By the time nighttime rolled around, Ben was fully rested, and standing at his living room window gazing out at the town. One of the only good things about his crummy apartment was the view it afforded him. He lived on the top floor, and although that gave him the disadvantage of having to deal with the leaky roof, it also offered him an above view of the entire town. Standing before his window he could see the town centre stretching out in front of him. He could see concrete buildings that stretched for miles and the roads that weaved between them all. He could see cars, people, and animals. Way in the distance he could see the fields and woodlands beyond the urban areas. At night his view only got better.

Under the cover of darkness, the lights blinked on across the whole town lighting it up like a great network of fairy lights. Streetlights, car lights, traffic lights, and lights from windows, all joined forces to form oranges, yellows, reds, and greens. Some were huge glowing orbs, and others were the tiniest pinpricks. Darting across the town they formed an imperfect reflection of the stars in the sky; the stars which, of course, Ben could not see because of all the lights below.

Beyond the town centre, where the concrete ended and the fields began, there was nothing but blackness. It was impossible to tell where the night sky met the ground below. There was nothing but a chasm of darkness. A void of the unknown.

That chasm of mystery was where Ben was going tonight. Where he already was in fact. Not literally, of course. That would be boring. No, he would be staying within the bounds of the town centre. But he was a vampire now. He had moved beyond the veil and into the world of the paranormal. He was in completely new territory; an ignorant explorer who needed to find his way. He was no longer like the little people who operated the network of lights that he watched from his window. He was no longer human. He would walk among them, but he would never again be one of them.

And yet he didn’t feel any different. He felt just as human as he always had. Sure, he felt stronger than he had before, more confident, but otherwise the same. He still knew fear. He felt it now as he looked out of his window. The world was there at his disposal. An endless pool from which he could drink. But he did not know where to begin. He did not know how to begin. Finally, for the first time in his life, he had the power to do whatever he wanted, and he didn’t know what to do.

His quiet state of reflection was interrupted by the thrumming vibration of his lower neighbour’s drum and bass music kicking to life. Ben raised his wrist to glance at his smartwatch. Like clockwork, every evening just after five-thirty, his neighbour would arrive home from work and immediately turn on his music. He didn’t just turn it on, but he cranked it up so that most of the building could enjoy it too. Ben used the word enjoy rather liberally. He could only assume that his neighbour suffered from such intrusive thoughts that he intended the music to drown them out and rid his brain of the ability to think whatsoever.

Ben had been downstairs to ask him to turn his music down just once two years ago. The neighbour, a scruffy-looking man, had spat in his face and then slammed the door shut. Ben had not been back since.

The neighbour had provided Ben with the motivation he needed to pull himself away from the window and begin his first night as a vampire. What better way to test out his new abilities than a confrontation. Tonight he was going back to the apartment downstairs. And this time he was not going to leave until that music was turned off.

Ben stalked through the halls of the building feeling every bit the predator. The emptiness of hunger pulled from inside his stomach, but it didn’t make him feel weak in the same way that the sun had. He didn’t feel invincible like he had the night before when he had just turned, but he felt the hum of other-worldly power moving through him. He suspected that once he had consumed some blood that sense of being untouchable would return.

When he arrived outside his neighbour’s apartment, the walls vibrated and shook from the unbearable bass; even the building seemed to be suffering. How nobody else had complained about the infernal racket was beyond Ben. Or maybe they had and they had been spat on as well.

Ben slammed his fist into the front door with such force that tiny cracks appeared in the wood. He would have to learn his own strength to avoid accidents in the future. A few seconds passed and then the door swung open and the same little man that Ben had seen two years previously stared out at him. The man was so skinny that Ben could see his bones through his skin. His dark hair was receded far up his head and wispy hairs hung from his gaunt chin. A stained Superdry t-shirt and a pair of old shorts was all the clothing he had on. Ben found that he noticed all the minor details about the man’s appearance, things that he would usually not have seen before, and frankly, he would rather not have seen now either. He could see the cracks on his yellow toenails, the grey hairs on his head, and the dried crumbs of food at the edges of his mouth.

