ST Chapter 6 (and other stuff)

Sorry Mark, you were taking too long to read chapter 5, so I am posting chapter 6! ha I might even do chapter 7 today as well.. I really like chapter 7... heh

On another note, I don't know how much longer I can have two jobs.. I really am on the verge of just up and quitting my second job (despite the good reading/writing time I get in..heh), though sadly I don't think I would ever be that irresponsible.. sigh to being an adult.. But my cracks are starting to show at my first job, which I like a million times more, but I am not hitting my numbers, or barely hitting them.. I am so tired that I just don't care and just want to help the customer get on their way... Just a couple more days and I can talk to the store manager.. though the position that opened has already been filled from another store.. so stupid.. me and the other person are way more qualified, and why the f would you look at another store first?! makes me so angry!! So we will see if he has a time-frame... if it is longer then a month or so, then bye bye first job.. =( I just can't do two jobs anymore.. it is wearing me thin and I don't like not hitting my goals.. I am stressed to the point that I cry at everything.. sigh..

anyways.. on to chapter 6!

            As soon as I entered the trees, I felt the weight lift from my mind. Gone… he was finally gone. I found the nearest fern and started to dig a shallow grave underneath it. The bush was big enough to block from the sun when it rose, but the grave was just in case. I was exhausted once I had dug the grave so I lied down, covered as much of myself with dirt as possible and immediately fell asleep. I knew my body would wake me up when it needed to feed and when it was dark enough for me to be able to walk around.

            Twelve hours later I came out of my coma-like sleep. I was extremely weak and needed to feed, needing the strength to get me to the next town. First, though, I wanted to see where I was. I dug myself out of the dirt and walked for about a mile until I came to the tallest redwood in the area. I scaled the tree, as quickly as my weakened body would let me and soon came to the very top. I balanced on the tip of the tree and looked around me, realizing I had just come west of Tamrack. With some relief I saw I had not gone too far out of my way, I just had to make my way back east a little then head south so that I could get to Tramden. Even though I knew this was still fairly close, I needed somewhere to stay until I could regain my strength. I thought (wrongly) that Valentine would leave me alone since he had destroyed the last place I had been at.

            I jumped down, branch to branch until I reached the ground. Once there, I dampened all my other senses so that I could focus on the smells around me; it was time to feed. I started walking at a low crouch, not wanting to startle any prey. My favorites were the young deers; they were very easy to capture and they tasted so delicious, full of youth and energy. Finally, after walking for another mile, I smelled a young deer, two miles to my right. I turned walked silently in the direction of my prey. My throat clenched as I got closer, the thought of the taste of the young deer exciting me greatly. I had the deer in my sights after another minute and crouched even lower to the ground; I couldn’t  run the risk of the deer getting away. I walked as close to the deer as I could, but my excitement for my food made me forget to keep silent. The deer heard me and looked around, trying to spot me. I saw a split second before she even knew what she was going to do, that she was going to bolt. Before her front legs even had a chance to leave the ground, I was on her, digging in, tooth and nail (as the saying goes). Her life began to flow out of her and into my mouth as she tried once, weakly, to throw me and then completely stopped moving; I had drained her dry. That deer had given her life to give me my strength back and I now knew that I could make it to Tramden with no problems.

            I still kept to the trees for my trek to Tramden; I didn’t want to give Valentine easy access to me in case he came looking for me. I got to Tramden in just under a few hours, with the sun just barely starting to set. This was a town that reminded me of Tombstone; with stores to the left and right of one wide road down the middle, with everyone living in little apartments above the stores. I expected to see a lot of people milling about; this time of day being the busiest in towns like these, but it was completely empty and silent. It was a little eerie, but I didn’t want to go anywhere else, so I took my chances. I walked slowly down the middle of town, the sun hurting after just a few seconds. I didn’t want to run the risk of burning right in the middle of town, so I went into the first store I saw with an open door. I stood in the shade, letting my skin heal while I looked around the store. “Hello?” I heard their thoughts, but didn’t see any actual people. I heard some shuffling behind the counter in front of me, so I walked over to see about ten people huddling together, hiding behind it.

            “Um… hello? Are you guys OK? I was just passing through, needed a place to stay…”

            “Are you… him? The evil one?” A little boy asked, with tears running down his cheeks. A young girl, whom I knew was his sister after hearing her thoughts, grabbed him and frantically pulled him besides her, covering his mouth and looking at me with pure terror in her eyes.

            “The evil one? What’s that?” I could almost guess who it was, but I had to make sure they never found out that I knew. The group sighed audibly and I heard a jumble of their thoughts go through my head; thoughts of this “evil one” and of wondering who I was. An older woman pushed her way to the front of the crowd, and I knew that she was the important person in town.

            “The evil one… is a man we think. He has been comin’ to town these past 80 years. Ever since I was a little girl he has been terrorizin’ us, eatin’ our people right in front of us, showin’ his so called power to us. He even had his ‘protégé; come and select a few of us ‘lucky ones’ out for his taking. In fact…” She started to scrutinize my face so I clouded her mind, making me look different in her eyes. She shook her head, “Nah… nevahmin’. He was just here, threatin’ us, talkin’ ‘bout killin’ us and drinkin’ our blood or somethin’ like that. Thas why we’re all here, hidin’ from him. He hadn’t done nothin’ yet, just went on and on ‘bout what he could do to us, so we all ran. We heard ‘im talkin’ out there for a while, but no screams or nothin’ so I guess this time was all talk. And I guess he is gone now if he didn’t do nothin’ to you…” I shrugged and shook my head. “I didn’t see anything when I got here, the town was completely empty.”

