Blood of Innocents

March, 2010 -12:47am, Saturday.
I could hear frantic and confused shouting over the screaming, hearing them move about the area. There was a tearing sound behind me, and one of the screams cut off with a gurgled choke. All the lights in the room came on, and two or three hissing sounds followed. I spun around to see what the tearing noise was, and I gasped at the sight.
A man was holding a headless woman's corpse in one hand, the head in the other, his face covered with the blood pouring from the raggedly torn neck. He snarled at me, his bright crimson eyes meeting mine, his teeth bloodstained and yellow, the veins creeping up his neck and jaw standing out like a sore thumb.
He lunged, dropping the body, and he moved so fast I couldn't even see him. I threw my arms up in front of my face in defense, closing my eyes, a scream escaping my lips as I knew I was about to face the same fate as the woman. I heard a heavy thump sound, and I opened my eyes, confused, moving my arms away so I could see.
A tall man from the cast of the show was standing in front of me, his blue-gray hair blowing from the speed of his movement. The red-eyed man fell backwards over a chair, having been pushed by the man in front of me. He glared at me, then snarled at the other man.
"Leave," the cast member growled, his voice impossibly clear, and it took me a bit to figure out he was talking to me. "Now!"
I grimaced, then turned for the doors, running as fast as my legs would take me. I bolted through the doorway and down the hall, thinking the whole time he was behind me, breathing down my neck, ready to severe my head from my body like that poor defenceless woman.
I burst out of the entrance tent, savouring the cool night air. I frantically glanced around,catching a glimpse of Caine doubled over, leaning a hand againt a tree and breathing heavily. I ran over, took his hand, and then kept running, trying to get as far away as I could from the nightmare behind us.
"Alice?" His voice was quiet, weak, scared. "What's going on?" I shook my head as we an, feeling like we weren't going fast enough.
"Don't... talk. Just run," I panted, and I felt him tremble in fear. He may not have known what was happening, but he knew me well enough that this was life threatening. I was normally fearless, not afraid to do anything, and to see me so scared out of my wits must have been extremely worrying.
I saw a blur of motion in front of me, and I stopped dead. A deep throated chuckle behind me, a harsh growl, then a snapping sound, followed by a snarl of pain, all in the one tiny instant. I span, letting go of Caine's hand, turning just in time to see the man with the blue-grey hair land a punch right in the others' nose, snapping it. I saw that the red-eyed ones right arm was broken and sitting at an odd angle -that must have been the snap I heard.
The two fought at incredible speeds, moving almost too fast to see. The fight lasted under a minute, and the man from the show stopped, standing over the torso of the other man, who had his head and left arm completely removed from his body. The man threw the arm he was holding down, scoffing. He turned to look at us, and I saw that his eyes were a brilliant emerald green, though his right eye was covered by a black cloth that looked like it was designed for just that purpose.
"Are you hurt?" he asked us both, stepping over the body. Caine cast a glance at it, paled, then ran to the nearest tree. I tried to ignore the sounds of him wretching. I nodded silently in response to his question, and he nodded back. He glanced at Caine, then at me. "I'm sorry," he said quietly. He walked over to stand in front of me, only a few inches from me.
He lifted his right arm, reaching for my face, and I pulled back instinctively. He hesitated at my movement, frowning with a hint of sadness, then reached for me again. I stayed still this time, but flinched a little when he laid his palm on my left cheek.
He narrowed his eyes, and I felt something odd, some other prescence in my mind. I felt it looking through my memories, probing for a certain one, its escence invading my thoughts, my eyes closing as it looked.
"Alice?!" Caine called raspily, his voice sounding distant and far away. I felt the hand on my face flinch, heard a quiet gasp, and the hand moved away. The thing in my head left like a sudden, unexpected breath, and I gasped, falling to my knees, my mind needing to refill the gap that it left behind.
My eyes snapped open, my vision swimming a little. Caine grabbed my shoulders, helping me up as my sight cleared. I stared at the man who'd saved my life before, his one visible eye wide with... shock? That's what it looked like. But why?
"No..." he muttered, shaking his heas in disbelief. He clenched his hands into fists, his eyes trained on mine, then he just disappeared. He was gone just like that, here one second, gone the next. I didn't spend much time wondering how he'd done that -I could still very faintly hear the screams of the people inside.
"Can we go home?" Caine asked quietly, and I nodded, tearing my eyes from the space previously occupied by what I was beginning to think wasn't human.

