ALPHA
ALPHA
The day before Valentines Day
The mall was packed, like it always is. I wandered around the store, stopping here and there to look at things. Today, on this sunny morning, I am here alone. I am alone because my girlfriend is at work, and I want to buy her something special for Valentines Day. Something so special, that she will remember me forever.
One of my friends works at a jewelry store here in the mall, so I stopped by there. My friend saw me looking around in the store, so she walked over to me and asked, "Sorry freak, we don't sell nose rings." She had a smile across her face, I laughed and smiled back.
"Why are you here?" she asked. I responded, "I want to buy Amy something, a ring." My friend continued to smile when she asked, "Could it be, the great Vincent, wanting to get married?" "Is it that apparent?" I said. My friend proceeded to show me engagement rings. I finally settled on a gold band that had two hearts linked together.
My friend hugged me before I left and said, "I'm happy for you, happy for you and Amy." "Thank you," I said. I put the small box that held the ring in my jacket pocket and continued to look around the mall. After about an hour or so, I left the mall to return home.
Amy and I lived together. When I was 16, my parents were murdered. I got everything they owned. I'm 18 now. Amy, who is 19, moved in 7 months ago, and it's been the happiest time of my life. She works as a nurse during the day, and I am "self-employed".
I am a computer hacker. Some large computer businesses pay me money to see if I can hack into their system. While some underground companies and freaks pay me money to come up with a computer virus. I also make a living as a poet. Some of my works have made their way into published books, but nothing major. There was a time, when I was 17, when I would hack into companies and banks and steal money. I never got caught, but I soon gave it up, for fear of being caught. However, I still have much of the money I took.
Since Jr. High, I have been dating Amy. She was around to give me comfort when my parents died, and for that, I am forever in her debt. Ever since we first met, we both felt as if we were soul mates. We are also a perfect case of the "opposites attract" theory. I am a freak, gothic in nature. However, Amy is quite normal, and dresses like a prep.
At home from the mall, I got on my computer and proceeded to get online. In the last week, I had been hacking into Talon Industries. They owned several clubs all around the states, but I had found out that they had been dealing in underground drug dealing and weapon sales. Once I had enough information, I planned on going to the police.
My father was a police detective, and he was a good one. A lot of the cops in this city are corrupted; they take bribes from the gangs and dealers. I suspect Talon Industries was one of those industries that give the cops money to make them turn the other way, that's why I first started trying to hack into their systems.
I heard Amy pull up in the driveway. I turned off my computer and went to greet her at the front door. As soon as she opened the door, I took hold of her and lifted her up off her feet. She smiled and laughed as I turned her around in circles. I put her back down on her feet and I said, "Happy Valentines Day." She responded, "Valentines Day isn't until tomorrow, goof ball."
"I always like to celebrate early." I said. "Why don't you go and be a good little boy and get the groceries out of the car," she said. I said "Alright, but I'm cooking dinner tonight?" Amy responded "Uh, honey, you don't know how to cook." I laughed and said, "Maybe I've learned a few things."
She got close to me and kissed me, then she said, "I think maybe all those hours you spend on the computer are frying your brain." I smiled and walked out the door to get the groceries from the car. After I brought them all in, I went into the kitchen and began to cook dinner.
Murder of Crows
Amy waited in the dinning room while I cooked dinner. I made lasagna with garlic bread, her favorite meal. I sat the food down at the table and said, "Before we eat, I want to read you something I wrote." She smiled at me and looked into my eyes. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a piece of notebook paper. I had written down a poem for her.
"Ever seen the light?
Ever fear the night?
You are my day
No matter what they say
You are my mate
No matter the fate
Come visit my hole
You are my heart and soul
Hugs that are so sweet
When our bodies meet
Faith in our selves is like gold
All the memories we shall hold
Baby, I hope you will be
Mine. Will you marry me?"
From out of my pocket, I pulled out the ring I had bought her. Her eyes widened, her mouth opened a little bit as if to let in a deeper breath. I took hold of her hand and put the ring on her finger. She looked at me and continued to smile real big, and then tears started to flow down her face. "Hey, your suppose to be happy, not sobbing all over my food," I said with a smile.
She hugged me real tight and said, "Of course I'll marry you!" "Yeah, Baby, yeah!" I yelled out and then I kissed her real passionately. We lay on the floor, holding each other. When Amy wasn't looking into my eyes, she was looking at her ring. "I don't think I've ever been more happier in my life, Vincent," she said. I gently rubbed my finger through her long brown hair and said, "I know, I feel the same way."
