What It's Like Being a Vampire

Three young people in the car quickly recognized the “thing” that had landed on their hood – it was a rather large, beautifully colored canary.

Moreover, the canary was tilting its head, looking at them through the windshield.

“Damn it, stupid bird, scram!” The young man in the driver’s seat rolled down the window, slapped his hand on the car door a few times, trying to scare off the canary on the hood by making noise.

But the canary was not affected at all, it continued to tilt its head and watch them.

A young man in the back seat got out of the car and shouted at the girl not far in front of the car: “You come here! Do you know you smashed our car window? What are you standing there for, come here!”

The young man still seated in the back, holding an unconscious girl with disheveled clothes, frowned and said, “I think something is strange about that girl, and that bird too. Let’s just get out of here, drive a distance away and then discuss…”

“Damn it, you know how much it costs to replace a windshield?” When the young man in the driver’s seat was sure his companions could see the girl, and knew he hadn’t “seen a ghost”, he grumbled, took a half-bottle of mineral water from the car, and threw it at the canary on the hood. However, the canary flew up easily before he threw the bottle, dodged it, landed back down, and looked at him disdainfully.

The young man in the back seat cursed, “Are you stupid? Have you forgotten what’s going on in our car? Hurry up and go, I’ll pay for the windshield replacement!”

“That girl looks pretty, and she seems to be alone, maybe we should…”

The young man in the driver’s seat was halfway through when he suddenly heard his companion outside the car exclaim “Holy shit”, and then shout, “What are those things, did you guys see them?”

“What what things?” The young man in the driver’s seat looked back inexplicably at his terrified companion under the car, followed his gaze to the solitary girl standing in the headlight beam in front of him, and was taken aback.

Despite being five or six meters away, the girl in front of the car, her eyes, seemed like a sky brewing a storm, sucking his consciousness into it.

When he struggled to shift his gaze away, he was startled to find that the surroundings had suddenly changed. Originally, they were by an artificial lake and next to a small grove, but now these scenes were all gone, and thick fog was emerging everywhere.

Even the girl in front, who looked beautiful, but increasingly eerie the longer he watched, was quickly enveloped and entwined in the fog.

Just as the companion under the car sat back in the car and pulled the door shut, a huge figure rushed out of the dense fog in front, bypassed the solitary girl, and pounced on their car.

The figure was at least four meters high, with several thick arms like a spider, and their head was covered with eyes. The figure opened their mouth and roared silently at them. The mouth was almost up against the windshield, and the inside of the mouth was pitch black, as if it led directly to the abyss, never-ending, giving a chill at first glance.

“Damn it!! Shit!! Drive now! Drive!!”

“Oh my God!! Mommy!!

The two people in the back seat let out a shrill scream, obviously they had also seen this horrifying scene, seen that monster.

The young man in the driver’s seat trembled as he reached for the start button, but just as his hand was about to press the button, an image of him and the car being crushed into a pulp by the monster popped up in his mind. His hand shook, and he did not dare to press it.

When he looked up, he noticed that there were already cracks in the windshield. It seemed like the monster was about to charge in and swallow his head.

In his terror and fear, he dared not drive anymore, but instantly flung open the car door and ran backward.

But before he could get very far, he tripped over something and fell to the ground. The surrounding area was filled with fog, he could not see the road, could not see anything else, and he found his heart beating heavily with increasing difficulty in breathing.

A police car drove into the unlit path by the artificial lake.

“This is **035 squad car, we have arrived at the reported site, currently no sightings… wait, there’s something.” The officer in the passenger seat put down his radio, and he and his driving colleague looked towards two conspicuous car lights not far from the artificial lake, and faintly heard screams coming from there.

Both officers were somewhat nervous and quickly drove to the small car with the headlights on. They gave a status update to the command center and then got out of the car with caution.

Then they saw a girl standing in front of the car, her body trembling slightly. They also saw a young man screaming and babbling nonsense not far from the car, and another person was squatting by the lake with his head in his hands, seemingly doing something.

An officer went to check the car. As soon as he saw the unconscious girl in disheveled clothes in the back seat, he knew that the call the command center had received was about this car. What surprised him, however, was that in addition to the girl in the back seat, there was also a young man shivering with his legs pulled up onto the seat, seemingly frightened by something.

The other officer went to check on the girl in front of the car. According to the information passed on to them from the command center, this girl was probably the one who had called the police.

But when he walked to the front of the car, he was blinded by the bright headlights and shouted to his colleague who was checking the car, “Xiao Wang, turn off those headlights first!”

Then he realized something, he turned back to look at the girl beside him who was still slightly trembling. He looked into her wide eyes, waved his hand gently in front of her face, and whispered, “Little sister, we are the police, did you call the police?”

“Yes, I called the police…” The young girl’s voice was somewhat trembling as if she had been seriously frightened.

The officer had a high school-aged sister at home, so when he saw Xiao Pingguo like that, he felt a bit heartbroken and comforted her quietly.

Soon, more police cars and ambulances arrived. The three young men were handcuffed and put into police cars. The unconscious girl was taken to an ambulance.

Xiao Pingguo also sat in the back seat of a police car. Of course, she was treated much better, with a policewoman sitting with her in the back seat and a female doctor who had come with the ambulance came over to examine her.

The woman, who looked to be in her thirties, gently asked Xiao Pingguo about her earlier situation.

“I was taking a walk and came around here, then I heard… the commotion from that car over there, so I quickly dialed 911. But I knew they were doing something bad, so… so I wanted to stop them. I picked up a stone and threw it at them, I don’t know if I hit them or not… and then, you guys arrived…” Xiao Pingguo said softly.

“You live quite far from here, did you walk here alone?” The policewoman was slightly surprised. Xiao Pingguo had already told her name, guardian’s identity, address, and other information, so she knew where Xiao Pingguo’s home was.

