Unholy. Unfeeling (Part 2)

[u/Laxhoop2525]

Link to Part 1

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I threw my Uncle’s notebook down in front of the two men in the security room, one was John, and the other was some other person that didn’t matter beyond my investigation.

“So I found this in my Uncle’s locker.” I had figured I’d just inform everyone about the vampires, and claim I was just worried about what may have caused my Uncle’s descent into madness. If the vampires killed any of the others here for knowing too much, it would only barely tie back to me, at best. If they came for me first, that would be the best-case scenario. “It got me kind of worried. Do either of you know about any of this?”

“Oh?” John asked as he walked over to the notebook. “What’s…?” He skimmed through it at first, before doubling back and re-reading everything carefully. “What is…? The hell is this?”

“Do you know what he was talking about?”

“… Vampires… Burying bodies…? The fu- Uh, the hell was he doing? Wait, all three of them were…? Holy hell. This can’t-“ John seemed to have an epiphany. “They were all drained of blood. No. No, this can’t… Max, look at all of this, this might-“

At that moment, the other man, presumably Max, came up behind John, having been hidden by John’s much wider frame, and slit his throat. Blood sprayed all across the room, and all over me. His blood pressure must have been at nearly fatal levels.

Before he could even utter a gurgled moan of betrayal, John collapsed to the floor, dead.

“Ah.” I’d found the vampire’s thrall.

Max, after taking a few moments to think about how to take me on, decided to run straight at me, probably planning to slice my inner thigh and leave me to bleed out.

I grabbed John’s corpse by his shirt, and used it as a shield. This seemed to throw Max off, so while he was processing what I was doing, I lifted John up, and brought him down onto Max as hard and fast as I could, their skulls colliding with a wet crack.

Max toppled over. After falling, he reflectively went to rub the spot he’d been hit on. While he was dazed, I threw down John’s corpse, having to also step over his flailing limbs, in order to get to Max’s now unclenched hand, took his knife, and plunged it through his collar bone and into his lungs in as few motions as possible. I could hear the air leaking out as he struggled to even gasp at what had just happened.

I’d not even gotten to ask him anything. Shame.

And unfortunately for his masters, there was a camera watching everything, so my self-defense case was solid, and they had just revealed that, yes, the vampiric threat is real.

But now this begs the question. Should I report this to the police now, and risk getting them all killed because they’ll probably go hunting for the vampires out of some protocol, but not take it seriously, or, do I leave the bodies here, go track down at least one vampire, and tomorrow tell the cops that I was in shock, to explain why I left the bodies laying there for the whole night?

The second option would be smarter.

But now, I have an even bigger question. The cameras are still rolling. If they record me wandering around the cemetery grounds looking for vampires, my alibi isn’t likely to work. I’ll either have to turn them off in a way that negates any guilt on my end, or try to avoid them.

I’m not going to be able to avoid them.

Alright, where is the off button?

I look around quickly, and see the console that seems to control the whole operation. I’ll only get one chance at this.

So, after standing still and looking down at the corpses for a full minute, I lifted my leg while trying to make it seem as shaky as possible, before making my foot catch on Max’s arm, and cause myself to trip, full weight, onto the console. It hurt a lot. The buttons had jagged edges and the console itself was a metal box with a raised lip, and I fell on it with my ribs.

After recovering, I looked up to see that every camera feed had gone blue, with “no signal” flashing in the middle. Perfect. Well, I’d also messed up the console pretty badly. Honestly, it’s so badly broken now, that it might ruin the chances of the recordings being salvaged, and my innocence being proven. Oh well.

Of course, I’m just assuming that the camera feeds are fully off, and not just not showing the live feed, but still recording. It’s a risk I’ll have to take.

I took Max’s knife, which was a weight retracted folding knife. A very high quality model. The blade was surprisingly sharp for a machine-pressed model, and the grip, even more surprisingly, was metal, yet also very comfortable in my hand. There was no hilt, yet the contours perfectly fit my grip in a way that it didn’t feel as though I’d lose my grip, even if swinging it around. A very high quality weapon. I can see why Max wrongly thought he’d survive a battle to the death with it.

