Blinded by Eternity

Chapter Nine - Duck and Cover

Chapter Nine

"This is so tasty!" I said, forking some more rice into my mouth. I had before me ramen, rice, and beef and broccoli. Jesse had pork fried rice, lo mein, and an eggroll that he kept munching on.
"I told ya I'd treat you right. Thank God we got away from the group, or I'd never have a chance to tell you how much I admire you." I cocked my eyebrow.
"Really? How so?" Jesse pulled my free hand towards him, thumbing the back of it softly, gazing into my eyes.
"You've been incredibly brave through all of this, and I wasn't sure how you'd handle Genzo and Hanji. But you've been so strong and steadfast and that's what I lo- LOOK OUT!" Jesse's words made me flinch and duck, the upholstery two inches above my head exploding in and array of fabric. The crowd left in a panic, leaving only Jesse and I in the restaurant. "That bullet was aimed straight at you..." I crawled under the table towards Jesse, seeing a perfect hole in the booth. "There's a shooter." Jesse pulled my hand to follow him to the exit, but all the lights went out.
"Rule number one when you are turned into a Vampire. You must drink the blood of mortals to satiate you and keep you from starvation." I felt the breeze of an object fly past, landing in the ground with a wobbling motion. "Number two. Darkness is your ally. Light is a foe." Another gunshot. The voice was piercing through my ears like nails on a chalkboard. "Number three. Silver bullets are for Werewolves." Another bang that tore through my shoulder and brought a scream from Jesse's mouth. The lights arose and there holding a gun was Simon.
"S-Simon?" But you-you're..." The pain was unbearable, but I saw how Jesse was writhing on the ground and barred my teeth.
"Dead? Oh no. Haven't you ever read the mythos? Vampires can't die by silver bullets. But mutts can." He chuckled, venom leaking from his voice. "I also find crowbars are very effective against girls named Tania."
"Wha-" Boom. Lights out.

I was completely paralyzed. My arms and legs were strapped to a table, the cold metal rivaling that of a Maine Winter.
"Wakey Wakey!" My eyes were heavy and I had a splitting headache. "Ooh... that's a nasty bruise. Might be a concussion." I coughed, blood leaping from my mouth. "And some internal bleeding from the 20 other times I hit you."
"W-Wh-h-hy..." He scoffed as my head lolled down, his hand pulling me back to consciousness around my hair.
"It's not spite. Not anger. Not even envy. But you sick, racist creature will never understand what it is to be one of us. Making you in my image was only step one, but by beating you, torturing you, you will know what it is like to be hated for breathing a single breath." I coughed up more blood.
"Where's Jesse?" His grip on my hair released. He laughed. Walking over to a metal table, he spoke.
"'Where's Jesse?' 'Where's my mutt?' He's preoccupied. He's knocking on death's door, asking for sugar." My stomach dropped. "Hah! Look at how pale you are! At even the notion that your doggy's dead. After that silver bullet I pumped into him, he should be by now. It's been hours, but he just kept holding on. Begging to see you. Begging. That's all dogs do. Whine and beg. He wouldn't have kept his promise of your purity. As if you know what that means to a dog like him."
"I know what it means. He's not just a mutt. He's my friend. Unlike you, you bastard." I spit at him, some blood landing on his cheek.
"Oh, my precious feelings." I heard metal against metal as Simon walked over. "Now... I'll have you know, I'm not inhumane. Ironic, yes. Jesse is alive. I pulled the bullet out of him, making sure he didn't die. He still has a pretty major scar. But for every cut." He slashed a sharp object against my arm. "Every slash." Again, across my leg. "Every stab." He plunged the weapon into my side, making me cry out loudly. "He feels all of it, because as soon as you kissed, you and him were intertwined forever. And you shall feel the same as I do to hi-" Simon whipped around, only to catch a knife in the arm. "Are you fu-" Another in the opposite hand. Simon hitched as his knees buckled and he fell.
"Careful, partner. You're in the presence of a lady." Jesse barely held himself up in the doorway. Jesse limped over to Simon and weakly kicked his holding knee out from under him. Jesse braced himself and stepped on Simon's abdomen, crunching noises evoking from within him. "Here's the thing about torturing people." Jesse widened his stance to grab something off the metal table. "If it can kill you, don't use it." In a second, Jesse slammed down his hands into Simon's chest, earning nothing but a gasp in, and a breath out. "Holy Hell..." Jesse swiftly undid my restraints, pulling me into a tight hug. "Thank God you're okay..." We both held each other up.
"I thought you were dead..." He helped me move towards the door. Glancing at Simon's body, I now knew what Jesse had said. There was a large stake impaling Simon's heart. His skin was a corpse blue, and no life showed from his already undead body. "Is he...?" Jesse kept walking.
"Don't look at him, sweetheart..." It wasn't hard to get out of where we were, an abandoned warehouse, but finding out where we were afterwards was a whole different story. We were surrounded by forest, but luckily a main road wasn't too far ahead. We broke the barrier between industrial and nature, and Jesse walked up to a local food vendor. I heard him ask where we were, and Jesse's face was one of shock. "Home." Was the only word spoken by him, and I only took a second to realise what he said.
"We're in Santa Fe..."