Death Wish

Chapter 11

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The Fallen Angels' mansion goes up in flames. Every undead thing flies out of the windows and doors, but not for fear of safety. No, they're already dead. They escape the walls of the engulfed structure to see who to blame.

Ray looks back from our huddle, "Uh, guys?"

The rest of us glance back. Angry, baffled creatures look around before their eyes land on us. 

Somehow, someway, they can see the guilt on our faces. They tense and begin to brace themselves for a single, agreeable plan: kicking our asses.

"Time to go!" Frank announces, snatching mine and Ray's wrists and fleeing.

Mikey frowns, "Hey, wait up!"

The crowd bustles away from the burning building to come for us. I'm already kicking hard at the dirt below, trying to go as fast as I can, but I'm still inevitably dragged by a much quicker Frank.

"You can let go of my wrist now!" I yell over the growing noise behind us.

"You're a slow runner!" Frank argues, picking up the speed, "Just shoot!"

My eyebrows go up, "What?"

"The undead, shoot the undead!" He clarifies impatiently.

I whip my head around to see them. All possible things that could ever be in Death are only ten feet away. I panic and use my free hand to rip out Auctor Vitae and point it at the closest threat.

A vampire surges towards us with a threatening bite. With every step closer, he snaps his sharp jaws.

I hesitate to shoot, petrified. Ray yells, "Um, Gerard?!"

I snap back into focus, looking from them to the monsters, "Right!" I tug back mercilessly on the trigger, sealing the vampire's fate.

Yet it's different than anticipated. There's a mere click.

My eyes widen, "I need to load it!"

Frank doesn't look as he navigates through the streets, "What the hell does that mean?"

"It means we're in deep shit!" I yowl. 

The vampire finally takes a leap and snaps dangerously at my heels. It's inches from getting what it wants.

I kick at it, "Get!" Another kick, "Away!"

The vampire cackles devilishly and jumps onto my back. It sinks its claws into my already filthy dress shirt and clammers up to get to my neck. Its nails send scrapes all over me as it climbs its way to victory. I shout and wriggle enough to finally break Frank's focus to glance back and see what's happening.

His white eyes narrow, "Aye!"

Ray swerves a sharp right hook at the vampire. It yowls in pain but only clings harder to me. It goes in for the kill once again, but Ray doesn't let it finish. He grabs Auctor Vitae from me and slams it repeatedly into the attacker's skull.

There's a distinct crack above the mob ruckus. The vampire slacks and drops to the street and we carry on.

I pant as I force myself to keep going, "Thanks."

"Yeah." Ray exhaustedly smiles.

Mikey speaks up for the first time since the chase. He looks up to point, "Hey, let's go in there!"

We all turn out heads to see. A skyscraper's roof is empty and open, and its doors are blocked with storage. 

Hope surely exists even in Death.