That Which is Unexpected

by A. L. Bridges

  “You look amazing,” I tell her before she can say anything.

  “Thanks” Cheza says while blushing and looking down.

  We head outside and I notice that my ribs feel great now. Only about six people have shown up so far, just Cheza’s close friends. There is a stage set up off to the side with what looks like a band from school setting up. The left quadrant of the yard contains the food. I make my way over there while Cheza is talking to her friends. There are mini slider cheeseburgers, pizza, tacos, assorted kinds of pop, beer, wine coolers, and then there’s the main event: a chocolate fountain. The chocolate is running up through and down the sides of some ice sculpture of a moose… only Tia would come up with such an elaborately stupid pun. What I want to know is how the ice keeps from melting with the warm chocolate running through it.

  The party is in full swing by seven, with the band playing and people drinking. I mingle for a while, and then I head inside. I’ve said it before: I’m not a people person. I’ve never had many friends—I had Jason and Cheza and that’s all I needed. I had acquaintances more than I had friends so dealing with a large crowd of people is not something I really enjoy doing. I decide to lie down in my bedroom and keep a watch over the party with my extrasensory hearing.

  I expand my senses and about ten minutes later, two drunken fellows start some trouble. I exit the house and walk towards where they’re located in the backyard. There’s some girl behind the house who was probably looking for the bathroom when the two drunken fellows hit on her. When she rejects their advances, one of them grabs the right shoulder of her dress, pulls it down, and pushes her to the ground. I see a possible rape in the near future, so I step in.

  “Oi! What in the hell do you two blokes think yo’ doin!?” I ask in a cockney accent that has been tailored after Vinnie Jones, just to switch things up. This completely throws off one of the drunken fellows, but not the other one, who happens to be responsible for pushing the girl to the ground. She looks a little drunk, but mostly scared.

  “WHO THE HELL ARE YOU SPOSED TO BE!?” The manhandling fellow asks. I’m getting this odd sense of déjà vu.

  “This is my fockin’ garden that yo’ standin’ in, THAT’S WHO THE FOCK I AM! Now, I’m askin’ you koindly, to leave,” I say.

  The drunken fellow walks away from the lady and I think, ‘Terrific, progress!’ Then he takes a swing at me, which turns out, wasn’t such a smart idea. I quickly dodge, form a loose fist with my right hand, and backhand him across the jaw so hard that he turns around. I hear the ‘FINISH HIM!’ from Mortal Kombat, which I think was Airi. I get the urge to shout “HADOKEN!” as I deliver a punch to the back of his head. 6

  K.O.!

  The letters flash in my head with the sound from Super Smash Bros. and I know that one was definitely Airi. The drunken fellow falls to the ground, unconscious. I turn my attention to the second drunken fellow, who stupidly takes a cheap shot at me. I enhance my speed, grab his outstretched wrist, and pull it towards the ground. He’s completely off balance now with his head near my stomach, so I finish him with an elbow to the top of his head. I look at the two unconscious guys and then at the girl, who is sitting on her knees and looks close to tears.

  “Wait here, I’ll be right back,” I slowly tell the girl.

  She nods as I grab an arm from each of the unconscious fellows and drag them around the front. Most people stop what they’re doing to watch me as I drag the two sacks past the iron gate and drop them face down. I put my right hand on my chin and my left hand on my elbow as I study them for a moment.

  (They did nearly rape that young woman. Death Penalty?)

  “A little too harsh, Airi.”

  (Humiliation?)

  “Much better.”

  I grab the first fellow’s pants and underwear, and rip them down to his knees before I do the same to the second fellow. I drag the second fellow on top of the first fellow and align them.

  “They’re all yours. Take pictures. The goal of this game is humiliation,” I say to the partygoers as I walk back past the iron gate.

  Several of the partygoers are smiling and several are looking at me like I’m mentally unsound. Well, considering that a voice inside my head told me to do it, they may be right.

  (I hope that you accidentally put them on that nest of fire ants)

  “That is pretty brutal, Airi!” I think while chuckling to myself.

