Everyone Dies in the End #3

Ramzke

The blast echoed from the room above and Ramzke was on his feet before the echo died. He gave the girl a quick glance. She lay on her side, the gag tugging the corners of her mouth, the rope binding hand to ankle. Desire flashed through him, not for her flesh, but for the blood it contained. He suppressed the urge as quickly as it had risen, this one wasn’t for him, and he knew the consequences of taking what wasn’t his.

He leapt on the first landing, and it creaked, but he cared not. Now wasn’t the time for stealth. He bound again.

A soldier stood at the top of the stairs, a flashlight on his gun barrel. The beam caught him in mid-air. The soldier screamed, “Shit, Holy shit,” and then he fired. The bullets whined by, slapping into the stairwell plaster. Ramzke was on the soldier before he could fire again, slamming him against the far wall, and terminating his next scream in death.

There was another. Ramzke could hear his loud breathing. The other—he must be a soldier, thought Ramzke—was terrified, and that was just fine with him. Terrified men made bad choices. Beside the door, Ramzke saw the crumpled form of Nathan. He was dead, not undead, but dead. Ramzke sensed nothing from the other vampire, but sensed plenty from the soldier. His eyes tracked every movement. It was time to end this.

A dash by the window; predictably the soldier fired, then leaned out the frame to check the results of the finding. Within seconds Ramzke had him on the floor. The boy soiled his pants. The human’s fear sickened Ramzke. This worthless piece of flesh had killed Nathan. Ramzke wasn’t close to Nathan. His kind were rarely close to anything, but Nathan was one of his own. For Nathan to lose his life to a human, sickened him.

A moment later is was over. So disgusted was Ramzke that he didn’t feed, merely severed the soldier's head and tossed it through the window. This one would never rise. A brief pause over Nathan’s corpse, and he descended the stairs. The gunfire might attract others; it was time to move on. Antonio wanted the girl, and when Antonio wanted something it was best to give it to him sooner rather than later. Without Nathan the journey would be more difficult. Hard to be stealthy with a young woman draped over a shoulder. Perhaps they could get another twenty files miles before daylight, but then he would need to find a somewhere for the day. He didn’t require sleep, but he did require darkness, and he needed a space where he could hide from the sun, yet watch the girl. Not an easy task. These thoughts churned through his mind. So much so that he was surprised when he found his feet on the basement floor, even more so when he realized the girl was gone.

Cindy

The vampire stood at the bottom of the steps. Even without light Cindy knew he was there, could feel his confusion, almost see the exasperation on his face. Slowly the head turned, first to one side and then to the other. The red eye’s shone with anger. Or was it passion? Or was it both? She had felt his desire before, and it was not like other men’s. It was acute, painfully acute, yet unrequited

The slow examination stopped and the vampire darted to the boxes staked against the back wall, ripping through them like a shredder through paper. She felt the frustration mounting. She felt it in herself too, the tension nearly unbearable, the strain tearing at her heart, her soul, her entire being.

Again the vampire was still, nose to the wind so to speak, trying to smell her. It dashed to the two empty heating oil drums in the room’s center. Tipped them and ripped off the lids. Her absence was driving him mad. Suddenly, as if struck by a thought, the vampire stopped. One heartbeat, two heartbeats. He strode toward her with purpose, closer, closer, he was on top of her, and then he was through her, a leap and he was out the basement window and into the night.

Cindy waited, the tension threatening to explode within her. It felt like an eternity, but it must have been no more than a handful of seconds. When she was sure the vampire had gone, she let go. Slowly, the molecules reformed, realigned, repositioned. Like a form emerging from a fog, Cindy rematerialized on the basement floor, heart racing, panting from the effort.