Blood [#Wattys2016]

Section 1 : Good Booze and Bad Writing

"When someone has cancer, so does everyone that loves them."

 This night had been long enough, but now I had these damn bloodsuckers standing all around me. They were so close, I could feel their ice-cold blood running through their undead veins. Vampires: the true scourge of the Earth. Their glowing eyes were staring at me, at my throat, at the veins that contained the nectar that would give them life. Their eyes stood out sharply against the dark bags under their eyes, and even sharper against the pale skin of their faces.

Their hisses were sharp as they eyed me and the gun in my hand. I shift it to rest the grips more comfortably against the meat of my palm. The stupid beasts never thought I'd figure out that by engraving small crosses on my bullets they'd kill unholy monsters just like they would any man. I counted them one last time; one dead ahead of me, named Vorshack, their leader and the same poor sod I stalked to the ferry that brought me here to his secluded island castle. Two to his left, one slightly bigger than the other, and one on his right.

There were two on my right, one male and one female, her twin sister standing opposite her to my left. Finally, there were three behind me. I had no way of knowing their positions, I'd never dared to turn around, or even take my eyes off of Vorshack for more than a second. I was only grateful for the cross made of garlic braids stitched to the back of my trench coat. Ten, there were ten of them. Any other day I'd have said this'd be easy, but Vorshack wasn't about to make it so.

'You have a way of interfering, Colin; you should know by now that I despise interferences!' he hissed at me. He emphasised the word despise in the statement, making him spit a clear three feet, almost half the distance between us.

I smirked, 'Careful, Vorshack!' I chuckled, 'This dungeon reeks enough without you salivating all over the cobblestones!' Vorshack hissed again.

'Don't antagonize him, Colin!' Trisha yelled from the cross they'd tied her to, her curly blonde hair drenched in sweat after being held over the fire I'd saved her from.

'Don't worry, baby!' I hollered back, 'I'll kill these freaks and get you down from there, and then it'll just be you and me!'

Vorshack let out a squealing maniacal laugh, 'You think you'll escape from this?!' he shrieked, 'Olag, Harshook! Get him!' The two on his left started to move towards me, each raising their fists as they approached. I smirked once again; maybe this would be easy. The big one began to side step to my left, the small one to my right; they were trying to get behind me, one way or another. For the longest time we stood there, perfectly still, the big one was only about three feet to my left, the small one slightly farther to my right.

Finally, the small one charged. All I would've had to do was step back, dodge his flailing arms for a second, and then blow his brains out; but Nosferatu's big freaky cousin wasn't going to let that happen. He grabbed me by the back of my coat and lifted my feet just barely off the ground, ignoring the pain of the garlic cross burning the flesh on his hand. The small one plowed his fists into my gut over and over again, sending shocks through my body. His cold knuckles suddenly cracked and began to bleed. He recoiled in shock and fell to his knees. Clutching his hand in pain, he looked up to search for the cause. I grinned at the look of shock that crossed his face as he saw it; through the bloody holes he'd worn through my shirt he could clearly see the finely crafted mithril plate armor I'd been wearing under my clothes the whole time.

Taking full advantage of his shock, I firmly planted my boot in his face and pushed back with all the force I could muster. This caused the big one to stagger, giving me time to put my gun over my shoulder, press it against his chin, and pull the trigger. The female vampire screeched in disgust as his brains splattered all over her; it almost made me laugh. I looked up just in time to see the small one climbing back to his feet. We stood straight, sized each other up, and charged. It was all too simple to take him down.