It started out with a kiss...

...how did it end up like this?

Rain slates through the dark city, as the few people still outside hurry to get home or find shelter. In an alleyway nothing can be seen or heard except the sound of raindrops hitting the tarmac.

Lightning strikes, briefly illuminating the silhouette standing in the mouth of the alley, but the figure rushing past fails to notice in their anxiety to get home. As they pass the alley mouth a hand reaches out, grabs their throat and hauls them into the darkness. A few seconds of scuffling can be heard over the raindrops, until finally there is a sickening crunch and all is silent again, save the rain.

-----

He surveyed the body lying at his feet, tears streaming down his face, mingling with the rain. Blood swam around his feet, diluted by the downpour. Lightning flashed again, briefly showing the face of his victim, a young woman, wearing a suit and high heels. He stared at where she lay for a few seconds before turning his head and vomiting on the ground, heaving long after all that could be expelled had been.

‘You always take it too hard, you do know that, right?' Another figure detached itself from the darkness of the wall to stand beside the retching man. 'Herrick would have seen this as a weakness, but more fool him.' She ruffled his short dark hair 'Even now you still fight it, still fight what you are.'

'It's not what I am, it's just a disease, I can fight it.' His voice came out a croak as he knelt on the floor.

She laughed 'You can stand by that body and declare it's not what you are? I'm sure it will come as a great comfort to that girl's family to learn that, it will console the grieving husband, lift the burden of guilt off the shoulders of the parents, and allow the tiny children to sleep well in their beds, I'm sure.' She raised her hand, and struck him a blow across his face so fierce that he plunged face first onto the street to lay beside his victim.

Blood trickled out of the corner of his mouth where the slap had split his lip. 'It's not me! But I can't control it anymore.....' He dissolved into sobbing.

She stood over him, and struck him again 'Grow up! If you can't control it then you can't separate yourself from it, so, to use incorrect grammar, you are it!'

His sobbing ceased 'No! I'll never accept that! It isn't me!'

'Fool, it's what you are, and there's no changing it. You don't get the choice. The only choice you have now is the one I granted you, live or die.' She reached into her leather jacket and pulled out a sharpened stake. 'If death is what you desire, I can give it to you. Now choose.'

He said nothing and, seeing the defeat in his eyes, she raised the stake, and stabbed it down towards his heart.

'Live.' His hand lanced out with lightening speed, grasping her wrist and diverting the stake harmlessly into the pavement. 'I choose life.'

'If you live you have to accept what you are, what you have become. it doesn't mean letting go of who you were, but that man cannot come back.' He released her wrist, and in turn she offered him her other hand.

He grasped it and pulled himself to his feet. 'I.... I understand. I know what I am.'

He gazed up into the sky, and then down at the blood drenched corpse, and let his eyes turn black as onyx.

'I am a vampire.'