Wednesday At the Cinema - G

[Penina Spinka]

This is rated G and is the first Moonlight story I wrote. Therefore, it's the first I'm posting at this site, but it's better edited now. That doesn't mean I'll catch all the typos every time. When I began, I didn’t think I was up to writing Mick yet. As in all my fan fiction, if you recognize a character, he or she doesn’t belong to me. I was stuck for a female name, starting using my own, and decided to keep it. Therefore, I do own Penina, and I’m also from Brooklyn.

Wednesday at the Cinema


Guillermo moved forward on the line at the theater. Multiplexes were everywhere now, so very different from the Old Grauman’s Chinese Theater or the Egyptian Theater on Hollywood Boulevard. He had loved those huge movie palaces, especially their air conditioning units. Now, jobless and in a new city, he had nowhere else to sleep. He knew relocating was going to be difficult. He’d have to adjust, find another job. If he tried for medical examiner at Kings County Hospital, his past might creep up on him. He did not want to be noticed. This was Brooklyn - new sights and sounds, and a different sort of nightlife. There had to be somewhere he could put his medical skills to use and get his blood. Vampires have needs.

He had fled Los Angeles while he could, before the Legion caught up with him and his buddies. When the killings began, the vampire community had scattered all over the United States. A few of his brother vamps were glad to take him to live with them. In the name of vampire solidarity, he now had an address, but there was no extra freezer space. For him, it was back to the movie theaters for the day, to sleep until twilight if he was lucky. The sun was climbing high and the shade was minimal, overlapping the sidewalk only a foot or so from the building. He managed to stay in it, mostly. He’d be inside before it was directly overhead.

A young woman jostled him on the line. “Sorry,” she said.

“No problem.”

“Are you out of work too?”

Guillermo gave her a wry smile. “I guess that would explain why we’re both on line to see a movie at 11:00 in the morning, on a Wednesday.” He wanted to say more, maybe make a friend out of the woman, but he wasn’t sure what to say. He concentrated on the withdrawing shade. His sunglasses and long sleeved jacket didn’t block out all the rays. He turned up his collar. The line inched forward as patrons purchased their tickets. They were nearly under the overhang.

“Do you like vampire movies?” the woman asked. Before he could respond, she answered her own question. “I guess you must or you would have picked a different movie.” Guillermo looked up at the marquee. “The Return of Dracula,” it said. Great! He’d picked it because the line was shortest. “It’s a revival. I guess vampires are back in style. How stupid that Moonlight was cancelled, but I’ll take my vampire fix where I can get it.” Guillermo gave her a small smile, wondering if he was going to get lucky, but she was just beginning. “If only CBS had listened to the fans. I mean – it was the best drama on television; it won People’s Choice award. What’s the matter with television executives? What does it take to get a fantastic show renewed for another season? It makes me want to cry.”

They were in the shade now. There was no reason not to say hello. “My name is Juan Lopez. I’m from Puerto Rico.”

“I’m Penina Spinka from Brooklyn, actually from around the corner and a few blocks down.” They moved forward another few steps. Why would there be a line for any theater on a Wednesday morning? Guillermo wondered, when a flash of movement caught his eye. A teen grazed the line, excusing himself for knocking into people. It seemed Penina was fiddling with her purse, searching for her wallet to pay at the ticket window, when the teen noticed she had removed the purse straps from her shoulder. It was an easy grab. “Hey!” she yelled.

The boy was gone, purse held tight against his chest as he sprinted across the street. Penina screamed for someone to stop the thief, but the traffic was against it. Suddenly, Juan Lopez disappeared. She hadn’t seen him move. There was the sound of a scuffle from across the street. Apparently someone had dialed 9-1-1 because seconds later, a cop car flashed its lights and came to stop. How had Juan gotten there that fast?

When the cop came up to Penina for a statement, the boy was in handcuffs. She told him that the theif had come up beside her unseen. “Lucky for you some good soul was looking this way and saw what happened. He grabbed the thief and held him until we got there. “If you can identify the contents of the purse, you can have it back, ma’am.”

She thanked the cop and was paying for her ticket when Guillermo appeared again beside her. “I lost my place in line,” he told the couple behind them. “Remember, I was right here.” No one challenged him. He paid for his own ticket and walked in beside Penina. “Care to sit with me?” She did not shrug away his hand when he placed it on her elbow and guided her in up the stairs to a pair of seats near the air conditioning unit in the back of the balcony.

“How did you get across the street that fast?” she whispered. “You were there, I turned for half a second, and then you weren’t.”

“Maybe that wasn’t me,” he said. “Or maybe I’m a vampire.” The lights went down and the title emblazoned itself across the screen with special effect smoke and torches. The Return of Dracula, it said. Blood dripped from the red gothic letters while eerie violin music set the mood for the classic feature to come. Well, nothing ventured, right. “Let me tell you about real vampires,” Guillermo said, putting an arm across the back of her seat and leaning close.

“Very funny. You’re joking, right?” Penina asked. “No one can say a thing like that unless they’re joking.”

Guillermo had blown his chance -- so much for the somewhat direct approach. He wasn’t used to having to think of pick-up lines, not having dated since the 1920s. He removed his arm from the backrest of her chair. It was a lot less complicated when he drank the morgue blood where he used to work, or attended Josef’s parties at his mansion for the occasional willing freshie. Josef instituted that concept, but everyone loved it, freshies and vampires alike. No awkwardness there. Everyone knew what was expected. Damn, but he missed L.A.

Penina was still waiting for his reply. “Of course I was joking,” he said. “You must have had the sun in your eyes when I left.” He’d have to settle for the bottled blood in his vamp buddy’s freezer, the stuff he kept around for emergencies. Maybe he’d warm it in the microwave when he got home after his day’s sleep. “Everyone knows there’s no such thing as vampires.”

