"The Night Walker"

“The Night Walker”

By Cody Williams

 

1.

It was three o’clock in the morning. George Richardson knew that. Was he out a bit late? Maybe. But it didn’t really matter all that much. He stopped and looked up at the black star filled sky and took another sip of Jack from the whiskey bottle he was holding. The whiskey on his breath was nauseating to him. That stench always had been. Even when his father used to stumble in late at night drunk and lean over his crib to wish him a good night sleep as he watched pain killers take his mom off inch by painful inch. But he didn’t care. The whiskey made him feel better. Better beyond belief.

            George always said that he would never be like his father. So do most alcoholics. And then here he found himself searching for happiness at the bottom of a bottle. George finished off the whiskey bottle and then threw it down onto the sidewalk causing it to completely shatter. He stumbled backwards and fell down on his a*s sitting on the concrete steps behind him. George reached into his front shirt picket and pulled out a pack of Winston Lights, not his favorite, but his girlfriend, Cindy, nagged him to death about his smoking until he eventually decided to smoke lights.

            “If your going to smoke those damn things, at least smoke f*****g lights so it will kill you a little slower!” She would always tell him. He didn’t know just how much that statement was true, be decided nevertheless to smoke the lights just to put an end to her bitching.

            George pulled out a cigarette from the box and then put it back into his shirt pocket. He lifted his a*s off the concrete steps just high enough to where he could reach into his front pants pocket and pull out his chrome cigarette lighter. George lit the cigarette and then shoved the lighter back into his pocket. He entailed the smoke and then let out a satisfying sigh.

            “Son of a b***h thinks he can just fire me like that? I’ll show that b*****d!” He mumbled as he took another whiff of the cigarette and then exhaled the smoke. George leaned back and looked up at the stars. He didn’t have anywhere to be the next day since he was just fired from St. John’s Laundry in Little Rock, Tennessee. The night was silent. He shut his eyes and quickly drifted off to sleep.

 

2.

George awoke quickly to the sounds of shoes clicking the pavement of the sidewalk. He sat up, straightened his spine, and quickly stood to his feet as nearly every joint in his body cracked making him feel refreshed. George looked to his right and then to his left. There was nothing there. The sound was coming around the corner that was blocked by a long bush. George approached it and poked his head out from around the corner.

            There was a dark figure on the other side. It was the shape of a man, but George couldn’t quite see the man’s face. It looked like he was wearing a cape as he could see the tall collar around his neck and the tail of it smacking the back of his legs. As the sound of the man’s footsteps grew louder, the black figure grew larger.

            “Hello?” George called out. There was no answer. The man continued to make his way towards him. “Hello? Can I help you pal?” George asked again hoping for an answer. There was none. George quickly backed up and started to walk away from the figure.

            As George walked down the streets of the city, the footsteps of the man continued to grow louder. He looked back over his shoulder and man was walking faster and quickly catching up with him. George stopped and turned around to face the black figure.

            “Alright pal! We ain’t in no horror movie! So why don’t you tell me who you are and what your business is!” George suggested. The man still didn’t answer as he continued to get closer. “Alright pal, I’m going to wait right here on you. These intimidation tactics don’t work on me! Do you understand what I’m saying f**k face?” George called out still feeling somewhat buzzed from the whiskey that he drank down. The creature continued to say nothing. “Fine. Fine. Can I at least get a name buddy?” George asked.

            “Night Walker!” The man uttered in a low voice, Night Walker. That was a term that George knew all too well.

            “Beware the Night Walker! He will punish you for all your sins!” His mother once said near the end of her life before the drugs finally killed her. George laughed.

            “Night Walker huh? Ha! I don’t believe in that chicken scratch man! I don’t believe in any of that s**t really. So tell me who you really are!” George said.

            “Just because you don’t believe, does not mean that I’m not real. I can assure you that I am!” The figure spoke clearly as he approached George. The man stopped and faced him. George still couldn’t see the face of the man as his back was against the light of the moon and the streetlight to George’s right wasn’t on. He squinted his eyes, but still couldn’t see the man’s face.