Suddenly, there came a loud crashing noise from the front door. Then there was laughter. I stood up, Amy by my side. A group of 5 people, 3 guys and 2 girls, came rushing into the dinning room. "What the hell is this?" One of the guys had a gun, and he shot me in the shoulder. Amy screamed as I fell to the floor, bleeding very badly.
The one guy who stood in the back, he had a large python snake wrapped around his upper body. He looked over at one of the other guys and said, "Find his computer and find what he knows, then destroy it." The guy, who had received the order from whom I guessed to be the leader of the group, ran up stairs to find my computer.
"Who are you?!" Amy screamed out. One of the women, who had long dark hair, said "Exterminators." One of the guys, the one who shot me, ran over to Amy and took hold of her. He threw her down on the table, splattering the food I made all over the floor. "Come on baby, you know you want it!" the guy said.
I roared with anger and got up off the floor and knocked the guy away from Amy. The other woman jumped onto the table and kicked me in the face. I was knocked up against the wall, stunned. The guy with the gun turned around and shot me again, this time in my left leg. I fell down to my knees and screamed.
The leader, the one with the snake, said, "You've been very nosey, Mr. Davis." "What are you talking about?" I asked, trying very hard to ignore the pain coming from my body. The woman with long dark hair walked over to me and slapped me across my face, knocking me down to the floor. She got over me and said, "Your going to feel some pain."
"Fuck off!" I yelled. The woman slapped me again, and then bit down into my neck. I struggled to shove her off while she drank the blood from my neck. She was some kind of vampire, but I could feel her heart beat racing against my chest.
Amy screamed again, the guy with the gun was on top of her on the table. "I'm gonna rock your world, sugar!" he said. He punched her, blood coming out of her nose. He then began to rip off her shirt and rub on her breasts. Amy mumbled out, "Vincent." I had enough strength left in me to force the vampire woman off of me. I rushed back up to my feet and attempted to tackle the guy raping Amy.
But the other woman, the one with short blonde hair and purple eyes, stopped me. She pulled a knife out of her boot and slashed it across my chest, and then across my neck. I began to choke on my own blood. I fell back to the floor, the two women over me. The vampire woman was drinking the blood that was spilling out from my wounds; the other woman was stabbing me repeatedly.
"Alright, I destroyed all he had," a voice from the stairs said. The guy ordered to find my computer had come back. The leader with the snake nodded and said, "Join the fun." The guy then went over to Amy and pushed the other guy off. "My turn, Adam," the guy who had came down from the stairs said. He began to rape Amy.
I dazed up at the ceiling, an incredible amount of pain running through my entire body. My head slowly turned so that I was looking out the window. Out in the trees, I saw a big black bird sitting on one of the branches. The big black bird stared into the window, as if it were watching all that was happening. I then slowly turned my head so that I could see Amy.
The two guys were taking turns raping her. Tears and blood covered Amy's face, her eyes cold and hollow. "I love this! This is so fucking fun!" the girl with the knife said. "That's because you love death," the leader said.
Darkness was fading all around me. I saw Amy slowly reaching out towards me, and the words, "I love you," were whispered from her gentle lips. "Okay, I'm tired of this bitch," the guy with the gun (Adam) said. He pushed the other guy off of her and then shot her five times in the chest. All around me was darkness. Darkness and Pain.
Darkness and Pain
A bright light shined over me. It was not the light of Heaven, but a more artificial light. "Jesus, what happen to this poor kid?" a voice said. "Break in and beating. His girlfriend was brought in with him, but she was already dead," another voice said.
"He's going to want to wish he is dead," one of the voices said. Thrashing around in mind was the memories of what had happened to my girlfriend and I. In one moment, we were very full of life and happiness, and then the next moment, we were in pain and lying in our own blood.
"Doctor, there's too much internal bleeding," the sound of a woman's voice said. Another voice then asked, "How many stab wounds does this kid have?" The woman's voice said, "Twenty-one, sir." "Holy shit!" the voice said.
Somehow, out of the darkness, I came back to reality. I opened my eyes to see several doctors and a couple of nurses standing over me and operating on me. "Amy," I mumbled out. One of the doctor's eyes widened with disbelief, one of the nurses put her hand over her mouth in shock. "Amy," I mumbled out again.
"Goddamnit, somebody knock this guy out!" one of the doctors said. One of the nurses asked, "How did he regain consciousness?" A nurse stuck a needle in my arm to knock me out from consciousness. Slowly, I began to fall back down into the darkness. The pain had become so strong and great that it felt like it was apart of me somehow, like the pain was my inner soul.
