Gore: Winterwidow

Chapter 2: Stripe

James fell back onto his black mattress with a heavy sigh. He had promised himself he wouldn't feed tonight, but that girl had asked for it. He sniffed and detected a bloodstain on his shirt, which he lapped at like a freaking dog. So this is what society was shaping him into. Some animal begging for table-scraps.

Yes, it still tasted just as bad, and with his naturally enhanced sensory abilities he could also taste the fibers of the fabric on his shirt which made him gag and he laid back to stare up at the ceiling with an exhausted groan. His stomach was unsatisfied which only made the vampire more pissed. He was pissed and starving, and those two were definitely not a good combination.

Time passed as he stared up blankly at the ceiling. The current time was one in the morning, and the vampire was tired- yes, vampires DO sleep, so what the hell with all the "they don't sleep" hype? They just don't need as much sleep as humans do. About 3-5 hours is sufficient for any of them, then they were free to do as they wished. So what if they were freaks? They were just as equal to regular people, right? Wrong.

And it wasn't like there couldn't be interbreeding as well. James had encountered other female vampires- it wasn't like he was at all attracted to the others. As far as he was concerned, all of them were going to hell anyways. No vampire was thought to have a soul of their own, and James believed it. Why would some monster like him deserve a soul anyways?

He was a bastard and he knew it. Sure he couldn't care less about the human race, or his own for that matter. Life seemed to be bleeding into one eternal night for him. Meaning and happiness were fantasies that he could only ever imagine. Living for so long made him wonder about humans more, though, no matter how much he didn't want to admit it. Since they didn't have as much time as he did, they had to get as much as they could out of their minuscule lives as they could.

Around the 1940's, his parents had been taken by the Nazis to help fight on their side since they were vampires, and vampires are virtually indestructible. They weren't idiots, though, and they fought until the other side's new recruits took them and, well, James didn't like to think about what happened to them in the end...

He hated that humans had made up all these fake facts about his race, like that they were indestructible, feelingless monsters who skulk around in the shadows and will destroy anything they touch. It's not like they lived forever anyways!

That was by far the worst prejudice that James had ever heard. It was ridiculous and he wished he could go back in time and snap the neck of whatever imbecile made that up. Vampires started off as babies, if conceived by vampire parents of course, and as they grow their aging rate slows to almost nonexistent. James was in his early twenties in human years as far as he knew, but he was sure he was born and raised sometime during the 1700's. That being said, James knew a thing or two about the world. That it was nothing to him.

The brunette sighed heavily and pulled off his shirt to get more comfortable. He rolled onto his side and his lashes fluttered slightly. He wasn't really feeling that well after that disgusting blood, but he was tired so he closed his crimson eyes and wished he had a longer sleeping span so he could just sleep some of the dragging hours of the day.

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Early in the morning, James woke up, feeling like he was well rested. Not that it made his life any easier. The young vampire yawned deeply and sat up, scratching his bare chest and gazing out into his dark room blankly. It was just five in the morning, so his work wouldn't start for another couple hours.

James rolled out of bed and grumbled as he went to go freshen himself up for another "exciting" day at work. He was the receptionist for a large office company- it seemed like they were getting new people each week. With rapid growth the vampire saw a lot of new faces, some pretty some not. Didn't matter to him though. It was as if he was living in black and white.

Everyone knew what he was and stayed away from him- well, aside from this dumb blonde, who apparently thought they were friends. What was his name again? Agh, it was so exhausting to remember names when you've lived lifetimes. What's one friend when you'd just outlive them all?

He didn't quite understand why he was bugged by this blonde moron. Maybe the fact that he thought they were friends or something. He talked nonstop about whatever, like James cared. He would constantly invite him to lunch outs with other office members but when the crimson-eyed man would flicker his gaze to the others, they would all be turning their heads away quickly. He growled at the thought of those mindless humans.

After he'd eaten bland, rather sickening human food- again, not just blood here!- the brunette was ready for yet another day at his work. It wasn't even that much of a job for him. Basically all he did was sit there and look pretty. That WAS why he was hired for receptionist anyways. His looks. His devastating looks. Why else would any wise humans ever hire a vampire in a public place? He did notice how all the desks and cubicles had migrated away from his own as soon as he started there. Still, didn't care.

James sighed heavily as he grabbed his briefcase and headed downstairs to the street and hailed a cab. None stopped for him, even though his sharp sight could see clearly through the tinted windows that there were no passengers. James huffed, having more of a haughty expression as he had to walk the fifteen blocks to his work, but it wasn't unusual. The cab drivers who DID stop for him usually dropped him short of his building or refused him as soon as he opened the door.

When James finally reached the building, he dragged his feet as he went up to his floor and sat down at his desk. He saw he had a couple memos waiting for him so he reached out to take them when his senses warned him that the blonde had noticed his arrival and he growled under his breath as he bounded up to him enthusiastically.

"Morning, Barnes!" he grinned as he leaned on his hands that clutched the edge of James's desk. The vampire rolled his eyes and didn't acknowledge him, much to the blonde's encouragement. "Somebody wake up on the wrong side of the bed today?"

James glanced at the blonde's name tag and mentally slapped his forehead. Steve! That was this semplton's name! It just annoyed the brunette a whole lot more. Anyone named Steve was just bound to piss him off. Steve Rogers. Ugh.

"You could say..." he sighed and started to fax some pages over to the brunette woman who sat at the cubicle nearest him.

Steve glanced down at him and smirked slightly. "Hey, you should totally ask out Lanna. She's had the eyes for you for weeks."

James slowly looked up at him with incredulous crimson eyes and turned his head to where Steve inconspicuously pointed. The woman that he was singling out blushed and smiled as she noticed James looking at her and tucked her raven hair behind her ear, adjusting her glasses slightly. James looked back to Steve who grinned stupidly and raised his eyebrows up and down. What was wrong with him?

"Are you serious? Do you WANT to put her in harm's way?" he said with a scowl and looked back to Steve whose face fell. "Why would you set up ANYONE with a monster?"

Steve turned a little red himself and looked abashed, standing away from the desk slightly. "I-I just wanted to show you that you should be treated just like the rest of us... none of us think you're a monster, James..."

The vampire let out a harsh laugh and made several heads turn. It was melodious, but coarse. "Oh really? I highly, HIGHLY disagree with you, Rogers. Everyone here thinks I'm a monster. And rightfully so, because I'm NOT like the rest of you, nor would I ever want to be. I rather like not being a part of a mindless race who focuses on how large their chests and butts are, or how many likes they get on their social media. I have a larger mind capacity to care about the things that really matter, and that only being myself. You should try the same as well."

With that, the brunette pushed himself away on his office chair to the other side of the table to resume sending faxes to other members of the office, leaving Steve standing with his mouth partially open.