Still Life Moving

By Laci Maskell

Kristopher is a vampire who goes through life worrying about himself and no one else. He feeds and kills without regret or consequence. That is, until he meets Jaden.
Jaden is a college student who worries about passing her classes and spending time with her best friend and dad. Then she meets a vampire who wants to drink her dry.
Kristopher and Jaden couldn't be more different. Kristopher lives his life in a constant inner battle between loving immortality and loathing his existence. Jaden goes through her day to day without thinking about her end day.
Despite their attraction to each other, Kristopher fights to stay away from her, while Jaden wishes to convince him of their love.
Dangers seen and unforeseen wish to tear them apart, but will they have the strength to stay together?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Laci Maskell
• Release date: Jun 30, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311684240

Laci Maskell

I was born and raised in Nebraska. I fell in love with reading when I discovered Harry Potter. I began writing in the sixth grade. The four loves of my life are reading, writing, watching movies, and listening to music.

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Still Life Moving

Laci Maskell

Published by Laci Maskell at Smashwords

Cover Design by Cody Wortmann

Copyright © Laci Maskell 2014

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Dedication

To everyone who truly believed in me.

Chapter One- Kristopher

There is a split second in our fun that I have to ask myself, am I evil? But then that split second is gone and the fun continues.

Living so close to a college is great, especially for my roommate, Axton and I.

Axton and I walk the nature trail of Atwood State College when he comes across this cute college girl. I watch from a nearby tree while he talks to the girl. It is good the college has this trail. It is the only part of campus that isn’t some form of building, sidewalk, or failed attempt at art or gardening, and it gives some cover to our games.

The girl is fairly short and has darker brown hair that reaches the middle of her back. She wears a barely-there tank top, mini-skirt and high heels. I can’t believe Axton is having as much trouble as he is, seeing as how easy this girl looks. But she has her arms crossed and is hunched like she has not a care in the world about what Axton is saying.

After watching him struggle to get her attention for about fifteen minutes, I go in to get the job done.

We haven’t hunted together in a long time and we don’t normally do it often, but tonight we were jovial and decided to take a stab at it. Axton and I don’t like to share. We had to flip a coin to decide who would get the victim and who would watch.

Is my friend here bothering you, miss? I ask in my most attractive voice and give her the old Kristopher-wide-eyed grin.

She instantly perks up and smiles, saying Oh no, of course not. He’s a friend of yours? She moves closer to me.

He is, I say, smiling at her.

It is almost too easy. Girls are no longer a challenge, not that they ever have been, but they used to at least wait a few minutes until completely giving in to me. It is like they are desperate, and that is definitely not fun, nor is it attractive.

I hate you, Axton whispers so low only I can hear, but says aloud, Kristopher, so good of you to join us. I was just telling Marie here about the little party we are having back at our place. I asked if she would like to join us.

Were you now? I say to Axton, playing along, and then turn to the girl, Well then, what do you say Marie? We are a lot of fun.

I’d love to come. Are there going to be any other girls there? Or am I just special? This is way too easy.

We usually throw big parties, I say, taking over the talking now that I have her wrapped around my finger, but if you want we could make it a party of three tonight. I lean down real close to her and whisper in her ear, I could even get rid of Axton if you want. It could be just you and me.

I would love that. Marie says, smiling from ear to ear.

Shall we? asks Axton, undoubtedly wanting to get his revenge on this girl for not wanting him as soon as possible.

Yes, Marie and I say at the same time. She loops her arm around me and walks forward with us.

Sorry, man, I say to Axton, a whisper only he can hear.

Whatever, douche. Axton says slightly upset but laughs, I’ll get the little bitch back when we get to the apartment.

And I know he will. Axton looks like a pushover to most people, but the ones who actually know him, know he’s a hardcore badass.

Axton and I live a block off campus. The walk should not take too long. But listening to Marie talk the whole way there, makes it seem a mile long, rather than a block.

When she speaks it is all superficial stuff. She is a cheerleader and there is so much drama. The captain is a bitch. The songs they dance to are awful. The new members are lazy and they suck. Then there is her roommate. What a nightmare she says. She wears her clothes, but is a walrus and stretches them out. She eats her health food, though it will do nothing for her. She snores like a freight train when she sleeps. She listens to trashy music and thinks she is cool. Everything that could possibly be wrong with her roommate, is. And the drama goes on to bad boyfriends, over controlling parents, and her sucky job.