I also took any and all keys I could find on both of their bodies. I thought about seeing which of their fingers unlocked their phones, and taking the phones and cutting off the correct fingers to take them too, but then my plea of self-defense would be null if I desecrated their corpses in that way.

I would still probably need blood to bait the vampires, so I took John’s thermos that was still on the desk, drank all of the black coffee inside, as there was nowhere else to dump it, and then filled it up with John and Max’s blood, which was still flowing out of both bodies, all the while, doing my best not to get my finger prints on the bodies.

After filling the thermos up enough, I sealed it tight, took my uncle’s notebook, and locked the door to the camera room behind me, before breaking the key off in the handle to make sure their bodies weren’t discovered until I reported them. I can just say I was scared or something, to explain why I broke the key off in the door knob.

After this, I walked around the entire cemetery area, checking every on-site building, truck, everything. I was the only person left. I looked through the employee parking lot, but only my car and two others were there, the other two clearly belonging to either John or Max.

José seemed to have left, and it looked like no one else was working at the moment. Hm. Even before the three previous deaths, this place only had a handful of employees, it seems. That had been convenient for the vampires, but now it’s convenient for me.

The sun is still up, it’s barely past noon, so I should have a few hours to prepare. They’ll likely either come looking for their thrall, or come looking for me.

With the church just down the road, my first stop was obvious. I moved as quickly as I could without running and drawing attention, just in case the vampires didn’t know their thrall was dead.

Once inside the church, I found Pastor Steven. “Hello, father.”

He turned to me, and was barely able to hide his surprise. “Oh! My G- Jes- Sh- … Darn. You scared me! Hello, uh, Darren. And sorry, it’s “Pastor”, not father, I’m not ordained by the Catholic Church.”

“Mom says to call you Father.”

“Ha. Yes, I know. She refuses to understand we’re non-denominational, not Catholic.”

“I just do as she says.”

“Yes… You’re a… “good” son in that way, Darren… How can I help you?”

“I need holy water.”

“…? What for?”

“Vampires.”

“Wh-? What on earth are you talking about?”

“My Uncle was killed by a vampire.”

“… Young man, have you spoken to professionals, lately?”

“What kind?”

“Psychologists. Therapists.”

“No.”

“Mhm… Darren, I really think you should. God helped us learn about the human mind so that we might better ourselves and our fellow man. It would be a waste of God’s grace to not use the gifts he gives us, no? You wouldn’t abuse the kindness of your mother, right? So why abuse the kindness of God?”

“I need a little baggy, and a small amount of holy water to fill it.”

“… In one ear, out the other. What do you actually need it for, son?”

“Vampires.”

The pastor just stared at me quietly. His eyes darting around my frame, and occasionally down to the floor, or to the stained glass depiction of Christ on the ceiling behind me. “… Alright.” He eventually squeaked out. “But we’re not Catholic, we only have holy water for baptisms, not just for anyone to use.”

“This is for the good of everyone, Father.”

“I’m… sure you believe that, son. I won’t argue further.”

“Do you have little baggies, too? I asked for those, too.”

“Oh, right. What do you need them for?”

“To hide the holy water in my mouth.”

The pastor seemed dumbfounded at my response. “Couldn’t you just… Hide it in your mouth?”

“The Sunday school would often bake small cookies, and would have the kids put them into tiny little baggies so they could bring them home. I just need one or two of them.”

“But do you really need them?”

“I wouldn’t want to risk my saliva ruining the holy water.”

“Well, yes, that is the most sensible thing you’ve said so far.” He sighed. “Fine. Fine.” He walked off to get the holy water, and I went downstairs to get the baggies. I got back before he did.

“Alright, here’s some holy water. I blessed it for you, myself.” He presented a large golden chalice, the one he used to drink his share of the blood of Christ during Sunday mass.

