Chapter Text
Candace wonders if people can die from fear.
She's heard about deaths caused by things like stress, most often heart attacks, but she still wants to know if someone can drop dead due to fear and nothing else. Because if it is possible, she might just pass away right now.
"I found these under your bed," Linda said to her daughter, holding out the clothes stained brown with Allen Ingram's blood. "What are these stains from? They look set in."
"Uh, it's chocolate," Candace told her, blurting out the first lie that had popped into her head. "Phineas and Ferb built a giant chocolate fountain yesterday."
"Really? I'm surprised you didn't try to bust them for it."
"I wanted to, but my phone got lost in the fountain and it took me forever to find it. And when I did find it, the fountain had disappeared."
"Well, at least it didn't break again. You've already destroyed several phones this summer alone," Linda said. "Anyway, I think tomorrow is going to be laundry day. I can work on scrubbing these stains out."
"Great idea, Mom!" Candace agreed, plastering on a fake smile. "I'm gonna go see what Phineas and Ferb are doing right now."
"I wouldn't bother. Last I heard, they're taking Perry out for a walk," Linda called to her retreating daughter.
Candace paid her no mind. She felt a little better now that her fibbing had paid off, and when she passed by the back door and didn't see her brothers and didn't see anything dangerous or out of the ordinary, she felt even better. Now she can work on researching who could have bitten her.
When she sat down at her computer and booted it up, she realized something important: she didn't know where to start looking. It's not like there's some kind of vampire database or registry she could consult, so she had to get creative.
Once her computer had fully switched on, she pulled up her search engine of choice and started her investigation by typing in the name of the movie she had seen that fateful day.
The premiere of the film adaptation of Early Evening was a big deal for fans of the novel. Candace can't say she read the original book, but the movie sounded good, so when Stacy suggested they see it, the redhead didn't hesitate to agree. If she knew what she does now, Candace would have proposed a trip to the mall instead.
But she can't focus on what could have been now. She has to dig up any information on her vampire sire as she could.
She combed through some articles about the movie, skimming over everything she didn't think was relevant. She blasted through interviews with the actors and director, reviews of the film, mini essays detailing the differences between the adaptation and the book, but she didn't find anything substantial until she stumbled across a website for an animal-renting company that operated in the greater Tri-State Area.
Candace perked up. She remembers bitterly thinking that she needed to send a strongly-worded letter to whatever company decided to place live bats outside of theaters the day she was bitten. Could this be the one?
The company's website was rudimentary, with the home page composed of a couple of pictures of the animals they owned alongside a blurb explaining what services the company (named "Rent-a-Beast") provided. Unsurprisingly, this company was in the possession of various animals, both domesticated and not, and they would loan them out to anyone that paid a fee. There was a link to make a renting request at the top of the page, and when Candace clicked on it, she was brought to an online form that asked for her name, email address, phone number, and gave a list of the eligible animals for rent. Upon reading the list, she noticed that bats were one of the options.
Candace's excitement level rose. This website was a promising find, but she still has work to do, so she went back to the home page, hoping to find something else interesting. When she scrolled to the bottom, there was another link titled "List of Achievements", which she clicked on right away. It brought her to another page that noted every major event Rent-a-Beast had provided animals for in chronological order. She wandered down the end again and came to a stop when her eyes swept across the most recent entry.
The achievements list was pretty open about the circumstances of each rental, something that greatly helped Candace out. This final entry on the page revealed that the company had been hired by someone working on the Early Evening movie to place bats in cages in front of select theaters in the Tri-State Area during the week of the premiere as some kind of public relations stunt. Apparently, the Early Evening books had sold really well in this part of the US, so it made sense that the PR team focused on the Tri-State Area. However, there was one thing that Candace couldn't figure out:
Where the hell did this company acquire a vampire?
In order to answer that question (if it's even possible), Candace needs to find out just how they managed to get put on this list of rentable creatures first. So, she opens up a new browser tab and starts researching Rent-a-Beast.
