I blinked my eyes. There was light. Looking around. I discovered that I was in the bedroom where I had left my bags in John's rented house. John! I'd kill that bastard as soon as I could get my hands on him. I tried to sit up but I was too weak. So I yelled. The wife of the caretaker came in and gave me a strange look, then left again. The look was one of a mixture of hate, sympathy and disgust.

My mind turned to what had happen to me in that coffin! The memories came back. I turned my head and vomited. There wasn't anything particular in my stomach but I upchucked anyway. Then lay back and gasped out my frustrated weakness. I cried. Oh yes! Big strong me, but I cried. "Good lord! You are a mess!" John Baker exclaimed as he rushed into the room. "You've been out for two days. I kept you going with intravenous feeding. I'll bet you're really pissed at me!"

"Baker, I live only to kill you!"

"Well, come on now old chap! Let's not get personal! I warned you and warned you but you wouldn't listen. But I rather imagine that your outlook on vampires has changed quite a bit!" I just glared at him.

"The graveyard caretaker helped me get you back to the car. By the looks of things the Countess almost drained you. Her body was fresh and new when I closed the coffin again. Other than the blood stains around her mouth, she looked like she had been buried yesterday. You did her a world of good. Of course I screwed her threaded stake back into her again after closing her coffin. Took a blood sample before though. I'm getting lots of information."

"That doesn't matter. You're a dead man!"

"Oh, dear. You are going to be difficult! If I were you, I wouldn't be too ready to put me out of the way, Ed old boy. You see, with this information I may very well discover a cure for you."

I blinked at him. A cure?

"You see Ed. You will shortly be a vampire. Your body is adapting to a whole new and different metabolism, and I am here taking notes plus urine samples, blood samples, everything I need. I may well be able to treat you so that you revert back to a normal human being."

"I am now a vampire? You did this to me!"

"Ed, Ed. I told you. You insisted in meeting a vampire. Did you think that it would invite you to a chess match or delight in a discussion about stamp collecting. These creatures have only one real interest, feeding!" "This is a nightmare!"

"Rather. Now, everyday I'll ask you this. Would you rather have food or this?"

He held out a small red glass. It took a moment for me to realized that the redness was from the contents and not the glass! Blood!

"Are you mad?"

"No blood yet, eh? Well, it'll come. So I'll have Brunhilda bring you a meal."

"That's blood!" I observed in disgust. "Who was the donor?"

"Oh, it's not human blood! I bought a fairly healthy mare who will keep you supplied. Vampires don't need only human blood. It's just that humans are easier to catch and there is a hell of a lot more of them!" I was fingering a sore area on my throat.

"Here, I'll bring a mirror. You've got a couple of very obvious puncture marks on your throat. The Countess went at it with more enthusiasm than finesse."

He held up a mirror in which I could see the wall and window behind me. I stretched and moved in order to bring myself into view but could see nothing of myself.

"What's wrong, Ed?"

"Can't see myself. The angle must be wrong. I'm too weak to move about much."

"Shit! It's started already. You've got no reflection!"

"That's impossible! I can be seen. How can I have no reflection?"

"I don't really know. But I can see that it's true."

I felt really down. All that crap about vampires was turning out to be true and I was one! I was able to keep down the simple meal that Brunhilda, the caretaker's wife, prepared and, as night came on prepared to sleep.

John came in and pulled a big chain up from the floor behind the bed. It had a collar with a padlock clasp on the end.

"Sorry about this, Ed. I can't take any chances with the townspeople. You may get an involuntary wanderlust in the middle of the night."

He put the collar around my neck and locked it. "Hell, I'm too weak to get as far as the bathroom much less to go out to suck young maidens dry!"

"For now, yes, but shortly you will sometimes have more than human strength. Well, I'll see you in the morning. Use the chamber pot under the bed if you have to." With that happy thought he left me. I put out the light and finally slept.

For the next two days I spent my time eating, reading and recovering my strength. John busied himself testing me. Blood pressure, temperature, reflexes, his measurements were endless. He'd wake me at night to take more.

It was my third night when I couldn't sleep. I felt a need, something I couldn't define. At about midnight John came sleepily into my room with his equipment.

"Not asleep?"

I felt strange. "No, I can't. Feel restless or something."

"Interesting." He took all his measurements. "I'll be right back with something to help you sleep."

"Thanks. I can use it."

I turned the light on and opened the rather boring book I was currently reading. My tastes in reading material didn't coincide with John's much. If something didn't happen soon, I'd try to get out of here and back to the U.S. I heard John on the stairs. He had a white cup in his hand. I took it and could feel its warmth.

"Something hot to help you doze off, Ed."

"Thanks John." I drank. I couldn't quite place it but it was good. I drank it all down.

