Misty Rose: Nature
Chapter 29
When the next night came around, I was nervous pretty much starting when I woke up. Like I said, I hadn’t done much normal dating really. Most of my social life was going to raves and parties and whatever, and for me, that was more about dancing and having fun. Guys were sort of just there. Maybe I’d talk with a few, maybe flirt with one that was cute, but that wasn’t why I went. Even the stuff Kaitlyn sometimes teased me about kind of just… happened. I didn’t go to parties to find guys. I went to dance. And all the relationships I’d had for the last few years were guys I’d met at a party and liked hanging out with at parties. It was usually when one of us tried to move something to outside parties that the relationship fell apart. And since becoming a vampire, not a lot of parties. Shit always seemed to go wrong and… being dead kind of makes it hard to enjoy stuff that requires things that just don’t really work anymore when you’re dead. Least, it seemed like that. I hadn’t really done any dancing at the parties I’d been do since I got turned, so I wasn’t totally sure.
Anyway, yeah, not a lot of normal dating, and really not the bar scene. I’d heard stories, of course, because it’s kind of hard not to if you got girl friends in college, and it seemed like they were all bad. Assholes, douchebags, and that kind of thing. Only now I was actually looking for the sort of guys that’d ruin the night for a girl just out for a drink, or looking for a possible date, you know? But I didn’t feel bad about what I was planning because the guys I was looking for were assholes. Didn’t really have much of a plan, either, because it always seemed like they’d just… turn up. I just had to play along.
Evening didn’t start out so great, either. Kaitlyn decided to play Dress Up Misty because I’d put my foot down about her coming along with me. I didn’t want her to get mixed up in what I’d have to do to feed. So instead she got involved in literally everything else.
“How about this one?” Kaitlyn asked, holding up the sixth dress. I’d already nixed three party outfits and two things that would have made me look like a streetwalker. This one was at least reasonable, standard little black dress. Except it was Kaitlyn’s, so on me it’d be even littler. I was stockier than she was, so I tended to… spill out more when I borrowed her clothes.
“I dunno,” I said. “Do I really hafta look like I’m… lookin’ to go home with someone?”
“Yeah,” Kaitlyn rolled her eyes. “That’s kinda the point, right?”
“No, I just wanna get ’em alone,” I said, then winced. “Derp. Okay, I see what you mean.”
“Good,” Kaitlyn said, holding her dress up against me. Then she frowned. “Okay, take the hoodie off. Can’t tell how this is gonna fit with it on.”
I looked down at myself. Okay, yeah, I’d gotten kind of attached to wearing a hoodie lately, so I’d put on one on pretty much right away when I woke up. I sighed and pulled it up over my head and off. Which left me not wearing very much at all, but I guess that was the point. The dress Kaitlyn was now holding up against me was short, tight, and had spaghetti straps. I thought it made me look fat because of being stocky, and it didn’t let me wear comfortable underwear. But at least I could get away with not wearing a thong. I thought the black thigh highs and heels were too much, though.
“You sure about this?” I asked, looking at myself in the mirrored closet door.
“You look great,” Kaitlyn said. “Trust me.”
“Um… I’m not sayin’ my party clothes are modest, but this…”
“Hey,” Kaitlyn grabbed my head and turned my face towards hers. “You’re going to a bar looking for guys. You wear jogging clothes looking for thugs, right? It’s hunting gear.”
I looked at myself in the mirror again. Okay, yeah, she was right. I guess it was just more… aggressive than I was used to. Parties were about dancing, not dating, so looking good was good, but my party outfits weren’t… for hunting guys. This one was. I sighed and nodded at Kaitlyn.
“Alright,” I said. “I’m sold. What else?”
“Purse, obviously,” Kaitlyn said. “Hair. Makeup. Makeup next.” She pushed me over towards one of our bar stools and made me sit down. Then she went into the bathroom and came back out with my makeup tackle box, put it on the counter, and started rummaging around.
“Hey,” I said. “I know how to do my makeup.”
“You know how to do your makeup,” Kaitlyn said, not looking up. “Which looks great. But I don’t think you’ve ever done man hunting makeup. I have.”
I sighed and rolled my eyes. “Can’t be that hard,” I said.
Kaitlyn ignored me. “Honestly, it’s like you’ve never gone on the prowl,” she said.
“Um… not really. Guys… just happened, y’know? And you met everyone I dated after I got out of high school. Didn’t work out so well outside of parties.”
