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Was I moving out of my own will? I couldn’t even tell anymore. All I knew was that I was simply putting one foot in front of the other, following this strange man-but-not-man down the street. I felt liked I was submerged in water. A while ago, I felt like I was drowning. Now, I felt as though I had already drowned, but I was still alive. The entire time I was wishing, no begging, for Claire to be alive. When I got home earlier, I found her dead. Before I left the house a third time, before I got that drowning sensation, I had been out fetching stuff for Myrnin. He was Claire’s mad-scientist boss, and he’d told Shane, Eve and I that he could bring Claire back to life.
I hoped desperately that he could.
Moments later, a song filled the air. It sounded sweet, so sweet, whispering to me, calling me. I had to reach it. I had to get to that song. I’d stop anyone who got in my way.
I continued walking, but I couldn’t see my surroundings. My entire spectrum of vision had been reduced to one focal point: the back of the man-but-not-man in front of me. He was leading me to the beautiful song of whispered promises, and for that I was grateful.
“Hey! Hey, vamp boy,” someone yelled in the distance. I pushed forward. I would ignore this voice. Nothing could stop me from getting to the source of that song! “Hey.” I felt someone’s warm hand clamp on my arm. “Aren’t you that guy Eve’s gonna marry?” I swatted the hand off my arm and walked just a little faster. Eve was the least of my priorities. I mentally screamed at the guy to just leave me alone.
But he didn’t. He was very persistent. He grabbed my shoulder and said, “Michael, isn’t it? Hey dude, I just wanted to say that I totally support you guys’s union, and — ” I grunted and threw his hand off my shoulder. Couldn’t he just leave me alone? I had somewhere to be! I started jogging lightly to catch up to the figure in front of me. This guy was costing me valuable time!
He caught up to me again. “Michael,” he said strictly. “Dude. I’m just trying to be nice, okay? I know everyone in town’s been rubbish toward you guys, and now when one person accepts your marriage, you throw me off? Not cool dude. Not. Cool.” That was it. This guy had just pushed me off the edge. I turned toward him and let my fangs slide out, and I was pretty sure my eyes had changed from their regular cool blue to a muddy red (this always happened to vampires who got mad). I couldn’t see his features clearly; I was that unfocused. I bared my fangs and hissed at him, and the guy backed off. “Woah.” His voice had taken on a completely different tone. One of surprise.
One of fear.
“No need to get pissed off. Jackass.” He said the last word quietly, but not enough to pass under my sharp vampire hearing. He backed away slowly and ran off into the dark. I wondered if I could ever get used to being a vampire. I hated using my vamp abilities. I’d always tried to keep a sense of humanity, and so far I’ve been successful. That’s why I agreed to marry Eve. I knew I had the control, so it would be perfectly fine for both of us … right?
Eve still wasn’t my priority right now. It was the song. That song had just turned into my entire life: past, present and future. And I’d need the figure to show me the way. I turned around to try to find the figure.
He was gone. I screamed in frustration and turned in all angles to find him. Stupid persistent human! Thankfully, the night air was not silent. Remnants of the sweet melody still floated through the air, and I ran in its direction. Closer, it was singing. Come and rest. Come and rest. I caught up with the figure quickly, thanks to vampire speed. He stood at a doorway of a big, old building with windows soaped opaque. It must have been closed for ages; the building looked old and sagging, and the paint had peeled from the brick to leave it looking diseased and rotten.
The big white door the figure stood in front of had been locked, but the hasp was broken off now, and the rusted lock lay on the stairs. The door was swung wide open. The figure was smirking, beckoning. “Come with me,” he said, and I shuffle-splashed my way up a set of steps toward the building and followed him without thinking what I was doing. I could just barely make out the words over the door: MORGANVILLE CIVIC POOL . The civic pool? Wasn’t it closed years ago?
It didn’t matter. The song was here, and that’s all I cared about.
The room we walked into was dark, and smelled of mold. The carpet was ancient and filthy, and overhead, the ceiling had cracked and split. Paint had peeled off in elaborate curls, like ribbons, and I ducked to avoid them. There was an old desk, and a wrinkled cardboard sign that read, MEMBER SIGN-IN SHEET . The clipboard was still there, dangling from a silver chain, but the papers were long gone.
The entire place reeked of damp and rot.
Closer, the music whispered. Peace and stillness. Closer.
There was a hallway beyond the entry hall, and it glimmered with fairyland lights and reflections. I kept edging forward down the hall, following the figure. I tried not to touch the walls, which were black with mold. The carpet was gone now, and there were two doors off the hall, one labeled MEN’S LOCKER ROOM , the other WOMEN’S . The texture of the floor changed to tile, and it was slick and slippery.
We finally entered the pool area. It was a giant open concrete space with a rusty lacework of iron overhead. The floor was cracked white tiles, and on the walls were more tile, in patterns that must have been beautiful before they were discolored with time and more of the ever-present mold.
