The Vampires Kiss is my second foray into adding a bit of horror. The transgender bits don’t really appear until part three but I hope you enjoy the tale and I’m sure you can guess where it’s headed.

The Vampires Kiss
By Anna Na Maus
©2018 by Anna Na Maus. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any written, electronic, recording, or photocopying without permission of the publisher or author. The exception would be in the case of brief quotations embodied in the critical articles or review and pages where permission is specifically granter by the publisher or author.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

Part One

Who would ever have thought that being dead would be so much fun? Not that I’m really dead you understand, more undead. It happened three months ago. I was camping in Thetford Forest, near to the burger stand, when a creepy old guy came wandering around my tent. I wasn’t scared, I’m twenty-two years old and keep myself pretty fit so a skinny old guy couldn’t do anything to hurt me. I unzipped the tent and crawled out, pulling myself to my feet and making the most of my six-foot-four-inch frame.

“Can I help you?” I asked, making sure that my tone of voice showed my lack of fear.

“No.” He replied. “But I can help you. I can give you more power than you ever dreamed possible. I can make your dreams come true and, most importantly, I can make that tumour in your brain disappear.”

I frowned, how could this man know about the tumour, the Doctors had only discovered it this morning, hence the unscheduled camping trip to try and get my thoughts in order.

“What are you saying?” I asked, with a genuine curiosity.

“I mean exactly what I say,” the man smiled, not a pleasant smile, but then he didn’t have a pleasant face.

From the light of my lantern I could see that the man was even older than I first thought. He reminded me, a lot, of the emperor in Star Wars. A man of many hundred years. His eyes were dark and his face a mass of wrinkles but when he smiled he revealed a set of flawless, feral teeth that sent a shiver of fear down my spine. As I watched a new pair of teeth seemed to grow out of the gums in his top jaw, just above his natural canines. I knew what I was seeing, and I knew what the creature in front of me was, but I didn’t believe it.

“Nice trick,” I said, hoping that I still showed no fear, “but you’d be better finding a six-year-old to impress. I’ve got bigger things on my mind.”

“So, you would prefer to suffer a slow and painful death from the thing in your head, rather than accept what is standing right in front of you?” The man shook his head. “You are a strange man Chris Keeling, but then you know that anyway. Tell me, have you written your will yet? Did you put in that part about being buried in a dress? It needn’t be like that, I told you I can make all of your dreams come true.”

I pinched myself. I must be asleep, it had to be a dream. I had never told a single person about my desire to be buried in a dress, I had lived my entire life as a fake persona and wanted to be revealed to the world as I truly felt in my death when the bigots could do me no harm. But this man knew.

“If it’s a dream,” he spoke again, “what harm can it do to accept my offer? If none of this real you will wake up in the morning regardless of what happens now. Come to me Chris, let me give you power beyond your wildest dreams. Let me give you the power to shape your future the way you always wanted it to be.”

“By turning me into a blood sucker? How will that help me?”

“You know the tales, that we vampires are able to transform our bodies. Well, there is more truth in those tales than even your greatest story tellers realise. At sunrise every morning we must be in our grave, and at dusk we rise again to live the life that we have chosen. But it would be impossible for us to dig our way in and out of the ground every time, not to mention that even the stupidest human would get suspicious. So, we have the ability to turn into mist and seep through the soil, to reform when we reach the surface. When we reform we can choose the shape we want to take for the night. You would be able to choose your perfect body, the body you believe you should have had since birth. Think about it Chris, think of the possibilities. You could have everything you’ve been dreaming of your whole life and the price really isn’t that steep.”

“But, you kill people. I would be a monster, a murderer.”

“It is true, we have killed and some of our kind are monsters. But not all. You don’t have to kill, you can take just a taste from your victims and they would remember none of it in the morning. It is your choice and always will be.”

“So, I don’t have to be a killer? You promise?”

“I promise that you will only kill if you want to. Tell me Chris, would we even be talking now if I was as evil as the story tellers would have you believe? Wouldn’t I have just ripped your throat out and drunk my fill of your blood?”

“I suppose. Will it hurt?”

“You’ll die tonight, Chris and yes it will hurt. But it’ll be the last pain you need ever feel and it will be over in a matter of minutes. After tonight there will be no more headaches, no more hangovers or banged elbows. You’ll be free of everything that makes your life miserable.”

His words cut close to my soul. Whoever the man was it was as though he could see in to my mind and read my thoughts. Even before this morning’s news my life had been miserable, my parents were dead, I had no love life whatsoever and even my cat had abandoned me for a little old lady at the end of the road. I had to admit I had nothing to lose, if it was a dream I would wake up in the morning and carry on with my life. But if it was real…

“What do I have to do?” I asked.

The man’s smile widened. “Just come to me of own free will, Chris, come to me and I will make your dreams come true.”

Still with some trepidation I stepped forward and entered the man’s dark embrace. There was a sharp pain in the side of my neck and then, a sort of light headed feeling. That one pint too many but not properly drunk sensation, that close your eyes and feel the room float and spin. I felt weak and my legs gave way, but the man didn’t let me fall. He held me close, his mouth on my neck as he drank the life blood that had supported me for the last twenty-two years. The world span faster and my vision dimmed, I was on the verge of passing out when I felt him move. The pressure was gone from my neck and I felt his arm across my mouth. I felt something wet and warm dribble across my lips and heard the old man telling me to drink. Nervously I opened my mouth and sucked in the coppery tasting liquid that was the vampires blood. At first it felt wrong but with every swallow it became easier and I soon found myself hungrily drinking my fill.

Without warning a sharp pain exploded in my heart and I couldn’t help but scream. The man dropped me and backed away.

“Goodbye for now Chris Keeling, we shall meet again.” He said as the pain spread throughout my body.

I don’t fully understand the pain, it was intense – I know that much. It spread from my heart as though it followed the route that my blood would take through my body killing me as it went. Even with my knowledge of biology, I could tell when it reached my lungs and stomach, the pain intensifying as my major organs failed. I screamed and screamed, other organs failed but I don’t know which ones they were until whatever it was reached my brain. That was a pain more intense than any other, a blinding white pain that took over my senses.

Then the world turned black.

I guess that’s when I died.

To be continued…

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