Deadline
Issue #5
by Tom Zjaba
CHAPTER 8: ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE!
A lone man sits in a chair. The chair looks almost like a throne, with ornate carvings of demons and gargoyles. The man sits there with a hood covering over his head. He wears a robe, much like the kind worn by monks. In his hands is a skull, the skull of a demon, with small little horns on the top. He holds it up to his face and smiles at it. The man is middle-aged man of Chinese descent and has a long mustache that hangs to the sides of his face. He smiles at the skull as he looks at it. As he gazes up it, he hears a knock upon a large, wooden door that is approximately ten feet away from his throne. "Enter" is all he says as the door slowly opens up. Inside a demon cautiously walks. "Master, we have destroyed the vampire lord. What is your next command?" the demon says as he looks down towards the ground. "His body, show me his body." the man shouts. The demon motions to other demons that are peeking in the room, from behind the door. One of them comes with a burlap sack. He walks up towards the master and slowly hands the bag to him with an outstretched arm. The bag is quickly snatched and he digs his hand in and pulls out a skull with fangs. He looks at it and smiles "Dominick, you little prick. Do you know how long I looked forward to this day?" He then drops it back into the bag and tosses it behind him, where it lands on the ground and some of the bones spill out. The man then stands up and says "Assemble the troops, we are going to destroy the vampires, once and for all. Without their beloved Dominick, they are powerless to stop us." One of the demons says in a hushed voice "Should we wait for nightfall, master?" The master stands up and kicks the demon, knocking it over and then screams, "That is why I am the master and you are nothing but a lowly lackey. What better time than now to attack? We have no weakness to the sun like they do, so let's take advantage of this and kill everyone of them and drag their dead bodies out into the sunlight." With that, the demons run off and he follows after the, before he leaves, he turns back into the room and says "I will deal with your remains later."
Back at the vampire's lair, Nat walks in to find all the vampires are asleep. The room is in total shambles, with bottles of booze thrown around and blood and fur everywhere. The fire is burning low and the werewolf heads have turned back into human heads. Nat looks around to find Rog, who is sleeping on a rock. "Get up man, I gotta talk to you., he says as he tries to shake the sleep from him. "Let me sleep, I had a tough night." he says as he tries to go back to sleep. "Dominick is dead." Nat screams at Rog. "What? No way, can't be." he says as he struggles to get up. "Nothing can kill him, he is one bad-assed mother." Rog says as he rubs the sleep from his eyes. "I saw it happen. The demons got him, tore him to shreds." Rog stops to contemplate this. The lack of sleep and all the partying is making it hard for him to concentrate. He rubs his head and says "Better wake the others, we will need to find a new leader. That is like so unbelievable."
One by one, they go around and wake all the other vampires and tell them the bad news. As they all are completely awake, they gather and begin to talk. Mike takes first turn and says, "Since Dom is no more, we need a new leader and I nominate myself." "Bull, what makes you the chief? I have the most seniority here., shouts Geno. "Yeah, well I can kick your ass three ways to Sunday and that makes me the chief, got it?' Mike screams back as the two of them get toe to toe. Mitchell then steps between them and yells, "Who's the toughest? Who has the most seniority? What the hell do you think this is? We need the best guy, one who has brains and brawn." Mike then punches Mitchell in the face, knocking him down. Geno takes a step back, waiting to see what develops. "The reason that Dom had our respect was we feared him. So now you are going to fear me, got it?" Mike says as he towers over Mitchell who is rubbing his jaw. Before any more hostilities break out, Kurt moves in and says, "I second the nomination of Mike as warlord of the clan." he then stands behind him. Jack also falls behind Mike. Mitchell gets up on his feet and still rubbing his jaw, gets behind Geno. "No way, I am siding with a bastard like you. I give my vote for Geno." Soon the rest of the vampires begin to go behind one or the other. Derrick and Steve get behind Mike, while Spike, Terrance and Rog go with Geno. They all turn and look at Nat, who is standing there by himself. "What's it gonna be newbie, your vote is the final say." Mike says as he cracks his knuckles.