Caine's house wasn't that far, and he didn't have his bus ticket on him, so we walked. I was on high alert the whole time, expecting more than just drunk pedophiles to jump out at me. My mind was racing through all the possible explainations for that man -Some sort of illusion, a joke, aliens, some supernatural being, a ghost... It was all ridiculous, but at the moment anything seemed possible.
We made it back at about quarter past two, heading straight up to his room. He had a bunk bed that took up most of his room, both beds made. We got in without bothering to change, a mumbled exchange of words before he flicked the light off. I was plunged into darkness, and memories of the night flooded back to me.
I lay awake all night, too scared to even attempt sleep, flinching at any hint of sound or movement. Caine's soft, slow breathing told me he was asleep, and I kind of envied how he was able to actually do that after what happened. Then again, he hadn't seen as much as I had.
The next morning passed by like any other time I'd stayed at Caine's place. It was as though he'd just forgotten about it, like it never happened and I imagined the whole thing. I wish I was able to believe that, able to think it was just some weird dream. About ten in the morning I left, thanking Caine and his parents on my way out. I caught the bus back to my place, the stop a couple of blocks from the house itself.
My Sunday evening passed fairly uneventfully, nothing new really happening, though the whole time I felt like I was being watched. Maybe it was just my imagination running wild, but I kept looking around to try and see who it was. I ate dinner downstairs with my parents, as I did every Sunday. We'd agreed that I could eat in my room if I ate with them at least once a week.
Walking back upstairs to my room, shutting the door behind me on my way into my small bedroom. I turned, looking around the closed space for that watchful something, then headed into my little ensuite bathroom. I was allowed the ensuite because I liked my privacy so much.
After a warm shower and a change of clothes, I draped the towel around my neck as I walked out, flopping down on my bed. I was so tired after last night I felt like I could sleep a whole week, but my memories kept me wide awake. I closed my eyes, taking in the scent of the early Autumn air from the light breeze coming through my open window.
"Life sucks," I sighed to myself, opening my eyes to stare at my plain white ceiling.
"I know what you mean," a voice answered, and my body went numb. It wasn't anybody I knew, but it sounded so familiar...
I rolled over in an instant, sitting up on my single bed, looking at the space by the window where the sound had come from. And there, standing just in front of it, was the one eyed man who'd saved my life last night. My face blanched, fear seeping in, my eyes staring at him blankly as I tried to think straight.
"There is no cause for alarm," he said, his voice a flat monotone.
"What the hell are you doing here?" I breathed, my eyes wide. His face stayed blank as he gave me his reply.
"You're the only one with memories of last night's 'escapades'. I have come to explain.”
I stared at him disbelievingly, and he stared back, emotionless. A few seconds passed as my mind raced to catch up. I studied him a bit more, then sighed softly, tearing my eyes from him.
“Fine. I’m listening,” I mumbled, looking back at him. He nodded, then moved with incredible grace –one that couldn’t possibly be human- to sit on the end of my bed. He looked me over once, then began explaining to me just what exactly happened at the show last night.

It was stupid, all of it, but for some reason I believed him. Maybe because that’s all that really made sense. Turns out, the show was attacked by ‘Forza’ –in other words, murderous vampires. The cast knew there were vampires in the area, but they weren’t expecting an attack, especially with them as the target. They somehow wiped the minds of all the survivors, except me, so they had no memory of the night. They’d planted false memories so it was as though nothing had happened at all.
I found out the guy’s name was Sven, and he was also a vampire, but he wasn’t one of the blood-crazed murderers I’d seen last night. He explained a little about the war between his kind and the Forza, how they were expecting a large scale attack in a year or so. He was silent as he gave me time to process it all. After about a minute, he took a deep breath, moving his eyes to stare straight at mine.
“You have three choices you can make from here,” he said quietly, some tiny hint of emotion I couldn’t place for the first time since he came.
"What are they?" I asked softly after a few silent seconds. His eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly.
"Your first choice is for me to wipe your mind of these events, make you forget anything to do with us. You'll be as clueless as your friend." I flinched at the mention of Caine, then nodded silently. He studied me a moment before continuing.
"The second choice is to just leave you be, trusting that you wont try -or manage- to convince others of our existence. Given what you saw, and how you took it, you will most likely be suffering nightmares for some time, and probably wont be able to walk around at night without being terrified of something jumping you." I bit my lip, thinking it through carefully. I was beginning to prefer the first option, but I was unsure.
"And the third option?" I asked tentatively, my voice quiet and soft. I was worried about the last option, as he'd left me hanging on many possibilities. His gaze didn't move, blank face didn't waver.
"The third option is a bit... tedious to perform," he mumbled, though his voice was still clear. I cocked an eyebrow, curious. He sighed, showing a tiny break in his blank facade.
"The third option is to turn you into a vampire."