Chapter 1
They’re Among Us
The screams of the crowds could be heard from a mile away. Once a year, the entire population of the small yet exciting Zeyva Town, named after their native Zeyva flower, gathered together to celebrate the annual Lovegram. The Lovegram was, for all intended purposes, a festival for couples.
Some would attend the celebration to look for their soul mate, brought together by what few would call love at first sight, and is more commonly referred to as, ‘a crush’. Most of the attendants had their sight set on Eva Haff, the towns very own beauty queen, only Jimmy was a bit different. He wasn’t like the rest, following his teenage instincts, trying to catch the hottest gal by the throat. He was more of the spiritual type, probably a bit shallow, as would be expected from someone his age, but spiritual nonetheless.
“H-hi,” said Jimmy to Jessica O’tanner, a senior he had secretly loved all through high school, “nice to, uhm, see you here”. the words barely came out of his mouth, for he wasn’t much of the talkative or self-confident type.
“Hey Jim,” replied Jessica, “what are you doing here?”
“Well I ...”, he said slowly, as he pulled his hands out of his pockets and shrugged, struggling to find something to say, “I don’t know really, I guess I’m here trying to … find my … soul mate?”
Jessica giggled and looked back at him. “Well,” she stated, “Good luck with that”.
“Doosh-bag,” said Harris, a senior bully of sorts, as he walked right into Jimmy and knocked him over, then smirked about it.
“Doosh-bag?” said Mark, Jimmy’s older and slightly more violent brother, “Who’re you calling a doosh-bag?” he continued, as he walked straight up to Harris and delivered quite a strong punch to the jaw.
“Ugh,” screamed Harris as he fell into the arms of his pack, “you son of a *****!”. He put his hand on his cheek, where he’d taken the blow, then stood up abruptly, and ran towards Mark yelling: “You’re gonna regret that!”
“Woops” said Mark, smiling and standing aside, allowing the now agitated Harris to dive towards the ground, head first.
“You *******, get back here” he yelled, and as the hustle continued, Jimmy shrugged again, and smiled at Jessica.
“Aren’t you gonna back up you’re brother?” she asked, looking quite confused.
“Nah,” replied Jimmy, “trust me, he can handle himself”. This appeared to be true in the background, as Mark now had Harris on his knees. “Alright then,” said Jimmy, “I guess I’d better be doing some of that soul mate hunting now, huh?”
“Ha-ha, yeah, I guess you should” replied Jessica.
“Okay!” said Jim hastily, as he rose his eyebrows and walked away. Jessica sighed.
“Ladies and Gentlemen,” said the announcer, who immediately got everyone’s attention, “I am happy to announce the winners of our annual Lovegram contest to be the couple of …”, everybody looked to the stage and awaited the names in suspense, “Jessica O’tanner and Jimmy Hane! Congratulations”.
“WHAT?” yelled Jimmy and Jessica at the same time, “There’s gotta be a mistake,” continued Jimmy, “we’re not a couple!”. He looked towards Jessica, who’s jaw had dropped, and continued: “Not that I don’t find you to be hot, but … we’re not!”
“Yeah, yeah,” said the announcer, who had left the stage and was now right next to Jimmy, “you keep saying that, but you’ll thank me one day. Everybody, give a huge round of applause for our winning couple”. The announcer, George Pite, whispered to Jimmy and Jessica: “What’s done is done, now you better get on that stage and smile, otherwise you two are gonna look like fools”.
“Damn,” said Jimmy, who was staring at the astounded Jessica, “well?”
“Alright,” said Jessica, after a short pause, “I guess.”
“Great”. He smiled and took her hand, walking her to the stage. The applause continued as the two climbed the stairs.
“What now?” asked Jimmy.
“Now,” whispered George, “you say a speech!”
“What? I can’t say a speech! I haven’t even prepared a speech!”
“Improvise!” said George, as he smiled to the crowd and climbed back down.
“Improvise?” muttered Jim under his breath, “what the hell does that mean?”. He stood there as the crowd applauded, thinking of something to say, until they all settled down. “Damn,” he said, “this is gonna be an awkward night”, and it was. Throughout the night, Jimmy talked about compassion, sympathy and empathy, stuff that had nothing to do with the occasion. Nonetheless, the crowd listened, and listened some more, until Jimmy got around to the right topic, love.
After the speech, Jim and Jessica left the theater, and headed for the park.
“That was amazing what you did back there,” said Jessica, truly impressed by what Jim was able to brush out of his shy brain, “I didn’t know you felt that way. That speech really had an impact on me. I’m impressed”.
“Really?” replied Jimmy, feeling more confident now, “Well, I’m happy to be of service”.
Jessica giggled, and was about to reply before she was interrupted. “Jessica!” yelled Eva Haff, for they were best of friends, “Where’ve you been? I’ve been looking everywhere for you!”
“Yeah,” replied Jessica, “sorry about that. After the speech, we thought we’d take a nice relaxing walk”.
“I heard about that, congratulations! Jimmy Hane, huh? I have to admit it, I did not see that coming”, she giggled, “I don’t think anyone saw that coming, but hey, the judges know what they’re doing, maybe even more than me”.
“I guess so,” replied Jessica, “well, I have to go Jim, see you at school tomorrow?”
“Uhm, yeah sure, I guess”.
“Good night”.
“Night!” replied Jimmy, who watched as Jessica and Eva turned around and walked away into the darkness. In turn, Jim left for home as well, thinking the whole way about the excellent evening he had spent with his secret love, Jessica. Once home, he couldn’t sleep. What had happened to him that night, hadn’t happened to him his whole life. In the morning, and despite being too tired to go to school, he pulled himself together and headed for class, he had to see Jessica again.
“Morning!” said Jim right after he’d arrived at class.
“Good morning to you too!” replied Jessica, “I had a lot fun last night, thank you”.
“Really? You did?”
“Yeah,” said Jessica, “I really did”.
Jim smiled as the social studies teacher walked in. “Good morning class” said the overpaid professor.
“Morning professor!” replied the class as a whole. All through the day, class after class, Jim couldn’t take his eyes off Jessica. He’d always loved her in secret, but this was different. He finally had the chance to open up to her, now that they’d spent a night that she enjoyed.
After school was out, Jim approached Jessica in hopes to ask her out on a date. He thought well before he did anything he might regret. A restaurant? Nah, that was too much of a cliché. How about the beach? He’d known her for a day and he was asking her out on a bikini date? The only reasonable suggestion was everyone’s favorite, the movies.
As he approached her, he thought of a nice way to start the conversation, but as this was his first time asking someone out, he had absolutely no idea what to say.
“Uh, Jessica?” he muttered under his breath, but there was no answer. He assumed she hadn’t heard him, so he called again: “Jessica?”
“Oh, yeah Jim” she replied as she turned around to face him. Her face was so beautiful, that Jim was choking on his own drool.
“Uhm … … Uh …”, he sighed, and his head dropped to face the ground. Jessica smiled, for she knew what was going on. “Are you trying to ask me out?” she asked.
“Uh, yeah” he replied, then smiled.
“This is the first time you’ve done this, isn’t it?”
“Yup!” Jim said, and they laughed together shortly.
“Well, let me help you out. Repeat after me. Jessica…”
“Jessica…” Jim repeated.
“Would you like to…”
“Would you like to…”, there was a short pause, “Oh right, uhm, would you like to go to the restaurant with me?”
There was another pause, “I mean the beach,” continued Jim. “I mean the movies? Damn it”. Jim was correcting himself so much, he didn’t even know what he was saying anymore.
“Yes Jimmy,” said Jessica, “I would love to go to the restaurant with you, or the beach, or the movies”. They laughed again.
“The movies it is” said Jim, “Pick you up at 8:00?”
“8:00 would be fine” said Jessica, “Do you know where I live?”
Jimmy grinned and walked away. Of course he knew where she lived. He’d had a crush on her for 3 years.
“Okay” said Jessica as Jimmy walked away slowly. He was so excited that he was about to blow up in his own body, but he had to keep cool in front of Jessica, otherwise, he would really look like a doosh-bag. The second he turned the curve and was no longer visible to his soon to be girlfriend, he jumped into the air and yelled: “YES!”
Meanwhile, in front of the school, Harris approached Jessica.
“Why are you going out with that doosh?” he asked, “When you could go out with me”. At this point, he was grinning so wide, he looked like a fragment from a batman movie.
“Walk away Harry-boy” replied Jessica as she tapped him on the chest and left, “walk away”.
“Yes! Yes! Yes!” continued Jim, as he scurried down the sidewalk, taking another left, “I can’t believe it!” he yelled, “Ugh, this is so damn awesome!”
“Hello sir!” said a person he had just passed. Jim turned to face the stranger, but he couldn’t recognize him.
“Uh,” replied Jim, “can I help you?”
“As a matter of fact, you can. Could you give me directions to Mystic Falls?” asked the stranger with what seemed to be a sarcastic smile.
“Yeah sure,” replied Jim, “you go … wait what? Mystic Falls?” asked Jim, immediately understanding the reference, “Alright, who the hell are you?”
“That’s not important,” said the stranger, “what is important is that I know about your brother. I know who, or what, he is”.
“Listen mister, I don’t know who you are, but you got the wrong person” said Jim, as he turned to walk away, but was swiftly grabbed by the wrist.
“Tell your brother,” stated the stranger, who had black hair and wore a rather big pair of glasses, “tell him that his current, well, situation, is not natural. Tell him that its gonna be bloody, and that what’s coming is coming one way or another, its inevitable”.
Jimmy quickly grabbed the stranger by the throat and pushed him against a tree. He was now approximately three feet from the ground.
“Who are you, and what do you want?” demanded Jimmy in a violent tone, but there was no response, only a sharp glare. “WHO ARE YOU?” yelled Jimmy, now angered by the stranger’s behavior.
“Ha-ha,” laughed the stranger, quite evilly, “you’re quit the tough ******* aren’t you? I’m starting to question my own intelligence”. His voice was very thick, being held by the neck and all.
“Yeah well question whatever you want, but if you ever so much as go near me or my brother, you’re gonna regret it. You’re gonna regret it a lot” said Jim, letting go of his neck. He then gave the man a fierce look, and walked away.
Who was this stranger, and how did he know what he knew? Jimmy wondered, and thought thoroughly about what had happened. He knew what had to be done, but could he do it? This was a real threat, a threat he hadn’t faced in a very long time, and he needed to consult his brother, Mark, and so he headed home.