  I walk back around the house to the girl, who is still in shock. I pick her up and wrap an arm around her shoulders, thinking that it’s the right thing to do since I don’t have a blanket.

  “Do you want to clean up in the bathroom?” I ask.

  She nods in response. I take her around the house and through the front door. We get some looks from the partygoers, but I ignore them. I take her to the hall only to find that the bathroom is occupied and there are five people standing in line. I take her to my room instead and show her my bathroom, which I thankfully keep clean because I’m obsessive compulsive about that sort of thing.

  “Here, you can use my bathroom. Take your time,” I tell the girl and then shut the door.

  I walk over, sit down on my bed, and lean back, looking up at the ceiling as I put my arms behind me to prop myself up with my elbows. A minute later, I hear the girl walk out. As I move to sit up, the girl comes over and sits on my lap… completely naked. I take a good look at the girl and notice that she has curly brown hair and eyes that are a red-tinged brown color. My brain kind of freezes for a moment, a little shocked at the unfamiliar site of a completely naked female in my lap. I immediately think of how Cheza was in that spot a few days ago… and then my door opens up.

  “Hey Cole, is everything alr…” Cheza says, her voice trailing off as she looks at me and then at the naked girl, and then back at me with her face looking statuesquely expressionless.

  “Cheza, this isn’t what it looks like,” I slowly explain.

  Tears start to fall down Cheza’s expressionless face as she slams the door shut.

  (Smooth)

  “Oh you shut up!”

  The girl pushes me down on the bed with a surprising amount of force and pins both of my arms to the bed. Suddenly, I can see her aura: it’s a swirl of colors on the inside with a white outline around her. She starts nibbling on the left side of my neck and I realize that she is drinking my blood. What kind of creature drinks blood…? A Werebat!

  (She’s a vampire)

  “Right… that makes more sense.”

  The silver door in my mind cracks open as my Drive takes over. I grab her right wrist with my left hand and use my blood that is in her mouth to make her head explode. Now, I don’t know how many people out there have made a girl’s head explode near their face, but I can tell you that it is very messy and my Drive didn’t want any part of it. He retreats and shuts the silver door in my head. My Drive is going to have to explain to me how he did that sometime as it happened so fast that I couldn’t tell.

  I wipe some of the brain matter and gore from my face before I hear the screaming. I quickly go to my closet to fetch my weapons. My hearing hones in on Tia’s yelling automatically as I slip my holster on:

  “Cole, we’ve got vampires, roughly fifteen. Illapa is here with them. Sara is trying to lead people down into the basement where it’s easily defensible. She has an AA-12 automatic shotgun with a 32 round drum so she’ll be fine. I’m going after Illapa. Find Cheza and protect her, Cole! Oh, and use the WFNGC rounds. Too many vampires. Aim for the head and the heavier rounds should do the rest. Remember that they are fast so don’t fire from too far away or the lower velocity rounds won’t connect.”

  I load the 25 round WFNGC magazine into my gun and walk out into the hallway. It is pretty much pure carnage. I see a dead person in the middle of the living room. There is color in the inner orb, but no color in the outline of the person’s aura.

  There is a girl being attacked by a vampire down the hall, which I can tell by the swirl of colors in his aura versus
the solid green in the victim… well, that and the fact that he is attached to her neck. I speed up, and sprint down the hall as my right arm unconsciously strengthens to slice the vampire’s head off with my Sic blade. I spin around and see another color swirl as a vampire is sprinting towards me. She’s moving about as fast as I can, but I see her in time to raise my gun and double tap.

  ‘Those WFNGC rounds are really something’! I think as the vampire’s head just splits open while I side step her momentum propelled body.

  I scoop up the girl (who is in shock) with my right arm, being careful to keep my Sic blade away from her body. I put her in a fireman’s carry as I move down the hall towards the basement door. I sprint down the steps at increased speed and I almost get my head blown off for it by Sara. I notice that there are three dead vampires at the base of the steps with giant holes in their bodies and heads. They have color swirls like the others, but no white outlines.