“Uh huh,” Kaitlyn said, pulling some things out of my kit. “Well, you’ll figure it out.”
I looked at everything she’d laid out and raised an eyebrow.
“Shush,” Kaitlyn said. “Hold still.” Then she went to work.
It… took a while. Less time because I didn’t have a complexion to conceal, but after a while I was pretty sure she was making up my face like some of her party costumes. She could get really elaborate, especially with some of the more colorful ones. And I felt like she was doing the same thing to me. Lots of time with my eyes and lips. Eventually she put everything down and waved at the mirror. I got up to look and… honestly, I didn’t really look like myself.
“I look like a porn star,” I said.
“And how do you know what porn stars look like?” Kaitlyn said, grinning at me.
“Don’t act like you’ve never watched porn,” I said. “I live with you, remember?”
“Just more hunting gear, honey,” Kaitlyn said.
“This isn’t like my party look…” I said, looking at myself in the mirror again.
“No, but it’s your makeup. Not all that different, just sexier.”
“Yeah, I guess. Less party more… sex.”
“It’s what a lot of women wear,” Kaitlyn shrugged. “Look around when you get to one of the bars. The ones there looking for a guy usually dress the part.”
“Mmm. Singles not wantin’ to be single. Okay. Now what?”
“Hair,” Kaitlyn said, walking over to me. She squinted at my head for a bit, then pulled out my scrunchie and sort of… ran her fingers through my hair a bit. Which felt better than I was going to tell her for a lot of reasons. But the end result was what I’ve seen called bedroom hair. Not actual bedroom hair, which is a horrible mess, but that sort of… messy effect I’ve seen actresses do sometimes. She fussed with my hair a bit more, then ended up pulling part of the front over one of my eyes. “Okay, keep it like this,” she said, then grinned.
I looked in the mirror again. “I look like I just had sex with someone.”
“Uh huh,” Kaitlyn said. “And like you’re ready to go again. Trust me.” She grabbed a can of hair spray and gave my hair a few passes. I got my eyes closed just in time. Then she stepped back and looked me over again. “Right. Kinda close your eyes like you’re half asleep.”
I glared at her. “I know what I’m doin’.”
“That’s hot too,” Kaitlyn grinned at me. “But it’s not the look I was looking for.”
“Fine,” I rolled my eyes, then half closed them like she said. When Kaitlyn nodded, I snuck a look at myself in the mirror, and yeah, it looked hot. With the makeup. Without it, I just look half asleep making that face. I even tried my resting dumb face, and somehow that was hot too. But right about then, I got this feeling like Kaitlyn wasn’t just making me look like I was gonna go man hunting, but like… she was also making me up like she wanted to see me look. I might have been reading stuff into how she was acting but… I could hear her heartbeat and it was a bit faster than I’d think for what she’d been doing. I figured it’d probably be a good idea to head out to the bars real soon. I turned away from Kaitlyn and went to find some jewelry. Nothing fancy because I was a little worried I might lose it. Then I picked a matching purse and put in what I’d need.
“Alright,” I said. “I can borrow your scooter, right?”
Kaitlyn handed me her keys, then gave me a careful hug. “Don’t drive too fast, and check everything before you go in.”
“I know what I’m doin’,” I said again.
“Uh huh. Go get ’em, girl.”
“Alright. Don’t wait up.”
“I won’t,” Kaitlyn said, then grinned at me. “Don’t bring back any dinner.”
“Don’t worry,” I grinned back. “Not bringin’ anyone home. Seeya.”
Getting to the place wasn’t hard, but it took longer than I thought because I was driving slower than usual. To be honest, I wasn’t sure I could fix all the stuff Kaitlyn had done by myself, and… well, the dress was short enough that going too fast caused cold wind in the wrong places. I’d also managed to forget a coat, and it was fall. I’d have to remember that next time, or just find a look that wasn’t so complicated. But not looking like myself was probably a good thing. Made it less likely I’d be recognized somewhere else, and if I was gonna hit the bars to hunt much, I might start looking like I was easy. Or a prostitute. Which would be worse, especially if I got arrested. So I thought I should probably keep track of where I’d been. There were a bunch all in the same area close together, and I’d found a few others. But mostly I wanted the ones where the sleazy pick up artists went, and I’d found some real winners online by finding the boards where they’d go to brag and make up shit. And to complain about failing, which was even more useful because I could figure out what to do to play along, you know? I wasn’t doing this to find Mr. Right. I was looking for anyone I could get alone long enough to drink from, and a bunch of socially warped incels would work perfect.