In and out of the darkness, I would sometimes regain a little bit of consciousness. I never opened my eyes or said anything again, but I could still listen to the doctors and nurses talk while they tried to save my life. "Okay, we've stop the bleeding from his leg," one of them said. "This gunshot in his shoulder is still bleeding pretty bad," someone else said. "Christ, how long have we been in here?" One of the nurses said, "Eight hours and going." "Damn, my wife's is going to be pissed when I come home late for dinner tonight," a doctor said.
What seemed an eternity later, I tried one last attempt to regain my life, I heard the doctors and nurses rushing around and screaming out medical gibberish. Someone said, "Shit, we're losing him!" "He's going into shock!" a nurse said. "Clear!" a doctor said. Shocked, I had a flashback of when Amy and I first met. "Clear!" the doctor said again. Another flashback, this time it was when Amy and I had our first kiss together after seeing a movie. "Clear!" the doctor yelled again. I saw the night of love and horrors, when I proposed to Amy and she said yes.
"Damn, we lost him!" a doctor said. "Can't say we didn't try our best," one of the nurses said. "Twelve hours in the ER," another nurse said. "Someone go tell the kid's family," a doctor said. A nurse said, "He doesn't have any family. He has a friend waiting outside, though." "Well, I'll go tell his friend," a doctor said.
Black Wings of Torment
On this night, the rain came down hard upon the earth. A large black bird, the Crow, flies through the air, through the rain, and towards its destination. It flies past a church, where lives are saved, to the cemetery, where lives are lost.
The Crow finds a set of tombstones marked by the stench of murder. Four graves: Mr. Franklin Davis, Police detective; Mrs. Wendy Davis, his lovely housewife; Vincent Davis, computer hacker/poet and lost soul, Amy Marie, his beautiful girlfriend and lover of life.
It lands on the tombstone of Vincent Davis, looking down at the ground with its golden eyes. Thunder awakens the night, and the force of lightning comes crashing down to the ground on the grave of Vincent. From under the ground, one could hear the screams of a human being, as if someone had been buried alive.
Like a volcano of dirt and decay, Vincent rises up from the ground of his grave. He digs his hands into the wet ground and drags himself out of the hole of his burial. He lays on his back, wearing the suit he had been buried in, the rain beating down onto his body like a thousand piercing needles.
He looks up to see the big black bird looking at him. "CAW," cries out the Crow. He stands up and looks around through the night. In the distance, he can see the church. He can also see the gate that leads out of the cemetery. He starts to walk towards the gate.
The Crow flies ahead of Vincent, as if to guide him. At this point and time, he knows nothing; he remembers nothing of his life. He just knows what is before him, a cold rainy night, a cemetery, and a bird. He makes his way to the gate and opens it so he can leave the cemetery.
A sudden rush of adrenaline comes into Vincent's body. Guided by the Crow, he runs down the streets, staying in the shadows and allies so he is not seen by the mortal world. Minutes pass, and the Crow lands on the mailbox of a certain house.
"CAW," the Crow said repeatedly. The house struck some kind of core in Vincent's mind. He closed his eyes to see a memory. He was young, and he and his parents moved into the house. His father leaned down and placed his hand on Vincent's shoulder and said, "Welcome to our new home, son."
Vincent opens his eyes and starts walking to the front door. As he walks through the yard, another memory comes to mind. He and his father would play catch almost everyday when he was young. The windows of the house have been boarded up, and a big wooden sign across the front door has "ABANDONED" written on it. He takes hold of the sign and rips it from the doorway. He tries to open the door, but it is locked. He kicks down the door and enters his forgotten home.
All their stuff is still in the house. Vincent walks into the living room and sees the broken TV. A memory flashes into his mind; when he was a kid, he would spend hours watching TV. One day, his mother sat down next to him and said, "You know, if you spend too much time watching TV, your brain will rot and turn green." Little Vincent giggled.
The Crow flies into the house and lands on top of the living room couch. Another flashback; Vincent sees himself as a young teenager, and he's with a beautiful girl, they are kissing and making out on the couch. When the flashback is over, he falls to his knees and begins to cry and scream. The Crow lets out a gentle, "Caw".
He mumbles out, "Amy." He gets up from his knees and walks up the stairs. The first room he comes to is his computer room. The equipment of his computer is still there, but it is smashed and burned. Another memory comes to mind; Vincent's parents finally saved up enough money to buy him a computer. He was young, and instead of spending most of his time watching TV or outside playing, he spent his time messing around on the computer. He remembers his parents surprising him; they blind folded him and walked him into the room to surprise him.
Before Vincent leaves the room, yet another memory comes from this room. He is older now, with a brand new computer. Amy walked into the room and asked, "How much time do you spend on that thing?" He responded, "Too much time, I'm afraid." "Now imagine this, convert all the time you spend on that machine into time you could be making love to me." He turned around from the computer and smiled. He said, "Now there is only one solution to this problem." "And what is that?" she asked. He said, "Buy you a computer and we can have hot wild cyber sex." She laughed a little bit and left the room.
