My Best Friend is a Vampire

"Elizabeth Johnson! Get your ass outta bed, now!"

I sighed, rolling over onto my back and ignoring my best friends hollering. It was raining out, it was chilly, and I was NOT in the mood to go to any bar or any club with her tonight. I had struggled with depression since I was in my early teen years and over the years, it had not gotten any better for me. I took medication but, at best, that just leveled it out a little bit. I still had random moments, where I just felt like total shit and lately, that's what I had been going through; another bad bout.

I was perfectly content with staying inside on a Friday night, and doing absolutely nothing with myself; my friend Samantha, on the other hand, was not willing to let that happen.

"Go away," I yelled, as she kept banging on the door.

"I'm not in the mood!"

Still, she persisted. The next thing I knew, my door was swinging wide open and Samantha stumbled forward, nearly falling flat on her face. My door wasn't the best, and if you gave it a hard enough shove, it would often pop open even if it were locked...Samantha knew this...damn girl.

She caught her balance and looked around the room, sighing heavily and then looking at me. "This place is a mess," she said.

It had been over a week, since the last time I had straightened things up in here. That's how I was when it came to these bad bouts of depression; I would often find myself, absolutely non-productive. "Let's go, get up; get in the shower, we're going out!"

"What? C'mon, I told you I'm not-"

"I don't wanna hear it," Samantha said in a very motherly tone.

"Besides, Kate is going to be there..."

Kate was a mutual friend of ours, whom we had both known since high school. After the three of us graduated, Kate moved out of state for college and was rarely ever home nowadays. I have to admit; knowing that I'd have a chance to see Kate, made me feel a little motivated to get myself moving again.

"Fine," I groaned, forcing myself out of bed. "I'll go but, I'm not going to like it."

"That's a lie," Samantha laughed, as I entered the bathroom to shower.

I emerged about half an hour later from the shower, clean and fresh, wearing a pair of black leather pants and my leather jacket. I'd always loved the whole 80s rock & roll style, especially when going out to a bar or a club. I had curled my dark brown hair and put on a little bit of makeup, as well.

"See? Look who's looking sexy again!" Samantha smiled.

"Shut up," I laughed. "Let's just get going."

I played it cool but, really...I loved when Samantha would give me compliments like that. It always made me feel good about myself, coming from her, even if I knew that she was always going to be hotter then me. No one knew this but, I had always been sexually attracted to my best friend.

Dating as far back as the middle of high school, I had wanted to tell her my true feelings but, never had the courage to do so. I think she always knew that I liked girls...that wasn't too hard to tell since I never showed any interest in guys. Even if she knew about that much, I had never openly admitted it and she certainly couldn't know that I had any feelings for her, sexual or romantic.

Samantha called an Uber to take us to the club. It was still raining out, and much heavier then earlier; I was grateful for the umbrella that Samantha remembered to bring along.

When we arrived at the club, we found Kate right up by the bar waiting. As soon as she noticed us coming towards her, I was greeted by a huge bear hug from Kate, who threw her arms around me and clung to me for dear life. "It's been way too long!" she exclaimed, kissing me on the cheek.

"It really has," I laughed, excited to see her after all this time.

"How have you been? I heard that guy you were seeing turned out to be a complete asshole!"

Okay, so I never showed much interest in guys but, that doesn't mean I've never had a date. My most recent date had been a one-timer, set up by Samantha...

one reason to question whether or not she really did realize, that I didn't like guys at all. I thought he was nice enough at first and decided to go along with it...turns out he was in fact, a complete asshole, as Kate had just said.

"You win some, you lose some," I shrugged.

Kate sighed, giving me a knowing smile. "When are you going to just say it?" She asked, whispering in my ear. I blinked in surprise, and before I could ask what she meant, Kate changed the subject by giving Samantha an equally aggressive hug and kiss on the cheek.

I was then informed that Samantha and Kate did not want me to pay for a single drink that night...they wanted to cover me, the entire time we were at the club. I knew what that meant; I wasn't going home sober, that's for damn sure.

The night played out as I expected, with lots of heavy drinking and dancing with the three of us and by midnight, we were all feeling pretty drunk and sweaty.

