Dean's Online Fiction

The Greater Darkness

Chapter 8

With darkness already closing in, fleeing the scene of the crime had been relatively easy. The fire escape had allowed Geoffry to access the roof. From there it was just a matter of running from rooftop to rooftop until he reached the end of the block, and climbed down another fire escape to the street.

Once the vampire had made it far enough he wasn't in immediate danger of being apprehended by the police, he'd stumbled over to an alley and vomited. Shaking and weak, Geoffry hadn't wanted to do anything more than head directly home, but instead he'd found a nearly deserted apartment building in which to hide for a couple hours while any search for him cooled down slightly. After that the route home had been long, circuitous, and filled with frequent stops to check for tails.

I can't afford to have someone follow me home. If that happened, I'd never even see them coming. Of course, being gunned down in an ambush is no more than I deserve. I feel guilty, but I should feel more so. Is it just that emotion on the scale that a murder deserves can't be sustained for very long?

Geoffry breathed a sigh of relief as he finally entered his building and started up the stairs. Finally reaching his door, he unlocked it only to pause as he realized he wasn't alone. The vampire reached past his exhaustion, and clumsily tried to extend his thoughts as he'd done earlier against the man he'd murdered.

For several seconds as he waited in the darkness, Geoffry's efforts met without any success, and then suddenly it was as if he'd pierced the surface tension on a bowl of water. A few tendrils of consciousness drifted free of his body questing for another mind.

The vampire suddenly grabbed his head in pain as something incredibly powerful lashed out, striking his thoughts hard enough to cause him to withdraw them.

“You've earned yourself some leniency by finally making that kill, but don't presume that it extends to allowing you to try and access my mind.”

Imastious rose from the shadows that had hidden him in Geoffry's chair, and walked towards the younger vampire, who'd fallen to the ground. The violence of the mental attack to which he'd been subjected left Geoffry more than a little disoriented, and as he looked up in confusion, Imastious shook his head slowly.

“So you're efforts where unconscious. That is unfortunate, as my response will no doubt lead you to discover your latent abilities sooner than you otherwise would have, but it's truly of little importance.”

Imastious reached into one of the pockets on his suit coat, and fished out a large stack of currency. “As I said, you've done well, you're free to do as you will for the foreseeable future. Here is sufficient money for your needs, I or Venice will let you know the next time you're needed.”

After Imastious had left the apartment, Geoffry locked his door and them collapsed onto his bed, steadfastly refusing to look at the stack of money on the dresser.

**

Geoffry's dreams over the next few days and nights had been terrible blood-soaked things that left him shaking and cold each of the many times he'd awoken. The vampire had found that he could no longer keep a meal down. Each time he tried to eat, images of the drug dealer falling down in a spray of blood had invaded his mind, causing him to become physically ill at the way his body responded to the thought.

The hunger was a curse, starting as a slight inconvenience about the time Imastious had left, and growing to a constant torment within a few days. In a way Geoffry welcomed the pain and discomfort. It did seem a fitting punishment, but it held within it the further seeds of his damnation. If I continue to go without, I'll eventually loose control, just like Venice described, just like in the train tunnels. I've already started loosing track of time, how much longer until I come back to myself in unfamiliar surroundings, completely covered in blood?

Geoffry had finally pulled himself out of bed, showered and left his apartment. After so many hours of torment, he'd thought he was resigned to the prospect of assaulting, and potentially killing so that he could feed, but the vampire quickly found that the cold-blooded reality of stalking a target was more than he could handle.

All of which left Geoffry once again walking the nearly deserted streets of the city as he looked for some kind of way out of the eternal hell in which he found himself.

Realizing that he wasn't getting any closer to a solution, Geoffry suddenly made a decision that he knew he'd eventually regret. The vampire looked up at the street signs to orient himself and then set off in the direction of the tiny church that had come to represent all the things he wished he was, at the same time that it condemned him for what he'd become.

As he covered the three miles to the church, Geoffry practiced reaching out with his mind. It might have been nothing more than his imagination, but it seemed as though it was becoming easier to sense the thoughts of those around him. If I can keep the touch light enough, I don't get bombarded with such force. The surface thoughts I can read doing this should usually be more than enough.

The vampire hadn't ever thought of the neighborhood he was approaching as being particularly bad, but the closer he got to it, the more the thoughts he sensed turn dark and fearful. How can they live like this, constantly worried about whether or not they'll survive to try and pay the next set of bills?

As Geoffry got within a block of the church, he expected to find people somewhat more at peace, but instead he found the opposite. Something's wrong, the tranquility that I felt before couldn't have been completely imagined. What could have possibly changed?

