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SKY
Ijumpedatthesound of the screeching kettle, wrenched from an accidental slumber at my desk. Through blurry eyes I glimpsed my laptop screen, still open in front of me. I had dozed off somewhere in the middle of browsing Wikipedia articles, and now I stared sleepily at a pixelated image of Dracula.
It had been two days since the incident in the alleyway and I was still reeling at what I had seen. I knew moving to New York would be a culture shock, but monsters living amongst us was not what I had expected. I was ready for greasy dumpsters with their own thriving ecosystems, and maybe some larger than average rats. Not grizzly beasts. Not… vampires.
After two days holed up in my apartment desperately scrolling Reddit threads, I was beginning to wonder if I was going crazy. Maybe I had just imagined the whole thing? But the moment I began to doubt myself, the memories rolled in my head like a film reel.
Duncan, my pushy new coworker, morphing in front of my eyes. Growing teeth and fur and towering over me. And her. The fiery woman who came to my rescue plagued my mind.
The furry beast had terrified me, but it was my rescuer who unsettled me the most. Every time I closed my eyes I saw her face—emerald eyes and flaming red hair. Pointed teeth, sharp as nails, poking out from between luscious, full lips.
I stood abruptly and my chair screeched across the floor. Hurrying to the dingy little kitchen, I moved the squealing kettle off the stove top and poured a fresh cup of coffee. My third that night.
Warmed by the steaming liquid, I settled into my chair again and flicked through the few hundred tabs I had opened throughout the evening.
After I escaped that alleyway, leaving the beautiful woman in the dust, I headed straight for my apartment, locked the door behind me and furiously Googled “Vampires in Manhattan???” to disappointing results.
Only after a few deep breaths and a pinch on the shoulder was I calm enough to realize that I had misspelled ‘vampire’.
The internet couldn’t tell me much on the subject, but I did happen upon a few conspiracy forums regarding weird goings-on within the city. People disappearing here and there, run-ins with particularly hairy pedestrians under the full moon, and a swathe of barely cohesive ramblings about lizard people running the country.
When my unhinged research proved fruitless, I turned my attention to vampire lore and contemplated stocking up on wooden stakes and garlic. All I had lying around my apartment was a browning onion and a few frozen pizzas that had long since passed the expiry date.
Moving to Manhattan had been my idea. My mother had been ill most of her life, and consequently most of my life was spent taking care of her. When we caught wind of a specialist in the city who might be able to manage her illness, we had no choice but to uproot our lives and make the move to New York.
While my mother was currently getting the best care she possibly could in her hospital suite, I was wasting away in a studio apartment wondering where we were going to find the money to pay for all of this.
Working odd jobs hadn’t been a problem before, and I would happily weed gardens for the rest of my life if it meant my mother would have a shot at actually being able to enjoy hers. But New York, I came to learn, was an expensive place to be, and there weren’t many gardens for me to weed in the concrete jungle.
Which is why I got the job at the radio station. I had been enjoying it too, at least until Duncan decided to corner me in the alleyway and show off his claws. I hadn’t been back since. In fact, I wasn’t sure I was willing to leave my apartment ever again.
If it wasn’t for my mother, I would have happily lived as a shut-in for the rest of my life, nibbling on frozen pizza rolls and befriending the bedraggled pigeons that congregated on my window sill.
With a sigh deep enough to startle the pigeons I began closing tabs, pausing for a moment to stare at the cartoonishly evil illustration of Dracula again.
I was almost certain that woman had been a vampire of some kind. I had seen her teeth, watched her rip right into that monster’s jugular like it was nothing.
Afterward, she had held the severed head toward me like she’d won me a lucky prize at the carnival. Her eyes had been red then, like the monster’s blood had seeped into her soul.
I shivered and snapped my laptop shut, running my fingers through my hair.
Whoever she was, she was gone now. She had made no move to follow me after I ran off, I checked over my shoulder over and over again to make sure. The strangest thing was, as I ran from the scene I wanted her to follow me.
I remembered how it felt watching the monster rip into her arm, the pain in my own chest at seeing her injured. Even when she told me to leave, to run, something about her kept me rooted in place.
Despite the terror that twisted my stomach into knots at the thought of the ethereal woman, I wanted to see her again.
I was contemplating checking myself into a psych ward after that last thought, when my intercom buzzed. The startling sound spooked the pigeons at the window and the blood in my veins ran cold. I wasn’t sure how I knew it, but I was certain.
My heart did an odd little flip in my chest and I stiffened on the spot, staring at the window.
It had to be her, I could feel it in my bones. Somehow, the vampire woman had tracked me down, and now she was standing outside my building, buzzing my intercom like it was the most normal thing in the world.
With a curious blend of dread and giddy anticipation, I ignored the buzzing of the intercom and crept toward the window. Poking my head out between the roosting pigeons, I looked down at the street below.
Four stories down, on the ground floor, the woman stood on the sidewalk. I watched with my heart in my throat as she pressed the buzzer again. Right on cue, my intercom trilled and I gripped the windowsill with a grimace. It was definitely her.
She was wrapped in a large, black coat, but her hair was a dead giveaway—a shock of flaming red tresses cascading down her back.
