Journal Page 3

  Suddenly, he bumped her in passing and quickly grasped her hand and placed something in it. He was leaving the exhibition. He looked neither left nor right. He said nothing. Nobody besides Katie noticed him discretely place something in her hand. She was acutely conscious of the fact that her fingers were now curled around what felt like a piece of paper, but she continued to discuss the artwork in front of her with Sharon. It was only when she was alone on a bus an hour later that she unfurled her tense fingers for the first time. The stranger had written his number on a jagged corner of paper torn from an exhibition flyer. Katie's heart pounded as adrenaline began to surge through her veins. Anticipation and excitement merged with the giddy feeling of intoxication induced in her by the wine she had drunk at the exhibition and yet, at the same time, she felt an apprehensive urge to simply drop the paper on the floor of the bus and forget the alluring stranger, which she did.

  Katie looked out of the window, trying to focus her mind on what she had planned for the rest of the weekend, but the desire to pick up the paper again soon overpowered her and she bent to retrieve it from the floor.

  ***

  Katie lay on the sofa with Leopard, who was purring luxuriously, cradled in the space between the back of the sofa and the curve of her hip, occasionally opening his eyes to look up at her, then shutting them again. It was almost midnight. She reached over to where she had dumped the scrap of paper on the coffee table and pulled it towards her. She held it in one hand, the fingers of her other hand absentmindedly caressing the digits the stranger had written on it. She picked up her tablet from where it lay on the floor and saved the stranger's number into it, before typing the briefest of messages: "Hi!". She put her tablet down.

  She felt bewildered by her overpowering desire to see the stranger once more, as she picked up her tablet again, put it down, then picked it up one final time. She liked to think that her finger accidently slipped and hit the SEND button as she watched her simple message being sent to the stranger's number. Within seconds her tablet rang, its ringtone echoing in the silence of her flat. Katie and Leopard both jumped.

  "Hi," said Katie as she took the call.

  "Well?"

  She felt a fluttering in her stomach at the sound of the stranger's voice.

  "Well, what?" Katie responded, her giggling betraying her nervousness.

  "Well, invite me," the stranger continued, his voice authoritative. "Now."

  Katie sat upright, her tablet still pressed against her ear. All thought seeped out of her mind and she felt numb.

  The stranger broke the silence that ensued, his voice now smooth and enticing, "You know you want this as much as I do".

  Katie felt as though her mind was filling up with water as she heard herself giving the stranger her address. He hung up, but Katie stayed sitting as she was, the tablet still held to her ear. Leopard had sat up abruptly when the tablet had rung, but he had then lain down again and was now stretched out on the sofa, contentedly purring.

  Katie was torn between reason and desire – a desire she had never felt before was coursing through every cell in her body and yet she felt it would be madness to succumb to her yearning for this man. Suddenly, her tablet announced the arrival of a message. She read it: "I'm here".

  An icy sensation pierced Katie's trepidatious heart. How could he have travelled to her place so quickly? She opened her front door and made her way down the communal stairs to open the main door of the building. A cold chill ran down her spine when her eyes encountered those of the stranger, and yet she felt a surging desire to succumb to his touch, to have him overpower her. Countless wordless, conflicting emotions began to race through her mind as she turned and led the stranger silently up the stairs to her flat. Katie realised that she was shivering, and that she felt both anticipation and apprehension. When they were both inside her flat, she locked her front door.

  The man sat down on the three-seater sofa. As he did, Leopard hissed and jumped off it, and disappeared under the bed. Katie tried to coax him back out, but he remained where he was, cowering. She could feel the pounding of her aroused heart as she sat down on the opposite end of the sofa to the stranger, and she found herself unable to look him in the eye. He leant forward and lifted her face upwards so that she was forced to look into his glittering, potent eyes. She attempted to again avert her eyes from his powerful gaze, but he kept his fingers under her chin, gently forcing her to face him.

  "Look at me," he said.

