Bitten

The heaviness drags my eyes close. My body wants to rest but my mind wants to wander. Wander to every decision I ever made. With every action I did I ended up applying at that Starbucks.

If I only studied harder at school I might have made something out of myself.

The sunlight forces my eyes open. The duvet covers my legs since that was a human trait that I have possessed since I was a young girl. As long as my legs were covered the monsters couldn’t get me. Little did I know that monsters lurked in alleyways or showed up to your work.

The digital clock on my nightstand states it is almost seven and I feel as if I have not rested at all. My mind will not stop reeling.

Painkillers. Hot showers. Icy Hot cannot help me as my body is still tense. I am not human so I do not know what to do. I know that I am supposed to be sore but at the moment I believe it is all mental.

Even now that I am sitting on my couch doing nothing my body cannot relax as I stare at my phone. It has been ringing for the last two hours and I have not answered once. I do not feel like speaking to anyone at the moment. Wanda left me a voicemail wondering if I could fill in Tamara’s spot. Not wanting to talk to no one, not even my boss, I text her telling her that I am out of town visiting family.

Disregarding my phone I let my body sink further into the cushions when my buzzer goes off.

“Abigail, come on I know you’re in there.” Wes’s voice chimes through the quiet room.

Who does that? Who in their right mind turns someone and then expect them to let them into their home? Wes, I guess.

“Leave me alone,” I groan not sure he could hear me. He is a vampire so who knows.

“Abigail!” He mutters again into my buzzer, “Buzz me in! Don’t make me break-in.”

Don’t I have to permit him to walk into my place? Come on, The Vampire Diaries should have gotten this right.

“I’m not dressed for visitors!” I shout.

“Abigail!” He sounds impatient.

I slam my hands on the cushions and push myself up. I push the button on the buzzer unlocking the ground floor door.

“Thanks,” he mutters.

“Whatever,” I walk over to the fridge and fiddle through it. I know nothing inside is going to satisfy my hunger but the fact that I still feel human makes me want to do human things.

My fridge is looking pretty sad, to be honest, a bottle of ketchup, an old Chinese food container, and a sip of milk. The sounds of the door handle being turned echoes in my ears and I put my elbows on top of the fridge door and my head on top on my palms looking at the door.

“Well hello, let yourself in, you know since all vampires lose their manners after they turn.”

I narrow my eyes and Wes is in front of me, his eyes are lighter than I remember and there is some flush in his cheeks. There is a gleam in his eyes as if he is full of life.

“I was wondering if you would like some lunch and perhaps some company.” He walks over to my small old couch, which did not go with anything in my apartment. Nothing goes together, everything is mixed and match and fit in well with the money I had at that moment.

“No, I don’t want company actually,” I move away from the fridge and slam the door shut, then immediately regretting it, when it starts wheezing and groaning. “Crap!” I open it up again to make sure that it is still working and it is. This time I close it gently.

“Geez, Abigail is there anything in this apartment that works or that has some taste?” He says looking around; he does not have to look for long the only things he cannot see are my bedroom and the bathroom.

“Shut up Wes, I am not in the mood.” I walk over to the couch and sit on the far end of it, as far away from Wes as possible. “You are looking more alive today. Why is that?” His smile is contagious and I smile back at him.

“That’s what happens when you are well fed,” the smile wipes away from my face and I lower my eyes to my bare feet stretch in front of me.

Feeding.

To a human, it means to nourish themselves. To me, it means to kill. Become a murderer to survive. To become something that goes against everything I believe in - at least used to.

I cannot do it. I cannot kill someone so that I can stay alive. I sigh and turn towards the armrest and let my body draped over it. My arm swings back and forth with no support.

I look at my bedroom door and remember when I barely signed the lease for the apartment and thinking about how I wanted to decorate it and that I would have people over and enjoy their company. Now I look around and the apartment looks nothing like I wanted it so there is no big television or comfy couch where I can read a book peacefully, a bright kitchen where I would make my meals and look out to the city.

Instead, I have old furniture, old takeout cartons all over my small unstable table made out of plastic passing itself off as wood. On my counter, there is a bowl that I put fruit in and at the moment there is technically some fruit but does it pass for editable, I highly doubt it. For company, I have this bloodsucking, annoying, pestering guy that won’t get off my back.

