Tales of Blood Clot Cafe

Standing Sentry

The entrance would have been remarkably unremarkable if it weren't for the imposing figure standing sentry by the door. Of course, a cafe for the undead, and by the undead, needed to stay relatively hidden from the world of the living. Even if said hiding spot was right in the middle of the metropolitan jungle.

And that's where the sentries come in, standing guard outside.  One for the day and one for the night. And for now the dayguard stood outside, stiff as a statue or, should we say, a corpse. His eyes were dark and lifeless, slightly obscured by the slip of paper hanging over his face. His hair, wild and white beneath the cap. Silently, in the shadow of the surrounding buildings, he was but a corpse waiting for sunset.

Or at least until the other guard comes in for the night shift.  

The guard only continued to stare blankly in front of him, even with the approach of a stranger. Now this stranger was no vampire, she had spirit in her eyes and blood in her veins.

And life.

She had life.

She looked up at the guarded metal door and then at a creased slip of paper in a work worn hand. An address was scrawled onto it. She looked up again.

She approached the guard, cautiously. Her free hand went over a pouch on the bag slung over her shoulder. She wasn't unarmed.

The entrance to the cafe was located in a rather desolate place, it was practically a back alley. But this woman was no stranger to back alleys.

She was an investigator.

She had been places and she had dealt with many a person. But she had never dealt with a corpse.

She didn't even know he was a corpse. Sure he stunk but she didn't pinpoint the rotten odour to be from the figure himself. It was only  when she was within a foot of him that she noticed.

His skin was moulded over. His hands bore long curved talons barely hidden by overly long jacket sleeves. His eyes stared lifelessly.

Right back at her.  

In a sudden movement, clawed arms rose. The woman jerked back. It was by instinct that she  reached into her bag. She pulled out her gun.

Open mouthed, the corpse lunged.

And what happened next barely took half a minute.

Finger on the trigger. Tongue wrapped around her neck. Strength drained from her body. Hands fell limp by her sides. Gun on the ground.

Goodbye Miss Investigator.

- - -

Another pair of footsteps arrived at the back alley. They stopped before the grotesque (but not unusual) scene of an undead clumsily trying to hold up the limp corpse in its arms, 3-feet long tongue still firmly wrapped around the neck.

"Ahem"

No reply.

"Hello?" The new arrival bent down and waved a hand before the eyes of the animate corpse. "Anyone home?"

Apparently, someone was indeed at home. And that someone was not happy about being bothered during their meal. The inhumanely long tongue unwound from its victims neck and in a blink of the eye was flying at the intruder's face as the undead turned around.

There was a wet splap as the tongue slapped into a familiar face. It was the nightguard. Oh, of course it was. The dayguard's shift was over.

"Eugh!" The vampire nightguard roughly smacked the tongue out of her face, now scrunched in annoyance. "Why must you do this every time?"

The nightguard could have sworn she'd spotted the edges of her colleague's lips turn upwards. A smile? A grimace? Hard to tell with jiangshis, really. The vampire just gave the corpse a stern look.

"Ugh. Whatever, let's just get your ass back into your coffin," the nightguard turned away to unlock the entrance door. A low rasping wheeze behind her caught her attention. She looked behind her. "What is it now, Zhang?"

The jiangshi was now trying to drag its prey towards the entrance, despite not being able to bend his rigor mortis stiffened arms. He wheezed again as he tried to hurl the lifeless corpse at his colleague's feet.

"Yeah, yeah. I'll get to it later," the vampire replied, "Thanks."

Different types of undead have different diets. Vampires drank blood. Zombies ate flesh. And Jiangshi? They fed off qi (or 'life energy' if you will). This worked out for the two guards. A body drained of life still contained blood. And after the two were done draining the body dry, they would throw it down into the sewers for the shambling bodies trapped down there.

Nothing shall go to waste. And the only evidence remaining would be whatever items the victim had dropped. The vampire picked up the gun and shoulder bag laying on the ground. She would examine them later.

For now, a quick snack wouldn't hurt.

[Authors note]
hi again! i hope this one was alright as well, i was a bit nervous about introducing jiangshi into the mix tbh! they don't seem to be all that popular these days ....especially in western circles...

again , thanks for reading !  votes and comments would be appreciated