I've learnt to hide in the shadows to do what I do when I need to take so much. The dark alleyways and city streets where nobody much cares what's going on. Their reluctance to get involved plays to my advantage, and I take with more abandon leaving marks the longer I do it. Tonight I'm more desperate than usual, I've starved myself for a long time and it shows. There are sunken circles under my eyes, and my hair lacks lustre. When I age it is quickly, it comes on me in a frighteningly fast wave. This morning I woke with grey streaks in my hair. I shouldn't have left it so long. It's not like me to think of moral dilemmas involved in how I feed. I have a way and it has served me well for more than two hundred years; little and often. Before you ask, I'm not some fiction you see on television or read about in any book. I'm not a vampire, it irks me you would even consider it.

"Here Sid, look what we got us. Shouldn't be out this time of night old timer." They sneered nastily. I baulked at the old timer reference, I was considered early middle age by usual standards this morning but I'm aging too fast obviously. I could have passed for early forties this time last night.I don't like witnesses. If I feed off these two I must drain them both, but I don't relish that idea usually. I take such a small sum normally to sustain me. I back away passively, hands up with shocked timid gestures. Let them believe they're the predators. I back up slowly, carefully leading them down the darker parts of the back street. Cats spook them, the sound of running water from somewhere...