“Abigail, let’s do something, you have been caged in this apartment all day,” I roll over and look at him.

He has his head resting on top of the couch and is looking up at the ceiling, his face looks tanner not a lot but a bit. He is handsome now that I am not scared of him I can see it. He has these big eyes that look at everything with curiosity and his lips look so soft which is a complete lie. The first and last time I touched his lips with mine they felt hard and harsh against mine.

Wes is dressed like a high school jock as he wears a red jacket with white leather sleeves, black jeans, and red converses. I look at myself sweatpants, an old tee shirt, and hair in a messy bun is not ideal to go out in. He looks at me and must have read my mind.

“I’ll wait for you here while you get ready but before you change here,” he grabs a blood bag from the inside of his jacket like he did the last time I saw him. I shake my head and pull away from him, “Please, I love your company too much to lose you just because you won’t go with your instincts.”

“What about animal blood?” I say as he scrunches up his nose and shakes his head. “What? It works in Twilight and The Vampire Diaries!”

I try to hold back the smile that is pulling at the corner of my lip as he rolls his eyes.

“You girls and your Twilight and The Vampire Diaries crap,” I frown, he is not a fan, I open my mouth but he cut me off, “and we do not sparkle in the sun. That’s the stupidest thing I ever heard and we don’t suddenly combust in the sun that is more believable than the glitter crap.”

“Do we need to sleep?” I have been wanting to ask him that.

What if I am not fully a vampire just a wimpy girl that happened to crave blood and have fangs?

“We don’t need to sleep just like we don’t need to breathe but since we have been doing it for our whole lives our bodies crave it so we do it and since you’re new you will be sleeping like a normal human.”

Oh, I mouth.

“Have you been to the restroom?”

Why would he ask that? I narrow my eyes at him.

“We also tend to do that out of habit!”

Ah, okay.

“Here you go, drink up.” I shake my head.

“No!” I hiss.

“It came from a blood bank,” he tries to make it easier for me. “No one died.”

“Someone might die if they don’t get this blood,” I retort.

Wes mutters under his breath, “You can’t save everyone.” He sighs.

“I can try,” I snap.

Since I refuse he just shrugs and bites into the packet. The sound of plastic breaking rings loud in my ears as Wes licks his lips where the crimson liquid touches him.

I cannot control myself I slide closer to him. His arm pressed against my chest as I stare at him take a sip of the blood. I am practically sitting on his lap.

There is a playful smirk etched across his lips.

“Want some?” He breathes out and the smell of iron makes my head swim. He hands it over and I do not hesitate.

My lips wrap around the punctured holes are and suck hard.

Forget that I am a lady and need to sip my drinks I did not care at all. I gulp it down as if I was stranded in the desert for days and my lips have finally reached the water.

The liquid is piss warm as it slowly slides down my throat. The thickness makes it hard to breathe my human instincts fight me but my vampire side calms me. It is a battle that my human side cannot win - and that terrified me.

I am sucking hard when the bag turns empty. Wes materializes another bag this time I rip it out of his hands and let the empty bag fall not caring where it lands. I bite into the bag and my fangs appear but I do not pay much attention to them I want the liquid confined in the plastic bag and my fangs puncture two small holes - I suck it dry.

My work is messy. Wes is a natural at it. The blood drips from the sides of my mouth onto my shirt and some runs down my chin towards my neck.

When my eyes lock on Wes’, he is closer than before and his big brown eyes lock on mine and hold them captive. He leans in closer and I am frozen in place. I watch as his tilts his head to the side and leans closer towards me. Finally, his lips reach my chin close to my lower lip and his cold lips make my body shiver. I pull away, my body finally responding to me.

“What was that for?” I snap.

“You got some blood on you,” I see that there is shiny crimson liquid in the corner of his mouth. His tongue quickly laps it away, my chest is heaving. “See that reaction, it’s your body because your mind doesn’t think about that anymore.”

His hands shoot up and skim the other side of my chin and lick his finger. I stop breathing trying to control my reactions in front of him. He smirks at me and goes back to his spot on the couch.

“Hurry, I need to stretch,” he sighs, he can hide his reaction better than me. I stand up slowly and walk to my bedroom.

Do I like him? Or is it the venom he injected into my heart making like this? Ugh, there is so much for me to learn.