I got to the area and pulled Kaitlyn’s scooter into a parking garage. Free that time of night, but it’d be less likely to get stolen, and I wanted to walk to the first place I was gonna try. Which turned out to be more of a pain in the ass than I expected because I hadn’t worn spike heels in long enough for it to be awkward, at least for a little ways. But I got there. Little sort of trendy place that looked like it maybe used to be a dive bar until the city started building better class shops and stuff around it. I’d picked the place because the ads I’d found for it said tonight was Ladies’ Night, and I wasn’t about to pay for shit I wasn’t going to drink because I’m a vampire. Lots of places do that sort of thing on nights where business is dead because they think it’ll bring in women, and men who’ll come there for the women. Didn’t seem to be working too well for this place because I was one of maybe four or five women, and there was about a dozen guys hanging around and drinking and being ignored by the girls. The girls all seemed to be part of a girls’ night out, too, and guys don’t do too well with those.
I walked in, and went over to the bar and sat on a stool. And… well, it’s kind of stupid, but I’d actually looked up pics of women sitting on bar stools to see how to do it and look good. At home me and Kaitlyn mostly parked our asses on the stools and tried not to fall off, but… I figured I should at least make an attempt while I was hunting for guys. I guess it worked because I hadn’t even gotten to finish looking at the drinks list over the bar when one of the guys came over. I actually smelled him before I saw him, he was wearing that much of that shitty body spray and…
Okay, I got to wander off topic here. I don’t actually hate those body sprays. Most of them I don’t care about. The problem is the guys I usually meet who’re wearing it. Some smells just remind you of things, right? Like… my Mom would make something she called funeral potatoes for some reason, and now the smell of hash browns makes me think of my parents. That sort of thing. Well, the smell of those body sprays, the… chemical crap they’re made of, it makes me think of the frat boys, teenagers, incels, and other douchebags I’d smell wearing it. Too much of it, usually. For me, it smells like desperation and the sort of guy who thinks women are just there to throw themselves at him because he smells nice, or he’s a “nice guy” or some shit. Guys who just want to fuck as many girls as possible, and don’t care about anything else except how hot they are and how little clothes they’re wearing. At least one of the guys who grabbed Kaitlyn was wearing the stuff. And I could smell it when… I got drugged and used. So it’s got all kinds of the wrong memories for me. Plus it smells like chemicals… and for a vampire, the chemical smell is even worse. Don’t know how to describe it, but it’s like some kind of hospital smell running through the whole thing, or like something people use to clean toilets or whatever. The only effect that stuff had for me was to make me want to run away.
Anyway, yeah, the guy who came up to me right away had, I don’t know, fucking marinated in the stuff. First time since I’d been turned that I was seriously glad I didn’t have to breathe. I pretended like I didn’t know he was there because I was facing the door, and he pulled that move where he came up behind me and put a hand on the bar, which basically meant he had his arm around my back. Not quite touching me, but definitely closer than someone I didn’t know should be. Couldn’t help leaning away from him a little. He also smelled like beer, once he got close enough.
“Well, hello there,” the guy more or less said into my ear. “You supposed to be in here?”
I turned on my stool to put my back to the bar, which also brought my knees around and more or less forced the guy to step back. He was… well, I’m pretty sure he was a little shorter than me, which wasn’t a good start. He had kind of dark skin probably from a tanning bed since it was fall. Spiky black hair with too much product, sideburns, supposedly manly stubble, a soul patch, and a stupid gold hoop earring. White shirt, black vest and pants, sunglasses. No fuzzy hat, though.
Guess I had my resting dumb face on, because he grinned at me and said, “You look too young to be drinking. Did they card you when you came in?”
“Um…” I glanced back at the bartender, who was talking to someone else. “I… actually haven’t started drinkin’ yet.” Which was dumb, but hey, I do the dumb blond thing real well.
“Well, we have to fix that,” the guy said, then waved at the bartender. So I looked underage, but he’s buying me a drink anyway? That’s classy. But I wasn’t here to date the douchebag. “My friends call me Duke,” he said, grinning at me.
