Night Feast (9 page)

“You should get yourself some new make-up and perfume to wear with your new dress.” The woman suggested as she handed over the dress.

“Make-up?” inquired Lia, momentarily forgetting that she ought to know about such things.  Luckily the woman had misunderstood her confusion.

“I’m sorry I didn’t mean to imply that you need make-up” she said smiling apologetically.  “You certainly do not, you are naturally a very beautiful girl but I think a little bit of eyeshadow and lipstick will add the finishing touch.

‘Eyeshadow’ thought Lia, and then suddenly remembered the blue coloured substance that Elena had been wearing around her eyes, when she had killed her.

“There’s no need to apologise, I think that’s a wonderful idea” she responded appreciatively.  “Where’s the best place to go to buy it?”

The shop assistant told her that there was a store at the top of the escalators, that had a variety make-up counters for her to choose from.  Lia thanked her and walked towards the strange, upward moving, iron looking steps situated in the far right corner of the shop.

She stood for a while, not afraid but wondering how she should mount the moving steps.  She was very tempted to fly onto them, but she knew that she may be seen.  If she attracted any attention in that way,  her plan to live in this century would be ruined.  The sound of a man’s voice broke into her thoughts

“It’s okay honey, my wife didn’t like these things either, c’mon I’ll help you get on.”

The voice belonged to a kindly, elderly gentleman, who put his hand under the vampire’s elbow and guided her onto the escalators.  He removed his hand from her arm during the ride upwards, because the coldness of her skin had been seeping through her coat onto his palm.

“You sure are cold honey, I’d go and get myself a nice cup of hot chocolate if I were you”  he said good naturedly.  Lia smiled at him sweetly and nodded  at his suggestion.  When they reached the top he took her arm again, and guided her onto the landing area.  Then he winked at her and said goodbye, and she made her way to the store opposite.

Lia approached a concession that is heavily stocked with bottles of nail polish, palettes of eyeshadow, tubes of lipstick and perfumes.  She does not know what to look for, or what any of these things are for,  so she asked the two girls behind the counter if they could help her.

“What sort of thing are you looking for” said the taller of the two haughtily.  Lia could not help but notice the unhelpful expression on her face.   This girl was not going to be like Jody, or the other shop assistant, she had to think fast.

“I would like some make-up to wear with this dress please.”

Lia produced her beautiful, dark green dress from its wrapping.

“Oh that’s lovely” the second girl spoke, and her eyes were shining with admiration as she stepped forward to take a closer look.

“I got this Kimberly” snapped her colleague quickly, she could see by the dress that a large commission was in the offing.  Kimberly retreated sulkily and went to serve another customer.

“I’m Melissa, you say you want to buy some make-up?  Okay your skin is quite pale and your hair is dark, how about this?”

She grabs a small, dark grey coloured stick from the display on the counter, and thrust it towards her client.  Lia takes it from her and inspects it, and Melissa determined to get a sale, started to tell her exactly what the eyeshadow will do for her.

“This is new,  it has been selling really well.”  She grabbed a tester of the same colour from the display, and rubbed it a little on the back of her hand, then shows it to Lia.

“It gives a smoky eye effect that will really suit you with your colouring.  Would you like to try it on?”

Lia nodded eagerly, she was enjoying this strange new world, there were so many things to discover and explore.

“Okay then, sit down here.”  Melissa pointed to a high stool which was adjacent to the counter.  Lia sat down, putting her shopping on the floor beside her.  Melissa pushed back her clients beautiful dark hair.  She felt more than a little bit jealous of the girl she was attending to.  She talked about the product as she gently rubbed it around Lia eyes.

“It’s easy to apply and gives a really professional finish, see?”  Melissa gave her a small mirror, so that Lia could see her handy work.  The vampire was so glad to be in possession of Elena’s handkerchief, because she would not have been able to explain her lack of reflection to this girl.  She loved how the eyeshadow looked next to her big, deep green eyes, and Melissa silently and reluctantly admitted that she looked stunning.

