Chapter 6: Feeding
Andante's employer, a portly gentleman, insisted they leave the vendor if they were not interested in purchasing any of the goods. The man flourished a paunchy hand at the array of boxes, jars, and other unidentifiable trinkets arranged in an eye-catching manner at the entrance. Meliah, embarrassed and terribly shy, told Andante she would see him later. And after glancing at Andante's steely grey eyes with some emotion between love and yearning, she turned and led Beaux away.
Beaux escorted a flustered, extremely apologetic Meliah back to her home. It appeared that the she deeply regretted ever introducing Beaux to Andante, and she was desperate to earn Beaux's forgiveness. She generously offered him to come inside and perhaps enjoy a cup of tea ("It's a special blend – truly the most exquisite kind – imported directly from China!"), but he humbly declined.
Beaux was in a foul mood. He found himself retracing every movement he had ever made upon meeting Meliah. What could he have possibly done wrong?
On his way home, he encountered a very attractive young girl who was about Meliah's age. She was a head shorter than he was, slender, pale, and incredibly fragile. Her eyes were as blue as a cloudless sky and her hair as frantically golden as the rays of a feverish sun. She was far prettier than Beaux's Meliah, yes, but for all her beauty, she was not brilliant, scintillating, or exuberant. Beaux wrinkled his nose in disgust: she was so mediocre!
When she caught sight of Beaux's silhouette, she proudly tossed her yellow mane and stuck her dainty nose in the air. Strutting with an overly assertive posture, she attempted to pass him. He glanced at her indifferently, but she immediately stopped in her tracks, appraising his tall form from top to bottom with her azure gaze. Beaux knew she had fallen for him, but he did not want her.
He gracefully moved to circumvent her but was slightly surprised when she vigorously tossed her bag unto the concrete sidewalk. It banged awkwardly against the surface before rolling a few times. Beaux knew she was trying to get his attention. So he decided to humor her and knelt over to pick it up. She rushed over, apologizing for her "recklessness" (which she pronounced, "wecklessness" as though it were endearing) and made a very trying effort to touch his hand while reclaiming her bag. He smiled sweetly and assured her that no harm was done. She said he was so kind and asked if he would join her for a drink –as a token of her gratefulness. He declined. She pouted and slipped her hand in the crook of his arm.
Her scent of femininity overtook him, and it was as though he could see the blood pumping through the pale violet veins under her skin.
All sense of restraint had escaped his body. He accosted her, pushing her roughly against the wall of the narrow street. She did not even realize he had entrenched his long, gleaming fangs into the side of her neck. Laughing coyly, she unknowingly enjoyed the feast of her own blood. And within a few minutes, she was dead.
Beaux disposed of her hideous corpse in a strangled gutter by an abandoned apartment building. Already, her skin was shriveling and withdrawing from the raw flesh underneath. Wiping the excess blood from his lips with the cuff of his coat, Beaux strolled nonchalantly from the scene of the crime.
The moment he pushed through the stained glass doors of his mansion, he stopped in front of the enormous mirror that adorned the entrance. In its glossy depths, a tall, blonde adolescent stared blankly back with his emerald eyes. His alabaster skin contrasted sharply with the black suit he was wearing; he appeared to glow with a soft light, like some unearthly specter. Beaux noticed that his white shirt was splattered with scarlet blood, and his hand jumped to cover the atrocity. The thick, wet blood smeared over his palm.
"I am a monster," he whispered furiously to his frowning reflection, "I am a horrible, disgusting creature! How can I ever ask anyone to understand me?"
His reflection looked crestfallen; his pale golden bangs hanging desolately over his eyes as he cast his magnificent head down. An insane laughter escaped his cold lips, and he did not even pause to consider what had been so ridiculously funny.