“God damn it!” he yelled a couple yards out, “God damn it!”
A couple minutes later, he had reached a huge brown house, with black shutters, and a big black door. The front lawn appeared to have not been mowed in a very, very long time. There was no car in the driveway, and the garage door was rusted.
This was home, and Jimmy was happy to be there. He walked inside where Mark was waiting. Unlike his brother, Mark did no go to school. He didn’t see the point, for he was already more educated than anyone in town.
“What is it?” asked Mark, “I can see you’re a bit annoyed. Is something wrong?”
“As a matter of fact,” replied Jim, “something is wrong, very, very wrong! Did a tall dark haired fellow with giant glasses approach you?”
“Uhm, no! I don’t think so.”
“Yeah, well he approached me! And this is a big problem, for the both of us” replied Jim.
“Okay. How is that a problem?”
“The problem, my dear beloved brother, is that he said he knew about you.”
“WHAT?” interrupted Mark, “What did you say?” he demanded, immediately standing up.
“I said,” stated Jim, “he said he knew about you, and he said that you were unnatural, that the end would be bloody and inevitable. I threatened him, and it was like he didn‘t know about me, only you. Honestly, I don‘t think what I told him was enough to make him back off”.
“Oh, this is a problem.”
“That, it is,” said Jim, “quite the predicament”.
“Do you think he’ll go public? Hell, how do you even think he knows? No one knows about us, no one” said Mark, punching a wooden table standing next to him, shattering it into a pieces.
“I don’t know,” replied Jim, staring at the table that was no longer standing at all, “but we need to find out“.
“What we need to do is end him!”
“You mean kill him?” asked Jim, “Kill a person who probably thinks he’s doing the right thing?”
“What he thinks he’s doing is not our concern. What we should worry about is him exposing our kind. We need to put an end to this before it becomes a bigger problem, and we have to end it tonight”.
“Tonight isn’t a good time for me” said Jim, “I’m taking Jessica out to the movies”.
“Great,” joked Mark, “you’re going out on a date, whilst that ******* is out there?”
“Why are you so worried?” asked Jim, “He’s just one man, what can one man do?”
“One man can do a lot, as I am living proof of that”.
“Mark,” said Jimmy, “you’re not a man, and you’re not alive”.
“Maybe so,” replied Mark, “but I’ll show ‘goggles’ who I am, and what I can do”.
“You do that. I have to go”.
“Go where?” asked Mark, “You said you were taking her out ‘tonight’. There’s a lot of time from now till then, a lot of time we can make use of”.
“I have to go get some things, get ready for tonight”.
“Things? What things?” asked Mark.
“Well, a condom would be a good start”.
“A condom?” wondered Mark, “Jimmy, you’re not fertile, at least not with humans, that’s for sure. Why do you need a condom?”
“I might not be fertile, but she’s not supposed to know that, is she? Showing up without protection would raise suspicion. Just do whatever, I have to go”.
“Suit yourself” replied Mark, watching as Jimmy smiled and walked outside, “Ass”.
“*******” said Jimmy, now standing on the porch. He needed an excuse to leave, for he wasn’t ready to take an innocent life. Besides, he really did need a condom.
He looked around for something suspicious, then started walking to the nearest pharmacy. He’d only taken a few steps before the sound of sirens broke the silence.
“What the hell?” wondered Jim, looking at the passing ambulance as it turned down Groven Drive, “What’s going on now?”
He ran after the ambulance to see what was happening, only to be surprised by police presence.
“Excuse me officer,” he stated as he approached the police barricade, “what’s going on?”
“Please stay back sir!” replied the officer, “This is a restricted area”.
“Yeah, sorry, but could you please tell me what’s happening”.
“There’s been another attack,” replied the officer, “its ugly”.
“Another attack? When was there a first attack?”
“Yesterday downtown,” said the officer, “A backstreet alley. Same MO”.
“What MO?” asked Jim.
“Two puncture wounds to the neck. A lot of blood loss, most unaccounted for”.
“Missing blood?” muttered Jim under his breath, “Puncture wounds? It can’t be”.
“Is everything alright?” asked the officer.
“Uh, yeah. What are your thoughts?”
“What are you interrogating me?” asked the officer, with a smile.
“No, no, never. I just, well, need to know”.
“If you insist,” stated the officer, with an even deeper smile this time, “we’re thinking serial killer. Someone trying to impersonate a, uhm, vampire”.
“Vampire?”
“We know how it sounds,” said the officer, “but its all we have to go on at the moment”.
“Alright, thanks!” said Jimmy, turning away and jogging back home. “Mark!” yelled Jimmy, opening the door, “You still here?”
There was no response. “Damn it!” said Jim, turning to the door and walking back outside. “This is a bad day”. Jimmy thought well about what to do next. This was a mess to him. Two possible exposures in one day? He was terrified, and that was not like Jimmy.
He decided it wasn’t time to deal with this now, he had much to do, so he would wait until he could discuss this with Mark. He headed for the pharmacy once more, in hopes that he wouldn’t be interrupted again by some form of inconvenience.
The next few hours passed awkwardly slow. He looked at his watch that read 7:59. “Alright” said Jim, who was 20 minutes away from Jessica’s residence. He took a deep breath, and ran. 2 Seconds later, he was right in front of Jessica’s house! He knocked twice, and an old fellow answered the door.
“Can I help you?” he asked.
“Hello sir,” replied Jimmy, “I’m here for Jessica. Is she home?”
“So you’re the anonymous date she’s been talking about all day,” said the old man, “Jessica is home as it were. Let me call her for you”. He walked inside and closed the door behind him.
“Wooh!” said Jim, looking towards the street, immediately after which the door opened up again, and this time, it was Jessica.
“Right on time!” she said with a smile.
“Why thank you miss,” replied Jimmy, and they laughed for a second, “may we be on our way?”
“Yes we shall oh noble one” she replied with a smile, shutting the door behind her and taking Jim’s now extended hand. “Are we walking?” she asked.
“Well the movie doesn’t start till 9:00, so I thought we’d walk”.
“Nice thinking” she answered, starting to walk with Jim.
After they’d walked a good, silent ten minutes, Jim decided to say something, and that was the best decision he’d made all day.
“So,” he said, “how’s life serving you? Or is it serving you at all?”
“I’m doing just fine actually,” she answered, “I’ve applied for a full scholarship, and I’m still waiting for a response. I think I’m just grateful to have a family and a home. Thanks for asking, how about you?”
“Well,” stated Jim, “my life is kind of weird. I try to fit in, but as you‘ve noticed, I fail at that. Very few people see me for what I truly am”.
“What you truly are?”
“Sorry,” he said immediately, “I meant, who I truly am?”
“And who’s that?”
“Mm,” said Jimmy, “just someone trying to make it through. I’ve never intended to cause any trouble, not that I ever do, but, I don’t know why most people treat me the way they do. Sometimes, I feel that the only person who gets me for me is Mark”.
“I’d say so too. I really liked how he stood up for you at the Lovegram. He’s really a great brother”.
“Yes he is,” said Jim, looking at the movie theater which was now visible, “hey, we’re almost there”.
“Great!” exclaimed Jessica, “How about a race?”
“A race?” asked Jim humorously, with a smile, “You’re on”.
“Alright,” she said, slowing down to a halt, “One, two, three, GO!”
The two started to run with smiles bestowed on their faces. Jim was really having fun, something he wasn’t too familiar with.
“Almost there!” yelled Jessica, who was in lead, and then turned to look at Jimmy, who looked back and smiled, and for a split second, his eyes appeared to be red. They were in the final stretch, and Jessica won by only a couple feet.
“Wooh!” yelled Jessica at the theater entrance, “That was fun!” she continued, panting.
“Sure was,” said Jim, who didn’t show any signs of fatigue, “good race, you’re really fast!”
“Oh, I see what’s happening,” said Jessica, “you let me win!”
“No I didn’t!”
“Yes you did,” she said, “you wanted me to win. Hmm, such a gentlemen”.
“Thanks, but I have no idea what you’re talking about. I swear!”
“Sure you don’t,” she pointed out with a smile, “hey, during that last stretch, I could swear I saw your eyes glow red for a split second!”
“What? It was probably just the lights”.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought” she said.
“Alright then, lets go in”.
“Yeah,” said Jessica, “Lets”.
The film was short, but Jimmy felt like it took forever. For some reason, and for Jimmy’s utter misfortune, him a Jessica were separated, and seated about twenty yards apart.
“Damn it,” exclaimed Jimmy, who was counting on the romantic picture they’d chosen to get closer to Jessica, “my luck couldn’t possibly be this bad”.
A lifetime passed, and the movie was over.
“I loved the ending,” said Jessica to Jimmy at the exit, “so sad, yet so exciting!”
“Say what?” asked Jimmy, “Oh, uhm, I wasn’t really paying attention, uh, to any of it”.
“Really? What were you doing?” asked Jessica, tilting her head in a way that intrigued Jimmy a lot.
“Well,” he stated, “I spent the entire time in their feeling sorry for myself, and thinking about my terrible luck!”
“Why’s that?”
“Can you believe they sat us away from each other?” he asked in an angry tone, “Damn, this was a date. We were supposed to sit together, and enjoy a romantic evening, but no, they had to ruin it. Damn.”
“Aw, you wanted to spend a romantic evening with me? So sweat”. She giggled. “We could still go to lake! That would definitely be romantic. Sitting there under the moonlight. No body but us”.
“Really?” asked Jimmy, “But didn’t your father want you home at eleven-thirty? I really don’t want to upset him”.
“Don’t worry. He’s harmless, besides, he knows that when I say eleven-thirty, I usually mean one-thirty”.
“Cool!” he said, rather excited, “Stay here, I’ll go get some drinks”.
“Alright, don’t be long!”
Jim ran back into the theater, leaving Jessica alone in the parking lot.
“Miss,” said a driver, leaning out of his car window, which she was blocking, “could you let me through?”
“Oh yeah,” she said in a hurry, “sorry!”.
“It’s ok miss, good night”.
“Night!” she replied, moving even further out of the way. All of a sudden, she bumped into a tall person who was standing next to her.
“Oh,” she said, looking up to the stranger, “I’m so sorry. I didn’t see you there”.
“It’s totally fine,” he replied in quite a dark tone, “my bad”. Although he was a foot away from her, Jessica couldn’t see his face in the darkness. He was rather shady, and she started to feel afraid.
