click one of the titles below.
By: Robert Essig
It was never an easy thing to dispose of an infected vampire but it was necessary to prevent
them of their own suffering. Becoming a vampire is a gift well received by those who
understand what they are sacrificing and most times the sick fight with every last bit of energy
when they are bound to die in the first rays of a new day.
But that's what had to be done and as time progressed it was done more often with the wave
of mortal disease that only so many years ago began to infect the vampire race. Once
infected they would be doomed to spend eternity suffering of an illness that would forever
suspend itself on that very painful moment just before death.
Only death would never come.
They would live this way as Daemon did in 1988. He was the first the underworld had ever
known to be infected with a human disease. He fought the pain and suffering for years
hoping it would vanish and return him to the splendor of eternal life but it never did. After so
many years it was finally decided that he should be terminated as to relieve him of his nightly
suffering.
It was slow and brutal like the treatment of an inside enemy of a socialist union. Two of the
strongest vampires in the coven subdued Daemon clasping his arms multiple times with
handcuffs then wrapping his legs with heavy chains. Once he was restrained they brought
him to the roof of the abandoned building they were inhabiting an hour to sunrise and used
heavy duty pad locks to secure him to some of the plumbing pipes that were exposed. The
burning rays of the sun would melt the flesh away leaving an unsightly mess of blackened
bones in a pool of sticky oily matter.
In the first moments of twilight the two vampires that bound Daemon went to the roof and
collected the charred bones of their unfortunate brother. The bones were ground to ash and
strewn in a sacred place of unconsecrated ground where the remains of fallen vampire's rest.
The year is 2006. The city is New York. It is late September and another has been inflicted
with the virus. On some occasions the infected vampires would take themselves to the roof
of the abandoned apartment building and wait for the sun. It was very rare that they were that
accepting of the disease.
The latest victim is Dominique. She has been a member of the coven for at least two
hundred years. The elders are always the hardest to deal with once infected with a mortal
virus. They have lived feasting on the blood of the nightlife of New York that they can't see
their own end. To them there is no possibility of an end. They were promised eternal life and
that's what they expect.
Three vampires were assigned the task of binding Dominique and taking her body to the roof
for termination. Though she had helped in the cruel and strange cremation of many other
vampires since the virus began to take its hold she wasn't about to have the same ritual
prepared for her own death. She had been noticing the way so many of the others had been
looking at her in the past few weeks as she rarely fed being too sick to move. She knew the
day was coming and so she saved her energy for the fight.
Dewy, LeBlanc, and Carmen were the three that were chosen as perhaps the most skilled
and the strongest to subdue Dominique. The coven knew she would be a hard one to
restrain being she was one of the Elders. No one liked to see an Elder stricken with the virus
but when it happened and they couldn't rid themselves of the sickness there was only one
thing to do.
She had to be killed.
Carmen lured her away from her paranoia as the two others armed with chains and
handcuffs lurked in the shadows of the room where Dominique dwelled too weak to get out
and feed. She sat in front of a fireplace watching the dance of flame comprehending the
possibility that she may never feel normal again. Her body trembled with rivulets of pain
spasms. Her muscles were sore and her glands were swollen. The lack of feeding was
making her weak, but no matter how weak she became she would not die as long as she
was shielded from the sun every morning.
Normally she would have noticed someone walking in the room hearing the slightest sound
they made on the carpeted floor but on this painful night she was oblivious watching the
flames of the fire dart back and forth like a magical play.
"Dominique?"
It was Carmen's voice that startled her from her daze. It was near impossible to startle a
vampire but in her condition anything could happen.
"I know how weak you are so I brought you a surprise." Carmen said with just enough tempt.
"A surprise?" Dominique's voice was weak.
"You haven't fed in days." She paused and looked over her shoulder. There was a pale figure
in the shadows of the room, a man who looked sleep depraved on the verge of collapse. "I
brought you dinner."
Dominique smiled the best she could. She was grateful whenever she was delivered a
mortal to feed upon. It wasn't often that a vampire would even see to her much less bring her
a mortal. They were scared that she was contagious. The man walked into the room slowly
his body thinner than
most vampires would like. He was perfect for Dominique however.
She used her skills to lure the young man to her. She had to do no more than to look at him
and say a few words. "Come to me dear, It wont hurt." Very softly her voice was delicate like a
down feather.
