Chapter 19: Chapter 19 Wanna play with me?
Inside the station, Mark's eyes flickered over his phone, absorbing the mission details. "Hmm, it's definitely doable. No harm in giving it a shot," he mused. The walkie crackled to life.
"Come in, Helen. Leave the station immediately and meet us at Lucy's diner. Move quickly and stay safe," Eben's breathless voice urged over the walkie-talkie.
"What happened?" Helen asked in concern, her voice laced with worry. Jake pricked up his ears, visibly nervous, awaiting the response.
"We just passed the church. We saw the minister's... head on the steps," Eben's voice crackled through the walkie-talkie.
"What about the one in the cell?" Helen asked, her gaze fixed on the cuffed stranger smirking, giving her the creeps.
"Just leave him there. Hurry," Eben's voice urged urgently over the walkie-talkie. A loud thud sounded, followed by a series of pounding sounds on metal.
Helen, listening intently over the walkie-talkie, caught the noise. Her eyes widened in alarm. "Eben, what was that? Are both of you okay?" she asked, her voice laced with concern.
Then, a sudden gunshot sounded.
"What. the hell. was that?" Stella's asked instinctively in a breathless voice.
After a brief pause, Eben reassured Helen, "We're fine. Something landed on the roof earlier. I'll contact you later. Go now."
As they were getting ready, the door burst open, shattered by an old looking vampire speeding through it with incredible force even with it's decrepit appearance, scattering debris in all directions.
"Fuck!" Mark exclaimed in fright. Helen screamed, and Jake instinctively hugged her tightly in response to the sudden intrusion, their fear uniting them in a moment of shared terror.
Mark coughed to hide his embarrassment. He hadn't been truly scared by the vampire; it was more a momentary shock that had caught him off guard.
He stared at the vampire. Its skin was wrinkly and old, stretched tightly over its bones. Its entirely black eyes glints in hunger, and its razor-sharped teeth protruded menacing from its twisted mouth. Its hair, hung in greasy, matted strands.
His gaze fell upon his shotgun, realizing it was bent in his hand due to the fright he experienced earlier.
The cuffed stranger craned his neck to observe them with anticipation, a twisted smile playing on his lips from inside his cell.
The vampire sniffed the air, savoring their fear, and his hungry eyes fixed on the crying Helen. A sinister grin spread across his face.
The vampire lunged at Helen, its eyes glinting with cruelty and excitement. But before it could reach her, Mark hit it with the butt end of his shotgun with force, smashing it in the head and sending it flying back outside to where it came from. The impact destroyed his shotgun completely.
He glanced at the shotgun muzzle in his hand, thankful it hadn't accidentally discharged. He tossed it aside and approached the downed vampire outside. In the room, Helen and Jake couldn't help but gasp in disbelief at Mark. The stranger's eyes widened, and his twisted smile faltered in confusion.
Mark examined the vampire. Its nose was bent inward, its teeth shattered, and its mouth slavered as it struggled, attempting to stand up despite its injuries. Its eyes glinted with a feral, intensity, locked onto Mark with a primal hunger, showing the vampire's tenacious vitality.
"You," Mark emphasized with a kick to the head. "Scared," he repeated, landing another kick, "the shit," again "out of me."
After releasing his anger out of embarrassment, Mark noticed Helen and Jake coming outside.
They both observed the vampire on the ground in horror and disgust, twitching and weakly attempting to rise. Mark subtly grabbed one of his Molotov cocktails from his dimensional storage, pouring gasoline on the creature, ready to put it out of its misery.
He lit a matchstick and dropped it onto the gasoline-soaked vampire, igniting it in a burst of flames.
Its otherworldly shriek of pain sounded through the night, giving them shivers as they quickly distanced themselves from it. Mark stayed vigilant, ensuring it didn't stand up and attempt to escape.
He involuntarily caught a whiff of the burning vampire's smell and nearly vomited on the spot. Hastily, he lit a cigarette and took a puff, hoping the smoke would help mask the unpleasantness.
Seeing the vampire no longer moving, he asked Jake to grab his bag inside the station and gather what they needed before leaving. With a wry smile, he told Jake, "Go let our friend know his buddy's waiting for him in hell. Might want to pack light!"
