[It's been a while. Busy, lazy, the usual. I'll be trying to post more, hopefully some higher quality stuff. Anyway, enjoy this late and tacky addition.]
***
Madam Scarlette. Red Duchess. The Crimson Desire. She has gone by many names over the centuries, though they all portray her more glamorously than she might deserve. She stalks and prowls, from time to time, other times she hides away from prying mortal eyes. Nothing especially notable, no massacres, no blood-drenched castles, nothing to really earn her pseudonyms other than folktales.
Tales of a woman, with eyes that pierce the soul and excite the heart. A woman, dressed in red, pulling those she chooses in with a charming mysteriousness. A woman, who fills her prey with pleasure, in exchange for a hefty dose of blood.
Over the past decade or so, she has earned a name for herself as a modern myth. Uncreatively dubbed "Red Lust."
Tonight, on All Hallows Eve, she goes to hunt,,,
A young man, perhaps twenty three, blocks the door to an especially loud party, "Hey, uhh, lady this is an invite only kinda deal."
The woman dressed in an elegant red dress looks at him for a moment, before grabbing his chin, looking deeply into his eyes, "I am a guest, you are excited to see me, welcome me in."
"Uh... yeah... I mean... where are my manors, please, come in!" The man stepped aside, and the woman stepped in.
She had done this countless times before, she knew exactly how to toy with humans. Of course, lately they've been getting especially communicative. Which makes discretion all the more difficult.
She scanned the room, filled with partying humans in various costumes. She turned back to the man, "You never saw me."
"I never..." he trailed off with a blank stare, before shrugging. Closing the door, he moved back into the crowd.
The woman in red moved smoothly through the crowd, smelling the air as she went. Thick with alcohol, she searched. "A positive, no. AB, no..." She inhaled deeply through her nose, picking up the most exquisite taste under the general musk, "O negative. There you are."
Towards the wall of the room, she spotted a young woman enjoying her drink. She stalked through the dancing party-goers, keeping her eyes locked on the woman as she did. Just as she started to reach forward, feet away from her prey, a hand grabbed her by the wrist.
Surprised, she simply stopped in her tracks, turning to the source. A short woman returned her gaze, "Excuse me, could I speak to you for a minute? I promise it's important."
The woman in red looked to see her prey step away from the wall, and get lost in the general mass. She sighed, turning to the intrusive hindrance to her night. "I don't seem to have any other plans." She said, her eyes suddenly gaining a sharp red hue, "Lead the way."
The other woman's eyes glossed over for a moment, "Yes..."
She led the woman in red to a more-or-less secluded room, with a table and two chairs. In the middle sat a bowl of chocolates, which smelled tantalizing even to the woman in red.
The shorter woman sat down, "Please, have a seat." She seemed to notice the woman in red staring at the chocolates, quickly adding "I have a lot to tell you, so by all means help yourself."
Ordinarily, the woman in red would simply flash her eyes at the woman and take what she needed, but her curiosity got the better of her. She sat down, taking a chocolate and studying it. She didn't gain anything from human food other than flavor, yet there was something oddly tantalizing about these.
"My name is Ophellia. I'm hoping to study the otherworldly. I know that sounds silly, but I truly believe there are things in this world we can't understand, you know?" 'Ophellia' began to ramble, "I've been tracking any leads I can find to sightings of ghosts, or otherworldly beings, things like that. Anything that's outside the norm, so to speak."
The woman in red only half-listened, studying the chocolate in her hand carefully. Something about it was just so... mesmerizing. She was trying to figure out what made it so special.
Ophellia went on in the background, "...which ended up being a log casting a weird shadow. Anyways, that ended up uncovering something worthwhile! Remnants of a vampire's lair. I was sure of it. I dug up everything I could find about vampires in the local area, and sure enough sightings and rumors were abound. Nothing concrete yet, but I was getting somewhere!"
The woman in red sat up slightly at the word 'vampire,' turning her attention away from the candy finally. Did this woman find out what I am? she thought, If so, I'll need to be more careful in the future, and make her forget all about this... Her thoughts now soothed by her self-assurance, she focused again on the candy in her hands.
"...tracking where she's been spotted, finding a pattern in where she would show up next. Making note of the time gaps between each appearance, obviously. I figured out she would be most likely to show herself on Halloween, because she would go totally unnoticed even if she was seen for what she truly is. Clever, right? Then, I hatched a plan."
The woman in red felt uncomfortable with where this initially harmless ramble was going, finally popping the chocolate into her mouth to ease her nerves. The instant the flavor hit her, she realized why it had been so tantalizing. "Blood..."
"...I would use- Yes! Exactly, blood based chocolate! It's amazing what recipes you can find online. Anywa-"
