by Unknown
The overgrown brute pushes at my chest of drawers. It whizzes across the room likes it's on a skateboard.
They enter my room. My heart pounds in anticipation of the coming fight.
The window is behind us. My hand is wrapped around my curtains to keep them closed. We need them in the room. There is an eerie moment of silence as both groups wait for whoever is going to attack first.
Kieran, the blonde-haired pizza girl, stands in the middle of the group. There is a dark bloodstain on her jeans from where Eileen shot her. She doesn’t walk with a limp; there is no physical sign of pain...
I smile over at her smugly. Her eyebrows meet together as she frowns, clearly taken aback by my newfound happiness.
“Why do you smile, little girl?” she asks.
“Because of this.” Aaron and I pull open the curtains, allowing rays of sunshine to shower over them.
“Argh…my skin! I’m burning!” the girl screams.
“Argh, so am I,” screams the other vampire.
Then chilling laughter fills the room. I move the curtain back and forth in desperation, but the laughter just gets louder—not the screams of pain I was hoping for.
It didn’t work! Sunlight doesn’t work. They’re day walkers.
My heart sinks with every second of their laugher.
“Get them!” Kieran orders.
Everything feels like it’s moving too quickly to process. Aaron fires the gun at the brute’s chest. The force knocks him back a step, and he winces like he’s just burned his finger on a hot stove.
The brute reaches up and rips open the hole in his shirt from the bullet. Then he plunges his hand into his own chest. When his hand pulls back, it is oozing blood. He pulled the bullet from his own heart.
Frigging great. Bullets through the heart don’t work, and neither does sunlight. I shake my head, unable to contain my disappointment. All we have is our stakes…and I know they work.
“Bring them down,” Remus yells downstairs. He’s still alive—are my parents alive too? My mouth dries up at the thought of them being dead.
Anger rushes through my veins like an electrical pulse. I run towards the brute that Aaron shot at and plunge the stake into his heart. His hands grip the stake and pull it back out. He’s too strong for me.
I can feel burning sensations all over my scalp as Kieran drags me down to the ground by my hair. I kick my legs hysterically and throw punches in every direction, but it's doing nothing.
There is a thud from Aaron’s body as he slams to the ground. I turn in his direction to see one of the brute’s legs fly backward.
As quickly as he was down, he’s moving. The brute has gripped hold of Aaron’s legs and is pulling him backward out of the room.
“Aaron,” I scream. His eyes are bulging with fear. Before I can scream out for him again, someone drags me away.
I force my fingernails as hard as I can into the wooden floor, pain shooting up each fingertip. I thrash up and down, back and forth—any way that is possible. It does nothing.
Then there is no wooden floor to hold on to, just strands of the carpet beneath my hands. I try to grip them, leaving bald patches in the carpet. The wall of happy pictures stares down at me. I wish I could make them come alive and save me.
My head crashes down onto a step as they pull me down without any care for me, leaving the memories of happiness hanging on the walls.
I stop fighting. My body goes limp. I need to save my energy.
Chapter Eighteen
My head buzzes. The room swirls in and out of focus as they drop my body in the middle of the room.
I can make out my mom sobbing on the floor, cradling my dad’s head on her lap. His chest is moving. He is still alive, but barely. His face is swollen, with a nasty red mark just like my mom’s. Eileen is sitting next to them, with scratches on her face as if she landed in the bushes outside.
“You two are boring me,” Remus says as he walks towards us. “Now say goodbye to your family. The boy first. Let his little girlfriend watch.” Our curtains wave with the morning breeze, carrying along with it the intensifying smell of death.
A vampire lifts Aaron off the ground. Aaron thrashes his legs, but the vampire doesn’t flinch. He places Aaron in front of Remus.
“Get off my son,” Eileen yells as she tries to get to her feet. Instantly, Kieran appears in front of her, but before Eileen gets to her feet, her body slumps unconscious to the ground, knocked out from Kieran’s powerful punch to the jaw. I wanted Eileen to have a taste of her own medicine, but not like this.
