The Life, Death, Life, Life and Death of Martin Keller (Dark Season V)

by Amy Cross

“He was a vampire,” I say slowly. “There must be some way to bring him back to life”.

  Vincent shakes his head. “Vampires aren’t magic, you know. They’re flesh and blood, just like you and me. They’re hard to kill, but when they’re dead...” He lets the sentence trail off. Like me, he seems unable to quite comprehend what has happened.

  “So you’re not one of them?” I ask. I’ve never quite understood who or what Vincent is, other than that he’s Patrick’s father.

  “No,” he says. “I’m as human as you are”.

  I think about this for a moment. It doesn’t quite make sense. “But you’re his father,” I say eventually. “And he’s hundreds of years old. How can you be his father if he’s older than you?”

  Vincent seems keen not to answer. “You’ll find out soon,” he says. “In the meantime, we have to work out what we’re going to do, because I can promise you one thing. Martin Keller is not going to give up until he’s got what he wants”.

  “Well... what does he want?” I ask.

  “He wants to wipe out all the vampires and rip up their bodies for experiments,” says Vincent.

  “But he’s already killed Patrick, hasn’t he?” Something about Vincent’s story doesn’t quite make sense. “Hasn’t he got what he wants?”

  Vincent shakes his head. “He wants the body. He wants to slice it up and study it. He wants to understand the vampire body so that he can use it as a weapon”. He turns to me. “Imagine that. An army of vampires, turned against mortal men”.

  I understand now. “So he wants Patrick’s body?” I ask.

  “Exactly,” says Vincent. “And we can’t let him get to it”.

  “So where is it?”

  “Far away,” Vincent continues. “He won’t find it unless we show him where it is. And we won’t be doing that. In the meantime, we have to keep away from him and find a way to get to the body and destroy it”.

  “You said there was a prophecy,” I say. “When I first met you ,you said there was a prophecy that Patrick would kill me. You said it was unavoidable. So... How does that work?”

  Vincent shakes his head. “There’s no time for that now. Prophecies are prophecies, they work in strange ways -”

  “Yes, they do, don’t they?” says a voice. We turn to see Martin Keller standing in the doorway, watching us. Next to him stands Joseph, the man who led us down here.

  Keller hands a pile of cash to Joseph, who silently takes the money and runs off.

  “Humans are so easy to manipulate,” says Keller. “Makes you wonder why anyone bothers trusting them”.

  “You yourself are human,” says Vincent. “Despite your ambitions”.

  Keller steps towards us. There’s something very menacing about him, even if I can’t quite work out what it is. He just exudes a sense of danger. And if he managed to kill Patrick... “I have decided to be generous,” he says. “I have decided to give you twenty-four hours to understand that there is no point resisting me. If you do not come to this inescapable conclusion, I will take action against you. Do you understand?”

  “You won’t change my mind,” says Vincent. “I’ll never take you to the body”.

  “I don’t aim to change your mind,” Keller replies. “I simply aim to give you one last chance to give me what I want, and then I will punish you”. He looks at me. “And everyone you love”. He smiles. “And then I will find the body anyway. You know I will, in the end. After all I’ve been through, do you really think I would give up so late in the day?”

  I look at Vincent, hoping to see some sign of defiance, some sign that he has a plan. Yet all I see is defeat in his eyes, as if he’s determined to fight but knows that he will lose. For the first time, I start to wonder if there’s anyway out of this situation, or if we’re doomed. And if we’re doomed, do I really want to sacrifice my life for someone who’s already dead? I look down and see that my hands are shaking a little. Previously, I’ve always thought there was a way out of any situation. But now I feel the walls closing in, and I realise that this really could be the final battle.

  “You are free to go,” says Keller, smiling and stepping aside to allow us through the door. “I’ll see you in twenty-four hours and you can decide whether or not you want to cooperate”. He looks at me again. “If you do cooperate, I guarantee I will let you live”.

  “Come on,” says Vincent, heading to the door.

  “There’s no point fighting a fight you can’t win,” says Keller to me. “You’ll just die needlessly. He’s already dead, you can’t save him”.

