Users

by Stacy Buck

  "Wait, where's the Vampire? Is Alaric the Vampire?" he asked.

  Fox burst out into maniacal laughter.

  "Really Carter?! Don't be so simple," she said. "That fool the Vampire? He's nothing more than a muscle bound moron. No, the Vampire is not a he, the Vampire is a she." She smiled wryly at him.

  Carter's mouth hung agape as the reality of her words set in.

  "You, you're the Vampire?" Carter took a step back toward the door.

  "Join me Carter," she said preying on his weak willed side. She knew damn well the tight rope he walked every second of everyday between good and bad, between sobriety and using.

  "Tell me one thing. Why? Why go through all this trouble to get on the good side of the All Americans? Why build such a name for yourself in the powered community? Why not come out and just tell everyone about your power?"

  "You think Users would let me get anywhere near them if they knew I could suck their powers dry? Not a chance, but now, now I'm in with them. I'm close to them. Now I can suck them dry one by one, absorbing all their powers for my own." Her eyes were wild with excitement as she spoke.

  "And if I don't join you?" he asked past the lump in his throat.

  "Then you'll just be another of the many Users whose powers I drain dry. What do you think? I've never sucked the powers from a scorcher before. I think I'd look good in fire red."

  "These powers aren't a blessing. These powers are a curse."

  "Says you!" she shouted and lunged at him in unison.

  Carter put up his hands to defend himself and snatched her from the air. Using her momentum, he spun and tossed her. The drywall cracked as she slammed into the wall, slumped to the floor, but bounced right back onto her feet.

  "Please, don't do this," he begged.

  "Shut up!" she growled. "It's already done. You're just too stupid to realize it."

  She charged him, but Carter unleashed a ball of fire like throwing a baseball, but she ducked and knocked his legs out from under him with a sweeping kick. Carter was staring up at the ceiling as he fell flat on his back with a thud, knocking the wind from his lungs. Then she was there, her legs wrapped around his throat. Carter twisted in a vain attempt to loosen her grip on his neck, but her legs were too strong, her hold was like a vice around his throat.

  Her bare hand was creeping toward his face, and seeing no other choice, he lit her up. Fire burst forth from his chest just above his heart, and quickly spread like a wildfire up to his head, and down to his waist until his entire torso was aflame. She screamed as the fires bit at her legs, and she rolled out and around putting out the flames that had ignited on her skirt. From the knee down, the cloth hung in burnt tatters.

  "You can't take what you can't touch," he told her.

  His entire upper body was now completely covered in red glowing fire.

  "Fires can be put out," she said reaching into her boot and producing a knife. She approached, but cautiously this time, holding the knife backwards in her hand so the blade was against her wrist. Thinking on his feet, Carter threw down a wall of fire between them, something he had never done before, blinding her to his movements.

  "You can't hide from me," she said menacingly. "There's no where to ru-." She was cut off by the front door slamming shut as Carter made a run for it.

  The hallway, that had seemed so short before, now appeared impossibly long, as he ran for the elevator at the opposite end. He let the fires on his torso burn out as he pushed the down button frantically, and waited for the elevator door to open. He looked back continually at the penthouse door to see if she was coming. The ding announcing the elevator's arrival chimed and the doors crept open, parting in the middle. As Carter began to shimmy through the tight opening for his escape, the door to Fox's penthouse swung wide, and she rushed through the open portal in his direction.

  Carter fell into the elevator, scrambling to hit the button for the first floor. Nothing, the doors stayed open. As he righted himself, he hit the button again, and again, and again; repeatedly until finally the doors began to creep to a close. Fox was barreling down the hallway at full speed. The doors were about to slide shut, taking Carter on a ride to safety, when Fox leapt. She spun to her side, making herself as thin as possible, and slid through the door's opening like a thread through the hole of a needle.

  "There is nowhere to run that I cannot find you," she said as she hit the floor on her side.

