Halloween's Full Moon

This is a writing exercise I did for fun. I often write short stories to help keep my writing skills sharp when my personal life gets in the way of writing. Enjoy :)

            “So, Chad,” a girl named Jo, who was sitting next to her sister Chyou, shyly asked her college acquaintance from across the table, “what did you dress up as for this week’s Halloween events?”

            Jo and Chyou, twin girls with short, purple-dyed and spiked hair, emerald-green eyes, and skinny builds, sat on the same side of the table they were working on homework at. Their colleague Chad, a lean, charming, and well-mannered, though flirtatious, Chinese youth, sat opposite them.

It was the day before Halloween at Oakwood University and the college had been decorated by the student counsel a week before. The halls were festooned with orange and black ornaments; cats and bats bedecked the walls, streamers twisted and spun around windows, and witches, vampires, and skeletons walked the halls as students dressed up for the week-long occasion. Chyou, the oldest twin, had come to school as a fox, her homemade bushy orange and white tail clipped onto the back of her jeans and her orange and black ears affixed in her hair. Jo had come as a kitten, black ears decorating her spiked hair like her sister’s, and a cotton-made black tail was fastened onto the back of her red skirt.

            Chad, however, hadn’t dressed up today, nor any day that week. He was arrayed in his usual outfit: his tailor-made jet-black suit with a ruby-red tie adorning the white button-up shirt beneath. He looked up at Jo from the book he had been reading, a solemn, somewhat condescending expression residing in his deep-brown eyes.

            “I don’t celebrate such childish events,” he answered Jo abruptly. He shifted his gaze to Chyou and his thin, black mustache raised as his lips curled in a seductive smirk. He removed a hand from his book then reached over and grasped Chyou’s fingers in a mock romantic gesture. “Though, I’m glad you do, Chyou.” His eyes shone with a sly glint. “You make quite the fox.”

            With a scowl, Chyou flipped her wrist out of his gentle hold and slapped his hand away. She had absolutely no interest in him, though he didn’t mind. He had taken quite a liking to her over the years and showed it daily through his flirtatious nature. Ironically enough, Jo had just as much affection for him as he had for Chyou, though his affection for Jo was much like Chyou’s was for him. Chyou wasn’t sure why this was. Obviously the twins looked alike in almost every way. The only difference was Jo’s red headband which she wore to match her red skirt.

            “It’s not just looks,” Chyou recalled Chad saying as she thought back to a blunt conversation she had had with him one early morning, having asked him why he wouldn’t just ask her love-sick sister out and leave her alone. “It’s your personality. I like a girl who’s feisty and strong-willed like you. Jo’s just a little too easy to…catch, if you will…”

            “Ah,” Chyou had said sarcastically. “So it’s like a game to you? You like to chase me around, but once you get me, you’d only use me and be done with me in seconds, am I right?”

            At this, Chad had smiled his trademark impish smirk--an expression where the left side of his lips ascended just an inch higher than his right--and Chyou cringed now at the thought of his answer: “Oh, it would take much longer than seconds to be done with you, my love…”

            “Touch me again,” Chyou began with a warning glare at Chad, “and I’ll decorate your eye in black. And it won’t have anything to do with make-up or a costume…”

            Chad made a sound halfway between a hum and a sigh of contentment, a satisfied simper touching his lips.

            “Don’t tease me like that, Chyou.” He leaned in toward her, his dark eyes narrowed. “You know I like a forceful woman like you…”

            Chyou turned her head to the side and pretended to vomit under the table while Jo looked off at the carpeted library floor, her entire face flushed in red.

            “So, Chad,” Jo tried again, her voice softer than before. “What would you be if you had dressed up?”

            Chad looked to her, his smirk disappearing to a grave expression once again.

            “Why would I require a costume? I wouldn’t wish to hide my charming appearance with some hideous masks and outfits!”

            Hearing this, Chyou recovered from her fake gag reflex and began to laugh mockingly at Chad.

            “Yeah,” she began with a smirk of her own. “Wouldn’t want to add to the ugly!” she guffawed again, Jo’s gaze glancing to the side in embarrassment once again while Chad watched Chyou, unfazed, with his crafty smirk. “Maybe a Halloween outfit would actually make you look better!”

            “How do you know I haven’t been in a costume this entire time?” Chad asked her.

            Chyou snorted one last time at this.

“Like I said, I think I’d notice a difference in your appearance…”

            Chad smiled chillingly.

            “What if I’ve been in costume my whole life, and the real me only appears at a certain time to obtain something very important, certain item?”

