There were ten men in total. I saw all their faces except for their leader. The leader never went near my office. Perhaps there was still a bit of hope for my survival, but I wasn’t going to hold my breath.
The only thing that kept me from really panicking was my dad. The man was a brawler. He didn’t take crap from anyone. It just wasn’t in his nature. If my father was pushed, he pushed back. He might be a fancy lawyer, but he navigated through the criminal world rather easily.
My dad also had a lot of money. He had people he could call. I wasn’t going to be forgotten. I was going to be rescued, and my kidnappers would be shown no mercy. Surely they understood that about my father.
Surely they understood the trouble headed their way?
Derry
I woke up in the basement of an old building, and the first thing I realized was that I wasn’t alone. A solitary cat had wandered into the basement after me. Her furry little body was curled up right under my chin, and she was purring mightily.
Cats love vampires.
I spent the next twenty minutes refusing to move because I didn’t want to wake the little cat up. She was just too cute cuddled up with me, and when she finally woke up all on her own, I spent another thirty minutes playing before I ventured out of the basement to an empty building.
I flew up rather high in the sky and stretched out my senses for my brothers. Lorcan was probably still asleep, but Ciaran was already on the move.
I began tracking him lazily as I also searched for suitable prey. I didn’t need to feed every night, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Finally, I located my youngest brother at the beach. He had his skateboard and was skillfully weaving in and out of all the tourists on the boardwalk.
I watched Ciaran for a bit and realized that he was hunting. Ciaran’s tastes weren’t as refined as mine. He preferred it when his prey could put up a fight. Rarely did he ever take an unsuspecting female.
Ciaran skated in and out of the throngs of people searching for just the right type of victim, someone that would take his bait. Eventually, he targeted a group of rough-looking youths that reeked of weed and alcohol. Ciaran skated just a bit too close to the group, and rudely slammed into one of them.
“Watch where you’re going, asshole,” the youth warned.
Ciaran didn’t say anything. He didn’t want to attract the attention of an argument. Instead, he let the youth see his middle finger as he skated away.
The boys didn’t appreciate the gesture, and quietly began to follow my little brother.
I followed my little brother, as well.
I followed him into the parking lot. I watched as he skated in and among the cars, and then I watched as he jumped off a curb, and entered a dark alley. The boys sped up after Ciaran. They wanted to catch him in the alley.
Instead, they only found an empty alley.
They searched under boxes, and behind trash bins, but they couldn’t locate Ciaran. One of them wandered too close to the trunk of a car and promptly vanished. I stifled a laugh. The youth didn’t even have time to cry out, and the car barely shook during the attack.
The boys began to look a bit frightened after they realized they were missing one of their numbers. They also stopped their search and huddled close together in the middle of the alley.
They should have run away, but fear was often in direct opposition of ego, and this group of young men stubbornly refused to abandon their friend.
Outside the alley, I heard footsteps. There was a girl approaching, and from the smell of her, she was one of the boys’ girlfriends. I moved to intercept her, saw that nobody was watching her from outside the alley, and I attacked.
I grabbed the girl quickly and then rushed to the top of the nearest building. Once there, I released the girl to get a good look at her. She was pretty enough. I wanted her.
“Who are you?” The girl asked, more confused than afraid.
I only looked at her.
“How’d you get me up here so fast?” The girl asked.
I still had nothing to say. In the end, words aren’t very important.
I moved close to the girl, right as the first tremor of fear passed into her voice. I started feeding the moment she started screaming. Her voice echoed down into the alley where her friends were still frozen. Apparently the sudden intrusion of her scream was enough to overcome ego. The rough-looking youths broke from the alley in a dead run. One of them even tripped and fell right outside.
Ciaran emerged from the trunk of the car, looking a bit confused. I waved to him from the top of the building, and he threw me another middle finger before joining me.
“Who do you think owns that car?” I asked.
“It’s a girl,” Ciaran answered. “I bet she’s a waitress at one of the restaurants. She probably won’t even notice the corpse in her trunk for a week or so.”
“I’d love to be there when she does,” I said.
“Let’s put that girl’s body in the trunk as well,” Ciaran laughed. “Her boyfriend will think she was running out on him with his friend.”
After playing Ciaran’s little joke, the two of us set out after Lorcan, who surprised both of us by wandering over to our area by the beach all on his own. We found him right off the boardwalk, watching some street performers.
“You haven’t seen them before?” I asked.
“I haven’t,” Lorcan answered.
“I have,” Ciaran said. “I think they’re boring.”
“You think everything is boring,” Lorcan teased.
“That’s true,” I agreed.
“I knew you were following me,” Ciaran said.
“When?” I asked.
“Earlier,” Ciaran said. “I knew you were there. I knew you were following.”
“I doubt that,” I said. “I could have snuck up and stole your prey out from under you.”
“No way,” Ciaran laughed. “I’m a much better vampire than you.”
A stray cat skittishly made its way over to where we were sitting. Once near us, the little animal forgot its fear of the nearby humans and began incessantly meowing at all three of us for attention. Ciaran was the first to oblige. He picked up the cat and wrapped it up in his arms while he whispered sweet words into its ear.