The old woman grinned then, the frightening grin of an evil clown. I wasn’t about this little town, but I needed a day or two to rest up before I moved on. “Well then… name’s Priscilla. I run this town, if you wanna be stayin’ here, you go through me. How did you end up here anyways? And how come you ain’t got any stuff?”

            I realized with a start that I, in fact, didn’t have any stuff. I had left it all in Tamrack trying so desperately to get away from Valentine. “Oh… um… I am just a hunter and I move where the game is, so I go from town to town. I was out hunting a day ago; when I came back to my tent all my stuff was gone. Seems I got robbed.” I shrugged, “Luckily, I was close to this town so I walked about a mile to get here. I always keep my money in my pocket, so if I need money to rent a room, I have that.”  I nudged each of their minds so that they would believe me without question.

            The old woman still eyed me suspiciously, hesitating, as if she could feel my prying in her mind. All of a sudden the little boy spoke up; “He ain’t the evil one grandma! Let him stay!” The boy’s sister grabbed him again, angrily telling him to be quiet, that grandma would figure it out. The boy was staring at me so I winked at him and smiled. His face broke out into a huge grin and he giggled; his sister shushing him once more. Priscilla finally spoke; “Alright, you can stay.” I reached over to shake her hand, cringing as a sun ray hit my skin. I saw the little boy notice a trail of smoke raise from my hand where the sun hit, his eyes going wide, but I shook my head and winked again, hoping he wouldn’t speak up. Luckily for me, he kept quiet, winking back at me and I knew it was our little secret. I hoped for this boy’s sake, that Valentine would leave me and the town alone.

Sweet Torture- Chapter 5

I didn't like this chapter that much when I first wrote it, but now I kind of like it.. ha I am so weird.. anyways, enjoy! =)

CHAPTER 5

“Every once in a while, he’ll come into town and people’ll start disappearing. Everyone is too scared to do anything about it anymore; he has killed a few of us in broad daylight to prove his power, so we stay scared of him.” I blinked slowly, feeling as if I had just come out of a dream. I had been living with Valentine during this time and never even knew what had transpired. I remember now there was a time when he had been gone at night more than usual, but it never crossed my mind that he had found a lover; besides he was usually more into boys than girls; the proof in his blood room. What an interesting story that bartender had just told me, and I told him so. “Why don’t you guys just… I don’t know, gang up on him? Go to his place during the day and kill him? Chop off his head or something?” I saw the scared look in the bartender’s eyes at the very thought of this town standing up for themselves.

             “We have no idea how powerful this monster is, and we are a simple town and we don’t want any more problems than we already have. We might as well let him do his thing. What he did to Elianore… he could turn any one of us into one of his monsters and no one wants that. Valentine doesn’t seem to be picky, so everyone tries to stay out of his notice so he will leave them alone and hopefully just go for the bums. I know that sounds harsh, but if you were us, wouldn’t you think the same thing??” I shrugged then shook my head as I stood up; I couldn’t believe these people were so scared of him. I knew how powerful he was, however, so what they did was smart so they could stay alive. “Well thanks for the story my friend. At least now I know what I’m up against.” I finished the last of my beer and walked out of the bar. As I left, I heard the bartender tell the guy next to him, “That guy is crazy. We’ll probably never see him alive again. He is going to his death and he doesn’t even believe us.”

I heard the disappointment in his voice, but once again I pretended not to hear. The story kept running through my mind and I didn’t think I needed to hear anything from anyone else. My hotel was my destination now, wanting to get used to my surroundings. This wasn’t the best place, but it was a place I would stay for a while, as long as the people got used to me and didn’t notice that I only came out at night. I got to my room, and instead of coming with a plan, immediately fell asleep. Apparently being on the run is a tiring life.

            I woke up with fear in my mind, my dream of Valentine burning the bar down and killing everyone inside still haunting me. A shudder ran through me as I woke up, the burning smell not quite leaving my nose. I stretched and got out of bed, figured that I could go to the bar again and see if anyone else had any stories. I looked out my window and saw that the sun was setting, so it would be safe for me to leave the room. As soon as I stepped outside, the burning smell became ever more intense. It was like someone had shoved my face directly into a fire. I started choking on the smell, stumbling out of the doorway of the hotel. I saw a huge fireball coming from the bar I had been at the past two nights in a row. I started to run towards the bar, hoping that the people had at least been spared, that the dream wasn’t completely true. When I got there, I could still hear screaming from inside the fireball. I saw that the door had been barricaded and I could see the bartender’s hand trying to get free. His hand was scratching the wood even as his fleshed burned off and dripped to the ground. The scratching was driving nails into my brain but finally, as all the flesh dripped off and it was just the skeleton, the scratching stopped. The hand dropped the bartended finally dead. He had burned as he tried to escape, his hand the only thing that felt freedom. As I stood there, stunned, not sure what I could do, the screaming slowly got quieter and quieter, and then finally stopped. Everyone was dead. The smell of burning flesh engulfed me and as I began backing away from the smell, I heard his laughter in my head.

            “This is just the beginning, Drake…”  I felt Valentine in my head like a huge weight pressing down on my. My head felt like it was going to split in two. I was too weak to even think of fighting him and Elianore slipped my mind, his pressure not letting me think of anything else. I couldn’t stand him, I couldn’t stand what had just happened. All I wanted to do was get away and all I could think of to do was run; run away from Tamrack, into the trees, get as far away from there as possible so more people wouldn’t die because of me.