  Sara (who is sporting her usual gold outline with red inner aura) is protecting a huddled group of about twenty people out of the fifty or so that are at the party. I set the girl down by the others. I suddenly realize that the colors must have something to do with blood, which explains why the vampires have a swirl, while the outer color indicates life signs. I double check everyone in the room for different solid colors to confirm that none of them are vampires.

  “She’s fine, just in shock and perhaps low on blood. I’m going to find Cheza. I’ll redirect people as I see them,” I say to Sara and sprint up the steps, not waiting for a response.

  I move to the kitchen and find a girl in the corner by the door to the laundry room, holding a shaking kitchen knife with both hands as two vampires laugh at her. I quickly make their heads explode: 19 rounds remaining.

  “Go into the basement. It’s safe there. It’s that door over there,” I say to the frozen girl while pointing to the basement door.

  “NOW!” I scream to snap her out of it.

  I don’t have the time for delicacy at the moment. I move down the kitchen hallway towards Sara’s and Tia’s rooms. I find three people huddled in the bathroom of Tia’s room and redirect them to the basement. That accounts for twenty-six guests and seven vampires, roughly half for both. I move outside and see three dead guests less than ten feet from the door.

  (Ooh… so close)

  The band is on the stage to my left, trying to fend off three vampires with their guitars as the vampires slowly advance toward them. I sprint over, shooting two of them and slicing the head off of the third: 15 rounds remaining. I quickly ask the band if they have seen Rei, the girl with silver hair. One says he might have seen her by the chocolate mousse. I thank them and direct them towards the basement. I run towards the food area and see seven more dead guests along the way. I get over to the food tables by the ice sculpture. I look under the tables and find five people.

  “I need you guys to go to the basement. Go in the house, take a right, and it’s the first door on the left. It’s safe th—” I say as a vampire ambushes me with two swords. The vampire is Asian and the first thing I think is “Ninja Vampire!” Is that racist?

  He gets my left arm and leg pretty good before I’m able to react. I try to fire at him with my gun, but he severed my bicep and hamstring, practically immobilizing my left side. I try to fend him off as best as I can with just my Sic Blade. However, the best I can do is to turn his shots into glancing blows as I continue to sustain cuts to my arms and legs.

  The Ninja Vampire starts to move in for an attack that I can’t block with only my right blade (as I’ve learned through experience with Tia). Luckily, I regenerate enough muscle to block his right sword with my gun. I fire two rounds into his stomach, slice off his left arm while he is staggered, and then I finish with a beheading: 13 rounds remaining.

  “MOVE NOW!” I shout at the group under the table.

  They start sprinting for the house when I notice a color swirl in one of the girls. I raise my gun to BOOM HEADSHOT! But sprint towards them and slice off her head instead, as I am unable to make the shot without collateral damage. The guests all hit the deck and cower like I’m going to kill them next.

  “Don’t worry, I’m not going postal or anything. That one was a vampire!” I exclaim, trying to sound as reassuring as possible while still holding a sword that was just used to decapitate someone… not to mention my ‘covered in blood’ status…

  “Oh fuck it. I don’t have time for this!” I announce, realizing that the situation may be unsalvageable so I abandon it and run towards the garage.

  I sweep the garage and see a girl hiding beneath two dead guys in the corner.

  “It’s okay, you can come out. The vampires should all be dead now,” I gently say as she pushes the dead guys out of the way. “I need you to go to the basement. It’s safest there.”

  She nods at me with a determined look on her face. She is handling this situation surprisingly well. I leave the garage and see a lightning bolt strike in the back yard. I quickly sprint through the front yard and around the corner. I see a suave looking Latino man wearing a business suit and an Incan head dress, looking completely mismatched, flying off with an unconscious Cheza thrown under his right arm like a package—Illapa.

