My Savior Drinks Blood

"Now tell me, boy. Do you wish to live?"

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

With a start, I suddenly awakened to the sound of my blaring alarm.

“Mmgh...weird ass dream..” I groaned, struggling to pull myself out of bed while I sucked my teeth with despair. After grumbling to myself for a few moments, I rolled my eyes and got out of bed, swiftly pushing the creepy bodiless voice from my dream to the back of my mind.

“Yay Monday..” I said very sarcastically, dragging my feet towards the bathroom to prepare for school. 

When I think about getting ready for school, every, single day,  nothing thought provoking nor interesting comes to mind. Not often. Nah, never, actually.

Once I reached the mirror next to my bedroom door,  I looked into it and stared at the reflection that stared right back at me. For some reason, I was mad.

 I can't figure out why. Why am I so angry, and at who? Myself? But why? 

“Whatever, I don’t even care that much” 

By this point the alarm became a background noise that slowly drew me back into reality, helping me become fully conscious to the waking world.

“Fuck-that’s loud” 

After turning it off, I drearily pulled on my clothes and got ready for school.

“It's getting pretty cold, so I guess I'll put on a hoodie today” 

Once that was done and I slipped on some plain jeans, I marched down into the kitchen from my second story bedroom. I quickly noticed a  note on the bathroom door after taking my usual scan across the house. 

It read: “Hey kiddo I'll be out of town for a bit, maybe two or three months. But don’t worry! mommy’s got you covered! I left money for you on the table and if you need extra just text me. love you: Erakajah”

 The note even had a little heart at the bottom right corner. If I were being honest, if I didn’t see this note I would probably just had skipped a trip to the bathroom. But now I'm forced to go in and brush my teeth and wash my face. After all, that note was left there specifically so I don't forget, knowing her.

 After I finished washing my face, I immediately begun brushing my teeth and thought to myself some oddly somber, random stuff. Through my foggy, still dreamy state, visions of an older, middle aged man flashed across my visions, making me feel a little reflective.

 “I wonder how different my life would be if my dad wasn’t dead. I mean, I don’t think I ever even met the guy. But for some reason I feel like he would save me from this lame life. How differing would my life really be..."

These visions of him were based off vaguely memorized images that were taken of him, so I barely even know what he looks like. Still, I'm curious how good or bad things would be if he were with us.

Would my mom finally be home? Or would it be him that was home?

”Well theres no point in thinking about it if it's not gonna change" I said, dismissively.

 After spitting out the toothpaste and cleaning up the area briefly, I started heading to the kitchen.

 “What to eat what to eatttt...oh- I kinda want that honey bun so I'll take that, I guess”

While I ate my sweet  treat after grabbing it from the cabinet, I put on my shoes and walked out the door.

  “Yo-Ejah” a voice called out to me soon after I began my walk.

 “Hm? Oh, hey Zay. Why are you waiting here?” I said, turning to look at him.

 “You know I was waiting for you man. You've been so sad recently, and I know we're not as close as we were before, but your still my best friend”.

 I sighed and thought to myself, silently. 

 He’s right. I have been a major downer recently, but it makes me feel better knowing I have someone in my circle at least

 “Thanks man-uhhh...yeah, lets get going”

Because the distance between my house and the school I walked to everyday was pretty short, it only usually took about 5-9 minutes to get to either area.

As we continued walking,  Zay talked about random and somewhat interesting topics. A large portion of the time I would be lost on what he was saying, not because I wasn’t paying attention, but because it was so off to hear him talking about these things.

 Talking to Zay like this again made me realize how much people change with time, and sometimes it's gonna feel off and pretty wonky- but overall not bad.  I mean, I have no problems with this version of Zay.  I'm aware that me, him, and everyone else has problems with...life in general, so we all adapt differently to it. I understand nobody is perfect, but to actually see the change in somebody you knew so well for so long seems so….surreal.

We continued to walk and talk, though he did much of the talking, until we got to school. 

“Alright I gotta get to class now, so I'll talk to you later Ejah” he said.

 'I wonder how he felt talking to me.  Probably bored, from what I imagine. I mean I barely talked the entire time we walked, so I couldn’t blame the guy. It was nice talking to him after a while though' I said to myself, a small smirk crowning  my face as I began walking to class.

 As I sat down in my first class of the day, my eyes quickly started getting heavy. Next thing I knew the bell rang, and the  teacher didn't even  bother waking me up. Ever since the beginning of the year I’ve made it pretty obvious I don’t care much about my grades or work, so it makes sense why this instructor-and pretty much every other one I have a class for don't really care to help me out in any way.

 With that being said, I’m still somehow keeping my grades from failing.  My lowest grade is a 74 and my highest is a 91 in gym. Everything else is somewhere between those numbers. 

As I pondered quietly to myself about the validity of my grades and how okay-ish they were on my way to the next class, I once again felt my mind wander off into that familiar haze of drowsiness brought about by the curse of not going to bed at night.

My sleep schedule is pretty terrible.

After I somehow got through the school-day,  I walked back home as I pondered what I could possibly do. 

I was bored. Very bored. Not surprisingly, obviously. I mean there's nothing to do in this town.

But suddenly, a realization struck me.