Nat looks over at Rog, the only vampire he really has gotten along with. He knows that he should side with him, but Mike is the most powerful of the vampires and probably would be the best leader. It's not like you need a lot of diplomacy to be a vampire. But, Mike is also the one who made him a vampire and for that he will never forgive him. He has to go with his friends and he steps over with Geno's group. Geno then gloats, "The vote has been cast, I am the new warlord!" Upset, Mike walks off into another room. Some of the vampires decide to try and get some rest. Some head off to different rooms.
Back at the demon's lair, the man in the cloak is instructing the demons. "I want you to kill every single vampire and then drag their remains to the daylight, so the sun will finish the job. Don't let any escape or I will flail you alive. Now be gone!" he says as he waves them on. He stands there and watches all of the demons leave. There are over 50 of them, heading out into the daylight. As they march down the street, to the ordinary people of the world, they look like a very large street gang. People move out of their way, for fear of upsetting them. They have strength in numbers and it commands a lot of respect. They head down to the subways and right past the gates. None of them pay and no one is ready to make them.
As the demons are out of sight, the man walks back into the house and heads back to his room. He cannot hide the smile that is across his face. He has waited years for this day and now at long last, it is here. This will swing the balance of power and he can take over the vampire turf and add it to his own. Then with the added real estate, he can summon even more demons and take out the already weakened werewolves. This will give him full control of the city and all he needs to do is then turn on the mob and make himself Crime lord. They were so foolish to enlist his aid, but they were desperate. They needed a supernatural ally to combat the others and he was their best choice. But they are soon going to realize that you never make a pact with the devil, because the devil always wins.
As he enters his room, he walks over to the bag of bones and picks it up. At first, he is shocked at how light it is. He peers into the bag and realizes that it is empty. He drops it to the ground and searches around. Where could those accursed bones be? Did one of the demons take them? As he turns to leave the room, he is greeted by Dominick, who is standing there, naked and only partially skinned. He is a bunch of muscles, with patches of skin, here and there. "Surprised to see me? Don't be. You just made the biggest mistake of your life., he says as he shoves his hand into the man's chest and pulls out his heart. "The only ways to kill a vampire are a wooden stake in the heart and sunlight, he says as he devours the man's heart as he falls to the ground. Dominick then drops and drinks the man's blood. He needs all the strength he can get. Afterwards, he tears his head off and pulls out all his entrails, to ensure he doesn't come back as a vampire. He then begins to destroy the room and everything in it, ripping books apart and smashing anything that can be destroyed. He then retires in the man's bed and waits for dusk, to burn the place to the ground. It should give him ample time to continue and heal. A lesser vampire would take days, possibly weeks to recover from this, but he is no ordinary vampire.
Back in the vampire's lair, the groups have pretty much split up. While there is an uneasy truce, the tension is high and no one believes that it will last. Mike is not the kind of person to just give up so easily. He has wanted control of the clan for years and it will take more than a simple vote to stop him from his destiny. But he is content to bide his time and wait for a more opportune time to seize power. Some of the vampires have gone back to sleep and others are wandering around the subways to find some action. One benefit that this place offers them is there is ample room to wander. With the subways, they can travel throughout the city, with no fear of the sun. Nat and Rog decide it is a good time to go and talk. Rog is determined to find out more about last night and he knows that Nat isn't going to say anymore with the rest of the clan nearby. They are not sure how Dominick died or why and what role did Nat play in it. Right now, the alliance and the tension is enough to make everyone temporarily forget about it.
