Mortal Agent of a Vampire - Chapter 2

That’s how I settled in Moonlight Falls, which still makes me feel a little embarrassed to say the name; after all, it’s really a poor town compared to the big city where I lived before, and even my parents (biological) didn’t bother to visit me.
Anyway, I got a job, and now I live in a one-bedroom apartment, with free money every month, and social security, and most importantly, I make money from writing, I’m a contributor, though not very free, and to hell with those who laughed at me before, capitalism be damned.
I bought a new suit, a new computer and a new two-meter-wide bed, and I think I would have bought a girlfriend if they sold them in the supermarket, life couldn’t be better, the only nuisance, which wasn’t really a nuisance at all, was my colleague, the esteemed star reporter – Vince.
Editors never write blank checks, and I did get to know Vince the next day.
“He’s been working here since I don’t know when,” the editor’s exact words, “but we couldn’t be happier to have him, and he’s helped us through more than we can count.”
In addition to ‘Dementor’s Eye’, I’ve labeled him two more things: ‘meta’ and ‘helpful’.
But no more, Vince was like an enigma, although I always heard people around me talk about him and his glorious deeds: successfully exposing the former mayor’s corruption j□j, solving the strange case of the missing teenage girl …… no one seemed to know or at least care about what kind of a person he really was, where he came from, what his past was, his family’s condition …… made me ashamed to say anything despite my curiosity.
Gradually, like everyone else, I accepted the setup that he was one of those mysterious superhuman-like heroes. It’s no exaggeration to say that, at least in the office, he was the hero that everyone loved. There were times when I was feeling burned out, his ‘unintentional clues’ allowed me to catch the tail end of my inspiration again. He’s always like that when he’s helping people, making you feel as if he didn’t put in any effort, it was just a slip of the tongue. And who doesn’t like that? You don’t have to feel indebted to him for anything, and your self-esteem is preserved.
Before you knew it, the year had passed and it was the season of the autumn winds. One day at noon, everyone went out to forage for food, the large office was empty for a while, I sat in front of the computer, writing a story about a sixty-year-old man who adopted nineteen stray cats. Vince had been on the phone, and I knew it because his desk was just to the left of my left, away from the window. It’s kind of a shame; it’s a surprisingly sunny day.
As I knocked down the last period, Vince put the phone down and walked over to me, “Do you have plans for the evening, Lyle?”
It was the second time I’d met his gaze directly, I’d always avoided doing that, but today, the oddity wasn’t there, his eyes were somewhere between a gray-blue and a gray-green, deep and normal. It must have been the light that day, I thought to myself, an illusion of what wrong muscle.
“It depends on what you want me to do,” I said, “Buy me dinner, no plans, stay late, plans.”
Vince laughed a little, “I think it’s the former.”
I nodded, “You do realize for sure that I don’t know any pretty girls, I only have one sister and she’s already married.”
Vince shook his head, “Your sister is safe.”
“That’s good.” I said, it was decided, and although I wasn’t sure why he was inviting me to dinner, I was sure that everything would come out when we got to the table. The worst that could happen was a loan, right?
In the evening he and I walked out in pairs and drove under opulent flames to the ‘Red Velvet Bar’, which is in Riverside, near the suburbs and surrounded by a beautiful forest. There was no air conditioning in the car, all the windows were rolled down, the evening breeze was pleasant, and my traveling companion was sullen, concentrating on the steering wheel and hardly speaking.
Only once, I remember, did I ask snidely, “You’re not going to sell me, are you?”
Vince said, “Tried that, didn’t find a buyer.” Nice comeback.
As the night j□□j drew to a close, we arrived at our destination. The Red Velvet didn’t look anything like the bar I remembered, it wasn’t noisy at all, not just noisy, it was dark and quiet, there were no ladies in heavy make-up, no laser lights, no bobbing heads, no lost youths, the customers were sitting in twos and threes, looking up and down, and a woman was playing the piano on the stage, which just made the surroundings even more silent.
I wouldn’t be surprised if someone fell asleep at the table under those circumstances. Now I see through Vince’s plan.
“You’re going to order a song from My Heart Will Go On Forever and confess to me?”
Vince didn’t even bother to answer, he snapped his fingers, “Menu.”
I ordered lamb chops that day, and when the food came I forgot to ruminate; Vince ate very little, giving the impression as if he was embarrassed to leave me alone to gorge myself, and only begrudgingly pretended to be interested in the food.
