Melabeth the Vampire (3 page)

“Once you rise as a vampire, even if your arm got cut off, it would grow back exactly the same, and the old one would turn to dust.”

The friend named Liz was a tall slender girl dressed like a cowgirl. The other friend Jeffery was an average middle age guy, who was well built but had a little bit of a belly going on. They laid the coffin before me and then Jeffery lifted the lid, and the inside was lined with white fabric. Jeffery grabbed a pillow out, which I thought was kind of strange, seeing as there was still a little white pillow in the coffin.

Jeffery looked at Nicks. “All is ready Master.”

Liz looked at me and said with some pride in a southern accent. “You’re already to go sweetheart and you don’t worry about a thing. It’s all going to work out fine. Now sweetie I have made sure you were completely shaved, I didn’t miss a spot, and, hell maybe even got more than you wanted.” She laughed out loud like a banshee. “Now, don’t get upset. Look at the bright side. If you ever become a vampire, you will never have to shave again.”

I was about to tell this little southern bell the way to hell. Before I could tell her off, a pain in my gut hit me like someone had stabbed me.

“Enough.” Nicks said rising to his feet. “The time is among us; to wait any longer will just make her suffer through the worse pains imaginable. I am sorry, but it is time to die. Know this… I love you, and if you rise, you will remember who did this to you, and then you’ll have your justice.”

With that he laid me down into the coffin. Jeffery handed him the extra pillow. “What’s the pillow for?” I asked Nicks. I was just now finding my voice, for the pain was still there but had backed off.

“Sorry... my sweet Melanie; the only way to kill you without messing up your beautiful body.” Nicks said looking down at me in the coffin.

“Wait NO…” and before I could get out a word, I was suffocated again.

*                     *                     *

Well the memory was fuzzy. So at least this time was not as bad as the first time. I was not mad at Nicks for doing it. I knew the pain in my gut was the beginning, and he was just trying to save me from suffering. Nicks was not making a movie of my death for others to enjoy.

That’s funny. In the movies the vampire is the bad guy.

During this time, thinking through these thoughts, I had started digging my way out. And, before I knew it, my head popped out of the ground into the night. Snow lay all around as I pulled myself out of the earth.

I took my first look with my vampire eyes.

Hunger

I
had just finished crawling out of my grave.

It was amazing to look around with my new eyes. There was snow everywhere; I looked up into the sky and could see it was night time. It was overcast, yet it was as bright as a cloudy day. I was standing in the same cemetery that Nicks buried me in. I noticed that it sat high on the hill, and down below a small town nuzzled in the valley floor.

Well looking at the leafless trees and evergreens I was not in California anymore as far as I could tell. I could be anywhere.

The world was bright, but at second glance it was black and white. I was marveling at the lack of color, when the clouds opened up. The sliver of a moon came into view and when it did so did the world. Everything had color and depth now that there was a small amount of light.

I realized that when the clouds covered the moon and stars, it should have been so dark, that I would have had trouble seeing my hand in front of my face. Even in darkness so complete the world was only black and white. The smallest amount of light brought the color back. I don’t know if I can go outside during the day, but something tells me even if I could the sun would blind me.

Standing in my muddy, dirty, used to be white dress I came to another fact; I needed a bath. Then yet another
thing came to mind; I had no shoes on and I am standing in snow! Yep, check, not cold, it is harder and harder trying to talk myself out of being a mystical creature of the night. Funny thing is I could feel that it was very cold, but I was not cold. I would have to describe it as walking out of my home on a cold day. The first few seconds you’re outside the cold bites at your skin, but it is not uncomfortable; after a few minutes that feeling changes. Now I am standing outside, barefoot in a thin cotton dress and even though I know that it is freezing outside, it is only knowledge and nothing more.

Still standing over the hole I just crawled out of, I have no real direction, but I think it is time to go. I am not sure where these legs will take me but away from this cemetery is a good start. I started off walking toward the edge of the cemetery where I could see an old stone wall; I moved like the wind; I have to say it was the coolest thing ever; my feet didn’t sink into the snow, and I made no noise to speak of.

Suddenly a noise off my left shoulder, then several things happened all at once. First I jumped really high, spun to my left; at the same time I was in a back flip, landing graceful like a cat, and as quiet as a mouse. I landed on top of a gravestone. I released a growling hissing sound; also I could see in my head an outline of the object that made the noise sitting in some branches.

It all came together in my mind. The noise was a hoot; the image that created the noise was an owl, and my ninja moves were completely unnecessary. Well I could tell getting used to the overwhelming senses was going to be tricky.

