I was passing through the large, scantily lit production floor of the abandoned factory. All the broken and glassless windows let the moonlight flow in like a choppy disco ball. I moved like a silent ghost through my hidden home, making no noise except for the slight crunch of loose grit and rust beneath my feet. I stood in front of a busted mirror in an old bathroom, staring at my reflection.

How could they treat me the way they did? Shouldn’t they be able to see the monster in me? I was angry at the thing staring back in the mirror. Why did he have to ruin my life, why did he have to be what he was… what I was.

I replayed every moment I had with the Chasses that morning. The way they treated me like I was one of them. I wanted to be with them still and feel it again. I wanted a family.

But I was alone. The creature was the only one to keep me company, the one who would always be with me. This was my real life, hiding in the dark, killing in the night, becoming an unknown entity. Everything I had felt with them wasn’t real. It was based on a lie. It wouldn’t last, not once they knew the truth. I couldn’t really have anything until I gave them the truth.

“What are you doing?” I growled at my reflection.

I found myself walking close to the shittier parts of downtown St. Louis. I had been in such deep thought that I didn’t realize how far I had gotten away from the factory. I needed to hunt, but I mainly just wanted to get out and clear my head.

It was a crisp, chilly fall night. Multi-colored leaves dangled from trees, blotted out sidewalks, and swirled into the air as the wind scooped them up. I could smell many scents in the clear sky. Fall had set in and was creeping towards winter. The air grew colder with every passing day, yet that didn’t stop the people from coming out in droves for the same nightlife, year-round.

I made my way to a more populated part of town. The Landing was an area filled with bars and clubs, and it was packed with people. For a Sunday night, there were a lot of active night-owls roaming the blacktops, hopping from bar to bar. They were all in search of something, hoping to meet that special someone. Most were drunk and unable to maintain a normal conversation. All of them just wanted to fulfill their needs. I was no different. I was looking for that special someone. That one person that could satisfy my dark needs. Although, how we would leave these people would differ. I would leave them dead.

I watched from the shadows on top of a two-story building. I looked down at all the people walking in and out of clubs that thumped with music, talking, kissing, hands running across skin, people just getting to know one another. Autumn came to mind as I watched them. I wanted that, but I knew I couldn’t have it. I sat in the shadows of a rooftop, out of sight. I thought about “Plan-B” and prayed for death to just take me. I wanted a flash of darkness to wipe out my consciousness and just end it. I sat in the dark for a while… but death never came. I was alone, and my world kept turning.

About halfway through the night, I heard a scream that snapped me out of my imagination. It was a sharp, ear-splitting scream that came from a couple streets over. This was a guttural, shrill cry for help.

I sprang up from the place where I was moping over my life. Everything fell away as I heard the scream. I threw myself forward and sprinted across the rooftops. Once I got to the edge of the building, I shoved off with all my strength. I rocketed across the street below in a slight arc. The cold wind rushed by my face as I flew across the street. I landed on top of the next building without even breaking stride, my sturdy legs absorbing the impact.

I followed the origin point of the noise as best I could. I thought I was losing track, but then I heard two different kinds of footsteps. They were fast, and the girl's were chaotic. I could sense that she was just another street over, on the far side of the next building. I bounded across the roof and jumped like before. I sailed across the next street, smoothly landing on the rooftop. I stopped right as I hit the far edge of the building. No onlookers could see me in the dark, nor could they hear my silent landing as I came down onto the adjacent roof.

When I looked down, I saw her. Sure enough, there was a girl, young, possibly mid-twenties, running like a madwoman through a dark alley.

“Help!” She hoarsely called.

Her voice was desperate and aghast. I could see the tears streaming from her blue eyes, her mascara running, and the jumps in her breathing. She was in fight or flight mode, and she chose flight, but what was she running from?

I scanned the area, eyes blackening and ears searching, looking for someone else. She kept running, safe for the moment, making it to a side street at the end of the alley. She didn’t know she was safe, but I was her guardian now. Nothing could get to her while I was there.

Then I heard a movement. It was further back into the alley. Slow, calculating steps were being taken. They watched her as she sprinted to the escape. Their steps never picked up. It was a slow walk.