“You do know about Moonlight,” Penina said in triumph. “That was the first episode.”

“Was it? I guess I’ve heard of the show,” Guillermo admitted. Why did she have to know about it? He’d nearly gotten lucky. “I hoped you could take a joke, seeing as you like this stuff.” He pointed at the screen. “Now, he doesn’t look real to me.” Christopher Lee’s studio constructed fangs were so thick, the bite itself would have killed. Never mind the blood loss. Guillermo moved his tongue over his own slender canines. They came to a small point on each side. “How can the man even talk?”

Penina laughed. Guillermo turned to her and sniffed pheromones. Was she actually excited at the thought of vampires? Stop it, he told himself. It’s been too long since you had a freshy. You’re imagining things.

“Let me see your fangs,” Penina asked in a whisper.

Guillermo backed away as far as his seat would let him. “Enough already. What is it with you aggressive humans females?” he whispered, and then wished he could take the words back. He’d spoken his mind before thinking how it would sound.

“I was joking this time,” she said, but she seemed disappointed. “Too bad there’s no such thing. If vampires were real, I would love to get to know one.”

They watched the movie for several minutes without speaking, but the smell of the woman’s arousal was becoming too strong for Guillermo to ignore. His canines were elongating into fangs. He so wanted a taste of her, but it was probably a bad idea. She couldn’t know what she was saying. It was all a fantasy to her. No one in the crowded theater sat near them, but he didn’t want Penina to scream. He felt his eyes change and closed them. When he had them under control, he peeked. Penina was smiling a secret kind of smile. He wished it were true that vampires could read minds. “Juan,” she said. “Is that your real name?”

For a moment, Guillermo feared she was a member of the Legion, the group that was exterminating the vampires of L.A., and that he was on her short list. He checked her jacket for stakes and sniffed for silver -- poison to vamps -- and found neither. Neither did he see a bulge long enough to be a knife in her purse or jacket. The Legion was known for their propensity to behead their victims. He did not want to be its first victim in Brooklyn since the last purge, but he found no sign that she was carrying a weapon worthy of that task.

“Juan is my name,” Guillermo replied. It was what all his false documents said. For the present, he thought. “Why would you even ask me that?” Guillermo was wondering if he should disappear. It wouldn’t be difficult. Getting her purse back had created this problem. She hadn’t seen him move at vamp speed, but she hadn’t bought the sun in the eyes excuse. Even without the Legion after him, he didn’t want exposure. Secrecy was the number one rule, and that fool show had let out too many of the Vampire Nation’s secrets.

Penina touched his hand. “You’re cold,” she said.

“It’s the A/C. You’re cold too.” He brushed her arm and felt a shiver that had nothing to do with the A/C, but neither mentioned moving away from it. Guillermo again tried to focus on the movie. Of all the movies he might have stumbled into, this one was the worst. He stole another look at Penina and wondered again if he was the predator or the quarry, or if he should get out before he got into more trouble than he could talk his way out of.

Penina wrapped her fingers around his arm. “Don’t leave,” she said, as if she knew what he was thinking.

“Why not?”

“Because I want you to be real. Make me believe in you.” To Guillermo’s astonishment, she lifted her wrist, palm up, the universal signal of a freshie indicating her willingness to donate her blood to her vampire of the evening.

“No joke?”

“No joke.”

Moonlight fans know much too much, he thought. At this point, he had nothing to lose and everything to gain. He guided her wrist to his mouth, holding it steady, and bent his head to take what she was offering. Warm, fresh blood from a willing source - he’d nearly forgotten how good fresh blood tasted. The woman gasped when his fangs first pierced her skin, but then she relaxed into the feeling of his lips and tongue on her arm. He wondered as he fed if he was her first. How was she not frightened and how had she known what to do? Her breath rate increased, but she sighed when he stopped as though it hadn’t lasted long enough. He pressed his tongue to the small wounds to stanch the bleeding.

“Are you all right?” he asked, handing her a tissue to press against her arm.

“I’m fine,” she replied with a languid smile.

“Don’t go anywhere. I’ll be right back.” He covered her with his jacket. When he looked backr, Penina was still smiling with the residual pleasure his nature delivered in exchange for freely given human blood.

When he returned, his hands were full. He took his seat next to her again. “First, here is a damp paper towel for your wrist. Let me see.” She held up her wrist again. He licked it clean of blood, and then wrapped it tight with the paper towel. “Now, here is a bucket of salted popcorn and a large Cola for the lady. Drink up. You need to replenish your fluids and electrolytes.”

“You’d know,” Penina quipped languidly.

“I would?” She didn’t say anything, but he wondered if she knew who he really was. Of course, Jacob Vargas who played the character on the show did not look exactly like the real Guillermo. Moonlight fans knew more than they should, Guillermo thought again, but sometimes, that was not a bad thing.

She accepted his offerings and took a long swig of the Cola. “I think we’re going to be good friends as long as you live in Brooklyn, Juan,” she said.

“I hope so,” he replied. “Forgive me, but I must sleep now.” He closed his eyes and drifted away to his temporary vampire oblivion.

[mitzie]

I loved it! What a wonderful fantasy!!!!

mitzie

[cassysj]

That was very enjoyable. BTW I'm from Park Slope, Brooklyn, love anything from my hometown.

I love the universal freshie signal.

[francis]

Thanks for reposting this. I think there is not enough Guillermo fic in the world.

[AggieVamp]

I really enjoyed this. It was (IMO) lighthearted. I also love the universal freshie action.

Great Job -

Karen