Her story

  Summer. The spring quarter has ended, and summer break is here. Though taking the summer off would be nice, I don’t think I will. But I made it through my first year school and I think I’ll celebrate. Plus, it’s been almost a month since

I’ve seen my little neurotic friend. I really hate to say it, but I almost miss her.

  I caught the bus up to the University District from the new apartment for my little celebration. They have a good strip of restaurants and bars. and tonight will be a good night to be out. The weather has been warm, and now that summer break is here the locals are going to be out in force.

  I love Seattle in the summer, in early June; it doesn’t get dark until around ten so the atmosphere in the city is really alive. I don’t think I’ll stay out too late though, after about eleven the frat boys and their Tap-out T-shirt will take over the bar scene and I’m just too old for frat boy bar brawls.

  On the Ave, they have this great bar and grill called the Ally’s Bar and Grill. They serve great bacon burgers. Next door to Ally’s is laid back pub call Rick’s. The two places complement each other very well. Ally’s has a bar but its not the kind of place you go to hang out, you eat there and then go next door and I’m thinking that’s what I’ll do tonight.

  The same bus that I take to school takes me up on the Ave, there’s a bus stop about a block south of Ally’s and Rick’s. I pulled the little rope to signal the bus driver to stop and I walked up to the front of the bus. I flashed him my bus pass and walked the block to Ally’s.

  Ally’s was busy, but there wasn’t wait, the cute little waitress I know gave me a little table for two against the back wall. Since I come here enough to know what I like so I ordered as soon as I sat, bacon burger, fries and a coke. She remembered that I always ordered that and asked me if I ever ordered anything else. I told her if I wanted something else I would go somewhere else. She laughed, and went and put my order in and brought me my coke.

  I’m was sure tonight was going to be a bit lively, so I’ll have to make sure I don’t stay out to late. My waitress brought me my bacon burger after about twenty minute and brought me a second coke. I finished off my burger and fries paid my check and headed out the door.  I walked out onto the sidewalk, looked out at the road and stretched. Life is good.

   ’You look like look like you’ve had a wonderful day.’

  As soon as I heard the euphoric child like voice I knew my luck had changed. I sighed; I knew she wasn’t going to stay gone.

   ’Hello Gloria.’  I said in a flat monotone.

  I could already feel my stomach acid gurgling; my bacon burger was being ruined.

   ’Well don’t get to happy to see me.’ she said cheerfully, ’You’re not happy to see me? I’m happy to see you.’

  Gloria looked absolutely stunning, as always. She was wearing a short charcoal pleated skirt, with a silk pale blue button up the front blouse, with a collar and short sleeves. The blouse was a little too snug around her beautifully shaped breasts. The stress looked buttons looked if she moved a little too fast they would pop right off. She wasn’t wearing a bra; I could see her n*****s through her blouse. I guess that’s one of the advantages of being a perfectly young looking vampire. She was wearing a conservative black shoe with about a two inch heal.

  Her waist length blond hair was pulled back like some kind of a naughty school librarian. Her pale white skin looked amazing in the failing light. Her bright green eyes seemed to look right into my soul, I couldn’t help but gasp when I took her all in. My mind wouldn’t accept that someone this beautiful, this petite, who looked so fragile, was so dangerous. Who just a month and a half ago threw my couch through my living room wall, the thought of that made me smile.

   ’Well now, that’s more of the reaction that I was hoping for.’ She said smiling.

  I could tell she was working her vampire mind trick on me. The more I took in her beauty the less I thought of her as a killer, a thought stopped my male thinking dead in its tracks. This wasn’t a young librarian, this was a ruthless, cold blooded killer. And knowing what she was under that cold hard skin, made the way she looked all the more dangerous.

   ’Why are you frowning?’ She asked playfully.

   ’Do you even need to ask that?’

  I was having a difficult time thinking because of how beautiful she was tonight. I had gotten used to her looks as if you could get used to such beauty, but this last month with her being gone had taken away all my tolerance towards her. And tonight, she had come out swinging.

   ‘Because you’re dangerous, and I don’t want to die tonight.’ I said seriously.

   ‘Are you planning on jumping out in front of a truck or something?’ she asked, with the smile never fading. ‘You know I dressed up for you tonight.’

   ‘Yes I can see that.’

   ‘Don’t you like?’

   ‘Gloria, why are you here?’

   ‘I’ve really missed you, and I had hoped if I made myself pretty enough, you wouldn’t yell at me and tell me to leave you alone. You still think I want to kill you, don’t you.’

  I could hear the hurt coming on in her voice. I wanted to tell her yes. I wanted to tell her I didn’t want another couch thrown through my living room wall. I didn’t want to have try to explain how the couch got there to the cops, again. I didn’t want to wake up with her leaning over me in the middle of the night. As much as I missed her obnoxiousness when she was gone, with her standing in front of me, as beautiful as she was I couldn’t help shake the feeling this was going to end badly.

  She said with all seriousness, ‘Conner, why won’t you believe that I don’t want to hurt you? And don’t even bring up that couch thing. Cause I paid to fix that hole and I helped you get a new apartment.’

   ‘Gloria, why can’t you understand? You. Are. A. Predator. And I don’t want to die. I have a very good reason to be afraid of you, why can’t you see that?’

  This would be so much easier if she wasn’t so intoxicating.

   ‘I just don’t understand,’ I paused for a moment,  ‘If you don’t want to kill me, what the hell do you want from me?’

  The fight was out of me, I couldn’t bear to look on her anymore. The sadness in her eyes and face were too much. I just closed my eyes and sighed. Tonight was going to be the end it one way or the other. I would not fight death anymore, I fought it in Iraq. I fought it after both divorces. I fought it with the depression that came from doing a job I hated after the army; I just couldn’t do it anymore.

