Free Little Vampire Women by Lynn Messina

can’t, I shall keep my adventures to tell you when I come back. I’m sure it’s the least I can do when you have been so kind, lending me things and helping me get ready,” said Meg, glancing round the room at the very simple outfit,which seemed nearly perfect in their eyes.
    “What did Mother give you out of the treasure box?” asked Amy, who had not been present at the opening of a certain cedar chest in which Mrs. March kept a few relics 16 of past splendor, as gifts for her girls when the proper time came.
    “A pair of silk stockings, that pretty carved fan, and a lovely blue sash. I wanted the violet silk, but it has three stubborn little blood droplets on the bodice, so I must be contented with my old tarlatan.”
    “It will look nice over my new muslin skirt, and the sash will set it off beautifully. I wish I hadn’t smashed my coral bracelet, for you might have had it,” said Jo, “who loved to give and lend, but whose possessions were usually too dilapidated to be of much use. In her enthusiasm, Jo tended to forget her super strength and often abused her belongings by grasping them too tightly or tossing them too roughly.
    “There is a lovely old-fashioned pearl fang-enhancement set in the treasure chest, but Mother said a row of gleaming white teeth were the prettiest ornament for a young vampire,” replied Meg. “Now, let me see, there’s my new gray walking suit, just curl up thefeather in my hat, Beth, then my poplin for Sunday and the small party, it looks heavy for spring, doesn’t it? The violet silk would be so nice. Oh, dear!”
    The next night was fine, and Meg departed in style for a fortnight of novelty and pleasure. Mrs. March had consented to the visit rather reluctantly, fearing that Margaret would come back more discontented than she went. But she begged so hard, and Annie had promised to take good care of her, and a little pleasure seemed so delightful after a winter of irksome work that the mother yielded, and the daughter went to take her first taste of fashionable vampire life.
    The Moffats were very fashionable, and simple Meg was rather daunted, at first, by the splendor of the house and the elegance of its occupants. The luxury of Annie’s coffin, an ornate affair of solid mahogany polished to an impossibly bright high-gloss sheen and lined with velvet the color of fresh blood, nearly robbed her of speech and she managed only a “very nice,” as she pictured the plain pine boxes she and her sisters slept in. But they were kindly people, in spite of the frivolous life they led, and soon put their guest at her ease. Perhaps Meg felt, without understanding why, that they were not particularly cultivated or intelligent vampires, and that all their gilding could not quite conceal the ordinary material of which they were made. It certainly was agreeable to fare sumptuously on fresh blood, drive in a fine carriage, wear her best frock everynight, and do nothing but enjoy herself. It suited her exactly, and soon she began to imitate the manners and conversation of those about her, use French phrases, show off her fangs, decorate her dresses with blood splatters, and play parlor games 17 upon vampirists, humans who enjoyed the light-headed thrill of having their blood sucked. Annie taught her a delightful diversion called tic-tac-toe, in which each participant stuck a tack into the human’s toe and took bites of all the body parts that twitched in response. The player who made the most puncture marks won. It sounded easy enough to accomplish, but Meg fared dreadfully at first because she lacked the skill of her opponents, who had been sticking pins into humans for years. But once she realized the trick to causing tics was applying appropriate pressure, she became virtually unbeatable.
    In comparison to the luxury of the Moffats’, her home now looked bare and dismal, but Meg did not have time to repine, for Annie and her sister Belle kept her busily employed in “having a good