Vampire World

by Douglas, Rich

With Ms. Bitemore’s hands putting incredible pressure on the back of my neck, I was unable to move. Tears fell from my eyes and mixed with the blood below.

  “Acting like a baby won’t do any good. Now lick, or I’ll strangle you!”

  Her breath smelled like a sewer treatment plant. Adding to my humiliation, I could hear laughter coming from quite a few of the watching crowd. Feeling utterly sick, I stuck my tongue out and began licking.

  It tasted like bad cough syrup, probably the worst tasting crap I had ever been forced to consume. Yet something really odd happened when I took my second lick. All of a sudden it tasted good, like a sweet syrup. A pleasurable sensation overtook my body. I felt like a drug addict who’d been given a hit. Damn, I really liked this stuff. After licking up my last bit, I wanted more. Not more of the dirt and germs that were mixed in, but more of the red stuff itself. More blood.

  “Now get up!”

  I stood up, peering at the witch.

  “You’re lucky you got to drink. Now sit your little butt down and quit causing trouble. I’ll be watching you, Janice. One more screw up and I’ll throw your ass in the DARK ROOM!”

  Janice. Janice. I must have hit my head real hard. I didn’t recognize the name one bit.

  Shaken and embarrassed, I sat by myself at one of the empty tables. I felt so alone, trapped in a world that I just knew I didn’t fit into. Thankfully, it wasn't long before Jennifer and Sally came over to keep me company. But they were the only ones. No one else dared to sit with me.

  “It’s okay, you’ll be fine,” Sally said. “So it's Janice - right?”

  It took me a while to answer her. “Yeah, I guess that’s my name.”

  “Well, girl,” Jennifer said, “You just stick by us. We’ll make sure nobody messes with you.”

  I gagged once again as I watched Jennifer eat her bloody eggs and then wash them down with more blood from her cup. She took her freaky rat head - or whatever the hell it was - and chewed it whole. I eyed her fangs, dripping with blood.

  “So, do you remember anything at all about your accident?” Sally asked.

  “No. I just woke up. I don’t understand what’s wrong with me.”

  “That’s so strange,” Jennifer added.

  “Yeah, I know.”

  Sally bit her rat head in half. Some of its blood splattered across her face and over the table. “Another crappy tasting cabet,” she said. “I really wish I had somebody to cook me decent food.”

  A sense of danger crept over me.

  Someone tapped me on the shoulder. It was the rude girl I'd met earlier in the bathroom line.

  “Well, if it isn’t Miss I-Forgot-My-Name-To-Get-Some-Attention,” she mocked. “I wouldn’t be surprised if you hit yourself on the head.”

  Two others standing behind the lookalike daughter of Ms. Bitemore sniggered.

  “Leave her alone, Alexis,” Jennifer said.

  Alexis responded by baring her fangs and releasing a menacing low growl that was clearly directed at me, not Jennifer. “I don’t care if you’re new or not,” she hissed. “You stay away from me, stupid little girl.”

  Having said that, she and her friends walked away.

  “What was her problem?” I asked.

  “Oh, she’s just jealous of you, that’s all,” Sally said.

  “Jealous? Why would anybody be jealous of me?”

  Sally grinned. “Because you’re the prettiest vampire in the orphanage.”

  “Oh,” I said, flabbergasted. “Well thank you.”

  “But that doesn’t give her the right to hate,” Sally added.

  Both Sally and Jennifer continued to compliment me on my looks, especially my eyes and figure. It felt good to receive the praise, even if I was pissing some other people off.

  We finished eating and got ready to go to our workstations. My job was cleaning the floors of this filthy place, so I was given an apron, a broom and a mop. I hated being parted from Jennifer and Sally, who were both working in the laundry room. They just seemed so nice.

  I felt like I was trapped in hell, somewhere far underground. There were very few windows, and even when I did get to look through one, all I could see was a deep scarlet sky.

  After putting on my apron, I began sweeping and mopping a long hallway that seemed to go on forever. As I worked, a boy of probably ten or eleven years old ran right past me.

