So this is a birthday giftfic with a seasonal Halloween theme for the lovely IC from your good friends KQ and Swifters. It was GOING to be a one shot … but then we didn't finish it in time, so it's not. LOVE YOU xxx
Disclaimer: Yeah – we own nothing … except a pair of stinky old sneakers that once walked the same beach as Scott Caan and a broken Hawaii Five-0 fridge magnet, neither of which are particularly helpful. We also own a hell of a lot less wine than we did at the start of the week …
CHAPTER 1: Hysteria
Danny Williams startled awake, terrified and gasping for air. He had no idea why.
He was alone. It was pitch black and the air that surrounded him was cool and left a moist feeling on his skin. Skin that was bare to his waist.
He wore no shoes and he could tell his pants were ragged and torn where they stuck to his legs, stopping mid-calf to just hang in tatters over his bare ankles.
Blood rushed in his ears and he strained to hear more than his own harsh and ragged breathing above the too-fast whoosh, whoosh of his heart.
The dark silence was oppressive. It pressed down on him from all sides. Except for his back, because at his back was a wall. Solid, cold; pressed to his bare flesh as the darkness smothered him.
He forced himself upright, determined to see ... something. Anything. Strained harder to hear … whatever it was he needed to hear to figure out exactly where he was. The why would have to wait until later. Right now he could barely remember his own name, but there was definitely someone – or something – in the room with him … if he was even in a room. He could hear it breathing. Panting almost. Short little gasps as though whoever – whatever – it was really didn't want to be heard at all.
His heart rate increased once again and he struggled to draw in enough air. If the blackness itself didn't succeed in devouring him, his own body was intent on suffocating itself; the thick band of tightness in his chest like a python squeezing its prey. He couldn't breathe. He had to get out, had to get up.
It's just a bad dream. It has to be a bad dream.
The roughness of the wall behind him told him otherwise.
He pushed up to standing, one hand firmly pressed to the frigidity of the damp brickwork as he braced himself with the other. His knee twinged and he gasped, the sudden intake of breath catching at a spot in his belly, sending shooting pain to his very core.
Danny doubled over, panting in distress. His mouth was drier than a dead dingo's donga, the fear all-consuming.
Left hand braced against the wall, Danny gingerly investigated the source of his discomfort, his right hand running across the skin of his lower chest and abdomen. The tender flesh was puckered on his right side – exactly where the pain had started. His hand slipped through a tacky wetness that remained on his fingers, clumps of jelly-like something adhered to the soft hair that ran in a line from his navel into his pants.
Blood?
The hits just kept on coming. He was half naked, freezing cold, trapped in some deep, dark dungeon in God-only-knew where, his knee was killing him and now … well now he had apparently been stabbed or something and he was gonna bleed out before he even figured out where the hell he was.
Fucking wonderful.
He heard a grunt. Danny bit down on his lower lip hard enough to taste copper. He couldn't lose it – wouldn't lose it. Not yet at least. He had to figure out where he was and get out because …
Why?
Because that's what he was meant to do. He had to do … something. He was there to do something. He knew he was. It was on the tip of his tongue, but for the life of him Danny had no fucking clue what in the hell it was. Not a clue.
And that grunt? The one he'd thought was him? Yeah well that wasn't him at all … it had come from way over to his left. In the darkness. The deep, oppressive darkness that wanted to eat him whole and spit his bones into the burning flames of hell. The darkness that contained … whatever the hell it was that was fucking breathing in the room with him – likely the very same thing that had stabbed him and left him to bleed. Hell, it probably summoned the fucking darkness itself to finish him off.
He was so screwed.
So fucking screwed.
A wave of nausea hit him. Hard. He doubled over and deposited the contents of his stomach on the floor, splattering his bare feet with the remnants of lunch. Or dinner. It could've been breakfast for all he knew – he hadn't had a grasp on time since he 'woke' in this hell hole.
He retched again, eyes watering and nose running. And dear God did it hurt. His whole belly felt like it was on fire. Maybe this was it. Maybe this is what happened when you went to hell. Maybe the fire consumed you from the inside out before you spent eternity in agonising pain.
Oh God.
Whatever it was had heard him. He could hear it moving closer. He stood upright and pressed himself hard against the wall; listening, watching. He shuffled to his right, away from the breathing; felt the chill of a tiled floor beneath feet he could feel covered in the slick of what must be his own blood and now his vomit.
A creak. The sound of metal grating on metal.
Danny stilled, holding his breath as his heart hammered away between his ears faster than a frightened rabbit.
It's coming.
What? What is it that's coming? He hadn't a fucking clue, but whatever it was it wasn't good. He was cold and alone and hurt and … fucking terrified. A wave of dizziness had him clinging to the wall like his life depended on it. It probably did.
Fuck.
Another creak, a crack of light.
A doorway.
