Phantom touch

you were shivering in your sleep. it was the dead of winter and your cottage was drafty, even with a fire lit in the hearth.you had grown accustomed to the cold nights alone ever since your parents died from the plague back in 1802, leaving behind just their loving daughter and an old cottage.

the townsfolk labeled you as the local spinster, though you didn't mind much.. there was truth in the name. marriage was something you had no interest in. you had everything you needed thanks to your parents. their death was still too painful to really think about, but you deeply wished that they could've had more time together.. you had never seen love as deep and true as theirs.

you knew you would never find an all encompassing love like the kind your parents shared, it was too rare.
you never spared a glance at any of the men in town and declined any proposal of courtship. there was nothing wrong with the town's men, but you'd rather be alone in comfort than be in a mediocre marriage.

you never knew that you had caught the eye of the phantom of the ackerman manor.

he was no real ghost, though everyone in the land had named him as such, having passed down tales of the vicious blood sucker that lived in the old property on top of the hill.

he haunted the halls of ackerman manor for centuries, having grown tired of the boring existence of eternal life, that was until you caught his eye.
you consumed his every thought since that monumental day.

levi had just dismissed his butler after they brought him his daily glass of blood.
before he could take a sip, he quickly moved to the giant arched window when he took notice of a young woman walking across his land.

what a foolish girl. he thought.
is she not afraid?
hasn't she been warned not to go near the 'fearsome ackerman manor'?
had she not been warned that the bloodsucking ghoul had a habit of ravishing young girls just like her while draining them of their blood in the process?
                               —-——
from that moment on, levi decided he had to know this gallant young lady...intimately.
ever since that day levi felt the undying need to watch you from afar. he took on the role of voyeur, and the silent protector.

he was the crow at your window every morning, and the vampire standing in your bedroom every night.
levi would watch you in your peaceful slumber every evening.

you wore that same tantalizing chemise every night, and every night levi fought against his natural urges just seeing the delicate flesh of your neck being so exposed in the moonlight shining through the curtains.

it was this night that levi noticed you shivering under the covers after the fire in the hearth began to extinguish.
levi stood, still observing.
he knew that he wanted you in every way possible....yes, he knew that he wanted to ravish that beautiful cunt of yours, while drawing blood from the crook of your neck as his name rolled off your tongue in pure ecstasy.

but what was this emotion that you were unknowingly drawing out of him now?
without another thought levi walked over to the hearth, and stoked up the fire while placing fresh logs on top.

the room began to heat up once more, and your body finally stopped its shaking.
levi made his way back to your side.
he almost laughed at how this sleeping beauty who lay before him, was able to survive in this world before he came along.
                               ————
it was another cold & grey day. the clouds above were gathered together tightly, only letting in the smallest pieces of sunlight.
the wind seemed to blow straight through your old winter coat as you made your way into town.

you knew you needed to purchase more firewood, you noticed this morning that you had let it run too low.
i could have sworn that i had plenty of logs just yesterday.