Holy crap it feels good to be updating something after a long-ass exam season! I would've updated much sooner, but I just didn't have the drive or the inspiration for it when I wanted to, so here we are.
And thank you so much for the reviews last chapter, and thank you to everyone that read/favourited/followed. It really does mean a lot. I seriously hate to do this, but I wanna know who's still reading this story - especially after a while away - so I'll need over fifteen reviews for an update. It really doesn't take long to put some words in the little box, I will say that much. xD
I won't say too much about this chapter, except that there's a gore warning. Other than that, you should be okay. ;) Enjoy, review, and I'll see you with the next update, whenever that may be.
"Ow!" Tom yelped in surprise as Jerry sprayed the disinfectant on the worst of his scrapes, slapping the canister out of his hand and pressing his own over it with a sour expression on his face. "Jesus, Jerry..." he breathed, looking at him pleadingly.
Jerry scowled and picked up the canister. "Do you want me to help, or not, Tom?" he asked, a little tetchier than he wanted.
"Fine," Tom grumbled, holding out his arms and allowing Jerry to spray him with the disinfectant.
Mel walked over to the two of them, holding an icepack over her bruised, purple eye, after popping Tyler's shoulder back into its socket. She was limping and her face looked worse in the brighter lights of the building. It was lucky she hadn't been concussed and was able to help Jerry get Tom and Tyler back in one piece.
"How you holdin' up, Mel?" Tyler asked, nursing his shoulder.
"As alright as I can be," she responded dejectedly. "What with none of us being prepared for last night," she added lowly, biting her lip.
"What are you talking about?" Jerry asked in confusion. "You were prepared to take down a vampire," he noted, having seen them arm themselves to the teeth before they all left for the barista.
Mel snorted in disbelief. "Clearly not," she said wryly, sighing in aggravation. "Since that one last night whaled on us, no problem," she admitted bedgrudingly, sneering in annoyance.
The double doors hissed open and Rudy strode in, looking at them all in shock. Jerry nearly scoffed; what did he expect?
"What happened?" he demanded heatedly, throwing his hands up in the air. "Are you all okay?" he asked worriedly.
"We're fine, Rudy," Mel said with a chuckle, holding her hands up in protest. "Just a few bruises," she said as Rudy rushed over to them.
"Or bites in Tom's case," Tyler added. gesturing to the dried blood under Tom's hand that was pressed on the gash.
Tom winced slightly at Rudy's expression. "In my defense, I did piss him off," he informed him, holding up his finger.
"He would've done that anyway, Tom, and you know it," Mel grumbled under her breath, sighing as she found more cuts along her arms and was more than likely running out of disenfectant.
"Let's just be thankful he didn't kill you," Rudy muttered, walking over to Tom and gently easing his hand away from the bitemark, grimacing when it was revealed.
"Who was that guy?" Jerry asked in exasperation, looking around at his bruised and battered friends, touching his own neck in remembrance. Thankfully the vampire hadn't left him with any physical wounds.
"Who he told you he was; Jack Brewer," Rudy said in worry, still examining Tom's bitemark. "Didn't realise he was back in town," he said with aggravation, handing Tom some bandages, a needle and thread.
"Neither did we," Tom said emphatically, rolling his eyes at Rudy. "Y'know, I bet he's the one who gave us that anonymous tip, just so he could spy on us," he grumbled, folding his arms.
"What's the deal with this Jack guy, anyway?" Jerry asked in Rudy's direction.
"He's a very old, very powerful vampire," Rudy explained, Jerry nearly blurting out that he could have guessed that himself, funnily enough. "Rumoured to be among one of the first to walk the Earth," he added, Jerry's eyes widening in surprise.
"And if that's true, that places him between five or six thousand years old," Mel explained, shuddering slightly.
"And strong," Tom added on, rolling his eyes.
"No wonder he cleaned your clocks," Rudy noted bluntly.
Mel gave a sarcastic grin in Rudy's direction: "Thanks, Rudy," she said wryly, Rudy shrugging at her, while Jerry supposed he did have a point.
"Fuck!" Tom yelped suddenly, pulling the needle and thread away from his neck as he only suceeded in nicking the wound open again, fresh blood leaking down his shirt.
"Dude, lemme give you a hand with that before you stab yourself," Tyler intervened, all-but snatching the needle and thread from Tom.
