The Forgotten: A Vampire Story

by Clary, Michael

  "I don't think so," I said. "I think he gave his blood to Ciaran. I think he tried to heal him last night, and as a result, Derry's been weakened."

  "He's not weak enough," Glen said.

  "Yes, he is," I said. "He's incredibly weak right now. We have his other brother."

  "Derry!" I called out. "We have Lorcan. We have his body. Leave us alone, and we'll give it to you."

  No answer.

  "Maybe you can save him, Derry!" I shouted. "He still twitches every now and then. Maybe he's trapped in this burnt body just waiting for you to help him."

  There was a roar of anger from outside, and a headless body crashed through one of the front windows. I screamed and ducked, but no more corpses assaulted us.

  I reached into the body bag and grabbed a clump of burnt flesh that tore easily from the corpse. I then ran about the room, wiping the clump of burnt flesh all over the walls.

  "What are you doing?" Glen asked.

  "I'm confusing his senses," I said. "Everyone that can move needs to do the same. Rip off some flesh, and start wiping down the walls. I want this entire place to reek of burnt vampire.

  Another roar came from outside the house.

  Another collision shook the very walls around us.

  "I don't get it," Lieutenant Morris said. "Why doesn't he just come in here and kill all of us."

  "He'll do just that soon enough," I said. "Right now, I believe he's concerned about his brother, and that's making him hesitate. Glen, is it really possible to bring Lorcan back?"

  "It's possible," Glen said. "I wouldn't think it very likely, not with this amount of damage, but anything's possible with vampires."

  "This is how we survive," I said as I zipped the body bag up, and dragged it from the room.

  I searched the ranch house high and low for the best hiding place, and I found it in an office closet on one side of the massive building. My father called it a ranch house, but that seemed a bit of an understatement. The ranch house was a small one-story mansion.

  The power went out.

  I was back in the main room with the bright light when without warning, we were almost lost in darkness. Betty screamed, and one of the police officers who were still wiping vampire scent in a different part of the house even fired off a shot.

  "Relax," Lieutenant Morris said. "Give your eyes a moment to adjust."

  Outside, in the forest, the fires had gained a bit of ground on the fog and humidity. We had a small amount of light shining through the windows, and that light was slowly growing brighter and brighter.

  "The forest is catching," Glen said. "We really need to get out of here."

  A window broke in a different part of the house. I flinched, and Glen strapped one of the small flamethrowers to his back.

  "You use that in here, and you'll burn the house down around us," Lieutenant Morris said.

  "I don't see we have much of a choice," Glen said.

  We then heard a scream and knew that Derry had entered the home. I felt the fear in the room multiplying around me, and after a quick squeeze of my father's hand, I bolted from the room.

  I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't know what I was going to find, but I was spurred into action regardless. There was something impossible about waiting for Derry to come and find me.

  Instead, I went to search him out.

  Deeper in the house, I found a mist-enshrouded hallway, and I entered without hesitation. The mist was bone-chilling and unnatural, but I wasn't alone. There was an officer in one of the rooms. He was facing me but refused to acknowledge my presence.

  I understood why after I approached. Derry was hiding in the shadows just beyond the body, holding the corpse upright with one hand, just waiting for me to take the bait and enter the room.

  Derry dropped the policeman and showed me his glowing eyes.

  "Where's my brother?" Derry asked.

  "He's safe," I answered.

  "I warned you about my brothers," Derry said. "I told you not to go anywhere with them. I told you not to even acknowledge them outside of our dwellings. They don't have the control that I do. They can be dangerous."

  "Lorcan killed my brother!" I shouted.

  "You didn't listen to me," Derry said calmly. "I warned you, but you refused to listen. Instead, you watched Ciaran dance before you burnt the flesh from his bones. You invited Lorcan inside your home, and tried to do the same. This is all your doing. We trusted you. We loved you, and you betrayed us."

