"Estra tu ta voulenfude…?"
That phrase, sometimes whispered, other times shouted. That's all she can ever remember from her dreams, well more like nightmares if she's being honest. Although most of the time she cant remember what the dreams are about, just that damn phrase. She doesn't even know what language it is let alone what it means. For weeks now that's all that continues to echo through her mind.
"Oh well, its probably nothing worth fretting over, probably just something I've heard in a movie or something." she says to herself as she lazily stretches and begins to start her day. Muscles tensing and screaming for oxygen, joints popping as she tensed her knuckles and breathed a deep sigh of relief. Surprisingly she had slept fairly well all things considered. Slowly scrunching up the Egyptian cotton sheet she was entangled in as she began to scoot to the edge of the bed.
Standing and stretching once again as she made her way to the bathroom to do her morning routine. Shower, brush teeth, brush hair and make herself a much needed cup of coffee. "Aaah…. Coffee…" she whispered as she held her cup comfortably between her hands and took herself a slow methodical sip of the hot, delicious 'potion of wakefulness' as her friend called it. She then made her way into the living room and curled up on her couch and turned on the morning news, mostly just for background noise as she finished her coffee before it got too cold. As she sat sipping her coffee she mulled over her dream from the night before.
The only thing she knew for certain is that whom ever is speaking that unknown phrase to her is a male, if she was being honest with herself he sounded as though he was from another time. His voice seemed to call to her, like a warm blanket wanting to welcome her into its warm embrace forever more. It was definitely odd for her to think like that, dating hasn't been her suit and she had essentially sworn off dating. "I'm better off on my own anyway." Every single time she had a partner that seemed to be a 'good fit' she wound up getting ghosted or left for 'something better'.
Shaking her head she dismissed the past memories of partners. "Uugh, its just a saying, its not like some random hot guy is just gonna swoop in and sweep me off my feet. What the hell is wrong with me, I cant fucking think straight, maybe I just need to get out of the house for a little bit." She said to herself as she stood up from the couch and took her now empty coffee cup to the kitchen sink and rinsed it out placing it on the counter for tomorrow. Turning her attention to a grocery run, she needed to resupply some of her inventory.
Heading into her room and grabbing a fresh pair of socks out of the top drawer of her dresser, she put her socks on and quickly made her way to the entry way and grabbed her tennis shoes lacing them up. She grabbed her phone, keys, a jacket and her wallet she locked the door and began her trek to the local grocery store.
The entire short walk to the grocery store she was muttering that phrase to herself, repeating it over and over trying to make since of it. As she arrived at the store and began walking up and down the isles with her cart she remained entranced in her chanting, still attempting to decipher what it meant. 'Maybe its another language' she internally prompted herself. This continued as she autopiloted her way through the maze of isles and up to the register, only a few things in her cart. She began to put her items on the conveyer belt, repetitively mumbling under her breath "Estra tu ta voulenfude"
"Are you what you want." she heard the man in line behind her speak up in a 'matter of fact' kind of tone. "I'm sorry?" she asked, looking at him with a confused look on her face. The man met her gaze, eyes dark almost crimson, pale skinned, messy white hair and a smile that could melt the coldest heart.
His voice was like velvet to her ears and he smelled like aged bourbon, bergamot, sandalwood and leather. 'My Gods he smelled fantastic' she chided to herself. "Is, is that what that phrase means? Im sorry, its been stuck in my head for the last few weeks and I couldn't make heads or tails of it." The man kept eye contact and gave her a gentle smirk responding "Why yes darling, that is what it translates to. Although I believe it originates from France. So you've had an ancient French phrase bouncing around your head for a few weeks. Any idea of where you know it from?" He tilted his head at the end of his sentence like he was trying to emphasize that it was a question.
"yeah actually, I keep hearing a voice saying it to me in my sleep, its even woken me up a few times" She said with a smile and light chuckle. "Perhaps we can get a bite together and discuss it further, how about it?" he asked. His question stopped her mid chuckle. As she thought about it for a brief moment. "Sure, how about dinner tonight? There's this lovely little diner near by that Id like to visit. Lets say eight?" He flashed her a wicked smile and said "Absolutely darling, sounds like a date then, ill see you later." As she finished her conversation with the man and paid for her groceries she felt like she was on top of the world.
He was handsome, well spoken and he smelled sooooo good. Best of all he wanted to take her out on a date. Its almost like she was in a fairytale. She was on cloud nine as she waked back home, feeling the best she ever has. That was until she began to feel this nagging feeling in the back of her mind that she shouldn't go. Something about that handsome devil screamed at her 'Predator, run, run fast' her blood suddenly began to feel cold. Was she being hunted? Was it HIM? No, surely not… right..? She had never met him before in her life. No matter how she tried to reassure herself that she was just being paranoid she simply could not shake the feeling of being followed, stalked, watched.
Trying to shake off the feeling she began almost running up the street to her house. She quickly unlocked the door, burst in, dropped her bags then locked and slammed the door. Taking a deep breath as she rested her back on the door and slowly slid down until she was sitting on the floor, bags of groceries strewn across the hallway in front of her like the bodies of fallen soldiers after a bloody battle. "What the actual fuck…." she sighed "has my anxiety really gotten that bad? That I cant even "people" for an hour?"
She asked herself as she rested the crown of her head on the hard door, tears beginning to stain her cheeks. As she began to replay her interaction with the man in her head in slow motion she couldn't help but think about how nice he smelled, how pleasant he was, how he kept eye contact with her, now that she thought about it… his smile, as warm and welcoming as it seemed she couldn't help but think that something sinister lurked under the surface and were his teeth… pointed..?
'There's no way, something like that is simply put, straight out of folklore and myths.' she poked at herself and whispered under her breath to her empty house, "Vampires, uh-huh, like that is even remotely possible." shaking her head trying to dismiss the absolutely absurd supposed conclusion she came to. 'Absolutely not..' she kept trying to convince herself that she simply was just being paranoid. That's what it had to be. That is, after all the most logical explanation. Either that or her intuition was broken and she was indeed about to go on a date with an actual factual vampire, what a laughable notion.
Honestly though was it entirely laughable? Possibly, but on the other hand this world has gone to hell in a hand basket lately, cost of living increasing drastically with each passing month, the world on the brink of war constantly, the government admitting that aliens exits. Throw a dart and you'll hit some wild outlandish theory that happened to turn out to be true. 'I mean if this is how the world is going to end, then why not go out with a bang? Do something out of our ordinary and take a chance.' Once again she was trying to reason with herself.
She rolled her eyes and finished putting the last of her groceries away and made her way to her room to look for something to wear on this "Date with a vampire".. Gods, she didn't even know his name.. She mentally kicked herself for forgetting basic edict. "I mean if he is a vampire I'm sure I didn't make a good first impression…. Forgetting to introduce myself and all that.
" Ill just have to go with the flow and look good and give it another go I suppose", she monologed. "I wonder if he likes the color Red?" she said with a small giggle as she began to get ready for her evening soiree with this mystery man, that for all intents and purposes, seemed too good to be true. "I guess ill find out tonight." she said with a smile.