I meet barman in the usual place, I slump down at the bar, with my head leaning heavily on my hand. He notices my presence without turning around “You hadn’t been by in a couple of days, I thought you’d skipped town.” He says, then pauses as he catches a glimpse at me, “shit, are you ok?”

“I’m ok, I just figured out why vampires don’t eat human food. I know Vampires aren’t meant to like the taste of human food, but I like it- a lot.” Confused, and slightly sad about the fact, I smiled at him.

“But it made you sick, eh?” he nodded, as if he had encountered this dozens of times before and began to pour me a glass of the artificial stuff.

I nodded.

“Have some of this before you pass out.” He pours me a glass, and I swipe my hood down and down it in one.

“I knew one other vampire who liked the taste of human food. You wanna know some tips that won’t make you sick?”

I leaned forward. He grabbed my hand on the counter, and I go to pull away, but his grip is tight, he forces my first two fingers to and the others to make a fist, “like this.” He says demonstrating with his own hands and putting them inside his mouth to the back of his throat. I made a disgusted face. “sick it up before it makes you sick… don’t look at me like that, I never said it was a pretty idea, but if you wanna be human so bad then ya do what ya gotta do.” Wanna be human? Did I? I never thought of it like that before, but maybe I did. I loved humans, I loved living here with people of the human town, I liked the sun, the smells and sights. All the things I couldn’t have as a vampire. “oh and try out this.” He rummages through his pockets until he pulls out a small sliver lined packet and chucks it in my direction.

“What is it?” I ask, catching it and examining the small package- inside were tiny white tablets.

“Not a lot of people use it anymore- its gum. You chew it to get the taste but you don’t eat it so it wont make you sick.”

I eyed the tiny package as if were made of gold. “And it wont make me sick? It tastes of human food?”

“Well kind of. It won’t taste exactly like human food and they’re usually sweet.”

Sweet. Human’s like sweet things. Gingerly, I wiggled out one of those tiny white tablets from their tightly fitting packets and popped it in my mouth. It was strong, spicy and sweet all in one. It exploded in my mouth in a violent array of flavours- I almost spat it out, but the sweetness (at least I think it was the sweetness) took over from the spicy tang of the other flavours.

“Ha! That expression is priceless. She had the same look too until she got used to human flavours. Try chewing it.” He suggested, and I did just that. With each movement of my jaw more flavour burst out of the miniature piece of elasticated substance. It was so strange, but not totally unpleasant. The more my saliva mixed with the chewy sweet, the less overpowering the taste became. If this is all I can have, I decided that I liked it.

“So with this, would I be able to go to school? I won’t look weird?” I asked.

“To school?!” he asked, astonished. “why on earth?...”

“Thalia said the other day that I could go. And I didn’t because, they would eat wouldn’t they? Surrounded by all those humans, people would notice, wouldn’t they? Jacob is bad enough as it is- I keep on having to make up excuses when he asks me to eat.”

“You want to go to a human school?” he asked.

I nodded, “Is that strange?” I asked him.

“Well, I think I can understand it, but yeah. It is strange. Most kids your age want out of there, not to get in!”

“Why do they want out of there?” I pondered.

he sighed, “Somehow I don’t think you’d understand even if I tried to explain it to you.”

I scowled at him and downed the rest of the blood. “Well, I think I’ll go then.” I proclaimed.

“Would it matter if I told you that it was dangerous?”

I shook my head, “I came here to learn what it was like to be human, and I don’t think I can do that unless I live like one.” I answered.

“Well that’s admirable, but it might get you killed.” He shrugged. “It’s up to you kid. Like you said, it’s what you came here for.”

I nodded, and stood up to leave, “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me, I’ve put it on your tab. Besides, your one of my few customers.”

I’m standing by the door, and I suddenly remember, “That man, the one you said was looking for me, have you seen him recently?”

“Nah, I haven’t seen him since the time I warned you about him. There aren’t many places around here that will give service to a vampire so must have given up an’ gone back to wherever he came from.”

It didn’t sound like a vampire general to give up, but regardless I nodded, and melted back into the darkness of the night.