Ashley swirled the red wine in the glass, admiring its dark, rich red color, illuminated by the candlelight. A cool breeze came through the screen door, and the candles flickered. It was already eight at night, and Ashley smiled, thinking that most of the trick or treaters had already gone home, their bags probably full of candy that they would eat while watching Halloween specials on tv.
That was one thing she missed, living in this big house. The view was great, the elevation gave a great view of the downtown area in the distance, but since there was about half a kilometer of forest between each house, the children just went to other neighborhoods or the mall to do their trick or treating. Her girlfriend Leona had bought a few regular sized chocolate bars just in case, but not a single child came to ring their doorbell tonight.
It was ok though, Leona had something much better planned for tonight. As head costume designer for a nearby movie studio, Leona had access to the costumes, and she had "borrowed" one of them for tonight. Ashley sipped on the wine as she waited for her lover to finish getting ready, feeling the heat in her face from the alcohol. Oooh but being drunk would just add to the excitement and believability of whatever elaborate monster night Leona had planned. Leona hadn't told her what she was going to be dressed as, but she had promised her that it was "highly erotic."
Ashley worked from home as a medical transcriptionist, and Leona had long work hours at the studio so moving into a house that was closer to the studio only made sense. Although it did count down on the time Leona spent commuting, sometimes Ashley still went to bed before Leona got home. Leona had Halloween off, and she had spent the better part two hours going to the grocery, marinating the steaks and then preparing the vegetables and roasted potatoes for their dinner. The night had already been incredibly romantic, Leona had grilled the steaks and they had sat in the backyard, enjoying the delicious food and each other's company.
She let a slow smile cross her features, and sat back. It was going to be a fine night.
It was a terrible night. Mika prowled in the forest in her wolf form, her stomach rumbling with hunger. Like every night this summer, pickings were scarce. After the humans started expanding into her territory, building more houses and neighborhoods, a lot of the prey had migrated somewhere else. Mika was unwilling to leave the place she had loved so much, had tried to prolong her stay as long as she could. But as the night wore on, she needed to admit to herself that soon she couldn't stay here either. Hunger clawed at her insides, and she felt like she might gag. That's when she smelled it.
Beef! Tasty beef! Now that was exactly what she had in mind. She started bounding in the direction of the scent, over small shrubs and fallen trees, licking her chops with her long tongue. She could almost taste it now, the tender texture, the flavorful juices...She stumbled to a halt when she saw the tall fence erected around the huge house. She whined to herself, her shy nature around humans making her pause. She sniffed the fence, stalling for time before vaulting the 4 foot fence easily.
She crawled on the ground, her belly low to the ground as she hid behind bushes and trees, slowly making her way to the door. The door was open, and the smell of food was so strong that she moved on instinct, pushing the door open wider.
She was in a walk in basement, a nice fuzzy carpet felt very nice underneath her paws, she dug her claws into the material and grinned. A very noise to her left made her turn.
She snarled and bared her teeth at the dark haired woman dressed in a victorian gown. With her dark hair, pale complexion and red eyes, the vampire was easily recognized. Her leg muscles tense as she readied to lunge at the creature of the night, ready to tear out its throat. With the smallest yelp the vampire turned to run for it and ran right into a wall, knocking herself out. Mika stared, beamused. She padded over, sniffing.
It wasn't a vampire after all, but a human! Dressed up as a vampire? The human's wig had fallen off, revealing a much richer brown underneath the raven black. Mika looked at her unconscious form guiltily. She picked up the woman easily, taking her to one a room and placed the woman on the bed. She desperately required food if she was mistaking humans for vampires, she felt bad for frightening the poor woman, but at least this way she'd be out of the way while Mika raided her fridge. She closed the door and as a second thought, moved a large shelf in front of the door. Not immovable, but it would warn her when the human was awake again. Then she quickly ran upstairs, towards the scent of food.
"Leona?" Ashley called as she walked upstairs to their bedroom. To her surprise it was empty, though the flower petals and lit candles were a nice tough. "Where are you hun?" She called again, walking downstairs.
