Living conditions

It took me a good hour to scrub out all the gunk that my cart had accumulated during today's shift. Other than having to empty out my bin of left over blood, it was as if nothing spectacular had occurred.

The cauterization went smoothly, the butane torch running out of juice as I got to the last of Clemen's legs. There would still be a noticeable amount of blood escaping the body, so I would most likely return to a puddle in the plastic bin. With no way to smuggle the bodily fluid out of the factory, I would have to reap the benefits at work. It tasted yucky in small amounts, I'm not sure drinking large quantities in one go would feel very good at all, much less before a shift of bending this way and that to scrub cell walls.

At the very least I already noticed a tremendous increase in my energy levels and general physique. This effect surprised me since even fresh animal blood did not have such a potent effect. I ventured a guess, assuming that Clemen had access to a good supply of fresh nutrients, the nutrients must have accumulated in his body. This would allow me to absorb his nutrients through ingestion of his blood in a much more concentrated amount, something that already seemed to be taking effect. That would explain the monthly blood donations that were required from all citizens in the Dark City of Seattle, but if the blood of vampires was generally richer than other species, why not just slaughter our own species for the resource?

I think about this issue as I make my way towards the final security gate to leave the factory. The guards pad me down and go through my backpack, finding nothing out of place. The walk home takes about 25 minutes, but I pay little attention to what goes on around me as I walk the dark streets. I found my mind drift to various subjects as I tried to piece together some kind of information that seemed crucial but just out of reach. Why weren't vampires obsessively hunting each other?

Vampires are an ancient race, I am not read up on my species' lore but I have heard that we have existed since mankind could hold a club. The depictions are often varied throughout cultures as my species often occupied a position between reality and legend. It wasn't until the end of the 1930s that vampires rose to power in western civilizations and their numbers climbed exponentially across most areas of the globe in the following years. While what happened during that decade was one of the darkest eras in my life for a multitude of reasons, I didn't want to dwell on it as I saw no apparent value in doing so.

Things finally settled down in the west as night cities were established by very wealthy and ambitious vampire elites, promising a beacon of hope for vampires with nowhere to go. This occurred in a multitude of different locations throughout Mexico, the United states and Canada. The Dark City of Seattle, Washington was one of the first established nocturnal metropolitans, and the city I chose to settle in. It had a population of approximatively five hundred thousand vampires and 99% of them were dirt poor.

Alcoholism was not even considered a social issue anymore since most of the inhabitants took part in some unhealthy amount of substance abuse. With our regenerative abilities, new forms of drugs had been willed into creation, the likes of which made cocaine seem like sleeping medication. The streets were filled with homeless vampires, being always aware of one's surroundings and sticking to major roads was a good way to avoid being mugged or eaten alive. Though even if you were seen, not many people would raise a finger to help you if they could not gain anything out of it.

Over-looking the madness of the streets lay the Ever-Lasting Night. A group of buildings found in the middle of the city, the main tower was opened in 1962 and looked like a giant needle. Only the city's wealthiest and most important ghouls ever went into that building. I frankly had no idea what they even did in there. I had a feeling that whoever sat watching the ant like forms crawl around them was responsible for how things were in this city, but the reason they even wanted to rule over this junkie ridden landscape eluded me.

I came up to an old warehouse that had been converted into an apartment complex, the outside brick wall still held solid and supported over 500 miniscule apartments. My apartment was one of these rat holes. The hallways were littered with trash, most of them old food containers. It was a habit that most vampires chose not to give up even after they turned from living to undead. I snacked at times, but only when I felt a bit nostalgic. It was a useless expenditure as it provided my body almost zero nutritional benefits. I walked up three flights of stairs, unlocked my front door and walked in.

The couch that served as my bed still had my blanket thrown over the arm. A table with a broken leg had a few cans of beer left over on it, it served as my dining area, work desk and foot rest. A mini fridge stood next to the TV I had found about two months prior. It did not have cable, but I could cast my phone onto it and watch media that way. It was a lucky find, the previous owners most likely thought it wasn't working anymore, but a quick dust with a compressed air canister managed to restore the electrical circuits inside.

