Arise

by Michael Dean

  The more I searched, the more threatening sets of eyes I began to see. In no time, they were everywhere, bobbing and weaving all over the place, around everyone. I couldn’t keep up. There were a ton of them. They were all around, and now, they weren’t hiding. I could clearly see them; they had the look of pure business in their stares. I suddenly knew what they were up to, they were going to feed and recruit.

  This was completely out of character for vampires, they never hunted or fed in this manner. Not so out in the open, or so obvious. They apparently had no regard for how many people might get away and considering how many humans were at this party, the odds were good that some stragglers would escape. Surely they weren’t going to get to them all. There was no doubt that if they attacked, word would get out about this strange, but tragic incident.

  There was no way they were here in a random fashion, either. They came to put on a show and send me a message, I think. Now I knew what those jocks were up to, following me around town, even though I didn’t see them here yet. They were picking their moment to intimidate me. Shimmer was starting a psychological war before our fight. Immediately my thoughts turned to Shade. I had to get back to her. I quickly found her in the crowd.

  “We gotta go,” I said with urgency as I watched the sadistically grinning vultures pacing around.

  Shade just looked at me like I was crazy, still trying to keep up with the ongoing conversation between her friends, one of which was Sandra.

  “What? I’m not ready to go yet.” She didn’t comprehend what I was trying to tell her.

  “Shade,” I grabbed her arm and squeezed, “we gotta go…now.” I clenched my jaw.

  “Ah, uh…oh…” She turned to her friends. “I’ll be right back.”

  I pulled her a few feet away from them, then a very frustrated Shade voiced her confusion. “Leo, what in the hell is going on? What’s your problem?”

  “Look around you, look at the eyes.” Shade surveyed the area; her expression spoke volumes.

  “Yeah, vampires—they’re all over place…and I don’t think they’re here for me, but rather because of me.”

  “What do you—” then it hit her, what I was trying to say. “Oh dear God, please don’t tell me—”

  I didn’t let her finish. “Go tell your friends that you got a call and that cops are on their way to bust the party. I’ll go around screaming my head off that the police are on their way. I just hope it’ll be enough to get most of them out of here fast enough.”

  “Most of them?” Shade spoke in a panic, knowing exactly what I meant.

  I could only look at her. “Go tell your friends to get the hell out of here—hurry! Do not leave my side…go!”

  Shade wasted no time in running to her inner circle of friends to tell them what I told her to say. It didn’t seem to faze them one bit. They just stood around and looked at Shade as if she’d just swallowed a sack of quarters, like she was getting a little too worked up about the thought of the cops showing up. I joined in and shouted that cops were coming and got the same looks as she did. People looked more annoyed than fearful. No one was going anywhere. I knew this spelt disaster.

  I turned my attention to one of the female vampires standing directly in front of the bonfire, glaring at me. The flames roared behind her, licking and snapping at her backside. Suddenly, a sadistic, fang-filled smile appeared on her face and I knew they were about to get down to business.

  “Rrruuuuunn!” I screamed in a last ditch effort to save some lives.

  My eyes never left that vampire’s evil grin. The second I yelled for people to get out of Dodge, it was like time slowed to a crawl. I knew it didn’t literally slow down, it just felt that way. The fire behind the blood blister slowed, everyone’s movements around us were in slow-motion. Even their exuberant voices and laughter seemed to slow to deep, guttural slurs. It was the calm before the storm. Her eyes widened in excitement, but she never stopped looking at me. She was about to strike and time picked right back up. There was nothing I could do to save anyone now.

  I couldn’t just whip out my wings and go right into doing my demon thing, either. Too many peers here knew me and that would blow my cover for sure. I might even get associated as being a part of what was about to occur. They had me in a corner and they knew it. I was nearly helpless to react because so many people could identify me. This was a calculated strike on their part, totally plotted by Shimmer to toy with me, I’m sure.

