Westward Ho

Westward Ho

Thad Manners could have sworn she was just a little girl. The eyes he saw shining in the darkness by the side of the road as he drove by were certainly child’s eyes-round, teary, utterly innocent and swollen with need. They looked right at him right through him, burned deep into his heart flooded it with compassion and washed it clean of all prudence and fear. There was no way he could just keep going and leave her alone in the dark. He was hers
now.

He quickly pulled off the road anxious to give this poor obviously abandoned child safety and shelter. At that moment, he would have taken her to the far side of the moon if that had been her home. However, the instant he opened the passenger door, which automatically turned on his interior light and saw her more clearly, he was quite shocked to see she was no child.

She was a petite young woman, with long black hair, which gently undulated in the cool night breeze as if she was under water. Seductively draped in a long billowy black shift how he could have mistaken her for a child? He did not know and as her demure sweet smile wrapped neatly tightly around his heart he did not care.

Slowly she glided through the darkness toward the funnel of light pouring out his open car door with the liquid grace of a sea snake. She wore a sweet innocent thankful expression on her face as though it were a perfectly fitted mask. However, Thad saw no mask only desperate need and penetrating beauty.

Mesmerized, his slack seemingly spineless body remained stretched out awkwardly across passenger seat unintentionally blocking her way as she drew near.

“My name is Lilith, may I get in?” Her voice was a silk ribbon sliding through a satin loop. He did not merely hear it. He absorbed it. It radiated through his entire being like some narcotic venom. “It is cold and I have no one.” She mewed.

“Of course, I’m ah Thad” he said blushing and confused, as he jerked back out of her way and banged his elbow on the steering wheel, ”ow!”

“Oh you are hurt,” she cooed as she smoothly melting onto the passenger seat. A swathe of her long black hair spilled down and fanned out across her left cheek as she nestled down beside him. Her hand, a delicate masterpiece of porcelain skin and gleaming red nails slid up, caught it between her thumb and index finger, and pushed it back over her bare left shoulder. “Now you are staring.” Her tone was teasing but not quite flirtatious or
accusing.

Thad blinked and nodded stupidly. He had never seen such perfection. She was like a flawless sculpture come to life. Her lips were bruise darkened rose pedals. Yet, she wore no lipstick. He did not know how he could tell that he simply knew their deep redness was natural –natural for her anyway, her eyes –smoldering violet embers that warmed his soul like morning sunlight. Her eyes seemed to dance with his as he continued to gaze at her stupidly.


“I’m staring?” He said, his eyes still wide and gawking. “Oh I, I am. Sorry. I thought you were a little girl. You, you sure looked little ah young, not that you look old but uh ah.” He hoped she would be satisfied with his answer-his feeble excuse.

She smiled, tilted her head and pulled shut the passenger door. The car went black. “What the darkness does not hide it distorts.” Her voice was filled with casual authority. She knew much about darkness.

“Yeah I guess so,” Thad said still staring in her direction even though he could just barely see her in the dim green light emanating from his dash. Sighing, he reluctantly turned his attention back toward the road and pulled back out onto the cold empty asphalt.

“Ah where ya’ headed Lilith, “he asked, struggling to make casual, harmless conversation, as his car picked up speed and sank into the night.

“West. I must go west.” There was the slightest hint of desperation in her voice.

“Just west?” He shrugged, “there is an awful lot of west in front of us, any particular western spot you want to stop, ‘cause I’ve got all night- all week even. I can take you as far as you need to go. I’m on vacation, headed to California, never been there, always wanted to see the Pacific ya’ know.” He realized he was babbling like a teen -aged boy but he did not care. Her nearness was arresting. Something seemed to be streaming
from her, filling his nostrils his lungs and his mind with a dull but soothing giddiness. It was as if a comforting blanket of relaxation was being slowly and quite deliberately pulled over him.

“It will be morning soon.” She said with unexpected sadness, "you will not have to take me far.”