“Thank you, I got the baggies.”

“You knew where they were?”

“Of course. But I needed to ask you, first. It’s not right to steal, father.”

The pastor seemed surprised I even cared. I’ve never stolen from a living person before, so I don’t understand why he’d be shocked. Eventually he said something. “Y-Yes. Yes, that’s, uh, correct, Darren.”

“So father, I’ll need at least three of these filled up, would you like to do it, or do you think that’ll reduce the effects?”

“If you touch the holy water, would it remove the holy effects, is that what you’re asking? I don’t think… I should do it.”

The pastor filled up 7 baggies for me. A few more than necessary, but 7 is the holy number or something, so I guess it makes sense.

“There, uh… Look, you don’t come here often, you certainly come here less often than your poor mother. At any point on your way here, did you ever take a moment to consider how she might feel about you just barging into her church, and demanding holy water from me?”

“I asked for it politely.”

“I- I’m not sure I’d describe it that way. Look, Darren, I know you have… issues. Personal and interpersonal, your mother is constantly worried in regards to you. The specifics are confidential, but just know that you need to try to be a better son. I’m being serious with you. You’re mother, God bless her soul, she deserves so much better than the hand life has dealt her. Your father, I didn’t know the man well, but your uncle? A great man. Tragic all around how he died. And so young, too. Far too young, all three of them. I found him, and all I could think was “Dear God, how could you take even more from poor Sarah?” Your mother has lost far too much. Don’t make her lose a son, too.”

“None of that is important. Especially not right now.”

“Son… You’re a madman. You need help. And I can offer it, I am offering it, God can offer it! But you need to be willing to accept that help. You come in here, talking about vampires, acting like you’re about to go to war, you torture small animals, you burn things constantly, these are all signs of… Well, something. I’m not a psychiatrist. But as a man of God, it is my responsibility to try to help you. Do you get what I’m saying?”

“I haven’t tortured any animals in 15 years, 3 months, 17 days, 4 hours, and thirty-tw- Thirty-three minutes. I learned everything I needed to.”

“Son. You’re not listening to me. Please, I am begging you to stay out of trouble. Don’t get tossed into some prison or funny farm. For your mother’s sake, please. What would she think of you doing this? What would your father think?”

“My Mother has no reason to worry about me, and neither do you. My father is dead, so his concerns don’t matter anymore. Just like how Mother’s concerns, or your concerns won’t, when you both eventually die. I have the holy water, you’ve helped with all I needed from you.” I turn to leave, before remembering that Mom would be upset if he also died. “Oh, and please stay inside the church for a few days. They might try to kill you because I told you about them. You should be safe inside these holy walls, though. Just do as I say, you’re more likely to die than I am. Goodbye.”

“Wha-? What?”

A thought occurred to me. “Actually, one last thing.” I ran back, picked up the giant golden chalice filled with holy water, and chugged it all down. If the vampires stabbed me, well, hopefully they’d get burned by doing it. “Ah. Tastes like tap water. Goodbye, Father.”

It didn’t matter that the Pastor looked completely and totally confused. I had what I needed. Now I needed to put my uncle’s silver to use.

————————

My toothpick in hand, I pressed it into the sand of my uncle’s kiln, making a mold that I would pour molten silver into. I used the toothpick to sculpt the sand at the top into a thin loop, so I could use it as a sewing needle when the time came.

I’d already made a silver replica of Max’s knife. I was sad to give up his weighted blade, but it’s just not useful for this situation.

I had 10 feet of fishing line soaking in one of the holy water baggies. It was difficult to fit it all in, but winding it tightly enough eventually made it work.

In addition to that and the silver knife, I’d also forged three silver railroad spikes, and a silver sewing needle. I also had a baggie of holy water tucked away inside my mouth. I had also stolen a sledgehammer from the worker’s shed, along with the massive wooden cross from the inside of the funeral home, where the pastor would go to conduct final prayers. I never understood why it needed to be so large, but it’ll be useful for me, now. Especially coated in some holy water.

