The problem is how to get there. Is it something that can just be summoned? Does rage play a role? Whatever it may be, I know Emily and I have only one choice if we are to get Andrew and Carissa out of there alive. When I look at the Feasters in the hall, I know that it is very unlikely that both of us make it out alive. Turning to Emily, I say, “We don’t have much time.”
“I know. What do we do?”
“We don’t have a choice. It won’t be long before Harold drops and changes. And, you know, there’s no way Carissa will be able to defend herself. The only option is to go out through the door, face thirty Feasters or so, barge into the other room, kill Harold, forgive Carissa, and finally rescue Andrew. Sounds easy, right?”
Emily shoots her eyebrows up while looking at the Feasters waiting at the window, expecting us to come out and play. “We don’t have any other choice, even though we don’t stand much of a chance at all.”
I snap my fingers to get Emily’s attention. “Emily, it’s going to take more than we’ve ever done before. We can’t go into that fight without relying on what makes us Vamps. I’m talking about summoning an ancestral instinct that even our own parents were never able to attain. Things that made humans scared of us in the first place.”
The banging on the windows increases. Through the speaker, Marisol’s growling in the other room intensifies. Emily asks, “How do we do that?”
“I’m not sure, but remember when you turned Andrew and you almost couldn’t stop yourself? You need to get to that point. Think about it. For me, it was when those bullies tried to flush my head in the toilet when we were younger. We’ve had to hide who we really are, but we can’t afford to do that any longer.”
I gaze into the laboratory. Harold is on one knee, weak. Carissa looks confused as to who to care for; her father who is well on his way to becoming a Feaster, Marisol who is chomping at the bit to help herself to a meal, or Andrew who is now starting to stir. I move to the window and tap on it. “Carissa. Make sure your mother’s arms are secure, and then loosen Andrew’s restraints.” Carissa starts to do what I ask of her. Looking over in the laboratory, I think about all that we’ve lost. I look at Harold and I hate him for what he’s put us through. He manipulated our help to further his plans. His loathing for vampires has ruined all that we have worked for. We’ve lost our house. We’ve lost our animals. Now, we’re on the verge of losing Andrew and possibly our own lives. His hatred for us led to the infestation of the Feasters. As these thoughts flood my mind, rage comes along with it. I look down at my arms and I can see the veins bulge and throb. Seeing my reflection in the window, the redness of my eyes catches me by surprise. I open my mouth and my fangs drop. My body feels hot. I look over at Emily and don’t recognize my own voice. “We are running out of time. Harold is changing,” I growl readying my machete. Emily looks at me, astonished at my transformation. She isn’t there, but we don’t have a choice. We have to move.
We peer out of the window into the hallway and know we’ll have to be our best. There are easily thirty Feasters to fight. Emily grabs two short-range arrows since her bow won’t work effectively at such a close range. Her bow will be ready if the opportunity presents itself.
As I ready to unlock the door, my eyes glowing red and fangs protruding, I look at Emily. We hug each other not knowing if this may be the last time we get a chance to embrace. “I love that you’re my cousin,” I say to her.
Tears fill her eyes, “Me too.”
I beg her, my voice, a raspy, low gruff, “Please dig deep. I need you to summon those instincts. We may not stand a chance if you don’t.”
For the first time, Emily admits, “But I’m scared.”
“I understand. But, since when have you ever let that stop you,” I smirk at her. “We have to move.” I kiss her on the forehead.
As I start to unlock the door, Harold’s voice weakly comes over the speaker, “Wait a second. Let me help you.”
“How are you going to help us?” Emily asks.
“Let me go out first and distract them.”
“Daddy, no!” Carissa cries out, hugging her father.
“Please, sweetheart. It’s the only way I can help.” Harold removes Carissa’s desperate hands from his waist. “Kieran. Emily. Start your assault seconds after I leave this room. I will try to draw them away. If I’ve learned one thing about you two, it’s that you sure know how to handle yourselves in a fight. Take care of my daughter.” He turns back to Carissa, “Sweetheart, please know that I have always loved you.”