“What?” the man said, dislodging some of those crumbs. He looked like he was in his late forties and yet Ben suspected he was much younger.

“Your music is too loud,” Ben said plainly, maintaining hard eye contact with his neighbour.

“Oh, do one,” the neighbour said and then slammed the door shut.

That had gone about how Ben had expected it to. At least he had been spat on this time.

‘“lright then,” he muttered to himself. Then he drove his foot into the door. He had only intended to kick the door open, but he didn’t yet know his new strength. His foot ploughed straight through the door, splitting the entire thing right down the middle. The side of the door with the hinges swung open and the other half crashed loudly to the floor, though its landing was covered by the booming music.

The neighbour, who was in front of his sofa, halfway between standing and sitting, froze and stared at Ben with furious wonder. He didn’t know whether to be angry or afraid.

“What the fuck?” the man yelled and then charged at Ben. Now that it was nighttime, and Ben had full access to his vampiric abilities, he was fully prepared for the fight. As the man approached it seemed like he was moving in slow motion, and Ben found that he easily had time to counteract his attack.

As the man swung his fist, Ben ducked underneath it and stepped smoothly around his neighbour. He grabbed hold of the neighbour’s collar and used it to fling the man back across his own living room. The move was effortless since the man weighed no more than a small bag of groceries.

The skinny man tumbled over his own sofa and landed upside down on the ground at the other end. His legs stuck up comically, the rest of him was hidden behind the item of furniture.

“I only asked you to turn the music down,” Ben said as he stalked towards his neighbour. The pungent smell of cannabis filled the cavities of his nose and Ben wrinkled his nose in an attempt to block it out.

The man rolled onto his front, and with a great effort, he started to push himself up off the floor. His movements were slow and clumsy and he fell back down in a lazy heap. He mumbled something unintelligible before trying to get back up, but he lost his balance and fell like an old drunk.

The artery on the man’s neck was visibly pulsing, ringing out like a beacon to Ben. His mouth filled with saliva and his tongue, of its own accord, flicked out and licked his lips.

“The fuck are you?” the man mumbled, staring up at Ben with furious red-ringed eyes. Ben lunged forward and buried his teeth in the man’s neck. As the blood spilt into his mouth and covered his tongue in delight, Ben considered how intimate the act of feeding on another human was. The way he nuzzled his face into their neck just like a romantic partner would. It seemed somehow wrong to do such a thing to a person as loathsome as his neighbour. But the need for blood and the burst of energy that it provided overrode such inhibitions.

The luxurious sweetness travelled down to his belly and flooded his body with power just as it had last time. This man’s blood had a spicy overtone to it, like a mild curry, and Ben deduced that he was tasting the anger of his victim. As he guzzled away the spiciness gave way to a new flavour; like a nutty cheddar mixed with something alien and yet familiar at the same time. Pleasurable drowsiness crept over him as he drained the last few drops from his troublesome neighbour and when he raised his head from his meal it seemed to take a great effort to do so. The blood was supposed to make him more energetic, not less so. Ben released his neighbour from his grip. His head hit the floor and made an odd little thump that elicited a giggle from Ben.

He sat back on the threadbare carpet and leaned on the grotty sofa behind him. He noticed a disgusting yellowy-white stain on the fabric and turned his head away from it. His head was spinning, but not in an alarming way. In truth, Ben was quite enjoying it. Literal waves of pleasure rolled through his entire body and made his limbs buzz with delight.

His eyes drifted to the coffee table and he started to giggle once more. His keen powers of observation were not as infallible as he might’ve thought since there was something rather obvious that he had completely missed. The very reason for the strong odour, and his neighbour’s sluggishness, was the still lit spliff that was burning merrily away in the ashtray on the coffee table. Only, it wasn’t a coffee table at all, it was a cardboard box with a sheet draped over it. That revelation caused another burst of giggles to erupt from Ben’s mouth. And Ben had thought that his living conditions were poor, at least he wasn’t substituting furniture with a cardboard box.