            This response renewed Chyou’s laughter and she doubled up as her shoulders shook in her mirth. Jo slouched down in her chair, humiliated by the way her sister was treating the boy she liked.

            “What are you?” Chyou asked sardonically, derisive laughter etched into every syllable. “An alien? That would explain why you’re so strange all the time! I bet you hatched from an egg as well!”

            “I’m not an alien,” Chad answered, watching Chyou expectantly, challenging her tacitly to make another guess.

            As Chyou looked into Chad’s eyes, something in those dark depths suddenly captivated her, causing her laughter to cease almost immediately. For a split second, she thought she saw a hue of crimson touch around his pupils. A slight and abrupt fear pricked her heart, causing adrenaline to rush just briefly in her veins.

            But she ignored these feelings and her smile reappeared as she continued to laugh at Chad.

            “What are you, then? Some vampire?” Chad smiled suddenly, secretly, as Chyou screwed up her eyes in cynical delight and Jo continued to watch off to the side. “That would explain why I lose so much energy whenever I’m near you. You just drain it all away!”

Chad fleetingly licked his lips, watching Chyou with something now deeper than his usual lust. He briefly opened his mouth, revealing cuspids that had grown just a few inches, but he stopped himself and clamped his mouth shut again. He needed to be patient, he chided himself. It wasn’t the full moon quite yet. Just one more day… He had been holding back from drinking Chyou’s blood all these years, afraid of her knowing his secret… When he had been just a young boy, his parents and sister had been killed by a vampire, and that vampire had been about to take his life as well…until an officer had shot the creature with a silver bullet that had killed him instantly. Chad’s life had been saved that night…but the bite from the vampire’s fangs would cause the course of his future, and his appetite, to change dramatically. After the officer had taken Chad to the police station to be placed with a nearby family member, he had told Chad that his cravings would be different, based on the blood of whom he was drinking. He needed blood in order to survive now, but someone he had strong feelings for would give him a more sustaining meal. He had asked the officer where his knowledge about vampires had come from. After all, Chad hadn’t thought such a thing real until that very night. That’s when the officer had pulled down the collar of his blue button-up shirt to reveal two white scars on either side of his neck. They were bite marks. Chad had subconsciously brought his hand up to his neck to feel the fresh wounds that now resided on his own neck. The officer had been bitten and had to control his cravings, just as Chad would have to do now as well during every full moon.

But enough was enough, Chad thought. He had been holding this dark secret inside himself for far too long. He could tolerate concealing it from the one he loved no longer.

Chad glanced at Chyou’s neck as she continued to laugh. He saw the fleeting pulse of the blood through her carotid artery and licked his lips again as his salivary glands worked overtime, making his mouth water. Soon, he would have the most satisfying meal a vampire could ever ask for.

 

♥   ♥   ♥

 

The next morning at school, Chyou and Jo, who had dressed up as a fox and a cat again for the last day of the school’s Halloween events, and Chad all sat together in the library, working on homework once again. The table was fairly quiet for most of the time until a friend of the twins’, Tiffany, came up and began to talk to Chyou and Jo, leaving Chad to read his book. Tiffany had long, naturally straight brown hair. She was of a skinny build like the twins, and thick, black-framed glasses adorned her brown eyes. Today, she was dressed as an android from a Role Playing Game called Destiny. Little cyber-looking horns were attached in her hair, her shoes were painted a chrome-blue, stripes of the same color running from under her eyelids to the bottom of her chin, and her shirt and pants bore the symbol of the clan she had joined within the game.

At first, the conversation the three were having started off on the topic of homework and questions about the paper they had to write for the end of the term, but the discussion slowly took a turn into a hushed gossip about what had happened late last night in their own city.

            “Did you guys see the news this morning?” Tiffany asked in a quiet voice, her brown eyes wide.

            “About the six murders that took place at about midnight?” Jo questioned, her eyes also wide with concern. “Why would anyone just kill six people out of the blue like that? Could there have been some motive?”

            “I feel like there wasn’t…” Tiffany said in thought, Chyou glancing up from her own book to listen in on what Jo and Tiffany were discussing. “When they were speaking about it on the news, they said all the victims were random girls. There was no correspondence between them, like same hair color, eye color, or body shape or height.” Tiffany leaned in closer to the twins, her expression filled with trepidation. “But the detective on the scene did find something frighteningly interesting. All of the victims had two bite marks on both sides of their neck, and when they explained the autopsies that had been performed on all of the victims, the coroner said they were all drained of every ounce of blood in their body, each within a matter of minutes, based on how shriveled the blood vessels were…”

            “Some people just take the week before Halloween way too seriously…,” Chyou piped up with an exasperated tone, turning her head back to her book, her expression cynical. The news wasn’t really terrifying to her. They lived in the city. Murder happened at least monthly and they were still alive and kicking. “It was probably just a bunch of teenage kids banding together to cause some havoc…”

            Tiffany and Jo turned their fearful gazes to Chyou and Jo spoke this time.

            “Don’t you remember, Chyou?” she queried in a hushed voice, her brow furrowed in concern. “The news said they suspected only one person did this…and that he or she wasn't just some young teenager.”

            “Well, whoever they are, they’re not getting anywhere near us,” Chyou said with a tone that wouldn’t allow for argument.

            While everyone had their attention turned away, Chad smiled briefly, revealing cuspids that were just a bit too long. His smile disappeared however when Jo launched herself over to him and hugged him tight.

            “If someone attacks us, would you protect me, Chad?” she asked while looking up longingly at him with her emerald-green eyes.

            Chad scowled at her, trying his best to escape her tight hold.

            “No one would attack you, Jo,” he said sardonically, his face set in a smug air. But when he trained his eyes on Chyou, who was still looking down at her homework, his expression twisted into his trademark smirk. “Chyou, however… She just might be this killer’s next target…”

            “Che…” Chyou huffed derisively. She looked up at Chad in contempt. “What makes you say that?”

            Chad leaned into her and took her hand from across the table, gazing deep into her eyes. Chyou watched him with her disdainful expression, but suddenly, she felt the fear from yesterday prick her chest as she continued to look into his dark eyes. She could have sworn a tint of crimson had entered their presence once again.

            “Well, Chyou,” Chad began as his lips twisted in a leer that seemed craftier than usual, “this mysterious killer was drinking the blood of young girls around our age. What makes you think you wouldn’t be his next victim?”

            Once again, Chyou ignored her fears and slapped Chad’s hand away.

            “And what makes you say this vampire-like killer is a ‘he?’”

            Chad chuckled softly and replaced his hand back on his book, though he kept his focus on Chyou.

            “I was watching the news as well, and they discussed the force with which this killer had used to bite his victims’ necks and drink their blood. A girl would have never been able to use that much power. Not only that, but they said, upon further investigation, they found a rose tucked into the left pockets of each of the victims. Must have been the killer’s trademark…”

            “What channel were you watching?” Chyou asked incredulously. “They didn’t give out that sort of information on ours…”

            Chad smiled, now turning his gaze back to his reading. But the next words he spoke were still directed at Chyou.

            “I must have seen a more…up close and in depth view of the story…”

            Tiffany suddenly piped up again to Chyou and Jo, her voice filled with a nervous tone as she tried to change the subject.

            “Okay…! Now that we’ve got our nightmare fuel for the day, I’d like to ask you two if you’d like to come to a costume party I’m holding at my house!”

            Chyou and Jo trained their gazes on Tiffany, Jo’s filled with horror and one of Chyou’s eyebrows lifted in a way as though to say, “Are you serious?”

            “We just got done discussing a killer who single-handedly killed six girls our age and you want to host a costume party?” Jo queried fearfully.

            “It’s okay!” Tiffany tried to reassure. “It starts at six, and for safety reasons, I asked everyone to come before it gets dark. If it gets too late before they leave, I’d rather have them stay at home or in their dorm than be out at night with that killer on the loose. It will also be a slumber party so no one will have to leave in the dark either.”

            Both Jo and Chyou still seemed skeptical.

            “Oh, c’mon, guys!” Tiffany exclaimed. “Halloween only comes once a year! I’m sure we’ll all be fine. They’ve got cops and detectives on the case. If the murderer was that bad, they would have told everyone in our town to stay in their houses and dorms and they would have cancelled school today. Please come over! You’ve never missed any party that I’ve hosted!”

            Chyou and Jo exchanged a look, but in the end they decided to join Tiffany. After all, she was their best friend, and they knew how important it was to Tiffany if they came. She was probably right. If things had gotten out of hand with the killer, the cops would have issued a lockdown.

            As they continued to discuss the party, none of the girls saw the slow smile that crept onto Chad’s lips. For a split second, his cuspids poked over his bottom lip, revealing the sharp pointed tips he would soon use for his meals later tonight.

 

 Chyou and Jo were soon finished with classes and the time for Tiffany’s costume party had soon come. The twins left their dorm dressed in their usual costume and arrived at Tiffany’s house not too far from their school. Many people were there, dancing and conversing and having a good time, and Chyou and Jo soon joined them, settling into the party’s atmosphere…

…That was until they realized that, for about an hour at the party, they hadn’t seen a trace of Tiffany.