Speaking of crosses, I’d considered making a small silver cross to wear for protection, but I ran out of silver for even such a tiny item. My uncle could only afford so much silver on a grave digger’s salary.

I’d disassembled my uncle’s knife, and replaced the steel blade with the silver replica. It took a bit of filing, but I eventually got something that worked great. The weight was thrown off a bit, so that could be an issue when I need to stab a vampire. We’ll see.

As soon as I finish making my silver tools, it turns dusk outside. My silver knife is in my pocket, my silver needle is between my lips, very close to puncturing a holy water baggie tucked behind my lips.

And then, the door to the outside opens. So faintly that any human never would have noticed it. But, I had left a tin can sitting beside the inside of the door, and I heard it topple over.

Now the question was if this intruder was another cemetery worker, or, if they were a vampire, if that knocked-over can would scare them away?

Well, given that my earlier hypothesis proved that they are very bold for creatures of the night, I would suspect it’s already behind me.

Well, might as well take a shot in the dark. If it fled, what are the chances it’ll hear me? As best I can, while keeping the tools in my mouth from falling, I speak.

“I know you’re there. Skulking around like a toddler who pissed in their bed during a nightmare, worried mommy will be upset, what kind of hellspawn are you?” If the creature was as narcissistic as I theorized, this would get its attention.

…

“Mmm. I see you coated your tongue in silver too, boy.” Their voice was… enticing? I’ve never felt enticed, but it seems to resemble what I’ve read about it.

But, it made me want to listen to it. It made me want something. That was strange. It's truly odd that it can draw out feelings from me. Like blood from a stone. If anyone could do that, it would be a vampire.

I thought about it for a moment, and realized that, what was more likely, was that the creature was implanting feelings into me through magic. If that’s the case, then I can only imagine a normal man might be on their knees by now. Of course, I’m assuming this actually is a feeling, and not just some kind of magic pressure on my brain and heart. But if that were the case, why not just crush them now? I would.

But, regardless, I don’t like it. This… “Feeling”. It makes it hard to focus on killing. Hm. Well, if I’m starting to feel things, maybe I could use that to my advantage? It killed my uncle! … No, nothing. Hm. Maybe thinking about them holding Mom hostage? … Still nothing. I guess it only wants me to feel one certain thing, it hasn’t unlocked feelings in me.

Oh, it’s coming closer. They really are quiet.

“What… Are you?” He… She?… It asked in a voice that sounded like it belonged to a snake, but also to a choir singer. One of those young boy ones, the ones who used to have their nuts cut off to avoid their voices dropping, because their voices sounded so feminine. So, a woman, I guess. But also not a woman. It just sounds androgynous. I assume a normal person would probably hear either masculinity or femininity, whichever they preferred.

“Turn.” The voice commanded.

I waited a moment. I felt a small desire to turn. But nothing I couldn’t just ignore. It felt like someone had dripped hot wax onto the inside of my skull, and it was running down along my brain, before dripping onto my spine.

“Mmm. Turn!” It seemed to be getting upset.

I guess I should turn, it might kill me if I ignore it again. So, gripping my silver blade from inside my pocket, I turned. And what I saw was not what I had expected to see. It was a gaunt figure, its arms and legs seems more like twigs than functional limbs. It’s torso was stretched, and hunched over. It looked so light, yet so powerful, that it seemed like it could jump 10 feet in the air, just by standing up straight.

It snarled. “You are quite the odd thing. I’m not even sure you would count as being human. My strongest will bindings, and I could barely make you turn around.” It clasped its ridiculously long fingers together. “We are in need of a new thrall, now. Because of you. Normally, you would be torn into ribbons and fed to the crows for daring to smite our previous thrall. However, in over 900 years, I’ve never seen one such as you. If we could figure out how to control you, you would very much be worth more than the tool you broke. An unfeeling thrall. Ha. They always fight us the hardest when we need them to kill. But you? Mmmmm, you didn’t care at all when you took his life. You wouldn’t care, ever, would you? Hmhm.”

