The Vampire Cheetah (standard:adventure, 2896 words)
Author: SheilaLee	Added: Mar 13 2005	Views/Reads: 3330/2362	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
A slave girl wants freedom at any price, or so she thinks.

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story

heads. The slave's body shivered from cold and fear. Blinded by the 
darkness, she listened to an angry white mob stomping by, carrying 
shotguns and burning sticks of resinous wood. 

The man held the slave close. She breathed lightly into his chest. The
sent of fresh blood on him sickened her. She wanted to put her hand to 
her mouth, but it wouldn't obey her. 

The man and the slave were so quiet, you could hear the rapid beating of
the slave's heart. Nothing stirred but the night's wind and the leaves 
on the trees when the man spoke. 

"What is your name?" 

"Kissee." 

"Where are you running to, Kissee?" 

"Moses is coming! I gonna be free." 

"Moses?" he asked, lifting an eyebrow and giving Kissee his full
attention. 

Kissee flexed her index finger for the man to bend down. She whispered
as if she were telling a secret to an old friend. 

"Harriet Tubman. She a runaway slave." 

"And a remarkable woman to come back and free others." the man said,
shaking his head up and down. 

"She's a comin' to free me," Kissee said, almost singing it. 

"Is that what you want, Kissee? To be free?" The darkness didn't reveal
the man's face. His voice rang the same as her master's. Kissee knew 
how an Englishman spoke. She addressed him properly. Her voice conveyed 
hope and faith. 

"Yes'm, Master. I wanna be free." 

"Moses is here, Kissee." 

The man stepped out of the shadows and revealed himself. Kissee didn't
understand the pasty texture of his face. It gave new meaning to the 
words white man. Two canine teeth grew long and sharp past the man's 
bottom lip. 

Kissee stared, stunned. Her body froze while he unbuttoned the top of
her dress, her naked skin like velvet. It felt like silk. He snatched 
her nappy hair, delicate, but that didn't stop him from yanking her 
head back to examine her neck. 

He bent down and kissed her collarbone. He said things in a language she
couldn't understand. Kissee tried to speak, but her tongue slept in her 
mouth, thick and dry. Her cracked dry lips quivered. Her feeble body 
trembled. She knew death waited for her, just minutes away. Still she 
didn't want to accept her fate. 

Her stomach rumbled. She got an irresistible urge to relieve her
bladder. Relief surprised and embarrassed her. 

She glimpsed her short life, and smiled. Born a slave, Kissee found an
appreciation for her five seconds of freedom. She filled her mind with 
an image of herself running free and autonomous. She braced herself, 
and decided to die the way she lived. Brave! 

The man's hand caressed her body. Hard and cold. Dead hands, the last
hands Kissee would ever feel. His two fangs punctured her neck. Kissee 
felt a rush of rapture and closed her eyes. The Vampire drank and 
moaned, not letting a drop of precious blood escape his hungry lips. 

Kissee's body fell limp into his arms. He spoke to her as if she were
conscious. 

"I will take you out of the pit of hell, and carry you to the ends of
the earth. The knowledge of scholars will dance in your head. The power 
of armies will be at your fingertips. I will see the world through your 
innocence eyes, and lavish in your wonderment. You will have the 
freedom mere mortals can only dream about. 

You've never known a freedom like this. No! You've never known a freedom
like this. 

Like a father carrying his dying child, the vampire carried Kissee's
body in his arms. He could only hope her determination would be strong 
enough to survive through the night. If she died, he would properly put 
her into the ground. If she lived, he would indeed give her his dark 
powers. 

The vampire smiled knowing, Kissee would have the freedom she so
desperately yearned. 

Kissee opened her eyes. Darkness surrounded her. She tried to move, and
realized she was confined. Within seconds, she felt suffocated. Feeling 
there wasn't enough room to breathe, she gasped for air. Her mouth hung 
open incapable of sound. The stench of death clung to her throat, as 
she swallowed reason. 

Struggling to get out, she lost all sense of reality. She hammered on
the box with her fist. She tried to dig her way out with her 
fingernails. Tears rolled down her face. Blood ran out of her hands. 