“Maybe I could go to that one abandoned house on Mainline street” I mumbled quietly to myself, before a shiver unexpectedly shook me to my core.

 “The hell was that? Wait.. huh? why am I bleeding?” I blurted uncharacteristically, looking down at my finger. 

My eyes widened instantly, as I noticed a trickle of blood move down my index finger, almost like it was pricked with a thumbtack, or maybe like I touched a cactus more accurately.

 “Hm.. that’s weird. Maybe I  just scraped my hand or something. Whatever”

 Anyway, with my haphazard plan set in stone in my mind, I continued heading back to my house. Once I arrived I took off my shoes and went to the bathroom to apply a band aid to the partially snipped finger, then waltzed up to my bedroom, fell on the bed, and went straight to sleep. 

When I opened my eyes again, I noticed the bright full moon, glistening brilliantly across the sky. 

It was nighttime.

I shifted my gaze to my clock, watching its numbers as they shifted from 12:59am to 1:00am on the dot. 

“Ugh, it's already so late.....I guess I'll get going, though. Not like I can go back to sleep now” I groaned.

I put on my shoes, and took a short 10 minute walk to the abandoned house.

 KICK KICK CRASH

 I booted the door open with 2 powerful kicks.

After I pulled on the handle to make sure it would stay open, I casually walked inside the dark abode.

 “I'm not too sure on what I expected from this place.. I guess I'll explore a bit"

 I shut the door to make sure no one saw me roaming around inside, and walked around a bit.

After moving around the darkness for a while, a strange noise that I kept hearing ever since I walked past the entrance began to bother me. It was almost like..a dripping sound.

 “Ever since I came in here, I've been hearing this dribbling sound. Maybe the waters on or something?” I spoke to myself.

As I turned the corner to walk into yet another different room.. another noise, more quiet than the water-like sound, quickly got closer and closer. By the time I realized it had drawn as close as it could, it was already too late.

 When I looked down, I saw a hand drawing back a knife from my gut.

I was stabbed.

My vision shuttered, and my focus went  in and out while my vision blurred. Almost as soon as I figured out what had happened, I started running to the main door. Holding my gut as I reached it, I saw my hand extend, but something was off.

It was like..another presence..more than just one..was with me in that room.

“Hmmmmm...mmmmmm... mmmmm...” the voice of a  man hummed,  each one taking his voice lower and lower.

 “You know, this is just bad luck.  For about...let's say 2 years,  I've been coming here after killing someone, and hiding away from the police. But you, you decided today was the day you wanted to adventure” he said with an intimidatingly gentle tone,  slowly moving closer to me.

 “My finger.. why is it poring out blood?  There were only dribbles earlier..” I said despondently,   then I quickly cried out: “SOMEONE- PLEASE HELP ME!” 

 “Look kid, nobody even lives in this neighborhood. You're not gonna get saved by anyone, sor-“ 

Before he could even finish his sentence,  I watched the man who I thought I’d die to, fall helplessly to the ground, as his head collapse in on itself. 

The scene left me mortified, as chunks of flesh and bone surrounded me. The putrid smell of blood made me gag instantaneously,  the rotten stench filling my lungs with a strange hint of iron mixed in. 

Petrified, I quickly moved away and fell to the ground, watching the body as I trembled in fear. Finally, after what felt like a century, I looked up once more... and saw a small girl with short black hair.

She looked down on me. Expressionless.

Her hair fell slightly below her shoulders, her crimsonred eyes that pierced my very soul glistening through the darkness, only somewhat illuminated by the small streaks of moonlight that seeped through the crevices of the old dusty house. Her skin was pale, almost as if she'd been doused in flour. 

She continued to stare at me as I met her gaze, her mouth opening to reveal a pair of sharp teeth.

 “So tell me, boy. Do you want to live?”

 “W-what?” I replied completely at a loss.

 “I'm asking, do you want to live, human boy?” she restated.

 “Y-yes..” I replied swiftly.

 I was desperate to live. I wanted to keep living.

 “Good choice” she said, her red eyes shining with a gleam resembling red diamonds.

 Their glow was incredible, almost completely blowing me away with their beauty.

 She then vanished, leaving a trail of smoke and a spiral of bats behind. As the bats moved in circles, quickly expanding outwardly in my direction, I brought  my hands up to guard my face as I feared...

Wait, what did I fear?

Suddenly, she reappeared. Right in front of me..and hardly a second after she had just vanished. 

Without a moment to waste, she then bent down towards me, grabbing my finger gently and outstretched her tongue before stick it into my wounded index. With a curious look, she bite down on its inner right side, leaving a small scar in her wake.

 “AAAAGHHH-” 

I balled my fist to bear with the pain, pulling back my hand as tears flew freely from my eyes. Once she moved away, she licked the remaining blood off her lips with a dissonant expression.

As the pain flooded through my entire body, it quickly was replaced with a warm, bubbling feeling as my skin and tissue seemingly repaired itself just as quickly as it had been damaged.

 “What's going on. How did-” 

 “You are now a vampire, boy. You could say that you are my offspring, of sorts. Now ..leave this place, and return next week when the New moon paints the sky”

I sputtered back, looking up at her with reverence.

 “Ma’am..miss.. th-”

 “I need not your thanks. Now... leave”