My Dear Readers,
Disclaimer:
What I write is fiction/fantasy/fairy tales for adults. None of my characters are real, no one was injured during the production of my stories and just like on T.V., they all get up when the scene is over, have a beer, remove the makeup and go home, ready to return in the next chapter, all the boo boos healed.
Some spelling and grammatical errors are mine however some are intentional. Which is witch I leave as an exercise for those anal enough to care.
Votes and comments are as always gratefully received. E-mail will get personnel response if you remember to leave me a return e-mail address.
Enjoy.
Dom Woolf
Seduction Takes Time.
The Final Chapter.
The figure stood in the shadows of the old tree, hidden, ghostly and still, watching the lights in the house across the street. In contrast to the rest of the homes in the neighborhood, there were no Halloween decorations adorning the structure. No Jack o Lanterns glowed in the windows, no ghosts hung from the trees in the yard. There were no orange and black ribbons strung gaily across the yard's fence welcoming the little goblins and witches to the door for piles of candy as in years past.
It was just a house, stuck in between a neighborhood of homes.
The figure broke its deathly stillness, moving rapidly across the road and vanishing in to the unkempt bushes along side the structure. Unseen it lifted the window on the side of the house and slipped inside, noiselessly closing it behind itself.
It stood in the dark listening to the night and the sounds of the empty house. Satisfied the figure drew closed the drapes and switched on a small desk lamp, throwing a tiny circle of light beside the comfortable reading chair in the den.
Catherine looked around at the dusty shelves, the abandoned books; the neglected signs of a room no longer used and sighed. This had been her sanctuary, her retreat from the world of meetings and children and the demands of husband and family. Here she would spend the late night hours swept up in the tales of far away places and people and lives filled with adventure and romance. Now it was just a dusty room filled with old books.
She opened the door and slipped through. Again she paused to listen but the house remained quiet and vacant. She walked from room to room, noting changes, bringing up old memories of the place where she had raised her two daughters and watched her husband withdraw from life. She remembered how trapped she felt in this house, in a life that was going nowhere, a husband that wasn't interested in her, in life, in living. Once her two daughters had moved out, off to college and marriage she had thought of dying. It had pried on her mind simply as a way to escape a life that didn't seem to matter to any one, least of all herself.
Funny, how life works out. It turned out dying was the way to relieve the tedium. Dying was the best thing that had ever happened to her.
Once she was dead a whole new world had opened up for her. She had traveled the world, done some amazing things, and seen things living people could never see let alone experience. And it all began here three years ago at a Halloween party.
She was standing next to the refrigerator where Kristoff had first rescued her when she had slipped holding a tray of horderves. Some how he had managed to catch her and set her on her feet while catching the tray, all without spilling a single shrimp.
Kristoff, her mystery man. Lean, tall, dark, a bit old fashioned. He was a reader of books a world class traveler, a bit of a mischievous boy and oh yes, a real, honest to goodness vampire.
Christine still blushed when she thought about her silly fake vampire teeth, the ones that got her into trouble when, by accident while making out with Kristoff, she had nipped him on the neck. Those damn fangs had been sharp and pierced his neck, blood everywhere. Christine recalled the taste as it had hit her tongue and then she had been sucking for all she was worth.
The beginning was an accident and Christine had tried all the next year to forget and make her marriage back into what it had started as 24 years earlier, when they had both been young and in love and their world was a realm of amazing possibilities. Time as they say marches on. Her husband wasn't interested in restarting their lives or exploring the possibilities or much of anything besides his internet games, his restored muscle cars, and beer. He certainly wasn't interested in her.
The following year at Halloween, Christine gave herself to Kristoff on purpose and left with him to begin a new life. They traveled (at night), explored while the regular world slept and he showed her the life of an immortal.
Kristoff never pushed, matter of fact he tried to discourage her. Even now it was her choice as he explained over and over, ad nauseum.
"The first time we share blood; it restores to the human a zest for life, heals their body, and brings a more youthful physical self. The second sharing adds life, clears the mind and allows the human to share in the powers of the vampire for a time. Most of us have had at one time or another, a companion. One with whom we had shared a second exchange. Most are willing to stop at that point, enjoying the extended life, the health, and companionship of the vampire with out going all the way and actually becoming one of the living dead."
Kristoff always looks half aware at this point in his little speech, as if his mind is a thousand years and thousands of miles away. Once he shakes his head as if he is pushing away a memory he continues. "The third exchange brings on what we call the little death, for the body goes through such a metamorphous that it seems to die and then once it begins to live again it is forever changed to vampire kind."
"Vampires are called immortal, in truth we are not. Exposed to direct sunlight, the virus that keeps us alive breaks down and begins to boil in our bloodstream, exposed to air it begins to burn. Thus the legends of vampire busting into flame. We can survive most any injury as we heal almost instantly. The only things I have found that will kill us, is to remove the head from the neck or completely destroy the heart. Leave even half the heart and we can heal. Thus it wasn't the wooden stake that did the job but the sheer size of it for it destroyed the heart completely."