Samantha had ended up in the corner, chatting and flirting with some weirdo guy, who obviously just wanted to get in her pants. I was sitting at the bar now, watching it unfold, clearly jealous and very drunk. Kate sat down beside me and sighed, ordering two more drinks, one for me and one for herself. She looked at me and laughed.

"You need to tell her," Kate slurred.

"W-What?"

"You're sitting here staring at her, as she's flirting with some asshole...and you are obviously jealous! Go over there and kiss the damn girl already, it's been since high school."

"Wait, you...you know?"

"Lizzy, it's impossible not to know."

I laughed, shaking my head. "What does THAT mean?"

"Really," she scoffed. "You hate guys, never find your own dates, they're always set up by other people. And when they do set them up, it's obvious that you're irritated that anyone would even consider sending you on a date with a boy...and the way you look at Samantha? Like you want to do things to her, that no one should ever find out about? You've been looking at her like that, since as long as I can remember."

Apparently, I really was that obvious. "So what," I replied, after a brief pause. "I can't tell her. Not when I don't know how she feels; I don't want to risk ruining our friendship."

Kate sighed again, as the bartender set our new drinks down and she nearly chugged her entire Long Island Ice Tea in one shot. Just then, a hand fell on my shoulder and I looked back, to find a rather tall woman standing behind me and Kate. She had her other hand on Kate's shoulder and was smiling, ear to ear.

"Ladies," she said, in a sultry voice.

"Mind if I join you?"

She was wearing a black dress, with long smooth black hair, and piercing blue eyes. Her face was as white as snow, making her red painted lips stand out even more; she was beautiful. Apparently, Kate thought so too, because she was staring back at this woman with the same look that I would have given her.

"S-Sure," Kate said, suddenly seeming shyer than ever.

"I'm sorry to interrupt you both," the woman said, sitting down between the two of us now. "My name is Alycia, and I couldn't help but notice how beautiful you both are."

"Well that's very nice of you," Kate said, looking over at me and me back at her.

We introduced ourselves back to Alycia and continued our conversation with her.

She was apparently new in the area and had just arrived at the club a few minutes ago. She came alone and in her own words...she was searching for some company. Beautiful as she was, I managed to break my attention away from her and look back to where Samantha had been a few minutes earlier; I wanted to make sure that guy didn't try anything foolish with her. She was still standing in the same corner...making out with him, now. I groaned in disgust, then turned back to the beautiful woman, between me and Kate.

"I was wondering," Alycia said suddenly.

"There's another club in this area, that just opened up recently...it's got a much different vibe, then your typical bar and dance club but, I'm sure you two will both love it...would you care to join me and get out of here together?"

"Absolutely," Kate said, without any hesitation.

Really, I thought? That easy? We didn't even know this lady, not completely, and I wasn't totally sure how I felt about just wandering off to some random club that I had never been to with her. "Wonderful," Alycia said, excitedly.

"What about you, Lizzy?"

"I...I don't-"

"What's going on!?"

We both looked up, to find Samantha sitting next to us now and she was obviously VERY intoxicated. "That guy was a total loser," she whined, not waiting for an answer to her previous question.

"He wouldn't shut the hell up about how amazing he thought he was...hey, who's this?" She asked, acknowledging Alycia for the first time.

"This is Alycia," I introduced the woman to Samantha.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," Alycia said. She reached past me, taking

Samantha's hand and raising it to her lips for a gentle kiss. The look on my friend's face was one that I had never seen before, even with the many guys that she had dated in the past...if I had been jealous of that dude she was flirting with earlier, I was REALLY jealous of Alycia, now.

"I had just invited your friends, Kate and Lizzy, to another club in the area...I think the three of you will truly love it. It's to die for."

"I think it's getting a little late," I said, not having the greatest feeling about this whole idea. "We appreciate the offer but, we're probably-"

"Count me in," Samantha said, cutting me off.

"Excellent," Alycia smiled. "Now, Lizzy...are you in?"

I looked back and forth between Alycia, Kate, and Samantha, hoping my two friends might change their minds. They were both set on this though, and I seemed to be the only one, who had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. I can't explain it but, something was just telling me NOT to go with this lady.

