Vampire World (18 page)

I felt a sharp
prick in my left side. Then I blacked out.

TRAPPED

I woke up in an
upright position, chained against a stone wall by my arms and feet. Awful
memories of the orphanage punishment cell came to mind, especially with the
soul swallowing darkness that engulfed me. I knew that someone was standing in
front of me, even though I couldn’t see them.

“Well, well,”
said a harsh voice. “We have many questions for you.”

“And you better
not lie to us,” someone else added.

A beam of light
appeared above my head, immediately sparking an agonizing sensation that ran
through my entire my body.

“The beam is
unprotected reflected light from a nearby star,” the first voice informed
me.
 
“I’m sure that you can feel its
pain right now. If you lie to us, the beam will lower and you will feel
increased agony. If it gets too low, you will burn to death.”

“Okay, I
understand,” I said. The pain was excruciating enough now, and the beam was
still several feet above my head.

“So tell me,
what were you doing in our tunnels? How did you get access to them?”

Oh, they had
seen me. And they knew I'd seen the bodies. I was in trouble. And it was my
messenger's fault. I thought I was safe trusting him. But I was wrong. I didn’t
know what to say. How was I going to explain to them that I was being secretly
led by someone I'd never met?

“Talk!” the
voice demanded.

 
The beam of light lowered a little. It
was like my whole body was on fire.

“I swear I
didn’t mean to go into your tunnels,” I said. “I was playing with the
gargoyle’s claws after taking a break from fireball….I was tired and dizzy…and
I accidentally opened a secret passageway.”

“Her story
doesn’t make sense,” one said to the other. “It’s not that easy to open the
entrance.”

“So, she is
telling us lies.”

The beam dropped
even closer. The pain was so bad I could barely talk. But somehow I managed to
babble on a bit more.

“No! Please! It’s
the truth, I swear. I’m sorry I stumbled on your business and I promise to keep
my mouth shut!”

“Do you swear?”

“YES! I SWEAR!”

A frightening
silence followed, during which it felt as though my skin was about to melt off.
Then the voices started talking to each other as if I wasn't even there.

“What should we
do? Kill her?”

“I don’t know.
We could. Or maybe she is telling the truth.”

“But that still
doesn’t give her the right to invade our space.”

“Let’s just
throw her in Bloodwood Forest. If she survives, which she won’t, she’ll make
sure never to stumble on our property again.”

There was
laughter. I still couldn’t see anything, and was only conscious of the light
burning deeper and deeper into my very soul. Then, in a moment of sheer
ecstasy, it stopped. I was still thankfully sucking in great mouthfuls of air
when there was another prick in my side and I blacked out again.

When I woke up
this time I was cold. Very cold. I was in the middle of a vast and extremely
scary forest. Massive trees with midnight black trunks shot way up into the air
like the downtown skyscrapers, hemming me in and suffocating me. The canopy of
foliage, though sparkling, was so dense I couldn’t even see the sky or Garlic
Moon.

I dragged myself
up off the swampy ground. I was covered in mud; my cute new outfit was filthy.
I wandered around in a daze, trying to recall how I'd arrived in this awful
place. Then I remembered everything. The torture chamber, the darkness, and the
threatening voices all came back with a rush. It was my fault I was here. I
should never have listened to my secret messenger in the first place.

   
So now I knew that I must
have been dumped in Bloodwood Forest. I moved around cautiously while trying to
avoid the colossal roots that snaked out of the thick trunks, but tripped and
fell anyway, landing head first into the freezing mud. It took me a few degrees
to get back up. Eventually I did, but I had never felt lower. And this place
stunk like hell.

I remembered
Brett telling me that a vampire would not last in Bloodwood Forest. Yet here I
was. Somehow, I had to raise my spirits and try to find my way out of this
mess.

That was never
going to be easy. The dark forest looked the same whichever direction I headed,
with no end or clearing in sight. I felt like I was trapped and going around in
circles. The night was getting colder too. I climbed over countless pointy
roots that jutted out from the nightmarish trees. I hated them, even though
their radiant leaves were lighting the way. But which way?

