People-Watching

Chapter One of Velma the Vegan Vampire continues from yesterday:

For the story so far, click here

*

When she clocked out four hours later, Velma headed straight for the nearest pub. She was absolutely famished and wouldn’t be able to think about anything else until she’d done something about it.

Luckily the place was packed so she grabbed a seat at the only vacant table, by the toilets, and began to people-watch.

Despite the pub being quite close to her work, she was glad to see no familiar faces. She hadn’t gone there before because she didn’t want to run into anyone she knew. And usually she’d wear a wig, or a hood. Something to protect against recognition. Stay anonymous. But there hadn’t been time today. She was so hungry.

Inside the place was now standing room only, and not much of that. The noise reminded her of a school dinner hall with the added charm of a well-paid jukebox. Two women stumbled into her on their way to the toilets.

“Sorry,” they laughed as they righted themselves and tottered to the Ladies on heels too high.

Velma ignored them and looked at the plastic-covered menu on the table. The animal flesh and excretions choices were extensive – more than thirty tortured options. Disgusted but not surprised, she turned the menu over to look for vegan options. There were two.

“Is anyone sitting here?” a greasy man with a plate of greasy food and a sloshing pint of beer sat down clumsily opposite Velma. He picked up a chicken leg before pushing his plate towards her, offering to share.

She shook her head, “No thanks.”

“Not hungry?” he laughed drunkenly, spraying some of his mouthful back onto his plate. “Watching your figure?” He laughed again.

He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and looked more closely at Velma. “Hey, don’t I know you?”

“I don’t think so.” She hoped not.

“I’m Dwayne. Does that ring a bell?” He raised his eyebrows with the question, leaning forward as if to get a closer look at her. “What’s your name?” She leaned back, narrowly avoiding the stinky burp that came next. He laughed and put on a posh voice, “Ooh, sorry m’lady, beg pardon but I …” then stopped talking suddenly, trying to focus his bleary eyes on something over her shoulder. “What the -?”

Velma was so hungry that she hadn’t noticed the mirror on the wall behind her. It was only a small one and it had a beer company logo painted large across it. But it was a mirror nonetheless and didn’t reflect her.

Velma smiled at the greasy man. “Ahh, you got me!” She leaned sideways as he tried to put his hand on her head, looking at the reflection of his hand with no head under it. “Yes, I am a vampire.” She admitted. “Don’t do that.”

At first he said nothing. Then he snorted. “Come on – this is some kind of trick. A trick mirror. Very clever – you almost had me then.” He took a swig of his pint, chuckled again, “good trick, you almost had me,” and put a rasher of bacon in his mouth.

Velma cringed at the thought of biting down on his greasy skin but was too hungry to be fussy. “It’s not a trick,” she told him. “I am a vampire. Have been for nearly forty years now.”

“Forty years? You don’t look a day over thirty nine love,” he giggled as he licked the bacon fat off his fingers. “Yeah right – you’re an evil undead blood-sucker!”

“Nope. Not evil. I don’t kill innocents.”

“Oh, right, you’re one o’ them good vampires are ya?” he glugged down the rest of his pint and concluded with a loud burp. “Tortured soul, gotta drink pigs’ blood to survive?”

Velma shook her head and sighed. “What did I just say?” she asked him testily. “I. Don’t. Kill. Innocents!”

The greasy man’s jaw dropped as Velma’s eyes filled with black and she pulled his hand across the table towards her. As the music blared and the drunken crowd enjoyed themselves, she sunk her teeth into the radial artery at his wrist and finally satisfied her ravenous hunger. Then, leaving his drained body slumped against the wall, she grabbed a napkin from the dispenser on the bar, wiped her mouth clean as she left the pub unnoticed, and walked home.

*

Chapter Two begins tomorrow, but you can read it now if you don’t want to wait 😉

Violet’s Vegan Comics – creating funny, exciting and sometimes slightly creepy vegan fiction since 2012