The Secret Hunger
This story can also be found @ Up Against the Wall Fiction
http://uatw-fiction.com
The moon was high in the sky, full and luminous, lighting the path before him, even though he could have seen perfectly fine in the dark without it. The wind howled around him, making the long black leather jacket he had on flow behind him. With each step he took, the sound of the leaves crunching underneath his feet hit his ears loudly. His dark blue eyes kept careful watch around him as he continued to walk, waiting for someone to pass by his way. He didn’t have long; he never did. It was becoming more difficult with each passing night to hide his secret, but it was vital if he wanted to survive. Thankfully, the cravings weren’t that bad, once a night and he was satisfied.
A high-pitched giggle made its way to his ears. He stopped walking and turned his body in the direction of the sound. A smile formed on his mouth as he seen the beautiful red head coming toward him, with a cell phone held up to her ear. Slowly, he took a couple steps back, never taking his eyes off his prey. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his dark colored blue jeans and waited for her to finish her approach. Licking his lips, feeling his hunger, he noticed his incisors were already growing. He couldn’t have been happier when he watched as the beauty folded the small pink cell phone and placed it in her silver and black handbag. Quickly, he scanned the area and saw no one else; they were perfectly alone. When she came within a couple feet from him, looking down at her feet, paying no attention where she was going, he stepped out in front of her, causing her to smack right into him.
“Hey, buddy, watch it!” She spoke loudly, lifting her head. As soon as her light green eyes took him in, they widened. Her mouth dropped open as she took a step back. “No, way,” she said quietly. She lifted a hand and pointed at him. “Oh, my God, you’re…”
He waved a hand to cut her off mid-sentence. “Yeah, yeah, I know. I’ve heard it before.” He said softly, staring her straight in the eyes. She started swaying back and forth on her feet, like she was suddenly feeling dizzy. He leisurely started circling her. “Now, tell me, what is a beautiful girl, such as yourself, doing out in the park this late at night, alone?”
“I…I was…was…huh, on my way home from…the…the…ummm…concert.” She stumbled. She suddenly felt as if she was about to pass out. She could literally feel the world moving beneath her feet. Her stomach felt nauseous. She raised a shaky hand and rubbed it over her forehead, it felt like it was on fire. She had no idea what was happening to her, but she wasn’t going to let on, especially in front of him.
“Was I there?” He questioned, lifting his hand and gently running it down the right side of her long, gorgeous, silky neck, as he continued to circle her; he felt her shiver from his touch. He felt like he was starving, but what fun would it be to just pounce and eat? He liked to play a little before his meal. The powers he possessed always amazed him and he loved watching how people abruptly became putty in his hands.
“Yeah, y…you…were…huh…there,” she managed, her voice barely a whisper now. Her eyelids were feeling heavy; she could barely keep her eyes open. “Y…you…were…on…on…stage.”
“So, you went to the *NSYNC concert tonight.” He assumed, circling her once more. That’s the only concert where she could have seen him; he chuckled to himself.
She couldn’t even respond verbally. She just shook her head.
He stopped on her left side, leaned his head over, and placed a kiss on her delicate neck. Before stepping back, his tongue sneaked out and licked a small trail from her collarbone to her earlobe. She tasted delicious. “Did you like it? Did you have fun?”
Again, she couldn’t speak, but she moved her head up and down twice, slowly, affirmatively.
“Good,” he whispered in her ear and she could feel his mouth’s movements. “I’m glad.”
He moved back in front of her and noticed how her head drooped; her chin was almost touching her chest. Her long red hair fell into her face. She was still swaying on her feet, looking almost like she was slow dancing with herself. He reached out his hands and flipped her hair, so that it was once more cascading down her back. Her breath came to her in long, deep, breaths; her heart was beating erratically, he could see it through the pulsing of her carotid artery. He stood there for a moment, just watching it, with each beat. He could hear the blood rushing through from her heart to her brain and back again. He licked his lips; he felt the hunger welling up inside of him, becoming painful. He knew it wouldn’t be much longer before he would have to feed.
He placed a finger under her chin and lifted her head, making her meet his gaze. Her eyelids fluttered slightly, but remained closed. She was beautiful. Her skin was flawless and lightly tanned. Her lips were full and voluptuous, glossed. Long eyelashes lay along slightly rouged cheeks, since her eyes were closed. He almost hated having to do this to her, but it was survival of the fittest.
“What’s your name?” He questioned the woman, wondering why he always asked their names. It didn’t make any difference; once he was finished with them, they were nothing but a shell anyway. A dead body for someone to find a day, a week, month, even a year later, but for some reason, even if it was the human side of him sneaking through the monster he had become, he wanted to know; he needed to know.
