Cursed Souls Blood, Brains & Rock'n'roll

Chapter 15 When all doors are open

Alan was happy.

Such a sudden surge of endorphin in his organism wasn't caused by the fact that Alan had taken Alice's hatchback from the car service and was driving it at the moment. Maybe someone enjoys the feeling of power over a metal monster with the weight of a couple of tons, but not Alan. He was indifferent to driving, and thought that there was no point in driving if someone else could do it for you. For example, in his case, that someone was Alice, who from time to time acted as Alan's driver.

The great music that was playing on the radio also wasn't the reason for Alan's cheerful mood. The car was driving through the streets of Springwood, spreading one of King's best songs through the city. After the night's storm, the weather had calmed down a bit, and sleepy clouds floated lazily in the sky. With a great desire, it was even possible to see the outline of the sun's disk. Alan felt as if the whole world wanted to share his happiness, without even trying to figure out why he was so happy.

So what was Alan's secret, and why did he have a meaningful smile on his face that looked so meaningful that it could have replaced a Rorschach test? Alan's joyful behavior was inextricably linked to the four mystical figures who were now in his apartment (in which he, out of the kindness of his heart, allows his sister to live). They were mystical because three of them were dead, but this sad characteristic of their health didn't prevent them from communicating, moving, going to work, paying bills, and finally living life to the fullest. The fourth person, though not dead, had a mystical tendency to change his quite standard by the standards of mankind look to something more egregious every full moon.

Alan considered the appearance of this, to put it mildly, strange quartet in his life as a kind of gift from fate, which in the last few years hadn't been very generous with him in matters related to gifts, and now apparently decided to make up for lost time, and with interest. Fate gave him a chance to rise one level higher on the food chain and gave him a choice of what form to take. As a vampire seducer? Or a powerful werewolf? Or perhaps as a... zombie?

Alan was daydreaming aloofly and at the same time seriously going through all the possible options, trying to find the best one.

Vampires for a start. What can they do? According to books, movies, and video games, a lot of things. Some of their abilities even contradict each other. But if you discard the often inappropriate additions of various creators of art to the image of the bloodsucking monster, what remains in the end? What's at the heart of it, so to speak? Vampires suck blood. It is an immutable truth, which can be argued only by vampires of some nations, who weren't satisfied with ordinary vampires, and in order to stand out, invented their own, which often don't even look like vampires. Alan wasn't familiar with such ideas about vampires, but somehow, he was sure that Simon wasn't one of them, but instead the standard vampire that people imagine when they hear the word vampire.

Alan tried to remember what else vampires could do besides sucking blood. They don't feel pain, except for wounds inflicted with silver weapons. So, a vampire stabbed with a silver fork isn't that fantastic. Vampires are also immortal, again, except when using a silver-plated fork. If a vampire doesn't mess with silver, he can live a very long time. At least longer than the average human. Vampires are also known as masters of hypnosis and seducers, which Alan believed solved absolutely all issues related to the opposite sex. And, of course, vampires are able to transform into bats and fog.

And most importantly, vampires are always irresistible looking. However, at this point, Alan had a question that somehow wasn't raised in the works about vampires that he knew. If a man is turned into a vampire, does he immediately become irresistible and attractive, or does he continue to look the same as when he was alive? Alan pulled away from the road and looked at his belly. The first option appealed to him more, but unfortunately, the second seemed more believable.