As light streamed in to the left of him, Danny shielded his eyes, still pressing himself into the wall hard enough to leave the imprint of bricks on his skin as his eyes adjusted to the intrusion. The corner of the room was bathed in … moonlight?
Ok, so that answers the when.
A small figure crouched in the corner. A girl. Loose curls of thick, brunette hair shadowing her pale face as she peered out from beneath them. She was beautiful. Danny marvelled at her grace as she moved to standing, the swathed white bodice giving way to a flowing satin skirt that blended seamlessly with the long chiffon shawl draped from her shoulders. He could hardly take his eyes off her, this vision of loveliness, of innocence. Sweet, unfettered naivety with soft brown hair … He knew her. He knew her, but he just couldn't place her, his head wasn't working the way it was supposed to, he had no clue why.
A shape in the doorway. A man.
No. Not a man.
The imposing figure who loomed in the doorway, reaching out to the young girl was no human. The moonlight cast him in shadow, but Danny could still pick out his features. Long wavy mane of dark hair, wan complexion and deep circles beneath eyes that glowed milky white in the half-light. A monster dressed in cargo pants and boots, long black overcoat swirling behind it as it dropped down to one knee, beckoning the girl towards its muscled frame.
No! It mustn't have her.
Danny knew he had to act. He couldn't let this girl – this virgin child – be taken … turned by this … beast. As the monster flashed a toothy grin, sharp fangs glinting, Danny moved.
He barrelled into the monster, tackling it like an offensive lineman whilst screaming at the girl to run. The pair tumbled through the doorway onto the moonlit deck of a lanai … which was weird because when did dungeons have lanais? He had no time to wonder more about it as the monster struck out in its defence. Danny blocked the blow, half rising and throwing it to the floor. The pair grappled, Danny using elbows, fists and feet to subdue the evil-in-a-long-coat before he could entrance the virgin and drink from her.
His lungs burned with the exertion and pain exploded in his belly, but Danny had never been one to give in. He was running on instinct alone at this point, nothing made sense. His rational mind was screaming at him.
It's just a man, Danno. It's Steve, Danno.
His vision wavered. He didn't have long. The blood loss was getting to him. The beast snarled beneath him and he was lifted bodily and thrown from the lanai to the grass, breaking through the railing as he went.
He rose to all fours, shaking his head to clear his vision. The girl was there. She was walking towards the monster, tears streaming down her face.
No!
Danny scrambled to his feet, grabbing a piece of the broken rail. Holding it high, he lunged upwards towards the monster, thrusting his makeshift stake at its heart.
The monster's eyes widened, its upturned face a mixture of shock and … fear … which was odd, because Danny didn't think vampires were afraid of anything. The beast grunted as he barrelled into it, stake first and then rolled away from him to lay still on the wooden floor.
Danny raised himself to his knees, a surge of vertigo hitting him, making him waver in place.
But then it was the girl's face in front of him and she was holding a candlestick out in front of her, yelling at him. He was too late! She was already under the monster's spell.
She only had one chance - Danny was going to have to finish it off. He grabbed his stake from the floor and launched himself towards the beast. It growled inhumanly as they wrestled to and fro on the smooth wood of the lanai, Danny's arms pushing and pushing on the stake, trying to force it into the monster's chest.
Danno, Stop! It's Steve!
His rational mind was screaming again. He shook his head and pressed ever harder on his stake, the girl's only hope. The nausea returned with a vengeance and his vision swam, the pointed teeth of his enemy dripping with saliva as they threatened to tear at his mortal flesh. He was weakening now, the combination of blood loss and the beast sapping his strength at every turn, every laboured breath now one step closer to his own demise.
Save the girl. Save the girl. Save the virgin girl.
He bit back the nausea, tamped down on the searing agony tearing through his gut and with the last vestiges of his strength he threw his whole bodyweight onto the stake. Something gave and the monster grunted in pain, mouth gaping like a fish on a line and eyes filled with … sadness?
DANNO - NO! IT'S STEVE!
The voice in his head was screaming. The girl was screaming. His belly was screaming and his chest heaved heavy with the exertion.
What did you DO?
The beast lay still beneath him, milky-white eyes staring blankly at the moon. The girl was still screaming as he turned to face her. He didn't understand what the possessed girl was saying, it didn't make sense. He was sure the beast hadn't bitten her, hadn't had time to turn her, but she was pale and … and she sounded like … Grace … which didn't make sense unless she had already been turned. This was an illusion, a trick of the mind. She was too weak and small to entrance him, so she was trying to trick him … her fangs glistened in the moonlight …
The beast tremored beneath his hands as he shook his head to clear his vision. She hadn't been turned. He'd saved her. He had made it in time – he had to have. But what if he hadn't? He couldn't kill this girl. She was just a kid, wasn't she? He was so confused.
He glanced round. The last thing he saw before pain exploded across his skull and his whole world went dark was his precious daughter's terrified face as she swung the candlestick holder at his head.