It didn't take long for Candace to find out that this company was incredibly shady. They claimed to own all the animals they rent, but she found several articles that declare otherwise, stating that the company was known to trap animals illegally. Candace even found a record detailing a lawsuit against the company after they stole some guy's capybara that ended up being settled out of court.
I hope he got his pet back. Candace thought. I know my brothers would be crushed if they had platypus-napped Perry.
She'd probably be pretty devastated, too. Sure, she may not have bonded with Perry as much as the boys had, but he was still a part of her family, and losing him would be awful. She hopes that capybara was the only pet this company heartlessly stole.
Knowing the lengths Rent-a-Beast was willing to go to acquire animals, a theory begins to form in Candace's mind: the vampire who bit her had been caught by them in bat form. Unaware of the bat's true nature, the company kept it as a rentable animal until it managed to break out of the cage, leading to it attacking Candace, probably in desperate need of blood. She still doesn't know why it stopped biting her after less than a minute and barely drained any blood, but maybe her thrashing and screaming on the ground in a panic made it too difficult for the vampire to finish her off. Regardless of the reason it left her alive, it most likely flew off to find something less hysterical to eat.
A small smile slowly crossing Candace's face. Sure, the theory might be a tad shaky, but she still feels proud of herself for finding out this information and cooking up a possible hypothesis in the first place. She may have a long way to go, but something was telling her she was on the right track.
The grin she was wearing morphed into a frown upon hearing a loud sound in the backyard. Knowing her brothers were up to no good, Candace put her research aside for a second and rushed to the window.
Sure enough, the boys and their friends were working on their big project for the day outside. This time, it was an enormous robot in the shape of their pet platypus.
I guess when Mom said they were taking Perry out for a walk, they weren't talking about the real one. Candace thought, eyes narrowing. She was about to call Linda when an idea struck her.
"Everything they create disappears when they finish it.... But what if they're still building by the time Mom gets home?" Candace said to herself. "Maybe it would still be there?" She let out an elated gasp, thanking the theory-making part of her brain that was clearly working overtime today.
The teen then threw open the window and shouted outside to the kids below, making sure to keep her head inside so the sun doesn't burn her skin.
"Keep it up! Don't stop, busy bees! You're busy, busy bees!"
"What are you doing?"
Candace was startled by an unexpected voice in her room. She whipped around to see her best friend standing just inside the doorway, a confused look on her face.
"Stacy! I thought you were still grounded," Candace said, sneaking a glance back outside to make sure the quintet outside were still working.
"Nah, Mom let me off easy this time," Stacy told her. "Where have you been, by the way? I feel like I've barely seen you in the past two weeks."
Candace let out an inaudible sigh. She had been avoiding both Stacy and Jeremy like the plague since she got bitten by a vampire, but she knew one (or both) of them would inevitably drop by to see what was up with her. She just doesn't really know what to say in response.
Actually, she does!
"Everything Phineas and Ferb builds disappears when they're finished," she explains to her best friend. "So if I can keep them from finishing the thing they're building, it will never disappear! I call it Busy Bee Busting. B. B. Busting for short."
Stacy huffs angrily, unimpressed by the redhead's answer.
"Really, Candace? This again?" the dark-haired girl asked. "Has your dream of busting your brothers made you finally lose your mind?"
"No way, there's a madness to my method," Candace tells Stacy before yelling more "encouragement" out the window.
"Okay, we're leaving," Stacy states, grasping Candace's hand and dragging her away from the window. "Wow, your hands are cold!"
"Wha—what?" Candace sputtered, ignoring the second remark. "Where are we going?"
"The mall. You clearly need to get out of this house and do something other than bust your brothers for once, and I know a shopping spree is the perfect way to achieve that."
"But, but, but—"
"No buts! You're coming with me!" Stacy says firmly, leading Candace out of her room to the stairs.
Knowing her bestie won't give up her quest to haul her to the Googolplex Mall, Candace slumps her shoulders in defeat.
"Fine, but let me put on sunscreen first," she says.
