Originally published in The Edge Tales of Suspense, 2001; Artwork by Jakob Grim

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Vermilion Teardrop

My name is Ramona LePore. I wasn’t always called that. I was baptized Christina Webster, but that was in another lifetime.

I loved B movies, especially vampire flicks. From Andy Warhol’s Dracula to Castle of Blood. I’d seen them all, knew all the plots, knew when each drop of blood would be sucked.

I didn’t earn enough money to buy expensive clothes, but I frequented the thrift shops, found what I needed and dressed in black from head to toe. Sometimes I’d wander into places like Saks and lift an item or two—no harm. Those places rip off their customers most times anyway. 

I dyed my natural strawberry blonde hair black. I even got a tattoo of a bat on my shoulder.

I decorated my apartment in red and black, had a coffin in the bedroom. Not a real one, just a prop from an off -Broadway play. An actor friend of mine gave it to me—a gift for going down on him.

I wanted to be a vampire. [...]

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Sandy DeLuca
Sandy DeLuca
Sandy DeLuca is a critically acclaimed American novelist and poet—and a prolific painter. She is a two-time Bram Stoker Award nominee, born in Providence, RI, and has lived in New England all her life. She left the corporate world in 2011, and she now divides her time between writing and painting. For more information about her work visit her at: sandy-deluca.com.