I swear a block has never felt so long in my life.

Axton and I smile, nod, yeah and uhuh at the right moments, but are bored out of our minds.

Wow, you guys live so close to campus. Do you guys go here? Marie asks when we go inside. You guys entertain a lot? she asks when she actually takes a look around the apartment.

It isn’t the cleanest place in the world.

I swear if she says you guys one more time, I may just snap her neck.

No, we don’t, Axton tells her, but we’ve been thinking about it. And the apartment is this dirty because of the last party. Sorry.

Marie takes a look around, scoffs and says, It’ll do.

Axton and I are annoyed with this girl. It’ll do? Axton mouths in my direction. I roll my eyes at him, nonverbally agreeing with him.

Once we are all in the apartment, I close the door and turn the lock. Marie is oblivious to it, drifting off in her own la-la land.

Marie, are you ready to have some fun? I ask her, ready to get the real party started.

I put in the new Framing Hanley CD and crank up You Stupid Girl, low enough the neighbors won’t complain and high enough they won’t hear any screams.

You should think about going to school, Marie says coming up to me and running her finger over my chest, thinking she is sexy. And apparently forgetting Axton is even here.

Will do, I say as she walks away to look at the rest of our apartment.

How about we get this over with? Axton whispers to me, coming close, his pride obviously wounded. She is starting to annoy.

I hear you, dude. Listen, since you got the girl, I get first blood, I whisper back to him.

Do I need to remind you who actually got her to come with us? Axton asks as we watch Marie rummage through our things.

Haha. Oh right. But I should still get first blood. Do you honestly think she is going to make out with you?

Good point, Axton says, no longer whispering.

What’s a good point? Marie asks.

That we should . . . Axton fumbles with the words.

Get this party started, I finish for him.

Heck yes, we should, Marie says. What did you have in mind?

Why don’t you pick out some music and we will get some drinks, I say to give Axton and I time to devise a plan.

Marie moves over to my CD collection by the stereo. I have almost every CD ever to come out, the whole wall is a bookshelf full of CDs, so it is going to take her a while. Axton and I walk to the kitchen to get the drinks. Drinks that only Marie will be drinking.

Axton grabs two glasses from the cupboard while I take the box wine we keep in the fridge for such occasions. Normally Axton and I don’t bring our victims back to the apartment if we hunt alone. For safety and privacy reasons mostly.

I pour the wine into the glasses until they are half full. Most girls Marie’s age aren’t fans of wine but if it’s offered by me ten times out of ten, they won’t turn it down.

Axton looks around to make sure Marie won’t walk in on us and asks me in a low voice, You think we should drug her or do you think you can get the job done quickly?

Do you know me at all? I ask, not giving him time to answer before I say, No drugs, I got this. She’s already eating out of the palm of my hand.

And it is true. My charm and arrogance can get a girl no matter what. I have not once in my lifetime been turned down by a girl. Axton on the other hand has a little more trouble roping in the ladies. Try as I might, giving him pointers, style tips, talking strategies, he is just no good with girls. I feel slightly bad for him, but I do love shoving it in his face.

Fine. I’ll give you your time alone. Have your fun, but leave some for me. And I will be listening.

Axton isn’t happy he is to get the leftovers but as long as he gets something he is fine.

I brandish the glasses off the counter and walk into the living room to find Marie still looking through my CDs.

Find anything you like? I ask her once I am about two feet away from her.

She jumps at the sound of my voice, Oh my! I didn’t hear you come in.

I didn’t mean to frighten you, I say, walking closer to her.

That’s ok, she says, collecting herself and taking a step closer to me. What do you have there?

It’s just wine. Do you like wine? I ask, knowing the answer, but making my voice sultry.

Not really, but since you went to all the trouble of getting it, I can make an exception, Marie says, taking another step closer to me.

I hold one hand out to give her the glass. She takes it into her hand, but makes sure it stays in my hand, and takes yet another step closer to me, so we are mere inches apart.

How about I put some of my favorite music on and we sit on the couch and chat?

I like that idea, Marie says, looking around then asking, Where did the other one go?

Before I can answer, I hear Axton, from his bedroom, say, The other one has a name. I only said it like five times.

Marie cannot hear him though, so I say, He saw that you and I hit it off so he thought he would give us a little privacy.

