Hunting
“The man’s body was found dead this morning, on 4th street. Cause of death is unknown but police are investigating the crime and we’ll have some details soon.” The woman on screen turned her head, as if someone in her studio was calling to her, then plastered a huge fake smile on her face and said, “well that’s all we have time for, more news tomorrow on your local news station!” Ugh, I really hated the way they promoted themselves, because they’re afraid of losing their small viewer base to the more important national news companies, the local station has to find the bloodiest, goriest, scariest events to keep people interested. Drunk driving is the general favorite, but that woman would never turn up her nose at a perfectly good dead body. Most people would probably assume he drank himself to death, but I knew better.
I sighed and got up to turn of the TV. So they’d gone back to their old ways. It was a shame really; I had such high hopes for this group. They were young, and definitely scared, but that was no excuse for their behavior. My personal motto, as St. Augustine once said, is “habit, if not resisted, soon becomes necessity”. I live by that motto, although even when the creatures are supposedly “on the wagon” I’ve never been able to trust the vermin.
Oh well, they could wait another day, they’d obviously just fed so unless someone was stupid enough to walk into their hideout they wouldn’t give anyone trouble for at least a couple days. That’s all I needed.
I got ready for bed, brushing my teeth, combing my hair, taking a shower and changing in the bathroom, all my normal bedtime routine, when I walked back into my room. I immediately noticed that something was wrong. The room was cool and the curtains were blowing from the faint breeze outside. Because of my eventful lifestyle I always have a stake with me, and this disturbance in my room was the perfect time to use it. I pulled out the stake and growled, into the supposedly empty room “get into the moonlight where I can see you and don’t make any sudden movements or this stake goes straight through your heart”. I waited until I saw the silhouetted form of an 18 year-old boy standing next to my window. He was trembling, but I knew what his plan had been. He’d been given orders to try and kill me when he first saw me (hoping that I’d be asleep) and if that failed he would try diplomacy. Well the killing didn’t work.
The boy said, in a voice shaking almost as much as his body, “How…how did y-you know I w-was here?” I considered lying to him, but he wouldn’t live much longer anyway so I decided to just tell him the truth. “You left the window open” I could see the horror on his face as he registered his possibly fatal mistake, but he gathered himself quickly and said, standing up a little straighter, “D-Derek has a m-message for you” ah, the diplomatic approach. I raised my eyebrows, urging him to go on. He closed his eyes, trying to remember exactly what Derek had told him to say. “H-he said to t-tell you that we are v-very sorry for our s-s-slipup last night and h-he wanted to a-and h-h-help with finding bl-bl… ummm food f-for us b-because since we are such n-new hunters, w-we have d-difficulty f-finding n-nourishment. W-we only attacked th-the old m-m-man because w-we were s-starving. If y-you t-taught us how t-to hu-hunt, then I…we…Derek, p-promises it w-won’t h-happen a-again.” Ugh, vampires and their empty promises. He finished his speech and shifted his weight onto his feet, ready to make a dash for the window as soon as I gave him my reply. Derek obviously wanted to kill me and taking him and the other fifteen little vermin would be the perfect way to do it. I needed to get rid of this clan, so I hatched a plan of my own.
“Ok” I said, keeping my tone reasonable. “I understand that your special diet can be difficult to deal with and I’m sure it would be much easier for you if I taught you how to hunt. Tell Derek that I’ll meet him and the rest of the clan at the abandoned warehouse on Liss Road tomorrow night.” The boy nodded and was about to turn around and sprint out the window when I added, “oh, and one more thing, I don’t have fangs like you, so I will be armed.” He glanced at the stake in my hand and asked, hesitantly “C-can I go?” I gestured for him to leave and watched as he turned, sprang out the window and ran off into the night.
Bloody vampires. I could’ve felt sorry for the boy, but he had chosen his lot. I’m not saying he chose to be turned, although it’s quite possible that’s what happened, but he did choose to live with Derek. Derek is not the most dangerous vampire I’ve ever encountered, but he is clever. He’s a young vampire, it’s only been about 10 years since he was turned, but I have utter confidence that if he chose to live alone and kept out of the city than he would live to be well over 100. Instead he chose to live on 6th street, and gather a ‘family’ of his own. Some of the vermin under his care were turned by street vampires, with no ties to any clan, and they just found their way to Derek’s, but some of them were turned by Derek himself, and that was the real reason I decided I had to get rid of him.
The next day I bought a couple of gallons of gasoline, some matches (at different stores of course) and a large piece of plywood and packed my bag, making sure I had all the tools I needed for the night. I drove to Liss Road, arriving in the early afternoon, when the sun was high and bright enough that I could ensure I wouldn’t be bothered for some time.
Liss Road was by the harbor, and the warehouse we were meeting in once held mountains upon mountains of fish. As the city grew, people stopped fishing in the harbor as it filled with sludge and the warehouse was abandoned. The mountains of fish were left to rot and flooded the entire road with the salty stench. The sludge in the harbor contributed to the odor until it was so thick I could hardly breathe. I picked this spot because if I couldn’t smell anything, with my slightly above-average human nose, the vampires would get almost sick from the smell of the place because all their senses are so keen. They also wouldn’t smell the gasoline that I was now pouring all over the warehouse and stinking fish.
The warehouse only had one door, and it was heavy metal. Luckily the locks had rusted away so I had no trouble turning the handle and opening the door. I propped it open with a heavy piece of wood I had in my bag and went to my truck to grab the piece of plywood and the tools I would need. I had drilled wooden stakes into the board earlier this morning, with smaller splintered pieces of wood filling the spaces between the heavy-duty stakes. I had created something similar to the door of an iron maiden- vampire style. Once I had attached the plywood to the door, I had created a death trap. If any vampire tried to get out of the building, it would be badly hurt by the stakes and unable to get out or use brute strength to open the doors. I also grabbed a large plastic garbage bag from my truck and used a staple gun to attach it over the door, so at least at first glance; the building wouldn’t look like certain death.
I then left the scene to allow Derek and his vampires to get there first.
I knew Derek would want to get there early, so I just drove to a café nearby and waited for darkness to fall. I ordered a coffee and drank until I saw the flash of the streetlights behind me and decided that it was dark enough to check back on my trap.
I drove back to Liss Road and made sure my truck made lots of noise as I pulled next to the warehouse. I heard an angry hiss come from inside the building and ever so faintly, as if it were a voice in my head, “You will pay for this Hunter.” I permitted myself a small smile; my trap was a success. Then, walking as if I had all the time in the world, I sauntered over to a couple of choice spots where I had poured pools of gasoline and lit them on fire. Aware that I was not immortal and that fire would burn me to cinders just as thoroughly as the vampires I had trapped, but still not wanting to ruin the effect, I quickly walked back toward my truck and drove just far enough so that I wouldn’t be in danger of being burned.
I listened with pleasure as I heard the screams of terror in my head, and then Derek’s yell of pain as he tried to kick down the door. The vampires were trapped, there are only three ways to permanently kill a vampire, a stake through the heart, burning, and sunlight. I had ensured that none of my prey would escape death by burning with the stakes on the door, and if any managed to survive the night, they would be too weak to avoid the sun in the morning. My trap was foolproof. Nevertheless I stayed until I heard the last scream echo in my head before fading into oblivion. I allowed myself one more smile.