"Good, eh?" John asked.

"Yeah. What was it? Some sort of thick soup?"

"No, Ed. It was nice hot mare's blood. What did it taste like to you?"

"Hot what?! I stared at him, my eyes wide.

"Ed, you're changing. I rather imagine by tomorrow you won't be able to use normal food anymore, just blood. But, you'll probably find it to be delicious and wholesome."

"Blood?"

"What on Earth did you think vampires live on? Chocolate sundaes? I'll go get you another cup. I keep a bottle in the refrigerator."

He turned and left. I called after him, "I don't want any more..." But then I realized that it was a lie. I DID want more. A feeling of pressure built up to each side of my nose. I was massaging my face there when John returned. He held the cup out to me again.

Suddenly I felt my left eye tooth pop out! Oh, I remember. It was a replacement a dentist had put in years ago. My right one was natural.

But as I looked at the tooth in my hand I could feel that I now had both teeth quite obviously. Too obviously as I could feel them extending out over my lower lip.

"Beautiful!" John exalted. "Extendable canines. At the though of feeding they involuntarily come out. They'll probably get in the way taking your blood from a cup but it can't be helped. Here."

I drank greedily. The warm blood went down my throat easily and a feeling of strength flowed through my body. The protruding teeth made me slop a bit. As I looked up from my empty cup, a flash went off in my face.

"Wha...?"

"Just a photo for the record," John told me happily as he pulled a picture from his Polaroid camera. He peeled off the developing sheet and held up the picture for me to see. I had a pallid, white face looking over the rim of the white cup. My mouth was smeared with red and I had two huge fangs.

A drop of red hung from the end of one. As I looked horrified at the photo I could feel my fangs slowly moving back up into the bone on each side of my nose. Then, incongruously, I burped and the drop on my tooth ran down my chin.

"As you can see, the fact that you have no reflection does not affect your photogenicness in the slightest!" John chuckled cheerfully.

I had nightmares that night. But the next morning I had a waking nightmare. I woke up to glaring pain! The sun was coming up and the light through my window hurt! I reached up and drew the curtains then the heavy drapes but the early morning light still was coming in through the window on the other side of the room.

"John! John!" I yelled. "Help me!"

He came into my room tying on his bathrobe. "What is it?"

"The light! It hurts." "Ah, yes! The typical photosensitivity of the vampire. How does it hurt?"

"It burns, damn it! Cover the window. I can't reach it with this stupid chain!"

He soon had an old blanket tacked over the window. I sank down in the comfort of darkness. However there were still little specks of light showing through the blanket. I wasn't really happy with the situation.

"Better?" He inquired.

"Yeah. Better. Not perfect, but much better. I really need complete solid, darkness to be fully happy."

"Hum. Like in a coffin?" John asked brightly.

"Yeah. NO! I'm just not going to lie around in a coffin all day!" "Well, if you say so. It would seem to be much darker and very comfortable."

"Shit! And I suppose you just happen to have one stashed out in the woodshed!"

"You're becoming clairvoyant! I do have one that I got just in case and it is hidden out back in the woodshed. I'll try to drag it up here." "That old couple you've got here are going to catch on!" "I sent them away for a week two days ago. I'll be right back."

I lay back, for some reason exhausted. I was just dozing off when I heard, "Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud." I opened my eyes and leaned out of the bed a bit where I could see out the stairs. The was the sweat stained back of John pulling an oaken coffin up the stairs. It thumped each time its end came up another step.

He finally manhandled the rather nice looking, but a bit over-conservative, coffin into my room and set it on the floor beside my bed. He dusted his hands off and opened the lid. It was lined with a light blue satin and sported a tiny pillow with an embroidered cross.

"All ready for first occupancy," he chuckled. "I hope you like it.

There isn't much of a market for used coffins." "Put my pillow in there. That one isn't much of a pillow."

"Never had any complaints before, but O.K. Or is it that the cross on it bothers you."

"Cross? No." I reached out and touched it. "Doesn't bother me at all."

"More movie nonsense," he grumbled. "O.K. climb aboard." He unlocked my collar.

"Aren't you afraid I'll attack you?" "Nope. I'd just pull the curtains open."

I grunted and climbed down into the coffin. My feet touched the end and I felt that it really didn't have any padding but I was so sleepy! John peered down at me. "I may duck in to take measurements once in a while during the day."

"Be my guest." "I think tradition says you should cross your arms on your chest," was John's comment. It wasn't worth an argument so I did. He closed the lid. Darkness and peace!

I opened my eyes but could not see a thing. I reached up into the darkness and my hands met smooth cloth. Memory rushed back. It was the satin on the inside of my coffin lid! I pushed up but the coffin would not open.

