The Progeny

by Shelley Crowley

  It was around four in the morning when Evie made her way home. There were still a few people out and about on the streets so she decided to walk amongst them and feel like a real human.

  When she walked past an alley, her head cocked at a noise. A muffled hiss of pain. It was quiet but not for her due to her vampire hearing. She caught sight of a figure staggering in the grey darkness. She paused at the mouth of the alley. Her eyes brightened as she sniffed the air. Blood. He was bleeding.

  Her fangs pressed against her gums instinctively and she fell back into the shadows, keeping to the wall as she followed the injured man. When she got closer, she could see that he was clasping his hand and blood was spilling out of an open slash on his palm. He was crying, juddering and sniffing as he walked down the alley. His blood smelled so sweet and fresh.

  Letting her natural instincts come out to play was a dangerous game. And now that she knew Caius was in no fit state to come and scold her for her behaviour, she felt foolish to think that it would have brought him back to her.

  Evie froze and thought about her next move. If she was feeling the swelling urge to attack, chances were that other vampires in the vicinity could be too.

  This poor man needed help.

  She made herself known, “Excuse me.”

  The man took a sharp intake of breath and spun around, his dark eyes wide and set on her. She nodded down to his cradled hand. “You need to get to a hospital. Like, now.”

  The man whimpered and staggered closer. Eve panicked and took a careful step back but the man was still closing the distance between them. He lifted his hand up to her. The blood was thick and black, running in rivulets across his palm and down his wrist. The hunger stirred deep in her stomach like a beast awakening.

  “Does it really look that bad?” he asked, practically waving his wound in her face.

  Her fangs clicked free. The man’s eyebrows rose in shock but he didn’t seem frightened. In fact, it was almost as if he was expecting it.

  “Now!”

  A blinding light caught Evie off guard and she cowered, shielding her eyes with her hands.

  Someone was behind her. But before she could spin around, something dropped on her head, covering her face like a blanket. No, not a blanket; a net. A net of silver. She screamed as it singed her skin, melting into her cheeks and forehead. Arms wrapped around her stomach. She kicked and screamed and fell back. The person with their arms around her was wedged between her and the wall. She smacked herself against the wall again and again and felt the crunch of bones as she crushed them with her vampire strength. The arms release her. She sensed the body drop and hears a groan. But then another pair of arms were around her, grabbing her from the other side. Now, the silver net has imbedded itself into her face and neck. She tried to fight but she was weakening. The pain was excruciating. The smell of her burning skin assaulted her senses

  There was someone in front of her too. She tried to charge but she tripped on the net and sprawled across the floor. Her skin ripped from muscle and bone. She couldn’t see. The net and her melted skin covered her eyes. All she could feel was gooey flesh and burning.

  She was pulled back onto her feet and dragged. She tried to scream but her lips have been torn away and blood was thick in her throat.

  A heavy bang of a van door opening made her flinch. She was knocked in the head. Hard. Everything went black.

  Chapter 3

  Evie was sat upright. There were people around her. She could hear heartbeats drumming. The road was bumpy, making her jump around on the bench in the back of the van and collapse to the side every so often, only to be shoved back upright.

  “I think she’s awake,” said a man.

  “Doesn’t matter. She won’t do anything,” replied another.

  Her eyes wouldn’t open. The silver net was still over her. She was afraid to move and rip away more of her skin. Silver handcuffs have been added. They bit into her wrists.

  She wanted to talk. She wanted to ask why they were doing this to her. But she was numb from pain. All she could do was sit tight and let them do whatever they plan to do with her.

  The next time she woke was due to a heavy bang. She flinched and cried as her skin tore from her neck. Hands shoved into her back and she fell to the floor of the van.

  “Get her up!” barked a man and she was hoisted to her feet and pulled out of the van.

  Her legs scraped across the pathed ground as she was dragged away. She could hear several people’s footsteps trudging around her but all she could see was the blackness under her melted eyelids.

  She fell unconscious.

  When she woke again, the silver net was gone and her wrists were no longer bound. She was sat against a wall. She managed to open her eyes then cringed at the whiteness that invaded her vision.

  She was still shaking. Her skin still felt mangled and sore as if someone had just waffle ironed her face. Peeling crimson circles looked like bracelets on her wrists.

  It mustn’t have been long since they took away the silver. She could heal fast.

  Her red hair was wet and clotted with blood. She hissed with pain as she tore strands of it from her neck and cheeks.

  She tucked her knees up to her chest with an effort and took in her surroundings.

  There were bars in front of her and to the sides; glass panelling stood beyond it as if the bars weren’t enough to contain her. Beyond the glass panels were more cells, in a row in front of her and continue alongside her.

  The walls were a brilliant white, a white that stung her eyes.

  A thought jumped into her head and she checked her pockets. But- of course -her phone was gone.

  She turned to her direct left. She was not alone.

  A girl sat in the cell beside her, slumped against the back wall with thin, bony legs splayed out in front of her splatted with dried blood. Her head was back and her eyes were closed to the ceiling. Dried blood had collected on her face. In streams from her eyes, nose and mouth. Her long blonde hair was wet and matted.

