There's lots more pages coming, so don't fret.
*DUE TO IT'S EXTREMELY GRAPHIC NATURE, THIS IS RATED 14a OR SO. DO NOT READ IF YOUR TUMMY UPSETS EASILY. XD*
The Heartless
(the title sucks, but you'll understand why I called it that when you near the end... ninja )
(the title sucks, but you'll understand why I called it that when you near the end... ninja )
Julian knew someone had been following him. He could feel it in his bones; that kind of same dark, deep chill that washes over you when you were terrified for the first time, when you daren’t go down to the basement to face the monsters that lurked there. Julian felt this now, but his stride did not slow, nor quicken. He kept on walking, denying naively the erect hairs on his neck. He felt his hand reach for his side—there was a knife there—but didn’t move to take it, instead staring straight ahead, beyond the dark alley he was in. Soon he would be out of it. Soon. He’d just taken a shortcut, like he did at night—every night—that’s all. Nothing was out of the ordinary tonight. It was nothing. The darkness just have him the creeps, that’s all. His hand relaxed and fell to his side. He’s never used it, the knife. He just bought it, just in case. The city was getting more violent lately, so he heard. No-one would attack him now. Not after curfew. It was just a rumour, after all. Rumours of a killer, yet no bodies had been found. No victims, no crime. He grinned to himself. They must have been lying in the papers, injecting fear and the ultimate control that comes with it into the readers. Soon he would be home; soon he would laugh at himself for worrying this way.
Yet, he knew something was following him, something so quiet and so deceptively benign. Footsteps he could of sworn he heard, but they must have been his own, for when he stopped, they stopped with him. Julian could hear the raspy, shallow breathing, but the noise stopped when he held his breath. Shadows were in the alley--he was used to them by now-- but he looked twice a number of times when one seemed to move. Surely a cat or mouse, something falling from it’s own weight, surely that was it, not a midnight stalker. Yet, he knew the one that moved was much too tall for an animal. He found himself talking to himself to break the eerie silence.
“Hey, if there’s someone there, he’s was too sneaky to be human,” he laughed to himself. Of course it couldn’t be human…And if not that, then what else? What else had the intelligence to blend in so easily, so flawlessly? There were no such things as monsters. Only in books did they lurk, haunt and roam freely as deer on the plains or cougars in the forest. A creation of the human mind itself they were, and nothing more. A tool used to scare and right the wrongs of children.
An idea washed over Julian like icy water, and his feet grinded to a halt. This time, two distinct sounds were heard: two solid, heavy footsteps. A few seconds of breathing followed, then quieted like the last moments of a dying man, like the breaths were not needed at all. Julian felt his body stiffen; he became rigid like lightning had struck him. Slowly his hand inched toward his knife. His throat became sandy and his heart sprinted. Someone was there. Someone, who, until this moment, wanted to be hidden away. There was not doubt in his mind that the thing he had his back to now was capable of speaking like a human, of answering him when he spoke.
“I know you’re there. Why don’t you show your face, you coward! If you were planning something, it’s too late for you. I can see my street up ahead. They’ll hear me. They’ll know I’m gone.”
A wind shot past his face. It had moved. Julian whipped around now, his knife drawn, waiting. But nothing was there. Something had been, with no doubt, a moment ago, but that exact spot was bare now, leaving no trace of anything living.
“Come on now, quit playing with me. There’s no point. I can fight back. Do you want to get hurt?” A feeling of dread welled up inside him the moment he had said those words, and he began walking, nearly running this time, toward his street, toward safety. He’d only gone a few feet before the sad realization and regret of the words he said to it came. He could hear laughter behind him now, following with ease even when he broke into a sprint.
It was an unearthly laughter, one surely of a madman, of a murderer. It was only then Julian realized the danger he was in, the truth of the stories and the possibility of death. He wasn’t prepared for it. It wasn’t his time, for God’s sake. He’d just finished a self defence course, just been accepted to one of the only Universities still running, and here he was, running away like a coward. He had a life to live for. He had people to live for. He had been proven a genius for Christ’s sake, but he’d been reduced to responding to his instincts like an animal.