"Hey!" I yelled. "I'm awake." I yelled and pounded for over five minutes before the lid opened.

"You called?" It was John.

"Don't be a wise ass! Let me out of here!" I pushed but the lid would only open a couple of inches.

"Stick your hand out first."

Trusting soul, I thought. But I stuck my left hand out and felt him put a cuff on it. The lid opened and I climbed out. I was already chained to the wall by a heavy chain to the cuff on my wrist.

"Security first, eh John?"

"It seems best. Are you hungry?"

"Famished."

"How about a nice Russian salad?"

"You know damn well, I'm not interested in food! Why not tap the mare again?"

"Oh, I will. I'll go down in a minute."

"Why not let me get it out of her by myself?"

"I can't get a mare up here!" I glared at him. "You could let me go to her."

"Ah, no. No way, my bloodthirsty friend. You'll stay up here."

"John, I need to get out. To get some exercise."

"Maybe in the future I'll rig up something. I'll be right back."

He left. I pulled myself over toward the window and raised the curtain. The sun probably had just set. I mainly saw mist and gathering darkness, a comforting scene. The tip of my finger touched something on the windowsill.

I picked it up, a woman's hairpin. I turned it over between my fingers. In a movie I had seen a man open a cuff lock with a bent hairpin. Could I? I stuck it beneath my pillow as I heard John coming back up the stairs.

He walked in with a small glass pitcher. It was bright red. I felt my fangs extending. My mouth watered. He handed me the pitcher. My hands shook a bit as I drank it down. A warm feeling of power flowed out into my body.

"Excellent. How about a refill?"

"That's the amount I gave you yesterday. I can't drain that poor mare. It'll have to do."

"Oh, a little more..."

"No! No way. That's it for tonight. Of course you can always complain to the local Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Vampires!" I stared at him menacingly.

"Ed, be reasonable. I'll see what I can do for tomorrow night but what can I do now? Go knock on a neighbour's door in the middle of the night and ask if he can spare a cup of blood?"

"You're developing a hyperactive sense of humor. Not very becoming in a Britisher, John."

"I'll see you later. Do you want a light on."

I shook my head 'no' and he left me in darkness. I soon had the point of the hairpin bent over and was busy on the lock of my cuff. Of course I had no idea what I was doing so nothing happened. I played with it for a couple of hours. My fingers were sore from twisting that silly hairpin. I was idly looking into the darkness and listening to John's snores in the next room when, with a tiny click, the cuff opened!

I sat up in bed. Free! But to do what? I just didn't feel that I really wanted to creep into a woman's bedroom and suck blood out of her neck! So I'd find out where the mare was as I was really hungry. I crept down the stairs. They creaked a lot but I could barely hear them over John's snoring.

Drawing the bolt on the back door, I stepped out into a foggy Transylvanian night.

I looked around but the night was almost pitch black. Where was that stupid mare? I didn't want to stumble around in the night too much; no telling what was out there! I had to chuckle. A vampire that's afraid of the dark?

I was one for the books! Then, off to my right, I heard a snort and the thump of a hoof. Ah-ha! The mare.

I fell over a wooden bucket and almost choked myself on a clothes line but soon found the door to a rustic building. I opened it and smelled horse.

There was an inquiring whinny straight ahead. I felt my way ahead and of course found the wrong end of the animal first. The mare jumped and snorted again. I grabbed her mane then stopped. I felt stupid getting ready to bite a horse on the neck! I mean, where do I do it? And even worse, is the horse, being bigger than I, going to hold still for this sort of nonsense? If I hadn't been so damn hungry I would have given up and stumbled back to my bed!

I ran my hand down her neck. It felt smooth. Shouldn't I find a vein or something? Then, toward the front, I felt a pulsing. I leaned toward her neck. It smelled very unsanitary but what the shit! I could feel my fangs extending, my mouth watered. I struck! The horse reared once then stood there trembling. I suckled at the fountain of life! Warm living blood poured down my throat. Right there something changed in my mind.

This was how I must live. And make no mistake, it is living! All of John's silly little cups of blood paled to nothing beside the act of sucking your night's life from a helpless being! My soul soared! I was the night itself taking sustenance from the hapless victims that fell into my grasp!

I was vampire!

I gasped and staggered back, my stomach full. I could feel that the horse just stood there, head bowed low, her breath irregular. I went back out the door and made my sure way back to the house. Now the night was my friend. It gave me cover and sustenance. I was its creature!

As I moved up the stairs, a parody of a childhood prayer went through my mind, "Now I take my nightly blood!" I laughed and lit a candle. In its flame I examined the fastener on my coffin. It was a screwed on padlock clasp and a small one at that. I found a screwdriver on a shelf on the other side of the room and loosened the screws a bit. Not enough to be noticeable but enough to allow me to break it off with a determined thrust at my coffin lid. Then I climbed back onto the bed and fastened the cuff on my wrist. I fell into a light doze.

