Chapter 1
Dear Diary,
Last night I had the strangest dream. At least, I think it was a dream, I mean, it must have been. The problem was that it felt so real, unlike any dream I’ve ever had before. But... everyone knows that things like this don’t exist.
All right, I better slow down and explain, otherwise I won’t be able to remember this amazing dream later...
It began with the sound of a window opening, the gentle shudder and creak of the frame moving up the sill. My first sleepy thought was that the college was cheap enough to let the windows rust in their sills. My second thought was that my roommate and I had separate rooms and I was alone in mine. As I sat up in bed I beheld a beautiful man at my window. The strangest part was that I wasn’t scared, instead I was thrilled. This was a guy I had met at a party earlier in the evening and believed was just talking me up for the thrill of it. The fact that he had actually come to my window to see me made my insides leap with joy.
I crossed to the window, kneeling down at the sill and looking out at the man, Daniel he had said his name was. “What are you doing here in the middle of the night?” I whispered, half leaning out to talk to him better.
“You told me where your apartment was, I thought you wanted me to follow you back,” he said, his lips growing into a cunningly beautiful smile.
My breath caught in my throat. Never before had such a good looking guy taken an interest in me. I couldn’t deny that the moment I had met him, I had wanted him. He exuded an aura so mesmerizing, so attractive that I couldn’t resist him. “I’m glad you came,” I admitted with a shy smile, “but why three in the morning?”
“Why not?” he asked, grinning even broader. I could see his white teeth shining in the moonlight and it made my heart stutter a little. “So, can I come in?”
“Through the window?” I was certain that I looked like a fool, gaping at him the way I did, but I couldn’t help it. No man had ever pursued me like this in my 24 years. “If you can find a way in, I would love to have you.”
He didn’t even bat an eyelash at the double meaning in my words, he just looked at the wall below my window and then back at me. I watched as he took a few steps back and then rushed forward quickly, placing his hands on my window sill and launching himself into my room. “Thank you for inviting me in,” he said smugly, his eyes gleaming as though he had won a prize.
“Are you on the track team? I’ve never seen anyone jump like that!” I said in surprise, almost forgetting to keep my voice to a whisper.
He didn’t answer me, instead he stalked toward me, his body looming over mine as he pressed me down into the bed. “This is what you wanted, isn’t it?” he asked, pressing a kiss to my neck, “You wanted me in your bed?”
My heart stopped, I could barely breathe as he had me pinned to my bed, his knee spreading my legs apart. It was what I wanted, but suddenly I wasn’t so sure. He almost frightened me with his intensity, with his lack of patience in getting me into bed. How did I know who this guy was? What if he was a serial killer or something? “I don’t even know you,” I whispered, my voice shaking with fear.
He lifted his head from where it had nuzzled my neck and focused his gaze on me. I was as effectively pinned by his eyes as I was by his body. I couldn’t look away and suddenly I didn’t want to. “You don’t really care though, do you?” he asked, his hand stroking my cheek in a tender way. “All you want is the pleasure that I can give you and the thrill of a one night stand. Well, I will give you pleasure, but it won’t be for only a night.”
“Oh?” I asked, unable to bring my thoughts into a more constructed sentence. The way he looked at me, touched me, held me... it made me lose all of my self-control. It all belonged to him, I would do anything he asked.
“I’m going to come to you whenever I please, and you aren’t going to stop me,” he said, a light laugh rumbling through his chest. He pressed another lingering kiss to my neck and then looked into my eyes again. “You want to give yourself to me completely, don’t you?”
I couldn’t argue with him, I didn’t even want to. Daniel was mysterious and exciting, he was also completely irresistible. “You can have any part of me that you want,” I whispered, the words not even sounding like they came from me.
“Good girl, that was exactly what I wanted to hear,” he said softly and then he smiled. I barely had time to notice his elongating fangs before he sunk them into the soft skin of my neck...
I don’t remember much apart from that, except that he did make love to me. It’s funny how the details of that part of the dream are hazy and yet I can remember exactly how his fangs looked in the moonlight spilling in through my window. Was it strange that I dreamt that the guy I met at the campus halloween party was a vampire, come to suck my blood and ravish me? Or had I gotten drunk and let the ambiance of the party take me away?
I want to believe so badly that it was a dream, except for the fact that my neck is a little sore and my window was open this morning. Am I insane?
