by Chloe Grey
“Stop.” I raised my hand and walked next to him to retrieve a glass. I immediately regretted my decision. Being up close to Dave always made my head race with stupid thoughts. I could already feel my body heating up. “I don’t want to deal with this shit right now, okay?
“Don’t be stupid.” Dave grabbed my wrist. The masculine scent of his skin enveloped me and it almost made me not want to pull away from him. I tried anyway, but he was too strong. “Are you dense, Cass? Is that it? We just lost Laura and you still want to continue? We killed him. It’s over.”
“So you want to quit just like that?” I shot back, the butterflies in my stomach completely gone now. He had no right to call me ‘dense.’ “You want us to roll over and show our bellies?” I was actually challenging his gaze. The one that used to—and still did—make my knees tremble and my insides churn.
He said nothing and that gave me a surge of confidence. “If Laura was here, she would say the same thing. We can’t let those bastards win.” His grip loosened and I pried my hand off. “We can’t.”
His gaze never faltered. “Pack your bags. We’re going to someplace safe and far from this godforsaken city.” He turned away and waved a dismissive hand as if the argument was over. “Tell the others.”
“What? I’m not going anywhere.”
He turned back and scowled. “You’re coming. End of story.”
Maybe it was the tone of his voice, so commanding and firm, like he expected me to do what I was told that sent me over the edge.
Anger flared through me and I shoved him hard. He didn't even budge; in fact, I was the one who staggered back. I snapped. All the emotions that I had locked away deep inside for the past week came tumbling out, all at once in an explosion of fury.
“Fuck you, Dave.” I continued shoving him, and tears began welling up in my eyes. “Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you.”
Dave took my onslaught head on—didn’t flinch, didn't move, his emotions hidden away behind a neutral expression. When I was finally done, I backed away and pointed a finger towards the kitchen door.
“If you want to give up and leave, there's the fucking door.”
“Cass, calm down. You are going to wake everyone up.” His voice was calm. Fucking calm. Like he didn’t care.
“I don't give a shit.” I balled my hands into fists. “Get the fuck out.”
Finally, there was a flash of emotion in those blue eyes. Just for a moment, but I saw it.
“Do you really want me to leave?”
“That’s what you want, isn't it? To run away.” I shoved him one more time in the direction of the door. “So go. Just go.” My voice sounded foreign to me. Like I had been possessed and wasn’t in control of my actions anymore. I wanted to say that I was sorry, tell him that it wasn’t him that had me this riled up.
But no matter how hard I tried, my lips still stayed sealed, my brow still stayed furrowed in place, and my finger still stayed pointed towards the door.
Dave let out a long drawn out sigh and nodded.
“Take care, Cass,”
He slipped out into the night.
I didn’t know how long I stood there, staring at the opened door, chest heaving and tears streaming. The anger in me flickered, then fizzled out, the spell ebbing away until I was finally back in control.
“Dave, wait,” I called out, but it was useless; my friend had long gone. Even as I went after him into the night and screamed out his name, told the cloudless sky and the pale moon how sorry I was, he had long gone.
He will come back.
That was what I told myself repeatedly, but only fresh tears comforted me as I repeated the mantra. He will come back.
He will come back.
I am sorry. Please come back.
Chapter 4
-Cassandra-
Logan and Kevin weren’t too worried about Dave.
“He will be fine,” my brother said, in that matter-of-fact voice of his.
Logan nodded. “David is more than capable of taking care of himself.”
He was standing against the kitchen counter, the exact spot Dave had just been leaning against not more than an hour ago.
Logan had rushed downstairs when he heard me shouting outside, completely nude and carrying the pistol he always kept on the nightstand. He had then draped a robe around himself once he realised everything was fine.
Except it was not.
“Besides, he will come back.”
“I don’t know,” I said. Even though my phone hadn't buzzed yet, I still took a hopeful glance at it. Dave still hadn’t replied to any of my texts. “What if something happened to him? Remember when Laura went out alone?”
There was a silence when I mentioned our friend’s name. Fletcher wasn’t there. He had locked himself up in his room and hadn’t responded to any of us when we went knocking, even when I had made a huge fuss outside.
Logan broke the silence and squeezed my hand. “He will be fine. Come back to bed. He will be back when you wake up.”
“I promise,” he added when I didn’t react. He sounded so confident, so sure of himself, that I started to believe him.
I nodded back numbly, managing to curve my lips ever so slightly into a strained smile.
Logan smiled back, and I didn’t protest when I was gently led back to bed. I placed my phone next to me and double checked that my ringtone was still at max volume. Satisfied, I settled next to Logan and waited until sleep took me.
“THE VAMPIRE IS HOLDING up there?”
My brother’s huge frame covered my view as he leaned forward, staring hard at the two-story house.
The wooden walls were old and torn, ants scurried about the numerous cracks. A huge graffiti of Elvis Presley dominated the left side of the building. The windows were barred from the inside by wooden pallets, shielding the sun’s rays except for a few which poked through tiny gaps.