  "Damn you for making me do this." And Carter kicked the prone woman in the gut.

  She coughed, gasping for air, but Carter didn't stop; he kicked her repeatedly.

  "Damn you!" he shouted at her, more in regards to his own anguish than her villainous reveal.

  The elevator's bell dinged again, letting him know they had reached the bottom floor, and he kicked her one more time for good measure before entering the lobby. He contemplated exiting through the hole he had come in, but decided he might as well just walk out the front door like he owned the joint. His gut wrenched as he passed the blackened remains of the four men, their corpses still smoldering. Their mouths were spread wide, frozen in silent, terror filled screams.

  "We finish this now." He heard from over his shoulder.

  Carter turned to find Fox, one hand on her stomach, slowly getting to her feet.

  "The only thing that's finished is you. I'm going to Alaric and I'm going to tell him the truth; all of it."

  "No, don't please. Just wait a minute," she pleaded. "I can change. I can be what you want me to be. I just need you."

  "Yeah, I'm not falling for the doe eyed routine." He turned for the front door, and an explosion of pain ripped through his back.

  Reaching over his shoulder, Carter pawed at his back, and felt the handle of a knife protruding from just below his shoulder blade. She had thrown the knife with typical Fox precision, stabbing him right in an especially painful nerve. Carter growled as he tugged on the knife's hilt, but it was lodged in too deep, and he nearly swooned from the pain.

  Then she was on him, her hands wrapped around his neck from the backside, and he felt an odd sensation unlike anything he had ever experienced before. A tingling feeling started at his toes, rose up his legs, traveled all the way up his body, and into Fox's hands wrapped tightly around his neck.

  "Feel that? That's me draining you, and I'm going to take every last drop," she whispered in his ear.

  Carter nearly forgot all about the knife in his back as the tingling turned into an intense burning, but it was unlike the burning he was used too, this was something different. The feeling was akin to having heartburn across his entire body, and his skin prickled as if his body was being flushed of its energy. He struggled. He tried to fight back, kicking wildly and thrashing about to free himself, but she had an iron grip, as if her hands and his neck had become fused. Carter called for his powers, hoping to burn her hands away, but no flame came forth. It was as if his body was trying to protect itself, sending the fires to his core in an attempt to preserve the power within.

  Carter could feel the veins in his neck pulsating, while the veins in his head pounded. He was being sucked dry. Finally, he gave up the futile struggle and gave into her fully, letting her take what she wished from him. And not only did he give in, he hastened the process by pushing what he had to her. Carter lifted a weak hand, grabbing her by the wrist, and pumped her full of his power. He let it all go, everything, including all his frustrations, disappointments, anger, and fear. His heart pounded so hard he wondered if it may burst from his chest. Blood scorched its way through his veins on its way to Fox.

  Carter screamed in agony as the hellfire within him reached an almost atomic level. Yet still he let it go. Fueled by anger at his girlfriend for leaving him, at his friends for betraying him, at the world for serving him up a pile of shit for a life, but most of all at Fox for making him do this.

  "Ow...," she said. "Ouch, what the fuck!" She yelled and tried to pull away, but as she jerked her hand away it only tugged on Carter's neck as i
f they were one.

  It was as if they were attached like conjoined twins.

  "Let me go you son of a bitch!"

  But Carter didn't relent. Her howls only spurred him on, driving his molten heart to beat faster, and sending more fires through his veins.

  Her mouth and eyes went wide and a bright glowing light shot forth from every hole in her body. Her skin glowed orange and red as she was torched from the inside out. No scream came forth, just a gut wrenching wheeze as her lungs were fried. Her skin began to crackle and pop and boiling blood sizzled its way out of her wounds.

  Still, Carter did not relent.

  Fox burst into flame, but without Carter's adaptation, she was quickly roasted. Her skin blackened and flaked off. Carter caught a glimpse of her reflection in the glass door on the front of the building. Her face was frozen in a look of sheer terror. He winced and looked away. The grip on his neck weakened and fell away as her hand crumbled.

