Midnight Snack

MIDNIGHT SNACK

  Mari Miniatt

  Animated Liar Media

  ***

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2011 by Mari Miniatt

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Animated Lair Media

  Syracuse, NY

  Cover Photograph 2008 by Peter Harrison (cheetah100)

  Book design and production by Animated Liar Media

  Editing by Animated Liar Media

  ***

  Dedication

  Thanks to my beta readers

  Kate Jones

  Jocelyne Immell

  ***

  He felt the vibrations. Theron opened one eye and laid his hand on the thick white rope in front of him. The vibrations were strong and steady. These were stronger, not like when there had been people above him. The new vibrations changed rhythm and tempo.

  The vibrations woke him up and hunger did not let him settle back down into sleep. He tasted the air. The faint taste of a meal. The red, smooth taste of protein. The green, sharp taste of sweat. He stretched. Reaching out with his legs to the white thick ropes. Theron climbed to the world above his resting place.

  Outside the building that hid his lair, the world had changed. When he had been here before, people hurried from one building to another. The gray sickening smells of the vehicles made him cough. But tonight the place seemed deserted. Except for one building.

  He watched a couple groups of people walk by him. They wore colorful clothes and their hair in strange styles. The multiple tastes hit him, like a blows to his insides. His hunger rose spurring him to go closer. He felt the air. The people walked toward the building where the vibrations shook the walls.

  Theron followed a couple to the large building. He remembered hunting here in the past. Females had not been allowed in the building at that time.

  Inside, he felt the music as it pulsated. The lights illuminated the fake fog that tasted like bright blue acid. The dance floor looked like an alien landscape with the dancers bobbing and weaving like water crashing against rocks.

  He stood in the corner of the building between the entrance and the portable bar. The lights flickered over him as the music played. He blinked as the lights changed color. He watched the crowd. He could taste so many different flavors in the air. Hunger stabbed him.

  People moved in herds along the outside of the dance floor. They would gather together in larger groups, then separate into smaller ones. He watched the strange ritual. Waiting for the time to strike, then he tasted what he needed.

  A young woman with ribbons weaved through her hair bounced pass him. She followed a group of people that hurried over to the bar. She leaned in to listen to the other couples talk, as she sucked on her lollipop. He heard the conversation.

  “I can't believe they're holding it here.”

  “Why?”

  “You know, the stories.”

  “What stories?”

  “Why they had to shut the factories down here, too many workers disappeared.”

  “So?”

  “Some killer they say.”

  “Like, right.”

  “No for real, my uncle told me.”

  They moved away, she hurried to catch up with the group. The ribbons in her hair, tied around her fake ponytails, flowed behind her. Her scent moved away with her. Theron tasted the air. When he smelt her, he could taste the sweet blue flavor that he needed.

  He stalked her as she stayed attached to the group of people. He watched her. She was like a little kitten that wanted to run with a pack of wolves. Theron's hairs on his body twitched. She tasted perfect.

  He scurried across the dance floor and walked up to her. She ignored him at first. He tapped her shoulder and held out his hand.

  “Dance?” he asked.

  She glanced at him, then at her friends as they disappearing into the fake fog. Her shoulders sagged. She turned to him and smiled. “Sure, I'm Linda.”

  He grinned, but did not show his teeth. “Theron.”

  He laid his hand on her arm. His black fingernails shimmered in the multiple colored lights. Linda dropped her unfinished lollipop on the floor and let him take her to the middle of the dance floor.

  The electronic music shook his body with every beat. He moved around her, jerking his body to the tempo. As he danced, he watched her dance. She moved as graceful as one could to the fast beats. Her ponytails bounced around her face. The more she danced, the more he could taste the sweet flavor.

  Theron took her hand and pulled her closer to him, as the song ended. Her breasts heaved as she waved her hand in front of her face. The sweat trickled down her neck and into her cleavage.

  “Water?” he asked.

  Linda nodded.

  He pulled her to the other side of the warehouse. The water bottle vendor threw him two bottles. He caught both, with a jump twist in the air. When he landed, he bowed to the people around him that clapped. He paid the vendor and handed one of the bottles to Linda.

  Linda unwrapped another lollipop. “Do you go to school around here?”

  Theron wiped his mouth. “Sorry?”

  “School? College?”

  He leaned over to shout in her ear. “No.”

  She guzzled the water.

  He motioned with his hand to the door. “Need to cool off?”

  Linda nodded. Theron smiled and took her arm. They walked past one of the bouncers, stopping to get a stamp on their hands.

  Outside, Linda shivered in the cool air. She rubbed her hands on her arms. Her breath steamed. He put his arm around her. He walked her to the other side of the parking lot, closer to the derelict warehouses. The old buildings blocked some of the wind.

  “Do you work around here?” she asked.

  Theron shook his head.

  “Oh,” Linda said.

  She looked back at the building with the rave. Theron moved so he blocked her view.

  “Maybe I should go back,” she said.

  “Why?” he asked.

  “My friends...”

  “We don't have to go back now,” Theron said. He placed his hands on her shoulders. “Do you want to see something really cool?”

  “What?”

  “There is a really strange building near here.”

  “Where?”

  Theron pointed to a smaller building attached to larger warehouse. “Inside there is something you won't believe.”

  Linda bit her lip. “I should get back.”

  Theron placed his hand on her arm. “Come with me.”

  Linda shook her head. “No.”

  “Come.”

  She shook her head. “I'm going back.”

  Theron tightened his grip on her arms. Linda tried to pull away. She gasped. He pulled her closer. She lifted one of his digits and gasped. Blood flowed down her arm from the wound his finger pad left on her skin. On the bottom of his hand small, black, sharp hairs shot out. They tore into her skin.

  Linda kicked him. Her foot hit his leg. Theron did not let her go. She kicked him harder and yelled. Theron tilted his head back and forth as if his neck had become stiff. He felt the muscles in his neck move back to their normal position.

  She screamed.

  Theron opened his mouth. His teeth swung down from the top of his mouth. He pulled his head back.

  Linda pulled away, her skin tearing off as she did.
He snapped his head down, shoving the long fangs into her shoulder. Linda's screaming stopped. Her mouth remained opened, but no sound. He pulled his fangs out of her flesh. Green liquid dripped from one of the wounds down her shoulder.

  The fangs flipped back into his mouth. He watched Linda. Her body stiffened. He removed one of his hands from her shoulder. The blood flowed down from her shoulders and dripped on to the black top.

  Her body hardened like a board. Her mouth locked into the shape of the large O. He glanced back at the rave. No one could see them.

  He let go of her arms. She fell like a board falling off the side of a house. He grabbed her and threw her over his shoulder. He scuttled toward the small building.

  Theron stopped at the metal door. Linda's breath rattled. He pushed the door open with his foot. Inside the wall that had separated the two buildings, had collapsed leaving a large hole.

  The old desks and filing cabinets had been tossed around and spray painted. He kicked aside a white thick cotton-like piece of debris on the floor. Linda moaned.

  Theron stretched his empty arm behind him. His back rippled and popped as he did. He adjusted Linda's prone body and walked through the hole into the larger building.

  Spider webs covered the windows. The light from the few street lamps outside, defused as it pass through