Last week, we got to pick the song lyric. This week, Chuck got to pick it. This week it's: Sza's 'Drew Barrymore'... 'Why is it so hard to accept the party is over?'.
enjoy.
I sat at my desk wondering why it had to
happen now; just when I was happy, just when things were looking good – just when...
Another line started blinking on my phone.
“Crap.” I muttered looking at my feed on the
monitor in front of me as my secretary walked in with two new files in her
hands, “When did the shit really hit the fan?”
“About an hour ago.” She shrugged, “I’m
wondering who talked.”
“Nobody talked.” I stood, turning from her,
regarding the burning sunset, waiting for full night, “I’ll find out who did
this and everything will settle down.”
Her cool hand touched my wrist, my hand, “Just
be careful, Arnold.”
Squeezing her hand, I nodded, “Keep yourself
safe, and you know where the weaponry is.”
She smiled, “Of course. I am over a century
old. I remember how to fight.”
I grabbed my gear and walked toward the
door, put my hand on it, and turned, “If everything goes to shit...”
“I know, blow the place and run if I can.”
The morgue was a blood bath as I walked
through to find all the doors were open and everyone was dead.
“Arnold, have you heard?” Rickson walked out
from his office.
I looked over at his concerned face, “Yeah,
rogues.”
Shouldering his pack, he sniffed the air, “No,
they’re not.”
“Oh jeez... Van Helsing is back.”
“Yeah.” He whispered.
“Okay, let’s go.”
We left the place the mess it was to find
that murderer and destroy him once and for all.
As we walked through the streets, we could
feel the tension in the air as well as see it. The place looked like a war zone
with cars and trucks all over the place, people dead and dying everywhere as
Van Helsing’s people had mistaken Emo’s and Goths for vampires and killed them;
not realising they were just going through a phase.
The view of this disgusted us as we tried to
save these people through every Human way we could – but we found they had lost
too much blood before we arrived.
Rickson knelt by his fourth patient, “Dammit,
he’s gone too far.”
I looked over at him, “Well, after that Jekyll
and Hyde dude, he’s just covering his bases I guess. But this place looks like
a war zone. There’s something else going on.”
Wiping his hands off on his jeans, Rickson
tried to keep himself from showing too much emotion, “Look, I don’t attack
Humans because it’ll annoy the authorities; and besides, I like L.A. But
Arnold, this – this is dreadful.”
Nodding I knew what we had to do next, “This
is a witch hunt. Come on.” I walked away and he followed me, knowing where we
were going.
Lewis was a vampire who never went out. He
lived in the basement of an old building in the poorer area of the city; never
drawing attention to himself... and so when he heard about what had happened,
he opened up the rest of the undercover area of the building to accommodate for
the rest of us.
Rickson and I were the last to arrive.
He opened the door and pulled us in, closing
it behind us, “About time you two arrived! Where have you been!”
“Looking around what’s happened around the
place. Since this started happening, I haven’t been outside.” I said, “But then
the destruction started happening in the street of my building and I left. My
secretary may be dead for all I know.”
“Arnold.” Her familiar voice said across the
room and she emerged from between two people. The sheer sight of her brought
bright red tears to my eyes, “It’s so good you got out.” Holding her close, I
realised how much I really did love her; and yet I’ve never known her name.
“I used the freight elevator.”
“Okay... now we’ve felt our feelings, it’s
time to find that Hunter and his army and kill them all dead.” Lewis said, “Last
time, he came for a Jekyll and Hyde type dude; and that was okay. This time, he’s
destroying our town and exposing us to the Humans.”
“But he’s not only destroying us, he’s
destroying anyone who looks like us as well – and that’s just being
bloodthirsty.” Rickson said.
Lewis’ face turned stone for a moment, “Right.
We need a battle plan. Who’s been through a few wars here?” about six hands
went up, “Okay you lot, let’s get started.”
Sunlight isn’t good for vampires. We don’t
burst into flames, it just makes us feel like crap. But we had to wait until
dawn to find the Hunters who were making our secret public... and you know? It
didn’t take long to find Van Helsing.
Like any leader, he thought he was indestructible.
He had the old-fashioned ways of working
through a city; and he thought he had won. But being a rogue agent, he hadn’t
thought his actions through – not thoroughly.
As we emerged from the lower doors of the
basement, Lewis, Rickson and I noticed something before anyone else: Van
Helsing was being arrested by the army and FED’s. I put a hand up to stop
everyone else from storming the streets as did Lewis and we were obeyed; and
the doors were closed.
Lewis and Rickson looked to me to talk to
the authorities, seeing I knew some of the police and worked with the media a
little; and knew what to say, and spotted a cop I knew approaching us, “Arnold,
what are you doing here?”
“I was investigating a few brutal crimes in
this area and came across this dude.” I signalled towards Van Helsing with my
head who started screaming.
“He’s a vampire! He drinks blood! He’s a
killer, I’m telling you, he must die!” his German accent echoed off the
surrounding buildings as he was shoved into the back of a wagon.
The cop turned back to me, “Well?”
“He’s nuts.” I smiled.
“Yeah... I guess.” He turned and walked off.
The area was cleared by the army and the
city of L.A was cleared and cleaned up by the government within a few months;
making it appear as though nothing had ever occurred. But all the vampires
around our town knew Van Helsing had been here again – and not to help us, but
to destroy us.
I visited him in the Psychiatric Facility he
had been sent to every month, to see how he was doing. You see, he’d been
around for a couple of hundred years because he had been infected with Count
Dracula’s blood by accident.
This caused him to go a little mad and he
did need some blood, but not much, because he wasn’t in fact sired by Dracula.
So, I’d visit him for a chat.
But he wasn’t getting any better.
“I know what you are.” He said one day, “You
are the walking undead.”
“Well, if I am the walking undead, that
makes you the same thing I am.” I smiled through the thick glass partition.
“No... um...I am mostly Human.”
“Oh... mostly Human... but yet you have
Dracula’s blood coursing through your veins?” I speculated.
“Oh shut up.”
“What pisses you off, Van Helsing is that
you weren’t fully turned; and I was. Centuries have passed and you haven’t even
noticed that the party is over. We live in secret; and you burst that open.” Sitting
back, I shook my head, “Shame on you.”
“It was no secret!”
“In L.A it was. Nobody knew about us; not
until you came charging in.” I stood, bashing on the door for the guard, “Why
is it so hard to accept the party is over?”
The orderlies pulled him out of his chair,
and he grinned madly, spitting at the glass: “Maybe to you... but I’ll get out.
And your end is nigh!”
As the door on his side of the partition
slammed shut, and mine opened, a shudder ran through me. I wondered if he was
right. Was my species on the brink with his army out there waiting for his
signal?
I’d never know.
