by P. A. Rose
“New boy, when I am finished with you, I am going to take that needle and break your girlfriend.”
I looked over at Thorn, he couldn’t be serious, she would still destroy him, I thought.
“I think Thorn can look after herself,” I answered looking at her.
“Not her, you idiot, the red head,” he said laughing.
“No,” I screamed into his face.
It happened the uncontrollable rage just like I felt as a vampire, but this was pure human rage. Memories of Scarlett flashed across my mind. The first time I met her in the sixth form common room and the elation of being introduced and becoming friends. My first kiss with Scarlett at her house, my heart hammering and feeling like it was breaking open my rib cage. Scarlett cradling my head, her tears dropping onto my face, and her flame hair was bellowing in the wind. After I had pushed her over and tears of heart break rolling out her green eyes and nose bleeding onto her lips. At the nightclub telling me, I could still come home, and we could be together again, and the hope it sparked and the rekindling of my love for her.
The rage was rampant, and it triggered strength inside me that I didn’t know I possessed. The anger brew till boiling point and my muscles began to shake with the rage. The blood rushing faster and faster around my body, heart pumping and hormones crashing about sparking every part of life force I had to sacrifice. My face went red, and I gritted my teeth from the change. I started to emit a, low intense, growl that slowly and surely turned in to a full ear splitting roar. Saliva spitting from my teeth and into Barry’s face and the muscles around my hands began to squeeze tight crushing his grip. The sudden strength in my arms began to push the blade out of my shoulder as I continued to shout into his face. His expression changed as he began to lose the battle of strength between us. Fear crossed his face, my psychic abilities picked up images of me as a vampire in his mind. He thought I was changing, I wasn’t this was old fashion human rage. Rage and anger inspired by my love of Scarlett. He had taken everything from me, and I wouldn’t let him take anymore. The blade came out of my shoulder, and I pushed it to the side allowing the pressure between to be released. His head dropped down with the lack of resistance, and I smashed my forehead into his nose as he dropped. The blood spurted out, and he screamed in pain. I didn’t stop and grabbed his nose between my teeth and began to wretch, pulling and tearing. His blood poured into my mouth, and I allowed it to slide into my throat gulping it down, imaging I was a vampire. It was time to finish I thought, and pushed him off to the side of the clearing. I got to my feet still in a rage, but I was steady and thinking straight as I walked over to the needle. I had used my anger and love to fight back. I had bathed in my emotions just as Thorn had taught me. However, I was Day Jonathan, and the thoughts of Scarlett had been overwhelming and had triggered the reactions I needed to win. It was this side of my personality that had the strength to react and the motivation to fight, Day had won over Night. I picked up the needle and looked at Barry holding his nose and rolling around on the floor moaning in pain. He knew what would happen next when I injected, and he watched preparing for his final moments. I knew what would happen, the vampire would take charge and the instincts would be strong, all I needed to do was let it off the leash. It would be easy for me, no pain, no thought needed in order to kill Barry. I turned to Thorn and threw the needle down by her feet instead. I wanted to feel all of it. I wanted to feel the pain on my knuckles. I didn’t want it to be easy. I wanted to feel every single moment. I wanted it to be under my control. I wanted to remember it as a human, Barry and I on the same level man to man. This was going to be Day Jonathan’s moment of triumph, and I didn’t care if Thorn sensed the change in my emotions and sensed my love for Scarlett.
Barry charged head first at the sight of the needle being thrown away. I stepped to one side, and a knee powered across my body and hit the side of his head, he crashed to the floor. Thorn’s training had come to the forth, my confidence and aggression triggered the movements and instincts I had practiced. I slid the knife into the back of my jeans and clenched my fists ready to practice some more. He was back on his feet, and I moved forward ready for contact. He swung a fist, I ducked and threw an undercut onto his chin and then swiped an elbow across his face fracturing his cheekbone. Barry was on the floor whimpering. I kicked him in the stomach, and he dropped to the mud to cover up. I walked about him kicking him in the back and legs as he hopelessly tried to crawl away. I stopped after a while, not wanting him dead, and grabbed hold of him and dragged him to a tree and pushed him against it, sitting him up. He was a mess, blood pouring out of his nose and cuts across his face.
