The Feeding House

by Savill, Josh

  Jack paused for a second, the silence hanging in the air, as his response continued to not develop. He tried to think through the options in his head. He had no choice, it was take this opportunity or die. He should count himself lucky that he had been given such a choice. However he really felt something deep inside him disagreeing with this idea he already had a strange unknown feeling of remorse for the life that he had now forced upon the little girl he had taken. After all of that could he really in all honesty, plug her up to a machine and make sure she survived for as long as he could. She would not live, she would not feel, she would just survive and, more to the point if he could do it once could he do it to more children? He knew the answer to this question was no.

  Taking priests and prostitutes, the unloved, unwashed and uncared for was one thing. These people at least had lived lives and had made what in, Jacks mind, were bad choices. These were also people who, if they had only been observant or careful, could have protected themselves from his assault. Those were people with a fighting chance. Children though were different. What fighting chance did children have? But he had to take this. He could not die over something like this. It was far too noble a move for a person like him.

  Jack spoke slowly regretting every word as he said “I shall obey.”

  The high chancellor knew that Jack was unsettled by the thought of taking the children. If it wasn’t written on his face it was because he could also see into the human part of his mind. Dreno continued regardless, knowing that this would not be an issue after Jack had settled into his new role “Good,” he said. A wry smile appearing upon his face “You have made a wise move in choosing to help us. Your work has already begun but I wish for you to continue tonight during the feeding, you shall plug the girl you have taken up to the feeding machines. I trust that it shall not take long and that you shall do it to the best of your ability.”

  That night many vampires visited the feeding house. Chancellors from other houses joined them as well as esteemed guests and friends of the high chancellor. They had all come for what they were sure would be a legendary feed and were all anxious to hear the grand news that the high chancellor had to reveal.

  The chancellor of the feeding house had gone to great lengths to impress all of his guests laying on a lavish banquet of the finest and freshest blood that they had to offer. Barrels of it were rolled into the dining room. It would be a night to remember. The guests arrived, took their seats and were treated to the live slaughter of ten virgins an ancient vampiric tradition reserved only for the most special of occasions.

  The virgins were stripped and blindfolded. They were led down the sides of the room by a metal chain around their throats. The vampires looked on with great interest as the preparations were made for the slaughter. The virgins were suspended by chains around their legs upside down from the ceiling as a ceremonial blood bowl half the size of a barrel was placed bellow them the blindfold was removed and the ten virgins were allowed enough time to realise where they were and release their tortured screams before knives slit their throats in unison. The bowls filled quickly as they choked on their own blood dying slowly.

  The audience erupted into a great applause and the chancellor took a bow for his work receiving a hand shake from the high chancellor soon after. The applause continued as a gold chalice was filled with the blood of each bowl and was passed to the high chancellor. He stood and raised the chalice high in the air before drinking it down in one large gulp he let out a great and unholy scream as the remainder of the blood dripped from the side of his mouth.

  “May the feeding of our generation begin,” He exclaimed as the vampires began to gorge at an unrelenting pace.

  Jack had been trying to sleep for the majority of the time since he had spoken to the high chancellor but it was not working he had been tossing and turning in a cold sweat for hours, the face of the girl haunting his dreams. She pleaded with him and begged wondering why he was doing this to her. He saw the house burnt to the house and the faces of her family and how he had brutally killed them and for what? It had no purpose. He was fine with killing for a reason, in fact it was something that he enjoyed, but when it had no purpose no meaning then it didn’t sit well with him at all.

  He could hear the vampires feeding downstairs. Their screams resonating in his head as he lay there. At least someone was having a good time tonight he thought as he dragged himself from his bed and threw his clothes on. Looking at his pocket watch he realised that it was time that he did what the high chancellor had told him to do, regardless of if he wanted to or not it had to be done. He was beginning to realise that it had been born to serve.

  Jack walked down the empty hallways of the feeding house, the sounds of the vampires feast far off in the distance. It was empty and a dead silence filled this part of the house, he turned into the hallway where the girls room was he could hear a quiet sound. It was muffled but he wasn’t sure what it was. It sounded almost like someone was talking. As he approached closer Jack stopped outside the girls door. He could hear what the sound was clearly now. The girl was singing to herself. She had a beautiful voice. It was the voice of pure innocence as she sang on Jack stood there lost in a world of melody, his heart swimming. There was a vague familiarity to the song she sang giving Jack a strange sense of comfort and security. Little did he know but this was the song that his mother had sung to him as a baby before he was taken away, before the vampires came for him it was the song she had sung him to get him to sleep, when she needed to comfort him.