He kneeled before her looking into her eyes like she knew the meaning of life, and in so
many ways she knew more than just the meaning of life, she knew the meaning of the
afterlife. Mentally she was in command of the poor soul. Raise your head and present to me
you neck. It was as easy as that. He did precisely as she asked cocking his head back to
present the flesh of his neck.
His jugular was throbbing packed tightly behind the taut flesh beating the rhythm of his heart.
There, there my dear. That was what she said before every feeding she had ever had in her
unlife. Softly and melodramatic she pierced his flesh with her fangs removing them to drink
the crimson elixir.
Carmen stared at her as she preformed such a theatric caricature of what every vampire did
every night of their eternity. She looked down at the Elder sad for what part in Her demise she
was playing knowing there was no other way.
As Dominique drank from the man lost in the erotic passion of the transfer of life Dewy and
LeBlanc were creeping in on her. The plan was flowing like a severed jugular.
She grasped the man like a lover as she drained him of blood one hand on his cheek and the
other in his greasy hair. She took more pleasure for the kill in these days of sickness. Then it
happened so sudden she had only a second to respond.
Dewy clasped one end of the handcuffs on her right hand pulling it back so quick at such an
angle a bone in her arm snapped. He grabbed the other arm in a flash of lightning twisting it
around and clasped it in the other cuff. LeBlanc grabbed her legs and wrapped chain around
them as tight as he
could locking the chains firmly with a pad lock.
In an instant she knew what was happening her eyes looking at Carmen placing a silent
curse on her for the part she played in her capture.
"It's for your own good. So you don't suffer." Carmen looked upon the vampire shackled and
defenseless one of the oldest of the coven though she didn't look a day past forty. Before the
sickness she looked twenty years old.
Dominique sneered and hissed, wriggled and protested though she knew damn well there
was nothing in her power to save her from the rays of the morning sun. She knew because
she had done
this before. But the trick they played on her tonight was new and clever. These executions
were in the tradition of the Mafia in that it was always you're greatest of friends who was the
one to kill you.
They dragged her up the numerous flights of stairs as she tried to kick and loosen herself
from the chains and cuffs. They had to be especially careful of her head so that she wouldn't
try to bite them spreading the infection. It had happened before. The common procedure
was that one of them (in this case LeBlanc) hold her by her bound feet and the other hold her
by her neck with one hand and a generous lock of hair with the other hand. This way her head
was restrained.
It was a horrible business bringing her to the roof for her death. She cursed them all to hell
and back like a witch at a funeral pyre. They didn't beat her or abuse her in any way they
simply listened to her ranting all the way to the roof.
The air had a cold bite to it vampires only feel just after feeding while their bodies are still
warm with fresh blood. She felt the cool of the air and calmed a little. They had a sense of
smell better than any animal on earth and at the elevation they could smell sweat and,
strangely, garlic. It was an odd mixture that caught the three of them by surprise and for just
the slightest moment they all felt like friends. The moment passed when Dominique saw the
pipes.
In the middle of the roof there was a series of pipes from the plumbing system that they used
for these awful rituals. On the pipes were about two dozen pad locks.
Dewy looked to LeBlanc. Their eyes said all that was needed to say.
They carried her to the pipes and systematically began locking her chains and handcuffs with
to the plumbing with the padlocks. There was also a chain that they wrapped around her neck
very tightly.
The two vampires turned their backs on Dominique without so much as a word retreating to
the depths of the apartment building. Before walking back they paused for a second
obscured by the garlic and mortal sweat odor they could smell in the breeze.
2
Ben hated late night stakeouts. It was long stretched out boredom normally spent in
uncomfortable car seats or in a cramped basement or attic. Tonight they were in the open air
but equally uncomfortable if not more so. The air was as cold as a witch's tit in winter.
"Goddamn its cold out here." Ben was a proud member of the NYPD even though he
complained too much. Some of the other officers hated to be on a stake out with him
knowing the night would be spent listening to Ben bitch and complain about everything from
politics to the scumbag they were watching.
"It's not that cold Ben it could be snowing ya' know." Wilson liked Ben all right and didn't mind
screwing around with him. "What you complaining about huh?"
Ben was looking from the rooftop through a pair of binoculars. "I'm just saying its cold out
here that's all." Ben seemed to take everything personally and that was just why Wilson liked
working with the guy. He was fun to mess with. "Well, just don't freeze up if push comes to
shove." Wilson looked at Ben with a foolish smile on his face.
