Vampires Will Hurt You

Chapter 21 - A Thing About Contrition

Frank had enjoyed the party well enough. Copper had invited a lot of the roller derby team to Miranda's baby shower. Frank found himself talking to a lot of people he'd never met before. His group of five vampires mostly kept to themselves throughout the night.

Back in the LA house, Frank quietly shut himself in his soundproof studio. Miranda and the kids were all asleep by now. The clock clicked 12:01am. He dialed Starry's number on his phone. He wasn't sure she had been at the party. He thought he had seen her when she first arrived, but the next time he looked over she had vanished.

The line connected, but there was silence on the other end. "Starrey, I hope I didn't wake you," Frank started.

"Frank." Her voice was distant and soft.

"I missed you at the party," he cooed. When his wooing words were met with silence, he changed tactics. "Why don't I come over? I know I've been a bit distant since, well since Miranda got pregnant. I hope you're not feeling jealous" He saw his hungry black eyes reflected in his watch's face and then in the mirror above the couch. He couldn't safely lie next to Miranda right now. Her blood smelled intoxicatingly ripe, like nothing Frank had smelled before. "I need you right now. You know how special you are to me."

"As touching as this is," G's voice cut in over the line, "You better hurry, she's lost a lot of blood already."

"G? What have you done with Starrey?"

"Something you should have done a long time ago. I'll see you at the church lover-boy!" G hung up the phone.

Frank wrenched his studio door open. He headed to the kitchen for his keys.

"Where are you going?" Miranda asked standing in the refrigerator light. She had a jar of pickles in hand.

"Starrey's been in an accident. They said she's lost a lot of blood." Frank shared as much as he could. He laced his shoes tighter and looked to the door.

"That's terrible, but why did the hospital call you?" Miranda puzzled.

"She had me listed as her emergency contact," Frank lied.

"That's a little odd." Miranda snapped a dill spear with her teeth.

"Miranda, she doesn't know anyone out here and her family is four time zones away," Frank answered listening to himself. "I'm the next closest, as her employer," he threw in.

"I thought she was just free-lancer."

"It doesn't matter, I have to go. Starrey needs me," Frank said with finality. He shrugged on his jacket, and exited to the garage. Impatiently he waited for the garage door to open, and sped out, only to stop the car three blocks away. Knowing he wouldn't make it there in time if he drove like a human. He summoned all his vampiric energy and lifted off to fly to the church where they had filmed the Helena music video twenty years ago.

Frank's feet hit the pavement on the sidewalk at the bottom of the cathedral's exterior steps. He heard the whispers of all the spirits trapped in the building over the decades. The front door slowly creaked open. No light leaked out from inside the dark doorway. He barred his fangs ready for anything.

"Starrey?" He called into the darkness of the inner sanctum. His own voice echoed back at him. The door closed behind him on its own.

He tried again, "Starry?" His voice reverberated in the darkness. The echo back felt like a taunt this time. A single candle flickered to life next to the first pew. Frank moved towards it. Frank's eyes adjusted to the new light. He looked back as the dancing flame cast an eerie shadow on the pews, giving them long shadows, before fading into darkness. The door he came in lost to the darkness. Frank heard an ancient voice whisper through darkness and possibly through time something that sounded familiar yet alien. The single candle quickly became dozens as they all lit at the same time illuminating the transept. Frank first noticed the blood of pool near his feet. There was crumpled figure in black under the pulpit. His eyes moving quickly Under the pulpit he saw Starrey's crumpled form lying in a pool of her own blood.