Vincent walks away from the destroyed computer room and down the hall. He comes upon the spare room, which when he was a child, was his bedroom. The Crow flies by Vincent and lands inside the room. Vincent closes his eyes. When Vincent was a child, he got really sick with the Flu. His mother stayed in his room almost the whole time, taking care of him. She would read him short stories and poetry as he lay in bed sick.
The Crow lets out another "CAW" before it flies out of the room and towards the main bedroom. "This house is haunted with the memories of the lost," Vincent says out loud. He continues to walk down the hallway until he comes to the main bedroom.
He leans against the wall, not really wanting to look in the bedroom. He closes his eyes again, tears of blood running down his face. He wipes the blood tears from his face and stares at it on his hand. From inside the room, the Crow caws again, as if calling Vincent into the room.
Vincent turns into the room and walks in. The memories rush into his head like a flood of pain and torment. He collapses to his knees and begins to bang his head on the floor. He sees memories of the times he and Amy would make love in this very room. He also sees memories of his parents together, happy and in love.
He screams out, "What happen to them? Where are my parents?" The Crow caws and flies out of the room. Vincent rushes up to his feet and runs after the Crow. The Crow flies into the bathroom. Confused, Vincent walks into the bathroom.
Suddenly, he remembers what happened to his parents. They were murdered in the house while he was gone. He came home only to find his parents beaten and slaughtered. The police showed up, but they pronounce his parents dead on the scene.
Three days later, Vincent sits in the bathroom with a razor. He cuts open his arms and wrists. Unknown to him, Amy walked into the house when nobody answered the door. She hears Vincent crying and screaming, and she rushes upstairs to find him lying on the bathroom floor in a puddle of his own blood. He is taken to the hospital, and lives. After a few days, he is released, but he refused mental help.
Vincent rips at the sleeves of his burial suit. Once he tears them off, he finds the scars on his arm from where he cut himself. The Crow looks down at him with its golden eyes. "Amy, she was my heart. She was there for me when nobody else was," he says.
The Crow caws and flies out of the room. Vincent realizes that the Crow is somehow his guide, showing him the things he needs to know. He leaves the bathroom and follows the Crow downstairs. The Crow leads him into the dinning room, but Vincent was unprepared for what he was about to see.
A happy memory comes into Vincent's mind. He remembers going to the mall and buying a ring for Amy. Then he came home and cooked Amy dinner. Before they eat, Vincent got down on one knee and proposed to her. She said yes. As Vincent stands in the dinning room, he smiles.
But then the worst of all his memories comes back to him. The sound of the door crashing open and the laughter of the murderers ring out in his head. Vincent collapses to his knees and punches the floor. In his mind, he sees the faces of the killers, each of their faces forever burned into his mind.
Piece by piece, that destructive night comes back to him. The Crow sits on the dinning room table, the exact spot where Amy was raped. On the floor around the table is the rotting food from that night. Vincent stands up and walks around to the other end of the room.
On the floor, he can see the stains of blood, his blood. He remembers being shot and slapped to the floor. A vampire woman drank his blood, while another woman stabbed him multiple times. Vincent rips off the rest of his shirt to see all the scars from the 21 stab wounds.
Vincent punches three holes in the wall before he sits down on the floor, tears of blood running down his face. The Crow caws, and Vincent looks over at the dinning room table. The memories of Amy's death torment him now. The beating, raping, and gunshots burn every singe ounce of Vincent's soul. The sound of her voice calling out his name for help echoes in his mind.
He screams and takes hold of the table. The Crow flies away right before he picks up the table and throws it against the wall. He punches another hole in the wall, and then stomps on the table. He stands in the middle of the dinning room, looking around.
"They stole my life, the woman I loved," he says. Vincent looks over at the broken table, and he breaks off one of the table legs. He lets out a loud scream and stabs the wooden leg through his chest. Instead of blood flowing out from his body, a river of ashes comes out of his wound. He feels no pain from the wound.
"What is this?" he asks. He pulls the wooden leg out from his chest, and then he watches in amazement as the wound closes up and heals itself. The Crow flies over and lands on his shoulder. Vincent looks over at the Crow, and it lets out a caw. When he stares into the Crow's golden eyes, he begins to feel the connection; he begins to understand what he must do.
Dead Time
I ran up to my room. I stripped down out of my burial clothes and went through my closet. While I went through the closet, I had memories of when Amy moved in with me. It was shortly after she found me trying to kill myself. I had to get rid of half my shit to make room in the closet for her clothes.
