POAK – Short Story

Portrait of a Killer

By R.R. Peace

My name is Calypso. At least, that is the name I give my victims. I want them to know the name of their slayer before they die. I hunt young arrogant men who think they can have any woman they want. You see, it’s payback. I am a killer. I am a vampire.

I began this life ten years ago, this night. I had just busted in on my boyfriend having sex with my best friend. He was standing there with his dick still hard, saying,

“Baby, I’m sorry! This isn’t what it looks like!”

I didn’t stay around. I took off running down the block at 2 a.m. I didn’t run far since I was out of shape. I eventually walked down the city street, trying to gulp back the tears of humiliation and hurt, not caring that I could get mugged.

About ten feet away from me, standing underneath a light pole, was a blonde woman with a killer body and large piercing gray eyes. She smiled and her teeth reminded me of a wolf. Her skin was as pale as alabaster. She looked at me like an animal sizing a prey up for a meal. It freaked me out. I took a step back and ran in the opposite direction.

However, she pounced on me with superhuman strength and speed. We flew up to the rooftops and landed on the roof of the apartment building I had just left. The lady vampire sank her teeth into my throat. I thought it would hurt, but it felt like a bee sting. As my blood was being drained from my body, I became lightheaded but at the same time euphoric. 

While I was in my drunken stupor, in my head I heard, “My dear sweet child, you should have men writhing at your feet in worship. I will give you the body to do that and the power to crush all who have hurt you. My precious African Queen, I give you the name Calypso, a goddess who ensnared Greek warrior Odysseus. But when you ensnare men, you will leave them to their deaths!”

As she lowered me to the ground, my life began to slip away. That is when I felt something warm and salty on my lips. I was so thirsty. My mouth latched on to something hard and cold. Using my baby vampire teeth to rip it open and drink it dry, I was in ecstasy. I could see the lady vampire’s life pass through my mind from our bond created by the blood. Her heart and mind were pounding loudly in my ears. That is when she threw me across the roof.

I hit the ground hard. Pain coursed through my body as the living organs died. The foul stench of body waste flooded my senses and burned through all my cavities as they came out. Just when I thought the pain was over, the actual pain began. The fat that had been my badge of honor was turning into hard muscle. My teeth shifted and grew, becoming canine. It felt like someone was pulling my short, nappy hair and suddenly I had long dreadlocks. Acid seemed to burn in my brown eyes and they became bright glassy hazel. Finally, it felt like someone was pulling my nails by their root and they were now long, sharp, and diamond-like.

“What have you done to me?” I whispered. I stood there, completely soiled, still a big girl but with the body of a vampire bodybuilder. The lady vampire didn’t respond. She just smiled, amused by my words. She could see what my real question was — where could I get more blood? I was hungry!

She pointed down to the street. My asshole boyfriend and his tramp were arguing while walking to his car. With my new hunter’s mind and body, all I could think about was their life’s blood in my hands. I stepped up to the ledge and allowed my body to drop like an eagle pouncing on its prey. My body seemed to know that it could do that now. I swooped down and carried them both off. They kicked and screamed and complained about the smell.

Once I returned to the roof, I gave the bitch to Laura. The bastard I fed on myself, biting him on the neck. I drained him until I heard his heart stop beating. It was the best orgasm he ever gave me.

When I looked up, the lady vampire was licking her lips from the residue of my former best friend’s blood. She said, “I am fine for tonight. But you’re young and you need to feed more. First, we’ll clean you up and then we can go paint the town red. You may call me Mistress Laura. I will train you for a month and then leave you to feed on this city by yourself. Come, we must burn their bodies in a bonfire to make sure they don’t come back from the dead like you did. You now have no friends. Don’t trust anyone like us. They would kill you in a heartbeat. If you make more, make sure they are loyal to you alone, or else they might kill you later. Protect your thoughts. Any vampire or psychic can read your mind if you let them. I will tell you more as we go along. But for now, let’s hurry. The night is not that young anymore. The sun is now your enemy.”

That night, she introduced me to the bar scene. The lights dazzled me and the sweat from the people’s bodies drove my hunger to madness. I killed three additional men that night, all young and arrogant who wanted to bed me. My Mistress taught me how to use this body of an Amazon to attract the right type of men that fed my need for revenge. As promised, she left me to feast on the town alone after a month.

For nine and a half years, I was having the time of my life. Making my victims suffer, I would keep men locked up in my new house for days, as I drained them little by little each day. I would then drain them till they almost died and then burn them alive. No one heard their screams because I had bought a cottage in the woods, where there were no neighbors for miles.

But I soon became bored and lonely. I didn’t want to make another vampire. I liked my solitude. But I wanted some intelligent to talk to besides a drunk, overconfident man.

One night, on my way to a club, I heard a young blind man yelling for help. Someone had stolen his wallet. I ran up to a young man with long, sandy blonde hair and blue eyes.

“Hello, Ms.? You have an interesting perfume. Could you get the police for me? The man ran east. He was wearing leather; I could smell it.” The man said, desperately.

I could smell the man, too. He had left his sent all over the blind mad.

I said to the blind man, “I will have your wallet back in a jiffy. Stay right here.”

With superhuman speed, I ran after the thief and caught him easily. I lifted him to the rooftops and drained him of his blood. I found an empty trash can, prepared a fire, and dumped the thief’s body into it.

I went back to where the blind man was and I said, “Here, your wallet is in front of you. Your money should be all there.”

“Thank you, Ms. You smell like gasoline now. What happened?” The man asked.

