The Thirst: John
 
John’s the new guy. Both to his shitty night shift job as a security guard for a chemical plant, and to joining the ranks of the undead.
 
The job made sense to him. Easy, at night, and nothing to stop him feeding on anyone who happened across his path.
 
Unwilling to forgo human blood, John simply spurned the council’s rules… he didn’t ask for the dark gift after all. The vampire that turned john was a mistress he had taken during a liquor filled night of stupid decisions. Her name was Victoria, and it was only after she turned John during their one night stand that she learned of his wife and children.
 
Not one to share, Victoria found John’s family… and drained them. Believing that once they were gone, John would more quickly grow into his new role as her partner, or at the very least her slave. Victoria returned to John and informed him of her actions. In her arrogance believed being over a century old that she could control any youngling she turned.
 
This would prove to be a fatal mistake.
 
After John learned of what she had done, he broke his first of many vampiric laws and slew a fellow vampire.
 
The fight was hard for John yes, but fueled by the rage and anguish at the loss of his wife and two daughters, John’s vampiric abilities manifested earlier and more intensely than Victoria anticipated. A possibility she should have accounted for given the ancient story of Dracula himself.
 
John quickly overpowered her, and in this bloodlust… drained her dry. He burned her undead body and his own house to the ground, before emptying his bank account and moving to Mississippi.
 
In the northern parts Mississippi, John lived on a bayou alongside the other violent predators that existed there. He spent quite a while just sitting in his cabin, eating anything and anyone that came knocking. But eventually decided to return to societal life.
 
Which brings us to today.
 
It’s 3:05am outside the Brenner Chemical Plant, and John is getting hungry. Noticing a few young boys attempting to scale the fence… no doubt to throw some poor animal into the treatment tanks, John ran over to them with his incredible speed.
 
“HEY! Get outta here!”, John yelled to the boy sitting on the fence.
 
“You get outta here old man!”, The boy countered. “What you gonna do? You ain’t got no gun!”
 
John looked to the other two boys standing on the outside of the fence. They couldn’t have been more than fifteen years old, and their reaction to a grown man screaming at them indicated they really didn’t know any better. “You two should leave… now”, John stated flatly.
 
The boys nodded their heads and ran off, leaving the older boy sitting atop the fence at the mercy of John.
 
“You gotta choice here boy. You can jump down on this side and I can let you go, or you jump down on the other… and I catch you… and”
 
“And what? Let me go anyway?”, The boy mocked. “Your old ass couldn’t catch me if you tried.” He jumped into the compound and took off running.
 
Guess it’s dinner time. John thought to himself as he misted through the chain-link fence.
 
The boy meanwhile was running with the frog he had caught. As John suspected he was headed to the wastewater treatment tanks at the back of the compound.
 
Calmly walking between the steaming pipes and onto the scaffolding that ran around the tanks, John approached the young boy from behind. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you”, John warned the boy holding the frog over the tank.
 
The water in those treatment tanks could hardly be called water at all. The PH levels in there could strip a cow down to nothing before the sun came up, a fact John knew from years disposing of drained bodies inside.
 
“Or what? You gonna do something about it old man?”
 
“I just think your last act on this Earth shouldn’t be the senseless killing of an innocent animal”, John remarked as he continued walking toward the boy.
 
“W-What the fuck you talkin about old man?” John was now standing in front of the young boy. He could hear his heart beating fast of fear.
 
John leaned down and took a deep sniff. “Hmmm, You’ve never been with a woman, have you boy?”
 
“Fuck you! I been with all kinds’a girls!”
 
John took another sniff. “No… you haven’t. I can smell it.”
 
“FUCK YOU!”
 
“Sorry, I don’t swing that way. Shame you have to die a virgin.”
 
“W-What? You’re crazy old man you need to..”, his words caught in his throat as he observed John’s fangs protrude. Dropping the frog on the grate below, the boy ran for his life. He didn’t know exactly what he was running from, but every fiber of his being just told him to run… and fast.
 
Sliding down a ladder he seen John appear at the end alley, between the row of tanks he was running through.
 
Turning left, the boy ran out into the open area, thinking he would be safer in a space lit by floodlights. Sprinting across to the front gate, the boy seen John standing atop one of the chemical silos looking down at him.
 
He gave John the bird as he continued toward the gate, but as he approached, John jumped from the silo and into the gateway.
 
“Jesus!”, The boy stammered, seeing that John was unharmed from the hundred foot fall.
 
“What the hell are you?!” The boy, fearing for his life was far to exhausted to resume fleeing from this monster, and simply stood there as John stepped forward.
 
“I’m a vampire”, John admitted, knowing this young man wouldn’t live long enough to tell anyone.
 
“A fucking what?!”
 
“And you… you young, stupid virgin boy, are my dinner.”
 
John lunged.
 
Before he could tell what was happening, the boy found himself pinned to the ground by John’s immense strength. “Get off me! You can’t do this! they’ll catch you! There’s fucking cameras everywhere!”
 
John leaned down and bore his fangs. “No they won’t”, He assured, slowly forcing the boy’s head down against the concrete. John took a deep breath and…
 
“HELP M..”, The boy was silenced as John’s fangs pierced his neck. His pitiful squirming mattered little to John, who easily held him in place, draining the young man’s virgin blood.
 
“m-mommy”, The boy wimpered, as John forcefully sucked on his neck, extracting his blood as fast as he could gulp it down.
 
Within seconds the boys body was shivering with chills, and his vision was losing it’s color. It wouldn’t be long before the lights would go out for the young man.
 
John knew this.
 
As the boy’s warm blood flowed into his body, John could feel himself getting stronger. Wanting more he placed a hand on the boy’s abdomen and pressed down, helping to force out what little blood may be left.
 
The boy closed his eyes as his heart slowed and his brain shut off. Exhaling the last breath of air left in his body, the boy went limp.
 
He was gone.
 
 John pulled his head back and wiped his face. “Sorry little man. If it’s any consolation, you were delicious.”
 
John carried the boy’s body up to the treatment tanks, and tossed it inside. Turning to the security camera that watched the tanks, John waved to the person on the other side.
 
Mike.
 
A sick fuck who knew of John’s condition, and brought him bags of his own blood every so often. Mike told John he was aroused by watching him feed the first time he saw him do it on the security cam, and assured John that no-one would ever hear a word of it so long as he continued to do it in front of the cameras. This was so Mike could take the security tapes home and beat off to John feeding on his hapless victims.
 
This agreement proved to be mutually beneficial for the two for the next few years until the incident happened.
 
But that’s a story for another time.