Lost souls by Gaetano A. Nufrio

I would say it all started about 4 days ago, when I was walking down Younge street on my way back from work. It was about 7 at night and the sun had already set on this chilly November night when I ran into an old friend.

“Jerry? Jerry Constantine?”

“Samuel Marx! Holy shit man! What has it been? 5 years I guess? Oh my Lord! Where have you been? What happened to you? You like disappeared after graduation, never showed up for the trip, you doing ok?”

“That my old friend is a long story that will have to wait for another day, why don’t we have some Chinese food and a couple of drinks, on me”

“I wouldn’t be able to do that to you dude, but I could use some dinner”

“Fair enough, but before we do grab some food want some of this? It’s quite refreshing, great for opening up any appetite, its only blood! Ha ha ha ha ha”

“Still an alcoholic and joker I see! Not much has changed man, you look and act the same as you did 5 years ago! But sure, I will take a hit of what you got…interesting wine, nice flavour to it, where did you get it?”

“During one of my many travels, it was so irresistible that I always need more of it and I found out when I got home that it wasn’t all that hard to find here, so what are we waiting for? Let’s go eat!”

And so we did, and that was when things really started to become weird.

“Hey dude, pass some of those worms!”

“Worms?”

When I looked down into what was my noodles and saw a box full of worms, I threw down the box on the table, but when it landed it turned back into noodles, Samuel had but the most confused look on his face

“Is something wrong man? You know I was only joking”

“Yeah man, just thought I saw something in there, I’m good now, not much of an appetite”

“Good old Jerry, still afraid of little things and things that go bump in the night”

I started to think that maybe it was the wine getting to my head and hoped that my old friend hadn’t noticed it

“I know it gets to you man, but you get used to it and it becomes quite enjoyable I find”

“Maybe, but I say we go get some real drinks, unless you can’t hold your own anymore…”

“I can more that hold my own, just see if you can keep up”

And so it was off to the bar we went. After about 5 shots of whiskey I noticed a cute lady in the corner of my eye. Samuel noticed her too and gave them this look that seemed to pull her near us as if his look had some sort of hypnotic power. Her name was Laura Bellno as I found out a couple of days later. Within a minute of arriving towards us at the bar she was all over him in a way that she cannot control herself as they started to make out, it was not long before we were kicked out.

“What a wonderful body you have, your neck is so addictive, I just want to eat you up”

“You can violate me any which way you want”

“Man I am going to split, my head is still killing me from the wine and yeah, yeah, I know, I can’t hold my own anymore, that’s what you get when you get old”

“I wouldn’t know the feeling”

“It looks like you found the fountain of youth, mind sharing it sometime?”

“I Plan on it!”

“Well you 2 have fun, here’s my number, give me a shout”

“I will man, the second I get a phone but I’ll get a hold of you before then”

The next time I saw Laura was 2 days later with her picture in the paper with the headline missing. As I was walking home I started to get a really bad stomach pains, so I again, blamed it on the wine, which I know now is partially true, I started to hear voices whisper my name, and then I blacked out. Next thing I knew it was 3 in the afternoon and my work was calling because I was 3 hours late. I staggered to find my sunglasses as the sun was burning my eyes, felt like the worse hangover ever.

“Hello?”

“Where are you? Your 3 hours late! Trying to get fired? You could have at least called!”

“Sorry, I have been in bed all day, must be flu or something, I would have called you know I would of, but I was up all night and morning constantly…”

“Ok, no need to get into details, just come back in a week when you’re better and don’t say the v-word, or else I may too, this better not be a hangover”

“Have I missed a day yet in 3 years?”

“No you have not, get some rest kid, bye”

“Thanks sir, bye”

After the phone call I closed all the blinds until it was as dark as it could get and back to bed I went.