Ben turned his head to look at Wilson. "Hey pal I was just sayin' it was a little cold out here
stop bustin' my balls will ya' ."
Ben never seemed to understand Wilson's humor. "Now it looks like I'm gettin' ya' hot."
"Wise guy." Ben muttered under his breath replacing his eyes to the rubber eyepiece on the
binoculars. "They're supposed to be in that building in front of us right?" They both knew
perfectly well which building the vampires were supposed to be in, it was Ben's way of
changing the subject when he asked a question they both already knew. Wilson left well
enough alone and quit with his jokes.
“Yeah, that's the one." He checked his watch. "Only a few hours to dawn, if their commin' out it
should be right about know."
Ben has been looking through the binoculars almost all night kneeling over the ledge of the
sky rise they sat atop. Wilson could view the building they were staking out clear enough to
be able to see if someone was on the top walking around and couldn't understand why Ben
had to glue his eyes to the binoculars. That was the kind of Officer Ben was though, he took
his job very seriously and played things pretty much by the book. He never liked stake outs
but that didn't mean he put any less
effort into it.
Wilson lit a cigarette leaning his back against a large metal air vent. He took a deep inhale of
the smoke and smiled. "Damn Ben," He couldn't help himself. "I can smell that fuckin' garlic
over my cigarette smoke."
Ben was wearing a huge necklace made of interwoven bulbs of pungent garlic. Wilson would
have nothing of it. He wasn't even certain that the freaks they were watching for were real
vampires
at all. He figured it was some sort of sick cult.
"I've seen these people before-if you could call them people," he looked at Wilson seriously.
"I'm not superstitious." .He grabbed the garlic strand. "But I'm not taking chances either."
The look on Ben's face was frightening. Wilson had heard the story about the time Ben
apprehended one of them for murdering a bag lady in an alley. Five officers saw what
happened and all of them are true believers in the vampires of New York.
All of the officers blasted the man with dozens of rounds of ammunition only to watch the body
rise from the ground and scale the walls of a near by building like a rat all the way to the top.
What they all remembered that stuck in each and every officer's mind that day was the blood
that covered the perpetrators face and shirt. The bag lady's neck was completely torn out.
The other thing that struck the police as strange was general lack of blood at the crime
scene. For some ones throat to be ripped out in that fashion there would have been a huge
pool of blood yet there was no more blood than a flesh wound and the autopsy revealed that
the body was nearly drained.
Since then there has been an investigation into all similar cases.
Wilson had thought about it and he wasn't a believer. "I don't know man." He was serious
now. "I can't believe in that. It seems to me like a..." A what? "A fairy tale, A dark fairy tale."
Now Ben was back at the binoculars. "They're real believe you me. I've seen ern' ."
They were silent for nearly thirty minutes.
"So what really happened that night?" It was a weird way to brake the ice that formed in that
half an hour but Wilson had a way of being blunt.
"What have you heard?" A simple reply.
"Well I heard he took fifty bullets and kept on walking. I heard he climbed straight up a
skyscraper and that was it. He was gone."
"That's pretty much it."
The special task force had traced the vampires to the abandoned apartment building Wilson
and Ben were spying on. Like the past four hours Ben was kneeled down with the binoculars
to his eyes and Wilson was leaning against a large vent.
"Hey Ben come over here for a moment."
Ben looked at him like he was crazy.
"No, I'm serious come over here and leave that band of garlic over there."
It was late and nothing was happening. Why not see what Wilson had to say. What could it
hurt?
Ben stood from his post and walked the few steps to Wilson.
"What is it?" Ben wondered slightly pissed off.
"They aren't real you know."
Ben just stared at him.
"I don't know what you all saw that night but I can tell you it wasn't a vampire. There are no
such things as vampires."
"Yeah, no such thing huh." Ben was getting mad and that wasn't what Wilson wanted. "The
body was nearly drained of blood and there was hardly a trace of blood at the scene that
night. The vampire's face was covered in it."
"No such thing." To Wilson it was as simple as that.
"In that building they're cooped up in a sort of vampire cult. We've traced them there."
"Well, we've been up here three nights now and haven't seen a thing. I don't even know what
were looking for. Reports of smoke the other day from the news eight chopper, a couple of
officers check it out and find a pile of ash with bone fragments in it and no one goes inside."