Natalie
Dear Diary,
Daniel came to me again last night.
I woke up this morning feeling as though I’ve been drugged. I feel it’s much more likely that someone slipped something into my drink in the cafeteria at dinner than it is that a vampire is coming to me at night and drinking my blood while he ravages my body. The only problem is the bruising I have at my collar bone.
I know, I know, it could be my psychosis infecting my brain and telling it that I actually have been bitten by a vampire and so the skin shows signs of it. I’m a psychology major, I know the kinds of things that the brain can convince a person of. The problem is that the dreams are so vivid, the sensations so realistic. It is impossible to think that my mind can provide something so true to life and have it be a dream. Should I go and see a doctor, maybe get help? Or should I just enjoy these dreams and let my vampire lover have dominion over me? I have to admit that the idea of just letting myself go and enjoying what is happening makes my body tingle with excitement. I should be committed. Maybe that’s why I’m writing this all down, so that when I’m carted away the doctors will be able to see how my madness began.
That of course brings me to last night and my dream, or my reality.
When I awoke from sleep to the feel of a hand on my breast, I was alarmed. It's been so long since I’ve had a lover that it seemed almost impossible that I was actually being touched by a man. Of course, even if he is a dream, Daniel is no ordinary man. He has done things to my body that have made me weep. When I opened my eyes and saw him hovering over me, my heart sped up and I was aroused in an instant.
“Daniel?” I whispered, “What are you doing in here? I didn’t hear the window open.”
“The window was a formality last time, I needed an invitation inside. Now I can be wherever I wish,” he said, his words bespeaking riddles. I barely cared though, all I wanted to know was how long he was planning to stay and what it was that he wanted me to do for him.
“Why me?” I asked, the words coming from a place deep inside of me that he had locked away on his last visit. It was surprising to realize that some part of me was still fighting the control he had over my body and my mind.
“You were malleable enough for my purposes and attractive enough to make it enjoyable,” he said with a grin, his hand moving over my breast, making words impossible.
I didn’t argue with him, I couldn’t have even if I had wanted to. When he looked into my eyes I could barely remember my own name, let alone fight him over something as inconsequential as why he wanted me. Besides, I was lucky, wasn’t I? Daniel was beautiful and his body made my own sing. What more could I ask for?
“Perhaps I’ll take you with me when I’m done having my fill of you. If you play nicely enough, I may make you like me and keep you by my side for a very long time. Would you like that?” he asked as he undressed me.
“You want to keep me?” I asked him, surprised that he would even consider it. It was an honor even to be considered a long time interest.
“Maybe. It depends on how good you are,” he teased, pressing a kiss to my collarbone. “Now, be a good girl and give me your neck.”
When I woke up this morning I felt that surely it must have been a dream. I’m not malleable and I’ve never just gone along with what a man wanted of me. I have a strong will and I assert it. Even so, my neck had traces of dried blood on it when I looked in the bathroom mirror this morning, and my body is sore in a way that only sex will cause.
What is happening to me?
Natalie
Dear Diary,
My roommate insisted that I visit the student health center today. She said I look paler than normal and she is worried that I’m getting sick. Thankfully she didn’t mention the bruises on my neck and I’m hoping it’s because my hair has been hiding the worst of it. I didn’t argue with her though, I let her take me to the clinic and I lied to the doctors when they asked if I knew what could be causing the fatigue and lethargy. I didn’t really have a choice, if I told them that I was being visited by a vampire lover who was drinking my blood and exhausting me with hours of sex two or three nights a week, they would have thrown me in a psych ward so fast my head would still be spinning. No, for now I think I should keep it my little secret.
Daniel hasn’t been around for the past few nights. Last time he told me that he needs to leave a few days between visits so that my body can heal itself. He said that he doesn’t want to do irreparable damage to my veins. I know it’s because he cares. He wants to keep me around. He told me last time that he really wants me to stay with him as long as possible. I just know that it’s because he is coming to care for me and he wants to keep me with him forever. I know now that I’m not dreaming, I could never dream up something so wonderful.
I’m a little more exhausted than I thought. I think I may lay down for a rest and miss my afternoon class. The lecture wasn’t that important anyway.
Natalie
Dear Diary,
Daniel came again last night. This time was even more perfect than any time before.