   ‘Conner, I haven’t spoken to a person I wasn’t trying to feed on in many years.’ I could hear her trying to repress a sob.

   ‘I’m so lonely. Please Conner, can’t you see that? I’m lonely.’

   ‘So what do you want Gloria? I’m just not understanding what you want from me?’

  Fighting another sob, speaking no more than a whisper, she replied, ‘A friend.’

  Damn, didn’t see that one coming.

   ‘Aren’t there other vampires out there to talk to?’ I asked.

   ‘No.’ she waited of few moments then continued, ‘Vampires are solitary creatures for the most part. Now and then, you’ll see them in pairs. But vampires aren’t very friendly.’

  ‘Oh. I didn’t know that.’

  I looked around us for a second. We were still standing on the sidewalk outside Ally’s. I was right in the middle of the sidewalk; Gloria had come up to me from where the direction bus stop I had gotten off at. During our conversation, she had stepped in front of me and stood almost on the edge of the curb about three feet away from me.

  I looked around a bit, and wonder how many people had walked by and caught some of our conversation, suddenly I noticed three frat guys about my size walking towards us from up the street. The one in the middle had a very smug look on his face, and his two friends looked like they knew the punch line of a joke he was about to tell us. This wasn’t going to turn out very well, and about the time I wondered which of the three would be the first to put his foot in his mouth the middle one spoke to Gloria. I just closed my eyes and started to shake my head.

   ’Hey pretty lady, is this clown bothering you?’ while he was speaking, I just rubbed my eyes.

  A rumble started in deep in Gloria’s chest, as the rumble came up her throat, it turn into an angry growl. By the time the growl hit her mouth, she pulled her lips back like a wild animal and a fierce snarl ripped out from between her teeth, and she wonders why I’m afraid of her. I wish I could take a picture of her face right now and show her what she looks like when she’s doing the vampire thing. She snarled a second time while quickly drawing in a deep breath. With a look of horror on their faces and jumping a step back like they were touched by fire, they all looked completely stunned. The rumble started again in Gloria’s chest; she still had her lips pulled back.

  The guy on the left yelled, ‘WHAT THE HELL!’ the three of them jumped back and stared for a moment, then turn and fled back the way they came.

   I just shook my head in embarrassment, people everywhere stopped walking and were looking at us and the three guys running away, someone was going to call the cops I thought. Gloria looked at the three guys running and smiled.

  When I didn’t speak again she said, ’What? What’s wrong now?’

   ’Was that entirely necessary?

   ‘What, telling those guys to go away?’

   ‘Gloria, you didn’t tell those guys to go away, you growled at them. And just for the record, that really doesn’t help your case that you won’t kill me.’

  Gloria just frowned and looked at the ground, which just made me scowl even more.

   ‘Oh, by the way, where the hell have you been?’ I asked, my curiosity had finally got the best of me.

  She looked as she might start growling and then a smile broke across her face and said, ‘Spain.’

  Needless to say I wasn’t expecting that, when she saw that I was a bit taken back by her answer she continued, ‘Some a*****e vampire tough guy doesn’t like me.’

   ‘You went to Spain because some a*****e didn’t like you.’

   ’I didn’t go to Spain because he didn’t like me, smart-a*s he chased me halfway across Spain.’

   ’Why were you in Spain? 

  Gloria dropped her shoulders and looked up at the sky and took a deep breath.

   ’About a month ago I came see you when you were sleeping. I know you don’t like it when I bother you in the middle of the night, don’t look at me like that. I was bored. Anyways, I was just getting ready to open your window and this jack-a*s saw me.          

   ’I guess he thought I was trying to feed. And he got all pissed off and chased me away from your apartment. The last time he chased me, he chased me half way across South Dakota.’

  I chuckled a bit and said, ’From Seattle?’

   ‘Yeah.’

   ’Is getting chased by this guy normal?’

   ‘I wouldn’t say normal.’

  I just snickered.

   ’Shut up!’ She snapped at me. ‘Anyways, he chased me all the way to the east coast. I figured the a*s would break off once we hit the Atlantic Ocean, but he didn’t, he seemed really pissed. Well after like three days of swimming he was still chasing me. I came ashore in Spain and kept running; he didn’t break off until we were half way across the country.’

   I kind of chuckled and said, ’Well, you do tend to bring out the best in people.’

  She stuck her tongue out at me, ‘Hardy, har, har.’

  We stood there on the sidewalk in an awkward silence for a moment.

   ‘So where were you heading just now?’ She asked.

   ‘Well I was heading next door, but I don’t think I will now.’

   ‘And why is that?’

   ‘Because I don’t think you’re capable of behaving yourself.’

 Gloria just frowned. Then she looked up the street and turned to me and said,

   ’You’re probably right.’ she paused for a moment and spoke again, ’Can we walk for a bit then?’

  I thought for a moment, ’Sure. I could stand to walk a bit.’

   ’Great.’ she chirped with her beautiful smile.

  Gloria bounced up to me and put her arm through mine and asked, ’Shall we?’

   I turned and we walked past Rick’s. The sun was setting, it would be dark soon I thought. We walk for a few minutes in silence, as we walked Gloria leaned her head against my arm. I marveled a bit at how gentle she could feel, as she held on to my arm with both hands. Her hands were so soft; I kind of chuckled to myself that these soft hands which felt like a normal girls hands, could punch through concrete.

   ’Do I get to hear the joke?’ she asked.

   ’Oh, its nothing.’