  He appeared petrified. “What’s wrong?” I called out. “Is somebody chasing you?”

  The boy did not pause or answer. But just as he was turning a corner I saw a meaty hand grab hold of him. Next I heard screams, followed by the meanest voice in the world.

  “Got ya! And you thought you could run from me? How dare you!”

  The cries from the poor boy continued piercing the otherwise eerie silence. I hurried to the corner and took a cautious peek around. Only a short distance away was the humongous butt of Ms. Bitemore. She had the boy pinned against the wall and was striking him repeatedly with a narrow leather belt.

  “Say you’re sorry! If you don't, I’ll throw you in the dark room.”

  Apologies tumbled from the boy's mouth, but he continued to get hit anyway. I wanted to just jump out and strangle that obese vampire bitch. But I stayed put, stone frozen.

  “Never…ever….run….from…me….AGAIN!”

  Eventually the torture stopped. The boy, barely able to stand up, moped off down the hallway.

  I flinched as the evil woman’s pancake-like head turned around and we went eye-to-eye.

  “Are you spying on me?” she demanded.

  “No. I was just passing by…I thought...”

  “Don’t back talk me!”

  She clutched my arm that was holding the mop and gazed down at the floor. Her long grey nails stabbed painfully into my skin.

  “You’re doing an awful job. You want me to make you lick up the dirt instead?”

  “No mam,” I said. She squeezed my arm even tighter, then let out a growl. I trembled, thinking that she was going to bite me.

  “Why do I always get the wackos?” she snarled. “Can’t I get somebody decent for a change? I’m not asking for much, but please, I deserve something better than you.”

  With that, she released her grip and stomped away.

  Suddenly, I lost all fear. “Where are my parents?” I called out after her.

  She turned around. “They are DEAD.”

  My pale face grew even whiter. Deep down, I'd already known the truth. But just hearing her confirm my fears made it even harder to accept.

  “I’m your mama now, Janice," Ms. Bitemore told me. "So you better change your ways fast. Otherwise, I’m gonna go on punishing you for a long, long time.”

  THE PIT

  The witch walked away.

  I tried to think about my parents, but I couldn’t remember a damn thing about them. The accident must have really messed me up.

  A muffled cry of distress reached me; it was coming from behind the wall to my right. I put my ear up against it in an effort to hear better. As the screams and moans continued, I thought it sounded like a young boy, but there was no door leading into whatever horrible place he was trapped in.

  At lunch I sat with Sally and Jennifer and had a decent conversation.

  “So, are you saying you don’t even feel like a vampire?” Sally asked. “Wow, you must have bumped your head real bad.”

  I agreed with her, then gawked at my food. Bloodballs and noodles - some sort of meat in the shape of a ball and snake-like noodles, both absolutely swimming in blood. As before, the food repulsed me at first, but then I became mysteriously drawn to it. I took one of the balls and nibbled a little. The blood trickled down my throat and felt pretty good. After that I swallowed the rest of the ball whole, and ate another two.

  Sally smiled. “You go, girl!”

  On a run now, I downed my entire cup of blood in one. Energy and power surged through my body.

  Jennifer looked on, also smiling. “Now you’re feeling it!”
she exclaimed. “That’s what blood will do for a vampire.”

  “Yeah, you’re gonna need it,” Sally added. “After lunch we’re having a standoff.”

  “What’s a standoff?” I asked.

  “It’s when vampires interested in adopting an orphan come to check us out. We all stand behind these bars and the vamps look at us. If they see someone they like, they take them. It gets pretty crazy.”

  “You've got an advantage,” Jennifer told me. “You’re tall. And you’re pretty.”

  I felt better, knowing that I at least had a chance of getting the hell out of here.

  With more blood entering my body than ever before, I felt incredible, like I was on top of the world. There was an extreme energy in my legs that almost demanded to be used somehow.

  Momentarily losing control, I leapt up perhaps three or four feet into the air and landed on top of the table alongside mine – a table filled with vampires busy stuffing bloody meatballs into their mouths. Though I didn’t actually step on anyone’s food or blood, I was blasted with laughter and taunts. I quickly got off the table, apologizing to everyone as I did so.

