Twenty-four Hours to Eternal Love

Inspired for "The Stake and Garlic Contest"

Written by: Sugaree

Twenty-four Hours to Eternal Love

“Doggonit! I ran out of cigarettes,” I said to myself. It was just passed midnight and I really didn’t want to go out that late alone, but really needed the nicotine fix bad. I combed my hair into a ponytail that sat high upon the top of my head, pulled my black jeans on, my black boots and black coat on. I recall snickering to myself and saying, “Oh yeah, my head shrinker would get a kick out of this since he believes I’m so depressed. Hell, I just like black.”

I jumped into my black Jeep and drove down off into the black night to get my cigarettes. To my surprise, since this company that was notoriously racist and never hired black people, had hired a black man. A funny looking one, but all the same, a black man. I asked for a pack of Newport 100’s and a computer generated lottery ticket.

“Is there anything else I can get you?” He asked as his pale dark skin brightened a tinge. His smile was riddled with the need for dental work. He looked like what I had pictured as vampire. I'd heard that vampires were abundant and incognito these days. That was a funny rumor and even funnier was me standing before this man thinking that he could be one.

“Unfortunately you don’t sell what I need in here, unless that handsome man out there pumping gas is for sell,” I flirtatiously joked with him. He caught the snide joke and began to laugh and struck up a conversation.

“You live around here?”

“Yes. As a matter of fact I do, just down Helena Street. Why?” I looked into his eyes, then smiled.

“Just hadn’t seen you around before. That’s all.”

“Oh, I’ve never seen you either. I’ve never seen a black man behind that counter either. When did you start working here?”

“Just transferred here about a month ago. I only work the graveyard shift is why you probably haven’t seen me.”

“Oh, yeah. Maybe so. Well, I’m out of here. Off to finish writing this novel that is driving me nuts!”

“You’re a writer?”

“Yes. I am writing my second novel now.”

“What’s the first one called?”

“Passion’s Holocaust.”

“What’s it about?”

“While I would love to elucidate, I really have to run. How bout this? I’ll bring you a copy to have a look at the next time I’m here.”

“Yes! Thank you. Will you sign it?”

“But of course,” I smiled then walked out of the store.

There stood the most handsome man I had seen in a very long time, pumping gas into his sleek, decorated black Lexus. I looked at him all the way to my Jeep. He noticed my stare, then nodded his head. I smiled, and then drove off.

I made it home, but still this handsome man lingered in my mind. I wondered what he must be like, sound like, smell like. Wondered what his wife, granted he had one, looked like. I wondered so much that I wondered how his and my children would look. I had gone much too far.

My unfinished novel was waiting, practically begging me to finish. I had been told that it’s a good idea to choose a picture from a magazine or go people watching to develop the features of the characters in my novel. Since it was a romance novel with a promiscuous main character, I may as well use him in ways that I probably wouldn’t ever be able to in real life. I needed more though. I needed to put a voice with his character and anything else I could manage.

By the time I made it to my computer and sat to begin plotting my new character, my semi writer’s block was all gone. My fingers eagerly glided across the keyboard until dawn, all about him. I named him Marquel, but somehow, I really did believe that was his real name. Most of what I was feeling for him felt paranormal. I dismissed it as my Louisianan instinct and kept writing in this altered state of mind.

I had been feeling like this since I returned from visiting my hometown in Louisiana. I went to a few parties, then to a funeral before leaving. I had just passed it off as a combination of jet lag, euphoria and passion since I had a one-night stand with an ex that was other wise engaged. We couldn’t resist the temptation of knowing what it would be like just one more time for old time’s sake.

We met on a dark road, away from the scrutiny of our fellow peers, then drove to a cozy little bar just outside of New Orleans. We danced and kissed and chatted till the wee hours of the morning. Both of us were too drunk to drive, so we stayed at a small bed and breakfast establishment that really looked my like retreat for Voodoo worshipers.

We were accustomed to the mysteriousness of New Orleans and thought nothing of our stay until the next morning when there was no one at the counter or nowhere else. The place was completely estranged of life. No breakfast, which was very unusual for any hospitability institution, let alone one called a bed and breakfast in Louisiana.

On the way home, about one hundred miles away, we had very little to talk about. My mind was immersed in the dream I had had of erotic vampires. I was also wondering if we had actually made love. I didn’t want to seem so loose as not to know such a thing so I never mentioned it.

The entire night was just a blur after settling in the hotel. The only physical strain I felt was the soreness in my inner thigh. I thought maybe I had strained it until I noticed two small red marks. Then I thought that some strange insect had feasted dangerously close to my erogenous zone. I laughed to myself and never thought about it again until I saw this new character.

Pleased that my character had a real life form, a plot and was a part of my basic theme, I shut my PC down. It was five in the morning and I desperately needed sleep. Marquel still lingered in my mind. He was now a part of me and he didn’t even know it. I could see him, taste him, and feel him. I knew what his breath smelled like and how gentle his touch was. I could feel that he was thinking of me too.

