A haven of Darkness

Haven of Darkness
A short story
By Michelle Krogh



The foul stench of hot fetid breath tickled Linda’s nostrils as she lay under the one scratchy blanket the fiend gave her after they entered the dark, barren cave.
Her pulse quickened as she suddenly felt his bony, corpse like arm tighten around her midsection.
Cringing inside, she recalled how already once tonight she felt his long, glistening eyeteeth enter the tender flesh upon her neck. No amount of screaming or struggling seemed to help her out of this precarious situation; it only made him become even rougher with her.

Her only consolation was that someone from work might have seen when this god awful creature swooped down, and flew off with her as she entered the parking lot to head home tonight.

Perhaps, even right now there may be some type of search party out there looking for her.
Slowly, ever so gently, she tried to remove his hold on her. Her heart began to pound in her chest as though it were trying to explode into a million tiny fragments, as she finally was free of his embrace.

In a voice as rough as sand paper, she heard him speak for the first time. “Foolish woman, you will never escape me now! For even if you somehow find a way to leave, you’ll surely wish you hadn’t.”

Chills tingled down her spine as she heard his evil laughter fill the air. With no more time than it took for her to blink he was upon her once again. Long sharp nails, trailed down her cheek, then to her mouth, and finally they rested on her already sore throat.

“I think a midnight snack is in order to celebrate my new bride, and fight me if you must, it only makes your blood all the sweeter,” he evilly stated.
“Let go of me you demon, I will not come to you willingly this time.” She replied.

A burning sensation began as he used his nails to pierce her flesh once again. Hot crimson blood began to trickle out of her, although she could not see this, she surely felt it as the blood flowed downward. Reaching his hand behind her head, he pulled her closer to sample her essence with a flick of his coarse tongue.

“The first chance I get I’m going to take pure delight in killing you, this is something you must already know though,” she told him with venom dripping from her voice!

With his piercing, glowing scarlet eyes, he seemed to ponder the weight of her threat for a moment. “It seems we’ve come to an impasse, and my only alternative is to render you unconscious because the sun is fast approaching now.”

Her eyes began to become very heavy, her body was feeling quite sluggish, and all she desperately wanted to do was lie down for a little while. Trying to fight the effects of his hypnotic chant, Linda tried to cover her ears with her hands.

“Tsk, Tsk.” While pulling her hands down from her ears, he laid her back onto the cold, dank ground of the cave. “After tomorrow night we shall see if you still truly want to leave, or perhaps you will be begging for this haven away from sun.”

As hard as she tried she could not make her eyes obey her frazzled, fuzzy mind. With the last ounce of energy she could muster, Linda reached up and weakly smacked him in his face. Total darkness was all she knew after that attempt, she was soon sleeping like a newborn baby.

“Yes, that is it milady, sleep well for tonight, because tomorrow night you will awaken with a whole new awareness.” Lying down next to her on the hard stone floor, he promptly leaned over her sleeping form, now he could sup as he’d intended before the little vixen forced him to put her out for the night.

Alarm rang through her the next evening; she began to take notice of the new changes she received while in deep slumber. Vision so enhanced she could make out insects scuttling around the cave floor, hearing so profound she could hear the plop, plop, plop, of water some where off in the distance, and the worst change of all was the all consuming hunger gnawing at her insides.

“No, this simply can’t be happening to me, I surely must be still off in a nightmare!”

Just as she began to hear the whoosh, whoosh sounds of his large, powerful wings, a gloomy shadow appeared at the cave entrance.

With a tone of amusement in his voice, he said, “Ah good your awake just in time for this sumptuous, gourmet meal that I’ve taken the trouble for bringing back to you.”
Sarcasm slid out of her as easy as cutting a pie when she replied, “You are more deranged than I previously thought, there is not freaking way I am sinking my teeth into anyone!”

His long, cadaverously thin frame pushed past her as he deposited his precious cargo onto the floor in the back of the cave. Shaking his head at her ignorance, the old vampire began to tie the very unconscious, limp woman, as though he cared very little if his protégé starved.

“My dear, after I make this small incision into her throat, and you smell this warm, tantalizing blood, you will not care if this is a rare, prime rib roast, or if it is a endearing family member of yours, that is how strong the blood lust is, especially for you young vampires.”

In a fit of rage she began to stalk towards him, with his murder deeply set in her mind, yet she encountered some type of visible force keeping her at arms length from him.

“Damn you to hell, I hate everything about you, this place, and this stupid disease you’ve forced onto me!”

A thick, rich, coppery smell ascended towards her nostrils as he finished making the small cut on the poor victim. Something began to feel like it was clawing its way out of her insides, while her throat tightened so much she could barely swallow her own saliva.

The more she tried to fight the urge to rip, shred, and tear at that poor creatures jugular, the more she really wanted to just go ahead and make the pain stop.

With a touch of something that closely sounded like sympathy he told her to stop being so stubborn, and foolish. “I too battled my hunger on that long, long a go night when I became one of the undead, I understand you feel compelled, yet repulsed by this hunger”

His only response from her was a growl of something very unintelligible, and a not very nice hand gesture.
Finally, she could take it no more, the raw pain, the god-awful thirst, and the over powering smell of blood drove her to the brink of madness.

In a very powerful, yet graceful leap, she bounded across the cave toward her damnation, yet also her salvation.

Opening her jaws wide, she slid her teeth into her first victim’s throat as though it were warm butter.

Pungent, warm, liquid flowed down the back of her throat as if it were the sweetest nectar.

“You see my dear, this is why you will not want to leave our haven of darkness while the sun has risen. No, now you must stay here until you are ready to learn to hunt for yourself.”

She brushed her hand across her bloodied mouth while she glanced down at the lifeless corpse she’d created. With out an ounce of remorse, she uttered these very words, “I want more now!

The old vampire laughed as though he’d never heard anything so funny before he replied to her. “Yes, you will do just fine my beauty, we are going to have a long and happy time together, ah yes indeed we are.
The end.