Chapter 111 - M.
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 and got flowers and everything 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, so 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 place the flowers I brought on the coffee table and take a seat.
I want to take a nap on the couch, but something is off. I
feel 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 reddish hair 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 behind,” 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 with it and 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 the red head 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 ginger. 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. My first urge is to rip it out. Destiny taught me better.
That’s the only thing keeping me from bleeding more, so I bite my lip and try
to ignore the pain.
The thought of them killing me or Destiny is the only thing
that keeps me from staying down. I launch at red 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.
Red isn’t dead, he’s back in front of my face throwing
punches. I hear her scream but I’m focused on red. After 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 blindness causes me to drop her. I don’t
even look down as hear the sound of her landing on a car below. 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 you’ll be out of work soon.”
“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 Gelleani. 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 Christmas. 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 know 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 head red 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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