Vampire Eyes

• Eleanor Howes, Grade 9
• Short Story
• 2013

My feet thumped against the ground. My breath came in short, sharp breaths searing my throat on the way down. A stich seared my right side.
I was running.
Running from them.
My name is Ebony Macken and I am running from the vampires. They have been hunting the humans for around twenty years. They are stronger, faster and much more deadly than us. I have been on my own since the vampires killed my parents. They found us in the night, my parents fought them, screaming at me to run, I was twelve. It’s been three years and I still hear the screams.

They are gaining on me, I think there are only three, but it only takes one. I sprint down a dark alley between two dark buildings. When the vampires took over they said they would make our lives better, they provided us with unlimited amounts of food and water, better technology, now I realize it’s fattening us up for slaughter. The people who hated the vampires, like me, went into hiding. We run from them everyday, fighting to survive.

I can’t hear them but that doesn’t mean much, they can be as silent as the night if they want. I can’t believe I had come out here, my stomach took over my brain. I have barely eaten in two days. It’s not that I didn’t have anything to eat, the vampires provided lots for everyone in the area. It’s that I didn’t want to eat anything that they gave me, it was a matter of principle. Still, it was stupid to come back, I knew the risk, and everyone had warned me against stealing the food from the factories, the city was crawling with vampires, ready to pick their dinner.

They were so close. If they needed to breath I bet I would feel their breath on my neck. I didn’t dare look behind me. The vampire’s stare is fatal. I’ve heard stories of people being hypnotized by their eyes, I didn’t really believe it but you can’t be too careful. I run down another alley and jumped over a small chain-link fence. I needed to stop my legs were shaking. I jumped over an overturned bin that loomed up out of the darkness and skidded round another corner, my old runners were rubbing against my feet. I ran inside an empty building and hid behind an old desk, I covered my mouth with my hand and tried to control my breathing, I heard the door creak open, my heart raced and I started to shake. They would find me, and then they would kill me.
‘Well, well, well, look what we have here, you put up a good fight, but I always like a runner.’ A silky voice said.
I didn’t look up, maybe I could get away, a hand grabbed my shoulder and lifted me up. I looked up and stared into the blood red eyes of the vampire who would kill me.