Chapter 9: The Search
We left the inn in the morning at 3:00 am. Sethius hurried me into the car.
“We are going to find Vladimir.” Sethius murmured as he started the engine.
I nodded. This was exciting and I couldn’t wait. Just as we were leaving the driveway, a high pitched screech of terror, coming from outside the car, filled the open air.
“What is it?” I whimpered as I looked out my window. Blood and guts flew everywhere. A familiar face; a familiar scream. Straight away I knew what and why this was happening.
“STOP!” I yelled getting out of the car.
I didn’t look back as I lunged at the human, pushing her out of the way.
“MY GOD! ABIGAIL?!”
My best friend in the whole world was lying on the floor; not dead, just in shock. I glanced at the murderous, deadly, incurable, lethal vampire. Bad memories faded into one another. I attacked him. Using my teeth, I ripped his body into pieces. Leaving him lying dead on the ground, a ghostly figure on the concrete. I assisted my traumatized friend into the car and drove off.
The first place we decided to look was the sanatorium. As soon as we arrived at St Hopes Hospital, we rushed to the service desk. The receptionist kept eyeing us nervously like we weren’t human. To break the silence I chose to ask the lady if she could tell me if and what hospital Vladimir was staying at. She replied that this was confidential information that could not be revealed to regular people.
I glanced at her name tag. “Gabrielle, and what if I’m not regular?” I flashed a toothy grin, my fangs overlapping the sides of my lips. She gulped; I sighed. I didn’t want her to be scared; I just wanted to know where my step brother was. But when I explained this, she fainted. While I had the chance, I snuck behind her desk and started going through the files of all the people at the hospital. While I did this, Sethius filled Gabrielle on everything that had happened from the accident to saving me on the side of the road.
There was no sign of Vladimir’s file so we decided to check all the rooms by examining the hospital beds through the windows. Within the two minutes that followed, I felt a tap on my shoulder and hot breath on my neck. With a sigh, I rotated around to see a specialist. “Do you need help with anything madam?” The doctor said superciliously.
“Actually, yes please. I am looking for VladimirChrysostomus Wolfgangus Thorsten von Steuben, I’m his sister.”
“Ah…the bullet boy.”
“Ummm…yeah.” I frowned.
“Follow me please miss and your friends can come too.”
The doctor had an Italian accent that reflected the way he looked and acted: His bright yellow hair, his moustache, and the pizza stains on his jumper which had the Italian flag on it.
He led us to a door. The handle was partly broken off, the wood was chipping and it was deserted. I looked at Sethius and Sethius looked at me. I took a deep breath and opened the door softly, careful not to wake anybody. I looked around. Vladimir was lying on the bed in the far corner, attached to a heartbeat monitor and other complicated tubes that he was connected to. Immediately, I pulled up a chair and started crying. It pained me to see my brother (even though not blood related) dying. All of a sudden, the heart beat monitor stopped. An intense beeping sound pierced my ears as I tried to think of something to do to help my comrade.
The intense banging on the door; the decreasing breaths of Vladimir; the panicked inhalations of me and my friends.
“Don’t die!” I gasped through tears of pain.
Finally, the door crashed down to the ground. A crowd of surgeons gathered around my brother, forcing me out of the way.
“The poison from the bullet in his head has gone to his brain. If we don’t remove it, he could die painlessly within 24 hours. Equally, if we do remove it there is a small chance he will live a normal and happy life with minor brain damage or a big chance he will die within 24 hours in pain. So which one? Pain or no pain?” The head surgeon asked me.
I thought about this for a minute. He’s a vampire, I told myself, and he will survive if they do take it out. No pain no gain, I told myself. “Pain.” I whispered.
“Speak up, can’t hear you lovie.” She yelled, turning up her hearing aid.
“PAIN!” I yelled.
All of them stared at me and immediately took Vladimir into the surgery room next door.
