The Late Night Horror Show

by Bryan Smith

  Aubrey smiled. “I’m here to serve you, Mistress. What would you have me do?”

  As Victor’s bride, she was their queen and they were expected to treat her as such. It was sort of hilarious, but she enjoyed it anyway. Her fixation on vampires had not been her only girlhood flight of fancy. Like so many other girls, she had daydreamed of being royalty. Of being a storybook princess. But being a debased vampire queen of blood was even better.

  “I’d like you to dig out one of this cute little thing’s eyes and feed it to Jenna.”

  “Yes, Mistress.”

  The girl on the floor screamed again and whipped her head side to side in a desperate effort to avoid Aubrey’s grasping hand. Kira clamped a hand under the girl’s chin and forced her to stay still as Aubrey reached for her again. Aubrey had long, manicured fingernails painted a vivid shade of scarlet. The girl screwed her eyes shut as those lovely nails neared her quivering eyeball. But Jenna pinched the eyelid between thumb and forefinger and tugged it viciously open. The girl whimpered as Aubrey giggled and pushed her nails up under the outstretched eyelid. The girl started thrashing again as she felt the hard nails skim the surface of the eyeball. Kira shifted position and stretched a leg across the girl’s midsection to straddle her.

  The girl’s eyes were both open now. The look on her face told Kira she knew further resistance was pointless. “Please…” she whimpered before continuing. “Please…don’t do this…I’ll do anything you want…anything…I swear.”

  “Hold on just a second, Aubrey.”

  Aubrey’s fingers remained poised to dig, but she did not proceed. “Of course, Mistress.”

  Kira smiled. “Do you mean that? Will you really do anything at all, no matter how sick and fucked up and wrong?”

  “Yes. Anything.”

  “Do you have a family? Siblings? Parents?”

  “Yes.”

  Kira pursed her lips and made a contemplative sound as she pretended to think it over. Then she smiled again. “What if I asked you to summon them here…would you do that?”

  “Yes.”

  “My.” Kira laughed. “You didn’t even hesitate. Tell me this, then. Would you kill them if I said to? Would you butcher them? Chop their bodies into tiny pieces?”

  Again, no hesitation. “Yes.”

  Kira nodded. “You know, I believe you would. I really do. I think you just talked me into sparing your life. That’s how much I’d like to see that.”

  The girl sniffled. “I’ll do it. I’d kill anybody you want or do anything you say if it means not dying.”

  Kira laughed again. “Well now, there’s dying and then there’s dying. I’ve learned there’s a difference. I mean, look at me, I died and I’m still here.”

  Kira watched the girl’s expression change as she mentally connected the dots. “You mean…I’d become a vampire?”

  “I think you’re supercute and it’d be a waste to permanently snuff you. I’ve found I enjoy killing, so don’t get me wrong, but I’d rather kill men. Their lives aren’t worth as much.”

  Aubrey and Jenna both laughed at this.

  The girl’s face was shiny with tears. She choked back a sob and said, “Thank you…Mistress. You won’t regret this.”

  “Oh, I know, girl.” Kira leaned in closer and tightened her grip on the girl’s throat. “But you’re still gonna lose that eye.”

  The girl sucked in a breath. “What? No. NO!”

  Kira glanced at Aubrey. “Do it.”

  Aubrey’s nails were still positioned beneath the girl’s eyelid, which remained pinched between Jenna’s thumb and forefinger. She never hesitated, plunging her nails savagely downward the instant her queen commanded it. The girl screamed again and writhed harder than ever. Kira laughed and rode her like a bucking rodeo bronco. She grew aroused as she watched Aubrey’s middle and index fingers sink into the socket down to the second joint—and then down to the third.

  The girl was wailing so loudly at this point Kira thought her eardrums might burst. Aubrey dug her fingers around in the socket for a few moments, possibly longer than strictly necessary. Kira approved. She liked Aubrey’s style, the way she was prolonging and reveling in the girl’s agony. Aubrey seemed to sense this and glanced at her before finishing the job. The gaze they exchanged then was charged with an electric eroticism that was nearly as exciting as what they were doing to the girl on the floor.

