27Chapter 7: Arise 2-2

"Can I fuckin' help ya?" Asked the shirtless thug standing outside of the beach house.

I figured maybe I could talk sense into these people. Why kill them if I didn't need to? That would just attract unneeded attention, attention that I didn't want. The guy looked extremely aggressive and twitchy. Maybe he was strung out. Hopefully he was lucid enough to listen to reason.

"I just need to get inside." I said. "I'm here to buy some astrolite."

"Oh really?" The thug asked, getting a little loud. "You call ahead? The man expecting you? Cuz he didn't tell me to expect anybody."

That was something I didn't think about. Now I felt a little amateur. I didn't exactly deal with gang bangers on a daily basis when I was living, alright? It was clear this guy wasn't going to let me through unless I came up with a good excuse, but I had none. So I peered directly into his eyes, just like I did to the guard hours ago, and said in a very stern tone, "Let me in."

I could practically see the wheels turning in the thug's mind as he processed my order. He blinked a few times, as if he was trying to fight it, then his eyes glazed over.

"Okay." He said. "You can go on in. And if you really want to make my night, go ahead and start some shit in there cuz I would love it."

I had the lingering feeling he was compensating for something. "I'll remember that. Thanks."

He stepped aside and I walked through the gate. I walked into the beach house and saw an unkempt, almost dilapidated mess in which thugs in hoodies and jeans fidgeted and played video games. There were some women, probably from the street or the boardwalk, who sat down on the floor with glazed-over eyes, just slumped against each other. I could see holes on their forearms. The place was absolutely wretched. It made me sick. I wanted to paint the walls with their blood.

No. I didn't. The Beast did.

I walked through the house, being sure not to touch anything or look at anything for too long so that I didn't piss anyone off. I was positive that I could completely destroy the five people in the house, but again, doing so would attract unnecessary attention. Collateral damage had to be considered. I walked into a room at the far end of a hallway and saw a man standing over a table that had what looked like explosives on it, bricks of cocaine wrapped in seran wrap, and an envelope of money.

The man was a lankier type. Black, with a cream-colored blazer on and a button-up that was unbuttoned halfway, revealing his gold chain. With that, his green slacks, and his afro, he looked like he walked straight out of some kind of Blaxploitation movie. This was the guy that had Mercurio taken down? Did he call him a jive turkey as well? When I entered, I was surrounded by his thugs. It seemed they were making an effort to intimidate me.

"Uh-huh…" The man said once I entered the room. "Yeah, you look real good at me. Before we do bu'ness - before anything changes hands - I want you to hear this: if you try to cross me, I will fuck you. If you tell the cops about me, I will find you, then I will fuck you. And if you are a cop, I will fuck you and your whole family, including' that squirrel in your front yard. Now that we know the terms, what can I do to make you walk out feeling like you just flew first-class with a cheerleader in your lap?"

I stayed silent for a moment. Was that supposed to be intimidating? Something as blatantly rehearsed as that? Was he trying to intimidate me? The idiot. He didn't know who he was dealing with. What he was dealing with. I could make his veins pop out from his flesh. I could have him bite out his own tongue, or have his thugs point those fucking peashooters at their own skulls and pull the trigger. Their blood - I could hear it rush in their veins - I could smell it. Tension, nervousness, adrenaline. It rushed through their useless mortal bodies. I could paint the room with it.

Holy fuck. I thought. Was that...was that my new response to being annoyed? Dennis' speech had, at best, amused me, but here I was thinking of licking the blood off of their bare bones. Why was this happening? I knew I wasn't thirsty.

"What've you got?" I managed.

"My staff maintains at all times a twenty-four carat smogasbord of A+ narcotics guaranteed to make the competition's shit seem like a weak cappuccino in comparison." He said. "White, green, blues, reds, black - you pick a color."

I wasn't going to go buying drugs from this guy. So I tried another route. "Do you know a guy named Mercurio?"

Dennis' expression lit up. "Mercurio? Yeah, we know him. We know Mercurio, don't we fellas?"

His thugs each chuckled in response.

"How is our friend Mercurio?" Dennis asked.

