An Artist And A Vampire 
© 1996
by
William T. Anderson Jr.

CHAPTER II
Draft 0.00

	Carl lit a cigarette while he studied the street from the kitchen window. We had a small apartment on the 1800 block of Orchid Avenue, about three blocks North of Hollywood Boulevard. I had come to Los Angeles trying to find Carl, who had been a friend of Addy’s. She told me that if I was ever in trouble, I could look him up and that he would give me shelter and show me around.

	“Lot of action tonight. I feel it”, Carl said dryly.

	“Big deal. I don’t feel like cruising” I replied in a somber tone.

	“What the fuck is your problem?” he shot back. He had that look that all macho men get when they are pretending that they are superior to you. But Carl is only half alive, I think. He doesn’t recognize or accept his feminine side, and that makes him a little weak minded in my opinion. But he is not weak.

	I didn’t want to go through this whole thing again tonight. I had been like this for about four or five weeks now. And every night we have the same conversation.

	Just after I arrived here, I had given him a call. As soon as I had mentioned Adelaide’s name, he asked me to come right over. When I had arrived at his apartment, which ended up being a two hour trip due to the damn traffic out here, he was unpacking. He explained to me that he had just returned from a hunting trip, and to please excuse the mess. He shook my hand as I entered and made myself comfortable in a small leather chair near the door. He disappeared into another room briefly, returning moments later with a couple of sodas.

	“Come from the airport?” he asked, as he offered me one of the cans.

	“Yeah! Damn LA traffic hasn’t gotten any better since my last visit” I replied. “It took me two hours to get here from LAX.”

	“That’s actually not too bad. I hate flying, but the last time I used that airport it took me close to three hours to get there.”

	There was something in his voice that disturbed me just then, but I still haven’t been able to isolate it, pin it down. Carl is closed to me. I cannot read his mind. I believe he is blocking me, but I am still so new to this that I cannot be sure.

	“So, how do you know Addy?” he asked.

	“We met in Australia. On an outback expedition.” I tried to hold my grief way down. I wasn’t ready to break the news to him yet.

	“That’s cool. She was always telling me about how much she wanted to go there. She talked about it all the time.”

	“How well did you two know each other?” I asked, desperate for any information about her life before we met.

	“She never told you?”, he asked wryly. “We were to be married...”

	I almost passed out right then. I was still recovering from my accident, and every now and then I would have these ‘spells’. They were to be married?

	“Are you okay?”, a vague voice swam inside my head. I guessed it was probably Carl.

	I groped for consciousness, and I was able to seize it as I recovered within a few seconds. “Still a bit dizzy, at times”, I slurred my words slightly, but he understood. “I was involved in an accident on my trip.” I hoped this would be enough to satisfy his curiosity for now.

	“I guess you must have hurt yourself pretty bad, eh?”

	“I spent a few days in a hospital in Alice Springs. We were stranded in the desert for four days before help arrived, so I had lost a lot of blood.” I wanted to avoid any details concerning my relationship with Addy, especially after I had learned they were to be married. “I’m still recovering, though. I get these dizzy spells now and then.”

	“Well any friend of Addy’s is a friend of mine!”, he exclaimed. “You can stay as long as you like. I have an extra bedroom, but you’ll have to help me clear it out. I’ve got a bunch of stuff in there, so we’ll have to figure out how to organize it.”

	His warm hospitality made me feel more at ease with him. This would be necessary before I gave him the bad news. I was as edgy as a junkie looking for a fix. I needed to calm down. I hate being the bearer of ill tidings. And I needed help to figure this whole mess out. And they were to be married......

	He went about unpacking his suitcase, and I decided to take a look around the apartment. It was a small two bedroom apartment on the south side of the building. This side of the building had a huge bulge in it that was a result of the Simi Valley earthquake in 1972. The fourth floor location provided an excellent view towards Highland Avenue and Hollywood Boulevard. Grauman’s Chinese Theater was only three blocks away. The walk of fame. The House of Magic, the exclusive magicians club, was just down the street. But I had lived here before.

	In 1972, at the age of fifteen, I had left home. The peace movement was in full swing. There were hippies everywhere. And one night I had been hanging out with some friends in Silver Lake Park in Staten Island. We were smoking some reefer, and some other people joined us. They had some LSD-25, and we traded some pot for some of the acid. And we all smoked from this long pipe which I had constructed from a dozen smaller pipes. Pipes were real big in those days.

	This guy that had all the acid asked if I would trade him my pipe for some acid. I was very smooth from the hit already in my system, so we made a deal. Later that evening, I encountered another friend of mine, a black man named Leon. And we were hanging out and getting high, but everyone else soon had gone home. So Leon tells me he hasn’t a place to stay. Now I was staying with my Aunt at the time on Long Island. But I was high, and I offered him a place to sleep, so we hitchhiked out to Long Island. We arrived at my Aunt’s house at four o’clock in the morning, and she went ballistic. She basically told me I wouldn’t be able to stay with her any longer, so I packed my few belongings and we left. I had four dollars in my pocket and a carton of cigarettes. Leon left me in Staten Island, but I just kept on going.

	It took me half the day to get to Cranberry Lake, New Jersey. I had to go there to say good-bye to my friend Michael before I left. But he was with his girlfriend there, and I didn’t know her last name or where exactly she lived, so I wandered along the shoreline that ran along route 206 hoping that I might see one of them. It was such a glorious day, and they were probably off somewhere having a good time, but I still enjoyed my brief stay there. It allowed me some time to think.

	So after perhaps two hours, I decided to move on. It took the rest of the day just to get out of New Jersey. But by morning I had hooked up with a couple of fellow travelers and we were in Ohio by daybreak. I turned them onto some acid, and they had some weed. The rest of the trip unfolded in a similar fashion. I met another hitcher just outside of Salt Lake City. What a wonderfully beautiful location! As we came down Interstate 80, through the Weber pass, the whole expanse of the Great Salt Desert lay before us. And the sun was rising behind us. It was awesome! We walked most of the way through town. The whole city had a real frontier aspect to it. And what a backdrop. The Wasatch Range, with peaks rising as much as 10,000 feet or more, provided a background that really suited this town. And many of the buildings were close to or over one hundred years old, and they had a stark contrast against the mountains and the mix of more modern buildings. It was June, and it was hot. We finally caught a ride across the Great Salt Desert. I had my first Coors in the small town of Wendover, Nevada, at the western terminus. Then a guy gave us a ride, and this guy was drunk and almost had a collision with a semi, but we survived.

	The police arrested him in a casino in Winnemucca, NV. Our next ride took us into Sparks, and we walked into Reno on a beautiful clear morning. We stopped at Denny’s before we got back onto the Interstate. We had breakfast, and then we skipped on the check.

