Risen (Book #6 of the Vampire Legends) (3 page)

“Follow me!” Benji said to Mark.

“I’m coming!” Mark replied as he
flew at a quick speed to catch up to Benji.

“We have to get out of there!”
Benji said. “Do you hear the sirens?”

“Do you think they’re going to
find us?” Mark asked.

“Not a chance!” Benji said. “These
guys won’t know what to say to the police and the police are definitely not
going to believe that a bunch of flying people beat them up. It’s all too crazy
a story.”

“Let me go!” Romano yelled. “Please!
I’ll do anything!”

“You’ve done enough already!”
Benji said. “You should have never messed with my boy Mark here.”

“I didn’t do anything. I swear!”
Romano pleaded.

“I don’t want to hear it!” Benji
said. “Enjoy your remaining moments of life!” he said with a laugh.

Romano screamed for help but
nobody could hear him up in the clouds. It was hopeless for him.

“Benji, what are you doing to do?”
Mark asked.

“What are we going to do is the
better question!” Benji replied.

“Huh?” Mark said.

“We are going to feed on him!”
Benji said. “Aren’t you hungry?”

“Really? Just like this?” Mark
asked.

 
“Ok, you are clearly new to this whole vampire
thing, so I will teach you!”

“Vampire thing?” Mark asked.

“Yes!” Benji exclaimed.

“What do you mean?” Mark asked.

“How do you think you took on all
those guys on your own? How do you think you flew into the sky? And your
strength? Did these things not occur to you?” Benji asked.

“I knew something was different.
I’ve been feeling weird for a while. I’ve had some strange encounters and
episodes over the past few weeks, but nobody was there to tell me what was
going on. I couldn’t figure it out on my own. I’ve felt alone with this and now
finally someone is telling me what is happening to my body!” Mark confessed.

“I could tell when I came to
rescue you that you were a bit of a deer in headlights. I knew that the sudden
influx of powers and strength didn’t quite make sense to you and I could tell that
you still doubted your abilities. I could tell you felt unsure in your
movements and that you needed a bit of guidance about the new you. There’s no
turning back now. You are a vampire now, Mark and will always be a vampire!”
Benji said.

“LET ME DOWN!” Romano continued
yelled as they started their descent onto a deserted island. “Where are we
going?”

The two landed with a thud and
then threw Romano down on the ground pinning him down and holding his arms and
legs as he tried to squirm out of their firm hold. Benji squeezed his arms so
tightly that his arms were bright red and beginning to pulsate as the blood
stood stagnant in his veins.

“HELP!” he screeched as he took
gasping breaths of air.

“Watch and learn, Mark!” Benji
says as he leans down towards Romano’s neck. His long white fangs protruding
out of his mouth and his eyes, which have turned a shade of blood red focused
in on his prey. He took one big inhale and then quickly dug his fangs into
Romano’s neck, killing him instantly.

Mark walked into the local pub in
his town in Pennsylvania without getting carded. He felt cool that the bouncer
didn’t ID him and that made him feel entitled to grab a drink at the bar. He’d
never been the type of kid to drink underage, but now that he was a different
person, a vampire, he figured it couldn’t hurt him. He knew he was practically indestructible
and his powers could ward off any danger.

As he approached the bar it was
jam packed elbow to elbow and he could barely squeeze in to get the bartenders
attention. He managed to poke his head through and on either side of him were
big muscular gym rat type standing there in tank tops and tight jeans ordering
shots of tequila.

“What can I get for you?” the
bartender asked.

Thinking hard and not knowing
what to order he blurted out “sex on the beach!”

“Sex on the beach?” the bartender
asked with questioning eyes.

“Um yes! That’s what I said,”
Mark answered.

The two guys on either side of
him turned sharply and looked at him hysterically laughing.

“What kind of man are you
ordering a
sex on the beach?”
one of
the guys asked through his laughter.

The other guy couldn’t catch his
breath from laughing to say anything.

