Somehow, the door of her cage had been neglected and left open when the monster had fallen into his fit of rage and killed the others the night before, leaving a lake of blood on the floor and dismembered bodies strewn within it. The door was still open when he had finished and gone back upstairs. He had left her alive for some reason, maybe because she was still too new to kill.
It was at least an hour after the monster had left that she realized her cage was open. She had been huddled in the corner when he was murdering the people, hugging herself as tightly as she could, knees drawn to her chest. Even when the screams had stopped, she kept her eyes closed. Finally, something told her to look, and then she had seen it: the door to her cage was unlocked and barely open.
Six more hours passed before she got the courage to move. She stared at that open door for that long, barely blinking. Fear held her against the wall; stopped her from crawling towards what could be freedom. He could come back at any moment. If he caught her trying to escape, who knew what he might do?
Now, she decided to go for it. The monster was probably sleeping; it was daylight now.
Fingers shaking, she propped her hands on the cold, stone floor and began to crawl to the door. Hot tears fell down her cheeks as she kept glancing at the dungeon door, just five feet away from her cage, making sure no one was coming in. Her dirty red hair fell in her eyes as she crawled, but she didn’t seem to notice. Every move she made sent pain through her body; her palms were bloody from the spikes he had forced through them, her arms were badly bruised and beaten, and the Achilles tendon in her left heel had been severed.
By the time she made it to the cage door, she was shaking so badly from fright that she almost turned around and went back to the corner. Her shaking would make some sort of noise—he would hear her breathing—and bring him back down here, she was sure of it.
No, she had to go on. Maybe he would get mad enough to kill her this time if he did catch her, and if he didn’t catch her . . . she would be free.
She held her breath as she pushed the door open further, waiting for a traitorous squeak to alert all of her attempted escape. Luckily, the door didn’t make a sound.
Using the bars of the cage, she pulled herself up and started to walk, dragging her left foot. She stepped in blood and the thick liquid squished between her toes, but she didn’t care. She exited the cage and kept her eyes on the wooden dungeon door ahead of her, deliberately avoiding looking at the floor scattered with dead bodies. The room was mostly dark, dimly lit by an ever-burning torch. The door leading out was just ahead. She inched her way and opened it slowly, peeking out into the corridor. There was one torch lit in the hallway; the shadows of the flame danced on the stone walls. No sign of anyone, not one sound came from upstairs. Maybe she had been right and they were all sleeping.
She held her breath and crept along, still dragging her injured foot and holding onto the wall for support. It felt like there was a storm raging inside her stomach—she was so afraid. There was a set of stairs at the end of the corridor, leading up to the basement door.
Climbing the steps was difficult. The pain was so excruciating that she almost gave up and collapsed on the stairs. But determination pushed her on. She opened the door and entered a kitchen. The house was bigger than she imagined. This was the first time she had been beyond the basement—she had been unconscious when she was brought here.
She hobbled along, going through the kitchen and into the next room, a sitting area. The house was mostly dark with the exception of a few soft lights here and there. The place was huge, a mansion. Wallpaper peeled and was yellow in spots with age, and there were several stains on the floors, carpet, and walls that looked like blood.
She paused at the doorway of the sitting room, searching around her before entering. There were a couple of old couches in the room and an old television on a rickety old stand. A huge staircase took up the wall to her right, curving slightly as it climbed to the second floor. The windows were boarded up and covered with dark curtains.
Her breath stopped when she saw the front door. It was probably only twenty feet away, but to her, it seemed like a long distance. Considering how she had to walk, it would take her at least a minute to reach it; anything could happen in that minute.
Squinting her eyes to see better, she peered inside the sitting room, searching for anyone. There was no one in sight, but that didn’t mean it was safe for her to go on. She searched the corners with her eyes; searched the shadows. Nothing. No one. What were the odds everyone would be asleep at the same time? Could this be a trap? A game for their sick amusement?
According to the clock on the wall, it was just after 9 am. The sun would be out; they couldn’t follow her. She was mere feet from freedom.
Taking one more quick glance around the room, she hurried as best she could, dragging her injured foot along. She was halfway across the room when a man appeared in front of her. Her heart stopped.
He had her. He would torture her more.
Just as she opened her mouth to scream, his hand clamped over it and he held her tightly, whispering in her ear:
“Quiet if you want to live.”
It wasn’t him. The voice was too soft, too soothing. She looked at this new face. He was tall and had dark brown hair that fell to his shoulders, and his eyes were dark.
He didn’t say anything else as he helped her to the front door, moving her faster than she would have been able to move even in perfect health. The door was in front of her in a second after everything passed in a blur.
“Go,” he said. “Follow the driveway. Get as far away as you can before night falls.” The man opened the door and stepped behind it to shield his body from the sun’s rays. “Never look back,” he whispered.
As she left, she gave him a look of gratitude, but didn’t thank him—he was still one of them after all.
Barefoot and hobbling, she made her way down the gravel driveway, ignoring the pain of the sharp rocks digging into the bottoms of her feet. The morning sun touched her hair and her cheeks. When she saw the main road, she started crying, sobbing desperately. She still wasn’t free. She had to get off this island.
Several hours went by before she finally found someone. A woman driving a blue pickup truck. The woman stopped as soon as she saw the teenage girl with the dirty, red hair limping along the road, bloody and beaten.
The woman offered the girl a ride to the hospital.
“Is the hospital on this island?” the girl asked.
“No, I’ll have to take you to the ferry so we can go to the mainland,” the woman said.
The mainland. She would be off the island; away from him.
“Yes, please take me to the hospital.” The girl settled in the passenger seat, but wasn’t able to relax.
She kept glancing around nervously, looking out the windows of the vehicle as it passed by trees and the occasional building. It was daylight, but that didn’t halt her fear.
She would never feel safe again. Because she knew that if he wanted…he could find her.
This is where the vampire lives. The large driveway with the tiny gray rocks, that curves around the three-tier fountain. The mansion is old and broken down, but it’s vast. Trees surround the property making this place perfectly secluded. No one can hear the screams because the nearest neighbor is miles away . . . .
Chapter One
“That’s bullshit, Shawn. Vampires don’t exist.” Ashley rolled her eyes and took a drink of grape soda.
They were sitting in the school cafeteria. This was the third time in a row Shawn had brought up that silly topic about a “real” vampire who lived on a nearby island.
“I’m telling you, it’s true. My sister’s story hasn’t changed in eight years.”
“Your sister’s in a mental hospital,” Jessica said.
“So? How do you think she got there?” Shawn inhaled an exasperated breath and let it out quickly. “I don’t really remember what she was like before, I was only like nine or something when it happened, but my mom told me Megan was a perfectly normal girl before it happened. She was kidnapped and tortured for three days—what do you think your mental state would be if that happened to you? He drove her insane, but that doesn’t mean she made it up.”
“Okay, so this psycho drove her insane,” Jessica said, “but I’m sure he was just your average psycho and not a blood-sucking walking dead...thing.” She shrugged and brought a forkful of mashed potatoes to her mouth.
“Why are you so obsessed with it now, anyway?” Ashley asked.
“Because I didn’t know the whole story until now. My mom didn’t want to tell me until I was older, and I haven’t really talked to Megan since it happened so it’s not like she was able to tell me anything.”
“And just like that you believe her?” Ashley said.
“Of course.” Shawn shrugged. “Why wouldn’t I?”
Jessica sighed. “Look, even if it’s true and this guy really is some crazy vampire thing, explain to me why you would want to find him?”
“I don’t. I just think it would be cool to check this place out. The cops have searched that entire island—he’s not there anymore; the house that Megan told them about was abandoned when they searched it.”
Ashley shook her head. “I don’t know, Shawn. It seems pretty stupid, how do we know he didn’t go back?”
“Megan said he killed a lot of people. He’s one of the most wanted criminals in our area—the cops are still looking for him. He wouldn’t be dumb enough to stick around.”
Jessica laughed and threw a piece of crumpled plastic from a pastry at him. “I thought he’s a vampire?” she mocked. “Why would a vampire be afraid of cops?”
Shawn threw the plastic back at her. Jessica leaned to the side and let it go past her shoulder.
“I don’t know much about them, I admit, but I doubt even a vampire would be a match for all the cops on the force.”
“Well, I’m game,” Jessica said. “It’s been pretty boring here lately, I need something to do anyway. Ash?”
Ashley shrugged, pretending to be uninterested by twisted the can of soda around on the table.
“Come on,” Jessica said, chuckling, “you love this kind of stuff: hauntings and weird shit like that; I know you want to go.”
Ashley grinned, finishing off her soda. “Of course I do. When do you want to go?”
“This weekend. I’ll ask my mom if I can borrow the van,” Shawn said.
“Oh goody,” Jessica replied, rolling her eyes, “we can go vampire hunting in a minivan.”
“Hey, it’s better than nothing,” Shawn said.
Just then the school bell rang and lunch was over. They would have to finish their planning later. The rest of the day went by quickly and before they knew it, the three of them were in Ashley’s bedroom, discussing their plans.
Shawn was on his cell phone with his mother, asking about the van, while the two girls talked to each other.
“Should we bring anything?” Jessica was asking Ashley.
“I know, Mom. We’ll be back before midnight, I promise,” Shawn was saying. “I told you, it’s just a gathering—a few kids from school. We’re gonna go to the beach and play a few games. No…no…yes, Mother…”
“I dunno,” Ashley said. “Maybe some flashlights? A camera?”
“We’re not actually going to try and go inside the house are we?” Jessica asked.
Ashley shrugged, looking at Shawn. He was now pacing around the room, trying to convince his mother that there wouldn’t be any drugs or drinking where they were going.
“Don’t you think it’s kind of weird?” Ashley whispered. “Shawn wanting to go to the place that his sister was tortured and people were killed?”
“Not really,” Jessica tossed her long blonde hair over her shoulder. “I mean he was just a kid, it’s not like him and his sister could have been very close; she’s almost 10 years older than him. I think he’s just curious.”
“Still, it’s just weird.” Ashley shuddered.
“Maybe,” Jessica shrugged. “I’m just glad we’re actually leaving town for a while. I think the most exciting thing that’s happened lately is when Brad mooned Mrs. Parker. Remember that? She was so pissed when he did that!”
Ashley forced a laugh. Jessica’s ex-boyfriend, Brad, was an asshole. Mooning poor old Mrs. Parker hadn’t been that funny. But Jessica was right about one thing: it had been very boring in this town lately, and Ashley was a sucker for the paranormal. Even if it wasn’t true, pretending vampires were real for one day would be fun.
“So, have you ever heard the whole story about Shawn’s sister?” Ashley whispered.