Her lashes fluttered, but she didn’t open her eyes. Her mouth moved at first without any coherent sound being formed, then after sticking her tongue out to wet her lips, she did relinquish her name to him.
“Olivia Winters? That is a pretty name, almost as pretty as you.” He stated, with no response from her. He knew he wouldn’t get a response from her anymore; she was too far entranced now. She was his.
He allowed his arms to fall back to his sides as he watched Olivia tip her head back. He circled around her for the last time. As he reached her right side, he wrapped an arm around her waist and led her back a few feet from the path to the coverage of the dying Oak trees, which lined it. They looked like two lovers, stealing away to have some time alone. Even though with his heightened senses he didn’t feel anyone coming, he didn’t want to take any chances that his meal may be disturbed.
Once enclosed in the blanket of darkness, amidst the thicket, he moved behind her, keeping an arm around her waist. Olivia’s head fell back onto his shoulder, opening herself up to him. Her petite frame slumped against his muscular form. Her long red hair cascaded over his arm and a few stray tendrils brushed against the back of his hand, allowing its softness to tickle him, though any other time, this position might have been arousing to him, he had other things in mind. The hunger was becoming increasingly more intolerable, causing his body to become uncomfortable, achy. Opening his mouth, his incisors instantly grew to their full length, knowing instinctively that it was time to feed. Without another wasted second, he lowered his mouth to her neck and bit down, hard. Olivia’s body jerked slightly, but then calmed right back into submission as its lifeblood started draining slowly out of the two small fresh puncture wounds in her neck.
It always felt weird to him as he felt his teeth break through the skin, but as soon as the fresh supply of blood found its way to his mouth, in quick, steady, hot spurts, he forgot the weirdness of it all and enjoyed his meal.
He stood there comfortably drinking from her wounds as her body started to become a dead weight against him. He had to tighten his grip on her as he sucked once more for a last little sip. He had to be careful, he couldn’t take the last drop of her blood, because, then, it would kill him along side of her. He couldn’t take too little because then she would change and he didn’t want to be responsible for that. There were already too many like him stalking the earth as it was. He had to take almost every drop and leave her for dead like everyone else he had fed from; they had each died and she would too, within seconds of hitting the ground.
With that last sip of her blood swallowed, he allowed her body to fall onto the dead autumn leaves. He licked his lips, removing the last traces of his meal, as his teeth went back to their normal size. Olivia, or what was left of her, an empty shell, lay there unmoving, almost in the fetal position. Her lightly tanned skin was no more as she looked white as a ghost, almost like a porcelain doll. He watched as she took her last shallow breath and her chest became still.
Feeling the warmth of her blood reheating his skin as it rushed through his veins, feeding his body, his hunger was satisfied. Taking a deep breath, he stuffed his hands into the pockets of his denim jeans, and strolled out of the grove of trees. Once again, it seemed as soon as he stepped out into the open, the cool fall wind blew around him, kicking up red, orange, and yellow leaves around his feet. He pulled his leather trench coat a little tighter around his body, wanting to savor the warmth that Olivia had given him, not wanting the cool weather to steal it away from him too soon. Finally feeling complete, he went back the way he had come; back to the Ramada Hotel.
When he entered into the back entranceway to the hotel, he had to squint his eyes for a moment, before they adjusted to the bright florescent lights. He didn’t have an aversion to light as portrayed in the movies, but it did take a moment for his eyes to adjust when he had been in prolonged darkness. In fact, he could walk outside in the middle of day and not poof into a ball of dust or fall to the ground with nothing left but his skeleton. The only draw back was his eyes while outside during the day, they were very sensitive to natural sunlight on a sunny day but that was easy enough to rectify. He just wore sunglasses and no one was the wiser. He was after all, a day walker, a night stalker.
Reaching the back elevator, he pushed the up button and waited for it come down to the ground floor and retrieve him. He crossed his arms and glanced at the gold wristwatch, he wore on his left wrist. A sigh escaped through his lips as he realized he hadn’t been gone an hour. He should be able to arrive on his floor without being met by a ton of questions and get ready for the party with no problems.
Time to return to the land of the living, he thought as he first shrugged his right shoulder then his left, before standing up a bit straighter. He heard the whooshing sound of the elevator as it made it’s decent. Within a few seconds, the chime sounded and the double black glossy doors opened, allowing him to step inside the confines. He pushed the button to his floor and leaned back against the elevator wall as the doors closed, hiding him with their enclosure.
By the time he could have counted to ten, the doors opened, releasing him. He stepped into the hallway and casually made his way toward his room. Just as he was about to swipe the keycard through the sensor, he heard someone approaching him in a hurry. He retrieved his hand away from the machine on the wall next to his door and replaced the keycard back into his pocket. He turned around and placed a smile of greeting on his face. He couldn’t help but chuckle when he saw his friend round the corner.