How nice of him, Marie says, wrapping her arm through mine and pulling me towards the couch before I can change the music.

Oh puh-lease. I hear Axton call from his room.

I have to chuckle to myself at that one.

Once we are seated on the couch, so close our arms and legs are touching, a point made by Marie, she asks, So what would you like to talk about?

Do you like the wine? I ask even though I know for a fact that she hasn’t taken a sip of it.

Oh, I really do, she says deliberately drinking everything in the glass.

I take the glass from her and set it on the side table by the couch. I set my glass there as well. As I pull back, Marie scoots on the couch even closer to me, though there is no room to move over. I do not mind it at all, but the walk to the apartment and her yipping the entire time were really a buzz kill. I want to get this over with as soon as possible.

You know, I really have nothing to talk about, so how about we just do this? I ask moving toward her and kissing her jaw line and down her shoulder.

I had nothing to talk about either, Marie says, clearly enjoying every kiss.

I, on the other hand, do not enjoy any of it. It is clear that Marie has caked her body with an insane amount of body spray and lotion. I have been able to smell it the entire time, but tasting it now is another thing entirely.

I can feel her pulse though and her blood crawling through her veins. I am ready for my attack and I want it bad.

I move my mouth to hers. She is a bad kisser, all over the place. I can hear Axton giggle from his room. He always finds it funny to hear me making out with a girl. I block out the sound and continue with my mission.

We are on our knees on the couch now and Marie tries to push me backward so she can be on top but I am much stronger. I push her back and lay on top of her continuing to kiss her.

I can smell her blood now and it is all I can think about. I kiss her on the mouth and am so distracted by the need for her blood, I involuntarily let my fangs slide down my gums and bite her bottom lip. The taste of her blood is sweet yet bitter like the taste of dark chocolate.

Ow, She says when she feels it, jerks her head back before I can pull my fangs back in. Oh my gogogo, she stuttered, You’re a, a, a, a.

Yeah. You’re going to have to get over that, because at the moment there’s nothing you can do about it. I’m going to suck out all your blood and kill you. And my friend, his name is Axton, you’re going to remember that. Because when I’m done with you, he’s going to have his turn and trust me, he’s worse than I am. Have a nice night. I give her one of my award winning smiles.

Marie opens her mouth to scream, but before she can, I bite down on her neck, hard, and let the blood flow freely into my mouth. What is to be her scream turns into a moan. For some odd reason, the bite, to a human, is sexual, until it turns deadly.

Axton can hear that Marie is no longer Marie and comes into the living room to take his turn. When I have had my fill I let him take over. He doesn’t get to have as much fun as I did, but he gets blood nonetheless, so he is happy.

When Axton has drunk Marie dry, and her body is limp, we have to decide what to do with her. Our usual hiding spot is beginning to be too full and conspicuous. We need a new plan.

Let’s just hide her in the underground tunnels of one of the dorms. Nobody ever goes down there, they will never find her, is Axton’s first suggestion.

We can’t do that, she will start to smell and someone will investigate and find her.

But that won’t be for a long time.

It just won’t work, ok.

Axton is older than I am and has more experience, but in many ways, I am smarter than he is. I know the ins and outs better than he does.

Fine, he gives in, What’s your brilliant plan then?

I think about it for a few seconds then say, Why don’t we just cut her throat like she was killed and leave her somewhere for people to find her, like the nature trail?

I thought you didn’t want anyone to find her. Axton has a point but someone is bound to find her anyway.

As long as we erase any proof that it was a vampire, i.e., slitting her throat along the bite marks, then who cares if someone finds her? If we leave her in the college grounds then they will think she was killed by some college guy. No one will ever suspect an outside source or even question that it wasn’t a college student.

Just because we dump her here doesn’t mean they will think a student killed her.

At this point, I don’t care. Let’s just get it over with and get her out of here.

This bickering is one of the reasons Axton and I don’t hunt together often. We always fight and we never have a plan going into the hunt, even though we always say that next time we will have a plan before we snag our victim. But we always devise a plan eventually.

Fine. But next time I get the girl without your interference, I get first blood, and we have a plan before we even go hunt. Axton is agitated. He doesn’t need to be, we have never been caught, not even questioned about suspicious activity in the area.

I grab the knife I keep in my room for times like these. I always have one with me when I go hunting and one in my room in case I lose the one I have with me while hunting.