            “This is her party,” Chyou commented curiously as her and Jo stood in the middle of a crowd that was dancing. Chyou took Jo by the arm and moved her over to the punch bowl for a more private discussion. “Where could she be?”

            “Maybe she came down with a sickness at the last second and is upstairs in her bedroom?” Jo offered.

Considering this, Chyou nodded slowly. It seemed odd. For one thing, Tiffany hadn’t seemed at all ill at school. For another, why would she have kept her party going if she was under the weather? But Chyou supposed it was because Tiffany was a very social person. She could see that Tiffany wouldn’t have called off her own party, even if she, the host, was laid up in bed. The twins nodded to each other and began to sift through the crowds of dancing people to get to the stairs.

            Once upstairs, the two entered Tiffany’s room, expecting her to be there. But what they found was a room completely void of any human presence.

            “Where could she be?” Chyou repeated softly to herself as she and Jo entered further into the room. They looked around a bit more. They’re friend was the type to pull pranks, even if they were lame ones like hiding behind the door and jumping out to scare them. When they had thoroughly inspected the room and still found no trace of their friend, they put their heads together again to come to a conclusion as to where Tiffany could be.

            “Maybe she ran out of party supplies or something?” Jo now offered. “You know how she gets when she’s hosting something. Everything has to be perfect. Maybe she ran to the store for a second?”

            Chyou looked to the floor, subconsciously bringing her hand up to her chin and tapping her lips with her index finger, a vexed expression on her face. Even with how organized Tiffany was, she still wouldn’t go out in the dark of night with a killer still hiding somewhere in their city…

            Suddenly, Chyou’s eyes widened, her finger ceasing its tapping on her lips, and she stared at the floor with horror reflecting in the depths of her gaze.

            “The killer…,” she said slowly, both realization and disbelief mixing in her voice. She looked at Jo, switching her expression to something less frightening. Even as kids, Chyou had been the stronger, more direct twin. This made Jo submissive and gentle, more a follower than a leader. She had often looked to Chyou for strength, and with something like this happening now, Chyou knew she would have to be extra careful with what she expressed, even though she was on the verge of panic. “We have to go looking for her. Tiffany could be in danger…”

            The two left Tiffany’s house quickly, entering onto the city streets. They hadn’t bothered to tell anyone where they were going, not wishing to disturb the party and worry their friends. So the two jogged around, checking every street and alleyway they knew were dangerous areas in the city, Jo slightly lagging behind her sister just in case someone or something attacked.

After about fifteen minutes of futile searching, the only things the girls had found were a few drunkards and one or two prostitutes that the twins had dared to ask if they had seen a girl with long brown hair and dressed in a type of android-like outfit. The prostitutes hadn’t told them much for information, however, as they had been busy with other matters…

            As Chyou and Jo checked one last alley before they decided to head back to the party to see if Tiffany had returned at all, they came across another drunk man, swaying to and fro on his feet, a bottle in his hand.

            “Oh no,” Chyou breathed. “It’s another drunk… Let me handle this,” she told Jo, who didn’t argue. “Hey,” Chyou spoke to the man, though he didn’t seem to have heard. Chyou carried on anyway. “Have you seen a girl run by here? She’s about as tall as me, long brown hair, glasses, dressed in an android costume…”

            The man was still unresponsive, though he was shuffling a bit closer to the twins, swaying as he advanced.

            “Did you hear me?” Chyou called firmly, standing her ground as Jo hid slightly behind her.

            The drunk muttered something and Chyou watched him lift a hand and place it inside his shabby jacket.

            “What did you say?” Chyou questioned with a confident air.

            “I said…,” the man repeated a bit louder, though his words were still slurred. He withdrew his hand from his jacket and moonlight suddenly reflected off of a very sharp, fairly long pocket knife blade. The man lifted his head and a shadow slid away from his face, revealing bloodshot and crazed eyes. “Give me all of your money!”

            The man charged after the two. Jo screamed. Chyou grabbed Jo’s wrist, jumped backward, and pulled her to the side as the man slashed for the spot they had been standing just seconds before.

            “Are you the killer the cops have been looking for?” Chyou cried as she dodged again, still firmly holding Jo’s wrist. “You better not have taken our friend’s life, or I’ll quickly end yours!”

            The two dodged another attack from the man, then bolted for the nearest alleyway to try and lose him. A bridge came into view as they dashed down the street and Chyou quickly veered off to the side of the bridge, taking Jo with her. The two hid behind the large girders that supported the structure, listening for the drunkard to run by. When they heard the man’s loud and stumbling footing slap on the concrete and fade off into the distance as he continued to run in the direction he assumed they had gone, Chyou grabbed Jo’s wrist once again and they darted into a nearby alleyway to hide in a less obvious and more shaded area.

