Ruby and Will

A pain in my gut was telling me to open my eyes, telling me to find some food before I died. I agreed to open my eyes, and when I did I realized that I was back in my alley; it was still dark out. I looked around and noticed my back pack had been torn apart, and the only items that hadn’t been destroyed were my mothers’ leather jacket and the pocket knife. The books, however, had not survived. A horrid amount of pages lay scattered before me on the mud covered ground; it would be hopeless to try and assemble the books back together.
I stood up to retrieve the jacket, but before I could pick it up off the ground I noticed a hand lying beside it. The hand was attached to the body of a young man whom I never saw before.
The young man was breathing, but shortly. He looked up at me with dying fear in his eyes and said with plead, “Please, just let me go.”
I was confused. Why was he asking me this? I didn’t even know who he was. I picked up my jacket instead of answering, but when I threw it over my shoulder and turned to leave the ally I caught a whiff of something amazing.
“You shouldn’t deny your hunger,” a deep voice hissed. I turned to see who it was, but I already knew.
“You,” I glared at him; remembering his blond hair and electric blue eyes instantly. I tasted anger on my tongue. Did I hate him? “Did you follow me back from the cemetery?” I asked, avoiding the other questions on my mind.
“No, I brought you back from the cemetery,” he said simply and strode towards me.
“Thank you, I guess,” I didn’t really know what to say to him so I averted my eyes and let my anger subside. “Why are you still here then? Don’t you have other things to do?”
“I’m here because you cannot be trusted to be left alone, and you are my most important responsibility at the moment.” He said with amusement.
I didn’t quite understand what he meant so I picked up my pocket knife to use it on him if he didn’t leave me alone.
“You won’t need that scrap metal anymore.” He grinned, then came up beside me, picked the knife from my hands, and played with it between his fingers before saying in a playful voice, “Allow me to explain.”
Before I could argue he thrust the blade into his chest where the heart would be. I shrieked, because I thought that he had just committed suicide but when he didn’t fall to the ground dead and bleed out I became confused.
“Are you insane?” I finally asked, not knowing what else to say. He ripped the blade from his body and threw it behind his shoulder where it landed perfectly into the dumpster behind him.
“Not necessarily, but I have been accused of being so,” he smirked. “Here,” he said as he took my right hand and pressed it against his chest. “No beat right?” I nodded. Then he moved my hand from his chest to mine. I felt my eyes widen. “No beat,” he said softly.
“How is this humanely possible?” I quivered, trying to find any logical explanation.
“It is not humane,” he sneered. “We are not human.”
“This isn’t even possible, how can I not have a beat, or more importantly, how long have you been without a beat?” I asked; my thoughts were jumping around in my head, but I couldn’t seem to take control of them. “Who are you?”
“Oh, silly me,” he smiled. “I must have forgotten to introduce myself.” He let go of my hand to point at himself. “I am William. Now, Loraine let me ask you a question.”
“What did you just call me?” I asked, feeling freight course through me.
“Loraine, your real name,” he paused for a moment to catch my reaction. “You read Dracula I’m sure,” he went on. I replied with a slight nod.
“What are you getting at?” I asked.
“Vampire,” he whispered, and his features turned deadly. My legs gave out then, and I fell hard to the stone ground. My shoulder blades unwillingly clashed and my head dropped between my arms; I shut my eyes tight to try and release the pain. What I found strange was that the pain was coming from my stomach.
A ribbon floated behind my eyes. It changed colours fluidly until it turned into a scene. I saw myself in a graveyard and William was there too; watching me from a dead tree. He looked like a sitting crow. The image played in fast forward for a few seconds before going back to a normal speed at the part when William picked me up and threw me against a head stone, all the way across the graveyard.
The pain in my stomach stabbed harder, and my vision blurred, but I concentrated deeper.
William was kneeling over me; I was dying. I knew that much. He bit me. I saw my face soften. The life was almost gone from my eyes. He offered me his blood and when I didn’t take it, he forced it into my mouth.
I came back to reality. My muscles had relaxed but the pain in my stomach grew deeper. I wanted to scream at him; rip him apart. I’m sure he could sense my anger towards him because he changed the subject.
“We will talk about this later, but now you must drink and fill your thirst or the pain in your stomach will only grow until you won’t be able to focus on anything at all,” he said in a calm tone.
“Fine,” I mumbled, and let my instincts take over. I breathed in heavily and caught the scent of what I’d smelled earlier. The scent of ripe, juicy cherries coalesced in a cloud of cinnamon and a hint of musky cologne filled the air around me. I snapped my gaze to the dying man who had pleaded to me earlier and strode over to him.
I knelt down beside him and sniffed the bleeding wound on his chest. My mouth began to water and I was about to taste until he broke my chain of thought and spoke again.
“Please, I’ll do anything,” he begged and I saw a tear stain a path on his dirty cheeks. “I have a family,” he cried and instantly I felt bad for what I was about to do, but I knew I had no choice.
“I’m terribly sorry Mr?” I paused.
“My name is Allan,” he said. I gave a small smile. I was on a first name basis with my first victim.
“Don’t you worry Allan, we will be sure to pop in on your family one day soon,” William said with a mocking smile on his face.
“No, please. Let them live. My son, he’s only eight years old, please,” he sobbed some more.
“Don’t listen to him, he’s only kidding,” I soothed and shot an angry glare at William who took my look a little bit offensively. “I’m sorry Allan,” I apologized as I lowered my face to his bleeding wound and licked. I heard him whimper from pain, but my mind was too far away to care.
His blood tasted so good, like a hot cherry pie with a sweet taste of honey. I began to suck the blood and let my greedy thirst take control. I heard the bees buzzing around me as the hot liquid burned sliding down my throat and revived my body. The burning feeling felt amazing as it left my throat sizzling with numbness. The aftertaste of the blood was like the summers golden sunshine...
“Loraine, stop. You’ve had plenty,” I heard William say, and felt his hand on my shoulder. I looked up to him from Allan’s dead-gray body. “We don’t have much time left. The sun will rise in less than an hour, and I need to get you to safety.” I looked back at Allan’s pale face and thought of what he said about having a family. They probably loved him very much, but they would never know what really happened to him. I took a man’s life tonight, and all I could think about was, ‘how could I ever forgive myself for such a crime?’ “It is time,” William whispered and then lifted me up off the ground.
I wanted to feel bad for Allan, but my human instincts were already being snuffed out by the new animal in me. So I put on my mothers’ leather jacket and followed William out of the alley, and forgot about the man laying there. His name was hardly a memory.