Fellow darklings,

I have a tale here to tell. But before I do so, I feel I aught to tell you that I am in the process finishing a vampire novel. It is presently untitled but the working title (which I might settle for at the end) is "Vampire: The Forbidden Afterlife". I am at the moment revising it and touching it up here and there and I hope to get it published very soon.

The short story I have here is one of the many writing exercises I set myself to do while I was writing my novel. This is one I wrote a few years ago so my writing style might have changed since then.

I am always open to criticism and would like people to email me and let me know what they think - they will provide useful advice for me.

Read and enjoy:

TREES

(c) by Sarmad Sheikh

The car radio continued its gibberish reception of hissing and crackling as Robert impatiently played with the tuning controls. As usual there was no luck. The damn thing was already faulty when he bought the car. For him a radio was a vital accessory since it provided company for the lonesome driver. In frustration he thumped the dashboard with his fist before switching the faulty gadget off.

Robert was driving home that night from a friend's house. They had been playing cards that evening until the midnight chime on his digital watch alerted him that it was time to leave. An early sleep for an early rise to work in the morning. Damn, he hated his job at the store - lousy atmosphere, wanker of a boss and shit wages.

The headlights of his car were now switched to full-beam due to the road conditions. He was driving through a long and winding country lane which cut through a large woodland area, the lane clothed between an endless thickness of black forest. Like fighting hydras, the bordering trees at opposite sides of this narrow road had overgrown their snakelike branches to clash overhead, roofing the lane and enclosing it into a dark tunnel. And there was no form of street lighting. No illuminating lamp-posts and no glistening cats' eyes. This strict darkness put to shame the effectiveness of the regular brightness of cars' headlights. It had to be full-beam all the way.

Robert hated taking that route at night-times. But between his house and his friend's, there was no alternative. He always wished that his friend could arrange for daytime card sessions during the weekend instead but Robert was too embarrassed to admit his fear of the dark.

Soon the arival of a small cluster of shattered glass peppered the road before him, appearing as glittering jewels as they reflected his headlights back at him. The car ran over the harmless crystals like it had no care in the world, and like panicking fireflies some of the pieces were quickly kicked off the road while some unfortunate ones helplessly ground against one another under the merciless wheels. Probably from some recent accident, Robert thought to himself as he left the shiny fragments far behind. Due to the small amount of glass there was, he assumed that the accident was not serious. Possibly only the headlight glass smashed or something. Or perhaps it was a more serious accident, where most of the glass from the shattered windscreen had already been kicked off into the forest by previous passing cars.

There was still a long distance to cover before reaching the light of civilisation at the end of this tunnel. Robert's eyes were focused deeply onto the road ahead of him, driving with intense caution to avoid all possibilities of an accident. It was certainly not the right place to have an accident. He had always imagined what would happen if his car was ever immobilised on that lane. Stranded forever in a deserted world. No passing vehicle would dare to stop to help him, not in this sinister place. And then again, he himself would never stop to assist a stranger on this lane.

That pitch black woodland in which this lane dwelled - whatever lay within those woods, he did not want to think about it. He always felt that something was watching him from in there. And those trees lining the sides of the lane: monstrous growths stripped of their plumage by the autumn winds to reveal their dark skeletal figures beneath. Robert dreaded the way they appeared to be shaking their claw-like branches with partners on opposite sides of the road. Their movements in the wind looked as if they were communicating with one another, planning to trap their victims. And that wind outside. He could hear it sounding like a ghostly howl, he could swear it was a demon possessing those trees to move! But he just carried on driving under the swaying cobweb-like structure of branches which continuously roofed the road. The whole eerie scene reminded him of the many tales he had learnt of the lane. Murders, abductions, monsters, witches, ghosts, demons. Whatever the element, this infamous lane had a story to accommodate it. How Robert wished that his car radio could work or if he had somebody with him for company. Anything to rescue his mind away from those fears. But whatever he was fearing, whether if it was the possibility of an accident or meeting up with some ghoul, his thoughts were always accompanied by a bigger wonder. Will I reach the other end of this lane safely tonight? He knew it was an idle and unrealistic fancy, but he could not help it.

The driver’s thoughts were suddenly interupted when something appeared in front of him on the road. A human shape. He stamped is foot hard onto the break and ground his car to a halt, though he had always vowed to just carry on driving and run over the obstructing person for his own safety. Nobody but a weirdo would walk on this lane alone at night.

But this seemed an exception.

The figure, dressed in a swaying white gown was only a few metres in front of his now stationary car. The sudden appearance mysteriously did not shock Robert at all. Instead he felt an instant warmth from the sight of it. It was a young woman and she was beautiful. Her long golden hair was blowing in the wind like the frothing waves of the sea. Her eyes were blue and sparkling like sapphires. And she had an gentle, friendly and warming smile on her face. She did not seem to be startled by Robert's sudden arrival. It was as if she had been waiting for him.

