Charlie

 Charlie suddenly sat up with a start. She was in a white room. A thin white sheet covered her from her neck to her feet.  She tried to sit up but a sharp throbbed in her neck and she groaned as she laid back down. She looked around. The wall on her left was made up of a dozens of shiny metal cabinets. On the right was a door that lead to an office which could see through the wall's window. Charlie gasped as she realized where she was.

She unzipped the rest of the body bag and found herself without any clothes. She looked over at the connecting office and saw an open laptop, a coffee mug and a large lab white coat hanging on the back of chair. She swung her legs around and she found herself sitting on a silver table. She hopped down but her legs gave out from under her. The tiles under her were an ugly green and she could see tiny cracks and specks of dust in the shape of shoe prints. She shook her head.

C'mon Charlie, she told herself, thankful that she remembered her name. Have to get out of here and find out how I ended up here.

She got to her feet and held onto the table until her legs stopped shaking. She'd made her way into the office when she remembered something. She'd read somewhere that morgues were supposed to be cold...but she didn't feel anything. Now that she thought about it, her skin felt tighter, and her caramel complexion had paled. When she stepped into the office, he could suddenly smell the faint lavender perfume from the lab jacket, old leather covers of some books on the office's desk, the bacon that she couldn't see but suspected that someone had had, and the lemon and jasmine of the tea in the coffee mug.

Charlie stared at the cup of tea. There was something familiar about it. She massaged her temples with her fingers. How did she end up in a morgue? Then the memory hit her.

She remembered a warm, brightly lit jazz club, a hot cup of lemon-jasmine tea, and soft music. She remembered feeling settled on a soft brown couch and tapping her foot against the couch's leg. And the man. She remembered a man. He was tall and lean with dreadlocks and mocha colored skin wearing jeans and a leather jacket.

The man sat beside her quietly. He watched the band, but Charlie knew his smile was meant for her. Charlie blushed in spite of herself. Then when he looked her in the eye...something came over her. At the smell of his cologne, a tantalizing combination of roses and leather, her heart sped up and she found herself sweating. The man got up and walked towards the door. Then, right before he exited, he turned and those brown eyes winked at her.

Charlie's limbs moved before she realized what was going on. She was suddenly on her feet, ripping off her glasses, letting her brown hair fall down to her shoulders. The man hadn't gone far and she followed him. The man took his time walking but she felt like she couldn't keep up with him. He turned a corner.

No sooner had she made the turn, the man snapped in her direction, seized her and kissed her. That's when everything went wrong. The man's cologne suddenly vanished and Charlie wanted to recoil at the man's taste: sweet, but sharp and metallic. The man allowed her to break the kiss but she couldn't escape his iron grip.  Then Charlie's blood chilled when the man's pupils slowly turned from a soft brown to red orange...with a large black slit in the middle. Charlie remembered wanting to scream but her voice caught. She knew that she was in danger. The man smiled and nodded as if in agreement. Then he moved. Pain seared Charlie's neck and her world went black.

+++++

Charlie screamed and fell to her knees, clutching her neck and choking on her breaths.

"Oh my God, he killed me?!" she gasped tearfully. "Oh my God!"

Then she heard movement. Two pairs of feet were getting closer and closer. Charlie quickly wiped her face, grabbed the lab coat and tied it around her before ducking behind the desk. Then she caught scents. A heavier smell of lavender perfume, cheap cologne and above that, she smelled something new. It was coppery and metallic and it made her mouth water. Next, came the voices.

"Her throat was ripped out," a woman's voice said. "She was dead when the EMTs arrived."

Charlie backed away from the door and touched her neck. Nothing was missing. The pain was still there, and it came from a patch of raw skin with four small bumps in the very center. Charlie blinked. The new metallic scent was getting stronger as the footsteps got closer. It took her a minute to register a mild discomfort in her mouth. 

The morgue's door opened and Charlie stepped from behind the desk, hopeful the voices would help her. The woman in green scrubs gasped and dropped her notepad. The word DECEASED was written in red at the top. Beside her was a man dressed in blue scrubs. He jumped back and pointed.

"S-She looks alive to me," he stammered.

"No," the woman took a step back. "She was-"

She looked behind Charlie at the examination table. Then she turned to Charlie with disbelief.

"Sweetie," the woman said slowly. "How?"

Charlie shook her head and took a step forward. She tripped over herself but the woman sprinted towards her to stop her from hitting the floor. 

"I don't know," Charlie admitted. "Hungry."

The woman turned to the man in the scrubs. "There's a vending machine two floors up."

The man hesitated. "Maybe we should call the police first."

"Why?" the woman snapped. "To frighten this girl even more? We can get answers later, right now, she needs to eat."

Suddenly, something clicked in Charlie's head. Time slowed. The metallic scent was overwhelming now. Charlie looked at the woman and her eyes went to her neck. Eat.

Charlie lunged at the woman and sank her newfound fangs into the woman's neck. Sweet, coppery liquid filled her mouth. Charlie pinned the woman to the wall and bit down as she hard as she could. She could feel the woman trying to grab at her and push her away but they felt like soft nudges. 

Charlie felt something on her shoulder and flicked her arm back. She hit something but her focus was this new meal. Charlie released when the flow had stopped. The woman dropped to the floor. Her eyes had glazed over, Charlie could almost see through her skin and her veins looked like dark veins crawling through her skin. Charlie looked at her shoulder and saw scissor handles sticking out of them. 

The man had been knocked to the other side of the room. His arm dangled uselessly from his shoulder. He looked Charlie with absolute terror. Charlie pulled the scissors out and felt neither pain nor blood. The man began to cry in horror as the Charlie stalked towards him.

 "Please," he begged. He tried to stand but Charlie opened her mouth and lunged.

+++++

When Charlie looked up from the man, she saw her reflection in the metal cabinets and screamed. Her hair and mouth were caked with red. Her lab coat was soaked. The momentary rush had subsided and Charlie was left with the carnage she'd wrought. As she fell to her knees, she covered her mouth and began to cry.

I was just hungry, she told herself. I didn't want to do this. 

Her eyes drifted to the body of the woman. She'd tried to help her. Then she looked at the man laying still beside her, with a chunk of his throat missing. She had to get out of there, away from all of this death. 

"I'm sorry," she whispered. 

Then she moved faster than she ever had. She sprinted out of the morgue, then out of the building. But she knew she'd never move fast enough to forget the image of blood she'd spilled.