Curse of Darkness by Steven Gilby - Chapter Three

That was my mistake. As soon as I got to the doorway to the next room I heard a door creak open by the stairs. I was frozen with fear because I knew that it wasn't Razz, she was upstairs. I closed my eyes and started to turn around very slowly. As I turned around I heard a growl from a creature that stood behind me. At that point I didn't think it was a vampire. I knew what it was, but I didn't want to see it face to face. With a creature like this I wasn't so much afraid of being scratched, I was more afraid of being eaten more than anything else.
When I was all the way around I stood there staring at this mammoth of a beast with teeth like razors and eyes like nothing I'd ever seen. Its eyes were like black pools to which there was no depth.
I stood there with the crossbow at my side not able to move another muscle. It started to walk closer to me and I started to lift the crossbow very carefully. When it was at a good height I fired and a shot landed in its leg. He screeched out in pain for a short moment. Razz came running down the stairs and saw what stood in front of me. I dropped the bow and reached in my pockets for the keys to the car. When I got them I blindly searched for the key that went to the car. My hands were shaking wildly at this point. I looked at the wide open door to see how close I was to being in the clear and instead I saw a figure. The light caught his face for a moment and I screamed out "Robert!"
Robert was here and without even thinking about it I tossed the keys at Razz and ran around the beast. With a fifty-fifty chance of being right I ducked hoping he would slash across. Whew! Just my luck, it took out the stairs and I started hauling ass as far away from here as I could. Razz had already left and started chasing after Robert. I thought she would have taken the car to chase him but she didn't. Here I was running down the street from a mammoth of a beast with intent to kill me and probably eat me for all I knew. I ran as fast as I could down the street, running in and out of streetlights. The beast was still after me jumping into every streetlight that was in its way, tearing some out of the ground. After running for what seemed like forever I made my way to the park. It was always a nice spot to go to with a crystal clear lake and nice trees everywhere and a huge field next to the lake. I took out the dagger from my pocket; I think I sliced my pocket when I took it out too. When I reached the field I turned around to face my adversary, but there was nothing there. I looked around carefully making sure not to skip over a single tree or even the lake. Nothing at all. I rested my arms thinking it was all a hallucination, a dream, a fantasy that I dreamed up. Just when I thought it was over I heard a loud thud behind me and before I could turn around a sharp pain rushed through my back and I fell to the ground. I managed to turn over to see that this beast, this creature that had been chasing me, was real and had really intended to kill me. I saw a claw come down over my face and everything went blurry for only a few seconds, and then there was darkness. I passed out from pain and had not yet lost enough blood to die.
Next thing I knew I'm looking at Razz and she herself had blood on her, on her neck actually, but the wound had already closed up. I looked into her eyes and didn't say a word, but I stood up even with the incredible pain that was rushing through my body and I started to walk towards the lake. The most beautiful place in the entire town and I wanted to see it one last time. Yes, I knew I was going to die, and I did. Just before I could see the whole lake, I fell over and died right there. All was dark, and I feared the worst. Being dead was bad, but which place was I going. Was I taking the express elevator up or was I going to take the freight elevator strait down? To be quite honest I didn't go to either or those places.
I woke up in a strange room on a green fabric sofa with a steaming bowl of red goop on a coffee table no more than three feet away. I wondered at the time what I was doing in a place like this. It wasn't my vision of heaven, nor was this anything I thought hell would be like. I tried to move and there was an incredible pain all over my back and a few spots on my face. When I felt my face I felt stitches, and I assumed it that was the same with my back but I ran my hand across my back as best as I could just to make sure.
Razz walked in shortly after I woke up. She came in and sat down on the floor between the coffee table and me on the couch, her legs tucked under the little wooden table.
"Razz," it hurt to talk, I grabbed my throat but continued to talk, "What happened to me?"
She took a deep breath and let it out like she just blew a burden out of her body through her lungs. "You need to rest more. I will tell you all in time."
With those words I rested my head on the soft arm of the ugly sofa and closed my eyes.
"Zose stitches vill need to come out soon."