That white gown was all she was wearing. It was unfastened at the front and like her hair, that too was touched by the wind as it swirled upwards and sideways, exposing the naked white flesh beneath. The upper flaps of the gown had been caught between the inner cleavage of her breasts, stubbornly holding onto her against the fighting wind to cover her breasts. She was resting her left hand in front of her hips, concealing her unclothed privacy from Robert's eager eyes.

The woman was staring lovingly at him from the distance. She seemed very tolerable towards the wind around her, totally unaffected by however strong or cold it was. Her only movement was in her hair and gown, which continued to capture the wind and cascade behind her like the proud feathers of a graceful swan. Almost naked and not making any movement, all statuesque, she looked like a magical idol of some goddess as she stood illuminated by Robert's lights. Feeling safe, the driver turned off his engine and beam-lights. He could now hear the threatening wind outside. And he could still see the girl in the dark as she shone in the moonlight like a beautiful marble statue.

A dreaming minute passed before she finally made movement. She slowly lifted her right arm and pointed at Robert, motioning her finger and signalling him to come out and join her.

He could only be dumbstruck. It was as if she was reading his mind. She must have been. During this time, he had been waiting for any moment which would give him any reason to go out to her. She was not speaking, just the gesture as if she knew that her voice would be masked by the shell of the car.

What if this is a trap, he then wondered?

Again she seemed to respond to his thoughts. Her smile opened to display a pair of fangs which had been hidden within those lips. It was as if she wanted to show Robert what she was. She then closed her lips again to that warm smile after she was certain that he received the message.

But Robert was not at all frightened by that action. He somehow expected it.

Her beauty seemed too incredible for him, so he was not surprised to see that she was not human. She had given him that friendly warning. She was not at all advancing towards the car. It was all Robert's choice to advance to her. And she was giving him this choice whether to come out and join her and to pay the price of his life, or to just drive away and avoid her.

But Robert had already made up his mind not to leave her. He did not even have to think with too much effort about it. How could he live with himself for the rest of his life over the thought of missing that chance of a lifetime to touch that girl of his dreams? Her appearance was so unflawed, a woman of perfection, the goddess of beauty. He had never had a girl before, always longed for one and was very uncertain whether if he ever would have one. And this was the ideal moment to satisfy his life's greatest desire. Even if it meant that he would die, touching her was certainly worth dying for! And Robert was familiar with the vampire legends. Anyone who is bitten by a vampire would also become a vampire. And when Robert dies he shall certainly rise from his rest to meet her, and they shall stay together to eternity. It was all sorted out. It was certainly worth dying for!

With confidence, Robert unlocked his door. As he opened it the fast howling wind snatched the door as if it was the sail of a boat, and the door was suddenly blown to full open with an unstoppable swing. The turbulent air invaded the car like an uncontrollable swarm of bees and Robert felt the instant stinging of cold all over his body. He unhesitatingly undid his seatbelt and and ran out of this suddenly infested metal hive. But the turbulence outside coiled around him, bringing him difficulty in keeping his balance. He was twisted around to face back at the car and he saw that the door was now swinging violently, like it was trying to break fee from its hinges.

Robert secured his balance and looked back towards the female figure. She had moved. The statuesque creature was now standing on the side of the road and next to a tree which marked the border of the seemingly forbidding forest. She was still keeping the same pose, with her hand covering her private part and her other hand signalling for his advance. This welcoming sight regained his feeling of protection. It made him feel safe from all his fears of the forest dwellers. He no longer felt intimidated by the wind which kept on howling like it was the threatening cries coming from those sinister trees around him. And he no longer felt scared to enter the forest of where this angelic figure was standing at the entrance.

She soon started to wave her entire arm to strengthen her weaning. It was a graceful movement matching the waving of her blowing hair and gown. The rest of her body was still fixed motionless apart from her head which was following Robert's movement.

Then she spoke:

"Come on." Her smooth, sweet voice was magically generated from all directions around Robert, though it was still controlled by her lips. And it totally blanked out the wind. It was as if the wind had stopped to allow her to speak.

"Don't be frightened," she continued as her charming voice wrapped around the listener, obstructing all those other sounds around him.

The wind resumed its monstrous howling.

Robert hesitated no longer and he began to walk slowly towards her. The woman, with a triumphant look in her eyes, stopped her arm waving and lifted her left hand, revealing her pubic hair beneath, and she opened both her arms out in front, inviting Robert to enter her deadly embrace.