"Thanks," he said with a light smile, tilting his head to the side, while Tyler set about re-threading it, then in turn, stitching him up.
"We should've shot that guy when we had the chance," Tyler muttered under his breath, Mel looking in agreement.
"Would it have done anything?" Tom wondered through gritted teeth. "If he's as old as we think," he added, gasping in pain and clutching a fistful of his jeans as Tyler began to pull the ripped skin closed.
"This is bad," Tyler said, although Jerry wasn't clear on whether he was commenting solely on Tom's bite wound, or the vampire himself. "He knows who we all are and now he's probably on his way to massacre us," he said fearfully, Tom reaching up to pat his shoulder reassuringly.
"Why are you all so afraid of him?" Jerry asked in wonder, none of them meeting his eyes fully after that. " Y'know, besides him being a vampire," he added, knowing that wasn't what had spooked them; he had seen Tom take a vampire down with just a cocktail umbrella before.
"Oh, that doesn't worry us," Mel said off-handedly, "But what does, is that he'll never forget what happened five years ago," she said, then she clapped her hand over her mouth, like she had just cursed in front of a parent, Tom and Tyler looking at her in warning, shaking their head in Rudy's direction.
"What happened five years ago?" Jerry asked, his interest now piqued.
Rudy cleared his throat, and then looked around at Mel, Tom and Tyler. "You guys okay here?" he asked, Jerry's brows furrowing slightly in confusion.
As did Mel's. "We're fine," she said with a puzzled look on her face.
Rudy sighed and gave Mel a thin smile. Then he put an arm around Jerry's shoulders and took him in the direction of the double doors. "Come with me," he said quietly, sounding resigned. Jerry followed.
"What I'm about to show you is the exact reason Jack probably came after all of you tonight," Rudy explained as they walked down the hallways to his office.
He started rummaging around the drawers of his desk and Jerry just stood there, glancing around the walls that were lined with newspaper clippings of 'animal attacks' that had been annotated with bright red marker pen. There was also a wall of vampires marked, 'Highly Dangerous', some with a line of red tape through them. Jack's picture, Jerry noted, had no such thing on it.
"Five years ago, we'd actually managed to capture him, and we were studying him to find out more about the weaknesses of vampires and what they actually are, so we could find out how the very first ones came to walk the Earth, if their kind are made through their blood being spread through humans, and the humans then dying and being ressurrected by it's healing powers," Rudy explained, head still buried under his desk.
"So how did he escape?" Jerry asked, folding his arms.
"After a year or so here, I imagine we got lax in restraining him, and when he was given his daily cup of blood - to stop him dessicating so we could still study him - a slayer got too close to him and..." Rudy's voice trailed off, then he resurfaced, holding a hand-camera. "Well, I'm sure you can imagine the rest," he said, raising his eyebrows while Jerry nodding.
"Didn't he have a mouth restraint on or something?" Jerry asked.
"Probably," Rudy shrugged, sighing heavily. "I wasn't on duty when he escaped, thankfully I was out on a hunt," he said with a strained smile.
"So that's why he came after us?" Jerry summarised. "Because of what happened five years ago?" he said in light shock, wondering just how bad Jack had deemed the events in his head, that he had to hold it around for five years and couldn't let go.
"Could be," Rudy guessed, switching the camera on and not fully meeting his eyes, sighing once more. "In which case, I want you to be careful," he added
"What happened when he escaped?" Jerry wondered out loud.
"Every single slayer was dead," Rudy said bluntly. "All two-hundred and fifty of them," he revealed, Jerry's eyes widening slightly. "It wasn't a day I like to remember, having to tell all those families some lie about why someone wouldn't be coming back," he said somberly.
"I'll leave you the tape, if you wanna see it," he added, resting the camera on the desk, looking slightly surprised at Jerry's look of intrigue. "I need to make sure security's tight, and that Tom hasn't managed to stab himself in the neck," he said, moving to leave, patting Jerry on the shoulder.
Jerry watched him leave, turning his attention back to the camera. He picked it up, looking at where Rudy had paused it. From the quality of the CCTV camera, he saw Jack restrained to a trolley, his arms and legs pinned down by thick straps, and Jerry could see the color drained from his face due to the lack of blood.
He took a breath and pressed play.
There was no sound, and the tape kept flickering and static cut across in various points. Jerry was clearly able to make out a female slayer in the room with Jack, and the lack of defense around his mouth, which could soon spawn fangs. He watched on as she walked towards him, a small cup in hand.