The Crow was standing on the bed, watching me. I found some black leather pants and put them on. While I did, I noticed the scar from where I was shot in the leg. In a box, I found my old black combat boots. In a drawer, I found my large thick belt, and I put it on. Back in the closet, I found a long sleeve black shirt.
In another box filled with Halloween stuff, I found two spiked bracelets and face paint. I put on the bracelets, and then went into the bathroom with the face paint. The Crow followed behind me and landed on the shower bar. As I looked in the mirror, I stared at the scars around my neck. There was one scar from where one of the women used a knife to slash open my neck. Another scar was from where the vampire woman bit down into me.
My hair is a dirty blonde color, and it comes down to the middle of my back. I keep it in matted locks. I tied the locks above my head, so my hair flowed down over my head. I took the face paints and painted my whole face white, then black lines above and below my eyes. My lips I painted black, with short lines coming out of the corners.
Back in the bedroom, I found one of Amy's black dresses. I closed my eyes to see a memory of when she was wearing it. We were at the mall, and she bought the dress with some Christmas money I had given her. We were also shopping with our friend, Rachel.
I tore the black dress and wrapped it around the lower half of my face as a cloak. I stood up, and the Crow landed on my shoulder, and I said, "Fear is for the enemy. Fear and pain." In the garage, I find several chains. I place the chains around the lower half of my legs, and around my upper arms. The Crow cawed and flew over to a pile of boxes in the corner of the garage. It was beating its beak down on one of the several boxes.
"It is a cold night, indeed, but I feel that my heart is colder from the death and decay of my wounds," I said. I walked over to the box and opened it up to get my long black coat. I found a knife and used it to cut off the sleeves of the jacket, then I slashed at the bottom of the coat in a zigzag design; so it looked like the tail of a Crow. I put the jacket on and started to laugh
The rain had temporally stopped. I have a black dodge viper, and I kept a spare key under the car. I cranked up the car and spun out of my garage and out onto the street.
The Crow flies above me, showing me the way to go. I speed down the city streets, following the Crow. Finally, I came to a house. I parked my car across the street and proceeded to go over to the house. There were several people in the house.
Inside, I saw the girl who slashed open my neck. She was with two other girls. They had loud gothic music playing, and the only light was that of dozens of candles place all around.
They all sat in a circle, holding hands. One of the girls said, "Start reading from the book, Joy." Joy was the girl who helped kill Amy and I. I watched from the window as Joy began to read from some spell book. I smiled to myself and went around the house.
"To the gods above us, to the gods below us, the gods of the east, and the gods of the west, I command thee to appear before us! Oh, spirits of pain and torment, appear before us so we may have you power and wisdom!" Joy said. One of the other girls began to say, "We need your help spirits, there has been a crime committed against us!" The third girl said, "I need your help spirits, a guy from school tried to rape me!"
The Crow flew into the room and landed in the center of the circle. "Holy shit!" one of the girls said as she jumped up from her seat. Joy said, "Don't you see, this is a sign from the spirits!" "I don't care what it is, just get rid of it," one of the other girls said.
"CAW," went the Crow as it flew up into the air and disappeared into the shadows. The loud gothic music suddenly stopped and there was just silence. Whispers of words could be heard coming from the darkness, as if the walls themselves were talking.
"What the fuck is going on?" one of the girls yelled out. Joy said, "Calm down, it's just the way the spirits communicate." The Crow appeared out from the shadows and flew by one of the girls, and then it disappeared back into the shadows. "What the hell is that thing?" the other girl said. "Are you blind, it's a Crow! They carry with them the spirits of the dead," Joy said.
A cool breeze came through the room and blew out all the candles. Now there was complete silence and complete darkness. All around the room, like a deadly echo, the girls could hear the caw of the Crow. "Goddamn, I'm getting the hell out of here!" one of the girls said. She ran for the door, but it wouldn't open or unlock.
Then they heard a strange and dark laughter. "Are you afraid of the light? Are you afraid of the night? Soon you will see, and be afraid of me!" I said from within the comfort of the shadows. "Who the fuck is that?" one of the girls asked.
Joy said, "That voice, it sounds familiar." When lightning flashed, the room lighted up for a few brief seconds. During those brief seconds of light, the three girls could see me standing before them with the Crow sitting on my shoulder.
One of the girls screamed, the other girl stood with wide eyes, and Joy showed no emotion. "Who are you?" Joy asked. I had no response, so I just stood there watching them. "Your voice sounds familiar to me," Joy continued.
