.: At Least I'll Give You Dark Delight [Jyrki] :. Info

Jyrki’s Point Of View:

The last modicums of the day were just disappearing when I left my mansion in the deserted suburbs of LA. Nobody was outside of their houses since they were either already on their way to the bars, or locking themselves up from the sinners that littered the City of Angels with filth. I still hadn’t decided which one of those two groups I was, since I was a saint by choice and sinner by destiny. But every saint had his or her sinning moments as well.

LA was my true home. I owned an apartment in my birthplace of Helsinki, Finland, but it just didn’t feel as welcoming as the life I had here. Helsinki was a place for people like Jussi; he loved drinking, partying, and banging both his drums and women all day. I, on the other hand, preferred a more relaxed environment with more options. Helsinki was a big place, but not as big as LA.

Sunset Strip was like my living room: so open and welcome to anyone who dared step in. The Oceanside was like my bedroom: quiet, calming, and usually where I went to find a solitary peace within myself. My kitchen and dining table, unfortunately, was the rest of LA; the parts I didn’t find beautiful in any way, shape, or form. It might have been shallow of me to pick the most awful of places of the city to feed upon, but was it not better to feed upon the sinners than the saints?

I climbed into my large black Range Rover and drove off into the sunset towards the city. It wasn’t a long drive since I arrived at my destination earlier than I thought I would. I was on time when I stepped into the café, which meant I was too early. My dinner partner for the evening was none other than my friend and fellow bandmate, Jussi. He was leaving for Helsinki for a few days tomorrow so we were getting together to catch up before he left. I could never meet up with him and arrive to the designated spot on time, though, since he was always late. That’s why I always tried to arrive a little bit after I was supposed to, but even then I ended up being early most of the time.

I ordered a coffee, which I knew I wouldn’t finish, and sat down at one of the tables away from the windows of the crowded social gatherings. It didn’t take long for me to sense that he was approaching. And soon enough, I heard the glass door swing open and my sleepy, booze-smelling friend sat down across from me. No doubt that he had just woken up from a rough night.

“Hope you weren’t waiting here for too long,” he said insincerely like he always did when he was noticeably late. The band and I learned not to care anymore though.

“Don’t worry about it,” I replied, waving my hand in the air as if to dismiss the comment. “What have you been up to lately?”

“The usual,” he answered. Everybody who knew Jussi knew that ‘the usual’ meant booze and sex so I didn’t need more of an explanation. “What about you?”

“I’ve been working a lot lately. A few clubs asked me to DJ in the past week so I’ve had my hands all tied up with that,” I replied. The thing with LA clubs was that there was no such thing as ‘weekends.’ Everyone partied hardcore every day of the week, so it was difficult to find DJs to work all those nights. Not to mention that guest DJs were needed for more business. “Have you been DJing lately?”

“No, I’ve been too…uhm…preoccupied,” he said with a slight smirk forming on the corners of his lips.

“Women?” I asked dully, knowing that my guess was correct.

“Actually, a woman,” he replied, awaiting my reaction.

I looked at him with a slightly shocked expression on my face. “A woman as in, only one?” I asked, still unable to believe that Jussi was sleeping with only one of the 5 million women in LA.

The smirk got wider as I realized that he wasn’t kidding. “She’s a bombshell though. One of the guys from the record company recommended going to this strip bar and checking her out, so I got a private show with her. Let’s just say that it wasn’t the last time I saw her,” he replied, the smirk still clear on his face.

“Strippers usually do have amazing sex though,” I said, not really shocked that he was madly in lust with someone who could probably bend in positions any guy couldn’t even dream of.

“It wasn’t just sex, it was no-questions-asked, no-strings-attached kind of sex. And she loves partying and getting drunk and God knows what else she does besides have sex and drink,” he said as if he was talking about the Holy Grail.

“Sounds to me like you’ve found a female version of you,” I replied with a sly grin on my face, making him chuckle. “Are you meeting up with her tonight?”

“Probably. This has been the most eventful trip to LA so far so I need a grand ending to my vacation here,” he replied as we both stood up. “Where are you going right now?”

“I need to find some food. I’m starving,” I said as I threw the full cup of coffee into a nearby trash bin.

“Just stay away from the south neighborhood,” he said as we began to walk towards the door. “God forbid you have my little sex toy for dinner.”

