(Vampire Hell)
Chapter Five: Fukai na Giron
(Unpleasant Discourse)
The sun had risen all too early for the two boys still sleeping uncomfortably in the rotten, worn-down church. It crept upon them slowly, peering in stealthily above the windowsill. It then fledged an all-out attack on Duo, making him squint his eyes in his light sleep. He threw an arm over his face, blocking out the pure rays shining through the window, and moaned in discomfort.
The old pew he slept on creaked underneath his weight, and a few of the more loose pieces of wood broke off from the edge and sprinkled to the floor in a light mist, landing on the chest of the small boy lying next to him on the floor. Quatre had refused to sleep in a pew, fearing it may give way at any moment during his sleep, and had opted for the floor. He sighed lightly and brushed the dust from his off-white shirt, fully awake. "Duo?" he strained to talk. He had never felt so thirsty in his life. It was as if he'd been trudging through the dryness of desert sand all his life, without a drop of water.
Duo mumbled something unintelligible in his sleep and rolled over to face Quatre, the pew creaking and spraying more dust to the floor. "Wha-?" he inquired sleepily, scratching his nose with the back of his hand.
Quatre admired him soundlessly. He was like some cute little stuffed animal while he was asleep. Who would ever believe that he'd killed thousands upon thousands of innocent people to survive? Who would ever believe that he was so aged? Twelve-hundred, thirty-six years, plus. That was old. "I'm thirsty," Quatre croaked out, rubbing at the ache in his throat. It was so dry and itchy, he just could not stand it anymore.
Duo sat bolt upright, smiling. "Oh yeah!" he said excitedly, seeming to have suddenly gained a great amount of energy. He reached into one of the pockets of his jacket and pulled out a large bottle of red wine. Quatre gasped. His jacket was far too small to fit anything of that size. Then he gasped again as Duo produced two long-stemmed drinking glasses from the same pocket, smiling a sly smirk the whole while. He handed a lone glass to Quatre, popped the cork on the wine bottle, and slowly poured the thick red substance into his flask.
Quatre gulped down the liquid quickly, feeling it coat his throat as the blood had done the night before. He held out his glass for more, wiping his chin with one hand and breathing heavily. "How did you do that?" he asked in between breaths as Duo refilled his glass.
The boy smirked again, watching intently as the wine sank into the other's cup. "Magic," he answered off-handedly. Quatre stared at him strangely a moment before putting the glass back to his lips and drinking it down as quickly as the first. He could not seem to get enough of the strangely bitter-salty, but sweet liquid. The thirst was consuming him from the inside out. He held out his glass for more. Duo poured it absentmindedly this time. "You'd be surprised some of the things you can do, when you get older."
Quatre knitted his brow a moment. "Like what?" he asked as he took the full flask to his lips for the third time.
"Well, for one," Duo said, pouring himself his own glass of wine, "you can change the way you look."
After finishing his third drink off, Quatre swallowed heavily. His throat was less dry now, but he still needed more. He held out his glass. "What do you mean?"
Duo laughed a bit, shaking the bottle of wine on the edge of the boy's glass. It clinked a glassy sound and the wine spilled over onto Quatre's hand. He ignored it, letting it drip onto the floor. "Want me to show you?" Duo asked him, raising his eyes to a menacing type of glare that was shielded by his feminine eyebrows. His head still lowered, he smiled, revealing his straight teeth.
Quatre stared at him warily and shrank back. "I... I'm not sure. Do I want you to?"
Duo laughed again, but this time, it was more of a free laugh. Not menacing and low like before. "Look," he said, putting the wine glass on the pew next to him. He closed his eyes a moment, and a light wind began to blow through the church. It whipped the boy's long bangs around his face and his braid waved to a melancholy rhythm. Quatre watched as the boy seemed to change slightly. His hair turned to a midnight black, his legs grew slightly longer, his chest stretched, his arms lengthened, and his shoulders widened. It was a strange sight, and Quatre backed away slightly. Duo's eyes were still closed, and the wind was still blowing. Quatre backed even further away on the floor. "Okay, Duo," he said softly, not wanting to sound scared. The wind continued to blow, and the boy's hair changed from midnight black to a bright red. "Duo!" Quatre shouted, panicking.
Duo opened his eyes sharply, and the wind stopped as quickly as it had begun. Quatre looked closely. His eyes were green, his hair was red, and he looked much older, at least in his thirties. This was not an illusion. It was not. "How...?"