"As well it should, lover of death," I said. "Hey man, your not gonna hurt us, are you?" one of the girls asked. I laughed said, "You two may leave. I need some personal time with the Joy of death." The two girls ran for the door, and this time it would open.
"Are you going to tell me who you are?" she asked. All the candles lit back up, providing light in the room. I rushed up to the girl and grabbed onto her head. "Look! Look into my eyes and remember your crimes!" I said.
When she looked into my eyes, she remembered who I was. She backed away from me and said, "But we killed you, I've even seen your grave!" "Why are you so surprised? Don't you believe in life after death?" I asked. The Crow flew off of my shoulder and onto a chair near by.
She reached into her boot and pulled out a knife, just like she did when she helped destroy me. She stabbed the knife into my chest, and I laughed. Ashes fell out of the wound when I pulled the knife out. Joy watched as the wound healed itself.
I punched her in the face, blood spraying out of her nose and mouth. I yelled out, "Time to pay the piper, bitch!" I grabbed her by the neck and threw her across the room. She crashed into the wall and fell down to the floor. I walked over to her and kneeled down next to her. "You like to kill, you love death, now it's time for you to feel what it's like to be dead," I said.
Joy reached up and took hold of my jacket. I took hold of her hand and used my supernatural strength to break every bone in it. She screamed with pain and agony. I slung her over to the center of the floor, and I picked up her knife from the floor.
"Please, let me live," she said. I said, "But Joy, your already dead. You died when you destroyed my life!" I took the knife and walked over to her. In my mind, I remembered her stabbing me the 21 times. I leaned over Joy and began to slash and stab her body repeatedly. She screamed for a few minutes, but eventually blood filled her lungs.
Cold Nights
Police cars surround the house of Joy. Police detective Ivy Young arrives at the scene. There are a few police officers outside the house, just standing in the yard talking among themselves. One of them tells Ivy, "Hey, prepare yourself. This killer was sick."
Inside the house, Ivy looks around to see all the candles lighted and blood all over the walls. Lying on the center of the floor is the dead body of Joy, very multiple slash and stabs wounds are apparent. One of the other police detectives is standing near the body writing down some things in his notebook.
"Who was she?" Ivy asks. The detective responds, "Tonya Phillips, a.k.a. Joy. Local gothic chic, practiced witchcraft, dropped out of school about a month ago." Ivy turns her attention back to the dead girl's body to examine it closer.
The girl's mouth has been sown shut. Two knives are stuck into the girl's face, into her eye sockets to be exact. There are too many slash and stab wounds on her body to count. Carved into the side of the girl's neck is the emblem of some kind of bird. The blood of the girl has been spread all over the walls of the room.
"Did she have any enemies?" Ivy asks. The detective says, "She was a suspect in that Davis, Marie case a few months back, but other than that her record is clean." "Did you see this marking on her neck?" Ivy asks. The detective says, "Yeah, I saw it. What do you think it means?" "I haven't got a clue," she responds.
Before leaving the crime scene, Ivy goes through Joy's room. She finds bloodstained razors, letters from her far away parents, some gothic jewelry, and a book of witchcraft, which also contains some old folklore and legends. Ivy takes the book with her when she leaves.
Ivy sits down in her car. She opens up the book and begins flipping through the pages. She hears a noise from the hood of her car and she looks up to see a large black bird standing on the hood of her car. The Crow lets out a caw and flies off of the car. Seconds later, it begins to rain again. Ivy shakes her head and then cranks up the car to leave.
Victims, aren't we all?
Before Joy died, she told me the names of my murderers. John, the guy who destroyed my computer and also raped Amy; Nadia, the teenage vampire cult leader who sucked away at my blood; Adam, the guy who shot me and raped Amy; and the leader with the snake was Talon.
There was something I remembered from my deathbed, when the doctors were operating on me; they said there was a friend of mine waiting outside. I had only one friend here besides Amy, and that was Rachel, the girl who worked at the jewelry store at the mall.
I drove through the rainy night towards her apartment. She was rich and lived in the penthouse of a 20 story apartment complex. I entered the apartment building and ran up the stairs. I was beginning to realize my supernatural strength. Not only was I running faster, but also I wasn't getting tired doing it.
The Crow followed behind me. We finally reached the 20th floor and found Rachel's apartment. I wasn't sure how I was to go about meeting her again. How does one greet a dead man? I looked around the hallway and found a window that led outside.
Rachel was alone in her apartment. She was making popcorn and about to sit down and watch a movie. A cool breeze came into the room from a window. Rachel looked over and said, "How did that thing get open?" She walks over to the window and closes it.
From behind, the Crow lets out a caw. Rachel screams and quickly turns around to see the Crow sitting on the couch. "Please, don't be afraid, Rachel," I said from the corner of the room. Rachel slowly turns to face me.