“Um… I’m Sasha,” I lied. Hey, “Duke” was probably lying to me, so why not? At that point, the bartender came over. Duke ordered me… you know, I don’t remember what it was called, but it was pretty girly, and probably one of those drinks where it had a lot of alcohol but you couldn’t taste it. I did see the bartender glance at Duke, then hand the drink directly to me, so he at least got points for not giving the douchebag a chance to put something in my drink. I pretended to sip my drink while Duke started talking to me, standing just a little too close for total comfort. But I remembered how the pickup artist sites I found said girls were supposed to react to that sort of thing and held back my real reaction, which would have been to throw my drink in his face and kick him in the balls.
I say that because Duke was… negging? Think that’s what it’s called. Making comments about my weight, only he was saying stuff like how my dress looks great and the diet must’ve worked, or how I’m so cute with my wide-eyed face, which I knew was him saying I was dumb because I mostly just kept my resting dumb face on. And the whole time he kept… touching me, just little things but it was still creepy, and I just kept playing along even though I could feel my fangs growing and my Savage side started wanting to beat the shit out of him. But I forced it all down because I wanted his blood. And that was kind of sucky too. I mean… the guy was a total douche, right? But part of me actually did find him interesting. Not because of what he was saying or doing but because he had blood and I was thirsty. Like he was… just something for me to eat, or drink really, and nothing else about him mattered. So, yeah, I was kind of… objectifying him. But to be fair, he was doing the same to me. No way was he following the scripts I found so close and still thinking I was a person.
The drinks were going to be a problem, though. Duke actually noticed I wasn’t really drinking the stuff he’d bought for me, and he didn’t seem too bright, and this is me saying that. I had to make up some shit about pre-drinking and started talking about being sort of new to the dating scene, which was at least more or less true. Don’t know if he believed me, but I was pretty sure he didn’t care. Then I started playing the giggly blond lightweight thing, and I guess he bought it because he started talking about making sure I get home safe. Then I told him to hold that thought because I had to go to the ladies’ room. Took my drink with me of course. I could see in this mirror the place had on the back wall that he’d gone back over to his friends and was high fiving his bros or whatever like he was sure he’s gonna score. I go into the bathroom and take a stall and dump the stupid drink in the toilet, then kind of just… sit there for a few minutes, trying to decide if I still wanted to go through with this. Ended up deciding fuck it, douchebags like Duke deserved a little payback. But I didn’t want to spend the rest of the night with him being patronizing and shit, so it was time to wrap things up.
Then I headed back out with my empty glass and… well, I sort of tripped over my own heels a little. But that was fine because it made me look a little drunk. Duke ran over to “help” me, and I sort of leaned against him. Which was fine, because it helped what I was going for. So I told him I was ready to go home, only I didn’t make clear whose home I meant. I nearly lost it again, though, because he took my arm to steady me, but more like he was going to hustle me out the door without making it obvious.
I played along, and we ended up outside, heading towards the same garage I’d parked Kaitlyn’s scooter in. Turned out Duke had some kind of… total overcompensation car. One of those ones that looks expensive but isn’t, with all kinds of extras, and it was bright red. Duke saw me looking and started talking about it like he thought I know anything about cars. Or cared. I just nodded and smiled.
“Hey,” he said finally. “Are you cold? You seem sort of cold.”
Right then I thought, shit, I forgot to start up my heart, so I was the same temperature as whatever’s around me. “Um… a little,” I said. “Forgot my coat at home.”
“I’ll put the heater on,” Duke said, opening the door to his car and almost pushing me into the seat. Then he got in on the driver’s side and fiddled with the controls until the heater started up.
“Thanks,” I said. Then I got stuck. The hell was I supposed to say now? But it turns out not to be a problem because Duke did most of the talking and we were heading to his place almost before I really knew what was going on. Not that I was trying very hard. Mostly I was trying to keep from hitting him. His place wasn’t too far away from the garage, which was also good.
Duke’s apartment was… nice. But it didn’t look like anyone actually lived there. Like… I don’t know, he’d set up the front room to be clean and fashionable or whatever, and never used it again. He even had us take off our shoes because of some stupid claim about Japanese style shit, which I knew from those pickup artist sites was just to get me used to taking my clothes off for him. I was thinking he probably had horrible mess in his bedroom or something but I didn’t get to look because Duke brought me right over to his couch. Then he went around talking about his stuff, like I couldn’t tell it was all stuff he’d probably ordered from a decorating magazine. While he was doing that, he was also lighting candles and adjusting the lights to be more seductive, I guess. He had all sorts of things laying around that I recognized from those pickup sites. And the music. And a framed photo of some place he said he went on vacation which he spent too much time talking about. And the interesting bottles of expensive alcohol on the counter, which he offered me some of but I said no.
