CHAPTER 2:
Who could have known that moon light was in reality a misty rainbow? light sequenced, shattered and scattered by the mirror of the moon.
Who knew that Sunrise could be so spectacular? The gradual transit of dawn erupting into an kaleidoscopic inferno. Watching the sunset over the gulf of Mexico had probably been the single most psychedelic experience Michael had ever witnessed. The way the light played amongst the salt air and waves. Each drop of water a prism releasing riots of colored light. The gradual transition through frequencies as the sun settled lower on the Horizon, into the blazing sea.
There are distinct advantages to being able to see into the infra red and ultra violet spectrum. Colors that Michael could not have imagined, existed. Shades with no name and no manner to describe them. No living language held the words to express the fury of light.
That was the problem as well. Sunlight. No he did not burst into flames in the sun like in the old Christopher Lee movies. He did sunburn badly and extremely quickly now though. The true issue being sensitivity to light. The bright sun rendered him nearly blind, dazzling his eyes while his skin had transformed to absorb energy directly. He could feel the ebb and flow of magnetic fields and electricity around him. An acute sense of magnetic fields is an odd sensation. Especially when one has no idea what one is feeling. Sort of like, a billion tiny spiders crawling in every direction across his skin. Feeling the subtle pressures of waves of photons striking his flesh, feeling much like fine rain drops showering upon his exposed skin. Feeling the duality of wave and particle, an indescribably complicated sensation. Very new, very different sensations unlike anything Michael had ever felt or imagined before.
His eyes, now enhanced were highly reactive and sensitive, absorbing light like some sort of photonic sponge. Not only visible light waves were perceived, ultra violet, infra red, and the swirling flames of magnetic fields. Thus his stylish new dark sunglasses.
The seriously weird thing was, he could see flames everywhere. Faint flickering, flowing flames shimmering in shades across the spectrum. Every single living thing was encased in living flames. As if that were not weird enough, there was seeing the faint figure of peoples amputated limbs. He had passed a man in a wheel chair missing an arm and a leg.
Seeing the ” I am a vet, please help” sign Michael had paused and while fishing through his pockets Michael noticed , first, the mans tattoo. A skull pierced by a commando dagger. Then, that where the missing limbs should be, were ghost limbs. An arm and a leg shaped of faint blue and yellow flames.
That was interesting! After dropping all of the cash he had in his pockets into the mans hat, Michael continued on. Before he had taken his second step, the man spoke a single word, loud and proud. “Rangers!” Michael answered without thought. ” Lead the way!”
He turned around, the man was holding up a worn challenge coin. Michael had inadvertently fished it out his pocket along with the wadded up cash. It had been his fathers. His dad had given it to him when he had earned his tab.
It had been a family tradition. Every male Llewis had served in the military. One ancestor had served with Rogers Rangers during the Seven years war between France and Great Britain. The same great umpteenth grandfather had gone on to serve with the Swamp fox, Francis Marion during the Revolution in the Carolinas. There had been Llewises serving on both sides of the war between the states. Since the 1750′s, a Llewis had fought in every single war the U.S. had been involved wit
The Man held the coin out to him. Michael thanked him as he dropped it back into his pocket then turned and walked away. The man shouted a vibrant thanks! To Michaels retreating back.
South West Florida seldom got very cold even so the mugginess and rain made sleeping outside a task and a half. Michael had dropped more than enough cash to cover an extended stay room for a few months. The battered vet hurried away to rent a room. Thoughts of hot shower food and A.C. danced in his mind.
By far the most unpleasant enhancement had to be taste and smell. He could detect and isolate pheromones. He could smell adrenaline, anger, and fear. He could also taste everything that he scented.
He had learned that there are scents no one ever wanted to experience let alone taste in all it's glory. Humans, frankly, reeked of scents that they never seemed to notice. Cities were awash in fear, rage, lust,and despair. A cacophony of emotions and their perfumes. Every emotion has both a particular scent and a particular taste on the wind.
The close proximity of so many people in the city magnified everything. While he had been down wind of the wheel chair bound vet, Michael nearly gagged from the stale beer and unwashed body with built up sweat and urine. Yes, there were some smells you never wanted to experience. There are some tastes best left unknown.
PPArtly because of this he decided that he needed to avoid cities now. The abundance of aromas, the neon lights, the crowds. Crowds oh Gods, the crowds! When you can hear a heartbeat at a hundred yards away. The abundance of sound in a city overloads the senses.
People talking, traffic, random music from car stereos. All the heart beats around you it is all an assault on ones sanity. Not to mention temptations to ones appetites. For Michael, walking around a city was like being a starving wolf trapped inside a fully stocked meat locker and a bit of an alchoholic in a liquor store.
He had been evolving since she had fed on him. He was discovering new capabilities almost hourly. New perceptions with new instincts awakened. New cravings as well. Consuming appetites, raging desires roiled within him.
Michael was craving something, however he could not figure it out, a sense of hunger and thirst beyond appetite or description. Nothing was soothing that pernicious itch. There was some relief when he drank sea water. It reduced the irritating cravings in terms of thirst, not the appetite, the insane craving remained. Sea water and sea salts didnt solve the issue by a long shot.