“Good night” she said, quickly turning away. “AH!” yelled Jessica, for the stranger was right in front of her again, “But you … you were behind me, how …”
The stranger smiled as Jessica attempted to walk away, only to be firmly grabbed by the shoulder. “Let me go!” she yelled, trying to get loose, “Let me go!” she repeated, but there was no response.
“I said,” she demanded, pulling even harder, trying to get free, “let me go!”.
“You’re not going anywhere!” said the stranger angrily, “You’re going with me”. His head was now closer to Jessica, but the only thing that stood out was his eyes, for they were red.
“My god!” she exclaimed, “Your eyes!”
“Yes,” said the stranger in a frightening tone, “do they scare you?”
He grabbed here by the neck, and a second later, she was behind the theater in a dark alley. “How,” she struggled to speak, for his forceful hand had cut off her air supply, “did you do that?”
“I’m not like you,” he said, “I’m not human”. He tilted his head, as Jessica started to lose consciousness, and he opened his mouth with a roar. His eyes were a deep red. He sounded like a lion, and she watched as a pair of fangs gradually grew in his mouth.
She was so terrified, and kicked the stranger in the chest, forcing him to fall back and release her. Jessica fell to the ground, and took a deep breath, then screamed at the top of her lungs.
“HELP ME” she yelled, and yelled again: “SOMEBODY HELP ME!”
The monstrosity stood up, and approached Jessica once more. She screamed again, and out of nowhere, a third party leaped from the nearby bushes and roared. It took a crouching stance. It too had fangs, and it roared at the monster again, scaring it away.
After it was gone, the savior retracted his fangs, closed his mouth, and turned to face Jessica with eyes red as blood. “Jimmy?” she said, as Jim’s eyes gradually returned to normal, “Is that you?”
He stood up, and walked towards Jessica who moved back in fear.
“Stay away!” she said in a demanding tone, “Wha-What are you?”
Some would attend the celebration to look for their soul mate, brought together by what few would call love at first sight, and is more commonly referred to as, ‘a crush’. Most of the attendants had their sight set on Eva Haff, the towns very own beauty queen, only Jimmy was a bit different. He wasn’t like the rest, following his teenage instincts, trying to catch the hottest gal by the throat. He was more of the spiritual type, probably a bit shallow, as would be expected from someone his age, but spiritual nonetheless.
“H-hi,” said Jimmy to Jessica O’tanner, a senior he had secretly loved all through high school, “nice to, uhm, see you here”. the words barely came out of his mouth, for he wasn’t much of the talkative or self-confident type.
“Hey Jim,” replied Jessica, “what are you doing here?”
“Well I ...”, he said slowly, as he pulled his hands out of his pockets and shrugged, struggling to find something to say, “I don’t know really, I guess I’m here trying to … find my … soul mate?”
Jessica giggled and looked back at him. “Well,” she stated, “Good luck with that”.
“Doosh-bag,” said Harris, a senior bully of sorts, as he walked right into Jimmy and knocked him over, then smirked about it.
“Doosh-bag?” said Mark, Jimmy’s older and slightly more violent brother, “Who’re you calling a doosh-bag?” he continued, as he walked straight up to Harris and delivered quite a strong punch to the jaw.
“Ugh,” screamed Harris as he fell into the arms of his pack, “you son of a *****!”. He put his hand on his cheek, where he’d taken the blow, then stood up abruptly, and ran towards Mark yelling: “You’re gonna regret that!”
“Woops” said Mark, smiling and standing aside, allowing the now agitated Harris to dive towards the ground, head first.
“You *******, get back here” he yelled, and as the hustle continued, Jimmy shrugged again, and smiled at Jessica.
“Aren’t you gonna back up you’re brother?” she asked, looking quite confused.
“Nah,” replied Jimmy, “trust me, he can handle himself”. This appeared to be true in the background, as Mark now had Harris on his knees. “Alright then,” said Jimmy, “I guess I’d better be doing some of that soul mate hunting now, huh?”
“Ha-ha, yeah, I guess you should” replied Jessica.
“Okay!” said Jim hastily, as he rose his eyebrows and walked away. Jessica sighed.
“Ladies and Gentlemen,” said the announcer, who immediately got everyone’s attention, “I am happy to announce the winners of our annual Lovegram contest to be the couple of …”, everybody looked to the stage and awaited the names in suspense, “Jessica O’tanner and Jimmy Hane! Congratulations”.
“WHAT?” yelled Jimmy and Jessica at the same time, “There’s gotta be a mistake,” continued Jimmy, “we’re not a couple!”. He looked towards Jessica, who’s jaw had dropped, and continued: “Not that I don’t find you to be hot, but … we’re not!”
“Yeah, yeah,” said the announcer, who had left the stage and was now right next to Jimmy, “you keep saying that, but you’ll thank me one day. Everybody, give a huge round of applause for our winning couple”. The announcer, George Pite, whispered to Jimmy and Jessica: “What’s done is done, now you better get on that stage and smile, otherwise you two are gonna look like fools”.
“Damn,” said Jimmy, who was staring at the astounded Jessica, “well?”
“Alright,” said Jessica, after a short pause, “I guess.”
“Great”. He smiled and took her hand, walking her to the stage. The applause continued as the two climbed the stairs.
“What now?” asked Jimmy.
“Now,” whispered George, “you say a speech!”
“What? I can’t say a speech! I haven’t even prepared a speech!”
“Improvise!” said George, as he smiled to the crowd and climbed back down.
“Improvise?” muttered Jim under his breath, “what the hell does that mean?”. He stood there as the crowd applauded, thinking of something to say, until they all settled down. “Damn,” he said, “this is gonna be an awkward night”, and it was. Throughout the night, Jimmy talked about compassion, sympathy and empathy, stuff that had nothing to do with the occasion. Nonetheless, the crowd listened, and listened some more, until Jimmy got around to the right topic, love.
After the speech, Jim and Jessica left the theater, and headed for the park.
“That was amazing what you did back there,” said Jessica, truly impressed by what Jim was able to brush out of his shy brain, “I didn’t know you felt that way. That speech really had an impact on me. I’m impressed”.
“Really?” replied Jimmy, feeling more confident now, “Well, I’m happy to be of service”.
Jessica giggled, and was about to reply before she was interrupted. “Jessica!” yelled Eva Haff, for they were best of friends, “Where’ve you been? I’ve been looking everywhere for you!”
“Yeah,” replied Jessica, “sorry about that. After the speech, we thought we’d take a nice relaxing walk”.
“I heard about that, congratulations! Jimmy Hane, huh? I have to admit it, I did not see that coming”, she giggled, “I don’t think anyone saw that coming, but hey, the judges know what they’re doing, maybe even more than me”.
“I guess so,” replied Jessica, “well, I have to go Jim, see you at school tomorrow?”
“Uhm, yeah sure, I guess”.
“Good night”.
“Night!” replied Jimmy, who watched as Jessica and Eva turned around and walked away into the darkness. In turn, Jim left for home as well, thinking the whole way about the excellent evening he had spent with his secret love, Jessica. Once home, he couldn’t sleep. What had happened to him that night, hadn’t happened to him his whole life. In the morning, and despite being too tired to go to school, he pulled himself together and headed for class, he had to see Jessica again.
“Morning!” said Jim right after he’d arrived at class.
“Good morning to you too!” replied Jessica, “I had a lot fun last night, thank you”.
“Really? You did?”
“Yeah,” said Jessica, “I really did”.
Jim smiled as the social studies teacher walked in. “Good morning class” said the overpaid professor.
“Morning professor!” replied the class as a whole. All through the day, class after class, Jim couldn’t take his eyes off Jessica. He’d always loved her in secret, but this was different. He finally had the chance to open up to her, now that they’d spent a night that she enjoyed.
After school was out, Jim approached Jessica in hopes to ask her out on a date. He thought well before he did anything he might regret. A restaurant? Nah, that was too much of a cliché. How about the beach? He’d known her for a day and he was asking her out on a bikini date? The only reasonable suggestion was everyone’s favorite, the movies.
As he approached her, he thought of a nice way to start the conversation, but as this was his first time asking someone out, he had absolutely no idea what to say.
“Uh, Jessica?” he muttered under his breath, but there was no answer. He assumed she hadn’t heard him, so he called again: “Jessica?”
“Oh, yeah Jim” she replied as she turned around to face him. Her face was so beautiful, that Jim was choking on his own drool.
“Uhm … … Uh …”, he sighed, and his head dropped to face the ground. Jessica smiled, for she knew what was going on. “Are you trying to ask me out?” she asked.
“Uh, yeah” he replied, then smiled.
“This is the first time you’ve done this, isn’t it?”
“Yup!” Jim said, and they laughed together shortly.
“Well, let me help you out. Repeat after me. Jessica…”
“Jessica…” Jim repeated.
“Would you like to…”
“Would you like to…”, there was a short pause, “Oh right, uhm, would you like to go to the restaurant with me?”
There was another pause, “I mean the beach,” continued Jim. “I mean the movies? Damn it”. Jim was correcting himself so much, he didn’t even know what he was saying anymore.
“Yes Jimmy,” said Jessica, “I would love to go to the restaurant with you, or the beach, or the movies”. They laughed again.
“The movies it is” said Jim, “Pick you up at 8:00?”
“8:00 would be fine” said Jessica, “Do you know where I live?”
Jimmy grinned and walked away. Of course he knew where she lived. He’d had a crush on her for 3 years.
“Okay” said Jessica as Jimmy walked away slowly. He was so excited that he was about to blow up in his own body, but he had to keep cool in front of Jessica, otherwise, he would really look like a doosh-bag. The second he turned the curve and was no longer visible to his soon to be girlfriend, he jumped into the air and yelled: “YES!”
Meanwhile, in front of the school, Harris approached Jessica.
“Why are you going out with that doosh?” he asked, “When you could go out with me”. At this point, he was grinning so wide, he looked like a fragment from a batman movie.
“Walk away Harry-boy” replied Jessica as she tapped him on the chest and left, “walk away”.
“Yes! Yes! Yes!” continued Jim, as he scurried down the sidewalk, taking another left, “I can’t believe it!” he yelled, “Ugh, this is so damn awesome!”
“Hello sir!” said a person he had just passed. Jim turned to face the stranger, but he couldn’t recognize him.
“Uh,” replied Jim, “can I help you?”
“As a matter of fact, you can. Could you give me directions to Mystic Falls?” asked the stranger with what seemed to be a sarcastic smile.
“Yeah sure,” replied Jim, “you go … wait what? Mystic Falls?” asked Jim, immediately understanding the reference, “Alright, who the hell are you?”
