by E R Landron
“Oliver?”, I say astonish.
“Are you all right?”, he asks.
I am baffled at the sight of him. I try to speak faster, but between the pain and losing so much energy before, it is beginning to be a little tricky. The armed soldier was on the floor looking at me with his gun a few inches out, and Oliver’s gun is still up. Smoke comes out of his barrel, and a blood river was pouring from the man’s head.
“What are you doing here?”, I ask.
“A thank you would be good.”
“What are you doing here?”, I raise my voice.
“The boat. It led me here. All the investigation is connected here somehow. I should ask the same. Why are you here?”
“An investigation led me here as well.”
“You look like you are going to war.”
Oliver looks less covered. He has his button shirt rolled over in his arms with his body armor in front. His badge is at his waist and was only carrying a handgun. The wounded soldier now can be confirmed as deceased. Motherfucker made me shit my pants. I’m still shaking as the adrenaline was still very high.
“I lost a few men already entering here. Something big is going on. Backup, coms with others is a no-go. We are probably on our own.”, he says.
I made a two with my fingers and tap my chest twice. I’m still having trouble controlling my breathing and cardiac rhythm. I hesitate to tell Oliver about Hannah, Ezequiel and Kokolite and the fact that a powerful vampire wants to use an orb to become a god and rule the world. The pain all over my body is what I’m concentrating on. I go back to the machine gun. I check it. Looks good. I clip the brace back on my forearm that still aches from when it was forcefully stripped. My skin is red as a tomato. I squint as I finish putting back on.
“You ok?”, he asks.
“Yeah, just gathering my strength. Where now?”
“Up I guess. There was shooting on the floors below. Hope that's not a battle looking for us.”
I gave a smirk and nod and went to up the stairs. All of a sudden my Bluetooth went off. I can hear Hannah speaking. We must be close. I feel a little bit better than someone that I know is here and saved my life. I’ll just keep for now some information to myself.
“Hey, Ollie…”
“Yeah?”, he asks.
“Thank you.”, I smile at him.
HANNAH Night - Ripa’s Building 8th Floor, 2:00 AM
I breathe. “One… and a two… and a three!” I say as I stick my head out of the elevator to look at the hall. The whole floor is empty. No humans or vampires are trying to kill us at the moment. I let a deep sigh and give thumbs up to Ezequiel.
“Nothing. We should go straight to the next floor.”, I say.
Ezequiel nods. My Bluetooth went off, and I can hear a male voice with lots of static. I press the earpiece.
“What’s wrong?”, Zeek asks.
I shush him with my hands while I try to listen attentively.
“I think there's someone with Mieke. I think she’s OK. They are like four floors above us, let's take the elevator. Or you rather sprint through the stairs.”, I say.
“Stairs. I hate surprises from the elevators already.”
We nod and run to the nearest EXIT sign for the stairways.
KOKOLITE Night - Fluorescent Room, 1:55AM
A buzzing sound from the fluorescent lights felt like a rock band playing on my head. One of the lights flickers lightly. Slowly I can feel my face, chest, ribs, burning. My lips heavy and my head heavier. My left eye is shut. I need blood to start healing. The thirst is taking all over. The pain is disappearing. "I need a pouch," I whisper to myself and still one of the guards overheard.
“What did you say crazy?”, one guard asks.
A big smile grew from my face. I feel the dry blood on my mouth and facial hair. I bet I look even crazier than what people think of me. The guard punches me. My vision blurs once more. My whole nervous system keeps sending me signals of all the body parts that ache.
“You will die anyway. Why put a fight? If you tell us where the cat girl is, will make it easy on you.”, he says.
“Hey, let him be. When the cat girl dies, you can do whatever.”, the second guard says.
“This is bullshit. We should be out there, not babysitting. If I can make this pig squeal I’m sure both can be promoted.”
The second guard smiles and the first one approaches with a malicious face. I look around trying to decipher everything on it. It all looks like I’m in a hospital. I know I’m on a building for what people think. I feel a headache as I hear the guard's arguments and their thoughts. Whine and whine and more whine is what their thoughts are saying accompanied with ways to beat me up some more. I notice on a corner my staff, two blood pouches, some broken shiny and a cross I thought I had lost. Probably it was way inside one of the pockets of the trench coat. I’m fixated on one of the pouches, and I am getting anxious, so much that the word blood pouch is heard on the guard's head. One of the guards sees me and drives his vision where the pouch is. He goes to the corner and grabs the pouch. I press my lips and struggle to get out of the ties.
“Is this what you want? Blood? Tell us where the girl is. Fuck it… I'll think I'll have a sip though.”, guard one says.
“That’s mine!!!”, I scream.
The guard smiles and kicks me in the face sending me to fall from the chair backward. I land on my arms that are still tied. The pain rushes to my head, and I cringe. The chair brakes and the guard did not notice. My hands are still tied up, but I feel I can move them. I pass them under my feet. The guard is looking at how to open the pouch.
