Old World Pharmaceuticals

by Brian Myrick

  “Dan Miller?” the man in the suit asks.

  “Yeah, I’m Dan,” Dan says.

  The man in the suit gives Dan the box, “I have a gift for you from my employer, the Senator.”

  Dan stands at his doorway, looking at the box. The man in the suit turns and walks back to his car and leaves as quick as he came.

  Dan watches as the car drives off, then looks down at the box he is holding. Dan shuts the door and walks to his kitchen table carrying the box with him. With curiosity killing him Dan grabs his pocket knife and opens the box on his kitchen table. Slowly he pulls out a full box of 9mm bullets and opens it. He takes one of the bullets out of the box and looks at it. “Silver tips?” Dan asks himself as he examines the other bullets in the box, one after another, all of them have silver tips.

  Dan puts the box of bullets down on his table. He reaches back into the box again and pulls out a thick black folder filled with papers. He sets it next to the box of bullets. Next out of the box is a Glock 9mm gun to match the bullets from the box, which Dan also sets on the table.

  Dan’s wife, Krista Miller walks into the kitchen and places her hands on his shoulders rubbing them softly. A tall, older lady who was once probably very attractive but with years of sadness from the loss of her only daughter and the lack of sunshine from rarely leaving the house, she’s not the woman she once was. “Who was at the door?” Krista asks in a shy and meek voice.

  Krista stops rubbing Dan’s shoulders, and he sits down, Krista takes a seat next to him at the table looking at the contents of the box scattered out on the table.

  “It was some guy who works for a Senator,” Dan says. “He gave me this box.”

  Dan has the folder open and is reading the papers inside it.

  “What is it?” Krista asks still confused with the box.

  Dan continues to read the papers, while Krista sits in silence next to him.

  “I fucking knew it!” Dan says.

  “What?” Krista asks. “What is it, Dan?”

  “Fucking Old World!” Dan shouts with excitement. “But this is way more then I was expecting!”

  Krista gets visibly upset and looks at Dan, “I don’t want to talk about that company anymore.”

  “No, baby, this is good,” Dan says in a soft voice as he puts the folder down to reach out and comfort his wife by rubbing her shoulder. “We are finally going to get those bastards. Look at this stuff.” He starts showing her the stuff from the box while they talk.

  ***

  Chapter Fourteen

  The Year Is 1988

  A

  zreal, Haley, and Gabriel stand next to a table in the lab at Old World. They are watching Samuel drain his blood from a self-inflicted bite on his forearm into a glass apothecary jar. Samuel looks over at Azreal with dizzy eyes, then let’s go of his forearm spilling blood from it onto the table. Samuel grabs at the table unsuccessfully trying to catch himself from falling. Azreal, looks back at Samuel not understanding what he is seeing but knowing that something is definitely wrong. Haley also looks over with disbelief in her face as she moved as fast as a bullet through the air to catch Samuel before he loses consciousness, unable to hold himself up, he falls into Haley’s arms.

  “Let’s get him on the couch in my office,” Azreal says still shocked at what he is seeing.

  With super speed, Azreal and Haley take Samuel to Azreal’s office.

  Azreal and Haley lay Samuel down on the couch. Slowly, Samuel wakes up. He tries to sit up but is too weak. Haley puts her hands-on Samuel’s shoulders gently pushing him back to a comfortable spot on the couch “just rest a minute.”

  “The last time you drained your blood for these drugs, you looked weak to me,” Gabriel says. As he studies Samuel’s appearance.

  “Yes, I have felt weaker every time, but after I feed, I feel fine and recover like always,” Samuel replies in a weak voice.

  Gabriel moves zips across the room and grabs Samuel’s arm, then lefts it up to look at the bite marks on it.

  “Not this time,” Gabriel says.

  Azreal and Haley look at the wound. It is still red and slowly closing. Under his arm is a blood stain on the couch.

  “That should have been completely healed by now,” Haley says as she looks closer at the bite.

  “I knew this was crazy, helping humans!” Gabriel snaps.

  “I hadn’t noticed it till now, but your different,” Azreal says. “You look as if you have aged.”