  She could have been pretty once, with her cute floral summer dress and dainty sandals.

  Summer dress? It was winter. How long had the girl been here?

  “H-hello?” Evie’s brittle voice echoed around the walls, making the place sound eerily empty.

  The girl didn’t move.

  There was a tube in the girl’s ankle that fed out through the bars and joined up with… Evie gulped. She had seen the contraption before. In the dream. The tubing looked like it was clear once, but now was yellowed with age and whatever liquid has been pumped through it. She too had a machine just for her, set up outside her cell. Tubes were wrapped and tied at the side of it, waiting like a coiled snake.

  Evie started to panic. What’s happening? Where is she? Who were those men? What do they want with her?

  A door opened. The rattling reverberated through the bars that trap her.

  Footsteps clicked along the tiled floor, getting closer.

  Evie jumped to her feet and ran to the bars, wrapping her hands around them. An unholy screech ripped from her throat as the metal burned into her palms, making her skin crackle and hiss. Silver.

  “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

  She sucked in a startled gasp and looked up from her burnt palms. A man stood before her, behind the glass.

  She recognised him. She recognised him from her dream.

  He stood before her; his hands clasped behind his back. He smiled at her leisurely, the light from the strip lighting above them twinkling in the lens of his glasses. He only looked in his mid-thirties, dressed in a smart white shirt and black tie, his black hair ruffled in a tamed sort of way.

  “Where am I?” she asked, shooting a look down the cells. “Who are you? What am I doing here?”

  He held up his hand, silencing her.

  “My name is Nico,” he said conversationally. “I am a scientist. This is my basement. And you are here because I am working on a cure for vampiris
m.”

  The wounds on her palms began to heal, the skin knitting back together. “There is no cure for vampirism. It’s not a disease.”

  “Oh, I beg to differ.” There was a sparkle of humour in his grey eyes. Evie bit down on her tongue. She glared at him through the bars. He lifted his chin with a smug grin. “Vampirism is passed from person to person through blood, much like HIV, hepatitis B, C.”

  Evie scoffed. “You are actually going to compare vampirism to aids? Aids doesn’t make you immortal, have an unnatural thirst for blood, make you allergic to the sun-”

  “Diseases have symptoms. Those are merely symptoms.”

  She walked to the back of her cell. “You’re insane.”

  “I see myself as more of a visionary.”

  She settled herself on the floor and rested her back against the wall. “Then you have a serious case of delusions of grandeur.”

  “Delusions?” Nico arched an eyebrow. “Oh, I think it’s fair to say they are not delusions. Right at this moment, I have thirty-eight vampires imprisoned under my, well, mansion. The most feared creatures in the world trapped like ants under a magnifying glass.” He smiled. “Pretty impressive, don’t you think?”

  A memory sparked in Evie’s mind. A sliver of the cry for help from Caius. The unyielding light, like the sun bearing down on him. Her gut quivered as she peered up at the ceiling. Set within the centre tile was a large flat bulb. A UV bulb. Turned on for too long, and she’d burst into flames… much like an ant under a magnifying glass.

  She laced her fingers together on her lap and tucked her knees up, placing the thick soles of her boots firmly on the ground.

  “You have my Maker,” she murmured into her chest and fought back the lump in her throat.

  “What was that?”

  “I said-” Her vision had gone blurry and was smudged with red. “-you have my Maker.”

  “I do, do I?”

  “Yes.” She gritted her teeth as a tear escaped, hot and thick down her cheek. She wiped it away.

  “Hm.” He swayed to and fro on his heels. “Interesting. How would you know I have him?”

  “I just know.”

  His eyes narrow curiously and a small smile curved on his lips. “Oh, the bond between Maker and progeny. I’ve heard about that.”

  “Let me see him.”

  “I’m afraid I’m the one who calls the shots around here, vampire.” He opened the glass door and stepped into the narrow space between the glass and silver bars. “And I need you to do something for me.”

  Her fangs extended. “I will do nothing for you.”

  Nico let out an over exaggerated sigh. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way. I don’t mind either. But I’ve heard that the hard way can be quite painful for you.”

  Evie looked up, remembering how Caius had been convulsing on the floor, at mercy to the light bearing down on him. She wanted to be defiant. She wanted to prove that he would not win but she knew what UV light did to her. She understood the agony.

  In the morning after Caius had Turned her, he had warned her to stay away from the sun. She didn’t understand why. As she’d wandered around his dark house, running her fingers along the thick velvet that covered all the windows, she wondered how a man could be so afraid of the light. It didn’t make any sense. People were afraid of the dark. That did make sense. Things lurked in the dark. But the light… the light was full of hope and wonder and yet this man refused to let it in.

  So, she pulled back the curtain.

  She let out an ear-splitting scream and dropped to the floor in a ball as the sun burned her face and hands. She shook with agony and anger at her own disobedience. Caius must have heard her wail because the next moment, she was cradled in his arms. He rocked her softly and pulled the hair from her face, soothing her in silence until she healed.