  We walk a bit more in silence and then I asked, ‘How long did he chase you, I’m mean, and how long did it take you to get to Spain?’

  She thought about it for a minute and said, ’Hmmmmmm, it took a little over two days I think to get to the east coast, and about three days to cross the Atlantic. So about five and a half days.’

   ‘So five and a half days there and about that to get back?’

   ‘Yeah, about that. After he stopped chasing me I continued on up into France. I spent about a day there, fed, and swam the English Channel to England. I spent a few days there, and then I swam to Ireland. Then I just hid out in some forest in

Ireland and fed some more. I was so tired for running and swimming. Europe can be very dangerous place for young vampires.’

   ‘Really? Why’s that?’ I was generally interested in her story, I still wasn’t over the whole vampire shock thing and to actually find out that they existed blew my mind.

   ’Well, the European vampires are quite old, and they have very little patience for us Northerners as they call us. They’ve had the same routines for hundreds of years, and they don’t allow others to feed on their lands. They have a different way of living there. They have old alliances, and they respect each others territories. If they’re passing through someone else’s land and they see a strange vampire passing though, they’ll kill without a second thought. I don’t think there’s been a new vampire there in several hundred years.’

   I was fascinated with what I was hearing. This wasn’t the normal chit chat that I was used to with Gloria.

   ’How do you know so much about them?’ I asked.

   ’I’ve had to run and hide there more then once.’

   ’But, I thought they would kill you if they saw you?’

   ’Well, for the most part they don’t want you on their land.’

   ’You said you’ve had to run and hide? That’s something that happens often.’ I said that more as a statement then a question.

   ’Europe is a good place to hide out. Everyone here is afraid of the European Vampires. They can be very crabby; they remind me a lot of you. I’ve been there enough, that as long as I don’t feed there they’ll just chase me off their land. And to answer your question I’ve hidden in Europe quite a few times, that’s why I went through northern Spain. There’s old vampire there that takes pity on me. He pulled me aside, oh, about twenty years ago and gave me the ins and outs of the territories, so when I’m running, I can run on the borders. Makes it easier to move around.

   ’Anyways you distracted me; I hung out in Ireland for about a week to getting my strength back. Then I took off to Greenland, into northern Canada till I hit

Alaska then I headed south. I just got back a two days ago. I had to feed a bit before I came and saw you.’

   ’That’s very thoughtful of you.’

   ’Be nice.’ she joked.  

   ‘Wait a sec, you said you fed in France, I thought you said that was very dangerous.’

  Gloria looked at the ground. If she could, I would swear she would have blushed.

   ’Are you embarrassed? You look like you would blush if you could.’

   ‘Shut up.’ She joked still looking at the ground.

   ‘What? This sounds good; though I’m sure I don’t want to know.’

   ‘You’re right, you don’t want to know.’ She said quickly back still embarrassed.

   ‘Fine,’ I replied, ‘Don’t tell me.’

   ‘I ate a cow.’

   ‘WHAT?!’ I said.

   ‘Shut up, I ate a cow.’

   ‘I thought vampires only drink human blood?’

 Gloria just rolled her eyes, ‘I’m a carnivore, I can eat anything I want.’

   ‘Hold on, did you eat the cow, or drink its blood?’

   ‘Well, at first I drank the poor cow dry, but I was still to hungry.’

   ‘You didn’t eat the whole cow did you?’ I asked laughing.

   ‘No!’ she responded sharply. ‘I ate like half its shoulder. What? What are you laughing about?’

   ‘I’m trying to picture all a hundred and five pounds of you jumping on a big a*s cow.’ I laughed.

   ‘Do you want to hear the rest of the story or do you want to make fun of me?’

   ‘I’m sorry,’ I laughed, ‘please continue.’

   ‘Once I got to Ireland, I fed on the wild life till I was strong enough to swim back. I didn’t have a decent meal till I got back here to Washington.’ We walked on in silence.

   ‘I’m sorry Conner; I shouldn’t have said that about the decent meal.’

   ‘That’s okay. You can’t help what you are.’

   ‘Thank you Conner, I’m mean that, I really do.’

 As we walked to the end of the strip Gloria reached down and took my hand and interlaced her fingers in mine. I hate to admit it, walking hand in hand with this vampire felt nice. We crossed the street and walked back the way we came. The street was a lot more crowded now. The sun was down; the night life was in full swing.

   ‘Gloria, can I ask you something?’

   ‘Of course you can.’

  As we walked, I thought for a second how to ask the one question I’ve wondered about sense I met Gloria.

  She sense my reluctance as said, ’Just ask, I won’t be upset. I promise.’

   ‘Okay, but if you don’t want to answer it that’s fine. How did you come to be the

way that you are, a, you know, a vampire? You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to. It seems that you were very young when you were changed.’

   ‘I was.’ she smile at nothing in particular. ‘I was eighteen when I was changed. I was born in eastern Texas, in nineteen forty nine. I grew up in a small town not too far from the Louisiana border. My mom and dad were high school sweethearts; I was the oldest of three children. My mom always told me that I had to get a education. She would always say to me, ‘Gloria, you have to get out of here. The only way to do that is to get an education, you’re too smart to stay here your whole life.’

   I could tell that the memory of her mom was a hard one to think about. But she went on after a second.

   ‘I graduated from high school with a four point oh grade point average. And I got a scholarship to a school up in Dallas. My dad put my suitcase in the back of is old truck, and drove me the four hours to Dallas.

   ’Dallas was the farthest I had ever been away from home, I was so nervous. My dad carried my suitcase to my dorm room and laid it on my bed. He was so proud,

I was the first person in our family to go to college.