  "You don't know what love is," I said. "You aren't capable of love. You shouldn't exist. You're a monster. I know what you did to my friends. I know what you did to my mind. I know what you are, and I hate you!"

  "You hate me," Derry said, "but you attack my brothers. Lorcan is an innocent. He feeds on the young because he all too often fears the adults. It's not his fault. He shouldn't have been turned."

  "If you're going to kill me," I said. "Why don't you get it over with?"

  "I'm not going to kill you," Derry said with his shining eyes. "I'm going to kill everyone around you. You're going to watch them all die, and then you'll truly know that there is no place on this earth in which you are safe from me."

  "Sounds like a bum deal to me," An officer said from behind me.

  I spun around just as he and his two friends began firing their pistols into the misty corner in which Derry lurked. I screamed and dove out of the way, and Derry launched himself across the room.

  I watched as my former lover dismantled three police officers as if he were a troubled child pulling the wings off a few insects. Derry literally tore his attackers into pieces. When it was over, the room was wet with blood, I was running back down the hallway, and Derry was asking where his brother was.

  Halfway down the hallway, my father stepped out of the shadows and wrapped me up in his arms.

  "You're safe now," Dad said. "I'm here now."

  "We're not safe," I said. "We need to run!"

  "You need to run," Dad said. "I'm here now. I'll do what needs to be done. They won't claim another one of my children."

  "Dad?" I asked.

  "Run!" Dad whispered into my ear as Derry appeared behind us.

  I tried to argue.

  I tried to resist.

  My dad pushed me away and confronted Derry as if he were the child he resembled. I screamed as Derry slashed his claws across my father's face and buried his fangs deep into his throat.

  "RUN!" My dad screamed as he fought so hopelessly against his murderer. "Run!"

  I picked myself up off the floor, and headed back to the main room of the house where everyone was still gathered, and almost took a bullet from one of Lieutenant Morris's two remaining officers.

  "What's happening?" Glen asked.

  "Derry's coming," I said. "We can't stop him."

  The officer closest to the hallway let out a scream before being yanked from his feet and dragged into the growing mist at the hallway's entrance.

  Betty screamed, and Glen shot a small jet of flame down the hallway.

  "Did I hit anything?" Glen asked as the hallway caught fire.

  "No," Derry answered before throwing a bloody head at Glen's face.

  Glen tried to duck, but the severed head hit him right on his temple, and I watched him go down in a heap. Donny rushed over to grab his flamethrower, and Lieutenant Morris and her remaining officer began firing into the darkened hallway.

  A burst of shadow streaked from the hallway into the main room, danced along the walls, and vanished into the plentiful shadows of the vaulted ceiling. Shortly after that, the mist began to gather around all of us, right before Lieutenant Morris's final officer was slashed across his face. I watched as bloody ribbons of flesh fell from his skull, and I heard Derry laughing from the shadows.

  Meanwhile, the hallway was rapidly becoming engulfed in fire, just as the forest outside was beginning to blaze brightly.

  "Where's my brother?" Derry asked from the shadows.

  "If you let us
go, I'll tell you," I said.

  Donny shot out a jet of flame across the room, and the far wall went up in flames. Glen started climbing to his feet, and I only managed to call out a warning as Derry crawled spider-like across the ceiling before dropping down on Donny.

  Donny screamed.

  Glen tried his best to grab Derry but instead flew almost weightlessly across the room from a single backhand. I ran to help as he crashed through a glass cabinet full of expensive dishes, and Lieutenant Morris began shooting.

  "Where's my brother?" Derry asked from the few remaining shadows of the burning room.

  I scanned the room and couldn't find Donny anywhere.

  "Where's my brother?" Derry repeated.

  "If I tell you, you must promise to let us go," I said.

  Donny's body flew through the air, only missing me by inches.

  "Then let them go," I said. "Let them go, and I'll stay with you."

  The room was getting hotter and hotter. Glen was edging everyone towards the front door, but we weren't going to make it to the plane, and the fire had already blocked access to half the ranch house. All of us were running out of time.