“It looks good doesn’t it? She remarked rubbing her hands together. “Your face is freezing cold though” she added wrinkling up her nose.

“I’m going to get a hot chocolate later” lied Lia.  “I’ve been really cold today.”

“Would you like some mascara and eye liner and lipstick with that?”  Melissa didn’t want to chat about the punishing temperatures, she wanted to make a good sale.

“We have these on special offer just for today”

She presented Lia with the latest longer lash, high volume, jet black mascara and some black liquid eye liner.

“Could I see what they look like on?”  Lia was enjoying her education in modern day make-up.

“Sure.”  Melissa obliged and applied the eye liner and mascara to Lia’s lids and eyelashes.  Lia was stunned by the effect.  The make-up made her eyes look even bigger and she was sure that the contrast of the smoky eyeshadow made her pupils look a deeper shade of green.  Her eyelashes were so long, that she could feel them on her face every time she blinked.

“What do you think?” asked Melissa, knowing what the answer would be.

“I love it” said Lia, her eyes still on the image in the mirror.

Melissa brought her attention to the rows of different coloured lipsticks on display.  Lia knew immediately what they were for, the word lipstick was obvious to anyone.  Melissa described how some were of a matte texture ,and how the others were more of a glossier finish.  The she asked Lia what colour she wanted.

“Red, blood red” came the answer without thought or hesitation.

****************************************

“Good night honey”  Cora Patterson kissed her son on the top of his head and left the room.  He could hear her slow footsteps on the stairs as she mounted them. Jay thought that his mother was so cool, because she had said that he could borrow her car, to drive him and his friends to the dance on Friday.  He had expected her to say no, because she had just upgraded to a new car.  Her Texan aunt had died recently, and left her over thirty thousand dollars in her will.  She had put away five thousand dollars in a bank account for Jay, and had treated herself to a brand new, dark red, Chevrolet Malibu, that had cost around twenty two thousand pounds.  Cora was happy for her son to borrow the car, however she hoped that he wasn’t trying to impress Amberlee Robinson.  He could do so much better.  Jay was not in the habit of letting out whoops of joy, but for this favour he made an exception.  He had started to look forward to the dance, and in his new found enthusiasm he had felt that they could do better than Kevin’s old 4-banger for their transport.  He still didn’t relish spending the evening with Amberlee on his arm, but at least now the evening had some perks.  Jay turned off the television, and made his way up the stairs to his bedroom.  He would phone Kevin tomorrow, to tell him that they would be travelling in style to the dance.

Eddy McCann was not the only one who was having nightmares.  It was not really a nightmare as such but more of a very strange, recurring and disturbing dream.  A soon as Jay's head hit the pillow he fell asleep straight away.  However recently, he had found himself dreaming about being in the woods, where Elena Hudson had been killed.  The dream had began on the night of the day that he had been in the Diner with Kevin, and railroaded into going on a date with Amberlee.  His sleep had been dreamless before that.  He would find himself walking through the woods at night, as Elena had been,  just before she had disappeared.  As he walked he could feel the cold night air on his face, and  on his hands.  Then he would hear someone call his name in the darkness.  He turned around and saw no one, but he recognised the voice that he heard.  It could not possibly be her, she was gone for good, he knew that she was gone forever.  But as he continued on his journey through the woods, her voice became louder as she called out his name.  Jay would then suddenly turn around again, impatient for the owner of the voice to reveal herself.  Then in the pitch blackness, he would see something or someone float towards him.  Jay would be rooted to the spot, wishing that he could wake up from this dream, and then he would see her.  Elena would be standing in front of him, looking exactly as she was when they had been at their friend’s house, the very last time he had seen her alive.  She looked pretty and sweet, her long blonde hair was blowing in the wind, and she nervously fiddled with the handkerchief in her jeans pocket, as she had done that night when he’d approached her.  Jay opens his mouth to tell her that he thought she was dead, but she interrupts him by stretching out her arms in his direction.  He becomes very confused when he hears her say the words,

“Choose me Jay, choose me, you must choose me.”