"They're killing off their own kind in there. Tying them on the roof so the sun will burn 'em up."
"No, I think it's a cult like you said, but they're as human as you and me. They probably
chained a guy up and set him on fire up there that's all."
As the two argued Ben's back was away from the apartment building Wilson on the other
hand was staring at it the entire time, and right in the midst of their argument he noticed what
appeared to be a door opening up on the apartment roof.
"-You see. Other officers have apprehended these vampires and they always get away. Mack
Benson trailed one to this place and that's-"
"Ben grab the 'noculars and get a load of that." Wilson interrupted.
In a panic Ben kneeled down at his post and slammed the binoculars to his face.
"What do ya' see?"
"There's two of em' dragging another one that's chained up." Wilson decided to get his
binoculars out to see for himself as Ben replaced his garlic wreath around his neck. Couldn't
be too safe.
"Naw, those aren't vampires, it's just a cult. I bet they soak the poor bastard in gasoline and
set him on fire."
"Oh yeah, where's the gas can?"
That was certainly a good question. Where was the gas can?
Wilson reported to the patrol waiting below that there was action and to stand by before
entering the building. Being that this was an official vampire stake out the ground patrol are
under strict orders not to invade the building until after daybreak. The NYPD was using Bram
Stokers Dracula as a reference guide it seemed.
The two men sat patiently watching Dewy and LeBlanc locking Dominique to the pipes on the
adjacent roof. Wilson was looking for the gasoline can and Ben was looking at their mouths
for fangs. The vampires weren't smiling though.
"It doesn't seem like they're enjoying themselves huh." Ben mused.
One, the woman, was chained. She wriggled around screaming a scream they both heard
drifting in the cold breeze. The two men walked away without looking back pausing slightly at
the door then they were back inside the building.
"They're probable getting the gasoline right now."
They never returned.
After a ten minutes or so Wilson asked Ben: "What now?"
"Can't do anything until the sun is in the sky." Ben looked up. "Maybe another half an hour to
an hour. The ground patrol will enter the building and search the place for the vampires."
"They aren't armed with wood steaks and holy water I hope." That would be Wilson's last
wise crack for the rest of the day.
3
"She lays wait for the sun now. I hate when we have to do this." Dewy was speaking with one
of the masters of the coven. He was an ancient looking vampire the gift having been given to
him as an elder. He was the oldest of the coven in mortal years.
"There's nothing that can be done for her." The elder began. "AIDS are killing our kind like the
black plague. Such a terrible disease it holds up in mortals and lets them live some for years
before they become sick and die. For us it seems to latch on to our undead flesh and fester.
Terrible."
"There isn't much we can do to avoid it anymore, it seems that everyone is infected and they
just don't know it."
"If only we could get them tested before we feed on them." Jester said as if he were included
in the conversation. Jester was a joker that everyone loved to hate. Some have wished he
would catch the AIDS virus. "I never feed on faggots, they all have AIDS."
"It's not that easy anymore." Waylon the elder replied to the snide remark. "I'm beginning to
think seventy-five percent of the population is infected. It's only a matter of time before our
kind becomes extinct." Somberly Wyalon retreated to his coffin to sleep. The others made
their way to sleep through the day.
4
The phenomenon happened in the very moments of dawn as the first rays of the suns light
crept over the skyscrapers of New York City. Without the aid of cheap talk and wise cracks
Ben and Wilson held a tight grip on their binoculars watching Dominique scream and squirm
from the tight grip of chains and locks.
"Oh...rny...GOD!" Wilson was beside himself.
"I told you." That was all Ben could say.
The woman combusted. There was no one there to light her on fire and certainly no
kerosene or gasoline to cause her to become so rapidly engulfed in flames but they were
watching it happen right before their eyes like a Salem witch burning.
In a mechanical gesture Ben picked up his walkie-talkie. "She has combusted out of thin air.
I think it's safe to go inside, over." He never took his binocular gaze away from the spectacle.
"What do ya' mean combusted?"
"She's a vampire, the sunlight caused her to combust."
Only the officers who have dealt with the vampire kind first-hand believed in their existence.
"Well there's a logical explanation for that and we'll find out what it is when we get there, were
gonna need the two of you down here. Over."
They watched the pyre for ten more minutes before getting their gear and taking the elevator
down.