"Do you even need it?" Stacy inquires. "It's not super hot today or anything."
"I know, but I'm trying to take care of my skin, you know?" Candace tells her. "I don't want to end up with wrinkles in my thirties."
"Oh, damn, me neither." Stacy grimaces, touching her own face. "Mind lending me some sunscreen, too?"
Candace nods and heads to the bathroom, her bestie right behind her. She's got enough of that extra-strength 120 SPF for the both of them, and the more she thinks about a trip to the mall, the more she thinks it's a good idea. She needs some new clothes to replace the ones she ruined with blood, and she definitely needs more of this sunblock. Yeah, her busting urges might be ringing off the charts, but as long as the kids keep building, their platypus robot will still be there when she gets home.
Stacy was right. A shopping trip is just what Candace needed.
It didn't keep her from dwelling on busting her brothers (or her own issues) a hundred percent of the time, but for the most part, she was able to shelve those problems and just enjoy a day out with her best friend. Between trying on new clothes and makeup, gossiping about some of the other girls in their class, and debating which brand of sunscreen would work best on Stacy's skin (inspired by Candace, of course), the redhead was actually having fun. It was nice to feel like a normal teenage girl again.
After a couple of hours, Candace felt the hunger return, stronger than it was yesterday. It wasn't quite at the level of causing her pain yet, but she knows she'll need some blood soon. She doesn't want a repeat of last time where she blacked out and almost killed her brother.
Even though she knows that eating regular food would only make the hunger worse later, Candace still agreed when Stacy suggested hitting up the food court. Not eating would only make Stacy more concerned, leading to more worried questions, and that's the last thing Candace wants right now. She just hopes her bloodlust won't be agonizing when it returns.
"That SPF 120 stuff you use is really strong," Stacy said, reading the ingredients label on the back of the tube. "Where'd you hear about it?"
"I read about the brand in a magazine and decided to give it a shot," Candace lied. She's become too comfortable doing that recently.
"I thought it was only for people with really sensitive skin."
Candace shrugged, tossing a french fry into her mouth. Her skin was more sensitive than it was two weeks ago, but just not in the typical human way anymore.
"Well, I just hope it works as well on me as it did on you," Stacy said after gulping down a mouthful of her soda. "It'll keep me from getting another lecture from my mom."
Candace snorted. "Yeah, she wasn't too happy the last time you got a sunburn."
"Ugh, I know!" Stacy scoffed, rolling her eyes. "I am never using that 50 SPF garbage again, especially after today."
Candace giggled and wolfed down some more fries. God, she misses being able to eat without thinking of her nagging hunger for blood.
"You know, my mom almost didn't let me leave the house today," Stacy added on after a couple of seconds.
"Why?" Candace asked, taking a large sip of her water.
"She was watching the news this morning and heard about some guy that got murdered."
The redhead choked on her drink.
"Wh-what g-guy?" Candace coughs out, tears springing to her eyes as she struggled to swallow the clear liquid.
"This garbage man doing his job found a guy behind some trash cans downtown," Stacy told her. "He was wrapped up in a squirrel costume and didn't have any blood left in his body."
There was no reason for the eldest Hirano daughter to explain all of this, she was talking to the man's murderer, after all, but she didn't know that. Candace sure as hell did, though.
"Do.... they know what happened to him?" Candace asked, her voice soft and trembling.
Stacy shook her head. "All the police said is that he was probably killed a couple days ago. I wonder how someone can just drain all of someone's blood like that."
Candace started to shake. There was no use in masking her fear any longer. She was terrified. They found Allen. They found him and know he had been murdered. What if they found out it was her? She can't go to jail, or even a trial for that matter. She'd cave on the spot and spill everything on the stand. She'd be exposed as a vampire and a murderer, and then who knows what would happen to her after that. They could put her behind bars for all eternity. They could sentence her to death by sunlight. They could ship her off to some government facility to be studied or made into some sentient military weapon.