It seemed a split-second before she realised what she was doing; Jack snapped his head to the side, crushing her neck in his mouth, the woman's blood spurting up into his face as her screams no doubt echoed through the building.
Jack snapped the belts holding him with ease, and gripped the woman tighter, feeding so hard that he tore her head from her body. He gasped in relief, not bothering to lick the thick blood from around his lips. He sped forwards, kicking the door off it's hinges and walking ahead, wherein the camera switched to a different angle.
A slayer looked up, giving Jack a double-take. The vampire grinned evilly and sped forwards, sinking his thumbs into the man's eye sockets, his lips curling in a sneer at the man's screams that were only for his ears. He shot forwards and pulled the slayer's body up against his, sinking his fangs into his neck.
He tore away, the body dropping to the floor, his eyes rolling back slightly in pleasure. Jack flexed his fingers, smirking at the power buzzing through him, and sped off in search of any slayers still on the same floor.
Another door was wrenched off its hinges, exposing two slayers to the raging vampire; they proved no match for him, their hearts clenched into Jack's palms like sickening shrine offerings. He gave their corpses a twisted smile, dropping their hearts and crushing the skull of one beneath his boot. He switched his neck, his head roving around to face the camera anchored on the wall above him.
Jerry winced to himself, pausing it, almost able to hear Jack's voracious snarl echoing in his mind, his fangs and lips stained with the blood of the few slayers he had already torn apart, his eyes blazing with anger that was causing a malavolent glint in them, Jerry swearing there were flecks of red in the eyes that had been passive until the female slayer made that fatal, and deadly, mistake.
Sighing and shutting the camera back in Rudy's desk, he left the room, still shaken. He went back to find Mel, Tom and Tyler, retreating more into himself, wrapping his arms around himself. Mel looked at him quizzically, then it clicked inside her brain.
"I'm guessing you're all clued up now, from the look on your face?" she wondered, Jerry wordlessly nodding at her, unable to actually say anything.
"We were brought on not too long after it happened," she explained, sighing in rembrance.
"Not too long?" Tyler repeated incredulously, eyes bulging slightly. "Rudy was still hosing off blood stains!" he said, wildly gesturing to the walls.
His only response was a whack in the stomach from Tom, effectively silencing him.
"Think he'd do something like that again?" Jerry asked nervously.
"If we're stupid enough to imprision him again, yes, he probably will," Mel said pointedly, shrugging to herself, "But we're not, so we're just gonna have to leave him alone and focus on younger vampires," she decided, sighing begrudgingly.
"We can't just leave him alive, Mel," Tom argued back.
"Yes we can, Tom," Mel said emphatically, staring at him. "If it keeps us safe, then we can," she explained, Tom nodding begrudgingly in understanding.
"It wasn't even a hunt last night," Tyler growled under his breath. "It was an ambush," he added knowingly, grinding his teeth in frustration.
"You're telling me," Mel said incredulously, throwing her arms up in the air. "He threw me into a van's windshield!" she added, gesturing to her bruised face and arms.
"We have to do something," Jerry said emphatically, folding his arms. "We can't just let him keep killing people," he said with a grimace.
"Nobody in the branch is strong enough to take him on," Mel said pointedly, the rest of them nodding in agreement. "We'd need another vampire, but even then, where would we find one willing, and that could, to stand up against Jack and help a bunch of slayers?" she asked, raising her eyebrow.
"We are so screwed," Tom declared, putting his head in his hands and groaning. "I mean, he obviously wanted Rudy to know he's in town, but why?" he wondered out loud, grunting in frustration as he came up with nothing.
"He need a reason?" Tyler pitched in, rolling his eyes. "He's a vampire, he loves killing and torturing; why not add mind games to the list?" he added sarcastically.
Jerry cracked a light smile, starting when he caught sight of the clock on the wall.
"Oh shoot," he said in surprise, double-checking on his watch to test he wasn't seeing things. "I've gotta get home; Mum's gonna be wondering where I am," he explained, looking around at the others, who nodded in understanding.
"I'll drive you," Tom volunteered, hopping off the crate stack he had been sat on.
"Are you sure?" Jerry asked.
