It had just passed a few minutes after she started going downstairs, when he heard her scream. Guillem approached the stairs quickly and saw two very skinny teenagers with deteriorated clothes and a flashlight trying to subdue Lissette. Without thinking it twice Guillem went running down stairs as he took out his pistol and screamed “Leave her alone!”.
One of the thugs pointed the flashlight directly at Guillem's face which was still partially covered by the hood. The other one was still wrestling with Lissette.
As soon as Guillem saw the flashlight pointing to his face he fired his pistol at the thug grazing him just under his right shoulder. Both of them threw themselves to the floor as soon as he fired and started yelling “Please forgive us, we will not do it again! Do not kill us!”.
The view and smell of the blood coming out from the thug's wound caused a really strong desire in Guillem. It extremely intensified his hunger, he could smell its sweetness filling him with the need to run toward the thug, to bite and tear all the meat out of his bones and drink his blood until there was not one drop left in him. After struggling for a few seconds with his thoughts he finally managed to control himself and pushed those dark desires away.
“Go away! And I do NOT want to see you around her ever again!” Guillem said.
The thugs ran down stairs, but when Guillem was about to talk to Lissette he heard more people approaching from upstairs.
“Lissette, are you ok?” He heard his mother yelling from upstairs.
“Yes Ms. Pinero, we are coming up…” Guillem interrupted her.
“You cannot tell anyone that I am here, nobody! Please.”
“What? Why?”
“I cannot explain.” Guillem said as he jumped out of the stairs and hid between the bushes surrounding it.
“I will not tell them, but only if I can see you later tonight. What do you say if we meet in one hour in Las Mercedes? In the Cachapa de Oro restaurant?”
“Ok, see you there.”
Guillem waited a few minutes as Lissette went up again. When everything was quiet he went downstairs and walked toward Las Mercedes. On the way he saw many working crews trying to remove all the rubbish accumulated from last night's revolt which included the odd burned car and a lot of burned tires. In Las Mercedes he saw many destroyed nightclubs, but all the others were open and working normally, in fact they were full of people drinking as if nothing ever happened in the city. He saw a lot of pickup trucks loaded with people wearing red shirts and red flags going around the place screaming slogans in favour of Cabrera.
He arrived to the Cachapa de Oro just a few minutes before Lissette. Sat down in the most far away table he could find and ordered a cachapa with hand cheese and a rock melon juice. Lissette arrived a few minutes late, approached the table and sat down.
“Guillem! I cannot believe it. What happened? Why everyone thinks you are dead?”
“Because I am dead. It is hard to explain. The Guaire river dragged me for a long time and I remember as I drowned and the rubbish dragged by the river hit me many times until I finally lost consciousness. I remember as I drowned and the taste of that disgusting water. The rubbish invading my body every time I tried to breathe, but it not only happened once it happened many times, as if you were repeating a movie over and over again. But then I opened my eyes and I was in a little room. My body felt different. It still feels different, it feels numb. There I met the guy that rescued me and explained all that happened. Now I am some sort of vampire or something like that and I have done some horrible things. I loose control of myself every time I feel hungry or threatened.”
“Ok, Guillem. Whatever you say. Maybe we should call your family, you might be needing help. You look all pale and your skin looks wrinkly and sick.”
“For God's sake. It is for this reason I do NOT want to tell anyone. Nobody is going to believe me. After I fed my skin went back to normal, but now that I feel hungry again it looks like this, as if I dried up.” He took Lissette's hand and put it on his chest. “Do you feel a heart beat? Anything?” Then he moved her hand to his wrist. “And what about a pulse? Do I seem alive to you?” Then moved it just under his nose. “Do I breathe? Have you seen any human being alive that did not need to breathe? I do not!” She pulled her arm away from him. “Touch my arm. Do you feel any body heat? What other proof do you need?” Lissette was just staring at him scared. “In fact I was not even able to cry, not even when I saw my mother crying. It seems that my normal bodily functions do not work normally any more, it took me a lot of effort to finally drop a few tears back in the parking lot in Santa Ines.”
“But all this must have another explanation.” The waiter approached with the cachapa and juice Guillem requested.
“Do you want anything to eat or drink?”
“Yes, a pineapple juice please.” She said to the waiter then after the waiter left. “Let's see, if you are what you say. Can you eat normal food? I thought you would need blood, isn't that what vampires eat?.”
“Yes, I already took some blood from a girl as soon as I woke up in that strange house. As I said before, my skin was all wrinkly like this, but after drinking some unfortunate girl's blood it went back and looked almost is it did before, just a bit more pale than usual.”
Guillem started eating. The food lacked flavour, it was as if he was eating plastic. As soon as he swallowed the first bite he felt as his stomach twisted and the food came rushing back through his throat. The spasm were so hard to bear that he had to vomit on his plate and it came accompanied by a lot of dark coagulated blood.