            “We’ll wait here for a bit, just in case he comes back,” Chyou told Jo as they slowed to a walk. The younger twin nodded as they traveled just a bit further in to hide themselves in the darkness. The streetlights still shown from the road outside, but the walls of the buildings that made up the alley shadowed them nicely.

            “Chyou,” Jo spoke softly, taking in gasps of air as she tried to catch her breath, “I don’t think he’s the killer… Don’t you think the cops would have been able to find a drunk like him? And he really didn’t seem capable of killing six other girls…”

            “Oh, you know some girls,” Chyou whispered derisively. “When he wasn’t drunk, he was probably playing the pity-party game. Act like he’s got a broken leg or something, catch a few nice girls that try to help him, and then, the next thing you know, six girls dead. We were smart. We evaded him.”

            Jo hid a bit by Chyou, slipping her hand into her sister’s like she would do when they were younger and she was scared. “I’m still a bit unsure…”

            Chyou moved away from the wall, shimmying a bit over to the corner where the building met the street.

           “I think we’re good,” she confirmed when she looked down and up the road, spotting nothing but a few cars. “Hope he got hit by a bus…,”

            “Wait,” Jo said suddenly, fearfully.

            “What? You see something?”

            “No…,” Jo stopped, her breath caught in her chest. “Listen…”

            Chyou squinted at Jo, giving her a questioning look, but she walked back over to her sister, stopped, then strained her hearing to block out the sounds of the city. A few seconds passed where neither sister took a breath. Jo’s concerns were soon proven as Chyou heard a noise coming from further into the alley. It sounded something between a slurp and a gurgle. A few seconds later, what seemed like a soft human moan issued. Curious and apprehensive at the same time, Chyou and Jo were frozen in their spots, watching into the darkness of the alley. As they’re eyes adjusted to the gloom, they could soon make out something"or someone"hunched over on the concrete ground.

            Fearful, but looking for answers, Chyou took a step forward, trying to make out what exactly she and her sister were looking at.

            Suddenly, however, the figure shifted. At its full height, it stood about six feet tall. Chyou stumbled backward, Jo throwing herself behind her sister with a gasp, and the two stared up at the tall silhouette. As the two watched, they saw another silhouette fell to the ground, then pitch forward, the figure landing close to where the girls stood. A sliver of light from the streetlights landed on the face of the figure and for a moment, the twins assumed they had stumbled upon the murder of a prostitute by an angry pimp. But as the twins took in the face of the figure, the strands of brown hair draped over her cheek, the black-framed glasses adorning her closed eyes, they knew with a pang of sheer and absolute horror that this was Tiffany.

            The shock of it all made Chyou forget for a moment the figure standing just feet in front of her. She took a step forward and crouched closer to the body to make sure what she was looking at was, in fact, Tiffany. As she moved in, she observed the brown hair and glasses once again, but what really hit home for her was the cyber-looking horns poking out of her hair. There was no mistaking it. This was their best friend.

            “L--Look…,” Chyou heard Jo stammer from behind her. The younger twin was pointing to Tiffany’s neck. “B--Bite marks… Two of them…” Jo’s shaking finger shifted to Tiffany’s chest. “A--And a rose…”

Chyou looked to where her sister was pointing, her fear rising in her chest, and she saw it. Lying horizontal just below Tiffany’s collarbone was a fully-bloomed crimson rose. Drops of blood spotted the petals and thorny stem, staining them a darker red.

            Unexpectedly, a split-second flashback entered Chyou’s mind of earlier that morning, showing her a picture of a rose in the left pocket of a vague-face girl. She recalled Chad saying something about a rose being the killer’s trademark. When the flashback ended, she gasped, suddenly remembering the figure that had risen up in front of them. She lifted her chin to watch the figure from where she and her sister crouched on the ground and for a moment, the only thing she could do was stare. She was now fully aware that they had stumbled right into the killer of the six other girls, and a nauseating terror rose in her throat. Her brain quickly kicked into gear, working on nothing but instinct now, and she grabbed Jo’s wrist tight, jumping a few feet back away from the figure.

            Suddenly, the black silhouette began to turn…

            …And Chyou only felt her trepidation and sickness rise, flooding her entire body, freezing her nerves and muscles. Crimson eyes glowed in the darkness. A crafty, wicked smirk twisted on the lips of the man standing in front of them. An index finger stained with blood was lifted up to his mouth, his tongue running the length of the digit. His tailor-made jet-black suit and ruby-red tie were splattered in even darker ruby blood.