I undressed and got into my big lonely bed, hungry, but not for food. As I drifted off into nocturnal bliss deeper than I had ever experienced, my body seemed to have floated, hovering just about Marquel. In the depths of this sleep, I saw Marquel climb into his car that morning, rushing off to work. He was tired, sleep deprived since he thought of me all night long. He drove unto the highway carelessly and was side swiped by a Mack truck.

The ambulance and firemen feared he would not make it as they pried his lifeless body from the mangled car. I sat straight up in bed, realizing that he needed me, right then and there.

The clothes that I had worn to the gas station the night before were lain across a chair. I put them on, grabbed my keys and headed for the accident scene. Upon my arrival, his eyes opened to see my face staring into his. He smiled, then his eyes closed again. That newfound instinct told me that he would be ok. I knew that seeing my face confirmed for him what he’d experienced all night long. Me. I just needed to see his face one more time.

Luckily for me, I had remembered to put my sunglasses in the car since the morning sun was so unusually bright. I put them on, then drove back home and resumed my slumber deep. This time while sleeping, I could see the paramedics rushing his cart into ER, and then a nurse called out a code to the doctor. They rushed him into a room and began preparing him for surgery. The anesthetizing began upon the special trauma surgeon's arrival. Marquel also resumed his thoughts of me.

Now, with both of us in a slumber deep, we held each other’s hands. I told him that he would be ok and that I would see him soon. I sat upon the very bed that doctors and nurses drilled and cut through flesh to repair his broken bones and internal injuries. I watched as they attempted to patch his punctured liver. I watched as his heart rate dropped dangerous. He was bleeding internally now. The doctors frantically searched for the leak. I placed my finger upon his leak and tasted his blood. It was as sweet as I had imaged. I patched the sugaree tasting leak for a later feast.

His eyes opened upon the last beat of his heart. The doctor asked if he had family members in the waiting area, announcing that they were loosing him. I stared deeper into his eyes to reassure him that he would be all right.

“Marquel, do you want to live forever with me?” I whispered in an echoic tone.

“Yes. I do. Will you marry me?”

“Yes.” I answered then kissed his lips ever so tenderly rendering me weak and filled with aquatic dreams the duration of my sleep.

Our minds met as one to share eternal love just as the morning turned to noon. “I’ll be there just as the night meets morning, my love, to consummate our marriage. Rest now.”

“I don’t understand what’s happening to me. I feel so insecure but yet I have never been so sure. What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to come there where we will make mad passionate love until you are mines forever and I, yours,” I smiled and kissed him one more time goodbye.

Six hours after noon, I awakened a married woman. I prepared myself to meet with my husband. I shopped for his clothes to come home in since the paramedics had cut through his own clothes. For me, black lingerie set for our blissful evening of celebration.

After I finished shopping, I went home to prepare. I called my close friend up which was a beautician, “I need you to meet me at the shop. I have something very important to tend to at midnight. Otherwise, I would not think of bothering you so late in the evening.”

“Oh really?” she asked alluding to a naughty midnight rendezvous.

“Yes, but I shall explain later. Would you like for me to pick you on my way there?”

“Su-sure. You are serious, aren’t you? Well, yes, pick me up at ten. It should only take an hour to fix you up a sexy do for this mysterious date you’re so secretive about.”

“Thanks sweetie. I’ll see you then.”

I showered and continued to prepare myself, giddy and intoxicated of my new love. I played music and danced about, thinking of the days Marquel and I would share together.
I put the outfit of my honeymoon on. I had chosen a sexy black leather choker, with a matching boos tier, leather thongs and leather garter. I already had the black fishnet stocking and three inch heeled black leather stilettos. I grabbed my maxi leather coat with the mink trimming and headed out to the shop.

“Whoa! Look at you! Did you really have to put it on ‘before’ you made it to your destination?” Nykia asked teasingly as the positioned herself in my Jeep to head to her shop.

“Yes, I did. The final destination is where I will be consummating my marriage,” I asserted nonchalantly, driving her crazy with curiosity.

“Alright. Enough with the secret mess. Give it up already. What’s happening? You have been acting strange every since you came back from Louisiana. No one can catch you—you’re like a vampire or something. And look at you! You’ve lost soooo much weight!”

Just as she stated my strange behaviors of lately, a flash of my visit to Louisiana stormed through my mind. I would have normally been afraid, I assumed, but since I have a mission, and a new love to accompany the obvious fact showering my mind, I was fine with knowing that I was now a vampire.

“I will share with you in due time, dear friend. Now can you stop talking and start on my hair?” I asked impatiently as we entered the void of people beauty shop.

“Okay. If you say so,” Nykia sighed, disgusted that I was so secretive with her.

“I do have one more request of you, if you will.”

“And what would that be?” she hissed, now apparently irritated.

“I need you to call your florist, the one with the exotic flowers, and tell her that I need a dozen of black roses and a dozen of red ones.”

“Okay, now this is getting way too weird, Skyla. What’s really going on?”

“Just do it. Tell her that I will pay her triple the amount since it is so late. I need them delivered here immediately.”

“That confirms it. You have officially gone batty on me.”

