Bathory Blood

Rolling in Blood

The longer Anna was around, the less belief and confidence Glen was having in her dreams. They were in Glen's studio flat, and Anna was sitting, as nervous as a virgin, with her hands in her lap, not daring to move. Anna had hardly touched her wine and had paid no interest in Glen's vampire collection whatsoever. Glen had hoped her collection would automatically lead to a conversation about blood.

Anna had put some effort in. While getting ready in her bedroom, Anna had been filled with all the things she was going to say. She knew that she wasn't going to freeze up like all those other times. This time would be different. But that was when she was at home, full of confidence. Now, sitting in front of Glen, who looked stunning in a pair of cut-off denim shorts over fishnet tights, Anna's confidence had evaporated. Why couldn't things be simple, thought Anna? Why do people have to talk before they have s*x? Why can't it be the other way around?

"So, Anna," Glen began, unable to handle the silence any longer. Glancing at the clock, it was already past six. At this rate, Anna would go home, and the evening would be a complete disaster. "What do you like to do?"

"Scrabble," Anna replied instinctively and then instantly regretted it. "I mean, you know..." Anna trailed off as she tried to think of something that wasn't so boring.

"No, no," Glen assured her, "Scrabble is great. I love it."

"You do?" Anna couldn't believe it. "I play online all the time. I'm very highly rated."

"Oh, really, you can play online?" Glen poured herself more wine and, despite it being unnecessary, topped up Anna's glass too. It may not have been the most riveting conversation in the world, but Glen was glad to finally have Anna talking. And, she was also starting to drink her wine which would loosen her tongue even more.

"Do you have a set?" Anna asked, knocking back a huge gulp of wine, "We could go through some strategies."

"Ah, no." Glen attempted to sound as disappointed about it as she could. "I used to play with my mom before she died. But that set is long gone now."

"I wish my mom was dead." Anna slipped and then snickered. "Sorry, I think the wine is getting to me."

"Anna, that's a totally shocking thing to say."

"She's a bitch." Anna added, relishing her newfound freedom. "A f*****g b***h!" Glen fell about laughing.

"Oh, my God, Anna. What brought this on?"

"I feel free here." Anna imparted. "At home..." she trailed off, not wanting to reveal too much about her private life. "Hey, shall we go to my house?"

"What about your mom?" Glen asked.

"She never bothers me. I rarely see her."

"Then what makes her a b***h?"

"It doesn't matter. It's best you don't get to know her." Anna finished off the rest of the wine in her glass and then held it out for more. Glen happily topped her up.

"So what's there to do at your place?" Glen had forgotten all about the blood. Anna wasn't such a bad person after all. Just lost and confused. "Your mother is Minerva, right? The Mayor of Byranville?"

"I'd rather not talk about her, but yes, that's her. She's not as nice as she seems on TV."

"I didn't think she looked nice. Pretty though, for her age. You have her looks." Glen said it to make Anna feel better but, in a certain light, Anna could be pretty. Especially if she lost the excess weight.

"Really?" Anna always struggled with compliments. Perhaps because they were so rare.

"Come on, Anna, stop fishing for compliments," Glen teased. "You know you're pretty."

"Pretty enough for you, Glen?"

"Hey, come on, we're friends."

"Friends." Anna sighed.

"I have a girlfriend," Glen shared, "Tiffany. Otherwise, yeah, I'd find you attractive." It wasn't exactly a lie, Glen reminded herself. "So what about this trip to your house? I've never been to a mansion before."

"I'm not sure it's a good idea now."

"Oh, come on, Anna, we can play some Scrabble. Let's not ruin this."

"You're right," Anna said, cheering up. "I've never had a real friend before. Just people using me for one thing or another."

"Well, you don't have to worry about that with me," Glen lied, feeling ashamed of herself. She made herself feel better with the fact that even when the Bathory blood thing turned out to be the bullshit she knew it would be, she would remain friends with Anna. Not only that, but she would encourage the other girls at work to do the same. Anna was pretty cool... in her own way.

"Drop us at the gate, driver." Anna reached into her pocket for her wallet.

"Allow me," Glen jumped in, handing the driver her debit card. Anna smiled at that. Usually, once people saw the mansion, it was her who paid.

Glen had never been out this way due to there never being a reason to. Only the very rich lived out here. Anna's mansion was set within one hundred acres, and as well as a lake with resident swans, there was an orchard, stables for the horses, a small wood, and several open fields, much of which they walked past on the long walk to the house.

"This place is just wow," Glen cooed, unable to believe she was actually there. "It's like something out of a story."

"Sometimes Mom rents the place out to filmmakers." Anna shared as they walked past a field where two horses were playing. The sandstone mansion loomed ahead, where several cars were parked in front. "Lots of horror movies have been produced here."

"Which ones?" Glen was all ears. Anything to do with horror, and she was there, quite literally if she could be.

"I'm not sure. Not much of a horror fan."

"Oh," Glen struggled to hide her disappointment.

"But I'd like to be. I'll find out which movies, and we can watch them sometime."

"It's a date," Glen grinned as they finally reached the mansion. "It's beautiful." Glen stroked the sandstone. "I've never seen a house made from stone before. What is it?"

"Sandstone. There's some granite too here and there."

