Episode Two;By;fernand jiro
I awoke to find myself in a room under Stephanie’s club. My shirt was off, and I was all wrapped up in bandages. Bandages around my self-mutilated arms, around my gun shot wounds, around my ribs, and around my neck. I looked like a damn mummy.
I sat up and coughed up blood. As if on cue, Stephanie walked into the room with a towel, she handed it to me so I could wipe myself clean. “Looks like you had a rough night,” she said. “Ya think?” I replied. My voice was almost the sound of a growl, because of the wound to my throat.
She sat down in a seat across from me and said, “I found you earlier this morning. I was going to stop you from going to Jessica’s funeral. But I found you lying in a puddle of your own blood on the floor. I thought you had committed suicide.” “Whatever,” I said.
“The doctor said you’re pretty banged up. He’s surprised you’re even alive. You took a nasty blow to your throat,” she said. I asked, “What time is it?” “It’s two in the afternoon. Why?” she answered. I stood up slowly and said, “The funeral.” She then stood up too and said, “I’m not letting you go. Leave it be at peace.”
“Nothing is at peace. It’s my fault that girl was killed!” I said. “And you already took care of her killer! What more do you want? The parents’ blessing?” I looked away from her, trying to find my shirt. She said, “What’s wrong with you?”
Those little words echoed out in my head. I looked her straight in the eyes and said, “Why Stephanie, I never knew you cared. And all this time I thought I was just your boy toy.” “Go to hell, Ezekiel. I’ve never seen you this down and angry before, and I don’t need one of my agents out killing everybody in sight,” she said. “So, that’s all. I’m just an agent you have to look after. Well listen, I don’t give a crap about your agency or your government. As far as I’m concerned, anarchy rules,” I said angrily.
I quickly left that room and reached in my pocket for my keys. Down the hall is my private room. I unlocked it, and inside I keep some spare clothes and weapons, along with all the files on everybody I’ve killed for the government. I didn’t bother putting on another shirt; I just took a long red coat that I have. It looks like it’s made out of plastic. I also holstered up two pistols.
Without even seeing Stephanie again I headed back out and hailed a cab to take me to the cemetery. During the ride over there, I thought about the night before, my fight with Michael Zilch. I searched my mind, trying to figure out the reason why I hate him so much. Something deeper than him being a vampire, something deeper than me destroying his vampire brethren.
When I get to the funeral, it has already ended and most of the people are leaving. I stay away, just glancing and looking over. I see a man and woman who I get the feeling are Jessica’s parents. In that moment when I saw Jessica’s mother crying, I wanted to rush up to her and say that I avenged her murder, that maybe I could bring peace to her pain. But I know there is no peace from pain, and that having some psycho stranger come up to you and tell you that your daughter’s murderer was savagely beaten and killed would hold no comfort in your heart.
I stayed and watched from a distance until they all left. After they did, I walked over to the fresh grave. The tombstone read “Jessica Lisa Simpson, May She Make The Angels Smile”. A shockwave of pain rushed through me and I collapsed to the ground. On my daughter’s tombstone, it reads “May She Make The Angels Laugh”. Almost the exact same thing is written before me. Was this some kind of sick joke from God?
“Naughty Naughty, look whose here,” Michael voice said from over my shoulder. I quickly stood up and faced him. “What the hell are you doing here?” I yelled. He put his finger up to his lips and said, “Shh, you’ll wake the dead! Oh wait, that’s me!”
I wanted so badly to hurt him, but I knew I was too weak and beaten already. So I calmed myself, making sure to keep my monster inside. “My question still stands, what the hell are you doing here?” I asked. He smiled and said, “Oh, I’ve just come by to pay my respects to the dead. I read about all this in the newspaper. I know how to recognize your handy work, Ezekiel.”
“Go away. You’re not wanted here.” I said. “I’m not? I thought you would want me to be six feet under,” he said. I replied, “Your time will come, but for right now, LEAVE!” He grabbed me by my jacket and pulled me right into his face. He said, “You’re making me sick. Look at how weak you are. Running around the world trying to redeem yourself for killing your own wife and daughter. How did it feel to push that knife through their hearts? To have their blood on your own hands?”
In that moment, I was weakened by his words. I couldn’t get angry; I was filled with too much pain. I was too miserable to fight back. Michael just shoved me down to the ground. “Like I said, you’re weak. You’re just as much of a monster like me, why don’t you accept it? Let that darkness out!”
“I’m nothing like you,” I said. He laughed and replied, “How so? We both kill to survive. I kill for the blood that sustains me. You kill for salvation that helps your soul heal. And we both kill for pleasure. You know you love to feel someone’s life slip out from your hands. You can’t tell me it wasn’t pleasurable to feel Joseph Kane’s life die away!”
His words confused me. I could feel the beast inside of me wanting to surface, to try and make another attempt at Michael Zilch’s life. But I had to keep it away and concentrate on what he was saying. Since I didn’t have any thing to respond, he just said, “The dead shall walk again. Soon, very soon.” And within a blink of an eye he was gone.
