Fated Fangs

Chapter 3: The Next Morning

Eleni floated in darkness for what felt like a very long time. She didn't know how long she was out of it, but the darkness slowly began to change form. Her cheeks felt warm as a dim light began to grow brighter. She began to pick out familiar noises; the wind rustling through the leaves of a tree, cars driving and honking, the creaking and moaning that an old house makes while it breathes.

Eleni's eyes opened slightly as she basked in the warm glow. The sun was filtering through the cracks of her thick curtains, and the dust in the room was lazily dancing through the rays as Eleni struggled to wake up. She felt so heavy, like she was stuck in quick sand. She looked around the familiar room; her room.

She didn't know how she had gotten here. That was a weird thought on its own, though. Didn't she walk home last night and come into bed? Eleni suddenly sat up in bed. She felt like a bolt of lightening had just used her as target practice. How had she gotten here? She had been attacked, so how had she ended up here.

All sleep and weariness left her body as she recalled the events of the night before. She sat on the bed and scanned her bedroom for danger. This was silly. It must have just been a dream. There were no such creatures living in the very boring, very real world that she was in.

"That's right. It must have just been a dream." she muttered, trying to comfort herself. But all of her soothing thoughts left her mind when she reached up and touched her neck. She all but jumped out of bed as her fingers grazed a fabric bandage. She ran out of her room and to the bathroom in her apartment.

It wasn't a big apartment by any means, but it was more than enough for Eleni. She had found it when she first moved to the city and had stuck with it all of the years she had been trying to make herself into an author. It was dreamy, like only an author or an artist would love.

The windows were tall and drafty in winter. The entire apartment had old, colour faded wallpaper and worn hardwood floors. All of the trim had been painted and repainted and painted again the same cream colour as the ceilings, which were quite tall. The kitchen and living room were shoved just beyond the cramped entryway, and there was a loft where she had her bedroom.

Eleni had stuffed the apartment with nicknacks and trinkets from her young life and her many thrifting adventures. There were vine plants trailing and half dying around the entire apartment. The bathroom was under the loft, so Eleni had to shin down the lofts ladder as quickly as she could to get there.

She ran in the bathroom, turned the light on, and stood before the old smoky mirror staring at her neck. There was indeed a bandage on her neck. She had no recollection of bandaging herself or going to the hospital, so she had no idea how it had gotten there.

She strained her memory to try and recall the events of the previous evening, but she became more and more embarrassed the more she thought about it. She had been enjoying herself a lot for someone being attacked. She shuddered in disgust as she turned this way and that, looking at her neck in the mirror. She took a deep breath and decided to check out under the bandage.

Eleni grabbed fresh bandages out of the medicine cabinet that was behind the mirror and set them on the rim of the sink. She took a deep breath and picked at a corner of the bandage until she had a good grip on it. She didn't want to see it, but she had to. She screwed her eyes closed as tight as she could and tore the bandage off before she had a chance to chicken out.

She stood in the bathroom with her eyes shut for a minute, going over everything in her head. It must be a cut from a knife that had been held to her throat or a graze from fingernails that had bitten into her neck during the scuffle. Not that there had been much of a fight. The guy who attacked her had been so strong.

Eleni finally couldn't bear the suspense anymore and dared to open her eyes. Her gaze met her own scared eyes first. She let her eyes travel down her cheek, which was awfully pale, and down to her neck. She gasped a little as she saw what she had known, in her heart, would be there.

Two puncture marks adorned her neck. They were just far enough apart to be lined up with where an adults canine teeth would be, and there was bruising around each hole and between them. Eleni trailed her finger over the marks and winced from the pain as the little bit of pressure pushed against the wounds.

She stood there and stared at herself in the mirror for a few more minutes, trying to collect her thoughts. She had definitely been attacked last night, but she was starting to doubt it was by an actual vampire. There were plenty of freaks in a big city. This must have been someone's idea of a practical joke.

The image of her attacker writhing on the ground came back to her mind as she tried to find reason and logic in what had happened. Drugs. They must have drugged her with something that made her see....whatever the hell she had seen. It was the only way she could explain the way she had felt during the attack.

Eleni made fierce eye contact with herself in the mirror and nodded. It must have been drugs. Drugs and hallucinations. That still didn't explain how she had gotten home, though. She was about to try and wrack her memory for more when she caught sight of the clock in her bathroom. She nearly jumped out of her skin because she had to be to work in less than an hour.

She must have slept most of the day away. It was already noon. Eleni didn't know what to do. She should probably call in sick for work, but she felt fine. She didn't want to call in at the last minute, and she couldn't afford to miss work, so she sucked it up and got ready as quickly as she could.

She hurriedly popped a bagle in the toaster and then went back up to her room. She threw her hair up in a pony tail and chugged a coffee energy drink as she pulled fresh clothes on and hurredly did some light makeup. Her skin was still pale, and she looked like a half warmed toaster struddle, but she did her best to wash away the horrors of the night before. She had the next day off, so she could go to the hospital or maybe the police office to figure out what had happened to her.

Eleni grabbed the bagel out of the toaster and quickly put some cream cheese on it. She was relieved to see her purse hanging up in the entryway, even though she would never have put it there. She didn't have time to worry about the details, though. she pawed through the contents of the purse and saw that everything was where she had left it.

She munched on her bagel as she flew down the many flights of stairs in her apartment building. The elevator was almost always out of commission, and Eleni didn't want to risk getting stuck and being late for work. She hurriedly devoured her bagel as she power walked down the street.

She was still a little early, so she took the extra time to walk around the park on her way to work. She didn't feel like going through it, even in broad daylight after what had happened to her the night before.

Eleni was a little out of breath as she glided through the door of the cafe. Josh was waiting up by the front counter as she slid in behind him.

"You're late." Josh grumbled as he thrust an apron at her.

"You should be grateful I am here at all. And I am not late. I still have two minutes to spare." Eleni grouched back as she dodged out back to hang her things up on one of the hooks meant for staffs belongings.

"If you're not fifteen minutes early-" Josh began.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm late, then, by your outdated slave timing." Eleni finished for him.

Josh frowned. He hated to have his favourite sayings finished for him. His frown deepened as he saw the fresh bandages on her neck.

"What's with the bandage?" He asked, concern replacing his usual condescending tone."

"Ah, it's nothing." Eleni lied. "I just burned it while curling my hair."

Josh didn't look like he was buying the lie, but he let it go. If Eleni didn't want to talk about something, it was best to just let her have her secrets. She would talk when she was ready.