Convenience Nights: A Collection of Short Stories - Sample

Interview With a Vampire

"Are you a Vampire?" 

I blinked once, twice, observing the man in front of me. He just looked like the average bloke. Not the sort that normally blurted out such a dangerous question. I mean come on! This was an interview for some shitty night time clerks job. The dude was the owner of the convenience store. He was wearing corduroys!! 

I should leave.

The second I opened my mouth to speak changed my mind. I was going to say something like 'Dude, your crazy' or 'Pardon' while eyeing him like he had lost his freaking mind but, well, f**k it. I was bored.

This sap looked like he'd lose a fight with a paper bag. A wet paper bag.

His heart rate spiked and he was sweating bullets. Keith? Was that his name? I hadn't paid that much attention. Pretty sure it was Keith.

Keith's throat bobbed with a nervous swallow. 

"Yup." I told him simply. No fanfare. I waited. I s**t you not this Keith fella started to cry. Not 'OMG I'm gonna die' sort of crying. Nope, no sir. Our Keith was sniffling and blundering in relief. That's right, the corduroy wearing, scrawny, might faint at the sight of a paper cut was all teary because he was happy with my admission. 

"Thank God." He whispered, wiping his snotty nose. Right… Thank God… I could really do with this job. Regular income. I mean it wasn't like I couldn't get by. Not like I couldn't resort to other means either but I was trying to live better, do better, be better. It was lame. 

"This is weird. I'm leaving." Without pretending that I wasn't what I was I got up to leave. The night was still early, plenty of opportunity to find something to put enough dollars in my pocket for something to drink. Wouldn't be anything on the straight and narrow though. Who was I kidding anyway. Even if I had got this shitty job it wasn't like I would have started tonight. It wasn't like he would have paid me tonight either. 

Tonight was going to end like every other night this week. I'd be thirsty, bored and standing in some dank hole waiting for the sun to go down.

"No! Please! Don't leave." I stopped, hand on the door. Who knows why. Maybe it was the desperation in his voice. Maybe it was 'cos I was bored. I mean I didn't really care right? Right?

"What?" I looked at his sorrow filled tear stained face. If he asked me to turn him I was gonna kill him. Only idiots wanted this.

"What??" I demanded more forcefully. Maybe it was because I'd dropped the whole facade. I wasn't breathing, or blinking, or moving. I wasn't even suppressing my predator aura. Likely I'd made the guy choke. 

"I need your help. Please. Please." He begged. Humm, my help, really… my help. Hell help the poor cunt. Twiglet of the year Keith best not be about to say something stupid.

"The basement, I need you to come down to the basement." He asked with desperation clawing at every word. Heck no. I was not that dumb. Somewhere between me choosing whether to nope the f**k out of there or drink him dry Keith pipes up with "She's in the basement."

She.

I must be ready effing bored. 

"She?" I repeated. Keith was probably glad he hadn't completed the interview and hired me. I wasn't exactly showing great people skills.

"Please, will you just come look at her? Please?" This was a bad idea. Looking too often ended up with doing but still I took a step towards him and nodded.

I followed Keith through the back rooms. The stock room was tidy, clean and superbly organised. Bummer. Might have been a half decent place to work. 

At the very back of the store room there was a door with a big fat bolt top and bottom. Keith slid back both and produced a big jumble of keys. He had no trouble picking out the correct key, quickly unlocking the door and swinging it open to reveal a set of stairs. 

I had a feeling. Deep down I had a good idea about what was coming. There was still time for a surprise though, well maybe. Innocent looking Keith could have anything down in his basement. Maybe he was leading me into a trap. I shrugged inwardly. It would be something to do I supposed. 

He flipped the light switch. Keith went first taking the stairs one slow human step at a time. He was the kinda guy I would have expected to say 'guest first'. He didn't though. Maybe he didn't think it would impress me, maybe he thought, ahh I didn't care what he did or didn't think. I could smell his stress. Dude had a one track mind, find a Vamp get it in his basement. It would be a shock if Keith was thinking anything beyond that. 

Finally we reached the bottom of the stairs and I didn't have to look at the back of his head anymore. 

Oh s**t.

This was not what I was expecting. A possibility for sure. One that I had considered before making my way down into this rando's basement? Definitely not. 

Keith here was gonna have to do some explaining. This was not going to be something I could just walk away from. Well… I could, technically but new leaf and all. My moral compass had decided to surface as well. I think I'd rather be bored because this… this sucked.

The basement was mostly empty. There was just one thing. One little but big thing...What the hell Keith?

He nervously stroked his tie as we both watched the bundle in the corner unfurl. A mess of limbs threw themselves about wildly as they tried to get organised. There was scraping and growling and chains rattling until this tangle of dirty limbs became a person. A person with bright red eyes, feral snarling face and shredded clothes. I took a second to assess the restraints; pretty thick chains, should hold.

