Zu the Vampire - Excerpt (No. 2) From Storms

Zu Poydou walked to the mirror over the fireplace and stared at his reflection. He saw a thin dirty face, with high strong cheekbones and full curved lips. His eyes were green and intense with dark bruised looking shadows beneath them. Zu’s hair was dark and long and hung in thick tangles past his shoulders. Monster. That was what his grandfather had called him. Monster. What kind of monster? He stared at himself trying to see the monster that must be there. He reached up and pushed his hair back and then looked at his hands. They were thin with big knuckles and long fingers. His nails were dirty. He should bath, but he didn’t seem to have the energy. And no one cared if he was clean or not. He wondered if Norton would return. He hoped so. He waited for him. He wanted to kill the man when he did return. He felt the tingle in his mouth at the thought of the murder that he longed for and he pulled back his lip and touched the tip of the extended canine tooth with his finger. It was not there all of the time and he wondered why. A monster? He turned from the mirror and walked to the door, stepping over the thick vines that had pushed their way under the door and were now reaching for the interior of the dark house. He stood on the veranda and looked across the swamp. He could leave, but he had never been anywhere but here, he did not know anyone in the world and he had no idea of what to expect if he tried to leave. Was he a monster? Would others see that he was and lock him away again? He did not think he could stand to be beaten again or tormented for reasons he didn’t understand and so he stayed. He turned and walked back inside to the piano that stood dust covered in the center of the room. He sat down and watched a large field rat move inside the opened grand piano; on the wires that connected the keys. He sat very still for a long time, watching the glittering eyes of the rodent as it became bolder and moved nearer to him. He could see the tips of its small yellowed teeth just below the furry jaw and the small whiskers as they twitched near the black nose. The rat watched him and he watched it. Then with a movement so quick that it didn’t allow the rat time to react Zu snatched the rodent up. He sank his fangs into the rat and sucked the blood, swallowing it in big greedy gulps until the creature was sunken and dry. He dropped the body of the rat on the floor, wiped his mouth with the sleeve of his shirt, closed his haunted eyes and began to play Rachmaninoff’s Concerto No. 1.