A man yelled as a speeding car tore through a puddle and soaked him in muddy puddle water. He let out a string of obscenities at the driver, who was already running a red light. He shook his head while letting the filthy water drip down his coat, before he kept walking. His anger steadily abated with each step he took, as if displaced by his forceful strides, his eyes soon settling into passive contemplation.
I wished I had that kind of emotional resilience, that I could just keep walking forward after a swing of bad luck, and all it took to offset my misery and anger is a swear word or two. Instead, there I was, letting the heavy Vancouver rain soak me along with the documents declaring my employment termination. I leaned impotently against a rusted, crooked bus stop pole, letting the same bus pass by me for a third loop. I guess my coping strategy lies more in the nature of despondence, rather than anger. I wonder which one is healthier?
My rent was due, and I didn't have the guts to go back to my parents' place, not after I left home after adamantly refusing to inherit the family farm. I was gonna be bigger than them, bigger than anyone in that inconsequential town, I had said, so confidently, so smugly. Look how that turned out, a small town girl with boundless optimism chewed up and spat out by the same cold, brutal conglomerate monsters my parents warned me about. I guess everyone but me had already seen it coming.
When the bus passed by me on its last loop for the night, I finally boarded it. I figured it was about time to go home. Although it probably wasn't gonna be home for much longer. Maybe I should start packing, maybe order a U-haul in advance before my credit tanks from all the expenses I was about to accrue.
The driver gave me a wary look. He saw me just standing there on the bus stop, not boarding whenever he came by. I must have looked like an absolute psycho. I sat at the very last row of seats and pressed my forehead against the cool window, raindrops branching out into intermittently sparkling rivulets. There were only a handful of others around me, all of them looking theatrically miserable, as if they wanted to display their own sob stories to the world. My own somber performance wasn't too shabby, I'd like to believe.
Eight stops later and I was out of the bus. The driver looked relieved to get rid of me. I still thanked him anyway. I walked to my apartment, hands stuffed in my soaked jacket.
When I turned a corner, I glanced at an alleyway, a reflexive action from all those times I passed through there, cautious about some lunatic running out to grab me.
In that instance, I saw a man slouched against the wall, his skin unnaturally pale, blood pooling around him. I stopped, unable to process what I was seeing for a few seconds, before panic spurred me into action.
"Oh, god," I said, before running to the man, kneeling down next to him. "Hey, hey. Can you hear me?"
He opened his eyes. I thought I saw a flash of red, but it turned blue. There was blood running down his mouth, his chest. I opened his jacket open and saw two bullet holes and an angular slash wound between them. It almost looked like a percentage sign.
"I'm gonna call an ambulance." With shaking hands, I took my phone out, but he held my arm with surprising force, more strength that a man in his condition should be capable of applying.
"Don't bother," he said. "I'm gonna be dead by the time it gets here."
I couldn't exactly lie to him and say otherwise, with all the blood on the ground. Still, I called 911 anyway. "They're on the way here. Hang in there."
"I told you not to bother."
He chuckled. How could anyone laugh in a moment like this?
I shook my head. "Who did this? Do you know?"
If he was actually gonna die, it was probably best to get as much information as I could about the crime.
He shook his head. "No one the police can catch."
"Come on! Tell me a name if you know!"
He gave me an amused smirk, before rolling his head to the side. "A vampire hunter named Silva Rodriguez."
A vampire hunter? He was probably confused from the blood loss.
I nodded and typed the name out. "Got it."
I was trying to put as much pressure as I could on the wound. There was already too much blood lost, and his eyes were fluttering close, his head nodding into unconsciousness
"Hang in there. Don't give up," I said.
"Sorry this had to happen to you," he said, "finding me like this."
I shook my head. "Who the hell apologizes for that. I'm the one who should feel sorry."
I felt the tears coming out. I didn't know this guy, but who wouldn't get emotional right now? He looked young, in his mid twenties like me. So much to live for. He didn't deserve to die in an alleyway like this, covered in ugly wounds.
He laughed. "Why are you crying for some guy you don't know?"
"Why not? It's terrible what happened to you. No one deserves this."
He laughed even harder, as if finding irony in what I said. "You're funny, you know that?"
"Funny? Are you just loopy because of the blood loss? Is that it? If it'll help you stay alive, laugh at me all you want."
