He’d lost her for good this time. Their relationship, with all its ups and downs, had always been a bit like a rollercoaster ride, but it was a ride they were on together. Now, however, his ride with Wendy was over.
I wish I hadn’t seen her with him, Joey thought to himself as he scrambled awkwardly in the darkness of this unfamiliar room. If only he’d never seen them together he could accept this better, move on with his life even. If only he’d never seen them together maybe he could someday find a way to love again, find a way to live again. But no. Not after he’d seen her in that beast’s arms.
“Where are you, you monster?”
Coming here at night was probably a bad idea, he thought as he stubbed his foot against something hard and solid on the floor. In fact, there was no probably to it; it was a bad idea. A very bad idea.
Broken hearts aren’t known for making good decisions, though, and his broken heart was making all the decisions now, with a little help from the whiskey he’d downed earlier in the day.
“You ripped my heart out, and now its time I return the favor,” he spat into the darkness. He gripped his makeshift weapon – a long wooden stick with a sharp tip – tightly in his hands, realizing that this lapse in judgment could be more costly than he first thought.
The monster that stole Wendy from him was close by now. Joey could smell the rotting stench that clung tightly to that vile creature’s filthy body.
He’s behind me, he thought. Joey spun around and felt the monster’s rancid breath slap him in the face. It was already too late. In the dark, now at point blank range, Joey could faintly make out the beast’s ghastly features, his pale, almost translucent skin, blood dripping from the corners of his mouth, crooked fang-like teeth resting over his disgusting lips.
The vampire hissed as he lunged forward and sunk his teeth into Joey’s neck, draining the lifeforce from him just as he’d done to Wendy.
I’m such an idiot, was Joey’s last thought before passing over to the other side.
“Don’t fight it, darling,” Wendy said from somewhere nearby, her voice raspy and dry and so different than the soft, melodic tone that Joey remembered. This wasn’t going the way he’d planned it in his heartsick head, but maybe it was just as well. Anything was better than living with the pain he’d been carrying around with him the last two days.
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©2011 Daniel Slaten
Daniel Slaten took a three year break from writing – and life – to attend law school. He’s back now and rediscovering the joys of writing and of life.
Daniel,
We met once when I once managed the Waldenbooks at Blue Ridge Mall (back when there were Waldenbooks and a Blue Ridge Mall) and was recently re-reading your books. Is there a sequel in the works?
Is this the Daniel Slaten that wrote the fallacy of the thief? If so I still have the signed book I bought one day at the Blue Ridge Mall. Good to see you writing again.