Melabeth the Vampire (4 page)

The woman trying to catch her breath, cried out. “Please… my children; don’t kill ME.”

I licked the wounds on her neck and the saliva in my mouth healed them up. I thought this would work, because, when I was looking down at her dead husband, his neck had no marks. After he had died, I had licked the yummy blood on his neck. The wound had healed even though he was dead. This would be good to know so I didn’t leave a trail that someone could follow.

Being that there are, in fact, vampires, I would guess that there would in fact be vampire hunters. And something else to note, there wasn’t blood everywhere just around my lips, I had licked the evidence off of poor old Roger’s neck. Heck I hadn’t even drained the man dry, but I am thinking I am stealing life not just blood.

If the body is a car engine, then it is built to make energy for the soul. My engine died so I am just stealing the life energy from someone else. I don’t know if this is true, but I feel like it is close to the truth.

Looking right into her eyes, I said as cold as possible. “I am leaving now. You will not see me again… if you tell no one.”

The woman with fear in her eyes said. “I will tell no one… I swear to God. Thank you, for sparing me… and my children.” She had no backbone; that made me want to finish her.

As I rushed out the front door into the night, a thought came to me; did someone just thank me for not killing them? Wow that is funny, to be thanked for not doing something as vile as killing children in their sleep. What a strange world we live in, and now for something completely different to think about.

Where am I going to sleep tonight? And where the hell am I? Maybe I should have asked a few more questions to that lady? Second thought, I don’t think she could handle anymore, especially after donating blood and watching her husband be murdered, begging for her life and the life of her own children. She can have the rest of the night off.

After I left, I found my power had returned. No longer did I feel any pain; all the damages from the earlier fall had healed. I ran at ridiculous speeds toward town. When I got to town, I jumped from tree to rooftop and back again. In fact, I found that I was more than just rejuvenated. I was twice as powerful with more speed and grace. My sight was even sharper; my second sight was there when I heard or made noise. My sense of smell and hearing were keen, beyond my reckoning.

When I landed on rooftops and stayed still for a minute, I could put my head to the roof and hear people sleeping. I think my hearing was sharp enough to count how many people were in the house.

I landed on a roof of a large two story home. Feeling confident this house was empty, I checked the upper stories’ windows; I found one unlocked. I guess the owner had not pictured a vampire girl hanging from her toes that were attached to the gutters. Checking that particular window and finding it unlocked, with catlike grace I opened the window and jumped through it.

Twisting through the air landing on my feet I was safe and sound inside. It appeared to be a boy’s room. The door was open so I stood there listening to make sure I was alone. Also I made a high pitch whistle, so, with my second sight, I could see down the hallway.

I had noticed when I was jumping around town that, when I whistled, dogs barked or howled; I had used it to make my second sight come to life. I think but don’t know that maybe I was making the sound at such a high pitch that humans may not be able to hear it. If that were true, that would be handy and prove once and for all, that I was Bat Girl.

I relaxed; the house was empty. I was wondering if I could stay all day without being discovered; I guess I would find out. As I looked around this boy’s room I started to take in some of the details, and something was very wrong. First, there was this huge box with a TV on top
of it. In front of the box was what appeared to be a typewriter or maybe just the keyboard of a typewriter? The box said IBM. Ok I have no idea what that means.

That wasn’t the strangest thing in this boy’s room. His bed cover was really crazy. On the cover there was the same picture over and over again; on the top of this picture were the words STAR WARS, in gold letters. Below was a picture of a man in a white bathrobe holding up what I guessed to be a flash light surrounded by robots and a giant robot with a black face in the background.  Okay, maybe his mom and dad were really creative or something, but then there were shelves of strange toys; where the hell do you buy this stuff?  I have been in toy stores, and never have I laid eyes on any of this stuff. Then there was a creepy doll robot guy. His face was the same as the picture on the bed, and he was holding what appeared to be a red stick. Maybe it was supposed to be a sword.

Then I noticed the light outside. I was sidetracked by something really crazy. It was a clock; I have no idea how to describe what I am seeing, giant red numbers displaying the time 6:45 AM. Then the numbers switched with no moving parts to 6:46 AM… wow, no way. I need to get a hold of myself.

The sun is rising; time to put a plan into action. I closed the window and quickly walked the whole upstairs trying my hardest not to get too distracted with all the stuff these people had that I have never laid eyes on before. I found the entrance to the attic, pulled the handle and up I went. Just as I thought, from the dust on the boxes, they only come up in the attic twice a year, one time to bring down the Christmas decorations and then a second time to put them away.

Collecting some sheets, blankets and a pillow from what I deemed to be guest locations, I made me a little hidden bed, in the corner of the attic. Before the sun came up completely I had noticed that one of the rooms upstairs was an office. I bet a dollar that I could figure out where I was and what the date was. Some basic info would be nice.

So I walked into the office and noticed, on the corner of the desk, some mail. Perfect, I picked it up; to James Richa, 304 High St, Collbran, CO 81624. Well one mystery put to rest. I am somewhere in Colorado; I camped a couple of times in Colorado with my folks. I was eight or nine, and I stayed almost a year with Star. She is the one who taught me how to sing. I miss her and wonder if I could look her up, or should I look her up. Maybe, on second thought, I will look her up some other time.

What, no way, what the… that can’t be right. On the desk lay one of those calendars that took up most of where you worked. According to the calendar it was February 2, Friday 1990. 1990, only it is 1975. Nicks said five to seven days, not fifteen years; NOT FIFTEEN YEARS… WHAT THE HELL. That can’t be right. It’s not right, stomping my foot against the floor.

I am tired and the sun is coming up. Noticing the room was filling up with the light of day, I will have to figure all this out tomorrow.

