VA – Once bitten, twice shy
I'm running, running so fast that my heart pounds against my chest. Running from someone behind me, someone dangerous. Or maybe something? I don't know. There's a metallic taste in my mouth and I'm panting heavily, while trying to not trip on anything. The story of my misery flashed before my eyes…
"You're nothing!" he said, looking at me like I was a filthy animal. I felt my heart explode and shatter into a thousand pieces. "Wh…What?" I whispered under my breath, tears burning in my eyes. "You heard me. I still do not understand how I was able to love you, even LOOK at you!" he screamed at me. My best friend for years… The guy I thought was the love of my life… I shrink under his words while trying to keep the tears in. Suddenly a raging fire lit in me, turning my pulse up to the maximum. "How COULD YOU!" I shrieked in Laurence's face. "How COULD YOU, use me like that! PRETEND TO LOVE ME!" Tears of anger and sorrow ran down my face, probably screwing up the little of mascara I usually apply every day.
"Because you deserve it." He replies without showing even a glimpse of emotion, just a cold ice wall. It felt like the whole world was dissolving around me, tearing at the seams. The anger had left my body, leaving sadness to consume me and take away my capability of feeling ever again. "But… why?" I said, stuttering slightly. "I'm finished explaining myself to you." He turned around abruptly, just beginning to leave when my hand shot forward and turned him around. "YOU. FUCKING. ASSHOLE." The sound of a fist crushing bone broke the winter silence. I was on fire again. Blood form his broken nose covered my clenched fist. He looked at me with a face I'd never seen on him before.
It was an expression of total vulnerability, surprise and hurt. His face hardened again, the small glimpse of helplessness gone in an instant. "You! TRUST ME, this is not over!" he roared. And with his hand covering the bloody nose, he ran away. Leaving me and my broken heart behind…
This was six months ago. I'd never seen him since that day in the snow, and here I am, running from danger in a hot daze. Maybe he kept his promise. Maybe it's his ice cold breath making the hairs in my neck rise. Oh. My. GOD. The attacker was speeding up, getting closer. I was trying to speed up as well, but I couldn't. My feet were aching and threatening to collapse right from under me. I slowly began to realize that I wouldn't be able to keep it up, and as I turned and fled into a dark alley I knew I'd lost. A dead end was blocking my last chance to safety about ten meters away. I felt the desperate sobs escape me as I was forced to a stop, slamming into the dark brick wall. No… I couldn't have lost. The ice cold breath I'd felt on my neck stopped. I turned around very, very slowly, trying to be brave. I gasped, feeling how all hope left me and was replaced with gut wrenching terror.
"Hello Layla, remember me?" The tall and handsome, but pale Laurence. I screamed. In pure survival instinct, I tried running back the way I came. A hand grabbed my shoulder and threw me in the air. For a moment, I was free of all fear. Then it ended. I felt the impact on my body as I slammed into a hard wall. A flash of unbearable pain shot through me. I sank down in a messy heap against the wall. My sight was clouded, everything was just… foggy. The pain made it even harder to focus, but I saw the dark figure moving towards me. His laugh echoed through the alley, taunting me. "Did you really think it would be THAT easy to escape?" he said in a tone that clearly stated he was mocking me. "What… do you want from me?" I whispered, moaning at the pain it brought to speak. He knelt down beside me, grabbed me by the waist and yanked me up in standing position. I shrieked out aloud, tears running down my cheeks like tiny rivers. "I want revenge" he said, pushing me into the wall with an evil smile. I screamed again. A hot, sticky liquid was staining my white T-shirt. I noticed new things about him through the fog.
He was so… cold. His grip on my waist was freezing, uncomfortable. His once tanned skin; replaced by an extremely pale, almost white color. There wasn't a single tan spot of sin left on him. I forced my eyes to look into his. What met my stare was a pair of glowing, seductive, dangerous RED eyes.
I went completely stiff. I couldn't run, could not scream, just look at the eyes. I was scared as hell. He leaned closer to me, so close that the eyes were practically the only thing I saw. "I want your pain" he whispered, and suddenly his expression changed, showing me the same vulnerability I saw six months ago. It all happened too fast for me to react or understand what was happening.
He leaned in closer and his lips met mine. First it was soft, only a slight touch, an ice cold breeze. I was so shocked that I didn't even know my own feelings. His kiss intensified and he grabbed my shoulders. I shook slightly, in pain. And that's when I came back to my senses. My whole body was pulsing with confusing, incompatible emotions. But I knew that I was angry. Quite frankly, I was pissed off. He told me I was nothing, and then he KISSES ME? I concentrated all my strength upon forcing my hands to his chest. I pushed him away as hard as I could. Blindly, he tried leaning in again. I acted on instinct and slapped him in the face. I stifled another scream while trying to stop the wound on my arm from bleeding. He laughed mockingly at me and came back. He didn't have a single mark on his face, nothing that could tell he'd just been smacked in the face. "Oh I REALLY like it when you do that babe" Ilooked at him, confused. "I'm not your BABE. And what do you… mean?" The wound was opening up; I could see the tip of a bone sticking out of my elbow. I felt nauseous.
"I think you know what I mean, look at my eyes" he pointed at the red spotlight eyes and licked his lips. He then breathed slowly, inhaled and exhaled. It couldn't be true… He couldn't be. "Look at my lips. Those you used to kiss all the time…" He laughed again and traced his perfect lips with a finger. "I am Laurence." He said slowly, marking every word like he was talking to a mentally disabled kid. He leaned closer to me. I didn't like him being this close to me, but I couldn't force my terrified self to move. "I am a predator, a kind of… animal" He opened his mouth and showed me a set of sharp, abnormally long side teeth. "No… NO!" I shouted, pressing myself as hard as I could against the ice cold wall, everything to delay the final moment. "I am a vampire. This" he grabbed my hands and pinned them to the wall. I cried out in pain. "Is me, about to kill… YOU" His teeth closed in on my neck.