As The Blood Is Drained, It's Bad For Business

The assailants ran off after shooting my Dad, officer Nettle, and a civilian. The police are tracking them down right now.

People are pushing their way though, ambulances are rushing off to the hospital, there’s a little kid screaming somewhere in the crowd…I don’t know how to deal with all of this. Matthew and I hold hands, making sure to keep each other close.

I see our dad. He’s being carried on a stretcher, bleeding profusely from his stomach and leg.

“Dad!” Matthew screams, and drags me along with him to the stretcher as the EMT’s are loading him into the ambulance. Dad’s eyes flutter open for a second.

“I’ll be all right,” he reassures us, attempting to pat Matthews arm. But upon feeling the pain from his stomach, he winces and brings his arm down.

“Dad…” Matthew repeats. Dad is fully loaded into the ambulance now and the EMT’s shut the door and pull away. I look at Matthew.

“Mattie…” I whine, trailing off into my own thoughts. He squeezes my hand.

“We have to go home and tell Mom,” he says urgently. I nod.

The ride home is full of tension. Both of us want to say something, but won’t. I don’t know about Matthew, but I’m just afraid I’ll fall off my board if I try to multi-task.

We get home after what seems like hours. I trudge my way through the front door, dreading what’s going to happen next. Matthew takes the initiative and decides to tell Mom what has happened. He stands in front of her, blocking her view from the T.V.

“Dad’s been shot.”

I woke up groggily from my unconscious sleep on a very comfy couch. I lifted my head, trying to view my surroundings.

“Aghh!” I yelled out in pain. I almost never express my true emotions, but seeing as I thought I was alone…It hurt to even lift my neck. I must have hit the ground pretty hard…harder than I thought, at least. I squeezed my eyes shut, remembering what happened. Then I opened them and lifted my wrist to examine it. I prodded all angles of it to see what had been broken. I winced and bit my lip. The entire fucking wrist. It was probably shattered. Stupid fucking vampire. In the complete silence, I heard voices from somewhere not so far off; probably in the next room. The first voice was definitely a girl; the tone was much higher-pitched than the other two.

“How could you, Cayden? I know what she does is wrong. But honestly, kidnapping?!?”

“I don’t know Jackie. I guess…I don’t know,” the second voice sounded; Cayden. Was he my kidnapper? The final voice was a low baritone pitch.

“Smooth move. I mean, I’ve done some pretty stupid things, but you take the cake, my friend.” The third vampire laughed, its voice resonating throughout the entire house.

“Shut up,” Cayden mumbled. I smiled to myself. Now if only I could get out of this predicament. If I wasn’t so injured, I’d take my weapons and slice these guys to pieces by now. Using my good hand, I searched my body for any weapons. None. My smile faded. They took them all. Well, at least they were smart. I could give them that. I heard footsteps coming my way. I closed my eyes, trying to look as asleep as possible.

“You’re not unconscious. Nice try, though,” a vampire’s voice said. It was the third voice, the one with the booming laugh. I snapped my eyes open. This vampire was huge. He loomed over me, probably somewhere around six and a half feet. He had curly blonde hair, extending to right above his ears. His eyes were a bright violet color. That’s how you can tell what kind of blood a vampire drinks. The minute they taste human blood, their eyes turn violet and they never turn back. Any vampire who hasn’t tasted human blood has either silver or a brilliant green color. He stared at me like he could see right through my soul.

“What the hell do you want with me?” I snarled. He smirked.

“Feisty, aren’t we?” he took a step closer to the couch.

“One more step and you’re dead, buddy,” I threatened. He sat on the coffee table in front of me anyway, now only about a foot away from me. He chuckled to himself.

“What are you going to do? Spit at me? You can barely lift your head and Cayden shattered your wrist. Speaking of, lemme see that…” he reached for my injured wrist, but I pulled it away, not letting him know how much that really hurt.

“No way jose,” I said, holding my wrist, “you’re not touching me. Back off. I’m fine.” He raised his eyebrows at me and smiled.

“I’m Daniel. And though I applaud you for either a high tolerance for pain or just a lack of emotion, you need me to help you fix your wrist. If it heals the wrong way we’ll just have to re-break it.” I bit my tongue.

“A brace, that’s it. I’m not wearing any damn cast.” He nodded, got up, and left. Without even giving me time to detoxify myself from that pleasant [note my sarcasm] little chat with Daniel, another vampire walked into the room, holding a bowl of something in one hand and an ice pack in the other. She was probably a couple inches shorter than me. Her hair was an auburn color, trailing all the way down to the small of her back.

“Hi,” she smiled sweetly, showing her fangs and sitting on the coffee table where Daniel had just been. “I’m Jackie. I’m so sorry for Cayden’s behavior.” She set the bowl down next to her. It looked like soup.

“It’s vegetable,” she stated, watching me eye the food, “I didn’t know whether you eat meat or not…considering.” I made no attempt to show emotion; what was I supposed to say? I merely stared at her, unmoving. Like all vampires, her skin was dangerously pale. And like Daniel, her eyes were violet in color. Rotten vampires.

“And this is an ice pack for your head…or wrist. Whatever hurts more, I guess.” I knit my eyebrows together, not leaving her gaze.

“Nothing hurts. I’m fine,” I said sternly. She raised her eyebrows at me, just as her fellow vampire had done.

“Alright, but I’ll leave it here in case you change your mind.” I looked at the soup.

“And I’m not eating that. You could have poisoned it or something.” Instead of insisting to eat like I thought she would, she just nodded and started walking out of the room. I gulped. Where was my attacker? Were they just buttering me up so he could finish the job? I was in no shape to fight. I took a deep breath and opened my mouth.

“Where’s the one with the long hair?” I asked, biting my lip while the vampire’s back was still turned. She stopped in her tracks but didn’t turn around.

“Cayden? You probably won’t see him much,” she said quietly, and exited the room. I sighed. Well, at least it didn’t seem like they were going to kill me. But I still wasn’t eating that soup.