Authors: Tim Miller
Chapter 9
The ride back to the compound was quiet. Once they arrived Jessica climbed out while everyone else milled about putting their gear away.
“Well look at that,” Adam said. “We're back in time for lu
nch.” A few people laughed half-heartedly. Jessica wasn't sure why everyone seemed so down, after they just killed a bunch of evil vampires with no one getting hurt. Adam pulled her aside as Cedric walked by silently.
“Hey,” he said. “I know it’s
hard for you, but try to take it easy with Cedric. He's a good guy. He's just very intense. Don't take him personally.”
“I don't think he likes me,” Jessica said.
“I'm sure he likes you fine. He just really gets into this. Everyone does….but him more than anyone. Ok? Just give him some space.”
“OK,” Jessica said. She wasn't totally sure what all that meant, but went along with it. Through most her life she had to “fake it” around others. Even if she wasn't sure what “it” was.
“After lunch, I want you to meet up with Anna. We'll start working on your training.”
“Training?”
“Yep, can't have you out fighting vampires with us without knowing what you're doing.”
“You serious?” h
er voice elevated almost to a squeak.
“Yes, you'll learn some pretty cool stuff.”
“Awesome!” She jumped up and hugged him so tight he had to pry her off. “Ok,” he grunted. “Ok, Jessica, its ok, thank you I think.” She finally let go and walked toward the cafeteria. She never stopped smiling through lunch.
After lunch Anna took her to the large training area. They had both changed into t-shirts and shorts. Anna brought her to a big storage locker in the back. Inside there were crossbows and other weapons hanging from the wall. Anna pulled down a Stryker Strykzone 380 crossbow and a quiver of bolts and headed toward the target area.
Anna gave Jessica a quick demonstration firing a shot just missing dead center.
“Ok, come here,” Anna said. “Hold it up, against your shoulder, pull it in tight.”
The weapon wasn't as heavy as Jessica had thought. She followed along as Anna stood behind her, walking her through. She got the bolt loaded and aimed at the target. She pulled the trigger hard, sending the bolt flying to the top of the target.
“You are jerking too much,” Anna said. “Just relax and squeeze and lean in a little.”
For the next shot, Jessica took a deep breath, aligned the sites on the bulls-eye and took a deep breath. Gently, she squeezed the trigger until the bolt released. It hit the bulls-eye dead center.
“You see that?” Jessica said. “You see that? I got a bulls
-eye! I did that!” She was jumping up and down.
“Yes I saw,” Anna said with a crooke
d smile. “Good job kid. Don't get too excited could have been a lucky shot. Let’s do some more.”
They spent the next several hours shooting bolts at the targets. Anna was impressed at Jessica's abilities. Despite being autistic, she was a better shot than many of the seasoned slayers they had.
“How much longer? This is getting kind of boring?” Jessica said.
“We can call it for now.”
Jessica turned and noticed many of the others were watching her. She wasn't sure why, unless they were angry at her but she had no clue what they would be angry at her about.
“Why is everyone staring at me?” She whispered to Anna.
“They're either impressed by you, or scared of you.”
“What? Why?”
“You put on a little clinic back there. You only missed dead center maybe 3 times out of dozens of shots. Most these guys can't hit at that rate and they've been at it a few years,” Anna explained; her voice just above a whisper.
“So that's good right?”
“I guess so.”
“So why would they be afraid?”
“Because you just picked up a crossbow for the first time today and mastered it. That's not normal to most folks.”
“Well, I've never been normal.”
Chapter 10
They walked out of the training area and up several flights of stairs before arriving to a small room. Anna knocked and waited as someone opened the door after a minute. A guy Jessica hadn't seen before let them in. They stepped inside where Adam was sitting at a table with four other guys. All of them looked to be from the ages of late teens to early twenties, Adam being the oldest.
“How'd it go?” Adam asked.
“She did amazing. Hit bulls-eyes almost every time.”
“Really? You shot that well kid?”
Jessica beamed as he looked her direction.
“Yeah, I did good,” she said, smiling. The other guys gave Anna a questioning glance as she just shook her head.
“That's great,” Adam said. “You might be ready sooner than we all thought.”
“When can I see my mom?” Jessica asked, taking the whole group by surprise.
“I don't know if that's safe Jessica. The vampires are after you, not her. If you go see her, you could lead them right to her. You wouldn't want that would you?”
She hung her head.