It was his first night as a vampire and he’d accidentally got himself stoned. Well, there were worse things he could’ve done, and it had been a fair few years since he’d felt the sweet embrace of Mary Jane.

Ben grabbed the spliff and stamped it out before it could fall onto the box and start a fire. Ash flicked from the ashtray and landed over the mobile phone that lay dormant next to it. It was a surprisingly new model considering the squalor that the neighbour lived in. It was probably the most expensive thing in the apartment.

He knew that he needed to leave before another neighbour came to investigate the racket and yet he felt no urgency. He knew that it was not just the sense of power that held any anxiety at bay, but the relaxing weed that was also thrumming through his bloodstream.

With a hearty sigh, Ben jumped to his feet. The room spun around him and he grabbed hold of the sofa to keep himself upright. “That’s some strong stuff,” he mumbled to himself. It was tempting to smuggle the bag of cannabis out with him.

Still, the horrendous racket was blaring out of the stereo and in a moment of joyous rage, Ben plunged his foot right through the device. Plastic exploded, a few sparks flew out, and the sound died mid-beat. He would never again be plagued by his neighbour’s awful taste in music.

He snatched a chocolate chip cupcake off the box-table and left the apartment as he bit into it. He hadn’t even made it back to his apartment when his stomach rejected the cupcake and sent it spilling back out in a puddle of light brown vomit. The vomit ran down the stone stairwell and Ben stepped back to avoid getting any on his shoes. Not that his shoes were worth protecting since they were in dire need of being replaced.

So, he could drink tea, but he couldn’t eat cake. He wished that Erin had given him a bit more information on what he could and could not do. Even though he had thrown the cake back up, it had still been delicious. Maybe the cupcake had been worth the vomiting episode, he thought as he contemplated going back for another.

Ben returned to his apartment, sans cupcake, crashed down on his sofa, and slipped into a stoned slumber.

Ben was woken about an hour later by somebody hammering on his front door. He was alert in a heartbeat, sitting on the edge of his sofa, eyes locked on the door. The effects of the cannabis had almost completely worn off, all that remained was a dry mouth and severe sense of grogginess.

He stood up slowly, not wanting whoever was banging on his door to hear him moving. He didn’t know who it was. Maybe it was his neighbour.

Wait.

Had he killed his neighbour? A tide of dread rushed in. Erin had said vampires didn’t drain their victims, but Ben had beaten the guy up a bit too. The combination might have finished him off.

No, he was pretty sure he remembered the guy still breathing. He’d just knocked him out. He was still alive. But he might have come to confront him. Or maybe he’d woken up and called the police. Panic started to rise up inside him.

“Ben, I know you’re in there! You don’t have a social life so I know you wouldn’t have gone anywhere!” Izzy shouted through the door.

Ben’s panic subsided, allowing him a brief moment of reprieve. At least nobody had come for him yet. His neighbour was probably fine. Well, not fine, but alive. And it wasn’t like he’d call the police when he had an apartment full of drugs. Even if he did, who would believe him?

Ben sighed with relief and then trudged over to let his friend in.

“Thanks for getting in touch to let me know you’re okay,” Izzy said once the door was open. She waltzed right by him and fell onto the sofa, dropping her backpack on the floor by her feet.

“I do have a social life,” Ben argued, knowing very well that he did not. Izzy was the only friend he had. He got on well enough with some of his other work colleagues, but he didn’t consider any of them to be friends. Izzy was the only one he saw outside of work.

Izzy snorted. “The only three places you go are here, work, and my place. But that’s not the point. You didn’t show up to work yesterday, you didn’t let anybody know what was going on, and apparently, you’ve been starting fights in the car park. And through all of this, you didn’t bother to let me know what was going on with you?”

“I’m fine. Better than fine actually. You’re going to need a cup of tea before I start this story,” he said excitedly, eager to tell her everything that had happened with Erin. Izzy was the one person who Ben told everything and there was no part of him that even considered keeping his new lifestyle a secret. “Hold on, what do you mean starting fights in the car park?”

