THE GIRL FROM POMPEII

THE GIRL FROM POMPEII

BY

T.C. ELOFSON

33 A.D.

I

        He should never have walked into that room.

Giaus cringed as she leaned over him. She was beautiful, one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen. Even now as she leaned close to take his life he thought he loved her.

        Fabiana pushed her soft lips to his neck and sunk her sharp teeth into his skin. His life slowly began to leave his body. She held him close as the liquid of his life bled from him. Within moments his body fell limp and she knew he was dead. Fabiana let Giaus slip from her hands and fall to the straw covered stone floor of the small room above the tavern on the north side of Pompeii. She stood up and closed her robe as she walked out of the room leaving the man dead on the floor.

        A man, the owner the establishment, gave Fabiana a smile as she descended the wooden staircase and emerged into the room lit with small burning candles as a thick, grey haze floated around the ceiling. She passed several people silently as they talked together, unaware she was there. She held her head up and produced a gold coin for the pimp as if she really was his prostitute like she pretended to be.

She tossed the piece of gold to him at the front door, her payment for the room and their agreement for secrecy. 

        “Good evening Mr. Claudius,” she said to him.

The pimp watched closely as she made her way through the door and down the street and disappeared into the darkness of the city. He loved to watch her work her wiles to the men of this city, but he knew better then to ever ask anything of that woman. He had already learned his lesson there.

She walked silently almost without effort. Fabiana glided into the darkness of Pompeii, her skin now warmed with the blood of the man now cold on the stone floor.

II

          As the pimp leaned his shoulder against the wood frame work of the doorway he began to remember the first time he laid his eyes on the sultry vampire known as Fabiana. The half- Hispalis, half-Roman woman he now had this arrangement with was the key figure in one of the scariest moments of his life.

***

          The moon was low in the sky on that particular fall night, and the wind had no longer blown through the trees and plants around the walls of the city. The pimp walked down a darkened dirt alley that led behind several stone homes. The city was silent as the slumbering residences waited for the call of the morning to quietly push through the city.  He then passed in silence down a stone street with large marble houses and flowing gardens of wondrous beauty. Fountains of various sizes and shapes spouted cold water high into the night sky as a black cat made its way into the darkness.

         He walked slowly, half drunk, back to his home next to his brothel. As he looked down he noticed the carving of a stone phallus in the cobblestone street that he walked on, telling him he was close to his home. He knew, like most residents of Pompeii, that the stone phallus pointed towards his brothel.

As he walked closer to his home he noticed a woman walking down the street towards him. She is stunning, he thought at once. As she passed him she gave him a little wink of her eye and kept moving on down the road. Claudius turned around, almost stumbling over his feet to look at her again. She looked very young, no more than twenty years. She moved with grace and elegance into the night, her long black hair swaying from one side to the other to match the movement of her shapely hips. He was immediately entranced by her.

For some reason he could not explain he completely forgot where he was going and began to follow the woman.

          She walked through the empty area of the market, carefully staying out of the moonlight. She came to a stop and looked down a dark walkway between several buildings. Looking all around she could see a figure making his way to her in the distance. Of course this was her intent; she had been slowly calling to his weak mind, bringing him to her. She enjoyed this part of the game, her morning hunt. She would seduce the man and drink from him just as she had done every night since the time she was “born from the night,” as she called it.

She walked to the end to the alleyway and stopped. She stood alone, facing the limestone of a cold wall, and listened for the approaching steps of her prey. The pimp slowly made his way to her, his feet stumbling and dragging from his drunkenness.

          Her skin felt cold and she longed to feed on the man. As the footfalls got closer to her she looked back at him, tossed her hair to one side, and stared into his eyes. She could smell the drink on him, he reeked of it, but soon it was his blood that she scented. His heart was pounding and Fabiana could hear every beat of it, it played its song for her. She then let her wrap fall off of her shoulders; it landed in a rumpled mess at her feet. The man came to her and began to passionately kiss her neckline. She was about to move to take his life when they were interrupted.

          Three men emerged behind them; they smelled of old urine and mold as they came closer and closer.

          “Well, what have we here?” one of the men said as he produced a knife from his belt.

          “Two lovers, it looks like,” another one added.

          “All right, you two just give us your coin and you won’t have to die.”  Suddenly, before anyone knew what was happening, Fabiana threw the pimp against the wall and ran at the men. She moved with such speed that the men could not even react to the attack.

            Claudius sat in a puddle of mud and watched as this small elegant woman raged at the three men. She reached out, grabbed two of them by the face and with one squeeze crushed their skulls under her fingers. Blood spouted out of their bodies like escaping water from a damn. The men fell dead at her feet as the third ran for his life. He took several steps into the light but in a flash she was on him. Fabiana grabbed his arm, crushing the bones in his wrist with one hand. The man screamed out in pain as his body was pulled in close to her. She opened her mouth revealing her long white fangs and sunk them into the dirty flesh of his neck. Blood spilled onto her tongue and she closed her eyes and drank.

          Claudius sat, horrified, as he watched the color drain from the man’s skin as the woman held him close and tenderly, and then suddenly she tore his head off of his body. She held it in her hands for a short while before dropping it to the ground.

          The woman began to walk back into the darkness, her steps soft once more as she came closer and closer to Claudius who was cowering in the dark like a child. She stood in front of him and stared at him for a moment before moving in for her kill.

          “What are you?” he asked as he lifted his face to her. She stood over him and gave a slight smile.

            “I am the Vampire Fabiana,” she said finally. Then she grabbed the man up in her arms with the intent to kill him. She sunk her fangs into his flesh and at that moment his mind was open to her, and his life open into her mind. She knew he was a pimp and owner of a brothel. Suddenly she knew that this mortal could help her. She withdrew her teeth from the man’s neck and took a step back from him. Blackness over came him and he slid into unconsciousness at her feet.

            The next night Claudius awoke in his bed.

It was a dream, he thought as he sat up in his bed of straw. He brought his hand up to his neck and felt the marks she had left. His hands began to shake as he sat there.

            “I have spared your life mortal,” a voice said suddenly. He spun around with such force he fell to the stone floor of his room. Fabiana stood before him just as she had done the night before.

            “What?” was all he could get out.

            “I have spared you for one reason. I wish to make a bargain with you. You are a pimp and the owner of this brothel, correct?”

            “Yes, but how did you know that?”

            “I read it in your mind. What I want is simple: a place to feed at night and secrecy. I will pay you one piece of gold every night for a room. Of course you will dispose of the bodies for me.”

            Claudius sat there on the floor for a long moment before responding, “What if I say no?”

            “Then I will take your life and be done with you.”

Self preservation overcame him and he quickly answered. “Miss Fabiana is it? We have a deal.” Without saying another word she turned and left the man sitting on the cold stone floor of his room thankful to still be alive.

***

         As the vampire slipped into the cover of night once again Claudius flipped the gold coin in his hand and gave a smile as he returned to the light and noise of his brothel just as he had done every night after she took her leave of him. Soon she would want to hunt again and be at his door.

THE END