Blood and Tobacco

I never liked Dana’s boyfriend. For one, I first met him after returning from abroad only to see my friend being held by him like a boa constrictor, and he was older, much older. The man was at least twenty nine and she was only eighteen. She had technically been an adult for a good ten months by now but still too young to be dating a man a decade older than her. What made it worse was when I found out they had been dating two months before her birthday. This man was hanging out with a kid and thought it was okay?! I tried to tell her that he was bad but she brushed me off, explaining he had always been a gentleman. When she told me his name I quickly forgot it! All I needed to know was he was a pervert and a predator. I only ever referred to him as her “boyfriend” or “that guy” or “that weirdo,” much to Dana’s annoyance.

When she invited me to move in with her, I saw him more often. He would just lounge about the house, reeking if tobacco, when he wasn’t cooking. I never ate his cooking. He used to much garlic and onions which irritated my nose and I didn’t trust that he put poison or a sleeping drug in either. Even if he didn’t I preferred to go out for food. It was a habit I picked up in Europe and I decided to keep it.

I didn’t want anything to do with him and my friend wouldn’t listen so I ignored him and stayed in my room when he was around. One night, I was half asleep when my door opened. At first, I thought it was Dana wanting to talk or cuddle, as she was prone to nightmares. I was used to her being clingy when frightened or stressed and felt no discomfort in holding her in my arms while she shook off light sobs or chatted about nothing until she fell asleep. Even now she would occasionally come to me and I would not turn her away. But those weren’t her footsteps I heard on my plush rug. My body froze. I didn’t dare move. Those footsteps ended right beside my bed. I stopped breathing. My body became a corpse. A dip in the bed to heavy to be a young woman’s. I felt his knees close me in and his damp hand hover over my throat. I felt his other hand massaging my breasts and my eyes shot open and I saw him leering down at me.

I didn’t say a word. I didn’t even scream. I felt his hand pin me down. Then I sank my teeth into his neck. Though his blood tasted of sugar and the tobacco he chewed, I sucked and drank as quickly as a child gulps down medicine. The smell of blood and tobacco filled my senses as that pervert fell limp in my grasp.