	The scenery around Reno was the most spectacular I had ever witnessed, outside of travel brochures and the like. The trees were so tall, and the air was so fresh and clean. I felt as if my life was just beginning. One more ride took us within fifty miles of San Francisco. And as a stroke of ultimate luck, we caught a ride from the Napa Valley all the way into San Francisco. In that car were two college girls. They were very nice to me. They showed me all around the city, and then took me home and let me stay there for a couple of weeks. They had rented a bungalow near the corner of Arden Avenue and Folsom Boulevard in Sacramento, which they shared with six other college girls. I never tried to go to bed with any of them (I was still a virgin, but not for long).

	But when I left, things went downhill from there. I ended up on the streets of LA perhaps six months later, and that’s pretty much where I survived for the next four years.

	So now I had come full circle, and I wasn’t particularly pleased about it either.

	The apartment had a small semi-modern bathroom with a porcelain sink and tub, and a shower that worked most of the time. There was also a small window which would never shut completely.

	The kitchen was roughly the same size as the bathroom. It contained a sink with maybe eighteen inches of counter space on either side. There was a small stove. It was an older model that, despite it’s age, was still quite effective. There were large built-in cabinets that ran to the ceiling, and cabinets below the counter and sink. There was a small three foot square plastic table in the corner, but there were no chairs in this room. There were two windows in this room as it occupied the corner of the building. There was almost always a gentle breeze wafting between these two windows. I thought that there should be a chair or two in here, as it would have made a perfect spot for relaxing and reading books. And it had a nice view towards the strip.

	The living area was small, perhaps twelve feet by fifteen. Carl had only two small leather chairs, a ratty looking sofa and a small coffee table in the room. This made the room seem a little more spacious, but it was painted a faded blue and it made me feel claustrophobic. There was no stereo, not even a boom box. When I had asked Carl about this, he had told me that he hated modern music, and would I please respect him and not play any while I was here. I wanted to seek out the source of his hatred, but I didn’t press the issue any further. I was, after all, his guest.

	There were two windows in this room, one a small bay, that looked down towards the LA basin. If it were not for the constant smog, you could probably see the ocean from here also.

	Off of the living room was a small hall that led to the bathroom and the bedrooms. The two bedrooms were also small, although Carl’s was larger. He had provided me with a room that was really more like a large closet with a window, but I needed that window. I knew that I would go insane in an enclosed room. I suffered from claustrophobia, and I do not like closed spaces. The room would be large enough for my purposes. I had to sort out my feelings.

	The owner of the apartment building was a crusty old sort, and definitely gay. He gave Carl a deal on the apartment because he wanted to sleep with him. Carl says he’s never let the old codger do anything, but Carl is so....he will sleep with anything that moves. So I figure that’s the deal on the rent, and I let him know that I wanted no part of it. He shrugged and told me it was cool, but that he still hadn’t done anything with the guy.

	They were to be married. I was heartbroken and I was confused, but I had already been that way when I had arrived. Adelaide had been trapped in the fire and I could not save her! I still had hardly known her, in the way that  humans learn to know each other. But our love was pure. And that covered a myriad of sins, both hers as well as my own. My heart wrenched as we lost contact. For me, the world had stopped turning. Her mind voice had just stopped. I reached out to her, but I was still so weak. I could not hear her or find her anywhere.

	Now I had to tell Carl about her demise.

	I did not know him well enough to know how. I had no idea how long they had been together. There were so many unknowns, and I was in no shape to go looking for a place of my own. I had only a few hundred dollars left upon returning to the United States, and I had no idea how long I would be able to survive on that. Especially in this town! I was still not knowledgeable in the ways of the vampire. I needed Carl right now almost as much as I needed Adelaide, but she was gone. I believed then that I would never see her again, and he had become my friend. But I still avoided any conversation regarding her. I could see his hatred. I was still afraid that when he knew all off the facts, he would blame me for her demise, and I needed his help.

	Carl cannot read my thoughts as Adelaide had. I have tried to get him to tell me why, but he always skillfully evades the subject. So I have to trust him. But he has treated me as his friend. So I respect his privacy on that particular subject, for now.

	“Are you going to answer me, or not?”

	I was startled out of my reverie by his insistence. “I just want to be alone.” I was hoping he would leave it at that, but I could see that he was getting tired of my lame excuses. I would have to tell him my story very soon, or risk being thrown out on my ear. He was starting to become suspicious.

	“Do you have a problem with blood!”

	He was laughing at me now.

	“Afraid to suck a little blood, are we!”

	He was jumping around the room like a crazed kangaroo, laughing at me and taunting me. I just sat there with the same kind of blank stare I had remembered seeing on Brent’s face when I had found him with Addy’s torn blouse. If Carl had wanted to attack me, I would have been lunchmeat. But he seemed to be enjoying my misery, though I had not told him it’s source, and I just sat there.

	“You’re never going to heal if you don’t take nourishment” he said, a note of sudden concern in his voice.

	“I cannot...”

	“Bullshit! At least you could go out and get yourself some pussy. It would sustain you.”

	But I did not want to be sustained. She was gone. She had taken me. She had transformed my existence, and I was happy because we would be together forever. But now she was gone, and I found myself wishing she had let me die in the desert. It hurt so much, but I could not end myself. I was too weak.

	“I am not going to help you if you continue like this”, he gave me his ultimatum.

	“I cannot...”, I began. And he started dancing around and teasing me and laughing at me again. It was as if my misery were somehow joyful to him. This made it even more difficult for me to tell him what had happened. They were to have been married. I had known her only a few days, and we had been married. It was the happiest time of my existence, and now I did not know how to tell Carl.

	Since my arrival, he had been my only friend. He made sure that I had everything I needed. And he never asked for any money. I would be lost on my own right now. He was my anchor. And I would teach him things. Sometimes he would listen, and he would become ecstatic whenever he would grasp a particularly difficult philosophical pattern of thought. Although he is quite intelligent, he seems to have a learning disability. At times, this is a tremendous barrier to our communication, and at other times he seems to grasp the most complex ideas almost immediately.

	He frightens me. He is violent and vengeful. I am not sure if he is this way naturally, or if he was taught. He claims to be an orphan so I tend to believe he was taught, but I cannot be sure. There are times......

	“Well, I guess you’re going to stay inside again.”, he resigned as he grabbed his black leather jacket and turned to leave.

	“Happy hunting”, I said as he began to walk out the door.

	“We need to have a talk later...”, his voice trailed off as he closed the door behind him.

	I had been dreading those words for close to five weeks now. I had used every possible diversionary technique known to man in those five weeks. I knew that eventually I would have to come clean, and it looked as though it was going to be tonight, unless I could think of something fast. Carl would normally be gone nearly until morning, and it was still only 9 P.M.. I had at least until then to figure a way out of this mess.