  Before I had a chance to sit back down, I found myself staring at Alexis. “You freak,” she said. “You’re a damn freak of nature.”

  “What did I ever do to you?” I fired back, surprised that I had the guts to respond. I guess my blood high certainly helped.

  Her midnight eyes grew round as quarters. “Get away from me,” she growled.

  Worried that Bitemore would come and find me, I backed off.

  An alarm sounded.

  Instantly, there was a mad scramble. I followed Jennifer and Sally and the rest of the herd of screaming vampires toward a pair of double doors. Panting, we burst into a huge room where I immediately saw the bars Sally had been talking about. They stretched from the floor all the way up to the lofty ceiling, completely segregating us from the small bunch of people on the other side. Their eyes were scrutinizing us, trying to scope out who they might want to take home.

  The situation quickly became quite violent. The other vampire children, especially those closest to the bars, jostled and pushed as the competition to show off intensified. Several boys ganged together to slam another boy into the ground, while a separate pack of wild kids literally trampled over two others who had briefly managed to claim front row spots.

  A non-stop barrage of desperate pleas such as “Pick me! - Pick me!” and “Please, get me out of here!” relentlessly assaulted the five adults carefully checking us out. As the deafening cries continued, I found myself having to jump about in order to avoid bumping into other frantic orphans and possibly getting gored by their gnashing fangs.

  Fortunately, like Jennifer said, my height and looks helped me to stand out. I noticed an older dude eyeing me closely. He continued to appear interested when I tried to make my way closer to the bars, though this wasn't easy as my path was being blocked by a group of boys fighting. But the dude kept looking at me, all the same. Could this be the guy that got me out of this hell hole, I wondered? Or maybe he simply thought I was hot?

  I was just getting closer when someone was pushed violently into me. I hit the floor hard and lost sight of my admirer. I tried to get up, but couldn’t because my back was hurting so much.

  I saw Jennifer's hand reaching down to me and gratefully grabbed hold of it. Once back on my feet I thanked her and quickly looked for the man who'd been watching me.

  With a huge sense of disappointment, I saw that he was gone.

  Another alarm sounded. Amid loud groans of disappointment, the crowd slowly filtered back through the double doors, leaving behind several wounded and beaten up vampires on the floor. Medical folks came in to help them, but to everyone else it seemed like no big deal. It was becoming clear that, with the exception of Jennifer and Sally, nobody gave a hoot about others around here.

  “Looks like no one got picked today,” Jennifer said. “People are gonna be upset.”

  As we moved back into the dining hall, somebody pointed a finger at me. It was a very whiny Alexis.

  “She did it!”

  Others started peering at me like I was the devil. It didn’t take very long to figure out what was causing the problem.

  “Is this your work?” Bitemore yelled at me.

  Spray painted all over the walls and doors of the cafeteria was the very visible and blunt message: “F U Ms. Bitemore.”

  I instantly knew who was responsible for this. I pointed at my giggling accuser.

  “I didn’t do it!” I shouted. “Alexis did. She set me up.”

  This only infuriated Bitemore further.

  “Quit lying, you little twerp,” she snapped. “I know it was you. You’ve hated me ever since you got here.”

  “I swear it wasn’t me.”

  Bitemore showed her fangs. “We have evidence against you.” She held up a yellow spray paint can. “We found THIS under your bed.”

  “No!” I cried. “I didn’t put it there. Alexis must have done.”

  I wanted to lunge at Bitemore’s ugly face. But before I got that chance, Sally pounced on top of Alexis and pushed her hard into a table. Several of Bitemore’s guards rushed over, grabbing Sally and holding her down. Bitemore seized hold of my shoulders, once again gouging me with her nails. I tried to move, but this only served to double the pain.

  “Both of you will be put into the dark room for an entire week,” she snarled.