  Azreal, Haley, and Gabriel all look at Samuel closely, studying every detail in his face.

  “What if we aren’t immortal?” Haley asks as she rubs a small new wrinkle line next to Samuel’s eye.

  “What are you talking about?” Gabriel says. “Of course, we are.”

  “What if it has just appeared that way to us?” Haley says. “None of us have lived long enough to know what our lifespans really are.”

  “We might just be ageing slower, than humans,” Samuel says. “Much slower.”

  “Or maybe losing this much blood has started your ageing again?” Gabriel says pointing at the wound.

  “So, if I stop giving blood, then what?” Samuel asks as he looks at the others for answers.

  “The damage may already be done,” Gabriel says.

  “If that is true, I welcome it,” Samuel says. “At least, this way, I won’t have to make the choice of carrying on or ending it again when Emma goes.”

  “From the looks of you now, you may get your wish,” Gabriel says.

  “This is a good thing!” Samuel Smiles. “And now we know that it can only be me who gives blood. It’s too dangerous for any of you until we know how this will turn out.”

  ***

  The year is 2018

  Samantha is hard to see as she speeds along in her Mercedes in the black night, she whips into the small driveway and stops the car in front of the massive steel gates that lead to Gabriel’s estate. The intercom beeps after she pushes a button and the gates open. As the gates shut behind the black Mercedes, Dan and Jacob slip through the gate just before they close, on foot from the corner of the wall that they had been hiding behind. The two disappear into the tall trees and brush that line the driveway, undetected by anyone.

  Samantha’s tears up the driveway and stops in front of Gabriel’s house. The car turns off, and she slams the door open to stand up outside of the car. Samantha slams the car door back shut and looks at herself in the reflection of the window, fixing her hair. She suddenly stops fixing her hair as she sees Dan and Jacob’s reflection creep up in the window as they emerge from the bushes next to the driveway. Dan is breathing hard trying to catch his breath. Samantha turns around to face them and leans back against her car and puts both hands on her hips. At the sight of Dan and Jacob, she lets out a loud laugh. “Dan, you’re a silly little boy, and you brought Jacob with you, even better. Why would mice come to a cat’s house?”

  Dan doubles over and puts his hands on his knees still trying to catch his breath. He lifts one hand to Samantha, palms out, in the stop motion.

  “That’s-that’s-enough. Stop right there,” Dan says still breathing hard.

  “I’m not going anywhere, but what if I did?” Samantha says.

  “What did you do with my sister?” Jacob yells.

  “Who is your sister? Little mouse.” Samantha asks.

  “Dan told me you and Gabriel were at the night club with her last week!” Jacob says. “Martha!”

  Samantha, giggles and takes a step toward Dan and Jacob.

  “I think I know who you’re talking about now, tasty little thing!” Samantha says and licks her lips. “Little fat boy, this might be the most fun I’ve had in a long, time. You two are going to be exciting!”

  “What are you going to do?” Dan asks. “Kill us both as you did to those other girls, and who knows who else?”

  Samantha takes another step toward Dan and Jacob. “Well, aren’t you the sma
rt guy?” Samantha says still smiling big. “What is it that you think I have done, Dan?”

  Dan straightens up. He is holding the gun from the Senator’s box at his hip, aimed in on Samantha.

  “I know exactly what you and your co-workers have done,” Dan says. “You killed those girls and probably others!”

  “Poor Dan,” Samantha says, “if you only know how many people we have killed, you would already have shot me. Too bad that isn’t going to stop me from draining every drop of blood from both of you fools.”

  Gabriel opens the front door and sees Samantha, Dan, and Jacob in the driveway. He moves extremely fast and stops, standing a few feet away from Samantha and looking intently at Dan.

  “I’ve been waiting for you to join us,” Dan says to Gabriel.

  “Dan, you have no idea what’s about to happen to you and your friend!” Gabriel says.

