Vampire World (2 page)
My
first sensation as consciousness returned was of spinning crazily around in a
foggy haze. I couldn't say how long this continued for, only that it felt like
an eternity, and then a few years more on top of that. Even after it finally
stopped and I was able to crack open my eyes, it still took a while to get my
basic senses working. I was lying on a rock-hard bed in a dimly lit room; that
much gradually became clear. But I had no idea at all of where I was. Hell...I
didn’t even know who I was.
I couldn’t remember anything
.
I
stepped groggily out of my bed and looked around the strange room. It was a
huge dormitory with at least fifty other beds, all of them containing pale
looking kids and teens. Not only couldn’t I remember who I was, I also felt
very odd.
From
seemingly nowhere, a large and very angry looking woman came rushing up to me.
“Get
back in your bed!” she snapped. “You’re not supposed to be up yet.”
She
grabbed hold of my pale arm and literally threw me onto the bed. “I don’t care
if you’ve been in an accident or not,” she continued, “you’re gonna follow the
rules just like everyone else in the orphanage.”
Accident?
Orphanage?
I
wanted to ask her where the hell I was, but I was too stunned by her
appearance. She had huge fangs - perhaps four inches long - that tucked
perfectly into her gums. I couldn't stop staring at her claw-like fingernails
and pearly white skin, mesmerized by how bright it was. Then she slapped my
face. Hard.
“Don’t
look at me like that!” she screamed.
Tears
flowed from my eyes as I gazed at the fat blob.
“Keep
crying and you’ll be going in the dark room,” she told me.
After
that ominous sounding warning and a final angry glare, she thankfully stomped
off and left me alone.
My
bed was basically a flat rock with another rock on top of it as a pillow. I
rested my head on this and gazed up at the ceiling. Accident…I’d been involved
in an accident. It must have been a bad one because I couldn't remember a thing
about it.
All
at once I noticed my neighbor sleeping on the rock next to mine. She was a pale
little girl, probably around six years old. Her dark eyes were fixated on me.
“Where
am I?” I asked.
“Shhhhhhh!”
she said. “Mrs Bitemore will hear you.”
I
shivered when I saw that she had fangs too and did not say anything more.
The
next few hours dragged by. At last, a scarlet light filtered through the few
windows angled on the ceiling.
“Get
up!” ordered a loud voice.
People
instantly jumped out of bed and started a mad rush toward several doors. As I
followed along I could see that I was one of the tallest there. The majority
were just children, though there were a few teens around.
Damn,
I wish I could remember my name.
The
same screaming voice sounded again. “Hurry and get washed or you’ll be drinking
cold blood!”
Drinking cold blood? What?
A
horrible stench hit me as I walked into the bathroom. It was like a million
dead rats had been buried between the walls. Yet for some weird reason, no
matter how repulsive it was, I also liked the smell. It just didn't make any
sense.
After
waiting in line forever to wash my hands in some sort of greenish goo, I
eventually got to the mirror and was able to take a look at myself. I was
surprised at how pale I appeared, and how dark my eyes were. But what alarmed
me the most was when I slowly parted my lips and saw the sharp fangs inside my
mouth. Oh my gosh…
“Will
you hurry up?” complained a girl behind me. She was probably around my age,
chunky build with short, clumpy black hair - a far cry from me in the looks
department.
“Can
I ask you something?” I said.
She
frowned.
“Am
I a v-vampire?” I asked.
“What
do you think you are?” she snapped. “An alien?”
What
a blobby bitch. Turning away in disgust, I came to the conclusion that I was
indeed a vampire. I guess I had always been a vampire. So why did it feel so
freakin weird?
I
made my way to the large breakfast hall. Hundreds of other vampires were
standing in a line.
The dead animal
smell was very strong.
Another
teen vamp eyed me. “Wow, you’re so tall. How old are you?”
I
took a guess. “Seventeen.”
“Well,
you’re probably one of the oldest ones in Bitemore Orphanage. I’m Sally. Nice
to meet you. What's your name?”
“I'm….”
After
a few moments of hesitation, feeling stupid, I told her the truth.
“I
was involved in an accident….I must have hit my head or something. I don’t
remember a thing. Even my name.”
“Well,
don’t worry,” she said. “I’ll try my best to find out what you're called, even
if I have to ask Bitemore myself.”
I
was immediately uplifted.
“Yeah,
she seems like a real devil,” I said. “I’ve already been slapped by her once.”
“Just
try to avoid her. That's the best thing to do.”
A
thin, relatively plain looking girl just in front of Sally scowled as we neared
the front of the line. “Damn,” she said. “Looks like a blood egg filled with
eyeflies again. That and a cabet’s head. Yuck!”
Sally
introduced me to her friend. Her name was Jennifer. “Come and join us at the
table,” Sally said. “We’ll keep you safe.”
The
vampire cook, a large man with a bald head and midnight black eyes, handed me
my food as I held out the tray.
The
smell of blood was so strong, I felt like a heart surgeon. The small fried egg
on my plate was okay until you looked in the middle. Where the yoke should be
was instead a foul blob of semi-congealed blood. Beside this offering sat the
severed head of a bizarre looking furry rodent with three eyes and pointy
fangs.
A paper cup filled with more
blood completed the meal.
I started to gag and dropped my tray on
the floor in disgust. All eyes were on me as the burly Ms. Bitemore approached.
“Lick
it up!” she roared. “Your blood! Lick it up! NOW!”
I
gazed into her cruel eyes. She was uglier than a demon and bulkier than a
pie-eating champion. I would have loved to sink my fangs into her and bite her
horrible head off. But she struck first. Before I knew it, two steel-like hands
had forced me face down on the floor, my nose only about an inch away from the
puddle of blood.
“LICK
IT!”
