The Vampire Council: Case File:1

by Steve Cunningham

  THE VAMPIRE

  COUNCIL

  CASE FILE 1

  WRITTEN BY STEPHEN CUNNINGHAM

  CHAPTER 1:

  THE NEW RECRUITS

  Pitch black darkness, nothing visible. Then light. A single spotlight shines upon a young man tied to a chair gagged and blindfolded. The man starts to rive and struggle, trying to scream but the gag makes it impossible for him to form any sort of audible language; instead he just groans and grunts. A second beam of light. Another single spotlight illuminates another captive.

  A young woman tied and gagged in the same fashion as the man beside her. She immediately hears the groans of the man and panic strikes. She too starts to struggle in her chair to try and free herself. Both now trying to scream and shout from behind their gags. Her shoulder length flowing blonde hair flies around violently as she rocks from side to side and front to back. Her ferocious movements seem too strong for the weak wooden chair to handle and snap. One of the chairs legs gives way and snaps clean off. The woman is thrown violently to her left where her body still tied to the chair crash lands. At her moment of impact a massive groan echoes in the darkness. A final beam of light shines onto another slightly older looking man again tied and gagged the same as the other two captives. The older man starts to rock slightly as though in pain. As the woman fell to the ground the top left point of the wooden chair slammed directly down onto the man’s foot. With the added weight of the woman the corner of the chair starts to dig into the man’s foot. The physical pain causes him to throw himself backwards which tips his chair backwards. Crash! The man cracks his head on the hard marble stained flooring. He starts to groan uncontrollably in pain.

  ‘Enough! Of this. Lights on.’ Is heard

  Within the darkness, the voice slightly croaky, with a sweet tone to it, naturally belonging to a female, a smoker possibly. Suddenly the room is illuminated in artificial light. The gleaming marble stained floor shimmers and shines. The walls cold concrete but draped with ancient looking scrolls and old war torn paintings all portraying a single man, the same man repeatedly in every painting, looking very sinister. The three captives are positioned within the centre of the room. Directly in front of them a large desk decorated with burning candles, more scrolls and sinister devil looking ornaments. Situated on the desk also was a modern day computer which looked out of place amongst the gothic items on the desk, behind the desk stood a tatty gothic style throne. It’s fabric dirty and torn, the gold rimming no longer gleaming with golden light, but instead just covered in dirt and dust.

  An attractive woman, possibly late twenties sat with her back straight on the throne. Long black hair tied in a ponytail flowed down her back. Her bright blue eyes covered by the reflection of the shimmering light off her smart glasses. Her long thin legs crossed, showing off her shiny black high heels. A tight black pinstriped skirt barely reached her knees. A black waist belt with a huge silver buckle helped her keep her straight posture and helped empathise her slim toned figure and her big chest which was made even more noticeable as her thin tight fitting white buttoned blouse was unbuttoned half way down her chest showing an amazing amount of cleavage. She unfolded her legs and stood quickly with great poise. She stood straight and looked out at the three captives still squirming and trying to escape their bonds. She tilts her head to the left, and then straightens her neck as she lifts her right arm and makes a gesture similar to the Queens wave with her right hand. She slowly sits back at her place on the throne and folds her legs, never taking her eyes of the captives.

  A big burly intimidating looking man walks out of the shadows in the corner of the room. Wearing an all-black tight suit showed off his muscled physique. Also being bald he sported a large tattoo covering the back of his head heading down his neck and past the collar of his crisp black shirt. He brisk fully walked over to the three captives, looked at them all with disbelieve on his face. He gave a glance to the woman on the throne, she returned a similar look of disbelieve. The tattooed man of mystery sighed and knelt down beside the female captive and leaned in towards her ear.