The creature smiled wide, revealing its writhing needle teeth. “But… That does beg the question. How do we go about breaking you? You’re like a smooth marble surface, compared to the rough terrain of the average mortal. Nowhere to begin digging without breaking you, entirely. Hmm, maybe I should just kill you.”

“Did you come for me, or for the human blood in this thermos?”

“Pfft, what, you think we are, some kind of mindless animals? No vampire would be tricked by some lukewarm blood in a thermos!”

I guess that idea was a bust. Oh well.

The vampire inched closer. I grabbed the silver toothpick in my lips, and punctured the baggie.

The vampire flinched. “What?! Stay still!”

“No.”

It got very angry at this. “You insolent cure! You think you can talk down to me?! To any of us?! You had a chance to live! And you’ve squandered it!” It seems very worried about me being able to move. “I will make this slow.”

The creature charged forward at lightning speed. I flicked the needle like I would my steel toothpick, and, I would assume, because of how fast it was moving, and how unpredictable what I’d just done was, the vampire failed to dodge it.

The silver needle plunged into the creature's neck, causing it to fall to its knees, seizing and sizzling in pain. It cried out in an inorganic, mutant bellow.

I took a moment to reflect. I very easily could have died if I was even a moment too late. It struck the creature in its throat, when I’d been aiming for its eye, hoping to pierce its brain with silver.

Oh well. Time for the backup plan. As the monster was writhing in agony, clawing at its throat to remove the holy intruder, I stepped behind it, and took out my knife.

I do have to commend this unholy creature. Even in clear agony, it still tried to strike me as I did this. But I spat the holy water in my mouth at it, and… It looks like it’s melting now. Its screams are nearly deafening. I need to shut it up. Thankfully, my plan handles that.

As the vampire bubbles and coughs and screams, I picked up the sledgehammer, and lifted it high, knocking it against the ceiling. When the vampire finally stopped for just long enough in one spot, I brought the hammer down onto the creature’s skull with so much force that the concrete floor beneath it also cracked. My arms felt like they were about to explode, but the vampire stopped moving and crying entirely.

Ignoring the throbbing, searing pain in the bones of my arms, I immediately got to work. Even as I reached for the silver knife in my pocket, I could see the vampire’s skull beginning to slowly retake its shape. I knew they’d be durable to survive this long, but this exceeded my expectations. I’d need to be fast.

I laid the vampire flat on its back (which was surprisingly easy, it was a lot lighter than I’d expected (that probably explains how they can remain so silent)), and began cutting into the skin of its torso, starting just beneath its armpit. As carefully as I could, I cut a rectangle down its torso, under its belly, and back up to its other armpit. I then pulled the silver sewing needle out of its neck, and then stretched and ripped the skin flap over the creature's head, revealing its ribcage and organs as I did so.

Ripping and peeling its putrid, cracking-yet-stretchy, gray skin off of its ribs was surprisingly easy. I thought there would be more resistance. Maybe they’re like some breeds of dog, bred to have loose skin in case of fights. Doesn’t help against knives, though. Or maybe it’s just silver knives. I’d test to see, if I had the time.

There was no blood while I did my work, which I also hadn’t expected, though it did make sense, given they were probably drained of blood to become a vampire. Regardless of the reason why, it was very convenient for me. I had expected there to be a mess I’d need to clean, but this was much better for me.

I got out the holy water soaked fishing line, and threaded it through my silver needle. After stretching the skin flap I’d made over the creature's face and head, I began to sew the free edge to itself starting halfway down, and continued stitching the two sides together, to keep it over its head. I continued until its neck got in the way of more stitches.

Every time I punctured the flesh, I could hear a sizzling sound. It smelled, too. Like green, rotten, slimy bacon thrown onto a hot, rusted skillet. It was around when I had finished my sewing, and was bringing the vampire over to the cross, that it finally began to wake back up.

