by Amy Cross
“Not yet,” he says, "but once I get hold of the vampire’s corpse, I can sequence the DNA and complete the transformation. I’ll be the first of a new generation of pure vampires, ready to take control of the entire world. We won’t hide in the shadows like the vampires of old. We’ll become the one true dominant race”.
“Still,” I say, “you’re not a real vampire”. I figure this guy has all the advantages, the only thing I can do is make him angry and hope I can somehow take advantage of his loss of control. It’s a big risk, but it’s all I can think of right now. I'm certainly not going to roll over and let him kill me without a fight.
He steps toward me. Part one of the plan is working: he’s clearly angry. But part two? The part where I work out a way to take advantage of his anger? I'm not sure how that part’s going.
“Is a real vampire a coward?” he asks. “Does a real vampire hide in a cave? Or does a real vampire take control? Is a real vampire strong and powerful?”
“A real vampire is born a vampire,” I say, stepping back to get away from him. “A real vampire has vampire parents”. I’m not sure that’s true. After all, Vincent is Patrick’s father and Vincent isn’t a vampire. So I’m on really, really shaky ground.
With no warning, Keller lunges for me, grabs me by the shoulders and pulls me close to him. “Welcome to the new paradigm,” he says. He looks down. Instinctively, I've managed to push the sword into his stomach, but there’s barely any blood coming out. He looks back up at me and smiles. “I hope you have a Plan B”.
I try to struggle free, but Keller has me held too tightly.
“The offer of mercy is rescinded,” he says. “I’ve decided to kill you in a manner that amuses me”. He smiles, displaying once again the needles embedded in his mouth. Each syringe is filled with the same dark brown liquid that he injected into Vincent. “One bite will be fatal,” he says, "but a hundred bites? An agonizing death."
So this is it. This is the moment when, if Vincent is right, I should see a way out. I have maybe a few seconds before Keller starts biting into me, but instead of coming up with a plan to get out of this, all I can do is think about everything I’ll be leaving behind: my friends, my family, the town. At least they'll all survive. If I'd run, my mother and Todd would have been next on Keller's list of targets.
Keller leans in, opening his mouth ready to deliver an injection from his syringe-teeth. As he does so, however, his left shoulder suddenly explodes, showering me with blood. He grunts in pain and pulls away from me, turning to face the door. Because I’m behind him, I can’t see what he’s looking at.
“Who the hell are you?” he asks.
I lean out from behind Keller, and I can’t believe what I see standing in the doorway. With a shocked but determined look on her face, and holding up a little pink pistol pointed straight at Keller, it's Shelley.
Keller moves toward her, but she fires at him again. And again. And finally, after a fourth shot, he drops to the ground.
Martin Keller
Pain is the body’s way of telling you that you're in danger, but when you no longer care about danger, you learn to experience pain in a completely different way. Subjected to enough pain, you start to gain strength from the incredible rush of adrenaline that surges through your body. Your enemies never realize this. They think they can kill you by causing you more and more pain. In reality, every strike against you is another boost to your adrenaline. It shouldn’t be that way, but it is. For me, at least. While my mind is as clear and strong as ever, my body has gone completely insane.
The bullets rip into my flesh, cutting blood vessels and bouncing off bone. Somewhere at the depths of the sensation, I can feel the pain. Or perhaps ‘feel’ is not the right word; I simply become aware of the pain as it rises through my body. There was a time when I was as weak as any human, when I would have screamed out as my body warned me to avoid the source of the agony. However, I have total control over my body these days. I defeated it, I overcame its natural instincts. I am the mind, and I control all. Pain is just another form of strength.
I wait. I need just a moment to recover my strength. There are still some parts of my body that are human. These are the weaknesses with which I must live, at least for now. Soon they will be gone, and the subjugation of the body will be complete. For now, I have to grant these human chunks of flesh time to recover from the injury. I am imperfect, though soon I shall overcome these imperfections. It doesn’t matter, anyway: these pathetic humans will not escape. I killed the last vampire. Nothing can stop me.
