by Greggi (aka Martín)
It had been about two days since Martín had been turned. The hunger began to set in, but he wasn’t too worried. Ameilia was going to show him what to do after all. Besides the hunger seemed faint, it didn’t feel any worse to him than normal hunger. The two left their dusty motel to go to the closest club.
They didn’t spend much time picking a target. Ameilia pointed to someone at random. Then the two split up. Martín followed the young man out of the club into the narrow alley. The night air was dry, the alley reeked of smoke and booze. The young man looked like he was in his early twenties, he was a little taller than Martín. He offered Martín a smoke when he saw Martín approach him. Martín pinned him against the wall anyway.
“Very good,” Ameilia encouraged coming forward from where she had been hiding in the alley. Martín pressed the man’s face against the brick wall and held his hands behind his back.
“H-Hey man! Look, my wallet is in my back pocket. Just take it.” The young man’s voice cracked.
Martín bared his fangs and leaned close to his neck.
“Not here.” Ameilia insisted, “Take him back to the car.”
“What?” Martín loosened his grip and the man flailed.
“Let me go!” The man started to shout.
“Well,” Ameilia moved slowly, “Knock him out or someone will catch us.”
“I… Okay?” Martín gulped and turned the man around.
It was easy to do with his new found strength. He held the stranger by the collar of his shirt before socking him in the face. He wasn’t out cold but Ameilia seemed pleased. Martín dragged the man over to Ameilia’s car. She opened her trunk.
“Are you- are you sure?” Martín didn’t understand.
“Here,” Ameilia pushed the disoriented man in the trunk and shut it, “Get in the car.”
Martín sat shotgun on a tense drive. This isn’t what he pictured at all. As they drove there was a loud banging from the trunk.
“Don’t feel too bad. It’s actually very difficult to knock someone out in one blow.” Ameilia kept her eyes on the road, “It’s just practice.”
“Uh-huh, um-” Martín looked out at the empty road, “Where are we going?”
“Just picking a patch of desert.” Ameilia answered, “There are a lot of vultures here so that’ll help.”
There was nobody else on the small road she had picked. There were miles of desert around them. Eventually Ameilia turned and drove off the road. When the two got out of the car Ameilia motioned for Martín to open the trunk. It was clear the man was still kicking the trunk door.
“What are- What do you need me to do exactly?” Martín asked.
“Just hold him in place for a bit and I’ll take care of the rest.” Ameilia adjusted her black leather gloves with an eager smile.
Martín opened the trunk. The man kicked, and struggled, but Martín was able to wrestle him. The reality of it all slowly sunk in as he watched Ameilia take out a tool box and tarp from the back seat.
“Woah, Ameilia I- Couldn’t you just make him relax?” Martín suggested as she watched Ameilia set out the tarp.
“That’s no fun,” Ameilia pouted.
Martín stared at her. She simply hummed a chipper tune as she looked through her tool box.
“Hey… I won’t tell anyone if you let me go. Please.” The man whispered to Martín with a shaky voice, “I swear.”
“He’s lying, you know.” Ameilia revealed a large knife.
“Wait, Ameilia, we don’t need any of that.” Martín took a step back with the man. “Fine, I’ll take him,” Ameilia yanked the man away from Martín by the collar of his shirt.
“Ameilia- I don’t think… This isn’t what I thought we were doing.” Martín pleaded as she tossed the man to the ground.
“Once you smell the blood it won’t feel so bad, I promise.” Ameilia motioned him closer while she stepped on the man’s chest.
When Martín was right next to her she handed him the knife.
“Before we really start, I can give you a few pointers on your punch.” She pinned the man down by straddling him.
Once again she gripped the collar of the man’s shirt. The young man looked at Martín then back at a Ameilia.
“Lady I-” The man started before Ameilia punched him. “Wait!” Martín kneeled down next to her.
“You see, a punch that high will just give him a black eye.” Ameilia instructed. His eye already looked pretty swollen from when Martín had punched him.
“O-Okay I think that’s enough…” Martín couldn’t stand to see this poor man squirm anymore.
“No no, look to knock someone out you’ve got to get at their neck or jaw,” Ameilia lightly pressed her knuckle against his jaw, “About here I would say. It’s the force that does it.”
“I really don’t-” Martín froze.
Ameilia reeled back and punched the man again. Then again. And again. The force of each impact made Martín flinch. The man’s head hit the floor.
“Stop it! Stop it!” Martín placed one of his hands on Ameilia’s back. “Do you smell it?” Ameilia’s voice crackled with excitement.
Martín smelled the blood from the man’s mouth and from his nose. The smell ignited this hunger. It twisted in his stomach, for the first time Martín thought blood smelled appetizing.
“Y-Yeah,” Martín breathed out, intoxicated by the smell.
“Oh I should’ve let you compare,” Ameilia snatched the knife from Martín’s hands, “Blood tastes better when they’re scared.”