I was woken by John taking my blood pressure. "You're awake. It's almost dawn so you'll probably want to get into your coffin." I stared at him. "I find the idea repugnant that I sleep the day away in a coffin. I don't know how I breathe in there." "I suppose you'll just have to get used to it, and you probably don't use much air while asleep. In any case I've got a bunch of holes drilled up near the head end. You'll be quite comfy. In you go."

I climbed from the bed to the coffin without complaining. John must think me to still be, shall I say, docile! He took my cuff off and slammed the lid closed. I heard the padlock click closed. I should have felt stifled locked into a coffin but, with a little shiver, I realized that I felt quite comfortable in that padded, narrow box!

When I woke up there was no change, just absolute darkness, but I somehow knew that the sun was setting. I also knew that I was hungry, very hungry. I lay in my coffin with patience, listening. There was not a sound. Undoubtably John was not there. I placed my hands on the inside of the coffin lid and applied some pressure. There was a clunk as the padlock clasp stopped the lid from opening. I then pressed up with all my strength and the coffin lid fairly leaped open!

I sat up. The room was in semidarkness and a dismal fog was visible outside the window. The sun had set. I stepped out of my coffin and went downstairs. Outside the back door I found gathering darkness and a clammy fog. It was very pleasant. In the back of my mind I realized that I was only thinking of feeding! My mind wasn't really my own. It was under the control of baser instincts. I moved toward the stable. The pasture side gate was open and the horse wasn't there. Damn! My hunger seemed to deepen. It became the only thing that I could really feel.

I wandered out into the night, a creature driven by an all powerful hunger.

I went down the road and came across a house. There were lights, voices within and a barking dog. The front door was flung open and a man questioned the darkness in a hesitant voice. I slipped deeper into the misty night, my stomach a grumbling well of hungry pain, my fangs extending and retracting Moving further down the road, I reached a group of farm homes. But there were vigilant dogs everywhere. They seemed to sense my hunger driven presence for they barked furiously. I stood among the foliage of a shrub beneath a spreading tree, waiting. Then I heard it, footsteps, a rapid breathing and somehow, the sense of warm, fresh blood!

A lighter, moving something became visible in the darkness of the night. I did not hesitate. I reached out and grabbed. I sensed that it was a person but didn't even think of that. I covered the mouth with one hand, pushing the head back so the neck was properly exposed. My strength seemed to be tremendous as I put my other arm around the shoulders and bent my head forward. My fangs sank in easily and a gush of the most wonderful, living blood shot forth. No horse could compare to the deeply satisfying flood that poured down my throat. My hunger pangs dissolved into waves of pleasure. I drank my full without stopping. Tapping a horse was nothing compared to this sweet meal!

I finally lifted my face and, eyes closed, felt the faint drizzle of the heavy fog. I was complete! Then a voice called out from down the road. I looked in that direction conscious of the warm, wet areas on my cheeks and chin. My fangs were retracting. I heard a voice. Someone was coming with a lantern. A chance beam of light flashed across me. I looked down and my heart almost stopped. There, with her head lolling and eyes staring at nothing, her neck obviously broken from the frenzy of my feeding, was a girl of 12 or 13 in a white party dress. Red stains and smears were everywhere.

The voice sounded again as the lantern came closer. I turned and fled into the comfort of the foggy night.

I will never forget the great cry of horror that came from that tiny circle of light behind me. I turned. A figure was bent over a mound of white and red sprawled on the road in the circle of lamp light. A circle which tried to hold at bay the infinite menace of the surrounding night. An infinite menace of which I was the principal part. I fled blindly, tears streaming down my face. I stumbled through the darkness. Somehow I knew which way to go. The ultimate horror was to know what I had become! When the hunger for blood drove me I became less than an animal!

I came upon the front fence of John's house. Opening the back door I took the stairs in great leaps and bounds. I lit a kerosine lamp on the night table. My gasping for breath sprayed little splatters of blood on my already bloody hands. I wailed my horror and disgust to the ceiling.

Obviously John wasn't here. I stood there sobbing my feeling of revulsion of myself. I couldn't go on living, not a hideous monster like me! On a small table near the window was some of John's equipment. I grabbed a syringe and climbed into my coffin. Now I would put it to real use! Now the only way out was death! I held up the lid with my left hand, my sleeve rolled back. I had pulled the plunger all the way back filling the syringe with air. I pushed the needle into the vein in the crook of my arm and injected the full load of air. Nothing happened for seconds, then an empty pain enveloped my chest.

Black death took me. I did hear the coffin lid slam down though.