My strength is already rising again. It's time to destroy the pathetic, weak humans. First these two, and then all the rest. There will be no room for humans when my new generation of vampires control the planet.
Sophie
Shelley slowly lowers the gun. She’s clearly in that phase where your body’s sheer adrenalin rush is forcing you to stay strong even when your mind is telling you to crumple to the floor. Trying to keep her eyes fixed on Keller, she glances at me for a moment. “You can explain all this later, okay?” she says, her voice trembling. “Just tell me one thing. Did I kill him?”
I look at Keller. He’s clearly still alive, shuddering on the floor, absorbing the pain. His eyes are screwed tight shut, but I'm pretty sure he'll be back up in a moment. After all, the guy's built like a tank.
“No,” I say cautiously. “He’s not dead. We should get out of here”.
I head for the door, but Keller rushes past me and pushes Shelley out of the way before turning to face us. He’s bleeding from his shoulder and his chest, but it doesn’t seem to be slowing him down much. He looks so much more dangerous now with those gaping wounds from the bullets.
“Two humans?” he asks, gasping for breath. “Even more pathetic than one human”. He’s grimacing, clearly in pain. For two pathetic humans, we’ve certainly caused him some real discomfort, and this must be annoying him. I guess he's not quite as tough as he seems. Still, he’s far from finished off. He’s blocking the door, so we can’t get out of the house, although even if we could get away, I'm not sure what we could do. I’m starting to realize that this maybe isn’t the kind of confrontation you can resolve with plans and ideas; maybe it’s the kind of confrontation you can only resolve with brute force. Unfortunately, both Shelley and I are sorely lacking in that department. Her intervention might have bought us a little time, but now it looks like we're both going to die.
“When I’ve killed you,” Keller says calmly, “I’m going to rip out your eyes and drop these bullets into the empty eye sockets”.
Shelley grabs me and pulls me out through a different door, leading me into a bare room that leads around to the hallway. With Keller still near the front door, we have no choice but to run up the stairs and into one of the bedrooms, turning to try to blockade the door with furniture. There’s nowhere else to go, so we drag a bed across the room. It won’t hold Keller back for long - in fact, it won’t really hold him at all - but it might buy us a moment or two.
I turn to Shelley. “What are you doing here?”
“Sorry,” she says, "but when my best friend turns up at my window in the middle of the night asking for a gun, I tend to worry. I followed you” We both hear the sound of Keller coming up the stairs. “Kind of wish I hadn’t now,” she adds. “Who the fuck is that guy?”
“I’ll tell you later,” I say, running over to the window and trying to get it open, although it seems to be nailed shut. “I thought you said you’d lost that gun?”
“Let’s just say I owe someone a favor,” Shelley says, coming to help. “A really nasty favor, so in some ways it’d be a blessing not to get out of here alive”.
“How many bullets have you got left?” I ask.
"Let's see," she says, "I had four when I came, and I fired four at the guy back there, so I guess that leaves me with none."
With the window clearly jammed shut, I turn as I hear Keller’s footsteps outside the door. I guess that little esc
ape didn’t last long. Instead of coming in, however, he seems to pause, and then I hear him walking slowly along the upstairs corridor and into the next room. It’s kind of menacing, knowing that he’s got some kind of plan and that he seems content to take his time picking us off. All we can do is wait for him to make his next move.
“So who is he?” Shelley asks. We’re both staring at the wall, knowing that he’s plotting something on the other side. "What going on down here, Sophie?"
“He thinks he’s a vampire,” I say, looking around for some furniture we can use to smash the window. “He’s an idiot who got a load of plastic surgery, but he’s dangerous”.
“Why does he think he’s a vampire?”
“He’s very...” I search for the right word. “Impressionable”.
“And this place?” Shelley asks, looking around the room.
“Vampires,” I say.
“Vampires?” Shelley asks. “Seriously?”
I nod. “Vampires,” I say again.