  I started to run to the girl vamp to stop her, but I was already too late. She reached over and grabbed a human girl and chomped down on her neck right in front of a group of her peers. No attempt, whatsoever to hide what she was doing. At first they were all quiet, not sure what to make of what was going on right in front of them. Then they let out the first set of screams that cascaded around the party as her friends looked on in horror at the vampire sucking down on their friend. A guy walked over to the vamp and tried to stop her, only to get stopped by a male vampire, who started to feed on him.

  More screams broke out across the party and all of a sudden it was a free-for-all. Vampires were killing without discrimination, and at will. It was a blood fest. People started to run and scream in different directions, trying to escape the madness that was in full swing. I turned to get back to Shade and people were slamming into to me from every direction. I could hear Shade calling for me in the distance and it sent me into a full blown panic. I started shoving guys and girls out of my way. In my haste I didn’t realize just how hard I was pushing them. They were flying into the air every time I gave them a little push.

  Luckily, I got to Shade and she was safe for the time being. When she saw me clearing the path to her by way of flying bodies going in every direction, she ran straight to me.

  “They’re going to kill everyone, Leo! You have to stop them!” she pleaded. But I couldn’t stop them all. I couldn’t save everyone, not to mention I couldn’t reveal myself; something Shade forgot in her panic. Besides, I was already too late. The buffet was on. The only thing I could think to do was protect her.

  “Stay with me. Don’t venture off,” I ordered.

  “No problem.”

  People were fleeing all around us as Shade and I calmly walked through the panicked scene. Then I noticed another person watching us from out in the distance. It was Scruffy. He and Sandra were in full retreat down the dirt road when he stopped to look back at the scene. Scruffy and I locked eyes. In that moment, it was if I understood what his bewildered, yet, investigative look meant. He was wondering why I was staying behind like I did that one time up at Miller’s Hill. His suspicion of my past and recent behavior had reached a fever pitch, I think. Sandra grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and pulled him away. I was relieved those two were safe, at least for now.

  The crowd had thinned, but everywhere we looked a vampire, or two, or three at a time even, were feeding on some helpless soul. I took Shade by the arm and started approaching any vampire that crossed my path, in mid-feed or not, and shoved my hand into their chests, pulling out their hearts. One or two of them tried to attack Shade, but they failed. It was strange though, they were making no attempt to attack me. This whole feeding session was sickening and extremely bizarre.

  I was doing everything in my power to stop as many of them as I could from feeding on the humans. Shade was locked onto me so tight she was practically climbing up my back. While I was fighting, if you could call it that since no one was even trying to muster up any defense towards me, I noticed the hoard was carrying off the carcasses of the devoured. They hadn’t fully fed, they were recruiting them. I also noticed something unusual…they were hauling off people that hadn’t been attacked at all; like they were kidnapping them or something. Other than the word of the party-goers, which was surely to spread like wildfire, there would be no evidence of what happened here tonight. This was their standard operating procedure. Identify a mark, feed or take them off, next thing you know, another member of the vampire family has been b
orn or is waiting to be born. Except, and I can’t say this enough, they never do it so blatantly out in the open like this. They’re always covert about their business.

  During the little skirmish, I hadn’t noticed that we were being surrounded. A perfect circle gathered around Shade and I. Hundreds of vampires, five or six rows deep, stood around us. An entire three hundred and sixty degree turn revealed the faces of tons of aggravated blood blisters, some of which still had blood on their faces and clothing from their fresh kills.

  I moved Shade in front of me so I could see her at all times, also so I could release my wings in case things got even hairier. No more humans remained, well, alive, anyway. It was just Shade and I, a blistering bonfire, and what seemed like every single vampire that was stationed in the American southwest.

  “We meet again, hero,” a male voice called from somewhere in the masses. I looked around but didn’t see exactly who said it.

  “Show yourself!” I commanded.

