Pitch Black

“And that’s how my first vampire kill went,” Perrie concluded, adjusting the backpack that was hanging off of her shoulder. Her blonde hair was pulled back out of her face, her big blue eyes glittering with friendship as she looked at me. The sun had just come over the horizon, a burning ball of orange. “I really think it was because I was clumsy and it was more of an accident than skill.”

Dust and dirt surrounded us as we walked through the deserted-city landscape. It was cool out, not hot enough to bother us just yet, in the early hours of the morning. In the distance, we could see a small city rise up, gleaming silver in the light of the sun. It was a vampire city, we knew.

When the vampires took over, they had created new cities, deciding not to salvage the old ones. But they often put those new cities smack dab in the center of old ones, because the old buildings rotting and falling provided protection and many shadows.

Cocking my head up, I looked at an old sky scraper. All the windows were blown out and the building was rusting and black in parts. But it still stood, tall and proud. Humans made that. It was something I told myself often. We still had things that lasted.

Brushing a loose strand of hair back into my pony, I shifted my loose, button up shirt. And gave Perrie a smile. Her story of her first vampire kill was much like the others; she had won by chance. But people like Ash and I had been trained when we were young to fight, so our first kills weren’t by chance. They were by practice.

Picking up my pace, I jogged to where Harry and Niall were walking, chatting up a storm. Louis was also talking to them happily, but skipped back to talk to Perrie, noticing right away that I wanted to talk to them. Both Harry and Niall looked at me as I walked next to Harry.

“So how many raids have you been on?” Niall questioned, nodding his head in my direction. He was wearing a light pack just like the rest of us were. He had protruded a pair of old sunglasses from them, hiding the blues of his eyes from the morning rays. “Or do you guys do them together?”

“Usually Louis, Liam and I go. Danielle and Ashling stay back and protect Sam,” I explained. The sun was getting brighter as we walked down a cracked paved road, potholes and fissions in the concrete from lack of care. “Ashling is really good about keeping Sam calm when I’m gone, and Danielle is really good with fighting off things that are unwanted. So I’ve been on every raid we’ve ever had. Well over 100.”

Harry flicked his curls to the side, looking at me sideways with his emerald eyes. They glinted in the sun, sparkling and light colored, as opposed to their dark glimmer they held underground. It was a nice change, I thought. “Sometimes I feel like you’re an expert in all of this.”

I smiled slightly, shaking my head. “My dad was an expert in all this. I don’t know, I used to think he was crazy. And yet his hatred for vampires and ability to survive is why I’m alive now.”

“Isn’t that what keeps us all alive?” Niall laughed, tilting his face and letting the sun warm his face. Harry and I both watched him. Though I wanted to question him about what he was doing with my sister, I didn’t. “I just wish that we could go a year without an attack. We can go months, but not a year.”

“Asking for too much,” Harry and I said in unison. He looked at me, raising a brow and I shrugged. We often spoke in unison, seeing as we thought the same way. “Anyways, can we just move along quicker? We’re dawdling.”

We did end up picking up the pace. We were outside of the city within the next hour, standing on the top of an old apartment, eyes shielded as we looked at the outskirts of the cities. The city was built in a large circle, with watch towers that were positioned at the four main quarter hours on a clock.

The watch towards were blacked out buildings, the glass of them made so that UV ray’s could not penetrate through a burn the unholy creatures within them. It made entering cities like this even harder, because you had to go at the precise angle between two towers. And adding to that, you had to escape being seen from afar.

“This is going to be a proper bitch,” Perrie muttered, shielding her eyes from the sun. She tapped the gun at her waist and chewed on her lip, trying to figure it out. My eyes scanned it as well. I was unfamiliar with this city.

“There was a gas station back there,” Harry finally said, signaling by pointing to it. We all turned around, following his gesture. There was in fact and old gas station, but different from the ones I had seen before, it was newer. This city had been one of the recent ones, that had been taken. If we can make it look like a gas leak, an explosion or fire would be the perfect distraction.”

“That actually might work,” Niall said thoughtfully, scratching his head in thought.

I looked at the two of them, weighing the options. “Or one of us could get blow up. But I don’t really see any other options. I’m not staying behind, I know for a fact I’ll get myself blown sky high.”

“Like we would let you play with fire,” Louis joked, elbowing her a bit in the ribs. Everyone laughed and she glared at Louis, who ruffled the hair on top of her head good naturedly. “How about Perrie and I work on that while you three go in? We’ll meet you guys at the abandoned grocery story on the north side, yeah?”

Everyone agreed on the plan and we broke away. Niall, Harry and I walked in a large curve, positioning ourselves so that we could make a direct line into the city. We had to be quick on our feet. We murmured amongst ourselves, planning what roads to take. They had already marked places where we could access the things we needed.

We hid behind building for almost an hour, when the explosion went off. Though we had expected it, it startled us all. From where we were, we saw the orange flames bursting up into the sky, the billowing black smoke clouding the atmosphere.