"Quatre," the boy said jokingly. It was the same voice as before, yet it sounded so alien coming from the different body. "It is an illusion." he snapped his fingers in the air and the strange colors disappeared. He was back to his normal body size, and his eyes and hair had returned to their original color. Quatre stared in awe, ignoring the wine glass that still dangled precariously between his thumb and forefinger. "You'll be able to do this too, in a few hundred years."
Quatre shook his head rapidly, trying to clear his thoughts. "A few hundred years!" he thought to himself, dropping the wine glass on the wooden floor. "A few hundred years! I'm going to be alive... forever!?" Realization suddenly hit, and he began to regret what they had done the night before.
Duo lifted the wine-filled glass to his lips. "You'll be able to see through other vampires' illusions in a few days," he said, before taking a sip and smacking his lips childishly. "But only bodily illusions," he stated, correcting himself. "See, there's physical and mental illusions. When a vampire changes his body, that's a physical illusion. When you put an idea into someone's head, that's a mental. Got it?" Quatre nodded. "Unless their powers are stronger than yours, they will never be able to tell the difference between your mental suggestions and reality."
"Why?" Quatre asked. He looked down and finally noticed the glass on the wooden floor. He picked it up and held it out to Duo for yet another refill. "Why can we see through the bodily ones, and not the mental?"
Duo looked thoughtful a moment, then smiled. "I don't know! I'm guessing it has something to do with recognizing other vampires. If you see someone who looks completely out of place, just as you would, were you in your normal body, you'd automatically guess that they were a vampire."
Quatre nodded in agreement. It seemed like a logical enough explanation. "Um, Duo...?" he trailed of warily.
"Hm?" Duo asked while gulping down his wine.
"Why do I need to know all of this, if there's only you and me and one other?"
Duo nearly choked on his wine with laughter. He clutched his palm to his mouth, trying not to release a flush of the red liquid onto the poor boy on the floor at his feet. "Well, see...," he said, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. "I'm not sure if we are the only ones."
"What!?" Quatre shrieked. Had this boy been lying to him the whole time? He had thought it would be simply he and Duo against the world, for all eternity. But there were others...
"You can only sense the presence of vampires younger than yourself. It's a strange connection. Since I am one of the oldest, I came to the conclusion, when I felt all but one of my children die, that her and I were the only ones left."
"So, unless there's someone older than you..."
"Which is highly unlikely."
"Then it's just you and me?"
"Correct."
"And one other?"
"Right."
"A girl?"
"Relena," Duo whispered bitterly as he ground his teeth. "By far, my biggest example of the poor choices I've made in the past."
"What do you mean?"
"She's my creation."
~~~~~~~~
It was early morning still when Relena was finally able to find Duo's hideout again. She'd apparently taken a wrong turn, because it had taken over an hour to find it. She traveled down the now familiar corridor, and turned the corner into the open room. Everything was as she remembered. The fires were still burning in the rusted barrels, and the music still screamed at her from the large stereo system. Some people were awake, but the majority of them were sleeping on the floor, some of them in large groups.
Relena sneered at the sight. How could these humans stand to live in such deplorable conditions? It was disgusting. Trash everywhere, rats running around freely, cockroaches and spiders. She sighed to herself and silently entered the hall, hoping not to draw any attention to herself. She doubted these people really even cared what kind of place they were living in. They looked to be mostly drug addicts and drunks and runaways and criminals. Poor things. If only they knew. They still have a life to live. They could change it, should they choose to do so. They weren't confined to their own personal hell, to killing for survival. They had a chance. It was awful to see them all throwing their lives away.
The girl walked past the few people still awake. Some of them seemed to recognize her from before. They nodded at her as if she were one of their own. She tried to smile back pleasantly, but found herself unable. The entire scene laid out before her was depressing. She came to the door to Duo's private room. The thick, rusted, metal door that she despised so greatly. "Okay," she said to herself as she grabbed the doorknob. "Just stay calm, and everything will be fine." She held the cold metal door handle tightly in her hand and pulled it open.
The room inside was totally darkened, and she squinted into the pitch black, willing her eyes to adjust. She stepped inside silently and closed the doors behind her. There was no sound, save for her own heart drumming in her ears. Her eyes finally adjusted to the darkness, and she realized she was alone in the room. There was nothing to fear. She flipped the light switch on the wall next to the door and flooded the room with brightness. She instantly regretted the action.