“Lewis has been telling everyone that you attacked him and he had to lay you out,” she explained.

“Lay me out,” Ben repeated the words with deliberate slowness. He wasn’t at all surprised that Lewis had taken it upon himself to greatly exaggerate what had happened this morning. He’d turned a shove into a full-blown fight.

“His words. But clearly, that’s not the case because you look fine. Your eyes are a bit red actually. Do you have another migraine? Or have you been crying?” Izzy had a habit of firing words out so fast that keeping up with her could be a chore.

“I’m fine. Just accidentally consumed some weed,” he said dismissively. “Lewis laid me out? He’s actually telling people that.” Ben didn’t want that plastered around at work. Not that he had any intention of returning to work ever. He would have to tell his boss that he wasn’t returning; there were probably a few furious voicemails waiting on his phone.

“How did you accidentally consume weed?” Izzy went to the kitchen and began making herself a cup of tea. She laid out a cup for Ben too without even asking. That was the level of comfort they had with each other. Ben didn’t make friends often, but when he did the bonds were strong.

“Never mind that. Why did Lewis say he laid me out?”

“He said you took a swing at him in the car park and he put you in your place. His words, not mine. Don’t worry, nobody believes him.” Izzy’s circle may not have believed Lewis, but all of the doctors and nurses would have. Cliques were yet another thing that had not stopped after leaving school. School prepared children for adulthood in all the wrong ways.

“Arsehole,” Ben said under his breath.

“Yeah. The police are looking for the red-haired woman you saw. So at least they’re taking you seriously. They put out a description of her on the news. Although, the description was just a young, red-haired woman.”

“Yeah,” Ben said, knowing that the only reason they were looking for her was that he’d forced Castling to rule him out as a suspect leaving Erin as the only viable suspect, and all the police had to go on was Ben’s vague description.

The embarrassment of Lewis telling everybody at work that he’d beaten him up was niggling away at him. His stupid pride wouldn’t let it go. Now that it was night time he could go and show Lewis what he was really capable of.

Izzy brought the teas over from the kitchen and placed them down carefully on the coffee table. As usual, she’d made it the exact colour that Ben liked it. A nice brown that wasn’t too dark. The perfect balance of milk and water.

“So, why aren’t you at work? They’re pretty mad at you for not showing up twice now.”

“Am I fired then?”

“I doubt HR will let them. Firing you after you witnessed a murder would not look good at a tribunal.”

Ben smiled half-heartedly. “I didn’t actually see the murder. I just saw the body and Erin walking away.”

“Erin? You know her name?” Izzy sat forward on the sofa, her fingers digging into the armrest.

“About that. I’m a vampire,” he said flatly, holding her gaze steadily.

Izzy was silent for a long while. She kept her eyes on her friend, trying to figure out if he was joking, insane, or actually telling the truth. She’d always known about his vampire fascination, but she had always remained sceptical herself. Seeing that she was having a hard time accepting it, Ben opened his mouth and descended his fangs for her to see.

“Jesus!” she said, jumping back on the sofa. He couldn’t stop a small smile from slithering onto his face. “You’re a vampire.”

“I’m a vampire,” he confirmed, excitement squeezing through his words. And then he told her exactly how he had come to be a vampire.

Izzy sat in stunned silence for a long while after he’d finished telling his story. She shifted her position on the sofa several times as if she was having trouble getting comfortable. Then she ran her fingers through her dark hair repeatedly.

“I know it’s a lot to absorb,” Ben said gently.

“Two right it is. A whole part of the world that I thought was fiction has turned out to be real. Are you helping her with…?”

“No!” Ben said at once. “I don’t even know what she’s up to.”

“Good. Good.” She nodded slowly to herself. “But…have you killed anybody?”

“No. God, no. I did leave someone in a bit of a state, but I don’t think he’s going to die.”

Izzy’s eyes widened with horror. “Who?”

“My horrible neighbour. I only went down to ask him to turn the music off and then…”

“You lost control?” There was a definite reticence in her voice.