  Katie felt as though she was falling backwards through the hard structure of her sofa, into an insubstantial, yielding realm.

  "My name is James," the stranger whispered.

  "Katie," she replied, her voice barely audible.

  "Katie," James repeated.

  Then he moved to sit closer to Katie, and kissed her lips, before leaning back and stretching his legs out in front of him, his eyes never leaving her.

  That one, simple kiss left Katie in a trance-like state. She could hear James's alluring voice, but it sounded distant and surreal, and as much as she tried to focus on what he was saying, she couldn't. Her body ached for his touch. In time, he lifted his arm and entwined his fingers in her waves of glossy hair. Katie shut her eyes. She felt James's body against hers and immediately yielded to him. He pressed his lips lightly against hers and they kissed again. Katie wrapped her legs around James and he lifted her off of the sofa and carried her away, to her bed, where he lay her down and slowly, deliberately, peeled off her clothes. He momentarily paused to admire her exposed beauty before undressing himself. His hands and mouth explored every inch of Katie and she moaned with the pleasure of his touch. James then kissed her mouth forcefully, his tongue stirring hers to life as his hands tightly held her waist. He had already fed tonight, but this didn't stop him from feeling a strong desire to sink his teeth deep into her, to taste of her very essence. Then James thrust his hard phallus into her and Katie lost all sense of self as the exquisite sensation of his motion inside her overpowered her senses. James's mouth hovered over the sensitive flesh of her neck, and the light touch of his lips on her skin made Katie press her body ever closer against his. Suddenly Katie felt pain as James bit into her flesh. She wanted to scream, to push him away, but the pain merged in some indefinable and erotic way with the pleasure of his thrusting inside her, and she merely succumbed, tilting her neck back in acquiescence. The world around her began to darken and Katie began to feel ethereal, as though she were floating in a void, but just as she was about to lose consciousness, James released his grip on her neck, at the very moment that their passion rose to its climactic peak.

  ***

  When Katie woke up the following day, it was to the sound of a car horn in the street below. She felt a hung-over lethargy, in contrast to the vibrant sunlight that streamed into her flat through the pale, flimsy curtains. Katie sat up and looked about her. James was gone and Leopard now lay on the bed alongside her in his place, his feline eyes watching her intently. She felt a yearning for James unlike any she had ever felt for anyone before. She reached over to check the time on her clock radio and saw that it was almost midday.

  Katie got up and gave Leopard his breakfast, before making herself a full-on fry-up. Why not, it was Sunday after all. As she ate, listening to music, Katie found herself thinking about James. Had she imagined that his eyes had glinted with a red hue when his mouth had gripped the tender flesh of her neck?

  ***

  Location: South of Cologne

  Friday, 6 February 2026

  Sunrise: 08:01

  Sunset: 17:32

  Victor had returned to Paris and informed Nikolas via the Dark Web that the only coven that hadn't agreed to join his army had been the farm-animal-eating hippies in Germany. As Victor had recounted to Nikolas his meeting with Helmut, he had watched Nikolas's red-black eyes blaze with dark fury on his tablet screen.

  "They must be destroyed! We can't risk having any kind of disagreement amongst vampires," Nikolas had said. "We need
to show the others what will happen if they also decide not to fight with us."

  And so Victor had amassed a gathering of about a hundred vampires and they had accompanied him to Germany, where they now stood outside the main building of Helmut's coven, the only sound that of the quick current of water in a nearby stream.

  At a nod from Victor, they broke down the padlocked door on the side of the building and streamed into it, roaring with bloodlust. The main hall was empty. They climbed the ladders to the first and second floors of the building and discovered that they, too, were deserted. The vampires rushed out of the building and began to break down the doors of the outbuildings. Even the livestock was gone.

  When every building had been searched, Renata returned to stand at Victor's side.

  "Those hippie vampires have deserted the place. They anticipated our attack," whispered Victor as he took Renata's hand in his.

  "They will be vanquished in time, my love," said Renata. "It is only time that stands between the present and their demise."

