Tales of The Reluctant Fangpire, Part 1
“Vampire is so 18th century. We prefer the term fangpires. We feel it represents us better. We have fangs and we… well we don’t even know what ‘pires’ mean but it sounds dark.” Lori had been my friend for years. We had sleepovers growing up, with me none the wiser to her… illness. Only after twelve years of friendship was she confiding in me.
“I don’t get it. I don’t believe it. I don’t get it. How?” I asked, in disbelief and disgust. I had always hated the taste of blood. During dentist visits, I would gag when the nurse would accidentally poke my gum and make it bleed. The copper taste was something I was never a fan of. How could she live off it? Wait. She didn’t live. I never understood that whole process.
“Well…” She started, flipping her golden brown hair that never saw a bad day in it’s life. “My grandmother had an affair with a fangpire and never told anyone. My mother was born out of that whole mess. My family always had suspicions that something was a bit off. When I was a baby, I would bite my lip and then suck on it. And I would do that until I had blisters so bad they would bleed. And again, I would suck on it. Not until I met you, when we were about twelve, did I stop that whole thing. You taught me about lipstick and that was the end of that. I never thanked you for that by the way. Thank you, on behalf of my very plump and juicy lips.” She ran her tongue over her lips then bit down. “Old habits do die hard.” She giggled.
“Wow. But wait, there’s no way. We’ve gone out in the daytime before. How did you manage the sun?” I asked, confident I had proved she was lying.
“Remember that skin cream that I used for my terrible acne?” Lori used hand quotes for acne. I hated when she did that.
“Yes, I do. I remember asking you to let me borrow some before prom night when I woke up with that huge monstrocity on my nose that Mike Taylor called a third eye.”
“Well, honey, it was not acne cream. I couldn’t let you use it. It was made by fangpires for fangpires. It’s like a sun protectant cream. It’s like SPF 5000.” It appeared she was relieved to be finally letting all this secret information out.
“This is insane, I can’t believe all this. Have you told anyone else?”
“No, not everyone is as open-minded as you, Lee.”
“I think I need a minute to digest this.” I sat back in my chair, trying to absorb everything that I had just learned.
“Speaking of digest, I’m starving. Let’s go grab something to eat.”
Forgetting everything I had just been told, I agreed. I grabbed my jacket off the couch when I felt a pinch. A pinch on my neck that started to tingle. I turned around and saw Lori, fangs out, my blood dripping from them. I fell to the ground and felt the heat of her mouth on my neck. The pain became so unbearable I lost consciousness.
Another fangpire was born.
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©2010 Liza Larregui
Liza Larregui has been writing since she learned how to type at the age of five. Only recently has she sent in work for publication. She lives in NYC with her husband and her MacBook.
March 21st, 2010 at 10:14 pm
Watch for more from Liza here on Flashes in the very near future……
March 22nd, 2010 at 8:40 am
I love fun vampire…uh…fangpire stories. Nicely done.
March 22nd, 2010 at 4:14 pm
Sneaky story. I guess that’s what friends are for - transforming you into the undead. Neat.
March 28th, 2010 at 10:04 am
Interesting start. Looking forward to the next installment.