“That’s not important,” said the stranger, “what is important is that I know about your brother. I know who, or what, he is”.
“Listen mister, I don’t know who you are, but you got the wrong person” said Jim, as he turned to walk away, but was swiftly grabbed by the wrist.
“Tell your brother,” stated the stranger, who had black hair and wore a rather big pair of glasses, “tell him that his current, well, situation, is not natural. Tell him that its gonna be bloody, and that what’s coming is coming one way or another, its inevitable”.
Jimmy quickly grabbed the stranger by the throat and pushed him against a tree. He was now approximately three feet from the ground.
“Who are you, and what do you want?” demanded Jimmy in a violent tone, but there was no response, only a sharp glare. “WHO ARE YOU?” yelled Jimmy, now angered by the stranger’s behavior.
“Ha-ha,” laughed the stranger, quite evilly, “you’re quit the tough ******* aren’t you? I’m starting to question my own intelligence”. His voice was very thick, being held by the neck and all.
“Yeah well question whatever you want, but if you ever so much as go near me or my brother, you’re gonna regret it. You’re gonna regret it a lot” said Jim, letting go of his neck. He then gave the man a fierce look, and walked away.
Who was this stranger, and how did he know what he knew? Jimmy wondered, and thought thoroughly about what had happened. He knew what had to be done, but could he do it? This was a real threat, a threat he hadn’t faced in a very long time, and he needed to consult his brother, Mark, and so he headed home.
“God damn it!” he yelled a couple yards out, “God damn it!”
A couple minutes later, he had reached a huge brown house, with black shutters, and a big black door. The front lawn appeared to have not been mowed in a very, very long time. There was no car in the driveway, and the garage door was rusted.
This was home, and Jimmy was happy to be there. He walked inside where Mark was waiting. Unlike his brother, Mark did no go to school. He didn’t see the point, for he was already more educated than anyone in town.
“What is it?” asked Mark, “I can see you’re a bit annoyed. Is something wrong?”
“As a matter of fact,” replied Jim, “something is wrong, very, very wrong! Did a tall dark haired fellow with giant glasses approach you?”
“Uhm, no! I don’t think so.”
“Yeah, well he approached me! And this is a big problem, for the both of us” replied Jim.
“Okay. How is that a problem?”
“The problem, my dear beloved brother, is that he said he knew about you.”
“WHAT?” interrupted Mark, “What did you say?” he demanded, immediately standing up.
“I said,” stated Jim, “he said he knew about you, and he said that you were unnatural, that the end would be bloody and inevitable. I threatened him, and it was like he didn‘t know about me, only you. Honestly, I don‘t think what I told him was enough to make him back off”.
“Oh, this is a problem.”
“That, it is,” said Jim, “quite the predicament”.
“Do you think he’ll go public? Hell, how do you even think he knows? No one knows about us, no one” said Mark, punching a wooden table standing next to him, shattering it into a pieces.
“I don’t know,” replied Jim, staring at the table that was no longer standing at all, “but we need to find out“.
“What we need to do is end him!”
“You mean kill him?” asked Jim, “Kill a person who probably thinks he’s doing the right thing?”
“What he thinks he’s doing is not our concern. What we should worry about is him exposing our kind. We need to put an end to this before it becomes a bigger problem, and we have to end it tonight”.
“Tonight isn’t a good time for me” said Jim, “I’m taking Jessica out to the movies”.
“Great,” joked Mark, “you’re going out on a date, whilst that ******* is out there?”
“Why are you so worried?” asked Jim, “He’s just one man, what can one man do?”
“One man can do a lot, as I am living proof of that”.
“Mark,” said Jimmy, “you’re not a man, and you’re not alive”.
“Maybe so,” replied Mark, “but I’ll show ‘goggles’ who I am, and what I can do”.
“You do that. I have to go”.
“Go where?” asked Mark, “You said you were taking her out ‘tonight’. There’s a lot of time from now till then, a lot of time we can make use of”.
“I have to go get some things, get ready for tonight”.
“Things? What things?” asked Mark.
“Well, a condom would be a good start”.
“A condom?” wondered Mark, “Jimmy, you’re not fertile, at least not with humans, that’s for sure. Why do you need a condom?”
“I might not be fertile, but she’s not supposed to know that, is she? Showing up without protection would raise suspicion. Just do whatever, I have to go”.
“Suit yourself” replied Mark, watching as Jimmy smiled and walked outside, “Ass”.
“*******” said Jimmy, now standing on the porch. He needed an excuse to leave, for he wasn’t ready to take an innocent life. Besides, he really did need a condom.
He looked around for something suspicious, then started walking to the nearest pharmacy. He’d only taken a few steps before the sound of sirens broke the silence.
“What the hell?” wondered Jim, looking at the passing ambulance as it turned down Groven Drive, “What’s going on now?”
He ran after the ambulance to see what was happening, only to be surprised by police presence.
“Excuse me officer,” he stated as he approached the police barricade, “what’s going on?”
“Please stay back sir!” replied the officer, “This is a restricted area”.
“Yeah, sorry, but could you please tell me what’s happening”.
“There’s been another attack,” replied the officer, “its ugly”.
“Another attack? When was there a first attack?”
“Yesterday downtown,” said the officer, “A backstreet alley. Same MO”.
“What MO?” asked Jim.
“Two puncture wounds to the neck. A lot of blood loss, most unaccounted for”.
“Missing blood?” muttered Jim under his breath, “Puncture wounds? It can’t be”.
“Is everything alright?” asked the officer.
“Uh, yeah. What are your thoughts?”
“What are you interrogating me?” asked the officer, with a smile.
“No, no, never. I just, well, need to know”.
“If you insist,” stated the officer, with an even deeper smile this time, “we’re thinking serial killer. Someone trying to impersonate a, uhm, vampire”.
“Vampire?”
“We know how it sounds,” said the officer, “but its all we have to go on at the moment”.
“Alright, thanks!” said Jimmy, turning away and jogging back home. “Mark!” yelled Jimmy, opening the door, “You still here?”
There was no response. “Damn it!” said Jim, turning to the door and walking back outside. “This is a bad day”. Jimmy thought well about what to do next. This was a mess to him. Two possible exposures in one day? He was terrified, and that was not like Jimmy.
He decided it wasn’t time to deal with this now, he had much to do, so he would wait until he could discuss this with Mark. He headed for the pharmacy once more, in hopes that he wouldn’t be interrupted again by some form of inconvenience.
The next few hours passed awkwardly slow. He looked at his watch that read 7:59. “Alright” said Jim, who was 20 minutes away from Jessica’s residence. He took a deep breath, and ran. 2 Seconds later, he was right in front of Jessica’s house! He knocked twice, and an old fellow answered the door.
“Can I help you?” he asked.
“Hello sir,” replied Jimmy, “I’m here for Jessica. Is she home?”
“So you’re the anonymous date she’s been talking about all day,” said the old man, “Jessica is home as it were. Let me call her for you”. He walked inside and closed the door behind him.
“Wooh!” said Jim, looking towards the street, immediately after which the door opened up again, and this time, it was Jessica.
“Right on time!” she said with a smile.
“Why thank you miss,” replied Jimmy, and they laughed for a second, “may we be on our way?”
“Yes we shall oh noble one” she replied with a smile, shutting the door behind her and taking Jim’s now extended hand. “Are we walking?” she asked.
“Well the movie doesn’t start till 9:00, so I thought we’d walk”.
“Nice thinking” she answered, starting to walk with Jim.
After they’d walked a good, silent ten minutes, Jim decided to say something, and that was the best decision he’d made all day.
“So,” he said, “how’s life serving you? Or is it serving you at all?”
“I’m doing just fine actually,” she answered, “I’ve applied for a full scholarship, and I’m still waiting for a response. I think I’m just grateful to have a family and a home. Thanks for asking, how about you?”
“Well,” stated Jim, “my life is kind of weird. I try to fit in, but as you‘ve noticed, I fail at that. Very few people see me for what I truly am”.
“What you truly are?”
“Sorry,” he said immediately, “I meant, who I truly am?”
“And who’s that?”
“Mm,” said Jimmy, “just someone trying to make it through. I’ve never intended to cause any trouble, not that I ever do, but, I don’t know why most people treat me the way they do. Sometimes, I feel that the only person who gets me for me is Mark”.
“I’d say so too. I really liked how he stood up for you at the Lovegram. He’s really a great brother”.
“Yes he is,” said Jim, looking at the movie theater which was now visible, “hey, we’re almost there”.
“Great!” exclaimed Jessica, “How about a race?”
“A race?” asked Jim humorously, with a smile, “You’re on”.
“Alright,” she said, slowing down to a halt, “One, two, three, GO!”
The two started to run with smiles bestowed on their faces. Jim was really having fun, something he wasn’t too familiar with.
“Almost there!” yelled Jessica, who was in lead, and then turned to look at Jimmy, who looked back and smiled, and for a split second, his eyes appeared to be red. They were in the final stretch, and Jessica won by only a couple feet.
“Wooh!” yelled Jessica at the theater entrance, “That was fun!” she continued, panting.
“Sure was,” said Jim, who didn’t show any signs of fatigue, “good race, you’re really fast!”
“Oh, I see what’s happening,” said Jessica, “you let me win!”
“No I didn’t!”
“Yes you did,” she said, “you wanted me to win. Hmm, such a gentlemen”.
“Thanks, but I have no idea what you’re talking about. I swear!”
“Sure you don’t,” she pointed out with a smile, “hey, during that last stretch, I could swear I saw your eyes glow red for a split second!”
“What? It was probably just the lights”.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought” she said.
“Alright then, lets go in”.
“Yeah,” said Jessica, “Lets”.
The film was short, but Jimmy felt like it took forever. For some reason, and for Jimmy’s utter misfortune, him a Jessica were separated, and seated about twenty yards apart.
“Damn it,” exclaimed Jimmy, who was counting on the romantic picture they’d chosen to get closer to Jessica, “my luck couldn’t possibly be this bad”.
A lifetime passed, and the movie was over.
“I loved the ending,” said Jessica to Jimmy at the exit, “so sad, yet so exciting!”
“Say what?” asked Jimmy, “Oh, uhm, I wasn’t really paying attention, uh, to any of it”.
“Really? What were you doing?” asked Jessica, tilting her head in a way that intrigued Jimmy a lot.
“Well,” he stated, “I spent the entire time in their feeling sorry for myself, and thinking about my terrible luck!”