            Chyou’s emerald-green eyes, as well as her sisters’, were wide with disbelief.

            “Ch--Chad…,” Chyou whispered, staring up at him, her eyebrows furrowed, her mouth parted as her breaths came in gasps.

            The smile on Chad’s bloodstained lips widened into a grin, revealing his teeth, his abnormally long cuspids clearly visible.

            “That’s right, Chyou…,” he breathed, his crimson eyes watching her. He took advantage of her frozen state, advancing on her, then leaned down and clasped her chin gently in the palm of his hand.

            “You’re…you’re the--“

            “The killer you heard about on the news, yes,” Chad confirmed.

            “And you’re a…a…vampire…?”

            “Right again, my love.”

            “So, in the library…when you said you were already in costume…and while talking about the news…”

            “I was telling the truth. I don’t need a costume for Halloween because I already am a vampire. The real me comes out at a certain time--when the moon is full--and takes a certain item--blood, in order to live. And the news I was talking about…I was giving my own report. I’m the killer. I saw what I did to the girls I killed.”

            “But…vampires can’t be real…” Chyou whispered. Her body was quivering and Chad’s mocking touch of love only made her shakes worse.

            “Oh?” Chad queried, his wicked grin revealing his fangs once again. “Then maybe you suppose this as a dream, or, might I say, a nightmare?”

            Chyou watched into Chad’s eyes, their once dark depths now swimming with an illuminating, unearthly scarlet. Her breaths continued to come in short, hiccupping gasps, and she could tell Jo was experiencing the same sort of terror behind her.

            “H--How…?” Chyou stammered.

            Chad chuckled softly, lifting his hand from Chyou’s chin and stroking her cheek with the knuckle of his forefinger. He crouched in front of her, draping his other arm over his knees as if he were simply having a friendly conversation with her.

            “How, you ask?” he began as he watched her with those scarlet eyes. “I never told you, but, when I was just a young child, a vampire attacked my family. He left me with nothing. My parents were dead, my only sister slaughtered. Even my house had become a stumbling block in my way as the memories I had made inside the home caused me to mourn ceaseless tears for the ones I’d loved. I would have met the same fate as my parents and sister that night, had an officer not shot the vampire with a silver bullet. Though the vampire was killed, unfortunately, his cravings live on inside me…” Suddenly, Chad’s finger ceased its caressing on Chyou’s cheek and he shot his face oh so close to Chyou’s neck, teasing her. Chyou tried to flinch away, but Chad grabbed her arm, ceasing her escape. He began to chuckle softly which ultimately progressed into a chilling full-blown laugh, his shoulders quivering as he relished Chyou’s terror.

            “What’s this?” Chad questioned softly, mockingly. “Chyou Xian, the toughest girl in school, shivering in my presence…?”

Chyou’s flinch had caused her to fall onto her backside, giving her even more of a disadvantage now that she was in a weak sitting position. She bent away from Chad, her free hand set behind her on the cold ground, her nails digging so hard into the concrete they left white scratches on the surface. As Chad leaned into her, she continued to bend away, trying her best to escape him. But Chad wouldn’t let her flee so easily. She was now fully lying down, her eyes still watching him in trepidation, her brow furrowed, her chest rising and falling with irregular gasps. Chad set his free hand off to her left as he continued to hold her other wrist in his right, his knees placed on either side of her hips as if he was about to make love to her. His face was just a foot from hers.

In that moment, Chyou stared up at her college acquaintance and every memory of their time spent together as withdrawn, quarrelsome friends came to mind. She could remember the day she had first met him, the moment she had realized how he would never stop flirting with her or leave her alone, all the times she had fought playfully with him in a back-and-forth banter never meant to hurt, only meant to keep him at a distance. She came back to reality and realized that as she watched Chad stationed right over her, she felt her body grow limp with fear, her face flushed red and hot from the warmth of the fall air mixing with Chad’s body heat. His black hair ruffled in a slight breeze, his crimson eyes watched her with their luminescent, unearthly light, his lips were set in a malicious smirk she had never seen before, fangs poking out over his bottom lip. His suit clung to his thin body, the buttons slightly strained near his stomach from all the blood he had been drinking. The sharp aroma of a strong cologne tickled her senses. How could it have come to this…? she wondered in the back of her head. Chad, the least frightening guy in school, leaning over her, forcing her into a submissive position as he readied to drink her blood… Him killing her seemed like the most ridiculous thing her mind could conjure, but murder through the drinking of her blood…? Chyou watched Chad grin as he took in her fear. His fangs glared white in the moonlight as if mocking her.