For a brief moment, I wondered why; vampires weren’t like in myth and legends. In fact, the sun was more harmful to us than them; they couldn't get sunburned since their skins regenerated any damage.
A lot of people hadn’t learnt that yet. They looked towards faith, stocking up on garlic, crosses, and other holy charms and hanging them outside their doors, under their beds, and probably in a million other places. Despite countless news and articles that proved those rituals worthless, many were still undeterred.
Priests were even pressuring the governments to mass produce garlic bullets, or bullets that came in coated with garlic. They were backed by millions. Apparently, that was the only way to kill them, or so they had the fools believing.
Hilarious, until you realised everyone was mad in some way or another. I could only wonder how humanity had held out for this long.
I shivered as the cool autumn wind whipped by the rooftop we were perched on, sending locks of my hair flying. I quickly tied it up into a loose ponytail and shifted myself to get a better view of the building.
It was the perfect haunted house.
Located at the far end of the city, the building sat at the edge of a stretch of other abandoned houses, sitting near the entrance of a huge and dark forest. The perfect place for a murderer, or a vampire.
Logan nodded and turned to Fletcher, who was scoping out the building with a sniper rifle. “Any visuals?”
“No.”
“Okay, get ready. We will secure the perimeter and take positions,” Logan said, then made his way towards me.
“I am not good at this like David.”
“Good at what?”
He twirled his finger. “This. Leadership. David was born for that. He’s probably had that damned commanding tone of his ever since he was in diapers.” He chuckled but stopped when I remained stone-faced.
“David’s fine,” Logan said for the millionth time.
I wanted to scream He fucking isn’t. We haven’t heard from him in five days.
But I cocked my chin in the direction of the house instead. “The government is pay
ing us a lot for a commission like this.
“Yeah. Apparently, boys have been disappearing and people are suspecting that the D rank residing here might have something to do with it.”
I felt sick. Hearing stories like this almost every day should have made me numb by now. It never did. I really shouldn’t have been surprised though; vampires were initially the worst of the worst humans. At least we now know who they were.
We made our way down from the rooftop, crossed the deserted road and surrounded the building cautiously. When we were sure that they wasn’t any immediate danger, we positioned ourselves at the front entrance. That was when I noticed the smell.
A metallic scent reeked from inside. But what was worse was the putrid smell that accompanied it—like rotten tomatoes, but worse. It made my eyes water and my gag reflex act up.
Logan nodded at Kevin, who then kicked in the door. We burst inside, rifles at the ready, torchlights beaming from one corner to the next. There was no point in stealth. Any vampire would have sensed us as soon as we neared the building.
Dust mites floated through the fetid air, and wooden boards beneath us creaked, making rats and cockroaches scatter away. The house was deathly quiet, like the walls and floors themselves were holding a breath. We trudged forward, expecting a feral vampire to jump us at any moment, the silence and the tension in the air deepening.
I hated the adrenaline that was hammering through me, reducing my breathing to uneven shallow intakes. The rhythmic thumping in my eardrums drowned out the “clears” in the air and made mine hoarse and croaked.
I hated it. But it was necessary. If my dreams of a vampire-free world were to be achieved, I had to brave through hell.
I had to.
Logan found the vampire first. “HERE,” he yelled, about three rooms away from me. I heard a thud, a loud crash, then his grunt.
My brother was already there when I bolted to the room. He lunged at the vampire that had Logan pinned to the wall and stabbed him with a dagger. It made contact, and the vampire grunted. Before Kevin could pry the blade free and deliver another stab, the vampire whirled around, violet eyes flashing with hatred. With a sharp exhale, he delivered a swift kick into his attacker’s rib cage.
Normally a blow from a man that size wouldn’t even have fazed my brother, but this wasn’t a man. Kevin stumbled back and doubled over, wide-eyed and gasping, but Logan was now free.
Pushing himself from the ground, he glanced at the rifle that had been thrown from him several meters away and decided against going for it. Instead, he took out a pistol and shot several bullets, lightning up the room in blinding flashes. I took the opportunity and fired my own rifle.
The vampire dashed away, but one bullet caught him in the shoulder and another one right in the chest. He howled in pain and crashed into a wall.
Kevin didn't hesitate. Gritting his teeth, he tackled the vampire to the ground, took out another hidden blade from somewhere and started stabbing him in a driven frenzy.
The vampire screamed and started throwing wild punches at my brother, desperate to stop the onslaught. A few connected, there was a crack, and Kevin went down.
I started forward to help. It was on instinct and Kevin would hammer me for momentarily ignoring my training.
The vampire took advantage of it. As soon as he saw me running for my brother, he charged at me with inhuman speed.
I saw it at the last second—the warping of air, like the wind itself had become visible. A normal human would have died or been seriously injured, but again, instinct kicked in.
I dodged, but just barely, gritting my teeth as something sharp made contact with my sides, tearing off flesh.
No time to scream. I rammed the butt of my rifle behind me with as much force as I could muster, earning a low growl from my assailant.
