the good fight

Teddy's stomach turned when he looked at the door to the lovely little manor he'd come to call a sort of second home. After centuries of waiting to be welcome, he was unaccustomed to knowing he could walk right through that wooden frame and not watch his skin blister and boil at his intrusion. 

Walking through, he tried to ignore the dizziness creeping down his spine as the spirit of the house took time to check and recheck that he'd been invited. She awoke whenever Theodore came to visit, blinking into consciousness with an intangible alertness as she panicked about his vile, evil essence. He could feel her confusion, her want to protect all those who lived within her; other guests and residents were safer than the unholy, the undead. Shuddering, he turned his collar up against the frigid cold of the house's disdain, one of the only things he could feel against departed skin. 

He moved quickly into the kitchen, avoiding the contact he sought. He'd given Hailey the week off, one shaky phone call while he stared at a corpse, mangled and unrecognizable at his feet. How he'd been so moronic as to forget to feed until he lost himself to his demons, he didn't know, but the rumors of bears in the city, the whispers of keeping children inside--they were all to much for him.

Now, spoiled by the modern fearlessness in people, he softly yearned for the sound of beating hearts around him, the slow tick of life passing by him, frozen in time, a drug to his dull senses. He allowed himself a reprieve from his self-sentenced isolation and poured himself a glass of water, all but useless to him without the single drop of scarlet liquid he swiftly dropped into the glass. It was by no means meant to sustain him, but it was quite enough for the flavor of the soul to burst across his tongue and keep him satisfied while surrounded by sanguine beating through veins all around him, all available and so vulnerable.

Wood creaked behind him and he turned slowly, meeting the gaze of a stranger and suddenly regretting ever visiting at all.

Vampire [vampyre]

Vampires are folkloric revenants who subsist by feeding on the blood of the living. They are often described as pale "corpses," adopting the pallor of the dead as they are intolerant of direct sunlight. Some are fabled to have bat-like qualities, such as nightmarish wings for efficient hunting. All bear the striking, iconic set of sharp canines that may or may not elongate, depending on the creature.