Life Starts After Dark

In the morning, I awoke to find myself alone in my bed. My heart ached that I had expected any different. I suppose this was how every woman in love with a vampire felt. I got ready early in the morning, just a while after sunrise, when I knew Eric was just about to fall asleep.

Once I was ready for work, I quickly drew a gauzy red scarf from my closet and wrapped it around my throat, so it covered the two tender bite marks on my neck.

I was prepared to walk to work, so I was surprised to find a sleek black car sitting in the driveway. I walked up to it and tried the door. It was unlocked. The keys were in the ignition.

Eric had left me a note on the passenger’s seat. It read:

Dearest Skylar,

I hope you find my car to your liking until I can buy you a new one.

Love, Eric.

I mentally thanked him as I started the car, bringing the engine purring to life. I drove carefully down the gravel road to Merlotte’s, well aware that this car must be worth twice as much as mine.

With a jolt, I remembered that I no longer worked at Merlotte’s. The quarrel between Sam and me had been enough to effectively end our friendship. I would no longer be welcome there.

I remembered his jealous rage that night, followed by his desperation and sadness. I knew that what I had done had extremely hurt him, and decided that showing up to work after I had said I would not would be the opposite of helpful, and would more than likely cause another fight between the two of us.

So I quickly turned Eric’s car around in the middle of the road and drove back to my house, deciding to wait it out until nightfall, when Eric would be awake. I found that I missed him already, even though he had probably left my side less than eight hours before.

A familiar collie approached me as I was unlocking my front door, and his nails clacked lightly on the weathered wood panels of my front porch.

“Hey, buddy. How are you doing today?” I asked, not feeling the least bit silly for having a one way conversation with a dog.

The dog whimpered, leaning heavily on my right leg as he sighed.

“That bad, eh?” I scratched the top of his soft, furry brown head as I opened the front door. “Would you like to come inside for a little while?”

He barked, a wolfish grin on his face and jumped gleefully.

“I’ll take that as a yes.” I smiled as I gestured for the dog to go in first. He obliged. “Now, I don’t have dog food, but I am sure I can get you something…”

I stopped talking when I heard the collie’s low growl. He was like a hunting dog on point, his nose directed at the dark hallway around the corner from the foyer.

I quickly rounded the corner, afraid of what might be lurking there. Something sharper than instincts told me that there was someone there, but for whatever reason I dismissed my feelings for paranoia.

And then I was thrown to the ground before I could even realize what was happening to me. I kicked and pushed, screamed as loud as I possibly could, but it was to no avail. A few of my hits had made contact, but they probably didn’t make much of a difference, because shortly afterward, he was sitting on my torso, immobilizing my arms and essentially the rest of my body with his massive weight.

A syringe came briefly into my view before I felt a sharp prick at my neck. And then I couldn’t move a single muscle, and I went into a state of paralyzed darkness.
_______________________________________________________________________

I was regaining the feeling back in my fingers and toes, and my vision had gone from black to a fuzzy, opaque gray.

I realized I was being carried, and saw the blurry shape of the man walking in front of the person that was carrying me. I thought briefly from the way that their footsteps echoed on the pavement and from the darkness around me, that I must be in some sort of parking garage.

I listened closely, hoping I could hear some sort of sound that would maybe narrow down my location. I had no luck besides the fact that I knew I was not near a freeway or heavily populated area. I could hear no people or traffic sounds.

I heard the ding of an elevator closing, and that was when the man holding me noticed that I was no longer unconscious.

There was another prick at my neck, and then I was immobilized again.