Episode 2: Beer & Bloodlust

(wip)

## Content Warnings

"Please bear in mind that this show is a work of horror fiction and frequently places characters in situations which jeopardise their psychological and physical health. This episode contains:

– mild profanity

– references to sex

– discussion of the process of dying

– medicalised descriptions of death processes and dead people

– death, including violent death

– references to medical procedures

– hospital settings

– mentions of blood

– mentions of infidelity

– descriptions of blood"

## Detailed Summary

It’s been 48 hours since Alfie last drank blood. He’s not hungry, but he’s cold, he hopes some warmed-up IV fluids will help. He knows he’ll die anyway, but wants to postpone it as long as possible. He knows there’s no guarantee he will live as a vampire, but Casper says he’s more likely to survive, because he reacted well to the blood. Alfie is worried about him, especially since Casper’s weaker after giving Alfie so much of his blood. Alfie continues to tell the story.

He didn’t see any more people with torn-out throats until about a week before he was meant to move out. An older man was rushed into A&E after being found by neighbours. He had the same neck wounds as the girl, and he died almost immediately. Terry pointed out that there was weirdly not a lot of blood where they found him.

Terry invited Alfie to go out together, which he hasn’t done in a while. He got very drunk, and found another body while trying to get some fresh air. The man had the same neck wound as the previous people.

Alfie stops the story to drink more blood. He describes the experience of drinking it, and says it stops him from feeling his injuries. He says the longer he will string this out, the more painful it would be to die if he just stopped drinking it. He wonders if the right choice would have been to never drink the blood.

He gets back to the story. After finding the body, he called the police. He gave a statement, got himself a cab, and cried the entire way home.

Alfie didn’t see another one of the victims for a long time, but from other hospital staff, he heard that they kept coming in every couple of months. There began to be suspicions of a serial killer.

Alfie saw the fourth person with their throat torn out. She lived longer than usual. The next day, Alfie met with Haley, who started training to become a hematologist. They talk about their failed love lives before Alfie has to go to work. His shift is quiet until an ambulance brings another victim. Just after her, a group of people involved in a car crash was brought in, and the staff prioritised them over the girl because they deemed her unsavable.

In the chaos, a man entered A&E and went behind the curtain of the girl with the torn-out throat. Alfie was the only one who noticed him, and he felt frozen in place until the man disappeared from his field of view. He immediately went to tell him to leave, but he found the man dropping blood into the patient’s eye. Before Alfie could question him, the patient woke up. Alfie called over other staff, and they managed to stabilise her, she could sit up and talk. He didn’t tell anyone about the man. The girl, Linda, suddenly got worse, but they managed to save her.

Alfie tried to talk about the man he saw, but he was physically unable to. Alfie dreamed about the man after he got home.

Alfie’s worried about Casper, he seemed scared when he was leaving. Alfie plans to visit his family again before he dies. He still hopes Casper will come back.

## Notes

1. ↑ Content warnings taken directly from the podcast's website: https://hangingslothstudios.com/nqd-2/