As the two of them walk down the tracks of the subway, Rog begins to question him. "So did Dominick get jumped on the demon's turf or did they break the lines and get him?" Nat keeps walking and says, "If you want to know what happen, just ask." "All right, tell me what went down?" Rog inquires. Nat puts his hands in his pockets and lowers his head. As he walks, he tries to kick loose stones. "It went like this. Two nights ago, I spent the evening with Sam. I went back to my apartment to tie you some loose ends, when she showed up." he says as he kicks a stone down the tunnel. "How did she find ya?" Rog asks. "Well, when we were in the other room, she stole my wallet to insure we would see each other again." Nat said as he looks for another stone to kick. "Gotta give her an A for creativity, he says with a laugh. "Back to the story, the next morning, she opened the curtains and I screamed at her to close them. My skin felt like it was boiling. After that, I must have spooked her or something, because she got dressed and bolted. Being daytime, I couldn't go after her., he says as they stop walking and lean against the tunnel wall. In the distance, they hear a subway car coming. There is a faint glimmer of light, as it gets closer. Rog then says "So let me guess, you go after her the next night, right?" "Yeah, I did. She was really special and I wanted an explanation to why she just took off., he says as he fiddles with his jacket. "You are so predictable, you know that?" Rog laughs. "So what if I am? I loved that girl., he yells. "Cool it man, I'm on your side. By the way, why do you keep talking about her in the past tense?" Nat lifts his head and stares right at Rog and says, "Because she is dead!" He then walks off, towards the subway car. Rog runs after him "I'm sorry man, I didn't know. What happened?" They both then step aside as the train goes by. While it is scary to be so close to a subway car, Nat cannot help but be a bit overwhelmed by the sheer danger of it. If one thing has changed since his transformation is that he really gets off on the adrenaline rush of danger. Before all this, he was pretty much normal. But now he not only handles the danger that seems to keep coming his way, but he is beginning to crave it, like a drug. As train passes and the tunnel quiets again, Nat turns around and looks at him and says, "Dominick killed her, ripped out her throat." Rog just stops and tries to think of something to say. All he can muster is "Sorry." Nat starts walking again, as if he is trying to get away from Rog. He doesn't get too far before Rog asks "So how did Dom buy it?" Nat stops in his tracks and pauses. After a few seconds, he turns around and says, "Remember those demons? Well, they jumped him. He killed a few, but they overwhelmed him." "What did you do?" Rog asks, even though he thinks he knows the answer. "Dominick threw me across the street, into some bushes. After I hit, I looked up and they were on top of him. There was nothing I could do but watch."
As the two of them are walking along, Rog just stops in his tracks. Nat takes a few steps and realizes that Rog isn't next to him anymore. He turns to look at Rog and see what is up and notices that he is just standing there with a look of pure shock. Nat then turns and looks to see what is spooking Rog and sees hundreds of glowing eyes, coming down the tunnel. Nat turns to Rog and says, "Is that what I think it is?" Rog replies, "If you mean demons, then yes, it is. There must be fifty or more of them." Feeling the fear, Nat begins to walk backwards as he asks "Do you think they know that was Dominick they killed?' Now Rog has joined him in stepping backwards and answers "They have to or they would never try anything this crazy." With that, he turns around and runs as he yells "Let's get the hell out of here!" Not being suicidal, Nat turns and runs to. The demons then notice that they are running and begin to run to. As they run, they scream out that horrible yell, the one that turns your blood to ice.
The chase goes on for what feels like an eternity. While the actual time is closer to ten minutes, it feels like forever. The demons do not stop yelling the whole time. It is times like this that Nat curses to himself for not trying out for track or any athletics when he was in high school and college. As they near the lair, Nat says a little prayer of thanks. His side is aching and his feet hurt. He is glad that the running can stop; because there is no way he could continue for much longer. He also begins to think of the irony of a vampire saying a prayer of thanks. He wonders if the devil ever says a prayer? Why such crazy thoughts are running through his head in a time of such peril is unknown to him.