“What’s wrong with that?” Mark
asked. He was new at ordering drinks at bars and didn’t know what was cool to
order. He didn’t want to get caught drinking underage either. Then, he’d be in
big trouble. He knew he had to defend himself, but as the group of guys
laughing grew bigger and louder, he couldn’t help but feel angry at the
situation.

“WHAT?” Mark yelled. “Why are you
all laughing?”

“SEX ON THE BEACH! What kind of a
girl are you?” the guys started to ask.

Mark had never felt so low in his
entire life. He didn’t know what to do to defend himself and knew that he was
completely outnumbered and with no friends by his side he had nobody but
himself to stick up for him.

Then, he couldn’t help but notice
the vein pulsing out of the guy on his lefts neck. He could see the blood
flowing through his large protruding vein and all he wanted to do was feed. He
could smell the guys scent and he wanted his blood. His body started convulsing
as he continued to stare.

“What are you looking at?” the
guy asked.

Mark didn’t answer. He couldn’t.
All he could do was focus on his vein. And it was taking every ounce of
strength inside of him not to pounce on him and feed at that very second.

“Yo, Dude. Stop staring at me!”
the guy said, as he elbowed his friend still in hysterics and made him notice
what was happening now.

“You’re weird, man. What are you
doing now?” his friend asked.

Mark still did not answer.

“STOP!” the guy said giving Mark
a shove away from him. “You’re a creep!”

Mark suddenly snapped out of it
as he flew back into one of the bar tables knocking it over.

“What was that for?” Mark asked angrily.

“Stop staring at me you freak!”
the guy said.

“What’s your deal, man?” his
friends chimed in.

“Why did you come out to this bar
anyway. You got no friends here,” the others started asking.

“You’re a loner!” another chimed
in.

Then in unison all the guys
started chanting “LONER, LONER, LONER…”

Mark could barely handle it and
then a loud voice said, “YOUR SEX ON THE BEACH IS READY!”

Now, all the guys in the entire
bar started laughing hysterically at Mark. He’d never felt so low in his life
and didn’t know what to do.

“Get your sex on the beach,
loner!” one guy said, giving him a shove from behind.

“Don’t touch me!” Mark said.

“Oh yeah?” the guy asked. “Whatcha
going to do about it?”

“Listen, I’m not in the mood for
this right now,” Mark answered.

“Did you guys hear that? He said
he’s not in the mood for this right now!” the guy said.

Again, the group of about a 45
guys burst out laughing.

Mark walked towards the bar and
before he knew it he was laying on the floor with blood coming out of his lip.
He’d been tripped by the guy who was standing to his left and now he lay on the
floor, embarrassed and hurt.

Mark didn’t know what to do. He
couldn’t let this happen and he could feel that his body was morphing into
fight mode as the sharp razor like bumps protruded out of his skin and his
inner strength surged.

He quickly jumped to his feet,
wiping the blood off of his face and walked over to the guy who now had his
back to him and grabbed him by the hair backwards throwing in onto the ground.
His head hit the floor with a band and Mark could see his eyes rolling behind
his head.

“Don’t touch our friend!” the
other guys started saying as they began to charge.

“Don’t mess with me!” Mark said.

“Give me a break sex on the beach
boy!” the guys said.

Then, mark felt someone try to
shove him from behind. He quickly turned at lightning speed, lifted the guy up
over his head and threw him into the bar, shattering all the bottle of liquor.

“QUICK SECURITY! CALL THE POLICE!”
the bartender yelled in fear.

Another guy came launching at him
and Mark threw him across the room, knocking over all the tables and chairs in
his way.

Then, over his shoulder he saw
the two big bouncers running towards him. He quickly put out both of his arms
with his spiky skin showing and slashed both of their necks, the blood oozing
onto his arm.

He quickly licked his arm to gain
more strength from their blood and continued fighting one guy after the next.
He then noticed a fleet of police cars pulling up outside the bar with their
blue, red and white lights spinning in circles on top their cars.

“COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP!”
they shouted.

Mark was not about to leave that
bar. He stayed inside brutally beating up the others until finally the police
ran inside swat team style with mace and guns in their hands. Mark knew he had
to think quick if he were going to get out alive.