  I continued to survey the area before finally seeing some vamps shuffle around in the crowd as if someone was walking through them. Then, one by one, those same five jock jerkoffs came walking into the inner circle.

  “As you wish,” said the same blond leader I dealt with before, outside of the prom. He smiled and bowed his head sarcastically at my orders.

  “You morons responsible for this abomination of spiritual laws?” I pointed to him.

  Just then, the tallest one of the bunch walked around his half-grinned leader. “So what if we are?” He chuckled confidently.

  I didn’t say a word as my belly filled with rage. In a determined march, I walked straight up to him and punched him through his chest and pulled out his heart, tossing it at the feet of the four remaining jocks.

  “That’s what happens if you are,” I assured them.

  The other vamps in the crowd began to close the circle a little more as Shade grabbed me in fear. The jocks started to walk around the blond guy when he raised his hand up and shouted for everyone to stop.

  “Halt! This isn’t what we are here for!” he alerted them.

  “Then what are you here for? Who are you, anyway?” I questioned.

  With a snicker, he filled me in on who he was and the purpose of their cowardly display. “I’m Jonas, loyal servant of Shimmer. He ordered us to bring you in.”

  “Bring me in? What am I, under arrest?” I laughed.

  He huffed breath through a sheepish grin. “No…no, he was more in the hopes that you’d…come willingly?”

  “Now why in the world would I want to do that? He knows he’s next on my hit list, anyway. What, can’t he wait for me to show up on my own for our meeting? Instead he has to send his minion thugs to come and retrieve me?”

  “I’m afraid you don’t understand the terms, hero.”

  “Well, why don’t you explain them to me, blood blister?”

  He bowed his head to me sarcastically. “You see, you can come with us now…in peace, surrendering to Shimmer. Or, this kind of vulgar display will continue to happen until you give up.” They all began to sadistically chuckle. “Or until you give her to Shimmer.” He pointed to Shade, who looked to me with apprehension.

  I snarled and started to charge at him.

  “You’re sealing her fate if you take further action, Leo!” he yelled, stopping my pursuit.

  “What are you talking about?” I spoke through my extreme fury.

  “You attack anymore of us and we kill the girl either now, or when you leave her…and we both know she can’t go everywhere with you.” He smiled confidently. “Or, you can come with us and no harm will come to her or the people of this town you’ve begun to selfishly covet.”

  “And what happens after I go with you?”

  He scoffed, never losing his egotistical grin. “You will be taken to the Caverns of the Forgotten and be held there until The Ball of the Dead is held on All Hallows’ Eve…or as the humans call it…Halloween.”

  “Then what?”

  “Then, you will be the main event of the evening.”

  “What does that mean?”

  He laughed again, “Shimmer will offer you, his willing participant, as a sacrifice to himself and to us, signifying himself as our Lord and ruler by dispatching the defector.” He stretched his hand to me.

  “So let me get this straight…I go with you, I wait to die in the caverns, without a fight, and Shade and the people of Mountainside remain safe? I kill you right now, you kill her and the people of this town, or I turn you down, leave, and you come for her to make her a bride of Shimmer,” I pointed to Shade, “even though I’m coming for him, anyway? Do I have your terms correct?”

  Jonas nodded with another bow.

  “I’ll take option D,” I answered. Jonas turned his head to me uncertainly. “We both leave, I spare every blood sucker here, then I come kill Shimmer on my terms…and if I see any of you hounds in this town, near me, near her, again, I will personally wipe out the entire race of vampires myself. I swear it to be true,” I threatened as I stuck my face into Jonas’s.

  “Have it your way, Leo.” He offered a half-smirk.

  I turned and grabbed Shade, expecting the swollen mass of vamps to honor their word and attack, but oddly enough, they didn’t. Given their lack of aggression, I held tight to Shade and we soared into the air. Not forgetting that her car was parked down the road, I very quickly took her to it, keeping a sharp eye out for any foes to come out of the darkness. I had her get in before picking it up and carrying it with me up in the sky. I wasn’t going to take any chances driving out of there with all those vampires on the loose.

