So this is my second fanfic, and I really need to say that I own none of these characters and I don't own Henry Townshend from the first story (yet... lol j/k). This story is told from Henry's POV, as a VAMPIRE! Yeah, you heard right. The thought seemed sexy to me... ^_^ Anyway, enjoy.
The Devil Plays With Dolls
Something told me from the beginning not to come here. I knew I should've listened. But then again, I never did.
I stood staring out my bolted windows with a hand pressed lightly against the glass, studying the strange behavior of the figures I saw in the other rooms of South Ashfield Heights. Was one of them dancing? I chuckled to myself at the irony of the male dancer's joy to my melancholy depression.
It had begun to drizzle. I wished I were outside right about now; the sun was going down, and the "night owls" were beginning to crowd the streets of the medium-sized city. It had been too long since I'd had a taste of one of them. It was a good thing I liked blood—the Otherworlds sure seemed to have enough of it.
I wished I could tell Eileen. What would her reaction be if I just came out of nowhere with "By the way, I'm a vampire"? She'd probably just shrug it off and think I was high or something. Maybe I wouldn't tell her. I would show her! Yes, that will work, Henry, I told myself. You'll just give her a heart attack when she sees you feeding off someone. I sighed and strolled back to the laundry room to enter the hellish portal again.
Why was I doing this? I was already dead, no need to make that point any clearer. But I had to save Eileen. I usually didn't care much for humans; only for food did I ever need them. But something about Eileen made me feel . . . different. Alive. Grinning, I crawled into the hole and ended up exactly where I had left Eileen at the foggy staircase.
"Henry!" she cried when she saw me. She limped over to embrace me with her good arm, her purple purse smacking my spine hard. "Oops," she whispered, pulling her arm back.
I laughed. "It's okay. Trust me, that didn't hurt at all."
"Good," she said quietly, flashing white teeth at me. "You aren't easily hurt, I assume."
"You would assume correctly," I said without a hint of expression on my face. Eileen's heartbeat was a smooth, intoxicating rhythm, the steady bass-beat of a love song. Our love song. I grabbed hold of her hand and she shivered at the touch of my cold, dead skin.
"Let's go," I decided. She nodded once and we went as quickly as we could down the staircase, ignoring the disturbing sights above and around us. It didn't bother me, but Eileen was easily spooked. We reached the bottom and came to a door with a marking on it—the same marking that I had seen many times before. Upon entering it, we found a new room that was utterly boring, to say the least. Nothing seemed at all interesting in it, so we moved on. The next room contained those hideous monkey-like creatures that came toward us in an instant.
I put Eileen instinctively behind me and she cowered in reply. Pistol at the ready, I aimed it toward the closest creature's head. Then I thought of revealing to Eileen the truth; if I just ripped the monkey monster's head from its body, that would be sure to prove to her that I wasn't entirely human. But it may cause hysteria and even more mental damage than she already had due to Walter's attack on her. I shook off my idea and shot down the Gum Head, then stomped its brains out. After defeating the others, we continued on throughout this already well-known world.
Sensing an eerie feeling in the air as we neared the restrooms, I stopped dead in my tracks. Eileen mimicked me.
"What's wrong?" she questioned, her eyes growing wide.
I drew in a breath. The air smelt of death, no doubt, but . . . something was different about it. Someone was here. I sniffed once more, tasting a familiar scent in the back of my throat. It sent a chill down my spine and my breathing was ragged for a moment.
"Henry?" Eileen squeaked, worried. I glanced over at her and smiled slightly.
"It's okay," I told her. "No need to be afraid. I'll protect you."
"That you will," she said with another friendly grin. We didn't continue right away, as I still refused to move. What could be so wrong up ahead?
That was when everything went black.
I was locked in an ice-cold bondage, chains wrapped around my body like puppet strings. The room felt hollow, impure. . .
"Ugh. . ." I breathed. "Where. . . where am I?" Slowly opening my eyes, I glanced wildly around the room. "Eileen?" I called out. Of course she would be the one on my mind at a time like this.
The scent was different this time. It wasn't the one I smelled earlier. This was was more pungent, leaving a metallic taste on my tongue. I heard footsteps coming closer, but I still couldn't see clearly.
"Who's there?" I yelled. The loud footfalls wavered, then continued at a steady pace. A low chuckle burst from the darkness. Blond hair, a long blue coat, and shiny boots came my way, a stitched smile permanently scarred onto his face.
"Walter," I growled low in my throat. The killer's smile widened.
"Receiver," he acknowledged in a honey-coated voice. "It's about time you showed up to play."
"Play?" I retorted. "If by 'play,' you mean fight, then yes." I narrowed my eyes and grinned evilly at him.
Walter only laughed again.
"Henry Townshend," he began, "I did not come here to fight you." He pulled from his coat pocket a long, sharp butcher's knife. "Like I said, I just wanted to play a little game." His staged innocence was that of the younger Walter. Mother's little boy is all grown up and still playing games. My blood, or what I had left, ran even colder than before.
"I hope you know that this bondage won't hold me back," I reminded him. Walter and I exchanged a long, unbreaking stare. I tried to release myself from my chain-prison. The attempt was unsuccessful.
"You won't get free," Walter said quietly. "Not until I'm finished." He poked the tip of the knife into the top of my chest through my shirt. Pushing a little harder, he tore through the fabric and into my skin. It stung a little, but nothing compared to what I would feel if I were human. With teeth clenched together, I watched as Walter ripped down my skin, tearing open my shirt and my flesh, going between the rib cage and slicing my bellybutton in two. I was barely bleeding.
