I converted the rest of my wallet to more of a woman’s wallet, including the other cards inside at least converting to show my new name, not knowing whether they were going to be good for anything. Then I grabbed some bag from my pile of other possessions and turned it into a small purse also matching my current outfit. I put my license in the wallet, my wallet in the purse, and also put my lipstick and phone in.
“Anything else I should get before going into the unknown place where I am powerless? Tampons, perhaps?” I suggested, trying to think of what else women carried in their purses.
“No tampons, unless it’s just for show and you really expect humans to inspect the contents of your purse. We don’t menstruate and can’t get pregnant. Taking over humans is the only way we make more vampires. And this is only going to be a short demonstration trip, so you’re fine.”
With that said, I closed up my purse and followed Kelly through the door. Once through, she didn’t wait for me to ask the obvious question before answering it.
“Limbo is a place between the dimension in which Trans-Sylvania exists and the one you know, where humans live. It’s a drab, featureless place illuminated by a dim but universal light that doesn’t make any shadows because it shines from every direction at once. Whatever it is, it’s not sunlight, and doesn’t hurt us. We use it as a massive garage to store everyone’s cars.”
Indeed, the short distance we had crossed in the time it took her to say that had brought us to a single line of parked cars that stretched on out of sight in both directions, spaced somewhat irregularly, with enough room to park additional cars after every second or third car. Some of them were fancy, some outrageous and bizarre. I saw mine as we approached and led Kelly to it. It was definitely the plainest car in sight, the cheap used car I’d been using. Well, Brad had used it, as a college student.
“You said that our power doesn’t work here. I can’t change my car into some other car. But it looks like some of these people have.”
“Oh, there’s a trick to that. We have another power that’s still active here inside Limbo. We can make portals that connect us to other locations, including locations within Trans-Sylvania or within the human world. Try to connect to your home. It’ll move the location that Limbo door goes to from over there where it was to right here.”
I wasn’t quite sure how that was going to work, but it just did. The door was there, and I opened it, and my room was there with my stuff just as we left it.
“Now stand in your room, looking at your car, and you’ll be able to change the car while you have the power within Trans-Sylvania.”
I stepped through the doorway and turned around to look at my car. With another thought, I turned my car into a Porsche 911 in the same bright red color as my outfit.
“Now that’s a car!” Kelly exclaimed.
We climbed into my vastly improved car, and after I got a feel for how the car responded in the open plain of Limbo, Kelly showed me how to make a bigger portal which opened like a garage door, and it looked like a garage door, too, even though on the other side it opened out of the side of a hill. A short trail led onto a dirt road that led to a paved road somewhere near where I was trying to go. Once I was through, I could use GPS to find my way around. But we didn’t go very far. I went back into the “garage” and parked in the line of cars, and we went back into my room through the door I’d moved earlier.
Kelly commented, “You parked back in the same space you came out of, but you don’t have to. Commonly, you won’t come back through the same portal into Limbo that you left through, instead creating another one, and it could be far from where you started, though it seems like we always make portals within sight of the line of cars, which is why they are parked where they are. You can park in any open spot in the line and just move your door next to it to get back into your room. Technically, there’s no reason you have to stay in the line, but it’s been our convention so that cars aren’t just everywhere.”
“OK. I imagine that’ll be more useful when I go out there for something real, and not just for practice doing so.”
“Sure. Depending on what kind of job you get, you might go there frequently or hardly ever.”
“So how does that work? How do I get a job? Are there open jobs to apply to, or will I be assigned something?”
“It can be either. There’s no need to take a job immediately, but if you don’t take one, eventually one of the higher-ups will come along and assign you one, typically one that requires minimal skills and is something anyone can do.”
“So I should take a job so that I can do something I enjoy doing, rather than something random.”
“Yes. You won’t actually get paid; we don’t use money here. It’s just something for you to do to help with the work needed to keep this place running smoothly. None of the jobs need anywhere near as much time as the jobs humans do to earn money to live on, because our powers eliminate a lot of the work, and you’re not trying to pay for a house or taxes or anything. You can take time to explore the different kinds of jobs people do and then join in on something that’s not overloaded with workers, or even replace someone who wants to do something else.”
“Oh, good, so I’m not going to get stuck with the same job forever.”
“Nah, we wouldn’t do that. People switch around. There are people who’ve been around a long time who have basically done every job at some point.”
“How long has Trans-Sylvania been here, anyway?”
“Well, it got named in ancient Roman times, but there were vampires living in this dimension even before that. I don’t think anybody knows how far back it goes. As I understand it, in Roman days there were a lot fewer vampires, and there was a single portal that transported people between a forest in the human world and one on the surface here, and that it how it became called Trans-Sylvania, literally beyond the forest. It’s still possible for us to make portals directly from here to the human world, but it’s harder, so we usually go through Limbo. We established most of the conventions we use now, including the rule about only making new vampires to replace dead ones, several centuries ago. There are some vampires who have been here since that rule was established. Three of them who have been here since before 800 AD are the governors, to the extent this place needs governing.”
“How much governing is there, anyway?”
“Well, there’s very little crime. Most of our laws are loosely defined and boil down to ‘don’t mess with other people.’ There are the same major laws humans have, like don’t steal from other vampires, and don’t kill, maim, or rape anybody. There’s also a general principle not to steal from humans, but it has lots of minor exceptions where something isn’t practical. For instance, when you take your phone with you among the humans you are stealing their cell service, but the principle to maintain the secret of our existence supersedes that for small things and if we made every vampire get a legit cellular service plan, it would ruin the secrecy.”
“Didn’t people centuries ago believe in vampires? How did it become a secret?”
“That’s all associated with the time the rule about making new vampires was created. You can find books about it in the library. Look for stories of Vlad the Impaler.”
“Thanks. I’ve heard the name. I’ll look him up.”
“The library’s just one floor down, on 4. Opposite end to where the cafeteria is, which is the same on every floor.”
“So if you don’t spend a lot of time on your jobs, what do you do here? Are there social events?”
“The social events are all some people do! Let me show you. First off, I need to explain this space. You see how there’s only one door on this side of the room but there’s a space here where there could be another?”
“Yeah.”
“This is for your personal portal. You can put a door here to go wherever you want to go, any public part of the burrow. I’m going to make one for you to the first floor.”
And she made a portal there like she showed me from Limbo. She opened the door, and we were in a different hallway, not the one with the doors to the rooms in the 3700s. There were many doors, but all of them were the shimmery kind that told me they were portals that other vampires had created rather than real doors.
“Now that you’ve been here, you’ll remember this place and you’ll be able to connect to it yourself. Oh, one thing, when you are going to your existing, private portals you can connect to the one that’s there, or place one exactly there on the wall if there isn’t one. When you are opening one in a place like this, you can only approximately place it, because it can conflict with other people’s portals. Existing portals push yours out of the way into a clear spot.”
“Oh, that makes them safer, I guess.”
“Right. Now in this place, there are four big rooms. You can think of these as singles clubs. There are different ones based on what you want.”
I followed Kelly down the hall as she started this explanation, soon arriving at a crossing corridor. On that crossing corridor there were four large doorways, one on each side of the crossing corridor and each side of the intersection. Each had a sign above it in large enough letters that I could read them all from the intersection: Men Only, Women Only, Straight Only, and Anything Goes.
“Seems straightforward enough. As a woman, if I want to meet another woman, I go in the Women Only room. If I want to meet a guy, I go in the Straight room. I don’t go in the Men Only room at all. And Anything Goes means what it says, I guess.”
“Yep. You got it. And anything means anything. Some people just go in there because they are open to pairing up with both sexes. Some form groups. And while I told you everyone changes sex, there are a small number of people whose ideal form isn’t strictly male or female. We don’t get many like that, but they usually have trouble finding life partners, so you can find them hanging out in there a lot.”
