Vampire World (21 page)
“Don’t cause a scene,
stupid!” I heard him say. The room was spinning and I was in a land of fairies
and heroes of my dreams. I even liked Rob now, and for a brief moment I
actually wanted to kiss him again.
Fortunately, because I'd only
taken a very small sip, the drug-induced feeling left me before that happened.
Very soon, I hated Rob again. Which was good.
“Don’t you dare tell anyone.”
he said. “See how dumb you look, trippin' on your first taste of human blood.”
“Human blood?” I asked. “Is
that where it comes from?”
His face clouded over. “Damn,
I wasn’t supposed to tell you that. Oh well, too late now…”
“What is a human?” I
demanded.
“I don’t know. I only just
joined the organization, so I don’t know much. God, you better really rock my
world tonight….”
“I promise,” I said, touching
his pale cheek.
“Anyway, it comes from
humans, whatever they are, and that’s why it tastes so good. It’s so much
better than the vampire and animal blood that everyone else drinks to live. And
the good thing is, only TriFang have access to a supply of human blood, so only
their members get to drink it.”
“How do they get access to
it?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” he said.
I could see from his
expression that he was now becoming frustrated, and maybe even suspicious. But
that was okay. I'd found out all I needed to know, at least for the time being.
Now I had to get the hell out of here…alive.
“Can you tell me where the
bathroom is?” I asked.
Sitting high on his feeble
throne, he sipped his blessed blood and released a drunken burp. “Go all the
way to the left wall and take a right.”
I moved quickly. Halfway
across the room I glanced back and saw with a sense of relief that he was not
following me. The moment I stepped inside the bathroom, the orb my secret guide
had given to me began vibrating.
I pulled it from my pocket
and placed it to my ear.
My guide's voice
sounded clearly.
“Janice, if you have learned
all you need to know, you need to escape right away. Carefully sneak out of the
main room and make your way back toward the parking lot. When you reach the
final row of cars you’ll come to a locked door. Type in the combination
56928753 and get inside. Then listen to the orb for more instructions. I’ll be
tracking your every move. Good luck!”
For a split degree I peered
into the foggy mirror and looked at my cool tubes of hair. Then I took a deep
breath and prepared to make my getaway.
Once back in the dining room,
I stealthily made my way over to the exit, crawling behind couches and even
under tables filled with goblets of the freak blood. All the time I was fearful
that Rob would discover what I was doing and suddenly yank me by the neck.
Thankfully, he now appeared too drunk on human blood.
I made it all the way and
darted into the parking lot.
After clearing the last line
of cars, I spotted the door. As I ran up to it, a husky vampire wielding a
spear-like weapon began chasing me. Ugly and livid, I could smell his putrid
breath from several yards away.
He drew close and I froze. I
would never be able to punch the combination to the door with this dominating
chump standing over me.
“Where are you going?” he
demanded. “This is a restricted area!”
He gawked hard at my
forehead, noticing the absence of a TriFang symbol. “You’re a guest. That means
you might be a spy. I’m going to have to arrest you.”
He tried to grab my arm. I
backed up, and with adrenaline flooding through my blood rich veins, I pulled
out one of my stakes and plunged it into his left thigh.
He fell to the ground
screaming, the stake still sticking into his paralyzed leg. Rapidly, I punched
the combination into the door and darted inside.
I was in a gloomy corridor. A
staircase spiraled up as far as I could see, which I guessed was the way back
to the surface. Beginning my climb, the orb in my pocket buzzed. I put it to my
ear while continuing on up.
“Janice, you will not be able
to get out this way. There are security breaches everywhere.”
An alarm went off, flashing
and lighting up the corridor. Nervous and shaking, I continued to listen to my
guide's voice.
“Keep climbing. When you
reach the twelfth floor, push hard against the wall directly below the floor
level indicator. There will be a secret passageway there. Hurry! You cannot be
seen by anyone.”
Fired by the flashing alarm
and the urgency in my guide's voice, I increased my speed up the steep
staircase. I tripped at least twice, banging my knee against the sharp steel.
Then I heard footsteps from below coming up fast. My heart sunk. They'd found
me. This chick was history. But I couldn’t give up.
I reached the twelfth floor
and pressed up against the wall like I'd been told to. A panel immediately slid
open, allowing me enough room to slip inside. Before even looking at my new
surroundings, I quickly pushed the wall panel back into place. It locked
tightly.
I was in yet another dimly
lit tunnel that was narrow and stunk like hell. With my knees soaked from some
filthy gook all over the floor, I managed to stand up, but only just - the roof
was barely inches above my head. Turning around, the orb vibrated. I listened
to my new message.
“Janice, carry on through
this tunnel until you reach a ladder at the end. Use this to climb your way to
the surface. But take care. It is a long way up, and there are creatures in
there that you don’t want to mess with. Hurry!”
I trudged on through the
thick gook, which bubbled as I moved through it. At first I didn’t see
anything, which was good. But soon I began to feel something nudging and
gnawing at my shoes. I hoped it was nothing. But I was proven wrong when a
worm-like monster jumped up on my leg. It was a deadworm, the same sort of
hideous creature that had assaulted me when I was locked up in the orphanage
prison cell. Disgusted, I brushed off the neon-blue beast that looked like a
slimy skeleton with fangs. It landed back in the sludge. Good riddance,
bloodsucking ass.
As I moved on through this
hellhole, the gook got deeper.
Three more deadworms jumped
up at me - one landed right on my chest. Tearing it off, I slammed it violently
against the wall, shattering its thin skeletal frame into tiny pieces. But
while doing this, two more of the repulsive creatures were busy biting me on
the back and on the leg. The pain was shocking.
Somehow I gathered the energy
to knock them off, even while they were feasting on my blood. I moved on,
weakened by the pain raging through my body. My determination to survive
increased when I saw the ladder at the end of the tunnel.
More deadworms lunged and bit
at me like I was a meaningless tube of blood. I twirled around in all
directions, swatting them off while still amazingly managing to make slow
forward progress. I'd collected at least three more really bad bites by the
time my trembling hands finally grabbed hold of the ladder. I didn't dare
pause, not even to draw a few breaths. I knew that if I succumbed to the pain
and fatigue I’d die down here, and then I'd never be able to discover what
great secret of my life existed. If indeed, there was any secret.
With what little energy I had
left, I began climbing up the ladder. A clutch of deadworms jumped up after me
with their bloodsucking fangs, but thankfully they fell short and dropped back
down into the slime. I continued to climb, unable to see the top.
I didn’t know how or where I
got the strength to complete the endless climb. But somehow I made it. With
hands burning raw from grasping the bars, I reached the top. Unable to stand, I
crawled toward an opening that showed a weak light.
Sparkling leaves brushed up
against me and I knew I was now outside in the woods. The world was swirling
around me. I was unable to move, but I did manage to glance up and see some
masked figures dressed in black. I recognized the voices of Martin and his
assistants. My fuddled brain tried to work out how they knew I was here. Oh
yeah - they must have been tracking me. They put a blanket around my body and
tried to keep me warm. That was the last thing I remembered before passing out.
When I woke up, my
surroundings gradually came into focus. I was lying in my coffin, staring up at
the ceiling of my bedroom.
“Janice! Janice!”
I shifted my head slightly
and saw Brett’s welcoming face. A very relieved looking Mr. FreeCut was standing
beside him.
I sat up in my
coffin, remembering everything. The worm bites. The party. The hellhole tunnel.
And worst of all, the pain. But I wasn't feeling any pain at all now. Martin
and his friends must have healed me. Nevertheless, I had a lot of explaining to
do to a pretty stern looking Mr. FreeCut.
“What happened to you?” he
asked. “I found you passed out on the front lawn.”
“I don’t know….” I began.
Then I remembered I needed to be smart. “I was doing a lot of jogging to train
for the fireball tournament. Looks like I went too hard. Sorry. I need to be
more careful.”
I hoped they bought this.
Mr. FreeCut frowned. “Are you
sure no one tried to attack you?”
“No one touched me.”
He sighed deeply. “Well, just
be careful and take it easy. I think you better stay inside and rest for the
next day or two.” He glanced at Brett. “Anyway, I’ll leave you two alone. If
you need to talk to me about anything, you’re always welcome.”
Almost as soon as he left, we
kissed smoothly and deeply, with Brett nipping my tongue and rewarding me with
a gift of undeniable pleasure. Yet even in this moment of bliss, I knew trouble
was coming. I couldn’t hide the truth from him any longer. I couldn’t let my
true feelings and desires be bottled up by somebody who supposedly loved me. He
had to accept them. Or he’d have to deal without me.
