Spring of Drowned Vampire

3. All Alone

Author:

This is the little note my co-writer wrote to me. Nice isn’t it?

Ok, translating my thought processes into present tense is driving me absolutely nuts, and I swear if I don’t change it to normal past tense, I’m gonna go postal and smash the keyboard through my monitor....

We don’t want that to happen, now do we? So, It’s gonna be past tense from here on out, unless I feel that I need to mess with the literary feel or rhythm of the story......... and whatever I choose, you’re gonna LIKE it.

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Akane didn’t see Ranma for the rest of the morning, or the afternoon, or even that evening. As she waited through the long hours of the night for him, worrying her way through cups upon cups of tea, she tried to figure out exactly what had occurred in the bathroom.

She stopped her nervous pacing and set down her cup of lukewarm tea, curling her bathrobe around her body as she kneeled in the family room by the TV. It was too quiet with everyone having already gone to bed. Feeling that she needed background noise to concentrate, she flicked the television on, and then changed the channel to the news.

She thought the entire event through her mind again for the millionth time. ‘He didn’t start acting weird until I started getting into the water with him... Could it be he was just nervous? Freaked out?’ She shook her head, remembering the way his body had immediately responded to the sight of her naked. ‘Well, at least I know I don’t disgust him.’ That was a great relief for her on some level, but her concern for his present state of mind overshadowed any joy that small detail gave her.

Akane ran her tongue over her teeth. ‘No, it really started when he saw my cuts...” She looked down at the various blotchy places where she had foolishly attempted to rub herself raw. ‘When he kissed my cuts.’ It was all connected to her cuts, she was sure of it.

She groaned aloud, frustrated because she knew something more was going on behind this, but unable to see it as usual. Resting her chin on her drawn up knees, Akane poured herself another cup of tea simply for its comforting warmth.

There was something else bothering her, too. His teeth were so long on the canines. She’d felt it in their passionate kiss, when they’d both been women, and she’d seen them when he’d bent down to kiss her again on her knee. ‘Come to think of it,’ she realized, ‘I even felt them. Isn’t that rare for people’s teeth to get that long?’

Akane shuddered, trying hard to not remember how he had not only kissed her there, but actually had... *licked* her... That was not natural. She had very little experience with boys, but any idiot could tell that was not a normal thing to do, not even in the weirdest history of foreplay. ‘He licked up... he acted like he wanted to taste my... my....’ She couldn’t even think it.

“...blood was stolen today from the local Nerima Blood Donors’ Clinic,” said the TV news announcer, interrupting Akane’s train of thought. “Police reports say that 20 pints of several different types of blood were taken during the break-in, which occurred early this morning before the clinic had actually opened. Yoshio Kushida has more on the story.”

As Akane watched, open-mouthed, the news went on to report that none had been injured, and that the culprit had been described as a tall teenage boy with a black braid in Chinese clothing, who had not even bothered to disguise his appearance for cameras.

“He was a fighter, definitely. Martial artist, I’d say,” the wide-eyed clerk told the reporter. “Just started banging on the doors, and when I told him we weren’t open yet, he broke through the glass and held me off me feet–just over there–against the wall, until I showed him where we store the blood. Seemed in a hurry, and his eyes–they just looked crazy. He asked for the freshest donations we had, took about 20 pints of it all, and left the way he’d come through. I was really scared, even though he didn’t hurt me at all.”

The cup slipped from Akane’s hands, spilling the warm liquid and shattering it into hundreds of porcelain shards as she continued to stare blankly at the screen.

“He wanted to taste my...blood.” This time, the tears that welled up in her eyes were tears of fear –fear of the physical kind, and fear of ending up alone; they were tears of a young girl who feels she has lost the first love of her life.

“He wanted to taste my blood.” And she cried.

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Scarcely twenty feet away, a dark figure sits huddled, listening to his beloved weep. Bringing his knees under his chin into much the same position as the object of his thoughts, he remains concealed on the roof of the Tendo household... quietly staring up into the cold, distant, lifeless stars as he yearns for a way to end the ache in his body, and the ache in his heart.



OOC: Wasn’t that just the best part ever. My co-writer is wonderful.

Right now I am just proof reading everything she does, but I might eventually get back into the story when my writer’s block goes away or I stop being lazy.

Whichever comes first. ^_^