By Keith Steeclif
The Castro District of San Francisco was one of my favorite places to hunt and a spotted my target the night before. Vampires are very territorial and younglings tend to stick to a small area for fear of upsetting an older vampire.
Over the years, I’ve become a master of tracking vampires without them detecting me. So it was a simple matter for me to get close enough to this young one to shoot my dart. It contains a special mixture of holy water, garlic extract, tranquilizers, and other ingredients. I’d discovered the formula years ago and it was perfect for knocking a vampire unconscious for a couple hours.
By the time the vampire came to, I had him back at my house in the basement. He was strapped down to a chair, arms up over his head with heavy chains. His legs were strapped to a straight board, again with heavy chains, and his ankles where in solid steel stocks.
“What is this?” the Youngling shouted, trying to frighten me with a fierce showing of fangs. I knew he could not escape from these chains and stocks. Dozens of prior vampires older than this one had tried to break free and failed.
“Don’t bother with your bravado,” I said, “I am Arthur VanHielsing. I assume you’re familiar with the last name.”
“Of course,” he said, “Your ancestors are cursed daily by every vampire. But I wasn’t aware that another wretched VanHielsing spawn had taken up the family tradition of vampire killer.”
The Youngling was Asian; Chinese. He was strikingly handsome with a most impressive build. I’d removed his shirt while he was still unconscious. I’d also removed his shoes and socks and replaced them with slippers.
“Oh, you have me all wrong,” I replied. “Yes, I am a vampire hunter, but I am not a vampire killer. You see, I have a certain predilection and I’ve discovered that vampires are the perfect subjects for my entertainment.”
“What do you mean?”
“Your powers are impressive. Particularly your hyper-acute senses. I’m sure you’ve enjoyed all the advantages of having such heightened senses.”
I rolled a stool over to the end of the stocks and sat on it. I pulled off the slippers to expose the Youngling’s bare feet. I’d been impressed by his feet when I’d removed his socks earlier. They were meaty and well proportioned with a descending line of toes.
“But your powers can work against you too,” I continued. “Especially Younglings who haven’t learned how to control their powers yet. Then your senses can be too sensitized. Allow me to demonstrate.”
I placed the tips of my fingers on the Youngling’s heels and slowly started to role them upward. The vampire’s eyes opened in complete surprise and he tried very hard not to react. But before I was half way up his bare sole, the Youngling was struggling to stifle his laughter.
It is a common misconception that vampires have a low body temperature because they are undead. Actually, as long as they have fed regularly, their metabolism runs faster than a mortal’s and their body temperature it slightly higher. The Youngling’s feet were incredibly warm and soft as I rolled my fingers across his bare soles.
By the time I reached his toes, the vampire burst out with laughter. But once I’d run the length of his feet, I paused.
“What most people and most vampires don’t know is that your kind is excruciatingly ticklish.”
“I will kill you, human,” the Youngling said with as much ferocity as he could manage given the situation he was in.
“Oh, you can save the monster act for someone else. I’ve had far older vampires than you in this chair. Now, how about we start with something simple? What is your name, Youngling?”
“I will rip your head off,” he said.
“My, what a big, scary vampire you are. Let’s see how tough you are when I use this light, little feather on your bare soles.”
“NO!” the Youngling managed to protest before I started stroking his feet with the feather. His laughter spilled out in a loud torrent. He tried mightily to break free of the chains and stocks, but it was to no avail.
“You must have been very ticklish as a mortal,” I shouted above his screaming laughter, “Because you are definitely one of the most ticklish vampires I’ve ever captured. The feather must be pure torment. And of course, since you are undead, you can’t be tickled to death. I can tickle you for as long as I want. I can tickle your feet forever. Are you sure you don’t want to tell me your name and earn a break?”
The Youngling laughed and laughed, cursing me whenever he could manage enough breath. After several minutes, he finely shouted, “Lok! My name is Lok!”
I pulled the feather away. “See how easy that was, Lok? I’ll give you a couple minutes to catch your breath.”
Of course, a vampire doesn’t really need to catch his breath, but they hang on to a lot of the habits of mortals. Lok was panting hard and taking large gulps of air. While he recovered, I took several pictures of him and his bare feet. I also had several hidden cameras recording every second for me to enjoy later.
“Why are you doing this?” Lok said once he was breathing normally.
“I told you, I have a predilection. I absolutely love to tickle. Growing up a VanHielsing, I used to play capture the vampire with my friends. I’d catch them and tie them up. And since I obviously was going to put a stake through their hearts, once they were tied up, I used to tickle them.
“Then, when I captured my first vampire, I was curious to find out if vampires where ticklish. That first one was a Youngling less than a decade since he was Turned. And boy was he ever ticklish. Actually, I think you might be more ticklish, but at the time I’d only tickled humans before and his reaction was amazing. I must have tickled him for twelve hours straight. Ever since them, I’ve traveled the world in search of the most ticklish vampires. And you, my friend, are definitely one of my greatest finds. Not only are you fantastically ticklish, but you are so adorable and have an incredible body. I think we’ll be playing for quite some time.”
“Playing? Is that was you call this. Seems more like torture to me.”
“Nonsense. A powerful vampire like you cowered by a little tickling. I bet it beats a stake through the heart.”