  Jack snapped out of it and shook his head trying to gather his thoughts and get back on track with what he was supposed to be doing. He opened the door slowly so as not to startle the girl. She looked up at him from the bed where she had tucked herself in, ready to go to sleep. She still held the doll close to her chest, hugging it to gain a sense of wellbeing and security.

  “Annie’s not happy with you,” she said boldly as she scowled at Jack it was obvious by her body language that Annie was the name of her doll.

  Jack decided to humour the girl for a moment “Why’s Annie not happy with me then?” He’d never spoken with a child before but it seemed to come fairly naturally to him. He felt at ease.

  The girl looked dead into his eyes and replied with a voice like thunder “Because you killed my family.”

  Jack felt no reply to that. Every word hit him like a hammer to the chest. The girl had blatantly taken to talking through her doll as a sense of security to say what she really felt and it was true there was no reply to that. Those four words “You killed my family” were the perfect synopsis to what he had done what he had become and now what his role in life would be for the rest of his life.

  “I do what I’m told to it’s my job not my choice,” Jack wondered instantly after speaking why he had even bothered after all he didn’t have to explain himself to this girl, to his master’s food, but curiosity and regret had filled his mind and he now sought her answer.

  “Annie says that it’s better to do what you feel is right rather than blindly follow what you’re told without question,” these words sounded far too mature for the girls age it felt like he was being lectured by someone far beyond her age, someone with wisdom and a whole life behind them. But then again she had suffered enough pain to last a life time and she was unknowingly soon to suffer much more.

  Jack’s thoughts turned to anger he didn’t want to hear this, he didn’t want to question every idea and concept that he had been taught and had held for his entire life he had already had problems enough over the past few days and could not take this eye opening experience. He tried his hardest to switch off his mind and get on with the job at hand. He could think about it after or just ignore it his mind was pure turmoil.

  Jack gave no reply to the girl as she sat there her eyes still locked onto his. He dared not look into them he would be ashamed with what he was doing. He grabbed her arm and took the doll from her. As she began to cry feeling he had had enough from this pile o
f rags he almost felt like this was all the dolls fault he placed it inside his jacket and ignored the girls cries and screams as he dragged her out of the room.

  Jack walked at a fast pace his eyes focused off in the distance his mind disconnected to what he was doing, the girl dragging behind him trying to keep up as she broke into a jog. They went down the flight of stairs to the cellar the girls eyes opened wide with horror as she saw the machines. She looked on in terror as she saw the pale white faces of the machines victims look up in agony at her they were haggard and unnaturally aged they looked drained near completely of life. The pipes attached to their arms, necks and groins had great black bruises around the attaching points and showed the flow of blood slowly dripping from their body.

  Upstairs the vampires fed vigorously within their orgy of blood. Blasphemy was being committed in every direction as great groups of vampires fucked in pools of blood soaking each other’s naked bodies while they bit and scratched their lovers. The chancellor sat with the Dreno at the head of the table watching the feast with great pleasure.

  “I congratulate you chancellor this is certainly a feast that shall be remembered for generations,” said the high chancellor as he ripped a chunk out of one of the virgin’s livers.

  “Thank you sir I am glad that it meets your expectations.”

  A messenger came up behind the chancellor and whispered in his ear “I have been told that Jack Crowe is taking the girl to the machines it was wondered if you would like to come and make sure that it all runs smoothly?”

  The Chancellor stood from his seat and bowed to the High Chancellor excusing himself as he did so, he wanted to make sure that everything went well with the machines as the child was plugged in to the machines after all it was his head on the block at he would surely be killed if it went wrong. Although he trusted Jack to do the job better than anyone he had reason to worry after the talk with the High Chancellor, he had seen the look on Jacks’ face when Dreno had said what must be done he could see that Jack did not agree with it and so, just to make sure that he did not disobey when the time came to plug her in, he would be present.

  Jack took the girl to a specially prepared machine that the High Chancellor had brought along it was made specifically for the new style of feeding. He checked it to make sure that it was fully working and in order. She screamed louder as she realised what was about to happen to her but Jack tried his hardest not to listen. He could not disobey, he could not die for this after all she was only human. Jack placed her down in the machines chair and secured her hands and feet down with the chains he picked up one of the pipes the needle pointed menacingly at her as she cried out for help. Jack tried to prepare himself for what he was about to do.

  Jack built up enough courage and slowly plugged the first pipe into the girl’s arm she cried out in agony. He looked at her with nothing but sympathy as he unwillingly plugged the other three pipes into her other arm and both legs. He stood there and watched as the girl cried out from the pain of the blood sucking pipes he watched as the black bruises began to form around their entrance points. It was normal for them to cry out with agony for the first minute, the initial burst of suction from the machine is such a shock to the body it feels like red hot fire running through every vain.