“You live near here? He stole a quick glance at her and was startled by her saucer eyed unblinking stare. She quickly blinked, broke her stare and left him wondering what he had really seen. A haze seemed to have settled over him. He suddenly felt vaguely disoriented. It was as if the outer edges of his mind were slowly shutting down.

The part of his mind that perceives and interprets the outside world was slowly drifting away from him. It seemed the longer he was in her presence the more he questioned his senses. She was doing something to him. How? Why? He tried to wonder, but his mind faltered and his thoughts rolled and tumbled in his head like pebbles in a tin can-a tin can rolling down a hill toward a cliff. Somehow, his brain was becoming detached from his will, like they were
now two separate things. Little by little, he was losing his mind, to her.

Deep down inside his heart something flickered. Fear sparked and struggled to ignite. He wanted it. He needed it. She however needed him placid, pliable. Time was running out. Daybreak would soon burn away the night. There was little time for the usual niceties. No time for touch and tickle games.

Her lips parted. Two diamond points sparkled just below her upped lip. They could have easily passed for jewelry, the result of a cunningly delicate piercing. However, they were not precious stones or polished metal they were needle sharp fangs.

Thad’s fear flared as he jerked his eyes back toward the road and wondered what would be worse a car accident or a vampire attack. Vampires are not real. That statement flashed in his head like sheet lightning. Vampires are not real his mind was somehow forced to think. The words crystallized solid and certain in his consciousness numbing his fear with false assurance.

He sucked in a deep breath and smiled at himself for his silliness. He glanced over at her again. She was leaning toward him, almost draping over him like Spanish moss but there were no fangs or huge glaring inhuman eyes. What he now saw was just the opposite. She was sweetly smiling. She seemed to be studying him-admiring him.

“Now you’re staring,” he pretended to accuse. Suddenly he felt perfectly normal and safe. Not only that, he also felt quite pleased with himself that such a beautiful woman seemed so taken by him. He jutted out his chin and straightened his back. He wanted to look his best for her. He wanted her to know he cared what she thought of him. The truth was, he just wanted her-wanted her almost as much as she wanted him.

“But you do not mind my staring do you?” Her tone was frank but inviting. “ I think you are nice looking. I know you like looking at me too-do not lie.”

“Well of course I do, you’re a knock out.” He said almost gleefully. It was just plain fun to come right out with his feelings and put them into words clean and honest. “ What guy wouldn’t like looking at you?”

She drew closer and closer until her long swaying hair swept across his shoulder.” Not just any guy would want me the way you do. No one will ever appreciate me like you do. I can see it in your eyes. ”Her voice was almost sticky sweet with flattery. “You are so much more than just some guy. You are the one who truly wants me-truly me deserves me. ”

He cleared his throat and tried to think of something cool to say. “Wanting and getting are two different things. Right?”

She snickered. “Not if you always take what you want. However, taking is not always the best way and certainly not the most enjoyable. It is too bad time, or the lack of it, some times forces impatient behavior. Time makes all the difference. ”

‘Time?” He asked, “We have all night, all day. We have plenty of time.”

She nodded solemnly. Her smile sagged and she tilted her head. Her burning violet eyes softened as they regarded her prey almost sympathetically. “Pull over and you can have me.”

“What? I, I,” his mind clouded. It’s false clarity spoiled and clouded by her sudden crassness” I, I don’t know you. I don’t think I can do that. I, I don’t do that-not like this. ”

“Do what Thad, take your pleasure where you find it. You can have me Thad. Take me. Its’ all right, surely you are not actually telling me you are not that kind of guy?” She was laughing at him now.

Thad studied the black top rushing at him through the darkness, focused all his attention on its on blurry broken centerline. His head hurt. She frightened him. He had never been made such an offer. It scared him, felt too good to be true, too easy to be right. Of course, he was tempted. However, as he desperately struggled to remember something he had just moments before seen he came to realize she wanted something much more than elicit sex with a
stranger. She wanted him- all of him.

Sucking in a deep cleansing breath, he turned toward her angrily. “What are you? You’ve done something to mind regular people can’t do!”

