Punk Rock Vampire

Hollow

Merle trekked down the dank corridor to the Governor's lair, the coolness making him long for the warm summers of his youth. Warmth was an elusive memory; all he had now was the cold.

Male screams echoed against the walls, growing stronger as Merle headed in that direction. He hated hearing a vampire scream. It was like a cross between a possum's hiss and a cat in heat.

He pulled open the heavy wood door to the Governor's chamber, the stale air swollen with the stench of vampire piss. He'd be smelling that funk for days.

Strapped to an operating table was a vampire writhing in pain, without a single mark on his bare white chest. Merle wondered what tortuous cocktail the Governor had mixed up this time.

The Governor sat in an armchair, calmly thumbing through the thin pages of a beaten, leather-bound book. It was as though he existed in his own cruel world, completely oblivious to the presence of others. But Merle knew better.

He stopped a safe distance away; it would be daylight soon. He patiently waited to be addressed. The last vamp who'd spoken out of turn was the one now strapped to the table.

"What am I missing? He should've transformed by now."

Into what? Merle suppressed a shudder at the memory of the deformed beast he'd met with the last time he'd been down here.

After a long enough pause to make Merle nervous, the Governor acknowledged him. "Where's the girl?"

"She got away." Merle slightly shifted onto his other foot. He shouldn't be the messenger, but the vampire who'd fucked up was the pile of white ash currently in a garbage bag in the trunk of his Mustang.

"Rowan?"

"Dead."

The Governor's expression remained impassive, though the twitch in his right eyebrow told Merle that he was pissed. "How?"

"Well..." Merle wasn't sure what the hell had happened. "She turned into...ash. White ash."

"White. Ash." The Governor emphasized the White.

"Yes, Sir." Merle knew better than to ask what was really on his mind: What's powerful enough to burn a vampire alive?

"Any whereabouts on the girl?"

"She's not at her apartment or with any of the band mates. The boyfriend is dead."

"And let me guess - Rick is acting like normal."

"Martinez lost track of him just before the girl disappeared. He came home alone a few hours later."

Sleep tugged at Merle as the dawn sky began to emerge in the only window in the dark basement. He took another step back as the first rays of sun shone through the small circular window, which couldn't be wider than a fishbowl. The curved glass magnified the light into a strong beam. Merle snarled. Even from ten feet away, he could sense the heat of the sun's power.

The vampire screamed for the last time, as sunlight first singed, then melted away the skin of his chest. Merle averted his eyes before the light burned down to the bone. The silence told him it was over. There would be a smoking hole where the vamp's heart used to be.

The Governor remained seated, bathed in light and yet completely unaffected. Merle reminded himself the Governor wasn't human, but that his tolerance of the sun had meant that he wasn't a regular vamp either. Merle figured he knew everything about the Governor that he needed to know - he hated vampires even more than he did.

"Have Tim and Crowley follow Rick. He'll lead her to us eventually."

Merle departed, the pull of the sun making it hard to keep his eyes open. He'd prepare the day team before retiring to his coffin. Vampires never dreamed. And this was one of the times he was grateful for it.