  “There’s something you don’t understand,” says Vincent, reading the door and turning to face Keller. “A real vampire is something you’ll never be”. He reaches out and bangs on Keller’s chest, making a curious metallic sound. “Whatever you do, however much surgery you go through, however many people you kill. You’ll never ever be a real vampire”.

  Keller smiles, but it’s clear that he’s struggling to hold back his anger.

  “And you’ll never get Patrick’s body,” says Vincent, turning to me. “Are you coming, Sophie?”

  For a moment, just a moment, I consider that perhaps maybe I shouldn’t go with him. After all, this isn’t my fight and if Patrick’s already dead, there’s no need to fight if we’ve already lost. But something tells me that this is a fight worth fighting, perhaps the only fight worth fighting that I’ll ever face. I decide to go with Vincent.

  As I step forward, Keller grabs Vincent and pulls him back.

  “I’m accelerating the program,” he says, and he opens his mouth to reveal two long needles jutting out from his teeth. He’s had two of his top front teeth removed and replaced with little syringes, each one filled with what looks like a thick brown liquid. “I’m punishing you now for mistakes you’ll make later”. And with that, he bites down on Vincent’s neck, causing Vincent to cry out in pain.

  I run over to try to pull Keller off, but he pushes me away and keeps his grip on Vincent for a few more seconds before releasing and pushing him away. Vincent falls to the ground, clutching his neck and with a look of complete shock on his face.

  Keller looks down at me, and for a moment he seems completely out of control. There’s a kind of burning anger in his eyes, and he’s out of breath. He opens his mouth. The syringes are empty, but they seem to be filling again from the top, with a trickle of brown liquid dribbling in.

  “Get out!” Vincent shouts.

  I run past Keller and out of the room, then I turn back to see Vincent getting to his feet and stumbling out after me. He grabs the door and pulls it shut, then grabs my arm and forces me along the corridor. We run up a set of steps and soon we’re out of the hotel, back on the street. Vincent is still clutching his neck where Keller bit him.

  “What was that?” I ask, trying to see the wounds in Vincent’s neck. “You have to tell me who that man is!”

  Vincent removes his hand from his neck, revealing two small puncture wounds. He looks at me with shock and terror in his eyes. “He’s the man who just killed me,” he stutters.

  8

  To come so close... To feel the heart of your victim, pierced and destroyed... And to then have victory snatched away from you... I cannot imagine a greater torture.

  I search all night for the vampire’s corpse. I rip apart the forest. He cannot have got far, with his heart tattered and ruined. I have heard of this before: vampires summon up the last of their strength and, like dogs, they crawl away to die. But this one cannot be allowed to die in secret; I must have his body.

  As dawn arrives, I realise I have been tricked. The vampire dragged his body away, yes. But he had no real strength. He cannot have got far. I return to the cavern and search their house, but of course he is now long gone.

  For a moment, I am filled with rage. The most unbelievable rage, boiling up from the depths of my soul. I was so close, but I let him slip through my fingers. If I had just held on, if I had just made sure his body was mine, I could be cuttin
g him apart right now. I can’t stop thinking about what it will be like when I eventually get the chance to slice into him, to discover the secrets of his flesh.

  But then I realise: this is just a small setback. He is still dead, and I can find his body. His father must have taken it to be buried, and to hide it from me. If I find the father, I find the son. And the father will be easy enough to find. Especially if I can lure him out of hiding.

  Sophie.

  The name on the vampire’s lips as he died. She is the key to this. If I find her, I will find them all. It feels wrong, almost disgusting, to need the help of a human. But humans are disposable and can be used like all tools. I will make use of her in order to find the vampire’s corpse, and I will then destroy her.

  In fact, I have a feeling that she will come to this cavern. She loves the vampire, and she cannot keep away. All I have to do is wait. Humans are pathetic. Only vampires are strong.

  9

  It’s late at night, and Vincent and I are sitting in an all-night cafe. According to Vincent, it’s no longer worth trying to hide. He says we must simply assume that Keller is watching us all the time. All we can do is wait for the twenty-four hours to run out. At that point, Vincent says, Keller will find us wherever we are.