Finally, they came into view. Three strange-looking men with red eyes emerged from around an obstruction. They were vampires. Their strange smell arrived to meet me on the roof. The trace scents of many different blood sources, all joining as one mass aroma, crept through the area. You could never forget their smell.

How was it that I had gone so long without seeing one before, and now it seemed like vampires were everywhere I went? How was I so blind to them in the past? Maybe it was how hard I tried to stay away from people in between killings. Maybe I just needed to get out more.

Every step they took, every move they made was unnatural. They were fast, confident, and seemingly careless about the girl’s distance. Their slow movements were rapid, and I knew that if they wanted to, they could be on her in an instant.

Just then, as the girl neared the edge of the street, one of them turned into a shadow of speed. Suddenly the girl was thrown back into the alley. She was still safe. It was getting close, but I knew what they were doing. They wanted to toy with her, trying to scare her. They took pleasure in it.

I would do the same with them.

All three vampires were standing together, about ten feet from her, as she tried to muster the strength to get up. They were moving in.

I grabbed a small metal pipe that looked like it had come off the dated air conditioner beside me on the roof. Rusty, yet still solid enough to use. I hurled it down the alley, behind the vampires. It careened back into the shadows and hit with an echoing clink. It bounced several times, clanking away behind them before rolling into the shadows.

All of them turned their gaze into the shadows. Nothing surprised them. Nothing snuck up behind them. They were the top of the food chain, the apex predators. That’s what they thought, anyway. Yet, the noise surprised them. That’s when they all realized something was watching them.

I wasn’t sneaking up behind them, I was above them.

I jumped from the roof, plummeting two stories into the cold cement of the dark alley. My full weight came down between the girl and the blood drinkers. I landed on my feet with force, crouching slightly as I absorbed the momentum.

The three male vampires looked surprised. I had appeared out of nowhere, falling from the sky. Their eyes were wide with disbelief. That lasted only a second, and then they were annoyed.

“And who are you?” the one on the left asked.

He was forgettable. His face and features were very average, along with the other two. Two of them were brown-haired, but one was blonde. Other than that, they weren’t anything special. They all only looked to be in their twenties, but who knew how old they really were.

I didn’t answer. I just stared into them, waiting for one to make a move towards the girl. I would catch them by the neck and rip their head from their shoulders. The monster rose, infecting my mind.

One of them noticed my black eyes that were locked onto them from beneath my hood. He was taken aback, scared of the unknown. He stepped back, only slightly, and the other two looked at him. They were shocked at his retreat. He seemed older, smarter than the other two.

He warned them, “Let’s go.”

He was different. He could sense something wasn’t right. Maybe he saw my face begin to shift.

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“What are you talking about?” one of the vampires asked. “It doesn’t matter what he is. There are three of us and one of him.”

“I said let’s go,” he yelled at the other two.

“It’s too late for that,” I said, breaking my silence.

They all looked at me, slowly, beginning to realize that they weren’t in control of the situation.

The smarter one backed up even more. He looked like he was about to run. The other two were unsure but finally stepped up with flooded egos. They were vampires. They thought nothing could stand against them, let alone three. That was their last mistake.

I didn’t transform. I just began.

I lunged at the closest one, my hands clamping around his neck. I pushed him into the brick wall of the alley, lifting him from the ground. I squeezed on his throat, feeling him squirm and fight for freedom. He was strong. I could feel him resisting my human form, unlike the last time I killed one of his kind.

I felt my flesh sear as my talons erupted through my skin, the agony fueling my rage. The moment they fully extended, I drove them into the soft meat of his neck, feeling the hot gush of blood as I ripped my hand viciously through his windpipe. He stood there, gasping and gurgling, blood cascading from the gaping wound where his throat used to be. His spine, now exposed and ripped apart, dangled pathetically, a gruesome tether to what little remained of his head. He dropped to the ground, twitching in a pool of his own blood. Near decapitation might have done the job, but I wanted no doubt. I reared back and brought my foot down with savage force, the impact turning his skull into a splatter of brains and shattered bone fragments. His head exploded like a rotten melon, gray matter and blood painting the pavement in a grotesque mosaic.

