One Hour Mental Theatre

Justin fed early, not more than an hour or so after rising. He had to be to work at ten so he made quick work of his meal and hurried off to the plant. Justin made it a point to never kill his victims, to feed just enough to keep his hunger at bay so he could function. He never liked death and he certainly had no desire to cause it, despite what many supposed experts would claim were his kind's “true nature”. This time it was a young man sitting in his car at Todd Park listening to Pink Floyd's “Comfortably Numb”. Todd Park was his location of choice when it came to finding a quick meal. There were often people after dark partying or just trying to find some solitude. His method was flawless, he would move in silently, grab his victim and sink his fangs into that oh so juicy artery in their neck, and when finished he would reach into their mind and erase all memory of the incident. The victim would never know what happened. The wound on their neck would seal itself almost instantly due to the healing nature of his vampire saliva, and contrary to common belief it took a mere pint of blood to satisfy a vampires thirst. Not that there weren't gluttons among the population, but killing ones prey was becoming increasingly taboo in the vampire culture. There was simply no need to other than sadism. The old ways of seeing humans as mere livestock had been dying away since the late nineteenth century. Not to mention that there was always discretion to consider. A worst thing that could happen was for a vampire to drink too much blood and kill his victim or leave them in an obviously weakened state. Such activity draws suspicion and the attention of the governments anti-vampire task force; a branch of the FBI affectionately nicknamed VAMP by humans and vampires alike.

Justin worked in the dry sausage department at the local meat processing plant. The entire department was a giant cooler which he liked because it gave him an excuse for having cold hands. His entire body was cold after all, but having cold hands in a giant cooler wasn't considered odd. This was another misconception among the masses that after feeding a vampire's skin would warm as the blood flowed through his or her body. Perhaps it did marginally, but even if it did it was very short lived.. The minor amount of heat given off by the warm blood consumed would be quickly dispersed in the cold tissues of a vampire's body. After all, vampires generated no heat of their own, they were dead. The blood would give his flesh a more life like hue for most of the night though, however toward the end of the night as his body finished processing it's nutrients he would again take on the appearance of a walking corpse. Luckily his shift would be over by then and he would feed again to avoid a ghoulish appearance. Justin worked his shift and punched out at six in the morning. By then the sun was on it's way or already over the horizon which made his trip home a long one. While sunlight did not kill vampires, it was uncomfortable for them to be in the light of the sun. Some did so just so they could feel human, Justin had no such desire. He felt human regardless, he considered himself human in fact, a human with an incurable disease which robbed him of the ability to lead a normal life.

Justin walked home with a coworker who lived in the same building next to the local Pizza Hut as he did. Her name was Lisa and even though Justin tried to deny it to himself, he was extremely attracted to her. He walked her to her first floor her apartment and politely refused her invitation for breakfast.
“One of these mornings I am going to quit offering and invite another man into my kitchen.” Lisa teased playfully and closed the door. Justin went to the top floor and knocked on a random door. When the occupant, an attractive young redheaded woman he had clearly woken up, answered he pushed her inside and immediately fed on her. He needed to feed once before bed as well as upon waking.

For a human, being fed upon was not a painful experience, if they were allowed to remember it. Justin remembered being made and how the bite of his maker felt like a sustained orgasm. He even ejaculated a few time during, so to say being fed upon by a vampire was pleasurable would be an understatement. Justin drained a little over a pint of the young woman's blood as she quivered and moaned. At one point her legs gave out and Justin had to hold firm to keep her from falling to the floor. Justin could smell the intoxicating aroma of her sex as she became steadily more aroused. Feeding on a woman was unlike feeding on a man. There was still a potent sexual arousal, however most of the women he fed on had a slow build up of arousal before climaxing, of course there were the few who climaxed continuously while he fed as well as those who were only stimulated and did not climax at all. Justin finished feeding and drew the memory of him and his feeding from her mind and left her apartment after laying her temporarily unconscious form gently on her couch. He descended three floors and entered his apartment.

Justin let himself into his small second floor one bedroom apartment. All of his windows were covered with thick black fabric to block out any sunlight and the walls were painted a pale green. Justin had leather furniture which matched the color the walls. He grabbed a Samuel Adams lager from his fridge and settled into his living room to play his X-Box for a bit when he was startled by a voice he had not heard in nearly seventy five years.
“At least your taste in beer has improved over the years but your taste in lodging had decayed significantly. I mean seriously Justin, this green is atrocious.”
Justin stood up so quickly that any human eye in the room would have only seen a blur and heard the whooshing of rapidly dispersed air like when one swings a stick through the air violently.