“Why’s that?”
“Can you believe they sat us away from each other?” he asked in an angry tone, “Damn, this was a date. We were supposed to sit together, and enjoy a romantic evening, but no, they had to ruin it. Damn.”
“Aw, you wanted to spend a romantic evening with me? So sweat”. She giggled. “We could still go to lake! That would definitely be romantic. Sitting there under the moonlight. No body but us”.
“Really?” asked Jimmy, “But didn’t your father want you home at eleven-thirty? I really don’t want to upset him”.
“Don’t worry. He’s harmless, besides, he knows that when I say eleven-thirty, I usually mean one-thirty”.
“Cool!” he said, rather excited, “Stay here, I’ll go get some drinks”.
“Alright, don’t be long!”
Jim ran back into the theater, leaving Jessica alone in the parking lot.
“Miss,” said a driver, leaning out of his car window, which she was blocking, “could you let me through?”
“Oh yeah,” she said in a hurry, “sorry!”.
“It’s ok miss, good night”.
“Night!” she replied, moving even further out of the way. All of a sudden, she bumped into a tall person who was standing next to her.
“Oh,” she said, looking up to the stranger, “I’m so sorry. I didn’t see you there”.
“It’s totally fine,” he replied in quite a dark tone, “my bad”. Although he was a foot away from her, Jessica couldn’t see his face in the darkness. He was rather shady, and she started to feel afraid.
“Good night” she said, quickly turning away. “AH!” yelled Jessica, for the stranger was right in front of her again, “But you … you were behind me, how …”
The stranger smiled as Jessica attempted to walk away, only to be firmly grabbed by the shoulder. “Let me go!” she yelled, trying to get loose, “Let me go!” she repeated, but there was no response.
“I said,” she demanded, pulling even harder, trying to get free, “let me go!”.
“You’re not going anywhere!” said the stranger angrily, “You’re going with me”. His head was now closer to Jessica, but the only thing that stood out was his eyes, for they were red.
“My god!” she exclaimed, “Your eyes!”
“Yes,” said the stranger in a frightening tone, “do they scare you?”
He grabbed here by the neck, and a second later, she was behind the theater in a dark alley. “How,” she struggled to speak, for his forceful hand had cut off her air supply, “did you do that?”
“I’m not like you,” he said, “I’m not human”. He tilted his head, as Jessica started to lose consciousness, and he opened his mouth with a roar. His eyes were a deep red. He sounded like a lion, and she watched as a pair of fangs gradually grew in his mouth.
She was so terrified, and kicked the stranger in the chest, forcing him to fall back and release her. Jessica fell to the ground, and took a deep breath, then screamed at the top of her lungs.
“HELP ME” she yelled, and yelled again: “SOMEBODY HELP ME!”
The monstrosity stood up, and approached Jessica once more. She screamed again, and out of nowhere, a third party leaped from the nearby bushes and roared. It took a crouching stance. It too had fangs, and it roared at the monster again, scaring it away.
After it was gone, the savior retracted his fangs, closed his mouth, and turned to face Jessica with eyes red as blood. “Jimmy?” she said, as Jim’s eyes gradually returned to normal, “Is that you?”
He stood up, and walked towards Jessica who moved back in fear.
“Stay away!” she said in a demanding tone, “Wha-What are you?”
Chapter 2
New Comrades
“You were not attacked by a monster,” said Jimmy, looking directly into Jessica’s eyes, his own being a deep red, “you did not see a vampire, you do not know that I am a Vampire. We went to the movies, had a good time, then you came back home”.
“I was not attacked by a monster, I did not see a vampire, I do not know that you are a Vampire. We went to the movies, had a good time, then I came back home” repeated Jessica after Jim.
“Alright then,” said Jim, “good night”. He stood up and left Jessica lying in her bed at 3:00 after midnight. She watched him go, one second he was there, and then he was gone in a blur.
“Ah” said Jessica, lying back comfortably on her pillow and falling into a deep sleep.
Jimmy stared at her window from the street. He didn’t expect to be exposed tonight, let alone by Jessica. Not only that, he was now sure that another vampire was in town. This was a huge problem, and even if they tried to contain the situation, it’d be difficult. Vampires were fast, strong, and hard to find.
“Messy,” said Jimmy, “very, very messy”.
He turned to check the street for any signs of disturbance, and after confirming the absence of any, he ran back home at immense speed, and arrived there merely 2 seconds later.
As he extended his arm to open the door, he heard a slight noise behind him, and immediately turned to look for the source. When there appeared to be nothing, he slowly walked off the porch, just to be sure. Suddenly, the door opened behind him.
“Bummer,” said Mark, who was standing in the doorway, “I’m guessing it didn’t go so well, huh?”
“No,” replied Jim, walking into the house, intentionally bumping into Mark, “it didn’t”.
“Wow, you’re really bad with women, aren’t you?”
Jimmy didn’t respond, instead he glared at Mark for a second, then laid his phone on the table and took of his jacket. “Great,” said Mark, “just ignore me”.
He rose his eyebrows then continued talking whilst walking into the adjacent room: “I tried to track down goggles today, but I failed. Apparently, he’s been asking around about the ‘Hane Brothers’, which is probably how he found you leaving school, and suggests that he knows where we live”.
“Yeah,” stated Jimmy, “well that’s the least of our problems”.
“What do you mean?” asked Mark, “Why are you always so pessimistic?”. He picked up a glass filled with a viscous red material, blood, and started drinking. Hunting was very tiring, and he needed the blood to charge back up. He was after all, a vampire.
“When have I ever been pessimistic?” replied Jimmy, “Anyway, Jessica found out that I’m a vampire tonight”.
At that, Mark spat the blood in his mouth all over Jimmy’s face, and yelled: “SAY WHAT?!”
Jimmy looked up at Mark, wiping his face clean with his palm. “I,” said Jim, spitting the rest of the blood out of his own mouth, “I compelled her to forget. You always overreact”.
“Sorry” said Mark.
“And you’re always sorry too,” said Jimmy, “but like I said, we have some other problems. There’s another set of fangs in town. He attacked Jessica, and I had to expose myself to save her. He got away”.
Mark took a deep breath, then said: “Can I overreact to this?”
“No”
“Alright,” said Mark, “I wanted to come home and have a good night’s sleep, but, eh”.
“You can sleep another day, this is a problem we can’t ignore. We don’t want to cause panic, nor do we want to compel ‘everyone’ in town. This one seems to be the type that‘ll attack someone every time it gets hungry”.
“So,“ replied Mark, “we need to find him and kill him. He attacked Jessica, so he’s not the good type of vampire. We have to kill him right now, and before the sun rises. We only have a couple hours”.
“Lets go”.
They turned around and left the room, heading for the door. Mark opened it up, stepping aside and allowing Jimmy to walk outside first.
“You’re gonna have to do a lot more than that to make it up to me” said Jim, “Tasting blood that was in your mouth has scarred me for life”.
Mark sighed, and walked outside behind Jimmy. “How many times do I…” said Mark, but was interrupted by Jim.
“Shh,” he said, “did you hear that?”
“Hear what?”
“Hear me” said a dark voice, hidden in the shadows, “I heard you were looking for me”.
The brothers turned to face the source of the voice, but they couldn’t see anything.
“Shit!” yelled Mark, “Jimmy!”. He looked at Jim as his eyes gradually became red, and a set of fangs grew out of his mouth. He zoomed at full speed towards the voice, in an attempt to take down the source.
“Mark!” yelled Jim, without an answer, only a loud boom. A second later, Mark flew sideways out of the darkness, landing on his back.
“Mark!” yelled Jim again, running towards Mark, who was lying on the ground, unconscious. Jimmy looked towards the shadows, and he started to turn. His eyes had also turned red, and two large fangs appeared in his mouth. In one swift move, he charged at the enemy, who in turn, ran for the woods.
“WUSS!” roared Jimmy, as he followed the monster at full speed, dodging trees and rocks with great reflex. All of a sudden, Jimmy lost sight of the predator. “Show yourself!” he screamed, as he slowed down to a halt. He looked around to get familiar with the surrounding, but to no end. There were only trees in every direction, and Jim feared to have lost any advantage.
“Here I am” said the vampire, who was standing right next to him. He gave Jimmy a forceful push, throwing him off balance, then said: “I’m stronger then the both of you,” the predator smiled, “your turn to run”.
Jimmy only had a second to think about what to do, and realizing that he didn’t stand a chance, he ran from the predator, disappearing in an instant.
“A hunt,” said the vampire, “fun!” He turned once more, and followed Jimmy even deeper into the woods. Jimmy looked around as he ran, with the enemy now on his tail. He needed a plan, and a great idea had occurred to him. He stopped and hid behind a tree, quietly, without the predator noticing. It kept running behind Jimmy, who was now getting ready to pounce.
“Scaboom!” yelled Jimmy, stretching his arm in the vampire’s path.
“Shit!” screamed the vampire, as he crushed into his arm at full speed, sending him flying through the air and crashing into a tree, then falling towards the ground. Jimmy seized the opportunity as he broke a tree branch and ran towards him.
He rose his hand to stake the vampire, but to his great surprise, its eyes opened wide, and it held Jimmy’s hand back.
“Not so easy” said the vampire, as he delivered a blow to Jimmy’s hand, knocking away the branch. He struggled to get up as Jimmy’s immense power held him at bay.
“AHH!” yelled the vampire, pushing at full force, with strength superior to that of Jimmy. Jim knew that the vampire would break free soon, so he took the advantage and zoomed towards the stake, picking it up and facing the vampire, who was now merely a feet away, and was breathing down Jimmy’s spine
“Hello” it said, with a thick voice, holding on to both Jimmy’s arms, pushing him slowly towards the ground. “Good bye” it said with a roar.
“Hey,” said Mark, who had appeared out of nowhere and was standing right behind the enemy, “that hurt!”
With one blow, Mark threw the vampire almost 20 feet into the air, and watched as it landed on its back. Jimmy picked up the stake and passed it on to Mark, who zoomed towards the unarmed and helpless vampire.
“You don’t mess with the Hane brothers!” said Mark, as he rose his hands, both grasping on to the stake, then stabbed the vampire with great strength, right in the heart.
“Argh” roared the vampire, as it gasped for air. Its skin started to turn pale, and its hair white. Its eyes gradually became blank, and its fangs retracted.
It struggled to speak, and Mark tried to listen.
“What was that?” asked Mark with a smile, as he got closer to the vampires mouth.
