The Outcome

Breathe. Find another exit. Open another door. Dodge a grab. Gain distance. Don’t fall. Breathe. Escape. Survive. Pack. Safety. Run. Breathe. Jump the fence. Get closer. Survive. Don’t slow down. Escape. Make the jump. Go faster. Breathe. Pack. Pack. Pack.

My heart was pumping loud, but my legs were pumping faster. Running, running, running, I had to keep moving and going and going and going. My thoughts were being reduced to the primal need to survive and escape.

The jungle surrounded me was one of concrete, neon lights, and cigarette ashes. The air was smoggy and the sky was dark with rain clouds. Fat and warm droplets of moisture made the streets slick and reflective of this cat and mouse chase. I was mouse, the bait, and the cat was getting closer and closer.

The high chance of a human turning the corner wasn’t what kept the vampire from using his full speed to catch me. It was the thrill of the hunt, my confidence in believing that I could get away amused and excited him. A century old evil slicing through the air so close behind me, but I had a secret for him. It would only help me, however, if I could keep going; if I could just keep moving. But the human part of me had grown tired a long time ago and the willpower drawing me forward was waning into nothing.

Just a bit further and I would be home free, I was the entrance to my salvation when the vampire put a single cold hand against the back of my shirt and I could feel his icy touch through the Hanes cotton. With a gleeful squeal he propelled me forward though the gate of the courtyard and I collided with the stone of the center fountain.

Bouncing down into the cool water did little to sooth the heat exertion left in my body and the fear in my heart. He casually walked forward and began to circle the fountain where I lay, so painfully tired and tense, and wet. There was no where left to run and this was the grand finale for the vampire’s little game.

In my mind a picture of softness flew by, black and gray fur, blood, gristle, and the sound of granite violently broken to pieces. It was gone as soon as it came and my vampire capture was ready to make a meal out of me.

This didn’t seem like the ending just reveled to me, but what could be changed about it now? Shrinking backward in the water, I prepared myself for the pain to come, but it never did.

Bigger than anything I had seen before the charcoal and midnight colored wolf shot out of the darkness and tackled the vampire from where I lay in the fountain. I could hear the vamp trying to struggle, but he couldn’t get from under those great wolf paws. Then, also spring from the darkness cam more wolves. All of them different shades of city darkness, a particularly dark black wolf stopped in front of me and laid his head against the thighs of my damp jeans. He was warm and so soft, just like in my vision.

Then came the ending; the wolf made its way to the rest, surrounding the vampire who had yet to give up. I had sense enough to pull myself out of the water and back up to the other side of the courtyard, I couldn’t leave yet. I needed to see the outcome.

The leech got a lucky hit in, slashing an all grey wolf in the leg to the bone. Blood ran down and missed with the water in the street from the rain and the ruined fountain. Letting out a whine high into the summer air, he took the first bite and the sound of granite being destroyed was harsh enough to make me cover my ears. I continued for a little longer, each wolf getting a piece until the creature that chased me though the night was nothing but a pile of pale porcelain on the cobblestone.

Catching my breath I pulled myself up off the wall where I hid and pulled a silver Zippo lighter out of my back pocket. Walking past the wolves to the pile of my once tormenter, I set his pieces aflame and relished in the smell of perfection burning to nothing. Pulling a carton of cigarettes out of another pocket and lighting one for myself I turned to my supernatural saviors.

“Maybe next time you can try and kill the leech before he throws me into a fucking fountain in the middle of a courtyard that’s a thousand miles away from the fucking bait location. Jesus.”