FICTION

Psalm of Vampires, Chapter Two

Rude Awakening

Chapter One can be found here. Trigger warnings: grief and raw language

Chapter Two — Rude Awakening

I was thinking of Charly’s slovenly ways as I drifted off to sleep. The night’s previous hunt with Charly had been enjoyable until the end when he again got a little sloppy. On second thought, no. He wasn’t being sloppy. He had clear intent in this case. Let me explain.

Base image licensed from Adobe Stock; titling by author

There had been a brazen murder in Piedmont Park. A local woman walking her dogs was killed in the middle of the day. So were her three dogs. The police were useless. “We have no clues,” went their lament. Charly visited the taped-off crime scene and sniffed out the killer in seconds.

While the sun was setting, we found the killer in the attic of a three-story apartment building that had six nice units and one dilapidated attic apartment. How do I know they were nice units? We checked out each one. When you’ve lived for as long as I have, there isn’t a dwelling you can’t easily break into.

We checked out the cretin’s attic apartment when he went for a walk. I hoped he wasn’t out looking for another woman to kill. “Serial killers seem to have gaps between kills,” said Charly when I expressed that concern.