Second Life

Ketti: So, I'm going on a road trip for two weeks. As a consolation for no random updates during that time period, here's this short story i wrote... I don't even know. The last updates where I mentioned August 14, 2015? That was when I reformatted my computer from the issue where it would turn off and steal huge chunks of written data. So I have no clue how old any of the ones written prior to that time actually are. Fun fact.

1 - Cheddar

"Eddie… Simon…"

The little buxom blonde police woman stared in near-tears horror at the animated and swiftly putrefying corpses of her former fellows in arms. Her partners, teaching her the ropes, the big brothers she never had.

The butt of her gun was still stained with Jack's black blood, and she was certain that Sam and Eugene would be catching up any minute. She didn't have time to dawdle!

"This isn't what I expected when I signed up for D11."

The police girl ran.

A flash of movement caught her eye and she turned, gun raised to stare at a civilian. No… a monster. She couldn't falter this time. "A monster," she repeated, assuring herself that it wasn't murder of an unarmed civie. It was putting down a monster.

Her finger tensed on the trigger as the desiccated corpse shambled closer, "Not human!"

Before she could fire, the creature moaned in pain and dissolved into ash, revealing a red clad figure with sharp teeth and amber tinted sunglasses. Seras was shocked into silence, and stillness as she stared at the man, but tensed as he moved and raised the gun.

"It's a beautiful night, isn't it police girl?"

Startled at how normal, how human he sounded, she made a noise of surprise in the back of her throat, "Of course," he continued, baring his fangs that overlapped his bottom lip, "it's especially beautiful if you're a blood sucker."

She fired.

His arm was nearly blown off at the shoulder, hanging from a few strands of meat, but in less time than it took to blink he was healed again, and laughing.

"You're not human!" Seras cried, turning to run. Even as her footsteps battled for dominance with the heartbeat pounding in her ears, she could still hear his bemused reply. "Why, would you have shot me if I was?"

"What am I doing?" Seras berated herself as she continued walking, always walking, she couldn't stay still or one of the monsters would find her. "I don't have anywhere that's safe to go around here."

Another rustle in the bushes caught her ear and she pivoted on her heel, gun pulled from her hip in a fluid motion that would do any predator proud. But it was just a dog.

Seras' lips trembled a bit as she smiled at the shaggy beast and he wagged his tail in return. "Hullo boy. Do you know a safe place to hide out until back up arrives?"

Surprisingly, the dog barked, and Seras jumped a bit – then laughed scornfully at herself – as he trotted out of the trees and onto the dirt path she was on. His tail wagged even harder as he stared intently at her with his intelligent eyes before moving past her and stopping to look back over his shoulder at her.

Well, that was a clear a sign as any.

Faster and faster the dog moved through the shadows of the trees, the moonlight coming in dappled patches, and Seras struggled to keep up until a root ensnared her ankle and she fell with a muffled scream. Laying there in the dirt, tears mixing the residue to mud on her cheeks, the little blonde fought hard not to just give up then and there. The dog came back and licked her cheeks clean, she giggled, feeling new resolve fill her. She caught a glimpse of the name tag on his collar, and thought she saw a B, but could not make out the rest.

Hoisting herself up on hands and knees, she gingerly pulled her twisted foot free of the trap and hesitantly stood. It hurt, but it wasn't unbearable.

This time the dog stayed at her side as he led her towards a new clearing, and she was grateful beyond words for his company.

"Good boy," Seras crooned, reaching out to ruffle the fur between his ears, he huffed, gracing her with a toothy smile as he loped ahead and turned to face her, silhouetted by the full moon's light.

On the other side of the trees there was a sudden openness that left her skin crawling, more so when she noticed the headstones, some of them slanted crookedly in the boneyard. When she looked back down to her side, she jumped back in surprise at finding the dog gone. Looking about her almost frantically, she found no trace of the black beast and her heart sank. That was when she noticed a glow flicker to life in the church's stained glass window.

Cautious, she decided that it was better than the trees, and she limped to the large front doors that opened easily at her touch. Her gun never left her hand, which she kept clenched at her side, finger nervously twitching against the barrel. The source of the flickering light became evident as a pair of candelabras at the rear of the chapel.

"The church has always offered sanctuary to those who are in distress." The deep male voice drew her eye to the unnaturally pale figure behind the pulpit, and her gun jerked up a few inches, but she kept it pointed mostly to the ground for now.

