by M. Cheykota
I growl in annoyance, wishing I could find the means to leave this place, before climbing out of bed. I sniff the air to see what she brought me for dinner. I don’t know why I bother. The smell of ramen noodles penetrates my nose and I wrinkle it in disgust.
I hate Ramen noodles. The smell alone turns my stomach. After years of eating only ramen and old bologna sandwiches, anyone would hate their smell.
Pushing the tray aside, I grab two bags of blood from my mini-fridge instead, throwing them into the microwave. Normally, I would only have one bag of blood when I wake up, but I figure I might need the extra energy for cleaning. I have not been upstairs for at least a week so I know the house is going to be a mess. Aunt Maddy is truly a slob. After a quick bathroom trip and slamming down the bags of blood, I climb up the steps towards the main house. Once upstairs, I take stock of the damage and hiss in annoyance.
Trash is everywhere. There are dishes all over the living area and kitchen. Food has crusted on many of the dishes. The trash is over flowing with flies hovering over it. Clothes are lying all across the floor and stairs. I peek in the downstairs bathroom. Hair is all over the sink and a ring in the tub is what I briefly notice before slamming the door shut. I sigh heavily and make my way to the cabinet with all the cleaning supplies in the kitchen. I redo the ponytail in my hair, tightening it to make sure my long, dark brown hair stays out of my whiskey brown eyes. I put on my cleaning gloves and make quick work of the trash piled up in the kitchen. After what seems like hours, I sit on the couch in the now clean living room, waiting for the last laundry cycle to finish. Enjoying the peace and quiet in the empty house, I listen to the crickets and cicadas outside while sitting in the dark. Being downstairs in the concrete basement with no windows, I normally cannot hear them so clearly. The dryer buzzes and I go to the laundry room to remove the last of the clean clothes from the dryer. As I am folding the clothes, I pause and glance around hesitantly. Something has changed. I can sense something is wrong, but everything looks okay.
What is different? I ask myself.
It is then that I realize I cannot hear the crickets and cicadas outside anymore. I peek out the curtains to see if my aunt has returned early and see movement in the trees across the street. I look around harder and see more movement on both sides of the house. I hear a thump above me. The sound is coming from the roof. The intruders are so silent; I doubt anyone would have heard them without excellent hearing like mine. Heeding my mother’s warning to be cautious, I creep downstairs to grab the new daggers my martial arts instructor left with me yesterday. As I return upstairs, I can hear the sound of keys rattling outside the front door. Realizing the sounds I am hearing now are from my aunt returning from her date, I shuffle to the nearest door, which happens to be a coat closet to wait her out and close the door until there is only a small crack left, which still allows me to see into the room.
My heart is racing, pumping adrenaline throughout my body, speeding up my breathing. I take a deep breath to slow my heart rate and breathing as I watch my aunt come through the front door. There is a tall, thin black man with her.
He must be the poor sap that is her date. I think jokingly.
After my aunt is inside, I see her stop in the doorway, turn around to look outside the still open door. “Please, do come in.” She calls out.
Hmm. That’s a strange thing to say considering her date is already inside. Then it hits me, vampires. I’ve read somewhere that someone in residence must invite a vampire inside or the vampire cannot enter. Whether or not it is true is anyone’s guess. One of them must have controlled her mind like my mother mentioned and got her to invite them inside the house.
Seconds later, five men stream into the house. The first one grabs my aunt and holds her still against his chest. He looks like an East Indian man with shoulder-length, dark brown hair with grey streaks. He is taller than my aunt is, but only by a few inches. Most of her large frame covers the rest of his body so I can’t see what the rest of his body looks like.
The next man that enters the house grabs her date as he is backing away from the door. He has a pale, beige skin tone with stringy, yellow hair and dark brown eyes. He’s not as tall as the Indian is, but he looks taller than my aunt’s 5’8” height.
Before the black man can react, the vampire holding him snaps his neck and my aunt’s date falls to the floor like a puppet with their strings cut.