We hear the lock open and Harold screams – likely the last time he will. We can hear Carissa sobbing. Outside the window, we see the Feasters turn their attention from the window and move toward Harold. This is our chance.
As we snap open the lock, we see the throng of Feasters and notice that Harold didn’t make it more than five or six steps before he was taken down. With my instincts still firing on all cylinders, I lead the way melting my blade into the back of the skulls of the first two Feasters. The strength I feel is like nothing else I’ve ever felt before and it’s only getting stronger. I spin off the second one and slide to my knees. My machete takes out the ankles of two more Feasters. I glance back and see Emily simultaneously drive both short-range arrows into the two Feasters I hobbled. She manages to extract one of the arrows, but the other is too deep. As she reaches for another from her quiver, she is overcome by two Feasters who advance dangerously close to biting her face. She’s strong, but without her vampire powers at full strength like mine are, she struggles to free herself from the two zombies. I move quickly to her side, decapitating a Feaster on the way. I grab one of them by its tattered collared shirt and in one motion I throw the zombie across the hall into the Containment Room we were trapped in. Two curious Feasters follow their comrade, and I close them in. Emily, using the one short-range arrow she still has, drops the other Feaster. When I take a second to check on her, I’m overrun by four zombies and land hard on my back. I sink my nails into the throat of one of them and pull out what’s inside. I let out a yell, but even with all my strength, I cannot free myself as several others mount the pile. There’s nothing left for me to do but try to protect my exposed skin as the zombies rip and tear at my layers of clothing with their hands and teeth. I catch a glimpse of Emily. She is watching desperately, hacking away at the Feasters with her arrows, but can’t free herself as several have pinned her against the wall. Although I search for the will to fight, I’m afraid that all is lost. There’s nothing I can do to help Emily or myself despite my newfound strength. My only hope is that Andrew wakes up and finds a way to protect Carissa and move on. My eyes, still a fiery red, swell with hot tears.
Suddenly, I hear a ferocious scream. Not a Feaster. Something more primitive. Emily? But it doesn’t sound like her. Then, ripping, slicing, and the sounds of bones crunching follow. Another scream fills the hallway, shaking it. Some of the Feasters on top of me shift their attention. It’s then I catch a glimpse of her. Eyes fiery red, glowing. Feaster blood, a dark rust color and thickness that comes only from a thing that isn’t alive and forever rotting, covers her face and clothes. Snarling, her saliva-drenched fangs are exposed. There’s something else different about her. It’s not the way she’s summoned her instincts, but it’s more physiological. Her shoulders and neck are thicker and broader. She towers over the Feasters she destroys with her hands. Emily looks as if her body has morphed with some kind of beast! This is what our ancestors must have been like in a time when Vamps weren’t forced into hiding. Ripped right from mythology, I immediately understand why humans once feared us so much.
As Emily lets out another scream, this one even more primal than the first, and without weapons in her hands, she moves through the herd of Feasters with speed and precision I have never seen before. She picks up two of them and smashes their heads like coconuts, dropping them to the ground. Then she takes a step and slides between the legs of the next Feaster, and then grabbing that one by the back of his
head, runs him into the glass of the Containment Room they came from fracturing the glass while splattering its skull. Spinning off the wall, she drives her foot into the knee splintering the bone of the next Feaster, hobbling her. In one motion, she rolls over the back of that zombie, picks her up, and throws her into the next two Feasters, knocking them to the ground. She reaches behind her and secures Andrew’s aluminum bat. Spinning it in her hand like a martial artist, Emily swings the bat and unleashes fury onto the three Feasters struggling to stand.
At this point, the Feasters have lost all interest in me. I move to my feet and ready my machete. My eyes still raging with fire, I drive my machete into the legs of two of the nearest Feasters, and then in one swoop end both of them.