“I’m glad you’re alright,” he
said. “I really freaked out when I saw you lying on the ground, especially
since I knew you'd been messing around with people you shouldn’t have. But
don't worry. I said nothing about that to Mr. FreeCut, just like you asked.”
He then hit me with a tough
stare, giving a hint that he didn’t trust me. “Janice, tell me the truth. Are
you sure this latest incident has nothing to do with your so-called secret
messenger?”
“No,” I lied, feeling both
offended and humiliated at the same time.
Now it was my turn to bite
the bullet. “But you do need to know this. I’m still going to listen to my
guide - who is real by the way. And he cares about me. He's going to help me
discover something very special and important about myself. If you really love
me, you'll want me to know what that is.”
He neither frowned nor
smiled. “That’s the thing, Janice. I do love you. And it's because I love you
that I’m going to have to break up. That’s it between us unless you change your
mind.”
“I can't do that,” I said,
looking him straight in the eyes.
Now I was the aggressor, not
him. It appeared he was about to emotionally burst.
“Well, I guess it’s goodbye
then,” he said sadly. He tried to hug me, but I backed off. Even then I
couldn’t look away from his flawless eyes.
“You’re such an amazing
vampire,” he told me. “And I hate to lose you. Whenever you’re ready to listen
to me, you know I’ll welcome you back.”
“Whenever you’re ready to
appreciate my beliefs, and who I am as a vampire, I’ll welcome you back,” I
retorted.
I don't know how I had the
guts to maintain my stare as Brett quietly left the room and walked out of my
life.
At first I was proud of
myself; I had stood up for something that meant so much to me. But that quickly
changed. Soon I was mourning over the treasure I’d lost.
I lay down in my coffin,
already missing Brett like crazy. No longer would he come to pick me up. No
more would I be able to feel his strong arms around me, enjoy his sexy aroma,
and bask in his long black hair brushing up against my face. He was gone. Out
of my life. Done.
I was drowning in a lava pit
of despair inside my lonesome coffin. Even though Mr. FreeCut had advised me to
stay inside - and certainly I’d listened to a lot of his advice - I just
couldn’t stay in tonight. I had to be moving and trying to achieve something
meaningful in my life.
I decided to sneak out of the
house and take a train to the recreation center for some fireball practice.
Concentrating on winning the tournament might help to get Brett off my mind.
And if I was gonna win, I was gonna need all the practice I could get.
The late night train ride was
cold and lonely without Brett’s protection and warmth. Several of the
passengers sent seedy looks my way, but I was beginning to fear more than just
an annoying cat call or uncomfortable grope. Remembering how I'd stabbed one of
TriFang's guards in the thigh, I was sure they had put out a bounty on me. But
I couldn’t let them scare me into giving up. No. I was gonna win the contest.
Or at least die trying.
I slipped quietly into a
packed recreation center, seeking to attract as little attention as possible.
The first floor was booming with perspiring fireball amateurs pounding the
balls to each other. After showing my tournament ticket, which now allowed me
access to the third level - a place I’d not yet seen - I made my way to the
escalator.
It was quieter down on the
second level, with fewer vamps attempting the treacherous spinning squares. I
felt an eerie sensation that I was being watched. Shrugging this off, I
continued riding the escalator down to the third level, the most advanced
standard that anyone who was serious about winning the tournament needed to
master.
Here, I discovered, the
playing area was considerably smaller than the two above, and had quite a few
less playing squares. The room teemed with high achieving tournament players
ready to kick ass and acquire the experience they needed to win the big Carns.
The ruddy playing squares rose out of the ground like spewing lava from a
volcano, spinning and dipping much faster than the ones on the second level,
and reaching much greater heights.
Looking up, I watched the
athletic players battling it out. I saw one player flung from the square and
hit the foam on the ground painfully hard. That was going to leave a bruise.
Nevertheless, the courageous girl stood up like nothing had happened.
While I and the rest of the
gamers continued to check out the remaining players at the mercy of the
gyrating squares, I saw something extraordinary appear over their heads. Flying
straight at them and interrupting their field of play was a pack of monsters.
Not real monsters of course, but dramatically lifelike holographic images. A
ghostly, three-headed dragon charged at one of the players, who expertly evaded
the computerized beast before pummeling an incoming fireball into the square of
an opposing competitor.
I said hello to Kate, who was
taking a break from an exhausting practice.
“Maybe they’re not real,” she
said, glancing up at the flying holograms. “But you have to avoid them all the
same. If they make any kind of physical contact, you’ll lose.”
