Nightmare City

I awoke to a dull, throbbing, pain that filled my head. I opened my eyes and the world wouldn’t stay still. What had happened to me? I remembered the hunter and I was instantly alert. “Gabriel!”

“Evie, calm down!” Chris’ hands were on my shoulders, forcing me back. “The ambulance is almost here.”

“I’ve got to help him, he’s in danger.” My eyes were wide and the room started spinning. I tried to get up but the floor tipped crazily and I lost my balance. Chris held onto me and helped me gently to the floor.

“They’re both gone, Evie.” Chris said slowly, making sure I understood. “When I came down here it was only you. The hunter isn’t here, try to relax.”

“Hunter?” Had I said hunter? How did Chris know there had been a hunter?

“Evie, you have to stay still. Wait for the ambulance. "You have a concussion."

"How do you know that?" The room lurched again, preventing me from getting up. "I'm perfectly fine."

"This is the second time you've come to." His voice was firm. "You're just repeating yourself. You scared the crap out of mom, too."

"Mom!" I grasped his shoulder tightly, even though I could see three of them. "Where is she? Don't let her go outside."

“I sent her upstairs, after swearing I was gonna take care of you. You’re not moving until the ambulance gets here.”

Dark clouds loomed around the corners of my vision. I could feel myself drifting away again. “What... about... Gabriel?” My voice was fading as the clouds covered my eyes.

“Evie! Hang on, stay awake!” he cried, but it was too late. The clouds swallowed me whole.

********

I was being dragged, I could feel old wooden boards moving under my skin, large splinters eager for purchase on my skin, but sliding off. I breathed in and the smell of dust filled my nose. Something cold and metallic bound my arms and legs.

I opened my eyes, taking in my surroundings quickly. The room I was in was old and in heavy disrepair. The windows were all smashed and part of one wall was missing.

I looked down at myself. My coat and shirt were missing, and a heavy metal cord was wound around me, holding my arms to my sides. “You undressed me?” I asked in confusion.

“You’re not going to burn very well in a heavy coat.” the old hunter replied. He gave one last pull on the cord binding me, then stopped. He turned his face to the ceiling, where a large hook dangled from a short, thick, chain.

We were right in front of the broken wall and I saw that this building was taller than most of the others. In the far distance lay Manhattan. The sky was dark blue, the edges tinged amber.

“Going to let the sun do your dirty work?” I asked tauntingly. “Too squeamish to just shoot me in the head?”

“Oh no, your trickery won’t work on me. I know that head shots don’t work on the old ones. It’d take you a while, but you’d heal.” He tossed his end of the cord over the hook, then began hauling me up. I summoned up all of my strength, straining against the cord. It creaked, the metal groaning, but did not snap. The hunter laughed. “You’re strong, but not that strong.”

“What is this?” I asked in frustration.

“Steel, you prolly didn’t have that around when you were a young one.” He kept his grip on the cord, pulling me up slowly, hand over hand.

“You’re convinced that I’m ancient, aren’t you.” It seems brute strength wasn’t going to get me out of this. It didn’t hurt to keep him talking, hopefully another way would present itself.

“You’re beyond ancient, I can see it in your eyes, the way you fight, the way you carry yourself.”

“You call two centuries ancient? I supposed to a human...” He laughed harshly. “What?” I asked, narrowing my eyes.

“Is that what you told your ghoul? You’re only a ‘couple of centuries’? Do you actually believe that yourself?”

“It’s the truth.”

He secured the cable to a large hook on the wall. I was left dangling helplessly. He walked around till he was facing me. “This is rich. It’s absolutely hilarious. I’ve slayed many young ones, but only one other old one. He didn’t realize just how old he was either.”

“Obviously I would know how long I’ve existed better than you.”

“You think that’d be the case, but your wrong. See, the human brain can hold a lot of information, vast amounts, but as time goes on, trying to recall everything at once is just too much. That’s why so many senior citizens are senile.”

“Like you?” I asked, but he ignored me.

“A vampire’s brain is a bit different. It can hold just as much as a human’s brain can, but instead of trying to recall every little thing, after a while it starts burying the unimportant stuff. This way it can quickly access all of the important data. Your long, dark past is all in there, buried under the new stuff.”

“The only thing I’m convinced of is that you like hearing yourself talk.”

The hunter reached into his coat, pulling out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. “Perhaps so.” he said, tapping on the bottom of the pack before opening it. “But dawn is still a little ways off, might as well be civil.” He lit up and took a long drag.

