Strigoi (Part 9)
Later on that day...
Justin, Lance and JC left the house armed to the gills. They each carried one pointy stake, one vial of holy water and one crucifix. After much discussion it had been decided that Joey would stay with Chris while JC joined the vampire hunting party. As they followed Justin through the neighborhood streets and then through the park, JC began to have serious doubts that he was doing the right thing. He tried to swallow those doubts and keep an open mind as he trudged forward. He was determined to trust his friends, at least for now.
After about ten minutes they walked out of the park and onto a lavish street with huge homes. Homes so huge they could almost be called mansions. Justin kept moving forward until he stopped in front of a grandiose colonial.
"This is it guys."
"Wow!" said Lance as he looked upon it. "The undead live in style." His own statement confused him and he asked, "Or is it-don't live in style? Or die in style?"
Justin gave him a small shove. "You guys ready?" he asked. When he recieved two affirmative answers he took a deep breath to steel his nerves and walked up the expansive entrance and up to the door.
Taking another deep breath, Justin turned the doorknob and pushed the large door open easily. Still not locked. He walked into the house and motioned for Lance and JC to do the same. As they did, JC closed the door behind them silently. They stood still for a moment as their eyes adjusted to the relative gloom of their surroundings.
They saw that they were in a foyer with a winding staircase in front of them and and beyond that rooms both to the left and the right and straight ahead. They began to move forward, slowly leaving the foyer and entering what appeared to be some kind of drawing room or parlor. As they looked around they could not help but gasp in surprise. The room held no furniture. None at all. If one didn't know better, one would think that the no one resided here at all.
They pressed forward, with Justin taking the lead. They walked through room after room only to be met with the same sight. Every room was empty. Every room was devoid of decorations of any sort. The only things that each room held were dark curtains that managed to block most of the sunlight from entering the house.
Justin was beginning to feel frustrated. They had walked through most of the rooms on the bottom floor and still had not found anything even indicating where the vampire was sleeping. They were wandering through a very large and never used kitchen when he turned around and whispered, "Guys, I think we should split up."
Lance looked at him in shock. "No way, Jose. I am not walking around this place by myself. Besides, I think I might know where our little friend is hiding."
"Where?" asked Justin and JC in unison.
Lance pointed to a door that sat right next to the refrigerator. "Can anyone say basement?"
Justin ran over to the door and turned the knob.
Nothing. It was locked.
"Dammit" he said as loudly as he dared. He looked at his friends. "Well, we're just going to have to break it down."
JC looked decidedly uneasy. "Ok guys, I think we're going too far. It's bad enough that you dragged me out here so we can trespass on private property, but I am not about to go busting down a locked door! It's locked for a reason, let's just leave it alone and get out of here."
Justin looked at JC levelly. "You can do whatever you want JC. I'm not going to force you to do something that you don't feel comfortable with. If you're going to go, then go. But if you're going to stay, then I'd appreciate your help with this door, because me and Lance are going through it no matter what."
JC stared at the floor for a moment, the sighed and said. "Oh man. I'm with you, you know I am. You guys want to break down a door, then let's break down a door."
Justin clasped his shoulder and nodded his thanks. Then they began to work on the door. It took them four tries and some seriously sore shoulders but they finally managed to force it open.
They descended down the stairs slowly, their flashlights cutting through the inky blackness of the room. As they reached the bottom they swung the flashlights around the cavernous basement, taking everything in with stunned surprise. The basement was much like the other rooms of the house had been. It contained nothing except a large king-sized bed set squarely in the middle of the room. On that bed lay a figure. A woman who appeared to be sleeping. The vampire.
They tip-toed over to the bed to looked at her. She was lying on her back and still wearing the black dress from the night before. Her hands were at her sides, her palms up and her fingers curled slightly. Instead of the pale face that they had expected, her coloring seemed almost normal, her cheeks actually appearing rosy. Her lips were slightly parted and her dark long lashes rested prettily against her smooth skin. Seeing her like this she looked almost beautiful. She looked human.
'She looks this way because she just fed. From my friend,' Justin thought angrily. He moved forward but was stopped by JC's hand on his shoulder.
"Guys, can we please go now? Please, let's just leave before this woman wakes up and calls the police on us," JC whispered as quietly as he could.
Justin shook JC's hand off his shoulder and whispered sternly, "JC don't you notice something really strange about this woman? I mean besides the fact that she's sleeping in her locked basement in the middle of the daytime?"
JC shook his head slightly. "What?"
"She's not breathing."
JC looked at his friend in surprise, then he turned to the still figure on the bed. He watched her chest for a minute, trying to catch the rise and fall that would indicate that Justin was wrong. Yet, her chest did not move. She did not breathe. He turned back to Justin with such a look of shock on his face that Justin would have felt sorry for him had he had the time.
Giving JC a gentle shove backwards, he looked to Lance who had positioned himself on the other side of the bed. Lance nodded. It was time. Justin raised the stake and positioned it over the heart. Just as he was about to strike downward however, the creature's eyes flew open and her hand reached out and grabbed him by the throat. The vampire began to squeeze and Justin began to choke, dropping the stake in his sudden fight for air.
Everything happened quickly then, the once still room suddenly turning into a whirlwind of activity. JC grabbed the vampire's hands and tried to pry her fingers away from Justin's throat, but her hold was steel and Justin continued to choke. Seeing that Justin could not get free, Lance pulled his crucifix out of his pocket and placed it on her forehead, pressing down as hard as he could.