The three of us darted forward, full speed as we sprinted across the wide space. We had to hope that the nearest watch tower was focus on the cloud of ash and fire behind as. My lungs were on fire as we crossed the very long expanse of space between what was abandoned and what was new, but we reached it, panting and diving into an ally, leaning against walls.

A black, tinted car would be sent out to examine what had happened, but no one would be in the city. Many would still be asleep in their homes, and the stores would be empty, but unprotected. Security was never tight, because they never had a reason for it to be tight. There were supposedly no humans left on the outside world. The only kind of our species were the ones that were farmed for blood. The thought made me shiver.

We were quiet as church mice, navigating through the city. Harry seemed to know exactly where he was going, from the long nights he had spent studying the maps. They never hit the same city twice in too short of a period, but he remembered the outlay of them regardless.

The first place we went was the food market. Quickly, we filled our bags with things we needed, and then we filled crates with as much as we could carry. It was not much, being as the only reason they kept human food was for feeding their farmed humans. But it was enough.

Moving slower with all the weight, but still efficiently, we moved to what Harry promised were labs. Those were harder to navigate, since he had never been in one before. The building was tall and silver, and the inside was so startling white that it nearly blinded me.

Everything smelled sterile, as we navigated unsurely through rooms and halls. I finally found the supply room, grabbing different labeled jars and elements, remembering exactly what Ashling had written down on her paper. When I was sure I had everything, we turned to leave, but paused.

The sound of a door opening froze us all in our places. My breath came in quick as Niall grabbed both Harry and I, yanking us and dragging us through another door just as the one at the front of the room opened, lights flickering on behind us.

Niall had shut the door very quietly behind us and we turned around, realizing that we were in room with no more doors. All three of us looked at one another, terror taking over us for a moment. It took only a moment for me to calm my breathing, trying to regulate my heart. I didn’t want them to hear it beating.

Putting my fingers to my lips to signal for them to be silent, I moved towards a very tall, tinted floor to ceiling window. Setting my crate down very carefully, I examined the windows qualities. They were not made to be opened, but the sides were lined with an insulting rubber of some sort. The windows were also very thin, being they were thick with tint.

Removing a knife from my belt, we all flinched as something made noise in the room we had left. It was the sound of a cabinet being opened. I prayed to God that it was just a vamp going about a nightly routine, that they were not examining cabinets we had stolen from.

With an untrembling hand, I stuck the knife in the insulation of the window, drawing it down and cutting through the insulation. I was half way through when the door opened then, all three of us sucking in a breath and looking at the door. A vampire woman was walking through the room, looking at a clip board when she scented us, looking up with shock in her eyes.

For a moment, we were all frozen. She was obviously unaware that we were in the room, and she was trying to compute that there were three humans standing in front of her. And then her shocked morphed into absolute hunger, her eyes dilating and fangs protruding over her lips as a growl built up in her chest.

Harry was already acting, removing a gun and pointing it at her. But she pounced, lunging at him and taking him down full force through the window. It wasn’t until after the incident, that I realized that’s what Harry wanted. Because the panic that built up in side of me, the scream I fought to suppress was so raw that I was baffled when they hit the ground on the other side of the window.

Everything slowed, as my adrenaline picked up. The vampire, who was clutching Harry by the throat, looked up in puzzlement for a moment. Her eyes were the deepest red I had ever seen, her hair golden and silky as she looked up, face cast towards the glow of the sun. She was startlingly beautiful, in that moment when the sun hit her face. But then she was gasping in pain, falling backwards as she caught on fire, unable to get out a shriek before she was ash.

Harry scrambled away from her fallen pile of ash, looking at it wide-eyed. Bruises were already forming on his neck where she had clutched him. Before my brain processed anything else, I launched myself through the window and onto Harry, hugging him tight into my chest.

The panic that had welled up inside of me in that second she was on him, the scream that wanted to rip free from my throat had been so terrible, so raw. Rarely did I ever feel that sense of panic. But I had felt it because it was Harry. Because he was about to die. And that sudden thought, of him dying, was scarier than a lot of things in the world.

“Don’t ever do that to me again!” I barked at him, grabbing the collar of his shirt and knotting it in my hands. The fabric was in my death grip. “I thought you were going to fucking die.”

He grinned a bit, lifting his hand, which was cut from the glass to brush a strand of hair out of my face. MY skin burned with the contact, but I ignored it by smacking his hand away. “I knew I’d be fine.”

Standing abruptly, I turned away from him, infuriated he had seen me so worried sick over him, especially when I wasn’t sure why I had reacted in such a way. If that had been anyone else, I would have ran. “Whatever. Get your shit and lets go. At least it looks like an accident. Looks like she fell through the window.”

“Because vamps are so clumsy,” Niall muttered sarcastically, picking up a crate. Neither of us said anything in return to Niall’s comment. It had been a close call, and he was right; we could only hope that the vampires were very sure in their sense of safety, that they were sure no wild humans existed. “Let’s get out of here before something else befalls us.