  When we got above the clouds, we could see a plethora of police vehicles flashing their lights and roaring down the road to the party spot. It was apparent that the horrified participants of tonight’s festivities had alerted the authorities about what went down.

  I needed to get Shade back to the safety of her home. I knew it wasn’t wise to stay in her room tonight because parents’ cell phones everywhere were probably ringing with talk about what just took place, but I wasn’t going to leave her alone tonight either, given what Jonas just threatened. I would have to lurk somewhere nearby and keep watch over her and her family.

  Things had gotten completely out of hand. The hounds of Hell were not playing fairly. But did I really expect them to? I could have never anticipated how much trouble I’d put an entire town in. I have to go see Shimmer as fast as possible. I just had to make sure Shade would be safe while I’m gone.

  I had to think of something fast.

  Chapter 13

  SIDESHOW

  “What was he talking about, Leo? What are the caverns?” Shade shouted up to me as I carried her car.

  “It’s a maze of prison cells, buried underground somewhere near Dracula’s Castle. This is where Shimmer imprisons his enemies, half dead recruits, or disobedient followers. He leaves them there in restraints until he decides to kill them or transform them.”

  “But you’re a demon, how can he hold you? Aren’t you strong enough to break any restraints he may put you in?”

  “I don’t know. I’ve never been there. I’m not sure how he can imprison a demon, if he even can…I’m not sure that he ever has.”

  “What about that ball he spoke of? What’s that?”

  “The Ball of the Dead is a yearly gathering of all the highest ranking vampires, and quite a few lower ranking ones. They dance in the castle, feast, then cap off the night by filling up the ballroom full of the kidnapped human recruits. Shimmer picks one out of the lot to spare to make into a vampire while the others are doomed to be fed on and killed by the others in attendance.”

  “So instead of the humans this year, Shimmer plans your execution for the pleasure of his vampire clans?”

  “Instead? Probably right along with them. Look, the lights are on at your house.”

  Shade looked down and saw that not only was her house’s lights on, but sporadic houses in the neighborhood al
so seemed to be up late.

  “The news has already spread. My parents must be worried sick. Drop me off at the end of the street.”

  Doing as she requested, I very discreetly put down the car just down the road from her house. I was pretty sure we weren’t detected by anyone. Shade started her car.

  “What are you going to do tonight?” Shade was obviously thinking the same thing I was, that it wasn’t smart to stay the night with her tonight.

  “I’ll be very close by, watching over you. Don’t worry.”

  Shade just flashed me a nervous smile and drove off. I spent the remainder of the night up in some dense trees nearby. It was almost day break before the lights went out at the Lewis household. Nothing out of the ordinary happened the rest of the night that I could see.

  I was very confused by the vampires’ behavior, and I’m not referring to how brazen and out of character their feeding frenzy was. They threatened to attack Shade and I if I didn’t go with them, but then they didn’t do anything when we left. They could have been bluffing to see if I would give in, but vampires don’t bluff. They had to be up to something, I just didn’t know what.

  Right before the break of dawn, I got out of the trees and flew back home. I wanted to stay but I couldn’t hang out in a tree top in broad daylight for everyone to see, nor could I hang around Shade’s house like a stalker, either. Vampires usually stay low-key during the day so I figured she would be safe as long as she remained at home.

  I fed Shadow and pretty much spent the day in thought while staying in the highest of trees, trying to keep an eye out for her. I wanted to go see Shade, but I thought it best that she came to me, even though I knew it was dangerous right now for her to do anything alone. What was I to do? My hands were tied. I couldn’t fly around during the day for all to see, trying to keep tabs on her. Not to mention her father had already warned me last night that I wouldn’t be allowed to go over there again until they met my parents, and without a car to carry me over there, what would I tell them about how I arrived? I was on pins and needles waiting for Shade to return to me.