Electric blue

(Originally written September/October 1990)

The stars shone in the velvet darkness of the night. Claire watched them silently, back resting against her bedroom wall. A worn toy rabbit in one hand, and tears in her eyes. Her cat lay asleep in her lap, shedding its ginger hair on her velvet birthday dress. She sat and watched the stars of the heavens wheel past her window. The quiet glow of the street lamps casting shadows on her, from the trees outside. She stroked the cat, and listened to the dull throb of the music from the house next door. Her sadness took the music, and blended it into a surreal funeral dirge for her parents. A small pearl, welled up in one of her eye's and slowly rolled down her face, glittering in the star-light.

 Throughout the history of Man, there have been many breeds of vampire. The human ones, who prey on the failure of others, the opportunists who feed on war and strife... There are also the true vampires, those who feed on the blood of humans, their fear...

 Technology has produced its own vampires, the computer, the television... Here, Man, has only himself to blame for the things he has created.

 The human mind, it is said, is separate from the brain. And yet it cannot operate, in what we call the real world, without it. If the mind could be considered a field of energy, then what would take advantage of this phenomena. There are many types of vampire in the world, are there vampires of the mind?

 Claire waited for it to come. She knew it would, it couldn't resist returning to the place it had destroyed it's creator. To gloat? Maybe, but not for any length of time. She was prepared, she was waiting. Another tear rolled down her cheek, and splashed onto the rabbit. It hung in the fur, shimmering like a new diamond.

 Claire's father had been an inventor of some repute. He had designed and constructed many different machines. Many of his inventions had made millions, but Claire's father only got a fraction of this wealth. It was more than enough to allow them to live comfortably for the rest of their lives though. And in this respect, they were happy.

 Claire thought back, and remembered. The memories were coloured gold, and edged in love.

 One day, her father was approached to do a job. Claire's father, having assumed a retired attitude to Jobs, automatically declined. The customer was a tall thin, gangling man. He had a gaunt, grey face. And he looked at the world through cold blue eyes, and a frozen stare. He never looked at you, always through. As if you were not important, but whatever behind you was.

 Claire's father and the man argued for over an hour. Claire remembered veiled threats at the end, then her father stopped arguing. His face, drawn and sullen. They talked for three more hours, and then the man left. Her father stood up from the kitchen table, and slowly walked up the stairs with the air of a man defeated and scared. He started to pack a small suitcase, as Claire walked into her parents bedroom and sat down. She watched him in silence. Her chestnut coloured eyes following his slow, deliberate, movements. Eventually he layed the suitcase down on the floor, and sat on the bed next to his daughter. He avoided looking into her eyes, as he told her the lie.

"Darling, when mummy comes home, tell her that I have had to go away on business. And that I don't know when I'll be back. Tell her that I'll write you a letter as soon as I can." He leaned over, and kissed her on the forehead. Then he gave her a long hard hug, trying desperately not to cry. Knowing, that he might not ever see his wife and daughter again.

 They stayed like that, for what seemed like hours. Then he let go, and walked out of Claire's life for two years.

 Claire was twelve when he returned. She had grown up quite a bit, but the man who returned wasn't the father that had left. He was continuously nervous, and was startled at the slightest sound. He forced everyone to earth themselves, before he let them into the house. Television and radio was banned, and those things that were left were powered by a small petrol generator, that her father put in the back garden. Claire's friends were even asked to remove their personal stereos, before they were let into the house.

 His paranoia affected anything to do with electricity. Anything, but his computer. This had it's own power supply, and he worked with it incessantly. Claire would sit and watch him sometimes, the concentration with which he worked was frightening. And sometimes she would sit there, and try not to cry, and ask why he was this way?

 Then, one day, he leaned back in his chair. A tired, but triumphant, smile was on his worry lined face. He reached over to the computer, and pulled the cable out of a small flat box that sat next to it. He swivelled round on his chair to face Claire. "Reach out your hand darling." He said, smiling. Claire did as she was told. He took her hand, and gently wrapped it around the small box. It was about as thick as one of her school books, and was about the same size as one of the computer disks her father used. The little ones. "Darling, whatever happens I want you to keep this for me." She nodded silently, her chestnut coloured eyes watching him intently. "You must not let anyone know about it, not even mummy. If anyone asks about it, you don't know anything about it." He made her promise this, and then he told her what to do with it.