Around 10 o’clock that night I started to hear but the strangest of voices whispering my name. I did not know what it could be, my stomach started to hurt as if I was hungry, I thought it was because I have not eaten all day so I went to the fridge. The only thing that looked somewhat appetizing to me was a raw stake and I devoured it whole. I then brought myself to the paper to hope that this would all pass over quickly. I passed the night in this fashion in that I did not quite know what was wrong with me, the whispering got louder and louder and louder until at about 4 in the morning I thought a walk would do me some relative good, get some much needed fresh air.

As I was walking, I came across an old blind man walking with his dog, again, the hunger and the urge came across me and for reasons beyond my explanation at the time, I was about to attack him. The dog, protecting his defenceless owner jumped and stopped me before any damage could be done. My hand was bleeding profusely so I wrapped it in a handkerchief as I started to walk back towards my apartment with more questions and even less answers.

When I arrived back at my apartment about a couple of hours after the incident I was looking at my hand to further survey the damage and to my own shock and disbelief my hand had been healed fully. With now even more confusion I went back to bed and stayed that way until late afternoon.

When I arose around 5, the sun had just begun to set and again I picked up the paper, feeling a little better with myself in having convinced myself that it must have been some sort of dream because it was too surreal to be true. When I picked up the paper I noticed Laura Bellno’s picture under the headline that says she had been missing since Tuesday night and last time she was seen was when she was leaving the bar with two men who were not really described although one was described as quite handsome and well built. That was when there was a knock on the door and to my shock it was Laura, I started to wonder how she knew where I lived but before I could ask she started speaking.

“Look, I know you’re wondering how I found you but that story is for later, you are in danger and so am I, I suggest if you want to be remotely normal you listen to what I have to say....but first you need to invite me in”

“This is not making any sort of sense but sure, you’re invited in, now what is the matter, I just saw your picture in the paper, I should alert the authorities that you are here and...”

“You and I are both half vampires!”

“Now that is ludicrous, vampires don’t exist”

“You’re so sure aren’t you, well look at this!”

With that she brought a mirror in front of me and I could see through myself, I was confused, how was this at all possible”

“But I wasn’t bitten”

“Neither was I, did he give you wine?”

“Who?”

“Samuel”

“Samuel is not a vampire”

“Oh yes he is and that was not wine he gave you, it was blood, his blood”

“But I don’t understand...”

“There are two ways in which to become a vampire, you are both bitten and brought back to life or you drink the blood of the head vampire, he gave us the blood because he wants us”

“Wants us for what?”

“For his family...but there is hope! We are only half and we can still be brought back to a normal way of life”

“How’s that?”

“Well first off don’t kill anyone, after you make your first kill you become a vampire, until that happens you are only half. Second, you must kill the head vampire and we will be returned to normal”

This confused me further until I looked in her eyes, I was drawn in, almost like one of those romantic scenes from a movie but under more bizarre circumstances, and then we started kissing and making out. The next thing I knew Laura and I were making love until the break of day, and as she slept I started to devise a plan to get back at my old friend until sleep over came me as well.
At around 10 o’clock there was scratching at my door that started us both awake. When I looked through the peephole and noticed a dog and just as I was about to open the door to let the little fellow in Laura stopped me.

“Don’t let him in!”

“Why not?”

“It’s Samuel!”

“How can it be? It’s a dog! He probably belongs to one of the neighbours”

“Do not invite him, open the door and stick this in your pocket encase he comes near the doorway, if he is not invited in he is powerless, he may hepatize you but before he does drive this knife in his heart”

So with that advice in mind I opened the door cautiously and told the little fellow he couldn’t come in and to run back to his owners. At that moment I saw hell’s flames in the dog’s eyes and he turned into Samuel who thrust himself into my doorway but could not enter as I had not invited him. At that moment I grabbed the knife and struck it into my old friend’s heart. He let out the most horrific scream as his body burst out in flames, Laura grabbed me at once and I started to shed a tear for my friend who I just killed. After that we were no longer children of the night, the voices were gone, the hunger was gone, my life turned to normal, but I felt remorse for my old friend who, the next day I miss more than ever as I stair at the picture of us only 5 years ago…what happened? How did I loose him to the dark side? It is a place that I came close to joining him at but am lucky that I got away just in time…or did I?