I pulled out the knife and knelt down and looked into his eyes. I didn’t intend to kill him. I didn’t want to cross that line as a human, not now as I had decided who I genuinely wanted to be. Killing as a vampire was surreal, an out of body experience, this would be different and hard to cope with and recover from. I was Day Jonathan following the outpouring of emotions for Scarlett, and I wanted to return home as intact as possible. I had my revenge with the beating I had given him, but I wanted him to suffer for a bit long by making him think I was going to kill him, and to make sure he never came after me.
I remembered him talking to me about consequences, so I reflected his speech back on him.
“Life is all about consequences,” I stated.
“Consequences like mugging a new boy because you fancy his girlfriend.”
“Consequences of me being in London in the first place which are out your control.”
“The job my Dad does, or just simply looking the other way have all lead us here tonight,” I began to enjoy my speech, but could see it was totally over his head.
“It’s too late for you Barry.”
“Consequences Barry, consequences,” I said in a matter of fact voice and flicked the knife back and forth in the air.
His eyes traced it as I waved it around and fear consumed his face.
“Don’t kill me. It wasn’t my idea. I was paid to mug and bully you,” Barry blurted out.
“What!” I replied, I felt like I had been punched in the stomach and the news rocked me backwards.
“Yeah, these guys paid me £2000 to give you a kicking. Then more money again on the Sunday night to carry on the following week,” Barry said hands held up and front of his body surrendering.
“What people,” I asked and acid was creeping up my throat.
I wanted to be sick, but forced it back down.
Thorn walked over intrigued by what Barry just said.
“The people who will be here any minute,” Barry said laughing and looking around the woods.
I was totally confused, I didn’t know what to do, and I looked around trying to sense anyone approaching, but could only hear the wind rustling the leaves in the trees and creaking of branch against branch.
“You mean the people who gave you this Barry,” Thorn said holding up a small broken plastic box.
Barry began to pad his jacket frantically but to no avail.
“Yeah,” he said defeated, looking at her hand with the box.
“A transmitter. I broke it when I first captured him,” Thorn replied explaining.
“Who?” I asked.
Barry didn’t answer, but just looked down at the mud, defeated and broken.
“Who,” I said again waving the knife under his nose.
“The same guys who been sniffing around ever since you killed my friends. They have been talking to everyone. They paid for the attacks on you and the bullying. They gave me the transmitter in order to track you down. It was all arranged the mugging, the bullying and your girlfriend,” Barry said.
“Thorn?”
“No Scarlett, they wanted you to suffer as much as possible.”
I was stunned, what did this mean I thought, and the sickness burnt away in my stomach.
“She is part of it, building you high than you have ever been so the fall would be further, harder, and darker.
Enough to make you take the vampire formula,” Thorn said.
“No wonder the Hunters were at the night club waiting when we saw Scarlett,” she added.
I realised I had been played from the beginning. There was no random consequence it was all planned by them, the Hunters, but it had gone wrong, as I had come back and released Thorn and taken the needles. They wanted the needles and me back for testing. Barry was involved, my Dad and Scarlett as well. That would explain why a woman like Scarlett ever went out with me in the first place I thought. I always knew she was too good for me. I was just a scrawny depressed teenage boy, and she was a young beautiful woman. It all made sense now, being introduced to her on the first day was no accident and all those shared lessons, she just pretended to like me. The same music and films tastes and we came from the same place as well. The constant chasing me about college, when I was hiding and avoiding her. The invite to her house when we started dating, she made all the moves and flirted encouraging me onwards. Of course, the mugging, walking out through the front gates with her, and Barry and the gang were waiting. Her dropping the bag so I tripped and her running off until the mugging was completed.
