[Original: Drabble] "Daywalker" [Zeke Jones, G]
Title: Daywalker
Prompt: writerverse challenge #27 quick fic #9 (‘dawn’ & ‘one step away from the fall of night’)
Bonus: fantasy genre
Word Count: 457
Rating: G
Original/Fandom: original ( Zeke Jones ‘verse)
Summary: I was nineteen when it happened.
Note(s): originally posted to the writerverse wv_bookclub
Daywalker
I was nineteen when it happened.
I should be able to say it changed my life, but in a lot of ways it didn’t. I already lived by myself, in the rooftop apartment my parents had left me. I already felt like an outsider, never one of the crowd.
I already avoided the sun, like any pale-skinned red-head. Those stories you’ve heard about vampires turning to dust when the sun hits them are a load of crap, but it can still give us a pretty nasty sunburn.
Yeah, I said ‘us’.
But remember what I said about those stories being crap? Real vampires don’t wear dark capes, or live in huge castles, or sleep in coffins, or ‘vant to suck your blood’. Well, okay, I have slept in a coffin, but that was before I was turned..
And we do drink blood, but almost never human. I prefer pigs’ blood, myself- I get it from the butcher in Reading Terminal Market that also sells the best smoked bacon in Philly.
It’s the vampires who do feed on humans that you’ve got to watch out for. Normally, the vampire clans will only take volunteers and then only if they pass certain tests. But every so often, an older vampire will go rogue and just start biting people. Like, say, a young part-time library clerk taking the back way home at two in the morning.
“Rookie, stand up straight!” barked a voice, and I quickly moved from where I had been leaning against our patrol car. Officer Howell is my new partner, the seasoned veteran cop to my ‘untested probationer’. But I think he’s starting to like me.
“You could call me Zeke,” I suggested, for about the fifteenth time.
“That is an unsuitable name for a young woman,” he said. “Even if she does wish to become a law enforcement officer.”
“Well, I think ‘Hezekia’ is an unsuitable name,” I muttered.
“Suited or not, it is yours. Now, get in the car.”
I rolled my eyes and got in on the passenger side. “Home, Jeeves?” I joked.
“Probationary Officer Jones,” he said gruffly. “I have never looked forward to sunrise as much as I do since I got stuck with you. Get some sleep today, and come back less annoying tomorrow night.”
“Yes, sir,” I said, although we both knew I wouldn’t.
For all his growl, I think I got the best of the trainee mentors- Howell’s a good cop and a good teacher. Someday, though, he’s going to ask me why I started on the graveyard shift, why I only took night classes at the Police Academy.
But that’s okay. Because then I can ask him why we always get the night off for every full moon.
THE END
Current Mood:
cold
Prompt: writerverse challenge #27 quick fic #9 (‘dawn’ & ‘one step away from the fall of night’)
Bonus: fantasy genre
Word Count: 457
Rating: G
Original/Fandom: original ( Zeke Jones ‘verse)
Summary: I was nineteen when it happened.
Note(s): originally posted to the writerverse wv_bookclub
Daywalker
I was nineteen when it happened.
I should be able to say it changed my life, but in a lot of ways it didn’t. I already lived by myself, in the rooftop apartment my parents had left me. I already felt like an outsider, never one of the crowd.
I already avoided the sun, like any pale-skinned red-head. Those stories you’ve heard about vampires turning to dust when the sun hits them are a load of crap, but it can still give us a pretty nasty sunburn.
Yeah, I said ‘us’.
But remember what I said about those stories being crap? Real vampires don’t wear dark capes, or live in huge castles, or sleep in coffins, or ‘vant to suck your blood’. Well, okay, I have slept in a coffin, but that was before I was turned..
And we do drink blood, but almost never human. I prefer pigs’ blood, myself- I get it from the butcher in Reading Terminal Market that also sells the best smoked bacon in Philly.
It’s the vampires who do feed on humans that you’ve got to watch out for. Normally, the vampire clans will only take volunteers and then only if they pass certain tests. But every so often, an older vampire will go rogue and just start biting people. Like, say, a young part-time library clerk taking the back way home at two in the morning.
“Rookie, stand up straight!” barked a voice, and I quickly moved from where I had been leaning against our patrol car. Officer Howell is my new partner, the seasoned veteran cop to my ‘untested probationer’. But I think he’s starting to like me.
“You could call me Zeke,” I suggested, for about the fifteenth time.
“That is an unsuitable name for a young woman,” he said. “Even if she does wish to become a law enforcement officer.”
“Well, I think ‘Hezekia’ is an unsuitable name,” I muttered.
“Suited or not, it is yours. Now, get in the car.”
I rolled my eyes and got in on the passenger side. “Home, Jeeves?” I joked.
“Probationary Officer Jones,” he said gruffly. “I have never looked forward to sunrise as much as I do since I got stuck with you. Get some sleep today, and come back less annoying tomorrow night.”
“Yes, sir,” I said, although we both knew I wouldn’t.
For all his growl, I think I got the best of the trainee mentors- Howell’s a good cop and a good teacher. Someday, though, he’s going to ask me why I started on the graveyard shift, why I only took night classes at the Police Academy.
But that’s okay. Because then I can ask him why we always get the night off for every full moon.
THE END
Current Mood:
cold