Tricky maybe… fun definitely. The next few minutes I was playing a fun game of jumping from gravestone to gravestone. Flipping, cart wheeling and spinning through the air, I landed on the old stone wall on the edge of the graveyard. I was dancing on the top of the wall when I let out a squeal of pain and bent over with stomach spasms.

I will tell you being hungry is nothing new to me; I may have been homeschooled, but I have read a few books in my time, along with missing a few meals. Being a child of hippies had its ups and downs. Sometime
s my parents would run out of money, and we had to beg for food.

The Donner party comes to mind and so does Flight 571 that crashed in the Andes. Only 16 people survived that flight, and they were not living off of pudding; that just occurred a couple of years ago. That happened in 1972, the same year my mom died. And I remember listening to the story while sitting at my grandma’s house waiting to go to the funeral. The 16 survived by eating the other dead passengers on the plane, and at the time I was thinking that I would have died of starvation before I would have eaten anyone.

I guess I am about to find out if that’s true. I don’t really believe animal blood will work. I have read vampire books and other fantasy, plus watched a bunch of vampire movies, and all of them always go on and on about the blood lust. I guess Americans have not missed a meal in such a long time that we need to believe that the hunger to take another life must be supernatural.

Well that’s not true; when people are truly starving, we will eat anything. My problem is that, one thing about all the legends of vampires agreed upon is that vampires
need human blood, and only blood. Crap, not good. So I guess eating pudding is out, and the pain in my stomach is only worsening with every passing second.

I am not sure what I should do, but one thing is clear; I am starving. I don’t know how long I have been in the ground; I feel thin and empty. My teeth ache and my abnormally long fingers have long razor sharp claws. I stare at my own hands in disbelief. I can feel my long sharp teeth with my tongue. Maybe after I eat, I will look more human; at least that is what I am hoping. There are other problems going on in my head; where do I stay during the day? I need a place to wash, some new clothes, I look homeless, and where is all that vampire wealth? I am dead broke, no pun intended.

I headed toward the town, first walking, and then running. At first all I could think of was the pain in my stomach, but the sudden sensation of running through the forest at such speeds took my mind off of the pain.

I was heading down the side of the mountain, dodging branches, trees and bushes. I could feel the wind whipping my long hair behind me. My mind was keeping up with this speed; it felt as if time had slowed down.

I let out a laugh, and of course, when I did, the black and white details of the terrain came into view in my mind. That gave me an idea, so I started to whistle as I ran, and the world lit up as I flew down the ever-decreasing mountainside.

As I flew through the trees, I noticed with my second sight that there was a cliff coming up. I don’t know how far the bottom was, but I was wondering if I could fly. I thought it would be a good idea just to go for it. I figured I would have a gay time flying through the air.

By the time I got to the edge, I changed my mind, but I couldn’t stop in time. I fell onto my back sliding toward the edge. The ground was too steep for me to slow down. The ground was covered with a thick layer of pine needles; I couldn’t get a grip. I slid right off the top of the cliff. And, of course, to go with my luck, it wasn’t a little way down.

It was more like three hundred feet judging by the treetops. I was falling for the ground faster than I had been running.

I flew toward the ground, falling like a sky diver flat on my belly. I still had plenty of time to think about what an ass I was, but my fast mind wasn’t going to help me with a fast stop.

My luck held solid; I didn’t fly, and I was unable to grab hold of a branch of a tree. It was like I aimed for the only opening in the forest floor.

I tried to use my hands in front of me to break the fall, but all that I accomplished was breaking my arms. Slamming face first into the ground, the darkness swallowed me up.

When I came to, I had no idea how much time had passed, but it felt like maybe only a few minutes, which was amazing considering I should be dead. I could feel pain throughout my body which was not surprising in the least.

Most of my body felt like a bag full of glass that someone smashed against the ground, only the glass was my bones. As these thoughts went through my head I could feel my body knitting itself back together again. It was so strange and honestly it didn’t really hurt as badly as it should, and truth be said, I think my hunger was now worse than breaking my bones.

Pain had been like the cold air, just information, but the hunger felt like more. I had to find food soon, or I am afraid that I will be unable to move and burn to death in the sun.

Maybe I don’t deserve to live, but I needed to exist to revenge myself to kill the bikers who brought these horrors into my life. Finally I was able to get to my feet, but I could tell I was too weak after healing myself for anymore stupid stunts. In fact it seems I will be walking normal speed the rest of the way to town.

