3 The scream

"Oh God, this is Heaven!" Sasha moaned loudly, while eating a cup of strawberry icecream. Too loudly though, because other customers turned their heads towards our table and gave us weird stares. My cheek flared while I tried to ignore them.

"Are we all good now?" I asked, while sipping of my orange smoothie.

"Don't disturb me while I am eating." She snapped, before going back to her desert and moaning. A smile was on her face and her eyes almost dreamy.

I sighed while gazing out through the window beside our seats. It was so stupid of me to even try to have a conversation with the greatest sweet-tooth in the world during her desert frenzy. The sky was painted orange because of the descending sun and the trafic was loud as always in the city. Tall buildings and different coloured lights could be seen everywhere. Though the night view was pretty, I rather prefered more greenery.

I was deep in thoughts when I was brought back to reality, alarmed by a ring tone sounding.

"Who's calling?" Sasha asked, finishing the last cup of ice cream.

My mobile screen showed a picture of a young male with short brown hair and brown eyes in a forrest bakground. Red horns pointed out from the top of the head like the ones on the devil. I groaned. What did he want this time?

"Patrick" I answered while touching the green circle and lifting the phone to my ear. "Yes?"

"Hello. Is this a friend of Patrick Clover?" The voice was unfamiliar to me. As always.

"What has he done this time and who am I talking to?" I tried to stay polite, but I couldn't help to be annoyed. Once again I recieved calls from strangers using Mr. Irresponsible's phone. When would he grow up?

"Well, my name is Carter and I am a worker at the night club Poison. Your friend here has taken a few drinks too much and has passed out on the floor. Your number was written on a card in his wallet."

"Great." I gritted and Sasha made an amused smile. "Tell me the adress and I'll pick him up." I quickly wrote it down and ended the call.

"He passed out in some random bar again?" Sasha asked, even though she clearly knew the answer.

"Don't ask the obvious. Are you done? If so, we better get moving."

"Of course." She picked up the trash and threw it in the bin. We left the café and entered Sasha's BMW. Luckily, Sasha's family was wealthy and could afford a car. Otherwise I would have to drag home a 80 kg mass of meat, which I knew was laborious based on previous experiences.

Half a hour later, we reached Poison. The music was so loud that my eardrums hurted even inside the BMW. We walked towards the entrance, but was quickly stopped by a bouncer.

"Aren't you girls too young for this kind of place? Show me your ID" The bouncer grumped.

"A co-worker to you named Carter called and told us to pick up a friend, so could you please let us through. We will leave as soon as we find him." I explained while resisting the urge to grit my teeth.

"I'm sorry, but the club's policy is to never let underaged people enter." He smirked and pulled his arms in a cross over his chest.

"Pretty please? We'll make it quick." Sasha came to the rescue and showed her puppy face. No one could resist the puppy face.

"... Fine, but if you still haven't left after 20 minutes, I will literally kick you out."

"Thanks buddy!" Sasha showed a sweet smile while we passed through, which softened his face somewhat. We quickly found our target at the bar, knocked out and drooling. I thanked Carter, who turned out to be the bartender and dragged Patrick out of the building. Once we reached the car, we pushed him into the rear seat. I put on his seat belt, while Sasha sat down behind the steering wheel.

Just as I was about to enter the passanger seat, I heard a scream. A piercing scream, like the ones in scary movies. My body freezed, but my eyes tried to locate where it came from. Unfortunately, it hade became quite dark and the street lighting didn't cover the entire parking lot.

"W-what the hell was that? Did someone just scream like it was the end of the world?" Sasha asked while searching through her handbag.

"I believe so. " I took out my phone and used it as a flashlight to light up the surroundings, but I couldn't see anything unusual.

"Then let's go. It might be urgent." She left the driver seat and locked the car. With her eyes she scanned the area and then started to walk. I hurriedly grabbed her forearm to prevent her from leaving.

"Are you crazy, Saz? We are on a desolated parking and it's dark as hell right now. If it's a seriekiller on a streak, two defenceless girls like us wouldn't stand a chance."

With a swift move, she flung my hand away from her arm and took out a freaking handgun from her handbag. My eyes widened, while I stared at her in shock.

"Why the hell do you have a gun?" I exclaimed gobsmacked. "Don't tell me you planed to get rid of me because I let Mr. Coldness go. I promise, it was never my intention to - "

"Oh shut up, Mel! Let us first help whoever screamed before it is too late." Sasha interupted me and started to walk.

"Fine." I sighed and immediately followed my best friend, even if my mind screamed at me too run the hell away from here. That girl might be weird and suicidal, but I couldn't abandon my her. Our ten years of friendship prevented it.

We passed the almost empty parking place and entered an dark alley. The illumination here sucked and it crept me out. This reminded me of all the books I have been reading about stupid main protagonists passing through dark places like this and seeing things that shouldn't have been seen, only to get kidnaped by some freaking mafia boss or something like that. I really hoped that I wouldn't end up as one of them.

Suddenly, Sasha freezed. Her gun was lifted up high and she used her left hand to stabilize the hold. This caused the paranoid me to pause in my movements and with my eyes search even more intensely for murders in the surrondings. Except for the bass beats from the club, no sounds could be heard. Everything here gave me an eerie feeling. Especially when I saw a silhouette of somehing that suspiciously looked like feet with heels. I gulped and glanced at my anchor. Obviously she had also seen it and was now slowly walking forward with me at her heels.

My already frantic heart started to beat even faster when I saw a poor young woman in her late 20s lying on the ground. She was dressed up, which made me suspect that she had been partying at the club. I shared a look with Saz. With an unspoken agreement, I crouched and started to check the victims status while she was surveiling the surroundings for threats.

The victim was very pale and her pulse was very low. Her breathing was stable, albeit somewhat weak. I couldn't help but notice the weird mark on the woman's left side of the neck, when I brushed off her hair to the side to check the pulse. It was two puncture marks with blood smeared around them. However, no blood seemed to leak out, which made me quickly conclude that she needed medical treatment. It could after all indicate that the woman had lost too much blood. I called for 911 as quite as possible, since I didn't want to alert the criminal if that person was still in the area.

"I wonder what caused this wound." I couldn't help but wisper to my friend. Sasha rotated her head and inspected the mark.

"... I have no idea." She replied mumly.

If we weren't in such a serious situation, I would have joked and suggested vampires. But before I could respond to this, I saw an emerging gestalt from the shadows.

"Saz, watch out behind you!" I screamed terrified.

Sasha turned fast, but not faster than the silhouette that looked like a man. He grabbed her gun and threw it away almost too swiftly to be registered by the human eye. Before I could react, he bend his head down and bit Sasha in the neck. While hearing her awful schriek and seeing her atempt to push away him, I jumped to my feet. Just as I was about to charge and hit him with my phone, he dropped her lifeless body to the ground.

"Saz!!" I was scared shitless. My tears couldn't stop running down my cheeks.

The man's face was still hidden because of the terrible lighting, but his eyes shone in the darkness. I could swear to God that they were red, like crimson red. While my heart felt like it wanted to jump out of my chest, I tried frantically think of ways to deal with this monster. It had to be a monster, because no human had red eyes and drew blood out of others necks.

Slowly, the bastard walked towards me, like a predator stalking a prey, while I moved backwards. His cloak flickered while he moved. Wait a second... a cloak?! The wall was soon behind me and I had no where else to run. Just before he sunk into my neck, his face finally became visible. My last thoughts was about the damn cloak and the beautiful face that now has turned into my worst nightmare.