Sweet Torture- Chapter 4

I like this chapter because you learn a little more about Valentine and he is my favorite character.. ha

CHAPTER 4

            The sun on my face jerked me awake from my dreamless sleep. I can normally stay in the sun for about an hour, but when it was at its peak like this, that hour was cut in half. I got up and  stood in the ray of sunshine that fell through the window in my room, almost immediately feeling the pins and needles. What normal people feel when their limbs “fall asleep”, I feel every time I am in the sun, the main reason creatures like me can’t stay in the sun for very long. That feeling intensifies the longer we stay in the sun and eventually it becomes painful and we are rendered useless. Then, because we are helpless to the heat, our skin starts to boil, the boils eventually bursting, the skin melting off the bones, leaving us just a worthless skeleton. Then the skeleton turns to ash and blows away. I saw Valentine torture a fellow “monster” this way and it was not a pretty sight. I already knew my limit when it came to the sun, so I decided to stay indoors until it went down. I also wanted to find out as much as I could about Valentine, assuming the people here knew anything more about him, other then the fact he was a “monster”. Anything I could use against him I wanted to make sure I knew, just in case we ran into each other. Unfortunately, that running in was going to happen a lot sooner than I thought.

            When the sun had finally set, I ventured into town to find out what I wanted to find out. I had no idea where to start, but I thought the bar I had been at the night before would be the best place, since the bartender had been the one warning me against the “monster”. I figured he would have more of a story to tell then anyone else. And I was right. It was pretty easy to get him to talk too. One would think he had been dying to tell this story for years, and now finally someone was here to listen to it. All it took was one simple question; “So, this “monster” of yours… do you know anything else about it?” And the floodgates opened.

Well we think it is this creature by the name of Valentine. Every time he came to town, there seemed to be a lot of people dying, they looked to be either butchered or sucked dry. This big story was, that years ago, this Valentine character started coming here and around that same time, people started disappearing. We all thought it was the strangest thing because he never came during the day, only at night. Eventually, we noticed he started visiting one person in particular, Elianore. She was always a bizarre person, only wearing white, moping around town never talking to anyone. Never went farther than a few blocks away from her house and never went shopping anywhere. Her father was very protective, and his protectiveness seemed to turn Elianore into a waif of some sort. People eventually started whispering that she was a witch because late at night, her room light would be on and people could hear chanting come from her room. Some people even said they would see her, standing by her window, just staring out, her lips moving but no sound coming out. She wouldn’t even acknowledge people if they walked by her window and said “Hi”.

            Of course, this is all just hearsay, and it could have been a prayer she was chanting but who knows. As I said, she was a strange one. Anyways, Valentine took a liking to her and started going over to her place a night. For a while, people stopped disappearing, it was just animals that were disappearing, and everyone was OK with that. Animals are not as important as people, so we eventually forgot about Valentine and his nightly visits to Elianore. Then, people started whispering about Elianore again, saying how pale she was getting, how she never left her house anymore. She was listless and lethargic and didn’t want to do anything. People only saw her at night and they said she looked scary and a little more crazy that usual. The rumor came again that she was some sort of witch and that her and Valentine were sacrificing small animals to keep their youth. So this one night, Bill Jacobs, her neighbor, was walking home from work when he heard a noise, he said it sounded like dogs eating, in the alley running besides her house. He peered into the alley, thinking he should go home but curiosity got the best of him. He took a few steps, straining to see what it was that was going on. He let out a gasp because he had just seen what looked like two eyes, peering back at him. “Hello? Is someone there?” He heard a growl and thought that perhaps it was a dog, so he thought he should just leave. As he was getting ready to turn around, he saw a flash of a white garment. He thought that maybe this dog had attacked a child, so Bill walked deeper into the alley, thinking he could help. As he got closer, though he realized it was two people in the alley, with one person crouched over the other. “Hello? Do you guys need help?” The one on top looked up and Bill gasped again, this time in recognition; it was Elianore’s eyes staring back at him, a huge grin on her face and covered in blood. “Elianore?! What’s going on here?” Bill froze, not knowing if he should try and stop her, but afraid her hunger would turn on him. Elianore growled at Bill, leaping over Bill’s hand to land behind him and ran off leaving Bill in a daze. He walked slowly over to the other body, felt for a pulse and found none. He stared at the blood on his hand. “Poor John Stunf. He was only 17 and he was infatuated with that girl.” Still staring at his hand, Bill started walking towards the bar, unsure of what else to do or where else to go. He knew he had to tell someone and the first place he thought of was the bar.