There are so many awful things that could happen to her if she's exposed.... But perhaps she deserved it. She killed a man in order to satisfy her thirst for blood. And soon, she'll have to do it again, and again, and again, and again—
"Earth to Candace!" Stacy shouted, waving her hand in front of her best friend's face.
"S-Sorry," Candace apologized, her voice still giving away how frightened she was. "I'm just, um, uh...." She wracked her brain for a convenient excuse.
"Do you think there's, like, a serial killer running around?" Stacy asked, beginning to sound freaked out herself.
"Y-Yes, that's it!" Candace agreed, grateful that her best friend unintentionally gave her an out. "I'm scared they'll get me!"
"I don't even want to think about that," Stacy said firmly. "But maybe we should get on the next bus before it gets dark, just to be sure." Her eyes widened. "Wait, do you think even the buses are safe?"
"They should be," Candace said, forcing her voice to bounce back to normal. "Hold on, what time is it?" She pulled out her phone and gasped when she saw it was almost five in the afternoon. She needs to get home and make sure her brothers' invention was still there pronto!
"You're right, let's go." Candace hopped out of her seat and began to gather up her shopping bags. "I have to bust my brothers!"
"Well, at least I got you to stop obsessing over them for this long," Stacy said in a dejected voice, grabbing her own stuffed-full bag.
The trip back to the Flynn-Fletcher house wasn't long, but to Candace, it seemed to drag on forever. Stacy was anxious the whole time, glancing at her phone and shooting nervous glances at everyone that boarded the bus. Candace, on the other hand, was itching to get home and see if her previous attempts to get the kids to build more had paid off. She probably should have stayed put in her position by the window, but whatever.
When the bus finally arrived at the stop closest to her house, the teens departed quickly, both of them desperate to get out of there for their own reasons.
"Do you think they're still building?" Candace questioned her best friend as they turned the corner onto Maple Drive. "They better be. Mom will be home soon, and this might be my chance to finally bust them."
"No idea," Stacy told her.
"I just hope we're not too...." Candace's voice trailed off as she noticed a peculiar sight.
"Two houses?" both the girls cried out at the same time, staring at the exact replica of the Flynn-Fletcher house sitting in the plot next door.
"Oh, this has to be Phineas and Ferb's fault!" Candace said, taking out her phone. "I'm calling Mom and telling her to come home right now!"
"And that's my cue to call my mom to pick me up," Stacy announced, flipping open her own mobile. "No way in hell am I walking back home with a killer on the loose."
Candace didn't say anything in response, choosing instead to dial her mom's number, a wild grin overtaking her face. Finally, she was going to bust Phineas and Ferb!
She didn't bust Phineas and Ferb.
By virtue of the universe hating her guts, Candace's efforts to show her mom what her brothers were doing were in vain. Not only did the second house disappear, but the Perry robot did, too. And to make it worse, the latter vanished at the very last minute, driving the knife of defeat in even deeper.
Oh well. Another failure to file away in her brain. Same shit, different day. At least she got to spend time with Stacy.
Speaking of Stacy, she left after having dinner and dessert that night (at Linda's insistence) when her mom finally came to pick her up. Candace was tempted to ask if she wanted to have an inpromtu sleepover, but decided otherwise. She needs blood soon, and she doesn't want her best friend to be around in case Candace has another hunger-induced blackout; not only is she not ready to tell Stacy about it yet, but she's not confident that she'll come to her senses in time if she slips into that state again.
Putting a pin in that slumber party idea, Candace went to bed late that night, finding it hard to doze off. Even though she doesn't need as much sleep as a human does now, she still forces herself to go to bed at a normal time each night. If someone were to ask her why she does this, she'd respond with two reasons: boredom and anxiety. The first one is simple; she'd get bored easily without something to do for hours, leading to the second one. With nothing she can focus on all night, her mind will inevitably be drawn back into an angsty, worried state, stewing over every event that happened so far in her short time as a vampire. Sitting up for hours with her guilt and concerns gnawing away at her will only make her mental health worse, and she can't afford to let her paranoia consume her anymore than it already does.