Jessica looked at Shawn as he was saying goodbye to his mother. She shook her head.
“Me neither,” Ashley said.
Shawn flipped his cell phone shut and sighed. “Finally. Okay, it’s done. We get the van Saturday morning.”
“Can I drive?” Jessica grinned.
“Uh, no,” Shawn said.
***
The rest of the week went by as a blur. They didn’t tell anyone what they planned to do that weekend, though Jessica almost slipped up and told Mark Hensley because he had asked her out on a date for Saturday, and she had to tell him she had plans and almost started going into detail. Not that she would have gone out with him anyway, Ashley had pointed out. Mark was too much of a nice guy and Jessica only dated assholes.
By Friday night, Ashley was rethinking going. Sure, she loved scary stuff, but going to an almost deserted island to the house where a bunch of torturing and murders took place was starting to seem ludicrous. The murderer had never been arrested; no one knew where he was. Shawn seemed so sure that the house was abandoned, but what if he was wrong?
Besides that, it was just morbid.
Yet, she didn’t say anything to them. Ashley believed that even if she did express her concerns, Jess and Shawn would just laugh them off and they would go to the island anyway and leave her behind, forever branding her a chicken. Better to feign bravery than admit you’re a coward, she thought. Besides, Ashley had the tendency to be a worry wart. She was probably just over-thinking things. Why would any serial killer return to the place he killed when he knew the police frequently surveyed the area?
Saturday morning, Shawn was there with the van. They had to drive for almost two hours before they made it to the ferry that would take them to the island. Shawn steered the van smoothly onto the large, flat boat, put it in park, and then the three of them hopped out to watch the water slosh against the sides of the ferry as it pushed through the water.
The sky was gray, covered with thick clouds. Fog hovered over the water. There were only two other people on the ferry. One was a man, a farmer from the looks of him, probably had gone to the mainland to get feed for his animals. The other was an old woman who stayed in her car where the backseat was full of groceries.
“Shawn,” Ashley said gently, anticipating her question to be painful, but she needed to ask it. “What exactly…happened to your sister?”
Jessica leaned in closer to hear but didn’t say anything. She was still half-asleep, not used to getting up this early on a Saturday.
He shrugged. “From what mom and the doctors and the cops have gathered from her ramblings, a lot of stuff went on in that house. There were other people there, obviously—prisoners. Megan said they were kept in two giant cages, sometimes up to ten or fifteen people, or that’s what one of the other prisoners told her when she was there. While she was there, there were only six or seven people in each cage.
“There was more than one killer—well, Megan called them vampires—but only one was in total control. He bossed the others around and did most of the damage. The prisoners were beaten and tortured, some were sexually abused if not all out raped. The main guy even raped one girl right there in front of the prisoners.”
“Ugh.” Ashley shook her head in disgust. Jessica raised an eyebrow.
“I know. Anyway, the main guy tortured people but Megan won’t say how other than what he did to her…”
“Which was?” Jessica asked, more awake now.
“Well, the usual for the women it seemed: he did stuff to her…you know…sexually. And I guess that wasn’t enough for him because he beat her; his fingers alone left huge bruises from holding her arms so tightly. The most disgusting things, though, were what he did to her hands and ankle.”
The two girls waited for him to continue. Jessica waved her hand in a beckoning motion as if to say, “come on, tell us.”
“He strapped her to this table and forced huge spikes through her hands, like…bigger than Jesus-nails. Then, he actually…bit into her ankle and ripped out a huge piece of it. You know that Achilles tendon thing? Yeah, ripped part of that out. With his teeth.”
Ashley stood there horrified, paralyzed for a few seconds. Jessica’s jaw dropped in disgust.
“I guess that’s why she calls him a vampire,” Shawn finished.
They exited the ferry and continued driving for several more miles before stopping to eat some of the food they had packed for lunch. They ate hurriedly and then continued the journey. Though the skies seemed threatening, the only rain they encountered was very light and lasted only a few minutes.
They didn’t see anyone else on the road for the entire time they drove. The only company they had were the trees that threatened to engulf the road.
“How do you know where to go?” Ashley asked Shawn.
“Megan said the house was near the ‘tail.’ So we drive till we find a mansion. It should be easy enough; there aren’t very many driveways, and I doubt there’s more than one mansion.”
They drove up five long driveways before finally finding the one that led to a house Shawn was sure was the one Megan had described.
Chapter Two
“This is it,” Shawn said, pulling the van up the driveway. He parked right beside the water fountain and the three peered at the house.
The mansion had at least three stories, plus a basement. The thick, oak doors showed signs of age, but were still beautiful. Each door had a huge brass knocker with matching handles. The porch was relatively small for the size of the house, but still big enough for a patio table if the owner desired.
“Looks like a normal house to me,” Jessica said, looking over Shawn’s shoulder out the driver’s window. “No weirdness; no cat skins hanging off the walls or anything.”
“Cat skins?” Ashley asked, laughing softly.
Jessica shrugged. “I don’t know what vampires do.”
Shawn opened the door and stepped out of the van without saying a word. He seemed lost in thought, maybe thinking of his sister. The two girls followed. Ashley grabbed the two larger flashlights; it would be completely dark soon, especially with the overcast sky.
None of them really believed in vampires, not even Shawn, though he would never admit his sister was crazy enough to make up that part. Even though he didn’t know her very well, he would still not disrespect her like that. What drew them here was simply morbid curiosity. To see the location of such a blood-chilling place where horrible events took place. Humans are naturally curious about these things.
The three of them walked up to the house, each peering at different windows, trying to see in. No one said anything for a few minutes; the thought of what went on inside that house silenced them and chills ran along their spines.
(Inside, the vampires stirred as their senses picked up the aroma of fresh blood)
Ashley handed Jessica a light and turned on the other one, shining it into the trees that surrounded the property. She didn’t see anything of interest, just more trees turning the colors of fall.
Jessica left her light off and peered at the highest window. It was covered by thick, dark curtains. She moved her eyes to the next window, and then quickly moved them back to the last. She could have sworn she saw the curtain move! She stared hard at the window, not blinking.
“Shawn, you’re sure no one lives here?” she asked.
“Positive. The cops said it was abandoned, remember?” He was now busy examining the ground around the front porch.
Jessica turned the light on and shined it on the window where she had seen the curtain move. Still, nothing stirred. “Guess I’m seein’ things now,” she muttered to herself.
“Shawn, you’re not going in there!” Ashley whispered loudly, bringing Jessica’s attention away from the window. Shawn had stepped onto the porch and had his eyes on the door, hand reaching for the handle.
“Why not? I just want to see if it’ll open,” he said.
“I have a bad feeling.”
Shawn rolled his eyes and pushed on the door. It opened with ease and he stood there, peering inside. Ashley held her breath. Jessica stood beside her, letting the flashlight fall to her side.
The house was dark inside. Everything was dirty; covered in dust. To the left was a grand staircase. To the right was a living room. No sign of life. Shawn looked over his shoulder, flashing a nervous smile at the girls, and he beckoned for them. Jessica hesitantly joined him.
“Come on, Ash,” Jessica whispered.
Ashley shook her head at first. What if Shawn was wrong? What if the psycho who tortured Megan and killed all those people was still here? There was something eerie about this place. It was almost as if the house was warning her.
Don’t go in. You’ll never escape.
“Ash?” Shawn asked.
“I don’t know…” she shook her head, still trying to decide whether or not she should take those few steps to the door to join them.
“Then go back to the van and wait for us,” Shawn said, sounding annoyed.
Ashley sighed, “No, I’ll come.”
Shawn and Jessica led the way inside. Ashley looked to her right and saw a buffet table by the door. It had three urns on it, two small ones on either side of one large one. All of the urns and the table were covered in dust.
Ashley hugged herself, still feeling uneasy.
They started to step into the living room.
“I will not be a part of this!”
The voice came from someone trying to speak in a hushed voice, maybe on the second floor.
The three didn’t have time to react other than to look at each other with wide eyes before something hit Ashley hard in the chest. She flew backwards, out the front door, and landed in the hard gravel of the driveway.
Jessica and Shawn turned and ran, intending to grab Ashley and jump in the van. They didn’t make it out the door before the same thing happened to them; each were hit hard. Shawn flew into the banister of the grand staircase. Jessica was thrown against the wall by the door, but she didn’t land. Whatever had hit her now had her by the throat, holding her a foot off the ground.
A face appeared as if someone flicked a switch to reveal him. A man, over six feet tall held her up with one hand. His hair was jet black and fell to his waist; his eyes were blue, bright and piercing, glaring into hers with morbid amusement. He grinned coldly.
Jessica coughed, trying to breathe under his grasp.
“Please,” she choked, “please don’t hurt us, we didn’t know anyone was here-”
“Silence,” the man said gently, still grinning. “Wes? She’s trying to escape.”
From outside, they heard the van’s engine turn.
“Oh God, oh God,” Ashley said over and over as she started up the van.
Her chest hurt with every breath she took. Hot tears spilled down her cheeks. She put the van into drive and slammed her foot on the gas. The tires only spun in place. The van’s front end swerved from side to side.
Crying, Ashley looked in the review mirror. A large, muscular man stood behind the van. His hands held the bumper; he was actually stopping the vehicle from moving—how could he be that powerful? His eyes were cold and he grinned at her frightened expression.
She put the van in reverse, intending on running him over, but before she could hit the pedal again, the man lifted the van off the ground. Ashley screamed. The van was thrown backwards into a tree. The tree split in half and the vehicle landed upside down.
“Wes! God damn it! She better still be alive!” the man holding Jessica yelled at the large man. “Where do you think you’re going?” The man quickly extended his other arm just as Shawn tried to run past him, out the door. The man’s arm hit Shawn in the chest and the young man fell backwards, the breath knocked out of him.
“She’s breathin’ Master!” Wes yelled from outside. A second later the big man appeared in the doorway, blocking the exit. He held Ashley’s limp body in his arms. “She’s just unconscious; a little banged up, but she’ll be okay.”
The black-haired man tossed Jessica to the ground with Shawn. She gasped and coughed, recovering from the choking. Shawn reached for her hand, “You okay, Jess?” but Jessica snatched her hand away from him.
They looked up and saw the black-haired man touching Ashley’s face. She was still in Wes’s arms; still unconscious. The man leaned over, running his nose and lips over Ashley’s pale skin. His hand touched her forehead and he pulled her head back by the hair. His lips went to her neck and he let them linger there, as if tasting the scent of her flesh.
“This one’s a virgin,” he said quietly, smiling. “Take her and the others downstairs. Morgan? Help him.”