Just then, Fletcher came to the scene, wide-eyed and panting hard. He took a second to analyse the situation before screaming his hatred and opening fire at the vampire who was ducked low behind me.
I rolled away, covering the back of my head and squeezing my elbows together to dampen the loud gunfire.
There was the sick sound of the snapping of bones, and the vampire fell to the ground with a loud thud. It was all over. Fletcher didn't stop firing though, he was still screaming, pouring out all his hatred at the spasming body until the room was filled with the smell of gunpowder, a surprisingly welcoming contrast to the tainted air.
Fletcher finally ran out of ammunition. The vampire went limp on the ground, painting the wooden floor around him a depressing black, violet eyes wide at the ceiling.
“You’re hurt,” Logan said, studying the bloody gash on my waist while the others cautiously made sure the vampire wasn’t a threat anymore.
“I am fine,” I replied, but winced at the pain that was taking form as the adrenaline died down.
“Lucky you dodged. He could have taken out a whole chunk of your body.”
“I am fine,” I repeated. “Just a scratch.”
“Lay there,” Logan pointed to the corner of the room. “Let me check on you.”
“I am fine,” I snapped, with more venom than I intended.
Logan started, taking a step back. I knew I should have apologised, but all the shit thrown at me in the last month had made me snappy.
The smell hit me again. A strong wave of metallic vomit. I gagged. “Where is the damn thing coming from anyways?”
“Wait here.” Logan checked my injury one more time before heading off to the west wing of the building, where the scent was the strongest. I followed him.
We were in a horror movie. That was what it was. Where the demons inside abandoned haunted buildings always reside in the basement.
The basement door was opened, and the metallic chain unlocked. I looked down. The wooden staircase seemed to lead to a never-ending void.
“Wait here,” Logan said again, more firmly this time, and began descending down the fragile stairs, his muscles tensed and rifle posed at the ready. Each step seemed to creak even louder, and I wondered how they could possibly hold his weight.
One minute passed. Two. Five. There was still no sound from below, and I started getting worried, dark thoughts swirling around in my mind.
Just then, I heard the creaking again and trained my rifle at the void, breathing a sigh of relief when only Logan emerged, unscathed.
“What is it?” I said, but his grim face and hard eyes made me regret asking.
“Let’s go,” was all he said, brushing past me, but it only piqued my curiosity more.
“What is—”
“I said let’s go.”
I furrowed my brow and started for the stairs. Logan grabbed my wrist, the same tender spot where Dave had grabbed me. I jerked back as if burned, then reeled back, preparing to snap at him again.
That was when I saw his eyes.
A single teardrop fell from his right eye, fleeing down his cheeks.
“Let’s go,” he repeated. This time softly, so softly that it sent a chill through me and my nape prickled with goosebumps.
I nodded and he put a trembling hand on the small of my back, steadied himself, and led me out of the accursed house with the foul, metallic scent that came from below.
Chapter 5
-Cassandra-
The atmosphere in the house had always been grim.
We had our moments—usually accompanied by beer and pizza after a successful commission or during Saturday night’s gambling—but today was grimmer than grim, mixed with a massive shot of depression. Even the weather agreed with me. Leaden clouds gathered outside, the initial light downpour becoming a constant drum by the time I went to bed.
Laura was gone, and now Dave too. It felt evil to admit, but losing my best friend actually felt much, much worse than losing the person I thought of as my sister. It was like firing a bullet into a still bleeding wound, then stomping on it like Fletcher had done to the vampire.
Fletcher had locked himself up int
o his room again, only coming down once—or twice, max—a day to grab the cold takeaways from the kitchen counter before trudging his way back upstairs. I felt like doing the same thing.
My brother also kept to his room, though he kept his door unlocked, playing computer games and flirting with women online—something he did routinely even after the vampire outbreak.
And Logan... Logan hadn’t communicated much after what happened yesterday. His hugs were non-existent and kisses cold and far away. Whatever he saw in that basement had affected him—badly. I wanted to talk to him about it but didn’t know how to start, or if talking to him was even the right thing to do.
“Do you want to call it quits?” I asked him, curving my body against his, more so for his benefit than mine. He didn’t seem to react and was doing his dead man’s stare at the darkened ceiling again.
“Logan?”
“Huh?” He turned sideways and looked at me, then offered the barest of a smile as an apology. “Sorry, what did you say?”
“What you said last week. Dave too.” I gave a sideways glance at my phone, then back at his warm brown eyes. “ I have been thinking about it. Maybe both of you are right. It doesn’t seem that we are changing anything. We should just live, or try to live, a normal life from now on.”
He didn't say anything at first. Then a single breathy word.
“Crystal.”
“Huh?”
His smile widened. “Crystal. I want to name our daughter Crystal.”
My lips drew to a thin line. I didn’t want children—not yet anyway. We were still so young, and hadn't even been together for long. But I didn’t want to start another argument.
Logan saw the change in my expression. “Of course we will take our time. Settle down first before starting a family.”
I stayed silent, and his frown came just as quickly as his smile disappeared.
“Babe, you need to stop thinking about David.”
“I wasn’t.”
