Despite the frigid night air, cold enough to numb all five senses, Johann Vickers’s mouth expels no steam. The unending quiet and placidity that surround him are drowned out by the panic that is now exploding in his temples. He has come up empty one too many times, and this emptiness has manifested itself within the somnolent traveler, further hollowing his pale emaciation. Options have whittled themselves into a narrow path with no forks. Actions become fluid and thoughtless, Johann’s destination about to shift a long held, but precious and precarious balance. Before he can consider the weight of this realization, he is standing at the threshold of a white house looking down at a doormat that reads WELCOME ONE AND ALL, and then he is inside, oblivious to the drastic rise in temperature.
He silently stands over the girl as she sleeps; she is buried beneath mounds of covers, stuffed animals, and innocence. Johann is prevented from feeling sadness as he sucks purity and blood from her diminutive form. Her eyes open for an instant and then close again, but pain and fear are still visible behind those delicate lids. The transfer of life awakens Johann, and now he is aware he must choose between killing and letting live. For once on this night, Johann is thankful for an easy decision. He cannot kill the girl. So when he feels the girl begin to go limp beneath him, he withdraws. The girl’s eyes open once more, but this time they do so with a lassitude that gives off the mistaken impression of calmness. The innocence in those young orbs is replaced entirely by sadness.
As Johann steals away back into the cold, he wipes the back of his bony hand across his lips. He is full once again but could not be further from satisfied. A piercing scream follows him, passes him, and carries into the dark. Johann picks up his pace. Soon sirens accompany the screams and bright lights illuminate them. Johann doesn’t even make it halfway home before the lights and sirens overtake him.
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