“Yes, Master Aimeric,” a new voice said with a hint of a British accent. A skinny, pale man grabbed Jessica by the wrist and literally dragged her across the floor. Wes held Ashley in one arm and he grabbed Shawn with the other, dragging him the same way as Jessica.
Shawn and Jessica fought the two men. Although the man dragging Jessica was skinny, weak-looking and pale, he was still strong and didn’t even seem bothered by her beating on his arms and kicking at him whenever she got the chance. He only laughed at her.
“Look, Master! This one’s feisty!” he said, giddy.
The “Master” responded with a cynical chuckle.
Shawn was fighting his captor as well, but the big man didn’t even flinch. Ashley still showed no signs of consciousness. Shawn wondered if she was even still alive, despite what the big man had said.
They were dragged through the living room, and into the kitchen where a tall narrow door stood behind the dining table. The skinny man opened the door and Shawn and Jessica were then dragged down cold, hard cement steps, down a dark corridor lit by one torch, and through a heavy door with bars at the top…like an old dungeon door one might find in a castle from hundreds of years ago.
The room behind the dungeon door was dark; as with the corridor, only one torch gave off a small amount of light. It smelled of mold and blood. Rats, mice, and insects scurried toward hiding places when they entered.
“Open the gate, Morgan,” Wes ordered the skinny man.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m gettin’ to it, geez.”
The men took them to the right side of the room where two giant cages took up the wall. Several people were huddled inside. Most of them were against the wall, shaking with fear in the presence of the two men.
Morgan opened the first gate and threw Jessica inside. Before she could get up to try and fight past him, Wes threw Shawn in the same way. He hit Jessica with his back and they both fell. Wes stepped into the cage, knelt down, and let Ashley roll out of his arms. Her body hit the cement floor, but she still didn’t wake up.
Wes backed out of the cage and slammed the door shut, securing a padlock to keep them inside.
The two men left.
Chapter Three
Shawn Stirling
Age 17
When Shawn was just a small boy, his parents had told him that his older sister, Megan, had to “go away for a while.” When he asked why, they told him it was because she was sick and needed to get better. Before his sister had “gotten sick,” they had been an average family. His parents weren’t perfect, but they weren’t bad, either. His mother was an accountant; his father a salesman.
After Megan was put in the hospital, his parents started fighting a lot. They would never yell at each other when he was in the room, but he still heard them frequently through the vents and thin walls when they thought he was sleeping. His father blamed his mother for what happened to Megan.
“If you hadn’t let her go to that party, she wouldn’t be in there right now!” he would yell.
His mother would cry, and yell back, asking why he hadn’t stopped Megan from going, either.
Five years later, they divorced and his father remarried.
Shawn wasn’t allowed to visit his sister until he was older. By the time he was sixteen and able to visit, he had mostly forgotten his sister. Not that it mattered. She wasn’t able to interact normally with them anyway. She would just sit on her bed and stare at the wall, occasionally repeating sentences like “Please don’t,” or “Leave me alone” in monotone. Every now and then she would scream those words, but mostly she said them as if she were in a trance.
“Megan, Shawn is here to see you,” his mother would tell her. “You remember your brother, right?”
Megan would look at him and smile and nod, but she never said anything to him.
“What happened to you, Megan?” Shawn asked once while his mother was out of the room.
“The vampire. He lives in a mansion in the tail. He hurt me. He hurt me.” She screamed loudly, her eyes widened, and she looked at Shawn. “Don’t let him get me!”
“Shh! It’s okay, he’s not coming back for you.” Shawn had put his hands on her shoulder to try and calm her down. After only a few seconds, she was back to staring at the wall and mumbling every couple of minutes.
On the way home, Shawn had asked his mother for the whole story about what happened. She wouldn’t tell him anything except that Megan had been traumatized.
Finally, after a year of dodging his question, his mother had finally told him what had happened. And now, here he was, in the same house where his sister had been ruined.
Jessica Kirby
Age 17
Jessica wasn’t particularly intelligent. She had always been the stereotypical “blonde beauty” thanks to her mother’s superficial “brain-washing” that all that mattered for a girl was to look good in order to find a man to take care of her; as long as a woman could find a rich man to marry, she didn’t need brains.
That was certainly true for her mother. Jessica’s father was a lawyer. The only problem was that he loved his job more than his family. Rather than divorce him and lose the security of having her cosmetic surgeries paid for, Jessica’s mother decided to just cheat on him whenever she felt the need. Her father was the same and had had several girlfriends since being married to her mother.
Her looks had been compared to a younger Jenny McCarthy. Her straight blonde hair went just below her shoulders, and her blue eyes sparkled most of the time. Despite being superficial sometimes, Jessica was well-liked by most people. Her outgoing personality and kindness enabled her to be accepted by most.
When she heard Shawn talk about this place—this mansion on Prudence Island—she thought his sister had exaggerated her experience. She assumed more that Megan Stirling had been out of her mind before she was kidnapped, rather than believe the experience drove her to insanity. She certainly never believed she had been tortured by vampires. Vampires weren’t real; they were things of morbid fairytales. Sure, maybe Megan had been the object of some psycho’s demented fantasy, and maybe she had been traumatized, but Jessica didn’t believe Megan had been physically tortured (didn’t that kind of stuff die out with ancient times?).
Now, as she sat crying in the cage with Shawn and the still unconscious Ashley, knees brought up to her chest, looking at the other victims in the cage with their bloodied bodies and festering wounds, she knew Megan’s story was true…or at least most of it.
Ashley Durden
Age 17
Being the oldest of one brother and two step-sisters, Ashley was used to not having all the attention and therefore was usually a quiet girl when she wasn’t around her friends. She was mostly average: average pretty with dark hair and dark eyes, average weight that was closer to being overweight than under, and average intelligence.
She took a keen interest in the paranormal, particularly ghosts and hauntings because they were things she believed in. The subject of vampires never interested her much because she didn’t believe they were real.
Like Jessica, Ashley had assumed Megan’s story was exaggerated. She believed Megan had been tortured, but she thought it was by a psychotic human being; there were plenty of demented people who had committed spine-tingling crimes before—Dahmer; Manson; Rader, the BTK killer. She believed that somehow, in her traumatized and tortured state, Megan had conceived the idea that her kidnapper was a vampire.
Though it still seemed ludicrous and hard to accept, Ashley knew Megan was right. No human could have picked up a van like that and thrown it into a tree like it was a toy.
Was she even still alive?
Every part of her body was in pain, so she must be alive. But for how long?
Slowly, Ashley came to. Her head hurt. Everything hurt. Her vision failed, or was it just dark in here? Her left cheek lay against something cool and damp, like cement. The smells. Horrible smells. Blood. Feces. Urine. Mold. Where was she?
“Ash? Ash, are you okay?”
Shawn and Jessica were shaking her the rest of the way awake. She groaned and pulled herself up on all fours before falling back a little and settling into a sitting position.
“What’s going on?” She brought her hand up to her forehead where she felt something warm trickling down. Blood. Her head had been cut; she now remembered hitting the steering wheel.
“Are you okay?” Jessica asked in a shaky voice—it sounded like she had been crying.
“I don’t know. I don’t feel okay. Where are we?”
“Why were you going to leave us?” Jessica said, ignoring the question. She was angry now that she knew Ashley wasn’t hurt that badly.
“What?” Ashley said, confused.
“You got in the van! You were just going to leave us!”
“Jess, leave her alone,” Shawn interrupted.
“You were going to leave, too,” Jessica said, turning on him. Fresh tears formed and her shoulders started shaking as she cried. “You were both going to leave me here.”
“Jess, I was going to get help!” Ashley said through her own tears. “I knew there was no way I could fight them, I…I was scared!”
“I wasn’t thinking straight, Jess,” Shawn whispered. He sounded ashamed. “I was going to leave, you’re right; I was scared. You have every right to be angry. But I swear, I would have gotten everyone I know to come back for you. I wouldn’t have let you… I would have been back.”
“I’m scared,” Jessica admitted.
“We are too,” Shawn said, touching her shoulder.
“What is this place? Where are we?” Ashley said again.
“You’re in Aimeric’s torture chamber,” a new voice said. A young male from the sound of it.
The three of them looked at the person. He was in the cage with them, sitting in the right corner of the cage, near the wall. In the dim light they saw his short hair was matted with blood and his face was dirty.
“His what?” Shawn asked.
“You heard me, and don’t pretend you didn’t already have an idea of what goes on down here,” he added softly, “you’d be stupid not to realize it.”
“How long have you been in here?” Jessica asked.
“I don’t know—I’ve lost count. Seems like forever.”
“Some of us have been here for months,” a female voice said in the other cage. She spoke as if mesmerized, in a trance. “Sometimes he likes to keep us alive for a long time. If you’re lucky, he’ll kill you right away.”
Ashley started sobbing. Jessica tried to comfort her, but she too lost it. They sobbed in each other’s arms. Shawn sat next to them, knees drawn to his chest.
“What is he?” Shawn whispered.
“They are vampires,” the male said. He laughed. “If you believe in such things.”
“I might ,” Shawn said. “I'm starting to think Megan was right.”
“Vampires aren’t real,” Jessica said through gritted teeth.
The male scoffed. “Yeah, tell him that when he’s drinking you, then when he stops so you’re in pain from blood loss, but still have enough to survive, tell him again.”
Jessica glared. The male ignored her.
“Who’s Megan?” he asked Shawn.
“My sister. She was here eight years ago and escaped.”
“Escaped? No one’s been able to escape.”
“Yes,” the female spoke again. The other prisoners listened quietly. “Aimeric has lost a few. Whether or not he pursues them depends on his mood, and how much he liked them. Is your sister still alive?”
Shawn shrugged. “You could say that.”
“He must not have liked her enough to care to bring her back,” she said.
“Lucky Megan.” Shawn sighed.
“How long have you been here?” Jessica asked the female.
“I’ve counted five full moons.” She sighed. “Guess he likes me.”
Just then the dungeon door shot open. The prisoners pressed themselves against the walls, huddling together. Shawn grabbed Ashley and Jessica, pulling them into his arms in a protective embrace. They joined the male and two other prisoners against the wall.
In walked the dark-haired vampire. Aimeric, the one in charge. He was alone and took a moment to stand in the doorway, glaring menacingly in the prisoner’s direction. The glare then turned into a sardonic smile and he walked with confidence to the cage Ashley, Jessica, and Shawn occupied.
He stood in front of the gate, his eyes on Ashley. He was dressed in black pants and a black dress shirt. His dark hair was pulled back, revealing a pale face with strong features, and those blue eyes. Icy and penetrating.
“Come here, virgin,” his voice was smooth, and he pointed his index finger at her.
Ashley whimpered, clinging to Shawn.