“No, I guess not. I just miss my mom.”
“I'm sure you do. We'll see if we can't work something out soon,” Adam said. As he finished, an alarm sounded. It was blaring so loud it made Jessica's whole body shake. Adam and the guys all jumped up, grabbed their crossbows and ran into the hall. Anna and Jessica followed.
“What is going on?” Jessica yelled, but it was no use, Anna couldn't hear her. They ran up several flights of stairs, after which Jessica was feeling out of breath. When they got to the top floor, there were several grubs in the halls. The guys all shot bolts from their crossbows, dropping most of the grubs with that round. Jessica backed away from the commotion and pressed against the wall. She'd wished she had her crossbow. Now that she knew how to use it, she'd be able to help.
Something grabbed her from behind. Before she could react, someone was holding her around her arms, and someone else had picked up her legs. They carried her through a doorway and onto the roof where there were more grubs. Jessica screamed but no one could hear her over the noise of the alarm and the fighting going on. She struggled with everything she had, but the grubs were too strong. She was certain they were about to throw her off the roof.
They didn't, however. Instead a large man was at the end of the roof on a huge horse. Except it wasn't a horse at all. It had wings, like a pegasus, but the wings were bat-like wings. It also had a horn coming from its head. Jessica stopped struggling for a moment to figure out what she was seeing.
“Is that a unicorn?” She asked. The grubs didn't reply as they pushed her up onto the creature. The man was also wearing black and had short, cropped hair. She didn't think he was a vampire, but why was he with grubs?
“You might want to hold on,” he said as the beast lifted into the air. Jessica craned her neck around to watch the compound disappearing behind her. She looked up and saw that night was beginning to fall. She had no idea who this man was, or where he was taking her, but hoped Adam would be able to find her and save her before the vampires ate her.
They moved through the air with great speed, not the gliding you see such animals move with in the movies. The air was cold and stung her face and legs as they soared over the city. She also realized she hadn't eaten dinner either. This was upsetting to her as well, she hoped the vampires would have something to eat, or maybe these vampires would be nice, like the “Twilight” vampires. Or maybe this guy with his flying
unicorn bat horse wasn't a vampire at all; maybe he was here to take her to her mom. But he was helping the grubs. She knew the grubs were always bad.
She just wanted to fall asleep but held on to the strange man for dear life as she saw the city beneath her. She pinched her eyes shut tight hoping it was all a horrible dream that would be over when she awoke. After what seemed like hours, they finally landed and the beast trotted to a stop. Jessica opened her eyes and saw it was now dark out. They were standing in front of a small cabin surrounded by woods. Behind her in the distance, she could see the lights from the city. There was another man standing in front of the cabin with his arms crossed.
“James, now this is a nice thing to wake up to!” The man by the cabin said.
“It wasn't as hard as I thought. She came up to the top of the building with them. We just had to grab her when the others were distracted,” James, the man on the horse said as he climbed down. He put his arms up offering to help Jessica down.
“Come on down Tinkerbell. No one is going to hurt you, not yet anyway.”
“My name is
n't Tinkerbell. It's Jessica!” It was all she could think to say.
“Right kid. Let's go. Where do you want her Ivan?”
“Bring her here first,” Ivan, the man by the cabin said. James took her to him and Ivan grabbed her shoulders tightly, causing her to tense. “Look at me,” he said. His eyes glowed white, then yellow as he spoke. “You are no longer Jessica. You want to serve me in every way possible. You want to be my slave, and my food. Don't you?” Ivan said.
“What are you talking about? You're a jerk. Let me go!” Jessica cried.
Ivan looked up at James who shrugged his shoulders.
“Fascinating,” Ivan said. “I've never seen such a thing. Put her in the cellar for now. I'll deal with her after breakfast.”
Chapter 11
James dragged Jessica to a small set of doors next to the cabin. Pulling one open, he gave her a shove where she tumbled into a dark cellar. The first thing she noticed was the horrible smell. Like something died in there and has been rotting.
“Sorry kid, b
oss's orders. I don't think he'll hurt you though. Not if you do what he tells you.”
“Who are you? What do you guys want?”
“You'll find out soon enough,” James said as he slammed the doors shut.
“No!” Jessica screamed as she heard it lock from the outside. She ran up the steps and pushed against it, but the doors wouldn't budge. She collapsed to her knees and began sobbing uncontrollably. In the span of a day, she has been attacked by vampires, taken away from her mother, attacked again and locked in a dark, smelly cellar. She usually tried not to cry, but this time couldn't stop herself and didn't even try. So much had happened in the last few days.