“He-He’s coming!”, said the vampire in an extremely low voice, “You don’t stand a chance!”
The vampire, now barely fitting that title, lost consciousness, and seconds later, was dead. Mark looked up at Jimmy, who was witnessing the execution. He stood up, and walked around for a second before saying: “Wooh! Well, that’s solved”.
“He’s coming?” stated Jimmy, “How is that solved?”
“We removed a threat, we should party! Wooh! The adrenalin is awesome!”
“You’re a vampire, you don’t have any adrenalin!” said Jim sarcastically.
“You know what I meant!” said Mark, as he zoomed into the distance, heading for home.
“What about the body?” yelled Jimmy, but to no end, “Sure, I’ll handle the body, as I always do. ‘Jimmy clean that’, ‘Jimmy clean this’, ‘Jimmy is the good brother who always cleans up good old Mark’s messes’, yeah well I’m tired!”
Jimmy sighed and continued muttering about how unfair his life was, as he walked towards the dead vampire’s body. With one stroke, the corpse was now on Jim’s shoulder. He looked around to find a suitable place to burry it, and as it seemed that every direction was the same as the other, he decided to burry it in its ground. He lay down the body again, and ran back home for a shovel.
A few seconds later, and thanks to vampire nature, he was back, shovel in hand. Skipping the boring details, he was done digging about 10 seconds later. He threw the body into the grave, and as he got ready to burry him, he saw something, a locket, and was overcome by curiosity. What if there was a lead, or something that could explain ‘who’ exactly, ‘was coming’.
Jimmy jumped into the hole, ripped the locket off the vampires neck, then frisked him. After finding nothing else, he jumped out of the grave and continued burying the monster.
When he was finished, he ran back home, only to be surprised by Mark standing outside. “What are you doing outside?” asked Jim.
“Ah,” replied Mark, “I thought I’d wait for you here”.
“You thought you’d … Never mind” said Jimmy, as he opened his palm, revealing the locket. “I found this on our Jan doe,” he opened the locket and looked at the picture inside of it, “what the hell?” muttered Jimmy, raising his head to face Mark, “This is impossible”.
“What?” asked Mark, “What is it?”
“This is Michael!” said Jim, looking at a photo of the vampire he had just buried, standing next to Michael, another vampire they knew.
“Michael?” asked Mark, as he approached Jimmy and observed the locket. “Holy God! Its Michael. What the hell?”
“I am at loss at how to explain this. I mean, Michael was all over the place. Maybe he turned this guy, but …”
“Yeah well,” said Mark, “its still quite curious. What if this dude was talking about Michael. ‘He’s Coming’, remember?”
“Yeah, but Michael’s dead, remember that? This photo’s in color, and Michael died long before colored photos existed.”
“Maybe,” said Mark, “he faked his death!”
“Vampires can’t fake their death,” said Jimmy, “we saw him get staked. Surviving that is like a human surviving a head shot, from a bazooka”.
“Michael was a very extraordinary and somewhat special vampire, it might be possible he survived, and that locket is proof of it”.
“Its impossible I tell you, impossible. But if Michael’s coming here, I mean if he‘s still alive, we are in big trouble. We failed him last time, left him for dead, and he’s probably out for revenge. I’ll tell you right now, he’s not the type to forgive”.
“Yes Jimmy,” replied Mark, “I know Michael, knew Michael, just as well as you did. But you can’t deny, he was anything but pure evil”.
“Suit yourself, but when he has you begging for your life, don’t expect me to come to your rescue”.
“I won’t need you to come to my rescue,” replied Mark with a smile, “I can handle myself!”
“Not around Michael you can’t. He’ll have you staked before you can blink, and mind you, even the oldest and strongest of vampires feared Michael. I doubt you’re any different”. Jim turned and walked to the door as Mark muttered from behind: “You’re always so god damn pessimistic!”
“I heard that!” said Jim, reaching to open the door.
“Of course you did”. Mark sighed and followed his smirking brother into the house. “I’m tired and hungry” yawned Mark, “I’m gonna get a pack from the basement, get you some?”
“Uh,” replied Jim, “sure, why not. Cow please!”
“Alright”. Mark headed for the basement where they kept their blood supply, composed of that from all sorts of animals. He walked down the hall and took a left, facing the open door leading to the basement.
“Jim!” yelled Mark, “Did you leave the basement door open? I’m sure I locked this!”
“Nope, I haven’t been to the basement today!” replied Jim. Mark looked at the handle, realizing it had been removed, then took a couple steps back and called: “Jimmy, get over here now! We have some unexpected visitors!”
Jim immediately ran to the basement door at full speed, and stared down the staircase with his bloody red eyes. He looked around, but Mark was gone. “Damn it!” he roared, zooming down the stairs, “Mark?”
“Mark’s taking a sleep,” came a thick voice from behind the shadows. Jim looked to the ground where Mark was lying, unconscious for the second time today. All of a sudden, Jim heard a rough scream as a stake emerged from the shadows.
He quickly responded, moving aside, watching a familiar face emerge. “Goggles?” yelled Jim, ducking and dodging another stake. He quickly thrust himself at the assailant’s legs, throwing him to the ground and disarming him. Standing up, he delivered a finishing blow to goggles’ face, knocking him out cold.
“What a day!” muttered Jim under his breath as he panted and stood up abruptly, “what a freaking day”. He held on tight to goggles’ arms and pulled him into a small room in the basement, one they’d built for this type of situation. After securing their new prisoner to an iron chair bolted to ground, Jim turned to wake Mark.
“Wake up you wuss!” said Jim, slapping Mark a couple times on the face, “Wake up!”
Moving his head, Mark slowly opened his eyes and coughed. “What, what happened?” he asked.
“Oh nothing,” replied Jimmy, “you just got knocked out for the second time today, by a human nonetheless. I think that’d be a first in vampire history”. He smiled and helped Mark up.
“Who the hell was it?” asked Mark, sitting back down, “Agh, I feel … dizzy and … dizzy, very dizzy“.
“I’m surprised he didn’t stake you! You’re very lucky!”
“Who did it?” roared Mark.
“Goggles!” replied Jim, seemingly annoyed from the current situation.
“Well where is he?” asked Mark.
“Dungeon, tied to the chair, all fresh and ready for you!”
“Ah,” said Mark with a smile, “thanks!”. He stood up and headed for the room. Looking back at Jim, he said: “Don’t wait up”. He smiled and closed the huge 10 inch thick steel door of the dungeon, and flipped the light switch, illuminating the room.
The prisoner was still unconscious, something that Mark found very intriguing.
“Awesome,” he said, punching goggles in the face, “WAKE UP!!”, but there was no response. After a few more blows, Mark realized that his punches were probably keeping goggles unconscious, for they were known to send people to sleep.
“I guess I’ll just sit here” said Mark, sitting down by the wall. About 20 minutes later, a period during which Mark was engaged in singing and whistling, his prisoner was awake, and ready for an unlawful interrogation.
“Great” stated Mark. He stood up and approached goggles. Holding him by the chin and squeezing, he asked: “What is your name?”
“Wha- what happened?” asked goggles, lifting his head, exhausted from the beating he’d just taken.
“You’re our prisoner, and we enjoy interrogating prisoners”. Mark released goggles’ chin and kneeled as to look him eye to eye.
“So,” stated goggles, “you’re gonna torture me?”
“I’m sure you can understand my reluctance to treat you nicely, however, I might forgive you, if you are entirely truthful with me!”
“Ok,” said goggles, “go to hell!”
“I assure you,” said Mark, standing up, “I’m already there”. He roared as he punched the prisoner in the chest. Another fist to the face, one more to the chest, Mark found that light torture wouldn’t be of any use, and decided to notch it up a bit.
“That’s how its gonna be then?” asked Mark, picking up a steel bolt. “This spot,” he continued, pointing to a cavity in goggles’ shoulder, “is a very sensitive part of your body. A whole lot of nerves meet here, and torturers usually graze a knife through this very spot, causing their subjects unbearable pain. But I have something else in mind”.
He turned around and left the dungeon. Goggles sat their in anticipation. It felt like forever until Mark was back, a bottle of alcohol in his hand, along with the bolt and a bowl.
“Now this,” he said, “is a more creative way to make you talk”.
He popped open the bottle and filled the bowl, then immersed the bolt. He then removed it, now rinsed in alcohol, and continued: “I’ll graze this into that shoulder, the pain will be unbearable, and the alcohol will make it, well, more unbearable. You‘ll either pass out, or talk, and trust me, it’s a win-win for us”.
He raised the bolt, and pressed it onto goggles’ shoulder, and just when he was getting ready to stab, goggles interrupted yelling: “No wait! I’ll talk, I’ll talk!”
“Alright then” said Mark with a smile, and as the suspense broke, he asked once more: “What is your name”.
Goggles dropped his head to the ground, then looked back into Mark’s eyes and said: “William Grad. That’s my name, William Grad, and now its you turn. Why are you torturing me, when you could simply compel me to tell you the truth?”
“Because Mr. Grad,” said Mark, “I enjoy this a lot more! Carry on, why are you in Zeyva Town? And why are you after us?”
“Because, you’re a vampire, and I kill vampires. You people are blood sucking demons, and wherever you go, you leave a trail of dead bodies behind you. You are ungodly creatures, created by mistake”.
“Well William,” said Mark smiling, “if you’d done your research, you would’ve found that neither me nor Jim kill humans”.
“Yeah sure, and what about the two dead bodies you forgot to clean up?”
“Those weren’t us!” roared Mark as he opened the dungeon door, then grabbed the chains restraining William, “And if you promise to behave, I can prove it!”
There was a brief silence, after which goggles made up his mind and said: “Alright, I’ll behave, you have my word!”
“Screw with me,” said Mark, “and I will kill you, I **** you not”.
“Alright, alright I get it!”
“Ok” said Mark, forcefully tucking the chains, breaking them apart. As William stood up, he glared at Mark, rubbed his wrists, then followed him out of the dungeon.
“This,” said Mark, leading William to a fridge in the east corners of the basement, “is our blood supply. We kill cows, rabbits, and deer mostly, and collect their blood here. We don’t even drink human blood, let alone harm them”.
He opened the fridge revealing hundreds of clinical blood bags filled with blood. He grabbed one of them and bit off the cap, humorously saying: “Want some?”
“Very funny,” replied William, a little more convinced that the Hane brothers had no hand in the two murders, “if you didn’t commit those murders, who did”.
