Benjamin R. Smith

Nice dress,_ Victoria said.__hank you,_ Perpetua said. __o you mind if I ask you a personal question?__ictoria blinked. __h, what?

I built them what they wanted and I made a profit off of it. Now they call me a god...What fools these mortals be.

I see a cathedral, for instance, one that__ stood for centuries and I marvel and I wonder... How many people passed through the doors? What did they pray for? How many wars did they wish to see ended? How many christenings, weddings, and funerals? Same thing with a record, I guess. Who bought it? Did they ever make love while it was playing? How many times did they read the notes in the cover? Did a song on the album change their life? I suppose it's odd to think about things like that.

. __e__e both... I mean, you__e more so, but we__e both really fucked up emotionally. I mean, how do I know you__e not still loopy from being shot full of... of...___enzodiazepine,_ he said.__es, that._ Victoria__ eyes met with his a moment and then looked away. __t__ been awhile for me,_ she said at last. __ mean, I__e slept with people...___o have I,_ he said.

After a good roll in the hay, when he__ all peaceful and serene and he hasn__ a worry or a care in the world, and the euphoric calm of release is drifting through his cerebrum, that__ when you broadside him with the cold cruel fact that his life as he knows it is over!

I haven__ got time for a love life and that__ usually frustrating to the would-be lovers. Care to make a run for it?

Human__ aren__ concerned with reality, merely their perceptions of it.

It isn__ easy when life tears away the one person in a million you thought you could always trust.

In some literature, I__e read, weather is used as a metaphor. The darker and stormier the weather outside the more diabolical the deeds done. When the clouds roll away, however, the rain has washed away all the blood in the streets and the world is clean and new again, as if all the violence and destruction of the storm served a divine purpose.

Several things ran through my head as I watched this silent ballet: First, I was running low on pears, my favorite morning fruit. Second, I, as a woman, am much smarter than men, I having displayed foresight this male apparently lacked in regards to trash day. And finally, I desperately needed to see more of this man in his boxers.

Writing Vampire Erotica is like writing sex scenes for porcupines.

The first morning I really sat and watched him it was a Tuesday. I know that because Tuesday is trash day for our neighborhood. Unlike me, he leaves gathering up his trash for the morning of pickup instead of doing it the night before. My alarm went off at 6 AM and I went in to start the coffee maker, and as I went about selecting a bit of fruit from the bowl on my kitchen table I looked out the window. It was just a casual glance, and the human eye is attracted to movement.

Some people, when there__ a threat of everything they have being ripped away at a moments notice, they place value on the things they can keep with them, or find anywhere, so they can say __hese are my things, nobody else can touch them._

It's a big spooky place when you're in it alone. It's like you can hear all the whispers of all the voices of all the actors who ever played here. Kind of creepy. Like a church can be creepy when it's empty. You ever been in a church after hours?

When I was a kid, they had a saying, 'to err is human but to really fuck it up takes a computer._

Since you haven__ got a name,_ he said. __ guess you can pick one for yourself. Would you like to pick one for me to write down?__he stopped rocking and looked at him. __ can do that? It__ legal and everything?__e smiled. __t__ a free country again,_ he said. __t least in theory.__he nodded. __nd when I pick a name it can be any name I want?__e nodded.__hat__ your name?___ictor,_ he said. __ic, for short.___kay,_ she said, leaning forward and taking the pad from under his large thing hands. __ow do you spell that?__e spelled it and she wrote it down. Her handwriting was perfectly small and legible. __an I be Victor, too?_ she said, looking up from the pad.He smirked. __t__ a boy__ name,_ he said. __ou__e a girl. You have to add an i and an a to the end if you want to make it a girl__ name.__he looked down at the name she had written and added the letters i and a to the end. __ictoria,_ she said, passing the notepad back to the cop.__ello, Victoria,_ he said, smiling, taking the pad and pen back and presenting his hand for a shake. __t__ nice to meet you, officially.

On a wing and a prayer." (After being asked how the angels make love in Milton's Paradise Lost).

I__ sure the __ wouldn__ fuck a murder conspirator_ argument wins over many an internal affairs review board. Bring him in. It__l be in your favor.