by Dani Hoots
I started for the door, my head down, ignoring everyone around me. I could feel their eyes creep across me as I walked past. I hated the feeling as it made my skin crawl knowing the truth as to what they saw me as. Before I could get to the door, though, Brian had stopped me.
“Where are you going? What’s wrong?” he asked, eyes darting back and forth between mine. I thought his words to be lies, that he didn’t really care.
I shook my head, still mad at him but not wanting to make a scene. “What am I to you?”
He didn’t seem to understand, although we had discussed this a few times before that night. “What are you talking about? You know you just work for me, nothing more.”
“Then why does everyone here see me as your whore?”
“What? Who said that?” he glanced around the room.
“It doesn’t matter, I have to get out of here. I need some fresh air.”
“Let me call the driver...” he began.
“No, I need a walk. I will find a way back to the house.”
Brian tried to say something but I shoved past him and out the door. I know now that I should have listened to him
I stepped out into the dark, dank September night, wrapping my arms around myself. I had left my coat inside and I didn’t feel like going back and getting it. People were still lining up to get in the speakeasy so I hurried off in the opposite direction, hoping to find some peace and quiet at last.
A couple of blocks later, I found myself alone, with only the partial moon filling the night sky. Clouds hid away the stars, along with the city air. I kicked at any rock that was in my path, imagining it as Brian himself.
As I walked further, I heard a car creep up behind me. I glanced back to find bright lights nearly piercing my eyesight. The car stopped and I watched as the doors opened.
“Hey miss!”
I stopped dead in my tracks, my heartbeat echoing in my ears. I was in deep shit and I knew it. I cursed under my breath, words I had learned from both my family and from Brian.
“You’re that lady who’s always with Mister MacAuliffe, aren’t ya?”
I tried to get a better look at the man speaking to me but his car lights masked his identity well. But from the voice, I could tell he wasn’t one of Brian’s friends. An Italian from up north. “Maybe.”
His laugh was deep, throaty almost, and eerie as hell. He started walking towards me and I could make out another man getting out of his car, who had some type of gun in his hand. “I wonder what he would do if his lovely girl went missing.”
I turned around and started running back towards the Sportlight, even though I knew it to be a waste. Nobody can run in heels, I swore. He caught me in a matter of seconds. One can’t describe the fear that had taken over my thoughts, my body. I can tell you this much, I never wore heels again after that night.
“Somebody help me!” I screamed before he placed his hand over my mouth. I tried to escape his grasp but it was no use. I wished Brian taught me how to fight at that moment. I don’t know why it never crossed his mind to give me a weapon with how many enemies he had. Maybe he thought he could always keep me safe, and I guess in a way he was right.
“Let her go!”
I looked up to see Brian standing in front of the car. I couldn’t believe my eyes and wondered if he had followed me from the party. He had to of, really, it was a stupid question to think.
The man that held me pulled out a knife and placed it under my throat. I swore my heart stopped beating right then and there, I had never been so afraid. I would have been shaking if it weren’t for fear of making the knife go into my throat. “No, Brian, this is how it’s going to go down. I’m taking this girl and am sending you a ransom. You pay that ransom and she won’t get hurt. You fail to do so,” the man pushed the knife against my skin a little harder, I thought it was going to pierce my skin. “You can say goodbye to your sweetheart.”
Brian stared at the man for a long while, as if contemplating what his next move would be. I just prayed he would help, that he would care enough to save me. Was it because he cared about me or was it because he saw me as his property? It didn’t matter, either way I didn’t want to die.
“Anne, close your eyes,” he said in a lot calmer voice than I thought he should be having at that moment.
I tried to say ‘what’, but it came out as a muffled, “Mphm?”
His eyes didn’t leave my attackers and I had sworn they changed color. Goosebumps covered my skin. Something was going to happen and I just hoped I would survive it all. “Trust me, please. You don’t want to see what is going to happen next.”
“What are you going to do?” my attacker asked. “There’s nothing you can do without me slipping my knife across her throat!”
“Close your eyes now!” Brian demanded.
I did as he ordered and I had no idea what happened. All I heard was a swooshing sound and the screams of the two men that had attacked me. I couldn’t imagine what Brian had done to them, I had no idea. It sounded like something out of the horror movies that were to come in the following years. I remember shaking as I slowly opened my eyes. I knew I wasn’t supposed to open my eyes until Brian said something but after the man let go of me, I felt the world spinning around me. If I didn’t open them, I probably would have either fallen down or thrown up, most likely both.
And what I saw made me wish I had kept my eyes close.
Brian stood over the two men, his demonic eyes glowing yellow, nothing of this world could compare. His teeth were fangs, long and sharp and blood dripped from them down out of his mouth and onto his clothes. He breathed heavily, as an animal did after an attack.
I just stared at him, my hand covering my mouth. I didn’t understand what was going on, I didn’t know what to do, I didn’t know what was going on. I had never seen anything like him. I was frightened as to the creature I was looking at.
He looked over at me and saw that I was watching. “I told you to close your eyes.”
“I...”
He started walking towards me. I quickly stood and started running away from him.