His feet skidded to a stop. His street was about a hundred yards away, in earshot. If he were attacked now, everyone would know immediately. Julian gripped his dagger, gritting his teeth, bracing himself for pain. He knew it would come before he saw it, for now he knew what kind of creature he was dealing with. One of his professors told him about them. It certainly wasn’t human. The best bet to survive was quick knife strokes, matching their speed at least, making contact with their cool white skin. Covering your neck was crucial, he said—Julian did that now—that was where they were attracted. A shadow moved and soon after a punch hit him. Julian took a step back, only seeing the shadow come and leave in an instant. His knife sliced through the air for what seemed like forever before hitting something solid and fleshy, making a sickening slick sound. A short yelp followed and the thing jumped back like a cat, hunching over its small but bleeding wound. Its whimpers were quickly replaced by a loud, maniacal laughter. At last, the bloodsucker’s dank, cold voice, older than death itself punished the air with its boldness and confidence.
“You are well trained,” it wheezed, sucking all the warmness from around it, “it seem you know how exactly to attack me. You know some train for years to even make contact with an Immortal’s skin. You sure you aren’t a Hunter, Julian?”
He swallowed a lump. This thing had been following him for not just that night, but many nights before. It knew where he lived, it knew who he loved, and it knew they wouldn’t come. Julian had been bluffing. Even if they did hear him scream, they would never go out past curfew. Not with the city’s guards pacing, not with the word of a murderer hitting the papers. Tears welled up in his eyes.
“I plan to be,” he answered, choking back his emotions, “so I can rid the world of all your kind.” He brandished his knife, just now noticing the steaming blood upon it. “It’s a Hunter’s knife, you know. Your wound won’t heal. All it takes is a stab to the heart, and you’re mine to finish, Vampire.”
The creature twitched at his name, its true ancient identity, but did not seem disturbed. Julian saw its face now, a pale, frightening, but strangely handsome one it its Immortality. His features screamed Vampire from his dishevelled, bloodstained hair to his strong masculine chin, his black, pitiless and colourless eyes, his awkward bat-like ears, his gothic dress and when it smiled, its glistening razor-sharp teeth.
“Oh, you plan to kill me, boy?” it laughed, genuinely amused. “Try it, I dare you! I’ve killed hundreds of boys like you in my lifetime.” His eye glistened a moment, when Julian finally locked into eye contact. “You will not escape.” His voice fell to a disembodied, echoic whisper. “The fate that awaits you is not death, but something much worse.” And it smiled, showing its weapons, its deadly incisors that seemed to grow larger and longer with ever moment, drool finally seeping into and out of his mouth, its human features slowly receding into something more sinister and wild, its mouth growing wider into a sick mockery of a clown’s smile, ready to feast.
Panic, for the first time, grew in Julian’s belly. It was planning to turn him, to make him into a monster like itself, to watch him fight for an eternity with himself, to teach him how to suck the life out of others. He refused this fate. Julian lurched forward, ready to pierce into the Vampire’s heart, feeling the wind rush past him as he made his move. He waited to feel cold skin press against him, but there was nothing.
He had missed. Soon he felt the hard cobblestone hit his face, having tripped from leaning too far. He tried to sit up, to gain his composure, but the vampire was much quicker, stepping on his hand—surely breaking a finger--the knife dropping out of it. A foot landed on his back, pinning him to the pavement.
“Thought you could beat me boy?” A scream had worked its way up Julian’s throat but it wouldn’t come now, he was being pressed hard, his lungs working overtime to breathe. Only whimpers came out, pitifully. Julian knew he was the prey. There was little pain now. He closed his eyes and waited for the sharp pains in his neck to come.
They didn’t.
Instead he was lifted by his neck with two powerful hands and thrust against a wall, his arms though trying to pry them away—useless, his legs lame and dangling, breaths coming shorter and shorter as the Vampire’s grip tightened, choking sounds spouting from his mouth. His eyes grew as wild soon to be road kill, his lungs begging for air. Maybe he was just going to kill him after all. Julian thought of his parents, the next morning finding his strangled body amongst the garbage cans, mice picking at his clothes. The world seemed to darken, what little light there was disappearing to unconsciousness. Soon it was dark and he became limp, waiting and hoping to see the fabled light. Only blackness. He felt a falling sensation, and air rushed in. Julian squealed a breath. The vampire had let go, and he fell to the ground, panting for breath, amazed he was still living, his arched back against the brick wall. For a moment, he thought he would be spared, for the Vampire had taken a few steps back, but his heart fell when it bent down toward him, so close he could feel its icy breath, taste the blood that it surely had consumed days earlier, causing a long and violent shudder to work its way down his body. It soon turned into full convulsions.
morrreee coming. : ' K <---vampire.