“A rouge vampire from out of town,” said Jimmy who was walking down the stairs, “what’s he doing out of the dungeon?”
“I’m showing him that we don’t kill humans!” said Mark, taking a sip from the blood bag, “Hopefully he’ll leave us alone and be on his way, isn’t that right”. He stared directly into William’s eyes, displaying utter anger.
“Yeah,” replied William hesitantly, “sure, but where is said vampire?”
“He attacked my, uhm, girlfriend,” said Jimmy, as Mark giggled in the background, “we killed him and buried him in the woods”.
“Where in the woods?”
“We’ll show you!” said Mark, leading the way out of the basement.
“Never thought I’d be so friendly with vampires!” said William, “Nonetheless!” He followed Mark and Jim out of the basement, trying not to listen to the brothers argue about whether or not this was the right move to take.
“Are you sure we can trust him?” asked Jimmy.
“No,” replied Mark, “but we have to try, otherwise we’re gonna have to kill him. I’m not sure about you, but I don’t want a human life sticking on my conscience!”
“I hear you!” said Jimmy, heading for the door.
“Do you remember where you buried him?” asked Mark.
“Uhm, no, not really”. Mark sighed, following Jimmy to the porch as he continued: “Still, we’re gonna have to lo…”.
He was interrupted as three black SUVs showed up out of nowhere, parking outside in a haste. The back doors opened as two large men in black suites climbed out, pointing rifles towards the brothers. Being vampires, they could’ve reacted, but everything was happening so fast, and was unexpected.
As the men took aim, they fired multiple darts into both of the brothers, surprisingly knocking them out. One of them dismounted the vehicle, heading towards the unconscious vampires, as the other took aim at William.
“Traitor!” he yelled, as he fired two darts at Williams chest. Slowly falling to the ground, he lost consciousness and fell into a deep sleep.
“I was not attacked by a monster, I did not see a vampire, I do not know that you are a Vampire. We went to the movies, had a good time, then I came back home” repeated Jessica after Jim.
“Alright then,” said Jim, “good night”. He stood up and left Jessica lying in her bed at 3:00 after midnight. She watched him go, one second he was there, and then he was gone in a blur.
“Ah” said Jessica, lying back comfortably on her pillow and falling into a deep sleep.
Jimmy stared at her window from the street. He didn’t expect to be exposed tonight, let alone by Jessica. Not only that, he was now sure that another vampire was in town. This was a huge problem, and even if they tried to contain the situation, it’d be difficult. Vampires were fast, strong, and hard to find.
“Messy,” said Jimmy, “very, very messy”.
He turned to check the street for any signs of disturbance, and after confirming the absence of any, he ran back home at immense speed, and arrived there merely 2 seconds later.
As he extended his arm to open the door, he heard a slight noise behind him, and immediately turned to look for the source. When there appeared to be nothing, he slowly walked off the porch, just to be sure. Suddenly, the door opened behind him.
“Bummer,” said Mark, who was standing in the doorway, “I’m guessing it didn’t go so well, huh?”
“No,” replied Jim, walking into the house, intentionally bumping into Mark, “it didn’t”.
“Wow, you’re really bad with women, aren’t you?”
Jimmy didn’t respond, instead he glared at Mark for a second, then laid his phone on the table and took of his jacket. “Great,” said Mark, “just ignore me”.
He rose his eyebrows then continued talking whilst walking into the adjacent room: “I tried to track down goggles today, but I failed. Apparently, he’s been asking around about the ‘Hane Brothers’, which is probably how he found you leaving school, and suggests that he knows where we live”.
“Yeah,” stated Jimmy, “well that’s the least of our problems”.
“What do you mean?” asked Mark, “Why are you always so pessimistic?”. He picked up a glass filled with a viscous red material, blood, and started drinking. Hunting was very tiring, and he needed the blood to charge back up. He was after all, a vampire.
“When have I ever been pessimistic?” replied Jimmy, “Anyway, Jessica found out that I’m a vampire tonight”.
At that, Mark spat the blood in his mouth all over Jimmy’s face, and yelled: “SAY WHAT?!”
Jimmy looked up at Mark, wiping his face clean with his palm. “I,” said Jim, spitting the rest of the blood out of his own mouth, “I compelled her to forget. You always overreact”.
“Sorry” said Mark.
“And you’re always sorry too,” said Jimmy, “but like I said, we have some other problems. There’s another set of fangs in town. He attacked Jessica, and I had to expose myself to save her. He got away”.
Mark took a deep breath, then said: “Can I overreact to this?”
“No”
“Alright,” said Mark, “I wanted to come home and have a good night’s sleep, but, eh”.
“You can sleep another day, this is a problem we can’t ignore. We don’t want to cause panic, nor do we want to compel ‘everyone’ in town. This one seems to be the type that‘ll attack someone every time it gets hungry”.
“So,“ replied Mark, “we need to find him and kill him. He attacked Jessica, so he’s not the good type of vampire. We have to kill him right now, and before the sun rises. We only have a couple hours”.
“Lets go”.
They turned around and left the room, heading for the door. Mark opened it up, stepping aside and allowing Jimmy to walk outside first.
“You’re gonna have to do a lot more than that to make it up to me” said Jim, “Tasting blood that was in your mouth has scarred me for life”.
Mark sighed, and walked outside behind Jimmy. “How many times do I…” said Mark, but was interrupted by Jim.
“Shh,” he said, “did you hear that?”
“Hear what?”
“Hear me” said a dark voice, hidden in the shadows, “I heard you were looking for me”.
The brothers turned to face the source of the voice, but they couldn’t see anything.
“Shit!” yelled Mark, “Jimmy!”. He looked at Jim as his eyes gradually became red, and a set of fangs grew out of his mouth. He zoomed at full speed towards the voice, in an attempt to take down the source.
“Mark!” yelled Jim, without an answer, only a loud boom. A second later, Mark flew sideways out of the darkness, landing on his back.
“Mark!” yelled Jim again, running towards Mark, who was lying on the ground, unconscious. Jimmy looked towards the shadows, and he started to turn. His eyes had also turned red, and two large fangs appeared in his mouth. In one swift move, he charged at the enemy, who in turn, ran for the woods.
“WUSS!” roared Jimmy, as he followed the monster at full speed, dodging trees and rocks with great reflex. All of a sudden, Jimmy lost sight of the predator. “Show yourself!” he screamed, as he slowed down to a halt. He looked around to get familiar with the surrounding, but to no end. There were only trees in every direction, and Jim feared to have lost any advantage.
“Here I am” said the vampire, who was standing right next to him. He gave Jimmy a forceful push, throwing him off balance, then said: “I’m stronger then the both of you,” the predator smiled, “your turn to run”.
Jimmy only had a second to think about what to do, and realizing that he didn’t stand a chance, he ran from the predator, disappearing in an instant.
“A hunt,” said the vampire, “fun!” He turned once more, and followed Jimmy even deeper into the woods. Jimmy looked around as he ran, with the enemy now on his tail. He needed a plan, and a great idea had occurred to him. He stopped and hid behind a tree, quietly, without the predator noticing. It kept running behind Jimmy, who was now getting ready to pounce.
“Scaboom!” yelled Jimmy, stretching his arm in the vampire’s path.
“Shit!” screamed the vampire, as he crushed into his arm at full speed, sending him flying through the air and crashing into a tree, then falling towards the ground. Jimmy seized the opportunity as he broke a tree branch and ran towards him.
He rose his hand to stake the vampire, but to his great surprise, its eyes opened wide, and it held Jimmy’s hand back.
“Not so easy” said the vampire, as he delivered a blow to Jimmy’s hand, knocking away the branch. He struggled to get up as Jimmy’s immense power held him at bay.
“AHH!” yelled the vampire, pushing at full force, with strength superior to that of Jimmy. Jim knew that the vampire would break free soon, so he took the advantage and zoomed towards the stake, picking it up and facing the vampire, who was now merely a feet away, and was breathing down Jimmy’s spine
“Hello” it said, with a thick voice, holding on to both Jimmy’s arms, pushing him slowly towards the ground. “Good bye” it said with a roar.
“Hey,” said Mark, who had appeared out of nowhere and was standing right behind the enemy, “that hurt!”
With one blow, Mark threw the vampire almost 20 feet into the air, and watched as it landed on its back. Jimmy picked up the stake and passed it on to Mark, who zoomed towards the unarmed and helpless vampire.
“You don’t mess with the Hane brothers!” said Mark, as he rose his hands, both grasping on to the stake, then stabbed the vampire with great strength, right in the heart.
“Argh” roared the vampire, as it gasped for air. Its skin started to turn pale, and its hair white. Its eyes gradually became blank, and its fangs retracted.
It struggled to speak, and Mark tried to listen.
“What was that?” asked Mark with a smile, as he got closer to the vampires mouth.
“He-He’s coming!”, said the vampire in an extremely low voice, “You don’t stand a chance!”
The vampire, now barely fitting that title, lost consciousness, and seconds later, was dead. Mark looked up at Jimmy, who was witnessing the execution. He stood up, and walked around for a second before saying: “Wooh! Well, that’s solved”.
“He’s coming?” stated Jimmy, “How is that solved?”
“We removed a threat, we should party! Wooh! The adrenalin is awesome!”
“You’re a vampire, you don’t have any adrenalin!” said Jim sarcastically.
“You know what I meant!” said Mark, as he zoomed into the distance, heading for home.
“What about the body?” yelled Jimmy, but to no end, “Sure, I’ll handle the body, as I always do. ‘Jimmy clean that’, ‘Jimmy clean this’, ‘Jimmy is the good brother who always cleans up good old Mark’s messes’, yeah well I’m tired!”
Jimmy sighed and continued muttering about how unfair his life was, as he walked towards the dead vampire’s body. With one stroke, the corpse was now on Jim’s shoulder. He looked around to find a suitable place to burry it, and as it seemed that every direction was the same as the other, he decided to burry it in its ground. He lay down the body again, and ran back home for a shovel.
A few seconds later, and thanks to vampire nature, he was back, shovel in hand. Skipping the boring details, he was done digging about 10 seconds later. He threw the body into the grave, and as he got ready to burry him, he saw something, a locket, and was overcome by curiosity. What if there was a lead, or something that could explain ‘who’ exactly, ‘was coming’.
Jimmy jumped into the hole, ripped the locket off the vampires neck, then frisked him. After finding nothing else, he jumped out of the grave and continued burying the monster.
When he was finished, he ran back home, only to be surprised by Mark standing outside. “What are you doing outside?” asked Jim.
