Living Hell

This is a short story that is being published this year in an anthology dedicated to vampires which is the same one 'Spider' is being published in. This is the most recent work I've done. 2 days ago in fact! Enjoy!

Living Hell

My first taste of passion was an unusual one. Never in my life had I wanted anyone so badly, wanting to taste him, feel him, devour every inch of him until I had my fill and not want to stop craving him! The feeling of being so high on the best form of drug and not wanting to come down was taking over my life – so much so I was obsessed. I didn’t want anything else. I even gave up my job for him it got that bad! But this was something I was not going to regret.

I first met ‘Mr O’ (I never knew his real name) at a friend’s house-warming party. He was so different from any of the others in the room. Tall, smartly dressed, long blonde hair tied back in a pony-tail with shiny black shoes. He made the other idiots in the room look dull – but then that wouldn’t be at all suprising, every time I go to one of these parties I always get landed with the same people. Boring, idiotic, think that they are the best thing since sliced bread! But this time I knew it would be different, and I was proved right when I laid eyes on ‘Mr O’. He was standing by the fireplace talking to one of my friends Cassie. At first I thought he was a ladies’ man the way he was chatting her up and then moving on to another, so I suppressed my initial urge at first and continued trying to focus on Colin who was talking about Zen and how it influenced his life (or was it Metaphysics versus Christianity?!? Was only half listening!). At the precise moment when I was beginning to think about leaving, a rather deep and sexy voice interrupted my thoughts.

‘I hope I’m not interrupting?’ Said ‘Mr O’ to Colin, ‘But I couldn’t help noticing that this charming young lady is rather bored! Kindly take your metaphysics elsewhere.’ Mmmm…I thought, direct and abrupt…nice touch! Colin tried to come back with one of his half-hearted ‘witty’ retorts, but found himself frozen to the spot, unable to speak. ‘Didn’t you hear me? I said go!’ Said ‘Mr O’ calmly. Colin finally took the hint and left us.

It seemed ages before ‘Mr O’ and I spoke. We exchanged the normal niceties of greetings and names before he took me completely by surprise.

‘This is not your normal scene is it?’ ‘Mr O’ asked. ‘I get the feeling that a lot of the time you’d rather be elsewhere which is why I ask.’

‘How perceptive of you’ I said, ‘But how did you know that?’

‘I recognise the signs – the fact that I am exactly the same helps. But then, these sorts of gatherings intrigue me. So many lost souls trying to fit in, but they never do.’

Naturally I was intrigued by this, so I pressed him for further explanations. All I could get out of him was ‘I am an observer of people, nothing more.’ Even when I asked him why ‘Mr O’, he said ‘That’s for me to know and you to find out.’ I should have read the warning signs then, but I just felt so at ease with this man and was having a good time that I didn’t care at that point who he was and why he protected his real name. All throughout the night we talked about the vibrancy of life and why people acted the way they did. Did they bring about their own fate or were the circumstances they were in depicting what sort of life they were going to have?

‘Take Colin for instance.’ He said. ‘He in many ways is trapped by his circumstances – so wrapped up in things that obviously do not exist or cannot be proved at least that he is fated to have no proper friends or a long lasting relationship. You on the other hand…’ he lowered his voice as he turned his intense gaze to me. ‘You are able to free yourself from your life trappings. I know we’ve only known each other for a short period of time, but I know you well enough to know that you are adventurous, daring, passionate…’ He kissed me with an intensity that blew my mind away. ‘I can give you that freedom that others cannot understand. Your needs are different from all these…empty shells that we see here. You need to be taken to a completely different level to really appreciate what you have. I can do that for you – no one else can.’ With that he took my hand and leading me out the door said ‘Let me show you something.’ Now at this point I could have said no, but for once in my life I felt so special. Somehow this beautiful creature had tapped into a part of my soul that had been locked away for so many years and I was awakening into someone, if not, something new. Here was someone who promised me a different stage that only he could give me – there was no way I was going to miss this chance.

He led me to his car and we drove in silence to his place on the other side of town. What happened next is a little sketchy though. All I can recall of that night is being in his living room by the fire, him kissing me with an intense, fiery and obsessive passion, which I revelled in. I had never been shown this much affection before and loved all the attention bestowed upon me! He then moved down my neck driving me insane, nibbling me as well as kissing, taking me to the peak of intense happiness. The next thing I knew, I felt something sharp plunging into the most sensitive part of my neck. I thought I was just dreaming, but the pain felt real – especially when the blood started to trickle down my skin onto my clothes. I kept trying to pull him off, but the more I struggled, the more he kept biting and sucking as if he had a massive hunger he had to quench! I do remember pulling him off though and running out of the flat.

The next morning I woke up in my bed not knowing how I got there. I didn’t want to move though – was it the shame of last night getting to me? I didn’t know or care, but all I wanted to do was stay in bed and hide under the covers. There was a huge thumping in my head too which I couldn’t shake. Not even pills helped.

For most of that day I stayed under the covers and eventually stirred later on that afternoon at 5pm. Couldn’t eat anything, but felt extremely thirsty – must have been the alcohol last night I thought. Even so, my normal cup of tea didn’t taste right despite me making it the way I normally would do, so tried in desperation a glass of wine. That felt ok. Didn’t drown out what happened though as the broken images of that fateful night kept coming back – especially the biting into my flesh. Just to make sure I wasn’t going insane, I looked in the mirror and to my horror, the teeth marks were still there along with the stained blood on my neck. Was my worst nightmare coming true? I thought these ‘things’ didn’t exist! With trepidation I went to the phone and called Cassie – she was the only one who properly spoke to him. She didn’t remember him. There was no such person as ‘Mr O’ it seemed.

I felt sick. I knew I wasn’t insane – last night did happen! But why did I feel like I was stuck between sleep and alertness? Did the fact that I stopped him doing what he was going to do prevent me from becoming a creature of the night like in stories my dad used to read to me in my childhood? This was when my obsession with the mysterious ‘Mr O’ really started. I knew I had to find him to put right what had been started, but didn’t know where to look. But work would be getting in the way for me to do this, so the next day, I quit my job to fully concentrate on my search – no loss really, being in a call centre was no fun anyway.

My dad always used to say that there is no heaven and hell, that we create our own hell. He’s right. ‘Mr O’ did do one thing, make me into something new, but I still search for him to this very day to seek the answers to my living hell. I don’t know who I am any more – human or vampire. One thing I now remember of that night was after I pulled him off me and ran, he called after me ‘Come back here! I haven’t finished with you yet!’ Every day I feel like I’m stuck in two different bodies; never sure which one I belong in. One moment I can be perfectly normal, but the next, I start becoming this blood-craving madwoman wanting new victims to feed on. This stops after about an hour or two; then all I feel is drained. Wherever ‘Mr O’ is, I will find him so that things will be put right. One way or another.