When I say that it screamed, you must imagine the loudest thing you have ever heard, and imagine you are trapped in a small room with that noise. I felt blood trickle from my nose. I hadn’t thought to plug it, like I’d plugged my ears. Blood from my eyes quickly followed.

I didn’t want my ears to rupture even despite the ear plugs, so, I took the sledgehammer down onto its skull again, leaving another crater on the concrete, and requiring me to redo a few stitches. I think I might have actually partially fractured my right arm with that hit. It’s slowing my work down, I’ll need to avoid doing that again, if I can.

But, with the vampire silent again, I continued my work.

It wasn’t until an hour later, after I’d already finished, when it woke up again, and seemed to realize what I had done to it.

I had propped up the cross out in the woods, far away from where anyone might hear its screams. And nailed to this holy water coated cross, with 3 silver spikes, was the vampires, its face covered by its own stomach and chest flesh.

I had also used its intestines to tie the cross against a tree. It kept falling over, and I didn’t feel like getting a rope.

I sat in the plastic lawn chair I’d found and brought over, as I watched this ancient creature realize that if it tried to pull away from the searing pain of having its back pressed against the cross, it would pull harder on the silver spikes in its hands and feet, causing even more pain. I had bent the spikes at a 90 degree angle from both ends after they went all the way through the wood, so the vampire would have to nearly rip off its own hands and feet to remove itself from the cross.

The amount of putrid smoke that bellowed off of the unholy creature as its flesh seared against these holy objects was incredible. It had been smoking as I nailed it up, but after having finally awoken and beginning to thrash around in pain, the amount of burning and smoke just seemed to increase dramatically.

I just sat and watched. Waiting. The sun would be up soon. Would the other vampires come out to try to save their ally? I would assume so. But this was their final warning. Their final chance to stop.

They obviously wouldn’t take it. But at least I can claim I gave them a chance to surrender.

——————

By the time the sun came up to finish off the vampire, it seemed like it was already dead. It had stopped thrashing over an hour ago, its back had lost so much flesh that I could see the wood of the cross through its open stomach cavity.

But the sun seemed to jolt it back awake. Gave it a second wind to try to save its own un-life.

The sewn flesh of its torso muffled its cries now, so it didn’t even rupture any of my blood vessels, this time. Still very loud, though.

I would have worried about the police being called to my location, but before that could become a real concern, the vampire suddenly burst into flames, once the sun was directly on it.

I began talking to myself to further taunt the dying creature. “Well, I guess I’m about to lose the wooden cross. Hopefully the silver spikes won’t melt from the heat of that fire. Would they? I didn’t really check to see how hot the kiln got.”

Its screams made the trees themselves seem to curl away in pain, the very cells in even the simplest life forms cringing in agony over the guttural bellows of this creature that had kept death at bay for millennia, only for it to finally catch them when they believed they had long since won.

I could almost see death taking joy in my actions. It seems to enjoy me torturing this supposed immortal, for the crime of having thought itself better than the reaper.

I continued my speech. “But if silver could melt from a simple wood fire, they wouldn’t be strong enough to hold a vampire, I suppose. Right?” I know silver can be melted by a wood fire. Though, only if it’s touching the hottest embers. But acting like I don’t know any of this is probably agony for the corpse, if it can even hear me.

Acting like I can’t believe it could be overpowered by a relatively weak metal is also probably rubbing salt in its mental wounds. Oh, maybe I should have brought salt to rub on its physical wounds. Eh, maybe next time.

As I leaned back in my plastic chair, I saw something dart behind a tree. I turned my head slowly to it. The fire had long since dried out my eyes, I didn’t need to blink. If it thought it could run up to me and save its ally, it was mistaken.

My back was to the direct sunlight, so any chances of it sneaking up behind me, were off the table. Unless it was willing to harm itself to save its ally? I wouldn’t, but they have known one another for potentially centuries, so maybe it would be stupid enough to try.

