Chapter 10: 10

It took time for me to find the archived newspaper. I had to go through the public librarys records and then I scrolled through local newspapers from the sixties. In 1966 the insane asylum had been shut down for inhumane practices and overcrowding issues that repeatedly led to very improper treatments of the patients there. I didn't know that the asylum had owned the majority of the land surrounding it, including the land my house now sat on. A lot of the old buildings had been torn down and replaced with the suburban cul de sac in the late seventies.

There were reports of death in the asylum but most of them were from disease or suicide. 

However, once I knew the asylum's name and property address it was easier to find information. And that I did.

In 2002 the building was purchased by a couple hoping to make it into a semi-rural getaway. But during a walkthrough the wife disappeared and the husband ran to the police station, covered in her blood, telling them that a red eyed shadow creature had dragged his wife into the basement. I reread that detail probably six times. It was almost word for word what I had described when I first witnessed the girl. So… had she been there way back in 2002? Or was she the child of someone just as grotesque?

Reading on, the husband had been arrested and then convicted of second-degree murder. The news had quieted down before I was born. There were still rumours of there being murder in the basement of the building. I'd heard of them but the stories were usually about cannibals and the spirit of an insane patient taking over the husband. I had never known the exact details until now. 

There were still goosebumps up and down my arms, reading about it. I didn't know exactly what the girl was involved in but I felt like it couldn't be good. Had she really murdered that security guard? And why? And did she— did she eat him? Was that what those fleshy ripping sounds were?

I shuddered and folded my arms in an attempt to feel safer. How much danger was I putting myself in by simply going back there?

---

She was there soon after I entered the shadows. I wasn't even in the basement yet, and she met me on the second floor, watching me curiously from the stairwell to the basement.

"Hi," I said with a genuinely friendly inflection. She was cute and I'd grown fond of her, despite that she may or may not have murdered the security guard. 

"...hi," she said back. Her voice was still dry and crackly, but it was good to hear. It was progress.

"I have some more clothes for you," I told her.

She stared 

"I also brought a hairbrush so I can help get rid of the tangles," I told her.

She slowly shrank back into the basement. I waited for a long moment and then followed.

She stopped at the bottom of the steps and watched as I came down.

"Do you have a comfy place? I asked. I hadn't forgotten all the dirt and debris I'd found on my clothes the first time I'd been here.

She nodded and led the way. But she didn't take me to the maintenance room, instead turning into another, just as dark and creepy room. It was, in fact, a morgue.

I tried not to think about that as she climbed into one of the gurneys and crossed her legs.

Running my hand along the surface, it did feel pretty clean. I pulled myself up to sit next to her.

Once I was on there, I appreciated the aesthetic. Dead bodies had been laid on this slab of metal. And I could too, but unlike them I'd be able to walk away again. There was a soothing feeling to that. Maybe because it made me feel like death wasn't the end.

I had to refocus myself before turning to the girl.

"Do you have a name?" I asked.

She nodded. "Scarlet Bludge," she told me.

"May I brush your hair?"

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She hesitated, but nodded.

I reoriented myself behind her and pulled a brand new hairbrush from my bag and started to separate the clumps of tangles from each other. I started at the bottom, gently pulling the brush through.

She slowly relaxed in front of me as I worked through the long strands. Her hair was black and glossy. Once it had been freed of tangles it fell in a very gentle wave beyond her shoulders.

It took me a long time to work through all of her hair, and then I offered her another clean bundle of clothes. She had changed into the others but they fit her very loosely. 

Scarlet was pretty. I felt myself blush as she twisted her neck to look at me over her shoulder once I'd stopped.

I busied myself with putting the brush away and instead offering her another sandwich. She brightened at the sight of it and smiled.

Her teeth unnerved me. I wasn't sure why.

"Do you mind if I look at your face?" I asked as I unwrapped it for her.

She tilted her head. "No," she said but her eyes were narrowed.

I set the sandwich down on her knee and got up to stand in front of her. My hands clamped both sides of her face and I had the overwhelming urge to get very close to her.

I fought it off and instead gently tilted her face this way and that. When the light caught her eyes from certain directions, that glow came back. It was a rather pretty pink and cat-like glow that drew me in. I found myself leaning forward. Her face drew away from mine and her teeth glinted.

I blinked. The teeth. They'd been off-putting before but now I knew why. From a distance they looked normal, and while something had felt off to me, lots of things felt off to me.

The canines were too long. I pulled away, still seeing them.

She pulled her lips back over them protectively. Her lower canines were the same. They protruded a bit too much to be human. It was clear she had fangs.

Her tongue moved under her lips as she leaned away from me more. Her face turned to look at the darkness instead of meeting my gaze.

"Are you…?" I wasn't certain if it was even a sane question to ask, let alone a polite one.

She tensed next to me. 

It all made sense now, though. Even the murder. She avoided the sun by staying in that basement. When a human got close to her territory she had murdered him and based on those ripping sounds I'd heard, eaten some part of him. She was pale, and her skin cool.

My breath shivered.

"Vampire," I concluded.

She glanced at me and then she was gone. I felt the sudden whip of air as she got off the morgue table and then out of the room.

The sandwich fell to the floor and the bread and ham separated, fanning out. In the adjacent room, I heard her knock a number of things over with several loud clatters. And then there was silence.

It was suffocating.

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