Wednesday. I hate vampires. I think I hate vampires more than anything else. Except pixies. Soho was full of them today with their usual competition over who can be the most pale and interesting. It’s beyond me why being pale when you’re dead is remotely interesting. I’m dead and I’m pale – so what? I remember when they were nothing more than run-of-the-mill forest demons; a small group used to occupy a garret across the old London Bridge. But then someone invents the cape and suddenly they’re aristocracy and now, to cap it all, they claim to represent youth culture. Youth culture, my arse.
It’s depressing; Soho used to be a half-decent place where you could hang out with dead poets. I persuaded a couple of others at the museum to help me carry over a sack of crucifixes from the Mediaeval Gallery and went around placing them in shop windows while the blood-suckers were asleep. It won’t last of course but I hovered over a rooftop and it was good to see them lose their cool for a while, running around like ants. But then I noticed the fires in the distance and realised how far the fighting had spread.
Comments
Silver Spun Sand | November 29, 2011 - 12:29
I admire the punchy tone of the narrator, Rob, that you sustain throughout.
Another corker this week;-)
Tina
oldpesky | November 29, 2011 - 14:27
I had three chapters to catch up on which, let's face it, is only 600 words, so now I'm disappointed that I've caught up so quickly. I think I like this one the best so far, probably because I have a similar hatred for all things vampire these days. Vampires should be scary, like when Christopher Lee played Dracula. Now they're all bloody heart-throbs. No pun intended.
Send me up some of those crucifixes and I'll strategically place them around Ibrox. Shhh!
Leander42 | November 29, 2011 - 15:03
Have to say, I'm a great fan of producing in short amounts. It lifts the quality and keeps the tension without exhausting the reader.
Definite like from me.
MistakenMagic | November 29, 2011 - 17:51
"Soho was full of them today with their usual competition over who can be the most pale and interesting."
and
"But then someone invents the cape and suddenly they’re aristocracy"
Love it! Another brilliant instalment, Rob. My lot went to see 'Breaking Dawn' yesterday - what a load of trash, I'll make them read this! Unfortunately I too went through an emo phase in my early teens when I was trying to be pale and interesting - thank God that's over ;-) Much enjoyed.
Magic xxx
rjnewlyn | November 29, 2011 - 23:59
Thanks very much Blighters, Tina, OP, Leander and Magic. And thanks for the cherry.
Actually I quite liked the old goth thing although never bought into it entirely. Lived in Leeds for a while and you couldn't move for them there at one point. Less bothered about emo but then it's someone else's generation. And I haven't seen/read any Twilight. So just an old ghost's rant.
Rob
Highhat | November 30, 2011 - 09:15
As I have commented before on these pieces, I think it is amazing and so talented that you can pack so much with such poignant importance into only 200 words. I do take my hat off to you ( I may change my profile picture to a highhat so I can do it more often..!! ). Fantastic.
;)Pia
fatboy74 | December 3, 2011 - 22:19
I know what op means, I've enjoyed catching up before and found it happens too quickly. This is getting better and better every post Rob, well done. I think the closest I ever got to pale was ill - now i'm positively ruddy. :-)
rjnewlyn | December 4, 2011 - 23:04
Thanks very much indeed Pia and Fatboy. I'm sorry it happens so quickly - I think it would take me less time if I wrote longer pieces but this is the way things seem to have worked out. I guess they're sketches and that's all they can ever be (but I like sketches and there are enough good ones around to be something to aspire to).
Rob
Beeme | December 7, 2011 - 21:20
I likes this section alot, there's a group of guys at my college who look shockingly pale and hang about in a group outside one of the buildings, they barely speak, except from to eachother. I have my suspicions.
Beeme x
rjnewlyn | December 8, 2011 - 02:23
They're around us all, Beeme! But probably not worth bothering about.
Rob
Sooz006 | May 8, 2012 - 17:38
who can be the most pale and interesting. It’s beyond me why being pale when you’re dead is remotely interesting. I’m dead and I’m pale – so what?... Loved this.
And the fact that they came into vogue when somebody invented the cape.
I need to write some poetry before I die so that I can be a really cool dead poet that people want to talk to in cafe's, will I still be able to drink coffee, Rob? You are my official oracle of all people dead and their abilities. If you can carry crosses, then it stands to reason that I can drink coffee.
Are the ghosts bothered by rats?
rjnewlyn | May 12, 2012 - 13:15
These are all very pertinent questions. I'm sure they'll let you drink coffee - most of the crowd in these stories are on much harder stuff. Not sure about the rats ...
Rob