In her old life, everything was routine; up at a certain time, to school, chores, homework, meals, all on a scheduled routine. Now there was no routine at all, just chaos.
“There's no use in crying,” a voice called from the darkness.
“Who is there?” Jessica called out. “Who said that?”
“I did,” a man stepped out from the shadows. He was old, and limping.
“Who are you?” Jessica asked.
“My name is Desmond. They've kept me prisoner here for many years. So I'd get comfortable if I were you.” His voice was hoarse, as if he labored to speak each word.
“Why are you a prisoner? Why am I a prisoner? I don't even know what's going on.”
“It's a long story.” He hobbled past her and took a seat on the steps. “I once filled a roll like old James up there. The vampires don't always hypnotize humans to make them slaves. They sometimes don't have to. I wanted to be one of them. I was an angry young man. My wife had just left me for my best friend. I'd just lost my job, almost sounds cliché.”
“Sounds what? And how old are you anyway? You look like you should be dead.”
He lifted his eyebrow at her. “Not the most tactful young lady
, are you? Kid these days I guess.” He stopped to cough before speaking again. “So I met Ivan one night. He found me walking home drunk from the bar. I think he was going to turn me. Tried to make a game of it he did. He could have killed me easily without me ever knowing he was there. Instead he vamped out on me, making his eyes all white and flashing those huge teeth at me. For some reason, it didn't scare me at all. It was probably all the Jack Daniels I'd had earlier. Instead I just told him to go ahead and kill me.”
“You what? Why'd you say that?”
“Well I didn't care anymore. My life was crap, I just wanted to die. Plus I was drunk. That never helps, which reminds me, if you get out of here alive, don't drink or do drugs. It doesn't help with anything.”
“Oh no,” Jessica said. “I don't do any of that stuff. My mom said it is bad news. So no
, thank you.”
“Well, your mom is a smart lady.” Desmond said. “So where was I? Oh yes. I told him to kill me. But he was like 'What? Aren't you going to scream?' but I was like, why bother? You'll catch and kill me anyway. I asked him what he was, and he told me he was a vampire. I thought such things weren't real, but now we no different, eh?”
Jessica just listened, trying to follow along.
“So, I asked if he was immortal, he said yes. Then I asked if he got to tear around and kill
whomever he liked, and he said yes. So I asked him if he could make me like him. He said he could, but I had to earn it first. I had to help him.”
“Help him with what?”
“With whatever, guarding his nest during the day with those crazy things they like to keep around. Helping gather other humans for him to eat, maintaining his and others' finances in his nest. They can't exactly have day jobs you know. And those grubs they call them, they sure can't help with any of that. The deal was, I do that for a few years, and he'll turn me.”
“So what happened?”
“Well, one year turned into three years, then five years and he still hadn't turned me. I'd seen him turn others. I did all sorts of unspeakable things too. I held people down so he could kill them. I brought people to the nest. I took children away from their parents.” He paused as his voice cracked. “I even brought the nest babies to feed off of. They love the blood of babies and children; it's more pure they say. I don't know. I was their errand boy and I did all this gleefully.”
“That's terrible. He should have just killed you,” Jessica said
as a matter of fact.
“There you go again, and yes, I suppose you're right. After several years, I got
angry with Ivan and the others, started to refuse to do their work. Told him I was done being his slave. If he wanted anymore from me, he could turn me, kill me or make me into one of his grubs. Instead he locked me down here. They send me scraps from their kill to eat.”
“What? You eat people?”
“Yes, they throw bodies down here with the blood drained. Only the meat and flesh left on the bones. I eat it all. There is a faucet in back with running water. That's all I've lived off of for years.”
“Why don't you escape?”
“Oh, I've tried, several times. Finally, Ivan would break my legs. The last time I tried several years ago, he broke both of my femurs. That was pain like nothing I'd ever felt before. After that I gave up. I tried to just not eat and starve myself, but that is quite hard to do when its right in front of you. He didn't want to kill me, he wants to torture me. And he's managed to do just that.”
“Well sounds to me like you deserve it. Fe
eding babies to vampires; that's horrible.”
“You don't hold back do you?” He struggled to laugh but ended coughing.
