December 1, 2008

  • DRAFT

    Sunday, July 1st, 2007 @ 12:34pm

     

    I have a secret.  For three years after I turned 16, or some would say after I hit maturity.  I’ve been able to sort of see the misfortunes of others.  It’s not like I am a psychic.  I wish.  No, it’s more like I can foresee when a person may come to harm.  And I don’t mean by just a finger prick or a car accident.  Most of my predictions come from seeing misfortunes that occur with vampires.  Yeah, I know.  Vampires don’t exist.  Well, of course not.  To everyone else other than me.  But for as long as I can remember I’ve seen them.  They live among us.  Like ordinary, everyday people.  They go to school, mix with humans, work and then have children.  I’m not talking about just some Dracula type vampires.  Though they feed on blood from time to time, they aren’t limited to going out at night or living forever.  Nope. Just like everyone else. Minus the brute strength, speed and excellent night vision and don’t forget the fangs that come out when their feeding.  They are pretty much normal.  However, there are a few cases where a few might feed off a human until they die.  Sucking the life force, soul, spirit, what have you, out of a human being is taboo.  Big no no.  Humans don’t like it and fellow vampires don’t like it.  That’s where the trouble begins and that’s where I come in.  My family has a long history of dealing with wayward vampires, or vamps (yea, we shortened it).  It most be something in our blood.  But we can detect if a person is going to be attacked or not.  Just not knowing when, where or by who.  It could be a few hours to months.  My longest prediction has always been a few days.  Like right now.  Here I am following this lady.  I’ve been silently following her for two days now.  So far it’s just been a few grocery shopping, book reading at a coffee shop and taking the kids back home from school.  An average housewife.  I haven’t seen her coming out at night at all.  Oh, did I forget to mention, though regular vampires can walk out in the day and mingle with humans.  The ones that attack humans and take their life force are the ones normally described in books and movies.  Few vampires do this though.  When you kill someone, you change.  You don’t resemble much of a human anymore, but turn into some sort of monster.  The more you kill, the more you live longer, look younger but also the more you crave to kill.  Now, I’m not some sort of vampire hunger with a stake and hammer.  A normal average 9mm Beretta handgun.  I’ve been practicing with a gun since 13, so I could get my own license when I turned 18.  I’m a sharp shooter, or so my father says.  I use normal ammo.  And when a turned vampire dies, easy clean up. They flash a bright light and then turn to dust.  Yawn, stake outs like this always takes time.  These turned vamps might hid in the sun’s shadow and attack, or send someone to do it.  But the end is always true to the prediction.  That’s if you don’t kill the turned vampire.  I really need to get this over with.  I’m a first year college student.  I have an assignment due by the end of the week and a quiz to study for.

     

    “Valerie, what are you doing here?”

    “Oh, Caroline. How are you doing?”  Being interrupted from her thoughts, Valerie turned around slightly so she could be able to see her friend Caroline and still keep a look out at the house across the street.

    “I’m fine. Hmm.... How long has it been? A year since we graduated from high school.  I go to college at Washington U.  Where’d u end up?”

    “The same.”

    “Really! But what are you doing all the way out here.  I would think to see you out here. It’s a long commute from school.”

    “Hmm... But wait, what are you doing out here?”

    Blushing slightly, “I came to see my boyfriend. He wasn’t feeling well and I was worried. But wait, you haven’t answered me?  It’s like almost midnight.”

    “The same as you, I was visiting my boyfriend. But we got into a fight, so I stormed out and needed to take a breather and calm myself.”

    “Wow! Was it really that bad?  May I ask what the fight was about?”

    “Hmm..... If I talk about it now. I might get upset again, so I’d rather think on it another day.”  Valerie lied naturally.

     

    Suddenly, Valerie noticed the housewife sneaking out the front door of the house.  Since the porch light was out, unless you were watching the door no one wouldn’t notice her running out so fast.  And she was moving into the shadows of the bushes.  A black car slowly stopped at the curb. The housewife got in.  Time to move.

     

    “Caroline, you have a car?”

    “Yeah, I was walking to it just now.  It’s hard to find parking in front of his apartment.”

    “Caroline.  I’m beginning.  I need a ride.”

    “Back to the dorms?  Sure no, problem. Where’s your ride?”

    “I have none.  But I need to make a quick detour.  I think I just saw my bf driving off in his car.”  At Caroline’s shocked expression.  “Please, let me go after him.  He might be irrational after our fight.”

    “Ok. You don’t think he’ll do anything dangerous?”

     

    Valerie followed Caroline to her small sedan, taking the driver’s seat.  They sped past a few red traffic lights before they caught up to the black car with tinted windows.

     

    “Whoa. I didn’t know you could drive like that, Val.  Maybe you should call his cell phone.  You don’t think he’d do anything extreme?  That must have been some argument.”

    “He might be going for a bite.  I’m pretty uptight about going out for late night snacks and over eating and such.”

    “Hahaha! You’re kidding right?”

    “Shh.... He’s turned in an alley.” Thinking to herself, the same ally from my premonition.

     

    They watched as the black car turned into a dark alley and parked.  The headlights were off and the interior was dark.  Parking across the street from the alley, Valerie searched for any signs of movement.  A high pitched scream pierced the silence and just as suddenly stopped. 

     

    “Stay in the car.  Lock the doors.” Valerie closed the car door behind her and dashed across the street.  Pulling out her gun, she ducked down by the side of the car and peered in the windows.  She could distinctly see someone from the driver’s side bent over the passenger side.  Silently, trying the passenger side door, she luckily found the door unlocked.  She jerked the door open and aimed her gun at the head bent to the passenger’s neck.

     

    “You’ve crossed-over.  Let the woman go.”

    Lifting it’s head, it licked it’s bloodied lips, saying, “Try anything or I’ll snap her neck?”

    “Doesn’t matter none to me.  It’s you who I’m after.”

     

    Before Valerie could react, it leapt from the driver’s seat and knocked Valerie to the wall.  She was able to block his attacks and attempt to knock the gun from her hand.  She was able to knock him back, when she aimed at it’s heart and she froze.  Her gun arm was steady, her shot clear and yet she hesitated.  It watched her unmoving.  Seconds passed before it lunged to attack again.  A shadow eased down from the roof of the building and landed in front of the turned vamp.  Valerie was able to make out the flash of leather as it tore into the turned vamp’s chest and ripped out it’s heart, instantly turning to dust and the heart and blood following suit.  The shadow turned to Valerie and she raised her gun again.

     

    “If you were going to shoot, you’d have done so already.  I just saved you and the boy in the car.”

    “Boy?”  Continuing to aim the gun at the shadow, she looked in the still opened car door and saw a guy in the driver’s seat, passed out with fresh bite marks on his neck.

     

    Hmmm... that’s right. The premonition only showed me the housewife leaving the house and then a bloody mess of a parked car in a dark alley.

    Continuing to examine the victim, she was able to distinguish from the car interior light that he was a young guy about her own age and still breathing.  She failed to notice that the shadow invaded her person space by crowding her between the open car door and the passenger seat. 

     

    Face to face, he said:  “That was an incredibly dangerous move you just did.”

    Glaring back at the obvious male vamp in her face, she responded, “If you hadn’t interrupted, I would’ve got the deed done.”

    “No. You’d be dead. And then it’d have been free to continue killing others, no thanks to you.  Being so inexperienced, you should’ve left this to someone else, Seer.”

     

    “Inexperienced!! I’ve been hunting for years now. So get out of my face.”  She pressed the gun in his forehead.

     

    Backing away, “You’ve got a problem.  Don’t go chasing monsters without solving it.”  He jumped And he was gone.