I replied, “Don’t worry. He gave up peacefully. I just started a fire for a homeless man.”

“I feel like I owe you a drink. Let’s go into the bar across the street and you can tell me how you caught him so fast. My name is Brian Alexander. What is yours?”

Brian asked as he offered me his arm.

I hesitated. One of Laura’s rules was never to make friends with the food. It makes it harder to kill and you will end up feeding on rats and farm animals. But I was so desperate for company. 

Brian must have sensed my hesitation because he said with a smile, “I don’t bite, promise.”

“But I do,” I said.

He laughed easily and said, “Well then, I have to resort to wearing turtlenecks around you. Please come and have a drink with me. It’s the least I can do.”

I realized I was wearing a coat and gloves, so he could not feel my cold body. I reluctantly took his arm, and we walked across the street to the bar. While I stirred my drink, he told me all about himself. He had lost his sight in a car accident when he was twelve. At first, he refused to learn Braille, but then he realized it was his only way to read again (he hated books on tape and the computer voice that talked to him on his computer). A special education teacher at a local elementary school, he had never been married but was always looking for Ms. Right and always ended up with women who couldn’t handle how self-sufficient he was even though he was blind. He was the man; he should take care of his woman, not the other way around. Normally, he was careful about where he went to prevent a situation like tonight from happening. But he had just broken up with his girlfriend and he was a little distracted and wasn’t sure where he was. That was when he was robbed.

“I have been doing all the talking. I know nothing about you, not even your name. Please, what is your name, at least?” Brian asked

I had been thinking about what name to give him while he was talking. I began to tell him my name was Calypso and then take him to my cottage for fun and games. But what I said was my real name.

“My name is Mia James. I am what some might call independently wealthy.” I said with a slow smile.

Brian said, “Independently wealthy, huh? What did you do, win the lottery?” 

“You could say that,” I said, smiling even wider.

Brian said, “Elusive to the end, Mia? I will need help in getting home. I hate to ask because you have done so much for me, but will you walk me home?”

You’re getting too involved, a warning voice in my head said.

“Why not catch a cab?” I asked.

Brian said, “It would end too quickly, and I would have to say goodbye to you. Plus, when I left the restaurant, I was only a block from my house. I probably walked about eight blocks west before I got robbed. So, what do you say? You wouldn’t want me to get robbed again.”

“Okay, I’ll walk you home, but then I must leave. I have something to attend to at home.” I said, remembering the slave I had left tied up. Also, I was getting hungry again, and I refused to kill Brian now, although his powerful beating heart was calling to me like a drug.

That was the beginning of the most intimate and powerful friendships I had ever had. Every night I visited him, and we would stay up until an hour before dawn, arguing about politics and religion, listening to music from jazz to reggae to hard rock. I never allowed him to touch me again. Although he was desperate to feel my face to see what I looked like. But my cold body would cause him to ask too many questions. I never told him anything more about myself, and he didn’t seem to mind.

Recently, I went by his house, and he wasn’t there. A neighbor saw me and recognized me as Brian’s strange-looking friend, and she told me that Brian had gotten into another accident, and he was in the hospital. They didn’t expect him to make it.

I flew to the hospital faster than I ever had before. I scaled the wall, looking for his room. Conveniently, Brian’s window was open, and I slid in unnoticed.

The medical staff connected Brian to a ton of machines. His breathing was shallow. I could sense that he was near death. I pulled the hospital curtain around us to prevent anyone from seeing what was going on.

“Brian, beloved, you are going to die, and I cannot allow that. I cannot live without you. Let’s get you out of here,” I said and with that, I ripped the tubes off him and carried him out the window. As we left, I heard the nurses rush in to see what was making the machine beep.

His breathing was even shallower now. I stopped at a nearby rooftop and drained him slowly of his blood. I was in a sweet ecstasy. I had wanted his blood for so long. Pulling away before his heart stopped, I ripped open my wrist with my teeth and fed him as Laura had fed me all those years ago. His pull on me was so powerful; that I could hardly get him off me.

He stood up, soiled, but still the most amazing vampire I ever laid my eyes on.

He had the body of an Adonis. His sandy blonde hair was longer than it was before. His eyes were now a brilliant grey like Laura’s was. He looked starving and confused.

“What in the hell have you done to me? I am so thirsty….,” he said.

I said, “You’re a vampire, a killer. I made you because I could not live without you. It was selfish, but what do you expect? I am a killer, too.”

“The night is young. We must get you a change of clothes and then I will take you to feed some more. I prefer the bar scene. But you might like to go somewhere else once you have learned the ropes. Let’s go, Brian.” I said.

Brian said bitterly, “Your name is Calypso. So, what does that make me, your Odysseus?”

“Don’t hate me, Brian. You’re the only friend I have,” I said sadly, as I walked to the edge of the ledge and flew.

I could hear Brian behind me. His thoughts betrayed him. He was happy to be with me forever now. Brian didn’t like the games I played with men; he thought it was cruel. So, I stopped keeping them locked up and made their deaths more violent and bloody for amusement. Brian was a cold-hearted, ruthless killer. He killed anything with a pulse. We didn’t stay in that town for very long. Brian liked to move around. Often, I regretted making him a vampire. He lost his boyish innocence and was now a ruthless monster, such as myself. But then I think of how bored and lonely I was without him. I then smile devilishly as he killed a young prostitute before me. Brian liked to put his prey to sleep before he killed them. He was a gentle killer, if there could be one. Merciful death from the blonde grim reaper.