Chapter 10: The Vampire Pirate's Daughter by Lynette Ferreira
“But you aren’t normal, are you?”
“You don’t need to remind me.”
“Why do you have this need to feel normal? You are so much better than them.”
I do not want to tell him how I feel. It had nothing to do with him. I did not want to blurt out how I wanted to be like them. I wanted to grow old and move on, not forever stuck in one place, frozen forever in this body.
Sighing, I look out the window at the night sky.
Ethan whispers in my hair, “Don’t be so sad, beautiful Susanna.” He lightly kisses me on the top of my head.
I notice the night getting darker as we drive away from the suburbs and the city, and then not long after, shacks surround us. Little squares made from anything and everything to keep the rain and wind out.
I can feel the despair and hopelessness in the air and suddenly I do not want to do it. These people already have such a crappy time of just finding something to eat, how can we still come here and feed on them, besides I suddenly realise something important. I ask Shayne as he brings the car to a stop, “What about AIDS? Have you considered it?”
Shayne laughs cruelly. “What do you suppose AIDS will do to you, Susie?”
Amanda confirms, “Blood is blood.”
Still, I am reluctant. “These people hardly ever eat. They would not fill us – at all!”
I can feel Ethan shake as he laughs, and I turn to him abruptly. “What?”
“You are just like your father, William. He was also always worried about people and humanity. These people will be grateful to die when they no longer have to live in this total poverty and misery. Trust me.”
Amanda, Shayne, and Ethan open their doors, while I say, “I’ll stay here to look after the car. It might get stolen.”
Amanda says adamantly, “Susanna, get out now. You cannot go to school on Monday if you do not feed tonight.”
“I’ll find something else.”
“You will put us all in jeopardy. Get out of the car now. Shayne will keep an eye on it.”
Reluctantly I get out of the car and slam the door. We do not need to do this silently. Nobody would be able to outrun us anyway.
We walk in between the cardboard and corrugated iron houses next to each other. Four formidable figures walking side by side. I hear babies crying all around me, the night sounds of the squatter camps. I see rats scurry ahead of us and some rats are as large as small dogs. Jumping over the sewage overflow puddles in the pathway, I am reluctant to touch the foul, dark water. There is no moon, so it is dark and the orange hue from the high-mast light does not really provide any proper lighting. We walk further into the sad, hopelessness and at times, we must turn sideways and walk one at a time between the shacks. In one of the houses, we notice the flicker of a candle and Shayne stops. He looks for somewhere to knock, but then he just pounds against the flimsy corrugated iron door. Quickly the light from the candle goes out, but nobody comes to the door. Shayne pulls the flimsy door off the little home. It happens so fast there is no screaming for help. The family of eight is asleep in a row on the ground, all of them in this little box. There is no toilet, no kitchen, and no furniture. The old man who is still awake look at Shayne surprised, his eyes are as big as saucers, but it is over for him quickly.
When I smell the irony, sweet smell of rich, burgundy blood in the air, I cannot control myself and against my resolve, I join them. I drink in a mad frenzy. There is no stopping me. I sink my razor-sharp teeth into their soft necks. I feel the way their skin fold around my tongue as I suck the blood into my mouth. The blood, thick and warm slide down into my throat and then my entire body joins in. My every sense tingle and I drink and drink until I am so full, my eyes want to close from contentment.
Ethan finds me draped over an old woman. Her body is withered, not a drop of blood in her anymore. I wish I could turn her inside out and lick the sides clean. Ethan touches me on my shoulder, and I am back. The mad raging overpowering feeling leaves me just as suddenly as it became a part of me.
I stand up and remorse fills me immediately when I look down at the lifeless body of the woman, but I convince myself I honestly had no choice. I was born this way.
Ethan takes me in his arms gently, but I push away from him and determinedly I say, “No.”
He moves away from me and I can see the angry humiliation in his eyes. He says firmly, “One day, you will give in.”
I turn away from him and walk to the car. We leave the bodies as they are. Nobody will ever find us, and we do not even leave any DNA behind. If anyone ever bothered to investigate, they would be baffled. We must have an infinite number of DNA belonging to many other people coursing through our veins.
The car is silent when we drive home and when we drive past Carmine’s house again everything is dark.
I did not realise how long that took. It is almost dawn.
Continue reading Chapter 11/23
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