“Anne! Don’t!” he called out but I ignored him and ran off, away from the horrors I had just witnessed. As I ran around a corner, I felt arms wrap around me. I began to scream.
“Shh! Anne, it’s me.”
I looked up to find Joshua smiling.
“Joshua, I don’t... I don’t...”
Something caught his attention behind me. I turned to find Brian standing there. I hid behind Joshua, not wanting to get any closer to the beast. Brian saw how I feared him and stopped, frowning.
“Take her to the country home. I will be there by the end of the week,” he ordered. His eyes started to turn back to their normal color and his teeth didn’t seem as sharp as they did minutes ago. For a moment I wondered if I had imagined it all, but the blood was still there.
He nodded and grabbed my arm, very tightly I might add. Neither of them wanted me to leave their sight and I accepted that because, frankly, I didn’t have anyone to run to.
“Come on, you’re fine,” Joshua led me down the street. I didn’t say a word as he ushered me into a car and drove off out of the city.
I imagined this being my last car ride, to never return to the city. I would be the girl that disappeared one night and no one would know why. I really doubted anyone would have noticed, but I still worried that would have been me. Joshua didn’t say anything as he drove for an hour into the dark night. I stared out the window, shaking in my seat. I still had not yet understood what I had seen. I understood what a vampire was but it was just a fairytale, wasn’t it? Like Beauty and the Beast. I couldn’t make sense of it. I thought about asking Joshua more of what had happened, but I couldn’t ever get the words to escape my mouth. I also wasn’t sure if Joshua was one so I just wrapped my arms around myself and curled up in a ball in the backseat of the car.
As we approached Brian’s country home, an older man, his greying hair reflecti
ng the grey of the moon, stood outside the doorway. And by country home, I meant a manor that could hold at least three full-sized families. I couldn’t believe Brian didn’t just stay out here all the time. It was beautiful, the large white pillars greeting guests as they arrived, no neighbors for miles, only full grown forest and all that dwelled in it. It seemed like paradise to me.
Joshua helped me out and brought me to the older man. I didn’t like him touching me, flinching at the initial feeling. My body shook with fear. I looked at the old man. He seemed harmless enough, like a grandfather that cared about his grandkids. One that would give you cookies when you were feeling down.
“This is Walter, he is going to be watching you for a bit. Make yourself comfortable, Brian has things to finish before he can come out here and deal with what happened,” Joshua explained.
I didn’t answer, I really didn’t know what to say. I also didn’t want to know what he meant by ‘deal with’. For a while I thought Brian was going to kill me, but realized he would have just done it in Boston if he was.
“I have to get back as well. Walter is going to look after you,” he took a step closer, not letting Walter hear him. “And if you try to run away or tell anyone, I will kill you. If you try to hurt Brian in any way, I will kill you. You understand?”
I nodded my head yes.
“Good. With that, I take my leave,” he turned to Walter. “Don’t let her leave, don’t let her out of your sight. Get her anything she wants. Brian will send her clothes tomorrow.”
“Yes, sir.”
Joshua drove off and I simply stood there, staring at the road, realizing I was trapped there for God-knows how long. Although the place was nice, I still shook at the idea of being trapped and waiting for how I was to be dealt with. Having a member of a gang say that about you was never a good thing, I knew. I had read notes in how they dealt with people and it was never pretty. Most of them just disappeared which was my fear.
“Well, madam,” Walter held out his hand. “I will show you to your room.”
I nodded but didn’t say anything as he led me into the house. The entry opened up into a large almost ballroom-like area, staircases going up around both sides towards what I figured to be the lodging areas. Walter took me up the stairs and, I swore, picked a random room for me to stay in. There were so many, I doubted anyone stayed here often. Was he here all alone? I understood his loneliness if he was. A candle was already burning inside on the nightstand, flickering away and letting little light into the room.
Walter switched on the main light and I could make out the blue design that the room was decorated in. A chair and table took up the corner, the bed in the middle, and a small seat next to the window. A door way on the other side must have led to the closet. I stood in awe for a moment, then went back to my shivering self. I wasn’t a house guest, I was a prisoner here. I couldn’t leave without people trying to kill me. In fact, I might be killed here soon.
“Well, I will leave you for the night. If you need anything, just call for me,” Walter said. I was glad he was the one watching me, not Joshua. Joshua had always scared me, even from day one. He wouldn’t hesitate to kill me, I knew. He hated seeing me around Brian. Whether it was from jealousy or pure suspicion, I didn’t know.
I nodded again. It was like I had lost my voice that night, I didn’t have anything to say.
“Goodnight,” he closed the door behind him.
I sat down on the bed and held my hand over my mouth, trying to stop myself from screaming.
A week passed, I didn’t hear anything from Brian or Joshua other than they had sent my clothes over from the townhouse. I mostly sat and read. Brian had a lot of books stored here, ranging from fairytales to history and poetry books.. I found it strange how he had so much more here than he did in the city. I never figured out which was the real him, the minimalist or the man who had to show off. Maybe it was both.
