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Zack stood up, noting that he still felt good. It had been even longer than a year since he'd felt good standing up. He felt strong, way strong, and fast, and his mind was working better than ever, better even than before he got sick, he thought. This was like, the best thing ever... but he had to get out of here before a nurse caught him up. He pulled on his clothes, fast, clothes he hadn't worn since his mom visited two and a half weeks ago. Pants were getting too small, he'd have to buy a new pair. He looked at himself in the mirror - was there an eerie glow in his eyes? Nope, that was just his imagination. But he did have fangs! Wow... he touched one with a fingertip and looked at the blood, then licked his finger... the cut vanished... astonished, he tried it again, and sure enough. Was that magic? He wondered.
He walked out of his room, looked up and down the hallway, and stepped out. He was hoping not to run into anyone before he'd got all the way out of the Buchner Children's home. He walked to the stairs leading down and heard faint screaming... decided not to check it out. Probably just some kid whose painkiller had run out. Happened a lot. Nothing Zack could do for them. Just as he was about to head out the front door, he heard his name. It was Jeannie at the front desk. He'd forgot there was always someone there... he walked over to her and as he got closer, he found he could smell the blood pumping under her skin.
"Zack? What are you doing up? You should be in bed asleep," Jeannie scolded.
Zack nodded to her, distracted. "Uh huh...." He gestured down, toward the floor by his feet.
Jeannie leaned over the desk to see, and Zack grabbed her, moving faster than he ever thought he could, sinking his teeth into the back of her neck. "Unnnhhhh," Jeannie moaned, as Zack drank his first taste of human blood.
Zack drank his fill and Jeannie lay slumped over her desk, unconscious. He hoped he hadn't drunk enough to kill her; she was still breathing, he could feel it warm on his hand. He got out of there in a hurry, racing into the street and looking around frantically. He had to find a hiding place that wouldn't let sunlight in.... he had no idea where the nearest cemetary was. Did he need a coffin? Oh.... that's right.... the Troy Suggs Funeral Home was not that far... down Buckner Street and then turn on Military Parkway, just over the railroad tracks. He ran, revelling in the strength and tirelessness he felt now, so different from just yesterday. He gave the happiest smiles to the people he passed along the way, too, though there weren't many of them at this just-before-dawn hour. Zack pried the grill off the basement window of the funeral home, the supernatural strength in his arm seeming almost normal now to him, already. He crept through the stacks of caskets till he found one he liked... opened it up, laid down, and closed it on himself. Zack drifted off into dreamless sleep, last thoughts being, wow, I'm a real vampire, what could be cooler....
He didn't ever wake up. Suzy Suggs, grand-daughter of the founder and apprentice mortician, found the seeming fresh corpse in the coffin... embalmed it carefully, sending Zack into deep torpor as all the vitae in his system was drained out of him.... and inserted him into the waiting tomb in their mausoleum. The ensuing bills sent to the estate of the customer they had mistaken him for, would be paid promptly...