  Samantha looks over at Gabriel and they both laugh. Samantha takes another step toward Dan and Jacob. Jacob lunges at Samantha. Lighting fast Samantha grabs Jacob by his throat. Her fangs snap out, and she bites Jacob’s neck tearing deep into the side of it and ripping a chunk of meat out before looking back at Dan!

  Dan looks at Gabriel, then pulls the trigger, and with a flash from the muzzle, and a bang sends a silver slug hurtling at Samantha. The slug hits home under her ribcage. Forcing her to release Jacob and sending her stumbling back a few feet.

  Samantha stops and looks down at the blood flowing from her stomach. Jacob stumbles away from her and puts his hand on his neck trying to stop his blood from spraying out. It’s no use the bite is too deep. Jacob falls down shaking on the ground as he bleeds out looking at Samantha.

  Faster than Dan can react, Gabriel is on top of him, seizing his gun hand and ripping the gun from it, then tossing it into the bushes next to the driveway. With speed and force, Gabriel spins Dan around and slams him to his knees. In Gabriel’s face, anger and rage have now taken over.

  One of Gabriel’s powerful hands wrap around and squeeze Dan’s throat. The other holds Dan’s shoulder, forcing him to stay on his knees. Dan reaches up with both hands to try and free himself of Gabriel’s grip on his throat, but he knows he is powerless to escape. Dan stops struggling and begins slowly rolling the fingers of his left hand on Gabriel’s forearm, index, middle, ring, and pinky while he looks at Samantha still bleeding in front of him and Gabriel. Samantha falls to her knees, looking back at Gabriel and Dan. Then, with a gasp, Samantha catches fire and bursts into flames. She turns red, then blue, then purple. Dan smiles as Gabriel slowly squeezes the air from his throat. While both of their faces glow in dim and then bright light from the flames of Samantha. Dan goes limp, as Gabriel drops his lifeless body on the driveway. Next to Dan is Jacob, lifeless, still slowly bleeding out.

  Gabriel steps over Dan and walks toward the ashes on the driveway that was Samantha. He falls to his knees in grief and then anger, rage in his eyes as he looks up at the night sky.

  ***

  Angela and Frank knock on the front door of Dan’s house. Krista answers the door. Her face is red, and her eyes are puffy and swollen, she has clearly been crying for some time now.

  “Hello, Krista,” Angela says.

  “Yes?” Krista says after she calms her crying.

  “I’m Angela, and this is Frank,” Angela says. “Is Dan home at the moment?”

  “No, he left to do some work and hasn’t come home,” Krista says.

  “Do you mind if we come in to talk?” Angela asks. “Is this an okay time to talk?”

  Krista opens the door wider for them to come in. Angela, Frank and Krista sit down around a coffee table in the living room. “It’s not like Dan to not come home,” Krista says as she chokes back tears and looks at a clock on the wall. “He has not come back home or called me in thirty years.”

  “Krista, Dan had a meeting with me today that he missed,” Angela says. “Do you have any idea what he was working on when he left, or where he went?”

  “Yes, he got a box from some guy,” Krista explains. “I think he worked for a Senator?”

  Krista gets up and walks into the kitchen. She comes back with the box and sets it on the coffee table.

  “He got this a few days ago,” Krista says.

  Angela reaches in the box and pulls out the box of bullets. She hands it to Frank, then takes the stack of papers and sets them down to start reading through them. One by one, Angela skims through the papers. Frank opens the box of bullets and pulls one out to show Angela, some of the bullets are missing. “Angela, I think this has a silver tip,” Frank says.

  Angela doesn’t even hear Frank. She is focused on what’s in the papers.

  “What the fuck?” Angela mumbles to herself. “You have to be kidding me.”

  “What is it, Angela?” Frank asks and sets the box of bullets on the coffee table.

  “I think this says the owners of Old World are vampires,” Angela says. “Just like Dan was trying to tell us.”

  “I guess that would explain the silver bullets,” Frank replies.

  Angela stops reading and looks at Frank.

  “Did you just say silver bullets?” Angela asks, and Frank lifts the same bullet up again for Angela to see.

  “There was also a gun in the box,” Krista says.

  “Did Dan say where he was going, when he left?” Angela asks.