Aimeric stepped backwards, raising his arms in mock offense. “What, do I not look good enough for our date? I bathed and everything.” He smirked and unlocked the gate, throwing it open.
Shawn let go of the girls and ran at him, intending on pummeling him; do anything to hurt him—he wouldn’t give Ashley up without a fight.
Aimeric slapped him away as if he were an annoying gnat. Shawn hit the wall and fell to the floor. Jessica’s grip tightened on Ashley so hard that her nails were digging into the poor girl’s arms.
“No, no,” Jessica said as Aimeric ripped Ashley away from her. Ashley began screaming, blood curdling, terrifying yells.
“Take me!” Jessica yelled as he turned away.
He grinned over his shoulder, yanking Ashley along with him, out of the cage. “Oh, don’t worry; your time will come soon enough.”
Without another word, he locked the cage and left with Ashley screaming and writhing and fighting his arm.
“Where’s he taking her?” Jessica yelled, crying.
“He called her ‘virgin.’ I can guess what he’s about to do to her,” the female said. “Same thing happened to me when I was first brought here. Master Aimeric has a preference for virgins.”
“What did you just call him?” Jessica said.
“Master. He asks that we call him ‘Master’.”
“And you do it?” Jessica asked in disgust.
“He tortures you until you say it,” the male interrupted. “He says he wants the respect of being called ‘Master’ but he’ll hurt you just as badly no matter what, so why bother giving him that respect? Still, it slips out now and then.”
“This can’t be happening,” Shawn said, rubbing his head where he hit the wall.
Jessica knelt beside him, put a hand on his shoulder, and they embraced. They stayed that way for hours, until Ashley finally returned.
Chapter Four
Aimeric wasn’t the one who brought Ashley back to the cage. The skinny, sniveling vampire from before, Morgan, brought her back. She was crying, her body practically limp as he dragged her across the prison floor and to the cage.
Shawn and Jessica looked up as Morgan opened the door and tossed Ashley inside as if throwing a cat out for the night. The girl stayed on the floor, burying her face in her hands. Even when Morgan left and her friends tried to comfort her, she refused to move.
“Ashley, please, tell us if you’re okay!” Jessica was saying.
“Of course she’s not okay,” the male said. “Do you have any idea what he’s done to her?”
Ashley reacted to those words. She sobbed harder, crawled to the wall and sat up, leaning her back against it. She continued to hide her face against her knees. Jessica and Shawn followed her, this time just comforting her instead of trying to get her to speak.
There was a scent on Ashley, as if she had been bathed. She did look cleaner: the blood was gone and her hair was shiny, though it was a mess. She was also in new clothes; a long sleeved peasant-style shirt, and loose-fitting jeans. The scent on her skin and in her hair was jasmine; Jessica recognized it because she had a bottle of hand lotion that was jasmine-scented sitting on her dresser in her bedroom.
It was at least an hour later before Ashley finally said anything. Just out of the blue, she said, “He pulled my hair. He kept pulling it and scratching me.” She pulled up the sleeves of the shirt to show them. Jessica gasped; Shawn clenched his fists. On both of her arms were long, deep scratches that were still bleeding in places.
“He forced me to…to…”
“Shh, it’s okay, Ash.” Jessica hugged her. “You don’t have to say it.”
“And,” Ashley sobbed, “he drank my blood.”
Jessica’s eyes widened and she looked at Ashley. “He bit you?”
Ashley shook her head, ashamed, and they barely heard what she said next: “No…I have my period…”
Jessica covered her mouth to hide the gag she felt coming. Shawn scoffed in disgust.
“I mean he…he kind of bit me…he bit my…” she couldn’t finish. She buried her head and the sobs returned.
The other prisoners showed no signs of shock; they were used to it by now, even the ones who hadn’t been there very long—it only took a few days to realize Aimeric was an unpredictable and terrible being who would do anything to satisfy his sick thirst for inflicting pain on others.
***
Two days went by before Aimeric returned to the basement. Twice a day, just before morning and just before night, Morgan brought food to the prisoners. Surprisingly, the food was plentiful, fresh, and very filling. Aimeric liked to keep his prisoners healthy so they could endure the maximum amount of torture he felt like giving them. Half the prisoners had wizened up and decided to starve to death, refusing to eat anything. The others weren’t to that point yet—perhaps they had a sliver of hope they would be able to get out of there one day. Shawn and Jessica were two of those still with hope. They snarfed their meals each time it was brought to them. Ashley barely ate anything.
That day, Aimeric walked inside and flipped a light switch. A loosely hanging, single florescent rod came to life in the center of the room.
Jessica’s and Shawn’s eyes widened. They hadn’t seen the entire room until then.
In the center was a large metal table. Near each corner of the table were spikes caked with blood and pieces of old flesh. Hanging on the walls were sets of chains, even a noose hung from the ceiling. There were also weapons on the wall; axes, machetes and large knives. There was one huge instrument shaped like a triangle. At the top was a large hole, in the middle were two smaller holes that wrists would fit in, and below those were two medium holes for ankles. In the far left corner, there was another table with torture devices. The instrument that stuck out most was a large double-ended fork. It had two large prongs on both ends, and in the middle of them was a strap.
“Do you like it?” Aimeric asked, looking around the room. “I like to switch things out every year or so—keeps things from getting too boring around here.”
“You’re sick,” Jessica whispered.
Aimeric smiled. “You’ll find out just how sick soon enough.”
Ashley was clinging to Shawn, shaking her head. “Don’t let him take me again, please,” she whispered.
Aimeric knelt in front of them, the cage bars separating them. He stared at Ashley for a minute, a disgusting smile on his pale face.
“Oh come on, darling. It wasn’t that bad.” He stood and started unbuttoning his shirt, smirking at each prisoner as he did so. Several of the prisoners were distressed and shaking just by his presence alone. Many of them were already crying.
Aimeric threw his shirt to the floor, revealing a pale and powerful chest. Each muscle looked as though it had been carefully chiseled from his body. He was wearing a pair of gray sweatpants, and his hair was tied back. He took a moment to pop his knuckles and stretch his limbs, then walked slowly, back and forth, in front of the cages with a thoughtful expression.
“You,” he pointed at a male in the other cage. “Timmy isn’t it?”
“N-n-no. My name is…is Max.” The poor man was shaking and stuttering. He already had several cuts that had scabbed over. His hands were wrapped in old, dirty pieces of bloodstained cloth.
“Ah,” Aimeric shrugged. “Well I like Timmy better for you, so that’s what we’ll call you from now on. Take off your shirt, Timmy.”
The man looked to be in his middle twenties. He was still quivering but bravely shook his head. “No. Please.”
“Tsk, tsk.” Aimeric shook his head. “You know the rules, don’t you? I would think so considering you’ve bled already. Be a good boy and take it off; I may go easier on you if you obey.”
“Timmy” took his shirt off, revealing a bruised chest with healing stripes on them, scars from a previous whipping.
“Now come here,” Aimeric said.
The man obeyed and when he reached the gate, Aimeric unlocked and opened it, pulling him outside. Aimeric looked at him for a minute, running a long, slender finger along the man’s right cheek, down to his jaw and over his lips.
“Go to the wall.”
Timmy went without a fight, maybe believing fighting back was useless by now, or perhaps he was one of those who foolishly believed Aimeric really would go easier on him if he listened. He put his back to the wall near a pair of shackles. Aimeric followed and fastened his wrists in them, leaving the man practically immobile.
“Don’t worry. This will feel like a tickle compared to last time.” Aimeric kissed the man softly on the lips before turning around.
“Morgan! I would like my hot beverage now!” Aimeric yelled at the door. “And bring me my chair!” He looked at Shawn and added with a chuckle, “Honestly, they’re like children: you have to constantly be up their ass or they never do anything.”
A couple of minutes passed and Morgan entered with an armchair. It was large and looked old but was still in good shape. Still, it wasn’t something one would expect to be in a house full of vampires. The chair had a feminine pattern of autumn-colored wildflowers.
Morgan set the chair in the center of the room, then handed Aimeric a small brown bag.
“I’ll be right back with your mug, Master,” his British voice said as he left.
Aimeric sat in the chair and made a show of getting comfortable. Once he was settled, he pulled the hair tie out, letting his dark curtain of hair fall around his shoulders and trickle down his chest.
“I like to be comfortable for this game,” he winked at Jessica. “Morgan! For God’s sake, will you hurry up?”
“Yes, Master! I’ll be there soon!”
Aimeric sighed and unzipped the bag. He pulled out a throwing dart and examined it carefully, testing its sharpness by pricking his finger and sucking the blood that seeped out. Satisfied, he threw the dart.
Timmy yelled in pain.
The sniveling man returned, carrying a steaming mug on a saucer in one hand. In the other hand, he carried a TV tray. He set up the tray next to Aimeric’s chair and then carefully set the mug and saucer down on it.
“There ya go, Master.”
Aimeric took a sip of whatever was in the cup.
“How is it, Master? I freshly drained a girl from the mainland earlier to fill up that cup. Then I boiled it to perfection on the stove—just the way you like it.”
A steaming cup of blood.
“Yes, yes, Morgan. You’ve done wonderfully. You’re the best man-servant I’ve ever had and from now on, I’m going to respect you and treat you like a brother,” Aimeric grinned and Morgan’s eyes lit up, “instead of like the pathetic slave you are! Get the hell out of my sight!”
Morgan hung his head, his expression changing to one that indicated he should have known better than to believe Aimeric had been serious.
As Morgan shut the dungeon door, Aimeric threw a second dart. Timmy screamed as this one hit him near the throat, just above the collarbone.
Aimeric chuckled. “Don’t you just love the sound of something sharp hitting and sticking into a pathetic meat-sack like that?” He took another sip of the blood. “Ahh, refreshing.” He threw another dart, and then added, smirking cruelly at Ashley, “though not as refreshing as your blood.”
Ashley’s grip tightened on Shawn and she buried her face in his chest so she wouldn’t have to look at the monster.
“It’s so tender,” he said thoughtfully, “that part of the ‘lips’,” he grinned. “The blood is so fresh, so invigorating, especially when she’s aroused. The blood that was already there was just an added bonus.” He stared at Ashley, taking pleasure in sensing her fear as she remembered a few nights earlier. To add to her discomfort, he said, “You just do a little licking to get the blood flowing, part the lips, and bite the inside and suck. Ahh, delicious.”
He laughed, hearing her cry, and casually threw a dart without aiming. Timmy groaned through clenched teeth as this one hit right by his bellybutton.
This went on for several minutes, until Aimeric ran out of darts. By the time he finished, Timmy had at least a dozen of them sticking from his torso and arms. One even landed on his face, through his right cheek. Once the darts were gone, Aimeric yanked each one out of the man’s flesh. Blood seeped from the little holes, which Aimeric then licked clean.
