Calla spent the next few nights wandering round the town and noticed her increase in strength and senses. She managed to get some sun glasses and from there was able to get some contacts for her eyes. Dropping into the supermarket she was able to pick up some packs in different colours, along with hair dyes.

She felt she'd adapted quite well to the vampire lifestyle, but she needed somewhere more permanent. She'd found she was about sixty miles away from the nearest city, Sostine. It had a population of roughly eight million with a high crime rate. That's not to say the city wasn't rich, it just had a segregation style policy, the poor areas didn't get policed and funded. Calla felt that if she hunted in the right areas she could live there for many years with others none the wiser.

Currently she was living in an abandoned flat and drawing and writing out her plans. She hadn't happened upon any vampires again but knew she would, and had to learn to defend herself. She needed to learn different kinds of martial arts and styles of fighting to help her against those more powerful than herself. And she had a lot of time, most daylight hours she spent reading books she'd stolen and felt it was an inefficient use of her time.

She also wanted a kevlar vest if she could get her hands on one, but she doubted the police would give them up for free. Guns were one of her greatest fears as anyone with one could stop her.

Over the past couple of days she'd also stolen wallets and money from passers-by to beef up her savings. She was up to three thousand now, prostitutes made for easy robbing. She didn't kill any of them, she snook in whilst they slept and followed the scent of men that was on the money they hid. Calla also found she was lighter on her feet than before, and her ability to move stealthily had increased.

She spent her days planning and her nights preparing. She also thought on a few oddities of her vampire life. The whispers seemed obsessed with her keeping covered up and staying modest. Yet when she bathed with her mother and the young boy they didn't seem to care. Calla conjured images in her mind about different men and women she'd seen and the whispers became screeches of disapproval. Young children, like the boy, didn't trigger them, neither did family members. But anyone she'd seen who was old enough to have gone through puberty was disapproved of.

The whispers, despite the excitement of the idea, didn't want her hunting young women if it meant she was going to join them in the bath before feasting on them. Which was a pain for Calla as she liked doing that. Having a meal and bath together was delightful and the stiffening terror she felt crawl up the spine of the young boy tickled her fancy.

But Calla knew the whispers had a reason, so she decided it was best to stick with young children for now. She knew none of her relatives enough to be able to contact them.

Calla had her plans ready and had bought new clothing and a couple of pairs of boots from a store. She also managed to get an unlocked phone and a clean sim card, which she topped up in store with cash. The details she gave about herself were minimal and made up. The store didn't care that she had no fixed address, it was a common thing and they worked around it.

A couple more days and she would leave the town but before that she needed to feed. It wouldn't take long to get to the city, but she needed to be ready in case of anything unforeseen. In the next couple of days she kidnapped three children but didn't kill them right away.

They were a pair of twins, a boy and girl aged seven. The final child was a twelve year old girl who hadn't gotten her first blood. She needed the pair of twins due to their small size, to her eyes they were half a meal a piece. The other girl she had different plans for.

She kept the twins muffled and gagged whilst she performed what she now considered her killing ritual. Cleaning them off in the bath before indulging the whispers of her mind and draining them.

The older girl she kept tied up in her front room. She was bound to the chair with a look of terror as the freshly cleaned, nude Calla strolled up to her and took up a seat before her.

"Hello sweetie." her eyes squinted in mirth.

"H-hi." the girl stuttered out, trying to not let her fear overcome her. The woman sat before her didn't look particularly evil, take away the fangs and red eyes and she was actually quite pretty. But the girl heard the screams and wails of the younger pair and knew something horrible had happened.

"My name's Calla, what's yours?" Calla asked with a gentle smile and a look of softness.

"L-L-Lisa."

"Well, Lisa it's a pleasure to meet you." Calla ignored the fact that the girl wasn't here voluntarily and was bound by her wrists and ankles to her chair. The pair sat in silence for a few minutes before it became too much for Lisa to handle.

"W-what happened to the twins?" she asked. She'd spent the better part of three hours alone with them and she was concerned.

"I ate them." Calla said.

"A-ate them?" she squeaked out.

"Yes, I'm a vampire you see." she pointed to her fangs. "And we eat humans." Calla let those words sink in and Lisa couldn't help but begin to tear up and sob.

"A-are you going to eat me?" she asked full of fear. Calla seemed to ponder for a moment before shaking her head.

"No. You're a special project." she replied gleefully.

"What do you mean?" Lisa asked with a sniffle as her sobs subsided.