She screams again and backs away towards the couch. The Crow caws and she screams again. "Your going to wake the dead if you keep screaming like that," I said. "Vincent, your dead!" she yelled out. I lowered the cloak around my face so she could get a better look.
"Please, just don't be afraid," I said. "What are you?" she asked. I shook my head and said, "I don't know what I am. Please, I need your help with something." Rachel said, "Help with what?" "Amy's engagement ring, the ring I bought from you the morning I died, I need to know where it's at," I said.
Rachel looked away from me and looked at the Crow. She said, "I have it, it's in my bedroom." I asked, "Will you please go get it for me." Rachel nodded and ran for her bedroom. A minute later, she came out holding the ring in her hand.
"I got the ring before the cops did, I wanted something to remember you two by," she said. She handed over the ring and I took it. The memory of engaging to Amy floods back into my mind. A tear of blood slowly rolls down my white painted face.
"I don't think I can handle this," Rachel says, and then she sits down on the couch. I placed the ring in the pocket of my jacket and said, "You don't have to understand it, just think of this as a dream." "A dream? My dead friend suddenly pops back into my life, and you want me to believe that it's just a dream when I know it's real?" she said.
"Basically, yeah," I said with a smile. "Just leave me alone, I need to deal with this," she said. In the blink of an eye, I was gone from her sight. The Crow caws and flies out the open door. Rachel began to cry and buried her face into one of the pillows on her couch.
Stitches of Pain

Back at my house, I lie down on the bed and stare up at the ceiling. I get up from the bed and gather a bunch of Amy's things. Back down in the living room, I make a shrine out of her things. I light candles in her honor and place them in a circle around the objects. I sit there looking at this shrine, filled with unbearable pain, tears of blood running down my face.

I find black stitches and a needle (from Amy's medical drawer in her desk), and go into the bathroom. "I cannot bear this pain, I need a release!" I yell out. I sow around my mouth, but leave it loose enough so I can talk. I sow around each eye, but not sown shut, so I can still see.
Outside, it begins to rain even harder. Someone unlocks the front door and enters the house. I rush out of the bathroom and look down the stairs to see Rachel walking around. She walks over to the shrine I've made of Amy and stares at it.
"What do you want?" I asked from the foot of the stairs. Rachel turned around and said, "Answers." I sat down on the steps of the stairs and said, "I'm afraid I don't have any." She walked over to me and sat down on the steps next to me. "Where is Amy?"
"In a better place," I answered. She looks at my face, the stitches of pain I have sown over my mouth and eyes. "Why did you do that?" she asked. I responded, "Pain, I thrive on it now. Without the pain, I am nothing but Casper the friendly ghost."
The Crow flies down from the second floor and lands in front of us. It caws and looks at me. I turned my attention back to Rachel and said, "I have to go now." I stood up and began walking to the door, pulling the cloak up over my face. Rachel asked, "You're killing them, aren't you?" I looked over my shoulder and said, "The punishment should fit the crime."
In the darkness and coldness of the night I disappear from the light. The Crow flies out of the house after me. Rachel shut the door and remained in the house. She walked over to the shrine and laid down on the floor before it.
Fangs and Bloodlust
I didn't take the car, instead I ran through the night. The Crow guides me to my next target, my next victim. Through the wet streets, we come to a small 24-hour store. I watch from a rooftop as a car pulls up to the store.
Nadia, the teenage vampire, gets out of the passenger side of the car along with 5 other teens. They run into the store. Moments later, gunshots ring out in the night from within the store. Nadia and her 5 friends come running out of the store and into the car. The car takes off at a high speed.
Along the rooftops, I follow the car speeding down the streets. The Crow flies down and matches speed with the car. I leap down off the roof and glide down towards the car. I smash through the trunk of the car. The driver slams on the brakes, and the car comes to a complete stop.
"What the fuck was that?" the driver screams. Nadia pulls out her gun and gets out of the car. She slowly walks around to the end of the car to see a large hole in the trunk. She yells out, "Hey, come look at this!" The other 5 teens get out of the car, guns in hand, and walk around to the end of the car.
One of the teens opens up the trunk only to find it empty. The Crow lands on the roof of the car and caws. The teens look up at it. Nadia says, "Let's get out of here, I'm getting soaked from all this rain!" The teens gather back in the car, and the Crow flies off of the roof of the car.
The driver gives the car gas, but it doesn't move. "Man, take the brake off," one of the teens says. "The brake's not on, the damn car just wont move," the driver says. One of the teens sitting in the backseat says, "Um, guys. Look behind us."
