In the spirit of the upcoming Halloween night and now fully immersed in the Halloween season, my wish is to leave you each day with some kind of short, spooky story. Hopefully these will leave you quaking in your shoes, chilling to the bones, cowering in the couch and refusing to go to the bathroom down the hall without turning on every light in the house. For the first one I'm going to leave you with one written some time ago as an exercise from a period before vampires were sparkly and attended high school. It turned out quite well I believe and may develop into something more some day, right now it's comfortable being flash fiction, a short story unto itself without a beginning or real ending. In any case, I hope you enjoy and if your light bill doubles in the next week, don't blame me!
Dark Gift
By Donna Sabatine
Copyright © 2010
Through night’s velvet cover I rise from my centuries sleep; taunted by the thought of the bloodlust I know will come with the darkness. The lust I know will pull me inexorably along like the tide with the moon. The city’s heartbeat throbs as I search. The dark alleys and small alcoves hold the lost souls; the forgotten ones, the ones that will not be missed. There is no challenge in this hunt. They offer no resistance as my face reflects in their eyes and they realize I alone am timeless. Tonight I am challenged to find the one. Tonight I seek a mate that will abide with me, sustain me into the next millennium until it is time to search again.
The night hides my shadows as I find the one I seek. Standing alone from the rest he also watches the city, his dark eyes taking in the ebb and flow of humanity as it goes about its nightly duties. Sensing my presence he turns and with my eyes and unspoken promises, I whisper my invitation. He is mortal, but that is a temporary inconvenience.
The desire burns in his eyes as he takes in the form of the woman before him; the form of a woman who was transformed during the time of the Pharaohs and a shape that hints of earthly pleasures. A smile crests and breaks like the sunrise, blinding me with its radiance and I am stunned…but only for a moment. Clasping his hand in mine I move close and the bloodlust engulfs me.
For this very brief second in time I am as close to human as I have been in 5,000 years. Not since I lay to rest a millennium ago, abhorred at my thirst and disgusted at the carnage that laid in its wake. I am haunted no longer as I accept who I am, what I am. I take his face in my hands kiss him softly as the dark gift urges. The kiss is a taste of immortality and his body responds with shock at the visions it brings to his consciousness; images of elegance and ultimately, images of death.
Holding his eyes with mine I slowly unzip the leather jacket that he wears, baring the soft skin at the base of his throat. Mentally he is already mine, this fair haired child of the sun, and he bends lower to feel my teeth on his neck. I can feel his breath quicken I drink that first deep draught and the life blood flows across my lips but not too much, only enough to open the portals of hell for his entrance; the portals of my own personal hell which I have survived alone these many thousands of years alone, but no longer.
Steadying him with my arm I lick the blood from my lips and in return for his soul, offer my flesh to him. He drinks deeply as his eyes are filled with the soulless look of the dark gift. It is done and I am no longer alone.
As the sun begins to crest the horizon, waking the humans from rest and setting them about their daily lives we sleep entombed in the city that is a hunting ground for any like us. We are the predators, we are the lords, we are the timeless ones and as I fold my arms around him, we sleep the sleep of the dark gift.
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