My Personal Vampire

~ My Personal Vampire ~

I felt sorry for  the victim but catching a murder suspect, good practice for my own case. I quickly copied the address off the file and stood up to grab my car keys; he was at the door before me though he was sitting next to me and the door was closer to me; I didn’t even realise when he got up and wasn’t shocked rather surprised at how feisty he was being and carefree; strange for a murderer, I mused and broke out of my reverie, quickly enough to say, “This is gonna be dangerous.” And I continued as I saw him gravely looking at me, “I mean that this might be life threatening so if you’d like to, you can stay at home. I won’t judge you.” “No!” He yelled, almost, but quickly softened his tone, “Wherever you go I go.” We left and started to inquire around the neighbourhood in which the boy had resided. Two years ago, apparently after the investigation finished and the death was ruled a mystery, he left town. I asked around but no one knew where he was right now. I tapped at someone’s door but before I could fully finish three knocks the door flung open and a grumpy old lady walked out. “Who’s disturbing me this late?” She asked and I was really amused as to how fast she’d appeared at the door, I’d noticed her looking through her window and trying to figure out what we were doing but to no avail. She was acting strange… hmph, great. “Hello, ma’am,” I began politely and continued while Atlas stood looking at the number plates of the cars and staring around, ’twas weirdly obvious, how meticulously he could see everything and for a second I could too, I had this weird moment where I could see everything, little dust particles floating around, insects crawling; lines on tree barks? “What?” Asked the old lady clearly impatient and wanting to get this over with. “Excuse me, I— we meant to ask whether you know where Eli Collins lives right now, or anything about his whereabouts?” I trailed off again as I saw that Atlas wasn’t focused at all, he was looking around, vigilantly as if looking for someone lurking in the shadows; I wanted to be a detective obviously, I figured as much, but making myself seem oblivious was the best thing right now, I wanted to

 get justice for Viena. That was all that mattered in the moment. 
The old lady seemed terrified at the mention of this Eli collins and fancied herself a good actress or whatever it was, because she tried to compose herself, something I’d mastered; it takes practice, she’d not had any.

“Would you like to come in for a cup of tea?” She asked and I thought, the mystery is gonna be solved. 

“Of course, we would.” I said and I pressed Atlas firmly, he was still distracted. We then walked into a darkly lit house, as I’d expected, what skeletons were buried here? Who was Eli Collins? I enthused. 
The next morning was the one that changed both our lives and the lives of countless others as that was the first morning when a murder happened in our University.

It was a pretty girl from a different forensics branch; she was found pale, drained of her blood, clawed almost and feasted on by an unknown monster. 

When we pulled up to the school— by us I mean Atlas and me, he stayed over, I’ll explain later—I could see yellow tape from a mile away; my house had been bedecked with it all those years ago and I felt trauma suppress me; unfortunately, I couldn’t even breathe and I started panicking, I started having a panic attack. In front of him, I wondered if this is what he’d come to do. Was he the one behind what happened? After all he did leave last night. 
As I tried to keep my voice even and was obviously failing to do so, he met my eyes, and his eyes seemed just as confused. “Are you okay?” He asked and for the first time I was honest with him, I vehemently shook my head and got myself out of the car, he held my hand through the panic attack and I was glad he was there. This was the first time someone was there and it felt nice, something I could get used to. 

As we walked over to the crime scene, some of our professors met us and they looked just as horrified, kids had leaked pictures and were receiving punishment but to no avail. I suggested that we take away peoples’ phones for today. Surely everyone could instagram later, right now we had a situation at hand. I wanted to observe, so I put on gloves and asked for permission, as I said before, we got good grades, Atlas and I, he tried just as hard as I did, we were the ones with our hands up all the time. My point is that, we got to experience things firsthand. Kids were busy with leaking pictures, some had freaked out and left and others were looking at us from a far distance. Even though I was dizzy because of my panic attack, I thought about how I needed to shake it off and do my job. That was hard to do, but when Atlas walked from under the tape and joined me, I felt better.  We took a look around but got nothing, no fingerprints at all, not even hair or any sorts of cloth, just anything that could’ve tipped us off about the killer. 

Just as we did thorough checkups, our professors started moving away too, I saw the mark of her silhouette on the ground and winced, it reminded me of what my house looked like, how the officers had tried to explain their disappearance because and it was in that moment that I snapped, I pulled closer to Atlas and said, “I think it’s a vampire.” He didn’t look amused this time, his face held a grave expression and I wondered what he was thinking about, after last night he’d saved me twice now and I don’t know what I felt for him. He was calculating, contemplating all possible suspects, I could see it on his face. He seemed professional, as I engrossed myself in scrutinising the crime scene and getting the girl’s schedule for lectures and breaks, a boy, an angelic boy, walked up to us and he introduced himself merrily, clearly missing the mood, “I’m Kay,” he said and immediately followed with an apology for his unnatural mood, “I wanted to meet you.” He said as he looked at me and I realised Atlas was gone. I didn’t even see him leaving, he’d zoomed past us so fast that I only caught a glimpse of him before he walked into the building. “Me?” I asked confused, ever since I’d started hanging around Atlas, I was becoming more humane, I scoffed at the thought. Was I a monster too?

“Yeah, I’m new and I heard so much about you. You’ve gotten pretty popular in a couple of days.” He said and his eyes were shimmering as if he were talking to a celebrity. I didn’t reply, I felt this sinister vibe off of him and reengaged myself, prioritising work over ‘social obligations’. 

