Flash Fiction First Friday is an effort to publish something small and fun on the First Friday of every month. The goal is simply to write more and to share more, and not get completely bogged down in huge projects. These pieces can spawn from writing exercises, prompts, or just freewriting. I'd love to see your flash fictions pieces if you participate, too! Either use the tag #flashfictionfirstfriday or comment below with a link to your blog.
Vampiric Vibes
This vampire is not the pale gothic waif from the 90s that you expect. She has brassy blond hair and crystals bedecking every bit of skin that can hold any kind of jewelry. Her eyes are bright blue and she stands before you in the sunshine.
She doesn’t eat garlic, but it’s because of the breath, not an ancient curse.
But she’s a vampire just as truly as the old stories. She destroys lives, robs young impressionables of their innocence, and consumes, consumes, consumes. Never a drop of blood spilled.
She subsists on good vibes only.
The ‘60s had been her heyday; the hippies making love and not war had been a lavish feast. Never before had energy and sustenance been so easy to take for herself. Almost no one had noticed the trail of destroyed lives she’d left in her wake. But the subsequent eras of war, recession, and pandemic had shrunk the petite predator down to little more than a skeleton wearing a macrame poncho, a daisy stuck grotesquely in her hair like a sugar skull.
But now she is back. The ‘live, laugh, love’ crowd will be enough to sustain her, as long as she keeps moving through the circles of society.
Now, she hangs around yoga studios, energy healers, support groups, and life coaches, sucking up their life until murmurs of “toxic positivity” begin to circulate. Then it’s time to move on to the next clique, the next fad of self-care or get-rich-quick scheme.
Good vibes only for this energy vampire. She deserves the best.
Copyright KR Holton, 2024
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