	I had also been trying, with no success, to contact Adelaide. I just wanted so much to believe that she had survived, and that somehow she would find her way here. And then I wouldn’t have to tell Carl anything. She would know how to handle this situation. But it was useless. Each time I tried, I became weaker both physically and spiritually.

	I was barely surviving now.

	The raw meat that I consumed daily had enough protein and blood to keep me alive, but not much else. I knew that I could sustain myself with a steady diet of sex, but every time I thought about sex I would think of Addy, and I would lose interest. I thought that perhaps I would be able to do it if I could find someone who looked like her. But that only made me feel more lonely, and all of the women I had seen since meeting Adelaide had not interested me in the least. I wanted to die.

	There was a knock at the door. I glanced at my watch. It was only 10:30. Carl would not have forgotten his keys. He always keeps them in his jacket pocket, I thought. I reluctantly stood to walk to the door. There was another knock. I called out, “coming, just a second...” I opened the door, and there was a woman standing in the doorway. “Yes....”, I began.

	“Hi. I’m Ellen from 4G. Down the hall.” She seemed about 25 years of age, with an exceptional tan. The roots of her bleached blond hair were just starting to show.

	“What can I do for you, Ellen from 4G down the hall?”

	She giggled as she asked, “Is Carl home?”

	“He’s gone for the night”, I replied in my best monotone. Carl hadn’t told me much about any of our neighbors. He keeps to himself, mostly. I just figured he hadn’t known any of them.

	“Mind if I come in?” Her voice sounded eager.

	I saw a look in her eyes that reminded me of an old friend, and so I motioned for her to come inside.

	“I don’t think Carl likes me very much”, she seemed to be looking for something as we took seats on opposite sides of the living room.

	She was about five foot six, slightly overweight but still very attractive. Her hair fell to a point just below her shoulders. Her eyes appeared to be green when I met her, but in the dimmer light of the living room, they seemed to be blue.

	“What’s your name, stranger?” She smiled broadly as if she were thinking some devilish thought.

	“Bill”, I croaked, the dry feeling in my mouth almost drowning my response to a whisper. “Would you like a soda?”, I offered as I cleared my throat.

	“Thanks, Bill, I would.”

	I rose to go to the kitchen. I opened the refrigerator and pulled out a couple of cream sodas. I have loved cream soda for years, and Carl always brings home a few six packs whenever he goes shopping. As I turned to go back to the living room, she was standing almost right behind me. She put one arm around me and looked right into my eyes, and she smiled.

	“I hope you’re not gay”, she said as her hand moved down to my buttocks and gave a squeeze.

	I found it highly stimulating. “No”, I replied.

	“Good!” She put her other arm around me and we kissed passionately.

	I immediately felt better than I had in weeks. Her passion seemed to fill me with energy. I dropped the sodas to the floor as we maneuvered ourselves to the floor of the living room. We were groping at each other like starved lovers. I practically ripped my clothes off in a frenzy of wanton desire. She pulled her pants down over her ankles, and I impulsively moved to get on top of her. She held out her left arm and stopped me, while grabbing my throbbing penis in her other.

	“Stop”, she whispered. She sat up and pulled her pants off, along with her panties. She must have also removed a condom from one of her pockets and she held it up to my face and smiled as she said, “Don’t want any willies now, do we?” She deftly slipped it over my pounding member.

	We rolled around on the carpet for several hours, making love three or four times. I was feeling so strong. Afterwards we lay on our backs on the floor. I glanced at my watch, it was 2 A.M. I still would have a few hours before Carl returned. I lit a cigarette and stood to look out the window.

	“Mind if I have one of those lover?”, she said referring to my cigarette.

	I pulled one from the pack and knelt to put it to her lips. She grabbed it quickly, sat up and kissed me on the cheek.

	“That was fun”, she purred, a look of satisfaction on her face.

	I got my lighter from the window sill and lit her cigarette. She started to put her clothes back on as I returned to the window and looked down towards Hollywood and the strip. I wondered where Carl would be now. How well did he know this woman? Was she a girlfriend, or just a casual fling? I started to take a quick tour as far down as La Brea, perhaps, but was interrupted by Ellen’s voice.

	“Carl’s so quite.”

	Her words brought me back into the room. I looked over to her.

	“I think he’s gay, too.”

	Her revelation didn’t really startle me. I knew that Carl would sleep with men or women. Though he seemed to prefer women, at times he seemed to have a hatred for them that was undeniable. I wondered if he had also slept with her. But why would she think he was gay if he had?

	“He hardly gives me the time of day”, she sighed. “I’ve come over a few times, but he only lets me stay for a few minutes. He acts kinda nervous and all, you know?”

	“I really don’t know Carl well enough to say.”

	“Oh, that’s okay. I think you’re cuter anyway.”

	Her flattery made me blush slightly, something I hadn’t done in a long while.

	“We should do this again soon.”

	She had already dressed and was getting up to walk towards the door. I had a thought just then as I asked her politely, “I don’t suppose you have a portable cassette player I could borrow?”

	“Sure I do! I’ll be back in two minutes.”

	She picked up her shoes and moved towards the door. As she opened the door, she turned and said, “Anything else you need, lover?”

	“No thanks, Ellen. I think the cassette player will do for now. You could stop calling me lover, though.”

	“Great, honey. I’ll be back in a jiffy!”

	She left the door ajar as she returned to her own apartment to get me what I had asked for. Music. I still had tapes of my music. I also had a few commercial tapes. Let’s see....Pink Floyd....Peter Gabriel...Camel. Maybe a few more. I don’t remember. Carl had asked that I not play any modern music while I was here. But he would still be gone for several hours. I could at least enjoy some music until he was due to return. I might even have a classical cassette, or two. I wonder if he also hated jazz.

	I have always loved all kinds of music since being a young child. My father was an Opera singer. Bad term, I know. He was a Tenor. We always had music in the house. I think it must have driven my mother crazy. Who knows?

	Anyway, I loved to sing as a child. I had given my first public performance at the age of nine. I was in a home for children in Rhinebeck, NY, location of the oldest continuously operating Inn in America. George Washington ate there. Can’t remember the name of the place, though it was almost next door to the home. Astor Home was run by a group of nuns at the time. I don’t remember what sect they belonged to, but they were Roman Catholic, I’m pretty sure. There would be students from a nearby seminary who would come to help out the children by running baseball games and swimming tournaments and all manner of other sports. I had a real talent for swimming and diving, and I could stay underwater for two minutes or more! I won several trophies in state competition as a child here, but I don’t know if my father ever kept them. I think he must have been ashamed of me because of what had happened. He never displayed my trophies, so I must assume that he was ashamed of me. 