  “I think he said, Gabriel? Maybe?” Krista says.

  “We need to get this stuff back to the office,” Angela says and starts to gather it all together.

  ***

  Haley is sitting at her desk when Azreal opens her door and leans in.

  “I’ve been looking for Gabriel and Samantha,” Azreal says. “Have you seen them?”

  “No, I haven’t seen them in a few days,” Haley shrugs. “I assumed you sent him to see the Senator?”

  “No, that’s actually what I wanted to talk to him about,” Azreal says. “I think there might be another way. I’ll find him, and we can all talk.”

  ***

  Samuel and Emma are lying in their bed. It’s the wee hours of the morning right before daybreak. Emma is weak and in pain. She struggles to sit up. Samuel is now looking very old. He gently props her up and tucks pillows under her back. They both snuggle together and look into each other’s eyes.

  “I have lived for longer then I should have, thanks to you, my love,” Emma says.

  Samuel gently wipes her silver hair out of her eyes and tucks it behind her ear.

  Emma explains “I want to carry on in this world for you, my love, but every day, I feel weaker, and the pain is greater.”

  Samuel slowly raises his forearm to his mouth. Emma rests her hand on top of his forearm, stopping Samuel from biting himself to feed her.

  “No, my love, I think it’s time,” Emma snuggles into Samuel’s chest and wraps her arms around him. Samuel holds Emma as tight as he can without hurting her.

  “We have had a great life,” Samuel says as he gazes down at her. “I have no regrets.”

  Samuel leans Emma back and places another pillow behind her. He gets up and walks across the room to the large, steel shutter that covers the floor-to-ceiling window in their room. With the push of a button, the shutter rolls up. A blackout curtain covers the window. Samuel looks back at Emma, who smiles at him.

  “Go ahead, my love, I’m ready,” Emma says.

  Samuel slowly and deliberately opens one side of the curtains and tucks it on a hook to keep it open. He stops to look out at the darkness before opening the other side of the curtains and tucking them back on another hook. Samuel walks back to the bed and gets in. They both fall into each other’s arms again and Emma rests her head on Samuel’s chest with her eyes closed and at peace.

  The sun approaches over a series of small foothills. Slowly, beams of light start to creep over the foothills and make their way to the house. The sun finally breaks over the top of the last hill and straight i
nto the window of their bedroom. From outside the house, a flash of light can be seen inside the house through the bedroom window, followed by a yellow-and-blue glow. The light flickers on and off until, finally, the whole house is engulfed in a spectacular blaze of fire and light, with the sun like a spotlight on the house making it even brighter.

  ***

  At the FDA office, Angela and Frank have the box from Dan’s house out on a table going through it. Mike Brown and Troy Hanson from the FBI walk in.

  “Mike, thanks for coming,” Angela says. “I’m kind of at a loss here. We investigate companies and drugs, not crimes, and this is looking more and more like a crime.”

  “I didn’t really understand the message you left me,” Mike says. “I got that one of your people might be missing but did you say something about a vampire?” Mike laughs.

  “Of course, there are no such things as vampires, but it’s looking like Dan might think there is,” Angela says.

  “You’re kidding, Dan is a solid guy,” Mike says, “there’s no way he went off the reservation.”

  “I would have never thought so, either, but this Old World case has hit him pretty hard,” Angela says.

  “Well, a parent never really quits grieving, no matter how long it’s been,” Mike says then glances at the papers in front of Frank and Angela on the table. “Let’s see what you have here.”

  Mike walks over to the table and picks up a bullet with a silver tip to look at it. The rest of the group starts going through the papers on the table.

  ***

  Azreal is sitting at his desk when Haley walks in and sits down in a chair on the other side of the desk.

  “After we talked yesterday, I started asking around,” Haley says, “and then I had security check the whole compound. Gabriel hasn’t been here in days, and neither has Samantha.”

  Azreal leans back in his chair and puts his hands together again matching his fingertips up with each other, “Anyone knows where he might be? Did he say anything to Steven?”

  “No, nothing,” Haley says. “Steven hasn’t seen them either”