The words painted in blood above Asa’s bed, a note that didn’t quite make her shiver with fear even though she wished she could. She wished she could be normal, even just human. She wanted to be someone who could read something like that and call for help. She pictured police coming, reassuring her that things would be okay, and that she’d have protection until the bad guys were caught.
Such a story would hold true for the physical world, the only world that humans thought existed.
This message however was from a different world. From a creature that people would only believe existed between the freshly printed pages of a new book.
This wasn’t a book.
This was Asa’s reality.
Asa knew she would not rest in her room or house that night, or maybe ever. Her body raged with anger and adrenaline, thinking back to her fight with the old man vampire. She told herself she should have done more to kill him, or to, at least, confirm he was dead.
“Follow me to die,” Asa whispered.
She stood and waited to hear anything that may come to her mind.
Mr. Rogers felt more of a phantom than a friend lately as he was fighting his own battle.
When his voice came to her in those precious, lonely moments, Asa found a small glimmer of hope in the mess around her.
“Asa… I can hear you…”
“My wall,” she said.
“I know,” Mr. Rogers said. “I know. I see it. I feel it. Blood. So much blood Asa.”
Mr. Rogers sounded weak.
“What do I do?”
A breath exhaled and that was it.
Silence came, followed by loneliness.
Mr. Rogers was gone again and Asa had only herself and her little message on the wall.
She could not bear to see it anymore.
She turned around and suddenly was not in her bedroom anymore.
Instead, she was back outside, in the alley, standing at the edge of a line of blood.
Another trail of blood, just as before.
Asa caught her breath and tried to stay calm. Whatever was at work wanted her to go crazy, become full of fear, and panic. A person panicked is a weak person and creatures liked nothing more than a weak person.
She started to step along the blood, knowing she had to follow it.
After a few minutes of walking, the trail turned into a pool. A wide pool that appeared to be deep, but it could have been an inch for all Asa knew.
She stopped at its edges and waited.
The blood bubbled and then began to disappear. It looked as if it seeped into the ground, little by little, until there was nothing but the ground again. The trail of blood had ended.
Asa waited knowing that where one path ended another usually began. Something would not have taken her this far for it to just end.
Her thoughts proved true when she saw two glowing eyes walking towards her. The sound of footsteps and dragging soon followed, echoing around her. The eyes stared right at her and the figure grew more as it came closer to her. She stayed silent and watched as a tall nightseeker stepped into view, with his greasy hand wrapped around the hair of a man, pulling him behind. The man was obviously dead as blood ran down his neck to his lifeless body.
“My snack,” the nightseeker said and picked the man up.
The strength of the nightseeker was amazing. He held the man out towards Asa and then dropped him.
Asa tried to keep her eyes from following the man to the ground but she could not help it. In that second it took to look back to the nightseeker, it was already on the attack.
With its arms open, the nightseeker hit Asa then wrapped its arms around her. She heard its jaws pop open and could taste the horrible stench of death pouring from its mouth.
She stumbled back but braced herself, knowing that if she fell, it would all be over. Asa turned and started to pump her legs as if she was running, forcing the nightseeker backwards. The vampire did not expect the move and started to move its feet, stepping on them, and then tripping.
When the nightseeker looked down to focus on its balance, Asa slammed her head forward, connecting with a vicious head butt. Asa felt a stream of pain through her head but, more importantly, she felt the nightseeker loosen its grip on her. She used her right hand to grab a piece of the old world wood and drove it up into the nightseeker. The tip entered under the vampire’s ribcage, penetrating deep.
The vampire screamed as it released Asa all the way and stepped back. It expected to die, however, Asa had not stabbed it through the heart.
When the nightseeker realized Asa’s error it looked back to her and started to laugh.
“Missed me,” the nightseeker said.
When it stepped forward to Asa again, she grabbed the old world wood. She slid it out of the gut of the nightseeker and deep into the vampire’s heart.
This time, it stumbled back against a wall and died.
“Got you,” Asa said.
She turned to her right, back to face the way the nightseeker had arrived only to come face to face with the dead man the nightseeker had been dragging behind him.
Asa screamed as she tried to step back, but the dead man grabbed her wrist.
“No,” he said.
Asa stared into his milky eyes. There were no irises or color. The dead man’s face was a pale color, almost blue, and blood leaked from the bite wounds in its neck.
“Who are you?” Asa asked.
“I’ll take you to him,” the dead man said.
“To who?”
“Follow me.”
The dead man started to walk. Every few steps the man would disappear as though he were a ghost, but then would come back into the view.
With the blood trail gone, Asa had no choice but to follow the dead man.
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©2011 Jim Bronyaur
Tags: Jim Bronyaur
