To the Vampire I Met in Palm Springs

The first thing you told me was that you hadn't been dead very long, but I determined that was a lie in a matter of minutes. It didn't take a genius to realize that there was something not quite right about you.

It was October in the desert. I languished at the bar, hunched over a non-alchoholic negroni under the flashing lights of the Copa Night Club in downtown Palm Springs. Here, the trees didn't change colors or shed themselves. Here, even the shadows were warm.

And you sat down next to me, movements lithe and elegant like a dancer's. Overhead, the speakers pumped "Heads Will Roll!" by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, but you weren't listening to that, were you?

Glitter on the wet streets

Silver over everything

The river's all wet

You're all chrome

"What are you drinking?" you asked, so quietly that I shouldn't have been able to hear you over the pulse of the music.

"Virgin negroni," I hummed back, turning around to glance at you. It only took a moment for the scream to gurgle up in my throat.

"I wouldn't," you hushed, raising a perfect eyebrow, and placing a long, pale finger to your lips to indicate I should hold my tongue.

"What are you?" I managed, after a long moment. And you told me, of course. Always so obliging.

And then, the first lie:

"I haven't been dead very long. This is all new to me. Do you want to keep a freshly undead girl company?"

I shook my head, vehemently.

"Not particularly." For a moment, I lost myself in the upbeat whirr of the music.

Dripping with alchemy

Shiver stop shivering

"Humor me," you insisted, and for some reason, I did.

You led me out of the club as another song began to play. "Monster." Classic Kanye.

Okay, first things first I'll eat your brains

Then I'ma start rockin' gold teeth and fangs

'Cause that's what a monster do

Hairdresser from Milan, that's the monster 'do

"Someone went all out on their halloween Spotify playlist," I joked, but you simply furrowed your brow.

"What's Spotify?"

"Nothing. You're older huh? I guess you're more of a LimeWire girl." But you shook your head again.

"When was the last time you listened to music?"

"I saw Mozart preform a few years ago."

"Of course you did," I rolled my eyes.

"Where's your car?" You asked, ignoring me.

"What, you can't turn into a bat and fly us somewhere?"I smirked, testing my luck.

"I left it at the Airbnb. I walked here." This was the second lie, although I wouldn't find that out until later. The truth was that you never learned how to drive. That even after centuries of exposure to automobiles, you couldn't bring yourself to trust yourself behind the wheel of anything motorized.

Once we were in the car, you did not bother to speak. You simply raised a long pale finger and pointed in the direction that you wanted me to go.

After a few minutes of awkward silence, we had escaped the city center, leaving the lights behind us. The desert ahead was dark, dotted with Joshua Trees and tumbleweeds.

"What's it like, being you?" I hummed at last, uncomfortable in the silence.

You scoffed, shaking your head.

"Boring, mostly. Why don't you play something?"

And so I did, a long sultry melody that slipped from the speakers out the car windows and into the night air.

Am I the answer

Or the illusion

Oh this confusion

So hard to bear

"I like this one," you whispered.

Am I an orphan

Of your creation

Full of frustration

Each time you flare

Through my head and my veins

"I'm glad," I blushed, pleased to find something that felt true to you, "It's called 'Blood Type'." I grinned as you took in my inside joke.

"We don't actually drink blood, you know," you muttered, looking out across the expanse.

"I thought that was kind of your whole thing?" I pressed, shocked.

"Well, I can if you want me too. But it's not actually necessary. The premise of vampirism is connection. That doesn't have to be physical. There are more invasive ways of knowing someone." You shrugged, looking tired.

From ahead, the silhouette of an enormous house came into view. Really, it resembled a mansion.

"I thought you were staying in an Airbnb," I questioned, my mouth hanging open.

"I am. Just a really, really expensive one," you returned, shrugging again as you hopped out of the passenger seat.

I noted the absence of any other vehicles in the driveway as I strode up the deserted walk after you, trembling.

You slipped inside the foyer, turning around when I failed to accompany you over the threshold.

"Is there something you need to tell me? Do I have to invite you in?" you asked slowly, and it took me a moment to understand that you were joking.

I shook my head, advancing through the door, shivering slightly, despite how unseasonably hot it was.

"Shall we go swimming? This place has a pool out back," you hummed, not looking at me.

I nodded mutely, my eyes canvassing the walls for anything that might tell me more about you. But the entire space was devoid of any personal touches.

"I don't have a swimsuit," I remembered out loud, blushing.

"Doesn't matter. It's dark out anyways," you returned, walking towards the sliding glass doors that opened out onto the porch.

I opened my eyes, hardly noticing the sting of the water. The current was smooth, the water dark and nebulous. A perfect silence settled around me on the tiled floor of the pool.

A moment later, a flash of white, blurred and refracted, moved across my vision. I glanced up, and found you swimming over me.

But when you float above my body

I can see, I can see clearly

Straight through the ceiling, ceiling

Our eyes met through the chlorine haze. I wondered, for a moment, if you might try to drown me.

Crying zeros and I'm hearing 111s

Lifeless back slaps the surface of the pool

Pool killer, killer, pool, pool killer

Kiss me

But you didn't.

And later, you reclined on one of the pool lounges, dripping wet and staring at the moon. I meanwhile, looked at you.

"What?" You inquired at last, allowing your red eyes to flick across my face. I looked away as though I had been struck.

"What are you thinking?" You pushed again.

"Are you going to kill me?" I muttered at last, "Is that why you brought me here, to the middle of nowhere?"

You looked at me piercingly, with a sulfiric kind of sadness.

"No, I don't think so. I just wanted company-- I was telling you the truth at the bar."

A silence stretched out between the two of us, broken only by drops of water rolling from our skin onto the baking pavement.

And then quite suddenly you were beside me, far too close for comfort.

Our eyes locked.

I'm not afraid of love,

I'm terrified

It never feels like how they advertise

It's got big teeth, it's got an appetite

I'm not afraid of love

I pushed you away from me, my throat tight. I couldn't formulate the words to explain.

In another moment I was stumbling inside the house, picking my car keys off the table in the foyer.

I turned around just before I drove off, and found you looking at me carefully from the doorway. You did not try to call me back.

Without thinking, I pressed my foot to the gas.

Baby, believe me

And you had every chance

You destroy everything that you know (that you know)

(Uncontrollable)

If you don't need me

Just let me go

(Then your heart beats underground now)

(Now you'll never know)

Heart thrundering in my chest, I watched the mansion fade away in the rearview mirror.

(Then your heart beats underground now)

(Now you'll never know)

It's been a few weeks, and I'm safely back on the East Coast, where the leaves change color and it never gets above ninety degrees.

Every morning I wake up gently reeling

And there's blood all down my bed

Like twin needles the senation of you leaving

Who are you feeding off instead

Sometimes I think about you. Sometimes I wonder if you're still bored.

I don't want to call back

I don't want to want that but

It's the only thing on my mind

Post something on instagram

Have another cigarette anything to

Fill up all this time

I know they say that time is the best medicine, but you seemed so terribly lonely with infinity stretched out before you like that.

Halloween Playlist:

1) "Heads Will Roll" by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs

2) "Monster" by Kanye West, Jay Z, Rick Ross, and Nicki Minaj

3) "Blood Type" by Turtle, Eliza Shaddad

4) "Mirrors" by Pvris

5) "In Cold Blood" by alt-J

6) "Terrified" by Terror Jr.

7) "Flesh Without Blood" by Grimes

8) "The Vampire" by The Romanovs