The bodies. Those two boys' bodies were still sprawled on the bed and the floor. Blood was splashed against every wall and on the ceiling. It gave her a sinking feeling in her stomach, and she held her hand over her mouth in disgust. The smell. The smell was awful. The entire room reaked of rotting flesh and old blood and musty human scent. How she hated the dead. Their smell was repugnant and disgusting, and it made her want to run from the room, but she stopped herself, gathering her courage.
She walked cautiously over to the bed, as if the corpses may spring to life and attack her. Her backpack was lying on the floor next to the bed, and she picked it up, setting it on the worn down mattress. She opened it up, sifting through the contents.
She pulled out her bowie knife, still sheathed in its' leather package and wrapped in a red silk scarf. Her Smith and Wesson .357 magnum with the shortened barrel came out next. It was cold against her chilled skin. The light from above glinted off of the pearl handle she held tightly in her hand. She set it beside the backpack on the bed. Another knife, this one shorter, but double-edged and wavy. It had been forged out of silver and iron. It was heavy and clunky, but she rather liked it. Her large gold cross stared up at her from inside the backpack. She had found out very early on that crosses have no effect on vampires. In fact, many of the things she had heard about before, crosses, garlic, a stake through the heart, even the sun, they all had nothing to do with vampires. Yet, she still carried this cross around with her. It gave her strength and something to believe in, and with the situation she was facing now, she knew that she needed these things more than anything else.
A few more books about vampires laid at the bottom of her backpack. She counted them with the tips of her fingers. All five were still there, and she placed everything back in the knapsack. She found the large, old book on the floor next to the bed and put it in the backpack as well before zipping it up and hoisting it up to her shoulder.
The smell was beginning to truly nauseate her now, and she practically ran out of the room, turning around and shutting the door tightly behind her. Relena placed her head against the metal door and sighed with relief. Duo hadn't been there. She could breathe easier now knowing that she would have more time to prepare herself for her fight with him. She turned around to leave, and immediately stopped, coming mere centimeters from bumping into someone's chest.
Relena gasped and looked up, fear immediately rising inside her when she saw the familiar pair of reflective sunglasses staring back at her. "Duo..." she breathed, grasping her chest above her heart.
The boy smirked at her and waved a finger in front of her face. "Tsk, tsk, Relena," he said, breathing his icy breath into her face. It smelled faintly of alcohol. "What are you doing here uninvited?"
Relena tried to take a step back, but was halted by the door behind her. She pressed herself against it and stared at the boy with her mouth hanging open. "I... I was..."
"You should never come her uninvited, Relena," he said seriously, his smirk dropping from his features and changing to a menacing glare.
"I left my backpack," Relena retorted, gathering up all her courage, prepared to fight this boy now, should he choose to make the first move. She knew it would happen someday soon, anyway. Why not now?
"Your silly little toys," the boy scoffed, shaking his head. "You'll have no need for those in our battle."
Relena knitted her brow in confusion. "What are you talking about?" she asked. Certainly he couldn't know what was in her pack! Everything was still there. He would have hidden them from her if he had found them. He would have figured out that they were the weapons she had used to kill all of the others.
"Your little gun and all of those knives. Those books won't help you, either."
Relena suddenly became furious, and stepped up to his face, coming just inches from his body. She could almost hear his heartbeat mingling with her own. "You think you're so smart, don't you!?" she screamed, and jabbed a finger into his chest. It was surprisingly taught and muscular. She had expected this thin boy to be slightly out of shape. She had never imagined him to be so built. "I've killed others with these weapons! What makes you so special that I couldn't do the same to you?"
The boy scoffed in her face, choosing to ignore the finger poking into his pectoral muscle. This girl certainly could appear to have some guts when she chose to. He grabbed her chin in his hand and held it tightly. She did not back down from him, nor did she shy away from the touch. She stood proudly, still pointing her finger into his chest. "Relena, darling," he said, squeezing the soft skin of her face slightly harder. "I may not be the oldest vampire, but one thing is certain."
"What?"
"I am the strongest."
Relena removed her finger from the boy's chest and slapped his hand away from her face brutally. He sneered at her. "You're lying!"
Duo stopped sneering and smiled again. "You think so?"
"I know so!" she screamed. Some of the people who were still awake began to gather in a crowd around the two. They stared at them arguing, wondering what all of the commotion was about. Most of them looked high on drugs. All of them looked thin and drawn, the dim light of the fires burning in the barrels making them out to be looming over Relena. She didn't like the eerie feeling it gave her.
