Doobie’s response was incredibly loud and unexpected. She threw her hands in the air as if in worship and shouted, “I knew it! By the Observer, I knew it. People called me nuts for years, but I held fast to my faith and now it finally pays off!”
“What? I’m sorry, but I don’t know what you mean. You knew what?”
“I knew that you all couldn’t be gone! After all of these years, I figured at least one of you would resurface. So are you a hundred percenter or only a fifty – wait! Don’t tell me, let me guess. I’d say a fifty percenter!”
I had to stop her there. “Wait, what? I don’t get what any of that means. I don’t even know for sure what’s going on with me.”
“A fifty percenter is someone who’s been turned into a vampire by another vampire. You see…there are three types of vampires. Hundred percenters or ‘true vampires’ are born into their vampirism from a mother who is a vampire. Their father may or may not be a vampire, but as long as they spent their gestation period inside of a vampire…nourished by the blood of humans, they are considered one hundred percent…even if their mom is only a fifty percenter. A seventy percenter is also born, but are not born from a vampire mother. Their vampire genes come from only their father. Some may argue that there is a 4th type of vampire…a master vampire who is born from two parents that were born into vampirism, but in my opinion…that makes things more complicated than it needs to be.”
I was thoroughly confused, “Yeah, it sounds complicated enough already. What’s the test?”
Doobie’s eyes never left the mirror as she spoke. “It’s all in your reflection. If you can see your reflection, then you’re not a vampire. But if you can’t, you are! Simple as that!”
“What? Of course, I have a reflection,” I argued.
I didn’t even have to fully turn my head. My peripheral vision was already showing me that Doobie’s was the only reflection in the mirror.
“You see? You have no reflection. You are in fact, a vampire.”
Doobie stepped to the side to give me a moment for it all to sink in. The longer I stared at the spot in the mirror where my reflection should have been, the less logical my argument became.
In a voice weakened by reality, I questioned Doobie further. “So what does this mean?” I asked.
“It means exactly what you think it means, honey-”
Doobie’s voice took on a sudden air of excitement as if she had reached an epiphany, “- you are a full-fledged vampire! From your reaction, and lack of knowledge, I’m guessing you weren’t born that way. Another vampire had to have turned you. Ode to the Observer! That means that there’s more than one of you! How delightful! Do you know who it was that turned you?”
“No!” I turned to face her, growing more and more frustrated by the second. She was gaining an awful lot of joy from my unfortunate predicament. “So, can you help me? Your paper seemed to imply that you could help me with my thirst problem. Is that true?”
She thought about it for a few moments. “Well…I suppose I do have something that can help you, at least in the short term.”
Doobie held out her hands and did a short dramatic dip, before continuing… “Me… you can drink from me!”
I was astounded. “What? You want me to – drink your blood?” I was appalled, but the darkness stirred a bit at the thought. “I couldn’t do that!”
Doobie rubbed her hands together, as she practically begged… “Oh, please do! I’d be honored! It’s been my lifelong dream to help nourish a real-life vampire!”
I had to clarify. “So you want me to bite you and,” I tried to swallow my repulsion before I repeated my question; hoping to get a different answer, “actually suck your blood?”
She answered my question with two questions, “Wouldn’t that help you out? What better way to satisfy your thirst, than by drinking from a willing fresh source?”
I still had reservations, but the darkness did not. The conscientious part of me seemed to be pushed to the background…screaming ‘nooo, don’t do it’ for a while. But as I stepped closer to Doobie and pulled her to where I could almost taste the regular vibrations of her pulse in the air… I felt almost intoxicated and the nonexistent voice retreated to the realm of the imagined.
I wanted to taste her so bad. I moved in close…but when my teeth were mere inches away from her neck, I paused to ask one question, “What if I can’t stop?”
The second my teeth pierced her skin…I realized something. It wasn’t the darkness that had asked that question. It wouldn’t have asked. It was me… the real me.
The darkness no longer felt like a foreign invader. For the first time, I realized that we had merged. We weren’t two separate beings; we were one and the same.
I was not afraid that I’d lose control and suck too much. I was in full control. I always was in full control. The only thing that had changed was that I had let the internal struggle go. I’d finally conceded and accepted both parts of myself.
I drank my fill and pulled away from Doobie. She let out another almost orgasmic moan. I wiped away any leftover blood from my lips.
I smiled as warmness filled me from the inside. I was satisfied… not just part of me, but my whole being. I felt renewed, happy, as if this was some sort of baptism for my soul.
Doobie took a few unsteady steps and reentered her showroom. Her voice held the shaky cadence of someone heavily inebriated, “Tha…that, was…a…ama-zing!”
Then she slowly crumbled to the floor. As I watched her fall, I let out a shout of fright, “Doobie! Are you okay?”
I was afraid for just a moment until I stepped close enough to see that I hadn’t killed her. She was still breathing.
She had just fainted from losing so much blood so quickly.