“Barely.”
I moved up behind Lok and leaned over the top of him. I put my fingers at the base of his stomach and started to roll my fingers upward. Lok started giggling right away, but didn’t laugh in earnest until I hit his ribs.
“Stop!” he shouted, “Please, no more tickling.”
I ignored him as I moved slowly up into his exposed armpits. Lok’s laughter increased, although not the degree as when I was tickling his feet. “Ticklish feet and ticklish body. Lok, I think I am in love.”
“You’re evil!” he shouted through his uproarious laughter.
I gave him a short break as I moved back toward his feet.
“I’m evil? That’s an interesting comment from the likes of you.”
“I am what I am,” Lok mummered, breathing heavily. “And I’m not a killer. I take only what I need and my prey are usually none the wiser.”
“Yes, I know,” I replied. “That is why I’m only playing with your ticklish body. I have no intentions of destroying you.”
I knelt on the floor before Lok’s bare soles.
“Oh please, don’t tickle my feet any more. It’s unbearable.”
“I sorry, Lok, I can only image how it must be to find yourself so devilishly ticklish when for years you’ve probably had barely any contact with another being, human or vampire. Your senses must be on fire. But I just can’t help myself. I adore your ticklish feet and, in the end, you’ll be none the worse for wear,” I said. Lok tried to plead some more, but I started to lightly tickle Lok’s left sole and he was soon laughing to hard to protest.
I took my time, covering every inch of each of his feet, exploiting his most ticklish soles and madly wiggling toes. I’d tickled dozens, maybe hundreds of vampires, and Lok was easily the most ticklish by far. I actually thought for a moment that I might be able to tickle this vampire to death – again.
But Lok proved resilient and withstood my tickling over the next several hours. Alternating between his squirming feet and shuttering torso, I tickled the poor youngling all night long.
Finally, as dawn approached, I said, “It will be daylight soon. I have a special coffin here that you can use to rest. If I release you, will you behave?”
Lok didn’t respond right away, so I started to scratch his bare soles, making him scream with laughter.
“Yes!” he yelled.
“You promise,” I said, really scrubbing his feet good.
“Yes, yes, I promise, HAA HAA HAA, I’ll behave.”
I released the stocks and then undid the chains. In a flash, Lok leapt from the chair and pushed me to the wall, putting a hand around my throat.
“I would have thought that your ancestors would have taught you better about trusting vampires,” Lok said.
“Oh, they are not my ancestors,” I replied, “I am their’s.” I easily pulled Lok’s hand away as I displayed my fangs.
“You’re one of us? And yet you still bring us here for tickle torture.”
“Again with the word torture. But yes, I do like to bring younglings here and have my fun.” I grabbed Lok by his throat and lifted him off the ground like a rag doll. I moved over to the other side of the room where there was a huge coffin. “Three hundred years ago, I captured my first vampire and, as I’d said, I tickled him for hours.”
Lok grabbed at my hand, trying to break my grip, but it was useless. I easily put him in the coffin and started strapping him down inside it. “But then I realized I didn’t know what to do with him. If I let him go, he would surely kill me. And I didn’t want to kill him; I don’t believe that vampires are inherently evil. So I made him Turn me. I became a vampire myself so that I could use my powers to find and tickle other vampires without fear of their revenge. And I’ve been tickling younglings like you ever since.
Lok was secured into one side of the large coffin. His arms were up over his head and his feet were strapped too far apart to rub together. I pressed a button and two handsome young shirtless and barefoot men came in.
“My Familiars,” I explained, wrapping my arms around both of them and teasing their ribs. They giggled and squirmed, but didn’t try to fight me off. “They submit to my every whim and in return I take care of them. Some hope that someday I will make them a vampire. I can’t tickle humans the way I tickle our own kind, but I still enjoy it. Would you like a drink before you retire?”
Despite the way we are portrayed in the movies, vampires have remained mostly invisible to mortals because we don’t drain our victims dry. A small drink, no more than one would give at a blood bank. But since our saliva gives mortals a temporary power of regeneration, the wound is healed in seconds and the suffer no ill effects from our feeding.
Lok was obviously spent from his night of tickle torture, so he accepted as one of the men offered his wrist and Lok took a drink. I fed on the other one, stroking his right armpit as I drank from his neck.
I climbed into the coffin next to Lok, my head at his feet. The two familiars shut the lid and the heavy locking mechanism was engaged. Then I heard them lock the outer door. We were perfectly secure. Although the inside of the coffin was pitch black, both Lok and I could see as if it was daylight. I gazed at his bare soles and said, “Just a little more fun before we settle down for a good day’s sleep.” I started to diddle his soles and Lok started to giggle.
“How long are you going to keep me imprisoned here and tickle me?”
“Don’t worry, Lok, I will eventually tire of you and let you go. You should be here more than, say, a decade or two.”
I started scratching Lok’s soles more fervently, causing peals of hysterical laughter to fill the coffin. It was true, I would like have Lok in my company for many years, but what’s a few years of continuous tickling when you have eternity ahead of you?
As the sun slowly rose, I tickled Lok’s ultra-sensitive soles until the daylight forced us both to sleep. In the years that followed, Lok, like many before him, would discover that ticklishness was the true curse of the vampires.