He threw Timmy back into his cage and then pulled out a woman who was probably in her thirties. With her, he was much more violent.
“No! No! No!” she screamed, kicking against him.
He pulled her out by her blonde curls and slammed her against the wall, sneering into her face.
“You’re a slut. How many men have you fucked for money?” he asked as he secured her in the same shackles Timmy had been in.
The woman spit in his face. Aimeric slapped her across the cheek hard enough it probably broke the bone. The woman yelled in pain. Her cheek immediately began to swell.
Jessica and Shawn embraced Ashley. Their male cage-mate knelt beside them, whispering to them.
“He’s gone into his frenzy, probably being too gentle with the other one was too much for him to handle. He needs something more terrible, something more satisfying to his lust for blood. You three may not want to watch. Or maybe you should, so you know what you’re in for.”
Ashley wasn’t coherent. She was crying in Shawn’s shirt, mumbling frantically. She refused to move her head and look.
Jessica, face wet with tears, forced herself to watch. Maybe she could learn something, how to talk to Aimeric, maybe she could manipulate him and free herself and her friends.
Aimeric went to the table with the many instruments. First, he picked up a screwdriver, examined it a moment and set it back down. Next, he picked up a pizza cutter, smiled and brought it with him to the woman.
“It’s brand new, so it’s sure to be sharp,” he said softly, evil.
The woman cried, shook her head, begged for him to just kill her.
Aimeric slashed the object across her arms, over her torso, and lastly, across the top part of her ankles where the leg meets the foot. It would be almost impossible for her to walk if he released her.
The woman screamed with each painful slash. She was bleeding all over. But Aimeric wasn’t done. Now that his frenzy was fed, he was able to perform a slower, more painful method of pain.
He went back to the table and picked up the double-sided fork. It was big, almost a foot long, and the two prongs on each end were thick.
“Raise your chin,” Aimeric ordered.
The woman shook her head violently, kicking at him and screaming at the pain it caused her. “No! No, please, no!”
“RAISE YOUR GOD DAMN CHIN!”
“NO!” She let out a blood curdling scream as Aimeric used one hand to force her head up while he strapped the device to her neck with the leather belt.
Jessica gagged as she watched what he did next.
The Monster forced the woman’s chin down on the first set of prongs. Blood spilled from her mouth. He shoved the other end of the fork into the middle of her chest. The woman’s screams tortured the prison. Most covered their ears and closed their eyes.
Jessica had to let go of Ashley so she could vomit in the corner. Shawn held Ashley’s head down so she couldn’t see even if she wanted to. Ashley was still crying, grasping at Shawn’s shirt.
“Get me out of here, please, God, get me out of here!” she was crying.
After a minute, the woman’s garbled screams died and she just sobbed as best she could. Her head was held in place by the fork; she could barely breathe and each breath she managed caused her more pain. She couldn’t talk. Blood soaked her clothes. The fork had also pierced part of her tongue.
Aimeric was laughing at her. He took the mug of blood from the table and threw what was left on the poor woman. She didn’t even seem to notice.
He then turned to the other prisoners, still laughing.
“Let this be a lesson to all of you: prostitution is illegal.” He walked to the cage, looking at Jessica, his lustful eyes roaming her body.
“I’ll be back for you later.” He left, leaving the woman on the wall
.
Chapter Five
“We have to get out of here,” Shawn was saying.
“I’m telling you, man, it’s impossible,” the male said. They had found out his name was Steven. “They keep the cages locked, and even if we could break them, they would be all over us before we could make it to a door or a window, or whatever the hell you’re planning on using.”
“My sister escaped,” Shawn said.
“One lucky girl.”
“No, she said there have been others to escape,” Shawn pointed to the woman in the second cage that had talked to them before. Her name was JoAnne.
“Still. The only way we would even have a chance is if they all went out at once. The odds of that happening are slim to none. And trust me, there’s a lot of them. Most of them don’t come down here because it’s Aimeric’s “territory”; most of the time they need an invitation. But trust me, they’re there,” Steven said.
“We have to do something!” Shawn said in a whisper. “We can’t just sit here and wait to die!”
“Who are you telling? Don’t you think we all have weighed options? Don’t you think we’ve thought of every possible way to escape? They’re vampires, dude. Not humans. How are we gonna fight against vampires?”
“There’s still no proof that’s what they are.”
“Oh please, Shawn,” Jessica said. “What more proof do you need? Didn’t you see how strong he was? And he…” she looked at Ashley, who was laying with her head in Shawn’s lap. She had cried herself to sleep, but just in case, Jessica mouthed the words, drank Ashley’s blood.
“That doesn’t mean anything. Haven’t you heard of cannibals? Or people who believe they’re vampires? Some people are just crazy, and I’m betting he’s one of those people.”
“No,” Steven said. “He’s not only strong, he’s fast. He could move around this entire room without anyone seeing him because he’s moving so fast. Also…he can read minds.”
“They read minds?” Jessica repeated in disbelief.
“No, not they—he. Aimeric is a Master Vampire; he’s stronger than the others.”
“How do you know so much about him? I thought you haven’t been here that long?” Jessica said.
“I haven’t, but I’ve been here long enough to know routines, and I know about Aimeric because…one of the other vampires talks to me when Aimeric’s out of the house.”
“He talks?” Jessica said. “Like, friendly conversations?”
“I don’t know how to explain it; this guy isn’t like the rest of him. He’s almost…nice.”
“Oh, right. A good vampire.” Jessica shook her head. “If he’s so nice, why doesn’t he free us?”
“He knows it won’t do any good. If he frees us, it will only make things worse. Aimeric will prolong our suffering even more. He said he’s freed several groups and it always ends up worse. At least this way, some of us die quickly. Unfortunately, that’s not the case for all of us,” Steven looked at the poor woman on the wall with the fork still holding her head in place.
***
Another day went by before Aimeric returned. This time, he brought Wes, the big guy from before. Wes was carrying an old claw-foot bathtub. He set it down where Aimeric’s chair had been.
“I’m going to need more chains,” Aimeric told the big man.
“Sure, Master.”
The prisoners watched, curious, as Aimeric and Wes fastened two sets of heavy chains to the ceiling, over the bathtub. They were secured by a pulley and a slick roller so the chains would slide easily and raise a person to the ceiling.
“Oh God,” Jessica whispered, realizing what the device was for.
“You like it?” Aimeric asked her.
“Why are you like this?” she asked.
“Oh, now, Jessica. That hurts my feelings. Should I set you up there next to Nancy?”
Jessica eyed the woman on the wall. She hadn’t made much noise since she was put there, just a whimper here and there.
“What’s going to happen to her? Can’t you end her suffering?”
“She’ll die of starvation, like she deserves.”
“Who the hell are you to pass judgment?! Who’s going to judge you for your crimes?” Jessica yelled without thinking.
Aimeric smiled, leaning against the bars so he could gaze at Jessica.
“I’m not human; therefore I do not need to be judged,” he said in a dangerous, quiet voice. “Wes, plug in the music,” he said, still looking at Jessica.
“Yes, Master.” The big man went across the room and messed with something for a minute. A few seconds went by and modern Goth rock music began to play.
Aimeric stepped backwards so he could address all the prisoners.
“Who wants to volunteer? I’m going to kill some of you. I’m taking votes now; don’t worry, it will be over quickly.”
“Like we believe that, you sick…” Steven couldn’t finish, knowing what his punishment would be if he badmouthed Aimeric.
“Ah, Steven. I think I’m going to choose you for our first corpse. Come on over here, now.”
Jessica gasped and shook her head. Shawn closed his eyes, clenching his fists, hoping Ashley wouldn’t choose now to wake up—she had been asleep most of the time, waking only for a minute at a time to cry herself to sleep again.
Steven rubbed his brow, which had started to sweat profusely. His nerves began to shake. This was it. Death. He wanted it more than anything, but still…there was that doubt in his mind. What if there had been a way to escape? Now he would never have the chance.
“Come on now, don’t keep me waiting,” Aimeric said, grinning.
Steven stood and Shawn gave him a comforting pat on the leg as he walked by, and looked at him with apologetic eyes. Jessica couldn’t help but stand and hug him. They didn’t know each other very well, but considering the circumstances, they had become close with him.
“Good boy.” Aimeric opened the gate and yanked Steven the rest of the way out. “Wes? Take him.”
Wes grabbed Steven and pushed him on the floor. He put both of his ankles in shackles attached to the chain. Steven yelled when Wes pulled the chain and he flew up to the ceiling, crushing the bottoms of his feet and breaking his ankles. Then the big man secured the chain so Steven would stay hanging upside down over the bathtub.
“Who else?” Aimeric turned back to the cages. He looked at Jessica, Shawn, and Ashley. “Besides you three, you’re still too new. Anyone?”
A woman with short red hair sitting next to JoAnne stood up, raising a shaking hand. Like most of the rest, she was covered with scabs from wounds and had bruises all over her body. She was also limping as she made her way to Aimeric. Eager to die.
They strung her upside down, too.
Jessica began to cry again. She wanted to look away, but couldn’t. Shawn kept telling her to sit down, to “come here by me” so they could hold each other again and cry and not look. But she couldn’t. She was mesmerized. She stood at the edge of the cage, fingers wrapped around the bars for support, and she watched, sobbing.
Aimeric took a machete from the wall, and in one quick, violent motion, he hacked the throat of the red-haired woman. Steven screamed beside her, his body trembling violently, knowing he was next. He vomited into the tub. The red-haired woman was dead almost instantly, her head barely hanging from her neck, almost completely severed. Blood poured from her neck and began filling the tub.
Jessica gagged and gulped for air.
The machete was raised again and came down just as hard and aggressive. Steven’s head came all the way off, falling into the tub. Blood poured from his neck, too, falling on top of the head.
Aimeric did this to several of the prisoners until only one was left besides Jessica, Shawn, and Ashley. And, of course, poor Nancy. Even though he realized he was running out of prisoners to kill in order to fill his tub, he still refused to kill Nancy.
“Wes, tell Morgan and the others to get ready. We’ll need to restock tonight.”
“Yes, Master.” Wes left.
Aimeric looked at the remaining prisoners. The one left was alone in one cage. She was hugging herself in the corner, trying not to look at the pile of decapitated and nearly decapitated bodies against the wall. He ignored her, his eyes on Jessica.
Oh God, he’s going to take me next, she thought.
She thought of Ashley and looked at her, lying on the floor, her head still in Shawn’s lap. She had woken up during the slaughtering, but turned her head to the wall so she wouldn’t have to see, and she cried quietly before going back to sleep—it was an escape for her. Shawn looked like he was about to pass out, too; from shock and exhaustion.
