Vampire Sunrise

Father Bennet

Buddy was outside my apartment door, curled up just where I expected to find him. I dumpster dove on the way back and found him a half-eaten pork chop. His ragged purr was loud and soothed my ears. Once I had Buddy taken care of, I needed a shower; the sticky drink on my clothes started to smell sour.

I got into the not-so-hot shower letting my mind drift a little. I only felt a slight warmness from the scalding hot water's futile attempt to caress my frigid body, it wasn't even warm, but it was something. I wondered if I could burn?

I spent about forty-five minutes in the shower, thinking, and since I no longer needed to shave, that gave me more time to relax. I got out of the shower and realized the water wasn't clinging to me as it did before my change. I was starting to dry without using a towel.

Am I dreaming? I looked down into an open swirling chasm of smoke. The smoke formed and reformed grotesque images of humans being eaten by vampire-like creatures in broad daylight.

The things had fangs and red eyes like vampires, but vampires couldn't go into the sun, could they? All of the creatures had an upside-down A on their foreheads, just like the vampires at the club.

The image reformed, and I saw a hospital with nurses and emergency works taking care of hundreds of injured people. A storm raged outside, and the lights flashed repeatedly. Dozens of emergency workers had arrived outside the emergency entrance, but no one was there to greet them.

The images swirled again; I stood inside the blood bank lobby. Below me on the tiled floor were Allen and Jane. Both were in bloody puddles, dead, along with several other tenants and blood bank workers. The doors were torn open, and the blood bank depleted. Vampires were destroying everything.

The image changed once again; I saw three vamp-like creatures wearing what looked like saffron robes. These three had large upside-down A's imprinted on their foreheads and stood about seven feet tall. The three vampire things carried poles with three-foot ivory blades. I couldn't see much, but they seemed to be the leaders, somehow helping the beasts destroy and kill.

I saw nothing clearly, and I might be completely wrong with what I thought was going on, but it was horrible. Screaming and eating and death surrounded me.

Again, the smoke reformed with no vampires or robed guys this time, but instead, thousands of dead bodies covered the road between the buildings outside of the blood bank. It was Decatur Street.

Bodies were piled as high as my second-story window in some places. After a few moments, one body started to move, then others. They were rising from apparent death. All of them were branded with that upside-down A on their forehead, but they weren't vampires.

"Looks like trouble, Alice," a man's voice said. "I can't say for sure, but there's something special about you, isn't there?"

The man chuckled then continued. "You died twice, something that has never happened before. Who knows why it happened? Who knows the balancing act that's playing out, but you're defiantly part of it, aren't you?"

"I think we both know the answer to that one." My other voice said politely.

The man answered kindly, "Yes, yes, we do, Lilith. Alice, the images in the mist shouldn't be confused with facts. The visions have changed a lot lately, each time very different from the previous ones. I would instead think of the overtone of the images, the theme of it all, not the actual scenes themselves.

"Strangely, the beasts have a symbol branded on their foreheads... What does that mean to you?"

I tried to open my mouth and answer, but nothing happened, I couldn't speak. No words would form.