andy and everyone else.
For a couple more hours the whole group stayed up talking, eating pizza
(with some of their own special topping, of course), and watching TV until all of
them were so tired they knew that they couldn't stay up much longer.
"Well," he yawned, "we should be getting to bed before we all fall asleep
sitting up," said Andy, and turned to Johnny, "You can sleep on the couch
again tonight, John"
"All right, cool. Well, goodni- err, morning, everyone!" Johnny said, and
laughed at himself, as he was not yet even used to having to sleep the whole
day. All the others laughed a little as well and went out into separate rooms
to sleep in coffins or beds as Johnny settled in on one of the couches.
The next night at dusk, they all instinctively awoke, feeling very refreshed.
Johnny knew that Carrie would be back at his apartment, and thus left soon
after he got up, saying that he would see them later on that night, because he
was determined that he would do it soon after he saw her. After the standard
goodbyes were said, he left, feeling bad about what he was about to do. As he
was walking down the street to his apartment, the atmosphere was similar to
when he left his apartment the night before. There were still many people on
the streets, as it was not very late. He reached his apartment and recognized
Carrie's car in front of it. He walked up to the door, stopped before it, and
took a deep breath, already feeling remorse for a deed not yet done. He
wished he didn't have this curse of vampirism, and that he could let Carrie go
without harming her, but for some reason he knew this was the only way.
He opened the door to see Carrie lying on his bed watching TV, wearing a
gray silk nightgown. She saw him and turned the television off. She had a very
sultry look on her face, and gently slid off the bed, her bare feet on the
cold hard wood floor. She walked over to him with her hands behind her back,
stepping one foot directly in front of the other, never taking her eyes from
him. She put her arms around him and kissed him long and deep, both of them
with their eyes shut. After a beat, he felt her take her arms from around
him, her head and lips unmoving from their position. This was the last thing
Johnny would ever feel as the sharpened wooden chair leg was thrust deep into
his heart.
On to Chapter 2...
Comments for Phil Bowman? E-mail him:MrBurrito@aol.com