"Not well." I said, crossing my arms. "I came for the astrolite you promised him."

He laughed at that, but the thugs were completely silent. "Is that a fact, jack?! Damn… I'll tell you what. If you can get outta here without a bullet through your face, I'll let you keep it."

Well, I tried.

There was silence before I responded. Every one of the thugs were twitching, as if they were going to jump out of their skin. Some grabbed their guns. Dennis himself grabbed his knife. The only problem is that all of them were slow. They were so slow that I could read a book before they were able to do anything.

Once Dennis gripped his knife, he lunged at me to stab me. I dodged, and in response, I punched him through the fucking window. The thugs looked at me, their eyes wide. I licked Dennis' blood off of my knuckle and grabbed the knife he tried to attack me with off of the ground.

"New deal," I said. "I'll kill every last one of you before you reach the front door. If you can prove me wrong, I'll let you go."

They wasted no time in shooting at me.

Now, I'm not a professional fighter. I never was much of a fighter. Even in high school, I didn't really get into many fights. I preferred to talk things through with my bullies, or just ignore them entirely. After high school, I didn't really get into any major confrontations at all, save for the occasional bar fight. The only fighting knowledge I had was from the few self-defense classes I'd taken for about three months, and what I'd seen in movies.

But I was a vampire. These were humans. I was faster, stronger, and it took more than a gunshot to take me down. The Beast was raging within me, not controlling my actions by any means but encouraging them. For once, the Beast and I were of one mind.

One of the three thugs in there drew a gun, but was too slow. I slammed the blade of my knife into his chest and through his lung, slicing him like butter. He was gone in no time. A bullet flew and hit me in the back of my leg, and while I felt it, it probably wasn't anywhere near as painful as when I slashed his wrist and slammed his head against the wall until he was a bloody mess. The last thug that was left ran straight for the door in the room, but I caught him rather quickly. Thirsty, I sank my teeth into his neck, draining him until he was still as a corpse, and then lifting him and throwing him through the door.

There were quite a few thugs waiting for me with their own guns, this time sporting automatic weapons. I reached for the blood in the corpses behind me and created a wall behind the door, taking cover behind it. The bullets stopped midway through the gelatinous blood mass I'd created, and I took the opportunity to reach into my backpack, grabbing my revolver. From there, I vaulted over the blood wall and took cover behind another wall. Bullets flew, loud enough to make my ears ring.

I came from behind my cover and tried to aim for one of the thugs' important parts, but instead I ended up getting them in the chest. That was enough to knock one of them down. Another one reloaded and aimed, but I forced him to purge his blood. He keeled over, vomiting the blood in his circulatory system, followed by anything he might've eaten today. I took the opportunity to shoot him dead, then I advanced, taking cover behind a couch.

"What is going on…?" One of the strung out junkie girls asked, rousing from her chemical-induced stupor. She screamed as three thugs kicked the front door open, marching in with shotguns.

Uh-oh. I thought.

I didn't know how weak I was to shotguns, and I didn't want to find out. I threw myself, narrowly dodging a shotgun blast and rolling into the nearby kitchen where I took refuge behind a fridge. One of the thugs turned to follow me, so I climbed to the top of the fridge, dropping on top of him once he entered. He fell down to the ground, and I wrestled his shotgun from his grip, keeping a few shells from hitting the junkie behind me. I punched him hard enough to loosen his grip and then I grabbed the shotgun, pulling the trigger and splattering his brains all over the floor.

The junkie screamed, but I had no time to pay attention to her. One of the thugs began to charge at me, but I pulled the fridge down, making it drop to the floor and forcing him to slow down so he didn't get crushed. I vaulted to the top of the now fallen fridge and shot him in the chest, creating a gaping hole with my shotgun. He flew back from the sheer force, landing on top of the thug behind him. I dropped the shotgun because it seemed to be out of ammunition, taking out my revolver again. The thug that fell tried to reload quickly enough to shoot me, but I aimed and shot him straight through the head.

