- Mess

[2 days later]

"Sorry to call you back so soon", Rebecca said earnestly, "What do you keep telling your parents?".

"Just that the acting thing is quite intense and I'm needed often, they seem alright with it as long as you guys keep paying for the train tickets". Arthur did find it annoying to have to keep coming back down South on the train, after the initial audition his holiday was over and he moved up North back to his house.

The two were currently sitting in a café, enjoying an early morning cup of coffee. "Today we're going to do some initial introductions, then followed by your first mission" "What, already?" Arthur seemed surprised that he would be doing it this quickly.

"Of course!" Rebecca replied excitedly, "We did say we had to fast-track a new recruit after all…". Rebecca paid the bill as the two stood up and left the building. The early morning streets of London were only now starting to get busy.

They made casual conversation as Rebecca led Arthur back to the building where he met the Doctor. As they stepped through the revolving doors Arthur almost seemed disappointed, "Back here again?", "Haha, sort of", she replied.

Arthur followed Rebecca past the main reception desk and through the bulk of the modern building. It appeared like a normal office tower until they reached a certain wall near the elevators.

Glancing up at the camera, Rebecca nodded, almost as if she was giving a signal. Soon after the wall began to retract inwards towards the left, revealing a small gap around three-people wide. She briefly looked around to see if anyone was watching them, before she began to walk through the gap.

Arthur quickly followed her as the wall began to shut itself behind them. Walking through a small darkened tunnel, he noticed a bustling hub of movement towards the end.

As they both reached the end, Arthur's eyes were met with a sea of activity. Around 20 desks piled high with paper and other trinkets seated around 20 people, some were typing, some were writing, some were just plain asleep.

Various people were picking their way through the maze of desks that occupied the centre of what could only be described as a hall, going in different directions. Off to the side of the room, more private offices could be observed. A prison-like staircase led up to a second floor, where metal gangplanks provided routes to further rooms that Arthur couldn't see.

The walls were made of exposed bricks, and frosted glass windows of various sizes and shapes bathed the expanse in a soothing natural light. Arthur could only describe the room as rustic, the metal gangplanks and hanging lights giving him a very historical feeling.

"Welcome to our London headquarters!" Rebecca said proudly. "Jesus…" Arthur could only exclaim as he began to understand the extent of the whole operation. So far he had wondered what Rebecca meant by it being 'mega budget' and 'government funded', now he began to understand.

She led Arthur to a little office on the ground floor relatively close to where they entered, dodging other people as they went about their own business. Before she sat down she opened the blinds to increase the light in the room.

"Modest little affair you've got here…", Arthur said with an impressed look on his face as he sat across from her. Rebecca simply smiled as she reached down into one of her drawers underneath the desk and pulled out a small Chinese-takeaway bag.

"Don't you think it's a bit early for takeaway?", he asked genuinely. She let out a little laugh as she reached over the desk and passed the bag to Arthur. "In that bag is a standard-issue Glock 17, USMC knife as well as your new phone…"

"...", Arthur stayed silent as he took the items out of the bag and began to inspect them.

"Ideally you won't have to use these, but we do give them out for a reason, every hunter has them", she said with a serious expression. The phone allows us to track you and has different numbers pre-loaded on there for whatever you might need"

"Very nice…"Arthur muttered. "Don't I need any training or experience…?" he asked. "I doubt you'll use these anytime soon, the training can come after", she answered. "Fair enough".

"Do these even work on vampires or what?" He was starting to get cold feet. "On the weaker ones they do, but we can educate you later on the intricacies. Right now we really need you in the field", she stressed.

"How will I even know what I'm doing?". Trying to allay his fears she spoke with a delicate tone; "Don't worry, I'm coming with you…"

***********************

They left the building a different way they came in. It brought them from an underground car park right back to the street near where the coffee shop was.

On the way to their destination, Rebecca explained to Arthur that they had been hunting this dangerous vampire for the past few months. However, the hunter in charge of the investigation had been identified and had their cover blown.

"We just need to follow up on a couple of leads, I'm not normally a field agent myself", she explained. "So if you're coming, why was I needed in the first place?" Arthur was starting to get a bit confused.

"Don"t take this the wrong way but we needed some, uhm, disposable muscle…", Rebecca said with a pained look on her face.

"Great…" Arthur murmured to himself. "Well we did warn you", "Yeah I know, I know" he waved his hand in front of his face as if it was no big deal. "I can do the disposable part but maybe not the muscle…".

Rebecca was taking the pair to an apartment building, in an effort to gain some information from a lesser vampire known to be a rat.

