His senses soared as the familiar metallic smell reached his nose. It came in pulses as it always had done in the days before his resurrection. His mouth watered and his impatience made his bones ache edging his body forward uncontrollably as if being pulled by something invisible from the eluding darkness.
As he passed a few corners and quietly overtook endless blocks of cement roadways that lay across the cold dark landscape, he thought of his destination and the prize that waited. The chilling darkness was his power…it was his strength and mind in which lead him forward in the direction where this annoying search would surely end, and not soon enough.
The weakness had finally started to find it‘s way into his veins. It wasn’t strong like it used to be, but slower and more fluid like. Inebriation was the closest thing he could relate to the unwelcome feeling, only he usually enjoyed the fuzzy feeling that came with an alcoholic beverage…this he did not.
He was getting so close now that he was no longer smelling the waves in which the beautiful aroma traveled, but he could almost hear them. As always it was never steady. It came as one wave quickly followed by another, then a pause, and it continued this erratic array of beats until he found his way into it’s presence.
As he glided around the last of what seemed like an infinite world of turns and corners, he saw the thing he had set out to discover, and it’s beauty was greater than he had imagined. She stood not a hundred feet away walking down a nearby side walk in his direction. He was so close now he could almost feel the blood pumping under the soft flesh of her neck. He thought of his teeth sinking into her flesh and suppressed a moan of longing that would only be quenched by one thing…
As she noticed him round the corner of the building, he could see her lower her head as to hopefully discourage him from any confrontation that may possibly arise, but it wasn’t in her fate to make it a step past him.
In the last few yards remaining between them he studied the woman to see if she might be concealing any objects or weapons that could make his night more difficult then necessary. After he was satisfied he studied her further just to see if there was anything else of importance that he would possibly find useful. The main thing he like to find out about all his victims before he made his move was why they were wondering about at such a late hour. His answer usually led to the fact that they were nothing but the homeless, or they were what most people nowadays called hookers. He never worried about any diseases they might have caught with their careless philandering about because he was immune to any kind of heath related illness, and he knew no one would miss someone as low in society as they. It sounded cruel, but it was necessary for his survival to keep his presence unknown.
As he studied her one last time he noticed the lack of skin her garments were covering which usually meant that they were a hooker, but hookers usually found a slight interest in him, offering him sex for currency. So why was this woman so quiet and uninterested?
He had a quick decision to make as she inched closer and closer. Soon his chance would come and it would pass whether he was ready for it or he had a sudden change of heart. All the evidence was screaming no into his mind with a fury that warned him of the horrible trouble that killing someone who had a loved one at home waiting to welcome them into their arms might cause. It pulled and it tugged like a mad dog would do with something pinned between it’s fangs as it flung it’s head about, but still he readied himself. He couldn’t take another minute of starvation. He had to feed. The weakness had become to great for him to bear and the hunger along with the lust for a certain warm red liquid clouded any will power left that might have had a chance to stop him. His muscled tightened…she was so close. Finally he struck.
“Excuse me mam’,” he said stopping just inches in front of the woman.
She halted looking very surprised.
“Y-Yes?”
He smiled at her trying to hopefully calm her down, but then he wondered if he was coming off a little over friendly. “Would you happen to know what time it is?”
She looked somewhat relieved as she reached into a rather large handbag and pulled out a folded device and flipped it open. “Midnight,” she replied.
“Ah, thank you Miss.” He paused for a moment and looked her up and down. “May I ask why you wearing such an unusual set of garments?”
She looked so amused from his question that she was trying to restrain herself from laughing. “What do you mean why? Same reason your wearing those ratty 15th century clothes and talking in that ridiculous accent.”
He was utterly confused at this point, “Excuse me?”
She saw that he was genuinely clueless and quickly changed her composer. “Are you from a different country or something?”
He said nothing.
She waited one last moment then blurted out, “It’s Halloween! Jesus. I’m sorry. I figured it was obvious that something was going on with all the decorations.”
“Halloween?” he repeated.
“Yes. People dress up then go about asking for treats and such. Still not ringing a bell?”
“No,” he replied weakly. He was beginning to lose his mind as he watched the veins and muscles in her neck quiver as she spoke. This odd explanation of her clothes meant for sure that she was wanted at the place she called home, but nothing mattered to him anymore. He would take her life and not think twice.
“Well, whatever mister. I’ve got to go.” She began to take a step forward, but he stopped her with a question.
“I wonder, is that your perfume I’m smelling? It’s quite invigorating.”
Again she looked rather surprised once again, “Well, I guess it could-”
She was cut off as he leaned forward towards her neck as if to find the origins of the perfume. This was his moment. This is what he had been waiting for the past hour, the thing that made the hair on his neck stand straight like blades of grass in a meadow. All his thoughts and emotions churned together into a violent soup of pure instinct and adrenalin. He could feel it flowing through the pores of his body from his legs to his finger tips. This was his moment.
As he approached her neck, he bared his fangs with a smile of relief and satisfaction. With one last look at the plump vein running down her neck, he closed his eyes sneaking a hand out to grab her for when she tried to escape and wrapped his teeth around the warm inviting flesh on her throat…
