Exposition - Fearless Vampire Killers Fan Fiction (Short Story) {Completed}

Part 3 - The Mechanist: Handlung (Stargazer)

Part Three

The Mechanist: Handlung (Stargazer)

Kier

Carefully, I looked down at the girl who I'd just knocked unconscious. Was she really that desperate? Or just reckless? Maybe she was genuinely insane?

What in the name of all that was unholy had prompted that?

She must've known she couldn't escape...so why try? We were only going to recapture her, and now she was unconscious...I think. She didn't really look like she was breathing.

Concerned, I reached down to check her pulse.

It was there, but it wasn't strong.

No, I thought desperately: I wasn't walking the track where I let a girl die again: the one I won't walk back.

I'm gonna race it down the river, I thought as I realised that her pulse was fluttering.

I had no time and no idea what to do. I couldn't help her; I wasn't a doctor, could barely keep myself alive. But what choice did I have? I couldn't watch another girl die. Not like before.

Not like my Rosie.

They caught me running from the scene of her death...and they've strapped me in I can't get out despite how much I wanted to return to our city.

There were rumours.

Rumours that she lived.

And although I didn't quite believe them...I didn't have the heart to completely dismiss them from my mind either. If she was still alive, and I list her again through my own negligence...I'd never forgive myself.

Back to the girl in front of me, though...she was working hard to escape, maybe she'd work hard to live, if given the right incentive.

All I needed to do was find out what it was...

"Kemp...my Kemp..." she sighed under her breath, and my heart froze.

She knew me?

Drawing back a little, I looked at ehr carefully: studying her, trying to see if I knew her. And the more I gazed at her, the more familiar she became.

Pointed nose.

High cheekbones.

Long, feathery black lashes.

Full, pale pink mouth.

Soft, wavy blonde hair.

Every single thing about her was familiar: but she couldn't be who I recognised her to be. That would be impossible...

Except I had heard the rumours. Heard the whispers that I had dared to believe.

This was my Rosie.

But...

"Oh my god!" Drew exclaimed from behind me, catching sight of the girl in my arms: "Is she...is she...dead?"

The reminder of how close Rosie was to loosing her life sprung me into motion: "No, but she will be if we don't get her to the castle soon."

"Then what are you waiting for?! Move her for Satan's sake!"

Carefully, I shifted my arms under her, hoisting her up oh-so gently; scared to cause her any more injury. Even if this wasn't Rosie, then I knew she'd hate me for becoming what I had: cold and cruel, servants to the royals we'd despised. She'd want me to change.

And so I would, if only while not in sight of my employers.

I had a lot of respect for the girl, maybe even loved her in a brotherly way...but I wasn't quite mad. Not yet at least.

I carefully set her down in the carriage, holding her close to my chest as we rushed towards the castle. Drew was watching me appraising, but I was ignoring him. My mind was stuck on my Rosie.

The way she smiled: her eyes bright. I used to call her stargazer because of the multitude of little bright lights in her eyes. My stargazer.

I wondered what she'd think of me now.

She'd probably hug me close then berate me for all eternity.

Did you see the pills they gave you? Did you light up: did you get addicted and entrapped in their service? Bad Kemp. Now I'm gonna have to kidnap you as well as rescue you.

I smiled. Because that was exactly what she would do - and if it turned out they hadn't given me drugs in my food to get me lit up - addicted - and forced to remain in their service, she'd probably wonder why she couldn't find anything wrong with my mind.

In all honestly: I'd never taken their pills.

Never had that golden feeling they caused.

Because I wasn't allowed.

No: I was just a gutter rat. And drugs like that weren't wasted on gutter rats who were just looking for a way to escape the guilt they felt.

Now, though, I knew that guilt wasn't deserved - at least if the girl in my arms was my Rosie. It looked a lot like her...I hoped it was. I thought I'd killed her, but obviously I hadn't if this were she. I hoped it was. If it wasn't...

I'd be on the ground again, wallowing in guilt and wondering how to make it all stop.

It was inevitable how it would end. I knew that, and I had done all along. I couldn't lose her twice; I wasn't strong enough. This time...this time it would kill me, I was sure.

Walking the track the one I won't walk back, I'm gonna race it down the river to where I used to camp out in the woods as a kid, where I'll find my shovel and dig myself a grave.

I'd probably do that anyway, I realised: my heart sinking; I'd just found my Rosie.

And now she was going to suffer at the hand of a fucker who paraded himself as around as prince: a perfect poster-boy of perfection when we all knew how depraved he was really. He'd say he loved her, fuck her and cut her throat just like the last girl.

But there was nothing I could do.

Nothing to save the girl I'd adored.

She was going to die: and I had no ideas what to do. No way to save her. I couldn't even help her escape; if I let her go she would die.

The mere thought terrified me. They won't ever find her out here: the palace guards couldn't find a whore in a brothel...but then, they'd only be looking for a corpse. A corpse that would be left to rot because there was no way I could escape to pay my respects or even bury her.

My stargazer, lost forever with nothing to mark her existence. And she'd hate that, right down to her bones; she was so bright, so full of life...to have her life snuffed out like a candle without so much as I grave to mark her presence...it just didn't make sense.

It didn't fit.

And then on the off chance I ever was found out...

The courtiers here...they're boring me when they're around...but they could be vicious fuckers. And the king liked nothing more than throwing traitors to the baying crowd to see 'justice' administered.

Maybe I should have taken the pills. Being lit up right now would make my whole situation easier.

My poor stargazer...

I'm so sorry.