"You're not walking it," Tom said firmly, grabbing his keys and heading for the doorway, Jerry following. "Especially with Jack around; he'd snatch you up off the street quicker than you could say 'Supercallafragilisticexpalidocious,'" he added in a serious tone, Jerry not even bothering to comment on that last one.
About an hour or so later, Tom pulled up in Jerry's driveway, Jerry noticing no lights were on upstairs. Maybe his Mum had already gone to bed and would forget in the morning about grounding him for being out late.
Jerry got out of the car, shutting the door behind him. "Thanks," he said to Tom through the rolled down passenger window.
"No problem," he said with a smile, then his expression turned serious. "You be careful, alright?" he added, looking at him with a raised eyebrow, shifting the car into gear.
"Always am," Jerry retorted, Tom snorting at him before driving off.
He walked to his front door, opening it slowly, and tried to shut it quietly, but he forgot about the loud creak as it did. He grimaced and braced himself as the landing light switched on and his - very tired-looking - Mum eyed him from the landing.
"Jerry, is that you?" she asked, rubbing her eyes and yawning.
"Yeah, Mum," Jerry responded, "Sorry about making you wait up for me, Tom got stuck in traffic," he lied, a little troubled about how easy he found it these days.
"Not a problem, honey," his Mum said, brushing it off, much to Jerry's surprise, "I've left some pasta in the microwave if you want it," she added, a large yawn sneaking out of her mouth.
"Thanks," he said with a smile, his Mum returning one tiredly before she trudged back to her bedroom, her lamp's light fading and leaving the upstairs landing in absolute darkness.
Jerry rushed into the kitchen where the lights were still on. He wasn't paranoid, he very quickly convinced himself, just hungry. He located the pasta in the tupperware box and headed over to the microwave, putting it in.
A few minutes later, he retrieved it, pulling out a fork from the cutlery drawer, spearing a large amount into his mouth, just as his phone started ringing. He frowned as he couldn't recognise the number.
"Hello?" he answered, his mouth filled with pasta.
"Hello, Jerry," an amused voice on the other end said pleasantly, Jerry's eyes widening in utter shock.
He quickly looked around for a napkin, spitting the pasta he had in his mouth into it, turning his attention back to the phonecall. "Jack..."
"Enjoy my little massacre earlier?" he asked, as if it had been something so casual as a movie at the cinema. "Sorry it wasn't hi-def, but I did my best," he added sympathetically, Jerry able to hear the evil smirk in his voice.
"What do you want?" Jerry asked sourly, too tired and not in the mood to play his games.
"Nice house, by the way," Jack deflected, Jerry's eyes widening in shock and a shiver shooting down his back once his brain caught up with his ears. "Got some decorating tips for your bedroom, but it's nice," he went on, chuckling to himself.
"You're bluffing," Jerry said with certainty, although he could hear footsteps upstairs - most likely his Mum - and he wasn't going to risk going up there when there was no light on.
"Am I?" Jack asked in a playful tone. Jerry ground his teeth in frustration.
"There's no way my Mum would invite you in," he argued, but he then realised she didn't know about vampires and would have no way of knowing whether an innocent 'Come in' would spell her death or not.
"Isn't there?" Jack shot back with a chuckle that rendered Jerry speechless. He looked around, relieved to find everything locked, but then he swallowed. Not like that would stop a vampire.
"Good night, sleep tight, don't let the vampires bite," Jack sang lightly, Jerry shuddering again, "Or however that goes," he added, having amused himself like he wanted, ending the call.
Abandoning the pasta, Jerry shot up the stairs and into the safety of his bedroom, turning the light on and instantly bathing the room. He shut the door behind him and crossed to his window, looking nervously out of it. He had an overwhelming feeling that he was being watched, uneasiness washing over him.
He closed the window tightly, pulling the curtains closed and stepping back. He swallowed, realising that if Jack hadn't been bluffing, that nothing was stopping him from coming into the house; nothing was stopping him from coming into his room. Nothing would stop him from tearing him to shreds...
To say that Jerry fell into an uneasy sleep once he was settled, was an understatement.
Jerry awoke to the sunlight piercing his eyelids. He rolled over, surprised he'd managed to get any sleep at all, and caught sight of his alarm clock. 8:30. That was odd, usually his Mum would have woken up before then and been walking around, waking him up in turn.
Puzzled, he got out of bed, and went into the hallway. The entire house was silent; no sound of any cupboards being open in the kitchen; no water running in the bathroom; no annoying birds that were usually outside the window...