  After a while however he became slightly worried for the girl, he had wanted to stay to see her settle to try and tell himself that by seeing her not screaming that maybe it would be okay maybe it wouldn’t be such a terrible thing after all but this was not normal she had not settled. She had not fallen into a kind of conscious coma like the rest she just continued to scream endlessly over and over again it was unrelenting and had been going on for far longer than any of the hundreds of others that Jack had seen in his entire life this wasn’t settling for him this wasn’t what he wanted to see at all, this was wrong on every level he wanted to put a stop to it. He wanted to unplug the girl.

  “Magnificent isn’t it?” said a voice behind Jack, he span around and saw the Chancellor behind him wiping his mouth clean of the blood he had drank from the feast “The High Chancellor is really onto something when he put this idea into motion finally we have a long term solution to the feeding problem and you shall be in charge of it all you are a very lucky man indeed Jack Crowe many would kill to have such a worthy responsibility as you have found yourself in you should be proud of your work .” The chancellor gave Jack what would pass as a smile.

  Rage built up inside of Jack he felt his blood boil as his mind swam in thought he could not take this anymore he could no longer stay silent he had to speak out. “Why is she still in pain it’s not supposed to be like this, it’s never been like this she should have settled into it by now?” Jack wanted answers this was all too confusing he knew it wasn’t supposed to be pleasant but he didn’t think that it would be like this.

  “It is the design of the machine you see Dreno spent quite a lot of time and effort into getting it like this. She shall be in never ending agony until the day she dies you see the pain improves the taste, it gives us more power from the blood she knows no different so she will never give up on life and the pain will not kill her. This machine is a creation of pure beauty it is vampiric machinery in its most pure and wondrous form.” The chancellor looked at the machine seeming to great pleasure and interest in the mechanics of how it worked he approached it feeling to tubes, looking at the dials and taking in the copper machineries beauty.

  Jack stood behind him looking at his back the rage building to a critical point inside of him this was more than he could manage it was completely against everything he stood for hunting was fine a person here and there no one would have a complaint about that but children plugged up forever forced to live like crops in the field the high chancellor had gone too far this time. Jack looked at the child as she screamed in agony and snapped. He had to act now no matter what the consequences were.

  Jack pulled the long pipe that was stuck into the girls thigh out quickly it started to bleed but not much. She calmed slightly as some of the pain that overwhelmed her left her body she gave out a relieved sigh as he did so. The Chancellor span around from his observations of the copper dials he was not surprised at all he had expected this to happen he had seen into Jack’s soul and knew that he would not do. It in a way he was pleased, for now he could bring Jacks head to the High Chancellor impressing him with his cruelty and malice and what would happen if anyone dare to disobey him.

  The Chancellor spat words of pure venom “I knew you were weak Jack I knew you didn’t have it in you, you are as pathetic as the humans that we feed on, that you have hunted for so many years. You shall suffer for this.”

  The Chancellor threw himself at Jack his eyes turning completely black as he revealed his feeding teeth he lunged straight for Jacks neck. Jack held his ground throwing the Chancellor into a nearby machine bursting one of the pipes as his body slammed against it blood spilt all over the floor, lapping against Jacks feet as it coloured the whole floor crimson. The Chancellor went for Jack once again with a great and haunting war cry charging at him from across the other side of the room like a rabid wolf.

  Jack acted quickly he picked up the loose pipe that he had pulled from the thigh of the girl the bloodied needle glistened in the light he span around moments before the chancellor ran full force into him and as the chancellor missed his mark. Jack stabbed the pipe deep into the Chancellors eye socket. He screamed with pain as he tried to grab the pipe to pull it out but it was too deep within his skull. Jack opened the tap allowing the suction to begin, he looked up the pipe as he saw chunks of the Chancellors brain and skull being pulled up by the incredible force of the suction.

  The fight was nowhere near over however as the sound of the battle had aroused the attention of the other harvesters in the cellar who had come to investigate what had happened. They approached Jack and saw the spilt blood on the floor and the chancellor lying dead. Jack was pulling out the pipes attached to the girl as they came closer.

&n
bsp; Jack was full of adrenaline and could see nothing but red he took a few punches from the other harvesters but fought back knocking them to the floor with a new found strength that he didn’t even know he possessed. He pummelled his attackers until all that was left of their heads was an unrecognisable mess of skull, brain and hair on the floor. An onlooker saw the fight and quickly ran upstairs to where the vampires were feeding.