by Tanja Neise
I never would have thought that I’d be up against this type of enemy again. Vampires were said to be extinct – yet, that’s what it’s come down to. I would do it in reality like I had already pictured it in so many of my dreams. I swore on my life that I would rid the world of this evil.
The hydraulic system quietly hissed as the door opened sideways. Regrettably, I remembered the doors from my childhood, which you could slam shut if desired and listen intently to the noise that resulted from it. It sometimes gave you a certain degree of satisfaction, but that was a long time ago.
In the modern living rooms of the American elite to which I belonged, there was exclusive state-of-the-art design and technology. The apartment I lived in was luxury, yet characterised by a coldness and comprised two rooms and a bathroom. Apart from the commanders-in-chief, no one else had been given such a privilege. Usually, the members of the platoon would share an apartment between two or three. If they were lucky, they could get their own room, which was also quite rare, but mostly, several soldiers would live together in one bedroom. We ate in the common room. It was only thanks to my outstanding achievement in research, and perhaps the fact that I was Sir Rumsfield's daughter, that I had a special place to live.
In the past – a whole lifetime ago, at least, that was how it felt – I lived in a house that had so many rooms that the whole platoon could have easily lived there with their family members. England and my family's old country estate were long gone. The memories were not, but that was something I had to deal with on my own. First of all, my legal guardian had brought me to America, sold all of my inheritance and eventually disappeared with the money. He hasn’t been seen again to this day. In the space of one day, I went to not only being an orphan, but destitute as well. Because I possessed above-average intelligence, I was accepted onto a sponsorship programme and I got the best education America had to offer.
There was nobody I trusted and could talk to about it, or even wanted to. The people who lived here simply functioned; they were emotionless, more machines than living beings. To be honest, I didn't even know the names of my next-door neighbours, never mind what kind of people they were. At communal mealtimes, I sat my humble self away from the other people, isolated. That was something I had actively chosen – or in other words – I had deliberately brought it about. Nobody voluntarily sat down next to me and told me about themselves, as I showed absolutely no emotion, which was more than suspicious to the soldiers in my domain, even though none of them would pass as Prince Charming. But that didn't really interest me, either. I was content, at least I was until I had read the article in today's news.
Being anonymous and accountable to no one felt good. In terms of my work life, it was a little different, as I was subordinate to my boss, though privately I was a complete loner. As I said, no one was supposed to find out what a wreck I was, as then I would’ve had to leave the platoon at once. Only operational elite soldiers were allowed to be here.
In any case, this loner had picked up a lot during her life as a soldier. Now I would be using it in a fight which had been going on my whole life. In recent years it took place internally, after I had discovered what had happened to my father, and why. And now I could finally set my sights on a target, an opponent, who not only dominated my mind, but one that I could also fight.
Full of determination, I hurried downstairs. With every step, the plan was taking shape in my mind: a plan, which ought to permanently destroy what I hated from the bottom of my heart, because, once upon a time, I had everything taken away from me.
Olivia Morgan
It was already dark and the moon was shining brightly above the large building that was surrounded by a high security fence. The cameras scanned the entire grounds; nothing could be kept hidden from the security staff – always on guard, in case an intruder should pose a danger to the group. And my presence and that of my colleagues most definitely did not go undetected.
I silently observed the gossiping women who were standing around me, and to whom I belonged no more than a beggar did to a royal palace. The murmuring and the voices that occasionally became louder were lulling me, as tiredness grasped at me mercilessly. I hadn't slept in the last twenty hours. The warm summer evening was only reluctantly transforming the day into black night. At 11:00 p.m. the soldiers on duty usually opened the floodgates, and until that time we were denied access. It was hard, physical work that awaited me inside, but it also ensured that I had the opportunity to study.
It had always been my greatest desire to become a doctor. And since there hadn't been any more stipends for many years, I was happy to have found a job I could pursue at night. This way I had time to study during the day. Certainly, I didn't get enough sleep and I no longer even dared dream of a social life, but I wanted it so much that the current downsides were simply insignificant to me.
“Hey, Liv, are you sleeping with your eyes open again?” Sally, the older woman who was in command of our cleaning crew, as if we were an army operating on the front line, carefully put her arm around my shoulders. I liked her because she was so affectionate and yet she still never let people walk all over her.
