in the doorway thinking it over. What would the neighbors think if they saw? Not likely they would I figured, although the lot of them were nosier than a cat in a tuna factory, we were outback and they were not likely to see the creep if he stayed under the stairs until nightfall.*
I removed my cap from my head and scratched at my scalp as I mulled it over. I didn’t owe this vampire anything, wasn’t worth the risk really, him being over from Marshfield and all and them beating us in the soccer tourney just last year. Word might get out and then I would have all kinds stopping by for a bit of a rest. What would be next? Ghouls from Galway in the garden! Werewolves from Westchester in the shed! Mummys from Monaco in the kitchen! Right, that's it I thought.
“Naw, off with yourself. Can’t have you skulking around here until dark. Ain’t proper and all.”
“Ah please good sir, if you throw me out now I will surely die. Let me stay and none will be the wiser, and if so I will do you a favor in return,” he says to me in his most affable voice.
“What type of a favor might you be doing for me then?” I ask, for he is quite obviously low on the vampire hierarchy. No high-ranking vampire would be knocking about the countryside hiding under peoples stairs dressed in little more than their skivvies.
“Name it, for I am at your mercy,” he said softly and I frowned in disgust. I hate when vampires play upon your sentiments, as it’s most annoying.
I considered it for a few moments. Having a vampire in your debt might be a fine thing indeed. A talented lot were vampires, as anyone knows. I could have him turn into a bat and send him after Stella’s’ little demon dog. He could fly the little mutt out over some deep lake and drop him down. Or better yet, turn himself into a wolf and I could have him dig up all Stella’s flowers, right in front of her, may her foul tempered head fall off and roll down the nearest sewer.
I sat upon my haunches thinking it over and inspiration strikes me. Why have him do all these things at all? Why not do them myself! Ha! That's it.
“Right,” I said peering in at him. “I will let ye stay here all hidey like but if I do then you got to make me into a vampire in exchange.”
Why not? The live-forever aspect is not a bad deal, and I can turn to smoke and run around and bite those that I don’t like. Just the fact that I wont have to live with the she-devil from the Abyss alone would be worth it all.
“Ah yes, that I can do mate,” he said, the smile returning to his face. “You do know though that it's irreversible right? Once its done there is no turning back, need to be sure.”
“Aye I'm sure, so what do we do then? Just up and bite me here and that's that?”
“Naw, can’t do it in the daylight, got to be done at night and all.”
“Why at night?” I asked, not understanding.
“Because that's the way it works isn’t it? ‘Tis not meself that makes’ up the rules I just follow them.”
“Fine.” I replied, not much liking that. What was to keep him from just not coming back? “How can I be sure you'll keep your word though? What’s to say I let you stay and then off you go merry as you please back to Marshfield never to be seen again?”
“Here now!” he said, raising his voice somewhat there in the gloom. “I'm a vampire of me word and I don’t go breaking it once given.” He crossed his arms upon his thin chest and turned his face from me, a dejected look in his yellow eyes.
“Go on now, I trust you. I don’t want you blubbering down here.”
“Right.” he replied, turning to me again all business like. “This is how we do it then. When it gets good and dark I will pop over to your bedroom and gives you a nip. It'll take anywhere from one to three days for the effect to take place, and after that you'll be a vampire like the rest of us.”
“Rest of you?”
“Aye, are a whole family of us over in Marshfield, got a place in the woods we call our own. You'll fit right in to be sure.”
He nodded and winked at me in the gloom, and I noticed he was drooling which gave me the shivers. I suppose the prospect of a ‘meal’ was getting him a bit excited.
“One thing,” he said. “When I get here tonight you have to invite me in, if you don’t then I can’t enter the house, another of the rules. Afterward I can enter anytime I want, but without consent the house is sanctuary.”
“Right. No problem, knock on the window with a candle burning in it. I will be in that one.”
“You mentioned a wife, she in the same room as yourself? If so that might pose a problem.”