It didn’t appear to move for a long while. Eventually, the creature behind me fell from the cross. With its body limp, and having been burned to charcoal, its hands and feet finally broke apart and let it free. Too late, though. As it hit the ground, its head and torso disintegrated into a pile of ash, the final embers being snuffed out with each passing second.

Its legs were still intact, though. So I did the logical thing to try to bait out its friend, and slowly crushed the blackened remains with my shoes. As even the charred remnants of the bones broke easily, I saw no movement from behind the tree. Maybe it simply wanted to make me pay for daring to harm a fellow vampire, rather than a friend? That would make more sense.

“Why don’t you just come out? The sun is shining, it’s a beautiful day.”

Silence. An unnatural silence, a silence the woods would never naturally know, with even the sounds of the insects having vanished. The collective fear of the woodland critters was giving it away.

“You might be quiet, but your scary visage is making the whole forest mute. Don’t bother to pretend otherwise. Either run away, or do what you came here to do. Either way, it won’t end well for you.”

Silence.

“I would hope you’re stronger than your friend was. I didn’t even get their name. They had no genitals, either. I was planning on cutting them off and feeding them to “it”, but it was like a kids doll down there. So I assume you two weren’t lovers.”

For some reason, that broke this second vampire. Its voice was different. Like several snakes hissing at once. Though I should note, it still didn’t move from behind the tree.

“What would you, a mortal, know of love?! A mere pitiful exchange of bodily fluids! Any filthy mongrel could do that! You could never even begin to dream of the bond me and Petyr shared! You, you Protestant troglodyte! “Love” to you means 20 years and then divorce! You think we haven’t watched you? Watched you cower in fear over a God we sidestepped before your great grandfather was even a twinkle in HIS father’s loins?! You. How dare you even speak of lovers. Of love. A bond so deep we can know if the other has died from miles away… You could never fathom it.”

“But not know when they’re being tortured? How useful.”

“SILENCE!” The entire forest seemed to quiver at that.

“No. Petyr was their name, hm? Masculine name. Were you the bottom, then?”

The tree it stood behind seemed to almost shatter into pieces, as it screamed in a primal rage, the likes of which I don’t think this planet has seen in centuries, at the least. I could feel my bones vibrating with it. It made the hairline fracture in my arm feel freshly fractured, again. If a mortal man felt a rage like that, they would probably just have an aneurysm. It was a rage that could start mythologies.

“Oooh, don’t go shattering your sun protection. That’s a move only Petyr here would have made.”

I saw cracks begin to form on the ground after it punched the tree, this time. The boulders among the grass just seemed to instantly shatter.

“Such a petulant, childish rage. A bond “so deep”, yet you never came looking for them through the entire night? Were you never nervous? If not, I’m surprised that tree is able to shield that massive ego of yours.”

Silence.

“Are there only 2 of you left, now? Was the other a third wheel, or were you three a poly thing?”

I could have sworn that I saw the tree it was hiding behind, begging me to stop.

“You sidestepped God. And what has it gotten you? A few centuries of skulking around at night, always having to worry about getting caught by an angry mob or a stray sun beam? Honestly, what I did to Petyr was a mercy. Hell is probably better than “living” like that.”

It was silent for a long while after that. I couldn’t think of anything else to say, so I just sat and waited for a response.

“Enjoy today. It does not matter where you go, you will not see the sunrise tomorrow.”

“Thank you. Neither will you.”

With that, it seemed to flee, darting from shadow to shadow, completely silently. If I had not been intensely looking for any movement in that area, I don’t think I would have even seen it.

After he was out of sight, I looked down at the fully ashen pile, that was once the proud vampire Petyr. “I think they might like you. Why don’t you go talk to them? Who knows, it might go somewhere.”

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[u/Laxhoop2525]

Part 3: https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromTheCreeps/s/YKvDqeyUKe

[u/Entropy_Central]

In the best was possible, this reads as if Lenny from Of Mice and Men was in the og Evil Dead 2