	They also would take us on day trips to the Hudson River, which would always thrill me. But the food that they served was making me feel sick all the time. And I would have to shit in the woods, against a tree. I always have hated that. They also took us camping. We went to Norrie State Park on the banks of the Hudson. We went to Lafayette Campground at Lake George. We went to Bash Bish Falls in Taconic State Park.

	I really love camping. I love the smell of cookfires, heating pots of coffee in the morning. And the nighttime cookouts were always so exciting. The smell of fir trees everywhere. Toasted marshmallows. We would go fishing, too. Then we would cook our days’ catch at the fire. It was so wonderful, I almost didn’t miss my family, but I loved my sisters so much. And I would only see them perhaps once a month. My father would bring me presents on the weekends, but I just wanted the dream to end and for me to go home. Except it wasn’t a dream....

	“Hi, Bill.”

	The door swung open and Ellen stood there beaming. She was holding a small cassette player in her left hand. She hung her hips in a seductive fashion that made me want her again that instant. But I held back. I did not want to exact too much energy from either her or myself tonight. I didn’t want to press my luck, either.

	“Here it is. The power cord is inside the battery compartment.”

	“Thanks very much”, I replied. This would be good.

	She set the cassette player down and moved to kiss my cheek. “Let’s get together next week, okay Bill?” She moved her lips to mine and we kissed again as she said good night.

	She quickly moved to the door, turning to smile at me once more before pulling it shut behind her. I had enjoyed her company tremendously. I had not felt any guilt, and was now feeling much stronger than before.

	This was something that Adelaide had never explained to me. I was ignorant until Carl had pointed out to me that vampires can survive for long spells without blood, as long as we have a steady diet of sex. It’s a medium grade source of energy. We drain the victims passion slowly, so they never even notice. It leaves few harmful after effects, and Ellen had given me energy in the most pleasurable way. She would probably have no ill effects, her passion had been so strong. She was so young and healthy. By tomorrow afternoon she would be back to one hundred percent, and I could live for weeks on the energy she had transferred to me. I felt like a new vampire!

	I do so hate the taste of blood.

	I regained my train of thought as I moved to pick up the cassette player and take it to my room. It was a medium sized boom-box with a cassette player, CD and an AM/FM radio. It also had a five band graphic EQ, but I really hate those things so I set it for flat response. I opened the battery compartment, and sure enough the power cord was wrapped inside the tiny space. I removed it and then replaced the cover as I looked for an unused outlet. It wasn’t difficult to find. Between Carl and myself, we don’t have many things to plug in, so even though there were few outlets in this old building, we were never far from an available one in this apartment.

	I scrounged through my suitcase looking for my cassettes. I hadn’t really unpacked since arriving as there was nowhere to put anything in the small room anyway. So I lived out of my suitcases. I only had the two suitcases with some clothes and a few personal items, plus I had my pack. I would keep most of my important personal gear in my pack, though. I always felt that should I ever have the need, I could just grab my pack and I would have all my basic survival gear in one place. Toothbrush, comb, razor, extra fangs...you know.

	And then I found what I had been seeking.

	I have always carried tapes of my music with me. I would listen to them to remind myself that I was an artist. That someday I might return to my art. To lose myself in their permanence...

	This has always been the artist’s greatest disappointment. Once it’s recorded, or fixed, we will always find and fault our imperfections. And these can either become totally unbearable, or simply annoying at times.

	For the true artist does ever seek perfection, or the perfect distortion of perfection, and we can never be perfect except in total innocence.

	This I had always felt was one of my strongest artistic points. I had only rarely tried to play others’ music in my lifetime. So when I became a composer, I was unspoiled. I had learned how to read basic charts, but I remain mostly unskilled in that area, and so I am free to create masterworks without the restriction of higher knowledge. Books can only describe the beauty that comes pure and from within. They can never teach anyone to create, only how others have created.

	I am unfettered in this creative capacity. I can create what my ears and my mind and my heart say is right. I create for myself, and if others enjoy that is a good thing.

	But my art remains pure for this reason. Adelaide had said that my heart was pure, and I had not known what she meant at the time, so I had denied this fact. How could I be pure? I had not lived a life of piety. I was a bad boy. I had done some nasty things in my life, how pure could I be? But she would insist. She was humbled, she would say, by my modesty. Yet a part of me knew that she was correct. I was not entirely responsible for the way my life had run it’s course. I had been abused, and beaten and raped. And Adelaide told me that I was lashing out at the unfairness of my predicament when I had done those bad deeds. That I was still the same little boy, that I was her brave knight. I would always be so embarrassed when she would say this. But I love her so much, I do not want to believe her when she acts this way. It is as if she feels she does not deserve my love. She has been so good to me, and all I can feel sometimes is that I do not deserve her. And now she is gone...

	I pulled the cassette out of it’s case, removing the J-card at the same time. I slipped the tape into the player and pressed play. As I started to read the card, the music began. ‘Dreams In The Sand’. I had written this song with the drummer from my first band, Marc. A fine musician and composer. He had composed the music, and I the words. It was a simple song, with a complex theme:

	Set sail on an ocean shining blue...
	The sea holds dark secrets down in the deep...
	Where no one can see, where no one can see...

	Dreams in the sand carry me away...

	An island looms on the horizon, drawing nearer...
	The setting sun always shows the path you’ve taken...

	Dreams in the sand carry me away...

	Dreams in the sand you’ve dreamed of a land...
	Now the secret’s in your hand...
	Elusively you reach for understanding...

	Dreams in the sand carry me away...

	I had often given people misleading clues as to the meaning of this particular song. It pleased me that each individual would have their own unique explanation for the words. This was a high compliment. I often strive to create works which have a common theme but will mean vastly different things to different people. This is the pinnacle of perfection in art. The goal. Make them feel and make them think. Activate both sides of the mind. Get the old juices flowing.

	As the song continued, I though about Carl and the story he had told me so far regarding his younger days. Carl had been orphaned when his father had been killed in World War One. His mother had died giving birth to him, and he had been living with his Aunt in New York while daddy was off fighting in Europe. When she married a year and a half after his father died, she decided to put him in an orphanage. He was eight years old at the time, and quite a bit of a trouble maker. The other children in school would always tease him about his parents, and his poor heart just could not accept all this abuse, so he lashed out at everyone. I cried as he told me his story because I could feel his pain, yet he tells it as calmly as if he were an outsider, as if it had happened to someone else and he was just telling the story. I understood why he had lashed out after suffering so much verbal and emotional abuse at the hands of so called children. More like rats...

	We have shared horror stories of our childhood days over the past few weeks, and I understand his hatred. Having lived through the same sort of nightmare as a child myself, we shared certain things that few others can directly relate to.