            We didn’t believe him, at first. Elianore? Kill someone? There was no way. But we searched high and low for her and finally found her at her house, covered in blood and we could only assume it was John’s… who else’s would it be? She didn’t deny it when we accused her, which was consent in our eyes. Her parents resisted us, saying she was fine that nothing needed to be done; that she was just going through a phase. But we knew her parent’s were wrong, that something did need to be done to stop her. We couldn’t stand by while Elianore killed more people. We knocked her parents out and locked them in one of the rooms then when for Elianore. She didn’t even resist us when we grabbed her and tied her up; it was like she wanted us to kill her. We argued a bit over what should be done to her, but since everyone agreed she was a witch of sorts, we settled on taking her to the lake. Now, usually with witches, you want to drown them to make sure they are good and dead. So we tried to drown Elianore, kept her under that water for a good 20 minutes, but she was still alive so we did the one thing we could think of to make sure she was completely dead; we cut off her head. No one can stay alive after their head is cut off. We also burned the rest of her body, just in case. Some of had our doubts that she was just a witch, so we took all precautions. After that, we tried to kill Valentine, to corner him and burn him, but he was too powerful, killing half of us in his desperate attempt to get away. We knew it was him that had done this to her, who else could have made her that bad? He was the one visiting her every night doing Lord knows what! He claimed that she was the love of his life, that it was not his fault, that it was her choice. But why would Elianore choose a life of killing people? Who would choose a life of killing people? He never wanted it to turn out this way, he said, he never wanted her to kill people or for her to die. He said his heart was broken by what we had done and we would never be rid of him. But of course, we just ignored his warning, letting him escape after he killed half a dozen of us, seemingly without lifting his hands. He destroyed as many buildings on his way out as well, making sure we knew what he was capable of. We drove him out once,  but those of us that survived the ordeal haven’t tried again. This town almost didn’t survive after that and we are trying to now just live peaceful lives, so we ignore him the best we can.

Sweet Torture- Chapter 3

yay next chapter! I am not as happy with this one as I am with the others, but oh well.. I have edited it so much that I think that is why, so I am done and just posting it! so enjoy! =)

            I had no idea where I wanted to go first, just that I wanted to leave. Valentine’s place was basically in the middle of nowhere; hidden behind a forest of redwood trees, at least a two days walk for humans, from any civilization; the closet town being Tamrack.. The people that lived in Tamrack hated Valentine; he had taken a lot of their children. And even though they never saw him do it, he made sure they knew that he was responsible for the missing children every time he went back to Tamrack for another feeding. He made sure he forced an image of himself in their minds every time he was there; bringing their fear to the fore front. Valentine wanted people to fear him so that they wouldn’t try anything to stop him. And if Valentine ever wanted a different “taste”, he went to Tramden. I had been to each of those towns several times to pick out his victims, but was able to cloud enough of their minds enough so that hopefully they wouldn’t recognize me if I went back. He wasn’t in Tramden as much as he was in Tamrack, since he usually just went there when he was bored with Tamrack, so the people of that didn’t hate him as much, they just feared him. They tried their hardest to ignore him and whenever he got off his ass to do his own hunting, they always moved around him, as if his aura were a repellent.

Enough about Valentine, I had to think of where I could go, who would accept me as just another weary traveler, looking for a place to stay. I thought my best move would be to start at Tamrack, if only for the reason that it was the next closest town. I had to see how the general public would react to me, if they could tell I was like Valentine, or if I was powerful enough to cloud enough minds so that they wouldn’t remember me and just accept me as another human. I also had to see if Valentine really would follow me wherever I went. At least in Tamrack the people didn’t like Valentine, so if he fucked up their town they would blame him and not me. I took off at a slow trot, not looking forward to getting to Tamrack; I had a bad feeling someone would recognize me, that I hadn’t been able to cloud enough minds the times I had to visit. I just needed them to not question me, to just let me have a room to sleep in then ignore me for the rest of the time I was there. If I could get them to just forget about me, I would be set.

I stepped into the forest and focused on the sounds around me; I didn’t want to be caught off guard. It was midnight, the night being at it’s darkest and my favorite time of night. This was the time I was at my strongest as well, the dark a being of its own, helping me to gain any strength I needed, the moon looking down upon me, enclosing me with it’s light and power. At this time I always felt a mixture of this dark and light working inside me, the two elements helping me be the strongest I needed to be. I knew that if Valentine tried to attack me now, I still had some chance that I wouldn’t die, or that I could at least take him with me if I did. Going deeper into the forest I embraced the darkness and began to run. Even though the redwoods were close together and the forest was dense, I was able to foresee any obstacles and nothing could slow me down. I avoided bushes, trees, small animals, anything that could have possibly deterred a normal person and I made it to Tamrack in record time. I wasn’t even out of breath when I reached the town, having only taken two hours to get there, so I immediately went to a bar that was still open. As I walked through the door, I felt for sure it was going to be the typical movie scene: a stranger walks into the local bar and everything gets really quiet and everyone turns and stares. In this bar, however, everyone was too drunk to even notice me walk in. Going straight to the bar, I ordered a beer, knowing I couldn’t enjoy the taste, but not wanting to seem out of place in a bar.

“You’re not from around here are you?” I had to smirk when the bartender asked me because that was straight out of a movie. “No. I just got here. I am traveling through but I need a place to stay tonight. Any ideas?”

The bartender eyed me, not sure whether to answer me or to just tell me to go to hell. I sat on the stool, taking a sip every now and then, acting like I enjoyed the taste, not bothering to look at the guy. I was trying to be conspicuous and not let these people know just how different I was. “Where did you say you came from?” I groaned inwardly. From that question, I knew that he suspected something, so I told him the only thing I could think of, “I’m from Tramden, heading through the forest to see what’s on the other side.”