As they reach the lair, some of the other vampires come running out to see what all the commotion is. What they see is Nat and Rog running past them like bats out of hell, which is a pretty appropriate metaphor. But it is not their comrades that catches their attention and freezes them in place like what it chasing them. It is the fifty odd demons that are running at them, screaming bloody murder that chills their undead blood. Nothing in their afterlife could ever prepare them for something like this. They are vampires at the top of the food chain. They are supposed to be the predator, not the prey. But this time they are outnumbered and hopelessly doomed. Within seconds, they are overrun with demons, which charge in with slashing claws and biting fangs as they rip every vampire they can find to shreds. It only takes a few minutes for the first few vampires to die. Spike and Terrance are the first to go and they had no chance. But then what chance could even two vampires have against the onslaught of hell itself?
As the demons come pouring into the room, Nat rushes through one room to another, looking for a place to hide. Unlike the other vampires, he is not battle hardened. He never asked to be a warrior. He feels no shame in saving his own hide and leaving his brethren to fend for themselves. As he runs into one of the rooms, he sees a ledge at the far end of the room that is higher up. He runs and jumps up and makes the ten-foot jump with ease. As he lands on the narrow ledge, he grabs a hold of some jutting rocks to balance himself. Then he looks around to see if he can find a place to hide. Off to the left is what appears to be a cave of sorts. Actually it is more of an indentation that goes in about five feet into the rock, but appears to be adequate for hiding in. He walks along the ledge, careful not to fall. After a minute, he is in the cave and curls up into a ball, to make him smaller and harder to see. As he sits there and listens to the screams, he thinks back to the events of the past week and wonders if his life will ever be normal or even closer to normal. He curses himself for giving up everything he had, including his humanity for the sake of a story that he will never be able to tell. Who would believe a story like this? Worse, if they did believe it, then he would be hunted down and killed. No matter how he looks at it, his life is screwed up and right now there is nothing he can do, but try and survive.
Down below, the flood of demons continues, as they make their way from one room to another. Mitchell and Geno were the next to go, but at least they took out a few demons before they were overwhelmed. The noise was enough to alert the others and Mike and his gang were ready for the demons. As the demons rush into the room, Mike stands before them with a spear in his hand. On each side of him are Jack and Steve, both brandishing swords. "Come on you bastards, you may kill us, but we will send most of you back to hell!" The demons pause for a second. This is the first real sign of resistance they have encountered. Demons are a cowardly lot and only when the odds are stacked in their favor are they really prepared to fight. As they look around and notice that they have them outnumbered more than 10 to 1, they get the courage to attack. But before they charge, they begin the chant in a deep, guttural sound. As they continue to chant it gets louder and deeper, until it reaches an almost growling sound. It is in an unknown language to the vampires and it is probably best that they don't understand it. As they do this, Rog and Geno walk out of the shadows and reach for any available weapon. Rog picks up an axe and Geno pulls down one of the spears and pulls the head that once was one of the werewolf's off it. The head drops to the floor, with its wide-open eyes, looking up at the ceiling.
As the last five vampires huddle together and prepare for the inevitable, Mike looks around at each of them. Each one exchanges glances and soon they all understand what to do. Mike then raises the spear over his head and screams at the top of his voice "Charge!" With those words, the five of them rush at the gang of demons and get the element of surprise. The split second of hesitation is enough for them to strike hard at their foes and soon five demons fall to the dirt floor, as their life seeps from them. But the charge is nothing but a delay. Soon the rest of the demons are upon them and while they all fight valiantly, soon they are overwhelmed and torn to pieces. Another four demons were killed before the battle was completed. The entire battle was over in less than ten minutes, but it seems like an eternity to Nat, while hidden for the majority of it, could hear every last sound, like he was in the midst of the battle. All of sudden, there is a deathly silence. As Nat peers down, he sees the demons walking around as they search for any survivors. There were at least two search parties to come through the room before there is total silence. While demons have keen sense of smell and can usually smell out a vampire, they do not find Nat in his hiding place. With the smell of fresh blood, both theirs and the of the vampires they have slain, mixed in the with the lingering smell of vampires in the area and the decayed smell of the werewolf heads, the demons find it hard to pinpoint out a single smell. Nat is also lucky that they do not possess the best memories or great intelligence. If they did, they may realize that there was another vampire loose. But they are happy with the joy they did and do not fret over minor things. They are victorious and are ready to go and celebrate!
