I walked to the double door, concentrating on my hearing, verifying that no one was nearby. It told me there were people in the adjoining room, three people, among them the girl who had been with me a while ago. Without making any noise, I opened the doors and stepped barefoot into the corridor. On the left side I could see one more door, and on the right side was only the elevator. I couldn’t let them see me, if it didn’t seem strange my appearance and the fact that I wasn’t wearing shoes, it would be strange the fact that I had a plastic bag with a knife and little else, and, above all, that my eyes shone like two rubies. I needed to eat, to get out of the hospital.

I started to make my way to the elevator, clicked the up button and watched the screen change numbers slowly, as the machine made its way down. I had to find the hospital's blood supply, because I definitely wouldn’t kill anyone, for god sake, I didn’t even know how to do it! I had the theory, of course, I had to open someone’s veins, and in the stories, that seemed like the easiest thing in the world: A little bite and they had already fainted. I was sure that this must be complicated. One couldn’t hang on people's neck just for the sake of it, and hope that they wouldn’t fight for their lives, adding that we supposed not to kill them in the process of submitting them, because vampires couldn’t drink dead blood, or at least that's what they all said. A jingling made me returned to me, and the elevator doors opened in front of me, allowing my entry. I turned to the doors, expecting to see the lonely corridor for the last time, which led to my last resting place, but instead, I saw for the first time that woman who had to examine my body, standing there, pale as wax, yellow even, with an expression of livid terror, holding the pen in her fist as if her life depended on it. My eyes widened in surprise that I had been caught, and before the doors closed, I reflected that I shouldn’t be so absorbed in my thoughts if I still couldn’t hear and think at the same time. When the device finally decided to take me out of sight of that poor woman, I heard her heartrending scream, recognizing that primal fear that I had felt with the one who had turned me. She didn’t stop screaming, and even two floors away, I could still listen to her cries, and those of her companions, who asked what she had seen, surprisingly, in English, which led me to think I was in a special hospital, near the tourist area of the festival, which was convenient to me, but I didn’t have time to think about it. Is that how I had seen myself? I couldn’t think about it anymore, because then the doors opened to another corridor, where I could hear many more people around me, not far away. My logic told me that that elevator would be only for authorized personnel and probably also the entire corridor.

With a quick step, I left it and sniffed the air, looking for the metallic fragrance that I craved. I wrinkled my nose, the atmosphere smelled live sickness everywhere, alcohol and drugs, in addition to the very essences of all the people who worked there, worsened with deodorants and perfumes, mixed equally with smelly sweat, and something else... something that humans couldn’t smell, but they could feel: emotions. Just as I could hear the horrid fear in the woman's scream, I could also smell the fatigue of the doctors and nurses, as well as the distant sadness of some patients. It was overwhelming, almost to the point of making me wish I wasn’t breathing, but if I wanted to eat, I had to find the right room first, and that meant getting around people and not letting them see me. So I exhaled and closed my eyes, inhaling again, concentrating on finding the fragrance of the blood, letting my new nose do the work...

Suddenly I opened my eyes, which I was sure was shining now. I had found a trace of that fragrance, which seemed pure enough to be blood spilled from some operation, and, to my luck, the room wasn’t as far away as I had thought it would be at first. And now, how to make others ignore me? It wouldn’t be easy work. Behind me, I heard the elevator moving down. I couldn’t stay there and didn0t have time to facilitate the things, I would just get to the point. With the slowest step of which I was able, I began to direct to the place. Right, left, right, forward, right, left, right, left, my nose was guiding me, making more and more my nostrils flooded with the scent of iron. A turn to the right more and I would have arrived, and, until that moment, I had only crossed with four people, a doctor who was so distracted in the papers that he was carrying in his hands as to notice me, and three nurses, who had better things to do, but I was sure that they had turned to see me, without paying more attention to me, since I kept my eyes fixed on the floor, after all, I could perfectly listen to where they were moving, taking away from me the need to see them.

When I got to the door, I let out a sigh of satisfaction, because the corridor was deserted, and because I could finally eat, although it bothered me the fact that I apparently had to feed immediately, as soon as the thirst came, because the sensation of dryness in my throat had become really annoying in the course of ten minutes. I was also irritated because I was getting tired, something in me asked me to sleep soon, and I could only guess that the sunrise was near. Would the sun kill me? I didn’t want to find out. To my luck, the door was open, and once inside, a chill of pleasure ran down my spine, I had reached the nearest taco establishment. I stared at the shelves, which contained bags full of red liquid, cataloged by the different types of blood, and surprisingly, each type smelled different. Great, I could pick the one that smelled the best. I looked around the room, then, being a little masochistic, waiting until the last moment. There was a sink on one side, and under it a shelf with cleaning products and plastic bags. Double great, I could carry blood in there, although I wasn’t sure how I would keep it, without the ideal temperature at which they were stored, the blood would coagulate and spoil. I was thinking about the future, first I had to make sure that the blood didn’t harm me in any way.

I walked slowly to the freezers, smelling each crystal, finally choosing the A-. I tried not to touch the machines, I didn’t want to leave my fingerprints, at least not in that place, because surely I had left more in other places. I looked at the mechanism they had, which was complex and seemed to require a card. I sighed, I didn’t had time to look for someone who had such power, so I closed my fist, and with a single movement, I broke the glass, closing my eyes, hoping that either an alarm would be triggered, or maybe that I would feel pain, but when I didn’t hear or felt anything, I opened them again, examining the great hole that I had made, and to my arm, which had scarcely been hurt with a few shallow scratches, those that didn’t even reach pierce the epidermis. The door barely had glass now, leaving exposed all those bags, which invited me to break them and drink from them.

Hesitating a little, I finally reached out and took one of those bags, cradling it against my chest as if it were the most precious thing for me, which was in a certain way at that moment. I looked at the bag, contemplating if I should just bite it, my fangs didn’t seem to have changed and I didn’t notice them sharper, but I could try it, or I could just pull the small transparent safety piece that was in between, yes. I held the small piece between my thumb and forefinger, and pulled with a little force. The pressure I exerted against the bag itself caused some of the liquid to jump off the tube and stain my hands, starting to drip on the floor.

- Shit, fuck! - I exclaimed more by reflex, than because I really cared.

I sniffed the entrance and my hands stained. It seemed to smell good, and I had always been a supporter that if something feels good it’s right to do so, so I pressed my lips to the tube and sucked.