The first thing Asa felt when she saw the body on her porch was regret.
Her heart slightly ached, reminding her that while she could do things that no human could, she was, in so many ways, alive, and like a human.
The woman on her porch still had her eyes open. Asa wasn’t sure if this was done on purpose or not, but staring down into those dead eyes, Asa wanted to scream. She wanted to find a way to travel back in time, well, to an exact moment in time. The day the vampire killed her best friend Abby. She wanted to go back there and jump in front of Abby. She wanted to be killed… then again, if that were the case, then Abby would be living this life.
Which was worse… death, or this?
The woman on the porch meant nothing to Asa in terms of relation and knowing her, but it still pained Asa because the woman had a family. She may have been a wife. Maybe a mother. Definitely someone’s daughter and granddaughter.
And here she was, dead, for no reason.
Asa crouched down and touched the woman; she was still warm.
She was fresh.
Maybe even killed while Asa fought those other creatures just a few minutes ago.
If that were the case, it made the scene harder to take in because it meant the vampires were getting more and more ruthless. Had they come to distract her with a senseless fight so they could have a senseless kill?
Asa reached towards the woman’s face to close her eyes. She wanted the woman to be sent off somewhere else, somewhere happier, wherever the afterlife would take the souls. If there was any sense of good in this, it was that the woman was killed, and not drained and turned to ash. Those left as ash were left hanging between hell and being lost.
Vampires didn’t just feed on blood, they also enjoyed souls.
Asa just hoped this woman was resting peacefully.
Asa put her fingers to the woman’s eyes and the woman jumped. Her body convulsed for a second and then one of her hands slammed onto Asa’s wrist.
The woman’s eyes slid to the left, to meet with Asa’s. They were milky, grey, and definitely dead.
“Blood,” the woman whispered. “Blood…”
“Are you alive?” Asa asked. A small spark of hope went through her. Maybe the woman could be saved. She’d be alright.
“BLOOD,” the woman said louder, her voice forcing deeper. “BLOOD. BLOOD. BLOOD.”
The voice changed to a much sinister sound voice, something that Asa could recognize.
The voice of the old man vampire.
Asa hung her head and whispered, “Damn…”
“BLOOD!” the woman screamed one last time and then the grip on Asa’s wrist was released.
To top it all off, the woman then scattered into a pile of ash. As her body exploded into the ash, it sounded like an elderly person taking a rough breath.
Asa looked to the ash and let out a long breath herself.
Nothing was getting easier, and she knew it wasn’t going to.
Mr. Rogers had been quiet again.
New vampires had shown up.
And now a body.
Asa stood up and took a step back, trying to think about what to do with the ashes. She usually refused to touch ashes, for fear of whatever they actually possessed. But this was an innocent woman, taken for no reason.
Had the vampire even enjoyed feeding on the woman?
Or was she killed just for that little scene of coming to life?
Asa stepped again and felt her foot slide.
It was like stepping on ice and Asa found herself in a little bit of a balance dance but eventually caught herself from falling.
She looked down and saw that she had stepped in something wet – and obviously slippery.
She lifted her foot and against the dim light of the moon, she could easily see what it was – blood.
Asa rubbed her foot on the ground, not wanting to track any blood into her house.
Whether it was human blood or not, the last thing she wanted to deal with tonight was more blood or more death.
But that wasn’t going to be an option. Not when you’re someone like Asa, who has no punch out time from her job.
As she gazed down the alley, she saw splotches on the ground. One after another, in succession, almost in a perfect order, like a painter had kept dropping their paintbrush every couple steps.
She didn’t need light to know it was blood.
The splotches weren’t just there to scare Asa. She knew that. Blood didn’t scare her. The pattern scared her though because at the end of the alley, the pattern looked as though it took a turn to the right.
That meant one thing… it was a path.
A path of blood.
____________________________________
©2011 Jim Bronyaur
Tags: Jim Bronyaur