“I am sorry Lissette.” Guillem said as he put the plate aside. “Excuse me! I am not feeling so good.” He yelled to the rest of the customers. “I have to leave his place.”
“Where are you going? Do you have a place to rest? If you are what you say you are maybe you should hide during the day somewhere safe.”
“That is what Sebastian told me as well, that is the guy that transformed this into this nightmare. He is expecting me back at his house, but I do not want to go there.”
“I am not sure if believing you or not, but you can stay with me if you want. You might just be sick and it would be good if you had someone close just in case something happened. I am sure we can put you in a closet or trunk, I will stay at home the whole day just in case you need help.”
“Well, thank you. I guess you are right.”
“Are you ok?” A waiter asked Guillem. “Do you want us to call an ambulance or maybe your family?”
“No thank you.” He answered and requested the bill.
“By the way, did the news say something about murdered people? Me and my friends saw a lot of corpses floating in the river.” Guillem asked Lissette.
“A lot of missing people was reported, but Cabrera keeps denying everything. A few police officers and politicians were going to say something, but when they were interviewed they just denied everything very nervously.”
“Maybe they were threatened?”
“That is what people is saying, anyway most people is avoiding talking about it now. They are afraid of disappearing as well. The ones still demanding an answer are the families of course, some reporters and the politicians opposed to Cabrera.”
“Anyway, let's leave this place.” Guillem said when the waitress brought the bill.
Guillem paid with the money Sebastian had given to him, leaving a generous tip and they went out of the restaurant. Lissette lived very close from there, in Bello Monte. It was just 1 hour walking time. When they arrived it was already slightly after 3am.
The apartment was extremely small and old. A kitchen with a small gas cooktop, walls covered with tiny tiles. A small lounge with old and deteriorated furniture and a small bedroom with a queen sized bed, a large trunk and a small closed placed against a wall. There was a small bathroom reachable from the lounge and bedroom. Everything was very clean and tidy.
“We can cover the bedroom window with the closet and you could get into the trunk. I
will stay in the lounge and if you need something just let me know. I mean, in the trunk you will not be able to breathe for long, if you are a vampire that will not matter and if you are not then just open it or call me and I will help you. What do you say?” Said Lissette.
“Thank you Lissette. As I showed you I am no longer breathing unless I am talking or actively make an effort to do so. Why are you doing this? I mean, for all you know I might be just some crazy guy that believes he is a vampire.”
“Simple. Because you saved my life when I most needed someone.”
“I did not do anything anybody else would not have done. Anyway thank you for helping me Lissette.”
She hugged him and kissed him on the cheek. Guillem smiled back at her and both started moving the closet placing it against the window and then covering any gap with newspapers and anything they could glue in place. Then the proceeded to clean up the trunk and as soon as it was ready, he squeezed into it. It was very uncomfortable to be in there. They closed it to test the lid and confirmed no light got into it.
“Well, I guess this is it? Will you be ok in there?” Lissette asked.
“I guess. If everything goes well I will tell you tomorrow night.” He said blinking at her. “If not, I guess you will find a lot of dust instead of me, that will be more convenient that having to get rid of a body.”
“Not funny. If you want you can use one of my night gowns to rest. I will wash your clothes during the day so they are ready when you wake up.”
“Thank you. Can you find out in which room is Roberto recovering? I am sure you heard about him from my friends and family.”
“Of course, I will call you mother with some excuse and get that information for you as well as which are the visiting hours.”
Once ready, Guillem squeezed back into the trunk and saw Lissette close it. Guillem yelled from the inside “Remember not to tell a word to anyone!”.
He closed his eyes and stayed there waiting for something to happen. He finally felt as something within him told him the sun came out and his body became rigid and his skin wrinkled even more. As he was losing consciousness he found himself once again, being dragged by the Guaire river and drowning until dead only to repeat the experience once again.
After dying a thousand times in that same river he finally opened his eyes and found himself surrounded by darkness. For a while he did not know where he was, all of his memories were messed up. He stayed there looking nowhere and trying to remember where he was and how he got there. After a while he opened the trunk and sat up.
“Guillem? Are you ok? I heard a noise in there. Can I come in?”
“Yes... Lissette!” He said when he finally remembered her name.
Lissete opened the door and entered the bedroom, in her arms she had his clothes already cleaned up.
“Do you need help to get out of the trunk?” She said looking at him sitting in it.
“Yes please.” Lissette helped him get out of the trunk. “What time is it?”
“It is just passed 7pm. The night has just started. Change your clothes. What do you have planned for tonight?”
“I do not know.” He said holding his head between his hands in frustration. “Maybe I should go see Roberto, do you have the information I requested?”
“Yes I have it, I must say that your sleep did nothing good for you. You still look... sickly.”
“I feel so much hunger. I do not know what to do about it.”
“Well, if you really are a vampire then you need blood. Right? Maybe you could take it from me.” She said blushing.
“I could not do that to you. I do not want to get anyone else hurt.”