  Carter rolled to his side, reached behind, and tugged at the knife again. It wouldn't budge. He pulled again and again, and finally, with a loud rip, the blade came free. The blade on the knife glowed red hot from his super heated blood, instantly cauterizing the wound. He let the knife slip from his fingers and the blade clanged against the floor.

  Then he saw her. Fox was frozen in place like a gray smoldering statue, forever stuck on her knees with her mouth wide. Taking slow steps, he went to her.

  "Why?" he asked her. "Why did you do this?"

  He hated her almost as much as he hated himself. He dropped to his knees before her and began to cry. Slowly, he raised a hand to her still smoking face and placed a hand on her cheek. Ash slipped through his grasp as her face crumbled like a house of falling cards, starting with her head and crumbling all the way to her feet.

  Carter stared at the pile of ash and let out a blood-curdling scream.

  #

  Epilogue 1

  She stared at me blankly and for the first time in the years I had been seeing her, she seemed unable to offer any kind of response.

  "I guess she had never had anyone actually not resist her powers before," I said.

  "I...Maybe, or maybe she had never used her powers on a scorcher before," she said.

  "We'll never know for certain," I said solemnly.

  "You did the right thing."

  "Did I?" I asked honestly unsure.

  "You preserved. That's a natural human reaction." Her normal calm and collected posture of leaning back in her high backed chair was gone, replaced by her sitting on the edge of her seat.

  "There was nothing natural about what I did!" I had to check myself to keep from pounding a fist down on her desk as I finished.

  She placed her hands palm down on the table and leaned over the desk for emphasis.

  "Fox made her decision and so did you," she said. Her eyes were steeled with conviction.

  "That doesn't make it any easier," I said.

  "It's not supposed to. You have to live with what you've done, and only you know what that's like, but you have more pressing matters."

  "Are you going to call the cops and tell them what I've done?" I asked.

  "No, that's not what I meant. A normal psychologist probably would, but as I specialize in dealing with you User types, it's not something I do. Otherwise, I'd be calling the cops on my patients every other week," she said. "What I meant is Alaric. Surely, he is coming after you."

  "He is." I looked around nervously, half expecting Alaric to jump out from behind the curtains covering the single large window on the wall to our left, but it was nothing, just my paranoia getting the best of me.

  "Where will you go?" she asked. "You've already bounced around half the city, stopping at each spot, thinking each location was your last resort."

  "There really is only one more place for me to go." I let out a heavy sigh.

  "Your parents?" she asked.

  "Oh god no," I answered as if she were crazy, and indeed I would rather face a whole host of Alaric's than face my parents again, not after what they'd done. "I will go back to NA."

  "Narcotics Anonymous?" she asked, her tone dripping in disbelief.

  She knew that I hated NA. Them and all their hugging higher power bullshit. It wasn't for me. I respected the program for what it does for those in need; but it never worked for me. The one good thing about the organization was they would help, no matter what, and without question. I had friends who lived for the program, and they would welcome me with open arms.

  "I don't see any other option. They'll hide me some place where Alaric will never find me," I said.

  And it was true, the program had connections in places both high and low, and its members could get almost anything done. If there was one safe place for me to go, it was there.

  "When will I see you again?" she asked as the time on the clock ran down.

  "I don't know. It might be a long time before it's safe again," I said.

  "Take care of yourself," she called for me as I headed for the door.

  "I'll try," I said, and for the first time since I could remember, I really meant it.

  #

  Part 5

  Prologue 5

  Skulking, Carter trudged up the half dozen or so steps that led into the hall of the local Elk's club lodge. The carpet beneath his feet was fringed and walk worn. Far too many shuffling feet had been dragged over its surface for way too many years. The in and out of decades of meetings had not been kind on the facility. Its white walls were faded and its doors hung for dear life to their tired hinges.