Now for Keith. Couldn't quite bring myself to be mad at this wispy looking man. Afterall I didn't know what the story was and I'd mostly learnt to stop jumping to conclusions.

"What's her name?" I asked, eyes still on the figure in front of me. Poor thing.

"Courtney." He whispered.

"Courtney. OK. Who is Courtney to you?" I didn’t have to find out, it wasn't going to change what I needed to do but it was the most interesting thing to have happened in a while so I might as well make the most out of it.

"My Sister, older by 10 years." Keith told me. "Is there a way to change her back?"

"Nope." I managed to sound sad about that. I was sad. 

"Will you kill her?" His voice, hollow as it was, echoed around the basement. She went wild, well more wild, slamming the chains, growling and snarling with vigor. Shifting back and forth at speed. Well … he'd said it now. Couldn't put that cat back in the bag.

"Let's talk up stairs." I turned and left without waiting for Mr Corduroy. 

My brain was vaguely starting to mull things over. Unassuming Keith was more interesting than he first seemed. Spotted I was a Vampire and called me out on it, then bold as brass asks me to kill his sister. Things come in threes right? Well, it would be interesting to see what madness was coming up next. It would fill, what? Like a jiffy of my long and unending lifespan. 

Yeh that's right, jiffy is an actual measurement of time, look it up if you don’t believe me.

Keith trudged up the stairs with slow scraping steps, emerging a paler and older looking man. Deciding to give Kieth a break, I took liberties and grabbed us both a beer from the sales floor.

“Err, thanks I guess?” He said as I handed him his beer. 

“Sooooo, Keith… you got a lot of explaining to do.” I whistled before taking a big swig of my scrounged beer. 

“It’s Kennith.” He corrected, giving me a slightly peeved look. I shrugged.

“I like Keith better.” I didn’t care what his name was. “Start talking.”

“My parents died two years ago, Father died of cancer and Mom called me to give some very specific instructions which she then followed up with ‘goodbye son, I love you’ before there was the sound of a gunshot.” He looked at the beer, sighed and took a big gulp. “So I rushed right over there. Mom was dead in the hall, Dad dead in bed and a big fat letter waiting for me. Turns out I wasn’t an only child like I thought. They only had me after whatever happened to Courtney happened. In the letter they begged me to take care of her and left instructions on what to do. I couldn’t afford to keep the house so I sold it and moved her here.” There was a defeatedness about him.  

“You feed her?” I knew the answer, I saw how bright her eyes were but I was a mean Vampire and wanted to hear him confess.  

“Yes.” He gulped. Ahh poor Keith, I tried not to laugh, life could be so cruel. 

“So you were just holding interviews for night clerks to… ah wait no I see, get the meals to come to you. Smart, interview them, pick the ones with no family yadda yadda. Me showing up was just a stroke of luck.” I grinned. Somehow I was actually starting to enjoy myself.       

“Will you help me? I can pay” Keith asked without looking at me.

“What exactly do you want me to do Keith?” He scowled a bit. I was gonna kill Courtney either way. If someone from my neck of the woods found out I’d left without dealing with her I would be wishing I were dead. Ok, ok, I’ll confess some days I did kinda wish that but this would be a whole different kind of wishing. 

“I want you to kill her, she’s a monster. It doesn’t matter how much I feed her she never gets better. She can’t even talk.” Keith rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand and started tearing up. “Now I’m a monster too. Kill us both, you can have everything. My money, I’ve got like $400,000 left from the sale of the house, you can have my store and my apartment. Everything. Please just end this.”   

“I don’t know anything about running a store.” I shrugged. I could sell it I suppose. Was I really considering this? Meh, something to do right? 

“I could teach you, or you could sell it? I mean you won’t get back what I paid but it wouldn't matter to you and I’d be dead… so I wouldn’t care.”  Keith's fingers drummed on his beer bottle.  

“Alright then.” I put my hand out to shake on our deal. 

“You’ll do it?” He looked relieved. 

“Yup. I’ll put Courtney out of her misery and you.” Keith reached for my hand. So eager. “And you are going to hand over all your assets and spend a week teaching me how to run the store.” Keith’s hand stopped just shy.

“A week?”

“Yup, what a week too much or too little?” I looked at him not caring either way.

“A week for me is… ok but Courtney?” Oooo he didn’t want to have to feed her again. Hum, wonder what he thought I was gonna eat? I’m a big boy though, didn’t need our Keith here to rustle me anything up.

“Courtney goes tonight.” I said with a wiggle of my brows. Keith’s hand slammed right into mine. “Excellent, dying to ask - is it Courtney with a C or a K?” 