I tried wriggling out of the steel cord, but it was wound too tightly. “You are a frail and pathetic man. You think that you’ve won, but that is fleeting. She will find me. She will not stop or rest until she does.”

He didn’t ask who I meant, he knew. “And what about the sun? It’s due any minute. What if your ghoul merely finds a crisp corpse?”

Ire rose up inside of me, strong, powerful, spurred by my frustration. “For the last time, SHE IS NOT MY GHOUL!” I roared. The floor trembled at the thunder in my voice.

The hunter’s eyes widened in surprise. He looked around the room, and back at me. “Then what is she, then?” he asked, his voice a little shaky. “Only ghouls run themselves ragged for their masters.”

“She is something far more dangerous than a ghoul, more formidable than any vampire you’ve ever fought.” I kept my eyes locked on the hunter’s, pouring all of myself into my voice. “She does not need a vampire’s blood, it would only dim her strength. When she has a goal, she becomes tireless until it is accomplished. Her strength lies not in raw power, but in an iron core, and she will overcome any obstacle, no matter how insurmountable.”

“She’s stubborn, then.”

“More so than anyone on this planet.”

“I don’t suppose you’ll tell me her name, then?”

My glare turned suspicious. “Not a chance.”

“You in love with her then?” He took another long drag from his cigarette, recovering from his nervousness. “I’ve heard that happens, sometimes.”

I bit the inside of my cheek, drawing blood. I spat on the ground at the hunter’s feet. It was the gravest insult I knew. “Love is a weak, foolish word. It could not live inside of me, when it tried, it shriveled and died. I feel something that is far stronger. Respect.”

He nodded, dropping his finished cigarette on the floor and crushing it under his boot. “That I can understand. I’ll have to be on my guard.”

I focused my most basic power on him, the one that used the least amount of blood, the one every vampire is born with. Influence. “What is your name?”

“What kind of hunter do you take me for?” he scoffed.

“The kind that initials every weapon he modifies.” I poured persuasion into my voice till it dripped with it. “You want to be recognized for what you do. You want vampires to run in fear at the very mention of your name.”

“What does it matter, knowing my name? The sun’s coming up, you’ll be dead in a few moments.”

I didn’t look away from him, to check and see if he was right. I could feel the sun’s course through the sky, I knew it was close. “Then there is no harm in telling me. Call it a dying request.”

“Fine, you monster. Rest in peace knowing that Arthur Statton slayed you.” he said smugly. Then he turned away, heading for a flight of stairs leading down at the opposite wall.

My body seized in shock. “Statton?” I breathed. My eyes were so wide I felt as if they would bulge out of their sockets.

“Ah, so you’ve heard of me.” He paused by the stairs. “Looks like word does get around.”

Realization struck me like a thunderbolt. I recalled easily the photographs in the china closet, while Chris had droned incessantly in my ear about school, and braces, and picnics at the beach. The pictures were of Chris and Evangeline throughout their lives, only a few had Vivian in them, as she was the one who held the camera most of the time. There was no one else in those pictures.

I recalled Evangeline’s remark about her father. “...No idea, I never met the man.”

I focused my attention on the man before me, taking in the details with new eyes. The nose, which was somewhat sturdier than Vivian’s gentle slope. The brown eyes, dull on this man, but warm on Evangeline. “That’s why you were at the apartment building.”

“What of it?” His eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Where exactly have you heard my name?”

It was a struggle to bring myself back under control, to pull up my poker face. “It seems it truly was pure coincidence that we ran into each other.” I turned my eyes to the side, mumbling now. “No... I suppose it was inevitable. Eventually.”

“That may be so, but coincidence or not, I’m not letting anyone, vampire or human, stand in my way of destroying David Lucien.” He grasped the battered railing and carefully made his way downstairs.

“Lucien?” I whispered. The hunter’s goal all along had of course been Lucien. He had probably been staking out his building, when he spotted Evangeline and I. “Wait!” I shouted after him, struggling against my bindings frantically. “Come back here!”

The first rays of sunlight crested the horizon then, and it was too late for me. White hot fire seared my skin, turning it to ash immediately. My blood boiled in my veins and I screamed in agony. I was conscious only a few seconds, but it felt like eons as I burned.

********

I reached around blindly in the darkness, unable to tell where I was. There was something I had to get back to, something important, but I could not remember...

In the distance I spotted a pale figure, I hurried towards it. As I got closer, I began to recognize him. He was tall and very pale, with sandy blond hair. His frame was bony, his arms and legs long and thin.

I stopped quickly, falling over myself. “Dimitri.” I whispered. “What are you doing here?”