Twisting and turning, she depleted her energy and strength. She closed
her eyes and tried to settle her mind. Visions of her being buried 
alive, suppressed any chance of relief. In a violent hysteria, she dug 
into the box, determined to dig her way out. 

Kissee stopped fighting allowing her body to become perfectly still. She
thought she felt something crawling on her, and slapped herself around. 
She could feel the box moving with her efforts to brake free. She shook 
her body from side to side, shaking the box. The scent of decaying 
bodies crept into her lungs. 

"O death, wair is thi sting?" Kissee cried. 

She put her hand around her throat, and tried to choke herself. She even
tried holding her breath. She was surrounded by darkness, and put to 
rest in a coffin, but death declined her willing soul. She was 
confused, and to tired to fight any longer. 

She reduced her breathing to an effortless even rhythm. Then freed her
mind from the attention of her bodily functions. She reduced herself to 
a trancelike state marked by loss of voluntary motion. Her limbs were 
hardened. She couldn't blink an eye, yet she was cognizant. 

Terror and horror consumed every ounce of her soul. Would she spend
eternity knowing but incapable of doing? 

Death was more horrible than she ever imagined. No God. No heaven or
hell. No afterlife, just stiff and lifeless. Dreadful consciousness 
without activity. Absorbed in her own decay, until she ultimately 
turned to dust. 

What was that? 

She heard a voice, and the coffin door slung open. 

"Raise my child. Take your first breath of freedom." 

Realizing she had regained control over her body, Kissee leaped out of
the coffin. She plunged into the arms of the vampire, screaming and 
hammering on his chest. Large drops of tears tumbled down her face. Her 
body shook. She was cold and confused. 

"What u don ta me!" 

"You are afraid. But there is nothing to fear. You are free Kissee. No
one. Nothing, can destroy you now." 

"Lev me lon!" she said. 

"Clam yourself!" said the vampire , "Or I will lock you back in there." 

He backed away. Kissee fell onto the dirt floor. She sobbed harder than
she thought possible. The vampire turned and walked away. Kissee lifted 
her head, and yelled behind him. 

"W'at u don ta me? W'at u don ta me devil?" 

"Follow me! he said, and walked swiftly, towards the big red doors. His
long black coat seemed to glide across the ground. 

Kissee never saw his feet, as he disappeared through the doors. She rose
from the dirt floor, and followed behind him. 

She recognized the musty old plantation, full of dead trees, and brown
grass. It belonged to Father Death, (that's what the slaves called 
him). He was an old priest, that collected the bodies of dead slaves. 

He said, he buried them, but the slaves had other ideas. Kissee young
sister rotted away in one of his boxes. Her name was Anna. Anna's slave 
master raped her, before she could walk on her two tender feet. She was 
ripped apart and hemorrhaged a river of blood. Her little body, a 
flexible doll in an oversized box. 

Kissee stayed with her for three days waiting for her to wake up. When
Father Death came, and collected her body, Kissee knew she would never 
awake. 

Kissee ran and caught up with the vampire. She examined her hands. Her
face showed signs of pain. The vampire stopped to assist her. He put 
her fingers into his mouth. One by one, and sucked them. 

Her bloody fingers were swallowed up in his strong month. When he
released her hand, it was completely healed. The pain was gone. 

"Do the same with your other hand," he said. 

Kissee put her fingers into her mouth the same way the vampire did. She
looked in amazement as they healed. She no longer felt any pain. 

"You are capable of amazing things," the vampire said. "Think of it as
my way of saying thank you, for saving my life." 

"I saved you?" Kissee said. 

"You surly did," said the vampire. "So let's get it over with." 

"Get w'at over wit." Kissee said. 

"The questions! You all ask the same questions." he said. 

Kissee glanced up to finally get a look at the vampire. He looked like a
young man in his early twenties. He was at least 6'2". His thick, 
golden-blonde hair hung full, pass his shoulders. They matched his 
dark-golden eyes. 

His face was softer than she remembered, and possessed rich color. Not
pale like the white men she saw. 

Kissee lowered her head and lifted her eyes to the vampire. 

"'re u da devil?" she asked, in a low whisper. The vampire laughed loud
and hearty. 

