by Amy Cross
“I think the dumb bitch is going to stand her ground and fight,” she chuckles. “Oh, that's cute. She's really in over her head. Then again, she's only a thousand years old. I remember when I was that young, I had ideas above my station too. Such a shame she'll never have the opportunity to grow up and become more mature.”
Turning, I start running back into the forest, but it only takes a couple of seconds before Sheffield catches up and yanks me back down to the ground.
“Not so fast, hot stuff,” she continues, placing her boot against my chest and pushing hard. “We might still need to use you as bait. You're my wriggling little worm on the end of a great big hook and -”
Suddenly something slams into her from behind, and a chunk of wood comes bursting out through her chest. She gasps and stumbles forward, dropping to her hands and knees right next to me, and I immediately see blood dribbling from her mouth.
“Damn it!” she gasps. “Right through the...”
She tries to reach around and grab the wood, but her hand is trembling and finally she rolls onto her side.
“Staked me,” she stammers. “That's gonna... hurt in the...”
“She threw it!” Marston shouts, turning and looking around at the trees. “That's -”
Another chunk of wood flashes through the air, and he barely steps aside in time. Opening his fist, he lets the crushed necklace fall to the ground and then he turns and looks toward the trees again.
“I freed you from my control!” he calls out. “Now I'm going to free you from the gift I gave you! There's no point fighting back, Madeleine! You know you don't have a chance!”
“Be a darling,” Sheffield gasps, reaching out toward me, “and get this... splinter out of me, huh? It's kinda... cramping my style...”
I pull away, horrified as I realize the chunk of wood must have pierced her heart.
“Marston!” she hisses. “I need a little help here!”
“Wait!” he says firmly, stepping away from us and heading toward the trees. “I think I -”
Suddenly another chunk of wood slices through the air, this time missing him by a good few feet. He turns and looks back across toward another part of the forest, and his smile grows.
“Is this your plan?” he calls out. “You might have managed to get the drop on Sheffield, but you know this is never going to work with me! Come out and face me properly, Madeleine! This is inevitable and you know it! Don't want you to show a little dignity in the face of death?”
“I'm still pissed about the way she threw us off that ferry,” Sheffield gasps, trying but still failing to get the wood out of her chest. “I've got to admit, when she's desperate and cornered, she can be quite creative. After she's dead, I certainly won't forget her in a -”
She stops suddenly, staring at something behind me, and finally her smile grows again.
“Well hello there, Madeleine,” she continues. “I was starting to think you might stand us up.”
Turning, I'm shocked to see a burned, naked figure standing just a few feet away. Her skin is reddened and black, glistening in the sunlight as blood dribbles from her charred body, but her eyes are wide open and I can see – despite all the damage – that it's definitely her.
“Just accept the inevitable,” Sheffield stammers, still fumbling in a vain attempt to pull the stake from her chest. “Marston gave you immortality, bitch, and now he's changed his mind. You must have figured out by now that there's no way you can run.”
“Where is it?” Madeleine asks, her voice sounding harsh and damaged. “It belonged to my mother and I want it back.”
“The necklace is just dust now,” Marston tells her, taking a step closer. “There's nothing left to protect you. I'm going to make you mortal again, and then I'm going to kill you. You must have known this day was coming once you left our pack.”
“Get this thing out of me!” Sheffield hisses, clearly annoyed. “I want to join in the fun!”
“You kill innocent people,” Madeleine tells Marston. “You kill for food, you kill for fun, for sport... You kill because it's a habit.”
“And?” Marston asks with a smile. “So what?”
“I don't want to be like that,” she replies.
“Sickening,” he sneers. “You're letting your old mortal emotions show through. How can you degrade and insult the vampire species in such a way? It was a mistake to grant you this gift in the first place.”
“Just drop the bitch,” Sheffield gasps, as she tries but fails to get to her feet. Clutching the stake, she tries again to pull it out, but her hands are still trembling too much. “I hate these things! I'm going to have a hell of a scar for the next few days.”
“Get out of here, Ben,” Madeleine says, turning to me. “Please, you have to run.”
Sheffield immediately starts laughing. “Run?” she blurts out. “How the hell do you expect him to run? That's like telling an ant to run from an elephant!” She reaches out and tries to grab me, but her hand falls just a few inches too short. “You should feel privileged,” she sneers, clearly getting weaker. “Very few humans get to witness one vampire before they die, let alone three. At least you have the honor of experiencing this moment before your miserable, short life is snuffed out.”
“Please run,” Madeleine tells me. “It's the only way you've got even the slightest chance.”
Turning, I scramble to my feet and start limping away through the forest. Before I've even made it a couple of steps, however, I hear a horrific scream over my shoulder and I realize that Madeleine and Marston have begun to fight.
Twenty
Letting out a gasp, I lean against a tree and take a moment to get my breath back. My mind is racing, but I keep telling myself the same thing over and over:
This isn't real.
None of this is actually happening.
Madeleine has been a figment of my imagination since the start. Maybe there was a girl on the coach. Maybe. And maybe I paid her fare for her, and maybe – just maybe – I spotted her one more time in Paris. But everything since then has been part of some psychosis, of some addled and warped reaction to Sonja's death. I haven't been well, I know that now, and I need serious help as soon as I get back to London.