“It’s me you wanted, so leave them out of it,” Aaron protests.
“They are for dessert,” Remus says, tilting his head sideways and smiling, as if he’s happily inspecting his main course.
He’s going to drain the life out of Aaron. With that image running through my mind, I spring to my feet, taking the room by surprise—but its short-lived. A rush of burning pain rips through my rib cage, bringing me down to the ground. A vampire had landed a fist on my side.
“Stay down,” the brute says in a deep gravelly tone, and places his heavy leather boot on my injured rib cage and stomps down on me. I try to recoil, but his weight pushes down on me, holding me in place. Pain ripples through my bones. Hot tears roll down my cheeks.
“Aaron.” My eyes are glazed over, but I can see he’s not moving. He’s not even trying. His eyes are locked on Remus like he’s in a trance.
Remus’s hand trails down Aaron’s face, stopping at his chin.
The atmosphere in the room changes. There is a silent chill as everyone is mesmerized by the show in front of us.
“Do it…do it,” I hear the vampires whisper under their breaths, eager for whatever is going to happen next.
I squirm around to get free and scream as pain rips through my body. Clearly, the brute isn’t pleased with my movements, because his boot stomps down on me.
Staring up towards Aaron, I want to look away but I can’t. Remus’s mouth is wide open. His fangs are out and moving towards Aaron’s neck.
“Nooo…” I plead, hoping my cries will wake Aaron from his trance. They don’t. Remus sinks his fangs into Aaron’s neck.
Aaron’s body twitches, and Remus grips his neck firmly as he continues to drain Aaron’s blood. He’s drinking him dry.
Remus lifts his head. His white teeth gleam with blood… Aaron’s blood.
He tosses back his head and throws his arms in the air in victory. With that swift movement, Aaron’s body falls limp and lifeless to the ground, like he’s just a lifeless pile of skin.
The brute’s weight lightens. I dive towards Aaron, but I know it’s too late. The vampire already left his mark. Will Aaron also turn into a vampire? My heart feels like a stake has pierced it.
Remus’s lanky white arm, covered by a thin layer of hair that makes it glow like a hairy caterpillar, reaches down, his twig-like fingers extended towards me. I move away, but as if he anticipated it, his hand is already grasping at my throat.
“Get off her,” my mom screams.
He lifts me up off the ground and crushes my throat. I gulp for air. Wildly, I kick my legs out. It makes no difference, and his grip gets tighter.
He leans closer to me. Our faces almost touch, and I can feel his breath on my cheek. It’s cold—like his heart.
Everything falls silent, as if we are the only people in the room. “I’ve spent a lifetime searching for you.” His icy breath travels down my neck. This is it.
As each icy breath drifts into my body, is feels like he’s freezing my veins, clearing away with it any worries, doubts, or concerns. I’m going somewhere better. I’m at peace. My body slumps down in relief, content with the future that lies before me.
Will he kill me, or will I become one of them? I no longer care…
Sadie, move, a voice says in my mind.
My eyes are open—yet feel closed—as I stare deeply into Remus’s black eyes…the eyes of my future.
Sadie, move, the voice repeats.
No! It’s too late. It’s removing me from the tranquil place I was. I want to go back there.
No…wake up!
“Sadie!” The voice shatters the blackness within me. The voice is deep and gravelly like the one from the woods the previous evening. It’s Blake.
I thrash around, kicking as hard as I can, swinging my last bit of strength at Remus. Remus flashes his fangs and then pulls away from me, towards the door. Instantly, he releases my neck, letting me drop to the ground with a thud.
I gasp as if I’m taking my first breath of fresh air.
Pivoting towards the door, all I can see is the backs of the vampires—they’re heading towards the door.
“What happened?” Aaron groans, dazed and confused. He’s lying on the floor, in a worse state than me.
“Over here,” I say. I’m too lightheaded to stand; instead of walking, I crawl over towards my parents. Aaron does the same.