	But Carl and I are on quite opposite sides of the fence as far as many other issues are concerned. I have felt his wickedness. He has a vicious side that frightens me. He is capable of torture, of extreme vengeance. And although he has not shown any outward hatred towards me, I have this feeling that he is hiding something. And yet, he seems so concerned for me at times. I have to tell him when he gets back about Addy, and I don’t know how to begin. I have been staying away from any conversation that would have cause to bring her up, and he hasn’t mentioned her since I first arrived. I do not trust my instincts on this one, either. I closed my eyes and lay back on the mattress to lose myself in the music......

	I must have dozed off because I was awakened by the popping sound that these cassette players make when they stop automatically. It was a good thing, too, because a few moments later I heard Carl’s key turn the lock as he entered the apartment. I hurriedly moved to hide the boom box. I did not want to piss him off, and I also wanted to be able to listen to some music later.

	“Yo Billy boy!”, he quietly exclaimed as he closed the door behind him.

	“In here”, I replied, also in a quiet manner. No need to disturb the neighbors, you know. I heard each of his footsteps as if he were pounding his feet on the floor. I knew that this was not the case, however. I was getting ready to face the truth with him and my senses were heightened as they will be on such occasions.

	“Feeling any better?”

	There was a genuine note of concern to his question. I had learned to trust this aspect of our relationship. Although Carl endlessly teases me for my morose moods and my dislike for the taste of blood, he seems to truly care about me. Since arriving here, I have given him little reason for any other type of behavior. I have taught him without prejudice everything I can about philosophy and science. I have also tried teaching him music, but he has absolutely no interest in any music as far as I can see. He claims disdain only for modern music, but he lacks all interest so I must assume he doesn’t care for any type. I don’t wish to test him on it, though. And he has taught me many things about being a vampire. He has taught me how to drain energy during sex, a subject Addy had never enlightened me about. I guess I know why. He has taught me other tricks, although he has not been helpful with my attempts at projection. It’s as if he does not want me to know certain things. I cannot fault him, however, as he has been my only friend here.

	“I am, as a matter of fact, feeling better”, I gave a wide smile as I rose to shake hands with him. “I met our neighbor Ellen, from the apartment at the end of the hall.”

	“That crazy bitch! She must have more than a dozen steady boyfriends!”

	“Ask me if I care”, I said, still smiling. He gave me a big hug just then and started laughing quietly.

	“Yeah, she’s been bugging me for awhile”, he said casually. “Not my type, though.”

	“She’s close enough for me. As a matter of fact, I plan to keep seeing her on a regular basis”, I was rather proud of myself. Ellen had said she thought I was cuter than Carl anyway, which made me feel confident that we would continue our affair.

	“Just be careful you don’t hurt her, pal”, he said with concern in his voice.

	“I’m not sure I understand what you mean”, I said.

	“Just don’t sleep with her too often!” 

	“Why not?”

	“You could get her addicted! I’m sorry, I should have explained this you. If I were you, I wouldn’t see her more than once a week”, his voice had an edge to it as if I had violated some prime directive.

	“I see. I will be more careful in the future.”

	“How many times......how long did you make love?”

	“About three hours, I think” A look of deep concern came over his face as I said this.

	“You better not see her for a couple of weeks, or you’ll never be able to get rid of her”, he whispered before he turned and headed for the john.

	He had told me that having sex with a vampire can addict a human lover in a very short span of time. I had not been aware of this when I had met Adelaide, and it had explained many things. Except that I had not had sex with Addy before I fell in love with her. But Carl had never given me any specific information on what the acceptable limits would be. There has been much confusion in vampire lore over these aspects. Many times it might appear to the uneducated that a vampire has taken a certain person, when in reality that person had simply become addicted. While we are having sex and draining the energy from these persons, they perceive a higher awareness of their sexuality. This creates a kind of super orgasm. This makes it a simple matter to seduce and continually drain these victims.

	But now Carl was explaining to me that humans could become so addicted to this heightened state of sexual arousal and satisfaction, that you could accidentally take them without realizing it. This could make things very uncomfortable. Whenever possible, we endeavor to avoid killing too close to home. Even vampires like a certain amount of stability, you know.

	“So how did it go tonight?”, I asked. I was hoping that he would forget about our talk if I could show a brighter mood.

	“Screwed a couple of bitches I met outside the Roxy”

	“I used to go to that place years ago. I had a friend that worked down the street.”

	“Fuckin’ whores wanted to go two on one. That’s what I love about LA. So many kinky babes...” He removed a cigarette from his pack and lit it in the dark. The shadows danced about the room for the few moments it took him to do so. “So how’s our neighbor?”, he asked with a satisfied grin on his face.

	“Very nice, thank you. I like a woman who gets right to the point, if you know what I mean.”

	“Well, now, you are feeling better, aren’t you!”, his grin widening to a full fledged smile.

	“I guess I am. It was so easy...”

	“Don’t kid yourself, Bill. You underestimate the powers you and I posses. You can have almost any woman you wish. I can show you...”

	“That’s okay Carl, I think that will sustain me for awhile.” 

	“Have it your way Bill, but a little variety never hurt anyone.”

	“I haven’t...” I caught myself before I let it out. I almost blurted out how I hadn’t really wanted anyone since meeting Addy, but caught myself in time.

	“Haven’t what?”

	I thought for sure this would be the moment of truth, but he continued.

	“Well, it doesn’t matter. All that really matters is that you’re feeling better. Maybe tomorrow night you can go cruising with me. No blood or anything, we’ll just go to some places on the strip. Things have changed quite a bit since you lived here.”

	“That sounds like it might be fun.”

	“Good. I’m going to get some rest now, if you don’t mind”

	“Go ahead. I think I’ll shut down for awhile myself.”

	“Maybe we’ll have that talk later.”

	“Sure...” I replied. I was hoping my improved condition would put this off for awhile longer, but I was prepared to face the truth. I needed to get this out of my system anyway. I knew that if I continued to hold it all inside that I would wander back into my morose moods, and I certainly did not want that to happen. This was the first time in weeks that I felt better. This was the first time I saw that maybe life as a vampire wouldn’t be so bad after all. Carl had said I could have almost any woman I wanted. Having always been on the short end financially to have ever achieved this kind of power in my former life, I was intrigued by the possibilities.

	I awoke about 3:30 that afternoon. It was a hot, hazy day, quite typical for this time of year. The suns’ rays lit the eastern wall of the room with a cross pattern from the framework of the window. I sat up and gathered the items I would need after my shower. I had been sweating on the sheets all day, and since I hadn’t washed off after my fling with Ellen, I was feeling dirtier than usual.

	I hadn’t noticed him leave, but Carl must have slipped out while I was sleeping as he was not in the apartment. No matter, I needed to clean up. I was drying off when I heard him enter and close the door.

	“Yo, Bill...” he shouted.