I saw the shock on his face, and he started to shake his head. “You don’t want to be going through that forest. There are evil things out there, and whoever gets to the other side, never comes back. There is a monster that lives out there!” I just looked at him with a smirk. I had to be an outsider; I had to convince him that I knew nothing of this “monster”. “Oh yeah? What kind of monster?” The bartender shook his head again. “I dunno what kind, but I do know that it eats people, and that sometimes you can hear screams at night from it torturing people. It comes here sometimes, as if to remind people who he is and what he can do. No one has ever dared to even go into the forest just in case; we like our lives here. We tried to get rid of it once, we tried cornering him and burning him, but he almost flattened the town after that. Now we are just too afraid of it to try anything else. It is in the shape of a man, but who knows what it really is.” I let out a laugh. I didn’t think I was going to stay here long, so may as well play up the  whole “monster” thing. You’re welcome, Valentine. “Well I am not afraid of any “monster”. I am pretty sure I can take care of this “monster” you are talking about. I doubt it is anything more than some crazy person who likes to torture people.” I downed my beer, trying not to grimace, and got ready to leave.

 “At least stay the night in our hotel! We hear the screams at night; this creature apparently sleeps during the day, or at least doesn’t torture or kill anyone during the day. And we have only seen him once or twice while it was still light out. So if you stay here, you may have a better chance of avoiding it. The hotel is just down the street, not far, just stay there for the night. Then you can’t say I didn’t try to help or warn you. No one has ever survived, but if you are so gung-ho, who am I to stop you? At least get some sleep… and then go to your death.” He started to ramble, muttering the last couple of sentences under his breath, but of course I heard him. I pretended not to hear, however, no need to start any trouble, and just paid for the beer, smirking the whole time pretending I didn’t believe anything he told me. “We will see about this monster in the morning…” I walked out, just happy I had obscured their minds enough that they had not recognized me and that they had told me about the hotel.

Finding the hotel right away, I paid for a couple nights, just in case I decided to stay. I had liked the bartender and who knows; maybe I could make a place like this my home. It didn’t occur to me until it was too late that it was to close to Valentine. I had forgotten about his threat and I should have known better, but I was still elated about having left Valentine finally and about the stories of the “monster” that I had just heard.

Sweet Torture- Chapter 2

Chapter 2

            He had been hinting at it for years, but I thought he was joking; I always thought he was teasing me, making fun of me because he knew I would never do it. Even when he first changed me, when I needed it the most, I refused. But then, that one night when he showed me…what he did to that young boy… I shuddered at the images running through my head of the room I had just found. Now I knew what he really did with those boys he said he buried. I stumbled from the room before my hunger could take over and make me blind to what I was doing. The thought of ever doing that to a human, to someone alive, made what was left of my heart turn cold. I had to get out of there, that room was the last straw and I needed to get out before Valentine killed me. I used to be alive… I forgot almost everything about my life before this, but I still remember the girl… the only one I have ever loved… and she was human. I knew I could never do to humans what Valentine had done to those boys. Most humans did not deserve what Valentine did to them, or the pain it caused them because Valentine, even though he had the ability to, didn’t always take the pain away, and I felt disgusted any time he took me with him to watch or told me about any of his feedings.

            Lately, I have taken to staying at the house or going out myself at a later time to feed. I sometimes go during the day instead, just to get away from Valentine. Even though I could only stay in the sun for about an hour and it felt like pins and needles the whole time, this was my favorite time to feed because I could count on being alone. Valentine did not like the sun at all; he once told me it was because it would “ruin his complexion” and that the heat was “bothersome”. I thought he was just fucking with me when he said that, but he is a very vain man and spends every night in front of the mirror before he goes on his hunt. He had made me his little errand boy for these past 97 years making me go to Tamrack and Tramden while he slept during the day, making me  choose his victims because he couldn’t be bothered with the hunt. Luckily I had learned enough from Valentine to cloud their minds so they would never recognize me, but doing these errands sickened me. I could hide my thoughts from his most of the time, but he still had control over me that I couldn’t break no matter how hard I tried. He was the one that ha made me, so he had this power over me. He was slowly draining my will to survive, and I didn’t like this life anymore. I knew I could never go back to the way it was, back to my human life, back to… that girl… but I thought if I got away from him, I could at least live a peaceful life; that I could live a life where someone wasn’t constantly killing humans around me and trying to get me to do the same. I knew if I stayed here much longer, I would break and join him in his “blood” room. I was tired of dealing with him and knew I had to get out before he sensed my defiance and just killed me off for being too much of a burden and for finding his “blood” room.

            I needed to make some sort of plan for getting away from Valentine. I knew that he wouldn’t just up and let me leave, so I thought if I found some way to sneak out during the day, while he was sleeping then I could leave the asshole behind and not have to worry about him anymore.. Before I got any further with my thoughts I heard a deep laughter in my mind. ‘Shit’. A drop of sweat rolled from my forehead to my cheek as I remembered that he could hear my thoughts as clearly as if we were having a face to face conversation. I had been so deep in my thoughts that I had forgotten to block them so that Valentine couldn’t hear any of them. Luckily I had been so busy thinking of a plan, the “blood” room had stayed out of the fore front of my thoughts; he would ever know that I had found that room. But now he knew I was finally trying to leave and he would try to stop me. “You can’t stop me!” I yelled to the empty room, knowing he would hear me even if he wasn’t in the house. I heard that laughter again. “I won’t try to stop you Drake… if you want to live your own life, you only have to ask. But just know that I will always be there. Everywhere you go, I will haunt your dreams and the people of the town you live in. I will make sure you are never happy and that everyone knows the monster you are. I’ll never let you forget who made you.”