*

Our group had made it to our checkpoint safely, and quickly fled from the city. It would not be long before night fall, and we had at least a two to three hour walk back, if not longer when weighed down by the crates of supplies we carried. The entire walk back was frightening, and I kept turning over my shoulder to make sure no black cars were coming after us in the distance.

When the fear wore off from us, we settled into comfortable conversation with the others. Thankfully, Harry did not bother me with banter or conversation. I was still disturbed from my sudden display of affection for him earlier that day, and I was not exactly what could be classified as happy about it. I had no idea where in the hell it came from, but I wanted it to go back from whence it came.

Louis was walking next to me, at the last part of the trip. He was telling me how he hoped that the food we were bringing back would up Eleanor’s spirits a bit. She had been a bit moody the past few days, and I had also attributed it to the fact that we were running out of supplies. I also hoped this would cause her to smile and come out of her room more often.

“Did Louis tell you about the horridly scary vamp lady that was examining the explosion?” Perrie asked, turning her head to look at Louis and I as we walked behind them. Perrie raised her brows up and down. “She gave us a proper fright. Smart and dangerous looking woman.”

Louis nodded, looking to me and continuing the story, “She was this really tall lady with brown hair and the most severe looking face- beautiful- but severe. She looked like she could kill with just a look, I swear it. We over heard her a bit, and though no one else believes her, she thinks it was an accident.”

“What?” Niall demanded, panic in his voice. My eyes echoed that same panic.

Louis waved our fears away, rolling his eyes. “Don’t worry, the rest of them thought she was a complete nutter, even though it was obvious she was way higher up than them. She looked like an official. Well.. as official as you can look in a black out suite.”

“Yeah,” Perrie agreed, nodding her head. “And she had this really mean looking scar, like someone cut her from left lip to temple.”

Perrie and Louis continued talking about how well they had executed the plan. But I was stuck on what Perrie had just said. The mention of that scar, the familiarity of it, made my blood run cold.

*

When we returned to our home base, I instantly dismissed myself after giving Ashling what she needed, going straight to the washroom. I wanted to wash the fear that I had felt earlier that day, and the cold feeling that was clinging to me like a second skin. There was no way. I knew it was impossible, and I was over reacting to what Perrie had said.

Showering really did help, as I felt refreshed when I stepped out of the shower, changing quickly. I had only gotten a single shoe on my foot when I heard Ashling screaming like a savage in the living room. I was out there so quickly, knife in hand that I had left the other shoe in my room.

What I was met with, was her squealing in delight, planting a huge kiss right on Niall’s mouth. It was so bewildering that I just stared at her in total confusion. Everyone in the room was staring at the test tube that Ashling had created, the one that seemed to be winning over the vampire blood. “Well what do you have to do to test it?”

Celebration paused, all eyes flicking to Harry. It was a very valid question, one that only Ashling and I knew the answer too. But it was a dangerous one to answer, especially because everyone would feel very different about it. “Well Harold, it involves me risking my life and doing something completely stupid.”

My eyes flicked over to Ashling and I almost laughed at her. Did she honestly think that I was going to let her of all people fuck around with this kind of thing? “We’ve known this for a very long time and I’m completely okay with me.”

For a moment, no one argued. Most people didn’t argue with me, especially with that kind of stone cold determination in my voice. I was never easily swayed, and this was something I had always been prepared fore, because I fully trusted in Ashling’s work.

“No.” My head snapped to Harry, as if I had been slapped. “We are not risking the lives of my people for some stupid test. Not in my house. You want to do this, do it somewhere else.”

“Hey, guys?” Eleanor’s voice came from the hall, very fragile and weak. My biting comment was held on pause as I turned to her, pulling my brows together. She was very pale, and there was sweat on her brow. Her limbs trembled all over, and her eyes were bloodshot in a way that I had never seen before. “We don’t need to worry about going and getting bit.”

The breath left my lungs as she slowly turned around, which took much effort. Pulling the hair from her back, we saw the mark. It was barely noticeable, aside from the horrible bruising and flesh that had gone black around the two pinpoints. It was something no one would have seen, especially El. She only knew it because she felt it.

Louis jumped to life as El’s knees buckled. She been coughing horrible and she groaned, writhing. I licked my lips, doubt rising up in me as the weak girl fell forward into Louis’s arms. “Quick! Give her the treatment! She’s dying!”

Ashling grabbed the chemicals and through them in a beaker, filling the syringe. She made her way towards El but I caught her wrist, giving her a very hard look. “You need to make sure she’s in the right stage. Check the eyes.”

“No!” Harry hollered, but Zayn and Niall were on him, holding him away from my sister as she knelt next to Eleanor. My knife was in my hand as I turned my back to the dying girl.

“Do you want her to live? Or die?”

“You have no idea if that will work!”

“I have to give it now, Blake.” I turned my head a fraction of an inch to look at my sister, who was watching me. I gave her a curt nod. “Do it.”

Ashling stabbed the needle into Eleanor’s vein. El, who was getting paler by the second, who was motionless, her dark hair plastered like ink across her sweaty skin. “mea culpa,” I whispered. “Mea maxima culpa.”

My most grievous fault.