When he reached her, her arms instantly wrapped around his waist like loving snakes. There was warmth like he had never felt before, even on this cold night. And Robert knew that there was no way in which he could turn back. He had now committed himself to her. And in her arms he felt such sanctuary! Just him and her in this separate world where nobody would interfere.

He then slowly pushed the fluttering gown off from her shoulders and gently peeled it off from her back, feeling the silky smooth soft skin beneath. Approvingly, the girl placed her arms down by her sides to allow the gown to quickly slip down off from her body. The wind instantly grabbed the garment and hurriedly took it away deep into the dark forest where she could no longer retrieve it. The unveiling of this breathtaking artwork of her exposed breasts and her entire naked body stunned Robert for a moment. And at that instant the wind had shut off its violent blowing. It was as if the trees too were stunned to see her beautiful body exposed after they had finally succeeded to strip her naked with the help from her new visitor.

The naked woman widened her smile to the enchanted man and resumed the protective embrace. He was happily uniting himself with death as if he was going to enter such wonders, despite the fear of death he was brought up to believe in. Robert stared dreamily into her loving eyes which reminded him of the blue daytime sky which he knew he would never see again. Only the darkness of the night sky was what he would now see forever. Then in final submission, he at last rested his head onto her right shoulder to put his neck within her reach.

She kissed him and he felt the gentle touch of her warm, soft lips on his neck. Then came a warm wet feeling over a wider area as she sucked pleasingly at his neck, titilating the skin with her playful tongue.

This heavenly sequence was soon accompanied by the shock of excitement as Robert felt the sharp tips of both her fangs lightly prick his skin. An increased desire for pleasure instantly aroused within his neck. Robert's anxiety grew even more and more as he felt the vampire's fangs then sinking into him. Deeper and deeper, the fangs entered very slowly indeed, teasing him with the growing excitement with every depth. Don't stop, he wished! Then she playfully moved her fangs in and out of those newly produced ducts, continuing in her teasing manner. In synchronisation with each other, the two enamel shafts were slowly vibrating longitudinaly inside their respective puncture holes, every stroke stimulating the nerve endings at the broken skin and sending waves of pleasure within him. The strokes soon quickened and the stimulated pleasure increased. Robert's breathing and heartbeat both quickened too at the excitement. With one hand clutched tightly onto the skin of the girl's back, he frantically moved his other hand to grab her by the head, his fingers clutching into the depths of her soft hair. He desperately forced her head harder to his neck, urging her not to withdraw. His breathing changed to ecstatic and impatient groans. More, more, more, his groans seemed to be telling the playing woman! Suddenly she pierced the jugular artery and Robert shuddered joyfully at the instant ejaculation of blood from his neck. The crimson jet shot into her mouth.

The satisfied man stopped his groaning and rested in her embrace. He felt exhausted after that climax. But his partner carried on with the lovemaking as she sucked at his neck, gulping the continuous leakage of blood as if she was too thirsty to stop.

Her arms were still wrapping him in her assurance as his draining life fed her body. With every gulp she took down, he felt weaker and weaker, yet happier.

The coldness of death grew within him as seconds passed. The dying man thought about the life he was leaving behind and the new world he was coming to. No more pressures at work, no more worrying about making ends meet and no more worrying about the lack of a girl. Soon the growing weakness overcame him, causing all his muscles to relax. But the vampire's strengthening body held onto him tightly to prevent him from falling to the ground.

She drank and drank until her now full stomach could take no more. Finally contented, she carefully placed the limp body down with his back lying on the soil.

Robert's ghastly pale face looked straight at her, noticing the saliva and blood mixture which had oozed from her mouth and was hanging from her chin like a ruby pendant. The spittle jewel soon lost its hold and dropped to the ground as she moved her lips, and the magical voice was unleashed once again.

"You wanted to join me, did you not?"

Robert's dry throat was refusing him access to speak. His weak body struggled and manage a mere nodding of his head.

The vampire replied with a brief giggle. Then a few more small bursts of her childlike giggles, each punctuated with brief breathing moments of silence.

Soon the giggles turned to an eruption of loud continuous laughter surrounding the area. It sounded as if all the spirits of the forest were laughing at him as the voice came from all directions.

Confused and now frightened, the numbing man tried to lift an arm to wave for her attention but he lacked the strength to move it. He watched helplessly as the trees resumed their frenzied devilish dancing. The girl's laughter was now accompanied with high pitched whistling from the wind, as if the trees too joined in with the amusement.

The fear of the threatening forest rushed back into Robert's mind, the fear he felt before he met that woman. Only this time he was out from the protective metal cocoon of his car and exposed to the forest at night. And he did not have the strength to crawl back inside. He could do nothing but stare at this laughing demon and at the the rustling branches around him.