So I went into the lesbian bar and Kelly followed. She grabbed a red button from a bin just inside the door and pinned it on her dress just above one breast. Once she got it on, I saw it was actually red and white, a crossed circle “no” sign with nothing behind it to be prohibited.
She explained, “This button indicates that I’m not here to meet someone, but instead as your host. It basically tells everybody to leave me alone. You’re free to wear one of these any time you come into one of these rooms if you just want to get a feel for what they’re like. You can even go into the Men Only room if you put on a button.”
“Wouldn’t it be obvious that I’m a woman?”
“Don’t count on it. Not everybody follows the social conventions you are used to.”
I considered putting on one of the buttons, but decided to give the full experience a try. There was a bar not too far in on the right, and the woman tending bar wore a button as well, but it was green with white icons of a fork and knife on it.
I asked Kelly, “Does her button mean she’s working here?”
“Yeah.”
“Why do you need bartenders if everybody can make any sort of food and drink that they want?”
“Some people just want the experience. Have you ever asked a waiter for suggestions? That’s what they are for. She’s got experience with all sorts of drinks, and there are waiters you’ll find in the dining area with experience with all sorts of meals. They can both suggest something based on whatever sort of mood or situation you and perhaps your date or group are in.”
“Oh, that’s cool. So that’s another job, I guess.”
“Yep.”
The dining area was also on the right, past the bar, while the left held an assortment of different kinds of casual seating without tables or with only small ones for people to set drinks on. Beyond that, there was a wall that went most of the way across but with an open doorway at the far left into a hallway. There were doors on the right heading into rooms from which I could hear music coming, and labels that indicated them as dance halls. There were different kinds of music in each, though I didn’t quite understand some of the genres or whatever they were labeling them with.
I went into one which had interesting-sounding music coming from it, and Kelly came with me. I danced with a few women there, and then came back to speak with Kelly, who’d watched me doing it, and we went back outside to speak where we could hear each other better.
“Looks like you’ll have no problem fitting in here,” Kelly said.
“Yeah. I know, it’s that whole ideal form thing. It’s just made a ton of hot women, and the ones here all want other women. Simply amazing. What was that last song I danced to? Something vampires created?”
“Oh, I should explain the translator.”
I listened eagerly to hear this explanation and waved my hand to indicate “go on.”
“We have translators within us. Each individual vampire has a built-in universal translator. We hear everything as in our primary language, and when we speak, each person around us hears it in their language. If you go among the humans, they will hear you in their primary languages, too.”
“Neat!”
“The few vampires interested in creating music go into human guise to market it in the human world, and it’s one of the ways we get money there legitimately, to cover costs we have there. Mostly we listen to human music, and in the room you went into it’s mostly American music, but there are some foreign songs, too, and that was one of those. I think it’s French, but the translator always makes it hard for me to tell unless I recognize the singer.”
“So those signs I saw like ‘Women Only’, are those translated too?”
“Yes, they are actually written in Latin. Officially, all public signs are supposed to be written in Latin, but the translator makes it hard to tell and I don’t think anybody’s enforced that rule in ages. But that reminds me of one of the limitations. Be careful with puns, and alliteration and other wordplay. Those things don’t translate well and may be lost on the ears of your listeners. Likewise, translated songs won’t necessarily rhyme, but the translation tends to maintain the meter, though sometimes awkwardly.”
“Oh, that’s important to know. I had... Well, Brad had a group of friends he used to eat with in college and every dinner was a contest among our group to top one another in puns. I’ll miss that, though there was a lot of other stuff there I won’t miss.”
“You can still do puns if you find speakers of the same language to do them with.”
“Thanks. Maybe I’ll try to find some English-speaking friends here who I can pun with.”
In another of the dance rooms I met a girl named Anna who seemed completely enamored of me. I almost told her I was named Brad before I caught myself and used my girl name, Brandy. I’d barely used the name at all before, but now I was going to have to get used to it. After three songs with Anna, when I left the dance floor and walked over to Kelly, Anna came with me.