"Let him rest more. He needs more time to heal; he is, after all, one of us now."
Whatever else they started talking about I couldn't tell you if my life depended on it, but I did end up falling asleep again.
The next time I awoke the bowl was still in front of me, but it wasn't steaming anymore, and Razz was gone. I sat up as carefully as I could but no matter how slow I went it would hurt all the way up, I just chose to go slow because it wouldn't hurt as bad. I let out a few small screams and when I was fully sat up Razz walked back in with Eddie, and he was holding a pair of scissors and needle-nosed pliers.
I inquired as to what he would be using them for and he said he was going to take out the stitches in my back and face. I laid on my stomach on a table in another room while Eddie cut and pulled out the stitches, the walk there was very painful of course, but Razz was talking to me the whole time I was receiving this minor surgery. She told me that I had died in the park that night and that it had also been nearly a month since then. My mom suffered from depression and killed herself with a toaster in the bathtub a week after and my dad couldn't live without my mom so he had killed himself in the garage, sitting in the driver's seat and suffocated himself with carbon dioxide from the car. All of our things were auctioned off along with the house and even the car my dad had killed himself in. I swear some people have no decency. The whole time this was being told to me Eddie was pulling wire out of my back and for some strange reason I could barely feel it. It was the fact that the wires were in my body, puncturing nerves, which made it hurt when I walked and sitting up.
My parents are dead? Oh my God! No, not my parents. Anyone but them. I started to breathe hard and my eyes watered a lot but I didn't cry, just became very teary-eyes. Mostly because I hate it when people see me cry.
"What am I," I said with little breath and a hoarse voice.
"You are," she paused for a moment seeming like she didn't want to tell me what I was.
"A vampire?"
Her eyes started to water as she said "yes".
"Turn over, eet's time to do your face."
I sat up on the cold metal table with nothing on but some pants and socks. Eddie proceeded to pull the strings out of my face. I flinched every time because, to me, it feels really weird when someone pulls a perfectly smooth piece of string from right above my eye. I let him finish with my face before I decided to ask about my funeral.
"Well, you had a closed casket of course. There isn't really much to tell about your funeral. Your whole family was there, everyone was crying. I was there. I tried my best to look as sad as them, but it was kind of hard seeing as how I knew you weren't dead. Well, technically you were for about a week, that's when you finally woke up, at least for the first time. You woke up several times in the last month but you never stayed awake."
"Ok, enough about me dying; what's with the stitches? I thought vampires could heal things like this."
"Yes, but if it's a really bad, uh, scratch, like you had, then it wont heal on its own. Eddie had to stitch you up so it could start healing then the vampirism would take over from there."
I shook my head and laid back down on the table. After only a few seconds I fell asleep. An unfamiliar voice said, "Well, at least he stayed awake long enough for the stitches to come out."
When I woke up again I looked around and I noticed I was in a bed, a very comfortable one I might add, and I was alone. I called Razz's name and she came in only a few seconds later.
"Yes, what is it," her voice was soft, gentle and caring.
I told her I was hungry, but I didn't know what I wanted to eat. She told me she had the perfect thing and a couple minutes later she came up with the steaming bowl I had seen earlier. It was on a tray with a glass of what looked like red Kool-Aid. When she set the bowl down in front of me I took a deep whiff of the goop and became sick to my stomach.
"What is this slop," I protested to the consumption of such a vile smelling dish. Razz suggested that I just try it and not worry about the smell and look. I did as she said and dipped my finger in the thick red goop that sat in front of me and tasted it. To my surprise it was very appetizing, so I picked up the bowl, disregarding the smell, and drank it down. When I finished I wiped my mouth and set the bowl down on the bed next to me.
It was then that it occurred to me that I had forgotten to ask her if she had gotten Robert, so I did. The answer was no and she also told me that the werewolf that had killed me was still in town.
"My sword," I said.
"It was auctioned off after your parents died."
"No. I always had a special place for it in my room. We need to go get it."
"You do understand that your house was bought in the auction and a man lives there with his wife and two kids, a son and daughter, right?"