I chuckled at his statement. “Don’t worry about it, I’m heading towards the west near the LA River anyways.” And with that, we both went our separate ways. Since the south neighborhood was pretty far from downtown LA, he hailed a taxi. It wouldn’t take me long to walk to the west, so I decided to do just that. I assumed that it would be easier for me to spot a lone victim anyways.

The city of LA got dark pretty quickly, much to my advantage. It felt like just five minutes ago that I was watching the sun go down from my car. It didn’t burn to be in the sun, like most people thought. As long as I wasn’t out there for too long at a time, nothing would happen. But it’s not like I ever wandered the streets in the daytime anyways.

I could feel the difference in the atmosphere the second I stepped into the west side of the city. The buildings looked more worn down and looked like there were no occupants inside of them. The streets were littered with random filth that people had just thrown onto them. The men eyed me as I walked past, but I was a pretty big guy so none of them bothered to make a move on me. All I needed to do was to find one person that could last me the whole night.

I arrived in front of the river eventually and looked out over the vastness of it, listening for any sounds whatsoever. This part of the city was dead at night, which also made it easier to hear for druggies wandering the streets alone. Those junkies would eventually become my idea of a pasta dinner. So I listened, but all I heard was the distance noises from the city. I was just about to give up and move to the east side of the city when I heard a brief scream. It was loud, but only lasted for a millisecond so I wasn’t sure if I was imagining it or not. I assumed the latter since my hearing was really sensitive. So I ran down the streets, searching for the source of the noise.

That’s when I saw it: a tall figure looming in a distant alleyway over a smaller figure, which looked like he or she was struggling against the bigger one. If I were in any other part of the city, I would have just assumed something normal and walked off. But this was the dangerous part of the city; somewhere where things like this happened all the time. Now, I wasn’t a superhero or anything, but the smaller figure needed to be saved and I needed to have something to eat, so the first thought that crossed my mind was how I was going to rip this guy’s head off.

As I got closer to the two figures, their outlines formed actual shapes. The taller figure was that of a man’s who wore nothing but a black pair of trouser pants. The small figure was a pretty, petite girl who had the biggest look of fear in her eyes imaginable. She knew she had no defense against the man and gave in just as he started unzipping her jeans. That’s where I had enough of watching.

I grabbed the man from behind and threw him to the closest wall. The girl still hadn’t moved since she was too much in shock from the situation she was in. “Are you okay?” I asked as I approached her and put a hand on her shoulder as a comforting gesture. She flinched at my touch and I realized she was shaking. I didn’t blame her though. No girl should go through what she had almost experienced.

Suddenly, her eyes shot open as she looked at me. “Look out behind you!” she yelled. I turned around only to see the man already standing up and pointing his weapon of choice, which was a small black handgun, straight at my stomach. Before I could move out of the way though, he shot and the bullet pierced through the side of my stomach.

My fingers pulled the bullets out in no time though as I felt my skin start to close on the area the wound was. I looked back up only to see the handgun now pointing to the girl. There wasn’t even time for fear to cross her face as the handgun took yet another shot, hitting her straight in the hip. Her figure slumped and she fell down onto the cold, hard floor of the alleyway.

I turned my attention back to the criminal who had fired the two shots. He was just about to run when I grabbed him by the arm and chucked him at the wall in front of me. My teeth started to grow out as I cornered him against the wall there and then. The look on his face suggested that he knew he was going to die and there was nothing he could do to stop it. I felt a rush of gratitude inside of me. He now felt like how he made the girl feel.

I was just about to begin feeding on my new victim when I heard pained moans from behind me. I recognized this as the girl’s and I was stuck with two options: I could either fill myself up with this man’s blood, or I could save the girl’s life. In the end, I turned away from the man. He wasted no time as he sprinted to get out of the scene as quick as he could.

I leaned down to where the girl was currently laying and put my hand on her chest. Her heartbeat was slow and the wound had caused a lot of blood loss. She was dying and we both knew it. I looked straight into her eyes, debating if I should make the biggest move of my life. I had never been put into a situation like this before so I was torn between what was right and what was wrong.

My decision was made final inside my head as I looked around for something sharp. I found a shard of glass nearby and took it, slicing a small line across my wrist. She looked questionably at me as I held out my bleeding hand for her. I had no time to explain anything to her since my wound would probably be closing up soon, so I pressed the bloody wrist to her mouth. She looked utterly horrified at first, but the blood was being forced down her throat so she had no choice. For the first time in my life, I was saving someone’s life in the worst way.