• The living room was huge, with a beautifully decorated fireplace. The walls were clad in dark oak and the floor had a thick woven carpet over it, a stair led to the second floor. But there were almost no furniture, just one couch and a table, also, upon the wall hung one old family portrait, showing two happy children, their blonde, beautiful mother and their dark haired, bulky father.
    However, the portrait was covered in dust and cobwebs, and due to years of sunshine the colors had faded.

    A man, clad in nothing but his underwear, was lying on his back in the couch, staring onto the cobwebs in the ceiling.
    The whole room was empty of life, part from him and the spiders and mice. Old newspapers were strewn about, some of them showing the date of a day thirty years ago.
    Kicking at the thin air he groaned and muttered: “I’m bored. I need someone new...”
    He pouted and folded his arms, long, jet black strands of hair falling over gray eyes.
    He had been alone for three straight days, sitting in his couch, since his servant and dear friend Jeannyne had gone down to the village in some errands. She hadn’t returned yet and he didn’t know if he’d be able to be alone for five more hours without causing complete mayhem.
    He blinked once, twice and so his gaze averted to the phone on the table.
    He had never dared using it, much less touching it. The new technology scared him, more than sunlight or any stake could.
    The TV was never used, since he feared every bullet in the current episode of ‘Angel’ would go straight through the tiny piece of glass which showed the images, Jeannyne would always double over laughing when she’d enter the room through the big old wooden door and find him hiding behind the futon. The micro waver wasn’t used either, since he thought it gave blood an awful taste, and the phone scared him witless, what radiation would go through it and eventually kill him?
    But, after all, he was bored.
    He gulped and sat up, suddenly determined to either end his life or his boredom.
    He grabbed the phone, dialed the only number he had ever taught himself and stood there, breathing heavily before he pushed the ‘call’ button.
    Some signals passed, and then the sound that occurs when someone picks up their phone and answers.
    “This is Jeannyne, who am I...”
    “Jeann!” he said, his voice squeaky. “I don’t know what to do!”
    A moment of silence passed as his heavy breathing echoed in the phone.
    “... Nicolai,” he heard on her voice that she was a bit shocked. “What’ve you done this time?”
    He pouted. “I haven’t done anything, I’m just bored.”
    “Okay, that’s new... Nicolai, you are 78 years old, vampire, and still you can’t find anything to do?”
    “Uh...” he said, eyes getting all teary. “But, but-but the newspapers are old and... I dunno what to do!”
    “What do other nineteen years old boys do in these times?”
    “... I don’t know...”
    “They’re out looking for girlfriends, dear.”
    “WHAT?! But-!”
    Jeannyne promptly hung up on him, and when he heard the silence on the other end Nicolai threw the phone across the room.
    After a fit of anger (which had him thrashing the whole couch, pillows included) he ended up in his room, searching for the clothes the Jeann had bought for him, cursing the servant to the deepest pit in Hell as he dressed.

    When he finally stepped outside of the Canerook Mansion (for the first time in twenty years) he was dressed in a white shirt, black jeans and a thick woolen jacket. His raven hair was held back from his face by a bow in the back of his head.
    Snow was falling from the sky, where thick gray clouds resided. The wildly growing garden and the forest outside of the high, black metal fence were covered in a thick layer of snow. Following the barely visible trail to the gate Nicolai had a good look at the now sleeping garden. Finally he reached the gate, and looked back to the big stone house which was his home. It looked rather empty at the moment.
    “...” he shook his head. “It feels like I’ll regret this...”
    And so he opened the gate and started walking down the road, hands in his pockets and eyes lowered to the ground.

    * * *

    Rusalkia- Transylvania.
    Nicolai looked up on the tiny beautiful, old houses, all covered with snow and Christmas decorations, and he saw children looking out on the falling snow happily, parents standing by their side looking rather amused with their children’s happiness. The streets of the tiny village were crowded with people, which were out buying Christmas gifts or just looking through the stores. Nicolai was watching with curiosity as some children were dragged from the toy store by their mothers, or how grown men stood outside a jewelry boutique while their wives were running between said jewelry boutique and the clothes boutique across the street. All of them were talking to each other, waving to by-passers.
    The village was, after all, so small that everyone knew the ones walking past them.
    Nicolai kept walking, looking into the stores and when he couldn’t stand the bustle anymore he decided to enter a cozy looking coffee shop a bit further down the street.
    ---
    The bell above the door rang as he opened it.
    The room inside of it was rather dark, and smelled of grinded coffee beans and milk. There were a menu hanging on the wall, every table had a small candle burning in a candlestick standing on it. Nicolai was so taken by the simple beauty of the room that he didn’t notice the figure behind the counter.
    “Hello,” said a sweet, female voice, which completely startled him. “Can I help you?”
    Sea green eyes met Nicolai’s gray ones as he looked up.
    “Uh...” he said his mouth closing and opening like that of a fish on the dry, as he felt heat rush to his cheeks. “I just...”
    She grinned at him, and he noticed her piercings. Not to mention the odd color of her hair. He frowned mentally. “Not a very social one, are you? Would you like to have some coffee?”
    Nicolai shook his head, still blushing and somewhat confused. “... No thank you...”
    She only shrugged and he fled to a seat, sitting down to watch her take care of the other customers, and during his watch he tried to calm his racing heart.

    Later that night, when he walked home he was humming a happy tune and his heart was still beating at a rapid speed. It had been a long time since he’d seen any other woman but Jeannyne, and even thought there had been plenty of them all over the village it was only the coffee spot girl who had caught his attention.
    Nicolai carefully closed the black, creaking metal gate, followed the trail up to the door, opened the heavy thing and let out warm, welcoming light into the dark before he stepped inside and closed it after him.
    He smiled to himself as he hung the jacket over the back of a chair and kicked his boots off, hearing Jeannyne’s voice coming from the inside.
    “Nicolai Canerook.” She said rather irritably, poking her head into the old hallway. “Where the hell have you been? You’ve ruined the only couch in this house!!”
    “I’ve been out sightseeing, dear.” He replied and walked past her, still smiling hearty. “And I plan to go out tomorrow too.”