I ran up to my hiding place. Pulling up the ladder, I slunk off to my corner curled up in my blankets and pillow. Then I did what any, strong, self reliant, independent, woman or man would do in my situation. I quietly cried myself to sleep.

I sleep like the dead. It was kind of strange; I didn’t move an inch and had no dreams whatsoever. I simply fell
asleep, then woke up with no real idea how much time had passed away. The attic was dark but not dark enough for night time.

I move into the middle of the attic and listen to make sure no one is home. After listening for a little while, I was sure the house was empty. Plus I saw a notice on the calendar that it was marked for a weekend trip to Grand Junction, to visit mom for the weekend.

So I kicked the ladder down and went down to the second level again, but this time, when I stood in the hallway, I could see all the sun streaming in from the adjacent rooms except for one. I had closed the blinds to the boy’s room with all the strange toys. I am glad that I did; I walked back into the room and looked at the strange clock. It stated it was 4:15 PM, so much for sleeping all day long.

I am thinking my first idea of burying myself would have sucked. I would have been stuck underground for hours wide awake. Well I am not a person to sit around and feel sorry for myself. I need to go forth, though I have no idea how. Sometimes you have to start with what you know. And what I know right this moment wouldn’t get you a cup of coffee, but I am dirty and dressed in what’s left of a fifteen year old cotton white dress that isn’t white anymore.

Down the hallway there are three rooms. The first room is the boys’ room; the second across from his room is an office; the third is full of exercise equipment, with filing cabinets and random stuff everywhere, and one more door at the end of the hall, a beautiful baby blue bathroom, which happened to have an outside window.

I could see the light shining out of the bathroom. The sunlight was not as blinding as I believed it would be. I found these really groovy sunglasses in the boy’s room called Oakley's, they are really strange looking. They’re just one big lens, and they are really dark. With them on I am enjoying life just a little bit better.

Now here comes the hard part; do I really burst into flames just because a little sunlight hits me? Well there's one way to find out for sure, and find out I must, or I have to wait till tonight to get a bath.

I walked up to the edge of the doorway. Why could I have not covered all the windows up last night? In my defense the whole 15 years missing had me a little preoccupied.  Enough stalling, I stuck my hand out into the light. My whole body tensed as I got ready for the pain.

Then nothing happened. I could feel the heat of the sun, but my hand was not on fire; whoopee, so I stepped out of the hall into the bathroom. It was annoyingly bright and now that the sunlight from the window was on my entire body, it was quite bothersome.

I really couldn't complain because I wasn't bursting into flames. So, with that, I covered the window with the boy’s comforter with the strange Star Wars symbols on it, and now it was very groovy in the bathroom. So I started the water. I ripped off the soiled cotton dress and did what I've been dreaming about since I woke up in that grave. I had a long hot bath.

Bath, shower, bath, shower, and then a bath; I was white again. Well maybe even more white than I remember. I never had a tan living in California; I was still as white as a snowflake, but now I was taking white to a new level.

I watch my claws come out of my hand like a cat. It was so weird; even my fingers became longer. I found that my teeth moved like a new muscle that extended and retracted at will; they never went completely away. If I lifted my top lip, the teeth lay right in front of my old teeth. I guess you can say that my teeth didn’t change; rather, new ones grew in. It was the same with my nails; the new nails were thick and hard, pointier and sharp around the edges. If I looked under the nails, I could kind of see my old nails.

And now that I did find my claws and teeth, I couldn’t help but play with them like a new toy. I moved them in and out. I did something I remember Nicks telling me about; I cut my hair off rather than cleaning it. Throwing it over onto the bathroom floor watching it turn to mud as it mixed, with the water on the floor, I kept cutting it off until all of my hair was brand new. It was the cleanest I could ever recall it being.

I was playing with my claws in the bath. I looked up into the mirror that sat above the sink. I stood up and looked at myself. I lifted my hands up and made my claws go long; at the same time I elongated my teeth and opened my mouth. Then I made a growling sound; I scared myself; I wanted to run away.

I put my teeth and claws away. I looked almost human. The things that gave it away were my skin tone and my eyes. It took me a second to really understand what was wrong with them. My eyes were huge, I stepped out of the tub and walked closer to the mirror.

My eyes were twice the size than they originally were. It was like I had owl eyes, and man, did I look like a freak. My eye color didn’t change; they were still blue as
the sky, just more to look at. If I kept my teeth up, and my claws away, the only thing that keeps me from passing for human are these eyes. I will need to keep my sunglasses on.

After that, I went downstairs and found my way to the master bedroom. Wearing nothing but a pair of sunglasses, I ransacked the room for anything of use. I found several items, first a good-sized gym bag with a strap. That would hold clothes I found in the closet that semi-fit me.

Second, I found a 45 1911 pistol, with one clip of ammo that might be handy even though I have never shot a gun before, I shoved it inside the gym bag. After digging around a little bit more, in the same drawer that I found the pistol, I also found $200 in cash, now that I needed.

I've always worn dresses and skirts, not pants, so it was good for me this lady had some dresses, but most of her clothes were pants. I wonder why? I guess in 1990 a lot of things are different; nonetheless I found black tights which I put on.

I slipped a dark blue dress on that hung to my knees. A big bulky jacket with a big hood finished my outfit. I settled for the pink snow boots. This lady’s feet must be huge, or mine small; all her other shoes won’t fit. They just fell off. Walking barefoot was what I wanted to do, but that would bring way too much attention to me, especially since there was snow on the ground, with the temperature hanging around freezing; I couldn’t go without footwear. With my sunglasses on, and the hood over my head, I put my gym bag over my shoulder.

I was ready to hit the road, but I was hungry again. Now this wasn’t the starving of last night, but I was still
ready for some breakfast. Since no one was around to help me out in my new life, I was not sure what to do.