Not Another Vampire Story

Chapter 1

I hate blood.

          It’s such an ugly thing.  Nothing should be so red.  As a child, the slightest drop of blood would put me in a tizzy.  Why should the liquid be out of the body?  It belongs in your veins.

Not in a syringe.

Not on the floor.

          Not guzzled down a throat.

          How could I have ever thought before that I could join the military?  I could never kill someone.  I could never end a life.

          But times change.

          Desperate times call for desperate measures.

          I’ve killed before. 

         It isn’t pretty.  There are 10 pints of blood in the human body.  That’s 1 ½ gallons. 

         Why do we need it?

          A disgusting liquid that I want nothing to do with.

          But I don’t seem to have a choice anymore.

 _______________________________________________________________________________

          "So where to princess?"

           I tossed the map to Mikayla in the car seat next to me. We were in the Firebird (Or Alice, as we car-inthusiast-douche bags enjoy naming them)  I pulled down the mirror to check my eyes.

          I was a handsome boy, I suppose. I had shaggy black hair swept to the left of my head. I had silver eyes, a by-product of the venom that turned us. They shone like two full moons in the night sky. I had slight bags under them, from my lack of sleep. (Yes, vampires need sleep too.) My pale white face was splashed with freckles. I smirked as Mikayla gasped.

          "How about we go back to New York?" she said excitedly.

          "Come on," I groaned. “Why?”

          "I wanted to see our old house...  Maybe people are living there now." She looked down and I sighed.   I’ve tried to avoid the state for as long as possible.

          Mikayla looked back up at me with a smile. "Plus, there's Coney Island," she laughed.

          Mikayla was a pretty 12 year old, who barely looked like me.  She had light blonde hair like our mother, and used to have brown eyes like our dad.  She wore a pink headband and a jean jacket.  She had pale skin too, and big ears I always made fun of.

          “I guess I’m up for some roller coasters.”

          Mikayla grinned widely and gave me a huge hug.

          “Alright,” I said. “Alright!  Don’t go soft on me.”

          She let go quickly and pumped her fist. “Thanks Jake!”

          “Alright,” I said with a sheepish smile. “But we’re gonna need to eat dinner first.”

                                                                                     ***

          The bodies dropped, with a hard thud! on the ground.

          I wiped my bloody lips with the back of my hand and sighed.  Disgusting.

          Not just because it was freaking blood, but also because of whom we drank from.  We jumped them in an alley at the side of bar.  Their blood reeked of drugs and alcohol.  Not to mention these guys from Ohio’s blood tastes remotely like bacon.

          Done gagging?

          Good.

          We chose to only drink from the dregs and outcasts like these two.

          And no, they’re not dead.  We only take no more than a pint per person.  It’s like donating blood.

          We basically knock them out with our bat, cut part of their shoulder, and suck.  We watch ourselves so we don't kill them from blood loss.

          I spit a bloody lump on the ground. “Heroin,” I gagged.

          “Blech.” Mikayla dropped her’s.  I was drinking from a sleezy looking guy, with greasy hair.  Mikayla had a poorly-dressed girl, most likely a prostitute.  They’d wake up soon in the gutter, a lump on their heads, a cut on their necks, another crazy night in Ohio.

          After that, we visited a gas station to wash up.  The clerks didn’t notice the blood our lips as we walked past.  They were too busy reading a newspaper article.  We cleaned ourselves in the bathroom and later bought a Dr. Pepper and Reese’s for me, water and a Hershey’s for Mikayla.  Our usual reward after feeding.

          We sighed as we exited the store.  I’d also bought a newspaper, like the others were reading.  I snuck a look at the title.

                                           New York Death Toll Rises,

                                                  Military Stationed



          My brow furrowed.  We were headed there… But it was probably nothing… Stuff like this happened everyday.

          But the military....?

          Soon we made it back to Alice and hopped inside.  Mikayla had inhaled her chocolate bar in a minute.  Maybe not a good idea, because she was shaking from all the sugar.  She would pop like a balloon soon.

          I took another swig of Dr. Pepper to wash the taste out of my mouth.  It really was disgusting.  I took a look at the girl next to me and sighed.

          “You ready to go?” I asked.

          She shook her head rapidly. “Hell yeah,” she said.

          I slapped her arm and drove off.

          We made it 5 miles before we saw the flash of the police siren.