“Oh, you think I am a what-a thing. Can you not see me?” She grinned at him. Nothing-resembling fangs were shining beneath her upper lip. ”Don’t be prudish or pretentious. Pull over and take what you want.” She laid her hand lightly on his thigh and squeezed. He slapped it way or tried to. Her hand did not move until she moved it away. Her strength was unnatural-terrifying.

“No,” he jabbed the word at her like a dagger. “Get out. Leave me alone!”

She giggled. “Stop the car. I will get out, of my clothes. Promise.”

“Jump out,” he hollered at her. “We both know you can.” It was clear to him she needed him to stop. She did not want him to wreck his care with her in it. She feared.

Fire kills vampires. Decapitation kills them too. A car accident could easily cause both. Moreover, she wanted to go west away from the rising sun. He was not about to stop. He stomped the gas pedal and roared defiantly into the black.

“Are you a beast Thad?” Her voice trembled with hurt. “You actually want me to jump out of a moving car. You must be crazy. I cannot do that Thad. How can you ask such a thing? Are you a monster? I thought you cared about me. You are no different than the rest. You have no heart. You want me to die!”

“You won’t die. I know what you are.” He wanted so badly to look at her. Even as he wrested his mind from her will he could feel her cruel sweetness creeping up his spine painting on the view screen of his minds eye all kinds luscious images and possibilities-things she could give, things she could do, things he could surely have if only he would stop and take her. “Get out, you, you vampire!” He finally screamed the word at her, his
voice shrill with anger and fear.

From the corner of her left eye she noticed something no human had the heightened senses to ever be aware of, the first slight shade of gray bleeding ever so slowly into the eastern sky. Dawn was drawing near. The sun was behind her still hidden by the horizon, but it was climbing. Every ticking second was a rung on its ladder. The new day would soon break and she would burn until she was no more. That could not happen, not to her not after all these
centuries, not by the hand of this silly frail mortal.

The trunk of his car would provide sufficient shelter from the day. His warm rich blood would give the strength to find another and another. She would live and he would die. She was after all his superior. What was he but a meal with a heart stuffed full of sentimental mush?

“They always stop for me,” she thought covering a cruel smirk with her right hand, ”and they always die. So will you sweet boy, so will you. ” With that thought still reverberating down the dark corridors her ancient mind she reached down and punched the button on the glove compartment door. It dropped and spilled pale yellow light all over her lap and legs. Then with teasing feather fingers she lightly stroked the hem of her dress until it
began to slowly slide up her legs like a curtain.

“Look.” Her command massaged his ears and wormed its way deep into his mind. Lubricated with lust his eyes rolled down in their sockets until the warm welcoming crevasse between her bare pink thighs was all that he could see.

His shoulders slumped. His head lolled toward her. “Okay,” the word dropped from his mouth like a glob of slobber,” I’ll stop.”

“Yes,” she whispered huskily back to him,” of course you will.”

Then he winked and smiled. “Just as hard as I can.”

She smiled back at him misunderstanding what he meant.

His eyes suddenly jerked back toward the road, his smiling lips pressed suddenly into a cheerless crease just before he slammed both feet down the brake pedal with all his might. Tires screamed. Smoke rolled up from both sides of the skidding car as it slid sideways off the road slinging her slight but deadly body forward. Her head crunched against the windshield just as the car plowed into the ditch bank and jolted to a bone -splintering stop.
Neatly sheered swatches blood soaked hair and skin splayed out in all directions, but hardly a bit of her spattered on Thad. His air bag caught most of the spray just as neatly as it caught and instantly cradled his head and upper body.
Fortunately for him his late model car only had a driver's side airbag.

Stunned and semi conscious he lost track of time and worst of all lost track of her. It was only after his senses finally seeped back in to him that he realized she was gone. He hoped that she had just vanished like those TV vampires do when they are staked, but he knew better. Sure there was blood and other grisly bits and pieces of her strewn all over his dash and shattered windshield but no body and certainly no silly pile of ashes.