“I brought my ‘Guide Bird’.” Xiao Pingguo said, unzipping her down jacket to reveal the Canary nestled in her arms to the policewoman.

“Guide Bird? What…what happened to it?”

“It’s too tired. It’s asleep.” Xiao Pingguo explained.

The policewoman nodded, gently stroking her head, and said, “You did well. Your uncle has already called me. He’s on his way here. Don’t worry, don’t be afraid. The bad guys have been apprehended by us. The young lady is unharmed because you called the police in time. She wasn’t hurt.”

Seeing the still shaky and barely trembling girl, who was clearly still anxious and afraid, the policewoman tried her best to reassure her in a soft voice.

But what neither she nor the first responding officer knew was that Xiao Pingguo’s uncontrollable physical reactions were due to excitement, not fear.

In the beginning, when she decided to intervene and prevent the three men in the car from continuing their abuse of the unconscious girl, Xiao Pingguo was indeed a bit nervous, a bit scared.

But when she suddenly found a new way, to “summon” the Eight-armed, Eight-eyed monster, and through her special connection with the “Golden Flash”, release the monster, she discovered that she could clearly sense the fear of the three men affected by her – or more accurately, by the Eight-armed, Eight-eyed monster.

This sensation was not empathy with their fear, but rather in her cognition, their fear turned into clusters of information that she could “see” and “uncover”.

She could not only clearly discern their states and positions but also sense more about them.

Beyond sound, smell, and touch, she now had a new way of perceiving.

In the “Sea of Fear” created by the Eight-armed, Eight-eyed monster and the “Golden Flash”, she could “see”!

Moreover, the three bad guys bullying the girl had no power to resist the “Eight-armed, Eight-eyed monster” that she had “summoned”.

From birth till now, she had never had such control over herself, others, and her surroundings as she had tonight.

This excited her, so much so that her whole body was shaking.

Also, from the questions she was asked by the police, all that she had sensed before had really happened. It wasn’t just a hallucination.

“Uncle Xiang, do I have superpowers now?” she silently recited in her heart. What she wanted to do most now was tell Xiang Kun about this, both to share her joy and to ask for guidance.

She had already been able to communicate with the “Eight-armed, Eight-eyed monster” on a mental level before and even “summon” it, letting it descend. But she’d never actually used it. Once when her relatives’ children were annoying her at home, she almost used it, but finally put on the “brakes” and controlled it.

But tonight, the impact and feeling when she summoned the “Eight-armed, Eight-eyed monster” to descend were clearly different from before.

Although she was excited about her new perception and control, she was also worried. She was afraid that the “Eight-armed, Eight-eyed monster” deliberately let her taste the sweetness, and then step by step influenced her mind, turning her into its puppet.

She needed Uncle Xiang’s help.

She believed that Uncle Xiang must have a win-win solution.

Soon enough, Li Sheng drove over, exchanged greetings with the police officers on the scene and the policewoman, explained a few things, then took Xiao Pingguo and personally drove her home.

During the drive, Li Sheng didn’t speak. Xiao Pingguo, sitting in the passenger seat, was also silent, her head bowed and clutching the Golden Flash nestled in her down jacket.

The crime scene wasn’t far from Xiao Pingguo’s home, so the SUV came into the community quickly and parked.

After turning off the engine, Li Sheng sighed, about to say something, but Xiao Pingguo was the first to speak, “I was wrong, Uncle Li.”

The soft, sincere, slightly pleading and aggrieved tone of his niece instantly melted Li Sheng’s heart. He sighed again, got out of the car, opened the passenger door, helped his niece out of the car, and then helpless said, “You can’t go out alone next time, even if you have a ‘Guide Bird’. And didn’t I tell you to stay put? Why did you have to show off and throw rocks? What if…how should we handle this? Tell me, how should your father and I handle this?”

“I was wrong…I won’t do it next time.” Xiao Pingguo quietly replied, then couldn’t resist adding, “Uncle Li, ‘Golden Flash’ isn’t a ‘Navigator Bird’. It’s a ‘Guide Bird’.”

“Even if it’s a missile bird, it doesn’t work!” Li Sheng glared at her.

But he couldn’t help but smile immediately after, rubbing his niece’s head helplessly and walking her towards her father’s house. He knew he didn’t need to say much. His niece was smart and sensible. For tonight’s matter, saying it once was enough.

When they got to the door, Xiao Pingguo whispered again, “Uncle Li, my dad is probably still asleep. Let’s not wake him up. He doesn’t need to know about this, right?”

“We’ll not tell him tonight, but I still have to tell him tomorrow. Otherwise, when he finds out from others, I’ll be in trouble…” Li Sheng said helplessly.

Xiao Pingguo nodded in understanding.

After sending his niece home, Li Sheng went to the police station.

He’d already heard from his colleagues at the station who had responded to the call that when they arrived, the situation was somewhat strange.

Although the situation with the three suspects was strange, the police hadn’t asked Xiao Pingguo much about what had happened before, as she was blind and couldn’t see anything. She also said she didn’t clearly understand what had happened. Moreover, they had already found the dashcam in the suspects’ car and confirmed that it had been working all along. Whatever had happened before could just be checked with the dashcam.

When he got to the police station, Li Sheng spoke to the first officer who responded to the scene.

“The three suspects have almost recovered, although they’re still a bit listless, they’re able to give their testimonies. They’re confessing their crimes unreservedly. Of course, they have no choice but to confess, as the girl’s condition, the evidence in the car, and the information on the dashcam are all ironclad evidence.” said the officer named Han, shaking his head, “As for why they were like that when we arrived, it’s probably because they took some illegal drugs. Blood tests have been conducted, and we’ll know the results soon.”