Dizzily Martín looked back down at the man. The young man coughed and weakly struggled under Ameilia.
“I…” Martín’s breath was shallow, “This is enough.”
Martín’s stomach twisted, this was the hunger Ameilia had warned him about. Even as Martín’s teeth seemed to ache to bite the man, but he hadn’t lost himself yet. Martín didn’t want to watch this man die.
“Hmm let’s see,” Ameilia pressed her thumb against the man’s lower lip.
She smeared a bit of blood on her glove then brought it to her mouth. She took a small lick. She contemplated the taste with her eyes closed.
“Oh he’s not done yet,” Ameilia shook her head, “You’ll have to trust me on that.” “I’m not…” Martín dropped the knife and stumbled back, “I can’t.”
“Fine.” Ameilia scoffed before she slowly picked up the knife from the ground.
Martín scrambled to his feet. His lungs filled with air that he was sure he didn’t need much of anymore. He gasped over and over as he fought what he body was telling him to do. Martín turned away and ran to the car.
“Wait- Come back you’ve gotta help me!” The man begged, his voice horse.
He heard the man scream, the kind of scream that Martín had never heard before. It wasn’t clean and loud like it was in the movies. This man’s scream was muffled with a gargle. Martín started to hear more but he turned his focus to looking for the car keys. Tears streamed down his face as he looked under the seats and pulled down the sun visor.
“C’mon, c’mon, fuck,” Martín checked everywhere he could think.
Still he frantically checked the floor of the car, sobbing while he heard what Ameilia was doing to the poor man. Martín crawled into the back seat and clutched his knees to his chest. He hid his face as he trembled. He wasn’t sure how long he stayed huddled like that.
Martín jumped when the car door opened. He scooted away to the other side of the car.
“You shouldn’t be so scared. Aren’t you hungry?” Ameilia huffed, half annoyed and half surprised.
Her face was covered in blood and so were her gloves. The blood leaked down her chin. Blood splatter crept up her arm and way all over her clothes. Martín hated that the sight of the blood made him so hungry.
“Oh,” Ameilia looked down at her shirt, “I just got a little lost in the fun.”
“Fun…” Martín hiccuped with tears streaming down his face.
Is this who his lover really was all this time? He didn’t want it to be true. How could it be true?
“Aw, don’t be like that.” Ameilia reached under one of her seats to get out another bag, “He’s already dead.”
Martín trembled with fear as he opened the car door and stood up. When he saw the man’s body he turned away quickly.
“What?” Ameilia asked nonchalantly as she changed her shirt.
“What the FUCK?!” Martín shut the car door with a thud, “What the fuck…”
“I told you.” Ameilia threw her bloodied clothes in the bag.
“No- You didn’t. You didn’t say it was gonna be like this.” Martín held himself and refused to look at the body.
“Murder’s murder,” Ameilia threw her bag into car.
She circled the back of the car to stand face to face with Martín. That was the first time it clicked, the way she moved, the way she had always looked at him. She was a predictor every person she ever spoke to was just potential prey.
“Don’t- Don’t come any closer.” He took a step back. “Aw pet, don’t be like that.” She frowned, “It’s okay.”
As she approached him Martín took more steps back. Each step brought him closer to the body that he didn’t glimpse at.
“Fine.” Ameilia snapped like they were having a minor disagreement, “I’ll just wait in the car.”
“Wait for what?” Martín’s hands were still shaking as Ameilia walked away.
“Eat. Eat before the food gets cold.” Ameilia huffed as she turned around to walk back to her car.
Food, but he wasn’t just food.
But the bloodlust had fully set in. Even though he didn’t like it, he’s mouth watered.
Ameilia watched Martín from the driver’s seat. She watched him hesitate to even look at the young man… the corpse of the young man?
There was a large pool of blood on the tarp that Martín nearly stepped on. He kneeled down over the corpse. The flesh was slightly warm, much like how Martín’s own skin felt.
The man’s face would be something that Martín could never forget no matter how hard he tried. Something that would haunt him, guilt him, for the rest of his unnatural life. Swollen, injured, and twisted in pain…
Martín took a bite of exposed flesh. Martín was lightheaded; he felt a buzzing on the front of his brain as he drank his fill.
Blood was still dripping down his face when he returned to the car.
“Don’t you feel better on a full stomach?” Ameilia asked with her usual smile. Martín sat down stunned and didn’t speak.
“Martín?” Ameilia asked before carrying on, “Pet, we really should move it.” She gestured in front of them to the body. Martín only stared in front of him.
“Touché,” Ameilia got out of the car, “I’ll just take care of it.”
Martín froze looking forward but not really seeing what was happening in front of him.
“Here.” Ameilia tossed something at Martín that startled him.
It was the man’s wallet. Martín smoothed his thumb over the front of it.
“A souvenir.” Ameilia started the car.
Martín squeezed the wallet and stayed quiet the rest of the drive.