  “You might be okay,” he says as we sit there, the only customers in this cheap, flea-ridden place. “He might not kill you. If you don’t know where Patrick’s body is, he might consider that there’s no need. I know that's little consolation, but it's a chance”.

  I look down at the milkshake I’m drinking. “If Patrick’s really dead,” I say, “I want to see his body”.

  Vincent shakes his head. “We can’t lead Keller there”.

  “Okay,” I say. “At least promise me that you buried him somewhere he would have liked”.

  “I’m sorry,” Vincent says. “There wasn’t time to be picky. I had to put him somewhere he couldn’t ever be found”.

  “And you’re sure?” I stare at him. “You’re sure Keller won’t be able to find him?”

  Vincent nods slowly, clearly thinking carefully. “It’s impossible,” he says. He keeps touching the puncture wounds on his neck.

  “You can’t be dying,” I say. “First Patrick, now you... I don’t believe it”.

  “He injected me with a venom,” Vincent says. “It’s slow-working, but I will be dead within the next day. I can already feel it moving through my veins. I’m just thankful that he didn’t get you too, that there’s still hope for you to survive”. He reaches out and I take his hand in mine across the table. It’s such an old hand, wrinkled and with blue veins showing through thin skin. I look up at his face, which is so old and hollowed. “Don’t be sad,” he says. “I’m an old man, and a human. I only had a few more years left anyway. Now that Patrick’s dead... There wasn’t much for me to live for anyway. All I can do now is make sure that Keller never gets what he wanted”.

  He holds out his wrist and turns it over. His veins are turning black.

  "Is that the venom?" I ask.

  He nods. "It's too powerful, there's nothing I can do. There's nothing anyone can do. It's destroying me even as we speak".

  I still half expect Patrick to suddenly appear. “I didn’t get to say goodbye,” I say.

  “We don’t always,” says Vincent.

  “But...” I don’t know what I’m thinking. It’s as if there’s a mass of thoughts and memories crowding in my mind. “I never got to tell him... anything. He never knew how I felt about him”.

  Vincent stares at me kindly. “How did you feel about him?”

  I shake my head. “I don’t know, but...”

  Vincent squeezes my hand. “He knew”.

  I look at him. “How can he have known, when I still don’t know?”

  Vincent smiles a little. “You forget, Patrick was a wise old soul. He had thousands of years’ experience when it comes to humans. He knew everything”.

  I think about this for a moment. “Then why didn’t he do anything about it?”

  Vincent sighs. “Even I never fully understood Patrick’s mind, and I was his father. I always thought I’d gain a greater insight one day, that I’d work out what he was thinking. I never did”.

  “There must have been others,” I say. “If he was so old, there must have been other girls. I must have been just the latest in a long line”.

  “You were the one he was waiting for,” Vincent says. “It’s important that you believe that. He knew you were coming. He was even at the hospital on the night you were born, he couldn’t wait to see you for the first time. He... Destiny was a force that he felt very strongly”.

  “And Patrick’s destiny was to die like this?” I ask.

  Vincent nods. “Destiny is like a river,” he says. “You can block its path in one place, but it will find a way to flow around the blockage, or it will flood. But it will always end up where it was going. And it is almost always going to a great ocean”.

  For a moment, I feel as if I might cry. The thought of Patrick dying in agony, being defeated by this Martin Keller, is too much to take in. But I hold back the tears.

  “There’s no way to save him?” I ask. “He’s really dead?”

  “I’m sorry,” says Vincent.

  “No way at all?” I ask.

  “No way,” he replies.

  I’ve never seen Vincent like this. He seems totally defeated, as if the possibility of us beating Keller hasn’t occurred to him. Then again, hasn’t Keller already won? Patrick is dead, Vincent is dying. What is there left to defend?

  “Is there no way to save your life?” I ask.

  “No,” says Vincent. “I must merely prepare for death”.

  “And there’s no way to bring Patrick back?” I ask.

