I reached my hand out to my doppelgänger in curiosity. My clone reached their hand out to mine as well, mirroring my movements. We both waved our arms in unison. I brought my arm back down to my side and he did the same. I tilted my head to the side and so did he. I started jumping on one foot and he also started jumping on one foot. I then started waving my arms around and pounding my chest like a gorilla.
“Okay, that’s enough!” He said, annoyed and tired of my antics.
I jumped at the harshness of his voice. His voice, my voice, had this… power to it.
“Who are you?” I asked. “Are you me?”
“Yes and no.” I answered myself. “I’m what you could be.”
Like he read the question brewing in my mind, his eyes glowed this shimmery and vibrant purple color. He then smiled, revealing two distinct sets of fangs- one pair on the top jaw and another on the bottom.
“Woah!” I said aloud, taking a cautious step back.
“Relax, I’m not going to hurt you. You’re me, after all.” His face returned to normal and so did his eyes.
I furrowed my eyebrows together as the cogs in my head started to turn. “So if I’m not dead… what am I? Where is this place?”
“You are currently deep within your subconscious. Right now your body is barely clinging onto life. If someone were to take your pulse it would be so weak that they’d think you were actually dead.” I explained to me.
“So how do I… not die?”
“That’s why you’re here. You need to embrace me.”
“Embrace you? Easy.” I then gave myself a big ol’ hug. Nothing happened and me pushed me off myself.
“Not that kind of embrace you idiot!”
Suddenly, like a movie screen, memories started playing behind me.
First up was from a few nights ago back in the woods when Jess had caught up to me. I was backing myself away from her.
“You know the reason why you kept fighting that night instead of giving up.”
“Yeah to not die.” I responded.
Jess then jumped on me and tried to rip my neck off.
“To keep your humanity. You were going to fight, tooth and nail, to the end. You didn’t want to become a vampire.”
The memory suddenly changed to back in the frat house kitchen right after Ashton told me he turned me into a werewolf. I was in the middle of accidentally destroying his table.
“And here,” I told me, pointing to the ‘screen’,” You admitted it. ‘The whole point of me fighting last night was to stay human!’”.
“Exactly. I didn’t ask for any of this, to be turned into… you!”
“Well like it or not,” I began, taking a step towards me,” I’m a part of you now. You have to let go of what you used to be and accept what you are now. This is why all the hybrids die out, Danny, because they can’t accept themselves for who they are. What they are. They’re too stuck in the past to see the opportunity of the future. You don’t have to be like them, Danny. You have to accept what you’ve become or you’ll die. We both will.”
“I- I don’t-“
“If you won’t do it for yourself, do it for Beck and Jessica. You’ll be stronger, stronger than any lone vampire or werewolf ever could be. Strong enough to take on those two cops that are responsible for all of this and win. Do it for revenge.”
I balled my fists up to the point where they turned white. The memories of that horrid night had been playing on repeat in my mind ever since I’d escaped. Bailey’s torture just added salt to the wound.
They killed Jessica and they killed Beck, my two best friends in the entire world right in front of my face.
How could I honor my vow to kill Bradshaw and Bailey if I was dead?
“Okay.”
The last thing I saw on my face was an evil smirk before blacking out again.
The loud click clacking of heels walking down the corridor was the first thing I heard as I re-entered consciousness. I looked up to see Bailey eating some kind of sandwich with raw meat in it scrolling through his phone. The sounds of my chains clinking alerted him that I was awake.
“Oh good, I thought you had actually croaked for a second there.” He said, finishing the last bite of his sandwich before tucking his phone in his pocket.
I scoffed weakly.
“Is he dead yet?” Marcy asked after barging into the room, texting on her phone.
“Unfortunately not.” I said, my voice hoarse from all my screaming.
Bailey just shrugged.
“Okay well clearly he isn’t a full fledgling or werewolf, so he’ll end up dying sooner or later. Well, even if he did become a werewolf I’d have killed him anyway. Bailey, unchain him. You’ll be on fledgling watch until I get back.”
“If you don’t mind my asking ma’am, why?” Bailey asked.
“A hunter stumbled their way into our nest and I’ve got to go take care of it. Bradshaw is coming with me since he’s the more… capable one between you two.”