“You could say that,” I smiled and handed her my cellular phone to make the call.

She ordered the flower and they were delivered just as she spiraled my last curl. I grabbed my mink and leather coat and began to leave when she stopped me.

“Well, that is rude. Aren’t you going to at least give me a ride back home since you did bring me down here?”

“I will pay for your cab. You took too long asking me so many questions.”

“Oh my goodness you have changed!”

I placed a one hundred dollar bill on her workstation and proceeded to leave uninterrupted this time. I drove to the hospital and parked in the emergency room lot. The security guard drooled himself upon getting a glimpse of my sexy attire beneath my coat. He was too speechless to ask where I was going. I already knew the directions to my love and did not need his assistance.

I buzzed the intensive care nurse’s station.

“May I help you?” a strong voice spoke through the intercom.

“Yes, I am here to visit my husband, Marquel VanRuex.”

“Sure ma’am. We have been trying to contact any one from his family to no avail until now,” she said as she opened the double doors, beckoning me to a family conference room.

“Thank you.”

“I would like for you to talk to the doctor before going in to see him. Please wait here until he arrives. May I get you anything to drink while you wait?”

“No thank you,” I smiled then snickered to myself as her eyes toured my long body and also caught a glimpse of my attire as I sat in the low cushioned seat.

Just as I was about to peer into the box to admire the beautiful flower arrangement, the doctor walked into the room. He came close to me to shake my hand and introduce himself. As he began to speak, I was able to put his voice with the doctor that had tried so desperately to save Marquel by frantically searching for his hemorrhage. I remembered the strange look upon his face when suddenly he’d stopped bleeding.

“Ma’am, this is really hard for me to have to say to you. Just know that we did everything in our powers to keep your husband alive.”

“Are you saying that he’s passed away?”

“Well, ma’am, he has lost tremendous amount of blood caused my the impact of the truck that hit him. Blood that deprived him of oxygen to his brain that has ultimately left him brain dead.”

I pretended to be surprised and held my head low, attempting to muster up a tear or two just for the show of it.

“He is in a deep coma and is being sustained by a life support system. I am sorry to have to tell you also, Mrs. VanRuex, but he will never live without this machine. Shall we go in to see him now?”

“Yes, please.” I cried to him displaying my best thespian act of the century of a widowed young woman.

“Mrs. VanRuex, these are the tubes that are keeping your husband alive. I cannot guarantee you that he will make it through the night. We were just ordering him blood for a transfusion to sustain him a bit longer until we contacted a family member that had the power to say if we should continue him on life supporting machines.”

“Please doctor, may I have a few moments alone with my husband?”

“Sure. Just buzz when you are ready to talk further on this matter.”

“Thank you.”

It was eleven forty-five and his life was gradually slipping beyond my control. I needed to prepare my husband for the eternal life we were going to share and fast. I followed the tube that led to his IV. I pulled it out of his arm so not to drink the taste of the saline solution, and then began to feed on the vacating source of blood left in him. I unplugged the alarm that would alert the nurses of his dangerous level of loss. I drank the sweetest most gratifying life elixir I had ever known from Marquee’s jugular vein. He squirmed and moaned, then grabbed the back of my head pulling me deeper into him, begging me to drink more and more.

Upon finishing, I placed my lips upon his, letting him taste the blood, knowing that he would hunger for mines soon. I waited until he gained enough strength to break my skin and drink for eternal life. His succulent lips kissed my neck and sent goose bumps raging all over my body. He sipped a minute then his powerful grasp began to feed until he was able to sit up in bed. Instinct told me that he had drank too much for it was his first time as it was mine. I drank from him some of our now mixed blood until he was yet weak again. We continued exchanging until he had the sufficient amount to sustain him.

At midnight, he was filled with the right amount of our mixture of blood and was able to walk. He stood and pulled me close to him, kissed my lips, again and began to speak in the strong and masculine voice restored to him.

“Hello Mrs. VanRuex. Glad to have made your acquaintance. You are ever more beautiful than in my dreams. These flowers I present to my wife.”

“Thank you, dear husband. Where have you been all of my life? I have waited so long and longed so much to be in your arms.”

“You have heard it said, my love, that good things come to those who wait.”

Just as our lips met again, the doctor knocked, then walked into the room. His amazed face turned three shades of red before he was able to process what had happened in Marquel’s room that had rejuvenated such life. He scrutinized the sloppy work of my first time drink from my husband’s jugular vein realizing the obvious. He pretended to stay calm so not to alarm what he now viewed as creatures that needed to be destroyed. He underestimated our powers to read his mind even before the thought hit him.

We were a step ahead of him by the time he made it to the phone to call for help. We laughed at the fact that he already knew that we vampires outnumbered them. We also laughed at the team of people that he was going to call in with wooden stakes and garlic cloves to extinguish us. The committee had been set up since the human knew that we out populated them. Marquel put his clothes on while staring into the doctor’s and now nurses’ eyes, mesmerizing them. He opened the window of his tenth floor hospital room, grabbed my waist and we flew out of the room to continue the start of an eternal life of loving.


The Beginning Forever