"Mum?" he called, breaking the silence. His brows furrowed in confusion as he recieved no reply. She never left for work early enough for him to still be asleep, or on the rare occasion that would happen, she would come and wake him up so he wouldn't be late for school.
"Mum?" he tried again, pushing the door to her room open, sighing in relief when he saw her still asleep under the bedcovers. "You're gonna be late for work," he scolded her lightly, reaching to pull back the covers and wake her up.
A startled yell tore from his throat at the sight; his mother's throat had been completely torn out, blood drenching the sheets, her body, and splattering the celing above. This couldn't be real, it couldn't be-
Cool steel gripped his arm and Jerry turned abruptly, eyes widening as he came face to face with Jack, his mouth still bloody.
"Miss me?" he asked with a chuckle, tilting his head to the side.
Before Jerry could response, break free from his grip, run, anything, Jack's eyes became bloodshot and deadly, fangs glinting as he bore down on him with a snarl-
"No, don't!" Jerry cried out, abruptly waking himself up. He fought to catch his breath, his heart hammering inside his chest. He glanced over to the window; thankfully it was still locked, and he could hear his Mum rustling around in her room.
He went to check though, just in case.
Sighing in relief when he saw her up and walking around, Jerry went back to his bedroom and pulled out his phone, dialling Rudy's number.
"He what?!" Rudy asked incredulously, Jerry having to hold the phone a few inches from his ear, once he had relayed the news of the previous night.
"I don't know if she actually invited him in or not," he said quickly to stop the oncoming rant that Rudy was about to launch in to, "But I'm still breathing, so I guess he lied," he guessed with a nervous chuckle.
"Oh, this is bad..." Rudy muttered, Jerry picturing him nervously chewing on his lower lip and running a hand through his hair. "Is your mum alright?" he asked with caution.
"She's fine," Jerry said with relief. "She's gone to work," he added, glad that he did know where she went and wouldn't have to lie to get Rudy off his back. She'd said goodbye to him before she left, throat thankfully unscathed.
"Alright," Rudy said with relief, Jerry nodding alongside him even though Rudy couldn't see him. "Now, Jerry I want you to listen to me," he said slowly, so Jerry had no option but to do that.
"Okay," Jerry said simply, the silence telling Rudy he was all ears.
Rudy sighed to himself. "You're the only person I can think of to let do this-"
"Will you spit it out?" Jerry said in annoyance, the latter tetchier sounding than he would've wanted. He blamed it on the lack of sleep.
"I want you to kill Jack," he said bluntly.
Jerry wasn't sure he had heard him properly. "You want me to-?" He couldn't even repeat the sentence back because it sounded so ridiculous out loud. "If Mel, Tom and Tyler couldn't manage, how the Hell am I going to?!" he asked incredulously; he wasn't even properly trained as a slayer, he had only been brought into it because he had unknowingly saved Tom's life while he was on a hunt.
"Believe me, I feel uncomfortable asking this, but he's obviously taken a liking to you-"
"If by liking, you mean wanting to put me through a bunch of mind games before he kills me, then yes, he really likes me," Jerry cut him off sarcastically, rolling his eyes. However, the statement made him look around nervously.
"Just hear me out, please?" Rudy said, Jerry sighing at him. "If you can get close to him, you'll be able to kill him; he won't anticipate something like that to happen right under his nose," he explained, Jerry severely doubting that. If he was as old as they said he was, wouldn't he anticipate every possible outcome?
"So, you're asking me to play a game with one of the oldest, deadliest freaks out there?" he asked, the words sounding even more stupid than he would have thought. Maybe he really did have a death wish...
"That's exactly what I'm asking you to do," Rudy retorted.
"Alright, I'll do it," Jerry said finally after a long pause, rubbing his brow; he was so going to regret this tomorrow morning. "But how exactly are we supposed to-"
"I'll take care of the rest," Rudy cut him off, a little too abruptly for Jerry's liking, since he hadn't actually provided an explanation to how he was going to go about this little Kamikaze mission. "Don't worry," he reassured him, ending the phonecall.
"I wasn't," Jerry answered flatly, well aware he was just talking to himself now. "Until now," he added pointedly, sighing and pulling the phone away from his ear, jumping as it buzzed not a moment later.
He opened his messages and there was a text from Kim.
