The Feeding House (5 page)

Jack acted quickly he picked up the loose pipe that he had pulled from the thigh of the girl the bloodied needle glistened in the light he span around moments before the chancellor ran full force into him and as the chancellor missed
his mark. Jack stabbed the pipe deep into the Chancellors eye socket. He screamed with pain as he tried to grab the pipe to pull it out but it was too deep within his skull. Jack opened the tap allowing the suction to begin, he looked up the pipe as he saw chunks of the Chancellors brain and skull being pulled up by the incredible force of the suction.

The fight was nowhere near over however as the sound of the battle had aroused the attention of the other harvesters in the cellar who had come to investigate what had happened
. They approached Jack and saw the spilt blood on the floor and the chancellor lying dead. Jack was pulling out the pipes attached to the girl as they came closer.

Jack was full of adrenaline and could see nothing but red he took a few punches from the other harvesters but fought back knocking them to the floor with a new found strength that he didn’t even know he possessed
. He pummelled his attackers until all that was left of their heads was an unrecognisable mess of skull, brain and hair on the floor. An onlooker saw the fight and quickly ran upstairs to where the vampires were feeding.

He threw the doors open not at all scared to disturb the feast “Jack Crowe has gone mad he’s
in the cellar, he’s killed the Chancellor and his fellow harvesters.” The man was out of breath and could hardly believe the words that were coming out of his own mouth he was terrified and confused as to what was happening down in the cellar.

The vampires
looked up from their feast their faces instantly changed from a blood crazed lust to a look of pure confusion as the words processed in their minds a deep and powerful silence fell over the entire hall. No one had expected anything like this to happen. It was unheard of, a harvester killing a vampire especially one of the Chancellor’s power and skill by himself was something that no one could ever have thought possible.

The silence did not last long
. The vampires quickly reacted to the news and several of them, including the High Chancellor, jumped up from their seats ran towards the door and headed for the cellar. Meanwhile, downstairs, Jack was unplugging the girl from the machines. He pulled out the final pipe and the girl collapsed onto the floor the pain slowly decreasing, her screams turning into quite whimpers as she lay there. Jack heard the quick footsteps coming towards the cellar door and knew that there were many vampires coming for him.

Jack ran towards the door and closed it
, jamming it with barrels of blood. It was not going to hold them for very long but it was better than nothing hopefully it would give him a bit of time to gather himself and get ready for the coming assault. Even though he was getting ready for this fight he knew it would be his last. He had no chance against those who were coming for him he knew fully well that today would be the day that he died, but he might as well try and take a few of them with him.

Jack went back to where the girl lay whimpering on the floor
. She was covered in blood but didn’t seem to care she just seemed relieved that the pain had ended. Jack stroked her hair trying to make sure that she was ok before he prepared for the fight. The blood from the wounds seemed to have stopped flowing. He didn’t know how he was going to help her past what he had done but at least he felt that in a way what he was doing was making it right. It was his way of apologising for his mistakes.

Jack took his two colt pistols span them in his hands and pointed them dead at the door ready for whoever was coming through. The footsteps stopped for a moment outside the cellar door there was an agonising moment like the calm before the storm it seemed to last for an eternity.
Then with great force the doors came buckling in on themselves the barrels of blood exploded as they tumbled down the stairs spraying blood all over the walls and throughout the room.

Jack fired off two bullets as a couple of vampires came through the hole where the door had once been one bullet hit its mark and went straight through the vampires forehead killing it instantly the other hit the second vampire in the chest usually this would knock them momentarily to the floor
. But because it had fed well not long ago it did nothing to slow it down the wound healing almost instantly.

More vampires
flooded through the doors as Jack fired off more shots one or two of them killing his attackers but it wasn’t good enough they were coming too fast. There was just too many of them for him to deal with and they soon over ran him one jumping directly on top of Jack as he fired a shot straight into its stomach which did nothing to stop it. The vampire looked down at him on the floor his mouth full of fangs revealed his eyes black as night and prepared to tear Jacks face clean off of his skull.

“Stop!” Came a booming voice from the top of the cellar stairs and the vampires turned around too look it was Dr
eno. He slowly descended the stairs as he wore a look of pure hate and disgust “I do not want him dead, not yet anyway. Take him and throw him in the holding cell I will decide what punishment best suits this level of crime soon.”

Dr
eno approached Jack looking at how weak and feeble he seemed pinned there on the floor, disarmed and vulnerable he looked upon him with great pleasure “All that you have achieved here is your own death. I am ashamed at myself for thinking you were strong. The truth it seems is that you are weaker than even those we feed upon you have not saved the girl. As soon as you are taken away we shall plug her into the machine again and make sure that her agony never ends all because of you, now take him away I don’t wish to look at this maggot any longer.” The High Chancellor spat on Jacks face as two vampires holding his arms dragged him up the cellar stairs and towards the holding cell.

Jack lay there on the floor of the holding cell the vampires that had taken him there had made sure that he did not get off lightly, savagely beating him to within an inch of his life his face left swollen and several ribs cracked. Jack uncurled from the
foetal position that he had been in for quite some time now and felt inside his jacket pocket. Pulling out the now blood-stained doll that belonged to the child that he had tried to save he thought about how unfair the whole situation was and how much the girl must now be suffering.