“No,” he admitted. “I could have stopped myself. To be honest, I kind of felt like if anybody deserved it, he did.” Ben shrugged and then realised how callous the gesture probably looked. “I fed on him, got stoned, and then came home. I didn’t exactly check his condition before I left, but I’m pretty sure he was alive.”

“You just left him there? Benedict! What if he’s in critical condition? Are you not at all bothered that you might have murdered somebody?” She jumped to her feet and stormed over to the front door.

“Of course, I’m bothered. Where are you going?”

“To check on him!”

“I’m not sure returning to the crime scene is such a good idea.” If his neighbour had called the police then he did not want to be seen by them. He’d just had his name cleared from one investigation.

The matter was not up for debate. “Let’s go,” she said, and then stormed out of the apartment without another word on the matter.

Izzy marched him back down the stairs and straight to his neighbour’s apartment. When she saw the door she paused to take in Ben’s handiwork.

“You weren’t exaggerating when you said you destroyed his door,” she said. She seemed reluctant to touch the remaining portion of the door, instead edging around it. When they entered the apartment the neighbour was gone. There was only a small patch of blood on the grotty carpet where he had been. Ben assessed the room, looking for any clues as to what had happened. Everything looked pretty much the same.

“I guess he wasn’t dead then,” Izzy said with relief. As she cast her gaze around the manky living room her nose wrinkled in disgust.

“I told you he wasn’t.”

“Where did he go though?”

“His phone is gone. It was right there and now it’s not.” Ben pointed at the cardboard box masquerading as a coffee table.

“He’s unlikely to have gone to the police considering the contents of this place.” Izzy pointed across the room at a set of clear plastic drawers. The bottom drawer was full of copious amounts of cannabis.

“Good. We can leave then,” Ben said, turning for the door.

Izzy had other ideas and insisted on quickly wiping down any areas Ben might have touched just in case the horrid neighbour had gone to the police.

After that was taken care of they retreated to Ben’s apartment. They chatted together just like usual and after a little while everything seemed normal and they had both forgotten how different things were now.

As Izzy was getting ready to leave, Ben could see that something was troubling her, he’d noticed the signs of something nibbling at her mind all evening but had tried to ignore it. Her eyes were distant and pensive and she kept fiddling with the hem of her shirt. He’d ignored it all night because he knew it was something to do with him being a vampire and he probably wouldn’t like it. But now that she was on her way out he couldn’t let her go without broaching the matter.

“What’s bothering you?” Ben asked.

“Nothing,” Izzy said. She offered him a weak smile and shook her head. Her grip on her bag’s strap tightened.

“Obviously, there is something and I’m not going to let you leave until you tell me. And I have the power to stop you from leaving now. In fact, I have the power to force you to tell me.” He chuckled lightly, but Izzy did not share in his amusement.

“That’s what’s bothering me. This power that you have now.”

“Izzy, I was joking. I’d never use any of my abilities on you.” Ben said, appalled that she could ever think that he would.

“I know that. It’s not me that I’m worried about. It’s you. You have to prey on people now. It’s fundamental to your survival. How many people are you going to hurt before you get so overwhelmed by guilt that you throw yourself onto a fire?”

Ben couldn’t bring himself to tell her that so far his guilt had been almost non-existent. Even when he thought he might have murdered his neighbour he hadn’t cared. The only thing that had bothered him was the possibility of getting discovered, or of Izzy being disgusted by him. He seemed to have a vampiric defence mechanism that stopped him from feeling guilt because attacking people was, as Izzy had said, fundamental to his survival. That was his theory anyway. But he couldn’t tell her that. He couldn’t bear the idea of her thinking he was a conscienceless monster. Instead, he just said, “I’ve never been the suicidal type.”

She gave him a withering sigh. “You’ve never attacked anybody before now either.”

He felt the urge to make a joke, to try to lighten the situation in some way; it was his default setting in times like this. But he knew that he would only exasperate the situation further. More than anything, Izzy needed assurances and he was the only one who give them.