"I don't care. My sword is still in that house. I hollowed out a part of my floor and put it there in case of any emergency. Never really thought it would really come in handy. It was really just one of those 'just in case' things, you know?"
"I get you. But how are we going to go about getting your sword back?"
"First, we'll go to my old house," I stopped there.
"Then?"
"I don't know. I was just going to play it by ear from there."
We both laughed a little, the best thing to happen since I died…sort of.
"We'll go and get it tomorrow, ok?"
Razz looked down at me with s smile, "Sure. What time?"
"Sometime around three o'clock sound good?"
She nodded her head a few times and told me to get some sleep, so I did. I practically fell asleep where I was, but I made my way to the couch and nodded off.
We had no car except Eddie's 1989 Buick P.O.S. (for those of you who don't know what a P.O.S. is, it stands for "piece of shit") so we got in and drove to the house of my human days.
When we got there I stepped out of the car and just stared at it. The house that was once an off white color was now pale yellow with new shutters and shrubs all around the perimeter of the house. The roof was reshingled and there was a new front door. It seemed a lot of work had been done to this house, I had wondered how it looked on the inside. I hope they didn't put carpet in my old room.
Razz followed closely behind me as I walked up to the door and rang the doorbell. An old man who was half bald and had a full, thick beard answered the door with a smile. His hair was a medium brown color with hazel eyes. He looked as big as a bear but as gentle as a kitten.
He looked down at us and asked what we had wanted in a kind voice, the smile still on his face. He was like the ghost of Christmas Present. I spoke up explaining to him that we were travelers wandering the country and that all our money had been stolen and we needed something to eat. He looked at us pleasantly and invited us in. His wife was sitting on the couch reading a book and there was a golden retriever sitting on the carpet in front of her. She was a pleasant woman with hair like golden wheat and eyes as blue as the deep Atlantic Ocean and her skin was very fair.
The renovations to the house were amazing. There was no carpet in the house anymore; it was all one big wooden floor, thankfully. Fresh new wallpaper had made the house look so cheery and happy, better than my parents had ever thought of making it. From upstairs came two kids, a boy and a girl.
"These are my kids. My daughter's name is Alicia, she's fifteen, and this young man's name is Joey, he's sixteen. While I fix you two a plate why don't you tell us a little about yourselves?"
"Well, my sister here is much older than she looks, she's twenty-seven. Me, I'm only nineteen. We started to travel after I finished high school. We've been to so many places, many of them very beautiful," I looked over to Razz. "Sis, why don't you tell them more? I need to use the restroom. Could you point me to the direction to it, please?"
"Sure," the man's wife said, "The downstairs one is broken so you'll have to use the one upstairs."
I shook my head and walked towards the steps. Halfway up I remembered that I wasn't supposed to know the layout of this house.
"Where is it again?"
His wife looked up from her book and said, "Down the hall to your left and it will be the second door on your right."
I shook my head again and went upstairs and to the left. I peeked down the stairs to make sure the coast was clear. When I saw my chance I darted across the hall into my old room. The door was already open so I had no trouble getting in without being heard. I looked around and tried to remember where the compartment was. Death seemed to take away some of my memory, but I found it with little trouble. There was only one problem; there was a very large, very old wooden dresser on top of it. I started to push it out of the way but it made a lot of noise while it moved across the wooden floor. All this time I was thinking to myself, Why did they have to put in wooden floors?"
Carefully looking around I noticed a small blanket on the floor near the door. I picked it up and carefully put it under two of the legs of the dresser. Then, at the other side, the side without anything under the legs but wooden floor, I slightly picked up that end and slid it across the floor with little noise. The compartment was exposed and all I could do for a moment was stare at it. I then thought, Ok, enough staring; now I have got to get this thing out of here without being seen."
Then it hit me. I got the sword out and picked up another blanket, from the kid's bed, and wrapped the sword in it. Then I walked over to the window and, after opening it, I tossed the sword, wrapped in the blanket, out the window into the bushes. There wasn't much sound seeing as how the bushes broke the fall. After that I carefully moved the dresser back and went back downstairs. Everyone was looking at me after I came down. I figured they knew what I was doing. The man smiled and said, "Man that must have been one hell of bathroom break. You were up there for five minutes."