“Holy shit!”, says the second guard.
The guard who stands in front of me turns his back. My hands still tied I rush to the guard’s neck press him and lift him up slamming him to a wall with force. The other guard runs towards me and uses his gun to hit me. I extend my hands, fearing he will hit me and for some reason, the guard stops. I felt a tickling sensation running through my arms, all the way to my hands. He is not moving, but his face looks like he's trying fighting to move. The second guard struggles to talk.
“What... are... you... doing... to... me?”
I lift my hands, and the guard is slammed to the ceiling. My eyes open wide. I throw my hands down, and the guard is slammed to the floor. As he hits the floor, he lands unconscious, and his eyes roll over as some blood comes out of his mouth. The first guard starts to get up. I feel my veins swelling as I grab the staff, extend it and swing, hitting the guard in the face sending him flying a few feet before falling to the ground. I let out a loud shriek as more of the tickling sensation runs through my body. Glasses on the room shatter and some equipment move. Blood comes out of the guard’s ears, nose and eyes. I grab a scalpel from the table and proceeds to cut what is tying my hands. I feel woozy as my strength leaves my body. I struggle to get the blood pouch. All clumsy and without wasting time, I bite it and drink it. I close my eyes as I feel a tingling sensation in all my mouth. I smirk, and everything fades…
RIPA Night - Ripa’s Office, 2:01 AM
A huge shriek goes off, and Drake and I fall to the floor momentarily. My brain wants to explode. I pressure my ears. Some of the men that were working fell to the floor and cover their ears as well. Some crystals and windows cracked a bit. It finishes I saw Drake, and he shakes his head. He snaps his finger, and the crew raises and continue what they were doing before.
“What was that old man!?”, I ask.
“Forget about it! Concentrate here! Once the orb is in place, you'll present it. It should open the sarcophagus, and once you drink the blood, you'll be the god you always wanted.”
The men finish setting up the sarcophagus. They change to continue moving things from the office with care not to break anything. Some men put candles on the floor close to the sarcophagus and throughout the office.
“What the hell was that?”, I ask again.
“I don't know
but concentrate on this, please!”, Drake whine.
I nod. I felt my nostrils opening. I read about the first vampires. It is impossible to locate one and to be able to open the casket, in this case, one stood in front of us. There’s no turning back. Drake was connecting the candles with some white ink and damaging my office. Cunt. We are doing a ritual all right. It looks stupid. From time to time Drake said a few words in Arab and every time my eyebrow will raise. I know so many languages, but Arab has so many variances that I do not know exactly all that he is saying. It felt like going to a church and hearing the priest talking in Latin. Drake shakes the small skulls he had on his waist and kept hoping through the room. “Ripa!”, he shouted! My eyes follow. “The orb… bring it!”, Drake says pronouncing each word.
I twist my neck and went to the desk to take the orb. It turns red immediately. The glow sparkles through as I hold it waiting for further instructions. “Present the orb to the gods Ripa! Present it and become one yourself!”, Drake shouted with his hands moving as he spoke. The men are attentive looking through walls and the door. Curiosity was killing them, and they want to know what they were working on. I lift the orb and present it to the sarcophagus. But nothing happens. Drake smiles and moves his hands as in “Go on!”. I grip the orb firmly. Annoyed. I go back to the sarcophagus and move closer. Closer. The orb touches the fucking sarcophagus. I move it through the sarcophagus. Up and down left and right. Nothing happens. I feel the veins popping in my face and neck. Drake begins to sweat from his bald head but moves his hands as in: "Go on!" I continue moving my hand to the sarcophagus and started to touch it with the orb. I stop and without looking at Drake yell.
“I've killed the council, and probably committed treason to our kind. Tell me, Drake... Am I wasting my time?!”
I slam the fucking orb on one of the sides of the sarcophagus and fumes and dust come out from a small chamber. Drake smiles. I check it. It opens it a little bit more. Inside a vile with a gold tip with dark red liquid.
“Is this it? A vile?”, I say.
“No, no, no. It is much more than that. That's the first part. Continue. Go on!”, Drake says with a smile.