Nat sits another ten minutes and waits. He does not want to come down early, only to find a welcoming committee of demons. He listens as he hears them walking out. When he hears nothing at all, he slowly climbs down from his hideout and looks around. The room he is in is empty. As he makes his way into the next room, he sees the corpses of a few demons. As he gets to the room where the last stand took place, there are the mangled bodies of nine demons. Nowhere does he see the remains of any of the vampires. He had hoped that someone survived, so he could at least bury them, but there is nothing at all.
Up above in the real world, the demons march out to the streets. Their numbers are depleted now, with about 35 remaining. Even these are sporting various injuries from the battle. They walk through the tunnel, towards the subway, where they emerge en masse. As they come crawling up from the tracks, the passengers who are awaiting their trains run in terror. While their appearance is that of a street gang and not the fetid demons that hide behind the veil of disguise, they are still enough to scare even the boldest of men. A few of the demons are carrying the remains of the vampires in bags as they head up to the streets. While it is late, about 3 PM, there is still plenty of sun left to do the job. As they emerge from the subways, they walk over and dump the bags of bones onto the sidewalk. Since there are so many of them, the people give them plenty of room. Some of the demons take advantage of their strength in numbers and torment women who pass by. For some of them, it has been centuries since they felt the warmth of a woman and even a quick grab is enough to bring some joy to their otherwise joyless existence. They know that even if they succeed at this mission, they will still remain under the control of the human. Only his death will bring freedom to them and even then, they will only return to the abyss from which they were summoned. While many would be conjurers believe they can summon and control the greater demons, they only end up with the lowest of the demons. This is actually for the better as the greater demons could not be controlled by them and would only drag them back down to Hell with them.
As they pour the bones out, the sun's rays hit them and they set on fire. Like a gas soaked rag, they go up in a blaze of fire and within seconds, they are completely consumed. As the fire burns, the demons sit around and laugh. They know that they have defeated their greatest foe and now they can add this whole new territory to their hunting ground. Soon all the people of this accursed city will know their might and in time, they will wait for the moment their master slips up and kill him and rule. While it is impossible for the demons to remain in this world for long, without a master, they are too stupid to know this. Even if someone told them, they would not believe it. They are a distrustful race that lives only to take out the one ahead of them and move up in rank.
All that remains are a small pile of ashes. Within minutes, all the remains have been decomposed and the demons walk off. As they leave, the wind blows the ashes away as they float along the streets that the very same vampires used to terrorize.
Back in the hideout, Nat walks around in vain hope of finding some survivors. The thought that he is the last vampire left in the city seems so alien to him. What does he do now? He has no normal, mortal life left and his undead life isn't looking very promising either. He walks from room to room, hoping to find an answer, some kind of sign. But all he sees are dead demons, which are quickly decomposing. As they melt away, they let out a horrible odor. The smell of sulphur is all around and it is enough to gag him. He wants to leave, but where shall he go? He then lays down and begins to rest. He still has a few hours before the sun goes down and he can safely venture into the world.
While the demons wage their war on the vampires, Dominick prepares his own homecoming for the demons. Now that he has their leader out of the way, he makes plans for shutting them down, once and for all. He looks through the expansive house for items to help him out. He is quite amazed at the size of the house. Living in the city is not cheap and to afford a house this size, proves that this man has a lot of money and money is something that Dominick wants. As he looks around, he finds many items of interest. There are old swords, many dating back hundreds of years. He pulls down a very nice one that is sheathed in an all black casing. As he pulls the blade out, he notices that it is also pure black and almost has a glow to it. The shape is incredible! Even the carvings on the handle and the writings that are burned into the blade, look new. He curses himself for not taking the time to learn Chinese, as he would love to know what the sword says. He carefully puts it back in the sheath and decides to take it with him. As he moves from room to room, he notices in the kitchen that they have a gas stove. Smiling, he turns to knobs of each burner, to where they release the gas, but not far enough to spark a flame. He then makes sure all the windows are securely shut. He doesn't want the gas to escape. It won't affect him, but it will do a wonderful job, if it has long enough.
