Some hope can be pleasant or morbid. He was a decayed symbol of hope, the past meaning now dead, now mocked by its current form that only gave hope to those who wished their oppressors dead. His old self was underneath each step, both feet unsteady, his new self was within the gruesome destination.
"Getting tired of feeding… But feeding never gets tired of begging me to use my canines." Cole complained. He was on a kneeling position, somewhere on top of a church.
Before midnight he could always suppress his animalistic urges. Each day was him crossing a foreboding iced lake with his darkest temptations underneath the ice within the cold depths below. Some nights he'd manage to make it to the other side. Other nights, nights like this, and most nights he would fall right in. Drowning in the deaths of others. Tonight, would be no different…
The sky was red and black. The trees hanging around below were all black and leafless. The frail and weak people below walked amongst shadows and dim orangish yellow lights cast by lamps. The clouds are partially blocking the moons exquisite glow. Cole waits for a sign of action. He waits for any sign of police sirens, any signs of explosions, any signs of reckless violence. He waits for a forbidding sign that gives him an excuse to utilize his unholy powers. Yet Cole waits for a much deeper sign. A sign he cries for but doesn't obtain. A sign of hope.
!DONG! !DONG! !DONG! The crows that had comfortably resting near the church bell all fly away in an unorganized hastily manner. Cole stands now. His eyes carry pain from within his inner soul. The same eyes that would be bound to witness horrors time and time again. All from his own accord.
He explodes into black mist with flying bats disbursing form his last position. He flies through the air in a mystical fashion, looking desperately for a sign that will allow him to get through the night. Landing into an alley he notices thick vapor protruding from his lips. This wasn't the season to have breath of ice.
The hunger he's feeling from within is unbearable. He steps out to walk normally in the mists of normal people. As he walks with his head looking down he feels eyes on him. The craving for blood wraps around him, a man trapped in a coffin of hunger, the darkness from the inside representing the lack of hope of ever seeing the gracious lights of humanity again. The urge to feast is a persuading liar, whispering sweet nothings into his ears that he'd feel so much better if he were to just lose control and have a taste of all the juicy necks that surround him. The whispers always sound more truthful with each second past midnight.
A smashed metallic sound is made. Cole looks to his right into the open street and runs to give aid at the car crash. He's an old hero. A performer practicing an old talent, with each trick pulled off with less confidence than the last due to his rusty nature. He rips the car door off the car before pulling out a bleeding man. The blood gets all over Cole's arms and hands. The sensation of blood on his body feels like flirting, with the kiss to be made would be his teeth in the man's neck. The smell of it, it was driving Cole crazy. The delectable scent was a warm spot in dead winter, he was creepily drawn to it.
"Someone apply pressure to his wound! YOU! Call an ambulance!" Cole yells with a crowd around him.
And with that he was ready to go. A hurt man in desperate need of painkillers from the pain he was in, choosing to walk away to forebode the already early addiction. He knew he'd end up stumbling upon an opportunity to feast later, an empty pharmacy with all the painkillers to be groundlessly taken. His eyes were wide and blood shot. He urgently licked his bloodied arms and hands within the shadows of an alley. It was a sick habit that he couldn't shy away from. No matter how hard, how much, and how long he resisted he ended up failing his quest to give up the addiction. He had told himself he wouldn't do this sort of thing today, every minute he did so against the temptations. It wasn't enough.
He was a vampire… A bat that loved blood… They say bats aren't blind but he was blind to the fact that he had no way of escaping. He had walked into the ominous cave of vampirism a while ago. It was too dark for him to find his way back.
"MMMF MMMMF!" A muffled cry was heard, but where had it come from? Cole looked in every direction but couldn't seem to hear anything else. Until he closed his eyes, and concentrated vigorously. !PUP! !PUP! !PUP! !PUP! !PUP! The heart beat was intense, intense enough to be heard through focus. Cole ran out of the alley and watched as the van holding the prisoner was taken off.
The van sped off swerving through traffic !VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVRRRRR! It sounded off as it raced on through the streets, other cars honking their horns in protest. Cole's brow lowered and he smirked devilishly. His sign had finally arrived. He followed the van from the unwelcomingly cold rooftops.
"I'm thirsty tonight, that means people'll bleed tonight." Cole said as he acrobatically traversed the roofs of buildings. "This'll be the last time I feed." He tells himself. The line of speech through his lips had as little credibility as a compulsive liar due to its usage. A lie no one would believe.
The van stopped at some abandoned warehouse and Cole had arrived as unnoticeable as a whisper in a loud crowd. The crowd would soon be dead being that Cole was there now. And even then no one would hear his whispered cry of help to be saved from his pitiful situation. All because he'd be to hungry to do so when the next loud crowd replaced the old one.
"Boss says he wants this done quick. Any sign of that terrorist Cole MacGrath and this whole place goes boom. If it takes killing thirty civilians and us then so be it." One them stated to a group of men.
"Cole Macgrath? Aint that guy an urban legend?" Another said.
"Nah, he's real alright. The guy is a monster. Killing him is a favor to this city, that's why the feds paid our families. You know you got yourself a real asshole when the FBI pays men like us to get rid of 'em." A third said.
"Does he really chew on peoples necks? I once read in a newspaper that he ripped open a guy's rib cage?"
