And As I Lay Dying

Standing on the brink of death, a stake through my heart. I was always very careful, so of course, it is odd that I would be in such a predicament. I went over the events in my head until my blood ran cold.

I was out, walking about the mausoleum, trying to think of where I could go to get a bite to eat. My veins were hungering for blood. The blood of a woman.

I began to step outside and there I saw her. Her arms spread out, she had her face lifted to the moonlight. I crept up behind her slowly. Somehow I knew that her soul was aching for love. I wrapped my arms about her waist and kissed her neck softly, giving her what she wanted. She didn’t care who I was, she just wanted for someone to love her. Then, before she knew what was going on, I sunk my fangs into her neck, extracting her sweet blood.

I remembered my first victim. It was a little boy, an innocent little boy. None had tasted so sweet. And this woman, this woman was an innocent. She’d never done anything bad in her life, except maybe tell a white lie. The fragility of innocents and their sweet blood.

The woman fainted in my arms. I thought of leaving her there but then there would be evidence for mortals that vampires do, indeed, exist. I thought better of the idea. My next thought was to take her into the mausoleum, for it was newly built and would not be used yet for quite some time. But I never dared stay in the mausoleum after sunrise and it was getting near to that time. I decided I had no choice but to bring her back with me.

I picked up the purse she had laid in the grass and I carried her in my arms, flying away to my hideout.

She woke up in a dimly lit room in the secrecy of the underground. When she awoke, she hadn’t been turned yet so I thought I would keep her until then. But she wouldn’t have it. “What is going on?”

I decided it was best to just tell her straight out. “You fainted. I rescued you. You would have caught a cold had I left you there, my dear.” I decided to leave out the part of my biting her and of my being a vampire.

“All right,” she said. “You saved me. Now can I go home now?”

I shook my head. “It’s not safe to be roaming the streets at night. You never know what might get you.” I felt my fangs pulling at my gums, begging to come out. I craved just another taste of her blood. But I held myself back. “I think it’s best that you stay here. You need your rest.”

But she refused. She tried to push past me and I dove down and took another bite. There was that sweet liquid that I had tasted just an hour before.

She screamed and pushed me off of her and ran to the exit and up the steps of the hidden cellar. I tried to run after her but I was too late. She’d gotten too much of a head start.

I couldn’t very well burst into the office of the detective. So I waited outside. I should have flown up to the rooftop where they couldn’t see me but I wasn’t thinking.

When the two came out, the detective was holding a stake. I just stood there in the alleyway, waiting. “There he is!” she called. “He followed me here!”

“Stand back, he might still hurt you!” The detective stood in front of the girl. He stabbed the stake through my heart. I felt it beat loudly and painfully although there was a piece of wood stabbing into it.

And as I lay there dying, I saw the woman draw out her fangs and dig them into the man’s neck. I smiled, my work here was through.