The first thing she was aware of was a dull rhythmical thudding. It was a persistent, loud noise which for some reason she found enticing, and oddly made her think of food. She tried to move, but found that she was tightly bound to what seemed to be a hard wooden chair. She opened her eyes a fraction, but the light in the room was painfully blinding, so she closed them tightly again. Then she heard voices. It sounded like shouting, but she surmised that there must be something wrong with her hearing, because the words they were saying didn't sound like words said in panic or anger, it just sounded like two men having a conversation, loudly. She became aware as she tuned their words in that they were talking about her, although nothing they said made sense. When she opened her mouth to speak, to say she was thirsty, she felt an especially unpleasant sensation in her mouth, almost like her teeth were moving and growing. The thudding moved closer and the repetitive sound became almost unbearably appealing. When she cracked her eyes open again she found herself staring into the green eyes of a man. He looked familiar, he looked unhappy, and oddly guilty, and then the world went swiftly back to black.
Twelve hours earlier.
It was a cheap dive of a bar, her favourite kind. Alice considered her absolute lack of sense of direction to be both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because it led her to find all sorts of places off the beaten path; a curse because she was almost always lost, which is what had brought her to "Bud's Bar".
She'd been in the US about a month, it was supposed to be a 30th birthday tour with her best friend. But, about a month before they'd come away, her friend Julie had hooked up with a bloke. The net result being after about a week in the States, Julie had declared herself to be too miserable without him, and had gone back to the UK. Alice hadn't for a moment considered going with her. She was happy in her own company, plus, was having an absolute ball. She'd found the Americans to be mostly friendly, and even the barmy ones were charming in their own way. Alice had delighted in going round towns off the main highways and visiting local attractions. Her favourites so far were a toss up between an enormous ball of twine in Branson, Missouri and in Broward County, she'd found 'The Mystery Spot' where some tables and chairs had been randomly glued to the ceiling, totally awesome.
There were some places she'd been less keen on though. A trip down one highway, going the wrong way as usual, had brought her to an abandoned town. There was evidence that people had been there reasonably recently, but they were all gone and the town had what could only be described as a sinister feel to it. Another road had brought her through an area where many towns appeared to be struggling, then one town was oddly prosperous. She hadn't liked it much there either. And even in innocuous places there were strange things. A nice, middle class area of 'prime real estate' had in it one house that was boarded up, derelict and abandoned. A 'For Sale' sign hung forlornly – and someone had graffitied on it in red: 'if you dare'. She'd scuttled past that place nice and quick too.
But all in all, she was having a significant amount of fun. And now she was here, in a place called Cawker City in Kansas having just seen another 'largest ball of twine'. She smiled as she flicked through the photos on her iphone, comparing this one with the last one she'd seen as she supped her vodka and tonic. Sitting at the bar, she was aware of a group of guys playing pool. One was huge, appeared to be very drunk and betting an overly large amount of money on the next game, across the bar from her a ridiculously good looking man was frowning into some whisky, and seated at a shabby looking table two men and a woman were laughing at the drunk guy at the pool table. She stopped flicking through her photos to have a discreet look at 'whisky man', he really was very beautiful in a manly way. He looked up briefly, his eyes met hers, he smiled and winked, then went back to his drink. "Out of my league,'' she thought.
A polite cough next to her roused her from a very dirty chain of thoughts which included 'whisky man' and her motel room. She turned to see a reasonable looking man smiling at her. She smiled back deciding that if he wasn't in the same vicinity as 'whisky man' she would've considered him to be very good looking. He had a distinct whiff of Keifer Sutherland around the edges.
"Another drink?" he offered. She looked wistfully at 'whisky man' for a split second who continued to stare intently at his drink.
Alice internally shrugged and abandoned her fantasy. "Sure" she replied.
Several very large vodkas later, a terrible decision to buy a bottle of tequila and do shots back at Doug's place was made. She'd found herself sitting at the table with the group she'd seen earlier. They'd introduced themselves as 'Doug', 'Ross' and 'Ellie', and she was being thoroughly charmed by all of them. Doug was the man who'd bought her the drink, and he was giving her all the 'I'm interested in seeing where this night goes' signs. To be honest, she'd had her fair share of travelling one night stands and would normally have been all for it, but for some reason she didn't want 'whisky man' to think badly of her. He was still there and would occasionally look at her, or at least at the table she was sitting at, frowning and then neck another slug of whisky. He hadn't smiled again. Ellie was at the bar buying the tequila as Alice made the less than sensible choice, to get up and put her jacket on and leave with Doug at one side, Ross on the other and Ellie behind her.
As they left the bar, the situation changed and made her wary. A change of conversational tone, a whisper she couldn't make out, and then Doug held on to her arm in a manner that could only be described as firm. She'd felt safe leaving with them because a woman had been there, but now she wasn't so sure.
"Erm, I think… I think I've had too much and that I've left my phone in the bar. I, erm… think I might call it a night. Sorry." Alice said.
"Nope," Snorted Doug. "That, sugar, is not an option. I'm famished, and you are… well, just sumptuous looking." He tightened the grip on his arm, and steered her toward a waiting van.
"Uh uh, I am not getting in that, you've all had waay too much to drink, I'll call a cab and go on my way." Alice struggled to remove her arm, but Doug now moved behind her, pinned her arm behind her back and fastened his other hand over her mouth. Out of the corner of her eye, Alice saw movement and then Ellie was grinning at her. Only Ellie's mouth was changed, her teeth were sharp, gruesome and dangerous looking as she closed in on Alice's neck. A searing pain and an unpleasant sucking sensation began, like getting a love bite from a vampire.
"VAMPIRE" Alice's brain screamed at her, and as panic set in she started to struggle wildly, kicking out against Ellie's hard body rammed against her and squirming to try and get herself away from those teeth. But, she was tiring, and fast. Suddenly she saw drunk pool guy and 'whisky man' coming towards her. Doug sensed it too, and loosened his hand over her mouth as he turned to them.
"RUN, for God's sake RUN" screamed Alice at the two men running towards the group, then the world tilted and went black.