He was not your conventional vampire. Most vampires had the same ritual: stake out a graveyard in the middle of the night, wait for some innocent passersby to come along, attack (or hold them in thrall until they submit), plunge the fangs into the silky flesh of an exposed neck and drink up the blood.
It was in their nature. It wasn’t something vampires questioned; they just did it. Not caring how much harm they inflicted.
But not Gary. To be perfectly honest, the sight of blood made him a bit squeamish. One look at it and he all but keeled over. He was also terrible at holding a victim in thrall; his hypnotic powers either failed him, never existed to begin with, or he wasn’t trained properly on how to use this power.
Not that it mattered. Holding people in thrall was rather tiring. Especially the victims who were intelligent with a strong mind and will. It took longer to put them under. By the time he did put them under, the biting just wasn’t worth it.
But a vampire still has to eat.
Which is why he started robbing blood banks.
It was a simple idea in theory: blood banks were closed in the middle of the night, so no humans around and since it was night, no sun to set him ablaze. There was the minor issue of actually seeing the blood in the bags, but he could cover a bag with a cloth before he started drinking it.
The plan worked flawlessly for several nights. Each night, he would break in, wrap a cloth around a bag and indulge. No humans to wrestle under the power of the thrall and no dripping blood to make him squeamish (which if ever found out, would make him the laughing stock of the vampire community).
He never thought he would get caught.
One minute he was drinking his third bag of blood and the next, he was being handcuffed. He tried to explain to the police that he was a vampire, but they didn’t believe him.
Now he was locked in a jail cell with another prisoner, who much to his chagrin, was starting to look tasty.
Putting the prisoner in thrall only took two seconds, being that he was dumber than a brick. Gary licked the edge of his fangs, hissing as he went in for the kill.
The neck was glorious. Fleshy, well fed, plump, full of muscle and fat. As long as he kept his eyes closed, he would be fine. He could feel the warmth of the blood flowing from the prisoner’s neck.
“Hey Vampire!” The Warden barked. “There’s someone here to see you!”
Gary opened his eyes. This turned out to be a mistake: underneath his fangs was a river of red, oozing and spurting from the puncture wounds. He unhooked his fangs quickly, staggering backwards. “Oh no.” He reached out for the bars to the cell…only to faint to the floor.
“Huh.” The Warden scratched his head. “Look at that. He really is a vampire.”