In the centre was a big square pool, and it was full of glimmering blue-green water, lit from below. It glowed like a jewel, and it was beautiful and mesmerizing, and the singing was coming from right there. That was where the song was loudest, but also where I realized that something was terribly, horribly wrong. Yet, I couldn’t stop myself from walking into the pool. I walked on from the shallow end to the deep end without stopping. As a vampire, I had no need to breathe. It was only when I’d turned around and physically felt myself be anchored to the pool floor did I realize what was wrong.
There were vampires all around me.
Everywhere.
The ones who had gone missing.
I’d walked into a trap.
Naomi was next to me, her eyes open but empty. Her long hair drifted lazily in the water, and her arms, like the ones of those around me, were floating freely. I’d seen her only a few days ago in the house I shared with Eve, Claire and Shane, when she had to tell them about being an advocate for Eve’s and my marriage (they’d originally though Naomi and I were together two days before Eve’s and my engagement party, which I personally thought was really stupid, and she had to explain that she was, in fact, gay). She looked like a drastically different person. She was pale now, even paler than an average vampire, and red, tiny needle-sharp stings covered her face.
I couldn’t think about Naomi any more before I felt something in the water covering my bare skin. I couldn’t see anything around me, just murky water. Suddenly, I understood. There was a vampire-like creature that thrived in water, though the only thing we had in common was our roots. Our energy was their food source. They were the draug, and they were eating me alive. Some part of a draug’s split up, liquid body pecked into me (I was sure I would be sporting similar needle-sharp stings to Naomi), and I could feel my energy draining slowly. Every part of my body where I felt the thing was, I felt a burning sensation. Every part of me was on fire. An inferno, blazing within me.
After what felt like hours, but what must have only been about fifteen minutes, the water rippled as a woman walked towards us, a vampire woman. She was wearing light house shoes, and her clothing was plastered flat against her body. I didn’t know her. She anchored herself a few feet away, close to Oliver. He was the second-in-command of Morganville to our Founder, Amelie, and he was deadly scary. After a very quick and subtle scan of the pool, I realized Amelie wasn’t inside, and I was quite grateful for that.
Noise broke the surface of the water, and I tilted my head up slightly. It was Claire, with Shane close on her heels. Claire! She was alive. Myrnin’s idea must have worked. I was so happy that for one moment, I forgot about my situation. It all came crashing back into me in a matter of seconds, and I tried to think. What could I do? I wanted to signal to them in some way, but I felt almost totally incapable of movement. I willed them to look, to just look, to see me trapped. When they did, I did the only thing I could.
I blinked.
It was enough. Claire looked right at me and saw me blink. She took another step closer toward the edge of the pool, and I panicked. No. No, no, no. Claire couldn’t come in here. She shouldn’t come in here. It was dangerous to be in the water with the draug, especially for a human.
Truth be told, it was more dangerous for vamps, because we lasted longer than humans. But their downside was that when they were captured by the draug, they tended to … dream. They wouldn’t suffer as vampires do, stuck in a living hell. No, they’d just slip into visions before getting their energy completely drained and began dying.
Luckily, I could see Shane, ever the hero, drag her frantically backward from the edge. One more step, one more step and she could have wound up like me. Anchored to the bottom, awaiting certain death. Sure, Claire would have died a lot faster than me, but still. I couldn’t wish such a fate upon her. Shane yelled at her and pulled her toward the hallway. Within moments, they were gone.
~*~
By the time more muffled noise broke the surface of the water, I began to feel hungry. No, more than just hungry. I was hungry, but on top of that, I felt tired, sick, dizzy, and like I could faint any second. I felt a weariness that coursed through my very bones. Perhaps it would for the best if I fainted. I could escape this nightmare, even if for a little while.
I couldn’t make out anything above the surface. I was tired, so tired. I heard yelling from above the surface of the water, but I was too tired to be able to focus on it. Then I heard something that sounded like … gunshots? Maybe I was hallucinating. I was so low on energy that I couldn’t even distinguish between fantasy and reality anymore.
And then the screaming began.
It was unlike anything I’d ever heard before. It was like the singing of the draug, only worse, much worse. I was absolutely sure then that someone (or maybe more than just one; there were so many gunshots and noises, and I was getting light-headed and confused) had come to rescue all the trapped vampires. I wanted to watch the rescue to the end, but I was tired. I needed blood. I needed blood. I was hungry, and I was tired.
I was barely able to hear something dive into the pool when I lost out on my battle to stay awake. As I drifted off into the depths of unconsciousness, I felt warm, firm hands grabbing me and lifting me up. Was I dead —truly dead ? Vamps could definitely walk and talk like human beings, but we were on a different setting that did not require breathing or a heavily beating heart. Was the person or thing carrying me up an angel? I couldn’t believe how fast it had been. Normally, the draug would feed on a trapped vampire for weeks , if not months, before the vampire was discarded.
But I’d only been in the pool for a few hours at most. And I was still thinking somewhat clearly. Wasn’t that what a living person would do? Even if every single draug focused on me and consumed my energy all at once… No, the draug weren’t wasteful. They’d never just consume my energy all together and kill me in moments. That was illogical for them.