The scream that came from the vampire was loud and agonized as the crucifix burned itself into her skin as if it were a branding iron. Focusing on nothing but the pain, the vampire let go of Justin who
instantly dropped on the floor and began to cough and gasp for air, his hand going to his injured throat. Her arms began to flail wildly as she sought out the source of the searing pain and she managed to hit Lance across the face, sending him and the crucifix flying across the room.
She brought her hands up to her injured face, but not before JC saw that the crucifix had left an identical imprint of itself seared into her flesh. JC bent down and pulled Justin to his
feet, handing him the stake that he had been carrying. "Do it now," he told Justin urgently. Justin looked up at JC's frightened but determined face and then turned to look at Lance who was pushing himself off the floor painfully. Lance caught his eye and nodded briskly. Then, just as the vampire had started to pull her hands away from her face, Justin took the stake and unceremoniously drove it through her flesh and into her heart.
The shriek that the vampire emitted pierced every corner of the dark house and threatened to shatter their eardrums with its intensity. JC and Lance both put their hands over their ears in an attempt to block out the horrid sound. Justin however, simply pushed the stake in deeper, putting as much force behind it as he could muster.
The vampire's shrieking turned into gurgling as bright red blood began to flow from her mouth and blood so dark it was almost black began to pour from the wound in her chest. Justin let go of the stake and stepped backwards then, his mind unable to comprehend how there could be so much blood. As it continued to pour from her body in torrents, the vampire brought its hands up and grasped the stake that was imbedded deep into her heart. She tried uselessly to pull it out and began to gnash her teeth in anger and pain. The sharp fangs that had so recently cut through Chris' flesh were now cutting through her own and they ripped her lips to shreds as she continued to open and close her mouth in a mad frenzy.
JC turned away from the horrible sight, his hand going to his mouth in an attempt to hold back the bile that he suddenly felt at the back of his throat. Lance whispered "Dear God," as he crossed himself with a shaking hand. Justin merely stood there, completely transfixed by the whole scene.
Finally, after what seemed an eternity, the vampire's struggles began to cease. Her eyes rolled back so far into her head that only the whites could be seen and her hands fell away from the stake and lay at her sides. Her eyes, which had so recently been full of hatred, closed almost wearily and then she moved no more.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Justin fought his body's urge to simply fall where he stood. Instead he walked forward so he could better see what he had just destroyed. Ignoring the gore that covered her, Justin stared at her face in amazement. The creature that just scant moments ago seemed to exude pure evil now lay as if in serene slumber. Her face, although beautiful before, now appeared almost angelic. She looked at peace. His eyes drifted to her forehead and saw that the ugly mark left by the crucifix was gone as if it had never been there. The skin was smooth and unmarred. He stepped closer to her and brought his face down to hers and whispered softly to ears that could no longer listen.
"May God have mercy on you."
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At the exact same moment that Justin was driving the stake into the vampire's heart, Chris sat up in bed with a small cry. Joey, who had been standing by the window, ran to his friend's side. Joey tried talking to Chris but he did not answer; instead he clutched at his chest desperately, his mouth and eyes open impossibly wide. Afraid that his friend was having a heart attack, Joey picked up the phone and was set to call 911 when Chris relaxed and fell back heavily onto the bed, his hands falling away from his sides. Joey called out to him and asked him worriedly what had happened, asked him what was wrong. Chris turned tired and red eyes to his friend and whispered, "It's over now. She's at rest..it's over."
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Three days later...
Justin sat in Hank's kitchen drinking soda out of a can and filling Hank in on everything that had happened since their last talk. He was relaxed now that things appeared to be getting back to normal. Chris' strength and health had slowly returned to normal. The bites on his neck had already begun to heal and scar over and just this morning they had received the best news of all; Chris had been able to hold a crucifix in his hand without any pain whatsoever. He was clean.
When Justin finished speaking, Hank asked, "So how did it feel to kill the vampire Justin?"
Justin sat silent for a moment as he gathered his thoughts. When he spoke he spoke slowly and carefully. "It felt good Hank. Not just because I knew that I was saving Chris when I did it, but..." he let the sentence trail off.
"But what?" Hank urged.
"After it was over, after she was dead, really dead, she got this amazing look of peace on her face. It almost felt like I saved her too."
Hank nodded, obviously pleased. "That's because you did son. You released her soul and sent it back to God. She's at rest now."
Justin looked at him in awe. "That's what Joey said that Chris said. That she was at rest."
Hank only nodded again.
"Why didn't you tell me that Hank? Why didn't you tell me that to kill a vampire was also to release its soul?" Justin asked.
"Because there are some things that you have to learn on your own Justin. Some things that can't be described, only experienced. This is one of those things."
Justin shook his head but said no more. He knew Hank was right. The sense that he had done right when he destroyed the vampire was something that could only be felt, not told.
Hank broke the sudden silence by asking, "So Justin, have you considered becoming a full time vampire hunter? You're good at it and lord knows Orlando needs one now that I've gotten too old for it."
Justin hung his head. "I don't know Hank. I mean, I already have a full time job that keeps me pretty busy." Justin brought his head up and did not miss the look of disappointment that crossed Hank's face.
He slowly smiled and unconsciously rubbed the shiny gold crucifix that now hung around his neck. "But then again, I have been looking for a new hobby..."
End