But could not understand. The vampire had bitten him and drank his blood, yet he was now dying and she mocked the thought of him returning as a vampire. Didn't that contradict with the well known fact about vampires biting their victims? Why was she mocking the idea?

Robert then noticed a rumbling noise amongst the wind. Unable to turn his head, he moved his eyes to one side to peer at the cause.

To his horror he saw about half a dozen dark tentacles wrapping around his car. And those tentacles were very large. They protruded out from the soil by the road and reached the car. The rumbling continued as the metal framework was crushed into a pulp under the effortless strength of those monstrous arms. The windows shattered and the crystals fell onto the road. Robert watched as his car was pulled off the road and dragged into the soil. Then it was gone.

The wind continued its high pitched hissing and whistling as the trees continued to shake with laughter.

Robert felt the disturbance in the ground he was lying upon, followed by a tentacle rising from the soil next to him. It wrapped around his neck and he felt that the snake-like arm was wooden. The laughter of the wind grew louder and louder, the trees shook even more violently and more roots rose from the ground to coil around the paralysed man. The tentacles were now wrapped tightly around his torso and limbs.

Still laughing, the vampire knelt next to the immobilised man and placed one hand onto his belly. Robert saw that her fingers had each mysteriously extended to at least a foot long; they were not that long before. He then felt the sharp end of her forefinger pierce deeply into his abdomen. Unable to scream, he watched helplessly as she ripped down the skin of his belly, the finger making its way like a blunt knife cutting through cloth. The rip opened up to expose the glistening jelly-like mass within him.

The sight of Robert's entrails aroused the vampire instantly to scream with excitment. Her screaming then reduced to hoarse groans which accompanied every breath, as she dug both of her spider-like claws deep into the opening. She gripped onto something inside there and her impatient groaning changed to a long monotonous scream of satisfaction as she pulled Roberts entrails out. Robert was shocked to see the pink loops of his own intestine tangling in her blood-soaked fingers. Taking loud course breaths, she pulled the slimy rope-like organ out from his belly, joyfully wrapping some loops around her neck. At the same time, her hands playfully rubbed around her breasts, painting herself bright red with Robert's blood. Robert could see the long pink channel trailing out from his belly, leading around the frenzied girl and back into his opening. The vampire soon put one hand back into the cavernous cavity of Robert's abdomen and grasped at the still attached lower end of the intestine. She jerked hard at the colon and Robert's body gave a sharp twitch at the sudden tug. She held onto the broken end of the colon as she took out her hand, allowing excrement to spray out of it and onto her.

Under the numbness of his body, Robert could not feel any pain. Nor could he smell the foulness of his own excrement but the consciousness of it caused him to vomit. He could see his own exposed stomach bag contract spasmodically, causing liquefied food to erupt from his mouth. The vampire squeezed at the severed intestinal hose and brought more excrement to expel itself upon her. In perverse pleasure she pulled some more entrails out from Robert's open torso, squashing them into manageable mush with her claws before throwing them into the scavenging forest with those long arms - her arms too had mysteriously elongated which continued to attack the open abdomen like hungry serpents.

Satisfied, her body now grotesquely patched in Robert's blood, excrement and entrails, she stood up beside her dying prey. Her body had somehow thinned but as she gained her full straightness, Robert saw that she had stretched herself. Stretched herself to reach the full height of the trees around her. Her skin, no longer capturing the light of the moon, was now coloured by the blackness of the night. He could no longer see her face in that height and darkness. He wanted to call out to her but she was ignoring his thoughts and totally ignoring his presence. Her extended legs had fused together as one thick motionless organ and her feet had buried themselves firmly into the ground. Her extended arms and now equally lengthened fingers were stretched over the road, reaching for her identical sisters on the other side. Robert could see her hair swaying towards the sky above him. And her hair too was blackened, with the graceful continuous sheet-like texture of it changed to a hideous gorgon arrangement as the thickened strands streaked their separate ways.

The wind's pitch now lowered back to its angry growling as the grips of the wooden tentacles tightened around his cold body. Robert felt his ribs suddenly crush like match-sticks as the trees desperately struggled against each other to gain possession of the food. His lungs became shredded against the sharp splinters of bone and his small remaining amount of life carrying blood spluttered from his mouth.

Under the unconsciousness of death, Robert did not feel the pain as his body was torn apart by the hungry, fighting roots. His mutilated corpse was no good to return as a vampire. The roots from the nearby trees dragged their prized meat under the soil where nobody would find it. Where it would only decompose in the soil to nourish the trees.

The wind soon stopped in satisfaction.

There was no sign of the dead man. The trees had concealed every evidence.

Only the shattered glass on the road marked the spot where Robert broke his journey for his worthless death. The glass cluster lay there, only for some other passing vehicle to grind over it.

THE END