So, she sleeps as much as she can at night, doing her best to count sheep or practice rhythmic breathing to speed up the process. However, tonight it was just not working. She doesn't know if it's because her vampire body is energized enough from oversleeping or if it's just her mind running on overdrive, but she does know that whichever one is keeping her from snoozing is starting to piss her off.
Snarling in irritation, Candace tossed and turned several times in bed before she gets an idea. She flies out of bed and moves as fast as she can to the bathroom. Not bothering to turn on the light, she goes directly to the mirror and pauses before opening it up.
Gazing at her reflection, Candace can see that the dark circles under her eyes are now more prominent than they were yesterday, giving off the impression that she wasn't getting enough rest. Ironic.
The mirror is freezing under her hand when she touches it, causing Candace to remember Stacy's earlier comment about the redhead's hands being cold. No one else has mentioned her feeling cold before, so what changed today? Is it connected to her growing need for blood? Does the temperature of her hands grow frostier as her hunger increases? And what about those ever-darkening eye bags? Are they also a result of her bloodlust?
Candace's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a soft thump nearby, disturbing the dead silence of the house. Not wanting to risk having one of her parents walk in on her, she swiftly opens the mirror cabinet, swipes the bottle of melatonin gummies she was searching for off the top shelf, and unscrews the cap. Candace dumps some of the contents into her hand, slaps the cap on again and nearly hurls it back into the cabinet before closing the mirror again. She heard quick, quiet footsteps moving down the hall, and the redhead cautiously peeked around the doorframe to see who it was. Thankfully, the source of the noise was just Perry, who was presumably heading downstairs to use his litter box.
Crisis averted. Candace thought, breathing a small sigh of relief, looking down at the squishy sleep aids in her hand. Let's hope this works.
The gummies tasted like strawberries and were easy to chew. Candace hasn't taken them before and doesn't know what the right dose for a girl her age is (although it's definitely way less than the amount she just shoved into her mouth), but she doesn't really care. It's not like she's gonna overdose on these gummies, she's a God damn vampire! The only factor that might screw up her plans is if the supplements don't work on her. But that's something she just has to figure out herself.
The pitter-patter of four platypus feet returned to the hallway, signaling that Perry was going back to bed. Candace decided to take a cue from the monotreme and retired to her own bed once more. She goes back to her bedtime headspace, counting sheep and breathing rhythmically, and eventually felt herself grow tired as the effects of the melatonin kicked in. Candace couldn't help but smile happily upon realizing that her idea had worked out, and as the witching hour hit, her eyes shut for the final time that night.
Candace awoke to abdominal pain. The stupid hunger was back and worse than before, practically begging for the teen to find fresh blood. A heavy sensation sets in her stomach as she comes to the conclusion that she'll have to hunt again tonight and sadly wishes that her brothers had managed to cure her already.
Checking the time, Candace finds that it was currently a quarter past nine in the morning. She reluctantly crawls out of bed and gets ready for the day, the pit of dread in her belly weighing her down. It didn't help that she was still a bit drowsy from the melatonin (a side effect she isn't a fan of), but at least she slept through the rest of the night.
Downstairs, Candace had breakfast with her family as usual before each one of them branched off to go accomplish their goals for the day. Her father went out to the antique shop, her mom started preparing to go to the store to get a few things she'd forgotten to buy yesterday, and the boys went to the backyard, the redhead casting a suspicious glare at them as they did. What were they up to this time?
"Okay, Candace, I'm leaving," Linda announced to her daughter. "When I get back, I'll get to work on your laundry."
"My laundry?" Candace asked, refocusing her attention on her mom. "Is it time for that again?"
"No, just the outfit with the stains."
Fuck, Candace forgot about that.
"It's a good thing you went clothes shopping yesterday," Linda told her. "I'll give those stains a good scrub, but I doubt they're coming out at this point."