  “No,” he says. “Death is death. Final, absolute and forever”.

  I look at his hand for a while, for what feels like hours. Outside, cars are driving along in the night. It seems like the blackest night possible. And then, as I feel like giving up, I remember Patrick’s face, and how he would look at me as if surrender was never an option. I remember the moment when he seemed completely defeated by Dexter Logan, but he somehow summoned the strength to fight back.

  “You said there’s always a way,” I say slowly. “You said there’s always a way out, that you just have to be smart enough to recognise it”.

  “We’re past that point,” says Vincent.

  “No,” I say. “No, we’re not”. I let go of his hand and stand up. “I’m not going to accept this,” I continue. “I’ll meet you back here tomorrow,” I say. “But I’m going to find a way. Maybe we can’t get Patrick back, but we can save you and we can stop this Martin Keller from causing any more damage”.

  “Sophie -” Vincent starts to say.

  “There’s a way,” I insist. “Like you said, there’s always a way. And I’m going to find it. It’s what Patrick would have wanted. He would have wanted us to fight until the last moment”.

  Vincent seems completely exhausted, and completely unable to think of anything. "I don't see what we can do," he says. "Keller is too powerful".

  "Patrick would want us to fight," I reply.

  Vincent looks at me sadly. “I can’t fight anymore,” he says. "I've been fighting all my life".

  “I know,” I say. I take a deep breath. “I’ll see you back here tomorrow,” I say, and I turn and walk out of the diner. I have no idea where I’m going, or what I’m going to do, but I know this: I’m not going to just sit around and wait to get killed.

  10

  She walks out of the cafe, wrapped up in her own fear. She doesn’t even notice me watching from the shadows. I consider following her, but then I realise that I’m getting distracted. She’s not important. She’s a waste of time. Sure, it’ll be fun to kill her, but the real prize is Patrick’s body, and the other prize is Vincent. This Sophie girl is just an annoyance. I’ll kill her when it’s more convenient.

  Vincent, though, is anoth
er matter. I watch him sitting alone in the cafe. Looking at his old face, with sad, saggy eyes, I remember how young he looked when I first met him. It must have been decades ago now, when I first encountered him with Patrick. He told me he was Patrick’s father and I was puzzled at first. It made no sense, how this man could suddenly appear and claim to have sired Patrick. But eventually I came to understand, and I laughed at the foolishness of their relationship.

  Even today, I have to stifle a laugh as I look at poor, foolish old Vincent sitting in the cafe.

  I could kill him right now. It wouldn’t take much. Hell, he’s an old man, I could probably just tap on the window and scare him to death. Failing that, I could just walk into the cafe and rip his head off. Both of those options would be fun, and I’m certainly in the mood for some real violence tonight. It has been almost a day since I tasted blood.

  But I promised I would give him twenty-four hours to provide Patrick’s body. Even though I know he’ll never give it to me, I feel I have to let him have these final hours before I kill him. It’s a kind of honour that I must uphold. I’ve waited all these years. I can wait a few more hours.

  I walk across the street and enter a bar. It’s packed with humans, all of them drinking and socialising. I remember a time when I would enjoy such a place. But these days, I come to bars simply to observe humans. It has been many, many years since I considered myself to be human, and I do not miss the feeling of being so weak and unenlightened. Nevertheless, I sometimes enjoy mixing in human company, with the aim of reminding myself why I chose to pursue the vampire life.

  I order a drink and sit at the bar. Tonight is November 15th, the 80th anniversary of the night I first saw a vampire. Back then, I was an average American working in a small office. I was dull, grey and boring, and becoming duller, more grey and more boring every second. I was so pathetic, I regularly worked until nearly midnight, way beyond overtime, simply because I had nothing else to do. Heading home late one night, I took a wrong turn and found myself in an alley, face to face with a scene that seemed, at first, to be horrific: a dead body was on the ground, with a vampire kneeling on its chest, feeding on the flesh of its neck. I don’t just mean sucking blood from two neat holes: this vampire was chewing and gnawing on the muscles, bones and flesh.