"Shoot me," Duo commanded, stretching his arms wide open and giving her a perfect shot at him. The girl stared, totally stunned. "You think you can kill me with a weapon like that. Shoot me." Relena dare not make a move. It must be a trick. "Dammit, Relena!" he screamed at her, the threatening growl echoing in the high-ceilinged room. "I'm giving you a chance to finish the job you started so many years ago! If you think you can end my life, then do it!"
Relena lowered her face and glared at the boy from under her brow. "If you want to die today, Duo, then so be it." She slung the backpack around to her chest, unzipped it, and pulled out her gun, dropping everything else to the floor.
She looked down the line of the sights, aligning the barrel of the gun directly with his chest, holding it in both hands. He did not move. She cocked the gun. He smiled at her. She pulled the trigger. Time seemed to stop. She watched as the bullet traveled from the gun towards its target. Duo stood solemnly, looking Relena directly in the eye. The bullet traveled to the boy's chest and hit it hard, knocking him back a few steps. He fell back against the people standing behind him, looking completely stunned. Blood rushed from his chest, soaking his shirt front. She faintly heard a few people scream. "You shot me!" Duo screamed, holding his hand over the hole in his chest. Relena had no reaction. She watched as the people he leaned against slowly lowered him onto the puddle of blood on the floor. He drew his knees up to his chest and rocked back and forth, sobbing.
He was crying! She could see the tears clearly as they flowed down his face. He looked up at her, his large, scared violet eyes gleaming in the small amount of light from the fires that cast away the shadows. Relena dropped the gun to the floor in surprise. She hadn't expected him to react this way. She suddenly felt sorry for the boy. He looked so pathetic and innocent, crying and rocking back and forth. She could feel his pain in her own chest, and she knelt down next to him, brushing his hair out of his eyes. He continued to cry and moan in pain. "I... I'm sorry, Duo," Relena said sadly. She felt awful for what she had just done. No one had ever been alive after she'd shot them. They had never cried up at her, their tears staining their smooth skin. They had never looked so pitiful as Duo did right now.
The boy lowered his head and continued to rock. The sobbing grew louder. It echoed throughout the entire room and made a hollow sound against her mind. The boy was practically wailing now, and his shoulders were shaking fiercely. The sobbing stopped, but he continued to shake. He still rocked back and forth in pain. Then the sobbing came again, but it was different this time. It was louder. It was not so pain-ridden. It was... laughter.
The boy looked at Relena again, a huge smile on his lips. He opened his mouth and laughed out loud, making the girl shiver. She sneered down at him, and he smiled up at her. It was a wicked smile, filled with evil. She slapped him across the face, and he continued to smile and laugh. She slapped him again. The laughing didn't stop. She jumped on top of him and began to beat him, punching his face and chest and stomach, anything she could punch, as hard as she could. He continued to laugh at her. She could feel her hands becoming drenched in the blood from the gunshot wound. She screamed loudly and continued to hit him with all her might.
Finally, someone grabbed her arms and dragged her off of him. She kicked and flailed her arms, daring the person to let her go. She felt ready to kill everyone in the room, should they release her. "Don't you think you've done enough to him!? You crazy bitch!" someone yelled at her. She ignored it and began to claw at whoever it was that was holding her back from the boy who was lying on his back, still laughing at her.
"He's dead, already!" someone screamed. Relena stopped fighting and stared at the boy on the floor. She did a double take. It wasn't Duo! It was some innocent young boy. He couldn't be more than eleven or twelve years old. He lay on the floor in a large pool of his own blood, a gunshot wound in his chest. Relena fell out of her captor's arms and onto the floor. She stared at the young boy's body, totally confused. She had shot Duo. It had been him standing right in front of her. Who was this child lying dead on the floor?
Relena clasped her hands over her head and shook violently. Everything was so confusing. It had all been a mind game. Duo must have known she was here and made her think that he had been here as well. That poor child. She had shot an innocent for no reason. The girl sobbed into her knees.
Duo's voice came resounded through her mind, talking to her over her sobs. "Relena..." It was a haunting sound, and at first she thought she had imagined it, but the voice spoke again. "Relena, darling..." Relena looked up, scanning the crowd for the boy with the silvery eyes. He was nowhere. "You can't kill me, Relena."
"Shut up!!" the girl screamed frantically. Everyone backed up a few steps. The girl was talking to herself again. "Get out of my head, Duo!" she screamed. The sound echoed hauntingly through the room.
"I am eternal, Relena."
"Go away!" the girl screamed pathetically before sobbing into her knees again.
The boy laughed within her mind, and the sound grew steadily louder, until she felt as if her eardrums would burst. "You'd better find another way to kill me, because that gun," he said jokingly. "It won't work with me."