   ’After laying my suitcase down he turned to me and reached in his pocket and pulled out a fifty dollar bill, he said he’d been saving up ever sense I finished the ninth grade, with the hope that he could give his little girl something to get her started when she got to collage.

   ’I cried when he gave it to me and I told him he shouldn’t have. He said he wish there was more to give, but since there wasn’t he would leave me with his love.

He kissed me on my forehead, gave me a big hug and walked out the door and drove home.

   ’I cried for like a hour after he left, I was officially on my own. My roommate came back from where ever she was and asked me why I was crying, I told her I just told my father good bye. She smiled and said, ’Honey, don’t cry, you’ll see them all again at thanksgiving right?’ and then she just laughed and came over and gave me a huge. She told me her name, though I don’t remember it now. I told her mine, I knew her and I were going to be the best of friends. We were going to stay up late and talk about boys. Do each other’s nails.

    ’It was getting close to supper time and I figured I needed to get something to eat. So I cleaned up my face and decided to go look for something. I asked my roommate if she wanted to come with me, she said no that’s where she had just come from. So off I went on my first big adventure.

  As Gloria went on about looking for a place to eat I found myself lost in the sound of her voice and the story she told. When I was suddenly brought back by a horrible snarl from Gloria which just about sent me into a panic.

   ’What? What the hell is it?!’ I asked.

   She heard the alarm in my voice and apologized quickly and said, ’A*****e,’

   ’What, who’s an a*****e, who are you growling at?’

   ’Oh, some guy was going to walk to close to me and he made me nervous.’

   ’So you growled at him?’

   ’What do you want me to say, seeing him walk towards me made me uneasy.’

   ’Gloria, some random guy was going to walk to close to you? Hun, would you do me a favor and please try to remember that you’re the most dangerous thing out here just for tonight? For crying out loud.’ I laughed, ’A vampire being made uneasy by a human male.’

   ’Will you hush please? I can’t help it. I have a very strong survival instinct. Why do you think I don’t like coming out in the day time.’

   ’I had wondered why you seemed so jumpy in during the day.’

   ’Well being out in the day time goes against the grain. It’s very disconcerting for me to have so many people be able to see me.’

   ’Is it like that for all vampires?’

   ’Yes, I think so.’

   ’Then why did you try to seduce me in the morning back when we first met, and not try and get me like at bar or something? I bet you would have had a better chance with me.’ I said joking. ‘I’m less grumpy in the evening.’

   ’Simple, vampires hunt at night.’

   ’So during the day you don’t have to worry about others pushing you around, or chasing you to Spain.’

   ’Bingo.’

   ’Huh, that’s very interesting.’

   ’Anyways, where was I?’

   ’You just found the little Korean restaurant off campus.’

   ’That’s right. See, growing up out in the middle of nowhere, I had never eaten anywhere like that. I didn’t even know what was good in a Korean place. I’ve never been to a Korean restaurant before. They had all these pictures up on the wall of the different dishes they offered. So I just picked the first thing I thought looked good. I don’t remember what it was I had ordered now, but it turned out that that dish saved my life.

   ’Well I don’t know if I would say saved my life, but, you know. It was dark by the time I was walking back to campus. I was walking past the math and science building when he grabbed me. The funny thing is, I could see my dorm.’ She chuckled a bit and went on.

     ’The math and science building had some trees and bushes back behind it where they kept the building’s dumpsters. He had me out back behind the building and between the dumpsters so quickly I didn’t even realize I was being assaulted. It seemed as if we were flying, we moved so quickly. When he stopped running, I finally realized I had been grabbed.

   ‘I took a deep breath to scream but he bit me on the neck, so couldn’t let the scream go. I couldn’t scream, I could breath, I couldn’t move. He had his teeth in me for a second or two, and then he choked, gagged and dropped me on the pavement. He stumbled back a few steps and retched a few times then screamed,

’What the hell have you been eating you little b***h!’ then kicked me through the trees.

   ‘I couldn’t breathe for what seemed like forever. He shattered my right arm and all the ribs on my right side from where he kicked me. I just laid there waiting for him to come back and kill me, but he never came. I eventually got my wind back.

And I pulled myself to my feet; I could feel the blood just running down my right side from where I was bit.

   ’I didn’t know what I should do at that point. So I just started walking back to my dorm. My neck just throbbed and I started to feel really sick to my stomach. I must of looked like something from the Night of the Living Dead. Bloody as hell, my right arm just kind of dangling there. I was walking kind of bent over because of my broken ribs, total zombie.

  ’There were some other students standing around by the front door of my dorm.

When I came into the light one of the girls of the group saw me and she let out a huge scream, I knew then I was in horrible shape. All of them turned to look at what the one girl had screamed at and they all gasped. I just said one word, ’help.’

I could hardly see, plus it felt as if my insides were trying to climb out my chest. I fell down, it hurt so bad I couldn’t even cry. One of the boys came over and rolled me over and put his handkerchief on my neck and yelled for someone to call the cops.

  ’The cops came, and brought a ambulance, and took me to the hospital. I was in horrendous agony by the time I got to there. My neck just burned, my arm throbbed to the point I thought I would throw up and ribs just felt numb. I was having horrible spasms that ripping through my back and I was having the most unbearable charlie horses in my legs. I had no clue that the human body could take so much pain without dying.

   ‘Once I got to the ER, they did a quick exam and sent me to X-rayed. It took several nurses and an orderly to hold me still enough so they could get the X-rays done because I was in so much pain.’ She just shook her head.

