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Sometimes it's hard pretending to be someone you aren’t. Lying has become second nature, I know exactly who I need to avoid, and who I must speak to. I know the fake stories that i must tell, but I’ve said them so much i myself almost believe that they were real. How I wish they were…
The room is dark, the thick curtains blinding the morning sun rising so I can sleep longer, but i know it's awake now. I never need an alarm to wake up, I’ve risen with the sun so much that I've conditioned my body to recognize when the sun sets, and when it rises. Maybe it's my anxiety, maybe it's because I know when I need to stay inside. Or maybe I just love watching the sunrise and set every day.
The truth must never be known, and forever I will be here sulking away in the same room my ancestors did. By choice, some of them yes, but me? It's a force of habit coming back here. It’s just so lovely....the campus is nice....and it's a prime place jam-packed full of people, no matter what.
At first, when people said that I was predictable, I was scared that someone had figured it out. But really, over the many years of repeating the same thing, people had just learned my pattern, and then I became the one thing I swear I wouldn’t; vulnerable.
Fortunately, i used this to manipulate the people once again, and I didn’t even have to use my gifts to do so. By being predictable, I was able to get away with the same things or avoid things i didn’t need to go to. I was able to get away from every sticky situation with the same excuses, just as I had done before.
The sun would soon be up, and soon would the world. But first, I was starving....and they always serve the best food at dawn.
Changing into athletic wear and a hooded jacket, I get ready for my morning jog. I brush my teeth and decide to take my vitamins the fun this morning. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I just had a feeling that something great was going to happen.
The fun way was to throw the pills into the air and catch them in my mouth before they hit the ground. I found it much more entertaining than just popping them into my mouth and swallowing them, considering it not only gave me a rush of adrenaline before my run but also boosted my confidence for the day. Not because I knew I was going to get a delicious snack this morning, but because I’ve been practicing lately, and if I could do both pills it would give me the best sense of my pride.
As I throw the pills into the air, I center my mouth to where they would drop, and with an effortless shuffle, i catch them in my mouth, swallowing them with a bow.
"Thank you thank you, you're all too kind!" I shout, to who? The invisible audience of course. Or maybe it was my conscious. Maybe it was the invisible ghosts of the dead soldiers who were watching me. I’m sometimes convinced I can sense their presence, but I’m no mystic. If i ever met one, I bet they'd sense the dead soul already inside of me.
I grab my tiny flashlight, leaving my keys and my phone behind. I know someone is using that thing to track me, and considering the possibilities of what could happen if law enforcement would do if they found out, it wouldn’t be good for me or them.
Mostly for them.....yeah…
Shaking the murderous thoughts out of my head, I open my room door, luckily to be someone whose roommate dropped out in the first year, as they surprisingly always do. I peek outside to make sure that it was empty, and when I wait long enough I start running out of the room, not before closing my door.
I begin jogging down the stairs, taking it one step at a time. The last time I tried skipping a step I ended up tripping and almost dying by faceplanting on the floor. Good, think i caught myself on the edge of a railing.
Unfortunately, there was a student who was also coming down for his morning jog that morning, someone who ive come to be associated with as "the guys who run in the early morning". I never caught his name, but he's got the brightest yellow hair ive seen on a man. I’ve gotta ask him if that’s natural.
When I get to the exit on the first floor of the building I open the doors and let the fresh crisp air come into the building, letting it hit my face as the late winter air blows my hair upwards. There was nothing like the smell of fresh petrichor in the morning, it’s one of the reasons i love coming back to this campus.
I start jogging slowly along the concrete path that leads into the woods behind the building, the woods that were hiding the sun from this side of campus. Because the long, bare-leafed trees were blocking out the sun, it was great for me, considering I hadn’t even covered up properly.
That’s when I saw him-the guy with yellow hair. He was running into the woods along the same path as i was, oh boy.... he’s got no idea what was coming to him…
I race up behind him, careful not to make any sounds as I speed over to where this guy was standing. I quietly follow him from behind, knowing we were that far into the woods where it was safe yet. If i ever bit someone too close to where the cameras and local people were, there was a big chance I could get caught.
This is why the deep wood path is great for a guy like me, not too much sun, not many people passing by, and-
"Huh-?!" The yellow-haired guy says turning around, and stopping as he noticed me behind him. Crap, crap he’s seen me.....gotta think fast-
"Is your hair naturally that yellow?" I blurt out, my eyes were wide as I stare into his widow’s peak, damn, he had a good hairline…
Of course, the random dude begins studdering, they all do, always. "Wha...huh...? D...did you follow me?" He asks, out of breath as he breathes in and out, stepping back from me. Right....this isnt normally the guy who I suck off of.... can’t get too close. Eh, whatever, he won’t remember a thing when I’m done with him.