 That day, he had the mains electricity reconnected. Then he went around, turning everything on. It was almost as if he was inviting something into the house. He also organised for Claire to stay with one of her friends. He also tried to make her mother leave, but she wouldn't. He cried, and begged her to leave. She cried, and begged him for the reasons. He finally told her, and still she wouldn't leave.

 Claire went to her friend's house, carrying her little overnight bag, the box in a special holder around her neck and the small silver crucifix her grandmother had given her for her tenth birthday. That was the last she saw of her parents. Her last memory, was of them standing in the doorway of their home. Waving goodbye.

 Claire sat, and watched the stars glitter and twinkle in the blackness, silent, brooding. Cloaked in the darkness that surrounded her. The dull throbbing of the music stopped, suddenly. She looked up, as someone screamed. The singular sound penetrated the gloom like a ray of brilliant sunshine slicing through a storm cloud. The screaming was cut off by a loud electrical, crackling, noise.

 Claire slowly stood up, and shooed the cat out of the bedroom. She crossed to the computer, with the box attached, and turned it on. It slowly hummed into life. The little fan in the back of the machine started, and the monitor flickered brightly. Little lights flashed on and off in the light from the streetlamps. Claire didn't know what the box did, only that it was very dangerous to something. Her father had tried to explain it, but it had been very complicated. There was one thing that she had understood perfectly though. It was only mentioned once, but she knew exactly what it was. And what they did. He had told her that he had been made to help make the thing. And that it had killed everyone else on the project, so it could survive. And that he was the only one left. Claire knew it had killed her mother and father. She also knew it would be curious, if her father's computer was turned on when there should be no-one there. That's why her father had turned on everything that evening. That's why he had sent her away. That's why he had given he the box. And that's why he had told her to come back and kill the vampire.

 The screaming from next door had stopped long ago. Claire waited, then she could feel it. There was a change in the room, a strong smell of ozone drifted past her. Her long, dark hair, began to stand on end. Tiny sparks of static electricity began to flow between the strands. Flecks of blue light jumped from her bed to the ground. She turned, and watched the television as the plastic began to slump. Then she saw the glow coming from the wall socket opposite her. It grew in intensity, sparks began to fly from it. And then, almost instantaneously, there was a man standing there. He was wrapped in a coruscating halo of blue electric fire. He was tall and thin, with a gaunt face. A sneer ran across its face, but Claire wasn't watching. She was looking at the eye's. The eye's that had taken her daddy away from her those years past. And the eye's of the thing that had killed both him, and her mother.

 It advanced slowly towards her. It's arms outstretched, as if to embrace her. Then it stopped. It gave her a questioning look, and turned to face the computer. It clasped it's hands to its head, and screamed silent electrons. It staggered towards the computer, and shoved one of its hands deep inside. Sparks flew across the room, and the monitor exploded. Showered with broken glass, Claire backed away from the writhing thing. The creature slumped onto the floor, and tiredly looked up at Claire. It slowly began to reach out towards her. She told it to stop. It stopped, startled. No words had spoken the command, and yet it had heard it. It continued to advance towards her. Claire twisted the picture of it, in her mind. The thing writhed on the floor, screaming. Now she could hear it. Pleading, begging her not to hurt it. Tears rolling down her cheeks, she cried to it. Screaming her personal loss. "I had to feed!" It cried, twisting around in impossible shapes. "And I need my daddy!" She cried back. It screamed once more, before it's body flew apart.

 Silence descended on the empty house. Smoke rose lazily from a burnt patch on the carpet. Claire was nowhere to be seen. The cat sat on the window sill cleaning itself. It's shadow playing across the wall. A flicker of light, a glow at a power socket, caught it's attention. Then it was gone, and the cat continued its preening.

 There are many different types of vampire in the world. Those who prey on human blood, those who prey on human failure and those who prey on human strife. There are also those who prey on the human mind....