I take the vile, move it. Drake smiles at me is repeatedly nodding. He is crooked teeth is making me lose focus. The men stare from aside but with concern at what is going on. I feel like the attraction of a freak show. I stare at the vile for a while. I went through was for a dead cause. I open the gold tip and immediately an old blood stench fills my nose making me gag. A tear escapes. I’m disappointed at the situation. I’ll need to kill so many people to stay alive. To keep the business afloat. All the people I have to pay now to be safe. Secure. Bribes to politicians, cops, religious groups between others. I’ll have to start a fucking war with some cunt of a clan in order to pinpoint the shit on them! I took one more look of Drake before raising the vile. In one gulp I swallow. I gag at the old metallic taste it has. It does not get better with time. My men were closing to see what is going on. Drake slowly begins to move back and hide behind a wall. Why is…he… doing… My head drops a bit. Vertigo. Sweat pours from my forehead. Is getting hot in here. My mouth is dry. I grab my collar. I’m perspiring, shaking. The men went to help me. "Are you OK sir?", one says. His voice is distorted. I kneel. “He needs helps!”, one man scream. I grab his neck and choke him. I’m using all my force. As he is turning purple, I am controlling the pain. Nausea. My head keeps spinning. Two men come to the aide of whom I’m choking. They start to assist him. They manage to remove him from my grip. Now everything hurts again. They perform CPR on him. He blacked out. “He feels very heavy!” says one of the men referring to me. The other men were closing in. Some nervous, some others look for water. “His eyes went black completely.”, one says. The whole room is moving. I’m moving. I’m shaking. I want to vomit. I grab another by his collar and scream. The veins on my arms look black. Everyone stood silent. For a moment everything stood silent. I kept shaking yet the man I’m holding stays put. The pain rushes from my spine and stomach to my chest. I push it down to my stomach. I scream once more, and shadow spikes burst from all parts of my body spreading through all the room killing all of the men instantly. Every one of them impaled by the spikes. I must look like a sea urchin. One of the spikes pierced through the wall that Drake was hiding. Drake laughed hard. "What did you do to me Drake?!", I say as the spikes begin retracting very slowly.
MIEKE Night - Ripa’s Building 12thFloor, 2:01 AM
What is that sound? Is buzzing loud... It hurts! My knees touch the floor, and I'm pressing my ears as hard as I can to stop the scream. It hurts! I am losing my vision, it's all getting darker, I gather my strength and begin to run. Oliver is on the floor too. I begin to walk away from Oliver, and the scream is fading, and now thousands of voices are in my head. What's going on? I shake my head, and all I see is a void. I walk little by little. The voices don't seem that loud anymore, but it still bothers me the lots of tiny little whispers going through. Calls for help, confessions, "I'm sorry I did it!", I heard. Cursing, people afraid. One of the voices is calling my name. I'll go to that direction, though I can't tell if I'm going north, south, east or west. My head is starting to hurt the voices keep going on and on like annoying mosquitoes that are too stubborn to fly away. "Mieke"! I recognize the voice, that's Kokolite! I run to where it is coming from. "Hold on K, I'm running as fast as I can", I scream, but it seems my voice fades away with all the whispers. I see him. I continue running faster and faster. For some reason I don't feel fatigue, my breathing is on pace, the little whispers continue to fade more. I see Kokolite screaming in a room. It has a fluorescent light and equipment that looks like he’s in a surgeon’s room. Everything looks faded. Everything has stopped in time here. He's not moving, some guards are on the floor with blood on their ears, mouth and eyes and the crystal in this place are cracking little by little. I press my hand on Kokolite, but he doesn't react. "Mieke". That doesn't sound like Kokolite now. I walk towards that different voice, that sounds so familiar hopping is not what I think it is. I see a silhouette a little farther away I continue walking. A man probably over fifty is standing with a police suite, cap, badge, shiny boots, white gloves and a smile from ear to ear. I cannot contain myself, and a flood of water pours from my eyes uncontrollably. I fight the stuttering, and my voice fades again as a vague "Dad?" comes out of my mouth. He is next to an elevator, and it's signaling the number twenty-eight. Another vague "dad" comes from my mouth, and I run to him. I keep running, but I'm not gaining any distance, I run faster, I'm getting desperate to get to him, I speed up as more tears come from my eyes. I stop. I ran for a minute or so on his direction and stayed in the same place. He must be a projection of my imagination. Happy as he always was. Hard to picture him otherwise. The man I see as my dad keeps pointing to the number. Maybe is where Kokolite is? I don't know. I decide to walk away where a sound of crying is going on. Is that K? Is he crying? I continue to walk towards it, and the scenery is changing. Trees are popping up. Green faded grass is below my feet now. I see a woman on a blanket far away. She has a vintage maroon Victorian dress with cream openings on top and on the bottom. Redhead. Her hair turns orange flowing with the wind and sun. She is smiling and waving. She is beautiful. Elegant. I see to whom she's waving. It looks like Kokolite with a kid. He's smiling lifting him up and down and up and down. They are laughing, and so is the woman. Kokolite has his long hair tied up with a black bow, but he looks a little bit scrawny from what he is today. No facial hair. What is this the seventy-hundreds?1800s? A man on a horse throttles on the far and all three of them notice. He gets to Kokolite and gives him a letter, he nods to the man. He looks like a guard or something with his blue vest and golden buttons and a high hat and has a sword on his waist.
