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It was dark when Tommy turned.
He was supposed to be at home. He was supposed to be together with his mom and his sister having dinner. Instead his face was pressed into the rough, stone ground of an alleyway that was only used by old drunk men to roll over and die in. He was shivering from a cold that did not exist and bleeding from two little dots in his neck.
Tommy looked up at the vampire that had caught him as it pushed its shoe in Tommy’s face. “You’re such a little fighter,” the smooth voice sounded almost friendly. “Now be nice and stay on the ground. Salvation will come soon enough,”
Bastard. That goddamn bastard. How dare he. With the last remaining strength in Tommy’s body, he shot up and picked up a broken beer bottle. Wobbling on his feet, he shoved himself into the vampire, using the element of surprise to stab the glass shard into its neck. With a scream the vampire pushed Tommy off of it. “YOU GODDAMN WORTHLESS ANIMAL, DON’T YOU KNOW HOW MUCH THIS BLOUSE COST?”
Tommy felt his back collide with the wall. Sliding down against the bricks, he fell forward on vampire-blood-soaked ground. He felt the blood staining his shirt, his face, his hair. He didn’t have the strength to move anymore and black spots were forming across his vision. If Tommy wouldn’t be dying he’d be disgusted. He felt disgusting but that wouldn’t matter anymore. He’d be dead soon anyway. The vampire’s snarl cut through the alley. There was nothing left of its friendliness. “I’m done here, you have no use to me anymore.”
Tommy heard the furious footsteps walk away and the silence returned once more.
-
Tommy had heard the tall tales of the vampires many times.
The undead roamed the land with an unclencible thirst for warmth and life. It would seek out anything that could give even the smallest sliver of it.
Most stories told of the hunt for blood the vampire(s) craved so badly. But there were also stories that were told in a whisper while throwing glances over the shoulder. They said that sometimes a vampire would take people and turn them into one of their own. Forcing them to give warmth they can’t create themselves. To turn a human, a vampire must give the human its blood and then kill them.
The vampire tale has always been nothing more than a children’s story to Tommy; something to keep him from misbehaving. But now? Tommy wanted nothing more than to laugh in the speaker’s face like he used to; he would give anything to not having to believe the story. For if you don’t believe, then it isn’t true. Then Tommy wouldn’t be dying in a pool of the undead’s blood.
-
There was a piece of glass that pricked through Tommy’s shirt. He must have fallen onto the broken bottle after the vampire threw him against the wall. It pricked in his side, but Tommy couldn’t move. Nothing moved but the thoughts milling around in his head.
Fury shot through Tommy’s veins. Why him? What did he do wrong? He wanted revenge. He wanted to kill the vampire, to see him burning on a pyre, choking on his blood with a stake through his heart. Begging for the mercy of the afterlife. Yes. He wanted to go back home, he wanted the ruffle through his hair from his mother, a cheeky smile from his sister. He wanted to wake up and be greeted by the muffled sounds of traffic outside his room. He doesn’t want to die. He doesn’t want to die. He doesn’t want to die. He doesn’t want to die.
Tears filled Tommy’s red stained eyes and slid down his face taking the vampire blood with it. Despair clawed at his heart but suddenly an idea began to form in his head. One single idea. It would make Tommy hate himself. It would make him suffer but… He’d be alive. He’d be able to return to his mother, to his sister, to his life before this. Before he could doubt himself even more, Tommy took one lick of the vampire blood on the floor before he promptly passed out.
-
Tommy shot up with a gasp. Aw fuck… It had been almost 200 years and he still wasn’t over it. Even though he had hunted the vampire who almost killed him. Even though he had moved away. Even though he tried to be better. He was still haunted by the night his life became a nightmare. With a sigh Tommy stood up from his bed. No point in sleeping now, the nightmare shot him awake like coffee on an early morning. It was still dark outside, perfect for a hunt. With a quick glance at the clock Tommy got out of bed. It was time for work.
As one would expect, the streets of L’manberg were mostly desolate on this Saturday night. Not many people liked to get out of bed this early, certainly not on the week-ends. There were just a few however who decided to enter the streets. Drunken men who were coming home from their night out, people with shady business to attend to or some who just enjoyed the quiet. The faint candle light of the street lights shown on the wet bricks guided Tommy to those people. It didn’t matter who. Prey was prey afterall.
Tommy cornered a young woman with dark brown hair in an alleyway. She had been taking out the laundry to leave it to dry. She couldn’t see well in the dark, Tommy however could. He approached her with silent footsteps, she only noticed him when he was standing right before her. Tommy grabbed brunette by her shoulder and before she could scream he had already sunken his fangs in her neck.
A bite from a vampire doesn’t really hurt, it paralyzes you instead. You won’t know what happened until the fangs are out of the neck. That’s when you start bleeding out to death, if you even managed to stay alive during the feeding. Tommy usually doesn’t let people bleed to death. If you asked him he’d call it mercy. If you looked deeper however, you’d know that he didn’t want his victims to suffer the same fate as he did all those years ago. A quick and painless death is all he could give them.
After Tommy was fed well enough he let the woman slide on the ground. She had fallen unconscious of the blood loss, no killing today Tommy presumed. He took out a handkerchief and pressed it to the womans neck.
Tommy was about to run off when candle light brightened up the alleyway.
“What the hell are you doing kid” a musical voice said.
Tommy quickly snapped his head around to meet the one who had disturbed him. At the beginning of the passage stood a strange man. He was wearing a long brown trench coat and circular glasses that reflected the light of the lantern with a creepy glow. The man took a step forward and put out the cigarette he’d been smoking. Tommy stood up from the woman’s body “And who are you?” he said with a dangerous tone in his voice.
The man grinned and put the lantern down on the ground beside him. “The name’s Soot, Wilbur Soot. Remember it well kid, it’ll be the last name you’ll hear” What a bold statement. It made Tommy cackle. “Wilbur Soot? What a lame name that is. I don’t wanna die from a guy who’s name is Wilbur” Wilbur’s smile turned into a grimace as he took out a lighter from his jacket. “Didn’t think i’d be insulted by a little kid this evening. Now if you step away from that girl I might just forgive you”
He took another step towards Tommy. As a response Tommy took a defensive stance “The girl is just unconscious, you can just let me go yeah?” Wilbur slid open the lighter with a smile. Tommy could feel this was going to be rough and before he could do anything the man charged at him.
It startled Tommy to say the least. With barely a second to lose he ducked underneath the flames coming from the hunter. With a swift motion he pushed himself up again and hit the man in his stomach. The hunter doubled forward and before Tommy could punch his face, a different hand grabbed his collar.
-
The hand threw him backwards and into a wall. The pain snapped through his spine as he looked up at the second hunter. This one was even stranger than his friend. With long pink hair flowing in the wind and a shining sword in one hand they looked like a comic book hero. Tommy let out a huff as he stood up and dusted his clothes off “Oh c’mon maaan, I just got into it” he complained half heartedly.
He actually didn’t want any conflict right now. Tommy had encountered many vampire hunters throughout the decades. One generation after the next they had been harder and harder to kill. With this new threat Tommy needed to step up his game. Ugh, all he wanted was some breakfast...
“I didn’t need any help Blade” Wilbur said with an irritated tone. With a dry monotone voice the second hunter (Blade) responded “He almost punched out those pretty teeth of yours, if it wasn’t for me you’d spend all your retirement money on dental care” Before Wilbur could say anything back, Tommy shot in with a quick remark
“Look I would love to have this conversation with you two but I have better matters to attend to so if you’ll excuse me-” He let his voice cut off as he launched himself at Blade. Immediately Blade took a defensive stance, perfect.
With the momentum created from his take off he shot himself up in the air and onto a nearby building. Without a second to lose Tommy started sprinting away, he knew the hunters would follow suit but Tommy had two advantages. The dark and the fact he had inhuman strength. This was going to be easy.