I smiled at him and then looked at Razz and pointed at her and said, "It's all her cooking, I had nothing to do with it."
She gave me a scornful look as the man brought two plates of roast beef with mashed potatoes and carrots and brown gravy. We were also given a medium sized cup of chocolate milk. As I got mine I politely asked if I could have ice in mine (ice makes it really cold, and that's how I like it, but some think that ice and milk is a despicable combination.) He obliged me with three very large ice cubes, setting them gently in the cup as to not splash the milk everywhere. We finished our meal with little conversation, and afterwards the man asked us if we wanted to stay for a little while longer. We told him that we had to be going because our trip was very long and we needed to keep going. He walked us to the door but did not go outside with us; good thing too because I had to go over to the bushes to get my sword. The door closed behind us and I ran over to get my sword wrapped in a blanket. After that I ran to the car and jumped in the passenger side and Razz drove off.
When we got back to Eddie's place he took the sword from me and took it down to the basement. I'm guessing he keeps everything in the basement because he always goes down there. I've never been down there myself but I think I will one day. When he came back up he said that it will be at least six hours before the diamond sharpens the blade to near perfection.
"In the mean time why don't we go get a little something for dessert," Razz said. I nodded my head and smiled at her and we drove off to the local ice cream shop. When we got in Razz looked at the woman behind the counter and called out her name, which is Betty, and said to get two of the usual. She nodded her head and went into the back and came out about three minutes later with a plate of red colored pie. When I tasted it I realized it was cheesecake, but there was something about it, something weird in the background.
"What is that taste?"
Razz looked at me with cheesecake in her mouth and muttered the word cheesecake. I told her there was something in the background of the creamy pie.
"Oh! That's blood. It adds a little somethin' somethin', know what I mean?"
"Yeah, it just tastes a little weird to me."
We sat there and enjoyed the luscious and creamy pie with an ice cold glass of milk.
"How many places in this town are vampire run?"
"Not many," she started, "Most are werewolf owned and operated, vampires don't own much, but vampires own the best places. You wouldn't believe how many places in the United Stated, much less the world, are owned and operated by werewolves and vampires."
I shrugged my shoulders and enjoyed the rest of my cheesecake with my milk and afterward I had a cup of coffee, regular coffee with regular cream and regular sugar. There wasn't much talking. We made idle chit-chat about the things we used to do.
"You've been a vampire since God knows when. I just became a vampire and I gave up my entire life, everyone I knew, that wasn't very many people anyway, my family, my 'normal' future, I gave it all up for this. Can you please tell me what I gave up my life for, what I gave up my soul for?"
"You gave up everything, not when you became a vampire, but when you found out I was a vampire and that there were more of me and there were also werewolves out in this world of ours. You gave it all up because both of us know that deep down inside your pathetic little soul you desperately wanted these things to be real because you had a meager little human life with an insignificant existence. Just another lost soul in the abyssal world."
I interrupted her and yelled out, "It was not insignificant! And, yes, I did want these things to be real. I have always wanted the chance to live life like the movies. Things like this would be too much for some people to handle and I have been told that things like this would be too much for anyone to handle. But I always told them that I could handle it like a rational hum-…person."
I got up and walked out and started to walk. To where I did not know but I just wanted to get away from people, from everyone around me. Razz was running after me and caught up with me. She kept calling my name but I wouldn't respond to her voice, I just kept walking at a fast pace. She called me by my full name one time, Steven Patrick Gilby. I had told her my full name a few times, I'm surprised she remembered.
I turned to her and looked her dead in her eyes (if you want to take that as a joke you can). As I was about to speak my speech ceased and I fell to the ground, my insides aching tremendously.
"Oh, God. How long has it been since you had the soup?"
She picked me up and dragged me down the street to a butcher shop, Mick's Meats, the sign read. When we got inside she looked at George and said she had a live one and needed something for him. Razz sat me down in a chair in a back room and George came in with jumper cables and a battery.