"Well child, maybe I will get some new questions after all. I am not the
devil, but you will see some things that might convince you otherwise. 
Just call me Barnabas." 

They walked along the dirt road, and Barnabas tried to explain their
existence. Kissee was taken by Barnabas's beauty. A beauty she hadn't 
noticed prior. She felt spellbound. 

She tried to listen while he talked, but her mind wondered. She
delighted in the way he spoke to her, as if she were white. His eyes 
were gentle, and his smile radiant. 

No white person had ever talked to Kissee in that manner. It was
refreshing. No, enchanting. She tried to understand him, but he spoke 
pass her capacity. 

Barnabas heard a carriage approaching, and moved to the side of the
road. 

"Quiet child. Do not speak until I say." 

He stood out in front of the carriage. It pulled over. The man examined
him closely, and glanced at Kissee. 

Kissee put her head down, but scanned the white man with her eyes. He
looked very much like the slave master she ran away from. His dirty 
yellow hair fell into his harsh face. He had little puffy blue eyes, 
and a fat nose. She could smell alcohol seeped from his pours. His body 
odor escaped his clothes along with his big round belly. 

"I don't have any money, but I have a nice young slave you can have your
way with," Barnabas said. Kissee watched as the white man examined her. 


I will drive the carriage. You can take her in the back with you,"
Barnabas added. Without giving the man a chance to answer, he took 
Kissee by the arm, and dragged her over to the carriage. Instinct told 
Kissee what to do. She lifted her worn beige dress to put her leg in 
the carriage, and hesitated. Barnabas pushed her along, as he spoke. 

"She's a little dirty, but that shouldn't bother you." 

The man climbed down from the carriage, and Barnabas grabbed him by the
arm. In the blink of an eye, he bit into the man's neck and handed him 
to Kissee. 

"Drink!" he said. 

Kissee turned away and looked onto the ground. 

"Will he die?" 

"Drink! Or you will die." Barnabas said. Fire lit up Barnabas eyes. He
grabbed Kissee by the hair with his free hand. 

"If you don't drink, I will lock you in a coffin for all eternity." 

Kissee sank her newly formed fangs into the man and drank until Barnabas
pulled her away. She resisted. He jerked her to the ground. 

"That is enough. Never drink it all," he said. "You will get very ill,
and the victims will invade your dreams." 

"Kissee wiped the blood from her moistened lips and tried to throw up.
Barnabas grabbed her by the face. 

"Your body doesn't work like that anymore. This is what you are. Accept
it now. Save yourself a lot of grief later. There is no turning back." 

Kissee yanked her face away from the vampire. She peered the man lying
below her. She tried to feel remorse, she felt pity instead. Not for 
the way he died, but for the way he lived. 

"Pick it up! Throw it into trees." 

"But I can't." 

"You can! Now do as I say." 

Kissee picked the man up with one hand, and tossed him into the trees.
She enjoyed the idea of her new strength. Barnabas motioned her into 
the carriage. 

"You are full. I still need to feed, and you haven't had your first kill
yet," he said. 

Kissee tried to get into the front of the carriage. 

"Get in the back," he said. "You are no longer a salve, but you must
behave as one until we leave this country." 

"Yes'm, master." she said, as she climbed into the back of the carriage.


"You are no longer Kissee, we shall call you Cheetah." 

"A cat?" she said. 

"Oh child, a cheetah is more than a cat, and it belongs to you, for the
rest of eternity. We had better get you somewhere and clean you up." 

"I know where." Kissee said, with wide eyes and a gentel smirk. 

The world is yours Cheetah. You can have anything you want. So what will
it be? Money, pretty clothes, fine jewelry?" 

Kissee didn't have to think about the question. She knew what she
wanted, and it wouldn't cost a thing. 

"Luv," she said. 

"Oh child, anything but that." Barnabas said, leaving his laughter like
a trail of breadcrumbs behind them. 

* * * 

Wolves yelped. A small light beamed through a little window. The air
tinged thick with mist. A broad wooden door opened, with a light touch. 
The floor squeaked, while an electric bulb dangled from the ceiling. 
Kissee's voice lurked through the black room. 

"Massser, Kissee's home." 


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