Lorcan eventually reached out for the cat, and Ciaran passed it over. Lorcan giggled as the cat licked at his face in an attempt to groom him. His laughter was delightful. Almost immediately, two random children sat down uncomfortably close to us. They weren’t watching the street performers. They seemed to have an interest only in Lorcan and the cat.
“We should leave,” Ciaran said.
“We’re fine,” I said.
“Is that your cat?” The little girl asked.
“No,” Lorcan answered. “I’m not sure whose cat this is, but I do believe she has an owner. She doesn’t seem to be a stray.”
“Why is the cat so friendly to you?” The little boy asked.
“Cats are always friendly to me,” Lorcan answered honestly.
“We have three cats at home,” The little boy said. “None of them are very friendly.”
Lorcan passed the cat over to the little boy, and their hands brushed against each other. The boy made a face and then looked confused.
“You need a jacket,” the boy said. “Your skin is really cold.”
“It’s a chilly night,” Lorcan said.
“No it isn’t,” the little girl said. “It’s only chilly over here next to you.”
Lorcan looked towards me for help.
“It’s just a breeze coming off the ocean,” I said. “Are we ready to leave yet?”
“Probably not,” Ciaran said. “Things might be getting interesting.”
Lorcan was horrified.
Ciaran started laughing.
The two children looked confused, but in reality, they were in no danger at the moment.
“We could go back to the skate park,” I suggested.
Ciaran perked up and smiled.
>
“Maybe afterwards we can play some video games,” Lorcan said.
“We’ll be in the neighborhood,” I said. “I’m sure we can stop in and play a bit.”
Lorcan took a bit of time to say his goodbyes to the children. He wasn’t in a huge hurry to leave their company and seemed to be enjoying their conversation.
By the time we were high up in the sky, Ciaran and I were wrestling mightily. In other words, we were being sloppy. We almost dropped right into the ambush the police had set up for us at the Glendale skate park.
“There’s something wrong!” Lorcan announced as we fell out of the sky.
The three of us froze, not fifty feet above the skate park. Below us, we watched a solitary skater move in and around the park.
The skater wasn’t very good.
He also wasn’t very young, and then he started whispering into his sleeve.
“This is a trap,” Ciaran said with a smile.
“We were too sloppy the other night,” I said.
“You shouldn’t hunt where you also want to spend time,” Lorcan advised.
“I’ll take the undercover cop,” Ciaran said. “Then we can skate.”
“No,” I said. “There are more of them nearby.”
“So what?” Ciaran asked. “I can take them as well.”
“That would be a bad idea,” I said. “More police will come. They’ll have ambushes on every block. It’s best to leave the police alive and ignorant.”
“I wanted to skate,” Ciaran complained.
“There are other skate parks,” Lorcan said. “Let’s go and play some video games. That’ll be much safer this evening.”
“Fine,” Ciaran agreed with a long sigh.
We moved quickly to Bret’s house and away from the silly human traps, but Bret wasn’t in his room. We gathered just three houses away on a rooftop, but none of us could hear his heartbeat or his breathing.
“He’s not there,” Lorcan said.
“Well somebody is in his room,” Ciaran said.
“It’s not Bret,” I said. “It’s a male, but he smells way too old.”
“There are five men in that van at the end of the street,” Lorcan advised. “This is another trap. I don’t think we’re going to play video games tonight.”
I understood the situation. This definitely wasn’t the first time our mistakes started catching up to us. The smartest thing for us to do would be to find a new location.
“I’m not running,” Ciaran said. “I just got here.”
“We should avoid Glendale for a few months,” Lorcan said.
“We could also be more careful with the bodies,” I added.
Both Ciaran and Lorcan looked at me. Each of them was wondering if I was serious or not because out of the three of us, I was the one that liked attention the most.
I smiled, and my brothers laughed.
“I want Bret,” Ciaran said. “If we can get closer to the house, maybe we can pick up some clues.”
“We should leave Bret alone,” Lorcan said.
“I wonder if we could track him down,” I muttered out loud. “I bet we could.”
“Wouldn’t it be funny if we still took Bret despite all their efforts?” Ciaran asked.
I looked from Bret’s house back to my brothers. Lorcan looked a bit worried, but Ciaran seemed positively excited with the prospect of an adventure.
“Okay,” I said. “I’ll sneak over to the house and check everything out. You two wait here, and I’ll see what I can find.”
I left the rooftop immediately. If I hesitated for only a moment, Ciaran probably would have gone instead, and I wanted to be the one that found out where Bret was.
In mist form, I made my way first to the van. Only two of the men were awake. The other three were having a rough sleep. Their coffee breath filled the inside of the van with a stagnant stench. Unfortunately, none of them were speaking.
I moved over to the house.
In the back yard, I listened intently. Bret’s mother was sleeping, but his father was wide awake. The man was drinking rather heavily in the living room. The television was off, but I could still pick up a slight bit of heat.