He had taken Ashley because she had been a virgin. What would he want with her? She wasn’t a virgin and he should be able to tell that if he had sensed Ashley. Steven had said his preference was virgins, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t take anyone else.
“I’ll be back for you later,” she remembered him saying. But for what? Sex? Or was she to become his next torture victim.
He seemed to get off on prisoners being afraid of him. What if she pretended she wasn’t? Would he go easier on her? Be impressed? Or would that just make him try harder to make her fear him?
He was walking to the cage now. His long, dark hair had blood in it and there were spurts of blood on his face from the slaughtering. Blood also covered his fingers. Still eyeing Jessica, he began to lick his fingers clean in a sensual gesture.
She was starting to panic on the inside. More tears formed in her eyes and she felt sick to her stomach.
What could she do? Either whimper and try to deny him and have him get his twisted pleasure from her misery, or she could pretend to want to him, maybe throw him off guard. If she could convince him she was good enough to be his sex slave, maybe he would let her out of the cage and give her permission to roam the house? She could earn his trust and figure out a way out of here. She could help Ashley and Shawn escape, too.
That’s stupid, she thought. She had read too many fairy-tales like Beauty and the Beast.
Still…it was better than being afraid. Better than giving him that satisfaction.
She could do this. There was music—oddly enough it worked out that the sicko needed music to go on his killing spree. She had done a few amateur dances for former boyfriends, and knew some seduction techniques.
Coming to a final decision, Jessica straightened her back and wiped her eyes. She was starting to shake. Nerves.
Calm down, she said to herself. It has to be believable. Calm down.
She opened her mind to the music and closed her eyes so she couldn’t look into his—not yet anyway. If she looked into those ice blue eyes now, she would lose control; she would be too afraid to continue.
She began swaying her hips to the music and ran her fingers through her long hair. Rhythmically, she moved her rear around and placed her hands on her hips as she danced.
“Oh, look at this one,” Aimeric said to himself.
You have to look at him now, she thought. You have to look or he won’t believe it. Forcing her eyes open and hoping her tears had dried, she looked at Aimeric, directly in his eyes with an expression she hoped at least resembled seduction.
He was staring back at her, eyes on her every move, rolling over her body. Aimeric unlocked the gate and let it swing open. Jessica used the side of the cage to intensify her dance. She held onto the edge like it was a stripper pole and worked her body against it, still with the beat of the music.
Aimeric pulled her away from the cage, slamming her body against his and they danced together for a moment. Grinding each other, Jessica soon felt Aimeric’s erection against her. She grabbed his hips and pushed herself up so she could kiss him. She held back a gag as she did so.
He got rough with her. The kiss was enough for him after the dance. His lips parted hers forcibly and she felt his cold tongue in her mouth and his hands groping her body. First, her rear. He squeezed her butt and crushed her against him, then his hands went up her shirt, playing with her breasts.
Fighting back nausea, Jessica began unbuttoning his pants while he worked hers. After a few moments, she was nude and being thrown on the floor and he was on top of her. She couldn’t help but pull her mouth from his and gasp when he thrust into her. Though it sickened her, she had to admit (only to herself) that she was feeling pleasure. The weight of him on top of her was erotic; he certainly knew what he was doing. For a second or two, she was lost in the moment, closing her eyes and enjoying it.
His mouth went to her nipples as he pumped inside of her, increasing the pleasure and making fire spread through her body despite the cold temperature of this thing on top of her.
It’s working, she thought. He thinks I really wanted him. She smiled to herself, feeling her orgasm approaching. I can do this. I could have sex with him every day, as often as he wants it. He would trust me; he wouldn’t hurt me. And we could escape.
She moaned noisily as her orgasm took over, and very shortly after, Aimeric was close to having his.
He groaned loudly, leaned over her and whispered in her ear, “Did you forget I can hear your thoughts?”
Her eyes widened and then suddenly she felt pain. Blinding pain. Aimeric’s face was on her left breast; he was biting her nipple off in the middle of his orgasm. Jessica screamed and tried pushing him off her. It was like trying to move a brick wall.
“Jessica!” Shawn yelled.
Aimeric was violent, his teeth piercing her breast, not only the nipple, but some of the skin around it. He tore at it like a wild animal until the peak separated from her body. He spat it out on the floor and then, mouth covered with blood, he went to her right nipple and did the same to it.
She screamed over and over, writhing underneath his weight, desperately trying to push him off of her, but it was no good—she wasn’t strong enough. The pain took her breath away. God help her.
For the finale, Aimeric spat the other nipple and then went to her neck. He bit into her, sucking out her blood. She gasped at the feel of his razor-like teeth cutting into the flesh on her throat. He only sucked for a moment and then he picked her up by the hair.
She fought him. He threw her in the tub filled with blood and forced her head underneath the liquid, holding her in place.
“Jessica! Jessica!” Shawn was yelling. She could barely hear him beneath the blood’s surface.
Aimeric pulled her up from the liquid long enough for her to take in a few gulps of air. She choked on the blood. He pushed her head under again. He did this over and over until she almost blacked out. Finally, he pulled her naked, blood-covered body from the tub and dragged her to the cage. He tossed her inside and slammed the gate shut. The dungeon door slammed shortly after.
She lay there for several minutes, gasping for air and crying. The blood was falling from her body and forming a puddle around her.
Soon, she felt Shawn trying to help her move. He pulled her into his lap and she felt him covering her with something, probably his shirt.
“I was stupid,” she whimpered. “So stupid. I thought I could make him trust me by acting like I wanted him.”
“I know. It’s okay, Jess.”
“I’m dizzy, Shawn.”
“Lie down. I’ve got you.”
Ashley was sitting up, leaning against the wall. She seemed to be in shock; her eyes barely blinked and she never said anything, just stared straight ahead.
Jessica lay her head in Shawn’s lap the way Ashley had done, and Shawn held onto her with one hand, putting the other on Ashley’s shoulder so he could comfort both girls.
“Did you watch?” Jessica whispered, ashamed.
Shawn laughed softly, ironically. “I couldn’t; it would have been like seeing my sister get her freak on.”
Jessica normally would have laughed at something like that. She couldn’t this time, though. She was in pain. Her breasts were bleeding and her neck hurt. She wasn’t sure how to stop the blood other than to hold part of Shawn’s shirt over the holes in her skin. She would probably get an infection anyway and be dead in a few days. Good. If she couldn’t get out of here, death would be best. Even if she did get out, how would she live the rest of her life being so deformed? For Jessica, her looks were everything . . . .
“Jess?” Shawn asked.
“Yeah?”
“I believe it now. He’s a vampire.”
Not even an hour later, the dungeon door opened again. Shawn instinctively tightened his grip on both girls. He watched the door carefully, and realized it wasn’t Aimeric, but someone new. This man was almost as tall as Aimeric, and his build was a little more muscular. Despite being pale, it looked as though he may have been deeply tanned in his mortal life. Dark brown hair fell to his shoulders, and his eyes were black as coal.
The man made his way to the cage. His expression was one of arrogance, though there seemed to be a hint of sympathy in his eyes.
“The Master is out,” he said in a deep voice. “Allow me to bathe and medically treat the girl.”
“What?” Shawn said in disbelief. “You think I’m just going to hand her over to you? Geez, at least your buddy knew enough to just take her instead of ask for permission; I’m not going to give her up willingly.”
The man shrugged. “If that’s how you feel. But without treatment, those wounds on her breasts will cause her more pain than the Master has inflicted thus far. I will not harm her further.”
“Yeah right.” Shawn scoffed.
“It’s not my style, boy. I can’t control the Master, but I can control myself.”
“What’s your name?” Shawn asked, remembering Steven had spoken of a “good” vampire that lived here.
“My name is Virgil.”
That was him. If Steven trusted him, maybe Shawn should, too. Jessica did need some attention.
“What do you think, Jess? Go get cleaned up, let him help you.”
“No, I don’t want to leave,” Jessica tightened her grip.
“Come on, Jess. You’ll die if you don’t-”
“We’re going to die anyway!” She said, sitting up and glaring at him.
Shawn was taken aback at first. “You don’t know that for sure…”
“Yes, I do. And you know it, too. We can’t escape from this place, Shawn. He certainly isn’t going to help us!” She pointed at Virgil.
“I would if I thought you would never see this place again,” Virgil said. “Unfortunately, he-”
“I know. He’ll hunt us down and just make it worse. Thanks for all the help. You know, if you were really a ‘good’ vampire, you would at least put everyone out of their misery for them. Instead you’re scared of what he’ll do to you.”
Virgil looked at the floor. “Perhaps you’re right. I am afraid of him. He’s done terrible things to me, too…because I’m not like him.” He hesitated, then said, “Maybe I can do something for you three. But first, please come with me, Miss.”
She looked at Shawn and he pleaded with his eyes.
Virgil unlocked the door.
Shakily, she got to her feet and allowed the vampire to lead her out of the basement.
“He’s lying you know,” the remaining prisoner in the other cage said. “He won’t try to help you. Not any of you. You were right when you said he’s too afraid of what the Master will do. I can sense it; he’s tried to help before. It always results in something terrible for him.”
Shawn put his head in his hands. What was he going to do?
Chapter Six
Jessica was clean again. All the blood had been washed from her body by a lukewarm shower. The running water, even with the bandages on, stung her wounds so she had had to make the water as cool as was bearable since heat stung them worse.
Before showering, Virgil had helped her clean around the wounds with antiseptic, then he carefully cleaned the wounds themselves. She had had to bite down on a rag to keep from screaming at the pain it had caused.
He closed the wounds with surgical strips and then taped gauze over them to help keep the water out. Now, he was helping her put fresh gauze over the wounds, discarding the wet ones.
“Do you think I’m ugly now?” Jessica asked, peering at the bandages that hid her misshapen, nipple-less breasts.
“No,” Virgil said. He tried to pretend he wasn’t interested in speaking with her. Jessica sensed he just didn’t want to risk getting close to any of the prisoners.
“Will you get in trouble for helping me?” She asked as he turned his attention to the wounds on her neck.
“No. Master Aimeric doesn’t mind this kind of thing, but I won’t tell you why.”
“I can handle it.”
He eyed her with skepticism, but shrugged. She asked for it.
“He likes to keep the prisoners healthy, which means he doesn’t mind if I avert infection in some of them.”
“But several of the prisoners had festering wounds.”
“Those were the ones who refused help. Aimeric doesn’t force medical aid, but he’s not opposed to it either.”
“Why is he the way he is?”