I stood back up and brushed myself off. Was he right? Was I really like him? Deep down inside me I knew there was apart of me that took pleasure in killing. But I always thought that was the monster within me.
I shook my head and started walking. But his last words stayed with me, “The Dead shall walk again. Soon, very Soon.” Then it struck me with a full blunt force trauma…it was in the middle of the afternoon. Michael Zilch is a vampire, which means that sun is their natural born enemy. How could a vampire walk among the rays of the sun?
As I left the funeral, my pager started going off. It was Stephanie. I found a payphone nearby and called her. “You have a new orders. That girl that was involved last night between you and Michael, she’s talking to the police right now,” she said with a very monotone voice. I asked, “So what do you want me to do?” “Talk to her, try to convince her that it was nothing more than a couple of freaks fighting,” she responded.
“Hey, there’s something else you should know about. I just had an encounter with Michael at the cemetery,” I said. “I told you not to get into any trouble!” she screamed. I responded, “Don’t worry, no violent force was used on my part. But there’s something that strikes me as very odd…”
“What?” she asked. “It’s daylight,” I said. She was silent for a moment, and then she said, “I’ll call you back later. Just take care of that girl,” and she hung up. I started walking for the police station.
“I’m telling you the truth!” she screams at the two police officers questioning her. The two officers look at each other then back at the young girl. One of them says, “We confirmed our drug test. You’ve been doing acid, Miss Lane.” “I wasn’t high last night! I know what I saw!” she screams at them.
“So, your kidnapper attacks the other figure, stabbing him in the stomach twice, and slicing open his throat. Then this other figure gets right back up and jumps over a twelve foot tall brick wall,” one of the cops says. She just shakes her head, seeing as this is getting nowhere. “Just let me go,” she said.
“Alright, Miss Lane, you’re free to go,” the other cop says. She gets up from her seat and is escorted out of the back of the police station. She finds a payphone up front and tries calling her roommate, but she’s not home. She walks out of the police station and sits down on the front steps to smoke a cigarette.
“Don’t worry about those guys, they get paid extra to blow off cases like yours,” I said standing from behind her. “What the do you know?” she asks before looking. She turns and looks up, and I grin. “Oh no, it’s you!” she says. She stands up and gets right in my face. “What the hell happen to me last night?” she screams.
“Come on, walk with me and I’ll tell you anything you want to know,” I said. I put my hand on her shoulder and motion for her to begin walking down the street. At first, she doesn’t want to go, but then she decides to. We walk along side each other.
“You look pretty banged up,” she said. “Yeah, stuff happens,” I responded. “That guy bit my neck and sucked my blood, I know it! But when I woke up there was no wounds, was I dreaming?” she said. I stopped to move her hair to one side and check her neck. The wounds had healed, which is no surprise. Most vampires have the ability to heal their victim’s wounds, a natural way to cover their tracks.
“No, you weren’t dreaming. He is a vampire, and he needed a quick feeding,” I said. “A vampire? Oh come, you gotta be kidding,” was her response. I said, “After all you saw last night, and you think I’m joking?” “But vampires aren’t real, all that stuff is made up. Like fairy tale,” she said.
I turned to look at her straight into her eyes. “Welcome to the fairy tale,” I said. She finally finished her cigarette and threw it down on the ground. “Are you a vampire too? I saw you leap over that wall,” she asked. I responded, “No, I’m something different.”
“What?” she asked. I answered, “I’m a Doppelganger. One side of me is ‘normal’ and mortal. While another side of me is a beast, a monster from within, that feeds off of my anger and adrenaline. A creature, a demon.” She said, “I’m still not sure what to think about all this. I mean, God, this is the real world. Not some movie or book.”
I laughed and said, “Don’t worry, maybe if you ignore it long enough, you can go back to living your life.” “Yeah maybe. What’s your name?” she said. I said, “Ezekiel Leon.” She stuck out her hand for me to shake and said, “I’m Halo Lane.” I didn’t shake her hand; I just kept on walking. She grunted as if to say, “how rude” but she didn’t say it.
“Who was that vampire that attacked me?” she asked. I said, “Ever hear of a band called Domain? That was the front man…” Before I could finish, she said, “Michael Zilch? Woah, I met a rock superstar and didn’t even know it.” “Whatever. Listen, you need to go home, get some rest. Try to forget about all this,” I said.
“Try to forget? Are you crazy? I want to hear more! I think this is pretty cool,” she said. I grabbed her and put her up against a building wall. My eyes were glowing yellow. She stared into them. I growled, “Cool? There is a war going on the underground streets, people are dying, people are getting sick, and all you can say is that it’s cool?”
“Woah man, I didn’t mean nothing by it…” she mumbled out. I let her go and started walking again. She run up to me and said, “Wanna go get something to eat? I know this great pizza place around the corner.” I looked down and found a small roach crawling on the ground. I picked it up and said, “I don’t eat,” and then I ate the roach. She puked her guts out. That brought back memories from High School.
I kept on walking; I didn’t really care if she talked with me again. But, a minute later she was walking right next to me again. “I want to help you. I think there’s a special reason why Michael Zilch chose me to get caught up in this.”
