Unfurled

The year is 2004 and you seem surprised to see me. It shouldn't shock you that I stand here, waiting, ever so patiently, for you to die. You see, I drained you. Rest assured, you shall die. It's only a matter of time. But you brought this upon yourself. Don't you remember? Then who cares for I shall not waste time telling you tales to put you at ease. Your blood was mighty tasty, by the way.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The streets are dark as Erick moves through them. Of course, he relishes the dark. What else is there but the dark? Death, decay, deceit and hatred, he has known them all for they make up his soul.

He runs his fingers through his blond hair and thinks of the young man he had killed earlier. The fool had sought Erick out, begged to be changed, to become a vampire. He had bought into the Hollywood version.

Erick actually chuckles as he thinks of how long it took the lad to die. Erick looks out across the darkened streets and sees another victim.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ellen presses against the wall as Susan dies in the arms of a devishly handsome man. Ellen shrinks into the shadows, reassured by their darkness, and stares in mute horror.

She had read tales about vampires ever since she was twelve. Now, she was deathly afraid. She no longer relished the dark seductive nature of the undead, no longer wished she could become one. She finally understood why her mother had burned her books.

He drops Susan's body to the ground and smiles a bloody smile that lodges itself in Ellen's memory. She knows that she will dream of that smile for the rest of her life.

"Who says you shall have a 'rest of your life', lovely?" The man asks and Ellen is suddenly aware that she wasn't only watching, she was being watched.

"Please, spare me." Ellen murmured.

"Why?" He moves closer and Ellen moves to flee. His hand closes around her arm as his fangs slip through her skin.

Even as her life fades, she recalls all the tales of a vampire bite being untold ecstacy. All she feels is pain.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Erick sits in his darkened parlor and stares at the black wall. Light and dark, life and death. Mortals are food, merely that. Years ago, in desperate boredom, Erick watched a vampire movie.

He laughed throughout the movie, laughed in the darkened theater and dined on the viewers on either side of him.

Some vampire goddess had risen and was wrecking havoc in modern day times. She was easily destroyed by her 'children', but not before she set quite a few ablaze from within.

Good effects but false story. How little the humans knew of vampires and their cold nature made Erick smile. If a vampire goddess truly rose, Erick and all others would be very happy to see the downfall of mankind.

Now, as he sits in the dark, Erick wishes there were a vampire goddess he could serve. At least then all mortals would bow, as they should, before the greatest creatures of the earth.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dusty tips his hat in cowboy fashion and clicks the heels of his boots together. He then smiles, showing his even teeth and his slightly enlongated fangs.

"Well done." Marra smiles then, showing her fangs as well. "I'd lose the cowboy garb though." She adds.

"Dang it, Marra! I was a cowboy when I was changed." Dusty tosses the cowboy hat aside.

"And I was a stripper." Marra looks down at her long black gothic dress and reaches her hand up the caress the choker at her neck.

"Yes, all right, I get it." Dusty growls as he struggles with his boots.

"Do you? I don't think you do. Next week you'll be back in your cowboy garb and we'll have this conversation all over again." Marra says.

"Maybe." Dusty replies with his thick Texan drawl.

"You make yourself a potential victim, clinging to your past like that." Marra replies as Dusty stands and slides out of his jeans.

"Potential victim?" Dusty laughs as he moves forward and lifts Marra's dress, revealing her slender white legs and, oh, so much more.

"There's that vampire, Erick, that kills weak vampires." Marra says as she shifts slightly to better accept Dusty.

"I'm not worried." He says as he thrusts into her.

"I can tell." Marra murmurs as she takes him fully into her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dusty writhes against Erick, trying desperately to break free and failing. His boots dangle six inches above the ground, his hat lays upturned upon the dirt. Erick kills him quickly.

It is foolish to cling to any hope of living as a human, all vampires know that. Those that don't, die. Erick looks at Marra who shrugs.

"I told him those boots would kill him." She says.

"I killed him because of the hat." Erick says as he advances.

"A sense of humor? I didn't know you had one." Marra says with a smile.

"I don't." Erick replies as he falls upon her, killing her far quicker than Dusty, for she didn't see it coming.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Erick sits upon the rooftop at midday, staring out at the city. Marra had been powerful, he realized, much too late but oh well. So he had killed his goddess.

Erick smiles as he thinks of the powers imparted to him through her blood. The ability to be in sunlight, the ability to fly.

"There's a new god in town." Erick says with a laugh as he looks down at the corpses strewn about the streets. "Prepare to bow before me."