With
Ms. Bitemore’s hands putting incredible pressure on the back of my neck, I was
unable to move. Tears fell from my eyes and mixed with the blood below.
“Acting
like a baby won’t do any good. Now lick, or I’ll strangle you!”
Her
breath smelled like a sewer treatment plant. Adding to my humiliation, I could
hear laughter coming from quite a few of the watching crowd. Feeling utterly
sick, I stuck my tongue out and began licking.
It
tasted like bad cough syrup, probably the worst tasting crap I had ever been
forced to consume. Yet something really odd happened when I took my second
lick. All of a sudden it tasted
good, like a sweet syrup. A pleasurable sensation overtook my body. I
felt like a drug addict who’d been given a hit. Damn, I really liked this
stuff. After licking up my last bit, I wanted more. Not more of the dirt and
germs that were mixed in, but more of the red stuff itself. More blood.
“Now
get up!”
I
stood up, peering at the witch.
“You’re
lucky you got to drink. Now sit your little butt down and quit causing trouble.
I’ll be watching you, Janice. One more screw up and I’ll throw your ass in the
DARK ROOM!”
Janice. Janice.
I must have hit my head
real hard. I didn’t recognize the name one bit.
Shaken
and embarrassed, I sat by myself at one of the empty tables. I felt so alone,
trapped in a world that I just knew I didn’t fit into. Thankfully, it wasn't
long before Jennifer and Sally came over to keep me company. But they were the
only ones. No one else dared to sit with me.
“It’s
okay, you’ll be fine,” Sally said. “So it's Janice - right?”
It
took me a while to answer her. “Yeah, I guess that’s my name.”
“Well,
girl,” Jennifer said, “You just stick by us. We’ll make sure nobody messes with
you.”
I
gagged once again as I watched Jennifer eat her bloody eggs and then wash them
down with more blood from her cup. She took her freaky rat head - or whatever
the hell it was - and chewed it whole. I eyed her fangs, dripping with blood.
“So,
do you remember anything at all about your accident?” Sally asked.
“No.
I just woke up. I don’t understand what’s wrong with me.”
“That’s
so strange,” Jennifer added.
“Yeah,
I know.”
Sally bit her rat head in half. Some of
its blood splattered across her face and over the table. “Another crappy
tasting cabet,” she said. “I really wish I had somebody to cook me decent
food.”
A
sense of danger crept over me.
Someone
tapped me on the shoulder. It was the rude girl I'd met earlier in the bathroom
line.
“Well,
if it isn’t Miss I-Forgot-My-Name-To-Get-Some-Attention,” she mocked. “I
wouldn’t be surprised if you hit yourself on the head.”
Two
others standing behind the lookalike daughter of Ms. Bitemore sniggered.
“Leave
her alone, Alexis,” Jennifer said.
Alexis
responded by baring her fangs and releasing a menacing low growl that was
clearly directed at me, not Jennifer. “I don’t care if you’re new or not,” she
hissed. “You stay away from me, stupid little girl.”
Having
said that, she and her friends walked away.
“What
was her problem?” I asked.
“Oh,
she’s just jealous of you, that’s all,” Sally said.
“Jealous?
Why would anybody be jealous of me?”
Sally
grinned. “Because you’re the prettiest vampire in the orphanage.”
“Oh,”
I said, flabbergasted. “Well thank you.”
“But
that doesn’t give her the right to hate,” Sally added.
Both
Sally and Jennifer continued to compliment me on my looks, especially my eyes
and figure. It felt good to receive the praise, even if I was pissing some
other people off.
We
finished eating and got ready to go to our workstations. My job was cleaning
the floors of this filthy place, so I was given an apron, a broom and a mop. I
hated being parted from Jennifer and Sally, who were both working in the
laundry room. They just seemed so nice.
I
felt like I was trapped in hell, somewhere far underground. There were very few
windows, and even when I did get to look through one, all I could see was a
deep scarlet sky.
After
putting on my apron, I began sweeping and mopping a long hallway that seemed to
go on forever. As I worked, a boy of probably ten or eleven years old ran right
past me.
He
appeared petrified. “What’s wrong?” I called out. “Is somebody chasing you?”
The
boy did not pause or answer. But just as he was turning a corner I saw a meaty
hand grab hold of him. Next I heard screams, followed by the meanest voice in
the world.
“Got
ya! And you thought you could run from me? How dare you!”
The
cries from the poor boy continued piercing the otherwise eerie silence. I
hurried to the corner and took a cautious peek around. Only a short distance
away was the humongous butt of Ms. Bitemore. She had the boy pinned against the
wall and was striking him repeatedly with a narrow leather belt.
“Say
you’re sorry! If you don't, I’ll throw you in the dark room.”
Apologies
tumbled from the boy's mouth, but he continued to get hit anyway. I wanted to just
jump out and strangle that obese vampire bitch. But I stayed put, stone frozen.
“Never…ever….run….from…me….AGAIN!”
Eventually
the torture stopped. The boy, barely able to stand up, moped off down the
hallway.
I
flinched as the evil woman’s pancake-like head turned around and we went
eye-to-eye.
“Are
you spying on me?” she demanded.
“No.
I was just passing by…I thought...”
“Don’t
back talk me!”
She
clutched my arm that was holding the mop and gazed down at the floor. Her long
grey nails stabbed painfully into my skin.
“You’re
doing an awful job. You want me to make you lick up the dirt instead?”
“No
mam,” I said. She squeezed my arm even tighter, then let out a growl. I
trembled, thinking that she was going to bite me.
“Why
do I always get the wackos?” she snarled. “Can’t I get somebody decent for a
change? I’m not asking for much, but please, I deserve something better than
you
.”
With
that, she released her grip and stomped away.