The tiny building came into view, sandwiched between a pair of five-story apartment buildings, and Geoffry's fears were confirmed by the sight of a pair of teenagers lounging next to the door. A cautious, sensible part of Geoffry demanded that he turn and go back the way he came, but a strange sense of fury had started to bubble inside of him. How dare they. Take something sacred from me and I'll take something equally precious in return.

The bored gang members looked up disinterestedly as Geoffry approached them, but they started exuding a sense of menace once they realized that he wasn't just going to pass by.

“Aint gonna be no services tonight, get lost.”

Faking an easy, complacent smile to buy himself time, Geoffry reached out with his thoughts. The amorality the vampire found before him was so sickening that if he hadn't been cushioned by his hatred, he probably would have once again been physically ill.

While he was digesting the implications of the gang members' thoughts, Geoffry crossed the remaining distance to the church door, and the closer, shorter gang member apparently decide that the vampire needed additional persuasion.

The hand that shot towards Geoffry was probably just meant to grab him, but conscious thought never entered into the decision as to the best way to respond to the threat. Geoffry saw a flash of movement, and then found himself sliding backwards and to the left as his right hand reached up and plucked the shorter man's wrist out of the air.

About the time the vampire registered the fact that he had moved, his left hand came up in a knife-hand strike that crushed the other man's throat.

The second gang member's mouth had dropped in surprise at the sudden explosion of violence that hadn't been accompanied by any of the posturing that he'd come to expect from his time on the streets. The teenager was still trying to understand what exactly was going on when a slightly curved, razor sharp tanto that Geoffry hadn't remembered drawing sliced through his neck.

Have to move quickly or the cops will be here before I can escape.

Geoffry slipped through the door, and drew his katana, his thoughts reaching out for threats. The stink of sadism was strong throughout the building, seeming to justify the vampire's actions as he cut down one person after another all the while screaming.

“Where is he, what did you do with him?”

Figures, all dressed in green to some extent or another, charged towards Geoffry, only to stumble and fall as the soulless edge of his sword took their flesh. The anger and hate burning inside Geoffry seemed to cushion him from the illness he should have felt. The entire experience seemed to happen in a foggy haze that obscured irrelevant details and reduced everyone to the status of mere targets, while simultaneously shielding him from the pain of the myriad of minor wounds he was receiving.

The vampire cleared the chapel, and then moved to the tiny office and other attached rooms. The last gang member took refuge in a bathroom in a futile effort to hide, but Geoffry pinpointed his thoughts, burst into the tiny room and picked the teenager up by his throat.

“Where is he, what did you do to him?”

The eyes that stared back at Geoffry were so fear-filled that for a moment the vampire thought the boy had retreated behind a shield of insanity. I'll take what I need regardless.

Reaching deep into the gang member's mind, Geoffry sifted through the chaotic thoughts slicing through memories, hopes and fears until he found what he was looking for.

They didn't kill the priest-at least not that he knows. They just realized that the church was abandoned, and thought that they probably had their turf so cowed and scared that nobody would do anything about it if they moved in.

Geoffry's anger, which had been on the decline, flared up again at the thought of all the terrorized people he'd felt brush his consciousness as he'd traveled to the church. Reaching his thoughts even deeper into the boys' mind, the vampire pushed his own feelings through the link, imprinting them on the quivering collection of memories before him. What you did to terrorize these people is inexcusable. How would you like to taste a small portion of the helplessness you inflicted upon them?

The vampire pulled the boy down and spun him around so they were facing the same direction. The gangster had mastered his fear enough to want to resist, but Geoffry intercepted the thoughts before they were able to fully coalesce and crushed them ruthlessly.

As the boy finally began to understand the futility of his efforts, Geoffry sunk his teeth into the tattooed skin before him. The pain that shot through the boy's thoughts should have sickened Geoffry, but instead it gave him a sick sense of satisfaction. Yes, you are helpless.

The blood trickling down Geoffry's throat sent little thrills of pleasure through him. For a moment he lost himself in the bliss of finally satisfying the hunger that had been stalking him for days. It wasn't until the trickle slowed and the lattice of thoughts before him started to dim, that the vampire came back to himself and dropped the boy.

Geoffry's hate and anger were suddenly extinguished as the magnitude of what he'd done swept through him. I killed them all. Most of them were murderers, but were they all? Did I take the time to be certain? What of this little one? He wasn't a killer-he was headed that way, but he wasn't one yet. I didn't just feed from him, I enjoyed his terror. I did exactly the thing I was condemning him for, and he may yet die. I've tried to rationalize the deaths I've caused up to this point as justice, but this was something else.

Geoffry reached down to pick the teenager up, only to pause at the sound of distant sirens. Reflexes took over and the vampire found himself running out the back door before his mind had fully processed what he was doing.

Geoffry knew that he would hate himself later, but that didn't stop his headlong flight.