He placed the girl’s doll back in his jacket pocket for safe keeping and kept in mind that no matter what happened from here on out he would try and save the girl no matter what. The cell
was small and poorly kept the High Chancellor was surely not going to make a decision today and would most likely keep him in the cell for a week or two just to make him suffer. It was dark and diseased ridden in the cell a lingering miasma hung heavily in the air and rats scampered around trying their best to remain unseen as they picked up scraps of whatever they could find; which mainly consisted of dead insects that had built a home in the cell. Jack crawled over to a pile of half decomposed straw that lay in the corner and used it as a bed, his dreams that night were once again plagued with the face of the tormented girl screaming out in agony calling for his help.

A week and a half later the cell door opened three vampires walked in ready to take him away, Jack was weak at fatigued most of the bruising and breaks had healed due to his
black blood characteristics but the cold dark recesses of the cell had done no good for him and as the dim candle light flooded into the cell as the door opened Jack felt as though he was being blinded by the light. After his time spent in pure darkness the candle light felt like he was looking directly into the sun.

The guards said nothing but instead manhandled Jack picking him up by his arms with a very firm grip that was meant to cause him pain and began to lead him off down the hallways. Eventually they reached the door to the chancellor’s office which had now been adopted
, it seemed, by Dreno himself as he was now staying to personally oversee the feeding programming. After the events that led to the death of the feeding houses chancellor he was no longer willing to take any chances.

The vampires opened the door and dragged Jack into the room thr
owing him down in front of the High Chancellor’s feet. There was a moment’s silence quickly broken by Dreno delivering a very powerful and very precise kick right into Jacks chest knocking the wind out of him and sending him into a heap on the floor.

“You are both
filthy and pathetic Jack Crowe. I held you in such high regard and had such great ambition for you but you had to throw it away and for the worst possible reason at that, to help a human.” Dreno now began to circle around Jack pacing rings around him as he lay there on the floor “I have reached a decision as to what price you shall pay for your most heinous of crimes. You shall not die by our hands as much as we would enjoy tearing you limb from limb. No, this shall not be your fate Jack Crowe, tonight we shall preform the vampiric transformation rites upon you. You shall become a full vampire and then once the ceremony is complete we shall set you loose upon the human race to be hunted and killed mercilessly by those that you tried so hard to help.”

A cruel smile appeared on the High C
hancellors face as he told Jack of his fate. It was the cruellest punishment he could think of for the crime against his people, Dreno could not imagine that Jack would last any longer than a few days out amongst the humans. He would resist his new found thirst to feed at first but it would only be a short amount of time until the pains of hunger became overwhelming and he would have to feed and that would cause his inevitable demise. He would be hunted like vermin, just as Dreno himself was hunted all those years ago.

Jack was taken back to his cell awaiting the events
that were only mere hours away. His mind swam in thoughts of survival and half-baked plans of how he may be able to live once he was transformed and forced to leave the feeding houses. A small amount of false hope filled his heart as he thought about possible ways that he could spend the rest of his days living in solitude, feeding occasionally, covering his tracks wherever he went, living as an outlaw but he knew full well that not even the most experienced vampire stood a chance out there in the modern world. It wasn’t like it had been all those years before the feeding houses. The world had moved on and the people within it had evolved. No longer did they use swords and bows they now used highly accurate guns and bullets that could easily kill a vampire, in an instant, from a long range.

He remembered great myths and legends of
Dreno’s past before he created the feeding houses and the machines. Jack searched his memory for stories that might be able to help in the near future. They were tales of great skill and power. It was said that Dreno once moved silently across the top of the buildings of Paris, darting amongst the shadows with expert precision like a thief in the night. So skilled he was at this that the guards and soldiers who chased him down did not even know if he was real as he managed to become little more than a shadow.

Meanwhile in the great feeding hall the ceremony was being prepared for later that night when Jack would become transformed into a fully-fledged vampire
. The turning of human to vampire can be done easily without a ritual or ceremony but the turning ceremony is usually only reserved for special occasions and this particular turning seemed to fit that description the ceremony would be a great way to make an example of Jack. Turning a person is not suggested this late in life and is usually only reserved for children as their bones have not fully developed. However it is possible to turn a fully developed adult but there is a high mortality rate and it is a very dangerous idea for it changes every part of your genetic makeup turning you into a whole new being. But if Jack was to die before he was set loose it was no problem for the vampires he was destined to die soon any way.

It was late that night that the vampires came for Jack dragging him fr
om his cell to the feeding hall. He had been waiting so long by this point that it almost felt like they were never going to come for him but the sound of the lock and the swing of the door proved otherwise it was a sound that he didn’t want to hear at all and to him it was almost deafening.

The two vampires that held his arms dr
agged him into the feeding hall. It was full of vampires and the great ritual alter stood menacingly at the far end of the table. The high chancellor stood next to it, dressed in ceremonial black and red robes, looking like some form of unholy priest. A great cheer went up across the hall as the vampires pulled Jack along the side. All eyes turned to view him. The crowd was begging for his punishment, Jack was thrown down in front of the alter the high chancellor looking down at him.

Dreno
turned and addressed the excited crowd the room quickly fell into silence spare Dreno’s booming voice. “For his crimes against his masters and for his despicable betrayal a worthy torment has been concocted for Jack Crowe. He shall be transformed into one of us and cut loose to live amongst the humans, to be killed by the ones that he chose so foolishly to help. They shall hunt him ruthlessly just as they once hunted us. He shall know then what true suffering is and shall beg forgiveness before he is killed without mercy by their feeble hands, just as our forefathers were.”

The crowd roared in agreement
and got to their feet to give Dreno an almighty applause. For a few moments he bathed in the applause and then silenced it with a wave of his hand. Turning to begin the ritual for which the crowd did not stop cheering and yelling obscenities at Jack as if they were trying to murder him with their words.