She wore scrubs, touched my arm, told me to make a fist, tied my arm off with a rubber tube, swabbed a place with alcohol, inserted a needle, and filled three vials with blood. She didn’t need fangs, and a cross wouldn’t have kept her away, only an unpaid co-pay. With aid of equipment, the vampire gazed like Tiresias, the blind prophet of Thebes, and made predictions from vitamin deficiency to high cholesterol to a high A1C. Knowing in advance what might come doesn’t change the outcome, and I’ll be back for another bloodletting, and another co-pay, in six months.
Niles Reddick has a novel, two story collections, and a novella, and has been published in over 400 publications including The Saturday Evening Post. Find Niles at nilesreddick.com and on Twitter @niles_reddick.