  Aubrey shifted position slightly and plunged her thumb into the other side of the girl’s socket, eliciting yet another wail of delirious agony. Then the muscles in her hand flexed, her fingers tightening around the squishy orb as she began to slowly extract it from the socket. Slowly, so slowly, still drawing it out as Kira rode the bucking bronco again. The eyeball emerged at last from the socket, the stalk stretching to a thin strand before it popped and the bloody orb came loose.

  The servant sat back and displayed her prize. “Done, Mistress.”

  Kira relinquished her grip on the girl’s throat and sat back to laugh and clap in delight. “Very good!” Then she glanced at Aubrey and Jenna in turn, smiling wickedly as her eyes glittered with further deviltry. “Now feed it to Jenna.”

  Jenna leaned toward her sister servant and held her mouth open wide.

  Aubrey smiled as she leaned over the mutilated girl’s head and pushed the bloody eyeball into Jenna’s mouth. Jenna bit down at once, her sharp vampire’s teeth pushing easily through the slippery tissue. Half the eyeball slid onto her eager tongue and she closed her mouth as she chewed slowly, making a groan of pleasure as she appeared to relish the taste. She was a vampire, so Kira was certain this was no act. She sort of wanted to eat an eyeball now herself. But Jenna opened her mouth again and quickly drew in the remaining piece of the girl’s eye, slurping the end of the detached stalk between her pursed lips like a strand of spaghetti.

  The show was over.

  Kira had enjoyed it very much.

  But she was far from done having fun with the poor creature quivering beneath her. There was still the matter of turning her into a vampire, of course. She didn’t know how to do that yet and would either have to summon Victor or have one of these beautiful servants instruct her in the matter.

  But first…

  She pushed a thumb into the girl’s empty eye socket.

  The resounding screams that ensued were music to her ears.

  The club’s sound system was thumping, blaring song after song by dance pop artists he didn’t recognize at skull-crushing volume. The sole tolerable refuge from the synth-driven bombast was in a row of semicircular booths at the rear of the club, where the roar of the music was less overpowering. However, the booth occupied by Monroe and his companions was uncomfortably crowded. It had been fine until Tom and Lloyd had roped in a couple of admittedly attractive females between trips to the bar for more drinks. Six seemed the ideal occupancy for the booth. Eight was just too much. They were crowded in like…well, like something one might cram too much of into a tight metal container. Except that this was a booth and not a can of something.

  Monroe was a little drunk. Okay, perhaps a lot drunk. As a result, his mind kept spinning off into a lot of weird, random directions, thoughts and insights that started off with some glimmer of brilliance before devolving into something approaching insensibility. The table in front of him was littered with empty beer bottles and plastic drink glasses. One of the human girls had foisted upon him something called a Mind Eraser. The concoction was true to its name.

  The black-haired vampire girl with the bat tattoo was seated to his left at the back of the booth. Her name was Lilith. Monroe assumed this was some kind of alias. Her right hand was in his lap, high up on his thigh. She wasn’t stroking him or squeezing him. Her hand was just there. Every now and then she’d give him a sly little look and go back to bobbing her head minutely to the music while power-inhaling yet another cigarette.

  Monroe had an erection so insistent it was painful. His discomfort was such he was tempted to ask her to ta
ke her hand away. But of course he did not. He was pretty sure he’d never wanted to fuck anyone quite so desperately. It was one of the many double-edged swords of vampirism. Everything was heightened. He was aflame with desire.

  One of the stomping dance anthems came to an abrupt halt and a collective cheer arose from the dance floor. A sound of drunken revelry. Hearing it made Monroe smile. He had almost forgotten his earlier thoughts of escape. Almost. They were still floating at the periphery of his consciousness, but for now seemed distant.

  Before the next song could start, Lilith leaned close to him, putting her mouth to his ear as she said, “Come with me. We’re going for more drinks.” She laughed softly. “At least that’ll be the story.”

