Another summer had come and gone. Safe in the abandoned mausoleum the dark angel had been biding her time.
The small village had been in mourning throughout the summer months following the unexplained disappearance of two young waitresses from the local hotel. Both girls had left work at the same time together late one evening. Neither of them had been seen alive again; neither of them had been seen since. A local runner had found a mobile phone belonging to one of them near the entrance to the cemetery and, a few feet away, the Radley purse belonging to the other girl. Nothing else had ever been traced.
As the sun set on a late October evening, the angel stretched her wings, stepped daintily over the desiccated remains of her last two victims and ventured out of the mausoleum. The youthful fertile feminine blood of the two waitresses had restored her strength. With her vitality fully recovered, the dark angel was ready to resume her hunt.
Noise from the nearby church hall disrupted her train of thought.
Effortlessly she spread her magnificent black wings and flew silently through the trees. Discretely perched on the hall’s roof, hidden from prying eyes by the shadow of the trees, she watched as a group of mothers, some in costume, shepherded a dozen or more children, all in fancy dress, out of the building.
“All Hallows Eve,” she thought as she admired some of the costumes. “How sweet would the blood of a child be!”
Licking her crimson lips, the angel watched as the mothers chaperoned the children as they set off guising through the village. In her cold heart, much as she desired it, the angel knew there were fruits that were forbidden even to her.
Flexing her wings, she prepared to head off to the nearby farm estate in search of an alternative meal when her nostrils detected a welcome aroma. Her senses heightened as the ferrous musk mixed with sweat wafted along on the light autumn breeze.
A rhythmic thud thud, thud filled her ear and was then drowned out by music, if you could call it that. How could he bear that infernal racket in his ears?
A second lighter set of footsteps echoed round, accompanied by lighter more melodic music.
There were two of them.
Glancing up the hill, she watches the two runners approach.
A wicked smile played on her lips.
As the two men drew level with the church hall’s driveway, the angel spread her wings and rose soundlessly in flight.
For almost an hour she followed them, soaring high above, keeping close to the tree line where possible as they pounded their way through the marina, along the beach footpath then back towards the village along the busy coast road.
Darkness had long since fallen. Using it to camouflage her, the angel risked flying lower and closer. His heavenly perfume was arousing her every sense. If only he was alone…..
Eventually their route brought them back to the village and, breathing heavily, the weary athletes began to head up the steep hill towards the church.
As they reached the fork in the road, they parted company – one ran straight on up the hill; the other, the source of her desires, ran along the single track road past the cemetery where he’d found the dead girls’ belongings.
She could see the veins in his neck pulsing, teasing her desire to finally taste his rich blood. Could this be her ideal opportunity?
In the distance she could hear the guisers and their chaperones coming down the road, Torchlight was flickering up ahead as they drew closer with every step.
It was now or never.
Silently she dropped down onto the road a few feet in front of him. Spreading her black, purple tipped wings, she sighed as he slowed in his progress towards her. The beads of sweat on his brow shone like pearls in the moonlight. Feeling an uncontrollable lust stirring deep within her, she licked her lips. Their eyes met.
“Great costume,” he gasped as he was almost within her reach.
She rocked onto the balls of her slender feet, preparing to feast at last on his blood.
Suddenly, out of the darkness a cry shattered the moment.
“Daddy!”
The footsteps of a child were thundering rapidly down the dark road towards them.
“Soon,” hissed the angel, still staring into the depths of his soul.
With one strong beat of her magnificent wings, she vanished into the night.
Coral McCallum 