The Feeding House

by Savill, Josh

  Missy jumped, frightened by the strange man’s sudden presence, “Oh I’m sorry sir, I wasn’t looking where I was going my apologies,” she said as she tried to brush the hair from her face. Even though she was terrified she thought it best to still be polite, after all she didn’t know what this man was capable of and didn’t like the way that he looked at her. The man said nothing but gave her a strange knowing smile which sent chills down her spine.

  Missy tried to back away from the unmoving man, his facial expression remained unchanged, as she took slow careful steps backwards making sure that she was looking straight at him at all times in case he tried anything. She continued to step backwards for a short while until she walking into something again this time she knew exactly what it was she didn’t even need to look it was another man standing behind her. How had he managed to sneak up so silently she was now trapped. She tried to scream but one of the men put his hand over her mouth as he quickly grabbed her by the throat they both took one of her arms and as she tried to scream dragged her off into the depths of the shadows.

  Jack had spent most of the next day either asleep or deep in thought. He was wondering what to do next. The time had come when he needed a plan, he knew he shouldn’t but tonight once Missy’s shift began he was going to meet up with her and tell her everything, try and make her believe the truth no matter how hard that may be. Jack wanted her to run away with him he had never felt that way about a person before and in all honesty he had always felt that he never would but romance can sprout in even the strangest of circumstances. Jack knew that he had to leave soon probably no later than tomorrow night and he had to do it in secret too, there were too many vampires around here watching him. He knew that if there was one that that would mean that there would be more and they would all be helping along with his demise planting traps for him to fall into.

  Jack looked over at the clock. It was just past ten which was perfect as Missy started at eight today. She should probably have been in for quite a few hours now, the girls always turned up early to get some drink into them before they began, it made time pass faster and the pain just that little bit less. Jack grabbed his coat and went downstairs. He lit his cigarette and ordered a whiskey from the bar. He began to search around for Missy, he saw plenty of other girls all of them walking around flirting and felt sorry for Missy that she had to live inside this world, trapped by circumstance.

  The patrons of the bar looked at him as they remembered the goings on of the night before, it just added extra mystery and distrust to his character and it seemed that they had all come to the decision that Jack was a man who was best left alone and certainly not one to go messing with. Jack stood at the bar for around twenty minutes before he began to realise that Missy wasn’t coming he wondered where she had gone. It seemed unlike her to take a day off, she didn’t seem like that sort of person and she hadn’t displayed any signs of sickness the day before. Jack began to speculate as to what had happened to her and slowly began to worry but for now he just passed those thoughts off, after all it had only been twenty minutes.

  Valerie came out from behind the bar, as usual she was shouting about something. Jack confronted her about Missy as soon as her shouting had died down “Where’s Missy today I haven’t seen her around anywhere?”

  Valerie took one look at him and he could tell that she was unhappy but then again when had he even seen her in a happy mood? “That’s something I was hoping you could tell me. I’ve seen you two around talking and laughing and all that I told her not to mix with people like you, regardless of if you saved her or not, but she wouldn’t listen.” Valerie took a long breathe and seemed to calm a bit “Look no one’s seen her all day. I even sent one of the bar staff down to her house to see if she was there but her family hasn’t seen her since she left for work yesterday, I don’t trust you Jack and that’s why I ask you this question. Did you have anything to do with this?” Valerie looked deep into his eyes as if she was trying to unravel some hidden truth.

  Jack held his ground trying to make it clear that it wasn’t him while at the same time his heart sank. Although he hadn’t touched a hair on her head he was the reason why she was taken. He knew that it was the vampires trying to sabotage him, watching out for an easy way to get at him and they had found it. There was no point trying to pretend that he didn’t have feelings for Missy.

  “It wasn’t me I swear to you Valerie that I haven’t touched a hair on her head but I think I might know the people who have taken her and they’re not nice people at all, I’ll do my best to find her.”

  Valerie could hear the conviction in his voice and his body language showed it as well. He meant what he said and she believed him, after all she had misjudged his character in the past and she was usually a very good judge of character, there was just something about Jack that she couldn’t put her finger on. Everything about him screamed danger to her but in reality he was actually a really good person, maybe he was just misunderstood she thought.

  “Alright,” said Valerie, her expression changing from one of stern anger to a fairly placid neutral expression, “If you truly know who might have taken her I’ll leave it in your hands but don’t go causing me more trouble than you already have.”

  Jack nodded and with that Valerie left. He stood there for a moment at a loss as to what to do. A deep sense of sadness clouded his mind and a sense of regret and stupidity filled his mind. He shouldn’t have got so close to her, it was a dumb idea to begin with. He had landed her in this position and didn’t know how, or indeed if, he could get her back; but he had to find a way, he couldn’t bear to have another person die needlessly because of his mistakes.