  ’Once they got back into the one of the examining rooms they started shooting me up with morphine, though it didn’t help. I heard one of the doctors asking where the hell my X-rays are, I remember thinking that that didn’t make any sense. He had them right there in front of him on the light board. I heard someone say those were the ones that they had brought over from X-ray, they had seen them developed and had brought them over.

   ‘The doctor said this isn’t right, these X-rays don’t show any breaks. He came over to me and looked at my arm, he said it wasn’t broken.

   ’He was like, what the hell. He didn’t, couldn’t understand that. So he took me back to X-ray himself, and we did the whole process over again, and then sent me back the examining room. About twenty minutes later, he was standing outside my room with two other doctors. He told them he didn’t understand, when he examined me earlier, he knew that my right arm was broken and my ribs were smashed. They all came in and started poking and touching me trying to understand what was going on.

   ’I could hear my heart beeping on the monitor and it was going a hundred miles hour. They were really worried about the texture of my skin and how pale I was.

Over the next two days my examining room was a mad house. They were worried because they couldn’t get a needle into me to draw blood, or to give me morphine not that it would help. All I could do was hope that I would die, there was a burning in my insides that would send every piece of my body in to spasms. By the end of the second day, they couldn’t even take my blood pressure.

   ’The morning of the third day I was in so much pain it had blackened out all of my senses except my hearing. But I knew it was morning somehow, and I could hear my heart on the monitor, it was beating so fast I could hardly tell the breaks between the beeps. Then I heard the flat line tone, and I thought I’m dying. Far away I could hear the doctors trying to revive me but it was useless, they seemed farther and farther away and then there was nothing.’

   ’Wow.’ I couldn’t think of what else to say.

  Gloria smile up at me. And repeated what I said, ’Wow, I know.’

   ‘How long ago was that?’ I asked.

   ‘Nineteen sixty seven.’

   ’That would make you then?’

   ’Sixty this past March.’

   ’So you’ve been a vampire if my math is right, forty two years.’

   ’That’s sounds about right.’

   ‘So was it the venom from the bite that was causing you so much pain?’

   ‘Yes, I believe so.’

   ‘Hmmmmmm.’ I mumbled.

   We walked on, holding hands neither of us speaking.

  She finally broke the silence and said, ’You know, it was entirely necessary.’

   ’Hmmm, what’s that?’

   ’Me growling at those guys.’

   ’Why do you say that?’

   ’He called you a clown. I didn’t like that very much.’

   I just smiled, I heard a rumble in Gloria’s chest and I looked down at her and saw that she had her teeth bared. I fallowed her gaze across the street, Gloria was growling at the three frat boys from earlier who were now joined by four of there friends who were now looking at us.

   ‘Gloria, stop!’ I said yanking on her arm.

  Gloria was so tense I didn’t move her an inch.

   ’Gloria! For crying out loud, quit looking at them, I’m sure they wont bother us.’

   ’Stupid a******s.’

  I kind of laughed, ’Believe me Gloria; they’re not going to come near you after what you looked like early.’

  She just sighed and said, ’That’s too bad. Oh damn it!’ Gloria said in the same breath.

   ‘What?’ I asked concerned.

   ’One of my contacts fell out.’

  She stopped us cold and started looking around with one eye closed for her lost contact.

   ’When did vampires have bad eye sight? I never heard of anything like that in the movies?’

   ’I don’t need them for my eye sight.’ Gloria kept her left eye closed and kept scanning there ground in front of her.

   ’Gloria, if you don’t need it for your eye sight, then what does it matter? Who cares if you’re really eye color isn’t green.’

   ’Trust me on this,’ she said while covering her eye with her left hand. ’I don’t need to be out walking around without my contacts.’

   ’Gloria, even if you did find it, I’m not going to let you put it back in your eye if it was on the ground.’

   ’Why, it’s not like dirt can hurt my eye.’

   ’That’s not the point, people piss on these sidewalks. And you putting a pissy contact back in is really gross.’

   ’Damn, I don’t see it.’

   ’Gloria, look at me.’ I said trying to turn her to me.

   ’No.’

   ’Look at me please.’

  Gloria turned and looked up at me with her hand over her eye. I reached up and took her by the wrist and tried to pull her hand away from her face. I knew when I tried to pull her hand I had no chance in moving her it if she didn’t want me to. She finally relented and moved her hand away and opened her left eye.

  Her real eye color was the most incredible bright red I had ever seen. I remember when I was a kid and had an albino rabbit, the bunny’s name was Pug.

And Pug had the reddest eyes, but they were nothing on Gloria’s red. She just looked away. I reached down and lifted her chin, It was hard to believe that eyes could look that color. They looked like something out of a horror movie gone terribly wrong. The red almost glowed; the one eye was so beautiful.

   ’Well say something damn it.’

   ’Amazing.’ That was all I could get out.

 Gloria smiled and stepped towards me and rapped her arms around me, laid her head against my chest and hugged me, I just hugged her back. Gloria was something else, beautiful and dangerous. She stepped away from me taking both my hands in hers, and looked up at me with one normal looking green eye, and a bright red one.

   ’Can we get out of here please?’

   ’Sure, there’s a bus stop right there.’ I nodded down at the end of the block.

  She smile and took my left hand with both of hers and we headed to the bus stop.      

  As we rode the bus back to my apartment, we sat in silence. We sat a few seats back from the front. I sat in the outside seat; Gloria had my left hand in both of hers in her lap. She laid her head against my shoulder, and had her eyes closed.

Someone looking at us would have thought that she must have had too much to drink, and I was the lucky guy who was getting to take a good looking drunk girl home. I knew the reason Gloria was pretending to be asleep, she worried about her missing contact.