            Valentine faded out of my mind like a ghost and I felt drained, as if he had taken my blood instead of just my thoughts. I sat for five more minutes to regain my composure, each tick of the clock reminding me I needed to leave as soon as possible. The sun was starting to set and I wanted to be on my way before it’s light was completely out. Valentine would be stronger at night and I couldn’t hesitate when he already knew I was leaving. I went into my room to get my stuff together; only the important things going into the bag: a few changes of clothes, my gun and my knives. I had plenty of money so if I needed anything else, I could buy it. The sooner I left, the more time I would have to travel, to leave this mansion far behind. I had to take the chance that I was given, no matter who it was from.

Halloween Decorations

I had a dream about this one night and decided to write a short story about it! I tried to edit it as much as possible so hopefully it is OK. But I like it! It is fun and gorey, by two favorite things! Anyways, enjoy!

Halloween Decorations

“Come on, Shannon! Hurry up, they are going to be here soon!”

“Alright, alright! Let me just put this last trap in place! Hold your damn horses!” I closed the closet door with a grunt, making sure the latch caught so that it wouldn’t open on just anyone then headed downstairs.

“This is going to be the best Halloween ever!!” My partner, Shelly, screamed in my ear, giving me a bear hug and jumping up and down. This was her typical behavior; she was a very excitable person. I, on the other hand, was very calm person; we balanced each other out pretty nicely. I gave her my best smile, pried myself out of her arms, all the while saying that I knew this was going to be great, and that yes, we were going to have the best decorations out of anyone ever. That was always Shelly’s goal; to have the best decorations out of anyone else in the block. Halloween was her favorite holiday and she went all out every year. This year we were trying a different strategy for our decorations and this was bound to be our best year yet.

I heard “Carol of the Bells” ring through the house and knew that the guests had arrived. I quickly kissed Shelly on the cheek, “Come on, love, let’s get this party started.” Shelly let out a little squeal and went to answer the door.

I smiled as she started letting people in, talking excitedly to them about the holiday. We had been together for five years and it still amazed me how excited she got over the little things. The decorations were usually her forte, but this year I had the decoration idea and she latched on like a leech, no pun intended. I was so happy that she liked my idea and we had been planning it for a year. The time was finally at hand, and as the guests were commenting on our home I did a mental check to make sure everything was in place.

I put on a huge smile, “Welcome everyone! This year we decided to invite you guys to help decorate our place! We seem to have run out of ideas, so we thought our friends could help us this time!” Everyone giggled, excitement coming off of them in waves. I sniffed the air and Shelly shot me a disapproving look, also noticing the change in their pulse but choosing to ignore it; we didn’t want to give away the game too early after all.

Shelly shooed everyone into the living room, pointing out the art pieces and statues we had collected over the years, all the while making sure they sat in their correct spots. Not spots that they knew were theirs, but the seats we had chosen for them. She was such a master at this; I couldn’t help but admire how she moved everyone without touching their minds at all. I would have had to give at least a tiny mental nudge and I was older then she was; I picked the right girl. I unfortunately had become comfortable and had let myself go, but she always kept busy mentally and physically so she was always in top shape no matter what the situation called for.

I brought out the snacks and started putting images into their minds, changing their focus so that they wouldn’t notice when others around them started dying; or notice themselves dying for that matter. Shelly kept up the pleasant talk while I set off the first trap. From above the couch, attached to the ceiling by a wire, an axe falls down and implants itself into the first victims head. He doesn’t even flinch, just stops talking and slumps over a little.

“Aw man his blood is going to get on the new chair!” Shelly seems very upset about this and walks over to him, trying to move him in such a way so that the blood will fall mostly on the floor.

“Sorry love, I didn’t think about that… We can clean it! We’ve always been able to.” I reassured her as I moved on to the next victim. I could feel one of the victims trying to break free from my mental hold. I tried to strengthen the hold as I killed the next person with the spring loaded knives. Once I hit the button, they sprang from the entertainment center and implanted themselves into the second victim. They hit their mark nicely, one going into the throat, one in the eye and one right in the heart. I went over to the knife victim and plunged a couple more knives into her stomach and chest, just for good measure.

“Why did you add those extra knives? Three were fine!” Shelly looked so upset at me that I had to laugh. “I don’t know, I just think it looks more… authentic if there are more knives! Like those dummies…” Shelly stuck out her bottom lip in a pout. “Fine… but I get to kill the next one!” I stepped away from the guests. “Go ahead love…”

Shelly contemplated how she wanted to do the next one in. We had a few more traps and some weapons but she couldn’t decide. “Oh! I know!” I looked away from Shelly for a moment because I felt that tug again of someone trying to break free. I looked closely at the victims but didn’t see anyone trying to move. All of a sudden I hear the whir of a chain-saw. “Really? The chainsaw? The neighbors are totally going to hear that!”

“Don’t worry I already put a cloak over their minds! They won’t hear a thing. Besides, this will make some good blood work for the hallway!” I sighed, she was right. I let her do her thing while I concentrated on the last remaining victim. She was the one that kept trying to pull lose from me. I kept my focus on her, a smile playing across my lips as I heard Shelly laugh and exclaim over her blood art.

“Shannon! You have to come and see this! It looks amazing!”

“Coming!” I glanced wearily at the last victim but didn’t feel any tugs, so I went to join Shelly in the hallway. I admired her work, noticing the severed hand pinned to one of the walls. “Very nice!” All of a sudden I felt a tremendous tug on my mind and heard a gasp out in the living room. “Shit…” Shelly looked at me, her eyes wide; she had felt it too. We both ran to the living room but the girl was already gone. I focused on her energy and found that, instead of running to the door, she had run upstairs. I looked at Shelly and rolled my eyes. “Man what an idiot. Why were we her friend again?” Shelly guffawed, “To murder her for our Halloween decorations?” I starting laughing, “Oh yeah. Well you stay down here and work on the decorations; I’ll go and find our ‘friend’.”