At the end of the meal, I was sipping my coffee when he made a sudden comment that made me sputter.
“You seem like a solid guy, Lyle, so let me get this straight,” he said, “I’m not human.”
I hurriedly wiped my mouth with a tissue, “Yeah, yeah, you’re a superman – is this a joke?”
Vince watched me fumble, “No, I mean ……”
I stopped to listen sideways and he hesitated, “Well, you’ll see. Checkout.”
As he said checkout, he seemed to be saying the same thing, the subject closed and I somehow followed him out, he said he had some things to do and told me to catch my own ride home and walked away, the night wrapping him into a darkness.
I stood where I was for a moment, not far away, flying insects swirled around a streetlight, the light flickering on the concrete. I pondered what Vince had said, you’ll know, know what? I hadn’t the slightest notion, but his tone gave me a sense of foreboding that I couldn’t put down. I made a move that still amazes me in retrospect, I walked in the direction Vince had disappeared.
This is what I convinced myself at the time, it’s a remote place, you can’t possibly stop a cab here, yet it’s too tiring to go back on foot at this distance, find Vince, go and tell him you can wait until he’s finished with his business.
He took a path where the bar leaned against the river bank, there were no streetlights, almost out of sight, only the stringed moon hitting the river in dull waves, the road was flat, but I was in a state of shock, afraid of running into any thugs. Look at that mottled stone bridge, definitely one of the ten best places to dump a body.
After walking like this for about five minutes, the view gradually brightened up, the light came from a warehouse-like building, and the banging trash music reached my ears. It was like a combination of a red light district and a flea market, neon lights popping up all over the place, filled with drunks, jizzers, and other trippers looking for a good time.
I lost him, I thought in frustration, Vince must have turned a corner somewhere, he was so serious and clean-cut that I had trouble associating him with depravity. Just as I was hanging my head and getting ready to walk back, I suddenly caught sight of an incredibly familiar shadow.
Right there at the intersection, next to the woman in the short red dress with the upper half of her body practically j□j out, Vince stood with what could be described as a seductive smile on his face. I was no less surprised than seeing a kangaroo stirring with a koala, and it took a great deal of effort to close my jaw and hide behind an SUV.
You’re stalking, get it? Inside me, a voice said. But there’s no way I’m going to go out there and moralize to Vince right now, is there? And for me to walk away as if I hadn’t seen anything would haunt me for a week. So I must see what’s going on.
They talked for a while, or more accurately flirted, and Vince left with his arm around the woman, and I followed him not far down the street until I reached a shady alley. Vince pinned the woman against the wall.
“Not here, right?” I heard her chuckle, and instead of letting her go, Vince rubbed his nose against her, and I thought it was time for me to leave.
I was indeed about to do so, but Vince suddenly turned his head slowly and looked away from me.
No, actually, on second thought, I can’t be sure he saw me, we were half a block away and it was pitch black where I was standing, but that gaze, like the first time I saw him, made me move. An image slipped through my mind of a cheetah lurking in the grass on the plains of Africa, staring for an instant at a baby antelope strolling leisurely. I finally realized why his eyes made me fearful and uneasy, for they were eyes that belonged to a predator, hiding sharp claws and fangs.
Vince and the woman’s warmth continued, his movements seemingly full of tenderness, and the woman eventually gave up her resistance, letting his hand slide down below her waist, closing her eyes in a look of enjoyment. Yet Vince looked in my direction throughout, and it suddenly struck me that he was letting me see it on purpose. How perverted was that?
Then he began to kiss the woman’s neck …… Oh, this is such a bad j□j movie, I have to leave, immediately, right now. No, wait, there was something strange about the woman’s reaction. She did get aroused, her whole body spasmed, and she climbed so tightly on Vince’s shoulders that she could barely stand, but mixed in with “that arousal” was a …… I couldn’t tell you what it was, but it was definitely not normal, like epilepsy.
I couldn’t help but leave my hiding place, and by the time I got about ten yards away, I understood, or rather fell into complete confusion, as Vince left the woman’s neck and looked up, his eyes now a dazzling gold color, his pupils constricted into a line like a cat’s eye, and his lips were bright red, with a single drop of blood dripping down from sharp, snow-white canines and sliding across his chin.
He peeled the woman off of himself, letting her slide to the floor as if treating an empty drink carton.
“This is my dinner, do you understand?” He licked the blood stain from the corner of his mouth.
Author has something to say: