My Introduction to Death

I had to get out of there!

A worried looking Katherine started to say something, but before I had the chance to hear it I was gone. I didn't realize how incredibly easy it was for me to run to the balcony window, jump off and land running for miles until later.

Katharina Aislinn Foley

It was a full week before I found myself wandering back to her, to Katherine. By that point, I had come to realize that I was truly and surely dead, though not in the normal sense of the term. There wasn't anything that really made me believe it; I just sort of felt it, deep down inside me. Because, when you get right down to it, the only factor that gave my physical state away was my constantly cold skin, along with its blue ivory pallor.

The night I ran from her I headed straight for my meager apartment, a stand-alone one bedroom exactly like the others on my block. Everything in it seemed so much more squalid and ran-down than before. I spent two days picking through my things, personal artifacts that had no value to me anymore. For some reason, I felt like nothing there mattered.

So I set fire to my apartment and everything in it, save for a small bag and a change of clothes. As I stood across the street, listening to the sirens floating through the air, I watched my old life burn away. It was all gone, and she took it from me.

I began wandering the city, breaking into the local grocery stores and cafes, trying to satiate a growing hunger rising up from within me. For those first horrible days, my mind was vacant and gray, zombie-like. I had fallen into an even greater state of apathy than when I was still alive, still human. But then again, who wouldn't?

Finally, by my fifth day roaming Chicago, I began to wake up. It was if my mind suddenly turned over and began to work again. I had questions, and a lot of them.

Where would I go? What would I do? How does a, for lack of a better word, vampire survive? And the obvious, why was I always so hungry? I had a million thoughts and feelings slowly tumbling around my mind, but the strongest was the need for companionship; I had never felt so lonely.

I needed knowledge and I no longer wanted to be alone. I had to go back to Katherine. It took me a day to make my way back to her place; I didn't even know what the outside of her house looked like. All I had was a general direction and the memories of what her bedroom looked like, which was extremely rich and extravagant.

In the end, I felt I was near her more than actually knowing where she was. I followed my vague feelings and fleeting sense of direction until I came upon an up-scale apartment building at least 40 stories tall. When I turned the corner and came upon it, I knew I was that I was at the right place.

"She must live on the top floor," I said to myself, remembering the luxurious style her bedroom was furnished. Rooms like that are usually found on the top floors.

By the time the elevator doors opened to a short hallway ending in a single door, I knew this was it. There was no doubt in my mind.

I stepped out of the elevator and into the dimly lit, hallway. Looking around, I noticed there were multiple paintings hung upon the wall. Combined with the low light atmosphere, I felt as if I stepped into a small museum.

Arriving at the doorway, I stopped. I realized I didn't have a clue what I was doing. Would I even be welcome? For minutes I stood there with my hand grasping the doorknob, wondering if I should just turn around and give up, when the heavy looking wooden door opened.

Looking up, my gaze was met with a shorter woman clothed in something resembling the remnants of a dress, barely covering her full figure. And she was covered in blood.

It was Katherine.

"I didn't… Should I have knocked? I didn't know you were busy. I'll go." Before I even finished the sentence I was already retreating down the hallway and into the elevator. What was I thinking? And more importantly, what the hell was she doing?

Still somewhat in a state of mild shock, I exited the elevator at the ground floor and drifted into the lobby. My mind was a whirl as I was still trying to sort out what I saw and figure out what to do next when I bumped into and toppled over some poor woman.

"Shit, I am so sorry, I wasn't paying any atten-" I was mumbling an apology when the woman stood up smoothly and took my hand.

"Come with me Athan, we need to talk." It was her, again.

How did she get down here so fast? I spent only a minute or two waiting in the elevator as it made its decent, and yet she still beat me down here. On top of that, she cleaned up a lot and managed to throw on a long wool pea coat. What the hell?

My confusion must have been strong enough for her to sense because she abruptly stopped and whirled around, still holding onto my hand with a grip that threatened to break a finger or two.

"Look, you surprised me," She began with a rush, "I was… busy and didn't know you were coming until you were right outside my doorway. My mind was on other things. How about we go to the little diner down the block so we can talk?"

"Wait, how the hell did you get down here so fast? That doesn't make any sense! I rode in the elevator for crying out loud, but here you are waiting for me at the bottom. And what were you really doing? You were covered in blood!" I needed to relax; I was beginning to make a scene.

"Shh! I'll explain somewhere else, not here!" She was speaking in hushed, urgent tones, so I listened.

I could see the worry in her eyes as well as saw the pleading expression covering her face. When she turned around again, I let her lead me out of the lobby and out into the cool night air.

In the short walk down the street to the diner, I took the time to look her over again. She held herself in a regal manner, proud, but obviously not wanting to attract attention. She did anyway, from the multiple men passing us on the sidewalk. I can't lie, I was practically burning holes into her body with my stare.

Taking the seat across from me in the booth farthest from the doorway of the diner, I instantly began to speak, grilling her for answers.

"Alright. What the fuck is going on? I just spent the last week mindlessly wandering the city streets with no purpose or idea what I was anymore. I burnt my entire apartment down, and I don't even know why? What the fuck did you do to me? And another thing, why were you covered in blood… and why am I always so damn hungry?"

I was going to keep going, but I was too flustered to even say another word. I just waited for her to say something, anything, in response.

The moment Katherine's lips began to part and form a word, we were interrupted. Rather rudely, I thought.

"Good evening!" came a sickly sweet voice from above us, "What can I get you two tonight? Anything to drink? How about our house coffee? Its just the thing for a cool night like this."

I looked up and found the voice came from a lithe blonde woman, with dim brown eyes. Her nametag said she was "April." April seemed to be an older woman and the expression that played out across her slightly lined face showed she was rather bored with us already. She was a good actress though.

"No thanks," came Katherine's steady voice from over the table. "We wont be here long, we just need to talk for a bit."

That didn't seem to please our waitress April much at all. Though she did put on another grossly exaggerated smile for our benefit and stalked off, leaving Katherine and me to speak in peace.

"Okay, before we even start, let me tell you I am really sorry for what has happened to you. I wish there was something else I could have done, but I could not have let you die like that."

"I am beginning to think it would have been a better idea to just let me bleed to death," I dryly retorted. "But really, what happened up in your room? What had you so busy and covered in blood?"

I felt slightly more at ease than I did earlier, partly from the tension released when our waitress interrupted us.

Katherine took a short breath, and sighing, began to speak.

"First? My full name is Katharina Aislinn Foley. But I go by Katherine. And I am a vampire approximately two hundred years old, not counting my human life."