He looked down at me, his eyes a deep violet. His mouth spread into a charming smile. “I’ve been here a long time, Evangeline. In fact, I never really left. I’ve met with you many times, in your dreams, but you never remember.” He placed on hand on his chest. “That hurts.” he said mockingly.

The last time I had seen Dimitri, he had his eyes covered with a cloth. “Your eyes.” I said softly, feeling panic rise in my chest.

Kieran, a hunter I met in Paris, had one blue eye and one violet eye. A vampire had taken his real eye from him when he was a child. Great Aunt Katrina had rescued him from the vampire, taking one of it’s eyes in return, and somehow giving it to Kieran.

“How did you...?” My mouth went dry and words left me.

“You can see my eyes?” Dimitri asked. “That’s very interesting.” He walked over to me and knelt down, looking into my face. “That means... you know who has my eye.”

I shook my head violently. “No, I don’t.” I tried to move away, but my body was frozen where it was.

He lifted his hands and cupped my face, staring into my eyes. “I cannot project images into your mind. You can only see what you’ve seen on your own. You’ve seen my missing eye before, and, subconsciously, you know it’s mine. That’s why you see me with both of my eyes.”

I looked away from him, though I couldn’t move my head. “Where is this place?”

He scrutinized me for a moment, then answered. “This is your mind, of course. You’re unconscious.”

“How did... I don’t understand.”

“You were injured, which resulted in a concussion. You consciousness has buried itself deep, down to where I’ve been hiding.”

“I’m...” I licked my lips, trying to bring some moisture back to my mouth. “I’m comatose?”

He nodded. “But not for much longer. Your ‘brother’ won’t let you go that easily. He hasn’t left your side even once.”

“What happened? How did I get like this?”

“You were shot.” Dimitri smiled, as if the idea was very funny. “Gabriel was dragged off while you were lying unconscious.”

Suddenly I remembered the hunter, and panic jolted me. “Gabriel.” I pushed away from Dimitri. “I have to get to him. I’ve got to wake up. He’s in danger!”

“Oh no, it’s far too late for that.” Dimitri stood up. He held his hand out to me. “It’s already a little after noon. He’s been dead for about... six hours.”

I pushed his hand away, getting to my feet on my own. “I don’t believe you.” I scowled at him. How would he know anyway? It was MY brain he was invading.

He shrugged. “You don’t have to believe me, but you’re setting yourself up for some serious hurt later on. It’s better to accept it now, than after a long, fruitless search.” He tapped the side of his head. “I can’t invade his sub-conscious the way I can yours. Human brains are much weaker, more susceptible. But, I can focus on him, keep track of his movements. And now? He’s completely gone, not a trace left.”

“You’re lying!” I shouted. I turned away from him and marched in the opposite direction.

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you!” he called after me as I began to run. “Though you’re not really going to remember this ayway!”

I had to get out of here. I had to wake up! Gabriel needed me and I was just sleeping! I had to-

********

I gasped as I awoke, blinking at my surroundings. I focused on the drip IV by my bed, the clear tube snaking down to my arm. I was in a hospital, why was I in a hospital?

Chris was at my side in an instant. “Evie! Thank god.” he breathed. He got to his feet quickly. “I’ll go tell Mom you’re awake.”

I held out my hand to stop him. “Wait. What’s going on?” I asked, deeply confused. “What am I doing here?”

He sat back down and took my hand in both of his. “You were attacked, right outside of Mom’s building. When I got there, Gabriel was gone, and you were saying something about a hunter.”

I tried to remember, and frowned at the effort. The memories stubbornly refused to surface. “The last thing I recall is the arcade. Where is Gabriel now?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know. I haven’t seen him since. Don’t you worry, though, he’s tough, he’ll turn up eventually.”

I smiled at him, laughing a little. “Chris, you don’t have to act nice about Gabriel. I’m not worried.”

There was sympathy in his pale blue eyes. “Evie, you’re crying.”

I blinked in surprise, then felt the hot tears rolling down my cheeks. I reached up with my free hand, gently touching my cheek, which was very wet. “Why am I...?” I asked in confusion. I didn’t understand, why did I feel an ache pulse deep inside of my chest? “I don’t know what’s going on.” I said helplessly.

Chris wrapped one around around my back and pulled me close. I leaned my head on his shoulder as the tears spilled endlessly down my cheeks. I shut my eyes, but even that did not stem the tide. “You’re still confused.” Chris said gently. “You’re getting over a concussion. Once you get better, I promise I’ll help you find him.”

“All right.” I said, my voice hoarse.