3.59 - Knock Before Entering
Destiny called me earlier and said she was back in the city.
We were supposed to meet up later this evening and see a movie together. But I
couldn’t wait to see her. I stopped to get flowers, candy and everything else I
could think of on my way to her apartment. She’s finally come back to me and I
can’t wait to hold her in my arms again. God, I sound like the opening to a
romantic comedy. She’s going to be here in an orange jumpsuit with prison
tattoos or something.
I knock on her door and she doesn’t answer, for a moment I
swear I can hear sounds inside, but then there’s silence. I knock again, and
nothing. I don’t mind waiting for her, but something feels off after ten
minutes pass. Against my better judgement, I use my key to go inside. Nothing
has changed since the last time I’ve been here, but it doesn’t look like she’s
been here either. I’m not crazy, I heard someone in here. I place the flowers I
brought on the coffee table and take a seat. It feels like I’m being watched,
but I’m not sure from where. I can’t spot anyone across the balcony looking in
so there’s not a peeping tom. Maybe there’s cameras somewhere? No, that’s crazy
talk. Still, I close the curtains, but my paranoia doesn’t end there.
Room by room, I make my way through the apartment and don’t
find anything out of place. She’s surprisingly low on blood in the fridge.
That’s unlike her, then again, she hasn’t been here in over a month at this
point. She wouldn’t have had a chance to get more, maybe I should leave and get
some. I’ll just use the bathroom and get out of here. This place is really
giving me a bad vibe today for some reason. Probably because she wanted to meet
this evening and I’m here in the middle of the day.
I finish up, zip my pants and sing the ABCs as I wash my
hands.
“Next time won’t you sing with me,” someone sings along from
the closet.
“Come out right now, or I’ll slit your throat in seven
different ways,” I try to sound tough.
“Oh damn,” the closet door opens. “I don’t suppose I could
get you to pretend you didn’t see anything,” a man with long brown hair with
purple tips tied in a ponytail, buzzed on the side and looking as if he hasn’t
slept in a week responds.
“What do you want,” I ball up my fists, ready for a fight.
“Same thing as you. Some of Destiny’s sweet ass,” he smiles.
I don’t waste time launching a fist at his face, I caught
him off guard, and after a stumble he responds with one to my gut. He grabs me
and tries to toss me but Destiny has tossed me on the ground enough for me to
roll through and use his own momentum to toss him into the sink. He screams in
rage as the sink meets his lower back. I take the opportunity start throwing
punches. His arms are up and he’s blocking so I aim at his stomach. There’s
nothing wrong with body shots. Breathing gets hard as an arm wraps around my
throat. He had a friend. I keep kicking to keep distance from purple hair as I
try to break free from the chokehold. I summon one of the nightmare blades and
stab at the side of whoever has me. Finally, I break free as a woman screams.
We’re staring face to face preparing for a show down that
never comes. I’m tackled from behind, likely by the sleepless purple haired man.
I can’t help but scream as I slam through the glass coffee table. I hear some
laughter as I stare at the now destroyed flowers I had gotten. A piece of glass
is sticking out of my forearm, I’ll feel that when the adrenaline stops. My
first urge is to rip it out. Destiny taught me better. That’s the only thing
keeping me from bleeding more, so I just ignore it for now.
The thought of them killing me or Destiny is the only thing
that keeps me from staying down. I launch at purple and repeatedly stab at his
ribs until the woman tries to pull me free. I keep stabbing until he doesn’t
move. I’m pretty sure I killed him, another face to keep me up at night. She
locks me in another chokehold and I try to back into a wall or something to get
her free. After the third try we crash through the sliding glass door onto the
balcony. The railing starts to bend and she finally loosens her grip enough for
me to get free.
Purple isn’t dead, he’s back in front of my face throwing
punches. I hear her scream but I’m focused on him. After trading a few blows he
finally falls and doesn’t move anymore, one of my blades still stuck in his
side. I reach down and rip it free before turning to face the woman. I turn
just in time to see her hand slip as she tries to climb back onto the balcony,
she must have been knocked over when Red attacked. I grab her hand still on the
balcony and try to pull her up. I don’t need another dead body on my conscious
even if they deserve it. I almost get her over the railing before she spits in
my face and stabs me with a pocket knife of her own. The sudden stabbing causes
me to drop her. I don’t even look down as hear the sound of her landing on the
ground below, almost like a watermelon smashing. I just limp into the apartment
before anyone can see that I’m the reason she fell.
“Bravo, they told me she kept a pet around but rumors do you
no justice,” a figure covered in black clothing and glasses sat on the couch.
It doesn’t take a mastermind to figure out that this is a
vampire. Covered from head to toe with no skin for sunlight to touch. The only
opening being eyeholes on the ski mask, and those are covered by a black pair
of goggles. This was an ambush, probably meant for Destiny, I just happened to
show up.
“Why don’t you take a seat, gather yourself,” he points to a
chair in the now destroyed apartment.
“Why are you here,” I take a seat as I’m told.
“Well, I’ve come to kill Destiny. It’s clear that she’ll continue
to be a problem, and it needs to be taken care of.”
“I won’t let you.”
“You couldn’t stop me if you wanted to,” the masked vampire
laughs. “But, I like your dedication to your master. Would you like to be one
of my thralls? Good thralls are so hard to find, and even harder to train.”
“I’m not a thrall.”
“What,” he laughs harder. “She should have locked you down.
The last time I saw a thrall as dedicated as you was 1920. There was this
vampire Luigi Galleani. He was all about destroying all the houses and setting
vampires free, all that nonsense. Anyway, the houses were having a meeting on
Wall Street. He told his thralls to go make some noise. 100 pounds of dynamite
dozens dead, and hundreds injured. He was giddy as hooker on St. Valentine’s
Day. Four of those thralls laid down their lives for him when I went to deal
out the consequences. My thralls never tend to last long or be as dedicated.”
“I think I’ll pass on the whole thrall business. I got my
own thing going on,” I’m glad he’s long winded, gives me a chance to catch my
breath.
“Well that leaves us with three choices. You’re going to be
a message to Destiny that we aren’t to be toyed with,” suddenly his demeanor
has shifted.
“That doesn’t sound like any choices.”
“How silly of me. The choices are as follows. You can sit
there and die like a man. You can jump from the balcony like a man who knows
his fate, or you can walk through the door and hope I don’t catch you.”
“I’ll take the door.”
“You have five minutes.”
I hear purple scream out in pain before being silenced as I try to limp down the hall. I guess I didn’t kill him, but he’s dead now, and I’m next.
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