  I thought about how strange that was how she would snarl and growl at some random person but she didn’t want someone to see her one red eye, the thought made me smile. I reflected on the story she had told me, running from the other vampire, the solitary life style that she has had to endure for the last forty years. I wondered what had happened to her family, had they known about her change or did they think she was dead?

  Did she still see her family? I imagine her parents were probably dead, but what about her siblings? Did her siblings have families of their own? She had said that she had been born in Texas. I wondered how many places she has lived, did she wander from place to place from choice or was she run off by others of her kind?

  I squeezed her hand slightly and said into her hair, ’Our stop is coming up.’

  I reached up and pulled the rope to let the bus drive know he needed to stop. I stood up and pulled Gloria to her feet, Gloria could play the sleepy human very well. I let her step in front of me and we walked to the front. I pulled out a dollar fifty and my bus pass. Gloria took the money from me when we got to the front.

When the bus stopped and the driver open the door, Gloria dropped the money into the slot and down the steps she went, I don’t think she even opened her eyes.

I showed the bus driver my pass and he asked me if she needed a transfer slip and

I told him no, and wished him a good night.

  As the bus drove off, Gloria reached up and pulled her eyelid away from her eye and tilted her head to the right and tried to blink.

   ’There, now at least I match’ she said as her last contact popped out.

  She turned and flashed a big smile at me. I gasped when I saw her eyes. I was right; her eyes did glow slightly in the dark. I smiled back.

   ’They glow, your eyes I mean.’

   ’Yeah, I know. They don’t bother you do they? I could run home and put a new pair in if they do.’

   ’No, your fine.’

   ’Kay.’

  I chuckled a bit to myself I guess she’s coming over tonight. So I better just invite her over so she doesn’t have to break in, ’Are you coming over?’

   ’Of course I am.’ she chirped.

  She took my hand and ask, ’Shall we?’

  We headed off the three blocks to my place. As we walked are hands swung in between us.

  I unlocked the apartment common front door and we headed up to the second floor. We had walked quietly from the bus stop; I unlocked the front door and paused.

   ’You know, I think this is the first time you’ve ever come in through the front door other then the first time you came here.’

   She laughed and answered, ’I think your right.’

  Gloria and I had spent our entire evening in public, my thoughts quickly drifted as I kicked my shoes off and shut and locked the front door. I turned towards her and froze.

  This was just the seduction that she thrived on during her hunts. Breaking down all guards, making the prey feel at total ease, I turned towards her and leaned against the front door. She had taken her shoes off and neatly placed against the wall next to my pile of shoes. I was suddenly afraid, really afraid. I was caught in this beautiful spider’s web, and I knew it.

   ’Conner, what’s wrong.’ I could hear the worry in her voice.

   ’This is it, isn’t it?’ I ask.

  I was starting to except that my life was finished. The game was over, she was the predator, I was the prey and the game of cat and mouse was over and I had lost. The price of her victory would be my life.

   ’What’s it? She asked, ’Conner baby, honey your heart is going a hundred miles an hour, what’s wrong with…’ she paused a moment. ‘are you okay?’

   ’You don’t have to keep the pretences up anymore Gloria, you won you prey.

Don’t keep playing like you didn’t just get the best of me, just do me that favor, please?’

   ’Conner what the hell are you talking about!?’

 I could tell the end was coming now she was starting to get angry, I knew perfectly well what she was capable of when angry.

   ‘You won, the game you started with me back in the atrium at school. The stalking me in the middle of the night, the bullshit story of you running through

Europe. I know you said all that bullshit so I would put my guard down, that way you could take me by surprise tonight. So I would give myself to you willingly, I’m finished playing your games. Just feed and leave.’

  Gloria looked stunned. Her mouth hung open slightly, and she reached out to brace herself against the wall. She sobbed quite suddenly. I though her rock hard throat would crack from the force. She reached up with her other hand and grabbed at her chest like she was trying to take some great pain away. Gloria gave another great sob and her knees gave away. She slumped down onto the floor and leaned against the wall, she looked up at me like a person who heart just broke.

She closed her mouth and swallowed, she opened her mouth to say something but her voice eluded her. She just shook her head side to side as if to say no.

  Gloria dropped her head and looked at the floor. She said in a very quiet voice,

’How could you even think that? Do you really believe I would, no, I could do something like that to you?’

  I didn’t know what to say. I believe, yes that she could do that to me. But seeing her there on the floor she seemed so fragile, so breakable, maybe I was wrong.

Why would she keep up this charade now? She had won her prize.

   ’My blood isn’t the prize you had hope to win, Was it?’

   ’No.’ she said with a sob.

   ’Oh, please get off the floor.’

  I went to her and tried to pick her up off the floor. I could see I had wounded her deeply.

   ’Please Gloria, get off the floor, I’m so sorry. This whole evening just kind of caught me off guard. Please believe me when I say I’m sorry. I believe you could kill me yes, but I can see now there’s no way that you will.’

  She sat on the floor with her legs tucked in beside her. Gloria covered her face with her hands and rubbed her eyes. She moved her hands from the front of her face to the sides of her head and sighed deeply. She looked up at me standing in front of her.

   ’Do you mean it?’ she asked.

   ’Of course I do.’ I kneeled down in front of her and pulled her hands away from her face.

   ’I’m so sorry that I hurt you. Will you forgive me?’

   ’Of course I forgive you.’

  We both stood up and looked at each other, ’We’re friends again?’

   ’Yes, you’re okay then? I asked.

   ’Yeah,’ she said, ’it’s just, you caught me so off guard with what you said, I just couldn’t breathe or think.’