From: Kim
Message: Hey, practice is cancelled, wanna go to Circus Burger instead?
Jerry rolled his eyes as he texted back his reply; in addition to being a slayer and the head of a division, Rudy also ran a Karate Dojo. Yet it had never occured to him to train the students there as slayers too, so more often than not, classes were cancelled with some pretty lame excuses.
From: Jerry
Message: Sure, meet you there in a few.
Thankfully, Jerry managed to make it to Circus Burger in one piece - taking care to lock the door when he left - and without running into Jack, or any other vampire for that matter. He pushed open the doors, finding Kim and Milton already sat together at a booth.
"Man, you look like you haven't slept for days," Kim noted as Jerry slid into the opposite side of the booth.
"Not quite days," Jerry responded with a small smile, rubbing his eyes.
"Up late playing video games again?" Milton guessed knowingly, leaning back in the seat. "I tell you the same thing every day; they'll only rot your brain," he said in a playfully condescending tone, Jerry rolling his eyes.
"Like it needs any help according to you?" the other boy shot back, raising an eyebrow knowingly, Milton smiling sheepishly while Kim laughed beside him.
Jerry couldn't find anything in him to respond to the laughter; he was so tired, the only thing he could manage was to rub his eyes. All night, all he could think about was Jack's phonecall to him - nevermind how he got his number in the first place - and if what he said was true, that meant that there was nothing stopping him from coming into his house; nothing stopping him from slaughtering both him and his mother.
That had meant that his entire night - minus the few minutes that were rudely stolen by his nightmare - had been spent with his eyes glued to the door, covers pulled up over his chin, and tensing at every little sound that was most likely his mother, not a bloodthirsty vampire that had left him and his friends alive purely for his own amusement; so he could kill them all at his own leisure, one by one...
"Jerry!" Kim's slightly-laughing voice broke Jerry immediately from his thoughts.
"Huh?" He looked up to see Kim and Milton looking at him expectantly, as well as a waitress, a light amused smile on her face as she poised her pen over her notepad.
"Can I take your order?" she asked with a chuckle, obviously not for the first time.
"Oh, right, sorry," Jerry apologised, flashing her a quick, sheepish smile. "Uh..." He picked up a menu and scanned it: "Small cheeseburger with fries, extra ketchup and no pickles," he said eventually.
"That everything?" the waitress asked kindly, looking at the three of them.
"Actually, I'll try one of your sundae's too," Kim pitched in with a smile.
"Good choice," she said with appreciation. "What flavour?" she asked.
Kim picked up the menu, flicking over to the 'dessert's' page. "Strawberry with chocolate sauce," she decided, putting the menu back on the table.
The waitress wrote down Kim's add-on. "I'll have someone bring it all over," she said, leaving them with a smile.
"A double-cheeseburger and a sundae?" Milton asked incredulously, turning to Kim with a raised eyebrow.
"Hey, I went on a run this morning," Kim informed him, sounding affronted. "I earned it," she said proudly, crinkling her nose up at Milton.
"How many miles?" Milton asked, chuckling to himself.
Kim just smiled sweetly in response, angling herself towards Milton. A dull thud was heard and Milton gave a sharp cry, the smile slipping off of Kim's face and replacing itself with a deviously triumphant look.
Jerry laughed and reached over the table to fist-bump Kim, the latter returning hers with a playful raise of her eyebrows. She leaned back in her seat, her smile never faltering, but Jerry's did, almost as quickly as it had appeared. He couldn't shake the feeling someone was watching him.
And he was right.
He dared turn around, and his blood turned to ice. Jack was stood outside on the street, watching him with hollow eyes. Like a deer caught in headlights, Jerry just stared back, unable to do anything else. Jack lifted a hand and waved to him, a chilling smirk spreading across his face, making Jerry swallow.
He blinked and rubbed his eyes, as if he was trying to make Jack go away, and it actually worked; Jack was no longer on the street. He had disappeared so fast it made Jerry wonder whether he had even been there at all, or if his paranoia - expected paranoia - had manifested itself into full blown hallucinations.
Jerry jumped a little as his phone vibrated in his pocket. He pulled it out and hid it under the table, opening the new message.
From: Sender Unknown
Message: Watch your back.
He swallowed hard, no doubt at all about who that was from. He tried to reassure himself that Jack was just trying to scare him, but he knew from last night at the barista that he would kill just for fun and to amuse himself.
