The Flesh and Blood

10 ~ The End

This is the story of how I died...

It had been a few weeks since the events in London and Dracula and I were now living happily back in my old family home on the hill. Now Dracula knew the sunlight couldn't hurt him, we were free to take long daytime strolls on the beach and soon the questions began. Living in a small village means everybody knows everyone and no one can keep a secret for long. My relationship with the mysterious stranger became the hot news on everyone's lips.

"How did you two meet?"

"Where is he from?"

"Will we be hearing wedding bells soon..?"

I'm sure people were coming to the cafe just to find out all the details. I'd had to think fast to come up with a cute, romantic story of how we met. It's not like I could tell them the truth:

He knew my great great grandmother, stalked me for a while because I look like her and then threatened to kill me. Oh yeah, and he's a 500 year old vampire that survives by drinking human blood - somehow I don't think that would go down well.

Speaking of blood, Dracula's "lawyer" Renfield had come up with a brilliant solution. He'd decided to move to the village with us when we left London, found his own place to live and managed to get a job as a porter at the nearest hospital. At the end of every shift he'd steal a few bags of fresh donated blood and bring them to us. At first Dracula wasn't happy about not being able to choose who his blood came from, but he also realized it wasn't acceptable to go around drinking blood straight from the bodies of the villagers. He couldn't afford to picky.

Everything felt perfect, for a while... But when villagers started disappearing things took a turn.

"Have you heard?" Maggie asked as we got ready to open up the cafe one morning "Nigel's gone now too. That's the seventh missing person in less than two weeks!"

"That's awful" I say, tying my apron around my waist.

"Look Bella... I hate to ask but..." Maggie hesitates

"No" I already know where she's going with this.

"Are you sure?"

"It's not him. He doesn't need to hurt people anymore."

"Needing to and wanting to are different things."

"Maggie!"

"I'm just saying, he's a vampire Bella. It's his nature. You can't put a lion in with a herd of gazelle and expect him not to feast."

"It's not him!" I snap "So just leave it, alright?"

Maggie reluctantly stands down, agreeing not to bring it up again before heading back to the kitchen. As I continued preparing to open up the cafe, I couldn't help but let Maggie's words plant a seed of doubt in my head. Deep down I know she's right. Expecting a vampire to control his natural urges is a big ask. What if he is the one responsible?

I try my best to shake the thoughts out of my head and get on with my day.

🩸☠️🖤

As I walked home late that evening, I found myself once again wondering if the man responsible for all those missing people could actually be the man I had let into my life. As soon as I walked through the front door I was greeted by his charming smile, but as he planted a kiss on my cheek he could sense something wasn't right.

"What's wrong? You seem tense." he asks, watching me intensely as I remove my coat and hang it up on the hook.

"It's just been one of those days" I shrug as he leads me to the sofa and sits with me "Someone else went missing last night"