  Monroe couldn’t help grinning. “Okay.”

  Lilith raised her voice as the next song started. “Up! We’re going to the bar.”

  Everyone to her left shifted sideways, slithering out of the booth to make room for their exit. They then skirted the dance floor, heading straight for the bar. Monroe’s swollen package attracted looks and occasional giggles from others coming and going in that direction, but he was too focused on Lilith’s distractingly shapely form to much care.

  They reached the crowded area in front of the bar and kept going, bypassing the bar altogether. They detoured into a short, crowded hallway that led to the bathrooms. The people in the hallway were lined up, awaiting their turns to relieve overburdened bladders and bowels. Lilith brushed right past them, roughly threading her way through the press of bodies to the door of the women’s room. This elicited some angry reactions, but Lilith ignored all of it.

  Monroe hesitated at the door. He was a guy, after all. He wasn’t supposed to go in there. Lilith rolled her eyes at him and seized him by a wrist to drag him through the door. More angry reactions ensued. One woman, a tough-looking rocker girl in a leather jacket and torn jeans, tried to confront them, but Lilith silenced her with a look. The girl’s face went blank. Then she turned away from them and walked out.

  Some weird vampire hypnotism thing, Monroe guessed—yet another vamp skill among many he had yet to learn.

  No one else attempted to interfere.

  There was a row of stalls against the back wall. Lilith hauled him into one as it came open and the prior occupant strolled out. She threw the door shut and they stood face-to-face. The air in the stall felt superheated. Monroe knew her skin would feel hot to the touch. Warmth emanated from her body like waves of heat from a radiator. Her stare was electric and entrancing. Those plump lips, so glossy and wet and inviting.

  Monroe couldn’t take it any longer.

  He put his hands on her waist and tried to pull her close.

  She stopped him with a hand pressed flat against his chest. “No.”

  Monroe frowned.

  What? You fucking cocktease…

  It was an uncharacteristically nonchivalrous thing for him to think. Hardly surprising. He wasn’t feeling like himself at all since the change. In fact, he kind of felt like a stranger in his own body. The impulse to swat her hand away and press the issue was a prime example of the alien thinking currently governing much of his actions. It was a thing the human version of Monroe would never have considered. But right now his frustration was such that the temptation was nearly overwhelming.

  Lilith must have sensed some of this because her expression softened some. “I’m sorry, Monroe, I’ve led you on.”

  “Bitch.”

  He tried to move in closer again.

  She stopped him again with a hand splayed against his chest. This time she let him feel her strength as she calmly drove him backward. Monroe said nothing, but was duly impressed. He was strong enough now to tear a human being to pieces, but she had moved him as easily as she would a small child. He supposed he was a child to her, in a way.

  The softness had leeched from her expression. Now the angles of her striking face looked sharp enough to cut. “Tell me something, Monroe. Were you thinking of trying to force yourself on me?”

  Monroe said nothing. They both knew the answer to that question.

  She grunted. “You get one pass on that. But only because I did lead you on. Try again and I’ll rip your heart from your chest before you can blink. Understand?”

  Monroe was still frustrated, but he knew what she said was no empty threat. So he nodded and said, “Yeah. Sorry.”

  A hint of a smile teased the corners of her mouth. “No, you’re not.”

  Monroe didn’t return the smile. “So, if you’re not gonna fuck me, you mind telling me why you dragged me in here?”

  “Because I want you to have a chance, that’s why.”

  Monroe frowned. “The fuck? Pretty sure you just told me I don’t have a chance with you. Or…” his frown deepened, “…are you talking about some other kind of chance?”

  “Look…this is against my better judgment. It’s stupid, really, that I’m even telling you this. I risk ruining everything.”

  What remained of Monroe’s once-painful erection wilted. “Just spit it out, okay? The night’s not getting any younger and I’d like to go find a girl I could actually fuck.”

  “Victor’s mansion is being raided tonight by hunters.”

