A Long Kiss Goodnight: The Return of Evil By Nomar Knight I wish I could tell you I escaped an unforgettable nightmare. My readers probably speculated that I had been on an adventure of a lifetime only to reemerge after a four-year absence. Perhaps, some wondered if the vampire Lorraina finally got her way and held me captive in one of her dungeons. The torture she had unleashed on so many of her victims would make anyone cringe from the brutality her warped mind conjured. So what particular carnage awaited me? The last time I set eyes on her, she had grown impatient. She used her sexual charm to entice me to write her life story. She parsed some of my blood and then forced me to drink hers. The side effects alone drove me insane. Visions of victims suffering her wrath and how she fed her massive ego still haunt my dreams. Screams! To this day, I wake to loud, unrelenting sounds of immense misery. But, eventually, the cries fade into a past I did not experience. Perhaps Lorraina’s victims cry out for justice. Maybe those lost souls want me to end her immortality, so they bombard my nights, revealing the fear that had consumed them until she mercifully ended their meager existence. I hate it when I see past events through her eyes. Now, I notice that I’m highly cynical toward my species. Suddenly shifting from pro-humanity to anti-people simply because Lorraina’s biased views corrupted my thoughts was sickening. But unfortunately, I recall one night when she compared humanity with demon excrement. As far as she was concerned, people are food. I growled, angry at how she contaminated my soul. My innate kindness faded with every pounding of the keyboard. My dark muse opened a window into a morbid world where life and death match our present reality. Sadly, this brings me to my current predicament–the plague. Lorraina had survived several of them, proving that being a vampire had benefits. As I hid in isolation, I watched the news of many lives lost to an invisible killer. At first, the misery of watching people die on a global scale made my skin crawl. I, like so many others, lost family members. The pain of never being able to talk with them again eats away at the fabric of positivity that flickers inside my soul. With all the constant changes surrounding humanity, I got inflicted with a different kind of disease, and the biggest reason for my antisocial existence–depression! The pandemic had taken a toll on–Wait! Movement outside my house distracted me. Then, a familiar figure appeared at my living room window. I couldn’t believe it. I exclaimed, “She survived again?” The vampire, Lorraina Sandoval, stood at the entrance of my home. My heartbeat exploded as she gently wrapped knuckles against the metal door. Beads of sweat cascaded on my skin. The intense humidity intensified. “Let me in, Nomar.” The way she said my name sounded like a tired mom singing a soft lullaby. Anyone oblivious to the monster outside would assume she was a high school kid. I opened my mouth to speak, yet not a sound came out. She gently knocked again. “Nomar?” Lorraina spoke in a monotonous tone. “Don’t you want to know why you’re still alive?” Thoughts about my fragile mortality rushed at the forefront of my mind, increasing my fear. “Let me in, darling.” Against my own will, my hands reached for the door, trembling like a soul preparing to jump into a pit of fire. © Copyright Nomar Knight 2023. All rights reserved. A Knight Chills Flash Fiction Presentation.