Vampires can also drink and eat like a normal human although they do not need to. Any food or drink they ingest is processed as it would be if they were living, provided they have had at least a pint of human blood within six hours prior. Any food or drink they ingest however provides absolutely no nourishment to their dead body what so ever. It is all processed as if it did, it is digested and expelled as it would be in any human, but it does a vampire absolutely no good. It is merely his or her body going through the motions it remembers from when it was still human. The alcohol in Justin's beer would have absolutely no effect on him no matter how many he drank, but with the blood he had just ingested he could taste the hops distinctly as well as the many minor ingredients of his beer of choice. It would also be an understatement to say that vampires had significantly better senses than humans.

“Jesus Michelangelo, you scared the shit out of me.” Justin said, surprise overpowering any annoyance Michelangelo's intrusion might have inspired.
“I go by Mike now, it's much more modern.” Mike said still looking around Justin's apartment. “I'm serious about the green Justin. It's just awful.” repeated Mike in a boorish tone. Mike was an older gentleman with thick silver hair and a neatly groomed beard. He was a rail of a man giving the false impression that he was frail and weak. He wore clothes too ritzy for the small meat packing town he found himself in. Mike wore a silk lavender shirt, expensive black dress pants and black dress shoes shined to a mirror gloss.
“Why are you here?” Justin asked regaining his bearings.
“Really?” Mike asked putting a mock look of saddened shock on his face. “Seventy five years of catching up to do and your going to start by interrogating me?”
“Answer my question.” Justin replied coldly.
“I missed you.” Mike replied with a cocky grin.
“Stop fucking around and tell me why you are here or get out.”
In a flash Mike was across the room and face to face with Justin.
“It is not wise or hospitable to be rude.” Mike said with a look of genuine annoyance on his face, Mike's eye contact also became more hostile.
After a tense moment Justin relented and sat back down on his couch looking up at Mike as he took a drink of his beer.
“Fine, have a seat but don't pretend you're here just to catch up or socialize.” Mike said.
“Aren't you going to offer me a beer?”
“They're in the fridge.”
Mike's swiftness surprised even Justin. Then again, Mike was over five hundred and thirty years old so it shouldn't have come as a surprise but it did nonetheless. In the time it would take for light to reach from one end of the Metrodome to the other Mike had his been and was already taking his first sip.
“I'm serious about having missed you you know.” Mike said after finishing his sip.
“That's great, why are you here?” Justin replied dispassionately.
“I'm glad to see you missed me too.”
“Stop this. Why are you here ?”
Mike let out a sigh of exasperation. “Fine Justin but someday you are going to have to forgive me. Eternity is a long time to hold a grudge.”
“Not nearly long enough, why are you here?”
“For fucks sake. Fine Justin you win.” Mike tipped his bottle, draining it dry. “You've been summoned.”
“By who?”
“Who do you think?”
“My maker is dead.”
“But his maker is not.”
“That does not affect me. I am owned by no one.”
Mike's demeanor became more hostile again. “Do not let this “vampire renaissance” cloud you ever troubled mind Justin. There are still laws which must be obeyed. Zachariah may be dead but Leonardo is far from it and he wishes to see you.”
“Then why does he not come himself.”
“Because he is in Rome and he hates the U.S.”
There was a moment of silence between them as Justin as Justin pondered the possible reasons for being summoned. It had been sixty years since he left the vampire world to live among humans.
Even so if anything were amiss he would have heard about it through the underground channels. Everything was going smoothly in the vampire world as far as he knew. Justin finally looked at Mike who had never taken his gaze off of him.
“You're guess is as good as mine Justin but the fact remains that you have been summoned and you will answer that summons.” Mike had a knack for knowing what was on Justin's mind.

Sometimes Justin truly hated being a vampire.

101 ways not to have a girlfriend

“Will you just drive and forget about your phone please?” Sara asked in that annoyed tone of voice she used right before she became truly angry.

“But it might be important.” Danny said still driving with one hand on the wheel and the other frantically fidgeting in his pocket for his ringing cell phone.

“Damnit Danny It's always one of your doofy friends wanting to play. You promised to spend the day with me and by god that is exactly what you are going to do. I don't ask much.” Sara was now on the brink of tears.

Not Feeling so Super

The morning hours had all but ticked away as the police closed off all roads leading to the Harrington Tower letting only fire trucks and ambulances. Captain Jarred Snow had taken the role of incident commander until the police commissioner and fire chief could arrive to relieve him. Jarred had ordered a complete evacuation of the Center which was three quarters complete as the command center was and staging areas were set up. It was early April but the day itself was unusually warm and calm for a early spring day and this day would most certainly have been an excellent day for April showers. The television and cable news crews were already set up and reporting the minute by minute and had been since before the first fire truck had arrived. Jared was screaming to his people asking why they were not as efficient. Then remarked that it was human nature to want to see the horror of death rather than the heroics of life. Suddenly the cameras began pointing to the sky and then Jared looked up too. Everyone watched as the flying man flew over the harbor and directly into the towering inferno.