   ’Okay, so since we’re friends again and you’re not going to kill me, can you tell me what happened after you went flat line?’

   Gloria frowned when I mentioned her not killing me, then she said, ’Oh yeah, I never did finished my story did I?’

   ’No you didn’t.’

  I’m going to have to remember not to joke about her killing me. I can see that that’s not a joke she’ll ever find funny.

  Gloria turned from me and started towards my bedroom. She called out from my room, ‘I’m going to change into something a little more comfortable.’

  I start walking to my bedroom, but before I can get to the door, it shut. I murmur to myself, ‘I wasn’t planning on watching you change.’

  I went to the living room and sat on the couch and waited. I decided I would watch a little TV while I waited. I when reached for the remote, I heard my bedroom door open. Gloria had put on my Jack Daniels pajamas bottoms which where way to long for her, her feet were complete hidden. They were a high-water on me being over six foot, but that didn’t matter with Gloria being over a foot shorter than me. She looked like a little kid wearing her father’s pajamas. She exchanged her blouse for one of my wife-beaters. She had tied up the bottom of the wife-beater in a knot over her butt, exposing her prefect midriff. Her stomach was a beautifully pale white, and perfectly flat. as she walked towards the couch the bottoms of her pajamas bottoms flopped like duck feet. She pulled her hair clip out of her hair and shook out her hair. It fell down to her waist. She combed through it with her fingers.

  Gloria flopped down on the couch next to me. She pulled her legs up and sat Indian style. She folded her hands in her lap. She looked and me and smiled, ’Hi.’ she said.

   ’Hi.’ I said back ’comfortable are we?’

   ’Very.’ She responded, ’can I asked you something?’

   ’Sure, but I thought you were going to finished your story.’

   ’I will, but there something that I’ve always wanted to know.’

   ‘Okay.’

  She reached up, as she traced the scar on my right cheek she asked, ‘How did this happen.’

   ‘When I was in Iraq the second time, I got hit with and road side bomb. I had my window down and I was looking out at the road, then blam.’

   ‘Were you scared when you were there?’

   ‘Well, yes and no. it was, what it was. When we got hit, I thought I was dead.

Then when I felt the blood I got scared, really scared. It seemed like it was everywhere. I didn’t know where I was all wounded at. When you get blasted, it’s very confusing; I think that’s what makes it so scary. But for the most part, I just did what I had too.’

   ‘When I saw your scar, I thought it looked very sexy. What? Why are you laughing?’

   ‘Well, that’s why I wouldn’t let them do plastic surgery on me.’

   ‘Really?’ Gloria just laughed and laughed.

I don’t think I could ever grow tired of Gloria’s laugh. It sounded like sweet honey music.

   ‘That’s right chuckle head, keep laughing.’

  Gloria just laughed louder and harder. I just smiled and waited for it to pass.

Finally when it seemed like the worst of it had passed I asked, ‘So you flat lined and blacked out?’

   ‘Yeah. Flat lined and blacked out.’ Then she laughed some more.

   ‘I’m glad my vanity amuses you.’

   ‘Okay, okay I’m sorry. Mum’s the word. Flat lined and blacked out. When I woke, I thought I was in a dentist’s office. I could hear his drill going and I thought to myself, why did they take me to the dentists. I was really confused. I could remember when I was younger and went to the dentists and they didn’t have you lay down on a table, nor did they put a thin blanket over you to keep you warm while you waited.

   ’Then I had a horrible thought, what my attacker had took me from the hospital and was going to do something even more horrible? I became very scared; I thought if I could lie still enough maybe he would forget that I was laying there.

   ’But as I lay there, I became more and more aware of my surroundings I could smell bleach, rust, body odor. I could smell the cotton of blanket that was covering me. I could smell the floor wax. Mostly I could smell something that I couldn’t place and it was making my stomach growl.

   ’I could hear this strange thumping sound from the direction of the dentist’s drill. I could hear footsteps everywhere, some closer than others. I thought I could hear an elevator dinging somewhere close and its doors open.

   ’A man stepped out of the elevator; I could tell it was a man because of how clumsy his steps sounded. He had keys hooked to the side of his belt and they jingled as he walked. His footsteps seemed to get louder, and then I heard a door open somewhere inside the dentist’s office. The man with the keys steps were getting closer, then I heard a knock on what sounded like glass. Then dentist put his drill down and walked away from his patient. I was so scared I didn’t dare breath.

   ‘I couldn’t believe that there was a widow so anyone could watch the dentist work on his patients. Didn’t they care about patient doctor confidentiality? What kind of dentist’s office was this? I heard the dentist and the other man come back into the room. The man with the keys smelled like cigarettes and Pinesol.

   ’The dentist said to the man with the keys, ‘You have to see this one. She came in about lunch time.’ I didn’t move and I didn’t breathe. Even though I had the blanket over my head I closed my eye and tried not to move a fraction of an inch.

   ’The dentist pull my blanket off of me. The wind swirled around my body from the blanket being pulled off. I was horrified; I could tell from the wind I was naked. I thought my heart would stop; I felt so horrible and violated. I thought I would tear up and start crying.

   ’The man with the keys gasped. He said, ’Oh my God! Will you look at that? How old is she?’

   ’Her chart said eighteen.’

   ’Incredible. This one’s better then that one you got last month. What a waist.

What happened to her?’

   ’They said she was hit by a car or something.’

   ’I couldn’t believe they thought I was hit by a car. I wasn’t hit by a car. I was attacked I wanted to shout at them.

