The Feeding House

by Savill, Josh

  Jack joined Isaac on the porch after that to smoke fine cigars. They spoke to each other as friends, savouring the time together. Although Isaac had not been living in solitude like Jack had it was obvious that he was lonely there in the farm house, his sole duty being to guard and help its inhabitants. They had both finally found a friend and they were thankful for that. Jack went to sleep excited for the day ahead of him. Finally his revenge could begin.

  The next day after running Jack through a few more key points on what they would do over the next few days, Jack and Isaac left the farm house. Isaac looked back, watching the old house as it faded into the distance, it had been years since he had left for any prolonged period of time and he almost felt uncertain of what to do without the comfort and safety of its normal everyday routine. Regardless of this he remained focused on the task ahead.

  Not that many words were exchanged on the journey, not nearly as many as usual anyway. Both of them running through what they expected to encounter over and over again in their minds. As they eventually reached the final day of their journey they began to really feel the pressure of what they were getting themselves into. This was new ground for Jack but they felt confident that if their intelligence was right then everything would turn out fine.

  Dreno sat in his office. He was sipping slowly on a glass of brandy and leaning back on his chair. He had an incredibly smug look on his face and was obviously celebrating. Things had been going well for him over the past few weeks and it seemed as though everything was just falling into place without him even needing to lift a finger. He lit a cigarette and took a deep drag, savouring the taste as he exhaled the smoke. He thought back to when Jack killed the Chancellor of the Oxford feeding house and began to feel as though, with hindsight it was actually incredibly helpful, after all it was one less obstacle in his way, Of course Dreno was not above killing his old friend himself if he got in his way but it was good that someone had saved him the trouble. However Dreno thanked Jack for something much closer to his heart.

  Dreno had been looking for the location of Isaac for a long time now and finally it seemed that he had found him. The chase had been long but it was all worth it now as he finally had a definite location.

  The door to Dreno’s office swung open and in walked two vampires, one of them was Dreno’s personal security and the other was a vampire from Isaacs feeding house. The vampire was nervous naturally, his eyes darted around the room looking for any forms of invisible traps or things that might endanger him. Dreno’s security guard introduced the vampire to Dreno and then left the room closing the doors behind him.

  “Please take a seat Henry, I believe you have some information that might interest me. Let us discuss this like civilised men and reach some sort of agreement,” said Dreno pointing to a seat behind the desk.

  Henry was extremely nervous, he managed to get a thank you out after a few attempts and sat down in the seat his eyes continued to dart around the room, he was behaving like a caged animal worried for its life.

  Dreno sucked on his cigarette burning up the last of the tobacco inside, he stubbed it out in the ashtray “Now, what was it that you had to tell me Henry.”

  Henry sat up out of the seat and began to think about what he was going to say, trying to make sure that he kept the upmost respect for the person that he was speaking to, after all he knew of Dreno’s temperament. You did not have to be in the feeding houses to hear of the stories of Dreno’s cruelty.

  Henry eventually spoke up “I can lead you to the location of the place where Isaac is living, there’s lots of us there. It’s a big old farm house on the outskirts of Oxford. We have been living there for quite a while now. Isaac took a guy in a little while ago called Jack Crowe, his arrival caused quite a stir. It was said that he used to be a black blood but now he’s full vampire, I didn’t believe it at first, well at least not until I saw it with my own eyes.”

  Henry swallowed hard before continuing the gravity of the situation was obviously getting to him “There have been whispers about Isaac and Jack working together on some secret project, I don’t know what it is, no one does. Isaacs been training him up to fight, the old way, vampire on vampire. No one at the farm house knows what those two have planned but I have listened into a few of their conversations and your name has come up a fair few times,” Henry inhaled heavily as though he had not taken a breath while speaking, his hands were shaking but quickly he remembered who he was speaking to “High Chancellor,” he said as he gave Dreno a small seated bow.

  Dreno seemed to contemplate what he had heard for a moment allowing an awkward silence to hang in the air, partly because he just enjoyed how much pain Henry was going through as he sat there waiting for a response. After a short while Dreno replied “Very interesting,” he begun as he stroked his chin “What is it that you would ask for such valuable information such as this.”

  Henry hesitated for a moment hoping that his demands would not be too much or would somehow insult Dreno. He knew that whatever Dreno said next would make or break him, he chose his words carefully “I have been living at that farm house with Isaac for a long time now, but it feels longer. I just can’t adjust I miss the taste of fresh blood. I miss being here and I miss the safety that the feeding houses bring. All that I would ask from you high chancellor is that you allow me to return to the feeding houses and live here. I do not want nor expect any special treatment I just want to be a normal vampire and live and feed amongst my own kind in the way that we have for generations,” Henry bowed his head deeply almost as if he were in shame for asking such a thing, he waited out for Dreno’s reply.

  Dreno took what Henry had said as a compliment. It made him feel powerful and superior and he was happy to hear that one of Isaacs own wanted to return. Dreno felt as though this was proof that the system Isaac was desperately trying to devise was flawed down to its very core “Yes my child your wish is granted, you may live here and feed as we do. Welcome back to the feeding house Henry, welcome back to being a vampire.”

