Fresh Meat

Jack Jocke was a typical senior football star. He was not only the quarterback of the varsity football team but he was also the captain. He had blond hair that brushed the top of his eyelids and eyes so blue that they would even make the sky jealous of the hue. The main thing about Jack was that when he wanted a girl, he got one, no matter what. So it was no surprise that after a while he started looking for what he called, “Fresh meat.”
You should always be careful of what you wish for; Jack did get exactly what he wanted. One day he saw a new girl come out of the office. She was unlike anything he, or the rest of the town, had ever seen. She was thin and fragile-looking. Her hair was darker than a raven's wing and seemed to tickle the bottom of her knees. She was about 5'8” and had the palest skin anyone had ever seen. The oddest physical thing about her though was her eyes. They were a dark forest green and had a deeply troubled look in them, as if she had seen far too much pain and misery and as if she was in too much pain and misery herself. As soon as Jack saw her he knew that she was the ”fresh meat” he had been looking for.
Jack wasn't a fool (even though he often acted like one), he found out all that he could by charming the main secretary in the office. He also asked people in her classes what she was like and what she seemed to like so that he would know what he needed to say to charm her. He found out that she was a young junior, only 15 years old and that she hated just about everything from her classmates. From the secretary he found out her class schedule, address, phone number, and name. Her name was just as odd as her appearance, Julian Bianot. Jack planned on just “casually” bumping into her on her way out of the school and towards home. When the time came he couldn't find her.
Jack had never been one to give up quickly or easily. He decided to go to her house and play “Welcome Wagon.” He decided to not show off his big, flashy car just yet. He decided to do a light jog and hopefully he would catch up with her. When he arrived on the street she lived on he spotted her instantly, but she wasn't heading home. Julian was headed straight for him in the tow of a huge dog. He thought that she was struggling with the massive canine and he decided to play the role of hero instead of welcome wagon. He ran up to her side and asked, “Can I help you with this massive beast?”
“She's not a beast!” Julian snapped. “She's a Spanischer Mastiff, her name is Sheba, and she's beautiful.”
“I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend you or Sheba,” Jack looked warily at the big dog that gave a low, menacing growl at the sound of her name. “I just thought that you needed help. He gave her the smile that made all girls go weak at the knees and forgive him for anything.
“I didn't mean to snap I'm just a little over protective of my baby. Why don't you join us? I'll even allow you to hold her leash,” Julian said this as if it was a rare treat. She slipped the leash off of her wrist and slipped it over Jack's awaiting hand.
Jack was nearly swept off of his feet when Sheba gave her first mighty bound. But he quickly recovered his footing. Julian slightly giggled at the genuine look of shock on his face as he said, “How the hell do you keep her under your control!”
Julian never answered him. Instead she turned to idle chatter. He in turn asked her all that he had not found out through his resources. She told him about being an orphan and that she had just been adopted by a sweet older couple, the O'Connell's, who had never been blessed enough to bare children of their own. She started talking about them and her parent's horrific murder that she had just happened to walk into as they went into the woods that isolated the town from the rest of the world. As Jack noticed the darker surroundings and the thousands of leaves and debris from past years that muffled the sounds of their feet he thought, “All right! If I have any luck at all she brought me in here for the same purpose that I was seeking her out for.”
They went deep into the forest. Just before Jack recommended either taking a break or turning back because it was getting darker by the second Julian said, “hold” Sheba stopped automatically and Jack nearly ran into her.
Julian turned around and said, “The closest exit out of the forest is in front of you, I highly recommend that you run.”
“What?” Jack asked jokingly to cover his confusion. Julian didn't answer; instead she walked up to Sheba's collar and unhooked the leash.
“What the hell are you doing!” Jack nearly screamed his demand.
“Getting the things I need for my nutrition, of course. Sheba, my darling, kill,” Julian said calmly.