  ***

  Location: London

  Monday, 16 February 2026

  Sunrise: 07:13

  Sunset: 17:17

  Tom had just left work. The sky was drenched in overcast bleakness and cold permeated his body. He glanced at the latest headlines as he passed Holborn station: INCREASING NUMBERS REPORTED MISSING IN LONDON. He grabbed a free newspaper from the supply stand and read the front page article as he walked. As usual, it mentioned what had been talked about daily in the news for the past couple of weeks: claims of vampire sightings; the increasing number of missing persons who had disappeared without leaving a trace. Tom felt anxious.

  He walked down Southampton Row, weaving his way through the gaps in the oncoming crowds as he navigated his way towards the gym. That was where he spent his nights nowadays. He felt it was safer there than at home. The gym manager was a good mate and had agreed to let him sleep there after closing time, although he did think that Tom was mad and hadn't hesitated in telling him so. Tom's reasons for hiding out in the gym did seem a little outlandish - he didn't want to become a vampire's prey.

  Few people took Tom's conviction seriously, that vampires really were responsible for the current situation in London. A couple of friends had even dropped out of his life, calling him a nutter and telling him he really needed to calm down.

  When Tom finally reached the gym, closing time was still a long way off. He worked out, took a shower, then heated up a ready-meal in the staff microwave. As he ate, sitting in the reception area, he searched for new information about the situation in London on his tablet. He had been following the same routine at the gym every night for two weeks now and was beginning to feel insanely bored.

  Tom hadn't yet encountered a vampire and he wasn't even sure he would know it if he did come across one, not until it was too late. But Mark, one of the few friends who believed his vampire theory, was convinced he had seen a vampire. He had mentioned it the last time they had all met up at the Angel Tavern, how he had been on his way home one night and an awesomely hot woman had approached him a couple of blocks from his place. Somehow, he had found himself held mesmerised by her gaze, and had stopped walking and - as he had put it - he had savoured the confident sway of the woman's hips as she had catwalked towards him. When she had reached him, Mark had been shocked to see that her eyes were an iridescent silver-black, interspersed with slowly expanding pinpoints of red. He had been about to kiss her when a group of rowdy teenagers had suddenly come around the corner, walking in their direction. He hadn't even heard them coming; it had been as though time had stopped, and all sound with it. Mark had turned to look at the teenagers, scowling, and when he had turned back to face the woman again, she was gone, her silhouette not even visible in the distance.

  "Ha, ha, Mark! Are you sure it wasn't just your lucky night? A beautiful, desperate woman approaching you?" one of the guys had said when he had finished telling them about the woman.

  "Are you sure you didn't just confuse reality with fantasy?" another friend had quipped.

  "Does anyone believe me?" Mark had said, becoming slightly agitated.

  Tom had been sitting next to Mark that night and had given him a nod in acknowledgement, to reassure him that he, at least, believed it was a vampire he had encountered. Mark had glanced at Tom, his expression one of relief. At least someone believed him, one person amongst the many non-believers.

  ***

  Tom awoke the following morning to the muffled sound of his tablet's alarm clock, and in his semi-wakeful state became aware of the storeroom's cold concrete floor pressing up against his body through the thin yoga mats he had slept on. He turned off the alarm and viewed his tablet screen. While he had slept, he had had a missed call and voicemail from Gareth, and the usual stream of SceneUTwo messages.

  He groaned as he got up to go take a leak. When he returned to the storeroom, he took a suit from the handful hung on a hook at the back of the door. He dressed and made his way up the stairs to the gym entrance, where he waited until the first staff member arrived to open the gym at 06:30.

  The bite of the early morning breeze once Tom was out of the gym and walking to the local cafe made him curse, and he was grateful when he finally reached the cafe and pushed its door shut behind him, closing out the cold. He ordered a coffee and sat down, then took his tablet out of his bag and placed it on the table. He was scrolling through his SceneUTwo messages when the waiter placed his coffee on the table.

