Vampire Romance

Disdain and Dangerous Revelations

Tension now fogged the air between Claudia and Cassey, filling it with an ice-cold silence that started to seep into their generally easy friendship. In quiet, yet noticeable ways, Cassey's words became shorter and her eye avoided Claudia, but soon attacks turned colder. The gut feeling of Claudia against something she knew for sure said that it was Matt Jenson. Cassey's restraint of poorly disguised jealousy had turned into rancor, and Claudia caught the muck in her lap even though, like everyone else, she wasn't interested in Matt.

"Hey, how are you today?" Claudia said at nearly morning, attempting to fill the already widening gulf between herself and Cassey. Cassey huddled in at her desk typing furiously with stiff shoulders.

"Fine," Cassey snapped without even looking up. Her fingers continued to fly across the keyboard, that sound a staccato rhythm of dismissal.

Claudia hesitated with her hand hovering above Cassey's chair. "Is everything alright?"

"Yes," said Cassey with a flat voice. It was without warmth. That was clearly the signal: conversation over. Claudia sighed and withdrew to her own desk, the silence between them much louder than any argument. Disheartening was this sudden breakage in their friendship, but Claudia did not have the strength to do anything about it. Her head was still busy dealing with the inconclusive Christian and the dread of his presence.

However, at that time, Matt Jenson seemed totally unconcerned about changed matters in the office, or perhaps, he didn't just give a damn. He had become overt in his chasing after Claudia: persistent and predatory. He'd show up at her desk swooning over an extra coffee or leaning casually against her cubicle wall to share tales of his weekend. Claudia had found herself churning up excuses under her breath to avoid him by pretending to have urgent deadlines or very bad headaches. Not interested, and his persistence had started to grate on her nerves.

"How are you today? Want to get lunch with me later?" Matt would ask one afternoon, his voice almost honeyed while leaning against her doorframe, blocking her exit. He had that way of making simple questions seem loaded, his eyes lingering a moment too long. "I'm fine, yeah sure, thanks," Claudia mumbled, flashing her eyes around for an escape route. She hated these awkward encounters, the way he cornered her, making her feel trapped.

Yet at this point, discomfort would be eclipsed by a much, much darker incident. It was when she passed from the break room that a hand, suddenly cold, clamped down upon her arm and yanked her into an empty conference room. The door clicked shut with a forbidding thud behind them. Bruce. Usually cold, his eyes now literally blazed. A jolt of fear stung through her because he was too close, overwhelming her. The air was charged with a threatening silence.

"Christian has been showing interest in you, "Bruce bluntly began, his voice low and dangerously growling, shredded of sharp smoothness that Christian possessed. He tightened the grip on her arm, digging fingers into her flesh. "You are a pitiful little human. I don't see why, other than you will make a good meal."

Claudia's breath caught. Her mind suddenly reeled around as it struggled to understand his words. Food? Was it a sick kind of joke? A hammer against the ribs-drumming in a fevered hike toward panic, her heart beat quickly. Attempts to pull free failed; his hold was iron.

Bruce leaned in closer, his eyes narrowing, a chilling smile playing on his lips. "You thought you could cheat on me and get away with it, you son of a b***h?"

The words struck Claudia like some physical blow, confusion washing over her like a wave. Cheat on him? What was that? She had never had anything to do with Bruce or, for that matter, Christian, apart from some completely unsettling encounters with both. It's ludicrously nonsensical but the venom in his voice rang terrifyingly real. Bizarre, illogical only projection of 'something' she could not comprehend. Delusional? Or maybe, this really some power play or twisted game she didn't know she was caught in?

He jerked his arm away abruptly and pressed her back against the wall. "If you try anything like your last shenanigan, you can consider yourself dead." It was too much-the voice low, guttural snarl to a primal rage that froze blood. Little more needs to be said of the threat; his eyes offensively brightened. He wasn't talking about office politics or a petty rivalry. He was talking about something much, much older, far more dangerous.

Claudia stared at him, mind racing to disentangle whatever made sense out of this weird exchange. The meal? Dead? Shenanigan? It was overwhelming, too incomprehensible to be for real. Lacking anything rational at her behest, her desperate mind settled for only one thing: "You're... you're talking about... vampires?" she croaked, finding the word preposterous on her tongue. It was the only way that made sense of his monstrous words, unnatural strength, and the way that he and Christian both seemed to move with an otherworldly grace through the world.

Bruce smiled in a sneering flash, his eyes dancing with something akin to amusement. "So, you're not as dumb as you look." He neither confirmed nor denied to, but everything, suffocating in the air, was the weight of implication. He was mocking her, savoring her terror.

Claudia's mind scrambled furiously for lines of possible explanations, any one of which would bring her crashing back to reality. Vampire fantasy fetish. That was it. He was playing some game, some monstrous, elaborate prank. Christian was into it, what with that penetrating look and unsettling charm. A test, a new way of screwing with the staff member, sure. Yes, that must be it; that deepened the absurdity of the sheer situation.

She forced out a shaky laugh, trying to act nonchalant even when she felt nothing of the sort. "Right. That's funny, Bruce. You almost had me there." She attempted to push past him; her heart still raced under the sharp cold, cutting doubt that had already pierced through her carefully constructed rationalization. After all, his words, the raw aggression, the chilling conviction in his eyes - too real for a prank.

Bruce simply looked on, his expression inscrutable, all but silent, predatory stillness about him. Even as Claudia stumbled out of the conference room with legs akin to jelly, the image of his eyes and the chilling overtures of his words could scarcely be shaken. A pitiful little human. A very good meal. And that utterly baffling, terrifying accusation: "You thought you could cheat on me," you son of a b***h? It was a piece of non-sequitur, jarring and not fit as a piece in a jigsaw puzzle, yet resonating with a disturbing intensity. Almost as though he was talking to a totally different Claudia, a Claudia who lived in a world she could not fathom. This was no longer a predictable office; it had turned into a trap, with her as prey. The vampire fantasy fetish explanation was losing validity-hanging as the last attempt to preserve sanity against an increasingly terrifying descent into the unknown world. She had a very terrible premonition: that life, as she knew it, was about to change forever.