Wade flew into the charring blackness of the billowing cloud of noxious smoke and for a brief instant believed he could feel the heat of the inferno he was penetrating. Through the smoke he quickly located every person left alive on the 175^th floor of the Harrington Tower using his heightened sense of hearing to single out screams, breathing, and heartbeats. Despite his heightened sense of sight he found his eyes were utterly useless in the utter blackness surrounding him. Wade focused on the nearest heartbeat and reflexively shot at phenomenal speed toward the sound of rapidly diminishing life. As he came to a stop in front of the person he intended to rescue his ears sent warning of a problem Wade had not anticipated and realized only too late would prove fatal to the person he intended to rescue.

Wade had moved so swiftly he failed to anticipate the small yet powerful vacuum his frame would create by displacing the air around him. As the air rushed back in to fill the void he crated it sucked the raging flames into a vortex of flaming death that followed him. Wade tried in vein to use his own seemingly invulnerable body to protect the person he was desperate to save as he had seen Superman do in countless comics of his youth. The true laws of physics however are not as kind and Wade's body could not protect the person he was trying to save. Wade could only scream in horror as he felt the poor souls body disintegrate in his arms from the fierce heat that enveloped them both. The whole process took less than five seconds before Wade was left holding only charred pieces of human remains.

Wade forced himself to snap out of the horror his negligence had created and moved much more cautiously toward the remaining, and ever fewer, hearts that were still beating. As gently and slowly as he safely could he charged in and out of the incinerating 175^th floor fourteen more times before there were finally no more heartbeats to rescue. He wished he had Superman's breath to put out the flames but in the real world no living creature, powers or not, had the lung capacity for such a feat. Even if he did, even if it was like Superman's freeze breath, it would have done little more than to fan the inferno. What Wade could do was have the fire department give him a hose so he could fly it up to the 173^rd floor, where the plumbing, and therefore the built in fire hose stations, were still in working order. Once this was accomplished he began showering the entire area with water, even so the building had suffered a massive explosion, cause as yet undetermined, and temperatures were such that ending the blaze would take some time with only one hose.

After about an hour of bombarding the whole floor with a ceaseless stream of water the thick cloud of dark smoke finally began to clear and Wade could see that he had gotten the blaze under control for the most part. The walls had been stripped of most of their outer layers and the steel girders laid bare. The subtle squealing and moaning the structure began to make Wade uneasy and a sense of dread began to wash over him. As the steel supports holding the floor in place began to give in to the abuse they had suffered Wade used his heightened sense of sight in the increasing clear environment to isolate a support beam crossing the middle of the floor above him and likely the most stable support from which attempt preventing the floors collapse.

Again the reality of the physics and non-comic book world proved just how uncaring and deadly it could be on a whim. Even as Wade centered himself after levitating up to the beam to give himself the best position for stability and control the entire steel structure of the floor collapsed around him. The Harrington Tower was 203 stories tall, as floor number 175 collapsed, so did the support for the floors above it. In what seemed like an agonizingly slow motion disaster reel he was powerless to stop, Wade watched in horror as the top 28 floors fell around him and brought about the total collapse of the Harrington Tower. As the concrete, steel, and remaining humanity fell around him he could only watch in continuous shock as the building fell. Wade attempted to save some of the emergency workers stationed below only to have the rush of air ahead of him blow them into the very danger he was now desperate to save even just one soul from. In the end he saved none other than the fourteen he was able to get to. Somehow holding himself together he searched the wreckage of the Harrington Tower for survivors but found none. All within 300 feet of the building had died.

Wade flew off as fast and as high as he could. Hovering in the Stratosphere he sobbed violently and felt himself on the verge of madness.

“Why give me these powers if all I can do is watch people die?” Wade asked the extremely thin air around him.

Wade never knew how or why he developed his abilities and no longer cared. He hated them, he hated himself, he hated God if God truly existed which he felt now more than ever that he did not. God had sent Jesus to ease the suffering of others through self sacrifice and the divine gifts bestowed upon him. Wade was given the gifts, but denied the ability to sacrifice, and now it seemed he had also been deprived of ability to save.

Consumed by grief, rage, and an aching loneliness which Wade believed would never be filled he let out a aching scream which only the nitrogen surrounding him could hear.