Vampire Beneficence

Part 1

From an original idea by Luxmi Kiran

Note from the Author: Originally submitted for publishing in the Daily Express by my boss and the Chief Editor, David Shief, in September 2012, after an interview David did with a rather tall, suave looking gentleman, elegantly dressed with jet-black hair. It was withdrawn after David suddenly died of a heart attack the day before publishing. I was freelancing for the Daily Express at the time as a journalist and editor and worked on the copy for David. I tried to publish a week later but found that no copy still existed – except one on my iPad.

***

“Do you remember news reports of a red-haired, baby girl’s head found floating in the Thames near Canary Wharf at the end of 2011?  The body must, alas, have long ago floated out through the Thames Barrier and out into the English Channel. Who knows on what distant shore it will wash up, if a shark doesn’t get it first. Too small, d’you see?

“I can tell you how that darling little head came to be there. You see, that is probably the only beneficence that can be bestowed on me, the only justice I can expect.

“On a warm evening at the end of the 2010 summer, I was stalking the Vicar of St James Church in Clerkenwell. I am what is commonly called a vampire, d’you see...?

“Let me get one thing straight, though. We have been around forever. Homo Sapiens wouldn’t be Homo Sapiens without us. We are the more evolved manifestation of the species. I know all this because I was once a writer and I have spent many lifetimes researching the subject. I have even visited the far-past… but that is another story…

“I was lurking in the shadows beneath the trees in Clerkenwell Close at about 10 pm when the present Vicar stepped out of the Church and locked the doors. It was a fine evening, inky black in the shadows, cool, midnight blue in the sky apart from an exquisite halo around the full moon. The Vicar, quite understandably, stood there for a few moments, enjoying the sounds and smells of a summer evening. I too listened to a moment to the whispering of the trees in the gentle waft of air that flickered around my face. I cannot smell earthly smells as well as the Vicar could but the resinous smell of the pine behind me was divine.

“The tall, elegant man in a dark suit at the top of the stone steps, descended and walked towards me. I stepped out of the shadows.

‘You! I… I wasn’t expecting you…’ he exclaimed, stopped in his tracks.

‘I wanted to talk to you. Let’s go somewhere quiet.’

‘Yes. It’s not safe here. We can sit in my car.’

‘You have a car? Hm! How times change!’

‘I have been told you are warming to our idea?’ I asked cautiously, once he had closed the door of his gleaming white car.

‘Yes. I have thought about it a lot. I would need something from you, though… for it to work, in my view.’

‘What is that?’

‘A large supply of…manna. Can you get it? If you can… regularly… enough for the Church’s use, I would be on-board.’

I smiled at the nautical term. I delight in such linguistic niceties. ‘Perhaps. Perhaps, yes! When would you want the first… delivery?’

‘Before Sunday? Early Sunday morning would be best. Fresh!’

‘Very well. Sunday it is.’ I noticed a photograph of an attractive, natural red-haired girl stuck to the dashboard. ‘Yours?’ He nodded.

‘Sad’ I thought.

                                                                                 ***

What do you think? Do you like my vampire? Don't worry, you will find out later that a female vampire has him wrapped around her little finger. I will add more later

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