  Henry thanked Dreno and his nerves seemed to spill out of his body, replaced by praise and admiration for Dreno. This was something that Dreno relished in and once he felt as though he had heard enough grovelling, Dreno walked over to his bar area by the fireplace and poured himself a drink of his finest blood and for Henry he poured a glass from the container of pure blood.

  “We leave tonight,” said Dreno as he handed Henry the pure blood “You will lead us to the location of Isaacs feeding house where you shall leave us to go about our business. I have been waiting for this for longer than you could imagine. For now though I propose a toast, to new beginnings.”

  “To new beginnings,” replied Henry.

  The both of them drunk deep from their glasses, finishing them in one prolonged gulp, Henry felt the power of the pure blood run through him and although it made him feel light headed it also felt better to finally drink blood again than he could have possibly imagine. Henrys eyes momentarily turned black and he displayed his fangs. Dreno smiled all the while, this deal could not have gone better for him.

  Meanwhile Isaac and Jack had finally reached the port, the carriage had dropped them off about half a mile away as not to arouse the suspicions of the boat workers. It was a dark and dingy night, the air was heavy and the smell of the cargo brought in by the various different ships hung in the air. The port although open and spacious had a very stuffy feel to it and it was easy to see just how busy it got during the day.

  This however was not the day, it was the dead of night and as Jack and Isaac approached the outer parameters if the port they could clearly see a few vampires hanging around in front of a large boat, the one from the pictures. It was obvious that they had arrived at the perfect time, the intelligence that Isaac had gathered was spot on and it seemed as though judging from the way that the sailors were behaving that the transport to collect Dreno’s new feeding machines was not to arrive for at least an hour.

  Jack and Isaac ran car
efully into a small space near the boat, they were now spitting distance away from the sailors and tried to keep as quite as possible as not to attract attention. This however was very unlikely to happen, the sailors seemed far more concerned with their games of dice and their bottles of beer. There was nothing out of the ordinary, or anything that suggested that something could go wrong it was exactly as they had expected.

  Isaac had ran through the plan to destroy the feeding machines over a hundred times with Jack while they were on their journey down but in order to be safe he decided to describe it once more to Jack before the plan went into motion.

  Isaac lent in close to Jack and began to speak in a hushed tone extenuating his points with small hand motions “Ok Jack the time is finally upon us,” He began “Look official and just let me do the talking, we need to lie our way onto the boat and then start a fire inside making sure that it burns enough to destroy the whole boat but we have to also make sure that it does not spread to quick as to make the sailors question if it was us or not. This all needs to look like a complete accident. While they are desperately trying to put out the ever spreading fire we will slip out the back and swim a little further down, just follow me because once we are ashore the carriage will be waiting to take us straight back to oxford as quickly as possible, have you got all of that?”

  Jack rolled his eyes and gave a knowing nod “Isaac, you’ve been through this a million times with me, don’t worry everything’s been planned out and sorted, we will be fine.”

  The two of them stood up and began to walk towards the large group of sailors sitting outside of the boat, they adjusted their clothes as they went trying to look as sharply dressed as possible, both of them wore a stern expression as they approached trying to make sure that they looked confident and official.

  The sailors one by one began to look up at the two unknown gentleman who approached them, they began to nudge each other in the side and whisper into one another’s ears, rumours obviously seemed to travel fast amongst the superstitious sea men.

  “Good evening Gentleman,” Said Isaac as he began to speak to the sailors. His demeanour had turned very serious and his body language gave out an air of authority, even more so than usual “We are looking for whoever the captain is of this vessel, where can he be found?”

  One of the men stood up slowly sighing as his did so, he seemed to be slightly annoyed at the question “If you’re looking for the captain I’ll go fetch him for you.” The sailors had a strong London accent, Jack and Isaac both noticed that most if not all of the sailors sitting around in the circle all did too.

  It was some time before the sailor eventually returned with an elderly gentleman by his side who evidently was the captain. The captain was nothing less than your stereotypical idea of what an old captain would look like, with his large white beard and old leather coat, he looked wind worn from all the years at sea, but still he looked fit and healthy. The captain had a pipe in his mouth that he continued to puff on, even while speaking he would not take it out of his mouth, instead he would allow the slight obstruction to slur his speech slightly. Jack reckoned that from the strong smell of alcohol coming off of him that the captain didn’t need the pipe in his mouth to slur his words.

  “Gentleman hello, its good to make your acquaintance,” the captains cheeks were a rosy red and broken blood vessels from the alcohol showed even in the dim light of the dock. He took first Isaac and then Jacks hand and shook them vigorously “Can I ask what it is that brings you down here at such a late hour?”

  Isaac cleared his throat “We are associates of the High Chancellor Dreno, I believe that his cargo has arrived today aboard your boat?”