The walls severely needed paint and the entirety of the building smelt of mildew. It was the best I could afford with the meager pay from the slaughterhouse. Opening the mini fridge I see the remainder of last week's salary, two small jars of congealed goat blood. I sighed as I thought about the small fortune I could harvest from Clemen.

As if my depressing amount of income was a lure for scumbags, I hear a brutish knock on my door. Propping myself up using a hand on my knee, I shuffle over to the door and open it. Standing in the doorway is the hunched over figure of my landlord. Her smile is toothy and her eyes sunken, making for a haunting combination with her greyish peeling skin. She has owned this building since as long it has been inside the cities no light zone.

"The rent is due, you are late." If dead cats could meow, they would sound better than the scratchy noise that comes out of her mouth. She eyes me up and down, seemingly noting that I've taken on a slightly noticeable amount of muscle mass. "You still owe me for last month, but I see you have drank a good quantity recently, so payment should not be a problem, right?"

Her finger nails were abnormally long and ended in sharp edges. She used them to push open the door more and peer in, leaving deep scratches where her nails skidded. While not physically intimidating, my landlord hid a powerful presence beneath the crooked back old lady look. I had seen the damage caused by a lease going unpaid for three months, resulting in the broken body of some indistinguishable sex falling from a shattered fifth floor window. It's head was missing and had multiple missing chunks of flesh. I was starting to near the two month mark, I did not want to be in that situation more than I had to, but it was between starving and having a roof over my head.

"You must be losing your eyesight, if I had extra blood I would have come straight to your office and paid you." I backed up as she stretched her neck into the apartment, moving towards my fridge to go pull out the two jars. "I should be getting paid in the next few days, it should cover the rent that I am missing then. Here are my last two bottles to my name, you can check around if you want but I don't have anything else."

Its not so much a fib as a distortion of reality. My plans involved getting a decent amount of blood to use as currency out of the factory. I hand over both bottles of cool blood to my landlady, she pockets them by sliding them into the inner folds of her clothes. She eyes me for a moment before turning around and making her way back out into the hall.

"It's best to pay rent when it is due." She stops and turns her head to look at me one last time, the monster that hides behind those eyes terrifies me as I feel her almost swallow me up just by staring. With a hideously large smile that exposes sharp and pointed canines she adds "We wouldn't want you to fall behind."

She slithers back around the corner, most likely to reap blood off another pour soul. If anything, this focuses my mind back onto the main issue at hand. Instead of thinking about the philosophy of why vampires haven't eradicated themselves out of existence, I need to think about how I'm going to smuggle blood out of the factory in time to pay the landlady.

I sit down on the couch and think of some prison tactics that could help me in this situation. The guards are pretty thorough in their search, and even if I hid it up inside me, the quantity would not be enough to be worth the pain. Worst case, I can keep that option as a back up plan if I really have no other choice. While the conversion rate of animal blood to human blood fluctuates depending on the seller and buyer, I have no clue how much vampire blood is worth. I assume 3-4 bottles will be able to cover my rent and debt fully, so I should aim to double that if I want to upgrade my living conditions.

I think of using a hollow bag taped to my leg which I can fill, based on a catheter design, but that would get spotted to easily. I start to shift my focus on brining it out in something that disguises it instead of hiding it. Its only after a while of watching a news outlet ramble on about some pointless topic and a commercial for a fizzy soft drink that a light bulb goes off in my brain.

Blood is food. Disguising it as food in a lunchbox would allow me to pass it through the gate because it makes sense that I would be transporting it in and out of the factory. However, I'll have to modify the blood in a way that makes it unrecognizable. Again, I hit a snag in my plan. I sit there for what seems like a long while lost in thought, but no answer shows up in my brain. I'm going to have to make do with just drinking at work for now because I'm drawing a blank.

In any case, the overtime and the time spent thinking in solitude has progressed the clock too close to my next shift. Its best if I get a bit of shut eye, it has been a rather eventful day. I shut my TV and lie down, only to find that my body is not used to having this much energy. Falling asleep is going to be a battle of its own.