Chapter Three

Toru stumbled through the door and nearly ran into the back of Father Anderson. The people in the car were screaming and Toru struggled to see past Anderson's back. He was indeed very tall and didn't seem to notice her behind him.

Something in front of Anderson was making horrible snarling sounds. Toru could make out the people who hadn't been able to escape the car and they were all a mass of frightened faces huddling as close to the train windows as they could get. What disturbed her was the small patch of blood that smeared one of the windows. Someone had gotten hurt.

"You picked the wrong train freak." Anderson said in his thick accent. Toru couldn't sense a hint of fear or concern in his voice. He sounded rather confident actually; almost happy.

"Who the hell are you?" A ghastly voice said from the front of the train. Toru decided to risk stepping sideway into one of the seats to get a better look. What she saw terrified her. Standing in the isle was a young man dressed in a thick black winter coat. The hood on the jacket was lined with white synthetic fur stained red in places. The man's face was also covered in blood as though someone had punched him.

"I'm an instrument of God's divine punishment." Anderson said proudly. "And you, a poor lost soul, are about to be at peace."

Toru was almost in a state of shock. She had no idea what was happening or what Father Anderson and the young man were talking about. Her confusion increased when the young man opened his mouth wider than any human could and exposed a row of pointed teeth complete with fangs. "Sir look out!" she shouted fearing that Father Anderson was about to be hurt.

From somewhere inside his coat Anderson produced what looked to Toru like two short swords. He held one up horizontally in front of his face and brought the other perpendicular to it. Held like that, the blades formed the sign of the cross. The young man merely snarled. "I don't know who you are priest but that cross crap doesn't work on me! I'm a new breed of vampire! One like you've never fought before. Now die!"

Toru screamed and closed her eyes. Her ability to comprehend English was deteriorating fast as her fear and confusion grew. She thought the heard the man refer to himself as a vampire. That would explain a lot of things, but it was still impossible. But then again, so are people who turn into animals when you hug them. A voice inside her head told her. She crouched behind the seat she had moved into and covered her head. She wished with all of her might that Kyo and Yuki were beside her. She wished that she was back at Shigurae's house cooking dinner for the three of them, plus herself of course. She promised herself that if everything turned out alright she would do something special for every Soma she new once she got back.

She screamed when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up expecting to see a monster. Instead she swallowed the scream. Looking down on her was the calm face of Father Anderson. He had a slight smile on his face and Toru's breathing eased. She swallowed hard and let him help her back into a sitting position. "Are you alright child?" he asked. The look in his eyes still made her feel uneasy. It was as though comforting her wasn't the true joy of his work and this was merely an act of cleanup.

"I-I'm alright." She said feeling bad about having such thoughts. He had clearly been trying to help and even if he was creepy that was no reason to be so harsh on him.

Anderson helped her up and shielded her with his large coat. He cast a glance back at the car as he ushered her back toward the door. Toru made to turn her head back towards where the young man had been but Anderson stopped her. "There's nothing for you to see back there child." He said coldly. "You may not be a Christian but what's back there isn't fit for the sight of good Catholics or even heathens."

"W-what happened?" she asked, trying to remember what the word "heathen" meant.

"Don't worry about it."

"I saw blood. And that young man…what was he? Was anyone hurt?"

Anderson led her through the door of the train and glared at the small mob of people who were looking at them. There was much chatter in the car and a balding man in a suit got up from his seat. "What's going on up there?" the bald man asked. "What's going on?"

Anderson frowned and sat Toru down in her seat. "Don't move child." He turned to the balding man and spoke loud enough to address the rest of the people in the car. "I'll have to ask you all to stay in your seats." He said doing his best to lessen his accent. It had been a while since he had to do any public speaking and it wasn't his strong point. There were more murmurings from the passengers and there was of course those in the other car to worry about.

Anderson's eye began to twitch. The vampire was dead but now there was a mess to clean up. Cleaning up messes was not his job by any means and he most definitely was not equipped to do it. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small black cellular phone. He flipped it open and began dialing. He growled when Maxwell's voice mail message answered. He hung up and dialed another number. As it was ringing he heard a thump against the door to the car. There was more screaming coming from the other car along with a familiar sound. Angry moans of mindless hunger.

Toru looked up from staring at the floor. "What was that?"

Anderson shook his head slowly. I killed that damned vampire. There should be no ghouls.

"I'll be right back." Anderson said and he once again whisked off though the door and into the other car, leaving Toru and the other train passengers to sit and wonder.

End Chapter Three