Vultures

It was a darkest of the dark nights. The owls howled with their loudest voice telling everyone who hears that this is not the night to be wandering about. She was walking by a deserted road lost in her own music. She did that every day and never expected tonight to be different. Suddenly a slight cold breeze passed by her making her shiver. She thought to herself what if she hadn’t stopped to finish the report; she might have been drinking coffee snuggling with her boyfriend in her bed. Suddenly it felt as if someone just walked by her. She looked on each side of the road and saw no one. Mind plays weird tricks when you are tired, she said to herself. Slowly she gathered up pace hoping to reach home soon. She felt as if someone was watching her, the same feeling she had since she started walking here. She took a deep breath and almost started running. She was scared, no matter how much she refused it to herself.

Suddenly someone or something came sliding forward at speed neither a man nor a beast could travel. It looked like a human but was too fast for it. All she saw was its bright orange eyes and its teeth piercing her skin, after which everything started becoming a blur. She tried feeling its exposed skin, but it was too cold and too harsh to touch. The fibers looked as if it belonged to a human, but the vessels were popped out of it so much whole of the skin had a deep red tint.

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It was too early in the morning, about six, just when the sun was rising and the stroke of sunlight made its first break through in the area was when Dante finally came back home. Feeling exhausted he found it best to just go to bed and get a good sleep. After all he had earned it. Last night wasn’t his best, but certainly wasn’t his worst.

A good eight hours later, at dusk, just at the time when the final streak of sunlight was about to leave he woke up. He felt elated, his head was buzzing. It felt good. He got out of his bead wearing nothing. First thing he did was he walked up to the mirror in the dresser. His eyes were a deep shade of red, almost maroon. He smiled to himself. He looked down and felt as if he needed a shower. The marks of what he did last night were still visible on his body. A warm shower, he decided.

It was getting dark outside, probably the best time for him to get to work. He tried many outfits tonight, it was Halloween. He finally decided to go as Count Dracula. The humor in that made him laugh. So finally pasting his hair back and putting on a robe made him feel pouty. Little too cliché he thought to himself, but all in all he felt that he looked nice and he felt a little hungry so he didn’t wanted to be late.

The party was like all the other parties he went too since the time he came into this town. A couple of topless guys trying to woo girls, a couple of drunken girls and all in all just regular stuff. Tonight he wanted to eat something a little bit easy to get. He was a little tired from last night. He looked across the room and saw a girl with a glass of beer in one hand, a wooden stake in the other and fake fangs in her mouth and he thought to himself this is going to be the easiest ever hunt he made.

Things were a different back at his times. Back then people were afraid of vampires, not want to date them. Whatever it was, it always worked in Dante’s favor, though sometimes the girls were disappointed that he didn’t sparkle. He always found a sparkling vampire to be funny, after all vampires are the most vicious creatures of the night and not the tooth fairy. But Dante never complaint, he was after all getting the most kills since the time he actually became a vampire.

It was around 60 years back, when the world was gearing up for the big war which is called World War 2 now. Dante was just any other innocent 19 year old kid. Being the eldest in the family has its pros and cons, well mostly cons. The government ordered the eldest son to be in the army for the war and Dante was almost pulled towards the world of hatred and bombs. He might have gone to war as a boy, but he came back as a man. He saw his own people being blown up by bombs and still he survived. The little sparkle in his eye showing of his innocence was now long gone. He was a hardened soldier now, a hardened soldier who fell for a woman, a woman who was not a normal mortal, but a monster.

He was so in love with that girl that he wanted her to turn him too so that they can spend eternity together. She told him his emotions would be heightening once he became like her, even a small mood swing could wreck havoc. She fed on him but just enough to leave the venom into his system. The love he had for her before grew many folds now after he had been turned, almost at the brink of obsession. He couldn't stay away for her for a single second.

But future had something else in stored for them. The local people found out what she was and ripped her head off and burned her alive. Dante hid in the roots of the tree in the graveyard and cried for 3 days. With his magnified emotions taking over, his anger turned into red hot burning rage. He wiped out the whole village himself. He ripped off the head of every living person present in the area. But he wasn't a monster he was still in the process of becoming one. He felt guilty after killing so many people that he even tried to revive some of them, he tried joining the heads back to their body just to make himself feel better. But they were dead and along with them was his humanity.

Vampires don’t have a humanity switch, he always shouted at TV whenever the show about vampires came on. Vampire’s humanity is fried from the moment they become a vampire. They are predators, they like to hunt their prey down and rip them apart. The chase is as fun as the killing. The blood running in human veins make them hungry. The rhythm of a beating heart only makes them hungrier. The only place safe from a vampire is the safety of your own home as they can’t enter without being invited in. Everything else being showed about them was more or less a lie, he always thought to himself.

Back at the party, the girl he was eyeing for almost all the time checked out him too. He signaled her to come out; she was too drunk to say no. He took her way into the garden and grabbed her neck and sunk his fangs into her. The blood oozed out of her long and weak neck. The sound of her heart slowly started fade away. She was completely drained out of blood. He threw her to his side, cleaned his face with her dress and went back into the party, he was still hungry, and the vulture wanted another one.