Candace didn't respond, instead briefly mulling over what her mom said. It is a good thing that she went to the mall yesterday. Letting go of all her dilemmas for a while to hang out with her best friend resulted in the best afternoon she's experienced in a long time.... Could it be possible for her to have fun like that more often? Just forget about her problems and spend the rest of her summer doing things she enjoys rather than obsess over busting her brothers or fret about her vampirism?
Yeah, that's definitely possible! She just needs to stop being such a "high-strung teen" as her mom would say.
The sound of her phone buzzing drew Candace's attention. She scooped the device off the table and answered it without even seeing who was calling.
"Did you see the news today?" Stacy asked on the other end of the line.
"No," Candace told her, standing up from the dining room table. "What happened?"
"The police found someone else dead this morning."
"What?" the redhead shouted, genuinely shocked to hear that. She hasn't fed on anyone else (not yet, at least), so this wasn't a death she caused. "Who is it?"
"It's a woman they found floating in the city's moat," Stacy explained.
"What happened to her?"
"I don't know.... Hold on." Candace heard the sound of a computer mouse clicking on Stacy's end. "Oh! I found an article about it!"
"What does it say?"
"Not very much. Her name was Sienna Herrera, she worked as a hospital dental hygienist, and she was thirty years old.... Wait, the hospital? Did my mom know her?"
Candace cringes. She really hopes Dr. Hirano didn't know Sienna for her own sake.
"Does the article say how she died?" Candace asked, aiming to get some more information.
"Hmmmm..... Nope," Stacy said. "The cops said she didn't have any injuries, so they think it may have been an accident."
"Oh." Candace was a tad disappointed. For a split second, she wished this woman had been exsanguinated and dropped into the moat, the victim of another vampire attack. It's not that Candace was glad to hear about Sienna's tragic demise, but during that moment when she was waiting to hear the cause of death, a brief daydream where Sienna's bloody death by vampire led to Candace finding her sire flashed in her mind, giving her a small twinge of hope. But as usual, this pipe dream slipped from her grasp before she could even try to hold on to it.
"It says at the end of the article that she's the seventh person this summer to either go missing or turn up dead," Stacy informed her friend.
Candace's eyebrows shot up. "Seventh?"
"Uh huh. It doesn't list any other names, though. I only know about Sienna and that guy who was wearing the squirrel costume."
"Yeah, same...." For once, this was the truth. Candace was also only aware of only those two deaths, but she still couldn't help but sound guilty as she spoke. Was the vampire that turned involved in the deaths or disappearances of those five other people? She'll have to add them to her list of 'things to research'.
"I'm gonna stop talking about this, it's making me nervous," Stacy said. "What are you up to?"
"Nothing. It's just me and my brothers home today," Candace told her.
"Oh boy. Is it busting time yet?"
"Nope! I thought about it a little, and I've decided I'm not going to do that anymore!"
"I'll believe it when I see it."
"It's true!" Candace stated, moving to the living room and flopping onto an armchair. "From now on, I'm gonna stop always interrupting my life with all these stu—" She cut herself off with a gasp upon seeing the autumnal leaves piled outside the sliding glass door.
"Stacy, I gotta call you back," she told the other girl, hanging up the phone not even a second later. Her determination to be a normal teen (as normal as she could get, anyway) evaporated in a second, replaced by the unstoppable need to bust her brothers.
God, how could she be so naïve to think that she'd ever just be a normal teen? No matter how hard she tries, she'll never be normal. Normal teens don't have genius brothers or the instinct to bust them. Normal teens don't get to do extraordinary things like go to space or travel through time. Normal teens don't get turned into vampires. And normal teens definitely don't kill people.
She's not normal. She will never, ever be a normal, average, regular girl, not even if her brothers manage to cure her. So why not indulge in her natural desire to bust her brothers?
Candace slams the back door open and frantically begins tearing down the leaves. She expected it to only take a couple of seconds, but it soon became clear that this wall of leaves wasn't a thin veneer simply meant to block her view of the outside, but a much larger cluster that most likely took up a good portion of the backyard.
Frowning, Candace stops her futile attempts to destroy the barrier, knowing it was a waste of her time. With a disgruntled huff, she dives into the leaves instead, hoping to dig her way through it.