  Missy was blind folded and scared as she was led down a hallway that even in her blind fold she felt that she did not recognise. After being captured by the vampires she had a blind fold put over her eyes and been taken a long way by horse and cart. She could feel the presence of the two vampires who had taken her sitting next to her for the whole journey and had cried until her eyes were red and swollen and she had no more tears left.

  She heard the sound of a large door open in front of her and was guided inside until they came to a stop. Although she could not see anything she could sense that there was someone else in the room; his mere presence sent chills down her spine. Whoever this person was they were certainly evil. Her animalistic instincts were going mad telling her to get as far away from him as she could.

  Missy was pushed down onto her knees, her blindfold remaining firmly in place, she began to panic inside losing her mind as she wondered what this person was going to do to her. She heard their harsh voices for the first time as they began to speak to each other. Their voices were as though a snake or a frozen wind was talking and Missy shuddered with every word that tunnelled its way into her ears.

  “My lord you will be pleased to know that the transformation has now taken place. He is alive and it would seem kicking. He was observed feeding a little while ago feeding for his first time but he is still trying to resist the call to feed as it was not human, he fed upon the body of a dead pig,” Said the first voice. It was obvious that it was one of those standing next to her, one of the ones who had kidnapped her and brought her here. But the question was, what did they want with her? She struggled to understand what they were talking about. It was obvious that they were talking about Jack but what was the transformation? What was feeding? Missy was confused as to what was going on and who or what had captured her. Something didn’t seem right about these men, they scared the life out of her and the topics of which they spoke were alien to her.

  “He will not gain the needed sustenance from the body of a dead pig,” the other was speaking now, the one that terrified Missy the most, the one that every bone in her body told her to get far away from. He let out a long unholy laugh and then once he had calmed moved on “The transformation has only just taken place but that doesn’t mean he will be able to survive off of pigs blood for long. I am pleased at this n
ews, at least he is feeding. Somehow his conscious mind is beginning to accept what he truly is and soon the urge to feed on a human will become too much. Then let us see him survive on pig, it will turn to ash in his mouth and only make his thirst worsen.”

  The other two paid their respects to what seemed to be their leaders’ words of wisdom. Missy didn’t understand. Why would Jack need to feed upon a human? It would be fair to say that she was even more confused than she had been before but began to get the feeling that Jack had hid far more from her than she had thought. The previous night she had thought that maybe he was some sort of outlaw on the run for a crime that he didn’t commit. She had romantic vision of them riding off into the distance on horseback. She would never have thought that any of this would happen.

  Missy felt the one she feared the most approach closer towards her. She could feel his presence and flinched slightly at his swift movements. He circled Missy for a moment, seeming to judge her down to her very soul. She could feel his eyes burning into her, observing her. It put her on edge so much that she began to hyperventilate, her breathing becoming fast and shallow, although to her it felt as though the people around her, the people that had taken her were taking pleasure in this.

  Light flooded into her half closed eyes and she winced as her blind fold was ripped away and her surroundings finally became clear. She was not in the sort of room that she had expected. There were comfortable chairs and expensive looking wooden desks and tables; a beautiful fire place crackled away in the corner. She looked around even more confused than she had been before. Why was she in a place like this?

  Missy could see clearly now that the two men who had taken her stood next to her, their faces giving her the same uneasy feeling that she had the first time that she had seen them. There was something wrong with these men, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on what it was. It felt as though it had nothing to do with their faces or the way in which they held themselves but it was something deep inside them. There was something very unsettling at the very core of who they were and it surrounded them like a poisonous aura.

  The man who had been circling her, the one who had taken her blindfold off now pulled tightly on her hair without remorse, raising her to her feet. Missy tried to wrap her arms around the entirety of her body, she was fully clothed but felt completely naked. The man now came to stand in front of her and although he looked different he somehow seemed to resemble the other two men he had the same pale skin, the same strange posture and an aura that surrounded him that sent the fear of death running throughout missy’s blood.

  The man began to speak to missy like an adult would speak to a mischievous child “And who do we have here then?”

  Missy could not answer the man. His voice was harsh and wispy like that of a snake and with every word he sent a great chill into her. One of the two men that had taken her answered for her “This girl works at the saloon, she is your common prostitute High Chancellor, but it seems as though her and Jack have formed quite the bond together. We have been observing their movements for some nights now and we think that she could be used to our advantage.”

  Dreno looked back at Missy, he seemed to be thinking about something. His eyes were distant but his face seemed as though he had just been given some very good news. “I see,” he began “that is a very good idea. Jack is a fool to build bonds with humans and now we have him trapped. The girl shall be used against him. Now he shall truly know the meaning of suffering, just as I promised him.”

  Dreno looked down at Missy and, turning his eyes a solid black, he revealed to her his fangs. A smirk appearing on his face as he did so. Missy was under no illusion now that something very bad was to happen to her and gave out a loud piercing scream as the realisation dawned on her that she was not to escape this place. Whoever these men were they were not natural. She had never had a proper belief in God or religion but at this moment in time she was sure beyond anything else that these men were demons. Missy begged for mercy.