  "I know where Lorcan is!" I shouted. "I'm the only one. You can't kill everyone and still save him."

  Derry stepped from the shadows.

  His jaw was still slightly askew from the earlier gunshot, and at some point, the side of his head had been cracked open. His eyes were feral and darting, but Derry, as always, seemed calm and in control.

  Lieutenant Morris raised her pistol as Derry approached me, but I quickly placed my hand over the weapon and forced her to aim it at the floor.

  "He'll kill everyone," I said. "This is the only way."

  "I can't leave you," Lieutenant Morris said. "I can't do that."

  "You don't have a choice," I said as Derry gently wrapped his cold hard fingers around mine.

  "Where's my brother?" Derry whispered in my ear as the fire raged around us. "Take me to him."

  I could feel his sharp fangs gently scraping against the skin of my neck, and I fully understood that the vampire would enjoy nothing more than ripping me apart, but he couldn't. He needed me.

  I led him deeper into the house, and the fire quickly closed in behind us. I tugged at Derry's hand, trying to force him to rush, but Derry wasn't moving very well. He was limping, and one of his ankles seemed like it might even be broken.

  Finally, I kicked open the door to the office, pulled Lorcan's body bag from the closet, and laid it upon the desk. Derry stood behind me with his mouth agape.

  "He's in the body bag," I said.

  "Open it," Derry ordered.

  I did as he asked, and immediately the smell of burnt vampire filled the rapidly heating room. Derry moaned a sorrowful moan that took me by surprise, and then he was lost in his grief as he looked down at the burnt husk of his brother.

  "No!" Derry cried as his face collapsed into a mask of pure pain. "Not you. Not my brother. No! No! No! No!"

  I ran.

  Without a single thought, I bolted from the room and tore through the only remaining part of the house, not on fire. In the end, I trapped myself in a room as the flames closed in behind me, but that wasn't a problem. I only had to open the window and crawl out of the house.

  In front of the burning house, I surveyed my surroundings.

  The ranch house was a raging inferno collapsing upon itself, and the forest behind me had finally managed to thoroughly catch fire. There was too much fire to go unnoticed, and way too many people knew where we were headed.

  Help would be coming.

  I had no plans to wait for them. I wanted to be out of the country before sunrise. I couldn't find Glen, Betty, or Lieutenant Morris anywhere, so I headed towards the barn that served as the only hanger on the property.

  The door in front was locked, but the side door was wide open.

  I stepped inside, startled at the silence. Where were my friends? Were they even in here?

  I walked slowly down a darkened hallway before entering the wide-open hanger. Immediately I felt a chill in the air. So I froze in place, hoping that my eyes would adjust to the sudden darkness in front of me.

  In the distance, I heard sounds of sucking and slurping, and very slowly, the lone airplane materialized out of the darkness. The plane was empty. My friends weren't inside. I looked around some more and finally found Glen hiding behind some sort of large container. He was waving at me, frantically but silently.

  He was also terrified.

  Derry was somehow already in the hanger with us, and he was probably feeding on the poor pilot who no doubt left the safety of his apartment to investigate all the noise coming from the forest and ranch house.

  I pushed farther into the room, looking for Derry, but the shadows were too dense. Visibility was too limited. As I reached the airplane, I motioned for my friends to come forward, and after a moment's hesitation, they all rushed by me and boarded the airplane.

  "Is that you, Selma?" A voice asked from the shadows.

  "Yes," I answered.

  The vocal cords were damaged, probably from the fire, and therefore the voice wasn't familiar to me. Rounding the front of the airplane, I saw a mass of moving shadows in the corner of the room. It looked from where I was standing, that the poor pilot had made the mistake of having his girlfriend stay the evening with him.

  Both of them were now dead.

  "I didn't think I'd get to see you," the voice said. "I can't seem to keep up with my brother after what happened."

  Ciaran stood away from the bodies he'd been feeding on.

