The Feeding House (6 page)

The
two vampires that had dragged Jack from the safety of his cell now took hold of him once again. He tried to fight them off but this attempt at freedom was futile and only resulted in Jack taking a very strong kick to the chest knocking the wind out of him and making his body involuntarily limp. The crowd of course only cheered louder at this. They lifted him up onto the ritual table and attached his arms and legs to thick chains which were held down by rings on the floor he struggled but could not move. One of the vampires then grabbed a clamp and placed it hard into Jacks mouth, tying it round the back of his head so that he could not close his mouth. Jack gave out a shout of rage and fear the crowd became hysterical and watched on with unnatural interest.

Dreno
slowly picked up a ceremonial knife, its blade twisted into a strange but beautiful shape he was really turning this ritual into a performance and took great joy in this. Dreno held his hand up in the air as he walked closer to the crowd and with one slow but forceful slice he cut deep into his wrist. Blood began to pour down his arm, he did not wince. It had very little effect on him as the wound would easily heal. He took a great golden chalice much larger than the ones the vampires usually use for feeding. It was engraved with horrific pictures of mass feedings and allowed his blood to fill the chalice until it was near the point of over flowing. 

Holding it up in two hands he gave a great vampiric scream that sounded like death itself the audience responded in kind the room filled with unholy sounds that would scar a man for
a lifetime just to hear it once. Dreno took the chalice in two hands and walked towards Jack who lay there struggling helplessly upon the alter. He took a moment to look at him as he writhed taking great delight in his suffering before pouring all of the blood down Jacks throat.

Jacks mouth filled with blood as he tried not to swallow the blood but there was very little he could do
. With every passing moment he could feel his throat opening ready to swallow it, he began to cough and splutter and Dreno’s blood covered his face and dripped down onto the alter. It was not long until the remainder of it went down his throat and he felt it travel down his body headed towards his stomach he knew it was all over. The vampiric blood felt like poison as it travelled down him it was red hot and was like swallowing fire he could feel it spreading around his veins attacking every part of his body he felt as though he was burning to death from the inside out.

The vampires cheered wildly as they watched Jack writhe with t
he pain of turning. Dreno held his arms up in success and soon Jack fell into a deep coma upon the alter, one he would be lucky to awake from again. The cheering continued as he was taken away ready to be transported into the city where he would meet his fate, they would take him there that very night with spies watching his every move and reporting back to Dreno. They would have a second to second overview of what had happened to their torture subject.

There was however one in the hall
, one vampire who had not been cheering and had spent his entire time there watching quietly as he sat in the corner watching the ritual take place. He had arrived earlier that day in relative secret and had kept himself to himself trying to avoid contact with any of the other vampires. He watched intently as Jack was taken away and then finally, once he was gone, this vampire of mystery made a swift exit from the feeding house as though he had never been there.

Jack lie there disoriented writhing in a cold sweat
. For three days he was in complete and total agony not knowing where he was or why he was there the only thing that he could properly notice was the sunlight that crept in through the cracks in the curtains and how slowly, throughout the day, it would once again disappear bringing the cooling relief of night onto his sweltering body. Knowing the difference between day and night was the only thing that kept him sane.

He could feel himself changing. T
his was not a normal pain. This pain was different it was almost as if someone was taking his body apart from the inside out and was replacing it with new cells and new skin. If he had a mirror to hand he would have seen the full extent of what was happening to his body. Bones could be seen moving under his skin as they became tougher, his muscles grew stronger and leaner. He became toned and powerful.

It was his stomach and his mouth that hurt the most
His internal organs were changing shape and design ready to accommodate a life of living off of nothing but human blood. It felt to Jack however like liquid fire coursed through his intestines and occasionally he could feel them repositioning themselves to fit in with his new life. His teeth felt like they were being ripped out very slowly with a pair of pliers but this was in fact his set of sharp pointed feeding teeth coming through which could be withdrawn into the back of his gums at a moment’s notice.

Even Jacks face was beginning to change ever so slightly
. For you see vampires do not look like the depictions of them in mythology they look pretty much identical to regular humans but with a few key differences that once you know make vampires easy to spot in a crowd. The mythological depiction of vampires was actually created by the vampires themselves so that no one would ever suspect them.

Jacks face and general characteristics slowly became more vampiric over the three days that he lay in the bed
. His nose became slightly sharper as did the rest of his facial features as all vampires have very sharp features, not unlike that of a wolf. His eyes gained the vampiric ability to turn completely black whenever he wanted. This ability is usually reserved for when a vampire is mad and wishes to fight or is feeding upon a live host. Jacks skin also became very pale to the point where it was nearly white. Just like all other vampires sunlight is lethal.

As Jack lay there in the bed, slowly transforming,
he fell in and out of consciousness on a regular basis. Sometimes from the pain sometimes from the exhaustion he would fall into deep sleeps where he was plagued by visions of the little girl at the feeding house once again. He could see her there as clear as real life she was crying out for him to save her, asking him why he didn’t do more to help and begging for him to come back and rescue her. Every time he had this dream he would wake up screaming and fall back into agony the torment seemed endless.

It was on the fourth day of lying there in the bed that Jack felt once again in control of most of his body and able to
at least get up and walk around. Most of the transformation had already taken place and he had survived. It would still take a while for the transformation to be complete but he had survived the most dangerous stage and for that he was thankful. The threat of dying was now greatly lessened, now he just had to find a way to survive as a vampire in a human world.

