FicWad

William Control’s POV

I strode down the damp alleyway, becoming one with the shadows there. I leaned against the cold brick wall, and waited. Not five minutes later, a man lurched out of a concealed doorway and somehow managed to focus on me with eyes that were bloodshot and red. He had a putrid scent of alcohol and stale sweat around him that to my heightened senses was almost unbearable. He stumbled towards me, a stream of profanities spilling from his slack jaw. I sighed in displeasure. This man was repulsive, but I had to eat. I watched him weave closer, raising his fist in a futile gesture of defiance. I smiled a long, slow smile that revealed my pointed canines. I liked to watch, and take full advantage of, the moment of paralysis when the saw but their mind, their senses, rebelled against what they were seeing. As he blinked at me, frozen in horror, I moved in for the kill.

Wiping my mouth, I emerged from the shadows, the drunks blood surfing through my veins faster than any drug ever could. I turned to leave, when a figure stepped from the darkness as I had done, albeit less stealthily. “Gimme your money!!” He yelled. When I made no move to do so, he pulled out a sharp looking knife. See, that was the issue with only being able to hunt at night- that was when all the bottom feeders emerged. Moving faster than I would have expected for a mere human, he slashed at my neck with a practiced gesture that split my throat into a gaping bloody mouth. I crouched into a hunting stance, and snarled in anger. It was a feral, animal noise, and the human looked startled, but held his ground. The blood flowing down my front and into the street was of a different type to a humans- the haemoglobin count was so much lower. I was confident they would not find a match in their police databases. I rose from the wet tarmac, and the human thrust his knife into the cave I call my chest. Smiling humourlessly, I plucked it out, and slashed a quick ‘Z’ shape onto his chest. His own blood cascaded down his front, and he looked at me incredulously with dimming eyes. His knees collapsed, and I caught the corpse. I began to feed once more. Now, with my thirst quenched and my wounds nearly healed, I continued on my way.

As I walked away, my attention was drawn to a girl walking on the pavement across the road. She was wearing a black shirt much like my own, gaping open to reveal nothing but a smooth expanse of pale flesh. She was also wearing a very short, tight black skirt that barely hid what decency demanded of this day and age. It was difficult to get used to seeing women in such form revealing clothes. A car pulled up to the kerb and she fixed a light bulb smile on her face. Bright, dazzling, but empty. It pulled her face into a tight grin that betrayed the fear and loathing I could taste. There was something else- a chemical scent, and a desire that had nothing to do with the man in the car, and everything to do with the bruised puncture wounds and track marks trailing up her arms. As she leaned over to rest her hands on the roof of the car, displaying her lean body to the person within, I made my decision. She would be mine. There was something about this drug addicted prostitute that reminded me of the human I once was.

She got into the car.

An hour or so later, the car returned, , smelling of sweat, alcohol, and other things. She got out, tugging her skirt down from her waist as the car made a rapid exit. She quickly pulled her shirt together- several buttons had been torn off. Her tangled hair was hanging loose, black tendrils dancing in the breeze, exposing the fresh purple bruises blooming on her neck. She smelled like despair, and from this I gathered that she had not been paid for her services. She sat on the kerb, her face in her hands.

I wanted to kill the man who had done this.

I quickly slid back into the alleyway, moving faster than any human was capable, until I rejoined the road where the scruffy white car was moving. With a jump that was as effortless as breathing, I landed lightly on the roof. He drove on, unaware. For a moment I considered punching through the roof, and ripping him out, but I decided against this. The human police could not know that his death was anything but an accident. Instead, I slithered bonelessly through the window, until I was sitting beside the man. He turned around and screamed in shock, swerving wildly. I captured him with my power, and told him to continue driving. I examined the man. He was fat and middle-aged, with rough stubble and a stained vest. The floor of his car was littered with beer bottles and cigarette butts. My lip curled in distaste. He drove on, until I told him to stop in a narrow lane, overgrown with hedges and weeds.

I stood back and surveyed my handiwork. The car was upside down, and look as if it had flipped several times before coming to rest on its roof. There was broken glass glittering in the weeds, and the metal was buckled and twisted beyond recognition. Best of all, the man inside had a broken neck, and thicker things than blood leaked from his shattered skull. I took one last look as the wreckage, and made my was back to where I first saw the girl. She had not moved, although it had been thirty minutes since I had left. She was staring with wide eyes, her thoughts elsewhere. I noticed that she was shaking, her shoulders trembling from what I assumed to be drug withdrawal.

She paid me no attention until a cat screeched across the road. Cats and horses can both sense a vampire- no matter how solid their human façade appears to be. Stupid animals, but very intuitive. Her head snapped up, and she stared at me with wide eyes the colour of damp ash, and surrounded by smudged black makeup. Unremarkable, but her eyes would change colour when she became a vampire. She met my eyes, and within seconds she was as quiet and immobile as a stuffed doll, with eyes just as empty. I strode across the street, swept her up in my arms, and launched myself into the sky.

Moments later, we touched down on solid ground. The girl lay unresponsive in my arms, only the faint mist of her breath indicating that she was breathing at all. I carried her into my house as though she were my bride, and the corner of my mouth lifted in a brief smile as I appreciated the irony.

I lay her down on my battered bed that I kept only for authenticity- I had no need of such a thing, for I was unable to sleep, only enter a state of suspended animation during which I could sleep on a bed of nails and feel no discomfort. The only other piece of furniture was a large, ornate wardrobe, with a dusty and broken mirror set into the door. It amused me to examine my fragmented reflection, knowing that the humans believed I had none. The theory goes that a mirror reflects the soul, and as vampires are the walking dead, we have no souls. I had no opinion on the philosophy, I was just glad to have a means of checking for bloodstains.

She stirred slightly, and although my posture did not change, my whole being was focussed on that tiny movement. I released the power holding her eyelids closed, and she awoke as naturally as if she had been sleeping under her own influence. Her eyes moved, taking in her surroundings. She sat up slowly and carefully. She did not scream, or panic, for which my respect for her increased exponentially. Her gaze focussed on me. She took a deep breath. “If you’re going to kill me, go ahead. Dying can only be a good thing.” I raised an eyebrow. Normally humans begged for their lives to be spared. They may not have meant much, but it was all they had to fight for.

I answered her with amusement. “Now why would I do that?” Amazingly, her attitude turned from defeated acceptance to a deep anger. “Because what else do I have to look forward to? There’s no forgiveness in living.” I liked this girl. She had a mind as dark as my own. “I have no intention of harming you..” I told her. She looked suspicious. “I picked you up to set you free.” I explained. “It’s just your body I’m stealing.” Her face changed. I had always liked humans for their capricious emotions, and she was no exception.