“With a K.” He said sullenly.

“Bummer so you really were a replacement kid huh? Sucks. Kourtney and Kennith bet they hated that you were a boy.” I chuckled, much to my new teacher's disapproval. “Ok, Kennith…” Ugh felt weird to say, Keith was much better but hey, poor bloke didn’t need me being a total ass. “Let’s get this done, you want to watch?”

Keith (I couldn’t stop calling him that in my head) pulled at his thin limp tie. His heart beat soared.

“You know you want to.” I urged him. Humans *eye roll* always denying their base desires. 

“Ye. Yeh I think I do.” Keith admitted. Good boy. With a little come hither wave and a wicked smile I headed to the basement, Keith hot on my heels. It wasn’t that I was going to enjoy killing poor Kourtney. Nope, nope can’t do it. Courtney, with a ‘K’ was just stupid. What I liked was that Keith wasn’t going to pass this up. Being Courtneys keeper must have ruined his life. 

“So, do you know how this happened to her?” I asked out of curiosity, taking the basement stairs at a relaxed human pace. 

“They didn’t say in the letter and I wasn’t born at the time so no clue.” Keith said, a little defeated. 

“Well, Kennith,” I said carefully, making sure I got his name right, “the where, who and why aren’t something I can answer but I can tell you the how?”

“How?” Keith said from behind me. 

“There are two ways. Number 1. A ritual; involving dark magic, human sacrifice and demon summoning.” I looked at Courtney who looked right back with her wild, vicious, red eyes. “Number 2. Being drained by a Vampire and then drinking their blood. Both have varying degrees of success, Number 2 is much less likely to result in anything functional but performing either on a child…” The darkness in that thought pressed on me. “Your unfortunate sister was a victim of method two, painful and terrifying to the point of destroying her young undeveloped mind. You want to say anything before I end her?”        

“No.” He gulped, eyes locked on his sister. She was wild. Her hair probably would have been long but it was so knotted and tangled, sticking out left and right. Couldn’t blame anyone really, even I wouldn’t have wanted to try and fix that and she wouldn’t even be able to do me that much damage. It’s a shame Keith didn’t know ‘who done it’ as it were; I would have hunted them down and destroyed them. Now that would have been something to do.

Vampires were not known for being a moral bunch but on the whole, when it came to turning children, we were on the same page. It was a HUGE no. So now I had to kill the poor, broken little thing. 

“Hey, Courtney.” Smiling as her bright red eyes and snarling face locked on to me I took a step forward. She tried her best to be intimidating, flashing her fangs and straining against her restraints but I wasn’t frightened of a scrawny child Vampire. At the same time though I wasn’t going to underestimate her, she looked 10 sure but she was… I looked at Keith. “How old are you?” 

“Err 42.” Keith answered, confused. 

Ok, there we go, she looked 10 but she had been a Vampire for 42 years. I took a dime out of my pocket. 

“Shiny.” I waved the coin, her eyes followed it; perfect. I tossed the coin up. It sang through the cool basement air and Courtney’s eyes followed it. Moving at top Vampire speed I launched myself across the room sliding in behind her. Acting on my predator instinct I leapt up, one foot on each of her tiny shoulders, two hands gripping her small head. Twist. Pull. Pop. 

The coin hit the floor. 

In a swift motion I flipped the head over, rammed my hand straight through the flesh and into the skull using my fingers to turn the brain to a scrambled mess. Then before the headless body could reach the ground I exchanged having my hand inside her skull to having it groping around in her chest. Finding her heart quickly I ripped it out and ate it. 

Keith, bless him, just watched in shock. 

The rush of power from eating her little heart dramatically improved my mood. It had been a while. 

“Right Kennith,” I said, putting Courtney in the corner and throwing a tarp over her, “shall we start?”     

 “Ss-tart what?” His eyes were fixed on the covered pile formally known as Courtney.

“Teaching me the art of running a convenience store.” I licked my fingers. 

“Yyyeh. Sss-ure.” Keith - ah wait, screw it, he might seem like a Keith to me, come on! what are two ‘nn’s’ really? but after the way he handled himself he deserved some respect. Seriously, I’d expected him to vomit or faint or something. Kennith turned his back on me and led the way up into the stock room. 

1 Week later.

“Well, I think that’s everything covered.” Kennith looked at me expectantly. “The um, the week is up.” His heart hammered in his chest and I could smell the sweat starting to coat his skin. 

“You sure you want to do this Kennith?” I had come to be a teensy bit fond of this cordaroy wearing, twiglet impersonator. 

“I can’t live with what I’ve done, If you don’t, I will soo…” He shrugged. Humm.     