"No, not that stuff, he needs blood. He's a friend of mine. Give him at least three pints."
He left and came back with a bucket like object with a lid, a needle, a tube, and three little plastic containers of blood. He connected the needle and the tube and stuck the needle into my wrist. Then he poured the blood into the bucket and connected the other end of the tube to the side of the bucket really close to the bottom. The lid then went on and he started pumping a handle on the lid.
"Don't worry, mate. We'll have you all fixed up in no time at all. See this pump here? It raises the pressure in the bucket and pumps the blood into the tube and into your body. I've found this does it just right. If the blood gets into your body too fast you could go into shock and die, again. If it doesn't get in fast enough, well, you get the picture don't you, mate?"
I sat there while the blood was being pumped into my arm, and I could feel it throughout my body. It was cold. As it ran through me, making me cold, I closed so I could try to go to sleep. My eyes were closed and I could feel myself drifting into a dream when all of a sudden I was slapped in the face. Following that was a splash of extremely cold water on my face.
"Don't drift away on us now. If you die again I'm sure Razz here will be pretty upset."
In a low, barely audible voice I said, "I want to sleep."
"I know you do, mate, but we can't let you sleep until we get all this blood in you. You need to be awake so you heart is pumping. When a vampire sleeps the heart stops and blood ceases to flow. The brain is still active but the rest of the body shuts down, so you need to stay awake, you hear?"
I nodded my head with what little strength I had and struggled to keep myself awake until the blood was in me. I had never felt the desire to sleep this much before. It was tearing at my soul. I had to stay awake to live but my brain was telling me that to stay alive I needed to sleep.
When all the blood was in me the needle was taken out of my arm and I didn't feel like sleeping anymore. I thanked Mick and then I looked at Razz, longing to say something, anything, but words were stuck in the back of my throat. Nothing was said and I walked out. I heard Razz say "damnit" and she followed me out. I wasn't walking very fast so she caught up easily.
"Hey. Wait up."
I stopped walking and let her catch up to me.
"I'm sorry, ok?"
"It's not that. I've only been a vampire for a few hours. I just need some time to think about things and figure out just what the hell I got myself into."
"Ok. Just come back to Eddie's when you're done. You sword will be ready when you get back. I'll see you later."
We stared at each other for a few moments and then she leaned in and took a step and wrapped her arms around me. For a few seconds we hugged and then she let go and began to walk away. I felt like saying something then, and I even knew exactly what I wanted to say, but I held back from even stuttering out one word. I just watched her walk away. I stood there for only a few minutes before deciding to go back into the meat place to get a cup of blood to have on my walk. Mick filled up a black water bottle with a mix of cow, pig, and lamb blood and I went on my way. I just walked down the street, no particular place to go, just walking and sipping on the blood in the bottle. As my walk commenced I thought about what I had told Razz, That thought was "Just what in the hell did I get myself into?"
Werewolves and vampires. Both were real, no war, nothing to spark a war between the two species, at least not that I knew of. But there was something about the werewolf that I saw. Something that didn't seem right. Something that didn't seem normal, at least not for the werewolves I've ever seen in movies and things. Truth is none of the movies were right in the "what werewolves look like" department. Truth is, that was my first werewolf, and I had no idea if others looked different. I would have to ask Razz when I got back to Eddie's.
My walk lasted as long as the blood in the bottle which, seeing as how I wasn't very thirsty lasted a pretty long time. I hailed a cab back to Eddie's since I had walked so far in the opposite direction of his place. When I walked in I saw Eddie tinkering with some things on the kitchen table: small gadgets and microchips and a computer tower that had been disassembled.
"What's with all the stuff on the table Eddie?"
"Eet ees for a very important experiment. So shoo, do not bother me."
Razz was sitting on a long faded green couch in the living room reading a book and drinking some red wine that was in a regular drinking glass, the bottle sat idly on the small wooden table next to the couch. She looked up at me and then back down at her book. After a few minutes she picked up a bookmark that was sitting in her lap and placed it in the book and closed it, gulped down the last bit of her wine, and stood up and walked over to me, next to me actually, and whispered in my ear, "Eddie is tinkering with some more of his unfinished toys. I'm going to bed, and I suggest you do the same. We start tomorrow. There are things you need to know."