  “So, what will it be?” asked Nico after a short silence. Evie blinked away her reverie and noticed he had a syringe in his hand now.

  “What are you going to do to me?” Her eyes shifted to the girl in the cell beside her, and to the tube running from her ankle and her unconscious state.

  “It’s a new batch. I just need to try it out.” He lifted the syringe up, inspecting the clear liquid inside. “How old are you, in vampire years?”

  “What’s it to you?”

  He flicked the syringe. “The longer you stay here, the more you will realise that when I ask you a question, you should answer it.”

  “A hundred.”

  “Oh.” His eyes widened with surprise, “congrats.”

  She sent him a sarcastic smile.

  “Now, give me your wrist.”

  She didn’t want to obey. But she didn’t want to be burned again. The silver was bad enough and UV rays were ten times worse.

  Slowly, she rose to her feet.

  Nico smiled. “That’s it.”

  She hugged her leather jacket around her petite frame and edged closer like she was entering a lion’s den. She stopped in front of the bars. If she stretched out her arm, she could reach him. She could tear his throat out on the spot.

  Her fangs poked out at the thought and she lunged, sticking her hand through the bars to grab his collar. But he was fast and twisted her wrist until her bone snapped and jutted out of her skin. She cried out and her wrist made contact with the silver bars. Her knees buckled from the pain. He jammed the syringe into her broken wrist and pressed down on the plunger.

  Her head felt instantly foggy and her vision blurred, blackening around the edges like a painting thrown into a fire. Black, singed dots filled the whiteness of the room. He let go of her arm and she fell back, colliding with the hard, tile floor. She tried to speak but her jaw wasn’t working right. The blackness was closing in on her. She wanted to claw it from her eyes as it suffocated her vision. But soon, the darkness took over.

  ___________ #___________

  Evie woke, jolting upright. She cringed at the aches and pains that cover her body.

  Her leather jacket was gone, torn to pieces on the floor. Tears covered her black vest underneath, exposing the skin on her chest and stomach which was dirty with dried blood. She gasped and pushed herself up onto her feet then gripped her wrist, remembering that it had been broken. It was fixed now. But as she took in her surroundings, her hands began to shake and the backs of her eyes burned with tears.

  Blood pools surround her, sticky and wet. On the floor and up the walls in curving arches and smudged hand prints- she could feel it on her jeans. It made the denim stiff and uncomfortable.

  Her palms were red and crumbling with blood. It’s wedged under her scuffed nails, turning them black. Streaks of crimson run up her exposed arms too in the wake of healed wounds.

  “What happened?” she whispered, running her dirty hands through her blood-sodden hair.

  “You’re not the first, don’t worry.”

  She jumped and spun round at the voice.

  The girl in the cell beside her was slumped in the same position she was in before, but her head had rolled to the side and her sunken, brown eyes were on Evie.

  She must have only been in her early teens when she had Turned. Now she looked weary and thin, like skin stretched over bone.

  “W-what happened to me?” Evie asked, dropping to her knees on the floor.

  “The injections,” said the girl in a horse, broken voice. She wheezed after every word as if speaking was a great effort for her. “They affect every vampire differently. Depending on their age and their Maker… and probably some other stuff too.”

  Evie crossed her legs and leaned in closer to her, making sure to not touch the bars.

  The girl let out a whistling wheeze and continued. “Sometimes the serum sends a vampire into hibernation. Sometimes it can send them crazy. Make them black out and their rage take over. Happens to many vampires anyway when starved from human blood for too long.” She coughed, splutters horrifically and leaned forward, spitting blood. She licked her dry lips and d
ropped back against the wall. “Sometimes it’s like they’re being boiled. Like being shoved into an oven… and… on occasion… sometimes they just… die.”

  Evie’s insides go cold. “So, I attacked myself?”

  “Yeah. I saw the whole thing… nasty. Rammed yourself into the bars a couple of times too. I think you were trying to get to me.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  The girl laughed then wheezed some more. “Not your fault.”

  “How many times has he done this to you?”

  Blood started to well under her eyes and dripped down her gaunt cheeks. “Seven. Most only last ‘til four.” She squinted at Evie curiously. “You said your Maker was here?”

  She gulped. “Yes. You heard?”

  She nodded weakly. “Sometimes I just pretend to be out. Keep him away. Doesn’t work most of the time. Only when he has someone new to play with.”

  “How long have you been here?”

  “Months… maybe. Hard to tell.”

  She noticed people in the cells opposite. They look small from where she sat and most were splayed out on the floor. The vampire directly opposite her looked albino, with chalky white skin and even whiter hair. His eyes were closed as he lay on the floor, his head propped up by the wall. Dried blood ran down his cheeks from old tears.

  “Do you know many people have been in here? Vampires, I mean.” Evie asked the girl.

  “They come and go. Don’t catch names.”

  She shuffled back and dropped her back against the wall. “Well, I’m Evie.”

  The girl tried to smile. “Sophie.”

  Evie was shocked awake by an echoing bang and a harrowing scream. She smacked her hand to her chest the way a human would when their heart was pounding. It was just a habit now.