"I uh...I wanted to ask you if your hair was natural...." I say, repeating myself. This was a new person I barely knew anything about, I needed a good story, at least for now. After getting what I need from him, I’ll just send him on his way and he'll think it was all a dream.
"My....my hair?" He asks, grabbing a tuff of his bright yellow hair while looking at me, "This is all natural baby, no dyes or nothing!" He exclaims, laughing. I laugh along, not only because he's completely oblivious to what is about to happen to him, but because my deceiving question worked. To say the least, i still got it.
"Oh wow… I’ve never seen anything like it...." I say, scooting next to the guy. I figured that we were still too close to the campus, and we needed to go deeper into the woods for this to work. Usually, I’m waiting for my guy to come by so I can snatch him and feed on his blood from behind a tree, but this was an entirely different situation. I needed to be careful here.
"Really? I mean, I guess a guy like me only comes once in a generation right? Blessed with the brightest and best-looking genes I bet...." he says, letting go of his hair. Ah, so he’s one of those guys....i've met a few like him before, he reminds me of a guy who had bright blond hair, styled in a mullet back in the ‘80s who would never shut up about his chiseled looks and hot bod. A morning snack and a traumatic nightmare kept him at bay, at least until I graduated.
"Hey-" I say, hoping to get this conversation along so I could eat, "-ive seen you around so much, what’s your name?"
"Tango-" he says, extending a hand, to which I begrudgingly shake it, "Tango Teck, a pleasure to greet cha'". Teck? What a strange surname....but definitely not the weirdest.
"B, Double O, you into technology or s'mth then, Tango?" I say, introducing myself to him. Now i have another guy to suck on when im hungry, seems friendly enough, or maybe he could be my dinner, spare the randos at the campus from my random attacks.
"Woah woah woah-we are not glossing over your name man, what?" He asks, suddenly stone-faced. I know i know, weird name, but my real name died with me when I changed, and I can’t be going around the world known as the same-looking guy, can I? Nicknames it is.
"Yeah....my parents were kinda....high when they named me, at least that’s what they told me." I say, explaining the weirdness of my "name". I mean, it’s true my parents were high when they named me, but they didn’t name me something stupid like B Double O.
"I mean, is there like a nickname you go by that I could call ya? I mean as cool as Double O sounds as a last name, like some super spy or somethin' I think I’d get pretty tired of saying your full name." Tango says, sighing. Seems like he caught a full breath of the cold morning air because he immediately went down and began gasping for air.
"Woah uh....are you good bro?" I say, questioning if I didn’t even need to use my powers to make him pass out, or even my mouth.
"F...fine…i just....you caught me in my morning rush haha! I was just getting my blood pumping with a jog when you....uh, introduced yourself." Tango says, pushing some of his hair back. Another reason I normally preyed on joggers; the more blood flowing the more freshly circulated blood i get.
"Oh, well I’m running too, what say we jog and talk then?" I say, finally. Goodness, this guy was talkative.....that overly friendly-ness might’ve rubbed off of me. And usually im the one doing the talking.....
He nods and we start slowly jogging deeper into the forest. Yes....fall into my trap helpless Tango Teck.....the faster I do this the faster I can go back to my room and digest my breakfast while watching The Office.
I decide to spark conversation first, but from the way Tango's been talking, I suspected it would’ve been long anyways. "You run often Tango? I come by this trail every morning, but rarely see you around." I say.
"Oh no haha..... I’ve started working out some more, you know my personal trainer suggested I take up morning jogs," Tango explains, "Gotta stay fit mentally and physically right?"
I nod my head, my biceps tightening as we reach a turning point in the trail. We were coming up on the section where I usually have my breakfast, so I needed to end this conversation with something simple.
"Right indeed, a good mental state is a good student mind, that’s what I say," I say, grinning, but not for the reasons Tango thinks I do. We pass the point where I know no cameras are watching, and where no people could.
"Do you really say that?" The yellow-haired man asks, giving out a small chuckle as he looked down at me. Well, now or never.
I begin slowing down until i come to a stop, dramatically exhausting my breaths as I put my hands on my thighs. I cough once or twice to make it believable since Tango was far ahead of me anyways.
He turns around, immediately noticing that something wrong. He rushed over, just like they all do, hunching over to me.
"Yo! Double O, are you oka-" And he never gets to finish his sentence, because before that last word fully exited his mouth I shot up at him, my mouth wide open as I reach for his neck.
I grab his shoulders, digging my fingernails into his forearms as I groan my fangs out and sink my sharp teeth into his flesh, breaking through the surface skin and making contact with his splenius. Oh man was I hungry, i began to suck away at his neck, waiting patiently for his blood to come out and get into my body.
Tango tries pushing me away, but his muscles aren’t strong enough to push my, not smaller, body away from his. He has to stand there, knees bent as I hold his head so I can continue feasting on his blood.