I nodded my head and sat down on the couch after she had walked by me and up the stairs. I looked over at the wine bottle and after a few seconds of staring I picked it up and started drinking what was left. Up until this point I had never seen myself as an alcoholic, but now I realized that I really was quite a heavy drinker but I was never drunk. I had gotten drunk once and done some stupid things so I swore off being drunk, but not drinking.
After I finished the bottle off I went into the kitchen to ask Eddie where I would be sleeping tonight.
"On ze couch," he told me
"That thing?"
"Yes! You haff a problem vith eet?"
"Yeah, it looks like you just nailed some wood together, threw some fabric over it, and stapled it all on. It doesn't even look like it had padding."
He snuffed and started tinkering with another toy with a screwdriver for a few seconds before telling me to get over it. As I walked away I mocked him a little by saying, "Sleep on ze couch. Eet's fine."
"Vat vas zat," he yelled.
I screamed back that it was "nosink" and laughed to myself quietly and went to lie on the couch and try to sleep. Surprisingly it was easy once I got into the right position.
The next morning when I woke up I went strait to the bathroom upstairs to wash my face, take a piss and a shower. I walked up the stairs still half asleep and walked down the hall to the bathroom at the end. I lightly knocked on the door to make sure no one was in and I went inside when I didn't get a reply. Slowly I opened the door and it creaked as it was pushed open. With my eyes still half closed and sensitive to any light I put my hand above my eyes and went to click on the lights. Already on? I wonder if they ever turn them off. I went strait to the toilet first and unzipped my pants and let all my fluid out. After that I went to the sink and washed my hands and face. After I dried my face I took off my shirt and went for the shower, but when I turned around there was Razz naked in the tub with music blasting in her ears and her eyes closed just sitting in a bubble bath. I let out a quick "whoa!" and quickly put my shirt back on. She apparently heard me and quickly, as I put on my shirt, she got out of the tub and put on a towel. By this time I was fully awake, mainly due to the view I had. I started to apologize and leave when Razz said it was ok, that this kind of thing happens. I still left the bathroom and went downstairs.
Later when she came down, her hair wrapped in a towel, she said, "Don't act like you've never seen a naked woman before."
I shrugged it off and tried to make a joke of it, "Can you really be considered a woman? You're like two hundred years old. You're ancient. I mean you're older than that fossil that fell asleep in the kitchen."
She smiled big. Humor helps people get over a lot of things.
We could hear Eddie yawn really big and then do that clapping sound with his mouth like they do in cartoons to get a cheap laugh out of people.
"So what are we going to do today?"
Razz looked at me and took the towel off her head, "We are going to teach you some things. It'll be just like school, only better."
"Better how? Teachers tried to make school better for years and they make failed attempts at humor."
"I will teach you some things I have learned over the years. How to use my sword in ways Sensei never would have taught us. I will teach you how to take down a werewolf if you are unarmed."
"Um, werewolf? I'm sorry, why would I want to take on a werewolf bare-handed?"
"It's a precaution. One of those 'just in case' things."
"Ok. Let's get to it."
We went out back of Eddie's house with our swords, the ground was soggy, muddy, and full of small holes that were easy to trip on. I don't know how I was supposed to learn anything on terrain like this, so I asked Razz what I would learn by fighting on such an uneven plain.
"You never know where you will be fighting and it is best to be ready for anything. Now get ready, I will not go easy on you just because you are new. There is blood inside if you feel you are losing too much."
"Losing to much," I screamed questionably.
"You can only die by losing blood. Other than that you'll be fine."
I looked at her like she was insane, "You're going to be stabbing and cutting me?!"
She looked at me with all the seriousness in her soul, "Yes."
I shrugged my shoulders still very much worried that this was going to hurt immensely and said En Guarde. I was also thinking to myself This is going to hurt like a bitch man. I hope she was just joking about all that blood business . She wasn't kidding. Deep in the back of my mind I knew that she would hold nothing back from me and that this would hurt really, really bad. Gulp.