A gentle kick at his ankle made him finally tear his eyes away from his phone, seeing Kim and Milton looking at him in worry.
"Jerry, what is with you?" Milton asked in exasperation. "You've been staring at the floor for the past ten minutes," he noted, Jerry raising his eyebrows in surprise.
"Uh," he trailed off, unsure of what to say. He deleted the message and put his phone back in his pocket, determined to shake it from his mind. "Nothing, I'm fine," he lied.
"If you say so," Kim shot back in disbelief, Jerry grateful that she didn't decide to pursue it any further. "Hey our food's here; try not to zone out unless you want it stone cold with cobwebs, alright?" she joked.
"Ha ha," Jerry shot back dryly.
Despite his lack of gusto when teasing Kim, all thoughts of Jack were gone when he looked at the plate of food in front of him. He'd purposely left the pickles out so he wouldn't be reminded of last night at the barista, not much he could do about the fries, but he was starving...
About a half-hour later, Jerry was still working his way through his burger, and Kim had just started on her sundae. He couldn't think of anything to say to them, thankfully the burger provided an ample distraction. Until his phone buzzed in his pocket again.
He put the burger down and hesitantly checked his messages, this time the latter having a sender.
From: Rudy
Message: Need to talk to you. I'm at HQ
He shot a discreet glance at Kim and Milton, the two of them wrapped up in their own conversation, and quickly texted Rudy back.
From: Jerry
Message: Be right there.
Jerry pushed his plate away from him, feinging a massive yawn and grabbing Kim and Milton's attention. "Sorry, guys, I've gotta go," he said apologectically, getting up out of the booth. "'S not like I'd be any fun tired anyway," he added with a weak chuckle.
"Go and get some sleep, okay?" Kim advised him, wrapping him in a warm hug, which Jerry accepted. "We'll see you at school tomorrow?" she asked, holding him at arms length.
"Sure," Jerry said with a smile. "Later, Milton." He held out a hand and the two boy's grasped each other's hands, Jerry turning around to leave, noticing Kim and Milton didn't sit back down until he left.
When he reached the slayers' Headquarters, Jerry found it to be quiet. Unnervingly quiet. Usually someone would be around, but the place was deserted. Surely not everyone was out on a job? Rudy had to be here; why else would he text him? It didn't make any sense.
"Rudy?" he tried calling, raising his voice, but hearing nothing but a tinny echo. "You here? I got your message," he added, walking further into the building.
No-one was there.
Stranger still, computers were still left running, a spreadsheet of some sort was still printing, and freshly opened or brought items from the vending machines laid on several desks and counter tops. Jerry's confusion gave way to horror at the bloody trail leading from the room, and he turned on his heel and ran.
The only exit suddenly slammed shut, the lock clicking loudly.
Jerry felt a violent chill going down his back; he had no choice but to keep moving.
Swallowing his nerves, he steeled himself and walked towards the bloody trail, pushing the door open and gasping at the sight in front of him. Blood was smeared all along the walls, large cracks in the plaster were still dripping with it and one shard of glass, jagged and ominous looking-
Was sticking straight out of Tyler's throat.
Jerry's heart was in his mouth; he rushed forwards, kneeling down beside Tyler's body. His eyes were bulged wide in fear, blood trickling from the side of his mouth and covering his entire torso, pooling underneath him. What the Hell happened here?!
An eerie flickering out of the corner of his eye made Jerry spin around so fast he nearly toppled over into the pool of Tyler's blood. Curiously, he followed it, swearing point blank that it wasn't his own shadow following him, and found a video camera, turned on its side and clean of all the blood that was painting the hallway.
The film was still playing; Jerry turned the camera over, trying not to drop it in horror at what was being looped on it again and again. Tyler was engaging in a struggle with a figure whose face Jerry couldn't make out, before being easily overpowered; his throat viciously being impaled onto the jagged shard of glass that had been the result of Tyler's head getting smashed through the window.
Static brought the film to an abrupt halt, and Jerry felt fear envelope his entire body. He wasn't alone, and whoever was here with him, knew that he knew. He forced himself, dropping the camera like it was scorching hot, to put one foot in front of the other, and kept walking.
Everywhere he stepped, every room he entered in search of the living, all he found was a terrifying canvas of blood and severely mutilated bodies, some recognisable as those of his friends, but some unrecognisable beyond belief.
