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spot my query a little before midnight. He’s somewhat bloated. The
vampire hasn’t been feeding well so its body has started the process of
decay; the gasses from this process have caused it to start swelling
allowing me to spot him quickly. The only other way to tell who’s a
vampire is the way they look at each person they pass. Vampires have a
very feral way of looking at people, like a wolf watching a deer.
He
catches a cab and heads north to a poor neighborhood; I have a car
waiting so I follow him. The vampire makes his way to a large apartment
building and goes in. Vampires like apartments in lower income
neighborhoods. No security asking questions at the desk and lots of
living units to search in order to find one they can enter. It’s the
perfect hunting ground.
The
vampire glances hungrily at me as I join him in waiting for the
elevator, but vampires rarely ever kill their victims as doing so
merely creates another vampire to compete with them while drawing
unwanted attention, especially with the camera positioned to look right
at the elevators. It is still nerve racking to step into the elevator
with the undead. It wants to bite into me and despite how tame they
appear to have become, vampires love death. They prefer to kill their
victims and this one is extremely hungry. So it’s torn between its
undead instincts and the intellect it retains from life that lets it
know that it won’t get away with attacking me thanks to the camera.
Still I have to be careful, any movement that belays anxiety or fear
could set off his instinctive side to a point where he won’t be able to
or want to control it.
“It was a nice sunny day today wasn’t it?” I ask as I fiddle with my hair while looking at my reflection in the elevator door.
The
vampire nods his head in a non-committal gesture, anxious that I’ll
notice his lack of reflection or realize that he has no idea what the
day was like, as he couldn’t go out in the daytime.
A
twittery giggle echoes inside my head as the most mischievous of the
spirits which possessed me as a child laughs at the vampire. It is
perhaps a sign of how warped my mind has become that I would tease a
vampire while standing alone with him in an elevator. This is the
danger of connecting with the spirit world, for the beings within it
almost never truly mature which is why maturity can fade from those who
interact with the spirit world quickly.
The
elevator opens, and the vampire strides down the hallway quickly. I let
him get well ahead of me. Despite the appearance that he knows where
he’s going, chances are he’s searching for just the right apartment.
He
pauses in front of a door; it’s likely he senses that this particular
apartment, unlike most households, has no protection on it.
He
picks the lock while hiding what he’s doing with his body. Vampires
never need sleep, nor do they have jobs, so they spend a lot of time
learning skills like lock picking. He’s fast enough that one would
never guess he didn’t have a key.
I give him a few moments inside the house before creeping in after him for a look.
Vampires,
as most of you are probably aware from watching movies, can’t enter
most houses without being invited. What most people fail to realize is
the reason behind this and a reason that no longer exists for this
apartment because it is messy, very messy. A sink filled with dirty
dishes, clutter on the floor. Another point to take note of is the
uninspired decor. This living unit has probably been like this for
months, and what the mess and lack of decor does is drive away or
corrupts the household fairy that was living here. That’s why the
vampire chooses this particular living unit because household fairies
are the reason vampires can’t enter homes, or at least not easily.
Hearth fairies protect homes and those who live in them from evil magic
including vampires. So without one, the inhabitants of this house are
fair game.
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