Chapter five

“You came?” Aamon said with a relieved expression as he extended his arms out for a hug. She hesitated but then retaliated. 

Hugging him felt like she was in a safe haven. His body was firm, his grip on her was steady and he smelled of death mixed with blood and a little bit of earth.

She disengaged from the hug and took one step back to scan him from head to toe. 

He was in all black as usual, his hair looked greasy than the last time she saw him, the strand of hair still fell over his face and he looked even paler, he stood like royalty. His entire movement was slow and graceful but the aura that emanated from him was mesmerizing, it was like danger mixed with seduction.

“Was there ever a doubt?” She asked 

“A little, yeah” he answered honestly 

“Well, there shouldn’t be” 

He smiled for the first time and she had to admit, he looked even more mesmerizing when he smiled. His pure white fangs were more visible that way and watching it made her neck itch for some reason.

“So…” she started 

“So…”

“Back to business” she chuckled nervously as she waved her recorder

“Of course detective. Have a seat” 

She sat on one of the seats in the dusty but cozy living room and examined the place. It looked well-kept for a house that’s been demolished and is more than a century old.

“How do you cope here?” She asked curiously 

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, doesn’t it rain on you or something? This place has no roof, do you just sleep and wake up inside it come rain or shine?”

He chuckled “no detective, I don’t live here. I just come here at night, well some nights”

“You don’t live here?”

“Oh hell no, I don’t. I have my own house but I also have a special attachment to this place”

“Because it was your family house?” She blurted before she could stop herself. His brows shot up

“I see you’ve been doing your research detective”

She leaned forward in her seat with a serious expression “I want answers Aamon, and only you can give me the answers I want. I want to know what really happened, what is happening and what will happen?”

He laughed “I’m a vampire, not a psychic, sure I can see far ahead and hear your heartbeat but I can’t see the future. I can’t tell you what will happen, I’m not even sure I know what is happening. I can only tell you what has happened”

“I’ll take that”

She pressed record on her recorder and noticed he looked anxious 

“You don’t have to summarize anything, I can ask the questions if you want” 

“I’d like that”

She cleared her throat and began “can you tell me what happened in September 1922?”

“My family and I were killed in a car accident. Brake failure. We were on our way to England, my dad’s brother called in a frenzy, his wife was about to put to bed and he needed some money to complete the hospital bills. My parents decided it would be a good idea if all of us went so we could spend some time with the new parents. Little did we know that it was all staged, Marcel paid my uncle to trick us to get in our car. Their actual target was my parents, they planned on getting rid of me and my sister later but unfortunately, we all took the hit and so, here we are”

“Okay? So can you tell me how you became a vampire?”

“Well, truth be told, I was a vampire two weeks before the accident”

“Really? Tell me more”

“I was a strange kid. I had always loved the darkness, death and all things sanguineous, it worried my parents a lot and it certainly didn't help that I was adopted”

“You were adopted?”

“Yeah, and nobody knows who my real parents were, not even the matrons at the orphanage. The Steiner's adopted me when I was just a year old so not many people knew I wasn't their biological child. The day I became a vampire, I was wandering around a particular morgue, helping a friend who was an attendant there. His name was John and I was just fascinated by all the dead bodies and how pale they looked. I kept wishing to be as pale as they were when I stumbled upon a certain body.”

__________

He bent over, carefully examining the features of the body, from the cheekbones which looked very bony to the closed eyelids which were so pale, they were almost see-through, the lips were the faintest shade of blue. The nostrils seemed to move slightly almost as if it was breathing faintly.

The putrid smell of the morgue was so intense that if you look closely, you might see green lines in the air coming from each body. But this particular body didn't seem to have any smell, which Aamon found strange.

”It looked dead but alive too, I was curious so I removed the sheet from the body just a little. Keep in mind that my friend had already warned me not to touch anything” his voice sounded over.

“This looks alive. I should know cause I know dead bodies” he whispered 

“Everything or body you see here has either been dead a day or more than a week. Oh and please don't touch anything” John whispered back harshly but the more Aamon looked at the body, the more his curiosity grew, he turned to confirm John wasn't watching him then he reached out his hand to feel the pulse, there was no pulse. Yet there could be no denying that the body was alive.

Just as he brought his face closer to examine it closely, it's eyes opened.

Aamon stood up straight in shock as he looked into the dangerously red pair of eyes that was staring back at him with a murderous look.

Before he could react, the man stood up swiftly and before he could understand what was happening, the man was on him and he sank his teeth into his neck forcefully. 

He let out a loud scream as pain shot through his veins, John turned abruptly.

 

“Oh shit! What the hell did you do?” he shrieked

“Help…” he muttered as he sank to his knees, he could feel his heartbeat slowing as he watched the colour come back to the man's body. His lips became red, his grey thinning hair started turning black and was gradually becoming full, his extremely pale skin became less pale, his skinny body was becoming fleshy and his eyes that were dead-looking started looking alive again.

John stared with eyes wide in horror “what do I do?”

The man still had his teeth and face buried on Aamon’s neck and Aamon was starting to look pale, like he was running out of blood

“My…my back…pack” he wheezed as John rushed to rummage in it

“This?” he asked referring to a long wooden stake with a very sharp edge shaped like a crucifix. 

Aamon nodded quickly and John tossed it to him. He raised it with every ounce of strength left in him and stabbed the man straight in the heart.

The man's eyes turned black as he let out a loud hissing sound. As he turned to what looks like ashes, Aamon released a loud scream again, he could feel the blood rushing back through his veins and the pain was excruciating. It was like there were a million thorns in his blood poking his veins.

The man turned to ashes but Aamon continued rolling in pain on the floor, his insides were killing him, it was like he was being twisted and turned inside out repeatedly. John was panicking as he ran helter skelter 

“Do you need water? Should I perform a Heimlich, should I call an ambulance?” he kept blabbing but Aamon was too wrapped up in his pain to hear him.

He released one final scream as the pain abruptly faded. A new found strength quickly washed over him and he jumped to his feet, dazed by what just happened.

“Dude? What the hell just happened?” John asked visibly shaken

“I think that was a vampire. I need to get home quick!”

He picked up his backpack but as he took one step, he found himself twenty feet away from where he stood earlier. 

He and John exchanged scared glances 

“How did you do that?” John asked 

“I don't know. Let me try it again” 

He moved again and this time he was another twenty feet from where he stood

“What in the world is happening? You just moved like a hundred inches in less than a second”

John was freaking out, he broke out in a cold sweat.

“Dude, this is crazy…”

“Okay, calm down. I think I know what's happening”

“What is happening?” John half-yelled 

“I know this sounds crazy but I think that vampire that bit me just now, I don't know how but I think he kinda turned me into one”

John stared at him wide-eyed, he shook his head as if he was trying to shake himself awake from a nightmare.

“Are you telling me that you are now somehow, magically a vampire?”

“Not magically, there's a logical…”

“I don't care about the logical. There is nothing logical about any of this. Vampires DON’T EXIST” he shrilled 

“I don't think…” 

He suddenly fell over, his insides began to curl up again and he started to make a sound that was not human-like, he was growling and snarling, claws shot out from his nails painfully, his eyes were spinning as they gradually turned red, he felt a gnawing pain in his gums.

“What…is…happening?” he growled.

He suddenly felt an overpowering hunger for blood, human blood and he felt he was not in control of his body again. His head shot up instantly as he noticed his friend was suddenly smelling delicious to him. 

He was on him in a second.

“Dude, what are you doing?” John asked, terrified.

“I'm sorry” he growled again as he located his veins and sank his teeth deep into it.

John let out an agonizing scream.