“He probably chose you because you have nice tits, or because you struck him as the victim type,” I said. She looked down at her chest then back up to me to say, “You think I have a nice chest? I always thought they were too small. And I’m NOT a victim!”
“Whatever,” I responded. She said, “What’s your problem? You act so pissed off at the world.” I looked at her for a second but I didn’t say anything. “Alright, listen. Give me your phone number, and if I need your help, I’ll give you a call,” I said. “Okay! Cool!” she screamed. She reached into her purse and pulled out a small piece of paper and a pen. She wrote down her phone number and handed it to me.
“Goodbye! See you around!” she said. I waved bye and we started walking separate paths. She walked around the corner to that pizza place to get something to eat. I started walking home.
When I got back to my apartment building, there was a dead pimp lying outside the doorstep. I picked up his body and threw it in the middle of the street to become road kill. I went inside and to my apartment. I found the place in a complete mess. Everything had been trashed. Red spray paint was all over the walls, and some things had been burned. Apparently I had pissed Michael Zilch off. Big surprise there.
I looked at my laptop computer, but it had been badly damaged. And they stole all my drugs and beer. Now this had become personal. Nobody, and I mean nobody, messes with my stash. I left my apartment and got on my bike. I started driving for Charlie’s house.
When I knock on the door, Loren (his stepsister, remember?) answers the door. “Hey, what’s up?” she asks. I said, “Nothing out of the normal. Is Charlie in?” “Yeah, his inside watching porn,” she responded. We walked into the living and I found Charlie slumped into a chair watching porn on the TV. Loren walked into the kitchen and got me a beer. God bless her, I really needed one.
“How you feeling?” I asked. He looked up at me, looked at my wounds bandaged up, and said, “Shouldn’t I be asking you that?” I sat down in a chair next to him and took a chug of my beer. “What the hell did you take the other night?” I asked.
“A new and improved version of cocaine. Gives you a very strong high,” he said. I grinned and said, “Is that so? Looked like you were knocking on death’s door.” “No, I perfected it since then. But no one will buy the stuff, everybody is too scared.” “I’ll take some,” I simply said. He looked at me strangely for a moment, and then he said, “Alright. Free of charge, but that’s only because I know you’ll spread the word.” “Aw, and I thought we were buddies,” I said.
He went into his room and got a good supply of the drug he named XXX. The stuff was in the form of a green powder. He asked, “What happen to your stash, I sold you enough stuff to last three months.” “Somebody stole it,” I said. He laughed and said, “Holy Ghost, you must be really mad.” “Very!” I said with a grin. Loren started laughing.
I looked at the TV, a priest was talking about how to receive true salvation from God. “What a bunch of crap,” I said. Loren spoke up and said, “Come on brother, change the channel, this is boring!” “Yeah man, I don’t want to hear some guy rave on about a Heaven I’m never gonna reach.”
He changed the channel, thank God! Loren then spoke up and said, “Hey, you guys know that Domain is in town the night after tomorrow?” Charlie said, “Yeah, I heard.” I said, “So what? You going or something?” She screamed with excitement, “Oh Hell Yeah!” I finished the rest of my beer and said, “Gonna be one hell of a night.”
I stood up and said, “I must be off. I have business to attend to.” Loren asked, “What business? You’ve still never told me what you REALLY do!” I walked over to her, took her into my arms, kissed her passionately, and then looked into at her with my yellow glowing eyes. “Oh but I have, sugar. Oh but I have,” I said. Her eyes widen for a few seconds, and then she kissed me. After that kiss, I walked away and left their house.
As I drove around town, I noticed fliers and posters up for the coming Domain concert. I planned on being there, one way or another. I was going to find out why I have such a strong hatred towards him. Damn God, why did you put me on this earth? My life seems to be filled with the supernatural and disturbed. I can’t even tell what is right or wrong anymore. I’m just living on the dark side.
For the rest of the day, I just drove around the city. There was nothing for me to do, yet. I felt so empty inside; I just wasn’t motivated to do anything. I wondered what the hell I was doing, what was I was looking for. The seemed endless and uncaring, I was all alone in the world, and somewhere deep inside of me, the monster was smiling.
Late at night, I stopped at Stephanie’s club. I walked up to the bar and ordered a drink. The band was playing loud, the punks were head banging, the girls were shaking their bodies, and everyone was having a good time. Especially a gentleman in the center of the crowd. I didn’t recognize him at first, but very quickly I did.
His name is Ramon York. He’s a lupine (werewolf), but also, he’s Michael Zilch’s top bodyguard. He was dancing between three women. I looked around and saw Stephanie standing by the elevator door. She was watching Ramon with cold eyes. Something was wrong, I could tell. I left my seat at the bar and walked over to her.
“What do you want?” she asked. I said, “Just wondering what’s up.” She responded, “Well, I’m sure you know who that is over there. Why do you think he’s here?” I said, “Who knows. Maybe he’s only here for a good time. Little drunk fun and some late night nookie before the big concert.”
“I’m being serious,” she said somewhat angrily. I said, “So am I. Lupines are known for being party animals when they’re not out hunting.” She shook her head and kept her attention on Ramon. “Do you think he’s here to cause trouble?” I asked.
