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[martinedjohn]

The Damned Dance at Night Part 1

This book deals with mature subjects and has violent passages. It is intended for an adult readership.

PROLOGUE: JOSEPH

The old man crept into Joseph’s nightmares.

He’d dreamed of this specific horror since childhood, which terrified him.

He fought the old man as best he could using naked will and fearful abandon while begging his body to wake up.

Tonight, mercifully, his body listened.

He awoke, frightened and sweating, convinced that the old man was in the room with him, lurking in the dark corner across from his mattress. He remembered every detail of the man’s lined face, especially his yellow, rotted teeth.

He got up to make himself a cup of tea.

PROLOGUE: HUNGER BOB

The freezing rain struck the worn pavement, threatening to turn into ice. The chill in the air moistened clothes and snuck its way past goose-bumped skin and deep into the bones and organs of passers-by. The winter rain in Port Mobud could defeat those teetering on the edge of depression, sending them careening off bridges, halving arteries in bathtubs, or deftly overdosing on pills.  It was a brilliant night to be a vampire: cold rain didn’t affect dead flesh, but it obscured the vision of the living. 

Hunger Bob was hungry. He was always hungry. He was gaunt; you could see every bone in his body pushing at his flesh, threatening to pop through his skin and litter the street with his bones. His cheekbones pushed out of his face, but his eyes cratered, seeming smaller than they were. His head seemed more prominent than it should have been compared to his body. His jeans and weathered leather jacket were cavernous for him and hung off his tiny frame. His square-toed cowboy boots hid how skinny his legs were, filling out the bottom of his pants.

Bob investigated the shadows, searching for traces of his dreadful companions. He hated his vampire pack. They were cruel and sadistic. His master was an elder vampire named Aesop. Aesop was always saying things like, “The fables are named after me,” and for all Bob knew, they were. Aesop was like that: fully the center of his universe with an ego swollen like a sponge soaked in water.

His crew consisted of three other vampires, Aesop being the leader. The other two were a couple, Franco and Gabriella, or Frank and Gabi, a set of Italian Vampire twins about 110 years of age. They weren’t genetically twins but had been turned into vampires by Aesop on the same night with a single well-placed bite each.

Bob was frightened; death hung heavily in the air, and the pack moved uneasily as their prey approached. He let his mind drift. Bob remained connected to the person he had been before he died, to his humanity. It confused all the other vampires. In vampire years, Bob was a young lifer, a brand-new vampire. Draining humans in exchange for everlasting life was abnormal and abhorrent to him.

Rose, the vampire that had turned Bob into a vampire, had been like him. They had met on August 4th, 1987, at a New Wave show and had snuck into an alley to smoke a joint together. When Rose told him she was a vampire, he laughed and asked if she would bite him, but softly, to prove it. Rose had said she would bite him, but only if he bit her after, and he had to bite her as hard as she bit him.

Rose’s bite had been gentle: it barely drew blood. Bob had bit Rose just enough to scrape a little of her skin off and taste her blood on his lips. Roses’ blood had tasted strange, coppery, and floral on the tongue. After the bite exchange, Rose laughed and said, “Welcome to the family.” That was how Bob became a vampire, the most peaceful vampire birth ever.

That night Bob had died as Rose cradled him next to her, and the next night he had risen from a fresh grave to see Rose waiting, rolling a joint for the two of them with a smile on her face.

Bob and Rose weren’t violent vampires; they were nursing-home vampires.  They took a modest half-pint off seniors in the night, and if they died during feeding, Bob and Rose had a nice tidy meal.

Rose was one of Aesop’s children. He had turned her into a vampire, and as her ‘master,’ he could summon Rose to him psychically. After Aesop had gathered Rose, he started to understand what being a vampire meant. Aesop and the twins differed from Rose: they were bloodthirsty, inhuman creatures that tore their victims apart, hated everything and abused Rose and Bob constantly. Aesop had gotten Rose killed to make matters worse, and now Bob was alone.

He watched the trio descend on a passer-by, an unlucky teenager, ripping him apart. The sweet metallic scent of blood permeated the air; it made his mouth and throat twitch. Bob’s stomach cramped with hunger, but they would hurt him if he joined their meal. A finger skittered over the pavement towards him.

Aesop winked at him. “Tuck in,” he said.  Bob picked up the finger and started sucking on the open end, slurping hungrily at the blood.

[martinedjohn]

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