Say Your Prayers, You're Really Gonna Need Them.

★ ★ ★ - Indicates point of view change.

-

“Blood transfusions,” I blurted out before blushing, this drink must be short circuiting my brain.

"I had countless amounts of them when I was ill; the doctors said it was strange because it was like my own blood was drying up in my veins.” I nodded completely eclectically before turning to look at him, he looked deep in thought.

“That could be the edge of your blood I was talking about... but surely it would have regulated itself by now but it doesn’t smell that way... doesn’t taste that way, it’s still as piquant.” he frowned.

And I nodded,
“Oh... right?” I replied with a knit of my brows, “Not much I can do really is there?” I shrugged.

“Suppose not.” Harlan replied with a shake of his head.

The Sun by now was getting lower in the sky and a cool breeze was beginning to form.
As it blew past it felt as though it was kissing my skin cold.

I shivered a little and took another swig, pushing my body down so I was now looking up the sky, which shone reds and oranges.

“Can I ask another question?” I probed quietly, turning to look at him.
He looked down with heavily lidded eyes and just nodded gently before resuming to look at whatever he had been prior to interruption.

“How do you become...like you? I mean because if it was anything like the legends or the movies, I would be one now right?” I asked sheepishly, resulting in a small chuckle from Harlan’s direction.

He took an audible breath, “There are two ways to be turned, you see vampires are venomous; the venom makes up half of the blood that circulates in our veins. But it only gets released through choice... it’s not a hard thing to control and its rarely used... the most common time of use is when you’re trying to turn a large number of people at any one time... I'm pretty certain that was how I became this way,” He stopped momentarily to look at me; I just nodded for him to go on.

“The venom paralyzes the cells and nerve endings, creeps quickly through the bloodstream stopping the heart and making the brain more parallel; it happens at a rapid speed and once bitten you fall asleep, the sleep itself speeds up the process as your mind and body is relaxed,” He paused and I waited patiently before he continued.

“The other way to be turned is to exchange blood; it generally works the same way.
Vampire bites, drinks the victim near to death, then makes a small incision in their own skin and the victim drinks the blood... it’s pretty straight forward, the same thing happens...but if the venom again is not released the vampires blood can be used to heal humans... that once again very rarely happens, just because we as vampires want humans to be injured to therefore put up less of a fight when feeding, if they were healthy It would just take too much effort.” he shrugged.

I sat their deep in my own thoughts, trying to picture what he was saying.
“Why blood?” I asked after a few more moments.
Harlan looked at me, but didn’t reply... it seemed he didn’t have all the answers after all.

-

I swigged the last dregs of the bottle, now thoroughly drunk and pretty fuzzy.

Sliding off the bonnet I had to steady myself on the car to refrain from taking a tumble, my whole body felt heavy and clumsy, all actions seemed to take numerous amounts of minutes to complete and even longer to contemplate in the first place.

I turned my head to look at Harlan, “Home?” I slurred.

Even in my own state I could see he was in a much better position than I was as far as alcoholic limits were.

He just smiled lazily before standing up, also resting his hands on the car for support.
“Can’t drive now.” he mumbled before grabbing a few things rashly from the car including my bag, which he rested on the bonnet.

He stood in front of me and then fumbled to remove his jacket before draping it across my shoulders.

I snuggled into it a little, breathing in its smell; which was made up of cigarettes, old leather and a very pleasant aftershave.

Realizing then that this was the first time I’d seen him remove his jacket all day, I smiled involuntarily.

I leant forward to take my bag as Harlan was ambling around in the car.
“Where are we going?” I asked inaudibly, kicking at a rock with my shoe before Harlan was back in front of me.

“We’re going to have to find a motel... I can’t drive.” he deliberated, looking thoughtful as he mulled it over.

I must have had a look of dismay etched on my face because Harlan rolled his eyes at me.
“Don’t give me that look... think of it as an adventure.” he smirked.

I just grunted in reply before I began following him towards the dark stretch of road.

-

The motel was a twenty minute walk away and I trudged along it silently, my drunken demeanour keeping me incredibly occupied as I chewed over literally everything my eyes scanned and analyzed.

I tried to keep in time with Harlan but he was an expeditious walker and my legs couldn’t keep up the pace.

“If you wanted me to slow down you should have just asked.” he said suddenly with an insolent smile.

“What I need is to sit down.” I whined before plunking myself down on the dusty road.

Harlan crouched down in front of me causing my gaze to avert to his, I could see in his eyes that he was seriously intoxicated and yet he still remained poised.

“Come on, It’s literally round that little bend and then you can sit, lay, sleep, even dance... on a comfy bed... with soft clean sheets.” he winked before offering me his hand.

I huffed angrily, he made the bed sound so tempting and yet I could imagine the motel being a complete travesty, with rats and a stained mattress for a bed and most probably an outline of a dead body for decor.

I began to inwardly giggle, that was until I crashed into Harlan’s back.

I realized then that we were standing outside of the motel, I apologised to Harlan quickly before surveying the motel itself.

It was a little dilapidated but certainly tolerable, choosing to stay where I was Harlan casually strolled over to the front desk.

Behind it sat an old woman whom Harlan conversed with briefly; she looked past his shoulder halfway through their chat in quite an obvious manner and evaluated me.

I didn’t do anything, just looked back; in all honesty I was beginning to feel as though normal social interactions were becoming too complex for me to carry out.

But the woman was now re-looking at Harlan and nodded understandingly before handing him a key.

I frowned, but thought nothing of it as he walked back over to me, the desk woman looked at me again and out of politeness I smiled half-heartedly.

She returned it warmly before turning her attention to something I couldn’t see on her desk.

We let ourselves into the small room, I was surprised to see it was actually pretty decent, if not a little outdated decor wise.

Adorned with a double bed, a bathroom and a small television set; I plunked myself down on the bed and looked around again before Harlan spoke.

“Will you be alright for a few minutes if I run to a shop?” he asked whilst leaning against the door frame, the lights from the outside giving him a darkened glow.

I sat up on my elbows before nodding, “Yeah... I’ll be fine.”

“You need anything?” he asked.

“I’ll have what you’re having.” I mumbled with a passé twirl of the hand.

He just smiled and shook his head before closing the door behind him leaving me alone in the dark with my thoughts.