I flinch as I hear a cry of pain nearby.
Turning, I look back through the forest. I can't see anyone, but I definitely hear what sounds like a struggle. For a moment, I catch myself imagining Madeleine locked in some kind of battle with Marston and Sheffield, but again I tell myself that the whole situation isn't real.
Marston?
Sheffield?
What kind of names are those, anyway? Clearly my subconscious mind isn't very creative. I've managed to conjure up some kind of over-cooked, melodramatic soap opera starring impossible creatures. I should have heeded the warning signs when I thought I saw Sonja in my apartment before the funeral, but I guess it's very easy for anyone to let their guard slip. The human mind can only take so much horror before it starts to crack.
“This isn't real,” I whisper again, trying to regain a grip on my sanity. “This isn't real. This isn't real. This isn't real.”
With that, I start limping away.
Twenty-One
Stopping again, I realize I can hear Madeleine crying out.
“She's not real,” I say firmly, trying to make myself believe those words. “She's not real, she's not -”
She screams again, and this time there's pure, ragged agony in her voice. Instinctively, I turn and look back through the forest, and at that moment I see her in my mind's eye. She's being hauled up from the ground, bloodied and naked, and Marston is baring his fangs as he reaches down to dig his fingers into her chest.
“She's not real,” I stammer again.
Deep down, however, I can't ignore her screams. I remember the day I walked out of the apartment in Stockholm, convinced that Sonja would be okay for a few hours, and when I returned she was dead in the bathtub. Now I'm running away from a woman who's screaming as she dies, and if th
ere's even the slightest chance that she's real...
I hesitate for a moment, before heading back the way I just came. I already let one person die in the past week. I'm not going to do it again.
Twenty-Two
“Madeleine!” I shout, limping through the forest. I almost slip several times, but I know I have to keep going. If there's even a sliver of a chance that she's real, I have to get to her.
Up ahead, I can hear voices shouting.
“Can you please get this thing out of me?” Sheffield hisses, still struggling on the floor as she tries to pull the chunk of wood from her chest. “I want to join in, dammit! I deserve some fun!”
A little further away, Marston is holding Madeleine's ragged body by the neck. After a moment, he smashes her against a nearby tree and then lets her fall to the ground. As I get closer, I still can't see whether she's alive, but she's clearly in a bad way and Marston is already leaning down to grab her yet again.
“Oh great,” Sheffield says with a smirk, spotting me as I limp past. “The pesky mortal wimp is back. What's your plan, vermin? Are you going to whine and hope you manage to bore us all to death?”
Ignoring her, I spot a broken branch on the ground and pick it up. The damaged end is ragged and sharp, and I figure it's the only possible weapon right now. Ahead, Marston still has his back to me as he holds Madeleine by the neck, while his right hand is reaching deeper into her ravaged chest, as if he's groping to find her heart. After a moment, she lets out a faint, bloodied gurgle, which at least means she's alive.
Raising the jagged piece of wood above my head, I limp up behind Marston, ready to strike.
“Hey!” Sheffield yells. “Watch out for -”
Before she can finish, I smash the branch against Marston's back with all the fury I can manage. To my surprise, I manage to force the wood beneath his shoulder-blade and deep into his chest, and he immediately turns and snarls at me with the wooden tip poking out just below his collarbone.
“Sorry,” I tell him, taking a step back, “I was aiming for your heart.”
He stumbles toward me, trying to grab my neck, but instead he loses his footing and drops to his knees. Letting out a gasp of anger, he lashes out, reaching for me but missing by a few inches as he once again lunges toward me. He tries for a third time, this time throwing his entire body in my direction, but I step back and watch as he slumps down against the forest floor. The branch is embedded in his back, glistening with blood, and he can't pull it out even as he tries to reach around.
Hearing a faint gasping sound, I turn and see that Madeleine – her body still burned and bloodied – is trying but failing to get to her feet. I rush over to help her, but she slumps back down and lets out a series of groans.
“Tell me what to do,” I stammer, even though she looks to be beyond help. There's blood on my hands now, her blood, and for a moment I can't help thinking back to the bathroom in Stockholm when I was covered in blood from Sonja's lifeless body.
Clearly in pain, Madeleine tries to say something, but her words are garbled.
“What was that?” I ask, as blood dribbles from her lips. “You have to tell me what to do!”
“Dig!” she gasps, her whole body trembling with shock. “I need you to... dig...”
***
Pushing against Marston's shuddering body one more time, I finally manage to shove him over the edge and down into the pit I've dug in the forest floor. He lands hard at the bottom, slamming onto Sheffield before rolling onto his side. They both still have stakes through their hearts.
“Now fill it in,” Madeleine groans, watching from nearby. She's on the floor, leaning against a tree, and it looks as if she can barely keep her eyes open. “Hurry!”
“You can't bury us alive!” Sheffield gasps, trying once again to get up, despite the chunk of wood that's embedded in her chest. “Have some pity!”
“Fill it in!” Madeleine says firmly.