After several
frustrating degrees of staggering around in circles, skinning my knees,
twisting my ankles and getting mud into my fangs, I began to despair once more.
I screamed for Brett. Nothing. Mr. FreeCut then. Still nothing.

Placing icy
hands over my eyes, I sat down and cried. Not even my secret mentor knew where
I was. As the temperature plummeted even further, the thought of having to
spend the whole damn night out here terrified me. And what if I had to spend
much longer than that?

Yet in the midst
of all my troubles, there was a ray of hope. I thought about all the good
things that had come my way recently. Was I going to just give up and lose all
that? Hell no!

With a burst of
energy, I got up again and renewed my search for a way out. As I trudged over
more hazardous roots, I suddenly noticed dozens of small creatures climbing
over the tree trunks. About the size of large cockroaches and with multiple
eyes and spider-like legs, they were quite sickening to look at.
 
From each creature's body dangled what
appeared to be two transparent worms.

Continuing on,
the ground became ever more swampy and the mud increasingly full of these slimy
creatures. A few scrambled up my leg. I brushed them off, but they kept coming.
One of them crawled onto my thigh. Just as I was about to brush it off, its
creepy worm-like arms wiggled about and stabbed into my skin. I felt a sharp
sting.

The transparent
tubes turned red, and then I realized with horror exactly what they were. These
were suction hoses designed to drain the blood from me.

I tore the
creature away and it hurt like hell, but at least the hoses were detached. Even
though it had only taken a small amount of blood, I felt noticeably weaker. And
now dozens more of the creatures were assaulting me.

I was not going
to let these bloodsucking bastards take any more blood from me. I tried to leap
over a large root in order to reach drier ground and get away from the hellish
insects, but I misjudged the height and tripped. Instead of escaping, I landed
face first in a puddle of black gook filled with the creatures. They crawled
all over my face while I struggled to stand up and swat them off. One of them
remained stubbornly attached, draining blood from above my right eye before I
finally yanked it away.

The forest spun
wildly as I ran for my life. Somehow I made it to another dry patch of ground
without killing myself, though I was gasping for air and dizzy by the time I
reached it.

I couldn't see
any of the bugs crawling toward me, so after recovering my breath I relaxed a
bit. Surprisingly, there was now a bit of welcome space to move around in. It
was comforting not to have a monstrous black tree trunk only inches away from
my face. Even so, when I glanced up, I still couldn’t see the sky. Just a scary
mass of leaves and scarlet branches like in a creepy scene of a nightmare that
never ends.

I checked my
knee that was badly skinned and bleeding from the fall, hoping that it would
clot soon. Then I heard a hissing noise from close by.

One of the
bloodsucking creatures scuttled from behind a branch and hissed again. Except
this time it was the adult version: much bigger—about the size of a large
dog. It peered at me with its three ruby eyes, its spider legs dripping with
ooze. Then the revolting suction tubes began wiggling about in a circle. It
wanted my blood.

Another
bloodsucker the same size appeared behind me. I grabbed a heavy gnarled stick
off the ground, and as the first creature lunged at me, I plunged my makeshift
weapon right into its stomach. It fell onto its back, wriggling around with the
stick still protruding from it. Black ooze spewed out of the wound. Within
moments it was dead.

There was no
time to relax. I tried to pull the stick out from the dead bloodsucker, but it
was difficult to move. Before I knew it, the second creature was on top of me,
pinning me to the ground with its startling weight. The stench coming from it
was horrible as it prepared to plunge its suckers into my body.

With a burst of
strength coming from desperation, I managed to push the creature off and
scramble to my feet. For a moment the bloodsucker was on its back and
struggling to regain its footing. Using this brief respite, I grabbed a big
rock. When the creature came at me again, I smashed the rock hard into its
face. Two of its eyes fell out. While it stumbled around blindly, I at last
managed to pull the stick out of the dead creature. Using this, I gave
bloodsucker number two the same treatment to finish it off, not caring about
its insides spewing all over me.

I stared at the
dead creatures, dizzy, not from losing any more blood, but from sheer
exhaustion. At least I was free from danger now, I told myself. Then I heard
another noise coming from the brush, way louder than anything before.

