He was among the locals and tourists trapped in that little shop when Italian troops declared curfew. An unseasonable cold front lightly dusted medieval Kotor with snow. He couldn’t remain until morning but preferred to leave undetected.
He walked past quaint hats and other curios intending to escape out the rear.
“Monsieur, stay. You’re safe with us.” The Frenchman thought he was being kind.
“I have business elsewhere,” he said in accented French.
Antonie slipped into the darkness, encountering the three soldiers patrolling the alley. Later, they’d recall experiencing sudden fatigue. No one knew what happened to the Vampiritic-looking Romanian.
I authored this for the Rochelle Wisoff-Fields writing challenge. The idea is to use the image above as the inspiration for crafting a piece of flash fiction no more than 100 words long. My word count is 100.
At first, I had no idea what I was looking at. I did a Google image search but it primarily came up with salami and various cloth items. Finally, I was able to figure out they were stacks of knitted hats.
I saw the photo was credited to Björn Rudberg so I went to his blog and saw the domain country extension was .me which is Montenegro. I did more Googling (the research took longer than the actual writing) and found the medieval coastal city of Kotor among other things.
I couldn’t find a news story that interested me, but noted the history of the area during World War II and how it was primarily occupied by the Italians from 1941 to 1943. That still didn’t provide me with a complete “hook,” so I leveraged the vampire character Antoine from my Sean Becker Undead Series and placed him in Kotor when the Italians first occupied the area in April 1941. Given the snow in the background of the photo, I made up an unseasonable cold snap.
I’ve read stories (okay, Marvel’s “Dracula” comic books from the 1970s) which took a modern-day vampire and sometimes set him back in history through flashbacks/memories. I thought I’d try that with Antonie who exists in 2017 but who is thought to be very old.
To read other stories based on the prompt, visit InLinkz.com.
Dear James,
A rather mysterious and atmospheric story.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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That’s what I was shooting for, Rochelle. The original story was over 300 words long so it required a lot of editing. Thanks.
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I actually love the research you put in this even more than the story itself (which I really did enjoy). The picture is indeed hats, but they are from Madeira, and a trip we did. The tourist shop was perfectly identified though.
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Sorry. I couldn’t figure out the exact location so I just made something up. Thanks, Björn.
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That’s perfect.
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An interesting tale James.
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Thanks.
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Vampires and woolly hats – full marks for ‘out of the box’.
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Well, I wanted something different. Thanks, Sandra.
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Did he suck some blood from the soldiers or leave them alive? I kinda hope he did.
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He sucked blood from the soldiers and left them alive. As I mentioned in Emergence, vampires can feed without killing their host, unlike humans, or as Spock once said (in the 1967 Star Trek original series episode “Wolf in the Fold”), “In the strict scientific sense, Doctor, we all feed on death, even vegetarians.”
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Was he a vampire or just vampiritic in his demeanour? I guess that’s up to us to decide! Nice one.
Click to read my FriFic!
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Deffo a Vampire. Read more about him and his latter-day family of vampires in Emergence.
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Atmospheric and intriguing. Where did she go?
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Antonie is a he. “Antonie is a Dutch and Romanian masculine given name cognate to Anthony and a Southern German feminine given name cognate to Antonia,” according to Wikipedia. The most immediate destination is where he could hide during the daylight hours. After that, someplace he could stay out of the way of the war, although where that might be in or around Europe I’m not sure right now. It might make for an interesting series of stories, though.
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Thanks for clarifying the actual intended form of the character’s name. In the course of your vampire stories in which he features, you have sometimes spelled the name “Antoine” (a French form of the name, pronounced “An-twahn”, which would not be unknown in Romania), and sometimes as “Antonie”.
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Pesky typos.
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Sure, as long as you don’t go overboard on the exposition 😉
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Who? Me? 😀
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It works well. I thought maybe he’d done that vampire mind control thing on them, but sucking a little blood works. Unless he’s the kind that sucking a little blood but not killing means more vampires running around.
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He has to drain and kill them before they become vampires and there’s a three-day incubation period. Antonie can feed taking just enough for his needs. As far as their memories as concerned, it’s unclear if mind control would be enough (vampire mind tricks) vs. taking some blood and leaving behind a chemical that messes with the victim’s short term memories.
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Well, at least he didn’t kill them. That was totally outside of the box! I liked it very much.
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Thanks, Dale. You know he is a vampire and they are Fascist troops, so no one is a particularly “nice guy” in this scenario.
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Of course
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i think you did great in your research coming up with that story. i had problems figuring out what the picture was all about, too, until i read the other stories. 🙂
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I tried as much as possible not to read the other stories in order to keep their visions from influencing my own. Admittedly, I read Rochelle’s because I was desperate, and then afterward, I was able to see the stacks of woolen caps. Thanks.
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Aah a vampire! How lovely 🙂 Must read your other stories featuring him now! And of course, as usual, hats off for the background research and explanation!
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“Hats off,” eh. Such a pun. 😉 Thanks and please let me know what you think of the other vampire stories. The latest one is Without God.
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Wow, you really put a lot of time into getting this story written! I did the google search and came up with salami, too. Strange. Enjoyed your story very much, was surprised to meet the vampire at the end 🙂
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Surprises are good. They keep the story interesting. Thanks.
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Hope he thanked the soldiers for his drink.
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I don’t think he’s that courteous. Besides, they’d never remember.
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I like the Dracula angle. However not all Romanians are Dracula. Good take on the prompt.
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True. He is a Romanian because the most famous vampire in the world is Romanian but you’re right, most Romanians aren’t vampires. He also isn’t actually Dracula. Thanks, Balaka.
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Love the “twist”. I always love the “twist”.
Mine: https://kindredspirit23.wordpress.com/2017/12/22/tend-to-your-knittin/
Scott
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Thanks, Scott. I always try to deliver.
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Delivering the Twist – I like the sound of that….may have to steal it someday.
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Please do.
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🙂
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Vampiritic is a new word for me had to look it up. Fascinating read about how you decided your take. Seasons Greetings.
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Thanks, yearnspinnerr. Seasons Greetings to you as well. So many different sorts of holidays one could celebrate in December. My wife is Jewish so we observe Hanukkah, though it’s a rather minor holiday on the Jewish calendar. The grandkids love it (what kid doesn’t like candles?) as well as playing dreidel and all of the yummy fried foods that are part of the tradition. Hope you enjoy your holidays (I’ll be shoveling snow this weekend it seems). By the way, I love learning new words. My daughter’s favorite word that I taught her is “antediluvian” which she loves applying to me.
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Here in India we too have a lot of festivals each with its own flavor. Besides the many Hindu festival (after all we have 330 m deities), Id, Bakreed, Xmas etc are also celebrated even by people of other religions.
My children especially love the plum cake.
After all life should be one continuous festival 🙂
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Well said, yarnspinnerr. Thanks.
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‘Genius is 99% perspiration’ – and so, by your account, is coming up with an imaginative take for FF. You had a great idea featuring a vampire in a story where hats are the prompt!
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Yeah, I’m not fond of “ordinary” stories so I had to figure out something, Penny. Thanks.
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that’s a hell of a lot of work for a hundred words!
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Not the most research I’ve done for a flash fiction story, Elizabeth. Thanks.
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Sinister, James, well done. Have a good Christmas
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Thanks, Michael. Merry Christmas to you.
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Great job of research, James. Your vampire was quite believable. Good writing. Season’s Greetings. 🙂 — Suzanne
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Thanks, Suzanne.
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