Quite a few years back I was studying abroad in Paris with my good friend Miles. We had decided to partake in having other cultural experiences and thought Paris would be a great place to start. We both needed to get away from our social scene, me being fresh out of a relationship needed a change in scenery and Miles was just looking for a new place to party and meet girls. I was never much of party goer but did have the occasional beer but Miles loved going out and meeting new people. I wasn't particularly good at socializing in unfamiliar environments, I was a bit socially awkward and even worse at talking to girls. So every time Miles insisted I go out with him to some party I was instinctively hesitant. Being around large groups of people I didn't know wasn't my idea of guaranteed fun.
I was fresh out of a relationship and still sulking in self loathing. I must had reached my lowest point in self pity and desperation because when Miles came to me yet again with an invitation to some party from two girls he met on the street I said yes. He was a natural at socializing with the opposite sex and seemed to always know what to say to a girl. I guess Miles felt it was somehow under his umbrella of responsibilities to try and get me laid or at least out and drunk enough to talk to girls.
We had no car, didn't know anyone specific at the party save for the two girls Miles had met on the street and just a general area of where the party was but none of this stopped or even dimmed his spirits. I on the other hand had that hint of regret by the second bus ride creeping out from the back of my mind. When I broke up with my girlfriend I didn't have many friends but Miles had always been there for me and having him then pushing me to get out was something I really appreciated even if I was being a stick in the mud.
After being half lost for almost an hour, Miles told me about how beautiful these two girls he had met earlier were and just seeing them at this party would be worth going. My thought process wasn't like Miles, I didn't really think I would have any kind of shot with women as beautiful as Miles had described but I didn't stop myself from thinking that maybe there was perhaps a girl there that would like to talk with me. I kept my hopes up.
Finally, we found the party when we saw people mingling outside with drinks in their hands outside the front door. We figured that must be the place. We kindly walked passed them towards the door. I barely made eye contact with any of them but Miles said hi to all of them like he had known them for years. We knocked on the door and one of the girls Miles had met earlier answered and she was even more beautiful than Miles had described. She was maybe 26 or 27 with smooth pale skin and not a single blemish. She was wearing crimson red lipstick and had a perfect smile with perfect white teeth. She had short black hair and her eyes were a light tan brown. Her body was lean but curvy and toned, she was wearing a skin tight black dress that rode high on her legs. She was beautiful and sexy and way out of my league. Upon seeing her, the regret I had earlier for coming melted away.
She invited us in with that perfect smile and showed us to the kitchen where they had beer, vodka, rum, gin, and everything in between. Her and Miles were already flirting with each other and seemed to already have a connection. I couldn't believe it, we hadn't been here five minutes and Miles already had her attention. I was always slightly jealous that he could do that so easily. I grabbed a beer and poured it into a red cup.
I don't remember the name of the woman but she made us feel very welcomed even though we didn't know a single person there. She introduced us to a few people and finally introduced me to her other friend Claudia whom Miles had already met earlier that day on the street. Miles and the other woman left me and Claudia and disappeared upstairs. It was so easy for him I thought and now I was here with this other beautiful girl with the social skills of an awkward penguin. Claudia was equally as beautiful as her friend but had long brown hair up in a ponytail with her bangs hanging over the side of her face. Her eyes were the same light tan brown and she also had the smoothest pale skin I had ever seen. She wasn't wearing any lipstick but had a lip gloss on that made her lips glisten in the low light of the party.
At first we both just stood there being polite with one another and with every passing second of awkward silence I could feel the disinterest in her eyes growing. I took a gulp of beer and gave it my best shot at small talk. "So, is this your friend's place?" I couldn't think of anything interesting thing to say. She replied, "yes, this is her place." With every uninteresting thing I said I took a gulp of beer hoping this liquid courage of mine would somehow miraculously make me more interesting or at least drunk enough not to care. Either way I could feel the lameness of my words as they left my mouth and with every gulp I tried to swallow my embarrassment. In that moment I wish I were more like Miles. I felt like a total loser.
I finally gave up on trying to find something she liked to talk about and just started talking about something I liked and I began with horror movies. I gave myself a phantom slap to the forehead as if I was watching myself from a distance. I began talking about how much I loved all the old 80s cheesy B and C horror movies. I told her my favorite horror icon was Freddy Krueger for his personality and loved how Michael Myers was the purest form of evil for its simplistic portrayal. I began geeking out on her but I didn't really care anymore because I figured I would probably never see her again anyway. She did indulge me for a bit and gave me some of her favorite movies. Then somewhere we got on the subject of Vampires and she turned a bit serious. I asked her one important question on the subject, if she liked Twilight and she replied no and right then knew she was special. She looked at me in a peculiar way and said, "vampires are not portrayed accurately on film." I found that to be interesting because I felt the same way but the way she said it felt more than just her opinion. I attempted to make a joke and asked her how many vampires she knew. Her face turned from a peculiar gaze to a dead serious stare. She stared at me with frozen eyes for a moment and I thought, oh great I had blown it, I made fun of her opinion.
I was about to say something else when I heard a blood curling screaming from upstairs. I turned around and saw Miles running down the stairs holding his neck. I rushed over to him and asked him what happened but he just grabbed me and pulled me to the front door. I looked back for Claudia in the kitchen and saw her still sitting there with that cold dead stare. I looked quickly to the top of the stairs and see the other woman standing there staring down at Miles and I with that same dead frozen stare. We make it outside and through the people. We run for a few blocks with Miles tugging at my arm. We stop to catch our breaths for a few moments and I look at Miles and his face was washed over in fear. He was scared beyond his wits. He removed his hand from his neck and there was a small amount of blood and some bruises. I told him we should to get him to a hospital to get that checked out and sanitized and he agreed. I asked him what happened again and he just looked at me trembling wildly with eyes chilled in fear and terror and could only mutter out "...sh...sh......she......" I decided it wasn't important and we should get to an ER sooner rather than later.
As we were walking we began to hear something in the trees above us. It sounded like something was jumping from tree to tree following us as we kept moving. We looked up and saw the trees swaying and drifting side to side. We started to run but whatever was in the trees kept moving with us and began moving faster. Then we heard another one in the trees ahead of us. We continued to run and could hear something heavy land on the branches inside the trees. We looked up and the trees were shaking violently and the leaves began to fall all around us. We started sprinting until the air in our lungs began to burn. We must have ran a few miles before we saw the hospital. We did a dead sprint with everything we had left to the doors. Once we got to the front step I looked back and could still see leaves falling to the ground. Miles was treated for his wounds and let go that same night. However, a month later he disappeared and left all his belongings behind. Since that night, I have not seen Miles in over five years.
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