"Fuck's sake!" I yelled. I walked across the room to the junkie, who was now in the corner. She'd seen too much, and I didn't want her crying to the cops. My first instinct was to kill her, but my first instinct was telling me to do a lot of horrible things these days. It seemed the other two junkies that were slumped against the wall had overdosed. Not my problem.

"Look at me." I told the junkie, trying to keep my voice as soft as possible.

The junkie looked at me. She was pretty, in a "ruined prom queen" sort of way. She was still clad in a bathing suit. Her and her friends probably came up after swimming downstairs. Her bikini was so tiny. Maybe I could tear it off, make her show her appreciation for not tearing her apar-

I ignored the Beast's suggestion.

"Leave." I told her, making eye contact. "Forget about tonight."

Her eyes glazed over more than they already were and, in a daze, she walked out of the exit of the house. I sighed deeply and walked back into the room I met Dennis in, grabbing the explosives, envelope, and a few bottles of morphine I found on the table. After stuffing it in my backpack, I walked out of the house, only to see the thug that was standing guard outside waiting for me.

"Thanks for making my night, fucker." The thug growled.

He drew his gun but, again, he was much too slow. I lunged at him, sinking my teeth into his throat. I drank from his useless, thuggish body until it fell completely limp. I pulled back and wiped the blood off of my mouth, checking my wounds. It looked like they had closed completely. I looked back at the house, at the blood-splattered walls and windows. I meant to peacefully get the explosives, but instead I made it a bloodbath. And I enjoyed it. And what the hell was that with the junkie? What was I becoming?

In the moment, I'll admit, it was fun. It was nice to get revenge for Mercurio, but now? I felt melancholy. Every minute, I was recognizing myself less and less.

You're a monster now, make no mistake - one of the damned and the fallen. Jack had said.

I was never a pacifist. In fact, I believed violence was sometimes justified. My violence in the beach house, I was sure was justified. But to be violent and enjoy it? To give into my Beast like that and vent my frustrations? To make a mess of it? I didn't know how I feel about that. Sure, I felt on top of the world, like a god among men...but at what cost? What was happening to me? What the fuck was I becoming?

It didn't matter. I had an eternity to think about it.

Feeling conflicted, I walked down the stairs and to the beach.

When I exited the beach, I checked my backpack to see if everything was still intact. The money, astrolite, and the pills were. But it looks like a bullet flew through my insulated bag, which pretty much soaked everything else in blood. There goes my spare blood packs. Keeping a few on me, still, didn't seem like an awful idea though. Maybe there was a place I could get more? I walked down an alleyway and saw a door that said Blood Bank on the top. Of course. The clinic! Maybe there was a way I could get blood packs from there.

To my surprise, the door was open. It led to a stairway, with a hallway to my left, but the door to that hallway was locked. I looked around and took my lockpick out of my backpack. The lock was slightly difficult to pick, but I eventually got the door open and walked through to the hallway. It looked like it led to the front lobby, which probably meant I wasn't supposed to be there. Regardless, I snooped around in hopes of finding a blood bank. Through one door, I found a room with a patient bleeding out on a table.

She was still alive. I could hear her heartbeat. But she wasn't going to be alive for much longer. She had shoulder-length red hair and glasses, which covered her green eyes. She was in black low-cut pants and a yellow crop-top with spaghetti straps, and black sneakers. She was pretty in a nerdy sort of way, and she kind of reminded me of Justine. She even looked like her a little, the same soft features but angular chin and jawline.

"Uh. Please - get a doctor." She strained. I could see multiple stab wounds on her chest. Her shirt was partially torn open, and she was bleeding a fountain. Did someone try to rape her?

"Shit - I'll see what I can do." I said, panicked. Quickly, I left the room, barely registering the redhead talk about how her insides hurt so bad. I ran down the hall and opened one of the doors until I saw a doctor, a black guy with dreads.

"Doctor!" I called to him.

He turned to me, clearly tired and worn out. He groaned when he saw me.

"I'm sorry, sir, but you're going to have to wait outside like everyone else." He said. "No exceptions."

"But there's a girl over there." I said, gesturing behind myself. "She's going to die!"