"Well..." Calla drawled, "the twins were my dinner and you're more like....a portable lunch?" Lisa began to tear again but before her sobs could escape she found her mouth stuffed with cloth and a strip of duck tape put across her face to hold it in.

"Shhh." Calla whispered as she stroked Lisa's cheek, tucking her golden locks behind her ears. The way her blue eyes misted up was a thrill for Calla and it took all her restraint to not consume the child then and there. She thought, and the whispers agreed, that it was a waste to eat her when she was full.

Calla sighed as the girl before her whimpered at her touch.

'I'd best get on with it whilst I'm sated. I don't know if I'd be able to do this whilst I was hungry.'

She went to her kitchen and brought a box over which she set beside Lisa. Inside were empty several empty glass bottles, a knife, some tape and a plastic sheet. Pulling the sheet out, she forced Lisa's bottom off the chair and slid it underneath her. She pulled it tight round the girls waist and tied it tightly, making the girl wince in pain.

Her flailing and muffled screams were beginning to annoy Calla, the sound no where near as satisfying as an ungagged scream. Looking up at the girl from her kneeling position, Calla raised her hand and smacked her across the head, hard, and rendered her unconscious.

'I hope I'll be able to wake her, it won't be nearly as fun with a sleeping person.' she thought as the girl went limp on the chair. She wrapped a couple of rolls of tape around the plastic at the waist to make sure it was air tight and then did the same with her knees. Finally she nicked the artery on the girls thigh with the knife, before pulling the sheet over at taping it to prevent any loss.

She added a couple of extra bindings for good measure to ensure the girl couldn't disturb her work whilst she was awake. All this was testing Calla to the limits, but she remained in firm control and the whispers helped to keep her stable. As blood began pooling at the bottom of the plastic, around Lisa's knees, Calla smiled.

She grabbed a cup of water from the other room and dunked it over Lisa who slurred awake as Calla dragged the cloth out her mouth. Panic set in as she looked around and saw her bleeding body wrapped in a bag, with blood gathering at the bottom.

"Please stop. Please." she cried hoarsely. Her eyes were tearing and her pleading sent shivers up Calla's spine. She knew she was enjoying this too much and took a moment to calm herself. Such feelings were the closest Calla could come to satisfying the lust she felt on a daily basis, other than actually drinking blood. The whispers wouldn't let anyone touch her, not even herself.

The girl begged Calla even as her words became more slurred and delirious from blood loss. Watching her life drain away, along with listening to the gradually stopping of her heart was something Calla found an odd sense of beauty in. The girl wasn't quite of age but there was something poetic about the slow death of such an angelic girl.

When she was finally drained Calla shut her eyes for a few moments, replaying Lisa's last breaths in her mind, savouring the feeling. Then she got to work and slid a glass under the bag where blood had pooled. She punctured it and let the blood flow in, allowing it to reach the rim before quickly swapping it with another. She minimised the wastage and after screwing the lid on the now full jar, she licked the blood which had dripped down the side.

'A portable lunch indeed.' she smirked as she thought.

She repeated this several times until all the blood had been drained from the girl. Each time she felt those few drops on her tongue, she recalled the praying words of Lisa.

Not one for messiness, Calla took the jars to kitchen and cleaned off the blood and saliva left on the sides before drying them. She wrapped them in a thick layer of clothing, before sticking them in her duffle.

It had been a good couple of days work for Calla, but now she needed to dispose of the bodies. She could leave them, she supposed, after all she'd be long gone. But someone might have seen her during her time here, she couldn't be a hundred percent sure nothing would lead back to her.

Children, especially drained, were much smaller than adults and she was able to fit all of them in a couple of bags. She hoisted the bags over her shoulder with her duffle.

A great benefit of vampirism, is that whilst super human strength didn't just happen, Calla still never got tired. So she could push her muscles to the limits and not care. They didn't need oxygen, the strain just meant she'd have to consume blood sooner than she would otherwise. Calla wondered how long a vampire could live catatonic and unmoving, and the whispers answered.

Forever. Maybe that was where the idea of coffins and hundred year sleeps came from? Use no energy, need no energy.

'Hmmm, one o'clock.' Calla checked her watch as she began to run with the two bin bags and her duffle. 'By the time I finish burning up at the forest, it'll be around twoish. I've sixty miles to cover and can do roughly fifteen miles in an hour. It'll get light around five so I can't make the full journey, I'll need to find somewhere to stop off.'