“Ma’am, I just spent the past three days torturing him, surely that counts for something?” Bailey pleaded desperately.
Marcy scoffed, “And look where that’s gotten you.” She then rolled her eyes before walking out. “Bring him to the others and stay in the building until I tell you otherwise.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He said dejectedly.
Bailey then sucker punched me right in the stomach. I brought my knees up to my chest as high as I could, curling up in pain. I may be a hybrid now, but that doesn’t mean that one, I don’t still feel pain and two, it takes some time to heal- no matter how fast it is.
My body fell to the floor when officer Bailey released the cuffs around my wrists. He then manhandled me up to my feet. Seeing as I’d been brutally tortured and all that, I couldn’t walk by myself properly.
If I weren’t so weak in that moment, I’d have ripped his head off right then and there, but good things come to those who wait.
I had to be patient. My time would come.
“Oh my god, Danny?!” Jess yelled once Bailey threw me on the floor in what I’m assuming was the common room for this safe house. There was a couch, tv, rug, and coffee table. The faint electric hum of a fridge and microwave sounded from the room adjacent to us.
“I swear to god, man!” Beck hissed angrily at Bailey. Bailey hissed back which caused Beck to stand down.
“I am your elder and you will respect me!”
Beck nodded as Jess lunged from the couch and to my side. She caressed my hair the way I liked it to help calm me. I could already feel my inner battery recharging itself, and faster than it ever had before
“Fucking babysitting duty!” I heard Bailey mumble to himself from the other room. He came back with three other blood bags in hand, another one half drunk already. He then tossed us each one of us our own. “Bradshaw this, Bradshaw that. When will anybody show me some fucking respect around here? I do all the dirty work for fucks sake.”
“Someone’s panties are in a twist.” Beck said, joining Jess and I on the rug. He used his fangs to rip open the plastic bag.
“He’s mad because he’s our babysitter.” I told them as Jess opened my bag and fed me like a newborn baby. (I didn’t ask her to, she did it on her own.)
“My Babysitter’s A Vampire.” Jess chuckled to herself. Beck and I both looked at her inquisitively.
Jess sighed,” Come on guys, you know, like the movie?”
Nope.
“Came out in twenty-ten? The show came out the next year, twenty-eleven?”
Nada.
“Okay, that’s it, we’re watching it.” Jess said before getting up and finding the remote for the tv. Beck and I continued the conversation as Jess scrolled through Netflix looking for whatever she was about to put on.
“Some hunter found the nest and she had to go deal with it.” I told Beck.
“Monster or animal?”
“I’m not sure. Either way, Marcy didn’t want Bailey going and messing things up so she took Bradshaw with her instead. He took it out on me and is currently sulking.”
“Aha, found it!” Jess cheered out as she giddily squealed with excitement.
Beck shrugged his shoulders as he finished off his blood bag. “Imagine dude, monster hunters. Scary shit.”
“Yeah, terrifying.” I said, crawling up to the couch and into Jess’s arms. Things were better between us now, still a bit awkward, but better.
“Where’s Ashton?” I asked, snuggling into Jessica’s side.
“He went back to his packhouse.” She answered, stroking my hair again. “If Marcy gave him wind about the hunters he’s probably preparing for a raid or something.”
“I see.” I was a bit worried about Ashton because he had been pretty nice to me, in contrast to the vampire’s treatment of me.
I pushed the thought of him and his pack to the back burner in my mind and figured I’d take this time to relax and heal up. I ended up drifting off asleep, waking back up to Beck, Bailey, and Jess all in a fight about whether Benny was a cinnamon roll or not.
Jess and Bailey were saying he was, but Beck was adamant he wasn’t, saying,” I’m more of a cinnamon roll than Benny ever will be!”
This caused Jess and Bailey to laugh at Beck. I yawned and sat up rubbing my eyes, thoroughly confused. When did the three of them become all buddy-buddy?
A text notification came from Bailey’s phone.
“Okay guys, time to go.” He said, getting up from his chair and stretching.
“Go where?” I asked.
“That was Marcy.” He then showed me his phone and their text conversation, probably knowing I’d protest without evidence.
The texts read;
Hunters are taken care of. You and the others are on cleaning duty. Here’s the address.