Those cravings had eventually led michael to the orgyistic slaughter of an entire family. Four children, elementary school aged through teens along the mother and father. The father had held on the longest, remaining conscious enough to be forced to bear witness to the merciless butchering of his wife and children. Over stuffing himself did not ease that craving. Michael found it interesting that liver seems to taste the same regardless of species.
There were certainly many advantages to his condition. Those same advantages however could be curses in any populated area. He thanked the Gods, that telepathy was not one of his new skills! At least he hoped it wasn’t. Talk about sensory over load! Reading the random thoughts of every one around him plus these craving and the cacophony of sensory perceptions would have driven him stark raving mad, insane in the brain!
Michael began giggling. He imagined being involuntarily committed for insisting that he was a vampire. Yes sirree the havoc and feasting he could have in a mental hospital. Doctors and nurses would be his own personal sack lunches. The orderlies, an after dinner mint. Round and round his mind whirled. Thoughts skipping from one subject to another following his own internal mayhem of logic.
Wandering aimlessly, following the concrete sea wall. Listening to the restless waves fling them selves at the wall. The cry of sea gulls. The high pitched screaming chatter of the porpoise pods at play. None of that could distract him from the deep need to find Her though. In the back ground of every thought, she was there. His memories of her taunting him.
She had fed on him. Then she had casually cast him into the gutter like the trash tossed into the streets by uncouth yankee tourists. Disappearing as mysteriously as she had appeared out of the mist. As Strikingly beautiful as she is. Anyone that caught a glimpse of her would never forget her. How many amazing six foot emerald eyed redheads could there be out there? If anything She should have been easily traced down. It is not like the ginger regions of the British archipelago where she would easily fit in.
She was a compulsion that harassed his thoughts. She dominated and danced through every thought in his mind. The need for her was almost as powerful as the thirst that tormented him.
For three weeks Michael had been searching to no avail. No one seems to have ever seen her. There was no sign or memory of any one even vaguely resembling her.
He needed to find her. He had to find her. He needed to understand what he had become. What she had changed him into. He needed her , desired, craved, he burned, Ahhh it was maddening.
He tried to wrap his mind around it. There was no way he could rationally accept that he had become a vampire. Seriously? A werewolf would have been pretty cool, but seriously? A blood sucking freak? She had nearly torn his throat out when she had fed on him and, that had hurt like a bitch. Now, he had developed this thirst. A craving and addiction a need and desire for the rich iron taste of blood. Michael had to grant it as proof to consider. Unless he had lost his mind and now existed in a dissociated state of delusion. Which was in the realm of possibility. Far more likely than vampires being real.
A small part of his mind was screaming at him to leave it. To stop looking for her. Think about what she had already done. How she had already changed his reality. Imagine what she may do if he did find her! Imagine the things they could do! Dark and bloody escapades of rampaging madness would be the least of it he was sure.
Michaels thoughts raced and battled amongst themselves. As his feet carried him along. Until he had wandered to the city limits of Naples.
Looking up at the green and white sign he pondered where to next? What to do now? He knew that he needed to stay away from densely populated areas. The urges to feast and rampage were hard to control. He was convinced the craving desires would eventually consume him. Being chased down by carnivorous critters only sounds like an amusing dream.
He did need to be around people though. The humans were his cattle. He had fed only twice now. That first weird morning, and a week later, in an insane frenzy. An entire family he had taken as they gathered for their evening meal.
There was a demented irony in the five corpses he left laid out on the dinner table. So far Michael had had no need to feed in the two weeks since then. He idly wondered how long he could go without feeding.
Michael still drank water. He still ate regular food. Which he thought was odd. Since when did vampires hunger for anything other than blood? He didn’t remember Vampires eating regular human foods in any of the stories. Then again what the bloody hell did he know anyway!
Newspapers and the television news ran with the sensational story of the mother and child. Which was quickly connected to the feasted upon family. Michael found the so called experts, Profilers and such, amusingly inept. They had conflicting profiles and theories. None of which were in any manner close to the reality.
The internet was a tizzie with insane theories. Interesting that the being drained of blood part was left out in the media reports. Probably to help eliminate the crack pots that invariably sought fame by claiming responsibilities.
After serious consideration Michael had made a necessary decision. He, for many reasons now. Needed to get away from Naples. Further south along the coast as far as he could go seemed as good of a place as anywhere. There was that favored campground and fishing expedition site from his childhood. Chokoloskee Florida here he comes!
Michael had fond memories of the campground near there. A place his grand parents had taken him as a child. That seemed a good place to go. An isolated small town, in the Thousand Islands on the edge of the Everglades seemed the perfect place until he could get a handle on these intense new sensations.
Michael needed to find a balance and somehow get control of his new instincts before those instincts and needs brought the masses with pitch forks and fire to confront him. He had seen that movie before. Bela Lugosi never did win in the end did he? Michael was determined not to be staked or Frankensteined.
Summer time in Southwest Florida could be very quiet. Tourist season is in the fall and winter because the summers are hot, muggy, noseeum and mosquito infested. It rained just about daily. Sometimes two or three showers a day.
Consequently there should not be many, if any people at the campground. That made it an excellent place to get a grip on all this. This bad Bram Stokeresque/ Anne Rice insanity Michael had found himself in.
With a Plan clear in mind, Michael set about it. Whether or not it would be a good plan remained to be seen. For now, any sense of controlled direction was preferable to random wandering and endless appetite.
SHE was out there, somewhere…