The violent sound of wings flapping and a screech made Jerry spin around with a frightened cry, scrambling away and falling on his feet in the panic.
Mel's corpse was strung up on the wall, a metal pole jammed through her throat and wrists, pinning her there for all to see; see the gaping wound in her abdomen that was leaking out her intestines and other vital organs onto the ground with a monotonous dripping sound, but also the chilling message, daubed in blood above her head.
'I WARNED YOU I'D BE BACK'.
Eyes were suddenly on Jerry, he was sure of it. Taking a breath, he turned around, but nothing was there, except a shadow darting and flickering teasingly along the wall, before shooting off in the direction of another bloody trail.
Jerry was still forced to follow it.
His feet turned to clay and his blood ran cold. The main room was the worst of the whole building. Choking back a scream, Jerry gagged at the pungent smell of blood and iron filling his nose and mouth, the scent so strong it brought him to his knees. Completely at the mercy of whoever had just walked in the room behind him.
But whoever had, made no move to touch him, not even as he scrambled to his feet, trying to find his footing among the many mutilated bodies littering the floor. The door beside him swung open and Jerry eyed it cautiously, the other person in the room still not making themselves known.
He was about to break into a run at the door, when a voice resonated out in panic, "Jerry, don't, it's a trap!"
Jerry turned around, simultaneously sighing in relief and eyeing Rudy with confusion as he ran up to him.
"What are you talking abo-"
The sentence never left Jerry's mouth, and no response would have been able to leave Rudy's; the figure, it's face obscured by the shadows, had appeared and swung a pick-axe through Rudy's chest, the man making strangled gurgling noises of pain, nothing coherent able to come out. Jerry reeled back in shock, slack-jawed.
Rudy was yanked backwards and a guttural snarl sounded before his neck was crushed between an animalistic mouth, it's fingers on one hand reaching up and sinking themselves into Rudy's eyeballs, the fingers of its other hand wrenching his jaw wide open. Rudy's yells, as loud as the figure's fingers in his mouth and the pick-axe in his chest would allow, echoed through the building, seemingly shaking the very foundation of it.
There was a sickeningly squelch of flesh and crunch of bone as the figure ripped Rudy's head in half, Jerry falling to his knees in shock in sync with Rudy's corpse, landing on several bodies, rooted still with the absolute shock of the figure's incredible strength. Quickly turning to one of them, he fumbled around, his eyes lighting up when his hands closed around a wooden stake that one of them had had with them.
Shakily, he got to his feet, brandishing the weapon. The figure didn't move, just stood in the shadows watching him, daring him to make a move, holding out his arms in a way that was eeriely familiar.
The figure started towards him and Jerry thrust the stake forwards, his wrist being seized in a terrific grip and twisted hard until he let go of the stake with a yelp. He was thrown back on the floor as if he weighed nothing, the figure's chuckle floating through the room.
"You really don't think you can kill me, do you?" a silky voice purred tauntingly.
Jerry froze. He knew that voice anywhere, and he should have guessed...
Jack Brewer.
He stepped forwards, finally visible. His face and clothes were stained with dark blood, his head tilted to the side and a sly smirk on his bloodied lips, slightly exposing the tips of his glinted fangs. Jerry's heartbeat sped up as Jack got closer to him, a frightened yell slipping from his mouth as the vampire effortlessly picked him up by the scruff of his shirt, his eyes cold and unfathomable.
"Not exactly the end your friends had planned," Jack chuckled darkly, gesturing to the many bodies around them both, "But I was never a stickler for the rules anyway," he informed him with quiet glee, a brief flicker of amusement in his eyes.
Ignoring him, Jerry tried to desperately pull Jack's hand from his hair, but his struggles were interrupted as razor sharp fangs punctured his neck and white hot pain shot through his entire body, forcing incoherent screams and pleads out of his mouth.
Jack reared back with a satisfied hiss, catching his breath and licking his lips. He shoved Jerry backwards and he collapsed onto the floor, swallowing hard and shakily pressing his hand over the large bite wound, blood already seeping down his neck and joining the dried stains on the floor.
In turn ignoring his whimpers of pain, Jack circled him menacingly, watching him closely, delighting in his suffering. Jerry was fading quicker and quicker as more blood pooled through his fingers, darkness was taking over.
A sudden kick to the back of his head from Jack's boot, then everything went black.