“Mmh. A little bit.” That was very close to the truth, though something completely different was protesting inside me. Under no circumstances did I want to admit how much I wanted to belong. The women here were always having so much fun with each other, but I was an outsider. That's how it had always been, as long as I could remember. I firmly believed I could never be one of them. Perhaps it was better that way – it would certainly only distract me too much from my studies. And whether I could even belong at all was another matter altogether. That silly giggling, the make-up, the artificial fingernails and the shrill voices didn't really suit me. I wasn't like that. But I was lonely, and now and then this feeling took over and then I was seized with sadness.
I knew I was smarter than most people I'd met before, even if I didn't show it to anyone. I kept my knowledge to myself early on, because the other children had often not understood what I was talking about. I had learned to adapt as best I could, even if it meant I never really belonged anywhere. Unfortunately.
I liked silence, I liked to read and enjoyed the few quiet hours in the week that I was granted. Friends or even a steady boyfriend definitely didn't belong on the timetable. Some people would say that I had no social skills – and perhaps that was the case. But for the most part I just wanted to be alone, and didn't attach any increased value to company. Of course, there were exceptions like tonight. Sometimes even I felt captured by loneliness and longed for some kind of comfort.
“Come on, my little one, we can go in.” Sally linked arms with me, and after the security staff had done the eye scan to identify me, came along with me into the large building complex. For extra security, there was another stage where we had to pass through a body scanner in order to make sure that no one brought weapons into the building.
Ever since I started working here I had wondered what it was in this building that was so valuable it had to be kept under surveillance to such an extent. What were they researching in the laboratories?
Suddenly the conversations stopped and the small group fell silent. Everyone knew what they had to do, after all, we had been working together for over a year.
We were only allowed to talk to each other about really essential things, since talking could disturb the concentration of the researchers working here. I really didn't believe in such nonsense. Why should I? If we whispered in the hallway, no one would know. It was plain discrimination; the cleaners were considered underprivileged. Besides, there was hardly anyone left in the building at this hour.
The lights chillingly flashed on and lit up the corridors. Everything looked the same as usual when we entered the south wing where I did my cleaning; but this night something was different. It wasn’t anything I could really put my finger on. No, it was much more a feeling of desire that was spreading through me; like something pulling. It took the oxygen
from my lungs. My heart was fluttering excitedly. What was happening? Was I getting ill?
“Hey, little one, you look like you've seen a ghost!” Sally came closer and felt my forehead to see if I had a fever, just as she probably did with her two children when they were ill. I had to smile because with this little touch she drove the loneliness out of my bones. Really, I couldn't care less about my colleagues. I knew Sally would be there for me if I needed her. Yet, I didn't let even Sally get close to me, although I liked her more than anyone else in Seattle.
“It's all right, I just didn't get quite enough sleep.” This was true, even though I wasn't tired at all. My mind was wide awake, and, since a few moments ago, buzzing with expectation. I tried to ignore the strange feelings that possessed me as much as possible. “Come on, let's start with the warden’s office.”
The suction robots had already done good preparatory work, but a human eye was better able to see the fine layers of dust in the corners. It was my job to do the fine-tuning and reset any incorrectly-programmed robots if the rooms had not been cleaned properly. The devices could not dust either, so the human hand was indispensable in that respect.
Humanity would probably have invented completely different methods to control the dirt on Earth if the vampire wars hadn't happened. This had put the planets in a state of rigour that had lasted for almost sixty years. All research resources had gone towards inventing a means of eradicating vampires once and for all. Nobody had thought of inventing better robots for cleaning, which was a pity, but it provided me with a job.
It had been worth researching a substance that resisted vampires. People had found a way to get rid of such brutal individuals. After these creatures started to come out of the seclusion and darkness, a time of fear and torture began for all humanity. Until then, it was believed that the bloodsuckers were a myth – as conceived by Anne Rice, the author of fantasy fiction. But that was a fallacy. A fatal misbelief that cost the lives of many people. In the beginning, the mortals didn’t accept the stories of the first reports of raids and other encounters with the vampires. They were even locked up by people who sincerely believed they were doing the right thing. Little by little, the madhouses filled up.
When people finally came to their senses, it was almost too late. Within a few weeks, the vampires, working together strategically, had gradually assumed control of the planet. All important military bases had been taken and the opportunity to combat them diminished from hour to hour. In the beginning, people had tried to defend themselves with bombs, which is why many cities had been razed to the ground. During the day, the vampires had to stay in the dark. They evacuated the inhabitants of the cities and then attacked. However, the possibility of defending themselves was quickly destroyed, as the vampires began to keep people as pets. They would have been killed, too, if the cities had been showered with bombs.