When they look behind them, they see me holding the end of the car. I'm using my strength to keep the car from driving off. I wave at them and say, "Looks like you kids have some car troubles." They all rush out of the car and Nadia says, "Waste the motherfucker!"
They all open fire on me with their guns. I hold out my arms and accept the pain. I laugh as their bullets blast through my body. When they stop, one of them says, "He must be wearing a vest!" I laugh again and pull up my shirt so they can see the wounds they made heal themselves.
"Holy shit!" one of them yells out. "Tell me, are you all vampires?" I ask. Nadia says, "What do you care?" I start walking towards her and I say, "What's a matter Nadia? Are you afraid to die? Are you going to cry?" Nadia spits on my boot and says, "Fuck off man."
I slap her across the face, but the other teens jump on me. I throw one of them off, I push another onto the car, trip up another, kick one away, and throw another one off of me. Nadia points her gun at me and shoots me in the head. I stumble backwards and fall to the ground.
"Let's get the hell out of here!" she yells out. All of them get back in the car and take off. The Crow flies down and lands on my body. The wound in my head slowly heals up, and then I sit up. "Okay, no more mister nice avenger!" I yell.
At the cemetery where I was buried, Nadia and her 5 friends gather under a large tree. Nadia says, "Stay here, I have to go see something." She runs through the graves, until she comes to the one she's looking for. Her eyes widen with fear when she sees the grave of Vincent Davis empty.
"The grave is empty just like my soul, Nadia," I say from behind her. She screams and quickly turns around to see me. In my hand, I have a sharp wooden stake. "Time to die, bitch," I say. Gunshots ring out from behind and into my body. I turn around to see Nadia's friends shooting me again.
Through the night I run towards them, when I get near one of them, I stab the wooden stake through the teenage vampire's heart. The teenager yells with pain and falls to the ground dead. Under my jacket I pull out another wooden stake and say, "Don't worry kiddies, there's one for each of you!"
One of the teenagers throws down their gun and attacks me. I stab the wooden stake through their heart, and I laugh as the teen dies before my feet. Another teenage vampire tries to shoot me in the head, but I catch the bullet in my hand. I drop the bullet to the ground and wave my finger side to side, as if to say "No, No."
That teenager tries to run away, but I throw a wooden stake like a spear, and it stabs through their heart. I pull out two more wooden stakes and attack the other two teenagers. I thrust the stakes through their hearts and lift them up in the air off their feet. I drop their bodies to the ground and laugh.
When I look around, I cannot see Nadia. In the rush of the previous fight, I didn't keep my eye on my true target. However, the Crow has kept an eye on Nadia. I look through the Crow's eyes, and I see Nadia running into the nearby church.
Nadia stumbles around the church, looking around for a place to hide. The preacher of the church sees Nadia looking around and goes over to her. "Can I help you?" the preacher asks. The church doors swing open and I come walking in, the Crow flies over me, and lands on one of the pews.
"Time to die, Nadia," I say. She grabs the preacher and holds him in front of her. She holds her gun up to his head. Before I went after Nadia, I took one of the teenager's guns. I aim the gun at Nadia and say, "Why do you try and run from death? Our destinies together are forever bound."
"Get back or I'll blow his brains out!" she yells. I aim the gun carefully and shoot it. The bullet tears into Nadia's arm. She screams and drops her gun to the floor. The preacher runs away. I run up to Nadia and grab her by her throat, and then pick her up off her feet.
"Tell me where to find the others!" I scream. She responds, "I don't know where Adam is, but I know he's still in town. John and Talon left weeks ago for Chicago, they had some kind of business to take care of up there!"
The memory of Nadia feeding upon my blood flashes into my head. I shake the memory off and throw her into the wooden altar, smashing it to pieces. Suddenly, I feel pain in my body. When Nadia stands up, I can see there is piece of wood stabbing through her arm.
I aim my gun at Nadia's head, but pain fills my entire hand and causes me to drop the gun. "What the hell?" I yell out. I look over at the Crow, and it tells me something. My blood was still flowing through Nadia; therefore, her and me are bonded. I cannot kill Nadia because of this, the powers I posses will not allow me to.
She slowly walks over to me, saying, "You piece of shit, you can't kill me!" She kicks me in the face, knocking me back a few steps. I look up at her and say, "No, but I can do something worse." I place my hands on her face, and use dark powers to send waves of pain all through her mind and body. She screams with agony and falls to the floor, shaking violently.
The Crow caws. In the distance, I can hear the sirens of police cars. The preacher had apparently called the police. I run for one of the church windows and leap through it, shattering the glass. Outside, it had stopped raining. I run through the cemetery and disappear into the shadows of the night.