Blood Mother. A Vampire Tale

Ch. 5: Calina

Calina felt the sun disappearing. She no longer  needed a clock or a window view to know when it was time. Her insides tingled with want and energy. Like liquid fire she could feel the call of dusk. It was her favorite time. Her skin hurt and burned and bubbled in the early hours, but contrary to popular belief she could feel the warmth of the dying rays of sunlight with only discomfort as a side effect.

Dusk for her kind was a magical free space where the sun lost strength and she roamed knowing she existed because of its burn. It was a pain she relished. That and knowing as soon as she had taken her vengeance she would let the sun of day finally finish its duty and return her to whenever it was her kind went. This body, her soul, and all the scars she carried.

Perhaps it lay there, in the secret of her scars or perhaps all vampires were born with hyped up senses. This she would never know existing without a pack to question and learn from. But her skin had become a sensor. It spoke to her with tingles and vibrations calling her to explore and telling her when to move.

She uses her safe exit. A manhole cover in the back of an alley surrounded by buildings long past repairs. She had used them in the beginning, the buildings given up by humanity, like her. Trying to feel more like a human, with doors, walls and floors.

That idea ended the day a pack of teens surprised her in the dark corner of a room. It had not ended well for them and forever ended her use of the discarded buildings and her longing to belong among the humans at all. She still found herself unable to pass them though, without remembering.

Laying silent and still in a corner that day, waiting for dusk they stumbled upon her. She stayed statue still hoping they would bore and leave. But her stillness only increased the frenzy and they began to find less joy in words and more in kicking and swinging small bats. This adventure of exploration and bullying had ended badly for them. Calina supposed the outcome would have been the same if she were the junkie they had assumed she was.

Except for in that case the death would have been hers and not the boys with a love of pain and bats. After she killed them and enjoyed her first human meal she stayed away for weeks, waiting for the pack to hunt her down. But apparently the boys had not been enough to lure them. The secret now she knew, was in the children.

She passes by the buildings as always, remembering the events and euphoria of her first real display of power. Three boys went down easily, no work at all and a meal was her reward. She had learned a lesson that day. It is kill or be killed. Even across the species. There was no refuge in her kind, nor would she find it with the humans. She would be accepted nowhere, except by the children.

She sticks to the south side of town in these early evening hours. Shaded streets and tree lined parks made her excursions easier. When she comes to the park she sits and watches low among the trees. Parents and children play and chase around the park space. Teens house themselves on climbing things, smoking cigarettes and writing dirty words upon the heated plastic tubes.

A lone girl sits on a swing. Her hair unwashed and clothes disheveled. Calina can smell the stench of sadness and despair from across the yard. She sends out her feelers, and tickles the inside of the girls mind.

Ah, the troubles of the young. Life changing struggles of acceptance and a need to be fulfilled. The girl thinks of parents screaming and a fathers rage. She envisions a mother laying face down on a bed. She skirts flashes of a father filled with hate. His hands rough, beating and groping her as she begged for mercy.

Calina finds thirst in the troubles. All feelings of emotion that she siphons from the delicate minds of the humans seem to drive her thirst to manic levels. She calls to the girl without words.

The girl, as expected, walks the expanse between them. Humans are frail and weak and Calina didn't need a mentor to show her how to make them obey. She impresses upon the girls mind without words "take me to him. Show me your trouble and I will give you justice." The girl remains looking out past Calina, into a place that can only be imagined. She walks robotically. Her face a blank slate, her eyes vacant. Following her thoughts and memories but unaware of her journey.

They come to a house that smells of garbage and death. Beer cans litter the yard and a dog carcass remains tied under the porch, decaying in the shade. The girl walks into the home and up the stairs. Calina stands on the street beneath a tree continuing to search the mind of the girl when the flashes begin.

The girl in the tub when the drunken father beats on the door. The girl standing over the stove and the father pushing her face towards the flame. The girl hiding in the closet as the father passes out naked on her floor.

Calina understands the panic and the anger inside the girl even without the ability to feel them anymore. Emotions she knew well as a frail and weak human now distant foggy memories. She waits in shadows across the street biding her time by watching more memories from the girl. When the dim remaining light sinks into the skyline she will lull this broken family to sleep. Reaching with her mind to hold them, she will pay the father a visit.

She won't use the hold on him. She wants to feed off his fear as she rips his throat apart and spills his life. It will be acidic and bitter. Nothing like the meal she longs for. But the sweetness will be in the vengeance. Retribution for the girl with the scent of despair, and justice for herself.

And tomorrow she would reward herself for her good deed. Spending some time with a dear one. Drinking in the sweet fragrance of memories and home. Warming herself with a tiny body that has not learned to hate or scorn. Today she would be judge and executioner and tomorrow she would play.