“Maybe. Remember, Zilch did send that note to me not too long ago,” she said. I had almost forgotten about Michael Zilch’s empty threat. Maybe Michael sent Ramon here to start something. Kind of unusual to send your top man to your enemy’s hangout.
“Well, enough wondering,” I said. I walked through the crowd and over to Ramon. He saw me and said, “You look like crap man.” I said, “Yeah, I hear that a lot lately.” “What do you want? Can’t you see I have a few fine women dancing with me right now?”
“Why are you here, Ramon?” I asked. He laughed and said, “What does it look like? I’m here to get laid. I can’t help it that this is the best place.” “Your not welcome here, especially after that little bloody note you sent us,” I said.
“Oh, that thing? Is that why you’re so worried? Well, who cares,” he said. I responded, “And I know it was you that messed up my place.” “Yeah, don’t you just love the way we decorate? That should teach you a thing or two about messing with us.”
Stephanie walked up to us and said, “If there is going to be a problem, take it outside.” Ramon laughed and said, “Hey, I’m not here for trouble. I’m just here looking for a good time.” Stephanie changed the subject immediately by asking, “How could Zilch walk out in the sunlight?”
Ramon just grinned, as if there was a joke being played on us. He said, “Don’t worry about. Everything will make sense soon enough. When the moon changes to blood and sky is filled with blackness.” Great, another wannabe prophet. I hear too much of that bull. All that end of the world stuff. I say, screw it, isn’t like there is anything we can do about it.
Stephanie grabbed me by my arm and pulled me away from the crowd. She whispered into my ear, “I don’t like this. Something is wrong with his attitude.” “Yeah, I noticed,” I whispered back. I looked back over at Ramon. He was dancing right behind this girl, with one of his hands up her shirt. He had his hand cupped over one of her breasts, and his eyes were glowing red.
I sighed knowing that something was about to start. Ramon whispered something into the girl’s ear and they walked outside. I looked at Stephanie and said, “Time for me to go to work.” She said, “Be careful. You’re still banged up.” “Don’t remind me,” I responded.
Outside, Ramon had that girl jacked up against the club wall. Her shirt and bra was torn to shreds around her body. I watched as Ramon’s body shifted into his animalistic form. I pulled out both of my pistols and said, “Hey dog, don’t do that.” He slung the girl to the ground and said, “You don’t want to do this, dope head. I’ll rip you to pieces.”
I shot three bullets into him, but with no effect. He laughed and said, “Don’t you know only silver works on me? I thought they trained you better than that.” I screamed as the beast inside of me surfaced. I looked over at Ramon and said, “Let’s get this over with, you dog.”
He was quick, but not quicker than me. He made an attempt to slash open my throat, but I grabbed him and threw him against the club wall. He growled and snarled as he charged back towards me. He hit me hard, knocking me off my feet. I slid across the cement, but I quickly got back up to my feet. He was already standing before me. He slashed my upper left arm open.
I uppercut him, blood squirted out of his mouth. I think I knocked one of his teeth out. He grabbed me by my head and slung me towards the club with full force. He smashed my head into the wall, which hurt like hell. I collapsed to the ground, unable to move.
The werewolf Ramon stood over me laughing. But suddenly his laughter turned to a scream. When he moved, I saw that Stephanie had stabbed a silver dagger into his back. He howled and growled. Out of fear, Stephanie started backing away from him. He made an attempt to hurt her, but I had pulled out one of my pistols and shot him in his head. He fell down to the ground, unmoving. But I knew he wasn’t dead, only severely stunned. “Can you help me up?” I asked.
Stephanie helped me up and she took me into the club. We made our way through the crowd to the elevator; she took me downstairs and into her office. I lay down on the floor; my head was bleeding a lot. Stephanie picked up her phone and called for the doctor to come by and check me out. Then she called one of the special agents to find and watch Ramon. We both knew that Ramon would let the fight end, he has a lot of patience when it comes to hunting down his victims.
When she was done with her phone calls, she came over to me. She sat down on the floor and held my head in her lap. She said, “You’re bleeding really bad.” Before her eyes, my body shifted and changed back to normal. I said, “Yeah, I know.” She was a little stunned. “What?” I asked. She responded, “I’ve never seen you change from beast to human before.”
I coughed a little bit and said, “So what?” She didn’t respond, I just looked up at the lights in the ceiling. “Maybe this is it for me,” I said. She shook her head and said, “Don’t say stuff like that. You’re strong, you’ll pull through this.”
I grinned and said, “Whatever.” She ran her fingers through my black hair and said, “Hey, I’ll tell you what you’ve always wanted to know, if you promise to stay alive.” “What I’ve always wanted to know? You mean your bra size?” I said. “No, stupid. Why I am the way I am,” she responded.
It seemed to me like the lights were getting brighter and brighter. I could hear Stephanie calling out my name, but it sounded like a distant echo. Right before I actually slipped back down into my own oblivion, I thought I saw her crying. Why? Why would she cry over me? All this time I thought she disliked me, maybe even hated me, but did she really feel something towards me? Was I blind or was she really good at hiding her feelings?