“Oh, who’s this?” Anna asked.
But Kelly took care of it. “Hi, I’m Kelly, Brandy’s host.”
“Host? Oh, Brandy, you’re new here?”
“First day,” I told her.
“Wow! I’ve never met a first-day before.”
“Well, there’s a first time for everything. Anna, I’d like to have dinner with you. Or lunch. Whatever time it is. It’ll be my first date as a girl.”
“Sure, I’d love to. And it’s dinner time, at least for me. Some people follow different schedules here.”
“Let’s go get a table and you can tell me about it.”
Kelly chimed in, “As your host, I’m supposed to stick with you at least until you make it back to your room, but you can tell me to leave and I’ll find you later here, there, or at Anna’s room, wherever. You have my contact on your phone.”
“I’m fine if you eat with us if it’s OK with Anna.”
“Sure!” Anna responded.
So the three of us went over to the dining area Kelly and I had passed earlier. We waited a couple minutes until one of the women with the green fork-and-knife buttons came over and led us to a table.
“I’m Sarah; I’ll be your server today. If you know what you want, I can take your order now, or just the drinks. I can also provide the menu of suggestions if you like.”
Kelly spoke up, “Thanks, Sarah. This is Brandy’s first time in the restaurant and only her second meal in Trans-Sylvania, so please bring the suggestion menu.”
“Wow, first-timer!” Sarah exclaimed as she placed a menu in front of each of us. “OK, Brandy, you should be aware that this menu is just a list of popular dishes, to help people who have trouble deciding. Just like in the cafeteria, you can order anything you want. The only restrictions are the eating laws that apply over all Trans-Sylvania, and also that here, we won’t serve anything that’s still alive.”
I was afraid to ask what people ate that was still alive, but Anna spoke up quickly, “I’ll have a root-beer float with a shot of vodka in it.”
“I’m not actually old enough to drink alcohol,” I admitted.
“That’s true where you came from, but there’s no drinking age here,” Kelly explained. “You were 19, which is old enough to drink in some countries. Except in unusual circumstances we only bring in adults. But nobody’s going to force you to drink. You can order what you want. It’s possible to get drunk, but harder to stay drunk. If you remake your body, even if just as an alternative to peeing, any drunkenness will go away. Even if you don’t do that, when your body remakes itself overnight, any hangover will go away with it. So you can order alcohol if you want, but don’t feel pressured to do so just because your date is drinking.”
“I’ll have a coke,” I said.
“And I’ll have a margarita,” Kelly added.
Sarah left and came back with our drinks after only a minute, and left again to let us think. The menu was huge. In the entrees there were about 30 dishes with pictures, names, and suggested side dishes on each side of each of 8 roughly legal-size laminated sheets. There were two more double-sided sheets for appetizers, with even more on each page because there was no need to list sides. The desserts occupied almost three more of those sheets, but half of one side of one of the dessert pages listed about 100 drinks. The menu spanned every sort of cuisine available anywhere: American, Mexican, French, Italian, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Indian, Jewish, Middle Eastern, and still more that I couldn’t place. One of them was just a big plate of various different meats, with no sides, and Kelly explained that was Brazilian.
“You said you usually only bring in adults? What happens in the exceptional cases?”
“In host training I was told that if a child is seen as a convertee, the host would be someone who wanted to be a parent and they would stay together until the child was of age. And they would give those hosts extra training. An area on floor 12 is set aside for those children, their parents, and whatever else they need, but beyond that, I don’t know.”
When Sarah came back, I ended up ordering a steak with a loaded baked potato, Anna ordered a platter of mixed seafood, and Kelly ordered enchiladas and rice with mole sauce. The food came back in about 5 minutes, since of course they didn’t have to cook it, just make it on a plate, so we didn’t even have time to talk about stuff and ended up talking as we ate, with Anna starting by finally explaining the different schedules, as she’d promised.