The man moved across the short distance to bend over the podium and run a caressing hand across the open bible's pages. "Good evening, Father." Seras' voice barely shook at all.

"And a very good evening to you too, young lady. So fresh, so full of life, so frightened by the evil creatures that walk the night. Poor little thing." His smug expression was beginning to unnerve her, not to mention his creepy mini-sermon.

"Are you really a priest?" She questioned, and couldn't help but to raise her gun to full view, feeling the need to announce herself as an armed creature, not some weak damsel to be taken advantage of.

"I am merely a guide," he crooned, stepping back and sweeping his arm dramatically through the air, "to the weak of heart."

"Well…" Seras started, voice wavering, "I'm on a mission, we're supposed to be dealing with… a priest…"

His red eyes glowed and she jumped back as she saw for the first time how sharp his teeth were, "But, you're not like the others."

He hummed smugly, and his amusement filled her veins like a shot of ice, "You're speaking of the ghouls outside." He kept getting closer and closer, and she wondered wildly why she hadn't already pulled the trigger. She hadn't hesitated when she'd shot the red man! Why was the priest different?

"Ghouls?"

"They are the undead slaves of the vampire. When a vampire drinks a human's blood, the corpse left behind will move under the vampire's control."

"Vampire," Seras repeated, and inwardly she screamed at herself to move, to do something, to get away from the monster that was after her life. The monster that was responsible for the death of her team.

"Of course," he continued, and Seras could feel it inside her head more than in her ears, "vampires can't turn everyone they drink from into their own. For example…"

His form blurred, triplicating before her eyes, and the dull feeling in her limbs spread to consume her body in a swath of cotton. Her heart thundered in her ears, and her breathing hitched in her throat as she fell limp into the air, only to be caught by some unseen force and dragged across the remaining distance separating them to be captured in the tainted priest's arms.

"Let me go." Her voice was so weak, so… so kittenish. She hated it.

"Turning you into a ghoul would be such a waste. The blood that courses through your body is warmer and sweeter than you can imagine." A gloved hand unzipped her blue jacket, and placed ice cold fingers to her pulse point. He bared his teeth in a wicked laugh and she pushed her hand against his chest to keep him at bay.

"Let me go, or…" her muscles burned, "I'll shoot and I'll blow your brains out." Raising the gun to his head, she pressed it point blank to his forehead, "and then everyone will find out."

"I know you're feeling pain," he crooned, unconcerned by the trembling pistol pressed to his waxy flesh, "but I will give you pleasure, and it will last forever."

Seras' cerulean gaze locked with his crimson for a long moment, and suddenly, the strange numbness in her head was swept away by a single thought; there was no white knight coming to save her, she had to rescue herself.

She pulled the trigger.

He laughed as his head jerked back, and she threw herself from his hold, but a gloved hand captured her wrist painfully, "I look for loyalty in my servants. I wouldn't want a vampire with free will running around!" He slapped the gun from her hand and she winced as she felt the fragile bones snap in her fingers. He twisted her other arm up behind her back and grasped her throat with lewd intimacy. "Pity I can't find a virgin as lovely as you-" the hand on her neck caressed her breast, squeezing painfully, "I'm going to violate you-" the icy touch cut through her denim like a blade as he cupped her crotch and she strained against his supernatural strength to get loose.

"I'm going to drain your blood, slowly." Again he squeezed her breast, twisting and compressing until she gasped in pain, "then you will join with the rest of my ghouls, my slave for eternity."

She felt him there, against her neck, his fetid breath sending goosebumps rippling across her skin. She screamed. She screamed, and screamed, and screamed.

The doors – when had they closed? – burst open violently, and that same voice that had haunted her in the forest, the red clad man, sneered, "I've had enough of you. Goddamned punk!"

The pseudo priest jerked in surprise, the tips of his teeth only scraping her pale flesh, as he pulled back to question the intruder, "And who the hell are you?"

"Your death."

"My death? Really. My god, this is pathetic." Suddenly from the pews Seras' zombified team stood - she wondered how they had beat her to the church - guns in arms, and the priest sneered, "Who do you think you're talking to? Have you lost your mind?"

The man in red stood there, smirking, utterly at ease with the heavy artillery pointed at his chest, "You're even less than garbage, you're just scum. And that ridiculous costume! You look like some sort of sad carnival freak." He took his first real step into the church and it sounded like thunder in the large hollow chapel. "Just look at you wearing those priest robes, don't you have any shame? I thought scum could at least feel shame."