"I can't wait to see inside." Glen rubbed her hands together.

"It's not all that great. Bit old, actually."

"Sounds great to me."

Inside, a short hallway and cloakroom opened into a vast living room so large that a grand piano sat in one corner. Near an open fire that roared beautifully, a couch and two armchairs had been placed around a wooden coffee table. The mahogany floor made Glen's sneakers squeak as she walked and was so highly polished she could see her face in it.

"If you see my mom or my brother, don't linger, they're both super annoying." Anna shared as she opened an oak door leading to a small passageway and three flights of stairs. The brother she was referring to was Lucius, a queer and owner of the exclusive, members-only After Dark nightclub. He was a beautiful male with blond hair, kept short at the sides and back, and an athletic frame most girls would love to wrap their legs around. Even Glen, if she was honest with herself. Despite liking girls, a beautiful male could always turn her head. He knew how to apply make-up too. Never overdone, girls envied as well as adored him.

Anna's room was on the second floor, and Glen found herself wondering how Anna had gained so much weight with a house this size to walk around. Anna hurried ahead a few steps to get to her room with some time to spare to clean up a little.

"Sorry," Anna apologized as she picked strewn clothes from the floor and bed. "It was because I wanted to look nice for... for you." Anna smiled.

"Hey, you should see how my room usually looks." Glen lied - she was always tidy, but if it made Anna feel better, which it clearly did, what harm in a little white lie? Despite the mess, just as with the rest of the house, Anna's room, or rooms being more apt, was huge. It was more like three rooms in one but with archways instead of doors leading to the next space. Within the first space was a king-sized four-poster bed with silk drapes, two bedside cabinets, and a walk-in closet. There was also a sitting area, as big as an ordinary living room, replete with furniture, a sink, and cooking paraphernalia. The final space seemed bare and was whitewashed from floor to ceiling. "What do you do in there?" Glen asked.

"Alexa, party time," Anna commanded, and the whitewashed room was filled with swirling disco lights.

"You know, I was going to say that this would be the perfect spot for a party. You got music too?"

"Alexa, dark techno." No sooner had Anna finished than dark, techno beats filled the whitewashed room. "It's louder inside. We have noise-canceling technology throughout."

"Come on." Glen couldn't help it. Upon hearing the beats, she had to throw down some moves. Anna was right, the music was much louder in the room, and the walls no longer looked white but swirled with color.

"Do you want to drop some MDMA?" Anna shouted over the beats as they danced.

"You f*****g kidding me?" Glen was incredulous as Anna shook her head, wondering why the hell they hadn't hooked up sooner. Glen followed Anna into her bedroom space and watched as she opened a drawer next to her bed. As Anna retrieved a small bag containing several different colored pills, Glen noticed what looked like a test tube filled with blood, but then Anna closed the drawer making her doubt what she had seen.

"My stupid brother is always dropping stuff. I collect them all up."

"Anna, you just don't know how cool you are."

"He's an i***t," Anna continued, offering Glen the bag. "Thinks he has everything dialed in."

"Well, there are definitely several MDMA in here," Glen observed as she held the bag of approximately twenty pills up to the light. Popping open the bag, Glen shook two pills into the palm of her hand and held it out to Anna. "We'll drop these and then have a game of Scrabble; what do you say?"

"Maybe just half." After failing to snap it in half, Anna took one of the pills and swallowed it whole.

"Ew, don't you need a drink?"

"Nope. Oh, wait, I'll get you one." Anna hurried into the kitchen and poured a glass of water.

"I did it your way once." Glen shared, taking the glass and downing her pill quickly. "It was enough for me to know that I never wanted to do it like that again." Despite pretending not to notice, Glen couldn't take her mind off the vial in Anna's drawer. Glen's hope now was to hopefully steal it later somehow.

But, as it turned out, Glen didn't need to steal it.

"Hey, you like blood, right?" Anna suddenly piped up during her annihilation of Glen at Scrabble. Both Glen and Anna were rolling, and as much as Glen hated to admit it, Anna was handling it far better. Glen couldn't see or think straight, but she knew that the blood was significant.

"Hell yeah, I do," Glen drawled, literally drooling onto the Scrabble board.

"You OK, Glen?"

"Sure, get me the blood. I'm gonna drink it."

"Well, then, I probably shouldn't show it to you. My brother dropped it; it could be anything."

"I'm just kidding, girl. Chill out. Of course, I wouldn't drink it." Believing that Anna could possibly read her mind, Glen burst into a fit of giggles. Suddenly hit with a powerful MDMA roll, Anna forgot the danger and opened the drawer. Unable to see straight, Anna dropped the vial of blood onto the bed, and both girls fell into a fit of laughter which lasted ten minutes.

"You win," Anna stated later, during a lull in her high.

"What? What did I win?" Glen's eyes rolled as she spoke, and then she hissed as waves of ecstasy coursed through her.

"The Scrabble, silly." Anna sat and began clearing it away.

"I need to pee," Glen confided.

"Out the door, turn left; the bathroom is the third door on the right."

"Damn, I've forgotten already."

"You'll find it." With Anna's attention taken with putting away the Scrabble set, Glen took the opportunity to snatch the test tube of blood and carried it with her into the bathroom.