The Chair

This is it. He thought to himself. He took a deep breath and sighed, just thinking about how it had come to this. He blinked slowly, trying to clear his mind as he reached for the pack of cigarettes that lay beside him. She always hated these. He snorted a somber grin and shook his head. Guess it doesn't matter now anyway. He fumbled the carton in his shaking hands as he struggled to retrieve one last cancer stick-her words, not his.

He gingerly brought it to his lips, barely holding it up with them alone as he halfheartedly brought the lighter to his face. He didn't even care that his long black hair was a disheveled mess begging to catch fire as he struck the light. By some miracle however, he managed to not set himself ablaze.

The first drag seemed to help him stop thinking as much as he set back to his task. The orange nylon rope sure wasn't purchased for this purpose, but Aleksi was fairly certain that it would do the job just the same. He slid the rope through his hands a few times, stopping occasionally to readjust the cigarette at his mouth, before carefully folding it over a couple of times, creating a figure-eight shape. He then took one of the loose ends and wrapped it around the center of his infinity symbol; because the results will last forever. After making sure he wrapped it thirteen times, he finished off his slipknot and stood to set it up.

He pulled the almost out cigarette from his mouth and put it out. Pulling his chair from his computer desk he set it underneath his ceiling fan. Stepping onto the sturdy wooden chair, he expertly tied the loose end of the rope to the base of the fan. He only hoped the fan would be able to hold his weight as he slipped the noose over his head.

"I will always love you." He whispered as he tightened the rope around his neck before kicking the chair out from under his feet.

Death sure wasn't coming nearly as quickly as he has hoped. He felt pain as the rope burned into his flesh and crushed his wind pipe. He'd always heard you'd die from your neck breaking before asphyxiation from hanging, but he didn't think that was to be the case for him.

Although it was only for 60 seconds, it felt like he had been struggling to die up there for an eternity. At the 25 second mark he began to panic, thinking maybe he had made a mistake, but it was no use, he finally blacked out.



He was lying on the floor with a rope around his neck when she found him. It wasn't the hand, or even the fall that threatened his life, but that the fan had buckled under his weight, crashing to the ground below, letting him down while smashing right on top of his head.

She could sense that his life force was weak, he wouldn't really be of use as a meal anymore. She'd been stalking him all night, followed him home because he looked so delicious with his beautiful dark hair, icy blue eyes which carried the weight of the world, and his slender, fit body. She was momentarily distracted by his neighbor girl and here he had to go and do something like this. At least that fan didn't fuck up his looks at all. She mused. Maybe this didn't have to be a wasted effort after all.

Melynda crouched down next to Aleksi's seemingly lifeless body and listened to his heart beat and breathing slow. "Oh no you don't." She cursed him.

Lifting her own arm to her mouth, she bit down and let the blood flow from her wrist. She tilted his head back, parting his lips, and let her blood drip down into his mouth. A few messy splashes went unnoticed until she saw him stir.

As more of her blood poured onto his tongue he was finally waking up. Only a few more moments needed to pass before his lips found their way, pressed tightly against the life force. He eagerly suckled as if a baby to mother's milk until she pushed him away.

He looked to her with pure confusion in his eyes, as the red liquid dribbled down his chin. Things looked different to him now, but he couldn't place it. His memories all seemed to be a blue, as if waking from a dream and trying to hold on to the details. After another moment there was pain again. He cried out as his body changed. He could feel his organs shut down only to awaken with a new, different life. Once it was all said and done, he looked to her with pleading eyes. "What's going on?"



Staring at the note he had left open on his computer screen, his memories came flooding back. "You should have just let me die."

"Oh, come now, she was just a girl. She left you. Is that really worth dying over?" She asked him. "And, you are...more or less 'dead' so, we both got our way?" She mumbled, she still hadn't told him the whole truth.

"She is more than just a girl-What do you mean I'm 'more or less dead'?" His expression changed, and that's when the blood clicked. There shouldn't be blood on, or around my mouth, from a failed hanging. Even with how the fan hit me.

"Yeah, so, you have a new life now. A no-going-out-in-the-sun-ever-again kind of life." Melynda awkwardly spat out. "I don't really want to use the term 'vampire' but, uh, yeah...you're now a vampire. We exist. Surprise?" She offered a nervous smile. She was still a new vampire herself. She was 21 and at the Whisky-a-Go-Go in Hollywood back in the 80's when sure was turned. Most of the vamps she had met were also pretty "young" which made her hate the whole "hundreds of years old" stereotype. Sure, they were out there, somewhere. Most of them got really good at passing for human and go unnoticed, or they fall on the opposite side of that scale and have their proteges bring them food while staying hidden. Either way they weren't common and were very hard to find. The young ones got themselves killed so often that for the good of the species many of them turned others without much guilt. Turning just wasn't as taboo as it had been in the past.

Aleksi was having trouble coming to terms with his "new development" however, and needed a lot more answers.

"Explain to me again, who are you?"

"Oh, I am just a girl who followed you home. I just wanted a snack and you seemed to fit the bill. You went and hanged yourself before I could get to you though, so, since you were still pretty and all, I figured I would go ahead and save you. You were pretty dead already though, like a hospital wouldn't have been able to save you, so I went ahead and made you like me."

She said it so calmly, so matter-of-fact, that it disturbed Aleksi deep to his core.

"You are insane. Get out of my house." He told her, looking her dead in the eyes.

"I'm not insane. And don't worry, your neck healed itself already when your body went through the change back there."

"What change?"

"Ugh." Melynda rolled her eyes, tossing a lock of red hair behind her head as she pointed past him. "Back there, just a few minutes ago when you were squiggling on the floor in pain. That was you changing. Your organs finished shutting down and the vampire blood took over, re-energizing you. It's the last time you'll ever actually feel physical pain though, so don't worry about that. And, contrary to what all the movies tell you, you didn't loose your soul, and it's not exactly 'damned' so, you still need to be careful about what you do."

"I don't believe in any of this bullshit you're spewing. Even if I did, I don't believe in 'God' so my soul, is just fine, thanks. Now, please go."

Tired of his bullshit Melynda growled at Aleksi, showing him her true face, the one he too will have when he feeds. The mangled, demonic face that took place of the sweet one he was once talking to scared him, more than he had ever been afraid before, and he believed. "Okay! Okay!" He shouted, backing away.

She shook her head and went back to her human face, "That is what we look like when we feed. It's not pretty, but hey, it gets the job done when you want to freak someone out first. Gives the blood a little spice." She winked at him.

"Yep, I stand by you being insane." He shook his head, "but fine. If I am a...vampire... What now? Do I fake my death and then go into hiding? I mean, I was set to die, not live a new life."

Melynda grinned at him. "Just stick with me, I'll teach you every thing I know."