"See here now, I'm the only physician here at the moment." The doctor snapped. "We've got twice as many people as usual waiting for treatment. I'll look at her soon as possible. Try to talk to her, keep her awake."

"But-"

"I've got a man in here with a bullet in his head! My nurse paged Doctor Roberts a half-hour ago; he'll be here anytime. Till then, stay with your friend, and make sure she doesn't go into shock. I must go."

I frowned. The service here was horrible, but I at least understood his struggle. I should've known the clinic was taking on more than it could take; with the redhead's condition, she would've gotten help a while ago if any help was available.

"Okay." I said flatly.

I rushed back to the redhead's room, where she was thankfully still alive. I walked through the door and closed it behind myself. She was sobbing.

"Hey, stay with me." I urged her.

"Can someone call my grandma...please?" She pleaded almost drunkenly.

This was bad. If someone didn't do something, she would die right in front of my eyes. I couldn't let this happen. She was innocent. She wasn't like the thugs in the beach house, or even a lost cause like the junkies inside. This redhead was dying right in front of me, and I could save her. But how? How could I save her? I was pre-med, sure, but I didn't have the equipment nor skills to save this woman's life. I only had one thing.

She began drifting away. I could tell. I slapped her cheek quickly. "Hey! Stay with me. I can save you."

The redhead moaned in pain, her voice getting weaker, her stare going vacant. I needed to act quickly before she died. She wasn't like Mercurio. She wasn't superhuman, she couldn't survive being made into Swiss cheese or shedding half of her body weight in blood. No, she wasn't like him. But I could make her like him.

Quickly, I took out my knife and slit my wrist, holding the open wound over her mouth. Droplets of blood began to fall inside, on her tongue. Her body moved almost sinuously, her arms springing up and grabbing my wrists with an iron grip. She pulled the wound to her mouth and began to actually drink my blood, her entire body tensing. I saw her wounds close up, faster than anything I'd ever seen before. She released my wrist and I pulled back, and I saw her body untense.

I saw the life return to her. She groaned and sat up.

"You alright?" I asked.

"You…" she began, clearly still in a daze. "Wha- Who...wh-who are you?"

"My name's Algernon." I told her. "Everyone calls me Al, though."

"Ohh...what did you do?" She asked. "What did you do to me?"

Shit. I forgot about the rules. I couldn't just tell her, could I? No I had to lie. But what would I tell her? She was very clearly conscious as she suckled from my wound, taking in my blood.

"Nothing." I said quickly. "I uh...just wanted to help."

"B-But you did something." She said, her voice sleepy, as if she'd gotten up from a long rest. She sat up more, and the way her shredded shirt exposed her bra and chest was enticingly interesting. "I-I...I kissed your wrist… I can feel it inside of me. What did you do?"

I realized I was staring, and that my Beast was urging me to do more things to her. Why not? She couldn't stop me. I gave her my blood. She was mine. Hell, she'd probably fucking enjoy it.

I pushed that thought to the back of my mind. Jesus, I did what I did to get further from the Beast, but all that seemed to happen was that it changed course. Instead of wanting to abandon her, it wanted to dominate her in every disgusting way imaginable. I really couldn't escape from this thing, could I?

"Look," I said. "Just forget about this...and don't say anything. You'll be fine."

"You…" She said, gazing directly into my eyes. Her gaze was dreamy. "I feel like I know you… like you've always been here."

That made me frown. What was going on? Mercurio didn't act like this...admittedly, I didn't know a lot about this "feeding humans vampire blood" thing, so what was going on? I didn't know if I made a mistake, but surely if I left, everything would turn out just fine, right?

"I really must be going now." I said, and before she could say anything else, I left.

I left the hospital without finding the room where they kept the blood. Sure, I didn't get what I came for, but I saved a life, and surely that was worth something. Right? After that bloodbath in the beach house, I was unsure of what I was, what I was becoming. But even if I was becoming a monster, at least I could help people. At least I could do some good, even though I was killing people and feeding from them with little to no remorse. I even saved the life of a cute redhead at the hospital tonight.

Jack said that these will be the least of my sins before the night's out. As I walked back to Mercurio's, I was inclined to believe him.