Chapter 1: 16 Years Later

In a storage room repurposed rests a young woman appearing nearly thirty years old. The cluttered mess that surrounds her isn’t her own but rather the same forgotten shelves and cleaning equipment left behind when the building was still in use. At a glance you can tell the building is quite old, but there isn’t a speck of dust anywhere. The woman is -

“Aargh! Why is writing an autobiography so difficult?!” My quiet scream echoed off the very walls I tried my best to describe. I threw my pen at the small pile of notebooks before me, they were all filled with my own life story. Albeit they were all mostly uneventful, especially of late. These days, each memory is precious to me. Unfortunately, an infinite lifespan doesn’t warrant infinite recountability when it comes to memory, so I’ve been writing down my experiences every month to help me remember them all if I were to ever forget. 

I’m also trying to become a novelist as well for a source of income, killing two birds with one stone.

The world has changed so much since I was born, but something that never has is money. Never having any, I am left with no choice but to find abandoned spaces and occupy them. To keep things simple I don’t have many possessions, just my notebooks, some old trinkets of my past, and a pile of clothes that double for my pillow and blanket. Even now I’m thinking of this monologue while sitting on a metal cabinet I knocked over to use as a couch.

“When I think to myself, I find it so easy to discover the words I need to say, but the moment I try writing anything down my mind becomes empty.” I groaned while I set my current diary down with the others before letting out a slight yelp as I started to fall during my attempt to lean against the non-existent back of this terrible excuse for a “couch”.

As I lay here staring up at the ceiling, I am filled with sorrow. “Someone like me, who should have the easiest time writing a story, is unable to. I just need money! That one lady made a fortune on her vampire love triangle and it was fiction! I am a real vampire and yet my own life has never been able to sell!!!” I curl into a ball as my stomach calls out for food.

People like to say that immortality isn’t a blessing but a curse for one reason or other but I’ve never heard anyone say the real reason living so long sucks. I am unable to have a real identity. It is all because of these modern inventions that ask for information I don’t have or they won’t accept, which makes finding work nearly impossible, which means I can’t make money, and without money, you can’t live! But wait, there’s more! I can’t stop living either!

My resentment for my current circumstances was only able to ease my mind for a short while. Unable to resist the vampiric calling, I grab my favorite jacket from my blanket pile and head out into the night in search of fresh blood.

***

[The night was quiet, only accompanied by a chill breeze. The stars and the moon illuminated the night sky making the need for street lights minimal. Along a concrete laid path is a woman dressed in navy jeans and a clean white shirt. Her cropped black leather jacket tried to flutter in the wind, instead it danced with each of her steps clicking against the sidewalk.

The woman had no clear destination, she simply wandered the night as if it was hers. Being a vampire, she may have some claim to night as when the moonlight reached her skin, she became far more radiant and beautiful than any other living creature. One can imagine that a being so old was certainly confused when people would walk by seemingly talking to themselves as if another was there, when in all actuality, this vampire is just a little out of date with modern electronics.

Soon, the woman stopped in her voyage, basking in the artificial glow of an illuminated structure out in the city.]

I stumbled across a building that with my amazing deduction skills told me was an apartment complex. Walking towards the entrance I found the doors glued shut. I kept pushing and pulling and the only thing that would change was a flashing red light next to the door. I decided to take a few steps back and find another way inside. Looking up I saw that most of the lights from above were off through the windows which was nice.

“Guess I have no other choice.” I whispered to myself as I prepared to sneak into one of the rooms. Thanks to that stupid Bram Stoker guy, people tend to think that vampires can transform into bats and have other supernatural powers, but in reality all I can do is drink through two of my teeth.

Unless… I just haven’t figured out how to do any of that so I bend my knees in an attempt to jump up and fly.

Nothing happened.

[The small number of people walking to and from the lobby gave strange looks to the woman who jumped mere inches off the ground in repeated attempts to “fly”. But that is all the attention they would give her for they each had their own lives to live, and knew better than to interact with strangers in the middle of the night.]

Shamefully I reach towards the fire escape and start climbing up them while muttering to myself under my breath. “Stupid bats. Dracula should’ve been more easily associated with wolves since not only does he transform into one, he commands them at the beginning while he’s pretending to be a normal coach driver. Ugh! People need to learn how to read instead of going by what other people say.” I felt the urge to try flying again but this time I would try flapping my arms but that only got me more upset.

Upon my ascent I felt like I was a cat burglar, it was surprisingly fun to envision spotlights searching an area and I had to do my best to remain unseen. Then my mind drifted into the question of why they’re even called cat burglars, or why one would be in a scenario that felt more like escaping from prison. Unable to answer any of those questions, I’m reminded of my love-hate relationship with cats.

After a flight or two, my body began to grow tired. I blamed the malnutrition, but logically, it’s because I wouldn’t pass any fitness test with my lifestyle as it is. With a quiet prayer I tugged upwards at the nearest window, and I was answered by it being unlocked. Slipping inside made me feel so much cooler, like I was now a spy in some movie. I look around to see that the bedroom I’m in is very minimal, a human after my own heart. I find that it belongs to a woman, one that hasn’t had time to fully unpack her things it seems.

[The room was fully furnished, don’t let the emptiness fool you. It was an apartment occupied by a simple woman who didn’t need much for herself. The only company she ever had was the occasional visit from her parents, who kept their daughter’s room at home the same as it was since she left for college a couple of years back. That’s where the rest of the few belongings this woman had were.]

I felt a strange pull and yet everything about this felt wrong. Normally I feed on people who either try becoming vampires themselves or old people who wouldn’t mind a painless end. To do it like this, it isn’t who I am, and yet…

With silent steps I approach, my hunger grows relentlessly, my thoughts are filled only with imaginings of how tasty a meal this will be, and the relief of no longer being hungry. My eyes have yet to make contact with her neck but instead they’re locked onto her nightstand, there’s a photo of her with two people standing behind her. I assume they’re her parents.

[Although no one could say for certain, the look on the woman’s face when she stopped to look at the picture on the nightstand must’ve been an expression filled with a little pain and a lot of sadness. Not only in regards to her own instincts taking the reins from her morals, but in how a woman so old yearned for times long gone. A happy family, something she no longer has.]

Suddenly my heart is no longer in this. I ignore the pain of my stomach as I leave back from where I came. I can feel my pulse racing as a strange guilt builds in my chest. Looking down from the railing I see that I’m not even that high up, and for a moment I think about jumping straight down and landing in a cool pose, instead I smile to myself as I take the safer way down knowing that even now, I can still distract myself from the unpleasantness that accompanies everyday life.

“I mean, it’s not even that big a deal. I’ve gone longer without blood before, all that happened is that my body entered a weird life support mode for a while. I’ll be fine.” Deep down I was aware enough of what it meant for someone to tell themselves that but I couldn’t let myself feel that way. I have an image to maintain, for someone dear to me.

My hand reaches towards the bracelet I’ve carried for nearly twenty years now, comparatively a short moment compared to the centuries I’ve lived through and yet, what this bracelet means to me is equally as dear, if not more, than trying to act like that cool girl who most adults would consider to be a bad influence.

Retracing my steps back to that abandoned storage room I’ve called home for the past ten years felt longer than the time it took to get here. I take another look up at the sky as I rest my hands in the pockets of my black leather jacket.