Nosferatu

Ouch, was the first thing that came to my mind when I started thinking again. I couldn’t open my eyes. They felt heavy, weighing me down. Like weights tied to my ankles and dropped into the ocean.

Suddenly, the images came rushing back to me the horrid faces, the teeth, and with that thought I forced my eyes open. I was facing up at the sky filled stars. I tried breathing deeply to slow my heart rate. I felt as if my body was shattered.

“You’re right in trying to keep your heart rate down.” A voice said.

I sat up, pain shot down from my finer tips to the ends of my toes, “Who the fuck are you?” I turn to my left frantically greeted with emptiness and then turning to the right, there he was sitting on a tree branch with a cigarette in his mouth.

“Who I am is not important right now.” He jumps down from the tree dropping his cigarette and stepping on it. “What’s important is who you are.” He drops to one knee looking in my eyes, the electrical blue contrast with the blond hair.

“I am just a college girl.” He smirks and stands up pacing the small flat area between trees.

“Just a college girl tripping on acid?” He side glances at me.

I close my eyes tightly. “That is not any of your business.” I hear a light chuckle.

“As the savior of your life, I believe it would be a necessary curtsey.” He turns around again sitting next to me. I twitch and turn my head away from him.

“Please, I won’t bite you.” He laughs, it was harsh and cold. I turn back to him; the laugh although callous was enchanting.

“You saved me?” I tried to remember, everything felt fuzzy now. I put my hand to my head, and notice all the red blood oozing from my wrist. Oh God.

“Well, generally pulling you away from a pack of starving Nosferatu, yes, I would call that saving.”

“Nosferatu?”

He turned his head looking out into the empty trees,
“What your society calls vampires.”

“But those don’t exist; I thought that was just part of the trip.” I shook my head, oh, that hurts. I put my hand to the side of my head, where it was covered in sticky blood. I look back over at the blond character and he wore and all knowing smile, it was hard to tell which was brighter his teeth or his hair.

“What?” I ask, then I notice it, his eye teeth are larger and pointy. “Holy mother-” I scrambled back into a tree. How can this be? The drug has to be out of my system by now. Vampires, Nostfru-whatevers don’t exist.

They are just stories, bedtime stories for children.

“Okay, now you know what I am now tell me, who are you.” He rested his chin on his knuckles.

“Valerie.” I stuttered, closing my eyelashes. I should have lied, used something like Diana or Kansas.

“Well, at least you’re honest. Now, do you want me to fix your bruises?”

He is going to trick me and drain me. Maybe rape me, I don’t know. I made no movement.

“If you don’t want help that fine, good luck finding your way back to college.” He got up and looked down on me with those eyes. I couldn’t tell if it was out of pity, hatred or maybe curiosity. He turned to leave,

“Why are you speaking English?” He turned his head carefully, listening to my breath, my heart beat, he is feeding of my fear and even curiosity.

“The others spoke in some strange language and you are speaking to me in English.”

“So you can think. I speak English because you obviously have no comprehension of Latin. You see. Valerie, my kind is not so modern, we are part of an ancient race, we speak the ancient languages and keep to the ancient traditions.” He turns to face me.

I release the tension in my body, he doesn’t want to hurt me, he is explaining.

“How do you expect to heal me? I am a broken.” He closes his eyes.

“Come closer, and lay in front of me.” What? He expects me to move closer to him? “Stop over thinking it. It’s a simple request.” He answers to my thoughts in a low growl.

With great difficulty I lift myself of the ground, cracks of bones, and blood begins to flow again.

“How can you hold yourself back from the blood?” I ask as I lay on my back in front of him. He starts to remove his trench coat.

“Years of discipline. Stop asking so many questions.” He kneels on his left knee over my body. “Drink this.” He hand a small bottle. I stare at the green like floating algae.

“I am not poisoning you, that would ruin your blood wouldn’t it?” He smirks. I take off the top. It smells like rotting trees. I clench the bottle and take the whole bottle in one drink. It tasted like leaves mixed with honey.

“It’s just herbs, sweetheart. Now shush.” He lifted his hands over my body chanting. I didn’t see anything come out of his fingers. Then I felt it, it was like being wrapped in a warm blanket. His voice was swarming in my head. He touched my swollen eye, and my nose. My body relaxed, but my brain wasn’t. I was waiting for some form of pain.

I open my eyes fully, looking at my hands, there were no cuts left. I lift my hand up to my head and the sticky blood was gone. I look over to where he was standing with another cigarette,

“Who are you?”

“They call me D'Arcy Marquis.”