Seras, in her oddly disconnected state, wondered how wise it was to taunt the creature when he held her hostage. Of course… the man in red likely didn't care either way.

"I think you should die now," the priest sneered, and a rain of bullets filled the air. The inhuman creature she met in the woods, whom her mind had already dubbed a knight in crimson armor, was blown quite literally to shreds and pieces. A pang went through her at his apparent death. Why, she wasn't certain, but it felt as though a hole she hadn't been aware of had been partially filled only to be ripped open once more.

There was a brief silence in the desecrated house of god, but then the lump of bloody meat began to laugh as shadows oozed around it and pooled back into a humanoid shape. His teeth were the first thing to appear clearly from the red edged blacked as they swirled around his congealing form. "You are a fool who creates slaves to do his dirty work, a coward and an incompetent, incapable of doing anything on your own. You're not worthy of the lowest pits of hell." The red clad man lifted a silver oversized pistol to his mouth, cocking it with his teeth as the ghouls moaned and prepared to fire again. Then the crimson knight began to fire, and the corpses dissolved to ash in the wake of his bullets. The empty clip fell to the floor as he reached into his pocket for a new one, "The silver cross of Manchester Cathedral was melted down to make these thirteen millimeter exploding shells. Nothing I shoot ever gets back up again."

"But why… Tell me! Why fight to save these pathetic humans?" The priestpire moved her in front of him further, a meat shield, and she cried out as he broke her wrist in his tightening grip. His body twitched behind her and suddenly his free hand was held in front of her face, claw like nails threatening her skin as the split tips of his gloves peeled back. "Don't take another step. The girl's the last survivor. Don't you want to save her?"

Seras, caught in the middle, could only stare into the ginger-red eyes of the crimson knight with his silver gun. The priest's words faded from her mind as she was caught in the creature's gaze.

"Be reasonable, I'm not asking for much. Just a bit of help. You can… look the other way."

"Are you a virgin, my dear?" His words resonated in her head and she gasped, startled, even as his smirk grew wider and she was amazed his mouth could stretch so wide. She could see every tooth in his head!

"What are you doing?"

"I'm asking if you're a virgin."

"Bu-… I-" Seras' mind reeled, and her cheeks burned with embarrassment. Yet, somehow, it felt almost right to answer his question – nay, his command.

"You bastard!"

"Answer me!" The crimson knight snarled the order and despite everything that had happened that night, despite all the things that could have been, and might still be, she gasped out her answer. "Y-yes! I am!"

Pain exploded in her chest, and the world went numb. The stained and worn carpet felt like fluffy clouds to her as she landed in a heap on the church floor, blood choking her as it crawled up her throat and trickled from her mouth. She didn't want to die staring at a dirty floor. Somehow she managed to roll to her side and collapsed back into the pool of blood with a sickening splat as she stared up at the ceiling with hazy eyes. A shadow swept over her, and the only thing she could see of his features under the hat that he had regained was the yellow lenses glowing with their own unnatural light.

"I had to shoot through you to pierce his heart, I'm sorry but you're dying." He didn't sound sorry, "and there's no time left, the choice is yours. What do you want to do? Do you want to come with me? I can't force you into this, the decision has to be made of your own free will."

What sort of choice was that? The image of her parents' death flashed before her mind's eye and a tear rolled down her cheek, she didn't… Mommy, Daddy…

She didn't want to die. Reaching out a trembling hand with the last of her strength, she tried to grab hold of the red man's coat, to beg him to save her, to… to…

Her world was darkening at the edges as her arm went numb and her hand fell, but it was captured in his own and he pulled her into his lap with a smug look on his face. Some part of her felt she should be annoyed at him, outraged that he would assume things about her, but she was just grateful he was there.

He leaned in close to her, licking the blood from her chin, and her hazy eyes focused on his face, noting dimly that he had removed his glasses. His arm around her shoulders pulled her closer, and she sighed, though it hurt to even try to breathe. His teeth glinted, becoming the only thing she could see, and he chuckled, "This is the part where you're supposed to close your eyes."

Miss the last moments of her life? She wasn't even sure if she could close them if she wanted to.

He paused a moment before chuckling, and leaning into the vulnerable expanse of her throat. The last of the light left her world as his teeth parted her flesh, and she sank into the dark.

The last thing she heard was his voice, oozing with satisfaction, "Police Girl, tonight truly is… a beautiful night."