Chapter Text
Lower East Side, 9 PM.
Summer ran the speed limit, taunting any slowpoke that tried to defy her. In her mind, her car was superior to others. She rounded a corner onto the Bowery without braking, much to the annoyance of the poor suckers who were about to cross at their signal.
“Look both ways, dipshits!” she called out, like a true cabbie.
Finally, she slowed her car down at Spring Street and pulled over. In the range of her headlights was someone looking for a way home. Someone who was in need of her services! Summer gestured him to climb aboard, and he did—with a bit of difficulty. Obviously, she thought, this guy had a bit too many of something or other
“77th and West End, please,” he slurred.
“Any way in particular?” Summer asked, as she switched on the meter.
“Whatever.”
The door shut, the light shone green, the seat belt clicked. Summer’s cab was on its way again. She sped up the Bowery, then slowed down when she came to a fork: left for 4th Avenue, right for 3rd. Summer turned left, and came to a string of red lights. Shit, she thought. She sat through one red light after another, some lasted longer than others. Finally, at 14th Street, 4th became Park Avenue, and she saw nothing but green lights all the way down.
This gave her enough to finally have a peek at her fare. He looked a little pale in the face, maybe light gray–it was hard to tell on a night like this. His hair was short and spiky, not unlike Summer’s, which was long and spiky. A pair of thick black sunglasses covered her fare’s eyes. He could be blind, Summer thought, before realizing she was wearing a similar pair herself. Nevertheless, Summer was a girl that likes to shoot straight. She had to ask him.
“Soooo…” she inhaled, “Are you a vampire?”
The suspicious-looking man looked her way.
“Huh?” he asked, having obviously not paid attention.
“You a vampire?” Summer repeated, “It’s alright you can tell me.”
The guy didn’t answer yes or no. He just chuckled.
“I wouldn’t blame you if you were,” said Summer as the car went into a tunnel to bypass a few more red lights, “It’s a great night for a vamp to be out. I mean, clear sky, full moon…”
Even after the tunnel, the view out the window was still obstructed by the occasional big rig and the Grand Central Terminal building that the road ahead circled round. Another tunnel, and finally the cab stopped at a red light on 46th Street, giving the fare a good glimpse of the kind of sky Summer was talking about.
“You’re not wrong,” said the guy, “But why?”
“Well,” said Summer, as the light turned green again, “It didn’t come to me naturally. I couldn’t help but notice that you look a little pale in the face, maybe gray.”
“Huh?” The guy looked at himself for a moment, figuring out what the driver was talking about. Then it hit him.
“Oh that,” he said, “Yeah, I was shut in for a little too long. Not one of my best days, I know.”
Summer paused, then turned left onto 57th Street.
“Okay, I can see that happening, but explain the shades.”
“Huh?”
“Everybody knows vampires have dark red eyes that can give off a bit of a glow every once in a while. Some of them are a little self conscious, ‘cause they know the red eyes are a dead giveaway, and so they wear shades to conceal themselves.”
“Oh SHUT UP!” the fare snapped, “I’m just drunk, alright? For all you know, I could be wearing them cause I’m blind or something like that.”
“I thought of that too, but I remembered I’ve got the same kind of shades on myself.”
A right turn onto 11th Avenue. At 59th Street, where the road became West End Avenue, Summer slammed the brakes. A car turning left onto the avenue had done so onto her northbound lane. Summer stuck her head out the window.
“It’s a two-way road, dumbass!”
The offending car moved a lane or two over, out of the way, and Summer started up again.
“Tourists, am I right?” she groaned.
The two said nothing during the last stretch of the journey. Finally at 77th street, Summer pulled over and stopped the meter.
“We’re here,” she said, “Sorry I called you a vampire.”
“Eh, no hard feelings,” said her passenger.
“33 bucks, please.”
The passenger finally took off his shades, revealing normal green eyes beneath, as he counted his money before handing it to Summer.
“Here…”
“Thanks,” Summer looked left, then right, and then pulled her shades off as well.
Her eyes glowed red like mad. She grabbed the man’s hand with the money–and did not let go. She opened her mouth wide—her sharp-to-a-point canine teeth gleaming in the light of the streetlamp—and dove right in, milking the man dry of his blood. She wiped the blood off the outside of her mouth.
“Mmmmm…O-type!”
Summer waited for the light to turn red, then she stepped out of her side of the cab. She walked around to the sidewalk to open the other door, and pulled out the unconscious passenger. She set him down in front of a stairway to what she assumed was his building. He wasn’t dead, just unconscious; his skin paler than before, no doubt weakened by the sudden loss of blood. Summer, feeling a little sorry, went to the back of her cab and opened the trunk. Inside were a few dozen-or-so Ziploc bags containing cookies, and some cold bottles of apple juice (Martinelli brand, not from concentrate. The good stuff!). Summer took a baggie and a bottle, and brought it over to the weakened man, setting it down beside him.
A quick “Sorry,” and she went back to her cab, setting off into the night.