TheCrimsonHorror

A shadowy figure stood looking over the streets below. It was late evening, the sun had set and the last few signs of the sun faded slowly, orange, red, purple blended into the twilight darkness. The streets were darkened, half-lit from the lights of the homes and businesses that lined the street and the staggered street lamps. Shadows raced left to right and right to left up and down the street with the passing cars. A fairly average looking figure, long black hair dancing in the breeze. "What does a guy have to do to get a bite to eat around here?" a very quiet masculine voice, no louder than a whisper. His ears perked as he looked around.

The city below ebbed and flowed like a river, never stopping, always moving. Never noticing the figure above looking down. Hours passed, horns honked, people called out to their friends, some sang choruses as they stumbled to the next bar, the Pizza shop, 'that Chicks place', or 'that hot guy from the bar's place'. Going to work, coming from work, the city was alive and the figure was hungry; impatient.

Another few hours passed, in the distance a sound echoed, the clanging of metal, a light aluminum, circular. It rolled, crashed against the wall, fell to the ground and clattered back and forth stopping shortly after. She stumbled down the alleyway, "Sorry Mr. Can" she drunkenly apologized to the trash can she bumped into. "My house is just over here, I don't need your help." she continued down the alleyway. Behind her a trenchcoat slowly stalked up, he reached inside slowly clasped the handle drawing it out slowly, the light glinted off the blade as the knife came into view.

He came up quickly behind her, grasping her around the neck, holding the knife where she could see it. "Scream, and I'll cut you bitch, We're gonna go for a little walk." He rasped at her. Half pushing, half dragging as she tried to stagger along. She was scared, tears rolled down her cheeks, mascara and eyeliner stained the rolling tears a blue-black contrasting with the deep red of her halter top. She struggled as much as she dared, her thoughts racing, wondering if her parents would be reading about her in the morning news paper as they inhaled the aroma of their brewing coffee.

As quickly as she could start to regret any of her decisions of that day, she found herself on the ground, the knife clattering and sliding away from her. She was confused, but the jolt started to sober her up. She glanced over her shoulder as she clambered to her feet, she couldn't quite seem to get those spiked heels to stay balanced. She could barely make out the 2 figures over her shoulder as her attackers head was introduced to the brick wall of the building to her left. Nice to meet you, his blood said to the wall as it slowly rolled down from the point of impact. The Trenchcoat dropped to the ground like a bag of trash waiting to be picked up by the city crew, motionless, unconscious, breathing shallow.

The new figure stood up, between five and a half feet, not quite six feet. "Yes, you'll do nicely." barely a whisper escaped his throat, he grinned, his teeth visible over his lips. Finally regaining her footing, she was unsure exactly what was happening, she knew this was not the person that grabbed her. "T..tha..." She started, but trailed off, not quite able to form the words she was looking for. Her gratitude washed over her, and more tears flowed. "Are you ok?" He stepped close, supporting her weight easily, his arm around her back and under her arm. "Y-yea.." she managed, entranced. His blue eyes twinkled in the light of the Alley way, and gazed deeply into hers. "Don't worry, you won't remember this." He moved fast, His teeth dug deeply, sharply into her neck. She winced in reaction confused with what was happening, but not scared, oddly, she trusted him, after all, he did just save her.

The blood flowed freely, and he drank quickly, savoring every drop of the crimson liquid. He slowed, the hunger pangs fading. 'I don't want to drain her.' he thought to himself. He unlatched from her neck, a few drops trailed down, sliding over the exposed upper quadrant of her breast, and meeting up with her shirt, blending in. At first glance it would look like a spaghetti strap was missing on her other shoulder. He looked at her neck. "My apologies for the mess I made." maintaining his grip on her to keep her from collapsing. "..ts Ok.." she mustered out, still entranced, staring deeply into his eyes, blue.

He lifted his wrist to his mouth, and tore deep into it. Moving it slowly to her mouth. "Here, drink this, it will help to heal that." He motioned to her neck. She didn't question him, she did as she was told.

"Celina? Wake up, you're going to be late for your appointment" her Mother called to her as she woke with a start.

 

# cd /opt/ # wget --no-cookies --no-check-certificate --header "Cookie: gpw_e24=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.oracle.com%2F; oraclelicense=accept-securebackup-cookie" "http://download.oracle.com/otn-pub/java/jdk/8u60-b27/jdk-8u60-linux-x64.tar.gz" # tar xzf jdk-8u60-linux-x64.tar.gz
# cd /opt/jdk1.8.0_60/ # alternatives --install /usr/bin/java java /opt/jdk1.8.0_60/bin/java 1 # alternatives --config java
Ensured that it was set to use Java 1 which was the only Java on the fresh system
# alternatives --install /usr/bin/jar jar /opt/jdk1.8.0_60/bin/jar 1
# alternatives --install /usr/bin/javac javac /opt/jdk1.8.0_60/bin/javac 1
# alternatives --set jar /opt/jdk1.8.0_60/bin/jar
# alternatives --set javac /opt/jdk1.8.0_60/bin/javac
# java -version
java version "1.8.0_60"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_60-b27)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.60-b23, mixed mode)
# export JAVA_HOME=/opt/jdk1.8.0_60
# export JRE_HOME=/opt/jdk1.8.0_60/jre
# export PATH=$PATH:/opt/jdk1.8.0_60/bin:/opt/jdk1.8.0_60/jre/bin