Wailing Fool

To walk the night in a lover's embrace, forever bound to each other. Forever hidden from the sun. Forever a fantasy to Hayden. Lost for hours in books of blood-sucking and dark worship of creatures who lurk in the night. “Her, forever bound to him,” he thought. She can no longer say no. Her thirst would then be taught. Mastered by him, the maker. What power and lust lies with the legend of a vampire…

Nightfall would come, galvanizing Hayden into the forest. Pricking his neck just so a drop of blood slowly rolled down to the collar of his shirt. On his knees he prayed to the gods of the night, but they never called on him. Defeated, he would walk home. Patiently waiting for the next night’s attempt.

During a storm in the midday, Hayden heard a knock upon the kitchen window. Something dark. Small and dark. A bird perhaps? So, Hayden came closer. The rain splashed on the window, making it blurry. But the knock was intentional. The animal knew what to do. Knocking and knocking. The water subsided and to Hayden’s shock it revealed a small bat. Knocking on the window with its wing.

Quickly did Hayden open the window as the bat gently fluttered toward the kitchen sink. Shaking itself off from the rain. Looking into Hayden’s eyes. He was mesmerized. The bat opened its mouth and from it a soft voice made its way gently to Hayden’s ears.

“Thank you, Hayden. The rain is cumbersome during day.” A subtle hiss at the end of its speech.

“What’s wrong?” It asked. Again, another subtle hiss…

“How…do you know my name?” He replied.

“Come now. We call you the wailing fool. Watching you in the forest. Cutting your neck and begging to be made. All wrong.”

A feeling of embarrassment stung Hayden. His face flushed red.

“How could you know? It is a secret kept most dear. Shall I tell you?”

Nervousness now set in. His rational mind was shoved into darkness and his fantasy took flight with the words of the bat. Out came the question that patiently waited at his tongue.

“Are you a vampire?”

“Tell me Hayden… What do you know about vampire?”

He began rattling off in a panic. Out of order. Unable to gather his thoughts.

“Calm now.”

And so, he took a deep breath. He explained what he knew. The bite, then the slumber in the ground to rise an immortal night walker. To hide from the sun and drink the blood of mortals.

“Ah. So, you cut your neck as bait for a bite? Well Hayden, sorry to disappoint you but that is simply not true. Merely fables. I cannot make you. You must make yourself.”

Hayden hung on every word.

“You must bite the flesh of the innocent. Fill their heart with fear prior to the bite. Then watch them die as you swallow the blood. Only then can you transform.”

“Bite the flesh of the innocent” played in Hayden’s imagination a hundred different ways. Killing someone was not part of his plan. But the bat had spoken. No, the vampire had spoken.

“So, Hayden, the wailer. Calling out to us in the forest. Do you still desire the power?”

Then the most obvious of questions blurted out.

“Will you reveal yourself to me? Your true form!”

The bat tilted its head with an inquisitive disposition.

“Hayden…we can only reveal to our peers. We walk between worlds. Don’t you understand that? This is how you can see me. Once you transform…then I shall welcome you but only if you do exactly as I said. So again Hayden, do you still desire the power?”

The thought of murder did not frighten him. It was the way of the vampire. Sustenance is more like it. What frightened him was the definition of innocence and how he could lure such a victim.

“I do. I always have. I begged for it but I…I don't know how I would even get...”

“You have said the words, Hayden. I shall return in three nights. A chance for you in the forest no longer to wail but to transform. Remember now. You cannot turn back. You said ‘I do’ …”

And the bat flew out of the window.

What occupied his mind was the word innocence again. Knowing full well that the only innocence that ever exists are children. Children are the light of the world until life slowly dampens them into adults.

“Bite the flesh. Watch them die…” Perhaps he was far too broken. Hallucinating a bat that spoke to him. Yet the third night came and the knock on the window startled him. It returned.

“Are you ready, wailing fool? Come now to the forest. A young girl is lost, and I know where to find her.”

“I...”

“Hayden. Get dressed. You change tonight forever…”

The words compelled him. Forced him to do as the bat said. Entranced and lost in a dark fantasy he found himself in the same forest he spent every night begging. Guided by the bat who hovered from tree to tree until he saw the pink of her sweater. The tears in her eyes from being lost. Calling out to her parents.

“Can you smell her fear, Hayden? You are so close now aren’t you. Remember what I said. Bite and swallow as they die before you.”

The girl turned to see Hayden as he approached. She screamed at his sight because he had not slept in three nights. His eyes were bloodshot. Drool dripped from his lips. He lunged at her, tackling her to the ground as she kicked and screamed. Only the voice of the bat entered his ears.

“Now bite.” Another subtle hiss.

The first bite met skin but never truly broke flesh until Hayden applied more pressure. Hearing the words “Bite! Bite! Bite!” screaming in his ears he kept his grip on the side of her neck. Feeling the pulse race faster as he applied more pressure until finally a burst of blood. The taste of iron flooded his mouth and he kept biting.

“Watch them die” echoed in his hollow, bloodlust mind. Life left her. Her body had ceased movement.

Blood dripped down Hayden’s chin. Still a taste he began to familiarize with. He looked to the trees for the bat. He called out to it.

“I have done as you asked. When do I feel the change? When!” He shouted to the trees. He wailed like he had done many nights in the forest. Calling out to the bat, to the vampire.

Lights in the distance came closer. But Hayden’s mind was drowning in his fantasy. Too preoccupied to hear the search party shouting.

“Jessica!”

“Jessica!”

On his knees, covered in blood and dirt groveling toward the night sky. Hayden kept crying and the search party approached the horror before them. “I did as you asked! Reveal yourself to me!”

“Run to me then. South. Quickly before they try to stop you.”

The bat’s voice sounded as if it were right behind him. Guiding him once more and pulling him up to his feet. He turned and ran blindly in the direction of the bat’s voice. Running and running as the search party chased after him.

“Keeping running, wailing fool. Run into the cave.”

A path of darkness and rock appeared to the left of him. Down into the hole did he tumble. He crawled on his hands and knees in fear of the search party after him. Yet nothing was behind him. Just darkness. Feeling the ground move and the entrance to the cave close out the remaining moonlight. His eyes slowly adjusted…

“Will you now reveal yourself to me?” He cried out.

What felt like blades were the teeth of a monster digging into Hayden’s back. Cutting through flesh within seconds and crunching the bones of his spine. Ripping his bones from flesh. Gnawing on his muscles and skin.

The little girl in the pink sweater grabbed Hayden’s chin. He looked up to see her smile. The blood dripped from her throat where he had bitten. Her eyes glimmered like murky, dark water.

“Oh, wailing fool…you have only transformed into a meal for it. Darkness only feasts on darkness.”

Then the bat appeared on her shoulder as life left the wailing fool…