“He was born that way, in mortal life and immortal.” He finished covering her neck, then handed her a pile of clothes. “Here, they’ll be warm; sweatpants and a long-sleeve shirt.”
“Thanks,” she said softly and began dressing. “Can I ask you one more thing?”
“I’m sure you will anyway, so go ahead.”
“Why are there still people on this island? Why don’t you guys kill them?”
“Now that wouldn’t be much fun would it? Aimeric doesn’t want the island to get boring; he doesn’t want us to be the only ones here, and if he starts killing them, they’ll get scared and leave. We go to the mainland to…to feed.” He seemed ashamed to admit the last part.
“So, you kill humans, too?”
“Just the bad ones…” He sighed and added quietly, “as if that makes a difference, who am I to judge them?”
Jessica wasn’t sure what to say, so she waited while Virgil brooded for a moment. Shaking it off, he stood and held out a hand for her.
“Come on, I have to get you back downstairs.”
She went without saying another word to him, and went without a fight. What good would it do to fight him? Besides, she couldn’t risk leaving Shawn and Ashley behind.
As Jessica was going back into her cage, they heard Nancy whimper. Virgil looked at her. She looked miserable. The double-ended fork was still stuck in her chin and chest, her eyes were always glazed with tears, and the blood was crusting around the edges of her wounds. Her face was pale; she looked sickly.
Silently, Virgil locked the cage, went to the instrument table, and picked up a machete. He drove the thing straight into Nancy’s forehead. The woman died and Virgil let the machete drop. He looked at Jessica and she looked back with sympathetic eyes.
“What will you tell him?” Jessica asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe that she wouldn’t stop crying and the sound grated on my ears.”
Virgil left without another word.
***
“How did your sister escape, Shawn?” Jessica whispered.
It had been three days since Aimeric and some of the other vampires (Wes and two women) had brought in more frightened prisoners. Since then, they hadn’t seen or heard from any of the vampires.
The prisoners were sitting in their cages, crying, but not yet entirely fearful for they hadn’t witnessed what Aimeric was capable of yet.
“She waited for them to make a mistake.” Shawn shook his head. “She got lucky; she was only in here for three days…and even that was enough time for him to completely destroy her.” He laughed ironically. “The odds of them forgetting to lock the doors again are practically nonexistent.”
“But maybe we could get the cage open. All we would have to do is wait till daylight.”
“No. Just because it’s daylight doesn’t mean they’re sleeping and won’t hear us. In fact, there’s more of a chance that more of them will hear us because they’ll all be here. Haven’t you noticed? They only stay inside during the day; they don’t necessarily sleep for the whole time.”
“What do you mean they don’t go out during the day?” a new prisoner girl asked. She was probably sixteen or so.
“He means we don’t go out during the day, are you deaf, girl?” Aimeric’s voice boomed. He now stood at the cage. Shawn and Jessica hadn’t even heard the dungeon door open. Ashley was still in her state of shock, not eating, barely sleeping now. She was getting thinner and weaker.
“Let me out, you sick fucker!” the girl yelled, standing up. “I’m going to tell my father; he’s the chief of police!”
Aimeric grinned at her. “Oh. Oh my, I had no idea I would be up against a chief of police by kidnapping you.” He smirked, coldly, unlocking the door. “I better release you.”
Though she wasn’t very bright, the girl had enough sense to realize something bad was about to happen. She gasped when Aimeric’s cold hand grabbed her around the throat and yanked her out of the cage.
“You’ll learn, darling. Don’t worry.”
Aimeric threw the girl in the tub of blood and held her head under the same as he had done to Jessica. The girl screamed each time he brought her back up. He dunked her again. Brought her back up. The girl was choking, gasping for air. He dunked her again.
Before he could bring her back up, something hard hit the side of the porcelain tub, shattering the side away from Aimeric. The tub fell apart and the blood flooded the floor.
“This is disgusting!” Virgil yelled. “Do you not understand what you’re doing to these people?”
Rage burned in Aimeric’s eyes and he jumped over the tub in front of Virgil so quickly, it was unseen by human eyes.
Aimeric slapped Virgil hard across the face.
“I thought we had gotten all of these disgusting, human feelings out of you?” he sneered in his face. “You’re a disgrace to this house, you putrid pool of bile! When I’m finished here, I’m going to make you do something ‘cruel’…like drain a kitten. That will eat up your little heart, won’t it? Go upstairs and wait for it.”
Virgil shook his head, lip curling in disgust. “You-”
“Go!”
On his way out, Virgil punched the wall by the door, leaving a crack in the cement.
Aimeric glared at the mess on the floor: the girl was on all fours, trying to stand up while she choked and coughed up blood from her lungs. Blood surrounded her; she slipped in it trying to stand. Several shattered pieces of porcelain lay in the blood.
“Morgan!” Aimeric yelled in the direction of the stairs. “Clean up this mess!” He grabbed the blood-covered girl by her soaked hair and dragged her out of the basement with him. She screamed and protested, grabbing at his hands.
She was pulled up the stairs and into the living room. Several of the vampires were up and lounging there. Aimeric dropped her in the middle of the floor.
“Snack time, kids,” he growled.
The girl screamed as the vampires fell on her, biting and ripping her limbs apart so they each would have a piece to suck on.
Chapter Seven
From one of the new prisoners, Shawn had acquired the tiny medal rod that comes off of a belt buckle—the piece that goes in the little holes of the belt to secure it in place. He thought it was a good size to pick the lock on his cage, and he was the only one brave (or foolish) enough to try it.
He jiggled the thing several times, trying to get it into the lock hole, but to no avail; the piece was too big in diameter.
“Damn it!” He let the thing drop to the floor.
It had been several days, maybe even a week, since Aimeric had been in the prison. The only vampire they had seen was Morgan during feeding time. The sniveling vampire always had something sarcastic to say to taunt them.
“Still alive, I see?” he would say and then shake his head. “Pity.”
“How is Virgil?” Jessica asked him once. She wondered if he had been reprimanded for killing Nancy; she had never heard anything and hadn’t seen him since that night.
“Virgil?” Morgan asked in disgust. “They always love Virgil…pretty boy,” he muttered to himself, almost sounding jealous.
“Well?” Jessica asked, impatient.
Morgan sneered. “Still undead.” That’s all he would say.
Ashley was weak. Jessica and Shawn had only been able to convince her to eat a small amount of food. She was getting skinnier and skinnier, and was barely able to move. She hadn’t said much, either. Even if they managed to get out alive, she would probably be like Megan. She was already starting to act like her. Ashley would only stare ahead, rocking slightly with her knees drawn up, unaware of the others most of the time.
Jessica was still a wreck from her experience. She cried frequently, looking at her chest and thinking back to that night when he viciously disfigured her. Remembering the pain made her hurt worse; her wounds sent shooting pain through her body every time she moved.
Shawn, though thankful, wondered why he had been spared so far. Aimeric barely acknowledged him and Shawn didn’t have even a scratch on him. Maybe he didn’t catch Aimeric’s interest. Or maybe Aimeric was just waiting for something “perfect” for him. If they did get out of here, he might have a shot at being normal.
“Shawn…” Jessica whispered.
He looked at her.
“Isn’t there a way to…” she hesitated, unsure if she really wanted to say it. “Isn’t there something we could eat or drink…rat poison? Or maybe a weapon nearby?” her voice trailed off.
He glared at her. “Suicide, Jess? Really? You want to just give up like that?”
“No,” she said defensively, then, “I…don’t know. Maybe. It’d be better than this, wouldn’t it?”
“We can’t give up yet.” Shawn shook his head.
Jessica sighed, leaning back against the wall, feeling her eyes moisten again. Maybe Shawn wasn’t ready to give up, but she was. She had to be. The longer she stayed here, the more of her mind she lost. She would be completely insane soon, she could feel it. Look at poor Ashley, Jessica thought, glancing at the girl. Soon, she would be just like her, and just like Megan. Each night she would go to sleep, she would dream of these creatures. Her dreams would keep her running. Keep her screaming. He would forever haunt her…if he didn’t follow her and kill her, that was.
“So, what do we do now?” she asked Shawn, hoping he had a new plan.
As if in response to her words, there were two loud clicks, and the door to both cages opened on their own. They opened wide, tempting the prisoners. The torch on the wall seemed to dance faster, as if egging them on: Come out, come out. You’re free to leave.
Shawn was the first to move. He cautiously stepped out far enough to examine the door. The lock was opened, not broken. Someone had managed to unlock the cages without being seen; probably moved too fast for the human’s eyes to pick up, especially in the dark.
The prisoners looked around the room, confused. They glanced at each other, eyes darting to each person, then back to the open doors. Shawn stood in place, looking at Jessica. Ashley had stopped rocking and looked back and forth from Shawn to the open door. Tears that never dried sparkled in her eyes. She shook her head, knowing something bad was about to happen.
“This can’t be good,” Jessica whispered, fear shaking her voice.
The prisoners started edging out of the cages, cautiously glancing around the room.
“What’s going on?” and “What do we do?” the people asked. They headed for the dungeon door.
No one was able to see the figure in the shadows against the wall farthest away from them. They were concealed, camouflaged by darkness.
“It’s a trap,” Ashley whispered.
“Probably,” Shawn said. “But it’s also a chance.”
“Let’s follow them,” Jessica said.
Slowly, Ashley stood, trying to ignore the hungry waves in her stomach and the way her eyes swam in front of her. She almost blacked out; Shawn grabbed her arm, Jessica grabbed the other. Together, they walked out of their cage, following the other prisoners.
A woman was at the front of the line. She was cautiously opening the dungeon door while the others patiently waited, some with uncertain looks on their faces.
While they were waiting, Ashley looked over her shoulder at the table with the torture instruments. It was right under the torch, illuminated by its light—an invitation. There was the machete, the knives, and all the other tools Aimeric had used. She shook off Jessica’s and Shawn’s arms and walked with shaky legs to the table. She stood there a second, staring at the instruments. She was in a trance again. She picked up the biggest hunting knife on the table.
“Ashley!” Jessica whispered.
“What are you doing?” Shawn whispered, annoyed. She should know better. Even if she managed to stab one of them—unlikely considering their speed—he doubted it would kill them.
Jessica gasped suddenly as she saw what Ashley was about to do. Shawn saw that Jessica was opening her mouth to scream. Quickly, he grabbed her around the shoulders and covered her mouth before the scream could come out. Ashley plunged the knife into her own throat, then somehow managed to pull it back out. Blood spurted from her neck, spraying the wall and floor. The poor girl choked on her own blood for a second, then fell to the floor. Her body convulsed violently.
Jessica was shaking with tears and fright. Shawn held her still.
