PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG MAN, WITH VAMPIRE

Last night Anton asked me if I would like to live forever. "Not particularly," I replied.

"You will," he said. "I have something to show you, and when you have seen it, then you will wish to live forever."

Yet another of Anton's quirks was about to be revealed, I thought. He led me to the door to the stairway down to the basement. I had never been allowed down there before. He opened the door and flipped a switch that lit a bare bulb. "After you," he said, extending his arm.

I descended and Anton followed, our feet loud on the wooden stairs. The basement smelled damp and musty. I saw crates and boxes neatly arranged in tall stacks on the bare concrete floor.

As I stepped off the stairs, Anton spoke behind me. "I no longer wish to live forever," he said. "I am tired. You are my heir. It is all arranged. Do you agree?"

I looked back and saw that he had a revolver pointed at my head. I raised my hands.

"I killed my last heir," he said. "He disappointed me. Please, please, please do not disappoint me. Now walk over to that green trunk. Go, go, go."

Hands still raised and shaking, I walked to the chest. It had a lock, but the key lay plainly atop it.

"Open it. Look inside."

I fumbled at the lock for some time, but managed to unlock the trunk. I hesitated before opening it.

"Quickly! Quickly!" Anton urged.

I rose up and backed away as I threw open the trunk.

"Look inside!"

I inched closer and saw what looked like folded sheets of gray leather lying in the trunk. Then I saw what looked like a hand. Then the thing moved and I saw its face — a bestial face with slitted red eyes and a maw full of brown teeth. I had seen it before. That portrait on the banknote. What I had thought were the young man's shoulders and cloak were actually the head and body of the vampire latched to the young man's throat.

The creature grasped the edge of the trunk and spilled itself onto the floor. It scrabbled toward me like a broken umbrella come to life. Then it leaped at me.

It clasped my head and its teeth found my throat, and I felt a pain and an ecstasy unlike anything else I had ever experienced. It continued drinking as I sank to the floor and the world went black.

When I awoke this morning, I was alone. I checked the trunk and found the vampire had crept back in and closed the lid behind itself. It slept soundly. I gently closed the trunk again, replaced the lock and put the key safely in my pocket. I found Anton by the stairs, where he had put the gun in his mouth and blown away the top of his head.

Now Anton Maier is dead, and I will live forever. Unless I tire of it, as Anton finally did. But I do want to live forever now, for I love my vampire dearly.

And now I must return to work, for I have many letters to write, and my German is still very weak.