On the street there was a general pandemonium. There were enough police cars for a large
parking lot including fire trucks and ambulances. The press was on hand as well trying
desperately
to get the morning scoop but as of the moment there was no story. There was no way anyone
was going to tell them about the woman who combusted on the roof. The press sort of knew
about it though. They had eyes in the sky that normally did traffic reports that on this morning
were diverted because of the fire on roof.
What the press didn't understand was why there were so many police cars on the scene for a
fire the fire department wasn't fighting.
"No comment." Was what both Ben and Wilson said as they were bombarded with make-up
caked news anchors.
5
Inside, the place was fabulous. The interior was decorated with paintings of the old masters
and cleaned so neat that you felt the old peeling paint fit the decor. It looked ancient but clean
nonetheless. From the exterior all one could see was filthy windows some of them cracked
or broken covered with plywood. No one would have ever thought it would have looked the
way it did on the inside.
"Alright, I bet they're down in the basement." Sargent Billington instructed. "I want the place
checked from top to bottom and squatters are to be cuffed and arrested and brought out front
immediately."
The police spread throughout the building like roaches cautiously kicking doors down
drawing their guns on anything that moved. To the onlookers outside it appeared that every
New York cop was working on this raid.
Some people said it was a drug bust and others said it was just a bunch of bums that were
living there drinking and drugging. The strangest explanation one person came up with was
that the police had uncovered an underground sadomasochistic sex ring. If these people
knew what was really going on in this old condemned apartment building they wouldn't
believe it. The truth was actually stranger than the fiction of a violent sex ring.
It was only a few moments before a room was discovered with three coffins in it. The room
was sealed so tight there wasn't the slightest ray of sun creeping through the windows. What
happened in that room was ugly and those who survived the events were traumatized.
On entering the flashlights scanned the walls and floor discovering the coffins neatly laid out
in a line. "Holy Shit!" Someone screamed and the lids opened in response. There was very
little light from the corridor but there were plenty of flashlights to illuminate the room. From
the coffins the figures rose quickly in self-defense. They looked like the corpses of teenagers
their eyes cataract from their sleep.
"Ohmygod!" An officer said before he pulled the trigger of his gun unloading the whole clip
into all three of the walking dead.
Other officers pulled their triggers as a reaction to the loud bang of the initial shots. The
vampires dropped backward falling over their coffins.
As soon as the cops ceased fire the vampires stood and charged. The police were shooting
bullets and trying to retreat tripping over each other to run out the door. Three of the police
were apprehended their necks were torn from their bodies not for nourishment but for the kill.
One cop with a shotgun blew a vampires face into blood and matter dropping the beast to the
floor. The other two vampires were biting and clawing as many police as they could get their
hand and teeth on. They both met the same fate of a shotgun blast to the face.
In the commotion vampires were being found in other rooms in groups of three to eight.
There was no way to apprehend the monsters. Once they woke up they defend themselves
like savage beasts killing everything in their way.
The attempt was futile and the police were losing the battle whole sale. Before they knew it
the vampires were awake before they broke into their rooms. The creatures would wait and
charge when to door opened. They were so fast and so vicious there was no way of gaining
control. Bullets didn't work and the three that had their heads blown away had somehow
reconstructed them into a disgusting patchwork of flesh.
There was nothing left to do but retreat.
6
The building was a crime scene for the remainder of the day yet no one at any time entered
the building. There were so many dead cops throughout the corridors and rooms it was
impossible to
cover up what had happened that morning. The news crews were pests trying to get the
scoop but thankfully no one was talking. The evening news stories were all speculation and
bullshit.
The building was under watch all day and all night until the next afternoon when the SWAT
team was called in under very specific instructions to raid the building and to apprehend every
living being inside. They were told to be very quiet and that the people they were to capture
were sleeping in coffins.
Needless to say the SWAT team thought what they were being told was ridiculous but orders
were orders so they went it with extreme caution.
They found nothing but dead cops and empty coffins.
The vampires had fled in the night so skillfully the police never knew it.
The law thought they could take out a coven of vampires perhaps feeling so foolish of their
mission that they weren't ready for the vicious truth behind the myth. Human kind may not be
able to kill the supernatural bloodsucker as easily as in the movies but now that the race of
the night feeders has become plagued by a human virus they just may become extinct
naturally.
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