We both turn as there’s a huge crunching sound and part of the wall is smashed down. Through a cloud of dust and plaster, Keller charges into the room.
I grab Shelley’s arm and we run out, but there’s nowhere to run, nowhere to go. I turn and look back and for a moment it’s almost as if everything is in slow motion as Keller launches himself at us, with a look of absolute hatred across his face. For the first time, I see him as not being human at all: instead, he’s like a kind of animal, not a vampire but close; a creature full of rage and anger. Just as he’s about to land straight on me, however, something dark emerges from over my shoulder and collides with Keller, knocking him back into the room.
Somehow, I instantly know what's happening.
Sure enough, as Keller fights back to try to get off the floor, he has someone on top of him, forcing him down with all the strength in the world. Straining with every sinew in his body, fighting with his last energy, it’s Patrick.
Martin Keller
Through the pain, I see a face. The face of the vampire. At first, I consider the possibility that I might have lost my mind, that he is just a figment of my imagination, thrown up to taunt me. As he rips and tears at my flesh, however, I realize that he's all too real and all too dangerous. Benjamin and Nimrod were right; the moment is glorious.
When I first killed vampires, many years ago, I found it so difficult, but over time it became easy. I could kill a vampire in just a few minutes. Then I came up against this vampire, who has now become the last vampire, and I have never quite managed to finish him off. Twice, I've thought he was dead. Both times, he managed to find a way to survive. How can he have defeated me twice? How can he have tricked me? What is his secret? Sometimes I feel as if he's not just a vampire; I feel as if he's something else entirely.
Still, everything will be okay. I know how to kill him this time.
Sophie
Shelley tries to pull me down the stairs, but I refuse to budge. Patrick and Keller are locked in a fight of such power and anger that I honestly don't think I've ever seen anything so shocking. Patrick is on top of Keller, literally ripping chunks of flesh and metal away from his enemy's body, while Keller starts to roar as he reaches up, grabs Patrick's head and starts to squeeze. I can see Patrick grimace with pain as the pressure builds, as Keller's huge muscles start to ripple. With Shelley still pulling on my arm, I stand my ground, determined to watch. Watching Patrick and Keller as they grapple with one another, it's like watching two beasts fighting to the death.
"Get away!" shouts a voice from behind. I turn to see that Vincent has entered the house. "Get away!" he shouts again, "they're out of control."
I glance back at Patrick, and I see that he's slipped his head from Keller's grasp for a moment and is still ripping - with his hands, with his teeth - at the larger man's body. As I watch, Keller roars again and this time he throws Patrick across the corridor. The whole house shakes with the impact. Before Patrick can recover, Keller slams into him again.
"You said he was dead!" I shout, turning to Vincent. "You said you hid his body!"
"I had to lie!" Vincent shouts back. "The only way to make Keller believe Patrick was dead was to make sure you believed it too. There was no other way. I had to protect Patrick."
I run to Vincent and push him against the wall. I don't think I've ever felt so angry at anyone. "You lied!" I shout. "You made me think he was gone forever!"
"He needed time to heal," says Vincent. "He was so badly hurt after the first encounter with Keller. I'm sorry. Besides, the only way to force Keller make a mistake was to make him feel confident."
For a moment, I'm filled with a desire to hurt Vincent, to cause him the kind of pain that he caused me. I couldn't admit it at the time, not to myself, but the thought of Patrick's death had filled me with the most gigantic, gaping black hole of despair. Hell, I'd even been prepared to come down here, to be killed by Keller, simply so that... what? It was like a kind of suicide. Still, I made a stand. I've shown myself that I'm not a coward.
"Holy crap!" says Shelley.
I turn and see what she's looking at. Keller has Patrick's head in his hands again, and is pressing with all his strength. Patrick, apparently powerless to resist, is squeezing his eyes closed in agony. I swear to God, it looks as if his head's going to burst any second. After everything that's happened, it's as Patrick's about to lose to Keller again.
So I do the only thing I can do.