None of that interested me.
Inside Bret’s room, the older male was trying his best to stay awake as he waited by the window. Bret obviously spoke with the authorities. Did they believe what he had to say? Maybe they didn’t. Bret could be in jail.
I groaned out loud at the thought of losing him, and then I caught the slightest scent of alcohol. The acrid smell wasn’t the same as what Bret’s father was drinking in the living room. This smell was different and extremely faint.
Was it important? A cotton wad, thrown into the trashcan. I could smell medicine, as well. Again, it was a faint amount. I smiled and rushed back to my brothers.
“He’s in the hospital,” I announced.
“Are you sure?” Ciaran asked.
“I smelled cotton full of alcohol, and I smelled medicine of some type,” I explained. “I think Bret went into hysterics, and an ambulance was called.”
“You think they gave him something to calm him down?” Lorcan asked.
“It’s my guess,” I answered.
“Let’s go to the hospital,” Ciaran said with excitement in his eyes. “First one to find Bret gets his blood.”
The three of us rushed off the rooftop with no attempt to be silent. We laughed and taunted and screamed out of the darkness as we drifted away. We gave the policemen in the van such a fright that one of them almost messed himself.
And then we were gone.
The closest hospital had multiple buildings, and for the briefest of moments, our task seemed rather daunting.
“He’ll be in that large building over there,” Ciaran said.
“I don’t think so,” I said. “The unbalanced folk go to that smaller three-story building. I can hear some of them fussing about from here.”
“They’ll take him to the hospital first,” Ciaran said.
“They probably did that during the daytime,” I said.
“Fine,” Ciaran said. “You take that smaller building, and Lorcan and I will search the larger building.”
“You be careful if you go inside,” I said.
I moved rapidly to the three-story building. It wasn’t hard to to gain access from the rooftop, and within just a few moments, I was quietly padding down the stairwell as I searched out with all my senses.
Hospitals are dreadful places. I didn’t like the sounds of madness seeping out from under the multiple closed doors. I didn’t like the sterile smells, and I most certainly disliked the old food smells that clung everywhere.
Still, I crept farther and farther into the building. Eventually, I came upon what looked like a reception area with a solitary nurse clicking on a keyboard.
I crept up on the nurse until I was able to look her directly in the eye. She jumped when she saw me, made eye contact, and then I had her.
“Where’s Bret?” I asked.
“Who?” The nurse asked.
“I’m looking for Bret,” I said. “He’s a teenager. They would have brought him in today. I believe he saw something.”
“I don’t know a Bret,” the nurse said.
“Find him for me,” I whispered.
“What’s his last name?” The nurse asked.
I didn’t know his last name.
“Where would they take a teenager that saw a murder?” I asked.
“It depends on why he was brought here,” the nurse explained.
“Have you seen a teenager being brought in here today?” I asked.
“No,” the nurse answered. “I’ve only been here for a few hours. My shift just started.”
I grabbed the nurse and drained her quickly. I wasn’t worried about any of the cameras. Vampires can’t be photographed or recorded. I left her body at her desk, with her head cradled into her arms as if she had fallen asleep.
I didn’t know what to do. Perha
ps Lorcan could have manipulated the computer to find the person he was looking for, but I had only the slightest concept when it came to computers.
I moved farther into the hospital, wondering why I had never bothered before. There were so many patients. I could feed for days before anyone ever noticed a problem. I slipped into a teenage girl’s room. The door wasn’t locked, and the patient looked quite beautiful, though rather disheveled.
I slipped into the girl’s bed, ready to drain her, and then I realized the problem. The girl was drugged. She wasn’t capable of noticing me. She wasn’t even capable of fear.
I lost interest immediately.
Another nurse was walking down the hallway. I grabbed her and pulled her into the room. With one hand over her mouth, I bit into her neck and started feeding. I was in heaven with so much blood in my system. I even felt a bit drugged myself. The nurse fell into a heap at my feet, and I still wanted to feed. The warm bodies and the smell of living blood were driving me crazy.
I exited the room, determined to find another victim. I had forgotten Bret entirely. I went from room to room. If the patient was drugged, I lost interest. If they woke up alert and frightened, I pounced.
I was on my fifth victim when Lorcan entered her room. My brother looked a bit shocked at my behavior, but he wasn’t angry.
“How many?” Lorcan asked.
“This is the fifth,” I said between gulps.
“That’s too many victims,” Lorcan said. “This is bound to attract attention. The hunters will come for sure.”
“Oh please,” Ciaran said from the hallway. “Who cares about vampire hunters?”
“I care about vampire hunters,” Lorcan said.
“We’ll just avoid this area for a few months,” Ciaran added.
“This is his fifth victim,” Lorcan said.
“Damn!” Ciaran said with a chuckle. “Give me some of that.”
Ciaran entered the room and latched onto the woman’s wrist. He was sucking furiously in an attempt to find whatever blood was left in her body. I stood up and left him to it. There wasn’t much left.
The Forgotten: A Vampire Story Page 4