It was eight o'clock on a Sunday night. It was barely even dark outside, and she knew she should wait to do this. But with school starting tomorrow morning, she knew she'd have to be home within the hour.
Mia sat, pretending to wait for the bus as she watched people trickling out of the building across the street. Since it was still the weekend, most people weren't working. But she could see some lights on in the offices upstairs, so someone had to be there. She just hoped she could grab whoever it was before they headed home for the night.
A few people came out, but every one of them turned and made their way straight for the parking lot next door. It took her almost forty minutes before she finally found someone: a young woman in a green dress was hurrying down the street, a slip of paper in her hand. She was looking at the addresses on each of the buildings she passed, and Mia could clearly see the woman was getting more and more frustrated as she went. The woman approached, and Mia got ready; this was her chance. The woman started to walk by, but Mia stopped her.
"Are you lost?" Mia asked, pretending to be helpful.
"Yeah." the woman responded.
Mia could see she was already feeling better just talking to someone. She probably wouldn't feel that way in a few minutes.
"I'm looking for this building on 14th Street, but I think I wrote down the address wrong. It's supposed to be a bar, but this doesn't look like the right neighborhood at all."
"You said 14th Street?" Mia asked, her eyes never leaving the woman's face.
"Yeah."
"This is 14thAvenue. 14th Street is on the other side of town. But it's easy to get to..."
Mia continued talking, never breaking eye contact. The woman started out alert, carefully listening to everything that Mia said. But as Mia continued talking, the woman's eyes started to glaze over. Mia tried not to grin; she had the woman exactly where she wanted her. Now, it would only be a few more minutes before the woman was completely in her grasp.
Suddenly, the woman gave her head a short, quick shake.
"I'm sorry." she said. "I think I spaced out there for a minute. Let me get a piece of paper - I want to make sure I get the directions right this time."
She rifled through her bag, looking for a pen and something to write on. Mia tried to contain her annoyance; she'd been so close, and now she'd have to start all over.
Unfortunately, the fact that Mia would have to do this from the beginning wasn't even her biggest concern - if the woman started to write down what Mia said, she wouldn't be looking into her eyes anymore. Mia needed to keep eye contact if this was going to work. Not to mention the fact that the longer she spent talking to this woman, the better her chances of someone seeing them together.
"It's ok - you don't need a pen. It's pretty easy." Mia assured the woman hastily.
The woman looked up from her bag.
"Just pay close attention, ok?"
The woman nodded, and Mia waited just a minute, both to make sure the woman was paying attention and to get a head start on entrancing her. When she was sure the woman wouldn't be looking away any time soon, Mia continued.
"Do you know where the freeway is?" she asked, almost sweetly.
The woman merely nodded.
"Ok. Once you get on the freeway, you're going to go for about ten minutes." Mia said a little slowly, trying to drag it out as long as she could. She had a general idea of where most things in the city were from riding the bus, but she'd never been to 14th Street and didn't know how to get there. She was just hoping the woman wouldn't actually notice this until Mia was ready to make her move.
This time, it worked - the woman was paying much more attention to Mia. But instead of finding out the directions to wherever it was she wanted to go, her mind started to glaze over.
Mia watched the woman's eyes start to shut. She knew that if the woman had been paying attention to her, she would have seen that Mia's own eyes were starting to be flecked with gold. By the time her eyes were completely gold, the woman's were almost completely shut. Finally, the woman closed her eyes and started to sway. It wasn't long before her knees buckled, and she started to slump towards the sidewalk. Mia took a step forward and expertly caught her before she hit the ground. She leaned the woman's head back, exposing her neck to the sky.
Mia grinned to herself in the darkness, exposing long, white fangs. She was glad this worked; the woman was much trickier than she'd expected - probably because she was already stressed. But now that she'd passed out, it was time for Mia to do what she came here to do.
After a very quick glance around to make sure the two really were alone, Mia leaned down towards the woman. When she was only a few inches away, Mia opened her mouth and bit down on the woman's neck. Blood gushed into her mouth and Mia happily drank it, feeling more refreshed than she had in days. When she'd had her fill, she carefully set the woman down on the sidewalk. She checked the woman's neck, making sure there was no stray blood before quietly walking back towards the bus stop.
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***
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As soon as Mia's mom heard the front door close, she called out, "Miaka? Is that you?"
"Yeah. I just got back."
Normally Mia would have called out as soon as she got home without her mom having to say anything, but she hadn't really wanted her mom to know how long she was out. She'd been planning on sneaking upstairs and lying that she'd been back for a while. But since her mom already heard her walk in, that plan was ruined.
"It's 9:30. I thought you were going to be home almost an hour ago." her mom yelled as she made her way from the living room to the front hall where Mia was still standing.
"I'm sorry. I missed the bus." Mia told her.
It wasn't exactly true; she'd seen the bus drive up and had had plenty of time to get on if she'd wanted to. But she hadn't found anyone out alone yet, and she really needed some fresh blood before the school year started. It wasn't too hard to go out at night during the summer, but once school was in, Mia's mom would make sure she was home at a reasonable hour.
Normally, Mia would have just snuck out the window once her parents had gone to bed, but the first week or two of the school year, Mia's mom was too vigilant; she was always worried about making sure Mia went to bed on time. So, in the three years since Mia had become a vampire, she'd learned to adjust. At least her mom would stop worrying so much in a couple weeks.
"You should have called." her mom said, folding her arms across her chest.
"Sorry." Mia mumbled.
Her mom still wasn't happy, but she didn't say anything. Instead, she just pursed her lips in a thin line and made a face that always made Mia feel more guilty than if she'd just been yelled at.
Mia headed down the hall and into her bedroom. She put on her pajamas and went to brush her teeth, getting ready for bed. At ten she turned off the light, slipped under the covers, and opened up her book, ready to settle in for a long night of reading.
Since she'd become a vampire, Mia had discovered she didn't really need sleep. She would sleep for an hour or two sometimes, but there were times when she'd stay awake for days. Her mom would have never understood, of course; how could anyone - especially a teenager - go for so long without sleep? So, to make things easier, Mia pretended to go to sleep every night; she'd turn off the light and do something quietly in the dark. Usually she would read until she was sure her parents were asleep. After that, she could go on the computer, when the light from the monitor wouldn't seep out under the door.
One advantage Mia now had was that she had much better than average sight. It came in handy a lot of times, but on nights like this it was especially useful. In daylight, she was able to see several times better than she could before she'd become a vampire. And in darkness, the change had been even greater. She could now see as easily in total darkness as she used to during the middle of the day. This meant she was able to read her book even without the light on. And her excellent hearing was perfect for detecting when either of her parents was walking by her room; she had more than enough warning to put the book away and pretend to be asleep.46Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLs2DCvXitO