I run straight at them and I push Keller with all the strength in my body. It's not much. In fact, it barely even jolts him. But it's enough. Just enough. It gives Patrick a fraction of a second in which to twist loose. I slam into a wall and fall back to the floor, looking up in time to see Patrick turn to Keller.
I expect Patrick to kill Keller there and then.
I expect him to finish the fight.
Instead, he leans in to Keller, opens his mouth wide, and bites him on the neck.
Keller's eyes open wide and he stands there, accepting the bite. It's as if he's frozen to the spot, unable to comprehend what's happening to him.
After a few seconds of this bizarre scene, during which Keller seems completely unable or unwilling to struggle, Patrick lets go. Slowly, Keller feels the two marks on his neck where Patrick's teeth entered his body.
"Why?" Keller asks, unable to hide the sense of shock in his voice. There are tears streaming down his face. He's always wanted to be a vampire, and now he's got his wish. "I can feel it coursing through my body. My blood is changing, but why now? Why have you given me the greatest gift of all?" He looks over at me and for a moment his eyes seem to have turned yellow, and when he opens his mouth I see the two syringes fall out. They've been replaced by two new teeth, perfect fangs that have risen to take their place. I have no idea why Patrick has done this, but it's as if he's given Keller everything he wanted.
"I feel it," Keller says. "The flood. The essence of a whole new strength. I'm no longer human." He holds his hands up to look at them. "I feel the most immense power, I feel... I feel eternity ahead of me. Eternal life. Darkness and light." He turns to Patrick. "Thank you," he says. "I can never repay you for this."
Patrick stares at him. At first, I can't make out the expression on his face. It seems to be a cross between shock and pity. Nothing makes sense: why did he give Keller the one thing that Keller should never have had? Why did he reward Keller by allowing him to become a vampire?
"Look at me," Keller says, holding up his hands and staring at them with a look of true wonder in his eyes. "After all these years, it's finally happened! I'm a vampire!"
Suddenly, I understand the look on Patrick's face.
Rage.
Boiling throughout his body, rage is consuming Patrick. I've never seen him like this before. I've always known that he's powerful and strong, but I've never really seen the rage overflow in him like this before. As I watch, he steps toward Keller and then launches himself at him, knocking him to the ground and ripping a huge chunk
of flesh from his chest. Keller reaches up to try to stop him, but by this point Patrick has pulled apart Keller's entire torso and has started to pull his spine into pieces. I have to look away, even though I see that Shelley is staring open-mouthed at the whole thing.
Eventually I look back and see Patrick, covered in blood, standing where Keller used to be. All around, there are pools of blood and lumps of flesh and bone. Patrick has literally ripped Keller apart with his bare hands.
"What..." says Shelley. "What... what..."
"Patrick needed rage," says Vincent. "There's only one thing Patrick hates enough to summon up that kind of power." He turns to me. "Other vampires."
"Why does he hate other vampires so much?" asks Shelley, but Vincent doesn't reply.
I understand now. Patrick needed all his anger in the fight against Keller, but the only way to summon that anger was if he was fighting something he hated more than anything else in the world. He needed to be fighting a real vampire, not some kind of tin soldier, and so Keller got what he wanted, for just a moment, before his death, before Patrick was finally able to summon up the rage he needed to finish the job. Finally faced with another vampire again, after all these years, Patrick flew into a fury that no-one could ever hope to withstand.
"How can one person rip another one apart like that?" Shelley asks.
"He hates vampires," I say quietly.
"But he's a vampire," she points out.
I take a deep breath. "I know."
"What is this place, anyway?" Shelley asks, looking at me. "How do you know about all this? I mean, seriously... vampires?"
"It's a long story," I say. "I'll tell you later." It's true; I will. I'll tell her how I met Patrick, I'll tell her all about the werewolves and the Tenderling creature, and about everything that's happened. But there's still a problem. I turn to Vincent. "Are you still -"
He nods. "Let me handle this," he says.