They moved on to Lucy's diner as Mark scanned the area. Jake nervously looked around in the darkness, tightly gripping Helen's hand as they walked.
**
Figures gathered at a desolate intersection, their gaunt, dead-pale faces barely visible through the shadows. Their varying heights and ages, from young to ancient, were clad in blacks, greys, and browns, scavenged clothing from the dead. Their eyes, entirely black and diamond-hard, occasionally reflected the snow. Their breath does not cloud in the cold. They moved like humans stripped down to nothing but muscle, hunger, and an insatiable thirst for blood.
More than a dozen of them swarmed around the alpha leader of the group, Marlow. Miiddle aged, he appeared feral, ragged, and relentless. With a movement, he cracked the frozen blood on his face, letting it fall as he hissed in an ancient, guttural, and unrecognizable language, commanding the attention of his followers.
'For the whole month, this town is ours,' Marlow declared, his voice dripping with smug triumph.
Iris, drawn and ashen, Marlow's personal bootlicker, spoke with hunger in her voice.
'There's enough feasting here to keep us strong for a year.'
Marlow, his gaze coldly dispassionate, remarked, 'We should've done this ages ago.'
Zurial, not as tall as Marlow but more craven and famished, admired the town, whispering, 'Old man Eldric and the others already went ahead of us.'
Marlow nodded, his eyes glinting with a chill, and he reminded them, "The heads must be severed from their bodies. Do not allow them to turn. "
His followers screamed in guttural excitement as they separated across town, ready to hunt for prey.
**
Mark heard multiple gunshots and screams in the far distance. He looked at Jake.
"Go ahead to the diner with Helen, Jake. I'll check out what's happening," He said, he didn't wait for his response as he sprinted toward the tallest house he can find, quickly climbing it as he retrieved his rifle to assess the situation from above.
He checked Jake's and Helen's safety from a distance, ensuring they were moving towards the diner without any immediate threats, before he continued investigating the origin of the noise.
Moving rapidly from rooftop to rooftop, Mark kept his eyes fixed on the source of the sounds. He occasionally checked Jake's and Helen's safety from a distance, ensuring they were heading towards the diner without immediate threats, before continuing his brisk advance toward the origin of the gunshots.
He approached the scene and found utter chaos: townsfolk desperately screaming and fleeing from the vampires, who seemed to be toying with them like cats playing with mice, reveling in the fear and panic they instilled them. Amidst the pandemonium, some men were fighting back, shooting their guns in an attempt to fend off their attackers.
Sadly, their bullets proved ineffective against the vampires, for unless they managed to shoot the creatures in the head, the relentless attack continued. The men's desperate attempts to defend themselves only highlighted the situation they were facing.
Breathing deeply to steady his aim, he peered through the scope of his rifle, taking careful aim and firing a shot that pierced through the head of a vampire chasing a woman. The woman managed to escape, but his attention was quickly drawn to a group of terrified children being pursued by vampires.
He reloaded his rifle and fired multiple shots, taking down the vampires threatening the young ones. Despite not being a sharpshooter, his quick shooting and reloading speed proved very crucial in saving them from harm.
He focused on to the vampires who were in pursuit, disregarding the ones already feeding as he aimed to neutralize the immediate threat and ensure the safety of the women and children first.
Mark took aim again, firing a shot that pierced the head of an ugly bald male vampire. He shifted his focus, firing another shot that struck the blonde female vampire in the legs, incapacitating her and preventing further pursuit.
With a sigh of relief, Mark watched as the women, displaying remarkable presence of mind, led the children away from the chaotic scene. Their safety ensured, they retreated from the dangerous area, guided by the women's quick thinking.
Turning to the other male residents, some still firing their guns in panic, Mark steadied his rifle. Providing crucial support, he assisted them as they made their escape away from there.
Observing the chaos subsiding and Marlow missing, Mark prepared himself to descend and deal with the vampires he had earlier incapacitated, ensuring they posed no further threat.
"Hey, mister. Wanna play with me?" a girl's voice sounded behind him, making his heart skip a beat.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone