There were more than I could have hoped for, thousands of sleeping bodies lying in wait. Each of them was too high to even notice my approach let alone cry out for help. By the time morning came, no one would have noticed they were gone. It could have been quick. One small cut and they’d bled out before they realized what happened. Then it could be Caleb and me again. But I couldn’t.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered to the bottle of blood. “I can’t do it. Please, I just can’t.”
My stomach groaned in response.
“No! I do, I do. But does it have to be people? I can find another way. Please,” I squeezed the bottle tightly, feeling the warmth still radiating from its content. “I’m not a killer.”
I couldn’t think with the rumbling of my gut. The noise haunted me like an old wound and refused to let me turn away. Thankfully, I didn’t have to.
“The blood bank?” I wasn’t sure I’d heard him correctly. “Yeah, I remember. Would that work? I don’t have anything to trade.”
The bottle throbbed.
“I guess they do. And it’s not like they need any. I’d be doing them a favor, right?”
He stirred in his container once more, and I smiled in response.
“Right. Thanks, Caleb.” I tucked his bottle against my belt line and crept back through the building.
The hallways were lined with dozen of sleeping bodies, either passed out from exhaustion or usage. Unused powders and pills lined the floor, and I wasn’t the only one stealing them. A few desperate souls hopped from body to body, scavenging for the tiniest traces of dope. Until they saw me. They scattered like rats from a fire the second they noticed me approaching.
“I’m trying,” I replied to the swirling I felt from Caleb. “It’s just hard to ignore. I’ll be fine. Don’t worry.”
I scanned the floor until I found a small bag full of gray-brown dust. It lay next to a drooling man whose eyes were glossed over and devoid of life. Whether he was alive or not didn’t matter. He didn’t notice me swiping his supply and vanishing down the hallway.
It took a while to finally track down the blood bank in question. There wasn’t enough good blood in Sand Point to justify a place like that, but there was one lingering at the edge of the neighborhood. It was a dinghy little place crushed between a pizza shop and beauty salon that reeked of yesterday’s garbage and spoiled meat. By the time I arrived, visiting hours were over, but the place had not yet been abandoned. A faint light oozed through the grim-stained windows, and through I could see the slightest of outlines roaming inside. The only problem was Caleb couldn’t remember how he did it.
“What about the front door?” I asked. “Maybe the person you talked to is waiting inside?”
No response.
“Wait! Don’t be mad. I’m not trying to be pushy. I only want to help.”
The bottle churned ever so slightly.
“No! I can do it! Trust me! You’ll see!! I just…” I glanced back at the bank. “I need to think. That’s all.”
The silence that followed was suffocating. I could barely think with my stomach crying. Every idea was interrupted by a groan or scream. Even thinking about the cries was difficult. It was like I was drowning in my own head, and the deeper I went, the more anger I could feel building in the blood at my hip.
Thankfully it didn’t take long to find an answer. A door on the side of the building suddenly opened and interrupted my efforts. Through it, a sickly-looking man in a nurse’s gown stepped out into the adjacent alleyway. His stench burned my nose even from across the street, but it was quickly overshadowed by that of the cigarette he lit up. His skin was gaunt but had a healthy sheen to it, and his eyes were nowhere near as bloodshot as some of the addicts I had seen. He held himself like a bored teenager and leaned against the wall as he enjoyed his smoke.
“Do you think that’s him?” I asked, and the bottle didn’t respond. “That’s okay. You’re right. I shouldn’t need help on this.”
I sucked in a deep breath and slunk over to the alleyway. The nurse didn’t notice me at first. Whatever I was now was much harder to make out in the dark. By the time he finally did, I was well within arm’s reach of him.
“Jesus fuck!” He cried out before swinging a fist at me. I stepped back and easily dodged the swipe before holding my hands up in a sign of goodwill.
“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you.”
He wasn’t listening. The nurse dropped his cigarette as his hands reached around to grab at something tucked into the back of his pants. Even if he had managed to grab whatever weapon he had prepared, it wouldn’t have done him much good. His movements were slow, at least to me. I had hundreds of chances to strike, let alone stop his actions, but I didn’t dare. Half remembered memories plagued any thought of retaliation. Instead, I quickly fished out the heroine I’d stolen and held it up in front of me.
“Please! I don’t want to hurt you. I’m just here to trade.”
The looks the nurse gave me made me think I’d found the wrong person. Though, his confusion quickly gave way to something more like an innocent annoyance.
“Oh, great. You with that weird kid you kept taking blood?”
“Yes!” I jumped to answer. “Yes. I’m a friend of his, and I’m here to get some on his behalf.”
The nurse looked down at his cigarette lying in a puddle of rainwater, sighed in disappointment, and leaned back against the wall. “Sorry, kid. Deal’s off.”
My heart skipped a beat. “Excuse me?”
“I said deals off.”
I froze to the spot, not knowing what to do for the longest ten seconds of my life. “B-But I have your heroin. That’s what you trade for, right?”
“It’s not that. Kinda. My boss found out someone was swiping blood from the stores and put everything on lockdown, whatever the fuck that means.”
“But can’t you still get it.” I shoved the bag closer to him. “Just one more; that’s all I need.”
“Not without losing my job and, no offense, but I ain’t getting fired for your ass. Besides,” He glanced at the bag I held out. “Been trying to cut back on that stuff.”
For a moment, my mind went numb. Everything I had heard overloaded it to the breaking point. However, the numbness didn’t last long before a tide of anger surged through me. It wasn’t rage alone, either. This volatile cauldron of fear, desperation and raw spite spiraled through me. Every muscle in my body clenched as it held back the fury, channeling it out through the only means I could.
“You can’t do this!” I spat. “I need that blood!”
“Calm the fuck down, kid. If you got a problem, just go to the hospital.”
“I can’t! You don’t understand. I have to get that blood. You can just let me in, and I’ll take it myself.”
“I said no!” The man took a small step back, and I panicked. I shot a hand out and grabbed him by his wrist before he could get far. He struggled, naturally, but it didn’t do him much good. I wouldn’t have noticed his efforts if I didn’t see him struggling.
“The fuck?! Let go, you psycho!!” He cried out.
Through his skin, I could feel his pulse begin to race. Faster and faster, it ran, pumping fresh blood throughout him. It could have been easy. One cut to his throat, it would all be over. Hell, it wouldn’t even take that. I could have simply squeezed. His arm was so brittle beneath me. I was surprised I hadn’t broken it already. And the rest of him wasn’t any better. How could he even stand on legs that fragile or breath through that paper mache throat? I didn’t even have to think, and this would all be over. I knew that all too well, and I couldn’t ever let myself stoop so low.
My rage subsided as bloody memories clouded my mind. The longer I held onto the nurse, the more vivid they became, and I let go before I could remember anything. His arm was bruised, but there was no serious damage. It must have hurt like hell, though, judging from his reaction.
“YOU SON OF A WHORE!!” He cried out, cradling his arm. “The fuck is your problem, you goddamn addict!”
“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to-“
“Get outta here, or I’m calling the fucking police! Go!”
I didn’t wait for him to make good on his word and ran from the alley as fast as I could. It wasn’t until I was sure I was out of eyesight that I stopped. I wasn’t exhausted; I don’t think I could be anymore, but I didn’t stray too far from the blood bank. The bottle at my belt hummed, and I couldn’t ignore him forever.
“I know, I know, but I couldn’t.” He slushed around, beating against the bottle’s inside. “No! Don’t go. I can still get the blood. I promise.”
He settled in the bottle but gurgled ever so slightly.
“How?” I thought about it for a moment. “I can just take it. When they’re all gone, I’ll break in and find where they’re keeping the blood.”
The bottle grew still, with only a few lonely waves disturbing him.
“Thank you. I won’t let you down. I promise.”
I thought I would have to wait longer than I did. Staying in the shadows across the road from the bank, I saw the lights inside begin to shut down barely an hour after my encounter. The staff slipped out through the side entrance one by one until the building was all but abandoned. I crept from my hiding spot and towards the door, I had ambushed the nurse at. It was locked, but that didn’t stop me. When the doorknob didn’t budge, I twisted hard and broke through the lock with a loud, metallic snap.
Inside was more or less what you expected from a run-down blood bank. Once perfect, linoleum floors were now yellowed with age, and the walls were lined with old equipment they clearly had no more space for. Old wire wove their way in and out of the ceiling like roots, and the lights, had they been on, I’m sure would have flickered uncontrollably. The air was somehow both too clean and not clean enough, stinking of bleach and nicotine simultaneously. However, I could pick the faintest hint of blood through that musk.
I followed the scent through the building until I arrived at a large, metallic door leading into what had to be a massive freezer. Cold air blasted against me as I wrenched open the door, and the sweet smell of blood was carried with it. There was more of it than I could have imagined. The automatic light in the freezer flickered to life and revealed shelves upon shelves of blood bags, each glistening likes rubies.
“See?” I said as I raised Caleb up to the rows of blood with a massive smile on my face. “I told you I could do it.”
He didn’t move an inch.
“No. I didn’t forget.” I tucked my smile away and got to work.
My poise, however, didn’t last beyond the first taste. It’d been so long since I had any blood that I’d forgotten how incredible the sensation was. There wasn’t a taste so much as a feeling, and I can’t say it wasn’t warmth, either. I don’t think it ever was. Even in those frozen globs, I could feel the tiniest twinge of life, a slight murmur that almost wasn’t there. Yet when it touched my tongue, that energy washed through me. It was as if every cell in me had been embraced by tender arms and loving hands. Caleb’s hand. I would have cried if the rush didn’t end so quickly. Before long, all I had was an empty bag and the fading traces of comfort.
I didn’t dare let it go just yet. Before I could think to, I snatched up another bag and downed the contents in seconds. The same embrace followed, and afterward, the same lingering embers gave way to the chill of isolation. So I swallowed another bag’s worth and another and another and another until I couldn’t tell where one ended and the other began. Waves of euphoria crashed against me and mixed together into a familiar rhythm. Heat, cold, heat, cold. One moment swelled with life, the next emptied of any trace. I swear it felt like a heartbeat.
I don’t regret letting myself get swept away in that sensation, but it didn’t end well. In the middle of my high, something managed to pierce through my delirium and catch my ear. It was a voice, and I tore myself away from the latest empty bag to listen.
“Come on now, buddy. Get out here. You know the drill.” It was an older man’s voice and a bored-sounding one at that. Something accompanied it too. A set of heavy footprints, two of them, and a clicking like metal tapping against others. Weapons? Police! I spun around and was relieved to not see the officers anywhere near the freezer door. But they wouldn’t stay away for long. I could hear them steadily marching closer and looked down at the piles of empty blood bags scattered across the floors.
“There’s nobody here, Frank. Rat must’ve chewed on the wires too hard and tripped the silent alarm.”
“Nah. Bums like to break into these places. Plenty of stuff to give them their kicks in here. Pain killers, you know?”
“Do we have to search the whole thing, though?”
“Yes! Now quit your bitchin’ and move it.”
I stopped listening after that. My focus turned back to the mess I was knee-deep in, panic flooding my mind. I lunged to the door before remembering the officers lay between me and my escape. I had to hide, but could I? Maybe there was someplace nearby. A storage closet or bathroom I could take shelter in. But then there was the mess leftover from my feasting. If they saw it, they’d know something was wrong and tear the bank apart to find me. Maybe I could punch through a wall? Could I do that? I was strong, but was I that strong? Maybe I could run past the officers. Escape through a vent? A back door? Did the bank have one? Wait. They were getting closer. Maybe I could still hide.
Or I could kill them.
The second the thought came to me, it was too late. I had wasted all my time with crippling indecision and now could hear the officer’s footsteps right around the corner. They were going to see me unless I struck first. I could rip out their throats before they knew what happened and drink from the bleeding stumps. But I’m not a killer. I don’t hurt anyone.
“Hey, is that door supposed to be op-“ As I heard that, I raced back to the door and pulled it shut, trapping me inside.
“I fucking knew it.” One of the officers said as I heard them race up to the door. They started jiggling with the handle, only for me to grab the accompanying one inside the fridge. I held the door back, and despite how much the officers struggled, they couldn’t muscle it open. Not with me holding it in place.
“Jesus! The hells wrong with this thing?!”
“Probably locks from the inside, too.” One of them knocked at the door. “Open up. You can’t stay in there forever. Just come on out, and we can make this easy.”
I could even smell them through the door. Each wreaking of sweat and blood, indicating what a wonderful meal they would be. Caleb sloshed around in his bottle, beating against the sides once again.
“Please stop,” I whispered to him. “I don’t have to do that. No one has to die.”
“What was that?!” One of the officers yelled through the door. The sound of their voices caused Caleb to splash around with greater ferocity.
“Please just go away!” I screamed at them as I tried to ignore Caleb’s demands.
“We will as soon as you just step out of that fridge.” They tried again to open the fridge.
“No!” I pulled the door shut. “You don’t understand! I’m trying to protect you!”
“Is that a threat?!” I could barely hear them over Caleb. His efforts intensified with every moment I struggled to keep the door shut, and it was getting harder to ignore him.
“Please. He wants you.” I muttered. “But he’s hungry. He doesn’t know any better. But I can help him. You just have to go.”
“Kid, this is getting fucking ridiculous! Open up!”
“Go away.” I begged, my grip loosening around the door. “Let me help.”
“You can help by opening the damn door!!”
The words he screamed struck me like stones. It was hard enough trying to turn out Caleb’s demands. I couldn’t ignore the officer either. There was too much noise in the air, and it pressed against me like a vice cracking open my skull. Every second, they got louder. Every second, another twist.
“Please stop,” I said through gritted teeth.
“This is fucking absurd! Last chance, kid!! Open the door.”
I felt my head start to crack. “Stop it.”
“OPEN THE DAMN DOOR OR WE’RE BREAKING IT THE FUCK DOWN!”
“I said go away!” I smashed a fist against the door in frustration. I hadn’t meant to accomplish anything with it but ended up punching a clean dent into the metal. It must have popped through the other side because I heard the cops shout in alarm and jump away. Not that I cared, though, because they were finally quiet. I thought I’d find some relief then, but Caleb was still there, hungrier than ever.
And then a thought crossed my mind. One that came from the blood in the bottle.
Maybe one sip wouldn’t be so bad.
“The fuck was that?!” One of the cops belched as I let go of the freezer door.
“Fuck if I know, but I’m calling for backup. Maybe we can break down-“ The cop didn’t finish that sentence. There was this snipping sound like scissors through skin before the officers’ words devolved into incoherent gargling. I heard something wet hit the floor and his footsteps stumbling around before he too came crashing down.
“JESUS! Mackenzie!” The other officer said as his partner continued to choke on something wet. It was a sound all too familiar to me. Red memories flashed before my eyes, but I didn’t look. I couldn’t ignore that sound, however. I knew all too well what it meant. The gargling accentuated the officer’s last moments before he died drowning in his own blood.
He wasn’t alone either. Before the remaining officer could do anything, I heard that snipping sound again, followed closely by his own gargled breaths. I jumped away from the door and clamped a hand over my mouth in fear. Eventually, he too fell silent and left me in a haunting silence.
It must have only been a few seconds, but the quiet felt like an eternity. I strained to listen for any sign of what was outside, afraid of what I would find. What was worse, however, was hearing nothing. No breathing, no footsteps, not even a pulse. I had no idea what had happened on the other side of the door, which made it all the worse. All I could do was wait until it decided to break the quiet, and it wasn’t long until it did just that.
“You can come out now, mister.” It was a girl’s voice, and a young one at that. I thought I’d misheard it at first and stayed quiet.
“Hello?” There was a knock on the door. “Are you alive in there? Because if not, you’re being very rude.”
I raised an eyebrow but still didn’t speak.
“I said helloooooo.” She added a childish exaggeration at the end, which only fed my confusion.
“Fine then. If you won’t come out, then I’m coming in.” On instinct, I rushed to the door and grabbed the handle to try and keep it closed. When I grabbed it, however, the door still started to open. I tried to pull back with all my strength, but it amounted to nothing, and I was left dangling on the handle when it finally opened up.
The first thing that struck me was the smell of blood. It hung in the air like this thick musk and puckered my skin even as my mouth watered. I tried not looking down, but the carnage extended beyond the floor where the bodies lay. Blood splattered against the walls in long painted limbs and dripped from the ceiling like the start of a gruesome rain. The fluorescent lights overhead had been drenched in gore and cast an eerie red light throughout the hall while bits of flesh hung from the fixture. The only thing not stained from the havoc stood in the center of it all: a girl.
She couldn’t have been more than eight years old. Her curly hair was so blonde it hurt to look at and had been pulled into pigtails that erupted into a charmingly tangled mess. Her skin was fair and tastefully freckled, and her eyes were a striking shade of emerald green. She wore a pink dress like something out of the 1930’s with a short skirt and white frills accentuating the design. Over her feet, she wore a pair of black shoes shined to a mirror’s finish and white socks pulled almost up to her knee. She looked like a normal girl, albeit one from a different century. The only things out of the ordinary were her claws. Each finger ended in them, and blood dripped from their edges to join the pool smeared across the floor.
“There.” She said with a smile. “That wasn’t so hard now, was it?”
I blinked to make sure I wasn’t seeing things. “Who…who are you?”
The girl curtseyed and replied, “My name’s Valentina. A mighty fine pleasure to meet you, mister.”
I stared ahead for a moment, not sure if I was hallucinating or not.
“And you are?” She asked.
I answered reflexively, “Dustin.”
“Ooooo. That’s a nice name. You wouldn’t mind if I called you Dusty, would you?”
My heart twinged as I heard that name. “No. That’s fine.”
“Well then, Dusty. What in golly were you doing breaking into a blood bank? You know these places have all sorts of alarms, right?”
I glanced back at the empty bags lying on the floor. “I was just…wait, what are you?”
“Same as you, sweetie.” She replied with a giggle
“But how? I thought-“
“You thought you were the only one? Don’t be so silly.”
“But why are you like this? What happened?” Even with everything going on, that still felt wrong to ask.
“I was about to ask you the same thing. I hate to assume, but were you using any nasty powders or pills?”
I didn’t say a word, but the answer must have been all over my face.
“Oh, dear. You really shouldn’t be meddling with those things, Dusty. Who knows what kind of disease you could catch.” She giggled at her little joke and raised a hand up her mouth. One whose claws still dripped with blood.
“That’s not funny.” I said, looking back at the blood staining the walls. “None of this is funny. You killed them!”
“Yes, I did, didn’t I. But don’t you worry. Now they aren’t going to be telling any of their friends about this.”
I stared dumbfounded at her. “Is that all you care about?!”
Valentina sighed and gently skipped her way inside the fridge. “I’m not very good at explaining this, aren’t I? You see, these big meanies were calling some other meanies back at the station. If I didn’t kill them now, then we’d have to kill who knows how many more later.”
“There was another way!”
She looked up in thought and hummed curiously. “Really? What was it?”
“It…” My words caught in my throat for a second. “I-I could have knocked them out?”
“Oh! What a wonderful idea.” Valentina exclaimed. She clapped her hands together before stopping, the tiny smile on her face dripping downward. “But wait a minute. Why didn’t you do that?”
My mind went blank as she asked that. I waited for the words to come to me, but none ever did. My hands fumbled with each other as my own silence became suffocating. Why hadn’t I done it? All I had to do was bonk them on the head. That would have worked out, right?
No. I could see it then. My hand would go right through their skulls, cracking bone and tearing brain matter apart. The other would scream, and I’d try again, only to tear apart another head. They’d have been dead in an instant. That was the most I could do.
“No, no, no, no.” I mumbled to myself. “I can do it. I’m not a killer.”
I forgot all about Valentina, but she made sure I remembered before long.
“Of course, you’re not a killer, Dusty.” She spoke with sporadic energy fitting her age and wore a massive grin to boot. “You couldn’t have helped it. We’re all like you at the start. Big and strong, but we don’t know what we’re doing. That’s why we need some help!”
“I don’t need your help!” I spat at her.
“But you can want it, right?”
Once again, my words failed me. I didn’t know how to respond to that and was forced to let Valentina continue uninterrupted.
“Yeah. You can want some help because then you won’t need it! You’ll be big and strong, and next time, you won’t have to kill the meanies. Doesn’t that sound wonderful?”
I’d never heard someone phrase it like that. My stomach rumbled but in excitement this time. I’d never felt that before. Not even with Caleb. My hand reached down to the bottle at the thought and gripped him tightly. His churning, however, reminded me of what happened in the hall.
“But why did you do it? Why did you kill them?”
“I think the better question is, could you have done anything different?” She smiled as she spoke, baring her glistening teeth at me and narrowing her eyes. I couldn’t ignore the question. It stuck in my mind like an old nail and refused to be hammered down. All I could do was listen to the churning in the bottle, unable to say a word.
“N-no, I-“
“Ah-ah-ah!” Valentina interrupted with a short burst of syllables and thrust a finger up to my mouth. “Enough of that, now. There will be no negativity here!”
“But-“
“No buts except the one you sit on. You’re new, you’re scared, and pardon my candor, mister, but you are very miserable. You say you’d never; I say not yet! All it takes is a little guidance. Do you want it?”
She was practically glowing by the time she finished. Every inch of her beamed with a youthful hope I thought only existed in sappy movies. It was for that reason that something felt wrong. My heart still raced at her enthusiasm, but it didn’t feel real enough. Like there was one last step to being genuine that she hadn’t taken. A small part of me was taken aback, but I ignored it. Whatever my suspicions, the rest of her was so bright and hopeful that I simply had to believe it.
“Yeah,” I replied with a slight smile on my own face. “I think I’d like that.”
Valentina squeed and skipped happily in place at that. Again something felt off about her, but like before, I didn’t pay it any mind.
“I’m so happy to hear that. Thank you, thank you, thank you!” She said before diving to give my leg a big hug. I smiled nervously, unsure of what I should do, but my anxiety was cut short when I felt her squeeze around my legs. Her grip was far stronger than her appearance would have suggested. Pain shot up as my bones felt like they were on the verge of breaking. I even tried to worm ever so slightly, only to feel her grasp not weaken in the least. It was a little unnerving, but I couldn’t be too surprised considering what we were.
Eventually, she raced out of the fridge with an exciting peep in her step, calling back, “First things first, could you help me move these two? It’d be a sin to waste them now.”
My excitement died down at the thought, and I quickly looked away from her. “Why don’t we take some blood bags instead? We’re already here, after all.”
She frowned and hummed as if in thought before saying, “Fine. If you wish. We’d better be on our way before any of their friends show up.”
With that, she flashed another small smile before trotting down the hallway and out of view. I went to follow her, only to stop when I felt Caleb swirling around at my side.
“No, no. It’s okay.” I replied. “I didn’t forget. Don’t worry. I won’t let you die. I’m not a killer. It’ll be better this way. You know that, right?”
He went still after that, and I smiled in response. “Thank you. I’ll do good. I promise.” I let the bottle rest against my belt and marched on after Valentina, taking care not to notice the bodies lying in the hall.