  Carter recognized every detail of the shabby building. It hadn't changed a bit since the last meeting he had attended almost five years earlier. He ran a finger over the clipboard hanging from the wall immediately inside the door. His finger stopped on the N.A. for users five thirty meeting about halfway down the crinkled paper schedule.

  Carter sighed. He was just in time. Room 4A was just down the hall and to the right, and he had to practically drag his lethargic ass to the room. Stopping at the closed door, he had to take a deep breath and prepare himself for what lay beyond. He didn't want to be here, didn't want to be anywhere near an A.A., N.A., A.L.N.O.N, or any other acronym named meeting.

  Muffled voices could be heard on the other side of the door, but they stopped immediately as Carter swung the door open. All eyes turned on him as the meeting came to a standstill. God damn goody goodies had all shown up early leaving him, as usual, the black sheep. He was beginning to remember exactly why he hated these meetings.

  Most of the faces staring back at him were smiling, but there were a handful of scowls at his disruption. His entrance had brought their meeting to an abrupt halt, and some of them didn't seem to like it one bit.

  "Come on in. Have a seat," Vince said, a look of recognition washing over the man's fast almost immediately.

  Carter wasn't the least bit surprised that Vince was still running the group, the dude was a lifer. Most of them were after all. These meetings weren't just meetings, for most they were a lifestyle; a lifestyle that Carter wanted no part of. But he had no options, except face Alaric alone, and that might as well have been suicide. Carter stood no chance of going it alone. He could only hope the group would welcome him back with open arms, offering him sanctuary from the outside world, and the revenge seeking maniac that was Alaric, that hunted for him.

  He plopped down in an open seat next to a gruff looking older fellow in camouflage army fatigues. The old man was a vet no doubt, so many of them were, and who could blame them.

  "As I was saying before we were interrupted." A twenty something woman with meth mouth and yellow stained smoker's fingers continued. "In the past I would use my powers to push drug dealers into giving me their stash."

  Carter looked away from her instinctively. Of all the Users, the pushers made him especially nervous. Just looking into their eyes could be dangerous. Even for the slightest moment and they could warp your mind, convince you they were your best friend,
and have you emptying your bank account or even take you for a leisurely stroll off a seven story building before you knew what hit ya.

  "But I've been sober now for four months. Lately, I feel like I've been white knuckling it. Like I want to use all the time. I even found myself passing by my old squats the other day, but then I remember my tools and my higher power," she said.

  And there it was. The other reason that Carter hated N.A., the god damn higher power. Why did the founding fathers of these groups have to bring God into it? Can't an atheist get sober without having religion crammed down his throat. His blood literally began to boil just listening to it.

  "That's good Talia," Vince said. "Work the steps and they'll work for you." And everyone clapped as the woman sat back down like some Hollywood starlet had just given her acceptance speech at the Oscars or something. And so it went around the room, with each man or woman standing up in turn to get the weight off their chest. Or was it more like a monkey off their back or the devil off their shoulder, but it all had the same end result. Just a bunch of whiners drowning in the sorrow that was their addiction.

  Vince was staring at Carter from beneath his thin glasses. The room was dead silent. He gave a slight nod and Carter knew the time had come. Vince was giving him the polite signal that he needed to talk, or get the fuck out. He cleared his throat while getting to his feet.

  "My names Carter," he said.

  "Hi Carter," everyone said in unison like a brain dead cult.

  "And I'm an addict," he said.

  From there he went on to explain the horrific events of the past few days of his life. Carter let it all out, going into every gory detail. Starting with his girlfriend leaving him and ending with the death of Fox. They listened intently to his every word. They gasped audibly when he got to the grisly death of Fox.

  "And that's what lead me back here," he finished.

  His tale was met with total silence. Carter scanned the room to find a mix of blank stares and dropped jaws staring back at him. The air had been sucked out of the room. Someone coughed.