  I couldn't see him clearly, but I could see his reflecting eyes. He wasn't moving properly either. The flames had done too much damage, and instead he moved in a jerking motion not unlike a puppet on a string.

  I didn't run as the vampire approached.

  I stood my ground, as the jet engine fired up, and the hangar doors began to move open automatically.

  Ciaran was standing only five feet away from me, and he looked just like the monster he truly was. His skin was dry and peeling, and in some places I could see his skull. Worst of all was the blonde patches of hair that stood out defiantly against all the burnt flesh, and his mouth full of fangs that dripped blood and saliva to the floor.

  "Did you do this to me?" Ciaran asked.

  "No," I answered honestly. "I had no idea they were going to attack you."

  Ciaran looked at me, and as I stared at him, I saw more and more of the damage etched across his body. A tear dripped from my eye at the sight of him. His pain must have been incredible, and it was difficult to see him suffer so terribly. I wished for his death, but not his suffering.

  "Mother," Ciaran whispered as he shuffled even closer.

  I closed my eyes, expecting an embrace that never came. When I finally opened them again, Ciaran was gone, and Lieutenant Morris was screaming at me to get inside the airplane.

  Inside, I managed to sit down and buckle up as Glen spoke into the microphone, and the plane started moving. By the time we were in the air, Betty was passing around a bottle of whiskey, and I was drinking heartily as I stared out the window into the black, black night.

  Epilogue:

  Ten years later

  Glen

  I awoke with the type of bone-chilling terror that only vampires could create. I had to laugh at that. I walked around calling myself a vampire hunter, but none of us were vampire hunters. We were only playing at being heroes because nobody hunts vampires.

  No, we weren't hunters. We were survivors that had been born in fear. We sought to help those experiencing what we went through, but we rarely tried to engage the undead. We weren't stupid. We didn't have a death wish. We only wanted to help people.

  And then Selma cursed and pouted her way into my life. I pegged her as a spoiled and sort of bratty teenager, but she was far, far more than that. The death of her younger brother brought out the first true hunter I'd ever met.

  Betty wa
s also a survivor. She and Selma had known each other for years, and they were still best friends. Two weeks ago she showed up unannounced after I sent in my recent reports.

  "She's coming," Betty said.

  "She shouldn't," I said.

  "I know it's been a long time," Betty said. "Perhaps you aren't aware of what she's accomplished since your first meeting."

  "I know exactly what she's accomplished," I said. "She's a fucking legend. I'm not denying her anything. What I'm telling you is that she should stay away from Southern California."

  "She's seen your reports," Betty said. "She's coming. She'll be here in a week or so. Are you sure it's Derry?"

  "I've been tracking him ever since that night," I said. "I lose them for long periods of time, but they always turn up again. They're still a bit reckless. It's Derry. He's finally come back to Southern California."

  "You've seen his kills?" Betty asked.

  "Only one," I answered. "Definitely vampire."

  "Any missing children?" Betty asked.

  "It's California," I answered. "It's a big place."

  "She'll want to know," Betty said.

  "There have been a few disappearances that I find odd," I answered. "That's by no means definitive."

  "True," Betty admitted, "but she'll want to know what you think. So what do you think? How many of the brothers are still alive?"

  "I think all three of them are still in existence," I answered honestly.

  "How could that be possible?" Betty asked. "Lorcan was too damaged."

  "He was damaged," I answered, "but apparently there was enough left of him to bring him back. At least that's what I believe."

  "Well," Betty said with a sigh. "We'll find out soon."

  That had been three weeks ago, and now we were meeting Selma not at the airport, but in the middle of the desert. I was irritated, and on edge as I did my best to sleep with my head against the window.

  The nightmares had begun a few days ago. Each of them were different, but still the same. Vampires and their claws. Vampires and their fang-filled mouths. Child-like faces and blood-stained mouths. I was off my game. I was jumping at sounds.

  "You okay?" Betty asked.

  "Yeah," I answered. I'm peachy."