“Mom, is Dad—” I stop, unable to say the words aloud. He’s lying in my mom’s arms. His large overgrown chest moves up and down slightly.
“He’s alive.” A tear drips down her cheeks as she replies. I reach up to wipe it away.
My body sinks in relief as she places her free arm around me and pulls me in for a hug. I let out a big sigh.
“What are you doing here?” The conversation at the doorway draws all of our attention. The comforting feeling of safety has gone even before it had a chance to fill my body. The fight is not over.
I look around the room for something to use as a weapon, but there’s nothing. The curtains blow into the living room from the wind seeping in from the broken window. There are slivers of sharp glass on the ground catching the morning rays.
If it were just Aaron and me, we could escape through the window. But there is no chance my parents would make it through, and I’m not leaving them again.
“Remus, you know why I’m here.” It’s Blake.
“Blake, these are mine,” he says firmly. The gang of vampires nod in agreement. They’re fighting over us?
Suddenly, the gang steps back, away from the door, away from Blake. They fear him for some reason.
Within a second, it becomes clear why. He has a black gun in each hand, pointing directly towards them.
“Why are they scared of his guns?” Aaron whispers into my ear. His warm breath removes the last cold trace of Remus from my body.
I shrug in response. None of this day is making sense.
“It's the bullets. I bet he’s got special bullets,” Mom mumbles, bobbing her head.
“I hope so.” I smile back, trying to put my mom and myself at ease.
“But he’s a vampire as well,” Aaron adds. My mom’s faint smile disappears. I nudge Aaron in the ribs.
“What?” Aaron asks.
“Nothing. I think…he’s one of the good ones,” I say. Just the thought of a good vampire almost makes me want to laugh aloud.
“I frigging hope so,” Aaron says.
None of us had noticed that he is standing right in front of us. He moved too fast for my eyes to register.
My eyes lock on his as he stares at me as deeply as if he's reading my memories. Can he?
Then a softness appears in his eyes as the corners of his mouth curl up warmly. His jawline is firm and strong. He has a muscular body to match his broad shoulders. Wrapped around both of his shoulders and under his arm is a tan leather strap, very much like a worn leather belt.
I can sense that I've been staring at the man longer than is polite.
“Sadie, Aaron, stand.” The way he says it, we both instantly obey.
“To my side,” he adds. We are both standing at either side of Blake, the vampire. Weirdly, this doesn’t feel wrong. It feels empowering. I’m standing in the face of danger and I don’t want to run away from it. I want to run at them, vanish them from this world.
“Hold these,” Blake says as he holds out two black guns. I take mine from him. The cold heavy metal weighs my hand down. It’s the first gun I’ve ever held; it’s heavier that I thought it would be. Staring down at it, I think it’s like a kid’s toy, yet something so simple can create so much heartbreak and destruction in the world.
Aaron inspects his in confusion. It looks just like his mom’s gun.
Blake moves his hands behind his back with his eyes firmly fixed on the gang in front of us. Then he pulls forward two wooden stakes from a holster on his back. I never thought I would be happy to see one of them again. He offers them to us and takes the guns. I can hear Aaron tut in response. Part of me also wants to keep the gun.
These stakes are different from the ones we used. These stakes were handmade to kill vampires. There is a smooth handle to grip—no more splinters. I place my finger on the end of the stake. It’s a lot sharper than the ones before… These will work.
“Let’s see how good these slayers are, shall we, Blake?” Remus says, his lackey vampires by his side.
“Let’s,” Blake says.
Is this a game to them? Because it sure as hell isn’t fun.
Hatred fills Kieran’s blue eyes, and she runs towards Aaron, quicker than I’ve ever seen anyone move before.
Aaron didn’t even have a chance to blink. Her hand wraps around his throat. Veins appear in the whites of his eyes as they bulge from the pressure.
Before I can help him, the whooshing sound of a bullet leaving a gun is whizzing through the air and into her heart. Blake shot her.