“So you did not want me after all.” Her disembodied words slowly enveloped him like a stalking vapor. Each syllable seemed to drift toward him from a different direction. He tried to jerk himself free of the darkness but it held him fast, no not the darkness, his seat belt.

“No matter, I still want you.” She sweetly hissed from somewhere outside the crumpled cock sided up ended car.

Stricken with terror he clawed at his left hip until his fingernails jammed and scratched against the plastic seat belt button that trapped him tight against the seat. A split second later, it spit him loose, sent him tumbling though the darkness, and slammed his right shoulder against the passenger door.

“Cornered,” the word exploded in his mind like a bomb, “gotta hold her off.” He trained his eyes on the shattered window gaping over him in spite of the fact he could barely see it or anything else. The car had only one headlight now and it was walled eye from the wreck. It pointed up and away from the ditch squandering its precious light on the black empty sky.

Frantically his fingers groped the floorboard for anything he might use a weapon. He knew she would come for him soon. The black night sky was not quite so black. Daylight was beginning to burn through. Maybe she would simply run for cover. That would be the smart thing to do. However, he was sure she was much too arrogant and hungry to do the smart thing.

Suddenly his right index finger stumbled over something thick and heavy-a piece of wood, no. It was a book Then he remembered the day his finance’ died of cancer he had almost thrown it out the window as he drove home from the hospital for the last time. How could he have let her die? Why did he do it? What had she ever done to him? Why was she less deserving of life than some criminal or child molester? How could he ever trust God again?

He still did not know why he shoved it under his seat instead of chucking it out the window right along with his worn out faith. Maybe he didn’t want get ticketed for littering or maybe he thought that old black book might yet come in handy some day or some night. He clamped his hand around it, snatched it out and held it up in front of him like a shield.

“Come and get it lady!” He yelled into the dark,” prove to me once and for all that he’s not really there!”

“Lady,” she thought, amused by his stubborn manners as she crept up from the ditch, clawing at the dirt and grass with one hand while pressing a dangling piece of her face up against her exposed cheek bone with the other.

At first, he did not see her, so much like a lizard was her cautious approach. However, her eyes burning bright red now with thirst and rage swaying back and forth as they danced in the dark like hellish fireflies soon devoured his attention.

He lowered his Bible clenched his jaw and waited, cold and calm, for what he knew was about to happen. Seconds later forked tongues of flame literally shot from her eyes as she lunged through the snaggletooth windshield straight at his throat.

He flung the Bible up opening it wide as he caught her face in it and slammed it shut around her head. Blinding sparks and strange orange tongues of fire and red smoke boiled and spewed from he writhing body as he crushed the precious book harder and harder together. She cursed and shrieked clawed and kicked and almost broke free. Nevertheless, he was not about to let her go.

Suddenly he felt his body being lifted up and dragged forward as her hook like fingers dug furrows into his forearms and dragged him out of the car. Still he clung tight to his prey knowing even the slightest lapse on his part would mean his life.

Broken glass ripped through his pants legs and plowed opens his thighs. Pain like rivers of acid burned and raced through his trembling bloodied body but did not break his grip. It did however distract him. His back was turned he did not see the bright yellow hump swelling like blister on the eastern horizon. She of course could not see it either however; she could surely feel it eating her now putrid undead flesh from her quickly ageing crumbling
bones.

Thad was almost knocked off his feet as her ancient dieing body writhed and flayed about wildly like an epileptic scarecrow. A second later he was forced to look away as bile and filth erupted from the top of her ruptured skull turning it into a miniature volcano of filth. The Bible suddenly slammed completely shut. Her head was gone. Decapitated and finally harmless her body dropped to the ground like a dry rotted curtain and crumbled to a heap of ash
and dust at his feet. He dropped too but only to his knees.

He was still on his knees when a patrol officer pulled up beside him and asked him the world’s dumbest question considering the fact that he was practically glued to the grassy ditch bank by his own blood; "Are you all right?”

Thad looked up and smiled. “Oh yeah, just thankin’ God, I’ll be through in a minute, no make that a life time.”

The End