The Beast Inside

by David Horrocks

  Leaving them to it, Alice flipped down the visor near her head to check herself out in the mirror. She had never been one for staring at her own reflection, but she just had to know how she looked following her close encounter with the big, fiery ball in the sky. Her burns weren't all that bad now, healing at a miraculous rate that had increased exponentially since feeding on the waitress. She ran her fingers across one section of skin that still had a long way to go, but it didn't hurt that badly anymore.

  Even though her health was quickly improving, Alice didn't want to get caught in the sun again any time soon. It had burned painful memories into her brain that she would never ever forget. She didn't know how long she would last in the blistering light of day, but she knew that she never wanted to find out. Vampires and sunbeams didn't mix.

  Completely distracted by her reflection, Alice didn't even notice that Jolee had gotten back into the car until he slammed his door shut. She was startled by the sudden noise, almost jumping right out of her seat. He was unaware that he had even scared her, ignorant of her frightened gasp as he struck up a conversation.

  "He tried pullin' out of the deal, but I reminded him of our history an' he changed his mind fast."

  Alice wasn't entirely sure what that meant, but she was relieved that things were going well according to Jolee's plan.

  "What's going to happen now?"

  He looked directly into her eyes with a solemn look upon his face.

  "You'll be leavin' Montana an' headin’ north across the border. It ain't safe here in the States no more."

  Alice sighed sadly, turning to look out the window. She wasn't sad about leaving the only country she'd ever known. She was sad because she already knew the answer to her next question.

  "You're not coming with me, are you?"

  There was a brief pause before he answered.

  "No. I ain't comin', Riley. I gotta go home an' pay for my crimes against the family."

  Fighting back tears, Alice looked back at her cousin.

  "I don't understand. You can run away from them too, just come with me."

  He shook his head slowly.

  "I can't turn my back on my family. I owe everythin' to Mamma Caitlyn."

  Alice reached over to rest her hand on the tattooed skin of his arm.

  "But... I'm your family too. Please don't go back to them, they'll hurt you."

  Jolee pulled his arm away, trying to separate himself from her as he tried to say his goodbye.

  "Ain't got a choice. I need to go."

  It wasn't fair, but Alice knew that she couldn't change his mind. Jolee McKay was stubborn and set in his ways. She had a hard time accepting his decision, but she also had to respect it. The pair sat in silence for a few minutes, not wanting to say farewell, but both aware that it had to be done.

  It was Jolee who eventually broke the silence, changing the subject as he didn't have the strength to continue otherwise. His choice of words however, left a lot to the imagination and caught Alice off guard.

  "So, Riley... How do you feel about coffins?"

  **********

  Alice couldn't bear to watch Jolee as he drove off, heading south and back to the compound they had only just recently fled from. He was more like a big brother than a cousin and she was proud to call him such. Even now he was looking after her as he left all the cash he had in his pockets and went off to likely stall the rest of his family, possibly even leading them on a wild goose chase so that they would never be able to follow.

  Alice found herself unable to turn off her unstable emotions and so she decided to distract herself by preparing for the trip up to Canada. Jolee's supposed friend made her aware of the situation that she had gotten herself into. The skeevy man informed Alice that they'd be driving right through the heart of wolf territory, whatever that meant, and that her very presence would be putting his life in danger.

  The so called wolves had no love for undead beings and if they weren't careful, taking all manner of precautions, the wolves would easily sniff her out. Alice wasn't sure if it was just a scare tactic or not, but the man seemed to be deadly serious.

  The man also did his best to make sure that Alice knew that it was an expensive job and that she wouldn't have been able to afford if he didn't owe Jolee a big favour. He also made it perfectly clear that her very survival was in his hands. She had to follow his instructions to the letter or they might not make it through to the other side. This too could have just been a scare tactic, but Alice didn't want to take that risk. Not when Jolee had done so much to get her that far.

  As the truck pulled away and they started their journey, Alice hoped that her cousin wouldn't be harmed for helping her. He was far too kind and didn't deserve to be punished.

  **********

  The city's skyline was breathtaking at night. Alice had never seen anything quite like it, with high rises, spotlights and neon signs. She had never even laid eyes on a city before, with Birchfield as her only real reference for civilisation. The city of Calgary in particular was way more spectacular than she could have possibly imagined.

  Off in the distance, behind the sharp lines of skyscrapers and an odd shaped, needlepoint tower, lay a vast mountainous expanse and a slow flowing river that bowed just beneath its snowy peaks. She had expected smog, sirens and all the worst types of things that human beings had to offer, but this wasn't the view that was presented before her.

  It was a colder and much dryer climate than Alice was used to. Although it wasn't winter yet and the snow hadn't started to fall below the mountain tops, the temperature change would require some getting used to.

