Usually in December the tourists left, and picked sunnier spots on the globe, but this fortunate year California had decided that global warming was an actual thing, and the temperature hadn't dropped beneath 65 degrees all year. The Boardwalk had been littered with young slutty girls tonight, out partying Christmas Eve away. I had picked a rather drunk one, who had wandered away from the safety of her friends.

I clamped a firm hand over the girl's mouth and squeezed until I heard her jaw snap. She made a rather unflattering sound and began to push at my chest with next to no effort. Leaning forward, I sank my inhuman teeth into the soft flesh in the nape of her neck, relishing at the slight popping sound it made as they broke through the skin. Almost instantly, her energy seemed to return, and she began to flail wildly, kicking and punching with all of her might, to no avail. I was much stronger than any mortal girl, and her attempts at harming me were like the kick of an infant from within the mother's womb, small and fluttery.

"D-dwa! Nng!" The broken bones in her mouth prevented her from pronouncing my name correctly. I focused on the crimson liquid that was filling my mouth at a satisfying speed. I gulped it down greedily as it flowed forward. I could feel it mixing with my saliva, leaving a slimy feeling between my bottom lip and my gums. The girl stopped fighting and she slumped against me, having lost all hope in ever getting away with her life. The blood began to slow down as her heart gradually returned to its normal pulse for a mere instant, before sinking to abnormal levels. Grunting, I wrapped my arm around her waist and clenched. Her spinal cord snapped in four different places, and she cried out feebly. I felt her broken jaw flop uselessly against my shoulder as her breathing turned sharp and ragged. The blood gushed forth once more as the muscles broke, and I swallowed it down.

It was not long before her pulse came to a complete stop. I released my grip and let her corpse fall to the ground as the last bit of intoxicating energy filled me. I stood there panting for a moment before I looked down at the remains of my meal.

Her broken body lay in an unceremonious heap at my feet. Red lines trailed along her pale neck and onto the sand from the patch of missing skin on her neck. Her eyes, once green and full of life, now stared blankly up into the dark sky, and her flaming red hair fanned out around her head. Her jaw was mangled, and twisted a in a rather ugly position. It was not only broken, but dislocated; if I were to pull on it her teeth would touch her ear. The bones were parallel to each other, and the empty skin on the right side of her face was wrinkled and sinking into the cheekbone. Her back was twisted and dismembered, and the little black dress she had on was slowly being soaked in her own spinal fluid.

I picked up her pocketbook (which had been thrown carelessly to the side when she thought I was going to have sex with her) and examined the contents. Two twenties, a cheap necklace, a few multi-colored pens, a pack of smokes, and feminine products. I pocketed the money, the necklace, the cigarettes, and, after a moment's thought, collected the pens as well. They would make a quick present for Marko. After that, I bent down and stuck the pocket book down the front of her dress, picked up the body, and lifted up into the sky.

I dropped down onto the ledge above the cave and set the body down gently. Reaching in my left pocket, I removed a flask, which had been filled with Everclear the night before. I poured the alcohol on the corpse, making a point to get a lot on her dress, knowing that it would be the first thing to go up in flames. When the flask was empty I put back in my pocket and lit up my Zippo. I dropped the lighter on her stomach and turned to enter the cave, the flames illuminating the stairway. The wooden steps creaked under my weight, making me wary of falling. I was relieved when I reached the bottom and made my way to the entrance.

I dropped down the stone elevations and walked around the fountain, where Paul was rolling joints. I happily accepted the lit one he held out to me and stuck it between my teeth. I was grateful that I generally didn't need to clean up after I fed, unlike Paul and Marko, I wasn't a messy eater. I sank into the rough couch and propped my feet up on an overturned crate. I took the pens out of my pocket and dropped them on the table. Marko, who was sitting on the couch across from me, dropped his comic book and gestured to them.

"What're those?" He asked.

"Pens," I said, lifting my King James novel off the arm of the couch, "You see I know this guy who would kill me if he found out I had let some perfectly good utensils go to waste, so I decided I might save them for him."

Marko narrowed his eyes at me. I chuckled, and nodded, before looking down to my book. With a smirk, Marko threw his comic to the other end of the couch, grabbed the pens, and took off for the spare room, where he kept all of his crafty effects.

"More art utensils?" David emerged from the dark and looked at me squarely, "Really Dwayne, does he need more?"

I looked up from my page, "It's not like he ever lets them go to waste."

David didn't answer; he merely huffed and flopped into his wheelchair. I took a long drag off my joint and went back to reading. Paul, who had witnessed the gift giving, dropped off the fountain meandered his way over to the couch, standing beside it in silence. I looked up at him. He smiled happily at me and dropped to a sitting position.

Resting his cheek on my knee, he asked, "Did you bring me anything?"

I handed him the cigarettes and shooed him to the fountain again. I meant to read, but when I saw Marko emerge from the back room carrying three packages I gave up on the attempt completely, and dropped the novel on the coffee table. He grinned and handed me a package. I accepted it, but waited to open it until both Paul and David had received theirs as well. A rare smile spread across my face as I removed my gift from the packaging. Stephen Kings IT, cover and all.

"I knew you'd like it." Marko said.

"Oh yeah, baby!" Paul jumped up on the edge of the fountain and started waving around a 4 inch thick stack of porn magazines, and what looked like a sex book. I rolled my eyes and looked over at David, who was holding a bottle of premium motor oil. He held up the bottle and gave Marko a pointed look.

"Oil?"

Marko shrugged, "You're not exactly an easy guy to shop for, David."

David smirked, "I know. Thank you."

Marko grinned in reply. There was moment of silence as I flipped through my book, before Paul came bouncing into the sitting area holding three bottles.

He tossed us each one and looked around expectantly. I turned it over and read the label, Lagavulin 21 Scotch. It looked as if I wasn't the only one to receive alcohol, Marko was holding Appleton Estate Rum, and David had Berry Bros. London Dry Gin.

"If any of that goes to waste I swear you will die." Paul said seriously.

"Why?" Marko asked, "Did you sell your pot for the money?"

Paul bowed his head and pouted, "Yeah… but it was for a good cause. Dee got me cigarettes and Marko just gave me enough porn to last a year."

We all laughed. I was quite surprised at how easy it was to picture Paul selling his marijuana just to buy us all an alcoholic present and I began to feel a bit guilty about not getting him something more than a half used pack of cigarettes that I had taken from a dead girl's pocketbook. But he was content with his gifts, as was Marko and David. Speaking of David, he was the only who had not taken part in this heartfelt moment.

"And is the Scrooge going to participate in this gift giving?" I asked looking over at him.

David leaned back in his wheel chair and took a drag off of the cigarette he had manifested out of nowhere, "Sorry boys, didn't know you'd be gift giving. Didn't even cross my mind to get you guys something."

I rolled my eyes and opened my new book to the first page, "Maybe next year."

Okay, I know I said that A Scientist Knows would be my last post/update of 2014, but this came to mind and I just had to write it down. I originally intended for it to be a simple fic about the gruesome events of Dwayne's feeding like at the beginning, but hey, it's Christmas time, why not make it half gory and half sibling-ish fluff?

Whatever, Merry Christmas bitches.

-PoisonBones