Sometimes I would sit and play on the piano he had, letting my thoughts drift away with the notes. Walter tried to talk to me, asking a little about my past or just questions to get to know me, but I usually answered with minimal responses. I had too much processing through my brain to want to talk.
Walter let me take walks through the woods, accompanied by him of course. He walked a few paces behind me, of course, as I enjoyed the serenity. I hadn’t ever been outside the city, all of it was new to me. It was beautiful, I felt at peace for once in my life, at least if it weren’t for the fear of Brian finally deciding to kill me for what I knew.
Then, finally, after the longest week of my life, I heard a car pull up to the house. I was at the piano when I hurried to the window to find Brian getting out of the car with Joshua. I waited in the entry, fiddling with my sleeves. So many emotions were running through me. Fear, anger, worry. All of it was coursing through my veins, but only one of them overpowered the other.
The door opened and I ran straight to Brian, wrapping my arms around him. He just stood there confused and probably in shock. I could feel Joshua and Walter staring at me and was sort of surprised neither of them tried to stopped me, for all they knew I could have been trying to attack him. I guess no one expected me to respond in that way and, frankly, neither did I. I just felt that it needed to be done.
“Thank you,” I whispered in his ear.
He wrapped his arms around me and just held me. He nodded to the others to leave us. I heard them enter the library and we were alone. The moment felt like it could have lasted forever, and I wished it did. Even though he didn’t treat me fair, even though I was pretty sure he didn’t have feelings for me, I knew that I loved him for standing up for me, for caring enough to let me hold him like this.
I moved back. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable.”
“That’s alright,” he motioned to the parlor. “Please, let’s talk. I believe I owe you an explanation.”
I followed him inside the room and took a seat. I watched as he poured us both a drink. During this entire week, I had drunk more than I ever thought I would in a life time.
He handed me the drink and I took a large sip of it. “Do you know what I am?”
“I know of things you could be, but those aren’t...”
“Real?” he laughed as he sat across from me. “The name is hooh-strah-dooh, it’s a creature from Wyandot folklore. You might know them better as vampires.”
My eyes widened. So it was true, all the stories. All the legends. My mind raced, thinking about what other creatures could have existed in the world.
“I,” he laughed again, as if it were some kind of joke. I think that was how he dealt with it all, looking at his life as some joke for the God that had let him come into existence. “I did something I probably shouldn’t have. It was a war, though, and I got too involved. I killed a lot of people, a lot of innocent people, or at least that’s what they say. Well, I pissed off the wrong people and when they captured me, instead of killing me, they decided to curse me.” He took a sip of his drink. “The curse was creating me into a creature, the hooh-strah-dooh. Then they buried me alive in a way they thought I would never escape from. Big metal box of some sort. I craved blood and flesh and the hunger was unbearable,” he paused as the memory came back to him. “The want... the need. I can’t even describe what it felt like, the realization of what I craved,” he took another sip as I listened further. “I also couldn’t die and would suffer for what they thought was an eternity.
“A few years later, a grave robber found me and dug me up. Joke was on him when he opened my coffin and reached his arm inside. I grabbed it and drank his blood. Poor fool didn’t know what happened. Then I went to find the people who did this to me. The Wyandot.”
I didn’t say a word as he replayed everything back in his mind. I wondered how many people he had told this to over the years. I never did ask, but I had a feeling it was very little. First off, people would think him crazy, and second, when they understood he was telling the truth, they w
ould run off screaming.
“So I murdered them,” Brian stated as if death no longer had any meaning. “The people who did this to me. Every single one I could get my hands on. A couple got away and have been trying to kill me ever since,” he smiled. “I think now they wish they had just killed me instead of making me into this. They are the ones suffering now, I made sure of that.”
It was a lot to take in, I had to admit. But there is one thing that Brian did not explain. “When did you become this?”
“1677.”
I just stared at him. That was almost 250 years ago. That couldn’t be possible, it just couldn’t. None of what he was saying seemed real, yet I had seen what he did. He was telling the truth. He had no reason to lie anymore.
He grinned. “I know, I don’t look a day past a hundred.”
“How is that possible?” I asked.
Brian shrugged. “A little magic, a little luck. I fought in the Beaver Wars initially, and have fought in some other wars as well. I’ve almost died a few times, but after a while you figure out how to stay away from places that will get you killed.”
He must have seen so much, I couldn’t even grasp what that must have been like. “So you became a gang leader?”
“Yeah I got caught up in a fight with the Gustin brothers and they saw how well I fought and offered me a job. After a while I broke off and started my own gang. It’s the perfect job for me, I can kill and drink blood without anyone noticing.”
I felt like I was going to be sick. That was the blood I cleaned out of his clothes, that was the blood I cleaned off his skin at night. I covered my mouth.
He brushed his finger against my cheek. “Do you fear me, Anne?”
I didn’t answer because at that moment, I wasn’t sure. I had known him to be a nice man, but that didn’t mean he still wasn’t a creature that fed on humans just like me. It didn’t mean that he still wasn’t going to kill me. When I didn’t answer, Brian stood up and knelt down in front of me.