Then it happened again, I heard Atlas laugh to himself as if pleased with my actions, but he wasn’t near me, it was like I’d heard him from a mile away. I didn’t let this disturb me either but Kay, as he called himself, his real name was Killian, seemed too excited to let go. I finally got out from under the tape and taking of my gloves, I tied my hair. I didn’t even notice him, standing beside me, he stood so still, breathless, like stone. He was really handsome and I couldn’t help but stumble as I turned to see him, gawking, if I saw right, at me, he looked… thirsty. I was weirded out by this but soon put my thoughts away and locked them in a safe room. I wouldn’t wanna go blurting out my knowledge about vampires. 

He caught me as I fell towards him, it was like there was something that hit me from behind, a push, an invisible one, and I fell right into his arms, Atlas came running towards us and since yesterday it was clear, as to why he was sprinting towards us. 
Let me recap last night, so when we entered the old lady’s house— devil’s hole—she walked ahead of us and quickly got into her little kitchen, she seemed to be in a hurry and you could hear, Ah, oops, often, loudly coming from the kitchen. I know it’s rude but I saw a picture hanging on the wall. It was like it was kept there for me to see, their was a strange magnetic attraction to it, and I walked up to it. The boys in the pictures looked so happy. Their mother whom I assumed to be the old lady seemed well off too. But what was wrong, there was no one with the old lady right now and she seemed to be having a hard time. Where were her sons? And what did she know about Eli Collins. She came out looking flustered as if she had been flogged and set the tray on the table. I felt like I was in Europe or something, being tended to by a housewife. 
Atlas, who’d seemed disturbed looked distraught and had his guard up, I wanted to ask him if he was okay, and why the hell wasn’t he paying attention to this but then I realised as I followed his eyes to the window, a shadowy figure was creeping and looking at us, shrouded in black to mix with the darkness of the night. This would’ve bothered me but I was passionate about what I did. 

“Might I intrude,” I said and didn’t believe how British I sounded, “Do you know Eli Collins, ma’am?” The end of the sentence reassured me that I was American enough. 

We were met with a glare and I noticed that she’d noticed the figure too and was looking at him, terrified, her eyes seemed to wither and then come back to life. “Why are you looking for him?” She asked and as I was about to answer Atlas, for the first time in half an hour opened his mouth to sputter a lie, “We were friends with him and wanted to check in. We’re having a reunion and wanted to see whether he could attend. It’s for a good cause.” He didn’t even flinch as he lied, ‘nice!’ I thought to myself, I guess why I had become a monster was clear. He sucked on me every night. Maybe he transferred his characteristics into me or something, we seemed so similar, so inhumane, he more so than me in a sense and I beat him by my attitude towards people, he tried to be civil, when talking to me people would shrivel. 

Suddenly, a sharp pain overcame me and I wanted to scream buy I didn’t wanna disturb the flow of words which seemed to be leaking from the old woman’s faucet, she was talking now reassured— I didn’t understand what was going on— therefore, I began to record her and write down things as she talked.
“What is your relation to him?” Atlas asked and his eyes beheld a compassionate look, I heaved too and I wanted to look at him as much as I could, this glimmer in his eyes seemed controlling. No way, I thought, and softly mumbled,  enough for my ears to hear, “Can he compel people?” I felt insecure in that moment, what if that would hinder my plan of killing him?

“He…” the old woman started, “He is my son and he doesn’t live here …anymore, he moved away 2 years ago, and I haven’t seen him or talked to him since then.” As she finished speaking, I knew she was lying. She was nervously fiddling with her bangle and not once did she meet our eyes. What are you hiding ? I thought and I felt frustrated, this was taking way too much time. 

Atlas seemingly talkative now started asking her whether she was fine, how she got on and to my surprise, the hooded person, the shadowy figure had disappeared. I closed my eyes and wanted to see whether, I’d really developed super hearing, because certain things that happened in the past few days had me going crazy. 
Suddenly, it happened again, I heard a loud crash and something felt like it was on fire, the lady’s kitchen, but with all her exclamations before she seemed to have taken her time well enough to prepare tea which we hadn’t touched. She was staring at the cups like a maniac, gross, I thought, god knows what she put in there and it seemed evident, there were still powdered remains of what I assumed to be sleeping pills in the cups. 

We ran towards the kitchen and suddenly, I felt suffocated, the woman was at my throat, like a bat, sucking my blood and the person who’d lit the fire was… Eli Collins, he stood there and watched and said, “Mom, the girl’s pretty, make sure you don’t leave marks and also nice to meet you again.” He muttered to Atlas. The next thing I knew, atlas had talked things over with the mother-son duo and persuaded them to let me go. Then we walked out of their house like nothing had happened. 

He still wasn’t talking and I was at a loss for words, what the hell just happened? She had bared her teeth but didn’t bite. Eli Collins… the face looked familiar. He carried me out in his arms, I felt weak, nauseous, and sick… my stomach still killing me, he seemed to be in a hurry. “Who were they?” I asked as he buckled me in. “Are you okay?” He desperately avoided me. “I’m not.” I said, “Atlas, who were they? And we have our explanation, the twins in the picture and no record of a brother in his information stored in our case file… we got the killer. What are you doing?”

Author's bits: Hey, y'all, your girl's back with another chapter, what is going on? I mean, come on, no way, if Atlas had been acting this whole time and wanted to kill her, Why did he save her? Who are these people? Wanna know? I bet you do. Tune in next week. 

Also, my podcast: The Forbidden Forest is available on Spotify and six other platforms, wanna help me out a little, go listen to it right now, I promise you, you won't regret it.