I guess I was suppose to use the injection sooner, but didn’t. Scarlett then coming around on that Saturday starting the argument in the hope it would trigger me into action. When that didn’t work, and I was back at college, it was the bullying and the photo of her and Barry tip me over the edge. The final betrayal. The memories flooded back, with my new insight putting them into perspective of how I had been played. This was the truth of Scarlett. Thorn was right about Scarlett, at the nightclub with the hunters waiting for me, and she knew what I had done and then tried to convince me to come back. The signs were all there, and it made sense now I looked back and viewed it properly. She was always out of my league. I should have realised it was too good to be true. I had always known it was, but enjoyed it anyway, and now the reality had come back to haunt me. I was an idiot.
The memories triggered other disturbing truths, my Dad bringing me to the lab that night knowing there was a vampire in the other room, letting me see the needles. It all fitted into the stories Thorn had told me about the lab and what thoughts she heard, it was a set up. They had purposely let her hear their thoughts and set the needles down for me to see them and for her to tell me to take them. Why else leave an innocent and angry teenager next door to an imprisoned beautiful psychic vampire? It was all planned to test their formula in the field, and I wondered how far it went back, Leeds, the car accident, the bullying in school and obviously the new job. The half packed boxes of books at of Leeds house and the waiting job offer the next morning after the O’Keefes attack. The whole thing was planned. I couldn’t believe my own father had sold me out. My life was over. There would be no return, no happy ending, and no dream life with Scarlett. The exact people I thought could save me and give me a normal life again had put me here in the first place. They had been behind the scenes manipulating events to turn me into a test subject. I could only trust Thorn, she had been loyal to me every step of the way. Even tonight I had realised as I fought Barry it was part of the training, a test that she knew I would pass stronger than before. She had said at the outset it would be tough, and now I understood.
The tears burnt down my face as the extent of the betrayal sank in. My life was just an experiment. I was just a test subject. A line of data to measure results against.
“Why trick someone into using it? Why not pay someone?” I shouted at Barry.
He just shook his head.
“I don’t know,” he said.
“Take us to them?” I asked Barry, as I was choking on the tears.
“I don’t know who they are, they would just appear from nowhere,” he answered.
I was numb and cold and felt like my heart had been frozen solid, and it was pumping out frozen blood into my veins. The tears had stopped, and the sickness went, and was replaced by nothingness. Cold, empty, nothingness. I was void of thought or emotions. They had all been blown away by the stark reality of the truth.
“You are of no use to me then,” I responded coldly and thrust forward with the knife.
“No,” he screamed as the knife penetrated his flesh.
I took Barry’s life away, and he screamed, and I saw Day Jonathan instead. It spurred me on, and I started to stab harder, and I repeated, over and over again taking in every moment of the resistance of knife against flesh, and the squelching of his stomach breaking, as the knife tore at the fat and muscle. I enjoyed watching Day Jonathan die and with it his stupid dreams of redemption and forgiveness, and his stupid fantasies of a normal life with Scarlett. His plans of escape and his potential betrayal of Thorn. She was the only true and loyal friend in everything that had happened. I loved her deeply. The blood poured out over the knife covering my hands in its sticky warmth and pumping onto my clothes. I was left now, Night Jonathan, no even he had gone. I was someone else, someone stronger, someone darker, but I wasn’t sure who I was yet. I regained my motivation and confidence in that battle, and truth of the betrayal had hardened it into something solid and dark.
I stood up slowly watching Jonathan Harker die beneath me, and Thorn rushed over and hugged me.
“You are ready, you are my man, you passed the test,” she whispered in my ear and kissed it gently.
“We will find them, find the people who did this to you and the people who captured me, and we will get you your answers and have our revenge,” she added.
I was silent, staring at Jonathan dying in front of me and trying to work out who I was and what my life meant.
“Jonathan you will be okay, trust me,” Thorn said putting her arm around my waist.
“Jonathan is dead,” I said coldly.
“You have chosen a name?”
“V.”
Thorn looked at me quizzically.
“I am Vengeance,” I answered.
“Yes, you are,” Thorn said and smiled at Jonathan dying in front of us.
We embraced and began kissing passionately as Jonathan’s life drained away to the side of us.
Thorn pulled back.
”V, before he dies, may I.”
“Yes,” I answered and offered his blood to her by gesturing towards his dying body.
It seemed only right that Thorn should feed on Jonathan’s before he died as he was going to betray her tomorrow and lead them back to her afterwards.
