‘Verbal Vampire’ by Martin Young
Cats: Vampire Fiction|
Anne was developing a migraine. Not the, ‘I can’t see, head’s splitting apart feeling sick’, kind of migraine. More like the, ‘if he doesn’t shut up pretty soon, I’ll poke my umbrella in his eye’, type of migraine.
“This is one of my favourite restaurants.” Steve said, as he steered her through the doors; his hand firmly fixed on the small of her back. “I simply love private alcoves, don’t you?”
“Yes.” She said quietly, it being the first word she had managed to say since he had picked her up in his car.
He removed his hand, and Anne felt tenderness at the base of her spine.
They entered the foyer and waited for the attention of the headwaiter. Steve caught his reflection in a large ornate mirror and instantly turned from Anne, to reposition a stray hair. She had to remove and hang her own coat.
She watched him for a second and couldn’t understand why she had agreed to come out with this self-obsessed bore. Yes, he was tall, good looking, and those silver grey eyes had sent shivers down her spine, but then he had opened his mouth.
It was fine on Saturday night when she had drunk enough to floor a rhino. His constant anecdotes then were funny, anything and everything was funny. He had talked all night and for a little while she had even listened. By the end of the night, all she could make out was his mouth moving below those gorgeous eyes. Now, she wasn’t drunk enough and couldn’t turn him off. She had already decided that this would be their one and only date, so she may as well have a meal out of him. And, she wasn’t going to drink as much next time she went to a nightclub.
“I’m sorry.” He said spinning back to her. “How could I turn my back on someone as beautiful as you?”
Anne smiled, as she tried to hide the annoyance she felt, she was wearing her favourite black dress and she knew she looked good in it, but he hadn’t even noticed, he was to wrapped up with himself. She had the strange feeling that she was just here to make up the numbers, and there was only the two of them.
Eventually they were ushered to their table and again, he steered her with his hand on the small of her back. There was a crack and Anne recoiled in pain.
“I’m sorry.” He said, holding his hand in the air. “I do tend to build a lot of static.”
Once seated, Steve began to order with out consulting the menu. “I believe I’ll have the steak, blue I think, can’t abide meat that’s over cooked.”
Anne quickly picked up the menu as the waiter and Steve waited for her order. “I think I’ll have the lobster.” She said quickly, it being the first item she saw on the page.
“Lobster, good idea,” Steve said, “I haven’t had lobster for along time.”
Anne suddenly began to feel uneasy; she reached for the glass of complementary wine and realised her hand was trembling.
With lightening reactions, Steve’s hand shot forward and grasped the chain that hung around her neck. “This is beautiful.” He gasped as examined the crucifix she was wearing. “It’s antique, isn’t it?”
“Yes, it belonged to my great grandmother.” Anne said and realised that even her voice was trembling. What the hell is wrong me. She thought.
Here comes the food.” Steve said as he released the crucifix. “Good, now they’ll leave us alone. Just one more thing. Yes, that’s it. Feeling a little strange Yes, good, everything is as it should be.”
Anne didn’t feel strange, she didn’t feel anything. Numbness had drifted over her body, a dreamy, floating sensation, but at least the trembling had stopped.
“You’ll find that you are unable to move or talk, but you can see and you can listen, I do like a good listener, I simply hate interruptions when I’m talking, especially about my self.” He said. “As I told you my name is Steve, It used to be Avan but I changed it, nothing wrong with that is there.”
Anne didn’t give a shit about his name, she just wanted to get away, but she was totally paralysed. Her mind screamed with terror but without the accompanying physical sensations.
“What perhaps you don’t realize,” Steve Droned on, “is that we can’t have a lasting relationship, I’m far to old for you. I mean, what are you twenty-five, twenty-six? Well at the last count I’m about two thousand and sixty four, I say about, because they’ve changed the calendars so many times I’ve lost track.”
Anne just stared unblinking, her mind screaming inside her skull, what’s happening?