  ‘Try and escape. I’ll kill you. Just bare that in mind.’ He whispered. She let out a little moan of terror as he started to untie her from the chair. Completely free from the chair she laid still; terrified, thinking what could be about to happen to her. The tattooed man walked around to the front of her knelt again and lifted off her blindfold. ‘You know, your hands are free, you could be doing this. Stop being a lazy bitch and get up.’ The tattooed man then walked away from her and started to help the older male captive out of his ties on his chair on the floor beside her. The female slowly started to get herself up. Her long shoulder length blonde hair now all frizzy and in her eyes, covering her face made it difficult to see what she was looking at. She scooped her side fringe from her face and looked around as she removed the gag from her mouth. She checked her body; her tight fitted dark blue jeans were scruffy and had a few tears in them in the knee area, but no cuts or scratches visible. Feeling up her thin body she noted her waist belt was missing, it must’ve come off in the struggle she thought to herself. Her tight long low cut black t-shirt remained intact. The only notable pain she could feel was the pain in her arm when her chair gave way. At this point the tattooed man had finished untying the older male captive who did the same as the female and checked himself for any scratches and so forth. He stood at an average height of six foot two, chiselled features highlighted by some black-haired stubble leading up to his well-groomed jet-black hair. He patted down his dark green half buttoned up shirt revealing a strong chest and slight chest hair, and then his black pressed suit trousers, removing dust and dirt they had picked up from the floor from his fall. He looked over at the terrified looking female captive and the male captive who at this point the tattooed man was untying. I wonder what we have here then? He thought as his glance was now poised upon the female sitting on the throne.

  ‘Excuse me. But I would just like to know, who the fuck are you?’ He said starting off polite then ended angrily. The woman on the throne stood up, looked down on the man. ‘The bigger picture will be explained shortly. But to answer your question, my name is Jacqueline.’ She stated looking directly into his eyes. At this time the last captive was up on his feet and out of his bonds. He was a young looking lad, scruffy mid-short blonde bed hair, skinny physique, tight purple t-shirt and skinny black jeans. The young lad looked around and noticed that the tattooed man that had freed them was gone without a trace. He then looked at Jacqueline confused. ‘Erm, right hi, erm Jacks.’

  ‘It’s Jacqueline.’ She snapped back at him quickly.

  ‘Ok, Jacqueline. What’s going on?’

  ‘You three have been recruited.’ She replied with a sense of professionalism.

  ‘Recruited for what?’ The older male spoke with a strong voice.

  ‘To be part of something special, something only a select few people get to be part of.’ Jacqueline explained. ‘You’ve all been chosen to be new recruits in our secret council.’

  ‘Secret council of what?’ the female captive speaks with a shaky scared tone to her voice.

  ‘Vampires’ Jacqueline said with excitement in her voice.

  ‘You’re taking the piss aren’t you love?’ the young male replied with a smirk on his face.

  ‘Shut up with that nonsense, vampires aren’t real.’ The older male stated with an angry tone. Jacqueline replied. ‘Oh they’re real all right, just as real as normal people, just as real as animals and also minerals. We try to keep ourselves off the radar as much as possible; if civilians were to find out about our kind an up roar would begin leading to a war, a bloody war spreading every continent around the wo
rld, civilians against vampires. There would be an unprecedented amount of bloodshed.’

  The older male snaps and launches himself at the desk and slams his hands down onto it. ‘This is bullshit!’ He shouts staring angrily into Jacqueline’s eyes. Jacqueline averts from his gaze and looks behind him. The man slowly turns his head over his right shoulder where the tattooed man is bent slightly now looking into his eyes.

  ‘Boo!’ the tattooed man says half-jokingly as he picks the man up by his neck with one hand. The man’s legs kicking back and forth off the ground, holding onto the tattooed man’s arm trying to make him let go. The man’s face begins to turn blue. The other two look on in terror, the female stands behind the young male for protection, he looks at her knowing in his mind that she wasn’t coping too well with the situation, and he hated to admit it but he wasn’t either as he looked on at what was happening to the male in front of him but feeling powerless to stop the tattooed man due to his size and amazing strength. The man now struggling for air and trying desperately to keep consciousness starts to kick and punch at the tattooed man but to no prevail. Just as he is about to lose consciousness the man’s eyes begin to darken as he screams in anger, as he opens his mouth to scream his canine teeth suddenly grow almost double in length. His punches become harder and the tattooed man starts to feel his hits. He decides to stop so throws the man across the room. He slams into the side concrete wall then collapses to the floor. Both the other recruits rush over to him and kneel by his side to help him to his feet. The man’s eyes and teeth are back to normal as he gasps for air.

  ‘Looks like a feisty one we have there. He’ll come in handy.’ says the tattooed man as he takes a position standing next to Jacqueline.

  ‘What the shitting hell just happened to him?’ says the young male as he helps the man to his feet.

  ‘He transformed.’ replied Jacqueline.

  ‘I’m a vampire.’ The man said under his breath as he begins to cough and clutch his throat.

  ‘You all are. So tell me is it bullshit now?’ said Jacqueline.

  ‘But why?’ The man says through his coughing.

  ‘As we lose vampires, they must be replaced; it’s how the system works. And you three were lucky enough to be chosen. Now don’t you feel special?’ says the tattooed man whilst smirking.

  ‘But you don’t even know us.’ said the female recruit.

  ‘On the contrary Miss Katie Hollister, we know an awful lot about each of you. You are twenty-one years of age, currently single. Works nights and weekends at your local B&Q to help support you and your single mother after her little accident which you…’

  ‘Ok I believe you.’ Katie interrupts Jacqueline.

  ‘Do me, do me!’ says the young lad unexpectedly chipper.

  ‘William prefers Will, Jenkins, age twenty-three years of age. Also single, currently working in your local Co-op after dropping out of medical school with only one year left there.’

  ‘Oh you’re good.’ Will says with a surprised expression on his face.

  ‘And lastly, Mr Jeff Kendal, thirty-one years of age. Married and has been for eleven years, one daughter of four years of age. Currently working as a lawyer and have been for five years.’

  Jeff finally makes it to his feet with Will and Katie standing either side of him. ‘So as you can tell we know a lot about each of you, and you were all chosen specifically to become new recruits into the vampire council.’ Jacqueline finished. The tattooed man steps away from the throne and walks towards the three new recruits and holds out his hand in front of Jeff and looks at him. Jeff holds his stare.

  ‘No hard feelings.’ The man says as he waves his hand in a shaky motion. Jeff reaches out and shakes his hand. ‘Now I know all of you, allow me to introduce myself, my name is Vaelen, I’m a rank B elite vampire. I’m sorry for choking you like that, was the only way I knew to get you really emotionally angry so you would change. It was the only way you would’ve believed us.’ Vaelen takes a step back to really look at his new recruits.

  ‘Trust me I believe you now. But I don’t know if I could handle being in vampire form.’ Katie queried with a look of scared confusion on her face.

  ‘As Jeff will explain to you, it doesn’t hurt to change, but vamp form as we call it has its ups and downs.’ Explains Vaelen. ‘The ups are that vamp form gives you strength at least five times more than your human self, the ability to take injury and heal yourself, your senses become stronger and you have the ability to move at very fast paces.’ Said Vaelen.

  ‘And the downsides?’ Will states worryingly.

  ‘Even though you can take a lot of damage, you’re not invincible. You can be shot or stabbed with anything and still survive but barely. The more you’re injured the weaker your vampire side becomes and you transform back into human in which then you will die from your mass amounts of injuries before your vampire side had a chance to heal itself.’

  ‘And that’s it?’ said Katie now sounding even more scared at the prospect of being killed.

  ‘The last downside being, the blood thirst. In human form you have a slight thirst for blood but it’s very controllable and once you have something meaty to eat you’ll forget about it. But the longer you stay as a vampire the harder it is to control. You will thirst for the stuff and do anything and attack anyone to get your fix. Over time you can control this like Jacqueline and me but as you’re rookies I wouldn’t condone staying as a vampire for long.’ Vaelen walks back to Jacqueline and stands next to her. Will, Jeff and Katie walk from the wall and stand in front of the desk.

  ‘So what happens now?’ asks Jeff.

  Jacqueline sits on her throne. ‘Go back to your lives for now and await instruction.’ She explains again in a professional tone of voice.

  ‘And for the love of God whatever you do, don’t tell anybody your vampires ok?’ Vaelen says looking directly at Will.

  ‘Why you looking at me when you say that?’ said Will.

  ‘Because you have a look on your face which is the same face a teenager gives off just after losing his virginity whilst telling all his friends. You’re all now part of this. And there’s only one way out and it isn’t pretty. So you might as well buckle down and do as we tell you to.’ Vaelen now averting his eyes from Will and looks away towards the wall.

  ‘You will be glad to know this base is set not far from where you all live and also what you might not have known is that you all live within a mile of each other, so when the time comes, Vaelen will tell the girl at reception to contact one of you telling you what time to meet here and it is then that persons job to contact or retrieve the others and arrive outside the base where Vaelen will then let you in. Is that understood?’ States Jacqueline as she stares them all down.

  They look at one another and make a silent agreement. They nod.

  ‘Vaelen. Show them the door.’ says Jacqueline as she slumps in her throne and pulls out a cigarette from her desk draw and lights it, inhales, then gives out a sigh of relief as she exhales. Vaelen has ushered the three new recruits out of the door, he slams the door behind them.

  CHAPTER 2:

  A NEW LIFE BEGINS

  The new recruits all jump in unison as the door behind them slams shut. They take in their surroundings. The door leads them out into what can only be described as a hotel lobby. There’s a young woman behind a desk answering the phone and dealing with people constantly walking in and out of the front door, handing over keys, dealing with credit cards and other general dealings which is associated with working in a hotel. On the door behind them has a sign saying employees only.

  ‘Erm, are we in a hotel?’ Will queries.

  ‘There’s only one way to find out.’ Jeff replies.

  Jeff heads towards the front desk, Will closely follows as Katie trails behind still looking very frightened about her situation.

  ‘Yes, how may I help you?’ Says the young woman behind the desk.

  ‘Yeah, hi. I was just wondering, where are we?�
�� Asks Jeff.

  ‘Why you are at the magnificent five star ‘Ruby hotel.’ Replies the woman.

  ‘That’s like twenty minutes away from my house.’ Will states.

  ‘Oh so you must be Will. And you Jeff and her Katie.’ Says the woman.

  The three recruits look on stunned that this young lady knew all three of their names without any hesitation.

  ‘How do you know who we are?’ Asks Jeff.

  ‘Because I’m just like you.’ Retorts the woman. She stands and leans slightly over the desk with a concentrated look over her face with her eyes closed. When her eyelids slowly open just darkness can be seen under them, she suddenly pulls back onto her chair where her eyes have now gone back to normal. ‘Get it?’

  ‘Yeah we get it. So what next, do we just come back here every time we get the call?’ chimes Will.

  ‘Oh you have just reminded me.’ Says the woman. She rises from her chair and bends down the open a drawer situated behind her. Will notices the woman’s pert bottom now sticking in the air, a smirk appears on his face. Jeff notices Will’s smirking and smacks him on the chest. ‘Ow!’ Shouts Will. A loud bang can be heard as the woman shuts the door. She straightens up and turns towards the recruits, in her hands she has three pager looking devices. ‘Take the one with your name on please.’ She says. They do so, as they all study what they are in their hands.

  ‘So what do we use these for?’ Asks Will.

  ‘What do you think?’ Replies the woman in a sarcastic manor. ‘With these you can contact each other as well as your group leader being able to get hold of any of you. Whichever one of you gets the call, you must contact the others using these, and you must all show up here as quickly as possible. A little tip higher ranking vampires don’t like being kept waiting. Each has the others numbers already programmed into it, also has my number programmed in, cause sometimes I’m asked to contact recruits with updates on missions and so forth, and finally your leaders number is also logged.’