“I can survive without killing. I can use hypnosis to cover my tracks. Maybe I can even use it to stop them from feeling pain.”

The tension lifted from Izzy’s shoulders somewhat and she nodded in agreement. “That’s definitely a step in the right direction. But it isn’t just that, Ben. You have the ability to make anybody do anything. A power that great…”

“Are you going to give me the “with great power comes great responsibility” speech?” he said, grinning inanely, unable to resist the urge to joke. She’d set that one up for him too perfectly.

Her eyes flashed with irritation. “No, Ben. I’m going to tell you that wherever there is power, there is corruption, and the greater the power the greater the corruption. This power could very easily corrupt you and turn you evil.”

“I’m not going to turn evil,” Ben scoffed.

“It wouldn’t be your choice, Ben. Corruption like that just sneaks up on you. You have to attack people in order to survive. The only way you’ll be able to get around the guilt is to tell yourself your actions are justified. Once you justify the little ones, you move on to bigger actions. Over time your moral compass will become so eroded that you won’t be able to tell which direction it’s pointed in anymore.”

Ben sighed heavily. He didn’t know how to convince her that she was overthinking things. There was no way of proving that he wasn’t going to turn into some kind of supervillain just because he had a load of new abilities. ‘Honestly, I think you’re massively overthinking this. It’s been one day. But you’re my best friend, Izz. You’re my only friend really. If I start to turn evil then tell me. I’ll always listen to you. No matter how eroded my compass gets.’ He flashed her a cheeky smile when he mentioned the eroded compass.

Ben could see in her eyes that his promise had had the desired effect. The sadness dissipated and she looked almost happy. “Tonight you went downstairs to ask somebody to turn their music down and you ended up nearly killing them,” she said, though not in a judgmental way, she was merely stating the facts.

“I’m still learning how to control everything. And it’s not like he was a nice person.”

Izzy’s eyes flicked around the room as she thought things through. Ben could always tell when she was thinking hard because her eyes flicked around rapidly like the blinking lights on a computer.

“Then that’s how it should be. You should only attack people who deserve it. Then it won’t matter what damage you do.”

“How am I supposed to know if they’re good or bad?”

“Ask them. You have the power to force the truth out of them. By attacking the guilty you’d be surviving and doing the world a favour at the same time.”

Ben wrinkled his nose. “I don’t want to be a superhero.”

At that Izzy laughed. The sound was rich and genuine and managed to eradicate the last of the uncomfortable tension that had been holding them both to ransom. “Ben, I’ve known you long enough to know that you will never be a superhero. The best you can ever hope for is an antihero.”

“Well, that’s rude,” he said, but he didn’t disagree with her. “I suppose you’re the hero, are you? Since you’re the one that’s saving people from me.” The words were meant as a joke, but he felt the weight of their truth as they left his mouth. Thankfully, Izzy didn’t pick up on it.

“Ha! No. I’m not a hero either. I don’t care about any of those people. I’m just thinking about myself. If you go bad then I’ll lose my friend. And I don’t exactly have many of those either.”

Ben laughed and then saw Izzy out. She’d had a long shift at the hospital and needed to get some rest before her next shift tomorrow. The mention of the hospital made Ben think of the shift that he was supposed to be doing. He was never going back to his porter job. His old life was done. He’d been born again now, and he was not going to waste a second of his time on menial things like cleaning hospital rooms, even despite all the people who had told him in the past that it was a noble profession. It’s easy to say it’s noble when you aren’t the one cleaning up the blood-stained sheets.

Izzy was right, he had a tremendous amount of power; the power to have pretty much anything he wanted. He didn’t have to live like a peasant anymore. He didn’t have to buy his clothes from budget places like Primark. His books didn’t have to come from second-hand shops. He didn’t need to live in a crumbling apartment that cost more than it was worth.

He grabbed his phone and saw that he had several missed calls from his boss. that settled his first task then. He was going to quit his job. He grabbed his keys and headed for the door. A phone call resignation wasn’t good enough. He was going to quit in style.