"Vampire hierarchy is basic really…" She spoke as they walked, "Lessers are either new vampires or just plain weak, normal vampires propose a serious challenge to even experienced hunters…"

"Okay…" Arthur said as he was processing the information. "And then there are the greater vampires", she continued. "They're either old or created from another powerful vampire. Outside of the special cases that's it really".

"Special cases?" Arthur asked. "Like the noble families, they can go toe-to-toe with the peaks of the other races", she answered. "Only you're not high enough clearance for me to even begin to explain the rest, I don't even know half of it myself…".

Arthur kept silent as they began to walk up the winding staircase of the apartment building, as the lift was out of order. Finally reaching the 13th floor, they set off down the run-down hallway.

"Don't worry too much about this, lessers are only about as strong as normal humans, even if he goes crazy we can just shoot him dead", Rebecca took Arthur's continued silence as him panicking, but that was not the case.

Arthur had never known what he was going to do with himself once he left school, hence the reason why he picked a random university course on a whim. He viewed this job as a clear path to an interesting and engaging line of work; he was perhaps naive of the imposing dangers that would be facing him in the future.

As Rebecca knocked on the apartment door, she was surprised to see the slight force push the door open marginally, maybe it hadn't been shut properly beforehand?

Opening the door the rest of the way, they entered the apartment.

As they walked into the entrance, Rebecca called out; "Oslo?" to no reply. Arthur was slightly behind Rebecca but was the first to recognise a distinct sickly, metallic smell wafting into his nose.

"Is that…", he didn't finish his sentence as they entered the living room and were met with a grizzly sight.

A large man, likely Oslo, was propped limply in an armchair, his head pointed upwards with a deep gash across his neck. Blood had spurted out everywhere, turning the apartment into something straight out of a crime film " Ahh Christ…" Arthur breathed as he felt his stomach drop.

"I'm sorry, but Oslo is engaged right now…" laughed a sudden voice behind the pair. Rebecca wheeled round as her face dropped. Arthur could only guess as to why Rebecca had such a panicked expression on her face.

The voice belonged to a man, around 6 ft tall with a lean build. He had deep black hair with gleaming red eyes that did not smile along with his maniacal grin.

Before the two of them even said anything the man turned into a blur, and appeared in front of Rebecca, Arthur could only watch as the man shoved his hand through Rebecca's midsection and straight out of her back. She coughed blood as the man lifted her slightly into the air, his hand down to his lower arm soaked in red.

"Did you think I was fucking stupid enough to not interrogate Elijah before I killed him?" he seethed. "He cried his eyes out, begging me to stop. Of course I killed him eventually, told me all about your little operation first though…"

Rebecca's eyes had closed at this point and she dangled limply in the air, blood bubbling from her clamped lips as she tried to speak.

The man retracted his hand from Rebecca's stomach as she flopped to the floor, turning his attention to Arthur. He casually walked towards him, who had at this point pulled his gun and fired multiple rounds into the unknown man, to no avail.

He swiped at Arthur's forearm, causing him to cry in pain as a large cut opened up on the inside of his arm, his gun flying out of his hand. The man grabbed Arthur by his neck, lifted him up and shoved him against a wall.

Arthur gagged as the man stared practically straight through him, the same evil grin spread across his lips. He felt his consciousness slipping as the man loosened his grip slightly, "Stay with me here kid, I wanna see the light leave your eyes…"

Using instincts he didn't know he had, Arthur pulled the knife from his sheath inside his jean pocket, and plunged it into the man's chest, feeling the vibrations through the handle as it bounced off bones and seated itself in between the man's rib cage.

Adrenaline prevented him from sicking up his breakfast at the feeling, the man only tightened his grip. With Arthur's trachea about to buckle, he retracted the knife from the man's chest, and shoved it directly into the side of his neck instead. The man gasped as he released Arthur, who crumpled to the floor.

His fight or flight kicking in, Arthur took what little breath he could through his swollen throat, before standing back up and stabbing the knife again into the side of the man's head, it didn't get very far as it glanced off his skull.

The man reeled from the multiple stabbings, likely not expecting Arthur's attacks to be so damaging. It looked like he was struggling to breath himself through the blood invading his lungs.

With one final burst of effort, Arthur clumsily stumbled towards the man, put both hands on his knife, and thrusted upwards, aiming for underneath the jaw of the man. His skin offered little resistance as the knife entered beneath his chin and continued upwards, straight through his mouth and into his brain.

The man fell forward onto Arthur as the red gleam left his eyes. Arthur didn't even have the strength to shift the man's body from on top of him. As he simply accepted that this was his position now, Arthur gingerly plucked the phone from his pocket with what little drive he had left, and called the number labelled; 'HELP'.

"I need… backup… help… whatever…" he wheezed in between laboured breaths. "It's a fucking mess in here…"