The Touch

He saw her in the distance, a tiny brunette, scarcely five feet tall, standing outside her building waiting for her carpool to get there. she was always waiting outside at this time. the car would hold four men. one of which was so fat it disgusted her, but she had no choice it was the cheapest way for her to get to work.

It was getting late at night, she worked the graveyard shift at a tech company. He'd watch her the whole time. he felt the hunger building in him, but he was patient like any predator should be and so he sat and watched.

He knew everything about her, from what time of the month she bled, to her favorite music that could be heard easily outside of her window every night.

He watched her walk towards the car as it pulled up right on time as usual. He admired how her body moved, the lithe qualities of her petite frame.

He supposed that most men might think she was plain aside from her small body she was normal, brown eyes and hair. She never dyed her hair so it was a light brown. To him it looked far more beautiful than the dyed colors of most women's hair.

She disappeared into the car and he sighed. When he first started watching her this had been the most difficult time, following a moving car proved difficult for him, eventually he just found out where she worked and went directly there.

She sat by a window her attention on a small screen that blinked green in the night. She was the only one in the room, he could have gone in and had her at any time but that was not how he wanted her.

SO he sat on a ledge of the building next to hers and watched her. He was in the shadows and knew that she wouldn't be able to see him if she looked, but she never did.

He could see her sad eyes, staring blindly at that screen every night. She typed and worked certainly but he could see she didn't love it. She sat there like a lifeless lump of clay.

It hurt him to see her likes this, he dug his fingers into the cold stone of the ledge as he watched her. he would sit there and watch her for the whole 8 hour shift.

In the city even in the daytime it is dark on the ground and he could still quietly follow her home. Today he decided was the right time.

He easily got home before she did and went in through a window. The lights were off but he didn't need them. He glided silently into her bedroom and found her sitting on the bed crying. He frowned for a moment at how she had gotten home so quickly.

She looked up at him then and there wasn't anything resembling fear in her eyes. Instead there was nothing and it scared him admittedly.

"Who are you?" she asked, her voice was dull but it seemed to have a small bit of hope in it still.

"I've come to take you away from this," she let out a short laugh.

"Yeah right, just take whatever you think is worth something and leave," she turned her face to the window again.

He put his hand on her shoulder, "I'm here for you, not for anything you might own."

She sighed and laid back, "go ahead."

He hissed between his teeth and said sternly, "get up."

"You want me against a wall or something then?"

"No, I want your life."

She laughed then, "you can have what little of it there is."

He bared his teeth and hissed again, "I mean that tonight you will die and be reborn like i was."

She frowned at him then, "what are you a Buddhist or something?"

He puts his hand to his forehead, and then shook his head, "no no no I'm a vampire."

She just raised an eyebrow, "mhmmm whatever you say drac, just do whatever it is that you do and leave ok?"

HE grabbed her hair, twisting it and jerking her head to one side, sinking his teeth into her neck. Her body convulsing as her blood began to drain.

When her body went limp he let go of her. She slumped to the floor. It didn't fill him and he knew he left enough for her to survive.

With a quick glance to see that she was still breathing he smiled and went out again. HE sat and waited but she never appeared, the whole day passed and she hadn't left her apartment.

The carpool came the next day, but despite them buzzing her, she never came out. The fat man finally shook his head and went back to the car.

Squinting the vampire looked back into her window, she was on the bed. her wounds had healed, but she lay as if she was dead.

He went in through the window and went to her. She looked at him, but her eyes did not show any sign of love for him, only a hatred that he had never known looked back at him.

She glared at him with more hate than any human had ever shown him, "you did this to me," she snarled, "you made me live," she began getting up, her natural grace now seemed to be heightened and he could feel the reaction in his loins as she moved.

She got to her feet. Her skin pale now making her hair seem more ruddy than previously. She stalked towards him, and he felt a surge of adrenaline shoot through him as he realized what her intentions were.

By then it was too late, her hand clutched his throat with surprising strength and began to squeeze, "kill me now rather than leave me like this." the hatred in her eyes scared him.

"But it is a gift,"

"My life is a curse you do not reward me by making it last forever."

"All i can do is give you death," he said.

Tears slipped down her cheeks as she said, desperately, "please then i can't take any more days like this, the day you came for me I was going to kill myself. i had hoped you were going to do it for me but instead you gave me the exact opposite."

Tears burn vampire cheeks and the pain was racing through his body, "I wanted us to live together forever we could do so many things."

"There is only one thing that you can do for me now."

He lowered his head as she released his neck, and then with one swift punch he crushed her neck.

She smiled then and whispered, "thank you," on her dying breath.

He left her lying there, and never thought about it again, he had lived a long time and had encountered many like her. He had invested time and it had not paid off, he would continue on, others waited still.