“Come out come out wherever you are!” I was still chuckling as I walked up the stairs feeling for this last victim. I finally felt her in my mind in the last room in the hallway. I could sense her rapid breathing and knew she was very close to a panic attack. This excited me to no end and I couldn’t wait to taste her blood. “I know you are in here!” I smiled as a scream escaped the victims mouth. I walked into the room without making a noise, heading straight for the closet that she was in. I threw open the door, my smile widening as she screamed even louder. I felt Shelly smile downstairs; she was enjoying this as much as I was. I grabbed the victim, holding on tight even as she started to struggle, flailing her limbs and even trying to bite me. I laughed again as one of her teeth chipped on my skin; it wasn’t impenetrable but it was hard to break, especially with human teeth. I picked her up and brought her to the top of the stairs, lifting her over my head. “Shelly! Look at this! I just had a great idea!” With those words, I threw the victim down with all my strength and once the body hit the floor it exploded. Literally. Her blood and guts splashed all over our walls, her head pooped off her neck like a corkscrew, landing on top of our kitchen table. Our house was painted with her insides. Shelly was cheering and clapping her hands as she was sprayed with the gunk, enjoying every minute of it.

I ran downstairs into Shelly’s arm, our voices joining together in laughter, embracing each other over the ruined body. “You had such a good idea for the decorations this year!” Shelly said, licking some of the blood off of her hands. “Why thank you! I thought so too! Now I can’t wait until the neighbors see it!” I kissed Shelly, tasting the blood of the last victim on her lips. “Maybe we should straighten up a little bit before trick-or-treaters start showing up, though. And of course, have ourselves a little snack!” I eyed the knife victim; she looked delicious.

“Oh definitely! And maybe you can use your mind a little more so next time one of the victims doesn’t almost get away!” I shoved Shelly in front of me, laughing as she almost slips in the gore. “Whatever! That’s why I have you!”

Sweet Torture Chapter 1

*****WARNING This Chapter is pretty disturbing and graphic... sooo if you don't like children dying don't read!

CHAPTER 1

            Valentine had crossed the last line. He expected me to do these vile things to humans, things I could never fathom doing. I know I had been a human once, I know that I hadn’t been born the way I was today, and I knew I couldn’t do what Valentine wanted me to do to other humans. He often left “gifts” for me in my room, “gifts” on the brink of death, so if I was home at night it would be waiting for me. I would always look at these “gifts” with disgust in my eyes, the victim cowering away from me, knowing their death waited. But I would always let them out of the mansion, giving them a somewhat fighting chance to survive, knowing that in Valentine’s anger at me he would at least put them out of their misery. He never made any others, just me and I believe he was proud of that fact. He certainly said it often enough and he liked to rub it in the council’s face even though they would rather him make more. I was starting to get tired of living with Valentine. I have been living with him for 97 years now, ever since the day he changed me. When Valentine first changed me, I loved it; I loved being what Valentine had made me. The feel of the air when I ran, the power surging through me when I levitated just a little bit, the satisfaction of killing an animal and feeling the blood flow through me, making me stronger than I had ever been; I embraced it whole-heartedly. A life with Valentine let me do what I wanted, albeit under his watchful gaze. It was so much fun for the first few decades or so, but now… now he wanted me to do these unspeakable things to humans. I knew it was time for me to move on, to live my own life. I hated being this… thing now. This thing that humans referred to as “monster”. I didn’t mind so much living here; at least I was taken care of, with a mansion to live in and lots of animals to feed on, but I needed to be away from him, away from the things he was trying to make me do. I was hoping that Valentine would just let me go, no questions asked. I didn’t want a confrontation, just a peaceful goodbye and keep in touch. I hated what he had made me but he had tried to make my life as comfortable as he could, which I tried not to be ungrateful for.

            I thought Valentine was at home so I began to search through the mansion, trying to find him. I knew I could call out to him with my mind, but I blocked him as much as I could, not wanting him to know everything I thought all the time, so I kept a wall up in my mind even now when I needed to find him. I had been through this mansion so many times I knew it by heart. This place was huge but I knew I could clear it in ten minutes so I began my search. I went through the various bedrooms first, knowing he wouldn’t be there, but covering all my basis; again I didn’t want to let down my shields at all so I had to do what humans do and actually work to find him. After wasting two minutes clearing the 13 bedrooms I already knew to be empty, I started checking the other rooms. I was always  amused by how many studies he had; at least six, each with its own wall to wall, floor to ceiling shelves filled with books that he didn’t even read. I had been with him for nearly a century now and I don’t think I had ever seen him read once. I knew he just liked to keep up appearances that he was well read and “classy”. He even had a separate room he called his “library”, different from the six other studies he had. I had lived with Valentine for so long and yet could still not understand why he was so vain or cared so much about appearances. Any live thing that came to this mansion died anyways so it wasn’t as if he had to impress anyone. And anytime anyone from the council came, they never noticed how classy his place was or how nice he looked; they were more concerned about how many others he had made. These beings even had their own set of rules which they made sure others like them carried out and followed. I never understood why they had their own set of “rules” besides what humans abided by. They seemed to think they were better then humans and therefore could not follow the lowly human rules. I didn’t understand them and I was never going to understand Valentine and I was done with this whole life.