The familiar scent of autumn leaves invades the teen's nose as she crawls through the incredibly spacious pile. Usually, this would be a welcome smell, but this time, all it did was remind her that the summer would be drawing to a close sooner than she thinks. With the end of summer comes school, of course, and Candace wonders what will happen if her brothers don't find a cure before then. She's done a decent job of hiding her vampirism so far, but the thought of blowing her cover in front of her classmates is terrifying; one small mistake and she could be shunned at best, or kidnapped by the government at worst.
Or dead. That might also happen. But she really doesn't want to think about that.
At some point, Candace breaks through the pile and comes out on the other side. A brief scan of her surroundings proved that this leaf pile was absolutely humongous; not only was the point she had climbed to pretty high up already, but there was still more than three dozen feet of leaves above her.
"What are they up to today?" the teen rambled aloud. "Do they really think they can escape Mom's wrath by hiding in this fun, massive, glorious, autumnal leaf pile? Well, not if I can help it!"
After talking to herself, Candace turns and delves back into the leaves once more. She doesn't make it far this time, finding herself falling through the air when she reached an empty spot in the pile. She lands softly on a slide and immediately starts skidding downward, screaming the whole way.
As the ground comes into view, something is shoved onto Candace's head before she crashes into the tree in the backyard, momentarily dazing her. When she regains her composure, she sees that she was now in the company of her brothers and their friends, all of them eating something on a stick and wearing gourds on their heads like helmets.
"A-ha! I got you now!" she tells them triumphantly. "Oooo, you are so busted! I can see that you're eating...." She takes a closer look at what the kids are munching on. "Candy apples." Her voice evened out when she realized how mundane of an activity it was. "Not something I can bust you for."
"You want one, Candace?" Phineas asked, holding up his already-bitten treat.
The candy apples were red, making her hunger for blood tingle a little, but she forcefully pushed those thought aside and accepted a crisp apple from her brother, taking a huge bite. Her taste buds were soon graced with a juicy and sweet flavor, causing a content smile to cross her face. A warm feeling spread through her chest, and for a second, she found herself yearning for the comforting vibes and muted colors of autumn to arrive again.
One candy apple, failed bust attempt, and several hours later, Candace was wide awake again late into the night. This time, though, Candace wasn't really aiming to sleep right away. She'd gone too long without feeding, and the black dots were starting to appear in her vision again, meaning it was time to look for some fresh blood before she blacked out again. She just hopes the unwilling victim comes in the form of an animal this time.
As the clock struck two, the redhead dresses in an old pair of clothes, opens her window, shifts into a bat, and takes off into the night. Like last time, she ducks into a dark alley to change back into a human. She peeks her head around the corner, and upon seeing the street was completely empty, took a step to leave the alley.
Suddenly, Candace is grabbed from behind, making her let out a surprised squeal. Before she can react further, something cold and metal presses against her throat, causing her to freeze in terror.
"No noises or sudden moves, understand?" her assailant hisses. "Or I'll cut your long neck open."
A knife. That's what is being held to her throat. She swallows and feels the blade scrape her skin.
"What do you want?" Candace asks, her tone coming out more neutral than she expected.
"I need out of this town," the man explains, his Hispanic accent more apparent now that he isn't practically growling at her. "Give me your money."
"I don't have any on me."
"Don't lie to me. There's no way you don't have money on you. There's only one reason a teenage girl would be walking around on her own in the dark of the night."
"I don't know what you're talking about," she tells him truthfully.
He scoffs at her. "I'm not an idiot. You can meet your dealer another night."
Oh. Now she knows what he means.
"Hand it over," he commands again, pressing the knife harder against her flesh, creating a shallow cut this time.
Candace is about to refuse again when the smell of her own blood hits her nostrils, reminding her just why she's out and about this late in the first place. She needs blood, and she needs blood now.
The superficial wound on her neck heals quickly, but even without the scent of blood in the air, she knows she must feed. And there's no better person to feast on than the bastard trying to rob her.