Darkness. That’s all I saw, that’s all I was. Just darkness. Darkness of oblivion. Darkness of a lost soul. I saw myself sitting in the middle of the black void, looking at my hands. They were covered in blood. In the distance I saw my daughter, Avon, running away from me. I quickly stood up and starting running after her, but there was nothing I could do.
Four Years Ago
Rachel and I met in college. I was majoring in the arts, and she wanted to become a nurse or a surgeon. As soon as we met it was an instant connection, I fell in love at first sight. She was everything I wanted in a woman, everything I wanted to share with another soul.
After six months of dating, we decided to get married. It was nothing major, not a real big wedding. Her family was there, and all of my friends. My parents abandoned my sister and I at an early age, we were raised in an orphanage.
One of the happiest moments in my life was when Rachel told me that she was pregnant. Throughout my entire existence, I was never happier than the news that I was responsible for the creation of another human being.
When the child was born, we named her Avon Lilith.
Everything was perfect. We had everything. I decided to drop out of college so I could spend more time with our daughter, but Rachel remained passionate in her goal to become a nurse or surgeon. I got a job as manger of a small connivance store.
But something changed, and to this day, I’m not sure what triggered it. I began drinking, and I began losing control over my emotions. The only time I had ever felt like that was earlier in my teenage years, when the beast inside of me began to surface. I was committed into a mental hospital for a year, and the doctors gave me medication that calmed my inner self. Little did any of the doctors realize, but my inner self was really a monster, a supernatural creature.
I had been taking my medication ever since, and everything was fine. Rachel even noticed a change in me, and she said she didn’t like it. I saw the change in me too, but there seemed nothing I could do. I was scared to go back to any of the doctors or a hospital, afraid that they would lock me up again and keep me from my lovely wife and daughter.
So, my beloved wife and me fought a lot. Most of the time it was over little trivial things, things that really weren’t important. And unfortunately, we fought in front of our daughter without even realizing it. Our daughter was old enough to understand, old enough to listen.
In the next two years, things only got worse. It got to the point where Rachel and me wouldn’t even sleep in the same bed. I always thought I was right, and she was always wrong. I lost myself sometimes in alcohol. I lost my soul, my mind, and especially my heart.
And then on that tragic night, everything changed. Rachel and I were standing in our bedroom, yelling our guts at each other. In one of my hands, I had a half empty beer bottle. We argued with the flames of hell within us. But then I noticed something; our daughter was standing at the bedroom doorway, watching us.
“Goddamnit! How many times do I have to tell you to leave us alone!” I yelled at my daughter. “Don’t speak to her like that!” my wife yelled at me. I threw my beer bottle at our daughter, I missed and it smashed at her feet. She screamed, cried, and ran away. Rachel ran up to me and slapped me across my face. I grabbed her by her throat and slung her to the floor.
“Girl, don’t ever do that mess again or I will rip your throat out!” I yelled. Tears were flowing down her face, and she said, “I want a divorce. I want you out of this house, out of my life!” I got right in her face and took off my wedding band. I held it up right in her face and said, “Do you know what this thing means? It means your suppose to support me in sickness and in health.”
“I know your sick, but I can’t take this anymore! I can’t deal with this! I can’t handle you abusing your own daughter and me! Your ruining her life, you’re killing us!” Somewhere deep inside of me, her words stabbed into me with such fierceness. Something snapped. In that moment, I would be forever split in half. My human sad was hurt by the love that had died, by the goodness I had with my own daughter and wife. But the pain, the anger, and the hatred, enraged the monster inside of me.
Without another word, I ran out of the room. As I ran down the hallway, I saw my daughter kneeling by her bed crying. She was praying, praying to God. “Please God, help my mommy and daddy get better.” I started to cry when I saw her, when I heard her cries. I kept running through the house until I was lost out in the night.
Somewhere at someplace, I sat on the ground crying to myself. I couldn’t understand what had happened to me. I couldn’t understand this strong anger and hatred I felt inside. I screamed into the night and laid on the ground, trying to figure out what had happened to me. I blacked out, I lost consciousness.
When I awoke, I found myself sitting at the kitchen table. I was covered in blood, and the walls were smeared with it. I screamed out for Rachel and Avon, but they didn’t answer. I ran around downstairs looking for them, but all I could find was blood. Then I ran upstairs, to our bedroom, and I found them.
Rachel was lying on the bed with Avon in her arms. Both of them had been severely stabbed to death. I screamed and cried with everything that was inside of me. I ran over and held them in my arms. Above the bed, the word “FALLEN ANGELS” had been written in their blood.
I felt like I was in some kind of nightmare. I had woken up to an extreme horror beyond my understanding, beyond my grasp on reality. “WHAT HAPPENED?!” I screamed out. I looked through my tears and saw an arrow of blood pointing into the bathroom.
I walked into the bathroom, and bloody arrows were pointing at the mirror. I stood there, looking into the mirror. Looking at the blood on my clothes, at the blood on my hands. Suddenly, the image in the mirror changed. It was the beast within me. “The time has come for our awakening!” it said.
