Where am I? I asked myself awakening in an unfamiliar room. I was lying on a musty old couch. Surrounding me was cardboard boxes used as tables and stands. A small TV sat unplugged in the corner. The screen was cracked. Now that I think of it a lot of things were broken. The window in the left corner of the rectangular room was broken with glass shattered. The glass was broken into the room as if someone had entered this way. A door was ripped off of the double door closet. The carpet was spattered with blood. The glass had blood on it as well. A Pistol lay on the floor with two bullet casings surrounding it. One bullet hole was on the wall near the window; the other no where to be found.
I grasped my chest as immense pain shot through it. A puddle of blood covered where I lay and on my shirt. There was no bullet hole in the front of me but an exit wound on my back. I searched for the entrance of the bullet. I failed to find any. I felt for the wound in my back but the hole was gone. What’s happening….? Where did it go? Thoughts rushed through my head as it dawned on me; I was healing. The pain in my chest had vanished as fast as it had come. I walked to the kitchen.
I dropped to my knees as I saw a dastardly sight. Lying in the far corner I saw my victim; the blood covering the apartment belonged to him. I crawled to him; my stomach churning as I saw my teeth marks. I crouched beside him and flipped him to his front with incredible ease.
I smashed my head against a cabinet as I crawled away from what I saw. My victim, the innocent, to my horror was still breathing. Pale and losing blood quickly I picked the young man up. He was college age muscular; the athletic type. His beauty faded away as his life faded. I ran down the stairs of the apartment building smashing my knees into tables and chairs; straining to keep the boy alive. I exited the building unbeknownst to which direction the hospital was. I jumped into the view of a car as it halted ten feet from where I stood.
“Get out of the road you punk!” The driver yelled. “Take me to a hospital.” I spoke with resounding sound. “What happened? Is he ok? You’re both covered in blood!” I walked to the opened car door and threw the body in and hopped in. “What happened? What were you guys doin?”
“Just drive!” I screamed into the driver’s ear. His comments only made the situation worse. We rounded the corner closing in on the familiar hospital. Then it hit me; we were going to Hope Memorial Hospital! They know who I am and what I did. “Take the boy to the hospital and get him fixed up; I must get out of the car.” I unlocked my door waiting for the driver to stop. “Man, maybe you haven’t noticed but you’re bleedin all over my car; you need help.” He turned; my shoulder slamming into the door. “Stop the car!” He drove on. I kicked the door off the speeding car and leaped onto the street rolling. The car spun into a stop.
“Get back in the car man!”
“Go…! He is going to die if you don’t go!”
“Alright man I’m goin!” he yelled at me and drove off shaking his head and cursing at the broken car door.
I coughed and walked towards the apartment we had left so suddenly. It was a long walk but I felt like I needed some air.
I reached the apartment and ascended the steps to the familiar blood stained room. I reached the room standing just outside the door. Staring at the blood trails that young man had created. I silently cried; he must have been in pain. Why didn’t he die like the others? Was he turning into what I had turned into? No, that was preposterous; I thought finally entering the apartment. I closed the door and started to pick things up. It helped a little to clean; but nothing would clean the memory of the young handsome athletic boy; that I had killed for all I knew. I stood the TV onto a cardboard box and plugged it in. I fastened the door to the closet and covered the window up with its own blind. I felt all the memories of the past few weeks come into my mind; starting with fond memories of my beautiful wife. Susan; I said. The name made my skin crawl. I would never see my wife again. She was gone I thought. I sat down on the couch staring into the dark night outside the window. City sounds resounded through the room; echoing through my mind as if it were an empty catacomb. Next of my flooding memories came the girl; the innocent child I had murdered in that abandoned tube. I wondered what had happened to the mother. I had taken someone special from someone just like my wife from me. I felt warm tears flow over my face. Silently I sobbed. I sobbed for all the wrongs that had happened in the small time of at most a week.
I had lost track of the days; all I knew was dark and light. I searched the fridge for something to drink. Just to make myself feel normal again. I knew I wouldn’t drink much just a sip. After finding measly scraps of left-over dinners I shut the refrigerator door. I sank down as I leaned against the sink; still thinking of the past.
“I’m going to live on like this. I’m going to feast on innocent people. For the rest of my life I will be controlled by thirst; the thirst for blood. I will live for centuries; keeping at my normal routine as my surroundings change and advance into the future. I am going to survive; I am going to live with this curse.”
John Matthews opened the door of the apartment into the world. The world was a new shade of color to him. He had come to terms with what he was and decided to live with this curse or infection if you will. John Matthews walked out the door of the apartment with a small smile widening on his face.

Want to comment on this Short Stories? Sign up to Edit Red and you will be able to comment on Short Stories and get access to: Upload your own stories and poems, get readers and their feedback, promote your work...