"Hmm, what's this, Receiver?" Walter questioned. "You're not bleeding like you're supposed to."
I shot a disgusted look at him. "You know what I am." I said through my clenched jaw. He nodded twice.
"I do," he whispered. "I only wanted you to remember the fact that you're nothing more than a plaything for me. With you all tied up like this, I can do whatever I wish." I growled again, this time deep in my chest.
"This is the good thing about creatures like you , Henry," he continued, holding up the glittering knife. "You're not fragile like the others. You're a dolly, made just for my enjoyment. You won't die, ever. . . but that's a good thing." He shoved the knife into my chest, cutting and slicing and tearing into my insides, which would've killed me if the circumstances had been different. I grunted in what little bit of pain I could feel.
"Walter, this is pathetic!" I cried, feeling the knife cut across a rib. "If you were a real man, you'd let me go and have a fair fight!"
The stabbing stopped. The knife dropped to the ground, a chilling plink sound piercing the air. Walter's crushed heart seemed as plain as the look on his face.
"But I'm not a real man," he whimpered. "I don't exist. Just like you. Just like them." He glared coldly and my fists clenched. "Just like her."
I roared loudly in his face. He jumped back, laughing hysterically.
"Oh, Henry," he sighed. "Still so fragile. It's no wonder she thinks you're human. Why else would she even give you the time of day? If she knew the truth, that you were a dead, cold, soulless shell, she would drop you like a bad habit."
The chains broke under my force. They clinked to the ground and I charged toward Walter, launching myself right at his throat. I pinned him to the floor, bit his neck, and began sucking until I tasted something. After a couple of sips, I pulled my teeth out of his neck and screamed wildly. Walter got to his feet, holding the side of his neck while he watched my painful experience.
I clutched my throat and kept screaming. Walter's blood was cold in my stomach, but it burned, stinging and singeing my inner flesh. I retched, trying to get the horrible liquid out of me, and it was no use. I felt like I was dying. Finally, weakened from the poisoned sustenance, I fell to the ground and lay there quietly. I was very still.
Walter's thudding footsteps came closer to me. I looked up and saw that he, too, held his throat where I had bitten him. There was that sickening smile again. I began shaking in rage.
Walter bent down to me and, in my current state, I was unable to touch him. He was more powerful than I.
"You shouldn't have done that," he stated in a low, ominous tone. "You know better."
My arm flew out to claw at him, but I couldn't reach far enough. With weakness, I let my arm drop to the cold ground.
"What did you do to me?" I asked him in an almost helpless voice.
"I did nothing," he said meekly. "You brought the agony upon yourself. It was your choice to attack me."
"Stop playing games, Walter," I said forcefully, "I've had enough!"
Walter got to his feet slowly in a surrendering way, hands held out to reveal his palms.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Vampire," he began sarcastically. "Please don't eat me."
I couldn't stand it any longer. Scrambling to my feet, I felt a sharp jolt of pain shoot through my body. I cried out in pain and Walter tensed, grabbing the knife from the floor and holding it out toward me. The delay didn't stop me—I ran at him again and punched him so hard that he flew across the room. His skull cracked against the wall hard.
"You think you're funny?" I asked him angrily. "You think you can mess around with me? Well, I've had it!" My footfalls were loud and echoing as I brisked up to him. "I'm sick of your mind games, and your murders, and your lies!" I was standing over him now, and I reached down to grab him by the shirt collar. I lifted him up by the collar, his face inches from mine, and I grinned, fangs gleaming.
"And you're not going to kill me," I whispered. "I made a promise to myself to save Eileen. And I will."
I could smell the fear Walter possessed. He could hide it no longer.
"We'll see about that," he rasped, face clear of the wicked smile and voice free of sarcasm and glee.
"Yes," I agreed, nodding. He dropped from my clutches and thudded to the ground. I bent down to him and lifted his chin toward my face with my index finger.
"I won't kill you now, dearest Walter," I said smoothly, a cunning smile playing on my lips and a honey-coated chuckle escaping my throat. "But in time, I will. Don't doubt me."
Stepping over him, I strode toward a familiar scent that I had just caught—candy and velvet, and everything that was good in life. Eileen Galvin.
"Receiver. . ." Walter called out to me. I turned around to see his arm outstretched, and a cough emitted from his mouth.
Catching the sarcasm sickness, I nodded once toward him. "Assumption," I said in way that would seem like a friend taking notice of another. Smiling evilly, I turned toward the door that I couldn't see before—had it always been there?
It opened with a loud creak, and there on the other side stood Eileen. As soon as I saw her, all my pain subsided.
"There you are!" she said happily. "I waited for you to come out of the men's room, but you never did. I thought maybe you'd just went through another hole." She shrugged and smiled, tossing her hair to one side.
Men's room? But, that. . . that room couldn't have been the men's room. Maybe it was just another alternate universe that Walter had created, and that I had controlled because, for once, he had been defeated. His purpose was dead, and I was triumphant. At least, for now.
"Eileen, I. . ." I didn't know how to finish.
"What is it?" she asked.
I grabbed her hand and squeezed it tight.
This was the moment, the one I had been looking for all my life. I knew in my cold, dead heart that this girl was going to be mine forever. . . forever, and ever, and ever.
I knew she was the one.
I took a deep breath as her green eyes met mine. "Eileen. . . there's something I have to tell you."
END.