  Jack sat in his bedroom, sipping on a tumbler of whiskey, as he tried to figure out what he was going to do. It was too late for him to run. He had to save Missy, there were no two ways about it he had caused enough damage and death to last him a life time and didn’t want to see another life snuffed out because of his actions. He knew exactly who and where Missy was and that was somewhere that he did not ever want to visit again.

  It was obvious that Missy was in Dreno’s hands within the walls of the feeding house. He would no doubt feed upon her soon and try and blame it on Jack making him suffer further. Jack began to realise that this might have been part of Dreno’s plan all along. However would Dreno expect Jack to go to the feeding house and attempt a rescue? It was such a foolish idea that it might just go un- noticed. It wasn’t long before Jack believed that a one man assault on the feeding house, no matter how much of stupid idea it was, would be a good idea. But not yet, he needed more proof. He needed to make sure that she was there before he went charging in all guns blazing.

  Jack needed to find a vampire, one of the ones that had been following him by Dreno’s order the ones that had no doubt taken Missy. He needed to confront one and beat the information out of them, after all anything could have happened to Missy. She could have been killed by drunks or an angry customer from the saloon, she was in a very dangerous line of work.

  Jack headed down the stairs and outside the eyes of the patrons and bar staff followed him every step of the way until he was out of sight. He had to be careful about this, he knew that the vampires were watching him but had to find a way in which he could sneak up on one without alerting the others. It would be hard to outsmart them but he had to do it for Missy. He had to find a way to do it.

  Jack began to walk down the centre of a street hoping that he would arouse the suspicions of those who watched him. He could feel them around him like some sort of in-built sense inside of his brain. He could feel their presence. His plan was working, there was one around him. Jack looked up and down the building tops and darkened alley ways searching for his observer and trying to catch them out as they viewed his movements.

  Jack caught a glimpse, for only a second, of a vampire out of the corner of his eye. He could see him sneaking along the sides of the buildings, hiding in the shadows, trying to make his presence unknown. Jack looked away quickly trying not to make it obvious that he had spotted him. The vampire seemed young and Jack was thankful for this he would be inexperienced compared to some of the others that Dreno could have sent after him. Jack continued to walk, conscious of every move that the unknowing vampire made.

  Jack knew that he would have to make his move soon or else the suspicion of even this young vampire would be aroused. Ahead of him Jack saw a darkened alley way that split the middle of two ominously large buildings and, looking back for a moment to make sure that the vampire was still following him, Jack darted down the alleyway as fast as he could. The vampire ran across the street knowing that something was up, knowing that he had been spotted, but upon reaching the alley way he quickly realised that Jack was no longer there. How could have he escaped? It was a dead end. The walls were sheer and un-climbable. The vampire walked further within the alley way searching for Jack.

  Within the darkness the vampire could see nothing that resembled a human figure, even with the acute vision of his vampiric eyes which could see better in the dark than they could the light he could not make out anything that could be Jack. It was then that he felt a presence behind him a feeling of a figure looming. The vampire turned cautiously to see what or who it was and in doing so received a tremendously strong right hook to the Jaw from Jack that sent him flying across the alley way actually becoming airborne for a second. He lay there groaning and incapable of getting up as Jack approached him.

  Jack sat atop the vampire holding his hands and legs down as he did so as to make sure that he was completely incapable of putting up any sort of fight. Anger coursed through Jacks veins and it was near the point of b
ecoming uncontrollable. It became difficult for him to speak without just spitting the words at the vampire but he knew this may be the one and only chance he had to do anything about the disappearance of Missy and he hoped above anything else that Dreno did not have her.

  Jack smacked the vampire across the face once again and the young vampire spat blood onto the floor next to it. “I know you’ve been following me since I got here and there’s no point hiding the fact that you have been watching my every movement. Now I’m going to give you one chance and one chance only to tell me what you’ve done with Missy, the girl from the saloon, the one that I know you’ve seen me talking to. Now tell me where she is.” Jacks voice was forceful and powerful to an extent that it surprised him that he could sound like this it almost felt as though someone else was speaking through his body.

  The vampire laughed as his own blood trickled down the sides of his mouth and onto his neck he let a large smile form on his face and stared at Jack almost fearlessly in the eyes as he did so “I will tell you nothing scum,” said the young vampire and with that he spat at jacks face it landed on his cheek making Jack look less than impressed at him.

  Jack wiped the spit from his face slowly a look of pure anger filled his face and with that he began to hit the vampire square in the face over and over again pummelling him and breaking bones in the process. Once Jack had finally regained his composure the vampire’s face was swollen and black, his features contorted into strange and bloody shapes but still the vampire continued to laugh defiantly at Jack even now when he seemed to be beaten beyond the point of return.