Jack saw the dog turn around slowly with her hackles raised and her teeth bared. Jack knew all of a sudden that he wasn't going to make it out of the forest alive. He was the target for Sheba to kill. After the thought of his impending doom entered his mind another thought came, “You're on the varsity football team, and you can outrun this stupid beast.” So Jack started running as fast as he possibly could in the direction Julian had indicated. As he ran he noticed the forest was getting denser and darker with every second. He also realized that he had been tricked.
Julian had given Jack the leash and had trained the dog to jerk at the leash causing him to strain himself to keep Sheba under control. She had also brought him far enough out so that it would seem logical for him to run in the direction she had pointed. She had also had pointed him in a direction where there were a lot of roots tripping you whether you were looking at the ground or not and there were branches of all sorts reaching there fingers out to grab a hold of anything in their path. Jack couldn't risk looking back to see how far back the dog was in case a root tripped him or a branch grabbed a hold of him in way where he couldn't get away.
Jack thought that he had heard Sheba's breath behind him and he jumped forward with a burst of speed he had never known before.
The next thing he knew he had huge dog paws on each of his shoulder blades baring him down to the ground. Sheba ripped the tendons in the back of his right knee with a fierce growl. Jack cried out not only in excruciating agony but in fear as well. He still half-hoped that this was all a bad joke that had gone too far. To make things worse Sheba bit deep into both of his forearms making it painful to use his arms. Sheba then placed her powerful jaws around Jack's thick throat and began to close them slowly, as if to make sure that he felt every single tooth pierce his flesh and bring him closer to death.
Before Sheba could finish the job Julian came out of nowhere and said, “Hold.” Sheba's jaws instantly stopped closing, but each one of her teeth had already pierced the soft flesh in Jacks neck, which was bleeding sluggishly. Sheba growled as if annoyed that her master had stopped her from finishing her rightful kill.
“I suppose you'd like to know why I'm doing this to you,” Julian said mockingly, almost as if she had made several speeches like this before. Jack managed to give a quick jerk of his head without upsetting Sheba. Julian continued, “You see I have this incredibly rare genetic disease that is more commonly known as the disease of the vampire. I lack natural nutrients in my blood stream and I'm supposed to get shot at least once a week that gives me the nutrients I need. I found a different way to get the nutrients. By eating others organs that carry the most blood (the heart, the liver, things like that) I get more than I need. I do need to find another way of getting the nutrients into my bloodstream quicker.”
Jack somehow managed to groan something that sounded like an audible sentence, “What happens if you don't get your nutrients?”
Julian looked mildly surprised that he had managed to speak. But answered his question all the same, “I would begin appearing like the vampires of legend. My gums would recede; my skin would shrivel, and form to my bones; and I would, for all appearances, be the living dead. That's why I trained Sheba to do all that she did to you tonight. This is pretty much what happened to my parents. Except I killed them with my own two hands. I still have the knife. It's what I'm going to use to harvest your organs.” Julian gave a malicious smile and said, “Finish him off.”
Sheba's jaws snapped to a close and with a final groan Julian assumed him to be dead. “It's ironic isn't it? You told your friends that I was your 'fresh meat' and you turned out to be mine. Sheba, baby, would you please go and fetch the cooler?”
Sheba was back in a second with it. It was a plain, little, blue cooler. Nothing too obvious about it. Julian opened it and pulled out a razor sharp, serrated dagger. Little bits of steam rose as Julian plunged the freezing knife into Jack Jocke's still warm body. Jack gave gurgling moan with his last breath.
*****
A year later in school people still wondered what had happened to Jack Jocke and they wondered if he was behind the twelve murders that had happened in the area since he had disappeared. There had been one every month. It had started about a week after Jack had disappeared. The bodies were always found near the school and were always gutted. Now there was talk of rebuilding the school in a new location. The strangest part of all of these horrible things happening was that whenever Jack's or any of the victims names were mentioned Julian Bianot would hardly stifle a giggle and would say, “Terrible, isn't it?” with laughter dancing in her eyes.