Below that was the address for a motel on the outskirts of the other side of town.
I was kind of astonished by Jess and Beck readily and blindly following Marcy’s command, but they were full-fledged fledglings. Vampire hierarchy I suppose. I was a hybrid so I’m not affected as much by stuff like that- whatever that entails.
We grabbed our stuff and headed out of the abandoned building into the parking lot. I guess one thing the media got wrong was that the sun doesn’t affect vampires all that much- for short periods of time that is. Beck, Bailey, Jess, and I all strode out to a police cruiser and didn’t disintegrate into ash.
“Like I’ve explained to the other kiddo’s,” Bailey said, directed towards me,” the sun thing is mostly a myth. We get gnarly sunburn and sun poisoning if we are out in it too long, but otherwise we are fine. We are naturally nocturnal creatures, so we mostly sleep during the day and are up at night- hence the sun thing. Right now for us is like three am for humans.”
I nodded my head before turning it to face out the window. I don’t know about you guys, but spending the day with the guy who killed my friends and tortured me for three days straight, doesn’t suddenly mean I forgive him for all the shit he’s put me through.
Patience, Danny, patience.
Eventually, after a twenty minute or so ride through town, Bailey pulled into the Honeysuckle Motel parking lot. The parking lot itself was fairly empty, just a few other cars. One of them being Marcy’s I’m assuming.
Bailey texted her phone as we all got out of the car. A second later she texted back the room she was in. Room two-thirteen. Funny, that was Jeffery Dahmer’s apartment number. Fitting since I guess being a vampire queen or whatever Marcy was, makes you a serial killer too.
All the room numbers had a little honeycomb hexagon surrounding the number. It was quite cute actually.
Bailey knocked on the door, a second later someone opened it.
What wasn’t as cute were the two decapitated vampire bodies on one of the queen sized mattresses. One of the heads on the floor belonged to Bradshaw- the other one I didn’t recognize.
The fucker got to Bradshaw before I could.
The hunter was standing behind a tied up Marcy that was bound to a sturdy looking wooden chair.
“Fernando!” A man yelled out in an over dramatic Spanish accent.
“Miguel!” Another man’s voice shouted back. A dramatic sting of music then played in the background of the telenovela.
“Damn, you came right at the good part.” The semi-old man lamented. He then ripped the duct tape off of Marcy’s lips which resulted in small yelp from her. Some of little mustache hairs ripped off so really he was doing her a favor.
“Oh great, you brought the fledglings with you.” Marcy said sarcastically. “Did it ever occur to you Bailey, why you would ever have to come to a motel for a clean up job when I told you the hunter had infiltrated the nest?”
Bailey then smacked his forehead when he realized his mistake. That’s what you get for following orders blindly.
The hunter then made eye contact with me. He walked closer and closer to me, holding the machete in his hand tightly. I gulped.
“Ah, Danny, there you are!” Ben said as he wrapped his arm around my shoulder, a big grin on his face. He then handed me the machete in his hand before grabbing another one off the bed. Most of the tension in my body had melted away. “I was getting a little worried for you when you hadn’t showed up for ‘work’ but thanks to your informative little text the other day, we were able to follow the Sire back to her nest and take out most of them.”
Oh yeah, I probably should’ve mentioned this before, but you know about that job that I was able to find after getting out of jail? Well, in the slammer I met this kook named Ben, or Benny as I liked to call him. He got caught for breaking and entering someone’s home. He went on and on about how he wasn’t some burglar but was in reality a monster hunter hunting a family of vampires. Honestly, at the time, I didn’t know how he hadn’t been sent to the psych ward in some hospital yet, but now I know he wasn’t as crazy as I first thought. Anyway, Benny got out before I did and liked me enough to say, “I’ve got what it takes” and to look him up if I ever needed a job when I got out.
Well as it turns out, vampire fangs and werewolf claws can make you a pretty penny, which is nice, especially in this economy. Plus, it doesn’t matter if you are a convicted felon or not to be a monster hunter.
This all really was unexpected though. I mean, Benny and I knew there was something going on in this town with all the missing persons, we just didn’t know what monster was behind it. That was, until, we just so happened to get pulled over by vampire cops.