Taos, New Mexico
Fall 1954
Songs at the radio that evening didn’t match the young man’s mood. Love and affection were the last thing on his mind, but he’d let the music play, hoping it might help. Claudio slowly pulled his faded blue Ford pickup truck off the mountainous road and turned into the driveway of the dingy, seedy bar. He put the transmission into park and took a moment to breathe, both hands on the steering wheel.
He peered out the driver’s side window and looked up at the storm clouds rolling in he knew the rains would be coming very soon. Claudio cranked the window handle, stopping as the glass rested about an inch from the top. He wanted the pleasant mountain air to make its way into the cab, which had become musky, filled with the old scent of his day’s long work at the sawmill.
Claudio loved the job, but hated the smell.
He shut the radio off, stepped out of the truck, turned toward the bar, an old flickering lamp barely highlighting the name hand painted across a wooden sign. He shut the door.
“Crossroads.”
Claudio smiled, thinking back to the times he and his fellow soldiers were drinking in the GI tent in Korea. There were only a few rare times they were allowed a drink but they relished those moments. When they weren’t knee deep in the enemy dead.
“This will do,” he raised the collar on his flannel shirt, held his brown bomber leather jacket tight in his opposite hand and strolled to the door. It was rickety and the door knob was seized. He didn’t need it to turn for an entrance. Claudio pushed it open and released the handle, waiting until the door gently nudged the the back wall.
Everyone in the bar remained uninterested in the stranger that just entered.
Claudio entered, making his way toward the first available barstool closest to the corner. The thought of being surrounded even by bar patrons gave him a terrible, uneasy feeling. Memories of the soldiers invading his battalions post at the bottom of the hill came to mind, threatening his peace.
Too many people around him made his heart race. The bottom of Pork Chop Hill at the Chosen reservoir would never leave him, no matter how far he got away from it. There’d been too many battles where his battalion and platoon were boxed in, Koren soldiers advancing, firing from the dreaded high ground.
Claudio saw too many friends meet their demise at that hill.
The young man stopped and sat on a barstool near the corner and raised his hand, signaling for a cold brew. it didn’t take long before the bar tender noticed him and gave a short wave, acknowledging the young man. Claudio crossed his arms in front of his chest and looked away, waiting.
“Is it troubling returning home?”
The voice came from behind and Claudio was surprised he hadn’t been startled. He slowly turned, looking back sharply to see who was speaking, or if the question was directed to him.
There was an attractive young woman looking at him, her eyes glowing a faint blue which immediately enthralled Claudio. It wasn’t just how they looked, or how he felt while looking at them. No, it was different. As if he could look INTO them, and he was able to do so in an instant. Her beautiful face was very fetching, the curves of her body, wrapped in tight black clothes unlike any he’d seen prior to that evening.
She commanded all of his energy and Claudio didn’t even know her name.
“How did you know?”
She stepped forward, moving from a few feet away to his side, a gentle whoosh moving past him like a winter breeze. Claudio could feel his eyelids getting heavy, threatening to shut. He breathed deeply and stopped himself, just long enough to notice she’d sat down next to him. He hadn’t seen her move, but there she was.
“You can see it on your expression,” she answered. Her lips moved so fluidly, his gaze drawn to her mouth, which was alluring in a way he couldn’t describe. And he’d never seen or noticed something like that before.
She smiled, almost blushing, turning her face slightly to the side. “That’s so kind of you.”
Claudio looked confused, “How do you mean?”
“To notice any part of a lady is flattering.”
He hadn’t mentioned his attraction to her. Had he? Not about her body, her clothes, her eyes, or her mou…
“Mmmm, I have your attention from head to toe,” the woman interrupted his thoughts. She leaned forward, smiling as she spoke, resting a hand lightly on his leg. “Well, I’m glad you noticed. Now I don’t have to command it.”
There was something amiss, something Claudio didn’t like. He looked into her eyes, feeling comforted by her returning gaze. But Claudio knew he needed to look away. He summoned strength, the kind he’d found on the battlefield…
“That won’t work you know?”
“Just a moment, ma’am,” Claudio began. “What’s your name?”
She smiled, raised her hand toward her brunette hair and ran her fingers into the long strands. As her hand passed through the shiny lochs, the color shifted to a bright red, deep, unnatural. Claudio’s eyes widened and he shifted on his barstool, feeling his weight threaten to tip it back.
“Call me, Ezime.” She smiled, her eyes drawing all of his energies. It was as if she could lure him in as much or as little as SHE wanted.
He leaped from the barstool, stepped back, and she followed, her movements invisible before she stood before him, icy skin inches from his body. Claudio felt her fingers grasp his hand, chilling his flesh to the bone.
“Isn’t this better?” Ezime asked, “The warmth of a fireplace nearby…”
The bar setting shifted, and the patrons all began disappearing into the background. A soft light replaced the smoky dingy atmosphere and wood crackle filling the room with that gentle sound.
“A beautiful woman at your fingertips…”
Soft, sensual music from a record player began playing in the background. Claudio felt his knees getting weak, lowering him to the floor, as though something were pulling onto his arm as if he were being attached to this mysterious woman.
“The comforting stillness of a gentle snowfall visible through the window…”
He turned, looking out the single pane window that appeared from thin air, snow on the other side, gently patting the glass as a winter breeze brought the weather to their footsteps.
“A gentle kiss to start the mood off right…” Ezime pulled him towards her face, her cold lips pursed, beckoning. Claudio wanted to be with her so badly, the idea of a night with this mysterious and charming woman. To feel her curves against his tired body. He stopped himself, raised his arms and grasped hers, moving her away.
“How do you know these things about me?” Claudio demanded.
Ezime looked confused, perplexed by his questions, and the reality that she’d willed them into a different room entirely, whisked him from the seedy bar, where he’d been waiting on a drink.
“Maybe you prefer the mountains from which you came,” Ezime’s eye color began shifting to deadly red.
“The place where snow is melted by the pooling blood of ten thousand young soldiers,” she said, “all younger than you, issued youth weapons designed for smaller features…”
A frigid winter blast of snow and wind slammed into his back and Claudio turned, watching the inside of a cabin transform into a blinding snowstorm, where visibility became limited. Where he could only see bodies…
“The dead stacked three feet high,” Ezime continued, “their blood melting the snow and leaving the frozen ground smoldering with the stench of death.”
A putrid smell wafted into his nostrils and Claudio took a step back, Ezime coming with him, drawn to the life force she was corrupting.
“This was preferred?”
Everything shifted in an instant and they’d returned to the bar, her arm reaching across his back and thrusting him towards her, Ezime’s hip grinding into his. She wanted him to feel the pressure of her body against his.
“This should feel better…”
“I…” Claudio stammered, “I don’t want to see that any more. The gore on that Korean mountainside. At the bottom of those hills, next to the frozen river. I don’t want to smell that smell…”
“You won’t have to.” Ezime pulled him closer, “You won’t have to.” She leaned in for a kiss.
Claudio leaned forward also, thinking about the cold surging into his bones from his arms, his flesh near hers, and his chest as they moved closer together. He kept his heavy eyelids opened, looking out just beyond her hair and saw the silhouettes in the background of the bar. Tall, log hair, gently swaying side to side, glowing red eyes looking back at him.
“You won’t have to…”
Claudio pushed her away, falling back into the bar, the stool crashing to the wooden floor, upsetting the group of black-robed, hooded figures. He watched Ezime move toward him, slowly, her arms outstretched and her face contorted with rage. Her mouth was open and he could see fangs, growing inside her mouth, a terrifying growl emerging from her gut.