A number of researchers secretly began their work. Analysts, military staff, doctors – they all communicated through channels that had remained closed to the conquerors, and sought a solution to exterminate these creatures. This took a long time, but at some point a scientist came up with the idea of developing a serum that would not harm humans, but would kill any vampire that craved human blood. In 2083, after several trials, the serum was injected into the whole of humanity, which had been a difficult logistical undertaking – but it succeeded. Over the next few weeks, the creatures died. Because those who continued to attack people and drank blood were struck with the full force of the serum – they died in agony. The others simply starved to death.
All this happened years before I was born, but every child in the world has learned the story in school. Our past should show everyone what humans were capable of when they pulled together. Since then, there have been no great tensions between peoples. A sense of belonging had developed and I hoped very much that this would continue to prevail.
Only here, among these women, there was not much of a nice atmosphere. Sally was the exception to the rule – on my first day at work she had already taken me under her wing and I guess you could say she adopted me.
“So, the office is done. You take the rest of the executive floor, I'll go downstairs and check it out.” That's how we did it every day. I had the privilege of cleaning the executive floor, which probably caused discord among the others. But Sally had made it clear to me that she was the one who delegated the tasks. You had to stick to it, remain calm and accept it, or else look for another job. Since the company paid well, nobody grumbled at the bossy little supervisor. Nevertheless, it put me in an undesirable position among the women, which I didn’t enjoy very much. “The big boss is in the house, in case you run into him.”
“The boss is here? What an honour!” I couldn't hold back my sarcasm. “He’s never here.” It was the first time since I had worked here that he was present. He usually lived in New York, as I had learned at the very beginning of the job. Essentially, I didn't care, but I was still surprised.
Sally shrugged her shoulders casually. “Oh, what do I know. Important business – I have no idea about that anyway. Now, get out of here, or we won't get through today's workload.”
“All right. See you later.” I winked at her again and ran to the next office while Sally was already in the lift.
In the beginning I found it scary to be alone on one of the many floors, but after a year I got used to it. I routinely plugged the wireless buds into my ear and selected my playlist on one of the oldest Apple Watch models. I was glad I owned this old thing at least. It was all I could afford.
Some of my superficial colleagues smiled at me, but I let their malice bounce right off me. Someday, I would have more money at my disposal and I would be able to afford better technology. Someday – I held onto that word and believed in it. What else could I do? I would definitely not withstand this workload for the rest of my life. Studying in the morning, working at night and sleeping only when it was absolutely necessary.
I was stronger than many other people I knew and never got sick or had any injuries, but slowly, I felt that I was living at the edge of my limits. My exceptional physical condition helped; this was the only way I could power through on the few hours of sleep I had without collapsing.
I quickly banished my negative thoughts. The next moment the silence was broken by the quiet sounds of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. I loved classical music, which was a remedy for my constantly overwrought nerves. And now the unpleasant feeling finally eased and I relaxed.
I was even relaxed and focused enough on the wonderful sounds that I didn't notice how, after a while, the door to the office was opened.
Robert Tensington
Today was another one of those days that drove me to despair. The responsibility that weighed down on me was what I had wanted, yet I longed for a place where I could simply live in peace. On a quiet lake, perhaps in the Scottish Highlands. On a lonely fjord in Norway or on one of the small Irish islands. I would be quite simply forgotten about; I could forget who I was and have nothing else to worry about but myself.
But I knew that without me, some of those who were very dear to my heart would be doomed. I didn’t want to, but couldn't help it, since I had taken on this task and I would sure as hell finish it. I had promised myself that.
I had been secretly working for the government for five years and had kept my company directly under the president’s nose. Nevertheless, I was ok with it, because this was the only way I could keep the promise I had made to myself.
Life didn't hold many surprises for me anymore. Or was it because I was not prepared to let surprises into my life? My days were extremely well organised. I always slept at the same time, ate at the same hour and met other demands only when I could fit them into my schedule.
Some people would have said I lived in a state of monotony, but I was satisfied with it the way it was. All this gave me security: security that I had missed painfully for many years of my life.
Dark had pulled me out of this lethar
gy when he called me a few weeks ago and told me that he had captured a vampire: none other than Ladorre. At first I thought it was a joke, but then I realised that the story did not come from my colleague’s imagination. The government officials who were in the company building at the time witnessed how he, completely mad with hunger, tried to get hold of the uncontaminated blood products that we stored in the basement for emergencies. How the hell had he known about that? Only a handful of people knew about the contents of the refrigerator. And Ladorre was the last person or vampire I would have entrusted with that secret.