Hey Mr Bloodsucker, Sucks To Be You

Chapter 24

You should listen to the song on the side reading this one ^_^ lol adds the creepy atmosphere :D

Cappa ~#~

I stared down at him on the table, head tilted back with a single puncture wound above his heart. Robert was running his eyes over Dimitri's face, lit by a series of overhead lamps down in the basement, with his eyebrows creased in confusion. Joanna stood with her arms wrapped round herself, and Christopher had come down too, glaring blankly at his dead face. 

 Robert had his hands hovered over Dimitri's still expression, like he couldn't believe he was real. He kept them above his closed eyes for a minute, frowning as he scrutinized him, then pulled back one of his eyelids.

Closing it again, he took a step back and crossed his arms, one hand held over his mouth.

"Oh, man." He mumbled.

"What is it?" I leant forward. I had no problem with getting near the dead guy, but Joanna seemed to be deliberatley trying to keep her distance.

"I knew there was something weird about him when there was a body left over, but this..." He waved a hand over Dimitri's head. "This is the dark stuff. Necromancy."

"What?" Joanna looked up. "What do you mean, dark stuff?" She took a step forward.

Robert turned round and leant a hand on the table, the other pressed against his forehead.

"It's like this. When Dante killed Dimitri last time, the ash remained in Halem's attic. Sometimes..." He shook his head. "Sometimes...it can be used to recreate an image of the person. Like a double."

Taking in our confused faces, he shunted himself off the table. "Long story short, Dante had taken the ash of Dimitri's body and used it to create a copy of him." His eyes slid to me. "A living copy."

"That's sick." Joanna looked stricken.

"This isn't real, then." Christopher frowned. "Then what is it? Is it Human or what?"

"God knows." Robert shook his head. "I've only read about this sort of stuff in books. Nobody does it for real, I had no idea it even worked."

"Cappa." Joanna called my attention, even though she was still fixed on Dimitri. "Whst happened in the woods?"

It was still too painful to talk about. I bit my lip and glared at the body, somehow wishing he was alive so I could keep hitting him. I just kept seeing him and Mai, holding her to him in an embrace that threatened her undead life.

Gritting my teeth, I turned away from Joanna.

"Give him a rest." Robert muttered, crossing to me and putting a hand on my shoulder. "We should all get out of here for a bit."

Nobody asked how Mai was. They all knew something weird had happened, but how could I explain something I didn't even understand myself? Why hadn't she just punched the sucker in the face and ran for it?

Because he's knocked her idea of what's real. I thought numbly, and the four of us made our way up from the basement. She so wanted him to be alive she thought herself into beleiving it.

That was right, wasn't it? What else could it be?

"I'm going to go check on Mai." Robert told me as Joanna and Chris broke away from us at the top of the stairs, and I didn't object.

I didn't feel like sitting by her bedside at the moment, and even though I knew deep down it wasn't her fault, it was hard to wipe away the mental image of his smug smile as he let her hug him, stake between her shoulder blades.

"Get some rest." Robert jerked his chin in the direction of the bunkers, and headed off to the medic section.

I huffed a sigh and turned to go and do as he said. I didn't want to argue, not now. I kicked the basement door closed, neglecting to lock it, and sloped off to the bunkers. It wasn't like a dead man could get up and walk anyway, even if he had done it once before.

Mai ~#~

"Got you, Mai."

"Godammit, answer me!"

"Mai, wake up." He's here.

My eyes flew open. "Cappa."

Robert's face blurred into view, set in a wistful expression. "Afraid not. Sorry to disappoint."

I struggled up my pillows and squinted through the artificial light. "Robert? How long have you been sitting there?"

He sat up in his chair and shifted a vase of wilting flowers aside as he reached for his phone. Closing one eye, he read across the screen, then tucked it into his pocket.

"About half an hour."

"Oh....where's Cappie?"

His expression shifted, if only for a moment, but I picked up on it. "Is he...?"

"Don't think about Cappa now, Mai." He told me quietly, then reached for a glass of blood on the bedside table. Bringing it to his lips, he spoke through the glass before draining half of it. "I need you to tell me what you can remember about what happened in the woods."

Setting it back down, he sat back in his chair.

Robert ~#~

And she told me. By the time she was done, I could see why Cappa was upset. If a dead man suddenly came back to life, who had earned her trust and hugged then tried to ash my girlfriend, I knew I'd feel something similar. But what was amazing about it was Mai's memories on it.

"It's kind of hazy, like there's something blocking it." She's said.

I recalled it all as I pulled the door to the medic section closed. No wonder Cappa was so angry and confused, I knew I'd be. I passed the door to basement and shuddered, feeling the cool breeze filter out of the door. Somewhere down there Dante's sick creation was lying on the table, all in the dark...

Wait.

The cool breeze suddenly became ice and hung in my veins, and my thoughts worked super-fast through the cold.

Cappa closed this door, I saw him do it. So then...how is it open?

I swallowed tightly, and flicked on the light switch at the top of the stairs, illuminating the steps descending into the basement. All clear.

"Damn." I muttered under my breath, gripping the door handle. "This is just like a horror movie." I glanced up and down the hallway for an accomplice to head down with me, but I saw no one.

Get your act together! I released the handle swiftly. You're the most dangerous thing here.

Except of course, if my suspicions were right about Dimitri. From talking to Mai, and from past experience, it was clear he had some kind of mind thing going on. God knew what it was, but it meant I wasn't exactly very dangerous compared to him. It all depended on whether this double of his had inherited it.

Huffing a sigh, I made my way down the steps, trying my best to lighten my tread.

Why? He can't get up and walk away again. And he had help last time. 

I reached the bottom of the stairs and shook myself out, gripped the handle to the room, and swung the door open. The lights took a moment to register the movement in the room, then flared to life.

I stepped one pace into the room, my gaze flew over the table, and suddenly I knew why the door at the stairs had opened. Nobody else had come down to check on Dimitri's body, and even if they had, they wouldn't have found anything.

He had run away. Again.