“Some people, like me, try to follow a typical daytime schedule for our time zone, which corresponds with eastern European time in the human world. They get up around 6 AM and go to bed by 10 or 11. Others behave like people would expect for vampires, sleeping during the middle of the day and up all night. And others do whatever. People who work in places like this club usually work two four-hour shifts a week and are off the other days. Some of those people just sleep whenever they get tired and only bother with a schedule to make sure they are awake for their shifts. We can stay up longer than humans, but I recommend you don’t skip more than one night of sleep in a row. Your body will really appreciate getting some sleep.”
Kelly added, “There are other jobs, like the ones who keep the cafeteria stocked with plates and such, who do a job that only takes an hour or so at a time, but they do that job at the same time every day, so they follow a regular sleep schedule. Different people come in to do it at different hours. There are other jobs that have irregular or even make-your-own schedules, and they sleep as the job permits. For example, farmers work on the surface, so they have to work at night to stay out of the sun, but they do different amounts of work at different times of the year, so there can be weeks they work 6 or 8 hours a night, and other weeks they only work 2 hours all week, but it balances out over the year to a similar amount of time to what other people work.”
There were lots of interesting job options. They both described more of the jobs people do here as we ate our dinners and then dessert, for which we all had a chocolate cake Anna recommended.
I was really feeling attracted to Anna, so much so that during dessert I asked, “What are the rules here about sex?”
Kelly replied, “The only rule is do what you and Anna agree to do; non-consensual sex is still rape here and it’s one of the few crimes we execute vampires for. There is no reason you can’t have sex on the first date if you and Anna agree to it. Of course, the definition of sex is slightly different for you as a lesbian than what you knew as a straight man, but I think you can figure it out, and Anna looks eager to show you. You should do it in one of your rooms; that could be yours or Anna’s. Though I’ll definitely be leaving when you get to that point, of course.”
Anna then responded, “Kelly’s right. I’m happy to help you test out the new equipment, Brandy!”
When we had all finished our desserts, I said, “OK. Even though it’s not really set up yet, let’s try my room. I want to make sure I know how to get back there.”
Kelly said, “OK, that will be my last lesson for you tonight. Let’s go back out into the hall where we came in.”
Kelly dropped off her “no” button by the door, and Anna and I followed her out. She stopped at a blank patch of wall between other people’s portals.
“Where’s the one you made earlier?” I asked.
“I dropped that after we walked away from it. The people who leave their portals up usually aren’t expecting to stay here long; they find someone and leave with them quickly. If we all did that, there wouldn’t be enough room for the doors!”
I thought about the number of people I’d seen in the club, the fact that there were four clubs, and the number of doors. “That makes sense, Kelly.”
“Now it’s time for you to link to that patch on your wall. Just think like you did when you remade the portal to your room from Limbo, but focusing on the blank wall where I made the portal for us to come here.”
It took me a few minutes, but I made it work, and we all went through. Once Kelly saw that we’d made it, she reminded me that I could contact her by phone, and left.
“That’s a good reminder for me to get your contact on my phone, Anna.”
“Sure.”
Once that was done, Anna grabbed me and gave me a long, intimate kiss. For a while, being with her wasn’t any different from one of my human dates at this stage, except for the ability for my date to fondle my breasts and for me to get off from her playing with my nipples. This eventually led to us getting fully naked and Anna teaching me the ways of vampire lesbian sex. It was mostly, I imagine, like human lesbian sex, except with the ability to create lingerie and sex toys on demand. We used the shower after a long session left us covered in sweat and other fluids, and I practiced the ability that substitutes for laundry by remaking the sheets.
Even though I’d started the day late, I’d done a lot, so when Anna was ready to call it a night, I did too. Anna portaled directly to her own room using that fourth door space in my room and closed the portal behind her. I climbed into the refreshed bed naked, and I was asleep within minutes.