“Ah,” replied Mark, “I thought I’d wait for you here”.
“You thought you’d … Never mind” said Jimmy, as he opened his palm, revealing the locket. “I found this on our Jan doe,” he opened the locket and looked at the picture inside of it, “what the hell?” muttered Jimmy, raising his head to face Mark, “This is impossible”.
“What?” asked Mark, “What is it?”
“This is Michael!” said Jim, looking at a photo of the vampire he had just buried, standing next to Michael, another vampire they knew.
“Michael?” asked Mark, as he approached Jimmy and observed the locket. “Holy God! Its Michael. What the hell?”
“I am at loss at how to explain this. I mean, Michael was all over the place. Maybe he turned this guy, but …”
“Yeah well,” said Mark, “its still quite curious. What if this dude was talking about Michael. ‘He’s Coming’, remember?”
“Yeah, but Michael’s dead, remember that? This photo’s in color, and Michael died long before colored photos existed.”
“Maybe,” said Mark, “he faked his death!”
“Vampires can’t fake their death,” said Jimmy, “we saw him get staked. Surviving that is like a human surviving a head shot, from a bazooka”.
“Michael was a very extraordinary and somewhat special vampire, it might be possible he survived, and that locket is proof of it”.
“Its impossible I tell you, impossible. But if Michael’s coming here, I mean if he‘s still alive, we are in big trouble. We failed him last time, left him for dead, and he’s probably out for revenge. I’ll tell you right now, he’s not the type to forgive”.
“Yes Jimmy,” replied Mark, “I know Michael, knew Michael, just as well as you did. But you can’t deny, he was anything but pure evil”.
“Suit yourself, but when he has you begging for your life, don’t expect me to come to your rescue”.
“I won’t need you to come to my rescue,” replied Mark with a smile, “I can handle myself!”
“Not around Michael you can’t. He’ll have you staked before you can blink, and mind you, even the oldest and strongest of vampires feared Michael. I doubt you’re any different”. Jim turned and walked to the door as Mark muttered from behind: “You’re always so god damn pessimistic!”
“I heard that!” said Jim, reaching to open the door.
“Of course you did”. Mark sighed and followed his smirking brother into the house. “I’m tired and hungry” yawned Mark, “I’m gonna get a pack from the basement, get you some?”
“Uh,” replied Jim, “sure, why not. Cow please!”
“Alright”. Mark headed for the basement where they kept their blood supply, composed of that from all sorts of animals. He walked down the hall and took a left, facing the open door leading to the basement.
“Jim!” yelled Mark, “Did you leave the basement door open? I’m sure I locked this!”
“Nope, I haven’t been to the basement today!” replied Jim. Mark looked at the handle, realizing it had been removed, then took a couple steps back and called: “Jimmy, get over here now! We have some unexpected visitors!”
Jim immediately ran to the basement door at full speed, and stared down the staircase with his bloody red eyes. He looked around, but Mark was gone. “Damn it!” he roared, zooming down the stairs, “Mark?”
“Mark’s taking a sleep,” came a thick voice from behind the shadows. Jim looked to the ground where Mark was lying, unconscious for the second time today. All of a sudden, Jim heard a rough scream as a stake emerged from the shadows.
He quickly responded, moving aside, watching a familiar face emerge. “Goggles?” yelled Jim, ducking and dodging another stake. He quickly thrust himself at the assailant’s legs, throwing him to the ground and disarming him. Standing up, he delivered a finishing blow to goggles’ face, knocking him out cold.
“What a day!” muttered Jim under his breath as he panted and stood up abruptly, “what a freaking day”. He held on tight to goggles’ arms and pulled him into a small room in the basement, one they’d built for this type of situation. After securing their new prisoner to an iron chair bolted to ground, Jim turned to wake Mark.
“Wake up you wuss!” said Jim, slapping Mark a couple times on the face, “Wake up!”
Moving his head, Mark slowly opened his eyes and coughed. “What, what happened?” he asked.
“Oh nothing,” replied Jimmy, “you just got knocked out for the second time today, by a human nonetheless. I think that’d be a first in vampire history”. He smiled and helped Mark up.
“Who the hell was it?” asked Mark, sitting back down, “Agh, I feel … dizzy and … dizzy, very dizzy“.
“I’m surprised he didn’t stake you! You’re very lucky!”
“Who did it?” roared Mark.
“Goggles!” replied Jim, seemingly annoyed from the current situation.
“Well where is he?” asked Mark.
“Dungeon, tied to the chair, all fresh and ready for you!”
“Ah,” said Mark with a smile, “thanks!”. He stood up and headed for the room. Looking back at Jim, he said: “Don’t wait up”. He smiled and closed the huge 10 inch thick steel door of the dungeon, and flipped the light switch, illuminating the room.
The prisoner was still unconscious, something that Mark found very intriguing.
“Awesome,” he said, punching goggles in the face, “WAKE UP!!”, but there was no response. After a few more blows, Mark realized that his punches were probably keeping goggles unconscious, for they were known to send people to sleep.
“I guess I’ll just sit here” said Mark, sitting down by the wall. About 20 minutes later, a period during which Mark was engaged in singing and whistling, his prisoner was awake, and ready for an unlawful interrogation.
“Great” stated Mark. He stood up and approached goggles. Holding him by the chin and squeezing, he asked: “What is your name?”
“Wha- what happened?” asked goggles, lifting his head, exhausted from the beating he’d just taken.
“You’re our prisoner, and we enjoy interrogating prisoners”. Mark released goggles’ chin and kneeled as to look him eye to eye.
“So,” stated goggles, “you’re gonna torture me?”
“I’m sure you can understand my reluctance to treat you nicely, however, I might forgive you, if you are entirely truthful with me!”
“Ok,” said goggles, “go to hell!”
“I assure you,” said Mark, standing up, “I’m already there”. He roared as he punched the prisoner in the chest. Another fist to the face, one more to the chest, Mark found that light torture wouldn’t be of any use, and decided to notch it up a bit.
“That’s how its gonna be then?” asked Mark, picking up a steel bolt. “This spot,” he continued, pointing to a cavity in goggles’ shoulder, “is a very sensitive part of your body. A whole lot of nerves meet here, and torturers usually graze a knife through this very spot, causing their subjects unbearable pain. But I have something else in mind”.
He turned around and left the dungeon. Goggles sat their in anticipation. It felt like forever until Mark was back, a bottle of alcohol in his hand, along with the bolt and a bowl.
“Now this,” he said, “is a more creative way to make you talk”.
He popped open the bottle and filled the bowl, then immersed the bolt. He then removed it, now rinsed in alcohol, and continued: “I’ll graze this into that shoulder, the pain will be unbearable, and the alcohol will make it, well, more unbearable. You‘ll either pass out, or talk, and trust me, it’s a win-win for us”.
He raised the bolt, and pressed it onto goggles’ shoulder, and just when he was getting ready to stab, goggles interrupted yelling: “No wait! I’ll talk, I’ll talk!”
“Alright then” said Mark with a smile, and as the suspense broke, he asked once more: “What is your name”.
Goggles dropped his head to the ground, then looked back into Mark’s eyes and said: “William Grad. That’s my name, William Grad, and now its you turn. Why are you torturing me, when you could simply compel me to tell you the truth?”
“Because Mr. Grad,” said Mark, “I enjoy this a lot more! Carry on, why are you in Zeyva Town? And why are you after us?”
“Because, you’re a vampire, and I kill vampires. You people are blood sucking demons, and wherever you go, you leave a trail of dead bodies behind you. You are ungodly creatures, created by mistake”.
“Well William,” said Mark smiling, “if you’d done your research, you would’ve found that neither me nor Jim kill humans”.
“Yeah sure, and what about the two dead bodies you forgot to clean up?”
“Those weren’t us!” roared Mark as he opened the dungeon door, then grabbed the chains restraining William, “And if you promise to behave, I can prove it!”
There was a brief silence, after which goggles made up his mind and said: “Alright, I’ll behave, you have my word!”
“Screw with me,” said Mark, “and I will kill you, I **** you not”.
“Alright, alright I get it!”
“Ok” said Mark, forcefully tucking the chains, breaking them apart. As William stood up, he glared at Mark, rubbed his wrists, then followed him out of the dungeon.
“This,” said Mark, leading William to a fridge in the east corners of the basement, “is our blood supply. We kill cows, rabbits, and deer mostly, and collect their blood here. We don’t even drink human blood, let alone harm them”.
He opened the fridge revealing hundreds of clinical blood bags filled with blood. He grabbed one of them and bit off the cap, humorously saying: “Want some?”
“Very funny,” replied William, a little more convinced that the Hane brothers had no hand in the two murders, “if you didn’t commit those murders, who did”.
“A rouge vampire from out of town,” said Jimmy who was walking down the stairs, “what’s he doing out of the dungeon?”
“I’m showing him that we don’t kill humans!” said Mark, taking a sip from the blood bag, “Hopefully he’ll leave us alone and be on his way, isn’t that right”. He stared directly into William’s eyes, displaying utter anger.
“Yeah,” replied William hesitantly, “sure, but where is said vampire?”
“He attacked my, uhm, girlfriend,” said Jimmy, as Mark giggled in the background, “we killed him and buried him in the woods”.
“Where in the woods?”
“We’ll show you!” said Mark, leading the way out of the basement.
“Never thought I’d be so friendly with vampires!” said William, “Nonetheless!” He followed Mark and Jim out of the basement, trying not to listen to the brothers argue about whether or not this was the right move to take.
“Are you sure we can trust him?” asked Jimmy.
“No,” replied Mark, “but we have to try, otherwise we’re gonna have to kill him. I’m not sure about you, but I don’t want a human life sticking on my conscience!”
“I hear you!” said Jimmy, heading for the door.
“Do you remember where you buried him?” asked Mark.
“Uhm, no, not really”. Mark sighed, following Jimmy to the porch as he continued: “Still, we’re gonna have to lo…”.
He was interrupted as three black SUVs showed up out of nowhere, parking outside in a haste. The back doors opened as two large men in black suites climbed out, pointing rifles towards the brothers. Being vampires, they could’ve reacted, but everything was happening so fast, and was unexpected.
As the men took aim, they fired multiple darts into both of the brothers, surprisingly knocking them out. One of them dismounted the vehicle, heading towards the unconscious vampires, as the other took aim at William.
“Traitor!” he yelled, as he fired two darts at Williams chest. Slowly falling to the ground, he lost consciousness and fell into a deep sleep.