  With that, Bitemore picked me up, carelessly carrying me like a freakin' baby doll. Two guards behind her dragged Sally along by her arms and legs. It seemed like everyone in the orphanage was watching the two of us getting taken to the dark room. Many of them were laughing loudly and making fun of us, while a few just seemed plain scared. I tried to resist Bitemore but it was useless, her strength was overwhelming.

  Sally and I were tossed roughly through a red door and into a dimly lit circular room. Once inside, the guards immediately set about securing us to the walls by wrapping chains around our waists and legs. The heavy door then slammed shut, leaving us trapped on opposite sides of the room. A very faint ruddy light shone down, allowing us to just about see each other.

  “That bitch Alexis,” Sally yelled. “How could she stoop so low?”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “Everybody here is so mean.”

  “And you’re so nice, Janice. But that’s a good thing. People may try to make you think different, but don't believe them.”

  I could barely make out Sally’s face. And even though I was a vampire, the darkness was smothering me and felt like my enemy. I tried to move, pushing my stomach up against the chain that held me, but I couldn’t budge.

  “So is this all we do here?” I said. “Just stand here?”

  “I don’t know,” Sally replied. “I’ve never been in here before.”

  For a while, we just talked about stuff. She told me how she was once picked up and taken care of by a foster parent. But he got drunk and left the house without providing the daily blood she needed to survive. So she was brought here. I tried to think about my past life, but once again I had nothing to say because my mind was a blank.

  I was so grateful to have Sally here with me. I guess at least some vampires have a need for each other, which was a good thing.

  With a shock I saw something moving on the floor. A worm-like insect dripping in glowing, neon-blue slime was crawling toward me. Seeing as how my legs were chained, I couldn’t stamp on it, and very soon it was slithering up my leg.

  “What the hell is it?” I cried.

  “A deadworm,” Sally told me. “Get it off of you. They bite like hell.”

  I tried to swing at the creature with my arm to knock it away, but the tight chain around my stomach kept me from reaching down that far. I could see its sharp teeth and scarlet eyes glaring at me as I waited for it to get close enough to swat. At last it was. I made ready to strike, but before I could do so a sharp pain ripped first through my leg, and then my
whole body. Screaming, I punched at the creature repeatedly until it finally fell to the floor.

  The deadworm was dead.

  “You okay?” Sally asked. “I’ve been bit by one before, so I know what it's like. It'll be alright though. It goes away fairly soon.”

  The pain lingered, and for a while it felt like I'd stepped through fire. But as Sally had said, gradually it stopped.

  After that, forever seemed to drag by. My vampire muscles cramped from not being able to move, especially around my butt and thighs. I shivered. It was getting cold too.

  “I’m thirsty,” Sally said.

  “Thirsty?” I asked. “You mean for blood?”

  She had told me that, once I got used to drinking blood, I would become addicted and need at least a cup of it every day to avoid becoming sick.

  “So how long do you think we’ve been in here?” I asked.

  “A long time. Dinner has got to be soon.”

  Almost as if in reaction to her words, two small shelves slid out of the wall, one beside Sally and one by me. Each had a cup of blood on it. I had to stretch hard for mine because it was only just within reach.

  This time I was not sickened at all by the blood when I gulped it down. In fact, I felt great.

  “See, I told you you’d love it,” Sally said

  She reached across for her own cup, but somehow it slipped through her fingers and the precious liquid spilled on the floor.

  “Damn!” she shouted.

  The light above flickered, then went out completely. We went from gloom to total blackout.

  “What's happened?” I called out.

  Sally didn't answer. I hated not being able to see her.

  “Are you okay?” I asked.

  “Yeah,” she said. “Oh shit, how could I be so dumb?”

  “You’re blood,” I said. “You spilled it.”

  “Yeah. It’s been a while since I’ve gone this long without any.”

  At first, I didn’t understand why Sally seemed so worried.

  “God, I hate it without the light,” I said. “I thought vampires could see in the dark.”

  Again, Sally failed to answer.

  “You still worried about losing your blood? It’s just one cup. I’m sure they’ll send us some more in soon.”