A vampire’s craving for blood!


                                                                September story


                                                                CHAPTER ONE


When she woke up there were 17 voicemails from a stranger on her mobile phone.

It had been a raucous evening and Ivy remembered sharing a taxi with someone on the way home but the rest was seemed to be a blur. As she stared down at her hands she could see that they were covered in blood and she seemed to have the strangest taste of metal on her tongue. Something seemed to be nagging at the back of her mind trying to stir her senses; she vaguely recollected the steady flow of drinks being drunk to drown her sorrows and she also recollected a man watching her through the crowd. He was tall and good looking but it seemed odd how no one else seemed to notice him.

Her mobile vibrated next to her ear like an angry bee and she cautiously picked it up.

    “Is that Miss Cartwright?” asked a jovial voice.

   “Yes I am Ivy Cartwright whom am I speaking to?” she asked in her posh voice.

    “Chief Inspector Gordon Hollows, we are investigating a murder”

Ivy felt her pulse start to race and tried to work out how the police would possibly be interested in her?

    “We have it on good authority that you were having a few drinks at the Old Moat pub in the early hours and could be seen having a conversation on your own”

    “Chief Inspector Hollows I happened to be on a night out with my friends for the night and have to admit consumed more alcohol than I wanted to so it might be highly likely that I had a conversation with no one” she said haughtily.

Her hands were starting to tremble now as she struggled to remember what had really happened and then the brain fog seemed to lift. The stranger she had seen earlier had decided to join her and the group of friends but by then everyone was so drunk they didn’t remember a thing. He was a real charmer and had asked for her phone number which she had declined to give at first but his seductive, hypnotic powers of persuasion had worked. She wrote her number down on the back of an old receipt she had in her handbag.

    “Are you still there Miss Cartwright?” Chief Inspector Hollows asked sounding agitated.

    “Yes I’m still here Chief Inspector and no I don’t remember the conversation”

There seemed to be a loud sigh on the other end of the phone as the police man’s patience was clearly starting to wane. 

     “Can you give me your address as we need to ask a few more questions in person Miss Cartwright?”

Ivy quickly relayed her address and the other end of the line went dead, her head was throbbing and she wiped away some blood from her mouth. She touched her teeth and felt the sharp tips of a pair of fangs. Staring down at the inside of her arm she noticed a couple of small bite marks. Pushing herself up off the bed she wandered over to the mirror to see how she looked, her eyes were bleary but as she positioned herself directly in front to her horror there was no reflection staring back. Wiping the glass feverishly she looked back down at her translucent skin trying to make sense of what was happening.

Slowly her memory continued to return and a name came into her head, the tall stranger who she was talking to was called Kelvin Prince and the pair had left her friends to visit a strange club where everyone seemed to be dressed in gothic styled clothing and a strange smell lingered in the air. Kelvin had suggested that they meet some of his friends which she agreed to do but soon the conversation took a sinister twist. All of his friends seemed to be extremely polite and persuasive wandering into a small room at the back of the club. Her mind was racing now as she rubbed at the scar left on her arm; the discussion within those walls had turned to the supernatural and the possibility of werewolves or vampires roaming the streets. Ivy could hear the seductive music being played in the background and the hands exploring her body. Kelvin had been the one who had bitten her and actually drawn blood and after that her body seemed to shake uncontrollably as she staggered out of the club.

Her senses felt awakened now and she could smell odours which she was certain wasn’t there before, Kelvin chased after her but she was far too quick for him and disappeared into the night. The dark felt like it belonged to her and she had a crazy appetite for blood. An old drunk seemed to stagger towards her barely aware of her being there and even above the toxic fumes of alcohol she could smell the blood flowing through his veins.

      “Do you have the time mister?” she asked to divert his attention.

     “No Miss as I’m not bothered about time, it doesn’t affect me”

He took another gulp from the bottle in the brown paper bag and staggered further down the old road, a voice inside Ivy’s head was urging her to do it but it didn’t sound like her own voice it was more like Kelvins. She followed the old drunk until they were safely out of sight behind a derelict building and then leapt on him aiming for his jugular.   The iron taste of blood seemed to excite her and suddenly Ivy felt more alive than she ever had before, she hadn’t meant to kill the old man but once she drank her thirst needed quenching.

Ivy Cartwright was now a fully-fledged vampire and from that moment on there was no turning back, she gathered the little belongings which she possessed and decided to leave the address which she had given the Chief Inspector, it was going to be easy now to blend into the background as she was invisible to the naked eye. Deciding to leave her phone back at the premises she took the bus out of town. Determined to start again under a new name so that she could never be found Ivy Cartwright became Eloise Florence and changed the colour of her hair, managing to find a bar job she had the chance to enjoy the extra pint or two after work.