“Bite your tongue mate! Me and the she-wolf not seen the same bedroom walls since the day we wed, all the better says I. Be rid of her once and for all with this now won’t I?”
He reached out his cold hand and I took it in my own and we shook on it all proper like. I closed the door and let him be for the remainder of the day, busying myself with the chores I had to do.
Dinner went well enough that night, that is to say, as bad as always. Herself sat in her chair and ate the dinner I had cooked and not a civil word came from her mouth as was her usual.
“Here now,” said the nag from the Black Lagoon in between stuffing her maw. “Why weren’t ye done with the weeding on time? Loafing again I’ll warrant. We needs them flowers planted early or they won’t take.”
“Yes dear.” I said, having learned long ago it was best to agree with Trolls than argue.
“You burnt the chicken again Melvin, you know you always have the flame too high as I've told you many times.”
“Yes me love, I will watch it closer next time.”
“See that you do Melvin, I know you are a simpleton but you should be at least able to cook.”
“Yes dear.”
I retired early that night, feigning an illness to which I was only half lying and went to my room to await the vampires’ return.
True to his word he came a knocking about half past ten that very night, all floaty in the air he was, hovering just outside the upstairs window with naught but the wind beneath his feet. I opened up the window and motioned for him to come inside.
His eyebrows go up and he places his hands on his hips. “Now now, I told you how it works. I can’t enter unless you invite me in all proper like.”
“Right.” I said, still a bit surprised about him being able to float up in the air like that.
I stepped back from the open window and invited him, telling him he was welcome. He smiled and glided in just as pretty as you please not touching the floor until he stood in front of me.
“We alone then?” He asked looking around the room.
“Aye,” I replied nodding in the direction of the door. “My Ogre of a wife is fast asleep in the other room, saving her strength for more nagging I am guessing.”
He nodded and told me to lie down upon the bed, which I did. I turned my head and closed my eyes, letting him have a go at my neck. I was none too eager to get bit but I was reminding myself all the while that I would be free of the bog-spawn I'd married and for that I could tolerate a lot.
It didn’t hurt as much as I had feared and afterward I was God-awful tired. He departed all slippery and tricksey like, much the same way he came saying that he'd see me soon but I was already nodding off and barely heard him. I slept clean through the day into the next night. I could recall Stella coming around at some time or another banging about the door and making plenty of racket but I called out I was still sick and she let me be muttering to herself in the hall.
It felt as if an eternity passed before I finally opened my eyes again. The sun was down and the first thing I notice is I had sprouted fangs. I ran my tongue over them, feeling their sharpness and smiled. I went to stand up from my bed and nearly leaped through the ceiling. I had great strength now and needed to adjust for it. I looked about the room at all the mementos that I'd gathered over the years and I must admit I felt a momentary sense of loss. My room itself I'd come to love over the years, offering the only respite
I have known since my unfortunate marriage. I looked around one last time at all that was my previous life and turned my back upon it all as I stepped to the window and opened it wide.
I slipped out through the opening much as my benefactor did the previous evening and turned to smoke with barely a thought to doing it. I could hear the night sounds all about me. An owl took flight from the woods to the rear of the house and I could detect the wind as it rushed across its wings as it descended on a field mouse. I heard the screech of the mouse then the sudden exhale of its breath as the owls’ talons gripped the doomed creature and glided into the night for its nocturnal meal. I understood the role of the predator for the first time and yearned to be out in the night joining the hunt. I became one with the darkness and the darkness knew me.
I glanced about my yard for what I was quite sure was the last time and felt a bit of remorse. It's not easy to give up all that you have, but to be free of that spiteful banshee of a woman, I'd have given up a great deal more if I had to.
She will do fine without me. I thought and without a further glance I made my way out of the yard.
I found my way through the alleys and darkened streets as best I could towards Marshfield then on into the woods, following some new knowledge I never had before. I seemed to know the way to the rest of the ‘coven’ and made my way there slipping through shadows and enjoying my new found abilities. Hours later, and deep into the forest that
The Marshfield Vampire Page 2