Rejuvenation

Rohit looked ahead at the main road where those cloaked men disappeared to and then back down at the vampire. ‘Would they be able to treat her?’ he wondered, but then shook his head. ‘Nonsense… They’re the ones who shot her, so they can’t have good intentions, duh.’ He exhaled and looked over at his car, which was behind the building in a small lot a little ways from where those cloaked figures emerged from. He thought about just putting her in his car after he went back inside the store and secured a few trash bags and towels. ‘At least that way she wouldn’t mess up the seating,’ he thought. ‘My brother’s gonna have something to say if it’s messy in there…’ Rohit looked down at the young woman and whispered to her, “I’ll be right back,” but she didn’t reply, since she’d been fatigued.

He finally turned the corner and entered the convenience store, where there were still no customers at this time of the morning, as it was about a half hour before the manager normally shows up.

Usually people would walk in wanting their coffee and breakfast sandwiches, but there was surprisingly no one still.

Rohit deduced it to be from the rain. ‘But even in rain they’d find a way to get their coffee… I wonder what’s going on?’ he debated in his thoughts.

“Everything okay, Rohit?” the other overnight worker asked him, seconds after he entered, as he looked up from his phone from leaning over the counter, next to the cash register.

“Yeah,” the young man plainly responded, swiftly making his way to the back room, where he procured the necessary supplies he needed.

After he emerged, his coworker looked up from his phone again and asked, “And where are you going with all that?”

Rohit briefly froze, before continuing his brisk walk to the glass door, looking over at him and came up with an excuse. “I spilled some trash out back...”

“Oh okay… Need some help?”

“Nah, I’ll be all right, James, thanks—”

“Dude, check this out,” he said, holding up his phone to show Rohit a video.

“… Not now, man…” the young man politely declined, and remembered something. “Oh! Almost forgot…” He reminded his coworker to stock the soda shelves from inside the cooler.

It was a ploy to keep the distracted coworker busy, but also a genuine reminder of one of his assigned tasks that James intentionally left to do towards the end of the shift. When the manager walked in in the next half hour, he’d see that he was doing something productive, considering it was a slow night.

With James acknowledging that he had to do that, preferring to wait for his coworker to return from the dumpster, Rohit went to the kitchen again, where he gathered the remaining trash, which were bagged in cardboard boxes, making carrying out a little easier than carrying the bags alone. He looked at the raw chicken bags in them, which had traces of blood and water mixed in. “This is still blood, hopefully it’ll work,” he muttered under his breath.

“You say something?” James asked, looking up from his phone again.

“The coffee beans are filled right? It’s almost 4:30.”

“Yeah, they’re good,” he replied, staring at the self-service coffee brewing machines that crushed the beans on site for a fresh cup every time. “Actually, I think I might get a cup before we leave. Would you like one?”

“I’m good…” Rohit quickly remarked, as he approached the glass door again.

Instead of following through with the coffee, the hefty worker continued watching his phone.

‘Maybe it’s good you’re not so interested.’ he thought, glancing back at him after exiting the store.

He headed back out to Ingrid, who continued to lay next to the dumpster like an abandoned body. Rohit apologized to the vampire’s unconscious self, and knelt beside her with the bag of chicken blood. He tried to get a response from her, by gently shaking her shoulders and tapping her soft face, making sure it was okay to even feed this to her.

Ingrid’s body was still stiff, as her medium chest slowly continued to heave, indicating she was still alive.

As soon as Rohit lifted the rain beaten bag of chicken blood to the young woman’s lips, Ingrid’s nose twitched and her eyes shot open.

They were midwinter blue before they turned crimson, as she snatched the bag from his hands and drank the blood from the three he had. It was a ghastly sight the way she slurped the pungent liquid. Rohit knew the raw chicken that dwelled inside it before and crinkled his face at the sight, yet continued to watch as she scarfed down the watered down blood.

Ingrid smiled, as she said, “Thanks for the meal.” Her fair skin seemed to gain some color after consuming the blood, as there was a subtly noticeable difference in her once cold and pale skin. The shade of white toned down ever so slightly, bringing life back into the young woman’s body.

Not long after she retained her color, the open bullet wounds of Ingrid’s skin pushed out the metal rounds, as she healed herself. The young vampire exhaled with relief, as her eyes returned to their azure color. Her four fangs retracted to normal, flat teeth too.

“Uh…” Rohit noticed, dumbfounded, and rubbed his eyes. “Did that really just happen?”

Ingrid nodded with a smile. “Yes.” She stood up and began approaching the young man, but he stepped back and stumbled into the brick wall. She placed both palms on the wall beside his head even though she was shorter than him, as her slender frame boxed him in.

“What’s happening right now?” Rohit wondered, with droplets dripping from his trimmed beard and face. “Are you gonna drink my blood now or something?” he asked nonchalantly, before sighing. “Well… I guess there’s no way around it.” The young man turned to the right, exposing his neck. “Do your thing, I guess…”

She didn’t answer at first, as she continued gazing into the young man’s cinnamon eyes, and then at his neck with fascination. She simply smiled, before giggling at his comedic gesture of relinquishing himself to suddenly be her blood partner. “No…” she sweetly replied, softening her eyes, as she gently turned Rohit’s face so she could look at him. “I think I’ll stick by you for a while… you’re a very interesting specimen.”