“Well. What about going out with me tonight? A date. Maybe we could catch a midnight movie after you go see Roberto. What do you say? You have nothing else to do anyway.”
“Fine. Meet you there, what about the San Ignis movie theatre?”
“It is a date, see you there.”
After putting on his clothes and the overcoat Sebastian gave him. Guillem called a taxi to pick him up at Lissette's apartment and went to the East Hospital. It was very busy even at that time of the night, particularly the emergency section. He went into the hospital and saw people being cared for on the corridor's floors, chairs and stairs. Most of them had wounds made by slashing and fire weapons. He took the elevator to the second floor where they were keeping Roberto and searched for the room, a few nurses reminded him on the way that visit time would end at 9pm.
The room's door was slightly open and there seemed to be no visitors at the moment so he went in as silently as possible. Roberto was sleeping and had many bandages all over him, his sleep was quite irregular. Someone must be staying there with him, probably his mother because the couch next to him had a bed sheet, a blanket and a pillow. Guillem sat down in a chair next to Roberto's bed and whispered in his ear.
“Buddy, I am still around. Do not feel bad, you did everything you could, it was my decision to let go off the pole.” Roberto's sleep calmed down and he began mumbling Guillem's name.
He stayed there a few minutes, but then he heard as someone was coming into the room so he put his hood over his head and approached the door.
“Hey, who are you!” Roberto's mother yelled at him. But Guillem just ran past her at full speed dodging her as he went by. Then he ran through the corridor, into the stairs, down the two floors and finally out of the hospital.
After he got out of the hospital he managed to hide in a small alley. As soon as he confirmed nobody was looking for him he tried to run again, but his body did not respond, all he could think about was drinking someone blood to sate his hunger.
He started looking around for someone, maybe he could just drink a little bit of some drunken beggar. After a couple minutes searching on the alley he heard a dog growling, it was a stray dog hiding behind some trash cans at the farther end of the alley, the dog was just laying down, staring and growling at him. As he approached the dog got up and barked violently, but with a quick attack Guillem managed to take hold of him by the back of his neck, the dog kept trying to free himself from his grip, but as soon as Guillem bit him the dog just squealed and stayed very quiet, enjoying the feeling of having him sucking its blood just like the girl did before. The taste was not as good as the blood from the little girl in Sebastian's house, but it was wonderful anyway, he was about to let himself go and drink as much blood as he could, but managed to control himself and after drinking a fair amount of blood he just threw the dog as far as he could from him. The poor thing hit the floor violently and weakly ran away squealing and with his tail between his back legs.
He called another taxi and went to the San Ignis movie theatre to see Lissette, she was already waiting for him and was dressed with a beautiful pink short dress. After the usual kisses in the cheek they went to see a movie. It felt like centuries since the last time he enjoyed some peaceful time in the company of such a beautiful, sweet and natural woman. After the movie they went to a restaurant so Lissette could have something to eat.
“Lissette, I would like to go see my family. Even if it is from the window. It would feel good to confirm that everything is still fine there.”
“Of course Sweetie,” she said smiling “let's go.”
They took a taxi to Santa Ines. All the way she was holding his hand which made him slightly confused, she was very beautiful and caring, but he did not have any real feelings for her and on top of that he was dead, who would want to be with a vampire? Lately he had seen many movies where people got sexually aroused by vampires, in particular young girls, but it was just stupid, how could a dead thing be considered sexual? So far it had been just one endless nightmare.
It was already quite advanced into the morning when they arrived to Santa Ines. Guillem went running to his house to check if someone was awake that he could see through the kitchen's window and found his parents hugging there, his mother had her head on his father's chest and was still crying.
“
Let's get out of here.” Guillem said with a mad grin in his face.
“So quickly? Where do you want to go this time?”
“Let's go to your apartment. If you still want to receive me.”
“Of course, let's go.” She said in a very light voice tone.
They were going to the freeway by the same stairs where Lissette had problems the previous night, but as they approached it they could hear voices coming from there.
“Do you have the iron?”
“Yes, it is some cool merchandise what Marta gave us, isn't it?”
“Now anyone coming through here is going to pay for our humiliation. I hope the same idiot from yesterday night came around here tonight, it would be wonderful to fuck him.”
“Yes, I would like to open a few new holes in him. The little pussy that egg head opened on my fucking side still hurts like hell.”
“Hide, shut up and let's wait. Someone will have to go to work very soon.”
“Give me a beer.”
“Here, drink it and shut up!.”
Guillem took Lissette's hand and dragged her away from there.
“Wait right here. I will give those two a lesson, again.”
“But you will need me to help you.”
“How do I explain to you that I am dead?” Guillem yelled at her. “Maybe my situation is not so bad and I am able to help some people around here.”
“Scream if you need any help,” she said with watery eyes “I can throw them a few rocks from up here at least!”
Religious Fangs, a novel Page 7