Jack looked around the room as he lay there flat on his back and he saw the full extent of where he was for the first time
. He was guessing that he was at some sort of inn as there were the noises of talking and drinking downstairs all to the tune of a piano that was playing a jaunty ragtime style song. Looking at the crack in the drawn curtain he saw a large amount of light coming through. It must have been midday judging by how high and intense the sun seemed in the sky.

Cockroaches scuttled around the floor and into
the dark crevasses of the room. It was simply laid out in its design with poor quality wooden furnishings dotted around and a large full length mirror in the corner. Jack was greatly confused however what he was doing here or how indeed he even got to this place. The last thing that he remembered was the alter and being told that he was going to be taken to meet his fate amongst the humans but he didn’t expect this, he didn’t expect a room at an inn. He needed to get his head straight and find out what was going on.

Slowly
he pulled himself out of the bed. As he sat up a great throbbing pain began in his head, he held his head in his hands for a few minutes breathing deeply as he did so and then threw up all over the floor. But he wasn’t in a state to care about something like that and once he had recovered he pulled himself off of the bed his joints feeling as though they were going to give way at any moment if he was to move too fast or at the wrong angle.

Jack walked very carefully towards the mirror
, stumbling as he went, trying to grab onto the chair and the bed post for support. Once he had reached the mirror he took a very long look at himself taking in the changes that the transformation had done he gave out a long sigh as he touched his face. It was still his face but slightly different it looked just that bit more menacing. He gripped his arms and legs feeling the new found strength in the muscle. He knew that he had a row of retractable fangs and somehow naturally knew how to bring them down but chose not to look at them. He had seen enough and although his face and his body were reminders that the transformation had in fact successfully taken place there would be no bigger reminder than the fangs and to be honest he didn’t want to look at that he’d had enough already.

Jack walked over to the window where the crack of light in the curtains shone through it was the only
light source in the entire room. He could hear the sounds of a city behind the curtains and pushed them slowly open to take a look. An interesting sensation flooded over every part of Jacks skin that was exposed to the light and his eyes hurt forcing him to squint. It was almost like he was in pain but not at the same time obviously the transformation had not been completed yet or else he would be burning in this direct sunlight. Bellow him he saw as his eyes adjusted to the light, a city that he could only presume was oxford, Mississippi the city closest to the feeding house. He could not however be certain about this as he had only ever seen the city by night and he usually only ever had the Ariel view of the rooftops to go by.

The door to Jacks room swung open very quickly making him turn around in a defensive stance
. He dropped his guard when a confident woman walked in holding a broom. She was one of the maids and at first she did not notice Jack but then quickly jumped at the sight of him standing in front of her by the window.

The women quickly averted her gaze from him as a form of respect “I am so sorry sir, I didn’t mean to intrude like this I just thought you would still be unconscious you see I’ve been coming in and checking on you and doing a bit of cleaning too while I was here sir
, my deepest apologies for intruding like this I know I should have knocked before entering.” The women was in a deep panic as the thought of her losing her job came to mind with each passing moment. But Jack did not look down on the women or scold her. Jack knew that this women was a valuable asset and that she would most likely have the answers to some of the questions that he had been thinking since the moment he first looked around the room.

“It’s ok but if you don’t mind I have a few questions that need answering?” the women nodded and let out a sigh of relief at his lack of anger towards her Jack continued “Can you tell me how I got here and
where here actually is?”

The women looked confused momentarily at Jack wondering how someone couldn’t know where they were or how they’d even got there especially when
they had been there for over three days but if this kept him happy, and most importantly kept her employed, then so be it. “You’re at the holy Moses in Oxford Mississippi sir. You were brought here a couple of nights ago out of the blue at around 11 o’clock at night by some, if you don’t mind me saying peculiar, looking fellows. The land lord was going to turn you lot away until one of the men that had been carrying you pulled out what seemed to be endless amounts of money out from his pockets and told us to keep you for as long as it takes for you to get back onto your feet. Of course the land lord isn’t stupid and said yes to the offer so we put you up here in this bed since your arrival and you’ve been having nightmares and the like since your arrival.”

Jack momentarily held his head in his hands as he let the situation si
nk in. Obviously the vampires had gone through with what they said. He was lucky that he had survived the transformation but in a way was worried for the safety of the women that he spoke to and all others that were around him. It had appeared that the vampires had gone to great expense to make sure that he survived his transformation and would live on to be hunted and killed by the people of Oxford leaving him not in a ditch by the side of a road but instead in a comfortable room with a bed and people who would watch over him to make sure that he was still breathing all of which unknowing as to what was actually going on inside of him.

“Thank you for your help, I need to be left alone now
. I have a lot to think about and I need to get my things in order,” At this the women backed slowly out of the door facing Jack every step of the way, she wore a look of confusion and fear on her face unable to understand what was going on or indeed why he was behaving like this but all she knew was something was very wrong with this guest. He made her blood run ice cold as if he was some sort of shadow in the night.

Jack looked back over the city scape as he poured himself a glass of strong drink looking at the label on the bottle before swallowing the content of the glass. It made him feel good almost like it was a return to normality he let out a cool exhale of air as his throat clenched from the strength of the drink
. He now felt that bit more alive and ready to face the world but was still in pain and knew that the transformation had not quite ended it would not be long now he thought before sunlight burnt his skin and the over whelming urge to feed ran deep within his mind he worried endlessly about this but chose to take his leave from the room he had spent too long here already. He would gather his baring’s downstairs and try and learn what had happened to him and what was going on. Jack needed some sort of secure plan if he was ever going to survive through the next few days let alone the future.