Turning on her vampire strength and speed, Candace rips herself out of his grasp, whips around, and without hesitation, punches him square in the chest. The sound of his ribs cracking fills the air, and he crumpled to the ground within seconds, groaning in agony.
Sinking to her knees next to him, Candace's fangs spring out, eager to drink his blood. His eyes widen when he looks at her, and he mutters something in Spanish that she can't understand.
She bites into his neck then, savoring the taste of his blood. Unlike Allen Ingram's, this man's blood had a bit of a sour undertone, but it was still absolutely heavenly, regardless. The warm, fuzzy feeling she had when chowing down on the candy apple returned in full force, reminding her that this was what her body needed, what it craved. Why did she even let him threaten her for so long in the first place? She should have cracked open his neck like a soda bottle the second she felt the knife.
Eventually, her would-be mugger ran out of blood, and she had to stop sucking on his neck. She expected another tidal wave of guilt to overwhelm her like it did with Allen, but it never came. Instead, she felt.... Nothing.
Puzzled by her own lack of emotion, Candace decided to finally get a good look at the guy she just killed. His olive-skinned face was framed by wavy black hair, his brown eyes were still open, lifeless and no longer staring in fright at her, and he wore a white lab coat over a gray sweater, both of which were soaked in his blood. His appearance didn't match that of a typical mugger, and the choice to wear a fucking turtleneck in summer was incredibly strange. And what's with the lab coat? Was this guy some kind of pharmacist? Why would a pharmacist be robbing people? It's not like they don't get paid well.
Bright headlights cut through the darkness, once again reminding Candace that she was in public. Although this time, the only criminal in the alley is her, covered in a man's blood.
Panicking, Candace scrambles to her feet and runs to the wall, doing her best to blend into the shadows. A few seconds later, the car passed by the alley without stopping, meaning the driver most likely didn't see her or the body.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Candace glances around the alley, looking for trash cans or a dumpster to store the corpse. Unfortunately, there wasn't any, and not knowing what else to do with him without getting her DNA all over the place, she makes a risky choice and leaves the cadaver where it is, fully expecting to see a story about it on the five o'clock news tomorrow.
Turning into a bat again, Candace soars off with a flap of her wings, making it back home in record time. After shifting back to normal, she quietly closes the window, strips off her ruined outfit, slips back into her pajamas, and goes to the bathroom to brush her teeth and wash the drying blood off her face.
Once she was done cleaning up, she takes her soiled clothes and goes back outside for a moment, this time exiting through the front door. She makes a beeline for the trash can, popping off the lid with ease. Inside the can, she could see the first set of clothing she'd destroyed while feeding partially hidden under some other miscellaneous garbage. Linda had tossed it that night after unsuccessfully trying to scrub out the stains when she returned home that day, considering the outfit a lost cause.
Candace copies her mom's actions and trashes the clothes in her hands before putting the lid back on and going inside, locking the door as she did. She retires to bed after having some more melatonin gummies, wishing for sleep to come soon.
As she laid in bed, counting the sheep in her head, she ponders why she felt no guilt over murdering that guy. She wrestled with two distinct theories and settles on the more palatable one: that he would have killed her if given the chance.
Well, he may not have been able to actually kill her with a simple knife, but she felt his intentions were clear. Why should she feel bad about offing a guy who was probably just gonna stab her after he got what he wanted? She was just defending herself. Hell, she may have just done the world a favor.
That's what she wants to believe. It's much better than the second possibility: that she's already desensitized to killing.
There were no strong emotions bubbling within her after coming down from another blood high; no shame, no guilt, no sorrow, just plain nothingness. She could just chalk it up to her feeling justified for killing someone who was threatening her, but what if it's something more sinister? What if she's already subconsciously resigned herself to the life of a serial killer?
Shuddering at the thought, Candace shuts her eyes as the melatonin kicked in, lulling her off into a peaceful sleep where she dreamed of bloodied sheep dancing gleefully on the body of a dark-haired pharmacist.