Love and Bloody Roses: Bloodlust

Back by popular demand is the second installment of Love and Bloody Roses.

I have often found that the sequel can often ruin or mess up the first movie, I will try not to do that. But in this second installment there are going to be new things, there is another love interest for Serena and the relationship between Serena and Darien is going to go through some hard times. Of course there is a new deranged killer after Serena and Darien is once again called to duty to protect her, but can he win her back before her heart falls to another?

Lets see.

I would like to note that the title is bloodlust as in the desire to spill or shed blood (the dictionary meaning (the Australian dictionary)) rather than the vampiric need for blood or blood consumption. Ok, just wanted to clear that up.

Prologue

On a dark, deserted highway forty miles from Centinela State Prison, South California . . .

Two lone headlights moved swiftly through the darkness along the endless black river of cracked tarmac, the roaring sound of an overused diesel engine echoed unheard through the silence. The large grey bus moved heavily along the narrowing road. It was late and it had been over an hour since a pair of human eyes had looked up with curiosity and read the large white lettering clearly displayed on all sides of the large, gray beast.

Centinela Correctional Facility.

Centinela Prison was well known for housing some of the worst criminals of California. It was a level five maximum security prison, which meant they did not house terrorists or mass murders, but they housed violent murderers and rapists.

There were seven dark male figures on the bus, revealed only by the bright orange light of the headlights and the single dim overhead light at the centre of the gritty roof. Three of the men were dressed in the grey and black uniforms of the California State Prison Guards, or as officially referred to as Correctional Officers. The other four men were separated from the three prison guards by a thick metal mesh wall with a securely locked gate, and they were separated from the outside world by bullet proof glass windows. They seated separately with the distance of at least two seats between them. They were dressed in identical bright orange jumpsuits and were restrained by shinny silver prison chains, restraining their hands and their feet. They were inmates of the approaching prison, all on their way back from their rejected or lost appeals that had been held hours before. It was not often that an inmate of Centinela State Prison won an appeal. No one wanted them back on the streets after the crimes they had been convicted for.

"Hey, Carl!" The bus driver called to the man sitting behind him, holding a loaded shotgun across his lap. "You still seeing that pretty little blonde thing?"

The guard looked up with a proud smile on his face. "You bet'ya." He answered, turning his attention to the driver.

"How longs that been now?" The third guard asked, turning his attention to the conversation.

"Nearly eleven months." Carl answered happily. "I'm think'in of ask'in her to marry me."

"Ha!" He driver laughed. "As if something that good on the eyes would settle for you!" He jokingly teased.

"Well, if he doesn't." The third guard taunted with a friendly laugh. "I will."

"As if she'd marry the likes of you!" The driver snapped with a smile.

The third guard sat up straight, good-humouredly offended. "And why not, hu? I'm just as good as the next bloke."

The other two snorted and they all bursted into laughter as the driver turned the bus around a blind corner.

Suddenly, two things caught the attention of Carl and his smile was snatched from his face and all laughter in his eyes became horror in less than the blink of an eye. The first was the light of the headlights reflecting off of the overturned white SUV in the middle of the road only two car lengths away and the second was that for that single moment the driver's eyes were not on the road. He had turned to say something to the third prison guard, Stephen.

With no time to do anything else, he braced himself and cried out. "WATCH OUT!!"

Time seemed to slow down in Carl's eyes. The driver Stanley turned his attention back to the road ahead and cursed as he stepped on the break as hard as he could and turned the wheel sharply to the right in an attempt to miss the SUV, but Carl could clearly see there wasn't enough room. On one side of the road was a downward slope and on the other was a sharp uprise.

The distance was closing quickly when a small, horror-filled pair of innocent eyes caught his attention. There sitting on the road beside the SUV, clutching a pink teddy bear was a young, blonde child. The little girl was drenched in blood on her right side and seemed to be holding the adult hand of someone in the SUV he couldn't see.

"Oh my god!" The driver cried in horror as he turned back to the road and saw the little girl who had no time to move even if she could, but it was clear she was terrified beyond belief and only held the hand of who was most likely one of her parents, tighter.

"Jesus Christ!" Carl swore in horror. "There are kids in there!" He turned to the driver and saw something in his eyes. The man had made a desperate decision.

Carl watched wordlessly as the driver swerved the bus sharply to the right towards the downward slope.

Every man in the bus was thrown violently to the right. At only half of the speed they had been travelling at, they narrowly missed the SUV and the frightened child. The next moment with the SUV safe from collision, the bus slammed through the guard rails and disappeared from the little girl's sight down into the darkness.

A moment later there was the loudest explosion the girl had ever heard and the sound of tearing metal, and then everything was silent again.

The little girl held her mother's hand tighter as she stared into the empty darkness, her eyes just as empty and lifeless.

Time past, but the little girl didn't notice. She was numb. All she knew was her mother's cold hand beneath her wet, sticky one. It wasn't until a deep grunt called her attention to the left from where the bus left the road that she saw the man step over the guardrail. He was dressed in orange and had a happy expression on his face. She watched as the man looked around and soon spotted her.

He just stared at her.

The little girl knew she should fear this man, she would have had she been aware of anything.

The seconds pressed on and the little girl waited for him to do something terrible, the man was dangerous, even if he was dressed in orange pyjamas, but when the man moved, it wasn't towards her, but away from her, back the way the bus had come.

The man smiled at the little blonde girl with empty and lifeless eyes and an evil smile spread across his lips as it sparked a memory of a much older blonde girl with the same look in her eyes, only she had much more fear in the blue depths. With the memory flashing before his eyes, he looked up at the half moon with only one thought on his mind.

Finding that woman and putting the fear back in her eyes, making her pay for betraying him and sending him to prison, for ruining his life. Oh, he was free now and soon he would see that fear in her eyes. He would teach her that no one crossed him and went on unpunished. She would beg for death before he was done with her, but he would not grant her wish until it suited him, she would suffer long and painfully for what she had done to him.

Turning away from the child, he walked into the darkness. As the darkness swallowed him, he thought of his ex-girlfriend who had dominated his thoughts and dreams for years, dreams in which he made her pay for her betrayal. Yes, he was going to find her and he was going to do everything to her he had dreamed for doing for so long. He smiled with evil pleasure up at the moon. "I'm coming for you. Just wait, baby."

Oh yes, god help her because no one else would be able to. God help Serena Luna.

As the man disappeared into the darkness, the little girl turned and looked down at the bloodied hand of her mother and she only held on tighter, knowing that if she didn't she would disappear forever.