Chapter 7: The FlashBack

“You don’t need to be nervous, dear. I’ve done this hundreds of times,” the sweet woman offered once Lucy had reached her. She held out her wrist that was already littered with teeth marks. Lucy’s mouth was salivating and filled with venom. Her fangs were already poking out of her mouth. She tried to remind herself this would be a normal and natural process - her new vampire body already knew what to do.

Lucy tentatively leaned down towards the woman’s wrist. Lucy closed her eyes and did her best not to think about the process. She was amazed how easily her teeth sunk into the woman’s flesh. It was like a knife through butter. Her blood spilled out into Lucy’s mouth and tasted sweeter and more delicious than anything she’d ever tasted. She wasn’t sure she could ever go back to bags. Lucy sucked and focused on the appetizing taste. For a brief moment, she opened her eyes to look at the woman and noticed she seemed as if in ecstasy.

Lucy looked up at the professor who was smiling down at her proudly. The professor moved to take notes on her pad. Lucy tried to focus on how she was feeling and could feel herself reaching a comfortable ‘full’ place. Lucy tried to listen to her body and retract her fangs but nothing was happening.

She looked up at the professor in a panic.

“It’s okay, Lucy, tell your body it is full. Just relax your jaw and retract your fangs. You must relax if this is going to work.”

Lucy did her best to relax and retract her fangs. She could feel them slowly moving in and her venom filling over the holes left in the woman’s arm. Lucy tried her best to relax and keep her fangs retracting. Slowly, she felt them come all the way up, and she pulled herself up off of the woman’s arm. She felt so proud of herself and excited that she had made it through. She couldn’t wait to find Veronika and Noah to let them know how well she had done.

Lucy backed away and watched as someone else moved forward and leaned down to the woman’s arm. She seemed fine, though a little peaked. The woman leaned back and smiled. Lucy thought it was an interesting experience to watch from the outside. She couldn’t imagine how it could be a pleasurable experience for humans. Lucy tried to think back to the night she was attacked. Her mind wracked around that painful experience and tried to focus on what it was like when she was bit. But all she could think of was his violent eyes and rough grip around her arms and abdomen.

Suddenly, Lucy felt herself feeling lost and out of control in the moment. She could feel herself shaking and the feeling of the moment overwhelmed her. Lucy couldn’t picture anything but his eyes staring down at her and his fearsome teeth biting into her. Lucy felt herself screaming out and did her best to punch him away from her.

“Lucy! Lucy!”

Lucy found herself surprised that the monster attacking her was screaming out her name. How did he know her name?

“Lucy! Stop hitting! It’s me! It’s Veronika!”

Lucy tried to stop, but the teeth kept coming after her. The man wouldn’t stop attacking. She screamed out again. She felt the monster holding her hands down, and she screamed harder and started kicking.

“Lucy, calm down, please! Stop kicking!”

Lucy closed her eyes and blinked a few times. The man faded, and she started to see Veronika’s face. Lucy stopped thrashing around and tried to take a deep breath.

“There you go, calm down.”

Lucy looked around to see the whole class was looking at her. Her professor was covering her mouth with concern. All the students were staring at her with confused and worried eyes. Even the humans were shaken out of their euphoric states.

“He was here, Veronika. I saw him,” Lucy whispered, doing her best to make sure no one else could make out what she was saying.

“Who? What do you mean?” Veronika asked. She reached out and rubbed Lucy’s arms and helped her sit more comfortably.

“The man, the man who attacked me. The m-monster was here.” Lucy covered her face with her hands and tried to keep herself from crying.

Veronika looked around and tried to encourage everyone to back up.

Veronika pulled Lucy to her feet and gave a suggestive look to the professor. The teacher started to pull people back and move them away from Veronika and Lucy. Veronika rubbed Lucy’s arms and pulled her out of the classroom into the fresh air of the night. Veronika guided Lucy over towards the tables in the courtyard.

“Okay, now try again. What happened? Are you okay?” Veronika asked.

“I don’t know. I was so excited I did well in drinking from a human. I was watching the next person start biting. I tried to picture how it could be pleasurable for humans, and I don’t know what happened. I just started to view his face, you know, the guy who attacked me, and suddenly I was there in the moment again, and I could feel him attacking me. It was so frightening.” Lucy looked around and suddenly felt confused. “What are you doing here? How did you know I was having trouble in class?”

“I just happened to be walking by. I was done with my class early, and I wanted to see how your first biting session went. Then I heard you screaming so I ran in.”

Lucy took a deep breath and shook her head.

“No, no, I just need to sit for a minute. Gosh! What if this starts to happen every time I try to drink from a human?” Lucy asked, feeling a wave of panic rush up through her. “I was so proud of myself for doing so well. I was so happy that I didn’t hurt anyone. Oh, Veronika, tell me I can recover from this!” Lucy was half pulled out of the chair letting the panic take her over completely. Veronika reached out and gently pushed Lucy back into her seat.

“Hey, hey. It’s going to be okay! Relax, you’re going to be just fine. You were really triggered by drinking blood. You tried to recall a painful memory.”

“You’re right, awww! I’m so stupid.” Lucy buried her face in her hands and screamed lightly. Veronika reached over and gently patted Lucy’s back.

“Hey, hey, come on. You’re not stupid. It’s natural you’d want to try to assimilate yourself in the situation. I’m so sorry it was so painful for you!” Veronika kept patting and reached over and hugged her. “That kind of thing hasn’t happened in hundreds of years, well except for the occasional person bit by a rogue, like you, but usually the rogues doesn't care enough to stop.”

“What? How did that happen? How did all vampires agree not to just kill people?” Lucy barked out.

“Well, clearly not all vampires agree. There are some wild rouges out there. But the vampires formed a council. They assigned leaders around the world and started creating different rules to keep everyone in line.” Veronika looked out and tried to recall all things she learned in earlier classes.

“This is all so crazy! I don’t know if I can keep doing this….”

“Well, sweetie, as far as I know there’s no cure for vampirism. That’s why there’s so many rules and regulations for changing people. This isn’t something you can just stop,” Veronika answered, trying to keep her voice as calm and sweet as possible.

“I know, I know. Thank you for trying to help. I think I just need to be alone.” Without another word, Lucy stood up and walked off into the night.