“Don’t look, Jess,” he said, trying to turn her around. “Come on, we have to get out of here; we can’t do anything for her now.” Though trying to be strong, his own voice broke as he watched Ashley dying on the floor. Their friend.
All the prisoners managed to make it out of the dungeon. They travelled through the dark corridor and up the narrow stone steps to the basement door that led to the kitchen.
The house appeared empty. It was silent, eerily so. One of the curtains in the living room was open, like someone had purposefully opened it to show them that it was nighttime, maybe midnight.
The vampires were gone feeding, perhaps? No, it couldn’t be that easy. Ashley had been right: this was a trap. But, maybe the vampires would make a mistake and this trap would be the prisoners’ salvation. At least for a few of them. For Shawn and Jessica.
Once the group reached the living room and saw the front door, they ran, not caring about making any noise. A male flung open the front door and the prisoners fled and scattered, running out into the cool night air. Jessica and Shawn ran with them.
Back in the basement prison, the figure left the security of the shadows. It was a female vampire, the one who had unlocked the cages. She had dark skin and long, light colored hair—almost white. She crawled on her hands and feet, legs bowed out as she moved. Her movements were probing and spider-like. Curiously, she scurried to Ashley’s corpse and bent her head low. Like a dog, she lapped up the blood pooling from the girl’s throat. She licked until there was none left to lick, then she tore into the dead girls throat and drained her completely.
***
The night was crisp and cool. The scent of fall with winter close around the corner hung in the air. It was silent, waiting. All the creatures knew terror was on the way. Even the trees were silent with anticipation. It was the calm before the storm.
Hand in hand, Jessica and Shawn fled. They ran through the forest trees along the driveway, towards the main road. Tree branches slapped at their faces and roots clawed at their feet. It was dark; the only light came from the moon and stars. The sun wouldn’t be out for hours. The only sounds they heard for the first few minutes was their own breathing and footsteps, and the sound of their hearts beating behind their ears.
You should have seen her, Shawn.
He tripped at the sound of Aimeric speaking to him, saying his name. As Jessica groaned, pulling him up, he looked around, searching for the Master vampire. He didn’t see him, only heard Aimeric’s voice in his head.
She was so frightened, so scared, Aimeric laughed cruelly.
“Augh!” Shawn yelled, trying to get the voice out of his head.
“Shawn!” Jessica scolded. “Shut up! They’ll hear you!”
He ignored her, still yelling, and broke free from her grasp so he could cover his ears as if that would make a difference.
“What’s wrong?” she kept asking.
They were still running.
A blood curdling, painful scream echoed nearby. One of the prisoners was being caught again. It didn’t sound like they were being taken back to the mansion, though. The scream was too intense, too full of pain. The person was being killed, drained by a vampire.
Let me show you . . . . said Aimeric’s voice.
Instantly, images were rolling in Shawn’s mind. He was blinded by them; couldn’t see where he was running.
Aimeric was on top of Megan, brutally thrusting inside of her while she cried and screamed and fought him. His hand held one of her hands to his mouth and he drank from her palm while he raped her in the prison. As if being raped weren’t cruel enough, he did it in front of everyone, humiliating Megan even more.
The scene quickly flashed to another of Aimeric’s memories.
Megan was on the huge table. She was strapped to it, crying, begging for him to release her and not hurt her anymore. With thick leather belts, her ankles were strapped at the bottom of the table. He secured her elbows instead of her wrists so her hands could be raised a few inches. Laughing cruelly, Aimeric forced her hands through the spikes near her head.
Her screams were so terrible, so painful, that Shawn cried out, too.
The images disappeared and he was back in the forest.
“Come on!” Jessica was pulling him. She had given up trying to reach him and snap him out of whatever it was he was dealing with. Screams now filled the night. They could hear the many vampires as they hunted and chased. The creatures hissed and growled and laughed, sounding like giant snakes slithering through the grass and trees. Their limbs slapped at the trees at high speeds, making it sound like they had wings.
Too close for comfort, they heard a prisoner being grabbed. He screamed and they heard bones snapping as the vampire tore him apart. The vampires were merciless—breaking the humans enough that they could feel immense pain, but not enough to kill them right away; they wanted them to suffer even more before killing them.
“He’s disgusting!” Jessica was saying through her tears. “He set us free so they could hunt us like animals!”
“We’re going to make it, Jess,” Shawn kept saying, though barely loud enough for her to hear—he was more trying to comfort himself than her. Truth was, he didn’t have much hope left; he couldn’t get the images of Megan being tortured out of his mind.
They hit the pavement of the main road. The road was cold and felt soothing on their battered feet. Three other prisoners had also made it that far and were ahead of them, running up the road. They panted as they ran, running out of energy, but not dare stopping. A young male tripped and fell to his knees, yelling as he hit the ground. An older male helped him to his feet, pulling him along.
You haven’t seen everything yet . . . .
Megan was back on the table, but this time she was naked and lying on her stomach. Her hands were wrapped—this was a different incident. She was already screaming, tears dripping from her face and making a puddle on the flat metal surface beneath her mouth. Aimeric was sitting on her back, licking the backs of her legs. This act wasn’t sexual, though; he was fully clothed.
Aimeric picked up a box of toothpicks that was sitting next to him. He took one out and started jamming it into Megan’s calves in several different places. He stabbed her over and over with the tiny wooden thing until it broke. Blood trickled onto the table. Aimeric leaned over and licked some more.
He moved his head down to her feet. Shawn knew what was coming next, and he screamed, “No! Please don’t show me! No!”
Jessica wasn’t sure what to do anymore except keep running and pulling Shawn along with her.
She sobbed, silently praying for God to get them out of this.
The image wasn’t over for Shawn. Aimeric was still in his head, still showing him sitting on top of Megan, his mouth at her ankle. Violently, he tore into her. His teeth stabbed into the back of her ankle. He moved his head back and forth so the teeth mutilated the flesh, and he ripped out the Achilles tendon. It hung from his mouth, blood dripped everywhere. Megan’s screams filled Shawn’s head again.
“God, stop it!” he yelled.
Aimeric released his mind and Shawn was aware he was still running beside Jessica. They were on the main road, behind the three-man group still. Screams surrounded them.
One of the creatures suddenly jumped out of the trees and onto the road. He flew into the young male who had tripped earlier and snagged him. With the boy screaming, the vampire dragged him across the road.
“No! NO!” the teenage boy cried.
The vampire began tearing into the boy’s flesh. Its mouth dripped with blood and he glared at Shawn and Jessica, the moonlight bouncing off his cold eyes as he drank from the poor boy.
Jessica screamed. Though he was still shaky from the images, Shawn was able to pull her arm and turned her around as another vampire grabbed a second person from the group ahead. They began running in the opposite direction. He led them back into the trees, but away from the mansion, heading west instead of east. He hoped they would have a better chance at getting away if they weren’t in plain sight on the road.
Several minutes went by; they were getting tired. The bottoms of their feet were bleeding from sharp rocks on the forest floor. Their flesh was becoming cold. Warm blood trickled down their cheeks and arms from scraping along tree branches.
Why them? Why had they been chosen to become the characters in a psychotic vampire’s game? Or had they been chosen? Maybe they chose this. They deserved this. Curiosity was dangerous. They hadn’t been brought here after all; they came here on their own. And now they were paying for it. Ashley was dead. They would probably be dead soon, too.
It had all just been for fun. A self dare. They hadn’t meant for this to happen and if they could go back…well, of course they wouldn’t do it again. Just one chance…they just needed one more chance; they would never do anything this foolish again. Please God, just one more chance.
A cold rush of wind slapped at Shawn’s side and rushed ahead of them.
Jessica screamed as Aimeric appeared in front of them. He grinned that cold, heartless grin of his and grabbed them both around the neck.
“I am God,” he sneered.
Two female vampires appeared beside him, a blonde and a brunette. They mimicked their master’s grin and Aimeric threw Jessica at the blonde woman. The brunette caught Shawn. The females held them tightly around the throats and midsections.
Jessica and Shawn gasped and choked, clawing at the vampire’s fingers. Tears sparkled in their eyes under the moonlight. This was it. They were going to die. The vampires were feeding, not taking anyone back.
“Ladies,” Aimeric said in a voice full of lust. “Feast.”
“Where will you go, Master?” the brunette asked.
“I’m going to take a little trip and visit a dear friend.” He went to Shawn and stood in front of him. Slowly, he leaned in and whispered against his cheek, “I’ll tell Megan you said hi.”
Shawn yelled as Aimeric disappeared and the brunette bit into his neck. Jessica screamed, and then darkness devoured both of them.
Epilogue
Megan was on the floor of her hospital room, Aimeric standing over her. Morgan accompanied him and stood near the window they had entered through, cutting the glass with their fingernails. The hospital room was quiet; not a soul had heard them. Megan hadn’t been hooked up to any machines, so no one knew she now lay on the floor with a dead heart.
She had been sleeping, though not peacefully. Megan always had nightmares. Every night, she tossed and turned and screamed. When she awoke and saw Aimeric standing there by the broken window, she didn’t scream. She didn’t cry. She didn’t beg for help.
Slowly, she sat up in her bed and Aimeric walked to her. She watched him curiously, completely insane.
“Hello, darling,” he whispered seductively. “Do you remember me?”
She nodded.
Aimeric sat on the bed with her and brushed her long, brown hair to the side. The scent of her blood filled his memory, and he heard her heart beating. Aimeric ran his cold hand over her face. She stared at him, eyes locked with his.
Leaning over, he kissed her softly, tenderly. She didn’t fight him, and even kissed him back. Aimeric’s mouth moved down her jaw and onto her neck. He kissed her several times there, allowing her to get used to his lips being on her flesh. When she shut her eyes and smiled, he pushed his teeth into her. She whimpered softly, but otherwise didn’t make a sound or protest.
After draining her, Aimeric let her body fall to the floor, giving her a helpful push to get her there.
As Aimeric stood, his sensitive hearing caught the sound of a car slamming on its brakes in the distance. Tires squealed, swerving all over the road. The car collided with something, a tree perhaps. After a few seconds, a tantalizing scent filled Aimeric’s nostrils. The sweetest blood he had smelled in a very long time invaded his senses.
“Morgan,” Aimeric said thoughtfully.
“Yes, Master?”
“Go back to the mansion. Prepare it. We’ll be having another visitor soon…and this one will be staying with us for quite some time.”
Morgan grinned as Aimeric jumped out of the window and started running in the direction the blood led him.
Just you wait, Aimeric thought to himself about the owner of the sweet smelling blood. You’re in for a treat, my beauty.
To be continued in Dead Seed…
Copyright © R. (Sara) Vance
September 30, 2009
http://lulu.com/reyannavance
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