“Wha…what the hell are you?” I said. He laughed, a very dark and twisted laugh, and said, “I am what you are inside. I am everything your soul corrupts, I am your sin.” I screamed and punched the mirror with all my might. The broken glass cut up my knuckles.
I had done it all. I had lost control of the beast inside of me, and it destroyed the beautiful life I had. It murdered the two people who I loved the most, the most important thing in my life. My family was gone. My life was gone. My soul was lost. My mind was destroyed. I had become the ultimate sinner, the true monster…
“Hey, I think he’s coming around,” I heard Stephanie say. I grunted with pain and opened my eyes. I was back in my crappy up apartment, but it had been cleaned up a little bit. I saw Stephanie and Dr. Franks standing over me.
“One more attack like this, and you’re going to end up dead, Ezekiel,” Dr. Franks said. I sat up and said, “Yeah, whatever.” Dr. Franks shook his head and said, “I left some painkillers in your bathroom. Try not to overdose this time.” A few months ago I tried to overdose on painkillers. Too bad it didn’t work.
“What time is it?” I asked. Stephanie said, “It almost two in the afternoon. You were out all night and morning.” I stood up from my place on the couch and walked into the kitchen. I poured myself a glass of water and guzzled it down. Dr. Franks said, “I’ll be leaving now. My bill will be in the mail shortly.” He let himself out, but Stephanie stayed.
“Are you planning on going to that concert tonight?” Stephanie asked. I responded, “Of course. After all this bull that they have put me through, it’s gonna be payback time.” “I figured you would say that, that’s why I got two tickets,” she said. A ticket for the each of us. I said, “I don’t recommend going, could be dangerous.”
“Danger is everywhere, this is no different,” she said. I grinned as I poured myself another glass of water. For some reason, I couldn’t remember when was the last time I had a glass of cold water. Had it been that long since I lost my normal hunger and thirst?
“There’s something else you should know. That girl, Halo Lane, is missing. Her house was trashed and wrecked. We have reason to believe that Michael Zilch took her,” Stephanie said. “Of course. He had too much fun feeding off of her sweet innocent blood, he needed seconds,” I said.
I walked over to the couch and sat back down. Stephanie sat down on the floor in front of me. She asked, “So, do you still want to know why I am the way I am?” I nodded and took another sip from my glass of water. She sighed for a moment, letting her memories come back to her.
“When I was thirteen, I watched as my step father beat and stabbed my mother. But when I started to grow as a woman, he turned his attention towards me. I caught him staring at my chest a lot, but I never said or did anything about it. But one night he came into my room and had his way with me,” Stephanie said with tearful eyes.
When I first met her, she seemed very disturbed to me. At first I thought she was shy, but I soon realized she was just keeping to herself, like me. I felt attracted to her, not only by her beautiful looks, but also by the darkness that slept within her.
Now, she was sitting on my floor, crying, opening up to me. Somehow I knew I was the first person she ever shared this feelings too. For reasons unknown to me, she felt like she could open up with me.
She continued, “Then, when I was in high school. A friend of mine was abused. The only person she told was me, because she knew I had gone through the same thing. But she made me promise not to tell another living soul, no matter how badly she cried. Three days later, her rapist had killed her. Maybe if I had said something, I know there was something I could have done to save her life…”
“No, we’re not gods, Stephanie. You did what you thought was right. There’s nothing you could have done. Trust me, I know. I deal with psychos everyday, I know…” I tried to comfort her. However, I knew that words often hold little comfort when dealing with a great depression or pain.
She buried her face into her hands and began screaming. I leaned over and picked her up onto the couch with me. I held her close me, rubbing her back. “Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right?” she mumbled at me. “I hope so,” was all I could respond.
In that moment, we connected. We kissed, softly at first, then passionately. I think maybe it was our common emotions that bonded us, but that night we made love on my couch and floor. Her skin was very soft, her body was what every man would want.
We just lay next to each other for a while. But then I looked at my clock, it was almost 6:30pm. I said, “It’s time to go to work.” She nodded, got up, and got dressed. I went into the bathroom and rewrapped all of my bandages.
I took a lot of those painkillers, not enough to even come close to overdosing, but I took more than what I was suppose to.
I opened up my closet and picked out some clothes: red pants and my black and white KoRn shirt. I put on some heavy-duty black boots and picked out two pistols and a short sword. I walked into my living room and saw Stephanie loading up her shotgun. She said, “Let’s get this over with.”
The fans were heavily packed outside of the stadium. The concert had been sold out for months. It was a sea of the most punk gothic head banging drug smoking wild horny teenagers assembled on the planet. It seemed like half the world had decided to come to Domain’s concert in Atlanta, GA.
However it was easy for us to get in. We had an inside man posing at one of the security guards, he guiding us right through the crowd and into the building. My goal was to find Michael Zilch before the concert started. I wanted to hurry up and get this thing over with.