   ’The man with the keys asked the dentist, are you going to let me have a go at her before you cut her all up?’ I couldn’t believe what I was hearing; they were going to cut me. They were going to cause me more pain; at that moment it had occurred to me I wasn’t in pain anymore. How could I have not noticed that?

   ’The dentist laughed and said, ’You can try; rigor mortis or something has set in something terrible. You can’t get her legs open. I’ve tried.

   ’These men, these sick bustards, they were going to rape me. I wanted to go home so bad at that moment, I wanted my dad. If he was here right now, he would beat the s**t out of these pervert b******s. I thought if I could ever get out of here I was going home and to hell with Dallas, to hell collage, to hell with anything and anyone who didn’t grow up in a small town in eastern Texas.

   ’The dentist said, ‘I couldn’t even get a single finger into her beaver. That’s what’s so strange about her. She didn’t just come down here hard as a rock. The doctor came down and saw me. He said it was the strangest thing he had ever seen. He said she came in all broken up. And by the time they had her X-rayed she didn’t have any broken bones, it was the damnedest thing. We had her up there for two and a half days and her skin just got harder and harder. She suffered horribly. Towards the end, we couldn’t even get a needle into her to give her morphine, not that the morphine helped her.

   ’The man with the keys said, ’She has about the nicest t*****s I think I’ve ever

seen.’ the dentist agreed.

   ’He started walking over towards me; I thought how could this be happening to me. He reached out and touched my breast and it felt like I got struck by lightning, the heat from his hand shot right through me.

   ’I exploded off the table away from the man and landed on the patient on the next table over. I looked down to try to find a place to move to, my mouth dropped open in shock. One of my feet was ankle deep in the chest cavity of a very large naked black man. I screamed and jumped back towards my table, my bloody foot hit the stainless steel table top and I slipped. I twisted away from the table and landed on the balls of my feet facing the two men. They were holding on to each other against the glass wall that I heard the man with the keys knock on. The man with the keys, I now could tell was a janitor. A dirty nasty janitor had touched my breast. I did a quick scan around me, I was in the morgue. The dentist wasn’t a dentist at all, he was the coroner. They thought I was dead.

   ‘I looked at the two men holding each other and I became furious. I started snarling at them like crazy, I went down into a crouch like a wild animal. It felt so natural to be squatted down on all four like I was getting ready to play leap frog. I was growling so much that the venom in my mouth was foaming up like I had rabies.       

   ‘I had suddenly noticed that my hair flowed all around me, the remembering that I was naked over whelmed my desire to rip these two pervert to shreds. The coroner still had what I thought was a blanket in one of his hands.

   ’I very slowly approached the two men at a crouch I was snarling like crazy. My hands were out in front of me ready to strike like a snake. My fingers were like claws. The two men didn’t move, they just held on to each other with their mouths hanging open.

   ’They were terrified; I walked up to them, with the venom running down my chin. I reached up and took the sheet that the coroner had in his hand and just roared at them; they both jumped back from me and broke the glass wall behind them. They tripped over each other trying to get away from me, as they ran from the morgue I thought I could smell urine.

   ’Then I was alone, well except for the poor man who’s chest I stepped in. I looked down at my foot; I thought I’m going to have to do something about the blood on my foot. I looked around for a sink; there was a sink across the room by the doors where the two perverts ran out. When I went to the sink, I was amazed by how fast I could move. The sink was so huge I had to jump up into it, it seemed that everything I did I was able to do at an incredible speed and ease. I dropped the sheet to the floor and reached for the faucet. When I went to turn the faucet on, I broke the lever off and water sprayed everywhere. I gasped at the feeling the water made when it hit my skin. It felt kind of like the pins and needles you get when one of your feet falls asleep, only better. I could feel every single drop of water hitting my skin.

   ’I took some water in my hands and washed my face. I jumped down from the sink and picked up my sheet. I could see my bloody foot prints all over the morgue. I was so shocked that they thought I was dead I laughed at the thought.

I never felt so alive in my whole life! The sound of my laugh brought me up short.

I touched my throat; I couldn’t believe the way I sounded.

   ’But then the two men came to the front of my mind and I felt the need to flee.

I took my sheet and wrapped it around me, I was still soaking wet from the sink and the sheet instantly became see through. Crap I thought, seeing other sheets on a table by the back door, I dried myself off with the sheet I had and dropped it. I walked over and grabbed one off another table and wrapped it around me.

   ‘I reached out and grabbed the door and tried to pull it open, but I didn’t judge my new strength very well because I pull the door right off its hinges.

   ’I made a oh s**t face when I dropped the door. Then I shrugged and said in my new voice, ’A*****e shouldn’t have brought me to the damn morgue.’ then I filled the morgue with the sound of my laughter.

   ’I walked out into the hall and looked around; there was an exit sign to my left over the double doors at the end of the hall. I turned and headed towards the doors, I walked the distance in a blink if an eye. I looked back to see where I had come from and giggled, and very carefully pushed open the double doors. This had to be a dream, the doors exited into the main garage. I saw a door to the outside on the far side of the empty garage. I few towards the exit door, I couldn’t believe how good it felt to move that fast. My hair and the sheet were flying back behind me. I started laughing as I ran, because the sheet didn’t cover me from the waist down as I ran. I thought man; I hope no one notices me running around half naked. I think it would be a little hard to explain.

   ’I decided then I didn’t care. Let the world see me, I was free from pain, and I was free from the man who attacked me, I was free from that crazy dentist and his pinesol smelling friend in the morgue. With the wind in my hair, and on my naked bum I was free. I pushed open the door and ran half naked and laughing into the Texan night.’        

 

 

 

 

Reviews

[Allyson (:]

Great Story!