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The two glowing red orbs should’ve alerted something in her big brain that told her she was in danger. She assumed it was some sort of hallucination. A sleep induced apparition of a shifting dark blob on her balcony. Chances are she was already dreaming. It was gone when she turned her lamp off, anyway.
That was the first time she had seen it. It being… whatever it was. That had been… four…? No, five weeks ago. Princess Bonnibel Bubblegum flicked all the way back to the beginning of her notes on the night time nuisance that had been showing up twice a week to peer through her balcony doors. All she knew about this visitor was that there were no discernible features. Just two glowing eyes. Red.
This week had been different, though. Bonnibel had felt something akin to being let down when she noticed it had been six days since it had last appeared outside. She knew she was supposed to feel relieved, thankful that whatever it was had deemed her too boring and left.
It was hard not to be too crestfallen. Her notes on the creature had been adding up; it would appear as she was getting ready for bed, whether it was eight pm on the dot or late into the night after an experiment. It would disappear if Bonnibel looked away for a second, and wouldn’t come back more than three nights a week.
It just sat there and… watched. Almost creepily. Almost because Bonnibel kind of felt reassured by its presence. Kind of because this thing brought too many unknown variables to the table.
By the eighth week the creature had showed up maybe twice more. Both times Bonnibel had been on the brink of sleep and had only caught the two red blobs seconds before she fell asleep so there was no knowing what time it was or if she’d even actually seen it. She still jotted these sightings down, though, just in case.
By the middle of the third month Bonnibel was beginning to doubt if the creature would show up again. It had already been a long night for her in the lab and she wasn’t particularly bothered if it did decide to show up once more. Honestly, she was too tired to really care even if it maimed her, or ate her.
Going to sleep that night was definitely hard. Especially when she saw movement outside on her balcony. No red eyes though… sleep took old of her before she realised that there was a possible intruder only a few feet away from her.
Thwang. Her clock read 3:34AM when she woke up again, only a few hours later than when she had fallen asleep. That was stupidly late. Or stupidly early. Time wasn’t real. Bonnibel was trying to figure out why she had awoken.
She had no desire to get up. Not to pee, not to get a glass of water, not even to open her balcony doors because she was too hot. Thwang. Hang on a minute… Bonnibel listened into the darkness which all of a sudden was deafening. Until, there it was again. Thwang. The noise was soft, deep, drawn out for two seconds until it disappeared back into the silence. Thwa-Thwang. Bonnibel frowned; that one had cut off another. She slipped off the side of her bed and padded over to where the noise seemed to be coming from. The glass was cold as she pushed her ear to her balcony door.
Thwa-Thwang. Louder now that Bonnibel had figured out it was coming from the balcony, the softer notes were coming in to play too. Notes that had previously been too quiet to hear. Thwang. There was something else there too… too far away and gentle for Bonnibel to really hear from behind the door. Thwang. Bonnibel pushed the doors open.
Silence. Silence and an empty balcony. Except, something had caught Bonnibel’s attention out of the corner of her eye, just in the red zone of her peripherals. Something darker than the rest of the shadowed floor. No red eyes.
The princess flicked her gaze upward and blinked. There was a darkened figure hovering only a few feet off the ground, something akin to a grin sitting underneath red but not glowing eyes. Bonnibel’s eyes adjusted to the light fully.
“Yo,” The figure greeted, giving the princess a kind of wave with two fingers. Then her hand dropped down to the axe on her lap. Only, it wasn’t an axe. Kind of like this figure wasn’t a blob of nothing. It had strings, and she had a fanged smile. “Sorry if I woke you.”
Bonnibel spluttered for a question. Any question. Something like what are you doing outside my bedroom? Or could you please leave before I tell my banana guards there’s an intruder. “Are you cold?” Anything but that.
It was the figures turn to blink, head lolling to one side and spilling her mass of black hair over a shoulder. “No? Why, are you?” Bonnibel didn’t answer, she just kind of stood there instead and wondered why she hadn’t asked something important. Asked her how she was floating. Ask her what that thing on her lap was. “It’s a bass guitar.” And she gestured down to it with her hands.
“You can read my mind?” Bonnibel spluttered again, suddenly trying not to think about the woman at all.
“What? No, you were staring at it as if it were about to bite my head off, weirdo.” The figure replied, red eyes rolling in their sockets.
“I’m not a weirdo,” Bonnibel huffed indignantly, folding her arms over her chest. “You’re the one that’s been staring at me outside my window at night.”
The woman narrowed her eyes. “You noticed me, huh? And you didn’t think to call one of your precious guards to come and take me away? I was right. You are a weirdo, princess.”
“Why would I call my guards?” She hissed, only to blush when she realised she had been to quick to anger.
The woman arched a shoulder, dropped low in the air to come back up into Bonnibel’s personal space until they were eye to eye. “Maybe it’s not my bass you should be worrying about,” And she flashed another grin. Yes, they were definitely fangs. Bonnibel leaned in to get a closer look at them. The woman leapt about ten foot in the air with a hiss. “What are you doing? You should be running away in fear, idiot.”
Bonnibel pointed a glare at her. “I’m not an idiot, I’m a scientist. Why are your teeth so sharp?”
“I’m a vampire. I’ve seen you do your nerdy science experiments. Doesn’t mean your not an idiot, though.”
“The definition of idiot is someone with a low intelligence. A nerd is quite the opposite. You’ve contradicted yourself,” And then, “Vampire?”
The woman seemed to droop in defeat, fangs disappearing in a sudden way that made Bonnibel’s brain hungry to know more about her. “Well, here I was thinking I was scary. I’m losing my touch.” She muttered mostly to herself. Then her eyes were back on Bonnibel and they weren’t red. Just a dark green. How fascinating. “Yeah, I’m a vampire. And you’re a weirdo.” She levelled a finger at Bonnibel’s chest as she sank back to just hovering above the ground. “Are you going to capture me and do some crazy experiments on me or something?”
Bonnibel’s eye lit up. “Actually I would rather like to know about-,”
“Hey, woah, I was joking dude. Please don’t dissect me, I’d miss music too much.” And she pouted down at her bass. Bonnibel didn’t know vampires could pout; too much tooth.
“Music?” Bonnibel asked around a yawn, the fact that it was far too early in the morning was catching up with her. The sliver of golden on the horizon told Bonnibel she’d been outside for longer than she realised. “Wassat?”
The woman blinked. “You don’t know what music is?”
Bonnibel shook her head slowly. “I’ve read about it. Humans used it as a source of entertainment. Is that what you use your bass for?”
She watched as the woman nodded and peered over her shoulder at the now rising sun. There was carefully masked worry in the creases of her eyes when she turned back to Bonnibel. “Tell you what. I’ll come back tomorrow night and show you what you’re missing out on, and maybe,” She licked her lips, shooting another hurried glance at the sun and then back at Bonnibel. “Maybe I’ll let you do a crazy experiment on me, yeah? Just to soothe that sciencey brain of yours.” Bonnibel didn’t get time to reply, just yawned and watched the woman fly the opposite way, racing the sunlight peeking over the horizon.
It would be another two weeks before the vampire would return again, apology quick on her forked tongue and her bass in tow. Bonnibel just got used to it.