  "Cheers, mate," said Tom.

  He added a spoonful of sugar to his coffee and took a sip. It tasted good and almost made up for yet another night spent on a hard concrete floor. The warmth of the heated cafe had also begun to thaw his body out of its state of numbness induced by sleeping in the cold gym storeroom.

  As Tom scrolled through his messages, he saw two from Gareth, both about meeting up. He listened to the voicemail message Gareth had left: "Hi, it's me, Gareth, obviously. I really need to talk to you."

  The message had been left at 03:17 - strange time for Gareth to be up. Stranger still that Gareth wanted to talk to him. He was one of his mates who had told him he was insane because of all his vampire talk and had been avoiding him.

  Tom called Gareth's number. He answered immediately.

  "Hi, Tom. We need to talk." There was an uncharacteristic tone of panic and urgency in Gareth's voice.

  "What's up, Gareth, you don't sound like your usual self?" said Tom.

  "It's my sister Michelle. She's gone missing."

  Tom felt himself tense up at Gareth's news. He hadn't seen Michelle for a couple of years now, but he had known her for as long as he had known Gareth, and they had been friends since early childhood. She was now the first person he actually knew who had gone missing. His coffee cup clinked as he replaced it in its saucer.

  "I'm sorry to hear that Gareth." He swallowed hard before he continued. "Do you want to meet up tonight, usual time and place?"

  "Sure," said Gareth, before adding, "I'm sorry."

  "What for?" said Tom.

  He realised that Gareth was apologizing for avoiding him and calling him a nutter, but he wanted to put their differences aside and focus on Michelle's disappearance.

  "Tom?" said Gareth.

  "What is it?"

  "Oh no, it's nothing."

  "You sure?"

  There was a moment of silence before Gareth said, "It's just that; well, you know how you talked about vampires. I mean... Do you think that might have something to do with my sister's disappearance?"

  After they had disconnected, Tom stared blankly out of the window as he pictured Michelle in his mind. It felt to him as though his heart had skipped a beat when Gareth had told him she had gone missing. He had always taken the continuity of life for granted. He had just assumed that Michelle would always be around.

  ***

  Location: London

  Monday, 23 February 2026

  Sunrise: 06:58

  Sunset:
17:30

  Tom and Gareth were back at the glass-fronted Angel Tavern, sitting in a corner on one of the wide, upholstered seats that lined the interior walls of the pub. It was quiet tonight.

  Michelle had now been missing for more than two weeks, but Gareth didn't want to assume the worst just yet. When Michelle was a teenager, she had had a habit of disappearing off for days on end, causing no end of worry to her parents.

  "Did you get to ask the police what the real story is behind the increase in the number of missing persons?" said Tom.

  "Yeah, but they were their usual poker-faced selves; said Michelle's disappearance was just a routine missing person investigation."

  Tom and Gareth were both in a sombre, distant mood. Lately, there was an almost palpable tension in the atmosphere in London. It didn't help that Michelle hadn't re-materialised. And so tonight, they both unconsciously attempted to blot out their fear by drinking, empty bottles and glasses gradually amassing on the table in front of them as the evening progressed.

  When they eventually parted company and Tom started out on his journey to the gym for the night, he found it hard to focus as he walked in the direction of King's Cross station. Tom was unsteady on his feet, and incoherent thoughts flitted through his mind, but the chaotic state of his mind brought about by the night's heavy drinking felt like a release after the obsessive focus he had had over recent weeks on the strange goings-on in London. He had no idea what time it was and he was too drunk to even care. He had decided to walk instead of catching a train. He had felt an urge to fill his lungs with wintry air and his usual caution when it came to vampires had momentarily abated. He walked down Pentonville Road, oblivious of the Georgian buildings that lined it, before turning into Gray's Inn Road. No sooner than he had turned into that road, he turned off it, into a small side street, and began to meander haphazardly down one small street after another until he found himself in Whidborne Street.