“Usually you’d just push me away…,” he continued his hushed conversation with her from before. Slowly, he leaned down to her, his soft lips grazing her ear, and he whispered, “but you won’t be escaping me tonight…”

           Suddenly, everything happened so fast. Chyou’s adrenaline spiked to an all-time high and she began to panic. She frantically kicked at Chad and pulled at the arm that was still held tight in his grip. While in her frenzied state, she looked to Jo with a crazed expression and yelled, “RUN! RUN, JO!”

But her sister only stood frozen just feet from the scene, uncertain what to do. She wanted to help Chyou escape, but she also wanted to obey the sister that had always known the right thing to do since they were small toddlers. In the end, she ran to the end of the alley, but she couldn’t help but look back in her fear and indecision.

            As Chyou continued to struggle, Chad only watched her with mock amusement, holding her arm tight in his grip. He began to stand. As Chyou made to kick for him again, he took his free hand, clasped only his ring and pinkie fingers into a fist while he kept his middle, index, and thumb held tight together, and jabbed the fingers into her neck, causing her movements to stop altogether. Her eyelids now drooped, and her head and body swayed as Chad began to raise her from the ground by wrapping an arm around to her back and pulling on her other arm. If someone would have been looked into the alley at that moment, they may have sworn they had seen a couple dancing in the darkness. Once Chyou was standing, just barely conscious, Chad backed her into the brick wall of the building behind her. He set a hand on the wall behind her and leaned in until his face was just inches from hers. He caressed her cheek once again, his lopsided smirk revealing only one fang.

            Chyou blinked slowly, coming to only slightly. As she saw Chad’s face and began to remember where she was, her panic filled her insides again. But it slowly died to a realization that she would not escape. This was her fate. She looked to Chad through dropping lids, watching his glowing, scarlet eyes. The left side of his thin mustache lifted a bit more than the right as he smirked at her dilemma. Could she have avoided this unfortunate death if she had simply accepted his teasing and become his date? She blinked slowly again, her eyesight fading in and out of focus, causing her view of Chad’s face to swim. She would never know. He had her now, and there was nothing she could do.

            “Why…,” she found herself asking him softly now, slow tears forming and trailing down her cheeks. “Why did you…keep this a secret…for so long…?”

            Chyou heard Chad’s muffled snicker as he continued to watch her. A breeze carried his sharp cologne to her senses once again, the fragrance filling her with a panic she knew she could not use to flee.

            “I was afraid to let you find out,” Chad answered her in a hushed voice. “You should be happy to know that at one point, I would have never even dreamed of drinking your blood. However, I found over the years that regular blood loses its taste after a while. And I was tired of having that overwhelming craving for your blood come to my mind every full moon night. I was curious…and hungry.” Chad licked his lips slowly. “So I let myself give in.”

            Suddenly, Chad locked his lips with Chyou’s. Chyou’s face contorted as if she was in pain, her brow furrowed, her cheeks rising as her lips twitched in fear. Her nails dug into the brick wall behind her as she felt Chad’s fangs bite into her bottom lip.

            As Chad finished the kiss, he reopened his scarlet eyes as he straightened and watched Chyou with a type of hunger. He laughed softly in amusement at Chyou’s fearful expression. It matched that of a young deer in the headlights of a car: unsure what to do, unable to run.

            “Ahh…,” he drawled in merciless delight. “You didn’t think I was going to drink your blood until I had stolen a kiss from your lips, did you? I’ve loved you for a long time, but you would never give me the time of day…” He leaned down to her neck and Chyou grimaced, more tears trailing her cheeks as she felt his warm breath caress her skin. “Be glad you got your first kiss.” Chyou grimaced again as she felt Chad’s tongue glide across the flesh that covered her carotid artery. “It’ll be your last…”

            Suddenly, Chyou’s mouth gaped in a silent scream as Chad buried his fangs in her neck. Her knees buckled and she about fell to the ground, but Chad’s strong grip on her arm held her steady.

Chad dug his fangs in harder, sucking Chyou’s blood as if it were a fine wine. The wonderful scarlet liquid poured into his mouth as if served from a hose on full-power. The officer of his past had been right. The blood of the one he loved tasted like nothing he had ever had before in his life. His taste buds sang as the liquid poured over them and his tongue moved as if of its own accord. He moaned in pleasure, his suit buttons straining all the more as his stomach expanded to hold the blood that surged down his throat.