  “OOH, JUST A LITTLE TOO LATE BOY HA HA HA!” Illapa thunders with a deep bass voice. “IF YOU SURVIVE, MEET ME ON THAT CLIFF OVER THERE AND WE’LL HAVE SOME FUN. IF YOU DON’T, I MIGHT JUST HAVE SOME FUN WITH THIS LITTLE LADY HERE HA HA HA!”

  Illapa flies off. Three dual-wielding ninja vampires charge at me in a V formation. None of them are Asian. One is black and the other two are white so it would be more appropriate to call them vampire soldiers or warriors, but I’m officially pissed so I don’t care.

  I double-tap the right vampire in the stomach at fifteen feet: 11 rounds remaining. The front ninja gets in a glancing slice to each of my arms before I disarm his right sword using my gun, jab with the Sic blade to block his left, and rotate my wrist to send his left sword flying as I cut off his hand. I follow up by pistol whipping him so hard that he flies twenty feet into the wall with a sickening splat, painting the wall red.

  The left guy is slightly discouraged and loses momentum. I take this opportunity to duck under his horizontal, scissoring, cross slash, and give him a spinning slice through his torso. As he falls to the ground in two halves, the right ninja vampire recovers and springs towards me. With the amount of trauma to his stomach, the right ninja vampire is moving quite slowly. I flip my Sic blade over so that the tip is pointing down, and then charge at him. I take to the ground feet first like I’m sliding for home, slicing off his right leg at the knee as I pass. He falls to the ground with a loud groan as I stand. I think he is immobilized, but I blast through his other kneecap with my gun, just to be sure: 10 rounds remaining.

  Both vampires are still alive, but no longer a threat. It might be useful to get information from them later. I survey the back yard and see Tia in the middle of the back yard, still smoking slightly with a sword sticking into the ground beside her. I holster my gun, stab my Sic blade into the grass, run up to her, and gently turn her over. Her right hand is crushed and her left leg is bent forward at the knee. She isn’t breathing… No pulse either…

  “DAMMIT!” I scream at the blackened sky as I allow my rage to break through.

  Behind me, I hear a groan from one of the vampires. You know what? Fuck information. I walk over to the bisected vampire and I use my Sic blade to crack open his rib cage like a lobster. I reach into his chest, rip his heart out, and crush it as blood oozes through my fingers.

  I walk over to the legless vampire, crush both his hands under foot, and kick the swords out from each of them as I stab my Sic blade into the ground. I strengthen my right arm and pick up the vampire by his temples, slightly crushing his skull in the process as he screams. I use my left hand to grab his shoulder and pull his torso down as I continue to pull up with my right hand. The vampire continues to scream until his head separates from his body,
taking several vertebrae from his neck with it. I take his severed head and throw it as hard as I can at the wall, where it splats next to the other vampire’s body. That wall is starting to look like some sort of sick and twisted expressionist painting. Breathing heavily, I turn around and see Sara standing there, gazing at me in horror.

  “Tia is dead. Illapa has Cheza and I’m going after him,” I say to her as I pass by while avoiding her eyes, knowing that I wouldn’t be able to bear it if I saw fear in them.

  “Cole…” Sara starts to say before I sprint at full speed toward the cliff, two miles away.

  I stop half a mile from the cliff to reload my gun with the JHP 25 round magazine. Illapa killed Tia and I’m not as good as she is. I’m not going to be able to do this… not without a sacrifice. I breathe deeply and close my eyes.

  ****

  I’m floating in the darkness again. I see the silver door and float over to it. I wrap my hands around both handles and pull.

  “What are you doing?” My Drive curiously asks.

  “Only what I have to,” I answer.

  “If you open this door, it will never close again,” My Drive informs me.

  “I know,” I reply.

  “I will most likely take over completely, causing you to fade away,” My Drive says.

  “I know,” I respond.

  “Are you really okay with that?” My Drive questions.

  “Yes. For Cheza, I am fine with ceasing to exist… As long as she’s safe,” I answer without hesitation.

  “Okay… Let’s do this,” My Drive says as I feel him push against the doors.

  ****

  Chapter 24: The Beginning of Madness