Stephanie stayed right by my side, she wasn’t going to leave me. She knew that Zilch was mine and mine alone, but she was here to provide backup, to add a helping hand in the situation. Her main concern was saving Halo Lane. Although I cared about the safety of her, I would stop at nothing to get my hands on Zilch. I had to find out what key he held to my past, and find out what his plans are. How could he walk among the daylight? What did he mean that the dead would walk again?
We made our way into the backstage area with no trouble. But when we got back there, there was a vampire security guard who recognized us. He immediately pulled out a gun and attempted to start shooting at us, but I pulled out my gun quicker and shot him through the heart. His corpse fell the floor.
I wasn’t sure where Zilch would be hiding. I only knew I had to find him. As we walked, I could hear the growls and snarls of vampires in some of the backstage rooms. Probably his “family” members, his vampire offspring. Suddenly, the thought came into my mind that he may have turned Halo Lane into one of his children. If that were the case, it would be in my best interest to put her out of her misery.
As we walked down the halls, one of the doors busted open and a few vampires leapt out at us. One of them knocked Stephanie against the wall, but she used her shotgun to blow his chest open at point-blank-range. Two vampires were on top of me. One of them tried to bite my neck, but I put the barrel of my pistol in his mouth and destroyed his head.
The other vampire did manage to bite me in my neck. I took hold of him and flipped him onto the floor. I pumped three rounds into his heart. Stephanie said, “Are you alright?” “Yeah, nothing new,” I said. We continued our search through the backstage area.
We finally came to a door that had DOMAIN written on it. I immediately kicked open the door and rushed in. It was empty. Stephanie walked into the room and said, “Where are they?” I could then hear that sick laugh of Michael Zilch…coming from the stage. The band had just taken the stage and was about to begin playing.
“They’re beginning already,” Stephanie said. I looked at her and said, “I have no problem with public display of violence and murder. Do you?” She grinned and said, “Not one bit.” We ran out of the backstage area and into the center crowd.
Even though we were in the back of the crowd, I could see Michael Zilch playing on the stage. For one brief moment while I was in the middle of a mash pit, our eyes met. Zilch looked me straight at me and laughed. I was very tempted to just pull out my pistol and shoot him right then, but there were too many people standing around me.
After pushing our way through the mash pits, Stephanie and I finally made it to the front of the stage. My anger got the best of me, I was flooded with endless emotions. The beast surfaced. With one large jump, I went from being in the crowd before the stage to landing near the back of the stage.
“Zilch! Get over here!” I yelled. He turned away from the crowd to face me, and he said, “Not quite yet.” From the side I was bulldozed over. Ramon charged into me and hit me with full force. I rolled across the stage but quickly got back up to my feet. “Time to finish what we started, little boy,” Ramon said. I growled and leapt towards him.
While in the middle of the air, I pulled out both of my pistols and started shooting at him. The bullets ripped through him, but they had little effect on him. Damn, I had forgotten to make some silver bullets. I landed back down right in front of him, and he punched me hard in my chest. I stumbled back a couple of steps, but I came back at him with full force.
It seemed that with every one of my attacks, Ramon had an even better counterattack. I finally drew out my short sword and attacked him. I was able to slash open his arm, and then I slashed his stomach. The blade of the short sword was made out of silver, so it must have felt like acid when it touched his flesh.
The crowd raged and cheered on. They must have thought it was some kind of show that Domain was putting on. Zilch and his band continued to play, even though there was a battle of monsters going on the stage. Ramon tried to attack me once more, but I countered by stabbing my short sword through his shoulder. He howled and screamed, and then he ran away into the backstage area.
Domain put down his guitar and faced me. He held onto the microphone as he talked, “Ezekiel Leon, why did you come all this way? To destroy me? To kill me? Or to question me?” The band continued to play the music around us. I said, “Listen, I just want your heart beneath my boot.”
“Why don’t you question that beast inside of you? Why don’t you find out why you hate me so much? Sometimes, when a person goes through a traumatic experience, their mind will block out the memory to help hide the pain. Is that what you are? A redeemer without a memory?”
I shook my head, something inside of my mind was stirring around. I screamed and ran towards him, but with one quick gesture, he knocked me back. I fell onto my back, my chest hurting like someone had hit me with a bag of bricks.
“Ezekiel, I thought I could count on you. Don’t you realize you have been my puppet all along? Just like all of those people out in the crowd? You all shall worship me like a god,” he said. I stood back up and said, “And why would we do that?”
He reached under his shirt and pulled out a gold necklace. It was a cross with a red diamond in the center. “This is the Cross of Dracula! It contains within it the blood of saints and priests. This is how I was able to be out in the daylight. Think about it, Ezekiel. A creature with my power able to walk among the living and the light.”
I pulled out one of my pistols and started shooting at him. The bullets seemed to bounce off of him and come back straight into me. I collapsed to my knees. Zilch walked over to me and placed his hand on my head. He snatched my face up to see him, and he said, “Don’t you remember? Your sister…”
We never knew our parents. My sister and I were left on the street for the homeless to rise. Until finally a priest found us and put us in an orphanage. There were stayed forever, no one would take us in. We were too much of troublemakers.
Finally, we graduated from High School and we both started college. But then my life took another twist; she died in a car wreck. I felt so lost without her, so empty. She had been my only family, my only friend, and I had lost her.