The rest of the trip was uneventful, and not that far from the base of the cliff, that I had just fallen off of, I came to an empty road. I crossed over the road, walked through some more woods and finally arrived at a little square of homes.  Half a dozen houses of modest means sat in a semicircle. Beyond was the rest of the town, but it was still about a mile off; it was real quiet; I have no idea what time it is, but I am guessing it is early in the morning.

I sneaked up to the first house which sat at a further distance away from the rest of the homes. I walked up to the back door; I hated myself for what I must do.

  At the back door, I listened to what was going on inside. All was quiet, but, as I listened closer, noise begun to filter through the door of the house. I came to realize it was the noise of a TV from the front of the house. I couldn’t tell if anyone was home. They could have just left the TV on. So I just decided to go for it. I was hungry and had no idea how much time I had before sunrise.

  I tried the doorknob to see if it was unlocked. I guess they didn’t lock up at night; good for me, bad for them. I snuck in to find myself standing in the kitchen with only a small light on over the sink, but I could see everything crystal clear. Treading carefully, I moved to the other side of the kitchen and looked into the living room.

Closing my eyes, the sound from the TV allowed me to see the entire living room i
n my head. I could see a man sitting in front of the TV, taking swigs out of his bottle. The image in my head was black and white, and I noticed it lacked detail as well. I knew he had a bottle, but I could not see the label, and I could not make out the finer details of his face. Regardless, I could see what he was doing, and that he was alone.

With that knowledge, I went into the room and snuck up right behind him for the couch was positioned in the middle of the living room. I was too hungry to worry about much, and, with that, I attacked. I grabbed his mouth to keep him from yelling, pulled his head to one side and sank my fangs into his neck.

The blood, oh the blood, it was everything I ever wanted and more. I didn’t know because I have never had consensual sex, but this felt great. My body shook with desire; never had I ever been more at peace in my entire life.

At first I took the man by surprise; he pulled me over the couch, and we slammed into the coffee table, but, even with all this, I was too busy sucking and lost in the pleasure to even care. The weaker he got, the stronger I got. This didn’t happen quickly like the movies, but it was over quick enough, maybe 10 or 15 minutes.

He lay dead. I was laying there on the floor with his body still on top of me, his face still skyward. I pushed his body off by rolling it to one side. I jumped up off of the ground. I felt like a million dollars; I was completely healed and feeling so good when I heard another noise down the hallway.

I
could make out a heavyset woman coming down the hallway from one of the other rooms of the small house. I was standing over a dead man in the middle of her living room, wearing nothing but a filthy piece of cloth over me, covered in mud with blood around my mouth. I was hoping just to kill this man and leave, but it appeared I was out of time, and so was this woman who approached me.

“Roger what the
hell is your drunken ass doing? Are you trying to wake the children…?” The woman stopped in midsentence after she flipped on the light switch.

The sudden light blinded me; it took a few seconds for my eyes to adjust. I co
uld see the woman clearly; we were five feet apart with a couch between us. We just stared at each other in utter disbelief. I didn’t know what I should do.   She said there were children down the hall. I hadn’t even thought about that, and, at the same time, this was probably her dead husband I was standing over.

Then she surprised me and started to speak.

“I...I...I don’t know who…. Or what you are, but I have children. Please don’t hurt me!”

I put my hands out in front of me like I was surrendering. “I won’t hurt your children lady. I am sorry I was so hungry.” I paused looking down at the dead man and back at her, then finished with a “sorry.”

The lady calmed a little. Then I realized I could hear, feel the beat of her heart. I could see the pulse of her veins; this was a little disheartening. She then, looking at the dead man said, “Well Roger wasn’t worth a whole lot alive, drunk most of the time, and a lousy husband and father. I always figured the booze would get him. Then I would get the life insurance; look, if you leave without hurting me, or my children, I won’t say a word to no one.” Then she half said to herself. “It’s not like anyone will believe me anyhow.”

She looked back up at me with a plea in her eyes. Her face changed quickly to surprise. I rushed her, leaping over the couch and slammed into the woman. She hit the wall behind her.

The woman was my height; she had me by twice the mass not just in weight, also in build. Still her 250 lb husband didn’t stand a chance and neither did she; shoving her up against the wall was too easy.

The sound of a picture frame hitting the ground, and her air rushing out of her lungs is all I heard. As if she was a weak child, I twisted her head to the side and bit down on her neck. All I had to do was bite and then pull my fangs out and the blood rushed into my mouth, and it was so wonderful.