Jesus Christ. We started going at it and I fought with all I had, but me being me, I had to make it flashy and it lasted about three seconds before I ended up with a sword in my stomach. I went a few seconds without breathing, just staring at what had just happened. After that I tried to breathe in but no air would enter my lungs so I tried to breathe out and all that came from my mouth was a spray of blood. Pain rushed through my body and I saw myself on the ground that night in the park with that monster on top of me, slashing at my torso, cutting me to pieces, ending my life. I could smell his fur, like a wet dog, and the bloody grass. A beast on top of me, not caring for anything, cold, heartless.
She took her sword out of my body and asked me what I did wrong.
"I tried to make it flashy. I've always had a thing for being fancy and doing cool moves."
She glared at me, "Well don't . Staying alive doesn't mean being flashy with your sword. You still need to learn that it is an extension of, not just your body, but of your soul and very being. Without knowing how to do that you will end up dead. Now would you like to start again?"
I nodded my head and got ready. She stood there waiting for me to make the first move. I close my eyes just for a couple seconds and tried to visualize what I would do, it didn't work. But I did get concentrated enough to fight.
Out blades clanged and I could almost anticipate her every move. That it until her blade ended up inside my gut again.
"I can't do this, Razz. I'm not as good as you are. I'll never be as good as you are."
I said all that with her sword still in my stomach. She got a little peeved at me and twisted the blade and I let out a shriek.
"JESUS CHRIST! What the hell is wrong with you!? That fucking hurts!"
She yanked the blade out of me and told me to come inside to replenish my blood. I drank a little, the smell and taste made me very uneasy.
"If you're done we will go back out there and meditate for fifteen minutes and then we will start again," she was all business. What was so bad in this world that she had to be like this?
I sighed and followed her outside and when we got out there I asked her that question. What is so bad in this world that we have to do this?
She looked at me with a cold, bitter look, "There are vampires, werewolves, and Rogues in this world. Vampires and werewolves do live in the same house, same clan, in some areas. In others they are sworn enemies and will never see that not all of them are as bad as they think they are. Rogues are the worst. They are mostly human but take in a vampire or werewolf on occasion, but they only use them for certain things. Once they have outlived their usefulness they are executed. Werewolves will be shot, sometimes tortured because the sick bastards want to hear them scream. Vampires will be starved and then have their throats cut. They get starved because without blood a vampire becomes weak and can't defend his or her self. The throat cutting ensures that they will get a good laugh out of the death. The sound they make, the sound of the blood hitting the ground. I've seen these things for myself."
I almost wanted to cry. "How? When?"
Razz walked up to me and looked me dead in the eyes. "I was once part of a rogue group. We picked up a drifter and he did those things. He made almost everyone in the group a monster. I hid my vampirism from everyone. Those of us who didn't become a twisted monster revolted against the others. Almost all of them died. I faked my own death and left the rogues and became freelance. I never knew what became of the ones who survived. But after I 'died' I made sure that none of those monsters lived to see another day. I sucked all of them dry, and burned their corpses."
My eyes widened and I nodded my head a few times and said, "Intense. Well with that on my mind I think I should be able to meditate very nicely. I'll be thinking about what you just told me for the next three months thank you very much. Please don't get so mad at me that you think of drinking my blood 'till I have nothing left in me."
"I could never get mad at you, at least not that mad."
I let out a sigh of relief, "That good."
She started to walk outside and turned around pointing one finger up, that "I just remembered something" finger.
"Speaking of drinking blood. Don't be going out and killing people. Eddie has a good enough supply of blood for the both of us. So don't go around killing people. Get it?"
"Got it!"
"Good! Now let's go back outside and meditate for a few minutes and then we can try it again."
I nodded my head. I don't know why though, she had her back to me. There was really no point. But I guess it was just one of those things.
We went outside and sat in the grass and meditated for about thirty seconds before Eddie ran outside yelling at Razz. Not mad yelling. That "this is important" kind of yelling.