"I'm going to sit this one out," I said, faking my best smile.

"I have work tomorrow so, I should get some sleep."

Of course, Samantha and Kate both argued and tried to convince me to go along with them anyway; I wasn't breaking, though. In the end, they caved and Samantha promised to text me when she was on the way home. I watched, as Alycia took both of my friends by the hands and led them towards the exit. It was only then, watching them disappear through the double doors, that my sick feeling in my stomach seemed to get even worse.

I stayed and had a couple of drinks more, to try and soothe the feeling of anxiety that I was struggling with. Around one thirty in the morning, I ordered an Uber and started back to my apartment. When I got there, I collapsed, exhausted onto the living room couch.

I laid there for a while and just kept thinking about the conversation I'd had, with Kate that night...about me and Samantha...about how I had spent so long, hiding my sexuality from people, when there was no reason to hide. Wondering if it was worth telling Samantha how I felt about her, or if I would just end up destroying an eight-year-long friendship.

Then my thoughts turned to Alycia, and how both of my friends had just gone off with this mysterious woman, who for whatever reason may be, I couldn't bring myself to fully trust.

Maybe I should have gone with them?

I brushed it off, convinced that it was just me being paranoid and that Samantha and Kate would both be totally fine. I got up, starting to my bedroom and stripping out of all my clothes on the way. The apartment was surprisingly warm, despite how chilly and rainy it was outside; I felt like sleeping naked.

I crawled into bed, and a few minutes after laying down, I was sound asleep.

I woke sometime in the middle of the night, to a very loud crashing sound, from out in the living room. It scared the hell out of me and I sat straight up in bed, turning on my light and grabbing my cell phone. I checked the time on my phone...it was nearly five o'clock in the morning. I hadn't received any text messages from Samantha, letting me know she was on the way home, as she had promised.

Concerned for her, and also wanting to know what had made that noise, I slowly got out of bed and grabbed a metal baseball bat from the corner of my room. I opened the door and peeked out into the livingroom...there was nothing there. It was dark and quiet, and I couldn't see a thing. I could, however, hear someone in the kitchen, moving things around and making plenty of noise. It had to be Samantha, I told myself, though I was still anxious.

"A-Samantha?" I called out, nervously.

In hindsight, making myself known was probably a mistake. That's like, the number one no-no in most horror movies, right? If it WERE a serial killer or something like that, he knew I was there now, and I was probably as good as dead.

No going back now, I told myself.

When nobody answered me, I sucked in a deep breath of air, exhaled and gripping the baseball bat tightly, I started out into the living room. I moved as slowly and cautiously as I possibly could, rounding the corner and into the kitchen. I raised the baseball bat over my head, prepared to strike whoever was out there if it were not my friend...and I jumped right into the kitchen, just to find that it was in fact, Samantha.

She was digging through the refrigerator while struggling to keep her drunk ass from falling over. She stood up and looked back at me, hanging on to the refrigerator door and laughing hysterically at me. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare ya," she slurred.

"When did you get home?"

"Like...five...seven...three minutes ago?"

Wow, she was really drunk.

"Where's Kate?"

"Kate," Samantha laughed. "Oh, let me tell you where Kate is."

This couldn't be good...

"Kate, as it turns out, has a thing for girls and never told us about it before! She hooked up with that weird, spooky lady, and I'm pretty sure she's busy eating her spooky pussy, as we speak."

I tried not to laugh, as she referred to Alycia's pussy as "spooky." The bigger issue at hand was, indeed, Kate had never expressed any sexual interest in girls before. I would have known if she were into that, and trust me, as much as I liked Samantha, I would have been all over Kate too if given the chance. "You just left her there?"

"She told me to go," Samantha said, shutting the door to the refrigerator and nearly falling over. "I wasn't feeling good..."

She didn't look so good, now that I noticed.

Samantha's face was unusually pale, and as she fell forward and into my arms, I noticed that she was also rather cold, too. I helped my drunk friend down the hallway, and into her bedroom, helping her out of her clothes and into her bed.

She was out cold before her head even hit the pillow.

I smiled, sitting down beside her and pulling the sheets over her. I brushed her blonde hair out of her face, and that's when I noticed it...

