The Transylvania Express rocked and rattled through the Romanian darkness. Despite the name, it was a slow train running on Soviet-era rails. Anastasia, a twenty-five-year-old hospice nurse, was returning to her compartment at midnight when she bumped into her great-great-grandfather. She saw the blood on Constantin’s strong chin before she smelled it on his breath.
She gasped, pulled out a handkerchief, and wiped off the blood. “What happened?”
His youthful face was pale, but his eyes were radiant. “Was Lizzy’s time.”
“Who the devil is Lizzy?”
Constantin looked puzzled. “Hospice patient.”
“I only brought one terminal patient for you on the train,” hissed Anastasia. “She’s at peace that this is her final trip, but she isn’t named Lizzy!”
“But… she wear ID bracelet.”
Anastasia felt the color drain from her face. “Where is she now?”
Constantin turned and led Anastasia along the corridor as the train swayed. They passed through two more cars before he slid open a compartment door.
Anastasia fumbled for the light switch and turned it on. A topless woman with blonde hair in disarray lay on the bottom bunk. She appeared to be about fifty, and blood was smeared on her chest. Anastasia pushed her great-great-grandfather into the compartment and slid the door shut behind them. Her heart was pounding.
“See?” He pointed. “ID bracelet.”
Anastasia leaned closer to examine the woman’s wrist. “This isn’t one of my bracelets! It says, ‘Castles of Transylvania Tour.’ It’s not even the right color. The ones I give to patients are fuchsia, and hers is chartreuse.”
Constantin looked puzzled. “Same color.”
“Oh, God. No one in the family told me you’re color blind.”
Lizzy was still warm but had no pulse. There was only one suitcase in the compartment. No wedding band on Lizzy’s left hand, so at least a spouse wouldn’t barge in.
“How did you get in her compartment?” asked Anastasia.
“She invite me in.”
Never invite a vampire in. “Tell me what happened.”
“I hear music in Club Car,” said Constantin. “Lots people with ID bracelet. Everybody drink. Woman see me, she come talk. She like my old country accent. She take picture us.” He pantomimed.
“A selfie.” Anastasia breathed shallowly, knowing what was coming.
“She say, why you not in picture, young man? Photo hack? Then she want me come her room, show her how. So I come, she invite in.”
Anastasia despaired. “How could Lizzy be such an idiot?”
“She drink lots.” Constantin pointed to empty bottles on the floor below the train window. “She take off shirt. I see crucifix! But she take off necklace. Take off…” He cupped his hands in front of his chest.
“Her bra.”
He nodded. “She put arms around my neck. Kiss neck. Then little bites, not break skin.”
Anastasia nodded. “She’s like me. No fangs.”
“I think she mean she want bite, so…”
Anastasia shuddered. “You bit her and drained her blood.”
Constantin nodded. “Loud woman. Not peaceful like most patients. Struggle.”
“My patients want to die!”
“She wear ID bracelet,” he said defensively.
“Shit. Shit. Shit,” muttered Anastasia. “Even if we get rid of the body, her tour leader will freak if she doesn’t show up when they exit the train. The Romanian police will be all over this. When they investigate, they’ll notice that all my patients succumbed to acute anemia.”
“You want I go back in coffin, great-great-granddaughter?”
“That won’t help. They’ll find your coffin in the baggage compartment and stake you. The investigation will spread to the entire family. Then to social media with torch and pitchfork emojis.”
Constantin gave a contented sigh. “I remember. Thrill of hunt.”
Anastasia looked down at Lizzy’s body. “Can we turn her?”
“What?”
“Turn her into a vampire. Then she’ll still be around when her tour finishes. No dead body.”
Constantin looked thoughtful. “She have to feed.”
“From a vampire, not from my terminal patient.”
Constantin frowned. “This Lizzy, she insufferable drunk.”
“Alcohol metabolizes. She won’t be drunk forever.”
“Insufferable forever,” grumbled Constantin.
“You won’t have to share your coffin. We’ll wait till sunset to turn her.”
“Better she stay dead,” Constantin persisted.
“Work with me here. This isn’t just about you. It’s for the family.”
Anastasia led her great-great-grandfather back to her compartment, put a needle in his arm, and collected a pint of his blood in a donor bag. By the time the sun rose, he was back in his coffin in the baggage compartment.
***
Constantin woke when the sun set, and they went to Lizzy’s compartment. Her body was cold like Constantin’s. Anastasia dressed Lizzy, dumped her crucifix in the trash, and forced vampire blood from the bag down her throat through an IV tube.
When Lizzy returned to undead life, she was initially confused. But unlike Anastasia’s terminal patients, she was thrilled with the idea of living forever.
She pumped her fist. “Sleep all day, party all night!”
“Look, Lizzy,” said Anastasia. “We saved your life, but this isn’t like Twilight. The only way to survive as a vampire is to keep a low profile. Stay close, and we’ll teach you. Eventually, you can get a night job, like warehouse stocking. And make a friend at a blood bank.”
Lizzy gave her an incredulous look. “This is the vampire capital of the world. Tourists come from all over the world!”
“For the myth,” said Anastasia. “Not to meet vampires like you.”
“You’ve never been a tourist,” scoffed Lizzy. “I’ve seen this from the other side. The movies, the cosplay, the autograph parties.”
“That’s Hollywood,” said Anastasia. “It’s not real.”
Lizzy’s smartwatch chimed, and she looked at it. “Bar’s open in the Club Car!” She grabbed a scarf, wrapped it around her neck, and left the compartment.
“I give her a week,” said Anastasia, “before either somebody stakes her or they commit her to an asylum.”
Constantin nodded.
George S. Walker is an engineer and writer in Portland, Oregon. His stories have appeared in Every Day Fiction, On Spec, Abyss & Apex, Amazing Stories, Andromeda Spaceways, The Colored Lens, Electric Spec, Swords and Sorcery, and elsewhere. Anthologies containing his work include Mothership: Tales from Afrofuturism & Beyond, and The Third Science Fiction Megapack.
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