The Killing?

It was a dark night, the moon failing to penetrate the moody, black storm clouds that hung over the city like a blanket. There was little light amongst the secluded and grimy back alleys of Belfast, leftovers of the previous century that had yet to be updated. Water slowly and methodically dropped from a broken gutter with the precision and timing of a master clock.

These did not seem to disturb the two figures that were currently splashing through the streets, ignoring the beady, unbroken stare of the owls in the exposed rafters or the shadows that danced and skipped along the ground. The usual silence was broken by the sound of a girl giggling and laughing. The soft thump of footsteps increased their tempo and from the dark corner of the alleyway two figures emerged. One was large, muscular, with a look of casual arrogance; he laughed and continued his pursuit of the girl, smaller, slimly built and with long blonde flowing hair being thrown about as she ran.

She tripped and fell, attempted to get up and give up giggling as the boy reached her and lay down beside her, smiling with perfect white teeth. The Girl felt her day couldn’t get any better as the boy rolled until he was above her, he looking into her eyes and she looking into his. She giggled and suddenly, instinctively looked beyond his shoulder. She screamed.

The Boy’s look of confusion was replaced by one of pain as the sound of skin being pierced, of muscle being separated and twisted, of bones being shattered rang out across the alley. The boy opened his mouth, as if to say something, instead only a small dribble of ruby red blood emerged from the corner of his mouth. The Girl screamed again, this time louder as the boy collapsed sideways and hit the ground with a thud. His eyes, once so full of life and colour, were grey and glazed over. He was dead before he hit the ground.

The Girl cried loudly and scrambled to her feet, desperately trying to escape the creature which was now standing tall over the body of her lover. It smiled, revealing a shiny set of teeth in what moonlight could fight through the clouds. The girl ran for her life, feeling as though she could take off at any moment. She heard a hissing sound, like a dart through the air. Then pain. It felt as though a blender was chewing up and liquidising her insides. She gasped as a lung was punctured and began to deflate. She dropped to her knees and saw her own blood run down the side of the streets into the sewer openings at each side of the alley. She sighed sadly and crashed onto her front, revealing the sword buried deep in her back. Then there was silence, interrupted only by the dripping of the water and the running blood as it sauntered into the guttering.

‘Daylight. Preserve of the living’ Alex thought grimly as she moved her hand to shield her eyes from the piercing glare of the sun. The alley had a completely different face now, the broken and decayed terraced houses were bathed in a warm glow and birdsong could be heard from the roof of a nearby house. “What?”

Alex turned sharply and relaxed as Sam walked out from a nearby shadow and stared around nervously.

Sam was a different build to Alex almost completely. While Alex was tall and slightly muscular while Sam was short and thin. Alex had long red, silky hair all the way down her back whereas Sam kept short black hair stretching over one eye. Another difference was that Alex knew exactly what she was doing; Sam looked as though she was lost.

“What are you doing here?” Alex asked in the tone a teacher might use if she had caught a pupil trying to skip class

“Heard there was something, here I should see” she looked at the elder girl with a look of hopefulness “Should I see it?”

Alex thought for a moment “You’re not gonna like it, but come on”

She took a few steps into the alley, her feet splashing as they hit the ground. She looked down briefly and saw it was not water she was walking through.

It was blood.

The blood had started to go a dark maroon colour and soon it would crust over. Alex ignored the sound of Sam gagging and bent over the puddle, moving her long hair out of her face and tucking it behind her ear. She dipped a lone finger into the pool and raised it to her lips. She dropped the single drop on her tongue. She instantly felt a sensation as though she had just finished watching a film and she could remember all the details.

The blood belonged to a girl, small, slim build, obviously on a diet, also slightly diabetic. She had also had a wound recently, judging from the density of the blood. Suddenly she was aware that Sam was looking at her with a mix of horror and admiration on her face. Alex looked around guiltily for a moment before standing up and moving on.

There she was, lying facing upwards, dull grey eyes unblinking. The Sun seemed to reflect off her hair, or rather, the parts that weren’t coated in blood. She was lying with all limbs straight, she might have been sleeping. The smell of blood was unmistakable and black specks lined the alleyway.

