There was a lot about the COVID-19 virus that wasn’t understood. For the health of the general population, being put on lockdown was completely understandable. But knowing the reason and even agreeing with it doesn’t make it any easier to endure.<br><br>Clay is beginning to feel the mental strain of being at home all the time. He is sick of his furniture, sick of his books, and sick of everything else in his bubble world. That’s the reason he sneaks out to go for nocturnal walks around the neighbourhood. And he isn’t the only one. One evening, he begins to regret he ever left the house.<br><br>As walks past an abandoned wreck of a building in a very unsavoury part of town at night, he gets a sense he is no longer alone. He picks up the pace and hurries away, but no matter what he does, he can’t shake the feeling someone, or something, is following him. He calls out into the darkness and immediately regrets it. Rather than knowing if anyone is there, he’d much rather know if he’s going to make it home or not.

The Visitor

“And then what happened?” asked Clay, who was comfortably on his side, his head propped up by his arm.


“And then I drifted into a deep sleep. When I woke up, Bluekin was gone. I fell immediately back to sleep and slept the whole day. I think that was the protective mechanism of my new self. If I’d gone out into the daylight, I would have cooked.


“The next night, realising I couldn’t stay at the commune any longer without arousing suspicion, I fled into the forest. I lived there for quite some time before eventually, over the period of a couple of years, making it to the city.”


After hearing the vampire’s tale, Clay felt strangely drawn to the creature. All his fear was gone. Replacing it was a sense of fascination, and perhaps a tinge of sadness. But there was something else mixed in with those feelings. Something quite unexpected.


Chapter 5