	“I just finished in the shower, I’ll be out in a minute.” My voice echoed in the small bathroom. Great place to record vocals, I thought.

	“I’ve got a surprise for you”

	I put my clothes on and got my stuff together before leaving the bathroom.

	“I’ll be right there, Carl. I just want to put my things away.”

	“Why do you always put your things away, Bill? You live here. You can leave them in the bathroom if you want, you know. I don’t mind.”

	“It goes back a long way with me”, I said as I entered the living room and sat down in the chair by the door. This was the chair I had sat in when I first arrived, and I had become a bit attached to sitting in it. Carl had seen that this was the most comfortable place in the room for me, and he always seemed to leave it available should I want to sit there.

	“Tell me”, he said as he plopped himself in the other chair.

	“I always like to keep the bare necessities in a pack, so should I ever need to split in a hurry, all my basic stuff is in a convenient location. It keeps me ready to travel on a moments’ notice”, I concluded.

	“That’s a mighty good idea. I think I might start following your lead on that one, big brother.”

	Carl had taken to calling me his big brother. He had never had any siblings, and he adopted me as his big brother since I had lived a longer stretch as a mortal than he. There were certain areas where this was valid and others where he played the part better than I could. But I accepted him as my little brother. Johnny had died when he was only fourteen months old, and I gladly accepted Carl as a living substitute. At this juncture in time, he was the only family that I had. I couldn’t very well keep in contact with my real family. They would certainly notice the changes in me. They would notice that I was not working towards my art. They would know something was wrong with me. They would notice when I did not age as they did, and then one of them would ask the impossible. There was no doubt that this would happen sooner or later, and I was not about to be put in that position. My own fate is one that I gladly accepted, but now there are many times when I question myself on this very decision.

	If only I had thought more of the consequences of my decision, but I was madly in love with Adelaide and I threw caution to the wind. I hadn’t thought about art at the time. I was the only one who was still interested in my music. But the industry had not been kind to me, and I surrendered. That was my first mistake. Now there was little choice I could make in the matter. If I became popular now, people would see that I was not aging as the years went by. I would have to stage my own death somehow. Once I had staged my own death, I would have to get my face changed. You can’t bloody well run around with a famous face and not be noticed. So here I was, all dressed up and nowhere to go, as it were.

	“I heard you say something about a surprise...”

	“You bet! I brought you some Thai stick, Billy boy!”, he reached into his pocket and withdrew a small foil package, which he then tossed across the room to me.

	“Thanks”, I replied excitedly as I swiped the package out of the air with my left hand. I hadn’t smoked any Thai stick in years. After moving back to New York in the late 70’s, I hadn’t seen anything like Thai. We would occasionally get some Hawaiian or California bud, but mostly we get stuff from Jamaica, South America and some good domestic varieties. Thai stick was special, though. It had always been my favorite. I had a girlfriend here years ago that would always bring a stick or two when she came to visit.

	She would come over to this place I had on Gower Street and roll up a nice joint for me. She would then stick the joint in my mouth and light it, while she proceeded to suck my dick. She would always make me smoke the whole thing and get as high as I could before I came in her mouth. She wouldn’t stop sucking until I was ready to go again, then she would take off her clothes and we would make love for hours. The first time we met, we made love at least fourteen times in a twelve hour period. We were both raw at that point, but she still wanted more. She was almost the perfect woman...

	“I’m going to get myself a soda, would you like one?”

	“Sure, thanks. Make it a ginger ale. I got you some cigarettes while I was out, they’re on the kitchen table.”

	I reached into the fridge and pulled out a cream soda and a ginger ale, then turned and grabbed the cigarettes from the table. Dunhill Blues. One of the nice things about this part of town was the ability to procure rarities such as this. There are so many eccentric people in and around Hollywood, there is a big market for imported specialties. This makes it almost like New York, where you can buy anything at any time of the day or night. The large number of eccentrics also makes it quite a bit easier for we vampires to move about unnoticed.

	“I think maybe I would like to cruise around a bit tonight.”

	“Really?”

	“I think it’s about time I start becoming less of a recluse.”

	“Cool. I have to run a few errands before then, but I figure we could go out by 8:30 or 9:00.”

	“Great. I want to see what this town looks like after 20 years of changes.”

	There were a couple of places I wanted to check out in particular. There is a street just a few blocks north of here, in the Hollywood Hills, called Hightower Drive. It’s a short street, perhaps only two or three blocks long, and at the top is a tower with an elevator. I wanted to ride to the top of that tower and look out over city. This had been a great vantage point and you could see from downtown LA all the way to Santa Monica. I used to come here years ago to just look out and think.

	Right now, though, I needed to do my laundry.

	“You need anything cleaned for tonight?” I won’t usually do this for friends, but Carl was more like a brother at this point, so I offered to clean anything he might need.

	“No, thanks. I’ve got more clothes than you anyway!”, he chided me.

	“Thanks a lot!”, I chuckled, as this was the truth and it didn’t really bother me. I went to my bedroom and gathered up the dirty clothes and packed them in a duffel I had for this purpose. I grabbed some quarters, and headed for the door.

	“Remember what I told you”, Carl reminded me before I left.

	“Remember what?”

	“Nevermind.”

	I walked down the five flights of stairs to the basement laundry room. I had the place to myself and packed my clothes into the washer and put in my quarters. There was a single overhead light bulb in the stark room, along with an office type couch with metal legs and vinyl cushions. The cushions were ripped in a dozen places and mended with duct tape, and the metal frame swayed from side to side. There was a milk crate at one end of the couch with some magazines in it, and I decided it might not be a bad idea to see what was going on in the world. Unfortunately, all the magazines were at least four months old. Carl didn’t have a television, and I didn’t have the money to buy one either, so we basically stick to books. He has a few friends here and there who get us books from the library. I had always been too busy in my former life to do a lot of reading, so I had been catching up on some classics while I was figuring out what to do with my new immortality. But I had made a new friend. Perhaps Ellen could also do me some personal favors.

	“Hi, stranger!”

	I looked up and she was there.

	“Fancy meeting you here!” Ellen’s voice was nearly ecstatic as she tossed her laundry bag on the floor and sat on my lap, then gave me a very passionate kiss.

	My penis became erect almost immediately, and I had to push her back to control myself.

	“Hold on there!”, I exclaimed as I stood up. I couldn’t take the chance of another sexual encounter with her so soon.

	“What’s wrong, honey?”

	She looked at me with a look of total lust in her eyes as she turned and closed the door to the room, and twisted the lock all in one swift motion.

	“You know, I was so satisfied last night, I just couldn’t resist some more of what you got!”