Jay then reaches out to her and as he touches her outstretched hands she suddenly changes.  Her jeans and shirt vanish from sight, and she is standing now in her pretty, white, lace bra and brief panties.  She starts to scream uncontrollably, and covers her face with her hands.  Jay feels immediately inclined to cover her up with his warm fleece jacket, and protect her.  But he backs away quickly when he sees her body grow thinner, and older and bent.  Elena then removes her wrinkly, claw-like, age spot ,covered hands from her face, which has turned to that of an old woman.  Her blonde mane is replaced by wispy white hair, and she has stopped screaming but is now whimpering the words,

“You will never choose me now.”

Then Jay wakes up.  He hadn’t mentioned the dream to his mother, because she would rush him off to see a shrink, and he didn’t want her to think he was going crazy.  He hadn’t even told Kevin for that very same reason.   He thought that it may be a result of his guilt about not walking Elena home. There was a part of him that thought that it may be something else entirely.

It’s the evening of the dance.

At six o’ clock Lia is putting the finishing touches to her new make-up.  The temperature of her skin is so cold that the make-up will stay on for hours, unlike the other girls, she won’t need to go to the restroom to check it.  The task of applying the eyeshadow, eye liner and mascara, had been much easier than she thought.  She was proud of the way that she had made it look.  In Portland she had bought a copy of a popular fashion magazine, and she’d copied the eye make-up style of one of the models featured in it.  Lia liked the lipstick the best.  It was matte red, as red as blood, and has she put it onto her lips she thought of the blood that she had taken from all those humans, who had fallen prey to her.  Lia began to feel the familiar excitement resurrect itself within her, so she purposely pushed the warm, appetizing images from her mind, and replaced them with cold, grey stone statues.  Her appetite for human blood once again temporarily deserted her.

She wandered about her parents and her sister and what they were doing.  She hoped that they were in the middle of a fine blood feast, because she felt a little bit guilty for trapping them in time.  Abe and Dalia Jackson had confirmed that the portal gave her the power to keep things as they were in the eighteenth century.  Nevertheless it couldn’t be helped.  Not now.  She had seen Jay Patterson in the flesh and she wanted and needed to touch him, be near him.  Kathrin and her parents would just have to wait.

Lia slipped into her beautiful new dress, and tucked Elena’s handkerchief down the front of it, between her breasts.  She put on the three inch heeled, black satin pumps. They were stylish and elegant, she had purchased them while shopping in the mall.  The beautiful vampire smiled to herself in anticipation of the evening to come.

She was ready.

****************************************

“You’re not going out dressed like that are you? You look like a ho’!”

“Shut up you annoying little freak” screamed Amberlee, looking around her bedroom for a hairbrush or a shoe, that she could throw at the person who’d insulted her. 

“You suck!” shouted Joey as he scrambled down the stairs.

Her mother was putting some laundry away, in its rightful place of the bedroom she shared with her husband.

“Don’t speak to your little brother like that Amberlee” she scolded, ignoring the taunts that he had delivered to his sister.

“Stepbrother” snapped Amberlee her face red with anger.  ‘I could really strangle that little shit’ she thought.

Her mother had remarried quite soon after she had divorced Amberlee’s father nine years ago.  Amberlee had been just eight years old at the time, and they had moved from Philadelphia to Maine with her new stepfather.  A year later her Mother had given birth to a baby boy, who had become the thorn in his stepsister’s side from day one.  Her stepfather was rich at least, that was one consolation.  He was a lawyer and had recently informed her, when she had boasted about being Jay Patterson’s date for the dance, that his Mother,  Cora, worked as a legal secretary at his firm.

Such was his wealth that he had been able to move them into one of the largest, most beautiful houses in Maine.  It was a house that Amberlee was sure that Cora Patterson could never afford.  This was the main reason why she had wanted Jay to meet up at her house and not Libby’s.  He would now be able to see the total catch that she so obviously was.   Amberlee thought that her house looked liked the White House, compared with the Peterson’s place.  Libby should have been more grateful that she’d made the meeting arrangement.  That girl didn’t know when she was dodging a bullet.