  The captain threw Isaac a look of surprise. It was nothing to worry about, for it was obvious to see that the captain did not think Jack or Isaac to be anyone other than the people that they said they were, “I understand, however why have you arrived here so early I was told that the transport would not arrive for at least another hour?”

  Isaac did not falter even in the face of questioning. He knew that he had to keep his cool and not allow the captain any room for doubts “I apologise captain for the change in plans it was indeed unexpected for us too, you see Dreno does like to be thorough and make sure that everything is in place and goes off without a hitch,” the captain nodded in agreement, Isaac continued “The transport will indeed be here in an hour but Dreno felt that it was important that he sent us forward first, all that we require is entrance to the boat and to be left alone while we are in there. I wish that I could tell you more about why we need the time with the feeding machines but it is very secret information for specially selected ears only, I am sure that you can understand that captain?”

  Isaacs excuse was clever and Jack felt much more relaxed about the situation after hearing Isaacs’s performance. The captain took a while to think over what he had just heard, this was highly irregular that anyone ever sends people forward, however the captain did remember that from the look of what they were carrying, this was no normal cargo.

  The captain spoke hesitantly while Jack and Isaac clung to every word “Alright you can go aboard to do whatever it is that you need to but I want you to know that I’m not happy with this,” The captains voice became much angrier and he began to display his true feelings towards the situation at hand “I know what Dreno can be like and so there’s no way that I’m getting in his bad books for you two. So no matter what it is you two need to do or how official you are just make sure that you don’t break anything.”

  Isaac bowed and Jack, looking over, quickly followed “I thank you,” began Isaac “Myself, my colleague and Dreno thank you for your cooperation in this matter. Believe me that this shall not go unnoticed and Dreno will hear about this as soon as possible, you have my word.”

  Jack and Isaac walked off towards the boat after being given the key to both the boat and the hold where they were currently storing the feeding machines. A wave of relief washed over the two of them as they reached the boat and despite being able to feel the eyes of the sailors staring into their backs they were relieved that they were finally getting aboard the boat.

  Once inside they began to progress along the winding hallways and passages, it was dimly lit inside of the boat and it had a certain stuffy feel, it seemed very well lived in . Jack and Isaac eventually found their way down a small flight of metallic stairs and entered into the storage room. The door unlocked with a satisfying clunk and as they opened the door they saw the morbid beauty of the cargo. The copper pipes shone in the dim light, all of them beautifully crafted.

  For Isaac it was exactly as he had envisioned the feeding machine from the designs that he had seen. However for Jack the experience of coming face to face with the feeding machines again was an altogether more difficult situation.

  He remembered the feeding house once again, he remembered the little girl and how he wanted above anything else to save her from the hell that he had put her in. His nightmares were still plagued by images of her and Missy and it had been so long now without a good night’s sleep that Jack had actually forgotten what proper sleep feels like. He shook himself out of these thoughts, he had already had plenty of time to dwell on the past and now was certainly not the time for it.

  Isaac walked around the feeding machine looking carefully at all of the curves and bends as he did so, regardless of the fact that he had come here to destroy the machines he still found a strange curiosity in them and admired the craftsmanship. He even seemed slightly saddened when he looked up from the machines, realising that they needed to get on.

  “Ok,” began Isaac “Did you remember to bring the gunpowder?”

  Jack sifted through his coat pocket and brought out a small box with an intricately shaped funnel on the end, Isaac took the box off of him and began to look around the room “Ah perfect, there it is,” said Isaac.

  He began to walk towards a large keg that most people would confuse for having beer or some other alcoholic dri
nk in, but not Isaac he knew exactly what was inside the keg. It was full of a very volatile chemical that was used for cleaning the feeding machine in-between uses, when one of the cattle eventually dies the machine that they were plugged up too had to be thoroughly washed to remove the congealed blood from inside the pipes.

  This chemical was highly explosive and could easily start the fire that they were looking for “Watch the door, make sure that no one is coming,” said Isaac, his tone sharp yet whispered.

  Jack kept guard watching over the door as Isaac began to leave a trail of gunpowder from the keg of chemicals all the way to the door and out across the corridor, it was important that they weren’t anywhere near the room when this went off or else there wasn’t much chance of them getting off the boat in one piece.

  Isaac was just about to strike a match to light the gunpowder trail when one of the sailor’s walked around the corner. His walk was confident at first but soon he was quizzical and slightly concerned. Even in the sailor’s inebriated state he could tell that whatever it was that these two were doing was out of the ordinary.

  The sailor decided to confront Isaac and Jack “What are you too doing here? This is completely off limits to anyone? Who are you anyway?” The sailor launched a never ending torrent of questions all of which went unanswered as it seemed that the more questions the sailor asked aloud the more he became riled and angry that Isaac and Jack were down here.

  They both knew that they had to silence the sailor before he began to attract unwanted attention, Isaac acted quickly and with one swift move his fangs lowered into place and his eyes turned jet black. The sailor recalled in horror and went to scream but his voice was cut short, Isaac ripped his vocal chords from his throat and then quickly removed his head.