	She pushed me down on the couch and pulled her T shirt over her head. I hadn’t seen her breasts at all the previous night, and they were beautiful. She removed her sweatpants and I could no longer control myself. I grabbed her buttocks and pulled her to me. My tongue and lips caressed her nipples, then moved down to her belly. I gently pushed my tongue into her belly button, then ran it down to her moist vagina. I grabbed her and gently lowered her to the sofa, then buried my face between her legs. She was practically screaming. She was so moist and delicious, I could not stop myself.

	She pushed my head away after a few orgasms, then went to get her laundry bag from which she removed it’s sole contents: a comforter. She folded the comforter and laid it on the floor in front of the couch. I finished removing my clothes and we lay on the comforter together kissing and caressing each other. She moved down and started to suck my penis. I hadn’t had a blow job since I had returned from Australia, and it was heavenly. I wanted to suck her vagina, but she pushed my hand away when I tried to swing her around, and just kept sucking. I exploded in her mouth a few minutes later, unable to hold back any longer against her wonderful assault. She licked every last drop before she stopped and lay down beside me.

	“I just had to have you in my mouth”, she said as she kissed my cheek.

	“No complaints here.”

	“That was so good! I hope you don’t mind my coming down here...”

	“What do you mean?”

	“After last night, I was so overwhelmed. I followed you down here.”

	“Is that why you had a clean comforter in your laundry bag?”

	“Guilty” she said as she smiled at me.

	“So how do you feel?” I tried to mask my concern. I wasn’t sure how affected she might be from this encounter.

	“I slept like a baby last night, but I feel a little tired now. I guess you’re wearing me out. I never had a man do that to me before, I usually wear them out!”

	She put her arms around me then, and hugged me.

	“I don’t suppose you’d like to move in with me?”, she whispered.

	This caught me entirely by surprise. Carl had said that Ellen had a dozen steady boyfriends. I wondered if she was being serious.

	“You must be kidding.”

	“Not for a minute. Do you want to stay at my place for awhile?”

	“Let me think about it.” I didn’t have a quick out for her question. She was serious, and I was unwilling to get too involved with anyone right now. Besides, I could have her whenever I wanted, so why should I move in with her?

	“I could fall in love with a man like you.”

	“You don’t even know me.”

	“I’ve got a good feeling about you.”

	“You feel good, and so do I. That doesn’t mean we should live together.”

	“Okay, honey, you think about it. I think I’ll take a nap here with you.”

	She reached her arms around me and instantly fell asleep. I was quite comfortable myself, and saw no harm in my doing the same.

	We awoke to someone banging on the door.

	“Yo, Billy boy! Are you in there, brother?”

	“I thought you hardly knew him”, Ellen looked at me inquisitively.

	“We’re not really brothers, just blood brothers. Yo, Carl, I’ll be right there.”

	We both hurriedly put our clothes back on, and when I gave the go sign to Ellen, she unbolted the lock and opened the door. Carl stood in the doorway and gave her the once over. He smiled slightly as he surmised she was okay, that I hadn’t done any permanent damage to her.

	“Hello”, he said to Ellen as she backed away from the door to let Carl enter the room.

	“Hello, Carl”, she drawled her greeting sarcastically.

	“I see you two have been at it again.”

	“Again? Whatever do you mean, Carl? Bill was just helping me with my laundry.”

	“Laundry...okay. If you say so.”

	“What’s your problem, Carl”, I asked with a tone of disdain.

	“Look here, buddy...”, he started to give me a hard time, but relaxed his gaze and smiled, “I’m just very protective of my friends.” He looked straight at Ellen when he said this.

	“I would never do anything to hurt Bill, if that’s what you mean”, she replied in a very serious manner.

	“I’m just upset about something else, Ellen, pay no attention to me.” Carl gave her a tentative smile and stepped inside to sit on the sofa.

	“That’s okay. I understand. I think he’s pretty special, too.”

	“Thanks, both of you, but I can take care of myself”, I replied. I tried to sound a bit angry, but I don’t believe either one of them bought it, because they looked at me and started to laugh. I laughed too. I take myself too damn serious sometimes...

	“So are we still on for tonight, dude?”

	“I don’t see why not.”

	“Oooh! Are you guys going out tonight? Can I tag along?”

	Her voice was full of youthful exuberance and she had a pleading look on her face, but I had to refuse. I needed to go out with Carl and get my new bearings. I had already waited too long.

	“Sorry, Ellen, but Carl and I are going out alone tonight.”

	“Oh, okay. But don’t wear yourself out too much, I might have plans for you later!”

	“Okay, thanks for your concern.”

	“I wouldn’t want anything to happen to the best lover in the world, now, would I?”

	Without waiting for a reply, she gave me a big hug, then grabbed her comforter and laundry bag and moved to the door.

	“Knock on my door when you get home, okay Bill?”

	“I sure will”

	She gingerly stepped through the door and disappeared up the stairway humming something that sounded familiar, but I could not place it.

	“I warned you about seeing her too often”, Carl sternly reminded me.

	“I’m sorry. She followed me down here and ambushed me.”

	“I told you that we can be habit forming. Now you know what I mean.”

	“I guess I should hide out for a few days, eh?”

	“We’ll see. She seems to be okay, but sometimes it is hard to tell when someone has had too much.”

	His words were the words of experience. I knew that I should pay them heed, but I hadn’t been able to control myself. Men are by their very nature sluts. It doesn’t take much womanly seduction to take us exactly where they want us to go. I had to be more aware of this as time passed, or else live a life of constant fear and paranoia. The more victims are taken, the harder it becomes for us to maintain any stability. Neither Carl nor I were in any position to pack up and leave. Neither of us had any real money to speak of, and friends are few and far between when you are a vampire. I figured we might also roll some humans while we were out cruising. This would help us to build our emergency fund. I had just started thinking about this lately. What if we had to pick up and move? How would we survive without leaving a trail of bloody victims? We had to start thinking about the future. It is, after all, the only thing we have.

	We silently walked up the stairs to the apartment. I went to my room and tried to organize it a bit before we went out. It was 7:30. I still had an hour or so to kill before we left.

	I thought about ways I could avoid Ellen for the next couple of days. She would need time to recover from the energy I had taken from her. Yet still I felt a hunger. I wanted to go to her apartment and make love with her all night. But Carl had told me I could have almost any woman! I wanted to test this sooner or later, I might as well start learning some more tonight. I might like to survive on my own for awhile, and there was still so much to know. Adelaide had only the time to show me some basic mind tricks before we were parted. She had taught me how to project myself, and she had taught me to recognize mind links. She had spent a lot of her time trying to teach me this. She explained that not all vampires are kind to their own. There were some, she said, that would try to destroy any other vampires within a certain territory, so as not to limit their own food supply or their ability to remain unnoticed. I went to the window. I extended myself, this time I traveled up Highland Avenue towards the San Fernando valley. Past Hightower Drive and the Hollywood Bowl. There were a few new buildings a little further along this route, which I had traveled frequently years ago. My memory was still pretty vivid on certain locations, but I was really just practicing. I only went perhaps three quarters of a mile before I headed back to the apartment.

