The Innocent Life of Valerie Vale

Eden on the Sixth Floor

Eden on the Sixth Floor

Valerie had parked near Raven’s Wing. She researched it well. The bar was known for attracting a certain kind of clientele, a bloodthirsty crowd, but part of her still doubted the very existence of vampires and it wasn’t until she felt the blood being slowly drawn from her body that she knew for sure.

Now it was time to get off the street. She had attracted too much attention and although her body tingled with the delight of fresh blood, she decided it was best to retire for the night. Valerie drove her car back to the city. She left the secluded town of Winter Creek behind and headed straight for her lonely apartment.

It was a disused old building on the outskirts of the city, boarded up and left to be forgotten as a relic of a bygone time. It had seen many promises of redevelopment and all it needed was for just one to be fulfilled but none had. As a child she passed the building regularly and often used it as a refuge, escaping the misery of what was supposed to be a happy home.

For the most part the building was cold, damp and wet but there was an Eden on the sixth floor. It was a large apartment with insulated walls to keep out the draft that drifted eerily through cavity of the building. An express elevator ran between the apartment and the run down underground car park below. There were windows on both sides of the studio. To the north was the cityscape, distant and peaceful. On the other side was a view of the internal courtyard, an overgrown garden of trees, flowers and neglected weeds, alongside a derelict set of broken down old swings.

There were a number of interconnected rooms, corridors that twisted between them, spaces and ideal places for waiting, contemplating and anything otherwise. The apartment was left mostly barren but there was a hidden luxury. In some glorious feat of miscommunication and incompetence, the water had been left on. This was home.

Valerie looked into the mirror. She saw nothing, her reflection no more. As water slowly filled the white bath in the centre of the room she began to undress. She looked down at her body, still dirty and stained with blood. She pulled the straps of her dress down off her shoulders and stripped completely. She stood naked for a moment. She was aroused by her own femininity. She felt powerful and yet vulnerable, sexual and free. It was strange, for the first time she saw herself not as a girl, but as a woman.

Feeling the heat of the water against her skin, Valerie slowly submerged herself. She held her breath. Air was more of a comfort now than the necessity it had once been. Sitting up, she washed herself. The water turned dark in a mixture of blood red and black dirt. She lay there, resting in the peace and serenity of the moment.

Valerie’s skin felt soft now, washed clean of the sins she had committed. She stepped out of the bath as water dripped down off her body. She wrapped herself in a delicate red towel and walked slowly out into the main room of the studio.

The night was in its darkest hour. The stars were faint in the silent sky and the moonlight was defeated by the overpowering shield of the black clouds that dominated from above. Outside it was quite. A few cars rumbled aimlessly by and from time to time residents of nearby buildings could be heard shouting their displeasure at one another. It was a familiar sound.

Valerie knew she would never return home. She had run out for the last time and now she meant to stay out. The apartment was empty of furniture, fixtures and fittings. There were no worldly possessions to behold but Valerie had brought a bag of little things.

She packed clothes, shoes and dresses, jeans and jackets. She had few things and she knew she would need more, but she had time now to acquire all she desired. She would fill this place with the most expensive things. She would steal what she wanted, take it for hers and who would stop her now?

She would strive for diamonds and jewels. She would have for herself the most limited luxuries and ideal items in obscene quantities. She would have a bed of quality, soft sofas and desks of dark mahogany, all lined in gold, makeup most dear and precious, products and pleasures, expensive wines, rich curtains, lavish carpets and dresses of silks and satins. Hers, hers, all hers.

Suddenly Valerie’s phone flashed. It was Aria. Once a friend but what was she now? She read the text aloud, ‘where are you, come hit nova xx’ and decided without doubt or consideration that her night was not over yet. She felt hungry for either blood or sex. She was unsure which, but she would soon find out.

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