Her hand is still around Aaron’s neck, but her grip must be weaker. He reaches up and pushes her chest, releasing himself from her grip. Her body begins to swell up like the others, and her mouth widens as souls being to scream out of her body. In the corner of my eye, I can see my mom’s hand swiftly moving up towards her ears to block out the sound. I’m somehow getting used to it.
The neckless overgrown brute is running towards me. He’s the one I tried to kill earlier. I dive to the side, inches away from the wall, and swing my stake towards him.
He leans towards me, ready to attack, then I hear the whizzing sound again, and the brute stops. He looks down and watches as a bloodstain appears on his shirt.
Blake had shot another one. If this was a twisted game, Aaron and I both failed.
“Blake, these are great slayers. Some of the best I’ve seen.” Remus laughs mockingly.
Bang… Bang… Bang. Blake fires his gun at Remus. Crimson blood patches grow over the hearts of the remaining vampires. I stare at Remus, waiting for a stain to appear, but nothing does.
“Till next time, Brother,” Remus says as he runs out of my front door, leaving the zombie vampires standing in front of us. Brother?! Nice family.
Blake lowers his guns, spins around, and dives out of the open window in a flash. Aaron and I stare at the new void between us, where Blake was once standing. I glance back at the expanding bodies in front of us as the vampires begin to explode. Aaron and I both dive out of the glassless window.
There is a crunch as our bodies slam onto the glass on the ground. I can feel my bones grinding against one another in a way I’ve never felt, and I can feel pain in each individual bone.
Blake peers down at our bodies slumped on the ground and shakes his head in disappointment. I rise to my feet and watch the mind-blowing view.
Inside my family home, vampires’ mouths are stretched open as the horrific cries from the trapped souls inside scream out from their mouths. Their bodies expand from the pressure building up inside of them, their skin transparent, almost paper thin.
A loud blast comes from their bodies as they explode from the inside out, leaving my ears ringing.
Blood splatters onto the glass shards that remain in the window, as if someone has thrown a bucket of red paint across them. Then a sprinkle of ashes dance down from the sky, coating everything they touch.
“Sadie,” my mom cries out.
“Aaron,” Eileen yells.
I gasp, unaware that I was holding
my breath this whole time.
Watching out for the razor-sharp glass fragments left in the window frame, I scramble through.
“Mom, Dad,” I cry out. They are covered in blood with a coating of gray snowflakes—the only thing that remains of the vampires. Warm tears stream down my face as I wrap my arms around my parents.
“It’s over…” I say in between the tears.
Chapter Nineteen
“Sadie, it's far from over. It's time to go,” Blake says as he stands in my living room. I never heard him reenter.
I stare at him in disbelief, my vision blurry. “I'm not going anywhere,” I say as I wipe the tears from my eyes.
“You have no choice. More will be coming for you,” Blake replies in a matter-of-fact way.
“Of course I have a choice,” I say as I get to my feet. Raw anger courses through my body.
Aaron stands by my side. We both clutch our stakes. His clammy fingers wrap around mine. “I’m going with her,” he says sternly.
“You will join her once you have had your treatment,” Blake explains as he points towards Aaron’s neck. Aaron pulls his hand away from mine and places it to his neck, then stares, mesmerized by the fresh blood on his finger. He didn’t even know he had been bitten.
Aaron lets out a weak cough. “Treatment?”
“Yes. To stop you from turning.”
“Turning into what?” Eileen raises her eyebrows as she realizes what Blake is talking about. “Into one of you?” she says bitterly through her teeth.
“Yes,” Blake replies.
I feel like the floor I’m standing on is sinking beneath me, like I’m drowning in the truth.
“I don’t believe you. Look at him, he’s fine,” Eileen says.
“For now. The poison is already running through his veins.” Blake slips his hand into his pocket, pulling out a leather pouch. “Take this,” he adds.
“What is it?” Aaron asks.