The blonde one started getting smarter. He stood out of his attacking crouch and back-pedaled into the shadows. He moved quickly, but it wasn’t fast enough. I slammed into his skull with a vicious blow. I swiped at his face like a mauling bear. He was thrown into the brick wall, cracking the red rocks from their place. Little shards of masonry fell to the pavement, shattering into even smaller pieces.

The third vampire stumbled and fell as he backed away, eyes wide with terror at the relentless slaughter. He scrambled to his feet, only to crash into a dumpster and collapse to the ground again. These vampires, once predators, now resembled panicked deer, tripping over their own feet in their desperate flight. I propelled myself off the earth with powerful legs, launching across the long alley. I landed beside him, a predator closing in on its prey.

Without hesitation, I unleashed a barrage of blows to his face. His feeble attempts to fend me off were futile as my fists hammered through his guards, the sound of breaking bones echoing through the alley. His arms shattered under the force, and his face became a grotesque mask of blood and broken fragments. One of his eyes dangled grotesquely from its socket, his jaw twisted at an unnatural angle, and his ear was torn away completely.

Panic and horror were etched across what remained of his face. He tried to crawl away, a pathetic attempt at escape, but there would be no refuge. I stood over his broken body, my breath ragged with fury, and watched him inch away, a trail of blood smearing the ground behind him. With a cold, calculated movement, I reached down and hauled him up by his collar, forcing him to face me.

“What were you going to do to her?” I growled, my voice a low, menacing rumble. I glanced towards the girl, who stood frozen in terror, watching the brutal scene unfold.

The vampire stammered, words tumbling out in a desperate plea. “P…ppp… please,” he choked, blood spurting from his mouth with each syllable.

I gripped his head, forcing his one remaining eye to meet mine. “I said,” I snarled, “what were you going to do?”

He coughed and sputtered, blood pouring from his ruined mouth. The blonde vampire lay sprawled on the ground where he had landed from my earlier attack, eyes wide with helpless confusion. None of them had ever faced anything like me before. Their eyes mirrored the question that haunted me, the same question that burned in the gaze of every victim I left behind. What are you?

The fire welled in my mouth as I willed my teeth to morph into fangs and jags. Then, I slammed my razor filled jaws into the dying vampire’s neck, ripping and clawing through flesh. My powerful jaws crushed his spine. My talons sliced every strand of muscle and tissue that held him together until his head separated from the rest of him.

I let his body, and head, drop to the ground. I could feel the blood dripping from my face and neck. It oozed all down the front of me until I was covered.

I turned to see the woman, willing myself to push the parts of the monster I had summoned back down in its cage. She looked upon me with even more horror than her pursuers. I could see it in her eyes. She thought I’d turn on her next.

I wouldn’t. The monster still wanted blood and death, but not hers.

The last piece of shit vampire had bolted from the scene. I could hear his frantic footsteps fleeing the area, and I could smell his blood trailing behind him.

I took off in a blurring sprint, ripping through the alley. I followed the scent of the loose end running from his fate.

I sprinted down dark alleys, finding other branches of the trail, and followed them to the next turn. I kept the chase up for a few minutes, always staying a few steps behind him. I wanted him to lead me somewhere, a hideout maybe. I wanted to find more of his kind. If I knew where they stayed, I could pick them off whenever I needed to kill. Or I could help the people of St. Louis and kill them all in one night. He knew I was chasing him, so he made a bold move. One he knew I couldn’t make in my current bloodied state. Or he at least hoped I wouldn’t.

I came upon the edge of an alley, following the scent of the vampire. Then, once at the border, I saw a crowd of people. He ran out into the sea of innocent civilians. Not only did this drown out the stench of his blood’s makeup, but he also knew that I couldn’t follow.

He was right. I was covered in blood, it coated most of my face. It ran down, staining the neck and chest of my hoodie and shirt. I could feel the oily crimson warmly hugging my chest as I ran through the night. He was gone.

He got away, his body and scent disappearing into the sea of humans. Now there was a vampire out there that had seen me. He saw my eyes and saw me kill two of his friends. Would he come for retribution, or would he even try to find me again? Maybe he would bring some friends, and then we could do this right. I could kill them all, actually transform and wipe them all out.