            “I know what you are. You are just a figure of my imagination. In fact, I bet I’m sleeping right now!” George said with confidence as he stared at what he assumed to be the face of the man. He stood there for a moment longer when he heard a smack sound kind of like when the power had just been cut back on after being off a long summer day, followed by a high pitched buzz sound. The street light beside them turned on and George finally got glance at the man in front of him.

George’s blood ran cold and the creature smiled at him with an evil smirk. The creature was almost completely bald except for long strands of random black hair that reached down to his shoulders. The man’s skin was gray and looked almost dead. It was very wrinkly. His nose was almost nonresistant and was basically just two holes where a man’s nose would normally be. The creature’s eyes were empty and looked like two black pearls.

George closed his eyes and mumbled something open his breath. He prayed that when he opened his eyes that the man would be gone. George opened his eyes and the man was gone. He sighed a sigh of relief and turned around only to see the man again. The smile that had once been on the creatures face quickly faded. He opened his mouth wide like a python that dethatched its jaw revealing two large teeth least six inches long. One was on the top jaw while the other was on the bottom jaw. The creature let out a loud growl. George screamed, turned around and quickly began to run away.

George could hear the creature following him. He could still hear the clicks of the Night Walker’s shoes as they clicked against the cold concrete. George went around the corner where he first saw the night crawler and hid behind the bush that was there. He knelt down to the ground breathing heavily, but trying to stay as quite as he possibly could. George peaked through the small twigs of the bush. He looked to the right and then to the left. There was nobody there. The footsteps were gone and he could no longer hear anyone there. George stood up and stepped out of the bush. He peered around the corner and the man was gone.

“Lay off the drinking! That’s all! I just need to lay off the drinking! It’s as simple as that!” George said as he sighed and smiled. He turned around to see the creature again. The creature smiled at him just before the creature reopened its mouth and bit George’s head off splattering his blood along the sidewalk. George’s headless body fell down to the ground and the creature smiled. The Night Walker looked up to the full moon above him before transforming into a bat and flying off into the darkness.

Copyrighted 2014 by Cody Williams
Courtesy of TRUE TERROR PUBLICATIONS
A division of TTP Entertainment

Author's Note

I've been working on rather a long project called SANTA'S WORKSHOP. It will be published in three different installments starting December 22. In the mean time, I thought that it would be fun to do an old fashioned vampire story. A real monster. This is what a vampire used to do before they started to sparkle. Thanks for reading! Comments and reviews are welcome as always.

-CW

Reviews

[Dayran]

For a child engaging a father who always reeked of alcohol ... inquires into whether that child managed something abiding as relation to the parent. It matters when the child comes into challenge in their life. The night walker ... as restless sleep ... may be that strange zone between sleep and wakefulness ... when the child lashes out at his images ... in order to restore his position. It may mean an indiscriminate destruction ... that destroys all.

These days ... the opportunities for rehabilitation are many ... but they don't receive much attention in your stories. You ought to take a look at that.

[Cody Williams]

I will. Thanks for reading Dayran!

-CW

[Riding the Rainbow]

This piece is really good. Well done.

[Nia Hope]

When you described this vampire I kinda thought of He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named and the snake comparison didn't help to much lol great story though!

[ANTO]

I'll echo Leslies thought that I like your work a lot too - for me its things like this ;
"George reached into his front shirt picket and pulled out a pack of Winston Lights, not his favorite" that I love.
and I would reiterate his point of losing the gore at the end.
You have to listen to your readership Cody - come on dude !!

[Cody Williams]

Thanks for reading Anto!

-CW

[NoahDrake]

Great read. I've been sick of the "sexy" vampires for a while so I really enjoyed this story about one that doesn't f@ck around.

Just a couple grammatical notes-
George reached into his front shirt picket *pocket
George closed his eyes and mumbled something open his breath. Did you mean under his breath?

Also, I would try not to use the word "creature" so much. Maybe throw in a monster, or beast, or abomination etc...

[Cody Williams]

Thanks for reading Noah!

-CW

[Leslie Philibert]

I enjoy your work a lot, and I noticed here your use of paragraphs, the insertion of speech, punctuation and spelling is really excellent, professional. What I think you should do is ( perhaps, my POV) reduce the horror at the end of your work, simply concentrate on the excellent prose as such, you don`t always need lots of blood at the end !

[Cody Williams]

I'll keep that in mind. Thanks for reading Leslie!

-CW