Cole knew that he couldn't be sloppy or else everyone was dead. One wrong move, and it's all over. He was going to have to play this smart, as it was his only option to save the people. Cole waited in cover, he heard foot steps coming. 'Don't mess this up Cole. These people need you. Too bad! I'm no hero anymore, I can survive the blast! You can feed on all of them! No… I'm stronger than that.' Cole thought. As soon as the man approached the door with nothing but darkness on the other side Cole readied his stake. A metallic sword like stake.
"Where the hell did Danny go?" One of the two men guarding the first floor said. A minute had passed since the first speech had been given.
"I dunno I'll go look for him. Jackass is probably snorting somethin." The man said walking into the dark room in search of a light switch. Cole wrapped his arms around the first man and sunk his teeth into the man's jugular paralyzing him. He sucked the blood straight from the man's neck into his mouth. He dropped the body silently and wiped his mouth with the back of his palm. He smiled pleasantly. He was a food critic that always had a positive review. And somehow he always ordered the same thing.
Cole closed the door for the second man inside the dark room. He hopped out a window and vaulted in through the one inside the dark room as the man walked over to the door in a slow fashion. As soon as the man reached the door Cole's hands were on him. Another tic tac to numb the craving for a full meal later.
Cole went room by room, floor by floor, ending every life of any immoral person he could find. He walked over to the last man and removed his radio throwing it out a window, but in return Cole was stabbed through the heart by a wooden stake.
"Please, let him go. You'll be happy you did!" Alyx Chadmen the civilian who Cole had heard and tracked was now in attention.
"I'm sorry but I just can't do that. Cole Macgrath is a vicious killer. His whole existence is dedicated to killing. I see him as so evil that even killing civilians is more good than he is." The man responded.
"I've investigated him, he used to be a good guy! And he still is, he only kills bad guys! I know because I'm a journalist who's been tracking him. He's a hero" Alyx retorted. Cole tuned everything out at the word 'hero'.
"Really? Well how exactly do you explain all the other news sources, versus you, just one woman. And only killing bad guys? How does he decide who's good and who's bad? Some of the people he's killed had families." The man said kneeling beside Cole. 'How the hell did this guy manage to get me right in the heart? Just my luck.' Cole thought. He was incapacitated right now. He couldn't move at all.
"Please! You can't!" The lady said in return to the abhorrent scene.
"Too late." The man said driving his stake further into Cole for him to howl in profound agony. Alyx froze but then snarled. She rushed over to the man and used her handcuffs to strangle the man.
"GERK!" The man yelped. He had let go of the stake in the process. He gave out a cough of a suffocation sound. Cole ripped the stake out of his body and then used his own sword like stake to stab the man in the stomach. Alyx let go of the body. And Cole gripped the man's neck with a single hand and rose him to his face to dine on him. Cole could now enjoy his meal as long as he wanted.
He felt a surge of light headedness, short term relief, and pleasure. It was unhindered euphoria. Cole dropped the body and looked at the others. It felt good to have finally feasted on all these men. But then there was always the guilt and the regret that accompanied the joyous feelings knowing he was going deeper into the messy addiction.
"When the police get here tell them these men were paid by the FBI." Cole said walking into the shadows. He opened a door and he was a black silhouette with god rays of moon light shooting past his outlines.
"All those times people laughed at me, called me crazy, or when my boss told me to stop writing about you, I never gave up. Guess it paid off. Don't let the hate get to you Cole you're no monster. You're a hero. " Alyx stated. Cole turned his head taken back at the statement.
"You know… For the longest time I thought I had become the villain. That my hero days were over. But you're right. I was a lion afraid of having claws. I thought the sins committed by everyone in this city couldn't outweigh my own sins on a balance scale. But I forgot that there were men like this. Thank you." Cole said with his head still turned.
"Will I ever see you again? I have so many questions!" Alyx said excited that her work was climaxing.
"Soon. I think it's time I stop hiding in the shadows."
And with that Cole disappeared into the night. He had finally found his sign of hope. It was unsure whether it would lead to peace, or lead to disappointment. Yet that didn't matter to Cole. What mattered was pursuing it anyway. Something told him whether he doubted his hope or not. He was going to find the feds aka FBI wherever they were hiding and pay them a nice visit.
Suffering was an upmost certainty. It would be there as a father is for their own flesh and blood. And it would influence the decisions of said child. His will was forged in old ideologies from the past. It had been rusted, but now it had been restored. There was one thing he was sure about in his future, and that was the fact that he would exact out justice. Justice he exacted many ages ago, justice he tried to dish out these days, and justice he would continue to handle in the near future. His purpose was underlined by the sharpness of his sword, he was only doing the right thing when it was in his dirty hands, and he realized he had been cutting himself on it thinking he deserved punishment. It was time to return to his old life.
"Aye Zeke ya got a beer for me?" Cole asked appearing on the roof of Zeke's, his best friend. Zeke fell off of his couch.
"Cole?! The hell you've been brother? And how come you're skin's all pale, and there's black veins on ya, and your clothes are black and white? You've gotta sword now too? What happened to the amp? That thing wasn't cheap ya know." Zeke responded.
"I'm kinda like Dracula now. It's a long story." Cole said with a faint smile, kind of embarrassed of the words leaving his mouth.
"Yeah and I'm kinda like Santa Claus now. And instead of giving ya that beer, ima give ya COAL. COAL for Cole Macgrath!" Zeke said handing Cole a beer.
The two clinked their beers and drank. And with that Cole was finally able to enjoy a night for the first time in a long time.
BUT WOULD HE GIVE UP THE ADDICTION? Perhaps In The Next Chapter