  The anxiety Alice had experienced at the prospect of moving to such a place had long since faded, especially during the time she stood there admiring the spectacle. Her enhanced senses had been bombarded with new sights and sounds, which would have been overwhelming for a regular mortal, nevermind a newly light sensitive creature such as herself. She was waiting a few miles from the edge of town, somewhere within the flat lands known as the prairies. Jolee's friend had dumped her there by the side of the road almost an hour ago and she was now waiting for her scheduled ride that would take her the rest of the way into the city.

  The journey across the border hadn't been so bad after all, as all she had to do was lie still and pretend that she was a fresh corpse. It was made all the easier by her having to sleep during daylight hours and apparently appearing to be dead as she rested, although she wasn't sure if that was actually true or not.

  The time had flown by as her driver, Jolee's contact, transferred her body back to a family in Canada and somehow had all the documents to prove it to the authorities. It never occurred to her that she had actually replaced someone else and that their folks would be sorely disappointed when their loved one didn't turn up for their own funeral.

  As for the wolves and their miles of marked territory that had to be traversed, they hadn't gotten close enough to the transport to discover Alice cowering in her hiding place. She had heard their howls in the distance during the brief periods when she found herself awake, but they hadn't approached to give the lone truck a closer look.

  Maybe God was still listening to her desperate prayers and was watching over her even now. Perhaps there was a chance of redemption after all.

  A car approached from the north, its headlights lighting up the road as it made its way towards her location. Alice stood in the dirt at the side, hoping that it was the ride she had been waiting for. She was done waiting and wanted to see the wonders of the city closer up.

  Alice still felt the chill of night, but it no longer seemed to bother her. There were none of the usual goosebumps on display or the shivering that had accompanied the cold as a mortal. In fact, she couldn't even see her breath, which reminded her all over again of how strange her ‘life’ had become.

  Taking the time to examine the paperwork in her hand, Alice read through it all one more time. The name written on the top read Allison Green, her brand new ident
ity. She had been provided with a Canadian passport and driver's license, with enough other details to get by without causing too much suspicion.

  The man who Jolee had connected her with was a professional who had clearly done this type of work before, but how did her cousin know him and what had he done to earn such a favour? If only Jolee was here to ask. It would have been nice to have a friendly face by her side during the transition.

  As the car pulled up, stopping just in front of her, Alice nervously scoped it out while the driver wound down their window.

  "Ms Green?"

  It took Alice a moment to realise that the man was addressing her, which seemed to amuse him as no one else was around.

  "Yes, that's me."

  The man leaned over to the passenger side, pulling the handle to open the door.

  "Get in. There's only an hour or two until sun up and we need to get you set up with some accommodation."

  Alice didn't hesitate. She quickly got into the car as she knew that he was right. The morning's sunrise could be particularly harsh if she was caught up in it. Besides, she felt a little vulnerable out in the open now.

  There was no telling if the McKays had managed to follow her there somehow. She was sure they had a few talented scouts that could track her down, even there. If Jolee hadn't managed to misdirect them, Alice's only option was to surround herself with people so her scent would be masked by theirs. She had to get lost in the crowd.

  Chapter Eight: By royal decree.

  A sense of normality had returned to Alice's life since settling in Calgary, which seemed a little odd as she wasn't human anymore. Her dreams had ceased altogether and she began to wonder if it was a side effect of the vampiric curse. Perhaps the so called visions weren't meant to be viewed by an immortal being and she would never receive them ever again. It may have been a blessing in disguise as she found it easier to maintain her focus without her mind playing tricks on her.

  Slipping back into familiar patterns, Alice worked nights at a small bar downtown and was paying rent on a tiny box of an apartment in one of the seedier areas of town. She had to support herself somehow, even though a budget for weekly groceries was no longer required.

  Speaking of food, Alice practiced her hunting skills night after night with the goal of perfecting them and holding back the hunger that would cause her to lose control if left unchecked. She had started by trying to feed on animals such as rats and stray cats, but they were too small and didn't satiate her hunger for long. Drug addicts and tweakers just made her feel violently ill and would put her out of commission for some time after.

  So Alice resorted to waiting in alleyways outside of bars in the early hours of the morning. She would prey on anyone who tried to take advantage of a lone woman in the dark, luring them in and drinking their blood until they lost consciousness. They would later wake up, lying in piles of trash or behind dumpsters, believing they had just gotten too drunk and had passed out there with no memory of her at all.

  The act was even less suspicious once Alice discovered the ability to seal the puncture wounds in their necks with her own saliva by licking them shut. She was still discovering a great deal about herself and her own capabilities as time went on. Vampire fangs were retractable too and weren't visible all the time, only appearing when they were feeding or sometimes even just when there was blood present. It would have been difficult for vampires to hide their true nature if their pointed canines were always showing.

  Months had gone by since Alice's arrival in town. The leaves had fallen from the trees and had given away to near whiteout conditions, with several inches of snow covering the ground. She had never experienced a real winter before, never mind an actual change in seasons. It was magical to someone like her, with snowmen, igloos and ice sculptures erected all around the city. She took the time to wander out to the park to see people of all ages skating on the pond. It was a whole new world of activities and wonders that had never been a prospect until now. She tried her hand at everything, including a snowball fight with children in the street.