"Tell me something funny, then."
I glanced away. "Fine. You wanna hear something funny? I got fired from my job earlier."
He narrowed his eyes on me. "How is that supposed to be funny? You think I find other people's misery funny?"
I pressed down on his wounds more. "Hang on. The ambulance is coming." I could hear the faint notes of its sirens in the distance.
He sighed and shook his head. "They can't save me. Even if they give me a blood transfusion. It won't work."
"Save the evaluation for the medical professionals."
"They could be the best paramedics in history, but I don't think they know how to deal with a vampire."
There he was, going on about vampires again.
Still, I played along. Occupying his attention was working, keeping him conscious.
"And how does one save a vampire from dying?"
"By letting them suck blood from a living human, of course."
I smiled, pulled my collar down and exposed my neck. "Go ahead. It'll save you, right? Go ahead and suck my blood."
He stared at my neck. "Are you serious?"
"Yeah, Mr. Vampire. If it'll help you live, sure."
"But you'll become a vampire yourself. I mean, that's common knowledge, isn't it?"
I let out a morose chuckle. "So what? I got fired. I'll get kicked out of my apartment. My parents have practically disowned me. I have no lover, no friends. I'm all alone. I have nothing to live for, as you can see."
I meant it all as a joke. At least, at the start. It was just some nonsense to give a dying man a final diversion. Somewhere along the way, the truth came out.
Tears ran down my face as I realized this. Was it really that bad? Yeah, I guess it was.
He stared at me. "You're serious about this. You really mean it."
I wanted to say no, but I couldn't. If this guy really was a vampire, if he wasn't just losing his rationality from being near death, I would probably tell him the same thing.
"Yeah, I got nothing to live for. So try your best to live, please."
He gave a solemn nod. "Got it. I am in your eternal debt."
"Huh?"
Before I could react, he pressed his mouth against my neck, holding my shoulders in place.
Then, I felt his teeth digging in.
Was this guy giving me a hickey? He was about to die, so he wanted to get freaky with a girl for the last time?
Well, as long as he doesn't start groping me, I guess I can allow it, I thought. I turned my head to give him access, giving him his final source of amusement.
I felt something wet dripping down my neck.
"Hey, you can give me a hickey or whatever, but don't drool so–"
I stopped mid sentence when I saw blood soaking my shirt.
"What the fuck are you doing?!"
He drew back. The red eyes that I thought I imagined earlier had returned.
And I saw fangs in his mouth, a string of blood and saliva connecting them to my neck.
He grabbed me and stood up. I felt a sudden lurch in motion. When I looked down, I saw the alley below us, paramedics arriving at the scene. The buildings were getting smaller, retreating from us. The wind and rain resisted our advance into the night sky.
We were in the air. My mind couldn't even register it in time. It was only until I felt the sensation of free fall when I started to scream.
"Oh, my god!"
I started punching his chest.
"Hold still! I don't have all my strength left. If you distract me, we're both dead!"
I obeyed his command, turtling into myself as he held me, closing my eyes.
I felt our momentum stop and heard him grunt from the impact. When I opened my eyes again, we were on top of a building, overlooking the city.
Lights were all around us, cars moving along the roads, buildings projecting rectangular flashes of illumination.
He finally set me down. My hand was still on his chest, leaning on him for support as my legs wobbled.
"Wait, you're–" I lifted his shirt. The wounds were gone. Not even a scar remained.
He pulled the shirt down again. "Easy now. I'm fine. How about you? How are you feeling?"
He held my neck, looking intently into it, a thumb running over the place where he bit me.
"Yeah, it worked." He sighed in relief.
I drew back, holding my neck as I stared at him warily. I moved away from him, even though I knew there was no escape, unless I jumped down.
"What the hell just happened? Who are you? What are you?"
His clothes were still a bloody mess, but he looked way healthier than he was before, when he was spilling blood onto the pavement.
"Didn't I just tell you? I'm a vampire."
I guess I couldn't really deny it anymore.
I mean, he just jumped up a building in a matter of seconds.
"Wait, so that means, I'm also–"
He nodded. "Come on, we need to go. The hunters are still looking for me."
Before I could respond, he carried me again. With a running start, he leapt off the building.
All the while, I was thinking to myself that maybe I should have left this guy alone in that alleyway.