The Hunger

Night falls,
Dark and foreboding.
The moon rises,
Full, red glowing.
I rise from hiding,
Enjoying the sounds
Of the darkness.
I smile wide,
Knowing the lights of the street
Gleam off my pearly fangs.
Anybody who’d see
Would run in fear.
But there was no one to see,
I am alone on the street,
And as the moon rises higher,
I feel a tremendous pull
From within.
The hunger calls…

It’s feeding time.
I choose a teen club,
One of many
In this city of sin.
I became one of the undead
At the tender age of 21,
So even though I was
Hundreds of years old,
My immortality keeps
My physical features in check.

Bodies dance around me,
Twisting, writhing, touching
Hands in the air.
The music beat in my chest,
Reminding me of the heart
That once beat within me.
The heart…
Keeper of my soul.
As long as it stays intact,
Life for me will go on.

I breathe deep,
Filling my senses
With the sweet taste,
The sweet aroma,
Of the sweating,
Living bodies around me.
The hunger grows within me,
And it takes all my control,
To stay my bloodlust.

A woman grabs my arm,
And together we danced.
She moved against me,
Erotic, sexy…
I know what she wants.
I smiled a toothless smile
And look into her eyes.
I had her now
If I wanted her.
Her eyes locked with mine
And I enter her mind.
All her thoughts,
Her desires,
Her fears…
All is now an open book
For me to peruse.
I scan her mind,
While filling her thoughts
With erotic glimpses of me.
She wants me,
Has to have me,
Sometimes, the power I have
Amazes even me.
She is my puppet.

A recent memory
Draws its attention to me.
It’s a memory of a man,
Husband, boyfriend, lover?
I do not know which,
But it’s a memory
That frightens her
Every time she sees him.
She hasn’t seen him
In over a week,
And fears that his reappearance
Will be soon.
This was the reason
She was out tonight.
Staying at home,
Could mean her death.

The man had threatened
Her life with a gun.
Through her memories,
I saw how unstable
This man’s life had become.
I decided to protect her,
And I conveyed these feelings to her.
She collapses in my arms,
Bursting to tears
In the midst of chaos.
“Take me home,”
she said, dampening my sleeve.
I led her out of the dancing maw.

He was waiting,
The man from her memories,
Waiting inside her apartment,
Gun in hand,
Attitude to boot.
I put the girl behind me
As the guns report
Fills the building
Like sonic thunder.
The bullet sinks into my stomach,
But I don’t budge.
I don’t feel pain anymore,
Not like a human would anyway.
I show the man my toothy grin,
And enter through the doorway.
I took great delight,
In watching the mans hate,
Turn to fright.
He gathers his wits about him,
And fires yet again.
Silly man,
One shot should have been enough
To see that bullets
Couldn’t hurt the likes of me.
I fell on him
In a blood thirsty rage.
The Hunger shouted within me,
Blood, blood, blood!

I made quick work
Of that pitiful human,
Relishing every drop of salty sustenance.
Death was too good for him.
Standing, I reached
For the woman’s trembling hand.
“I’ll protect you,”
I said, “just let me make
My mark upon your flesh,
And together we’ll live
Forever.”
She struggled away,
Crying, afraid.
“Look into my eyes,”
I said, and when she did
I showed her everything
She could look forward to.
I showed her that she
Could sustain me
And I’d never have
To kill again.
I reminded her,
Subconsciously,
Of the power I held over her.
She’d grow to love me,
And happiness was
My gift to her,
Happiness and life,
What more could any human want?
Then she said two words
Two words that struck me,
Pierced me more
Than any wooden stake,
And those words reminded me
That I had to guard my thoughts,
Because, just as I could read her mind,
She too could read mine.
When I’d asked myself that question,
What more could any human want?
Her answer to me was,
“My Freedom.”

The End