When he enters the basement, he finds the place stinks of rotting flesh and filth. He quickly deducts that this is where the demons live. As he goes from room to room, he realizes that vampires seem pleasant compared to these creatures. The rooms are filthy with bones of various animals scattered around. There are feces all over and some of it is smeared around the walls. Realizing that there is nothing of value here, he turns around and leaves. Then he spots a door. The door has a large pentagram drawn in red on it. When he opens it, he half expects to find some great treasure of a torture chamber. Much to his amazement, it leads to a garage. Why would anyone draw a pentagram on a door that only leads to a garage? Maybe it is to keep the demons from escaping. While Dominick is well versed in the arcane arts and the conjuring of demons, he does not fully understand all the intricacies of controlling the foul creatures. He knows that no man can keep them under his power for too long. They are not the brightest creatures, but they are quite cunning and will find a way to break the spell and to destroy their master. He figures he did the guy a favor, because sooner or later, he was going to slip up and when he did, the demons would be waiting and his death would not be so quick and sudden like the one that he administered. It would be a very long and torturous death.
As he ventures into the garage, he is thankful that the windows have been painted over with black paint. While it was most likely done to keep prying eyes out, it provides protection from the sunlight. As he looks around the garage, he sees two cars, both covered up. As he pulls the cover off the first one, he sees a black Rolls Royce, another example of the money this man possessed. As he walks over to the other car, he pulls off the cover and sitting there is a bright red Corvette Stingray. A smile comes to Dominick's face. Tonight he will be traveling in style. But before he gets ahead of himself, he looks around the garage. After some searching, he finds a siphon hose and a gas can. The can is nearly empty, but that won't be for long. Dominick then heads over to the Rolls Royce and begins to empty the gas out. He fills the gas can and then pulls the hose out. With the can in hand, he makes his way into the house and begins to pour gasoline around the house. Up and down the stair, and especially around the front door that leads up to the main room. It takes numerous trips for him to drain the car's tank, but once he is done, he then opens the corvette and starts filling the back seat with the swords and other items of interest that he finds. He then puts the gas can in the front seat and makes sure he has a pack of matches. He waits for the sun to go down and pulls the car on the street and waits for the demons to come home.
As the demons return to their lair, they come back to share the good news with their master. It is now about 800 PM and it is has been dark for over a half an hour. It is fall air is getting cold and the nights come earlier. They pass right by the corvette that is sitting off to the side. They march right up to the house and begin to head up the stairs. From the corvette, Dominick emerges with the gas can. He walks slowly up to the house as he gets up to the closed door; he begins to pour out a stream of gasoline and then opens the door to pour the rest inside. From inside the house, the demons have made their way up the stairs and into the room, where their masters head, which is sitting on the throne, greets them. Before they can figure out what has happened, they hear a voice. As they look down the stairs, they see Dominick standing there with a pack of matches in his hand. "Welcome to Hell!" he says as he drops the match onto a trail of gasoline. The flames sweep up and soon the demons find themselves engulfed in flames. While they are beings of hell, they are not immune to the effects of fire and soon they perish in the onslaught of flames. As he runs away, he laughs at the chorus of screams that fills the night air. It is like music to him, the music of sweet revenge. He jumps in the car and takes off as the flames hit the gas fumes that have been building up all day. There is an explosion as the house is engulfed in a fireball. The very ground shakes and windows on all the nearby houses are smashed by the power of the explosion. Dominick just laughs as he drives away. He turns on the radio and enjoys the music as he heads back to his clan.
Deadline © 2001- 2008 Tom Zjaba