Emily and I end up back to back. Normally, I stand taller than Emily by two or three inches, so noticing now she stands at least six inches taller than me is a bit of a surprise. “This is a good look on you,” I growl through my fangs, my voice still echoing deep.
Her pulsating veins visibly pumping blood through her neck, she looks down at me, “I could get used to this.” Emily’s says, her voice barely recognizable. Side by side, we slice and hack through the remaining five Feasters, ending their final hopes for a meal.
Chapter Eleven
Hope
Emily and I stand at the door of the laboratory, breathing heavily and worried about what we may find on the other side. Emily secures her bow and I ready my machete. Kicking the door in and off its hinges, we startle Carissa who sits on her knees on the blood-drenched tile floor. She is tending to Andrew who’s laying on the ground. I note immediately that his color looks better, but he’s still weak. As Carissa gets a good look at us, she screams and runs to the wall behind Marisol who’s managed to free one hand from her gurney. She’s still chomping the air and swinging her free hand towards anything that moves.
Emily and I throw our weapons down and run over to Andrew’s side. His eyes widen as he looks us over. Weakly, he asks, “What the heck happened to you guys?”
“It’s a long story,” I respond as I feel my body transforming back to normal.
“I bet. You two look terrible,” Andrew laughs.
Emily, also returning to her normal self, chuckles, “You should see the other guys.”
“How many?”
I look at Emily and smile. Normally I’d exaggerate, but there’s no need this time. “About thirty?” Emily nods in agreement.
“Seriously?” Andrew coughs. “You guys are always doing cool stuff without me.”
“Well, I brought your baby with us,” Emily says, reaching over her shoulder and retrieving Andrew’s aluminum bat.
“There she is,” Andrew says with affection. “It even has fresh Feaster guts on it.” Andrew flashes that smile. Emily looks relieved to see it again. He looks at us with admiration in his eyes. “Thank you.”
“That’s what family is about,” I say as Emily and I hug Andrew, choking back tears.
We don’t have much time before our family reunion is broken up. From the hallway, a Feaster growl echoes. Waiting for it to come through the door, we sit frozen. Just then, Harold pushes open one of the doors still hanging on its hinge. His eyes have that empty Feaster stare to them. His lab coat is a tattered, bloody mess. The Feasters that attacked him did a number to his midsection and other extremities. Slowly, he shambles toward us, snapping at the air with what is left of his jaw. Emily reaches back on the floor for her compound bow, but it isn’t there. She whips her head around searching for it, only to find Carissa holding it fully loaded and pointing towards us.
“Carissa?” I say. “What are you doing?”
“Yeah, put that down. You’re going to get yourself hurt,” Emily snips.
As her hands shake, tears stream down her face. “Don’t move!” She demands. Marisol sets off into a rage as if somehow sensing Harold moving towards us.
I glance down towards my machete. It’s too far away for me to make a move for it, and Carissa and Harold are both within striking distance. If I were to make a move, Carissa could make quick work of me, and so could Harold. I try to summon my vampire instincts, but they aren’t cooperating with me. Glancing over at Emily, I can see the concentration in her and know she is doing the same. Reasoning with Carissa seems to be our only choice. “Carissa, we understand what you’re feeling, but this is a lose-lose situation for you. Shoot the arrow into either of us and you won’t have time to load before one of us is on you.” I look over my shoulder and see Harold dangerously close. Emily rolls the empty gurney in the way to slow his pace as I continue to try and persuade Carissa. “Look, your father asked us to watch over you. We want to do that. Don’t we, Emily?” She nods her head in agreement. “What do you say, Carissa?”
“Shut up! You don’t know anything,” she says, her hands trembling. “Shut up! I have no one now. No one!”
“That’s not true, Carissa. You have us. We’ll take care of you. We will all take care of each other. That’s the way we do things,” I say to her.
At that moment, Harold pushes the gurney out of the way. The cacophony of his and Marisol’s snapping fills the air as their groans become more frenzied. Harold, closest to Emily and about to attack, lets out a scream.