  Monroe frowned again. “Say what now? The fuck does that even mean?”

  “A small army of heavily armed vampire hunters is hitting the mansion even now. Everyone there will be dead very soon.”

  Monroe said nothing for a long moment as he gaped in shock at her. He needed that time to even begin processing what she had said. Though starting to fade somewhat, his drunken condition wasn’t helping matters any. He knew he had to focus and try hard to make sense of this. “Hold on…how do you know this?”

  “Because I’m their inside man, so to speak.”

  “Like a double agent?”

  She nodded, studying his expression carefully. “Exactly. I’ve provided the intelligence necessary to take Victor down. It’s been in the works for over a year.”

  “Huh.” Monroe shook his head again. “And you’re telling me this because you want me to…have a chance. A chance to survive, is that what you mean?”

  She nodded.

  “But…why? Why single me out? What makes me special?”

  “My guilty conscience.”

  “Are you fucking serious? Your conscience? You’re a vampire. You don’t have a fucking conscience.”

  She looked almost sad. “Typical baby vamp. You think you know it all already. Your conscience isn’t dead, Monroe. It’s only been obscured by early-stage bloodlust. In time we learn to control that lust and more and more of our human aspect reemerges. Some of us choose to cope by suppressing the human part of our personalities, but it isn’t easy. I have a lot of blood on my hands. A lot of innocents have died because of me. I was the one who finished you off in the hot tub, you know. The one who turned you.” She moved closer to him and put a hand to his face. He was surprised to find himself trembling at her touch. “I had no choice. I did to you what I did willingly so many other times, and I’m sorry. So sorry.”

  Monroe touched the back of her hand. “So you’re warning me because you feel guilty. Okay. So what am I supposed to do now?”

  She smiled. “You leave the club with me. A separate squad of hunters has been dispatched here to finish off Tom and the others. The driver who brought us here is waiting for us. He’s another double agent. He’ll take us someplace safe.”

  “Right. Safe. Okay. Safe is good.” His eyes narrowed some as he thought of something. “And everyone at the mansion dies? Every human, every vampire.”

  “The human prisoners will be taken alive and debriefed, if possible. The corrupted human employees will be executed along with all the vampires in residence.”

  Kira.

  She again seemed to sense his thoughts. “You can’t help her, you know. It’s already too late.”

  Monroe kept his expression blank and made himself nod. “Right. Nothing I can do against an army anyway.�
�

  That seemed to pacify her. “And what about Tom and Lloyd?”

  “What about them?”

  “You’ve been bonding with them tonight. Are you okay with them dying?”

  Monroe shrugged. “Whatever. They’re just characters in a bad movie anyway. Easy come, easy go.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  Monroe laughed.

  Baby, you wouldn’t believe me if I told you.

  “Nothing. It’s just a thing I say. Like a catchphrase.”

  “It’s not a very good one.”

  “That’s what everyone tells me. So…we gonna go now?”

  “That’s another thing. We had to wait for the other squad to arrive.”

  “So the others won’t stop us from leaving, right?”

  “Right.” She glanced at the watch strapped to her slender left wrist. “They should be inside now. We can start—”

  He knew the key to making it work would lie in catching her off-guard. So he waited, trying to sense the exact right moment. And then it arrived. The instant she believed he was on board with the whole scheme. He didn’t hesitate. He couldn’t. She was older and would make him pay otherwise. So he struck with what he hoped was lethal quickness, slamming her head into the side of the stall as hard as he could. The blow would have crushed a human head. It only dented Lilith’s. He pressed the attack, knowing he had to finish her fast, while she was dazed.

  Her eyes were glassy, but he could see them coming back into focus. He grabbed her by the throat and propelled her savagely backward, thumping the back of her head off the concrete wall behind the toilet. There was a sharp sound that might have been her skull cracking open, but that alone would not finish her. He thought of something she’d said and made a tight fist of his other hand, thinking he’d slam it through her chest to her heart, just as she’d threatened to do to him.