The other three men stand behind the Indian man and my aunt in a type of guarding formation.
Aunt Maddy’s eyes widen in fear. I can see her trying to struggle from the Indian’s firm hold around her chest.
“Where is she?” The Indian holding my aunt asks with a foreign accent.
“Um…Who?” Aunt Maddy stammers as she struggles in earnest.
The Indian has no problem holding on to her, despite her struggles. “Where is the girl? The abomination derived from my vampire.” He clarifies.
Oh my God. They really are vampires! I think in disbelief.
“She is probably downstairs in the basement.” Aunt Maddy replies to her captor. “You can have her, just don’t hurt me please.”
Way to look out for me Aunt Maddy. I think furiously.
The Indian vampire looks at her with a disgusted look on his face. He, too, seems disgusted by her lack of resistance to his questioning or maybe from her begging for her life. “Lenny, check downstairs.”
The vampire with short brown curls, brown eyes streaked with vampire silver standing behind him on the right side, walks towards the basement to look for me. I’ve seen my own eyes get those familiar silver streaks when my thirst for blood is high.
“Nico, Bain, go with him. Bring her back to me, alive.” The Indian vampire adds as a second thought.
The other two vampires behind him, one bald, the other with wavy, white blonde hair, move toward the basement stairs in utter silence. I can’t even hear their footsteps with my sensitive ears.
My heart is pounding so loud, I am surprised they don’t hear it with their sensitive hearing. I watch through the crack in the door as the vampires return from my basement room.
The white haired vampire calls out to the Indian vampire. “There’s no one downstairs, Master. Do you think she got passed us and escaped outside somehow?”
“No Bain. She is here somewhere. Check upstairs. I don’t hear anyone up there, but she could have found a way to hide from us, the filthy half-breed!”
Bain and Nico follow the vampire that killed my aunt’s date up the stairs silent as a mouse and disappear from my view, leaving Lenny and the vampire holding my aunt downstairs. As I grip the daggers tighter from nerves, one of them brushes against a coat in the closet causing a scratching sound as the blade brushes against the vinyl jacket behind me. I freeze, only to see both remaining vampires glance my way. I curse to myself and get ready for the attack.
Lenny swings open the door and I thrust the dagger in my left hand into his heart after catching him by surprise. Using the shock from the moment to my advantage, I hurl the other dagger over Lenny’s shoulder at the remaining vampire holding my aunt.
Recovering quickly from his surprise, the vampire holding my aunt moves her in front of my dagger like a shield. My blade pierces her chest down to the hilt. Her shocked gaze freezes on her face as the vampire tosses her limp form to the side like a rag doll. Holding Lenny’s limp form in front of me by his hair, I yank the dagger from his heart, and remembering what my mother told me about killing vampires, I sever his head with the sharp dagger. The vampire disintegrates into a pile of dust at my feet.
I look at the remaining vampire. My eyes flick towards the stairs for the remaining vampires’ attacks and the still open front door in indecision on what to do. Buying time, I address the Indian vampire a few feet in front of me quietly. “Who in the hell are you and what do you want?”
The vampire’s lips twitch as if I am amusing. “I am Hassan. Does it help to know the name of the vampire that is going to kill you?�
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“Why do you want to kill me? You don’t even know me.” I shuffle my feet, preparing for his attack. Either this vampire doesn’t see me as a big enough threat to call his other vampires back from upstairs or my attack was silent enough not to tip them off.
“You are an abomination. Your parents should have heeded my warnings and never had you.” Hassan snarls.
“I am not an abomination!” My eyes narrow in anger and my fingers tighten around the hilt of the dagger.
He takes a sweeping look over me. “You look just like your mother. Too bad, she was a filthy angel. I would have taken her myself, but the only thing she was good for was her blood, and I drank that down to the last drop.”
“Bullshit!” Losing my temper by his goading, I attack him, moving smoothly from kicks to punches. The blows are landing solidly, but doing little damage. I slice at his chest with my dagger, creating a red line across it.