“What I do, is draw the energy from your aura, I’m sure you’ve heard of it.” He said conversationally. “Some people say that it’s the light of the soul that surrounds your body; some even say that they can see it. Now that can be a little disconcerting if they see me, I don’t have one.
“If you look beneath the table, you’ll see a faint blue line attached to both of us. Oh, sorry you can’t move can you, you’ll just have to take my word for it. The line comes from me, it attaches to your nervous system freezing your body. You’ll notice there’s no pain, no flesh ripping or the like, just a gradual weakening sensation, then you die.
“Now, do you like my tan? South of France. I do like it down there, don’t you? I go there every few months to meet acquaintances and of course top up the tan, appearances are so important don’t you think?”
Anne suddenly felt calm; he had told her she was going to die. The question was, would he drain her life or melt her brain first. She tried to concentrate on the jobs she had to do; Feed the goldfish, post her mother’s birthday card, tidy her desk at work…
“That reminds of a time I was soaking up the French sun and a young man sat next to me. I bet you can’t guess what he did. No, I suppose not. Well, he tried to drain my Aura, now isn’t that funny! it turns out he was the same as me. We really laughed over that.”
…wash the windows, catch up with the ironing.
“Now what else could I tell you? Where do I come from? Now, there are the geographic or evolutional senses. I was born, not from the union between a witch and demon; my family were your basic ordinaries. It seems that for every two or three million people born, one is just like me. I like to think we are the next stage in the evolutional cycle.”
If they are all like you, Anne thought, it’s going to be a brain melting world.
“As for location I was born here in the good old UK, although it wasn’t a United Kingdom at the time. We were nomads and travelled to where ever the food or jobs were. It’s difficult to give a precise location, the best indication I can give is that I come from what is now known as Doncaster.
“Sadly, I can’t have children, sterile you see, we all are, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun trying.” He said with a lecherous wink, “After all, if it wasn’t time for me to feed, I’d be trying my best to get you into bed, and believe me I would succeed. That’s another gift we have, a little persuasive mind control, comes in very useful.
“Not eating the lobster? You don’t mind if I do, it’s always the same when I’m feeding, I get really hungry.”
Please, Anne screeched in her head, do not have a sweet.
“Now do I always feed on women? No, it’s not like sex, its food. Makes no difference, man or woman it’s aura the same to me.” He said, grinning.
“How many times do I feed? Well, from a personal point of view, I find that once a season suffices, you know Winter, Spring and so on anything more is just being greedy. The rest of the time, a good wholesome meal is enough.”
Anne realised she was hungry she needed food, meat.
“What happens next? I’m going to release you in a second; you’re about drained. Then I’ll get the waiter to call for an ambulance, you do look really poorly. You will be dead by the time the ambulance arrives of course, and I will have slipped away. When they examine you, they’ll settle for the old standard ‘died from natural causes’, which again proves I am perfectly natural. I do like doing it this way, it saves a fortune on restaurant bills.”
He stood up and gestured to the waiter, then leant over the table to whisper in her ear. “Now, I think I’ll go out and get laid. I’ll soon feel so vibrant, so randy. I always do after a good feeding has kicked in. Sorry about this, but I have to go now, I know I will not see you again.”
He reached over, his hand brushing her throat, pulled at the chain holding the crucifix, admired it for a second then put it in his pocket.
“I must say it certainly has been a pleasure. Cheerio.”
Steve left the restaurant and walk arrogantly over to his car rattling the keys as he went. He pressed the fob and the locks sprung open automatically. He leant to open the door when a sudden pain seared through his head and the world turned black.
***
Anne sliced off another piece of meat and dropped it on the hot griddle, it sizzled, she let it cook for a few seconds before turning it over. Delicately she placed the meat on her plate to cool. She fastened the chain around her neck and repositioned the crucifix. Then looking up at the body on the table she smiled. “You should have taken a lesson from your trip to France, don’t try to feed off someone who doesn’t have a soul.”
She cut the meat into bite-sized pieces and popped it in her mouth. She chewed enjoying the flavour and swallowed with pleasure.
*******
(c) Martin Young, All Rights Reserved
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