He woke me up by lavishing attention on my body, rousing me slowly from sleep with gentle kisses and caresses. As we made love, he told me about his life and his family, about all the years he has lived and the places he has seen in his night ridden world. He was so excited to share these things with me and I know it’s because he can’t wait to experience them with me. When I asked him about changing me, he said the time wasn’t right yet, but it would be soon.
Those words meant a lot to me. I know he means them. They were the only thing that got me through yet another doctor’s appointment that my roommate made me go to. The doctors think I have some sort of blood disease, they are considering transfusions. All I can think of is that if they are treating me, maybe Daniel can come to me more often.
Natalie
Dear Diary,
Today was my 25th birthday and I spent it in the health care clinic on campus. It wasn’t really the ideal way to spend my birthday, but I have grown so pale and lost so much blood that the doctors I’ve been seeing refused to wait another day to start the transfusion treatments. Apparently I’ve lost so much blood that my body is having a hard time replenishing itself. It probably wasn’t a good idea for Daniel to visit last night, but he seemed to want me so badly and I was so weak that I couldn’t say no. I hope he understands that I can’t feed him... maybe we can still make love anyway. He did tell me that he loved me last night. Wasn’t that sweet of him?
Natalie
Dear Diary,
I haven’t seen Daniel in two days because the clinic sent me to a hospital for observation. I have tried to leave and get back home maybe a dozen times, but I’m still weak and the nurses caught me before I reached the hallway. They keep asking what is so important that I want to leave before I get better. How do I explain that my life isn’t going to be saved in this place, but back at home where I can be with Daniel? I know they won’t understand. I’m not sure that I can fully understand it either. I just know that I need to be with him. At least I was able to bring a few things with me, like this diary and some of my text books, though the doctors keep trying to remind me that I need to rest and not push myself. I even tried asking when I could go home and they told me, “not until your platelets and white blood cell count is back to normal.” I suppose I should be grateful for that, it will extend my time with Daniel. I just don’t want to be here any longer, I want to be back at home, back to my life. Every hour I spend in this horrible place is another hour where people are looking at me like I’m sick, when I know perfectly well that I’m not. I may be a little short on blood, on hematin or even have a low platelet count, but I’ll be fine. It isn’t like I’m planning on being me much longer. Daniel will change me and take me away from all of this, I just know it.
Natalie
Dear Diary,
Well, the treatments aren’t working and I’ve been in this hospital for a week. The doctors say that its almost as though my body is resisting the transfusions and other treatments. It makes me wonder if when Daniel bit me, he was putting a little something into me as well. I’m something of a medical mystery to the doctors here, they can’t explain why my blood is not replenishing properly. I could tell them, part of me is dying to tell them and yet I can’t. It isn’t just that I think they would put me in a psych ward for life. My biggest worry is that they will believe me and go after Daniel. I couldn’t bare it if he was hurt because I couldn’t keep my mouth shut. Of course... part of me wants that, a part so deep down inside that I forget it’s there most of the time. Sometimes, when everything is quiet and I’m alone in my hospital room, that deep part of me tries to make itself known. That part of me tries to scream that Daniel has done something to me, hypnotized me or something. The problem is, I can’t really bring myself to care. I can’t imagine my life without him anymore. I would rather die than lose him. Which is very possible if what the doctors say is true. If I wasn’t hooked up to these machines, I would be facing organ failure due to lack of blood.
I wish Daniel would visit me.
Natalie
Girl Murdered in Hospital
By: Lorenzo Diorio
Early this morning, local college student, Natalie Miller, was found dead in her hospital bed, her body in a state of exsanguination. Miller, age 25, was checked into the hospital early last week when doctors at the student clinic determined that she needed transfusion treatments for a blood disorder. Doctors began to worry when none of the treatments, even experimental ones, were working for Miller. Doctors didn’t have the chance to reevaluate their strategy on saving her life before she was found dead. All available personnel were interviewed this morning and everyone agrees on one simple fact: No one came or went from Natalie Miller’s room during the night. Which begs the question, when and how was Miller’s body exsanguinated? Police will be conducting a thorough investigation. Meanwhile, Miller’s parents have been notified and they have agreed to identify the body and make arrangements for burial.
Dear Journal,
It’s Megan again! You’ll never believe what a crazy dream I had last night! The guy that I met at my night class a few evenings ago, Daniel? He came to my window and asked if he could come in! The weirdest part of the dream? He was a vampire! What a crazy dream right? It must have caused me to toss and turn because my neck is really sore this morning...