It didn’t matter to me anymore. My last thought was that finally, finally, someone was carrying me up.
Up to the surface of the pool.
Up away from the torture.
Up away from a living nightmare, a slow death while still alive.
Someone was carrying me out.
~*~
A few minutes later, I swam back into consciousness. Feeling returned to my body, and I hurt all over. I felt sick, and I felt like vomiting, but first thing was first: I needed food.
Desperately.
I had no idea where I was, but I was still pretty damn hungry. I felt a damp towel on my face, though I didn’t know where it came from. The coughing came next. I was so relieved to be retching up the horrible thick, crawling slime and getting it out of my system. That would leave me less contaminated, and of course give me more space for blood. I was still really hungry. Then, I caught a whiff of it. It smelled so delicious, so fresh. Just what I would need to quash my hunger.
Blood.
Sweet, delicious blood.
I didn’t even care which type it was; I was so hungry. My eyes flew open to find the delicious blood. Everything was blurry around me. I heard a faint voice going, “Hey, Mikey.” A blood bag was in a hand, though whose hand I couldn’t tell since I was so damn hungry. My gaze slid upward a bit and fell on a fleshy patch of neck. Human neck. Yes, this was what I wanted. Something fresh. So I launched, ignoring the blood bag in the person’s outstretched hand, my fangs sliding out.
I bit into the fleshy human neck. God, the blood tasted so good. The warm, thick liquid cascaded into my mouth as I gulped it down feverishly. That’s how I felt. I was in a frenzy. It was just me, the fleshy neck, the sweet nectar of blood, and that was all I could feel. It was similar to what I felt when following the draug earlier to find the song, only this was much more rewarding, and much more enjoyable. I heard a female gasp —perhaps it was the owner of the neck? I wasn’t sure—but I purposefully pushed it aside. Nothing would stand in the way between me and this delicious stream of blood flowing into my mouth.
“No!” someone screamed. I whirled on the intruder, snarling. My vision was still unfocused, so all I could tell was that the intruder was another girl. Thankfully it wasn’t that pesky guy from earlier, when I was hunting the music. That guy was really annoying. The screaming continued. “No, Michael, stop! She’s trying to help you! Stop! You have to stop!”
Blood was all over my mouth. I wouldn’t stop. I couldn’t stop. I was so low on energy, so hungry, this was all I could do. Moaning came from underneath me as the owner of the delicious neck tried to turn over. Oh no, I wouldn’t let her get away. I snarled. Stay here! Don’t you dare leave! My fangs were still fully extended, sharp and deadly. I hoped it would scare the intruder away. I needed to feed. Was that so hard to understand?
Someone—it was probably the intruder, ugh—threw themselves at me, locking their forearm under my chin and pulled, hard. Someone else—probably the owner of the neck—shoved a blood bag in my mouth. I bit down, and the blood squirted out. It wasn’t as fresh as the one I’d had from the neck, but it was still so delicious. I gulped, and sucked, and drained the bag. Someone gave me another bag, and then a third one.
After feeding, my vision refocused. I looked around me.
And stiffened.
Eve and Claire were in the room. Claire was the one who had locked me in place, and she was still doing so; I couldn’t blame her. So Claire was the intruder. Then, I looked at Eve. She was holding her neck, looking pale and shaky, but it was still enough for me to be able to see the two neat puncture marks on the side, right where a vein was. I put two and two together.
Oh no.
Eve was the owner of the neck.
I’d bitten Eve.
I’d bitten Eve.
My one true love, the girl I was engaged to. Sweet Eve. The one who always made me smile, who I could always talk to. The one who lived as a Goth, and I knew it was to protect her fragile nature. My Eve.
I bit her.
I spit the empty blood bag out and after a second, said, “Oh my God, no…” Claire let go of me, and I collapsed backward, throwing myself away from Eve. I couldn’t be near her. Not if I would just be biting her. When I told myself, and her, that I wouldn’t ever make that mistake. I was so sure back then, but now, I didn’t even know if such a promise was possible anymore for a vampire, even one devoted to humanity like me. “Eve. Eve. No…”
“It’s all right,” she said. She wasn’t. Blood was running out from under her hand, blood that was leaking because of me.
Claire grabbed the first aid kit and shoved it in my limp hands. I stared at it dumbly. All my emotions and feelings had shut down. I didn’t know what to do. “Help her!” Claire screamed at me, before grabbing a handful of blood bags and feeding Naomi, who I guess she must have dragged in when I heard her scream, “No!” I methodically bandaged up Eve’s neck, but I wasn’t even thinking about what I was doing. Naomi sat quietly, sucking on her blood bag as I’d done moments earlier, and neither Eve nor I spoke a word to each other. I suppose we were both just in our own little worlds. I knew nothing would be the same between us ever again. How could you ever forgive someone for biting your neck? It was like raping someone, but worse. I couldn’t even think straight. All I thought about were three simple, four-word sentences that spoke volumes.
Oh, my God, Eve.
What did I do?
And, I’m so, very sorry.