Zilch laughed. “You still don’t remember do you? What was your sister doing while she was driving?” I shook my head, confused by his words. “Ezekiel, remember me?” he said.
She called me from her cell phone. She was crying really badly, I could barely make out the words she was saying. She kept saying something about…about…a rocker named Michael. She cried that he had beaten her, that he had violated her. I…heard her die. She was crying so hard she couldn’t concentrate on the road. I heard the crash over the phone, I heard her last scream. And it was all because of him…because he had…
“THANK GOD! I think you’re finally starting to catch on, Ezekiel. Yes, that’s right. I had BEATEN HER, I had ABUSED HER, and she LOVED IT!!!” he yelled. I grabbed his throat with both my hands, but he just laughed and pointed to the side of the stage.
I looked to see Ramon holding both Stephanie and Halo Lane. I looked back at Michael and said, “What’s going on?” “See you at the club, misery boy!” he yelled. My body felt like it had been caught in the wind. Zilch was somehow controlling me with his mind. I was slung straight back against the wall, and then four nails stabbed through my hands and wrists. I screamed, and my form changed back to normal.
Zilch turned back to the crowd and said, “Behold my sacrifice!” The crowd just continued to rage on as the band played. I watched through my blood and tears as Zilch and Ramon left with Stephanie and Halo. Stephanie looked up at me and screamed my name. I felt so helpless up there, so powerless.
I put my feet against the wall and pushed. I screamed with agony as I ripped myself from the nails. I fell back down to the stage. And for a moment in time, I just laid there. Helpless like a lost child in the night. I slowly stood back up and looked around.
The room was spinning, the noise of the music drowned out my own thoughts. As I looked out into the crowd, I saw my sister. I shook my head, trying to shake away the memories from my head. I saw her smile and wave at me, and then she disappeared into thin air. A hallucination. A tormented dream. I ran off the stage and into the backstage area, from there, I ran for the exit.
The club had been closed down. The parking lot was completely empty. The night was very quiet compared to the concert. But I found that the front door to the club was unlocked. I walked in and found all the lights turned off.
As I walked through the clubs, suddenly the lights came on. The strobe light was cut on. Music blasted from the speakers as loud as they could be played. Through the flashing light, I saw several shadows move, but I made no attempt to follow. I just stood my ground, waiting for them to make the next move.
But in a blink of an eye, all of them were standing before me. Ramon had Stephanie and Halo Lane down on their knees before him, with chains and leashes around their necks. Zilch stood next to them. He was smiling, then he started laughing.
“I really didn’t think you would come. I expected to you to run away and get high, ignore the whole situation,” he said. “What…” I started to say, but Zilch finished, “Ever. You’re so damn depressed it’s annoying. And it’s all because you lost your loved ones? Oh come, you could have found another wife, had more kids.”
“I didn’t want a new wife or more kids, I want the ones I had,” I mumbled. Zilch laughed and said, “Don’t worry, your going to join them shortly.” I started walking towards him, and I said, “Come on. You and me. Let’s finish this once and for all.”
We walked right into each other. He stared at me, into my eyes with his dead coldness. He said, “You’re my little project, my little pet. I’m almost going to be sad to see you die. Your almost like the son I never had.” “Zilch, did anyone ever tell you that you are seriously messed up?” I said.
He grabbed me and threw me towards the bar. I slammed into a bunch of bottles before I fell down to the floor behind the bar. I growled and stood back up, my beast form had once again taken over. But I didn’t really care; I just wanted this to end.
I got up on the bar and jumped towards Zilch. I knocked into him and we both rolled across the floor. I grabbed his throat and tried to rip it out, but he slashed open my arm. His claws went so deep that it scratched my bones. I let out a howl and back off from him.
He picked up a table and slammed it into my head. I stumbled backwards a little bit and then charged right back into him. In one quick motion, my hand ripped into his stomach and I pulled out some of his guts. He punched me so hard I was knocked off my feet.
Zilch stumbled backwards, he was losing a large amount of blood from the wound I had caused. He put his hand over his stomach, and I watched as the wound healed. He looked back at me and grinned. “Look at you, so weak. Your bleeding to death, and yet you rage on. I admire you for you endurance, but the time has come for this little game to end,” he said.
He held out his arms, and the walls of the club caught on fire. Halo Lane screamed from fear, and Ramon slapped her. I ran towards Ramon, but Zilch stepped in my path and slashed my chest open. That was the final blow for me. I had lost so much blood I could barely see. I collapsed to the floor and lay in a puddle of my own blood.
“No! Ezekiel, you have to get up!” Stephanie yelled. Around me, I could see and feel the flames. Even though I didn’t see them, I knew that Zilch and Ramon had escaped with Stephanie and Halo. Part of the burning roof collapsed on top of me, breaking several of my bones.
As the flames engulfed me, I felt myself splitting apart. My human side was ready to die, but the beast inside of me was still trying to fight the pain. The flames burned me, and eventually killed me. For the first time in a long time, I felt at peace. Death had finally come, and I welcomed it gladly.
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