“Oh my god” Sam said softly before turning and running up a side alley, clutching her mouth.

Alex rolled her eyes and walked up to the two people with the corpse. One, a boy with a military crew-cut and friendly rounded chin was crouching beside the body. The other, a girl, stood over the body with her arms crossed. Her thin, tanned face was creased in a frown. She turned to greet Alex as she got closer, her long ponytail spinning as she faced the newcomer.

“Well?” Alex asked expectantly looking from one to the other and then back to the girl. The other girl raised her eyebrows and grinned revealing white teeth and, bizarrely, a pair of canines in the front of her mouth.

“What you see it what you get?” she said pointing at the body; she had a strange accent that was not native of the city. In fact it was because she had been born in Paris, the city of love and there was something in the smile that suggested something rather more than friendship. Alex returned the smile.

“There’s another down there” the boy jabbed his finger over his back and pointing further down the alleyway, he had a posh English accent. “I reckon it’s a Követ, it has to be the Követ!” he concluded looking up at Alex expectantly

Alex took a ragged breath and stared again at the girl. She couldn’t be any older than Alex herself, she could even be younger. Looking at the peaceful face, Alex concluded that she must have died defiantly; there was evidence of pleading or crying. This girl had just sighed and died. Alex could feel the tears beginning to gather behind her eyes and quickly turned away so the others couldn’t see

“You alright, Alex?” the girl asked concerned taking a step forward

“Yeah, I’m alright Cas” she said turning back, confident the tears wouldn’t come back “I’m fine”

“Well?” the boy had stood up and was now frowning as well, revealing equally bizarre canine teeth as well as a wooden Katana sword. Alex knew he had them. They all had them. The Katana was their main weapon against the Vampires. She remembered back to that day

When Alex had been young girl on her way home from school when it had happened. The event which would change her life. It had been the depths of winter and so, even though it was the afternoon, it was also pitch black. And raining. God she remembered the rain, running though her clothes into every part of her body. She was shivering and wishing her mother would see her while driving and pick her up. It was then she had been jumped, a creature had leapt from the bushes and before she could utter a note of panic the creature had buried its long, sharp teeth into her neck.

It had felt so weird, like being stabbed but a comforting pain. The creature had vanished and she had stumbled back to the school, drifting in and out of consciousness. The next thing she remembered, she was lying on a table in a room she recognised as her classroom. Her teacher, an elderly man, had been standing over her with a knife, chanting and muttering. She had passed out again.

When she had awoke, she found herself standing amongst the ranks of the Dimidium-Mortuus or Dimids as they were known to the rest of the Underworld, the Half-Dead, those who had cheated the Grim Reaper and those who were now loners. Neither a part of their own world nor a part of the Vampire world. They had made it their mission to maintain peace between the Vampiric clans and the Hunters, a group of Humans who ruthlessly hunted Vampires. Keeping the peace meant killing those on both side. Dimids had the best of both worlds; they were stronger, faster, could see in the dark, could smell blood and had an instinct for trouble. But they could also travel during the day and think more independently like their Human counter-parts. So they kept the peace. That is what they were doing there.

Sam came out and joined the group looking rather ashamed. She only recently been bitten and cured and so this whole other world confused and frightened her. “What happened to her?” she asked nervously looking at the other two standing with Alex

“First” Alex said, smiling and revealing her own canines, “Introductions, this is Thomas” she indicated to the boy who nodded as his name was mentioned “An English import who keeps tabs on the various Clans that own this area. He also claims to be a Veteran” Thomas laughed at the last statement and Sam gave a weak smile also

“And this is Cassandra” she indicated to the girl who beamed at Alex with a mischievous smile “Cassandra came on an exchange trip from France a few years back and never returned” she looked at Cassandra with affection “She prefers the name Cas”

“W-well…I’m…Samantha” she said stuttering or mumbling her words “I-I came from over th…”

“…yes we know” Thomas butted in impatiently “welcome to the clan Sam, now Alex, what do you think? Követ?”

“No” Alex shook her head as she stared grimly at the girl’s face. She knew what the wound was before she even looked at it “I think this was done by an Insider”

A stunned silence filled the alleyway.