	It was now about half an hour past sunset, and the sky was still glowing slightly when Carl called to me from the living room.

	“You almost ready to go?”

	“Give me another five minutes.” Projection still makes me dizzy for several seconds after I return to my body, so I wanted to make sure I was steady before we left the apartment. I also wanted to have a soda before I left. I have a real problem with dry mouth, and I wanted to be sure that I wouldn’t have to spend any money right away. I still had most of what I had left when I came here, and I wanted to keep a reserve.

	“Looking sharp there Mr. Bill”, said Carl with a broad smile.

	“Thanks, mate. I figure I might as well look decent. Who knows where we might end up?”

	“Good point, bro. Perhaps I should wear something a bit more...”

	“Forget it”, I cut him off. “This is the best I have, and I don’t feel like being second best tonight.”

	“Ho ho! No problem, buddy! I was just...”

	“Yeah, yeah. I know. Thanks anyway.”

	“You must be feeling a lot better, eh?”, he replied with a touch of anger in his voice.

	“I am, thank you, and a quite a bit more aggressive. I didn’t realize how low my energy level had been, I had been so low for so long now.”

	He relaxed his tone as he replied, “Good. I feel like having some real fun tonight!”

	“What do you mean?”

	“You’ll see. Just be prepared for anything.”

	“I will try to stay on my toes, brother.”

	“You had better! Remember you are a vampire, and the world is not the same to you, nor will it ever be again!” He spat out the words as if a fire had momentarily consumed him.

	“Okay, okay! I will stay on my toes.”

	“Good. I just don’t want you to get careless. Friends are hard to find when you are immortal, and even harder to keep.”

	“Now that we’ve settled that, I need to have a cigarette and a soda before we leave.”

	“Fine, I’ll join you.”

	I went to the kitchen and pulled out a cream soda and a ginger ale. A thought occurred to me then. I had forgotten all about the Thai stick Carl had brought for me earlier in the day. I returned to the living room to give Carl his ginger ale, then walked to my room to get my pipe and the Thai stick. I returned to the living room a moment later and took my chair. It was 8:20 P.M., so we still had a bit of time before we left.

	“You gonna smoke some of that?”, Carl asked with a smile.

	“I thought I might enjoy a bit before we head outside. Perhaps it will take the edge off.”

	“Not a bad idea. Mind if I join you?”

	“Of course not. You bought the stuff.”

	“I bought it for you, bro. I remember you saying how much you enjoyed the stuff.”

	“Thank you very much!”

	“Anytime. A friend of ours is a local dealer to the rich and famous. He pinches a few sticks every now and then, and I did a favor for him and he gave me a few.”

	“A few...”

	“I sold the others. We’ll use the money from the sale tonight to pay our way if we don’t come upon some hapless tourists or something. But I am confident we will.”

	I smiled and nodded my head as I proceeded to open the foil package containing the potent herb. The smell exuded from the package as I opened the foil. Thai stick. There was really nothing else like it. I had smoked other herbs that were as potent, but Thai stick has a transparent high that supersedes all others. It is just so smooth. Easy on the lungs and mind boggling to the psyche, while never making you obvious. A heightened state without any side effects. I filled the small bowl with a few pieces of bud, then repackaged the rest. I set the pipe on the coffee table, then went into the kitchen to put the herb in the refrigerator to keep it fresh. I returned to my chair in the living room, pulling my lighter from my shirt pocket as I seated myself. I lit the bowl and took a gentle hit before passing the pipe to Carl. It doesn’t take much of this stuff to put on a nice buzz, and I figured the small pipe full would be just the right amount to get us both high.

	Carl lit the bowl again with his lighter, but took too large a toke and ended up coughing it all out. We both started laughing hysterically. I hadn’t smoked in awhile, and that one toke had really given me a nice head.

	“I don’t usually smoke this stuff”, Carl coughed out his sentence as he gasped for air.

	“I could tell. Next time take a smaller hit.”

	“No shit Sherlock!”, he exclaimed as he coughed and laughed at the same time.

	“Sorry, bro. I Didn’t mean to get you all choked up!”

	My dismal attempt at humor brought a grave expression to his face, just before he started laughing again. He passed the pipe back to me.

	“No more for me, Bill.”

	“Okee Dokey.”

	“You ain’t goin’ hick on me now, are ya’?”

	He curled his lip, pushed his tongue out of his mouth and to the side, then rolled his eyes as he put on this weird face, and we both started cracking up again. I took another hit then set the pipe on the table. After I had released the smoke, I removed a cigarette from my pack and lit it.

	“We can go as soon as I finish my grit.”

	“Right. I think I’ll have a smoke too before we head into the night.”

	He reached into his pocket and pulled a cigarette from the pack, flipped it into his mouth. He did this all in one smooth motion, and it seemed to take only a fraction of a second. I looked at him in amazed curiosity.

	“How did you...”

	“Pay close attention tonight, Bill. You still have so much to learn, and I need you to be more of a partner. What I just did was a very simple trick that you will find very useful.”

	“A trick?”

	“Indeed, Billy boy. What I just did was a brief projection. My projection pulled out the cigarette and lit it by the time my hand reached my lips. This is a prime way of fooling humans into thinking we can move swiftly.”

	“But it appeared as though you actually performed those movements with your hand.”

	“I did not. It is an illusion. Everything happened so fast that you simply did not see it. You can train yourself to identify such trickery, but you must first learn how to perform it.”

	“I assume you will teach me.”

	“Of course, my brother. For tonight, just be an observer, and learn”

	“I understand.”

	“You will. Remember, the more you watch me, the easier you will find it to study these techniques. You will learn them in time on your own, but we need to start working together if we are ever going to get out of this place.”

	“Get out?”

	“You don’t really think I want to stay in this dump, do you?”

	“I wasn’t aware of any plans you had for leaving until just now.”

	“Well now you know. If you come up with any ideas along the way, I’ll be glad to listen.”

	“I had been thinking about an emergency fund.”

	“Guess what? I’ve already saved quite a bit of money. I also have some jewelry and some coins we can sell.”

	“Where are you thinking of going?”

	“New York, my brother, New York.”

	Carl stood up with a huge smile on his face and said, “Let’s go, mate.”

	New York. It was a place I knew well. Might as well do some traveling, I thought. Perhaps I could look up some friends. I rose and grabbed my pipe, and put it in the outside front pocket of my jacket. We gave each other a manly hug, then headed for the door, both of us smiling. Tonight I would learn more about my own survival as a vampire, and soon we would be on our way to New York.