“STOP AND PUT YOUR HANDS IN THE
AIR!” the police man said.

“WE WILL SHOOT YOU!” another
said.

“PUT YOUR HANDS UP!”

“NOW!”

Mark stood there and he put his
hands up in the air. The police started to put their guns away as just as they
did Mark lunged at them taking the police chief and spinning him around quickly
causing his body to knock down the other police men who were standing near him.
Then, he threw the police chief out the front window of the bar sending him
face first into shards of glass on the sidewalk outside.

The other officers tried to grab
him, but he was too quick for them. He sent them flying every which way and
down onto the ground begging for their survival. He could hear the police
officers radioing for back up outside as the men inside were getting brutally
tortured by Mark.

Then, as if by complete surprise,
Mark felt himself being grabbed around the waist and looked down. He then saw
his hands get cuffed into metal handcuffs and placed behind his back. He tried
to wiggle his way out, but it was too late. He couldn’t get out of them, and
none of his powers could help him now.

“We’ve got you!” the officer
said. “You can’t get away from us now.”

Mark looked around the room
surveying his damage and couldn’t believe his eyes. It all happened so quickly
and he couldn’t believe this was all the result of his strength, anger and
rage. He couldn’t believe the person he had become.

“Look what you did!” the officers
shouted as they dragged him outside and into the back of their highly armed
police truck.

“You’re not getting off the hook
for this. Don’t even think it!” the officer shouted.

“If you ever get out of jail it
will be a miracle!” another yelled as he slammed the doors in Marks face.

His voice echoed in Marks head as
the police truck sped away down the road. He didn’t know if he would ever see
the light of day again.

Rachel arrived at the address she’d
been given by her mother and hopped out of the truck.

“Thanks again!” Rachel said, as
she looked back at the truck driver, who she’d grown quite fond of over the
past twenty minutes of their ride together. She looked at him as a father type
figure and thought to herself she’d wished this guy was her dad. He was so
kind, caring and loving unlike her real dad.

“Anytime. And be careful out
there, don’t do that again. Ya hear?” the driver replied with a fatherly grin.

“I won’t. I promise,” Rachel
said.

With that she heard the engine
roar, and the truck pulled down the road with only the bright red break lights
to light up her way to her grandmother’s house. She wondered for a moment if
she’d ever see the man again. She hoped they would cross paths again, but knew
it was doubtful given that she didn’t live down here.

As she approached her grandmother’s
house she couldn’t believe her eyes. It was still dark out but the light from
the moon lit up the house just enough for her to see its enormity. It was unlike
any house she’d ever seen and she couldn’t understand why one woman would need
all that space. She just couldn’t fathom it. It was almost creepy looking.
There were big black shudders, with some of them falling off their hinges. A
large iron gate that boldly took over the front door and from a far she could
see the cobwebs built up on it. As she surveyed the house looking up and down,
she couldn’t help but notice that many of the windows were broken, non-existent
or had boards over them. She then looked down and the porch caught her
eye.
 
It looked a bit lop sided, with one
side dipping almost touching the ground and the other at least four feet high.
She imagined that her grandmother didn’t hang out on her porch given its
condition. In fact, the condition of this house made her wonder if her grandmother
still lived here at all.

She walked slowly up the walkway,
noticing that there weren’t any lights on in the house, then she saw a dim
flicker in the top window on the third floor. It looked like the light of a
candle, but she couldn’t tell exactly. She saw the window curtain moving back
and forth, and wondered if her grandmother had seen her of if it was just the
wind blowing them in the breeze.

Her mind then jumped back to the
dream she had on the train and she suddenly got frightened. She stood still
feeling paralyzed as she felt her hear racing inside of her body. She didn’t
know what to do and stood there with her eyes closed, hoping that because she
couldn’t see anything that nothing could see her as well. She knew that was a juvenile
way of thinking, and knew it to be untrue, but in that moment it made her feel
better.

She opened her eyes again,
although it didn’t make her feel any more secure. She still felt scared beyond
belief but knew she had to continue on. She knew her grandmother was a good
person, but she just couldn’t figure out why she lived in this haunted house.
It looked a little bit like the Tower of Terror from Disney World.

