Undead Prey

[WP] A vampire knocks on your door, seeking permission to enter in order to kill you as their next meal. As a house-bound ghost, however, the prospects of a guest after so many years intrigues you. Smiling darkly, you welcome them inside.

*****

The tall, pale woman with long black hair stood at the door of my family's summer cabin, staring at me with intense dark eyes. I noticed that she had her arms wrapped about her, as though she wanted me to believe she was cold. Her posture, however, was too casual and confident, to convey the necessary vulnerability to make her shivering convincing.

"I'm sorry to bother you," she said softly, a smile playing about her lips, their deep red contrasting starkly with her alabaster skin. "But my car broke down a mile or so down the road, and my cell's dead. Could I please...step inside and use your phone?"

I met her smile with one of my own. She wanted me to invite her in, of course. I had always wondered...

I made my decision in a moment.

"Oh, of course! Please, come inside." I said, stepping aside and gesturing her in with a sweep of my arm..

I would have held my breath, if I could, as she thanked me, and began to move. She crossed the threshold of the house. I closed my eyes, fighting to contain my emotions, as the meaning behind her entry at my invitation washed over me. How long had it been, since I'd felt so...warm?

I closed the door behind her, and then I turned to face her.

"Hello, vampire."

She smiled again, this time baring long, slender canines. "You knew, and invited me in anyway? That hasn't happened to me since the whole 'sexy vampire' media craze cooled down."

I chuckled, darkly. "Don't worry, I'm not expecting any pre-exsanguination...favors from you."

She smirked. "Good. You would have been disappointed."

Then she came for me, arms outstretched, fingers like talons, mouth open unnaturally wide to receive my lifeblood. I could but help feel a sense of deep satisfaction as she passed right through my immaterial form, and slammed into the floor.

"Oh, sorry," I said, with cheerful mock sympathy. "You're about 30 years too late to make a meal out of me. The worms beat you to it."

She hissed, and pushed hard against the floor, lifting herself instantly back to her feet, then turned to glare at me, ready to pounce.

"A specter!" she growled, narrowing her eyes, which had turned solid black. Then her inhuman snarl abruptly faded, and she laughed. "Alright, I have to admit it: you got me. That was pretty good."

She looked me me over appraisingly, and then sniffed the air. "And to be able to manifest the smell of blood strongly enough to fool even my senses? That is very impressive."

I gave her an appreciative nod.

"But why?" she asked, curiously, walking a slow circle around me. "Just wanted someone to talk to?"

I laughed. "No, nothing like that. This is my family's cabin. I hardly ever get any guests, but there are kids and grandkids up here, several times a years. And when I'm alone, well...I was always pretty good at being by myself, even when I was alive. Had to be, in my trade."

She raised an eyebrow. "Hmm...then, was it petty revenge for your death at a vampire's hands, perhaps?"

I shook my head. "Nah, wrong again, I'm afraid. Lung cancer's what got me. Ten years after I quit smoking, too! Ain't that a bitch?"

It was her turn to smile in mock sympathy. "Ah, one of the many injustices of mortality. That's why I'm glad to have left it behind."

The vampire stretched and yawned performatively. "Well, this has been interesting, but I am very hungry, and seeing as how you're not a compatible donor..."

She started to turn away.

"Oh, you can't leave yet." I said, grinning darkly.

My voice became hollow and sepulchral. "I'm not done with you, yet."

She snorted, turning back and giving me a level look. "Is that supposed to scare me? Listen, little ghost, I'm not some oblivious human you can spook with your spectral parlor tricks, to feed off their fear. I know how your kind operates."

"That's awfully cocky for someone on my turf." I pointed out.

"You invited me in, remember? You lost whatever home field advantage you might have had. Besides, though we're both dead, I am still a physical being, and I doubt you can do anything more strenuous than opening a door, in the physical world."

"What makes you say that?" I asked, trying hard not to laugh.

"Because you specters draw your strength from emotions; either those of the living, or your own. But there's no one living here right now. And you've evidently both accepted your fate, and become comfortable in your haunting grounds." She said, confidently. "If you'd been killed by a vampire, you might have been able to summon enough rage to threaten me, but as it is? You've got nothing."

In response, I raised a hand. All the heavy storm shutters slammed shut and locked themselves. A fire roared to life in the hearth. A bookcase by the door tipped over sideways, , and blocking the exit.

The vampires eyes went wide in shock.

"How?" she hissed, looking around, frantically.

"It's not only negative emotions that give us strength, monster."

"You're dead!" she snarled. "Truly dead! What do you have to be happy about, specter?"

"I invited you across my threshhold." I said. "Do you know what that means?"

She didn't answer. She blurred to the left, smashed out a window, and clawed at the shutters with fingers like iron talons. They held fast, reinforced by my passion-fueled will. Besides, they had been made with something like her in mind.

"Only the living can truly lay claim to a home on this Earth, vampire. My children, and their children, own this house now, so the fact that I could still invite you into it means that, to them, I'm not a ghost. To my descendants, I'm not just a shadow of something that once was!" I roared, triumphantly, rising from the ground into the air. The heavy log furniture began to rise around me.

The vampire stumbled backward in terror, flattening herself against the far wall.

"This house is still mine, because to them, I am still family!" I cried exultantly, invisible wind whipping my hair and clothes, as the emotion of my realization filled me with boundless power. "In the hearts of those who I loved..."

Everything that wasn't nailed down rose into the air and joined the maelstrom of books, furniture, appliances, and sundry knick-knacks swirling around me like a hurricane.

"...I AM ALIVE!" I shouted, my voice shaking the cabin to its foundation.

The vampire screamed in pain, covering her ears.

With a gesture, the swirling objects froze, and then gently floated to the floor, each sliding neatly back into its appropriate place.

She looked up at me, then around at the room, in amazement. It looked like nothing had happened -- in my exultant state, I'd even been able to repair the window she'd shattered.

"Alright..." she said, holding up her hands in a placating gesture. "I...I apologize for my disrespect."

"Apology accepted." I said, still smiling.

She swallowed hard, looking around once more.

"So...can I go?" she asked, hesitantly.

I held up a finger. "One more thing."

I gestured to an old chest in the corner, the one I'd used to hold my training supplies, and that my children still used to hold the supplies they used to train their children. It unlocked and opened.

A dozen wooden stakes floated into the air out of the chest, and turned to point directly at her.

"You know that trade of mine, the one that kept me working long hours alone?" I said, with a wolfish grin. "I'll give you one guess what it was."

*****

THE END