Quickly I take us behind one of the large trees so I can hide my crimes from any possible passerby i might’ve missed in my hunger. I don’t worry much about my unsuspected victim making noise or running away, since l have my fangs already in their body their mind shuts off and they can't comprehend to do anything anyways. Perks of being cursed one would assume…
What was not a perk, was how much taller Tango was to me, and that rando I could care less about. I had to really bend his knees to get a good angle that would not waste any blood as I drank it.
I push his body up against the tree trunk, shaving it as I pulled away for just a moment to catch my breath, accidentally letting out a quiet moan. Shit! God! Fuck! O-! I growl against Tango's neck before sinking my teeth back into his neck, sucking in more of his blood.
There was something so delectable about O- blood, the books all say that every Vampire has a specific taste for a certain blood type, but that’s old Vampire facts. But as I continued to suck and bite against Tango's skin, I couldn’t help but think that maybe I enjoyed O- blood types…
I steady my breathing as I continued to suck, inhaling through my nose and occasionally when I open my mouth to breathe, which comes out as a breathy moan. Hey, sucking blood is tiresome for both parties, why else do you think we have this speedy ability?
Surprisingly, i stay locked on Tango's neck for much longer than intended, sucking away at his blood. Oh man...this is good...so...so good… it’s too much!
I break from his neck, raspy breathing coming after I begin breathing through my mouth again. I see some blood spill from his neck, sliding down towards his collarbones and t-shirt. I extend my tongue, licking the deep red all the way up from when it had dripped, and up to the bite mark I made. I make sure to suck up all the remaining blood, not wanting any of it to go to waste.
I was about to kill this guy! Holy fucking shit! I've run out of fingers and pockets to count how many times that’s happened when I would be drinking from a person's blood and I would almost completely drain them of all their upper bloodstream. Have I killed someone doing this? Yes, sometimes by choice, and sometimes they're just so delicious I can’t help myself.
I step away from the body, letting Tango slump to the ground. His eyelids were barely open now, his jaw slightly unhinged as his entire body was lying idly on the dirt like a rag doll. I checked his neck to make sure i didn’t cause any more scars or tears other than my fang bites. That particular part of his neck you could see it becoming reddish because of his pale skin, and faint bite marks that were from my bottom teeth that were going to disappear in a few hours.
Not bad Bdubs.....not bad…
Now was the easy part-getting Tango back to his room. I start digging through his pockets to find a key or keychain, something that would tell me which room was his. I find his wallet, which had his ID card for entering the building, and a key that was engraved with a door number.
Room 216 huh? That’s just around the corner from my room....no wonder I caught him that one time.....
I look up at the sky, the sky turning from a deep blue to a brighter shade. Damn it, I had to get him out of here fast. I pick up Tango's body, lifting him up to where he was standing, with my help.
I press my fingers on his forehead, closing my eyes as i concentrated my mind on breaking into his. Once I’m through, i work my magic to wake his nerves up, taking control of his lifeless body. Tango was now my marionette, my puppet on invisible strings.
And good too, if anyone saw me dragging Tango's drained body back to campus they would surly question me, and what we were doing out in the forest. The least I’d need to worry about right now is someone questioning why Tango's neck was bright red, and why mines were stained red.
With my hand extended, I make Tango walk out from behind the tree, his weak body shaking as he slowly but surely walks out onto the concrete path. Finally, I have the complete control i need to make him start running to the complex.
I follow behind him, my ears open to anyone who might've been watching or following us. When we were in the clear, i make Tango speed up as I followed ways behind him. I make him slow down when we reach my normal exit from the building and wait for me so i can still see his body.
I open the door for both me and Tango's sort-of-corpse, entering the building. I rush us both up the stairs, ears open to any threats that stood between us and Tango's room. Safe...gotta make this quick…
Tango and I climb the two flights of stairs needed to get to the second story of the building and quickly rush to his room, which I make sure to note down in my head. Just one more thing I need to be careful of.
When we reach his door, I make Tango reach into his pocket and take his key out, making him open the door with a 'click' and enter the room. I hold the door open as I make Tango take his shoes and socks off, also with his jacket. Then I make him limp his body to his bed and flop on top of the mattress that was his bed.
Good, he didn’t have a roommate, since I was tired from the feeding frenzy i had just been through I would’ve been able to lie my way as smoothly as i would want to. I close my eyes and let control go from Tango's mind, closing the door and walking back to my own room.
As I approached my own room, I think about Tango's hair, and how he said it was all natural. He had a similar way of slicking his hair back like another student I see frequently around campus, only his hair was jet-black and his face adorned a silly mustache i hadn’t seen in decades. They died out for a while, but I would only suspect that student's personality to reflect their exterior.
Because if I know anything, and I am a man full of years upon years of knowledge and personal experience, it's what’s on the inside that matters.