Then Duke came back over and sat down on the couch. Well, love seat really, and he had these pillows on both ends that meant there wasn’t a lot of room for two people unless they were really close together. And I just played along because I was getting sick of him. Was actually kind of a relief when he started throwing out obvious lead in lines to making out. I dodged a couple, then gave in, and he practically jumped on me. I mean, seriously, this guy couldn’t have had a lot of experience with women that weren’t the airheaded bimbos I was acting like. And he stunk like that body spray and his mouth tasted like beer. So when he started groping me and moved my hand to rest on his dick, I decided fuck it, pushed him over and climbed on top because it was easier to hold him down that way. Then I brought my head down like I was gonna nibble his ear and just bit right into his neck.
Yeah, his blood tasted just as good as blood always did, even if it did come packaged in a total douchebag. I drank as much as I figured was safe… well, okay, maybe a little more so the fucker would feel like shit for a few days, but not need a hospital. Then I licked his neck so the holes would heal and sat back… and realized a couple things. First, that body spray shit tasted worse than it smelled, and his neck was practically dripping the stuff. Second, he was passed out. Not like had too much to drink passed out, but like… had totally mind blowing sex passed out. He was actually snoring but he looked happy. I’ve seen the passed out from sex guy face before, and… skinny jeans really do not hide much of anything so I could tell he was worked up. I thought about that a second, then decided I should probably like pull his pants down or something just to add to the ideas he’d wake up with, you know? Better he think he had amazing sex than that he’d been attacked by a vampire. So I pulled down Duke’s pants, which isn’t easy when it’s skinny jeans on a guy with a big ass laying on a couch and you’re trying not to wake him up. And yeah, he came in his pants. Was kind of obvious. Was also kind of obvious that his car was definitely overcompensating for a small dick.
Duke didn’t seem like he’d be waking up any time soon, so I decided to snoop around a little. His place only had three other doors. Two of them went to a bathroom and a bedroom, which also looked like he didn’t really use them. I washed off my face in the sink and took a moment to make sure my makeup was okay. Silk sheets on the bed, of course. The third door looked like it was maybe a den or something but I figured that’s where he actually slept because there was a mattress and stuff in the corner and the room was a mess. Clothes everywhere, takeout boxes, looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in months. But what almost made me go back out and kick the shit out of Duke was what was on the desk. Computer, yeah, no big deal, but there were also a couple of little tiny cameras. Spy cams, like the stuff they sell for security or for when paranoid people want to be sure a new babysitter isn’t stealing stuff from their home. Only I kind of doubted Duke was using it for legit things. I went back out into the main room and looked around. Took a few minutes, but I found a camera in the only place with a good view of the couch. The frame for that picture he kept talking about turned out to have a little slot for an SD card, which just isn’t something that real picture frames have. Couldn’t tell if it was on or not, but I took out the card anyway. I put it in my purse, put my shoes back on, and left. Staying in that apartment was getting to be a problem. Part of me just kept wanting to finish off Duke, or at the least beat the shit out of him. So I left before I got too pissed off to care.
Getting back to the garage where I’d left Kaitlyn’s scooter wasn’t fun because of the shoes, but I got there eventually and headed back home. Kaitlyn was asleep, which was probably best because I really wasn’t in any mood to talk. I got out of the dress and stuff, washed off my makeup, then went and stood in the shower for like an hour, trying to get the body spray smell off me. Also washed out my mouth a bunch. But I had to admit, the whole thing was easier than finding some street thug and getting stabbed or shot. So I’d have to figure out how to deal with some stuff, but it was an option.
I’d also need to figure out how to see what was on that SD card. I still had like three hours before dawn, so I texted Ferret about the spy cam thing. Ferret was… well, let’s just say that I don’t see people swear in text that much, even when it’s Kaitlyn and she’s pissed about something. Ferret ended up more or less demanding I give him Duke’s address, which I did after I got him to promise he wasn’t going to kill the douchebag. I mean, yeah, he was an asshole, but that didn’t mean he deserved to die. Not that I thought Ferret would kill him. But Ferret seemed pretty pissed off.
About an hour before dawn, Ferret texted me that he’d done all he had time for, and that he’d tell me details tomorrow night. Which was fine. I honestly felt a little better about the whole thing knowing that Ferret had done something about it. But I’d still need to be more careful. Not a good idea to get caught on camera doing vampire stuff, you know?
