HLS No. 6: Le petit mort

Arromanches-les-Bains, Vichy France, 1941: A vampire novelette by Van Rung

The heroine of Van Rung’s “Le petit mort” lives two lives, negotiating—not always smoothly—between daylight and darkness, romantic love and platonic loyalty, the discipline of an artist and the hunger of a creature of the night.

Symphony by Abigail González Piña (CC BY-SA 4.0)

“There is no God, is there?”

Those were the first words I uttered to him after he did what he did to me, after he made me what I am today.

“Oh, but Estelle, my child, we are like unto gods!”

“My name’s not Estelle, it’s Jolie.”