Even though the wound heals almost instantly, he looks pissed enough to rip my heart out with his bare hands.
I move away from Hassan, preparing for my next attack and nearly trip over my aunt.
“Aunt Maddy?” I call out to her weakly, but I know she is dead because I am unable to hear her heart beating. Cringing, I pull the other dagger from her chest and let both daggers hang by my sides, resisting the urge to wipe my aunt’s blood off the blade.
Nico, Bain and the other vampire return from upstairs to find Hassan standing with a rip in his shirt and a streak of blood on his chest. Hassan’s eyes flick angrily to the daggers in my hand before he glances at the vampires on the stairs in a silent command.
Oh, Shit! I have to get out of here.
Bain and Nico attack me simultaneously while the other vampire stands next to the Indian vampire. In my heightened state of terror, my arms begin moving in the familiar motions of defense.
All the training I have been receiving since I began to walk may just save my life.
I duck the first punch from Nico while swinging my left arm up in an upward arcing motion, leaving a deep cut on his body from chest to chin. I follow the motion with a sweeping kick, knocking him off his feet. He crashes down on the nearby coffee table. Glass from the coffee table embeds itself into Nico’s back. He howls in pain.
Bain attacks me from behind, putting a hand on each of my shoulders. He is leaning towards my neck so I drop my right knee to the ground, throwing Bain over my shoulder in front of me. As he hits the glass-covered ground, my dagger comes down, piercing his heart.
The last vampire is ready to start another attack on me, but Hassan holds him back with his arm. Police sirens are closing in fast.
My eyes flick to the alarm console on the wall to see it flashing red. My aunt did not have time to disable her alarm before they captured her mind. The police must be responding to the silent alarm.
Hassan turns to Nico as he gets back to his feet, staring at me with a look of hatred. “We will take care of her another time. The police are coming this way. We can’t risk being seen by the humans or the Vampire Council will question our attack on these humans and begin investigating.” Hassan gives me a final look before he and the last two vampires run out the front door and disappear in the shadows of the night.
I twist the dagger in my hand that is stuck in Bain’s heart in frustration, and his body turns to dust.
I guess it is not enough just to pierce the heart. Removing the heart or destroying it beyond repair is what I was forgetting.
Running through the house towards the basement room, I scramble for anything I may need.
I can’t let the police find me here with my aunt dead from my dagger and her date dead from a broken neck.
I grab the backpack I usually use for holding my textbooks, dumping everything on the ground. I stuff it with some clothes, all of the rest of my bags of blood from the mini-fridge and race out the front door into the night, just as the police come around the corner into view.
After sprinting for a few blocks, I turn down an alley, hiding behind a large, metal garbage bin. I clean off my daggers the best I can with newspapers I find on the ground and throw them into my backpack. My senses are still on high alert. I am scanning all around me and above in case the vampires followed me. Now that I have a moment to think, I can truly realize how bleak my situation is. Since I have never been outside the house further than the trashcan out back, the severity of this whole experience is really getting to me. I have no idea where I am, nor do I have anywhere I can go. The only people that know me are my tutors, trainers, and my parent’s lawyer. Unfortunately, I have no idea who they really are or where I could find them, not that they would help me anyway. I have no money and very little else. I can’t get a job because I have no identification and I am supposed to keep a low profile because of my vampire and angel status.
“Well doesn’t this just suck?” I say aloud to myself.
After walking around the area for a few hours, I venture into a large park I stumble across. I sit on a stone bench and feel my muscles sigh in relief as I finally begin to relax. I grab one of the five remaining blood bags and pop it on my fangs after making sure no one is watching. My stomach aches in protest, wanting food, not blood. I ignore the hunger pangs and down another bag. The bitter taste of the second bag tells me that the blood is beginning to spoil. I’ve learned not to attempt to drink the blood after it goes bad. Recalling the hours I spent in the bathroom heaving after drinking bad blood, I quickly remove the bag from my fangs and toss the remaining blood bags into the trash bin.
Chapter 4
My thoughts begin to revolve around my Aunt Maddy. I know I should feel bad about killing her, but the truth is, I don’t. She was mean, uncaring, and selfish. That vampire would have probably killed her anyway. He already demonstrated a lack of respect for her after the other vampire killed her poor date. I have no doubt that he wouldn’t leave her alive after he killed me.
For years, I’ve been looking for a way to get away from her and now that the time has arrived, I don’t have a clue about what I should do. I may not have liked my aunt very much, but she was the only family I had left and she was my mother’s sister. At least with her, I had my own space, away from danger. Despite the fact that she was a bitch, she was still family. That crazy bastard admitted to killing my mother and caused me to kill my aunt. He has even threatened to kill me.
My anger begins to rise from his admission when I hear scuffling of feet and catcalls behind me, coming towards me. When the sounds get closer, I look up to see four, no, five thugs surrounding the bench I am sitting on several feet away from me.
Great, like my night was not crappy enough.
The ringleader, as I shall affectionately call him, sits next to me and puts his arm on my shoulder. I cough loudly, practically gagging from the smell of his cheap cologne and push him away from me. His dark skin looks almost black in the darkness of the park, but it is more of a dark chocolate color. A thin beanie or stocking cap covers his hair, giving him a more menacing look. His black eyes betray his lustful intent.
“Go away! I’m not in the mood to put up with anymore shit tonight.” I snarl at him.
He ignores my request, replacing his arm back around me. “Hey baby, what are you doing all alone in my park tonight? Are you looking for protection or a good time?” He grins, his teeth glow brightly in the darkness as his hand slides from my shoulder down my arm towards by breast.
I grab his hand, crushing his fingers, before it reaches my breast. “Didn’t your mama ever teach you manners? It’s not polite to put your hands on someone without asking.”
His yelp of pain alarms his friends and each of them pulls out a handgun and points them at my head.
The ringleader jumps up from the bench while cradling his hand. “You broke my hand! You are going to pay for that, bitch!”
“Get up!” Another gunman exclaims, waving his gun at me for more emphasis.
I stand up. Before any of them can even figure out what is ha
ppening, I snatch the gun from the gunman on my left, grab his wrist and throw him into the gunman on my right using my vampire strength. After doing a standing back flip over the bench, I kick the gunman on my right in the chin so hard I could have sworn I heard his neck break. Using my vampire speed and strength to my advantage, my right fist lands solidly on the chest of the remaining gunman on my left. This time, I feel the bones of his ribs shatter under my fist as he hits the ground at least 5 feet away from me.
The ringleader, still cradling his crushed fingers, looks at his friends on the ground in shock, some are moving, some not. I can see the uncertainty flicker across his face as I walk slowly to stand in front of him. My hand wraps around his neck and I squeeze it just enough to force him to take shallow breaths to breathe.
“What’s the matter? You’re not so big and badass without your friends pointing guns at people are you?” I taunt him, still angry at how horrible my night has gone.
He is sweating heavily now. He stinks of fear and his eyes keep darting to his friends lying helplessly on the ground.
The large gold chain around his neck catches my eye and a thought pops into my mind. “Give me all your money and jewelry.”
He shakily reaches into his back pocket with his good hand and pulls out his wallet. After he thrusts a wad of bills in my hand, I look down and notice most of the bills are twenties and fifties. I stuff the money in my pocket and release him, only to have him clear out all the money in his friends’ pockets too. When all their jewelry is loaded into my backpack, I threaten him to keep his mouth shut or I will be back to finish what I started. He hastily agrees and takes off running back in the same direction they came from, leaving his friends on the ground to their fate.
As I pick up my backpack from the bench, I count the money that I retrieved from the men. Between the five men, I received almost a thousand dollars, not including the jewelry that I’ll find a way to sell later.
