Ashes, Ashes. We All Fall Down

By: Gennipher Ella Patterson

From under my knee-high booted feet, I felt the loud base from the deafening techno music pulsed through the floor. Above me, multicolored laser beam lights zoomed around me and the other dancers with no pattern. I did my best to avoid colliding the with wild dancers on the floor as I slowly made my way across.

I slowly scanned the other people in the other room and watched each of them for a few seconds before looking elsewhere. I couldn’t help myself but trail my tongue over my protruding canine fangs at the top of my mouth before licking my lips.

I wasn’t here to mingle and have fun, I was here for a purpose. I had to find the right one and I had to do my purpose secretly without unwanted attention. I was hungry, I’ve been hungry for a while now and I couldn’t wait until I could feed. But I had to make sure I did this in the safety of a secluded place and leave no mess behind in my wake.

A lot of the people in here looked like what I was looking for; wild, wasted (drunk or drugged, I don’t know nor do I care) and too dumb to realize that they could be in danger. For a species that invented such wonderful machines, Humans can be so stupid and oblivious to what is around them.

Suddenly, I felt an arm wrap around my slim waist and pull backwards into a chest. I could’ve easily gotten out of the hold but I had to play my part, and I could have easily killed them. 

“I know what you are” the words were hardly heard over the pounding music but I heard them none the less. I felt my pulse race faster at the five words that were whispered into my ear but I forced my pulse to return to the pace it was once at before he could realize it. I turned myself around so I was face-to-face with the owner of the strong arm. I wouldn’t lie to myself and say that he was not attractive or that his eyes caught my interest. He was also the one I was looking for, the one I wanted.

“What are you talking about?” I breathed close to his perfect ear.

He turned his head a little towards mine so he spoke in my ear as well, “You’re thirsty. I can tell but you’re going to give yourself away”.

I couldn’t stop myself from spilling out, “What?” before I could think about it.

“You’re newly bitten, aren’t you?”

I blinked, a little taken aback before I nodded. He smiled at my answer, showing me is more mature fangs.

“Come on, I’ll show you how to be like me” he reassured me as I gently took my other wrist and guided me to a dark and secluded corner of the club.

“First rule of being a vampire” he began to recite like he was a scholar, “Is not to look at Humans as if they are food all the time. If a Human catches you staring at them in that way, they’ll automatically suspect”.

He went on and on about the rules of being a creature of the night, and I did not care one bit about them. I was hungry and I wanted to fix that.

I found out that his name was Antoine. As he spoke, he continuously ran his fingers through my raven black spiral curls that fell to my porcelain white shoulders; revealed by my thin strapped black mini dress that reached just above my kneecaps. I could tell he was enthralled with my eyes; an amazing combination of deep red tones coming out from black pupils edged by black once again--fledging eyes, since he couldn’t stop from looking away from them.

“Where are we supposed to bite them?” I asked, breaking off his tirade.

He smiled a wicked yet charming smile, “Here” as he lowered his had that was running through my locks to the smooth skin of my neck. I couldn't help but allow my lips to curl; he was infatuated with me. 

“And how do you get them to let you sink your fangs into them?”

“Have you ever heard that the eyes are the window to your soul, My Dear?”

I nodded.

“Vampires have a special ability that allow us to manipulate a Human mind. This allows us to get them to do or agree to anything we request. All you have to do is maintain eye contact with them for a few seconds. Of course, through my tutoring, you’ll be able to do it on your own quickly”.

“Show me? Please?” I beg as I jump a little in my seat with excitement.

“My pleasure, Little Fledging. You stay here and I’ll go get us a girl to feed from” he told me just before he got up and left me alone.

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It didn’t take long for him to get the dumb girl and return to me with the girl trailing behind with glassy eyes. Poor girl, she wouldn’t remember what she gotten herself into tonight.

“You can practice on her” the male vampire said once he made it back to my side, “We’ll have to go out in the back alley, it’s too open here”.

I got up from the seat I was sitting on and began following them out the back door of the club.

The back alley was dark and deserted but I didn’t care. I was too hungry, I just wanted to get this over with. From the corner of my eye, I saw Antoine position the Human against the opposite brick wall. The Human was under Antoine’s control to really know what we attended to do with her. Antoine was mainly focused on the Human as well, he must be hungry too.

This was good, he would never see what was coming next.

Antoine let out a painful yell as he staggered backwards and crashed into the alley’s only dumpster. He fell, clutching at the thing that was protruding from his chest as blood and ash leaked from every opening in his undead body. The Human girl screamed at the sight before she ran off: the spell she was under had broken quicker than I thought. Good, now that the vampire was a pile of ash; I could go have a what I've been craving for hours.

I touched the small ear piece in my ear to activate it before speaking, "Agent Brian , this is Agent Kris".

"Reading you loud and clear, Agent Kris. What is your progress?"

"Operation: Ashes, Ashes. We All Fall Down is complete".

"Good work, Agent Kris. You were the best Agent for this job".

"Was the costume really necessary? Couldn't I have just wore the fragrance that hid my smell?"

"I'm afraid it was. And some of the guys wanted to see what you looked like in a dress like that", Agent Brian chuckled at my expense.

"I'm so not getting paid enough" I sighed, "If you guys wanted to see me in a skimpy outfit, all you guys had to do was wear one too".

"Hey, you make a hot vampire!"

"Agent Kris out, I'm going to get something to eat. I've been dying for a nice juicy burger all day".

With the vampire dead by my feet, I lifted a hand to my mouth and freed my teeth from the fake vampire fangs that were made just for me.

There was one thing that I hated about being a hunter: acting as if I was actually one of the monsters I killed.