The Vampire Killer

∆{~2~}∆

I had quickly left the home I had purged, and just in time. The police cars were piling up at the street.

It was easy slipping past them. When you just keep your head down and keep out of the way, people tend to ignore you.

I came upon the next house, about a street over. The vampires inside didn't stand a chance.

One street over, after the kill.

Then another.

Then another.

The cops soon just shut the whole neighborhood down. Fear and panic was ripping through the whole county.

I enjoyed every bit of it.

Every bit of chaos I could sow in the vampire infested neighborhoods was good to me.

Even though it was night, everyone passed me by.

They either didn't notice me in all the chaos or figured the Searchers would do something about me.

Anyway, I reached the end of the suburban area, I found an abandoned warehouse. The kind that looked like it was haunted by ghosts.

Well, there was a ghost now.
And her name was Thana Fiammetta.

I sat down against the wall. And I started to sing.

It was an old song. I heard it often, played at multiple occasions. Sometimes I heard it through windows. Sometimes I heard it from cars.

I had memorized the lyrics.

2 AM and she calls me 'cause I'm still awake,
"Can you help me unravel my latest mistake?
I don't love him. Winter just wasn't my season."

Yeah we walk through the doors, so accusing their eyes
Like they have any right at all to criticize.
Hypocrites, you're all here for the very same reason

'Cause you can't jump the track, we're like cars on a cable
And life's like an hourglass, glued to the table
No one can find the rewind button, girl.
So cradle your head in your hands
And breathe... just breathe,
Oh breathe, just breathe

May he turn 21 on the base at Fort Bliss
Just today he sat down to the flask in his fist,
Ain't been sober, since maybe October of last year.

Here in town you can tell he's been down for a while,
But, my God, it's so beautiful when the boy smiles,
Wanna hold him. Maybe I'll just sing about it.

'Cause you can't jump the track, we're like cars on a cable,
And life's like an hourglass, glued to the table.
No one can find the rewind button, boys,
So cradle your head in your hands,
And breathe... just breathe,
Oh breathe, just breathe

There's a light at each end of this tunnel,
You shout 'cause you're just as far in as you'll ever be out
And these mistakes you've made, you'll just make them again
If you'd only try turning around.

2 AM and I'm still awake, writing a song
If I get it all down on paper, it's no longer inside of me,
Threatening the life it belongs to

And I feel like I'm naked in front of the crowd
'Cause these words are my diary, screaming out loud
And I know that you'll use them, however you want to

But you can't jump the track, we're like cars on a cable,
And life's like an hourglass, glued to the table
No one can find the rewind button now
Sing it if you understand.
And breathe, just breathe
Whoa breathe, just breathe,
Oh breathe, just breathe,
Oh breathe, just breathe.

I finished the song, and I realized I was crying. I was crying because it was such a beautiful song. And because it had a meaning.

I could never hit the rewind button on my own life. My parents were gone and I was never getting them back.

But even though the song said that we couldn't jump the tracks, my whole life had been derailed by that terrible childhood incident.

I closed my eyes...

"No! No! No!"

My mother's lifeless body was thrown next to my dads. I struggled, though in vain. The vampire's cronies were holding me too tight.

The vampire leader closed in on me, dragging his abnormally long fingernails up my arm and across my neck, where he stopped right above my jugular vein. My breathing grew faster with fear.

"Save her for later." Was his sudden, clipped order. The vampire holding me seemed a little suprised, but he obeyed, gripping my arm a little too tight and dragging me out of my house. Then they threw me into the back of a van, to be guarded by the vampire's other friend. Yep. A gang of three.

The next few days were absolute torture. I had so much blood taken from me I was sure I was going to die. The lead vampire - I nicknamed him Green Eyes, for his green eyes, duh - had some kind of perverted obsession with me. He would constantly touch me in places I didn't want to be touched. He would mark up my neck, leaving bruises everywhere. Sometimes those bites would go lower. And I couldn't do anything, because he would tie me up.

One day he tried to full - on kiss me. That's when I snapped. I brought my tied hands up and then back down his his head. He was surprised by this, I guess because I had never tried to fight back before.

As he was reeling from the blow I dealt him, I staggered to my feet, weak from blood loss. He had just sat me in a chair, and didn't even tie my legs. Probably because he thought I was too weak to do anything. Well, I just proved him wrong.

I looked for something sharp, anything, to cut through the ropes on my wrists. I noticed a gleam of metal on the corner. A sharp end of a pole. Basically, a stake. Two, in fact. I started to stagger over there, when I felt the hands of the vampire grip my shoulders and spin me around. Anger was blossoming in his eyes, as well as a bad bruise on his forehead. "You little -" he grabbed me around the neck. I gasped and struggled, though, with my hands tied, I couldn't struggle very well. He threw me on the floor and pinned me there, my hands above my head. "You're gonna get it this time -" He snaked one hand under my shirt, trying to tug it off. I panicked and kicked him, right in the unmentionables. That got him off me real quick. I dragged myself over to the metallic gleam and began to try to cut through my bonds, hearing the sounds of the vampire slowly recovering his wits.

It seemed to take a thousand years, but finally the ropes snapped. Just in time too. I felt the vampire grab the back of my throat. Panicked, I grabbed for the metallic stake and turning around, plunged it right into the heart of the vampire.

His eyes went wide, and he stumbled back, the stake buried in his chest. He made one last weak grab for me before falling backwards, with a thud.

He was dead. Finally. This perverted monster was dead.

I heard footsteps outside. Even before the door was opened, I had grabbed the second stake and the first one, from the chest of the vampire. When the door opened, I got his cronies. Both fell dead, one after the other, after I hit them. It felt liberating. It felt good.

I piled the corpses into one pile and set them on fire. I smiled as they burned.

That was when I realized my mission.

All over the country, this was probably happening.

And it was my job to put a stop to it.

That day changed my life. For the better.

I reopened my eyes, finished reliving memory lane.

The memory of the burning corpses was a happy one.

I rolled on my side. I needed sleep.

For the hunt to come.