I make a line in her skin along the bite marks and make sure they are indistinguishable. Then I make a few other cuts in her neck. Axton has been fine watching me do so, but he is angry at Marie for not remembering his name and barely noticing him. He takes the knife out of my hand and makes small slashes all over her body. I cut her out of necessity, Axton slashes her out of revenge.

I don’t want him to go too far so I stop him after seven cuts.

Enough Axton, she was just some dumb human. Why does it even matter?

It doesn’t, I was just having a little fun. But I can tell that Marie not being able to remember him hurt him. Let’s just get rid of her.

Why don’t you let me take care of it and you can do whatever you want for the rest of the night.

Works for me, he says walking back into his bedroom.

I grab an extra sheet out of the closet and wrap the limp body of the girl in it. I don’t want her getting blood on my clothes, even though she is pretty much sucked dry.

I fling her dead body over my shoulder and make my way out of our apartment. It is now three in the morning. I’m not going to have a problem with running into my neighbors or anyone else. But just on the off chance that I do, I use my speed and make it to the spot in the nature trail where I will leave her body in mere milliseconds.

I make sure to go deep enough into the woods of the trail away from sight of students or other people who are sure to run by in the coming morning.

I lay Marie’s body down, unwrap her from the sheet, and leave. But not before bidding her a fond farewell. Sucks to be human, doesn’t it?

Chapter Two- Kristopher

Looking at myself but not being able to see myself, is quite possibly the thing I hate most. Nothing new. Mirrors cannot reflect me, cameras cannot capture me, nor windows, nor a mortals’ eyes. But I am no longer mortal, so what does it matter. I haven’t been for over one hundred years.

There is a tug where my heart used to beat, but whether it is physical or mental is another thing. I am nothing, I have no one, it is like I don’t even exist.

Looking away from the mirror relieves me of this self-loathing feeling. I am not pathetic enough to throw myself a pity party.

There is another tug inside me, but it is in another place, my stomach, and it spreads throughout me. By the time it reaches my throat, the tug is no longer a tug but a pain. I am hungry, or rather, thirsty and I need to feed soon. It’s been two weeks since the girl from the nature trail.

I walk through my dimly lit apartment in search of the fridge. Strewn throughout my bedroom are intermixed clean and dirty clothes, boxes of forgotten items, random papers and garbage that I am too lazy to take care of. The living room is much the same; the couch shows signs of age and wear, the TV shows nothing but fuzz flashing across the screen. The lamp is on in the corner but is covered by clothes, whether mine or Axton’s I’m not sure. Our carpet is torn in places and shows only the faintest sign that it was once gray. The bookshelf in another corner of the room has only a few books occupying its shelves and I know for a fact that they are all mine.

Of all the rooms in our apartment, the kitchen is the cleanest; we don’t spend much time there. I move across the white tiles, around the wooden table and chairs to the fridge. As I pull the handle of the ancient fridge, which emits a low hum, I come up short of what I am looking for. My baggies of donor blood. Guessing that Axton drank them, realization that I will have to rob the hospital again or go hunting in search of blood sets in.

The thirst is so strong that fear of venturing into the hospital, losing control, and killing more than my allotted one human a night, is the deciding factor for my choice of hunting. As it is Thursday, I know there will be some drunken guy passed out on a bench near the nature trail who will be easily manipulated.

I make my way back through the immense rubble that is my apartment to my bedroom, grab my jacket, pull it on, and walk out the front door. I live on the third floor of a five story apartment building across the street from the college in Atwood. I make my way down the three, steep and narrow flights of stairs, strut out the door, and start down the street towards the ¬¬¬¬¬ Atwood State College.

There is a reason I chose this school and still live in Atwood, nostalgia. I was once a student here and I’m not quite ready to walk away.

The beginning of the nature trail is next to the college. There is a group of trees that starts the small forest the school has not yet cut down. There are a few wooden benches scattered among the trees as well as lots of open space that the students can use as recreational space, although they don’t really utilize the space. A lot of students like to pass out on the benches when they get plastered and can’t manage to make it to their dorm rooms, or if they feel like staring at the stars while they pass out.

When I arrive at the college, I quickly shuffle through the buildings and go straight to the benches at the edge of the forest. I proceed to hide myself behind a large cotton tree while I search for the perfect target. Though I don’t see many people roaming around or passed out at the present, I have no doubt the perfect one will come around shortly.

Then, as it has never failed me before,