The ground in
the clearing shook, along with the bushes and trees surrounding it. My mouth
dropped open in sheer astonishment when I saw the new beast appear. It was
enormous, perhaps even the size of an elephant. I was now staring at a fully
grown bloodsucker. Those two I had just beaten the hell out of and initially
mistaken for adults, were in fact just adolescents.

The giant's
suction feeders cut through the brush, twisting like angry pythons. Its immense
body oozed with blood. Hundreds of the monster's children crawled on the ground
alongside it, hissing in unison.

 
Scared out of my wits, I backed up to the
center of the empty clearing with no idea what to do. Suddenly, the ground
beneath my feet collapsed. I tumbled down through a large hole that had been
covered over by branches and foliage. I hit the bottom hard. OMG….no wonder
there was a clearing in the woods. This was the monster’s feeding ground.

And I
was trapped in the middle of it!

STUCK

I saw its giant
feeders twirling about, ready to suck my head off. I shrank back, but there was
no escape. I was stuck at the grimy bottom of a hole ten feet deep. The giant
insect moved up to the edge, shrouding the pit in darkness as it made ready to
devour me. It was all over now.

Then I saw a
cloud of ruddy gas starting to engulf it. The creature hissed angrily and
backed up. “Aim for the big one,” I heard a voice shout. “The rest of you take
the perimeter.”

What the hell?
It must be vampires!

I could no
longer see the giant insect. Was it gone completely? A burst of rejuvenating
energy ran through me as I stood up in the mud. I was alive. I was freakin
alive! I cried out for help at the top of my voice.

“She’s down
there…”

Oh my gosh…
somebody was actually searching for me. How did they know I was here?

A rope was
pitched to me. I grabbed it and was pulled up. The air smelled of death as I
surfaced. I gazed at someone wearing a mask.

“Are you okay?”
he asked.

“I..I think
so…my arms hurt though. And I’m f..f..freezing.”

He handed me
something from his dark vest. “Here, take this. It’s a blood pill.”

Still confused
and dizzy, I glanced around and saw the mangled corpse of the insect monster
lying in the muck. It looked like its skin had been melted.

I swallowed the
pill. Next I was given a thermos full of invigorating hot blood. Since blood
was a natural healer, I soon felt better and became more aware of my
surroundings.

“How did you
know I was here?” I asked. “Have you been following me? Who are you?”

“We’ve been
monitoring your location for quite a while,” he told me. “We’ve been able to do
this because the person who you've been receiving secret information from put a
tracking device on you.”

Oh my goodness.
My secret messenger hadn't told me this. “Who are you?” I demanded.

“My name is
Martin,” he said.

Three other
vampires also wearing masks surrounded me. They held sophisticated, hose-like
weapons. They must have used these to spray the deadly gas that killed the
giant bloodsucker and its hundreds of babies that were also lying dead in the
mud.

“We’re opponents
of the organization that your informant has revealed to you,” Martin continued.
“That organization, which goes by the name of TriFang, almost had you killed.
So do us and yourself a favor and take heed of my warning. Do not listen to the
stranger guiding you. He’s up to no good, and will continue to put you in harm.
And most important of all, stay well away from TriFang in the future.”

A burst of
questions flooded my mind. “Who is my stranger? Please tell me.”

“It’s better
that we don’t. For your safety, Janice. All we can do is tell you to ignore him.
Trust us. Please.”

I couldn’t, I
told myself. Maybe because I had been beaten-up, not just physically, but
mentally too. Ever since waking up in Vampire World I'd had a feeling that I
was being lied to and used. I was tired of feeling this way. I wanted to know
the damn truth.

“Tell me,
dammit!” I screamed. “Who are you all? And who is my guide? Tell me NOW!”

Martin nodded.
Out of the corner of my eye I spotted a vampire reach by my side. There
was
 
a sharp prick, just like
before. Then I passed out again.

When I came
around I was on my back staring straight up at Garlic Moon. For a moment I
thought I was still trapped under the dark, depressing canopy of Bloodwood
Forest. But then I realized the significance of the moonlight.
 

I was lying on
the welcoming dead grass of Mr. FreeCut’s backyard.