”I love you,” Thorn said, eyes gleaming and I believed her.
Her fangs sprung out, and she was a blur as she locked onto his neck, draining his blood quickly before he died.
I watched Thorn feed and I felt the vengeance and fury burning in my body making me new, making me whole and turning me into Vengeance. I imagined my revenge on those who had betrayed me. I would find Scarlett and my Dad and make them suffer first. Suddenly, Thorn flew backwards across clearing smashing into a tree, and shaking the leaves loose and falling onto her body. I looked back to his body, and there was a needle sticking out of the side of his stomach. His body was contorting, muscles spasming and flexing, he was changing. He wasn’t going to give up that easily. I guessed he wanted his life back. Damn he must have remembered where I threw the needle and crawled over to it, I thought. I grabbed the knife, and I just hoped Thorn would recover in time.
The muscles on one side keep getting bigger and bigger out of proportion with the rest of his body. His jaw extended out, and teeth broke out all over the place. His head enlarged, and flesh bubbled across his body. He hadn’t turned into a vampire as the transformation had gone horribly wrong. He was a lopsided enraged monster. He lumbered to his feet and screamed at the full moon staggering forward like a wounded animal. His flesh and muscles continued to bubble and contort as the transformation spiralled out of control. He lumbered forward towards Thorn’s limp vulnerable body to finish her off. Thorn is everything to me, she is my true love, and I am her saviour and protector, I thought.
“Over here,�
� I shouted jumping up and down waving my arms.
It worked, and he lumbered away from Thorn and towards me. He had no idea who he was facing and what I was, I am Vengeance, I thought. He threw a massive swipe at my head and I ducked, but he clipped my arm and I flew across and onto the muddy wet ground. I knew I couldn’t get close to him, he was too strong, one hit, and it would be all over.
I looked around at Thorn, and she was still out cold against the tree, there was no sign of movement. I was going have to do this by myself. I got up and ducked numerous swipes, and there was still no movement from Thorn. The transformation carried on, and his body was erupting in muscles and bone, he was a hideous mess. The transformation slowed him down, and he stumbled and screamed in pain again at the full moon. I saw my chance and ran for the camera tripod, grabbed it and headed back to the monster. I circled around his back and avoided the next punch. I coiled the tripod behind my back and smashed it across his head, he started stumbling, and I repeated breaking the tripod into shattered pieces of metal that embedded into his skull. His head broke open, and blood poured out, but he kept moving on instinct and rage alone. I pulled the knife out of the back my jeans and launched into a stabbing frenzy into his chest. His monstrous blood and puss spraying and pouring out and soaking me in a shower of disgusting fluid.
He staggered back, but regained his footing and kept coming forward, he seemed unstoppable. I tried to think of what to do next when Thorn crashed into the side of his body ripping, tearing and smashing away in a terrifying cycle of claws and fangs. I had never seen her give everything, and I realised how powerful she really is, and how dangerous. Finally, the monsters body began to break down under the severity of damage, the physical construct of his body giving up as it continued contorting and growing. It started to burst at the seams. Flesh and bones erupting out and on to the floor and bubbling and contorting on its own. An arm broke off, and his jaws ripped off under the attack of Thorn. Finally, the damage reached a critical point, and the monster exploded across the clearing. I ducked and covered my hands across my face to shield it from the flying flesh. Thorn flew backwards again but was able to land and roll out of the way. The head fired back into the trees smashing the lantern and plunging the clearing into darkness. The full moon came to my rescue providing enough light to make out shapes and figures moving about. In the light of the full moon, Thorn picked herself off the ground and made sure the monster was dead. The clearing was covered in lumps of flesh and bone still bubbling and contorting in piles of monstrous mess. It dripped down from the trees and had splattered against the tree trunks dissolving the bark on contact. Steam rose from the piles of flesh and bone, and it stunk like off meat, I turned my face away in disgust. Why didn’t the formula work on Barry, I thought? Maybe it was just a bad batch, and I had been lucky before, or I was special hence all the effort into me testing it. Yet more questions I had for the people behind my betrayal I thought.