Darker thoughts came.

What if he tracked my scent? Would he find the Chasse’s house? I knew my trail led there. It would be faint, and he’d have to follow it through the sewers and caves, but it was there. He’d get there eventually. He’d kill them all. Carter, Eleanor, Autumn… what if Delilah was there? Would he kill a child?

My past crawled up from the depths again. It came up from the dark parts I tried to forget.

“Stop it,” I ordered myself, aloud.

I shook my head and forced the thought from my mind. The only saving grace I thought I had was that I hadn’t transformed. For all they knew, I was just something that overpowered them. They didn’t see the real me. Still, I had to find that guy.

One thing at a time. Stay focused.

I backed away from the edge of the alley, looking at all the humans. They were so unsuspecting of the world around them. They knew nothing of the creatures that swarmed the dark, or of the monster that watched from the shadows. I backed down into the alley and stealthily made it back to the nearest storm drain. I pulled myself into the hole and fell beneath the city for a while.

It was silent. I liked it, it was… sort of calm down there. I could walk in peace for hours, exploring the forgotten caves beneath the tunnels. So, I walked. I walked until I recognized the subterranean area where I knew my ramshackle of a hideout was sitting. Perched right beside the river.

I came out of a manhole cover about a mile down the road from my abode. I didn’t walk straight to the factory. First, I walked to the river. I waded into the rushing current of the water. I didn’t get out too far, just staying neck-deep out in the Mississippi.

Tugboats steamed by, pushing humongous lengths of barges. One passed, and it had about six or seven black steel barges in front of the tug. It was a floating football field.

I let the current rush through my clothes and over my face. The blood slowly rinsed itself from my clothes and off my skin. I floated with the current, trying to relax and ease my mind out of the killing state it had been in. I floated all the way down to the factory, just staring up at the polluted, smog cloaked night sky. I did this at times to try and clear my mind and relax after I got too high strung. The sound of the water was soothing.

I used the river to disappear, so my scent couldn’t be tracked. If someone did track me by smell, then they would follow my trail to the river and then lose it. It would just vanish.

I was back inside, after hanging my wet clothes from a line behind the old decrepit factory. I hoped that once my clothes dried, they’d be wearable again. If not, I’d have to go get more to replace the dwindling supply I had.

That reminded me of something. I needed a cell phone; ordinary people had cell phones. Carter had given me his number for the next time I wanted to talk or come over. It would be strange if I didn’t have one in this day and age.

I threw on some dry clothes and headed back into town. I stuck to the shadows, kept my hood up, and avoided people as much as I could. I felt fine. Actually, I felt great after the two kills. I felt somewhat normal, but I just didn’t ever want to push it if I didn’t have to. So, I stayed away. It sounded hypocritical, but these people were unsuspecting. They knew nothing of the real world. The Chasse family knew, and they were already deep in my world. I guess that’s how I began to justify seeing them again.

I made it to a twenty-four-hour supermarket. I knew that this store had an electronics department, so they had to have prepaid cell phones. I walked to the back, and sure enough, they did. Wondering eyes studied me, looked me up and down. I guess it was weird for an ordinary person to keep their hood over their head once inside. Nobody looked for too long. They didn’t want to make eye contact.

I found the cheapest, shittiest cell phone and the card to activate it. I went to the counter and bought it. I wanted to just take it, but I knew that these things had weird activation procedures. I was pretty sure that it had to be sold to be activated. Luckily, I found ways to collect money every now and then. I had a small stash of cash for strange circumstances such as this.

I made some cash working as a lumberjack just outside of the city for a few days once. It was definitely an under the table kind of gig, so I disappeared pretty quickly after a few days. It was off the books anyway so there were not a lot of questions. Things like that popped up from time to time and if I was feeling good, I’d make a little and then disappear again. I didn’t really need money, so I didn’t do this often.

I had my phone, now I just needed to make the call. I wondered if I even would. Should I put myself back in their lives? Should I put them in danger? I knew the right answer to all these questions, and I was still going to do it anyway. I had to make sure they were safe, especially now that a vampire had seen me and survived.