            For five minutes, Chad drank without ceasing, relishing not only the blood, but also Chyou’s trepidation and panic that the blood carried. As he neared the end of one of the best meals he had ever had, he slowed his drinking to a slow slurp, as if emptying a bowl of cereal of its excess milk, then removed his fangs from Chyou’s now ashen skin. He straightened and released his grip on her arm, letting her fall to her knees and pitch forward to the cold ground, right next to her dead best friend. Slowly, he licked his lips, revisiting the overpowering taste of saline, iron, and fear, and his fangs began to retreat back into his gums, his eyes returning to their rich, dark brown. He brought the back of his bloodied hand up to his mouth and hiccupped, then expelled a soft belch. After he lowered his hand back to his side, he crouched down to Chyou’s still body and produced a fully bloomed rose from inside his suit jacket.

“For you, my love,” he whispered. Leaning over her body, he placing the rose not in the left pocket of her jeans or under her collarbones, but in her left hand. As he straightened, he stole another kiss from her pale lips, then stood and began to exit the alleyway, a hand set on his bulging stomach as it sloshed with each step he took. He ambled past Jo, who was crumpled against the brick wall, sobbing softly, but as he was about to leave the alleyway, he felt a soft tug on his pant leg and he turned to see Jo holding onto the fabric, an arm held up to her face as she continued to cry.

            “Why…?” she choked out, withdrawing her arm from her eyes to look up at Chad with anger and sorrow mixed in her gaze. “Why did you kill Chyou?!”

            Hearing this, Chad smiled, his blood-stained lips furiously intimidating, and he chuckled softly.

            “You think I killed her?” he asked Jo tenderly, mockingly. He crouched to her current height, Jo squeezing herself against the brick wall, shaking, and Chad watched her in amusement as he sucked some of Chyou’s blood from his fingers. “No, I didn’t kill her. That would have been unwise. However, I did taunt her, lie to her, imply to her that she would die.” Chad’s wicked grin widened. “But that was to make her blood pump faster through her veins to provide me with a more satisfying meal.” He chuckled lightly, teasingly. “And of course, it was also for fun. To see her squirm like that…to watch her struggle with such panic--”

“Stop it!” Jo interrupted in a mixture of sorrow and rage, swinging an arm at Chad.

Chad merely smiled, however, as he caught Jo’s arm in the palm of his hand.

“No, I didn’t kill her,” he repeated, letting Jo’s arm go in a mock soothing gesture. “I only drank just enough blood to satisfy my craving. Fortunately for me, that amount of blood loss is also enough to erase someone’s memories. Chyou has now forgotten that I’m a vampire.” Chad leaned into Jo, his bloody smile all the more frightening. “Do you realize how perfect that is for me? Now that she’s forgotten, I can continue to go to school with you two, and she will never realize that each new full moon, her blood will be mine to drink.” Chad now stood, replacing his hand on his gut, patting it gently. “The best part is,” he said as he looked over his shoulder at Jo, “there’s nothing you can do about it. Chyou doesn’t believe in vampires. You’ll have a tough time explaining to her where those bite marks and roses keep coming from.”

            Chad attempted to walk away from Jo again, but the girl grabbed his leg, hiccupping in sobs.

            “Chyou and I will move, then!” she threatened, giving Chad another steaming glare. “Or I’ll turn you in! You’re the killer, after all! You deserve to be locked up!”

            Chad smiled smugly, lowering his chin and closing his eyes. He stepped back and crouched in front of Jo again, then reopened his eyes, their depths glowing in scarlet. He smirked and his cuspids had grown into fangs once again.

            “You should learn not to threaten a vampire, Jo,” he said chillingly soft. He lost his smirk to a sensual frown as he opened his mouth, leaned in, and slowly slid his tongue along Jo’s neck. “Or you’ll be my next victim.” He realigned his hungry gaze with her fearful one. “And you…I shall not spare.”

            Chad then stood once again, and this time Jo let him leave, the echoes of his black Oxfords clacking off into the distance until they disappeared. She stood from the brick wall and shakily walked to Chyou, and her eyes filled with tears once again. What a disaster this had become… She could handle the man that she loved being in love with her sister…but this…. She would either die protecting Chyou, or would need to stay ignorant to the whole situation by force. Those were her two choices, and she didn’t like either. The only thing she could take comfort in now was knowing that Chad would not crave her sister’s blood for at least another month. This did not give her much solace, however, and she fell to her knees at Chyou’s side, sobbing over her sister’s body as she waited for the now clueless twin to return to consciousness.

Author's Note

As stated in the description, this was just for fun. I know there are a few things wrong with it, and it could have been more in depth, but if you're reviewing it, you can still give me pointers if you want. :)