“Don’t move!” Carissa demands.
It’s then she lets the arrow fly, and as if in slow motion, it whizzes past my head and dangerously close to Emily’s. Finally, the arrow plants firmly into Harold’s forehead. His body stands straight up and then crashes to the ground, stiff as a board.
Astonished, we both look back at Carissa. She drops the compound bow. “Shut up,” she whispers between sobs and falls to her knees. The silence echoes in the room and is only interrupted by Marisol’s growling. “I have no one now,” Carissa says looking up at her mother. “I don’t know what I’m going to do; how to survive.”
It’s then that Emily does the unexpected. She walks over to Carissa and kneels down in front of her. Pushing some hair back from Carissa’s eyes, she smiles, her own cheeks wet with tears. “You’ll have us.”
Carissa stiffens. Slowly, she lifts her head, meeting Emily’s eyes. “Really? After all we’ve done to you?”
“Yes. It will take some time to adjust, but in this world, this is all we have. We’ll get past our differences and learn to exist together...as a family.”
Carissa gets a panicked look in her eye. “Does this mean you have to change me? You know – into a vampire?”
Emily chuckles, “No, it doesn’t mean that. Besides, it’ll be interesting to have a human living with us.” She helps Carissa to her feet.
“Speaking of living, we have to figure out where we’re going to live,” I say remembering our current situation.
Andrew, sitting up and looking much healthier, asks, “Um, what are you guys talking about?” What happened to our house?”
I put my arm around him in a half hug, “It’s gone.”
“Gone?” Carissa and Andrew inquire in unison.
“Yes, it’s gone,” Emily says behind a little bitterness in her voice.
“But,” Carissa says, “when we left, it was still standing. We didn’t mean to –”
“Intentional or not, the damage is done. Like I said, we’ll have to work through some things,” Emily adds.
“It’s gone?” Andrew asks unbelieving. “What about our animals?” Our look says it all. “Aww, man, Starsky was so delicious.” He lets out a chuckle, the awkward kind one uses to cover up sadness.
Recalling the animals, I realize for the first time that I’m hungry. My stomach grumbles, punctuating the thought. “I’m starving.”
“Me too,” Emily adds.
Carissa squares her shoulders and says, “You drink animal blood, right?” We all nod in agreement. “I have something that may help you. Follow me.” She stands up, gathers a few of her things and leads us out of the laboratory. When she gets to the door, she pauses and looks back at Marisol who follows us with hungry eyes. “Can you guys g
ive me a moment?”
We nod and move to the hallway, but I stay in the doorway and watch. Carissa walks over to her mother running her hand over her still secured shoulder. Marisol doesn’t like it, but Carissa doesn’t shy away. “Oh, Mother. I am so sorry that you ended up like this. I miss your smile and the way you smell. I miss everything about you. You have always deserved better than this.” She moves to her head and strokes her hair. Seeing her face brings tears to my eyes as memories of my mother and father flood back to me. The devastation is more than anyone should bear. In time, Carissa will learn to contain her feelings. Time will help her heal, leaving scars etched into her being to remind her of the pain of loss, just like the three of us have. They serve as a constant memorial of a life once lived and a love lost but never forgotten. Carissa finishes stroking her mother’s hair, tears streaming down her face. On the metal table next to the gurney, she takes hold of a bottle and syringe. Filling the syringe, she confides to Marisol, “It was never supposed to be this way. I’m so sorry. I love you, Mother.” Carissa directs the needle into the IV tubing and empties its contents. Marisol’s body thrashes for several seconds before falling limp into her final death. Carissa bends over, hugging her mother’s body, weeping. I can’t help but imagine their relationship. The love they must have had for each other.
Carissa, finishing her goodbyes, looks up at me. Emily and Andrew have joined me in the doorway. She walks over to us, trying to look strong. As she gets close, the three of us move towards her and give her the embrace that she needs. That we all need.
Feasters Page 13