Blood Bound

Chapter 2: Heads are rolling

I am rooted to the spot, cries of help stuck in the back of my throat as Sophie approaches me, her mouth and neck still covered in that man's crimson blood. She is smirking down at me, her eyebrows raised in mild amusement. She looks young, exactly the same as she did when she left town four years ago. Her face is pale, paler by any normal standards. There is no rouge in her cheeks to signify that she holds any warmth like a normal human and she isn't even wearing a warm coat. A normal human would be shivering in the cold by now. Just like me.

"Surprised to see me?" she asks, raising her arms as in she has been revealing something grand like a magician.

I feel numb, I want to run away, away from this...beast and yet a small part of me is relieved, happy even, to see her standing there. She remembered me, she saved me from a potential death. But I can't help but wonder if I have stepped into a more horrendous potential death at the hands of my friend. Finally my throat starts to loosen and I force myself to speak. "Wh-what di-did you just do?!" I croak and a wave of nausea sweeps over me. I turn away from Sophie and the body, fighting the urge to not throw up.

"Ummm, I just saved your ass," says Sophie and I hear how the tone of her voice changes from light to dark. "I think the right thing for you to do is to thank me."

"You-you just killed someone!" I moan, pressing my gloved hand to my mouth and taking deep breaths through my nose. That turns out to be a bad idea because the wind decides to be evil and sends wafts of the smell of blood in my direction. I gag and breathe through my mouth instead.

"You mean the guy who tried to shoot you?" says Sophie, pointing at the dead man behind her back. "He was a nobody, probably a junkie trying to get some cash for a new fix." She licks her lips and fingers. "Yup, I can taste some weird shit in his blood."

I turn to her in horror. She is grinning from ear to ear. "What are you?" I whisper in a hoarse voice.

She kneels down in front of me, her blood-smeared face only inches from my own. Her sharp, jagged shark-like teeth are coated in blood as she smiles broadly. "You know that, right?" she whispers back, her own voice low and raspy. "I'm a vamp,"

I shake my head. "They aren't real," I deny, despite the fact that the very proof is right in front of me.

Sophie chuckles softly, her shoulders shaking slightly. "Oh c'mon, do I really need to take a bite out of you for you to believe me?" she jeers.

I flinch at the suggestion but Sophie merely laughs. "Don't worry, Leia. I've already fed tonight so I'm not hungry for you...yet," she adds with a playful wink.

"H-how?" I ask incredulously.

"Oh, that is a long fucking story," drawls Sophie, getting to her feet. "I'll tell you all about it later." She extends her hand for me to grab. When I don't move, still gawping at her with fearful eyes, she rolls her eyes and yanks her hand back. "Fuck it, be that way then. When you have recovered from your stupid shock, you come find me in Hoboland."

And with that she takes off into the night and vanishes.

The police arrives shortly after. Someone must have seen the body and myself sitting in front of it in a numb daze and called nine-one-one. Someone speaks to me in a calm manner but I don't answer, can't answer. I'm still shivering, like my whole life depends on it. The police picks me up and takes me to the station.

I'm in shock, complete and utter shock. I try to process everything that happened, recounting the events in my head. That was my friend Sophie;  she killed a man; she had sharp teeth; she was covered in blood and she claimed to be a vampire. It isn't true, can't be! It feels a little bit true when I empty the contents of my stomach by the table in the interrogation room. The stinging of the stomach acid burns my throat and the familiar feeling of anxiety rushes over me, enveloping me like a security blanket. I start to cry hysterically, the reality of what I experienced crashing into me. I'm a blubbering mess and no use to the police in my current state.