“Justin! There you are, buddy.” Chris Kirkpatrick exclaimed stopping within two feet of him. “I was just coming to…” Chris paused, as he looked Justin up and down, his brow furrowed, his head tilted. “You’re going to a Halloween party like that?” He questioned, holding his right hand out, palm up, bouncing it around. “What are you supposed to be?”
Justin just laughed. “Well, I must say nothing as obvious as a skeleton.”
Chris looked down at his black costume that had white plastic glow in the dark bones placed on it in the form of a skeleton, with a grin on his face. “Well, at least I won’t be questioned all night, like you.”
“Are you two ready?” Joey Fatone questioned, bounding over to them, clearly dressed as a pirate, even down to the black patch over his left eye.
“I am, but I don’t know about J, here.” Chris answered nodding his head toward Justin.
Justin shook his head and rolled his eyes at Chris’s antics. “I’m ready. I have no idea what you mean, CK?” Justin inquired, joking back, as the three men made their way down the corridor. “I’m clearly in character.”
All three of them laughed as they approached the elevator. As they waited for it to make its ascent, a clown, and a knight met them.
“How are you supposed to bump and grind in that?” Joey asked JC, looking at his suit of armor, doing a little dance move to demonstrate his point.
JC switched his helmet from one hand to the other. “I won’t have any problems moving and grooving with the ladies, Joe. Trust me…all my equipment works perfectly.” He finished, giving his friend a knowing wink, patting his suit of armor on the chest, which caused everyone to laugh aloud once more.
As the chime sounded and the doors to the elevator opened again, they each entered it one at a time. Before Chris pushed the button for the ground floor, he reached over and squeezed Lance’s big red nose. A honk, honk was clearly heard. “Man, oh, man, what a bunch of clowns I’m stuck with.” Chris stated as the double doors closed and the elevator begun its descent. “A pirate, a clown, a knight…, and whatever J man here is,” he pointed at Justin. “I’m the only one in the Halloween spirit apparently.”
“Hey just because you’re a skeleton, doesn’t mean you’re the only one who is in the Halloween spirit. We all dressed up, isn’t that spirit enough?” Lance inquired as the elevator jerked and came to a stop.
“Okay, I’ll give you, JC, and Joey the benefit of the doubt, but not J. He looks normal.” Chris responded getting out of the elevator. “I mean, what are you supposed to be?” He questioned Justin for the second time, making his way toward the black stretch limousine, which was sitting there, idling, waiting for them.
Justin just responded by shrugging his shoulders and smiling.
Joey stopped walking and took Justin’s appearance in carefully. Suddenly his brown eyes lit up as he thought he might have an answer to Chris’s question. “I got it!” He exclaimed, causing everyone to stop mid step. “I figured it out. I know what Justin dressed up as!”
“You do?” Chris asked turning toward Joey and Justin, who were standing behind him.
“Do tell.” Justin added, crossing his arms across his chest. He just knew this was going to be a good one.
Joey cleared his throat as if he had a very important announcement to make. “If you think about it, it’s obvious. The black jeans, white button up shirt, long black leather trench coat….even down to the small drops of fake blood on his collar, here.” Joey walked over to Justin and lifted up the collar of his white shirt to show everyone his discovery. “He’s going as a vampire.”
Chris slapped himself in the head as he slowly shook it negatively. “I can’t believe I couldn’t figure it out. Is he right, J? Are you going as a vampire?”
Justin clapped his hands together, before rubbing them back and forth, as he stared at his four best friends in front of him. He didn’t know he had any traces of his meal on him, but apparently, he did. He would need to be more careful for now on. “Yeah, I am. Joe guessed it. Now, can we go?”
“Sure thing,” Lance said, throwing the back door to the limo open and jumping inside; everyone else followed close behind.
Everyone that was, except for Justin Timberlake, he just stood there, watching them merrily getting inside the limousine, ready to have a good time, not suspecting a thing. What Chris didn’t know was that Justin was always in costume, acting as some character in a play. He was no longer the same Justin Chris had known for years. He was no longer human. Appearing human was a costume he wore every day. The costume they thought he wore tonight was in all actuality his true form. What they didn’t know was that they performed, ate, rehearsed, and practically lived side by side with a vampire. However, what they didn’t know didn’t hurt them. They didn’t have to know about his secret. He hoped and prayed they never found out about his secret life, his secret hunger.
He walked toward the limo, got inside, and closed the door. That secret was left for females caught out alone after dark, just like it was for Olivia Winters, he thought as the limo pulled out of the underground parking area and into the night, just like it will be for the woman he found tomorrow night.
The End!
Number of reviews: 2
Print:
