The Vampire Council: Case File:1

by Steve Cunningham

  ‘Now be quiet!’ Orders the guard.

  Will sits quietly for a moment.

  ‘As I’m going to be killed anyway soon would you care to explain to me what exactly is going on here?’ Will asks spitting more blood to the floor.

  ‘You really expect me to be dumb enough to tell you the plan?’ The guard chuckles.

  Will thinks for a second. ‘Yes.’

  ‘That’s it!’ The guard has enough of Will and aims his gun at his head.

  ‘Whoa! Hold on! Now that you’re going to kill me… Could I please have that cigarette.’

  The guard lowers his gun reluctantly and lets out a sigh before reaching once more into his jacket pocket pulling out the packet of cigarettes. He walks in front of Will and places a cigarette in his mouth. Will looks up at the guard as he reaches into his back pocket for his lighter. Let’s hope this works. Will quickly thrusts his head forward head butting the guard with full force in his manhood. The guard drops his gun and falls to the floor in agony clutching his private area. Will takes this opportunity the turn into his vampire form and without much effort rips his arms free from the ropes before wrapping both his hands tightly around the guard’s throat.

  ‘Where’s Jeff?’ Will whispers with anger as to not be heard by anyone outside of the room.

  ‘Fuck you!’ The guard spits out behind the coughs and gasps for air. Will tightens his grip.

  ‘Tell me and I’ll let you live.’

  ‘I’m going to fucking kill you!’

  Will head butts the guard in the face breaking his nose.

  ‘I’m the one in control here, now tell me where he is!’ Will’s patients begins to wear thin.

  The guard looks into Will’s black eyes. ‘Go to hell.’ His eyes also turn black.

  ‘Shit!’ Will quickly jams his thumbs into the guards neck and tears his throat open like a bag of crisps sending blood squirting into his face. Will quickly unties his feet from the chair and gets himself up. He picks up the gun from the floor and heads over to the door. He kneels down on the left side of the door and places his ear against the door. He hears slight mErmurs outside. Knowing the walls and door aren’t very thick Will gets up, aims the gun at the door and pulls the trigger. Sending a barrage of bullets through the door and wall hoping he can take a few of the guards outside down before heading out into the main lobby. He empties out half the magazine before releasing his finger from the trigger. Return fire begins to burst through the walls. Will dives and hides himself behind the dead guard’s body. The wave of bullets continues for ten seconds which to Will feels like an eternity. Silence.

  Shouts are heard from the lobby. The guards moving into new positions and getting ready to check out the room. Will picks up the dead body and holds it up in front of him like a human shield with his left arm, holding the gun out straight ahead with his right arm. The door slowly opens. The doorway is empty. The guards stand in position to the right on the other side waiting to see who emerges if anyone. Will edges the dead body closer to the doorway then throws it out.

  ‘Fire!’

  Another barrage of bullets stream into the dead guards body for a few seconds. ‘Hold your fire!’ The bullets dwindle to nothing as they realise who’s body it is. Will takes this chance.

  Will bursts from the doorway, turns to his right and fires all his remaining ammo into the guards direction as he runs quickly towards the front desk of the hotel to take cover. Taking two of the guards out he dives behind the desk just as he runs out of ammo.

  ‘Oh fuck!’ Will shouts in frustration as yet another stream of bullets hail the front desk.

  What do I do? What do I do!

  Will begins to panic as he sees no way out from this predicament.

  As fast as the firing started it ends with the sound of bodies hitting the floor. Confused, Will cautiously looks over the front desk to see all of the guards dead on the floor. He stands up and scratches his head in wonderment. ‘Hello?’ Will shouts with slight nerves. Left in the silence he gets no reply.

  Confused Will heads over to one of the dead guards on the floor, kneels down and begins to search the man’s pockets. He pulls out a mobile phone from the man’s trouser pocket. Whilst searching through recent text history he finds a basic outline of their plan sent by Max. ‘Rather silly to be texting your men the plan… never mind it helps me out.’ Will ponders to himself.

  He clocks the part of the plan that states the important hostages will be located in the honeymoon suite of the hotel. He quickly drops the phone and heads back over to the front desk. The two computer screens located on the top of the desk were destroyed during the gun fire.

  ‘Let’s hope they keep a paper layout of the hotel.’

  Will starts to search through the draws of the desk one by one throwing out all the folders marked with random labels with nothing to do with a hotel layout. After searching through two of the draws and half of the third Will comes across a folder labelled Hotel Rooms Layout. ‘And who said technology destroyed paperwork.’ Will grins as he opens the folder and quickly flips through each bit of paper. ‘Bingo!’ Will spots where the honeymoon suite is located. He runs back over to the dead bodies and picks up two light machine guns and checks the ammo of each. ‘That’ll do.’ He runs to the elevators and presses the up button then waits.

  † † † † † † † † † † † † † † † †

  Jade and Lisa’s screams resonate in Jeff’s ears as the material around his head begins to choke him.

  Not like this! Kill him!

  Jeff finds the strength within to rip the pillow case from around his neck and head. Upon seeing once more Jeff first lays eyes on his daughter still tied up. The rage within him builds again. In one movement Jeff spins around on his knees and punches Leofric in the stomach forcing him to lose his balance slightly sending him a few steps back. Jeff turns back to Lisa and continues to untie her.

  ‘Oi!’ Leofric shouts to get Jeff’s attention.

  Jeff turns his head to face Leofric and is met by Leofric’s steel toed cap to the face. The impact of the kick breaks Jeff’s nose and cheek bone and sends him off his knees to the floor by the bed. Riving in pain Jeff opens his eyes and notices something under the bed.

  ‘Leofric stop!’ Jeff shouts through his pain.

  Leofric laughs. ‘You think shouting orders at me is going to work. I gave you your chance to save one of their lives…’

  ‘No Leofric listen to me!’ Jeff interrupts.

  Leofric kicks Jeff in the back. ‘You listen to me! I gave you the chance to save one of their lives, but due to your insubordination I’ve lost my patients with you… They will both die.’

  ‘Leofric!’

  He kicks Jeff again. ‘Shut up! I was not finished.’ Leofric kneels down and bends over till his face is an inch away from Jeff’s. ‘It was going to be quick, but I think I’ll make it slow. Torture them. Make it last as long as I can. The best part of it is you won’t miss any of it. I’ll give you a front row seat to the action. Make you watch as I slowly kill the two things most precious to you. Although you will not have to live with the pain for long as your death will soon follow.’

  Jeff keeps his eyes focused to under the bed. ‘What is this for?’

  ‘Well once you’re dealt with I’ll be entrusted into the inner circle as an honorary member of the council.’

  ‘That’s not possible.’ Jeff retorts still not looking at him.

  ‘Oh not the council you know, the real council. The one’s that truly run the show, or should I say very soon will run the show. And once I’m in… They will all be destroyed. One… by… one.’

  ‘I think they have other plans.’ Jeff reveals.

  ‘What are you talking about?’ Leofric looks questioningly at Jeff and notices he’s looking under the bed. Leofric gets up to his feet and with his strength lifts up the bed to reveal a bomb with a timer slowly ticking down. ‘What the fuck!’ He drops the bed. Fear strikes Leofric’s heart. ‘I… I had
this planned.’ Leofric begins to shudder. An angered expression spreads across his face as he grabs Jeff by his collar and lifts him to his feet as he slams him against the wall. ‘Tell me the truth! Is that yours?’

  ‘They’ve had you from the start. Did you really think they were going to let you into their little club?’ Jeff snaps staring into Leofric’s eyes.

  From this look Leofric could tell that Jeff was right. The vampires who hired him had never planned to let him join their plans; this was a trap to take care of them all, including Leofric.

  Whilst Leofric freezes from this realisation Jeff takes this opportunity to give Leofric a swift head butt forcing him to lose his grip on Jeff. Jeff follows this up with a right hook across his face.

  ‘You’re fucking dead!’ Leofric shouts as he throws a punch.

  † † † † † † † † † † † † † † † †

  Will exits the elevator door and heads down the corridor making his way to the honeymoon suite. A series of bangs can be heard. Will looks ahead to the honeymoon suite but realises the banging noise is coming from a room to his left. Will cautiously walks towards the room’s door and listens. In between the constant bangs he can hear slight mErmurs. He raises his gun and shots out the electronic lock unlocking the door. He slowly pushes open the door to reveal Vaelen tied with chains to the ceiling and walls of the emptied out room. Vaelen continues to bang his feet on the floor and shouts from behind a gag. Vaelen is covered from head to toe in dried blood signalling to Will that he had been beaten into this position. Will rushes into the room and quickly pulls out Vaelen’s gag from his mouth.

  ‘Shoot the chains!’ Demands Vaelen in a slight panic.

  ‘Ok.’ Will agrees and proceeds to shoot the chains around Vaelen’s arms and legs freeing him from his binds.

  ‘We need to get out of here now!’

  ‘Hold on, we need to save Jeff.’ Will protests.

  ‘Will listen to me. This entire building is rigged with explosives. Set to detonate at one o’clock.’ Vaelen snatches one of Will’s guns and heads towards the door.

  Will grabs Vaelen’s arm and pulls him back not letting him go. ‘We have to save Jeff.’

  ‘One vampire life is not worth the risk!’ The look on Vaelen’s face shows his seriousness.

  ‘They have his wife and kid too.’ Will snaps.

  Vaelen pauses and wipes the sweat from his forehead as he contemplates. ‘Where are they?’ He reluctantly agrees to save them.

  ‘They’re just down the end of this hall in the honeymoon suite.’

  Vaelen peers out of the doorway and looks down the hall towards the honeymoon suite. ‘Fuck it.’ Vaelen tugs his arm out of Will’s grasp and charges down the corridor. Will quickly follows a few steps behind. As they reach the door they both stop in front of it. They give each other a signal to suggest kicking the door down. In unison they lift their right legs and with full power boot the door forcing the lock to break swinging the door wide open.

  Action from within the room stops momentarily from Will and Vaelen’s sudden entry. Leofric has a hold of Jeff by his collar as his body limply hangs from Leofric’s grasp. Jeff is almost unrecognisable from the bruising, cuts and blood covering his face. Both Will and Vaelen aim their guns towards Leofric as he stares at them.

  ‘Put him down Leofric.’ Vaelen shouts in a commanding tone.

  Leofric quickly pulls Jeff in front of him using him as a human shield. ‘Or what?’ Spits out Leofric.

  ‘We have guns so let me think.’ Will states in anger.

  ‘You’ll have to kill Jeff to kill me. Not that it matters considering this place is going to blow any minute now. Taking all of us with it.’ Leofric tightens his grip around Jeff’s throat causing him to choke.

  ‘Let him go!’ Will shouts as he fires warning shots just above Leofric’s head, hitting the window behind him causing it to crack.

  ‘You can’t scare me little boy.’ Leofric chuckles.

  ‘Fuck you!’ Will throws down his gun as his eyes blacken, within a second Will lands a punch to Leofric’s face causing him to lose grip on Jeff dropping him to the floor. Whilst coughing Jeff crawls along the floor towards his daughter.

  ‘Shoot him!’ Jeff shouts through his coughs.

  ‘I can’t get a clean shot!’ Vaelen keeps aim looking for the perfect opportunity to fire.

  Leofric grabs hold of Will by the shoulders and flings him against the wall.

  ‘Now!’ Will shouts.

  Leofric freezes staring down the barrel of the gun Vaelen has pointed at him. ‘Shit.’

  Vaelen opens fire.

  Leofric takes a total of twenty six bullets to his body before Vaelen takes his finger off the trigger. Leofric falls back onto the window desperately trying to hold himself up as blood begins to pure out of him. Vaelen drops his gun and rushes to untie Lisa and Jade.

  Will gets himself back to his feet and casually walks over to Leofric whilst cracking his neck. ‘Consider this retribution.’ Will whispers into Leofric’s ear before placing himself in front of Leofric. With one swift kick to Leofric’s stomach he is sent smashing through the window to a long fall to his death. As Will turns to face the others he catches a look of a clock on the wall in front of the bed. ‘Erm guys, we have four minutes left.’

  ‘Then get your arse over here and help!’ Vaelen shouts as he unties Lisa picks her up and carries her out into the corridor back towards the elevator.

  Will quickly rushes over to Jade and unties her. ‘Thank you so much.’ She cries.

  ‘Don’t mention it, now go! Follow Vaelen, I’ve got Jeff.’

  Jade gives Jeff a kiss on the forehead before running out towards Vaelen and Lisa. Will picks up Jeff by his right arm and swings it over his shoulders before lifting his to his feet. ‘Come on buddy, let’s get you out of here.’

  ‘Thank you Will. For everything.’

  Will half drags Jeff out of the honeymoon suite and down the corridor. ‘Don’t thank me yet, we could still explode.’ They both nervously laugh as they proceed into the elevator.

  The elevator ride takes close to a minute to reach the ground floor. As the doors slowly open the group barge their way out and head towards the main entrance of the hotel. ‘Come on!’ Vaelen shouts leading the pack.

  As they make it outside they continue to run as quickly as they can to a safe enough distance down the road away from the building.

  ‘I think here will be safe enough.’ Vaelen states as he puts Lisa down to her feet.

  ‘Daddy!’ Lisa screams through a stream of tears as she runs toward Jeff. Will carefully lowers Jeff to his knees. Jeff embraces his daughter. ‘I love you so much.’ He begins to shed some tears. He looks up at Jade. ‘I’m so sorry.’ Jade bursts into tears as she joins the embrace kissing Jeff with intense passion. ‘I’m so so sorry.’ Jeff states pulling away from the kiss.

  ‘Just shut up and keep kissing me.’ Jade smiles.

  Ring ring. Ring ring.

  ‘What is that?’ Vaelen asks looking at Will.

  ‘A phone you idiot.’

  ‘I know that, but you had your phone on you this whole time?’ Vaelen frowns.

  ‘I guess so, was a bit preoccupied to realise.’ Will rummages into his pocket and pulls out his phone. The display indicates Katie Hollister.

  ‘Katie!’ He answers the phone. ‘Katie! Where have you been? Where are you?’

  ‘I’m fine Will, I think we need to talk, I’m at the hotel, I’ve used the back entrance, I’ll wait for you…’

  A series of explosions from the top floor of the hotel resonate downwards floor by floor, sending debris in every direction.

  ‘KATIE!’ Will screams as he drops his phone and runs towards the exploding building. Vaelen quickly grabs him and holds him back.

  ‘Will! Stop!’ Vaelen shouts.

  ‘Katie!’ She’s in there! Katie!’ Will begins to scream in hysterics.

  ‘Will! There’s nothing you can do.’

&
nbsp; ‘But I have to save her.’

  The building begins to collapse in on itself.

  ‘No!’ Will drops to his knees slamming his fists into the road.

  Sirens can be heard in the distance.

  ‘Look we need to get out of here. We have a garage around the corner, we’ll take one of the vans. Jeff knows where it is, get going.’ Vaelen commands Jade. She holds up Jeff with one arm and holds her daughters hand with the other. They head down the road.

  ‘Will…’ Vaelen looks down to Will.

  ‘I know.’ Tears begin to stream down his cheeks. ‘Someone’s going to pay for this.’

  ‘My thoughts exactly.’

  Vaelen helps Will to his feet. They both proceed down the road to catch up to the others.

  ‘Someone will pay.’

  EPILOGUE:

  The smoke and debris from the collapsed hotel fills the night sky as an array of fire fighters dowse the still burning remanence. Due to the destruction of the hotel the authorities had cautioned off the road and the surrounding blocks of roads.

  Two detectives stand by a car just down the road from the destruction taking and comparing notes. As one leaves to have a talk with the chief fire fighter, the other opens the driver door to the car and sits inside.

  ‘It’s all done.’ He states as he slips his notepad into his suit jacket pocket.

  ‘Are you sure?’ Max asks sat in the front passenger seat.

  ‘Yes, the secret is safe. It’s being rigged to look like a series of gas leak explosions. I’ll make sure this story is kept throughout the investigation.’ The detective replies.

  ‘Good.’ A voice from the backseat. The detective and Max turn to look with grins on their faces. ‘Send out the message… Begin the Ana Programme.’ Dirk laughs as he lights up a cigar.

  The detective starts the car and drives off away from the scene. Dirks laugh echoes through the air as they drive away.