How Billy Found His First Victim

Tales of the Vampire Twilight

(Chapter Four)

"How Billy Found His First Victim"

(when Billy was bashful)
Billy was a shy boy. Like many shy boys, he was both bright and imaginative. He could construct elaborate scenarios in which he offered up devastatingly witty opening lines to girls, following which they linked arms with him and headed out into the night. In reality, upon approaching a girl he fancied, like most shy boys, he got just close enough to attract her attention, then mumbled a "Hello", while turning to slink away.

One day Billy changed. This is not the story of that change, but, suffice it to say, he was still shy, only now a fierce bloodlust was upon him. He tried to deny it--he smoked a bit more grass, he got his nose pierced--but, ultimately, it could not be denied. And so, one night, he laced up his Doc Martens and headed out into the night for the kill.

He walked through a crowd near a multiplex theatre next to a mall and his spirits sank. He felt small, not fiercesome at all. The men brushing past him were so much bigger, and the women...well, the same old tongue-tied feelings welled up as he considered the prospect of approaching one.

The crowded street was simply too much to take, so Billy veared off into a parking garage. He wound his way to the lowest level and there he found her. A slender blond woman, rooting through her purse for her car keys. Surely this was a golden opportunity. Surely she would be overwhelmed with fear at his approach.

Billy crept toward her. Should he speak? Her back was to him, but he wrestled with the urge to tap her on the shoulder and excuse the interruption. This hesitation was fatal. As always, Billy had gotten just close enough to the girl to draw her attention. She wheeled on him, pulling a can of pepper spray from her purse, spraying him so that the stream spattered against his right cheekbone.

As the girl pulled away in her car, Billy slumped against a concrete pillar in the basement of the garage. The burning in his cheek fought with the blush of gut-turning embarrasment. How could he be so timid, if he was to be a rapacious terror of the night? The next time, he would not make the same mistake.

(when Billy was bold)
The next one was somewhat taller, though still blond. As soon as he saw her heading into the depths of the garage, he steeled himself. He would fall upon her in a rush, was his mantra. As she reached her car, he broke into a lope, which quickened into a dash, which was interrupted by her side kick straight to the right side of his jaw.

That kick didn't send Billy to the floor. The countering crescent kick to his left ear did that. The last two indignities she inflicted were with the toe of her boot to his ribs and a gob of her spittle to his wounded head. Billy was still moaning and twisting in the grease of the garage floor as her car pulled out of sight.

(when Billy was bereft)
Billy was sitting on a concrete divider, weeping and shaking with frustration, to say nothing of hunger, when the third girl appeared. He didn't notice her approach until she was looming above him. Of course she was blond.

He looked up, his eyeliner running down his pale cheeks, and shook even harder out of sheer habit. Then, the unexpected happened--she sat down beside him and put her arm around his shoulders. At first, he stared at his toes and an oil stain beneath them. But, then, she asked him what was wrong. He looked up and his eyes locked onto hers and, for the first time, Billy smiled.

(when Billy was benevolent)
The woman was old and grey and bristling with a spider web of wires and tubes. The railings on either side of the bed seemed incongruous--she was in no danger of falling out of bed. She may once have been blond; after all, she was the girl's grandmother. She seemed peaceful and accepting of Billy's approach. Even so, the girl had to reassure him twice that everything would be fine.

By now you may have heard of "The Angel of Death". There are, of course, two angels. Billy and the girl roam the corridors of the sick and weary every night now. She is his courage and he is her strength. They are fast becoming a legend, yet no one turns a head as they pass. A shy boy, arm-in-arm with his girl.

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