  The shorter winter days meant that nights were long, but it also meant that Alice had to go inside more often to feed. She didn't want to leave people lying in alleys to freeze to death. It was a little riskier, but she had already learned the necessary skills not to be caught red fanged.

  Unfortunately for Alice, her attempts at feeding hadn't gone perfectly every time. There had been more than a couple of botched attempts along the way. She had to chase people down and physically restrain them after failing to latch on successfully. On other occasions she had almost been caught by random passers by, narrowly avoiding having a witness or two.

  However, the worst times for Alice were when she drank a little too much and had to call an ambulance anonymously. She would then follow them to the hospital in order to make sure that her victims pulled through and, fortunately for her, they had all made it through the night every single time so far. She was more than aware that drawing attention to herself would dwindle her chances of survival, but she had to learn the ropes somehow and had no one to guide her.

  In all the time she had been living within the city limits, Alice had yet to see another of her kind. She had expected to see other vampires in a place with such a large population, but so far she had seen no sign of anyone else like her at all. She started to believe that there was no one else like her around and that the entire city was her own personal hunting ground, with no competition or rivals so to speak. It may have been a little lonely, but it suited her well. As long as she kept her true nature hidden, she could live amongst the mortals in peace.

  However, unbeknownst to Alice, she was being watched by those much older than herself. Ancient beings who had been around so long that they had perfected hiding in plain sight and they weren't best pleased by the newcomer who had invaded their territory. The very same land which they had laid claim to when Calgary was little more than a trading post.

  **********

  Alice worked exceptionally hard as a bartender in a small place downtown that had been branded as ‘The Dive’. The suitably named bar was located within one of the rougher sections of the city, with a less than sterling reputation due to bar fights and drunken patrons causing a ruckus in the early hours of the morning. She continued to hide her true identity, applying for the position under the guise of Allison Green.

  Allison was an extremely polite and friendly local girl, who had lived in the province of Alberta all her life, or that was the part that Alice tried her best to play anyway. It was hard for her to find a decent career when she could only be awake during the hours of darkness and had no college degree to back her up. She settled into the job quickly, feeling comfortable with her surroundings within the workplace much faster than she had expected. City folk weren’t all that different from those in the country, other than their expectations of faster service and considerably shorter tempers.

  Night after night the bar was filled with the same people, the same smell of spilt beer mixed in with vomit, and the same old tunes on the dusty old jukebox that only half of the songs actually worked on. Everything was louder, brighter and more potent than they had been while she was alive, as her enhanced senses pummeled her brain with new sensations.

  The odours that wafted in from the kitchen weren't as appealing as they once might have been, and the food that was served in the bar no longer caused Alice's appetite to stir, but the clientele sure did. The veins in their necks looked so juicy and fresh, and their very pulses were simply begging for attention like they craved it. At times it was so distracting that she just had to take a break as soon as she was done serving, and this was one of those times.

  “Frank, I'm taking my smoke break!”

  Alice didn't smoke, but no one else needed to know the real reason why she had to go out for air. She suspected that cigarettes wouldn't be harmful to her already dead lungs, but why pick up such a filthy habit if she didn't need to. The breaks from work served thei
r purpose. They were a break from temptation and sometimes came with the option for a brief snack. It's for this reason she thought that it might be her lucky day as a well dressed stranger approached her in the alley, but as usual, fate had something else in mind.

  Alice was leaning against the wall, taking big, deep breaths of oxygen that she didn't even need when the man approached from a parked car somewhere near the main street. There was an air of confidence and pride about him as he stepped into the light of the buzzing bulb that sat above the back door of the bar.

  The man didn't look like he belonged in that part of town, with his finely tailored suit and platinum hair tied back in a ponytail. Standing tall over Alice, he adjusted the cuff links of his shirt as he stared her up and down with hauntingly clear blue eyes.

  “Bon soir, Mademoiselle.” He said with a polite French accent. “I'm looking for an Allison Green, who I have been told works at this ‘fine’ establishment.”

  There may have been a slight hint of sarcasm in his voice as he referred to the bar.

  Alice wasn't sure why the man was looking for her, but he didn't seem threatening and carried himself like a wealthy, yet upstanding member of society.

  “Yes, that’s me. Can I help you with something?”

  Her response caused him to smile widely, bearing sharp canines that looked a lot like fangs. It was in that moment that Alice realised that she was faced with the first of her kind she had met since the night she had died.

  The instincts deep inside caused her to reel in terror, forcing her to have to fight them back to prevent her body from high tailing it right out of there. His very presence seemed to overpower her own with something much older and way more primal than she could have ever anticipated.

  “Ah, Mademoiselle Green. My name is Sir Philippe Chevalier, knight of the crown and the city's chief enforcer. Please allow me to extend an invitation for you to attend the royal court of Calgary at the queen's behest.”