As she walked up the front steps,
each one creaked louder than the one before. She felt like she was going to
fall through them. She clutched onto the railing with all her might, trying to
keep her balance as she carried her bags and herself up the rickety staircase.

“Ouch!”

She screamed out in pain as a
splinter entered the palm of her hand. She looked down at the railing, but it
was too dark to see what had pricked her hand. She let go of the railing as she
approached the porch. She stopped and waited, thinking that her grandmother
must have heard her scream, but she didn’t. Nobody came to the door.

She looked around for the
doorbell, but didn’t see one. Then, she looked up at the iron door and saw a
large knocker. She lifted it up with her hand and let it fall, making a very
loud bang which echoed through her ears. She waited for about a minute but
still no answer.

“Grandma? Are you home?” she
yelled out through the door.

She waited again. The minutes
felt like hours as she stood there on the front porch waiting for her
grandmother to open the door and let her in. As she stood there in the
humidity, she kept feeling little pricks on her skin, and then realized it was
a swarm of mosquitos biting her. She could feel them sucking out her blood and
creating a lump on her skin.

She let out a sigh as she turned
away from the door, having lost hope that her grandmother would open up. She
dropped her bags on the porch, trying to figure out what to do next. She didn’t
know what to do. There was not a sign of life around, except for the mosquitos
that kept mauling her body. She walked back down off the porch and stood there
staring at the house, hoping that maybe she could wake her grandmother up.

“GRANDMA! IT’S ME RACHEL!” she
yelled up to the open window in desperation.

“CAN YOU HEAR ME?”

She realized it was a lost cause
and she’d have to wait until morning. Then, she thought if she could just find
an open window she could get inside. She looked at the front of the house, but
they all looked to be closed. Then, she started veering off the front path and
into the side yard looking for an open window. Not only did she not find an
open window on the side of the house, but instead saw what looked like
tombstones in the light of the moon. She couldn’t understand why her
grandmother would live on the same property as an old graveyard. She suddenly
got the chills and despite the hot, sticky weather, got goose bumps all over
her body. This was by far one of the creepiest houses she’d ever seen and was
feeling more and more creeped out by the whole thing.

She kept thinking she had made a
huge mistake to come down and find her grandmother. After all, maybe her
grandmother didn’t live here anymore and she was creeping around someone else’s
property like a maniac. This didn’t seem like the type of place her grandmother
would live, but she hadn’t seen her in years and maybe she’d changed. The
situation was all too much for her to handle. She quickly ran around the back
and other side of the house but to no avail. She was locked outside for the
night and would have to make the best of it.

When she got back to her bags she
rummaged around looking for her cell phone. She was thrilled to see that she’d
finally gotten one bar of cell reception, and tried to make the most of it.
Holding her phone up to the sky hoping to gain more reception she starting
clicking the keys of her phone in search for help.

Then as if by magic she got an
alert from foursquare that said her friend had just checked into a pub around
the corner from her. She rubbed her eyes and squinted trying to read the
message again in disbelief. Could it really be true that her friend Kelly was
only a few minutes down the road at a bar? She couldn’t believe her eyes. She
quickly clicked on her phone to text her friend.

Rachel: Hey! You’re not going to believe this but I’m
right down the road visiting my grandma.

She waited and then her phone lit
up.

Kelly: OMG! STOP! You have to come out with us.

Rachel: I’m kinda stranded her thought. No way to
get there. Can I walk?

Knowing that she shouldn’t go
back on those streets alone at night, she immediately regretted her question.
She hoped that Kelly would tell her not to walk, but she didn’t know what she’d
say. She hadn’t seen Kelly since summer camp when they were kids, but always
felt a close connection with her.

Kelly: Well, do you know the streets well?

Rachel: Not at all. I just arrived actually. Been
kind of a crazy night already.

Kelly: Def don’t walk then. I’ll come pick you up.
What’s your address?

Rachel: 12 Maple Way

Kelly: 12 Maple Way here I come!