“No!” Sheffield hisses, still trying desperately to get up even as Marston shudders and gurgles at her feet. “You can't do this! You're not a monster, Ben! You can't bury us down here in the dark!” There are tears in her eyes now, and I can tell she's starting to panic. “You can't do this to me,” she sobs. “It could be centuries before someone digs us up. You can't leave us down here in the dark, staked and helpless, trying to scream with dirt in our mouths. We'll lose our goddamn minds. Maybe we won't ever be found! You're condemning us to an eternity of madness!”
Staring at her, I momentarily feel as if she might be right. She and Marston are clearly both incapacitated, and I feel as if I could just get Madeleine away from here, so that they have no chance to catch us.
“Please,” Sheffield continues, as tears rolls down her cheeks. “I'm begging you, give us one more chance...”
“Fine!” Madeleine says firmly, forcing herself up and staggering over to join me. “If you won't do it, I will!”
With that, she starts using her burned hands to push the mound of dirt down onto the two writhing figures below. Sheffield coughs and splutters, trying to cover her face, but after a moment she slumps down as more and more soil tumbles down into the hole. Finally she lets out a horrified scream, but the sound is quickly drowned out as Madeleine continues to push soil into their grave.
“Isn't there another way?” I ask, turning to Madeleine and seeing the determination in her eyes. “You can't just kill them like this!”
“I'm not killing them,” she mutters darkly. “I want to, but I can't. I'm just making sure that it's a very, very long time before anyone finds them and pulls those chunks of wood out of their chests. While they're staked, they won't be able to free themselves.” She lets out a gasp of pain. “I'm sure one day they'll find their way out and come to bug me again.”
As Marston and Sheffield continue to struggle, I step back and watch Madeleine pushing more soil down on top of them. I can't bring myself to help, but finally the cries become more muffled and I realize that most of the soil has now been pushed back into the hole. Madeleine still doesn't stop, though, and she keeps going until all that's left is a slightly bulging mound of mud. Only now does she slow down, and finally she slumps against the ground with a long, pained sigh.
“Are they...” I hesitate for a moment, staring at the mound. “Are they still alive down there?”
“They're vampires,” she gasps, “just like me. So what do you think?”
“But what will they -”
“They're monsters,” she continues. “Again, just like me.” She pauses for a moment. “I was friends with them once. They made me what I am, they taught me a lot of things, but eventually I decided I didn't want to be like them, I thought I could fight my instincts. That's when they turned on me and ran me down. They've been chasing me for the past year and -”
She lets out a gasp of pain, clutching her waist as she steps back and leans against a tree.
“I had to turn against them,” she explains, “but Marston was the one who turned me into a vampire, so I couldn't fight him until that bond was broken. Fortunately, he also needed to break the bond so he could take away the gift of immortality. He'd never have done that if he'd realized it was what I wanted too, so I had to trick him. I needed him to destroy the necklace.” She glances at me, and I swear the faintest hint of a smile crosses her charred lips. “It was a slightly convoluted plan, but it worked out in the end. I just wish -”
Gasping again, she drops to her knees.
“You need a doctor,” I tell her, hurrying over to see if I can help. “I'll call a -”
“Are you insane?” she snaps. “Leave me alone!”
“But -”
Suddenly she opens her mouth and hisses at me, baring her fangs as her eyes momentarily seem to fill with a yellowish hue. I pull back, but she lunges at me and I have to duck out of the way. Panicking, I scramble past the nearest tree and then look back, just in time to see her slumping back down with her eyes having returned to their normal color. Still, for a
moment there she seemed like a completely different person, as if some other instinct had taken over.
“Didn't anyone ever teach you,” she whispers, clearly in more pain than before, “to never mess with a wounded animal?”
“Animal?” I ask, making sure to keep a safe distance this time. “What are you -”
“You have to run,” she continues, interrupting me. “You have to get as far away from here as possible, and then you have to pray that it's far enough. I can't hold back for much longer.”
“Hold back from what?”
I wait for an answer, but instead she seems focused on trying to get to her feet.
“I want to help you,” I continue. “Madeleine, I -”
“You helped me enough already!” she hisses. “It's not safe for you, not now! My instincts will kick in, and I need blood to accelerate my healing process. I need lots of blood.” She stares at me. “Soon that's all you'll be to me. Blood.”
“But back in Paris, you -”
“You invited me into your hotel room!” she points out. “I can't attack people who invite me! After that, I was still weak, and I needed your help. Believe me, there are rules that govern the life of a vampire, and you just happened to invoke a few of them! Trust me, that luck is gonna run out pretty damn soon!”
“But if you -”
“Look at me,” she continues. “What do you see?”
Staring at her, I can't help noticing that her naked body is covered in cuts and burns, with blood having soaked across her flesh.
“What have you seen ever since you met me on that coach?” she asks.
“I've seen a...” I hesitate. “A girl.”
“Like the girl in the bathtub?” she continues, with a faint smile. “Someone who needs your help?”
“Exactly. I mean...”
“Maybe a chance to redeem yourself? You couldn't save her, but maybe you can save me?”
I open my mouth to tell her she's wrong, but a shudder in my chest makes me realize that she might be right after all.