On the left side of Samantha's neck, were two very small puncture wounds...they almost looked like bite marks. Confused, I examined them closer and couldn't figure out exactly what could have left markings like that. I checked the rest of her body and found two more "bite marks" on her left wrist and one on her inner right thigh.

"Jesus," I whispered. "What the fuck did this to you?"

I decided to just ask her in the morning, hoping that she would even remember herself, what had happened. I left my friend to sleep and returned to my own bed, staying up for about another hour before I passed out again.

When I got up later, Samantha was gone again. I didn't get the chance to ask her about those weird marks on her body, because the next time I saw her...they were gone, too. It was like they had never even been there. I couldn't see the one on her neck or her wrist, and finding out about the one on her thigh, would have been a little difficult...so I just assumed that too, was gone.

Samantha started acting rather strangely, though.

It began with the weird change in music and clothing style. She went from dressing girly, with short skirts and tank tops, to wearing all black and looking more like a gothic porn star. Her musical taste had shifted from pop to more metal-ish and that just wasn't normal for Samantha. Then there was how freakishly pale, she always seemed to be. I mean, it couldn't be normal to look that fucking white, I kept telling myself.

It wasn't just Samantha who had changed, though...it was Kate, too.

About a week after that one night that we had all hung out, I found out that Kate had dropped out of college and was not going back. She moved in with that woman, Alycia, and straight up admitted to everyone that she was a lesbian.

Her style had changed just as drastically as Samantha's had, and now she was wearing all dark clothes and listening to different music, too.

It was all so damn weird, and I couldn't explain it.

All of this had occurred within a three-week time frame, practically overnight. I was more than a little concerned for my two friends but, I didn't know what to make of it. Were they on drugs? Had this Alycia gotten them both mixed up in something, that they just couldn't get themselves out of?

I came home from work one night, to find Samantha locked in her bedroom, listening to the most depressing music I had ever heard in my life. I mean, I love metal, don't get me wrong...but this shit made me feel like I was at a funeral or something. Concerned, I knocked several times on Samantha's bedroom door and waited for a response...when she did not say anything, I pushed the door open and stepped into her room.

Even her room had changed!

She'd painted the walls a dark color, covering them with Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie posters. I found Samantha laying in her bed, propped up on one elbow, smiling up at me.

"Hey Lizzy," she said, softly.

"H-Hey," I said, stepping into the room. "Can I come in?"

"Of course!"

I nodded, moving further in and shutting the door behind me.

"So," Samantha started. "What's up?"

"Nothing much, just...well...I wanted to check on you."

Samantha sat up now, crossing her legs underneath of her and cocking her head to the side. "Oh? What for?"

"It's just that," I hesitated.

"Lately, you've been acting a little strange. I mean, the change in clothing and music, the way you're always so pale...I'm worried about you, that's all."

Samantha smiled, standing up now and starting towards me. For the first time in the eight years we had been friends, I actually felt a little uneasy about her approaching me. She stopped right in front of me and still smiling, reached up to brush her fingers across my cheek. "You're such a good friend," she said softly.

"I'm okay, Lizzy, I promise. We're young, right? Still in our early twenties..., I'm just going through a phase, you could say."

"Oh...well...o-okay?"

"That said," she continued. "There's someone, I'd like you to meet. A new friend of mine, that I met at that club Alycia took me and Kate too."

"Oh? Who is it?"

I thought perhaps she had a new boyfriend but, when Samantha revealed this person to be another female, I was a bit surprised. She showed me a picture of the girl...and shockingly, she looked very much like Samantha, Alycia, and Kate.

All the black clothing, the pale skin, the creepy looking smile; something was up with these people. "Her name is Christine," Samantha said.

"She'll be stopping by tonight, and I'd like you to meet her."

"Sure," I nodded. "I look forward to it."

And Christine did, in fact, show up, that night. In person, it was even more apparent that this girl was from the same group as Alycia. All in all, though, she seemed pretty nice. Thinking about it, they ALL seemed very nice. That was the one thing that had not changed about Samantha since all of this began or Kate for that matter. They weren't hostile, nor did they seem truly dangerous...just...weird.