The Velvet Hour: A Horror Anthology

The sun faded, and darkness descended upon the city. My body pulsated in harmony with the nightlife, and the sounds of the streets enchanted me. But that one night, when the moon rose, and the music called, the city’s heartbeat took mine. A crimson stain was left on me during an intoxicating atmosphere of desire in Club Lust. Every corner of the place whispered sweet nothings. I spotted her from across the room. Time stopped, and the music seemed to disappear as she hovered towards me. Her grace commanded the eyes of everyone, but she fixated on me. Her energy tugged on my soul as if she had her own gravitational pull.

We met in the middle, and I felt a surge of euphoria. The world became more vibrant than ever, and its hues shimmered. She closed into my neck and whispered promises of pleasure. I gripped her waist, and we began to dance to the heartbeat of everyone in the club. The trance couldn’t be broken, and I didn't want it to because the feeling was like no other. Her cold but sweet breath settled on my neck like the dew in the morning.

I felt an enjoyable pressure on my neck, followed by a warm sensation of a liquid drip on my skin. The metallic scent of blood infused my nasal cavity and mingled with the aroma of the club. She whispered to me, “Feel the crowds in the midnight heat.” My head swayed slowly in a circle, intoxicated by the night. She continued her enchantment on me. “You will live in a river of darkness beneath the neon lights.” Her tongue danced in the pattern of the blood droplets on my neck. She savored each lick as if she were enjoying a fine vintage wine. Her mouth curled into a predatory grin as she whispered the last words I would ever hear from her. “You belong to the night.”

She drifted from me, and the crowd closed in around her like a barrier. Our time together was disconnected by strangers whose faces blurred, just like a dream. I chased after her, but she vanished. I left the club hoping she was there, but the traffic roared, and the sirens screamed. My senses were assaulted, and I tried my best to be attuned to the symphony of chaos around me. I felt like a newborn being overwhelmed by the world it just entered. I was reborn in the city. Everything felt new, even the concrete under my feet. I could feel it, taste it, see it, face it. The city's attraction and the way that it seeps.

A hunger consumed me, not just for the crowds and the neon-lit alleys but something of more sustenance. I walked by an alley where someone was throwing up their unquenchable thirst for liquor. He was hunched over, unaware of his surroundings. Instinct took over, and my swift movements silenced the sound of vomiting. I bit into his neck and experienced a new awakening. The source of life left his body and flowed into mine. The sweet crimson fluid tasted like nectar and gave me a surge of power I'd never felt before. As I drank the last drop, his body slumped against the wall, drained of life. I was different. It was in my moves. It was in my blood. I became a man of the street.

As I said goodbye to his body, my stride picked up as I tried to get away from the things I'd done. I blended in with a walking group of people on the sidewalk who were oblivious to the horrors that had just taken place. Now, I was back in the nocturnal realm and felt strange—this insatiable hunger. It was so weird because so much had happened, but nothing had changed. No one knows where I came from. I was just another face in the crowd.

As I traversed the night looking to feed, I sensed it all… the night air's taste, the sight of the moonlight beam, and the sounds of the hearts of others that reverberated through my very being. I was drawn to the pulse of life, and her words played in my head like a record stuck on a loop…

“You belong to the night.”