“Waste not, want not, I suppose.” I showed Kennith my fangs and he didn’t back away. “If you’re sure you have everything in order and it’s what you want then I’ll shut up shop and kill you.” 

“Sounds great.” Kennith sighed. I whizzed around, flipping the closed sign, locking doors, pulling down shutters and closing off the cash register. Kennith waited.

“Ok! All locked up. Ready?” I shook off the human pretense and let my Vamp side show.

“Yeh.” Kennith swallowed. When I stepped towards him his whole body tensed before he screwed his eyes shut and cringed. 

“Kennith… relax.” I chuckled. I put my hand on his chest, right over his pounding heart. “Let’s go to your, soon to be my, office.” 

In the office I cleared Kennith’s desk with one big sweep of my arm before sitting on it legs apart, dangling over the side. 

“Come sit.” I patted the space between my thighs. This was going to be a nice, calm, pleasant feeding. Been some time since I’d had more than a stolen sip or a flailing unwilling victim.  

“It’s not… you’re not…” Kennith looked confused.

“Gonna rip your head off like I did to Courney? Nope. That finishing move is for Vampires only.” I winked. “This will be a more refined experience. Honestly Kennith I like you and I think you’re being hard on yourself. I’ve killed waaaay more people than you and a lot of the time I wanted to do it so zero judgement from me but if you really want to die I’m not going to dissuade you.” I patted the desk again. Kennith came over, a massive bundle of nerves, and sat on the desk between my legs. Ooooo this was so exciting. 

“I’m ready.” Kennith said as bravely as he could muster. Resisting the urge to laugh, I pulled Kennith in a little closer so that his back was pressed up against my chest. He was so tense as my hands began loosening the ugly striped tie he had on. 

“Relax, I’ll be gentle.” I whispered in his ear. Kennith tried to take some slow steady breaths as I threw his tie across the room and opened up his collar. When I kissed his neck he jumped. 

“What are you doing?!” He asked in alarm as my hands started working on his belt and fly.

“Kennith.” I tutted. “Trust me, relax, s*x and feeding go hand in hand. We can go all the way if you want but I didn’t think you would want that.” I slipped my hand into his boxers, wrapping my hand around his very unaroused manhood. “This will be the best experience of your life, I promise. It will be ecstasy.” He made a noise of uncertainty as I nuzzled his neck. Umm, the smell of his skin and sound of the blood rushing through his body was lighting me up. My fangs were itching to feel the heat, in my younger days I wouldn’t have had such restraint but with time I’d been able to find more control.

“Is, is this really necessary?” Kennith said in reference to my hand still around his flaccid c**k. At this point in time it was the only part of him that was relaxed.   

“Kennith…” I started, “you are my meal. If I don’t do this,” I rubbed his p***s, feeling it stiffen very slightly under the pressure, “then not only will you not taste as nice, it’s going to hurt. Do you want it to hurt?” 

“No.” He relaxed just a little.

“Do… you want to change your mind?” I asked him. As into this meal as I was, if Kennith wanted to change his mind this was a good place to stop. Any further along and there would be no stopping me. 

“No, I’m not changing my mind, I just didn’t expect this.” Kennith shuffled slightly.

“Ok, close your eyes and think of something that turns you on. I’ll take care of the rest, you won’t even notice the world disappearing. Ok?” 

“Ok.” He whispered. I began kissing and licking his neck with more fervour, preparing the area for my bite. Kennith’s member began to steadily grow in my hand, with each twitch and pulse as it became engorged his scent sweened. His neck was like the flesh of ripest fruit. With one final sniff of the boquet I bit. 

Kennith’s moan filled the room. His d**k was now rock hard and mine was just as excited. With immense effort I worked to drink steadily, enjoying the feed and not rushing it.      

Kennith’s heartbeat was delightfully fast, but not in fear, I couldn't taste even the smallest drop of fear in his blood. Good for Kennith and well done to me! My dinner pressed back into me, his breathing a mess as the apex neared. I slowed my hand.     

Kennith groaned. I couldn’t let him c*m yet, there was still so much to drink. Over and over I brought him to the edge while I fed. The blood was sweet and hot. 

“Please.” Kennith begged, weakly rolling his hips. It was time. Any longer and there wouldn’t be enough blood to keep Kennith’s soldier standing. 

“Ohha Vlad!” Kennith sighed his last words, an exhalation of ecstasy as his body jerked and convulsed violently. He was dying and cumming at the same time. His balls were tight up against my fist, his c**k was spurting c*m like a fire hose and his heart was imploding as I sucked up those last endorphine infused drops of blood. Kennith went limp in my arms.

And that, I kid you not, is how I became the proud owner of ‘Keith’s Konvenience’. Humm yes with a ‘K’ because why the f**k not!