Fictober, Prompt 27 – “You could have died!”

Original fiction, horror.

Warnings: vampire, implied violent death(s), nothing graphic.

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“There you are!” She scowled over at where I stood hesitantly in the doorway. “Where have you been? I’ve told you not to be out so late, and without even trying to let me know where you were.”

“I’m sorry,” I said, the words strange in my mouth. The sting of the usual scolding felt muted, at least a little bit.

“Well, what are you standing there for? Come in!” She turned away, and I took a careful step over the threshold. “There’s work to be done. Did you think you’d get out of it if you slunk off somewhere? With your sister out of the house now, there’s more work for fewer hands, so you’d better put those notions right out of your head.”

“I’m sorry,” I said again. The words came more naturally now, but still not quite right. “I’m sorry, I— I encountered a vampire.”

“You what?” she shrieked, spinning to stare at me, horrified. “What on earth possessed you to wander into the territory of those creatures? You could have died!”

I closed my eyes, swallowed against the terrible thirst, felt the strange, unpleasant shifting of my teeth.

I opened my eyes again, and looked right at her.

“I did.”

Then, I stopped fighting the thirst.