I figured out what she was
talking about when one of the players was unable to avoid the flames coming
from the dragon. A circular trapdoor in her individual square flipped open,
sending her tumbling down onto the foam below.
Thankfully, the fake flames
disintegrated on impact. So she was not burned, just beaten.
“Dammit, bitch dragon got me
again!” she cried, beating her fists on the floor.
After several degrees of
waiting and watching, Kate and I finally stepped onto a free platform with two
other vamps I didn’t know. As we rose high in the air, a fireball mysteriously
dropped from the ceiling, landing in the center of the platform. It then
bounced into my personal square.
I slammed the ball into the
next player’s square just as the main platform began to sway. Then it rose
violently and fell again, forcing us all to work hard in keeping our footing.
For one girl it was too much. She crashed to the floor. Either she hadn’t
practiced enough, or she was simply having a bad night.
My corner abruptly plummeted,
giving Kate a brief advantage as she jolted high above me. Intercepting the
ball, she bounced it hard into my square again. I managed to keep my balance
and countered, pounding the ball back to her. She missed it completely and it
bounced to the floor.
The trapdoor in her square
immediately opened and she plunged down into the loser category. I hated to
knock a good friend out, but there could be only one winner. Besides, she might
whoop my butt in the next round.
I focused on the brute in the
square across from me. We were caught in an endless battle, knocking the ball
back and forth to each other with increasing ferocity. Every time I thought I
had a chance to knock him out, he somehow managed to smack the ball back into
my square, even when I had the advantage of rising above him.
I was growing increasingly
frustrated when a hologram suddenly appeared in the middle of the platform.
Shimmering with a jade tint, it was a brawny one-eyed monster brandishing a
sharp ax. Its grisly white eye was huge, taking up over half its entire head.
It charged at me, swinging
its weapon. I dodged the attack, knowing that this bogus creature would not
physically hurt me, even if it did make contact. But to lose this game would
hurt in another way. I speedily intercepted a fast flying fireball by the hair
of my knuckles and flung it back the way it had come from.
Now my opponent was the one
facing the ball and an attack from the creature at the same time. He succeeded
in hitting the ball back to me, but as I prepared to return it yet again, I
realized there was no need to. My opponent was no longer standing on his
square. He must have taken a direct hit from the ax.
Of course I felt good as I
stepped off the lowering square. I'd won the round, and Brett was the last
thing on my mind. Well, maybe not the last thing, though it was clear I could
be happy without him. I could make it. Love was a wonderful thing, but I had to
think of me first. I was gonna win this damn tournament!
I practiced relentlessly for
more than half of the night, determined to make myself the best fireball player
in Vampire World. It didn’t come easy. I lost multiple rounds, repeatedly
falling and hitting the floor so violently that it felt like I’d been run over
by ten trucks. But I gained confidence every time I got back up, and I become
faster with every winning round.
Tired and hurting, though
temporarily free from the mental anguish of breaking up with Brett, I rode the
train back to Mr. FreeCut’s house with a smile on my face.
The rest of the night I got
only a few degrees of sleep. I dreamed of Brett, not by my side, but running
away from me with some super gorgeous vampire he’d met on the street. I woke up
with my head aching. Instead of drowning in a sea of bloody remorse, I
concentrated on the bulky book in front of me. This was the gateway to my
exciting new career.
Heavy, thick and dusty, I
began studying the location of every item in Vampire Supermarket. Since I’d
already gained experience in finding the female clothing, I focused on the male
section.
Ironically, I discovered that
the male stock was considerably larger than the female. The selection was vast:
flaming jeans with blood smeared on them, shirts made completely out of
skeletal bones, 3-D caps with images of beating hearts, skulls and severed
vampire heads, spiffy suits drenched in blood, ties with strange images that
came alive – and that was just for starters.
Once I'd got into it, I
forget about the stress and actually started enjoying what I was doing. Just
thinking about being an assistant manager, and possibly one day even manager
itself, of the best clothing store in all of Vampire World sent bloodflies
racing through my stomach.
Not like
Brett did, of course. But in a differently cool way.
Now I could enjoy a freedom
like no other. A freedom to be my own self, and to forget about Brett for a
while. Yeah he was good, but this was just as good. Maybe even better in some
ways.
There was a knock at my door.
It was Mr. FreeCut.
I must have been psychic 'cos I was
pretty confident I knew what he wanted to talk to me about. Brett must have
told him everything. I prepared myself.