            I knew for sure that he would not be in any of the studies; he found them too stuffy and closed off, so after the bedrooms I decided to check the library. Even though he never even read he seemed to spend a lot of time in that place. I opened the double doors and called out his name, the word echoing throughout the entire room. I was always a little awed whenever I walked into the library; it was so huge and had so many books. I have never cared for trivial things like books, even as a human, but it was still a tremendous sight to see; with each wall covered floor to ceiling with still more shelves in the center of the room. I had known when I first entered the room that Valentine wasn’t in it, but I couldn’t help my awe and lost in my thoughts of leaving, I wondered throughout the room. I kept going deeper and deeper, the room seemingly endless until I finally reached the back wall. There was a canvas painting hanging on the wall stretching from floor to ceiling, one I had never noticed before. In all my 97 years here I don’t think I have ever gone this deep into the library. I walked up to it, wondering when he had received it and who had done it for him. It was a painting of Valentine himself stretched up to his full 6’7” height but because of the length of the painting looking a thousand feet tall, his eyes blood red with an evil smile on his lips. His eyes were focused on his victims, three young boys all cowering off to the side, trying to cover one of the boys who had already died. They were all standing on a pool of blood which covered the whole bottom of the painting. There was blood running out of Valentine’s mouth, covering his shirt so I would imagine he had been the one to kill that little boy. The other three boys had such terrified looks on their faces, it was all I could do not to look around to make sure this monster wasn’t lurking somewhere, ready to attack me. I wondered who the fuck would even paint this for him and what kind of sick creature would even put this on his wall. I leaned against the painting, trying to wrap my head around this. I knew he fed on humans, almost every night in fact, but children? What a sick fuck. I hit the painting with my fist, angry that someone out there would do this painting for him, would showcase the face of this monster and instead of the dull thud you hear when you hit a wall, I heard a metallic clink. ‘What the hell?’

            I hit the painting again, this time a little harder, punching a hole through the canvas. I peered through the hole I had made and noticed the wall behind was in face metal instead of wood or brick. I didn’t want to go snooping in case Valentine was out there waiting to feed on me, but after living here for this long I thought I knew all the ins and outs of this place. This room was new; or at least something Valentine made damn sure I would never find. With a grunt I tore the whole painting down, revealing a large metal door. I had to find out what was in here before I left. I don’t even know what drove me, but I couldn’t think of anything Valentine would want to hide from me. He had always let me have free roam of this place and the forest outside; what on earth would he want to hide from me that he had used that horrible painting to cover it?

            I saw that the door was padlocked with a chain, but that wouldn’t be a problem for me. I grabbed where the lever met the ward and yanked up. I had to exert a little strength, but Valentine had underestimated me if he has used this lock to deter me. After a few seconds of pulling, the lever came out of the ward with a little metallic “ping” and snapped off, the whole lock falling off the chain with the chain sliding to the floor after it. I looked around; sure that Valentine had heard that noise but saw nothing behind me. I took a breath, making sure my mind was still blocked and that nothing would bring the mental wall door. I opened the doors onto a long hallway, noting there were no light fixtures anywhere. I guess Valentine forgot I was a creature like him and could see the hallway like it was daytime inside. I entered the hallway, feeling out with my mind to make sure no one was in the hallway with me. When I was satisfied no one was, I continued to walk the length of the hallway. At the end there was another door, this one not even locked, let alone padlocked. Apparently Valentine never thought anyone would get through the first door. The strong metallic odor of blood filled my nose. I was very wary about opening the door, but I had to see what was in the room and where the smell was coming from.

            I pushed open the doors and allowed my site to adjust as it was brighter in this room than in the hallway. When my eyes had adjusted I looked around and reeled back through the doorway in horror.

            “No… this can’t be…” I didn’t want to get closer, but I had to be sure of what I was seeing. I went back into the room, into the pool of light in the center. The room had about twelve metal posts bolted to the floor, not quite reaching the ceiling. The posts were a rust color because of all the blood that had stained them. Right now, thankfully only 6 of them were being used, but it was more than I wanted to see. Attached to each posts by what looked to be large nails, were six young boys, maybe around the age of ten or eleven. Each boy was suspended upside down, their feet at the top of these posts hammered in with the large nails. The rest of their bodies hung freely, each one over a large tub. The boys had horrified expression on their faces as if they had been killed at the height of their fear. For some reason my mind thought of the canvas blocking the first door. Each boy’s throat had been cut into what looked like huge, grotesque smiles and their wrists had also been slit. The strain of being upside down had starting tearing some of the boys heads off their shoulders so some were just hanging on by a thread of skin. All their blood was running into tubs placed directly below each boy. The tubs seem to be there to collect their blood all in one place. I realized with a start this was some sort of blood room; a room Valentine could use to harvest little boys and collect their blood. If he didn’t want to go out for blood, he could just come here and take a bath in the blood and have his fill. I hated to think about when all twelve posts were used up. No one deserved this, especially not little kids. My stomach started to cramp and I felt disgusted at myself when I heard it start to growl. The blood was getting to me and I wanted to taste it. I wanted to jump into one of the tubs and slather myself with their blood and have my own fill. The urge was so strong that a sound between a moan and a scream escaped my lips as I forcefully pulled my body from the room. I wanted it so badly that tears starting running down my face; I would not let myself be the monster I now knew Valentine to be.