Blood of Beauty ~ Chapter 2

    My eyes opened slowly as a snail. Donned in black, loose pajamas, I laid in my bed motionless, with only my stomach crying for blood and the yellow, faint glow beaming upon me from the lantern outside the window. The torn, white, fur-ridden mattress rubbed my back and the pillow, dirty and scratched, tickled my head. After wiping the sleep off my eyelids and yawning, I tore off the same quilt I had as a child, got off the bed, and headed straight to the outhouse waiting outside the wooden, tree brown house. I changed into my normal wear and then dashed back into the house for breakfast.

    "Hello there son," Mother, dressed in a dusty, gray dress and white apron, greeted me as I tiredly plopped onto the chestnut chair, "I used your favorite, deer blood."

    Yes, deer blood poured over my toast and eggs. I could say that deer blood was the best of all bloods other than the mortal blood. Blood squeezed from deer tasted like sweet watermelon, lemonade, and ripe apples; they were too lip-smacking for a fasting vampire to resist. I gobbled down every bit of my meal and then chomped on a vampire fruit I grabbed from the basket in the middle of the aging, cracked table. (Vampire fruit is a special type of fruit that grows underground and it obviously tastes like blood. And, as you may have noticed, neither Mother and I cared about the old and damaged furniture.)

    "How was the sleep, Shadow?" Rouge, clothed in a black dress and magenta bustle, tried to start a conversation.

    "It was... okay," I chirped as I threw the fruit core into the nearby trash can.

    "Dear," Mother suddenly interrupted, "did you brush your teeth yet?"

    I forgot. My breath smelled like onions dipped in dirty water from a river. Without any reply, I promptly got out a tin bowl and wooden toothbrush, with animal hair, from the fragile cupboard, filled it with water from the kitchen faucet, and scrubbed my teeth violently. When my fangs were sparkling, I put up the supplies and paced towards the front door.

    "Goodbye!" Rouge waved her hand in the air. I smiled back.

    I smoothly darted across the streets of the vampire village. The pavement was bumpy, sharp, and dusty as an old knife in the basement. Vampires of all animals, gothic colors, and sizes peacefully strolled along; some were in forms of horses and dogs (again, vampires can shapeshift). Elegant houses and shaggy shacks lined among the streets. Lanterns hanging from windowsills and stakes lightened up the vast darkness like fireflies and the moon.

    It was all well until, "LOOK, IT'S SHADOW THE HANDSOME VAMPIRE!!!!"

    Oh no.

    A group of vampiresses started the pursue me, didn't they know I didn't want to marry? My legs shivered before I did my instinct, run.

    "I DO NOT WANT TO COURT ANY OF YOU UGLY LADIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I screeched with my fangs, sharp as steak knives, hung out. "YOU HAVE COMPLETELY 0 CHANGE OF BEING MY WIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GO, GO, TURN BACK!!!!!!!!!!!! FIND SOMEONE ELSE!!!"

    They still bolted after me, those girls drove me crazier than finding garlic pieces on a mortal's bedroom floor. When will this end?

    Then something popped up in my spongy brain, I could shapeshift into a tiny, black cockroach! My normal body disappeared and then there laid myself as a cockroach. As I was about to scurry away, those women shapeshifted into cockroaches and still chased me, as if I was an apple core tumbling down a hill. I, trying to preserve my breath, shapeshifted into a bat and soared upwards to the top of a towering cliff that faced the village.

    I swooped, flapping my thin, slender wings, out of the cavern and into the widespread mortals' world. Chilly air passed through the tiny hairs on my bat body as the dark, night sky hovered over me. The moon's drape-like rays touched me and billions of twinkling, miniature stars were everywhere on the sky like dust. Across the horizon, myriad mountains, hills, and plains stood there silently; below me, endless forests and meadows ambled by on the great Earth.

    The mortal village was only a mile away, I winged quicker, as my tongue dried up and stomach violently raged like a wild bear. I felt like as if I was going fast as the mighty, cold wind. The silver moon still shined, guiding my sensitive eyes.

    At last, the village came in my way. I swept into a window of one of the elegant, luxurious houses that towered above the middle-class and poor shelters. Shapeshifting back into my normal form, I was ready to sink my dangerous, killer fangs into a mortal's soft, pathetic skin and suck ruby red, delicious blood. Mmmm.....

    I quietly, slowly trudged to the edge of the bed where the pitiful mortal was sleeping. Suddenly- ewwwww!!!!! Garlic! I located a bulb of garlic sitting on the pale blue, china nightstand, grabbed it, and tucked it carefully in the drawer. Then I turned back to the mortal, my tongue was generating saliva, my stomach was churning, now I was going to have the snack of the night-

    I halted. There, in front, laid a beautiful mortal girl. She was a lavender cat, with a wide purple-pointed ponytail, satin-and-short-sleeved purple nightgown, and a generous smile on her white, furry muzzle. I stared at her in awe, she was so pretty, prettier than the most alluring flower in the meadows, prettier than the most attractive vampire girl in my village (she already had a suitor, so she didn't chase me), prettier than the constellations in the midnight sky, basically prettier than the prettiest thing in the world. As my heart melted like snow in the early spring, I reached out my hand and stroked her head slowly, so she wouldn't wake up and panic.

    My head was swirling, my knees were bending, and my heart was beating faster and faster. I couldn't refrain from staring at this one good-looking feline, it was as if she a mountain-sized pile of good and jewelry. However, because I didn't want to meet Count Dracula's fate (Mother told me stories about that famous Romanian vampire when I was a child), I put the garlic back onto the nightstand, shapeshifted into a bat, and flew out the window. My brain was still being squashed by a bear.

    I had just fallen in love... with a mortal.