“Yeah, I hear that a lot. Part of why everyone thinks I'm weird. So will they leave me down here too?”
“I don't know. What is your name anyway?”
“Jessica.”
“Well Jessica, you're the only other prisoner I've seen them put in here since I've been here. So I have no idea.” As he spoke, the cellar door swung open. The both looked up to see James standing at the doorway.
“You still alive, old man?” James asked. “Get back away from the door before I break your legs again, though that would probably kill you these days.”
Without a word, Desmond stood and shuffled back into the darkness.
“Come on kid,” James said. “The boss wants to see you.”
Chapter 12
When she came out of the cellar, it was night time. There were grubs wandering around in front of the cabin, staring at her with their hollow, empty eyes. James noticed her moving back toward the cellar.
“Don't worry kid,” James said. “They won't bother you. Not unless the boss tells them to.”
She relaxed a little as he took her inside the cabin. There Ivan was sitting at a desk with his back turned. He spun around in the chair to face her. His face was white, and eyes were black and empty. She hadn't noticed his eyes before, but they had that weird glow earlier. So did the vampire who came to her house that first night.
“So Jessica,” Ivan said. “I've heard a lot about you.”
“You have?”
“Well of course. It's not every day someone is immune to our hypnosis. Usually in seconds they are sniveling freaks like your pals out there, unless they volunteer to be my slave like James over there. Hoping I'll turn him one day. Right, James?”
James just shifted uncomfortably.
“See? He doesn't dare talk back to me; I might kill him, or turn him into one of those things. And who wants that?” Ivan said and laughed. “Oh, but anyway, I digress. So what to do with you? Can't have you helping the slayers now can we? That's no good.” Jessica stared at him as he spoke. In the movies and books she'd seen, vampires were always attractive. Ivan was anything but. He wasn't exactly ugly. He just looked rough, but not old. His face looked weathered and leathery and his hair was thick and white. Yet, he was in great shape. He looked like someone who was old, but without aging.
“I wasn't helping them,” she said. “I was just staying with them for protection.”
He laughed; his voice was deep and sometimes raspy.
“You're a horrible liar. They don't just protect anyone. You have to earn your keep with them.”
She hung her head, and looked to James who looked away from her.
“So what are you going to do with me?”
“Well, I can't turn you into a grub, so that's out. I could kill you, but you could be useful to us in some way.”
“I don't want to help you kill people.”
“Oh, who says there's killing involved?” Ivan asked sarcastically.
“You're vampires. You kill people.”
“And how many people have you seen me or any of us kill?” He stood and crossed his arms. “Hmmm?”
“Well
none yet.”
“Of course not; h
ow many vampires have you seen the slayers kill?”
“They killed a few this morning...” she trailed off.
“A few? Fifty, they killed fifty. They were asleep in their tombs, not hurting anyone. Your pals went in and staked them all in their sleep. Real stand up guys they are.”
Jessica started feeling confused. Adam was her friend she thought. He and Anna helped her, made her feel safe. Plus they said the vampires were dangerous killers. Now Ivan was saying the opposite. What he said made sense. She never saw the vampires hurt anyone. The guy who came to her house hadn't done anything to her yet before Adam killed him.
“So what do you want me to do?”
“My first thought is to send you back and have you spy for us. But you seem quite impressionable, so that wouldn't be a good idea. Interesting one you are. I can't hypnotize you, but you'll believe almost anything.”
“No I don't. Who says I believe you now?”
“I can tell you do. You're not like most humans.”
“I have Asperger’s.”
“What is that?”
“Means I'm different, my brain works different than others.”
“Obviously. James will get you something to eat before you go back to the cellar. You'll have to excuse the cuisine here. Our chef is on vacation,” he laughed a loud, cackling laugh at his own joke.
“Let's go kid,” James said.
“My name isn't kid. It's Jessica.”
“Whatever. Come on.” She followed him into a small kitchen in the back of the cabin. He grabbed a bag of pork rinds and a bottle of water and handed it to her.
“There you go,” he said.
“I don't like these,” she said.
“It’s
all you got to eat. You'll need it. So eat up.”
She took one out and stared at it before putting it into her mouth. She chewed on it several times. It was chewy and hard and incredibly salty. She swallowed it and took a drink of the water which turned out to be warm.
“These are gross!”
“They have protein. Eat up.”
“What about Desmond?”
“What about him?”
“Does he get any food?”
“Ivan deals with him. Let's go.”