Relena shook with fear a moment more, until the laughter in her mind died away. She looked up. There was a crowd gathered around her, and all of the dangerous, dirty looking people were staring down at her as if she were insane. "Duo is crazy!" she screamed at everyone. They stared warily at her. "He's an evil vampire, and if you don't all leave, he's going to kill you!" She heard a few people snicker and laugh at her. The girl sighed to herself. As if anyone would actually believe her now. She couldn't even believe herself anymore.
She picked up her gun and backpack and walked backwards out of the room. Those poor people. They were all doomed. They had no idea of the evils Duo had committed. They had no idea. She turned around and ran, flying through the long corridor decorated with fence and spray paint. She flung open the door at the end, the sunlight making her go blind for a moment. She stumbled over some trash on the ground at her feet, nearly losing her balance. The girl didn't even bother to close the door behind her. She ran down the alley as fast as she could, trying to get as far away from that place, and Duo, as she could.
~~~~~~~~~
"Duo!" Quatre screamed, shaking his shoulder. He had gone totally still a moment before, and now he stared blankly into space. "Duo, what's wrong with you!?"
"That gun... it won't work with me," he said into space, smiling. Quatre stared at him strangely a moment before backing away. What was he talking about? He'd been mumbling to himself for a few minutes now, and here he was, talking about guns to no one.
"Duo... are you okay?" The boy stared at him a moment longer.
As if someone had flipped a switch, recognition suddenly lit up within Duo's eyes, and he smiled at the blonde in front of him. "Sorry about that, Quatre," he said soothingly.
Quatre stared at him as if he had gone mad. "You were talking to yourself..."
The boy laughed in response and shook his head. "No, I was talking to Relena. She was in my room. I just wanted to scare her a bit." Quatre raised an eyebrow in confusion, so Duo took the liberty of explaining what he had just done. "You see, as an older vampire, I can sense where the younger ones are. I knew she had gone back to my place, so I fucked with her mind a bit. It's pretty far away from here, so it took some concentration, and that's why I seemed to space out for a moment there."
The blonde nodded, although he wasn't sure he totally understood. "It's morning," he said plainly, turning to look out the broken glass of the window in the church. "We should get back to civilization."
Duo nodded and hauled himself to his feet. His legs were tired, and he still felt weak from the night before. He would need to go back to his bed and sleep a few more hours. "Let's go, then," the boy said, stretching his lengthy arms in the air and yawning. "I'll show you the place I call home, Quat."
The boy smiled at the pet name and stood up as well, stretching like Duo had done. He followed him out the front doors of the church, watching every move he made as he walked. "Quat," he whispered to himself, smiling.
~~~~~~~~~
Pain. He could feel the pain of this young girl. She was falling into his arms, her eyes closed. So light and thin. Her skin was pale, her hair was thin and dry. She was an alcoholic and a drug addict and a prostitute. Normally, he would never drink the blood of a drug user, but today, he felt in the mood for some bitter blood. He had fed upon two healthy, beautiful young girls the night before. This one was just for fun. Just for the fun of killing and feeding. Just to see how fearful she became when he sank his teeth into the supple flesh of her neck.
The girl in his arms was dead now. Her heart had stopped beating. The boy dropped the girl to the ground. Her lifeless body lay still, her green eyes staring blankly at nothing. The boy wiped the blood from his mouth and smiled. He left the darkened alleyway he had entered with the girl, stepping back onto the busy streets of the city.
Like lightning flashing in his mind, a thought was suddenly rushed upon his brain. "A new vampire," he whispered to himself. The voice was icy and grave. "This has got to stop." He leaned against the wall of the brick building on the street and closed his eyes. The new vampire. He was young like all of the others that had been created. Why did Duo have to make them so young? Blonde hair, blue eyes. That girl. The one who has been killing all of the other vampires. She would certainly get to him. She would kill him. The boy sighed to himself. Another life wasted.
"This has got to stop," he said again to himself. A few people walking by stared at the strange boy with the sunglasses as he sat talking to himself.
The boy focused his thoughts on Duo. The long braid, the silvery-violet eyes, the large, knowing smile. He pinpointed his exact location, halfway across the world. North America. United States. Boston, Massachusetts. The outskirts, coming back from someplace deep in the woods. The boy nodded his head silently and pushed himself off of the building with his shoulder. He walked down the street silently.
The boy went to the airlines and booked the next flight out of
Japan, to Boston.