Bill The Vampire - 01 by Rick Gualtieri Page B

but I felt good , damn good for a dead guy. In fact, I was feeling pretty invincible, something that I dare say I haven't felt too much of during my lifetime. I couldn't help all of the fantasies that were running through my head. I could ditch the train and outright run, full speed, back to Brooklyn. I could stroll, untouchable, through the worst neighborhoods between here and home. No, fuck that! I could scale a building and stare down upon the alleys, waiting to smite evil doers like the goddamned Batman!
     
    In the end, I just got on the train; it seemed less complicated that way.
     
    Sadly, there weren't too many incidents requiring super heroics to report during my trip. Sure, I got accosted once for spare change, but that hardly seemed a smite-worthy offense. Jeez, in the comic books, Peter Parker can't take a shit without the Green Goblin and Venom trying to take over the city. In the real world, I imagine super heroes would get a lot of downtime to work on the NY Times Sunday crossword. So it was with me. It was late enough on a Sunday for the trains to be uncrowded, but too early for the real weirdos to be out. So I just sat and rode to my stop, pretending to be ever vigilant for the danger that I knew wasn't coming.
     
    I got to my destination and walked around the block a few times to try and psych myself out for finally going home. I probably looked like quite the nutball to my nosier neighbors like, for instance, Mrs. Caven. She was this creepy old lady who lived downstairs from us and liked to be in everyone's business. She just barely kept herself from being a complete nuisance by being a sort of self-designated one-woman neighborhood watch. If someone was hanging around the building who wasn't supposed to be there, you could be sure Mrs. Caven knew about it and was telling everyone in the building ( those who would listen, anyway ) about it. The downside of this was that Mrs. Caven had the cops on speed dial and she was happy to call them at even the slightest provocation, as my roommate, Tom, had found out a few months back.
     
    However, caring what some crazy senior citizen thought of my wanderings was pretty low on my priority list at the moment. Now that I was close to my destination, the relief I felt at being set 'free' was gone, and, in its place, a new form of worry set in. Tom and Ed were two of my best friends ( assholes sure, but what good friends aren't? ). We all knew each other well and could each count on the other. The problem was that none of us had ever come home as a blood sucking monster of the night before. What if they freaked? What if they called the cops? Shit, what if they decided to take matters into their own hands and go all Blade the Vampire Hunter on me? I dismissed that last one almost immediately, though, as neither of my roommates would probably have an edge against a couple of angry hamsters, much less a vampire. Still, they could react negatively.
     
    However, I didn't really have anywhere else to go, and, deadly creature of the night or not, I still paid a third of the damned rent. If they wanted to give me the Monster Squad treatment, then, by god, I was at least going to get my part of the security deposit back. Thus, I readied myself as I entered the building and walked up to my floor. I unlocked the door, ready for whatever cruelties fate had in store for me, and then stopped dead. Shit! I had completely forgotten about the no-entering-without-an-invitation thing. What if I couldn't even step into my own place? Oh, well, no way to know unless I tried. I took a deep breath and tried to enter my apartment...
     
    And I pretty much stepped in like I normally would. Either that invite thing was more vampire bullshit, or it didn't apply to me since I already lived here. Okay, one great trial down, now for the next. It was time to confront my friends. “I have something to confess. I'm a vampire, and I'm proud of it!” I would proclaim. Hmm, maybe not. That sounded too