Title: First Steps II - companion piece to First Steps.
Author: Gillian Middleton
Characters: Character who appeared in Dead Man's Blood.
Rating: M - Violence
Total word count: 1 750
Warning: None. Still exploring the amazing universe Kripke gave us.
Authors notes & Summary: How is a hunter made?

First Steps II

by Gillian

Broken. That's how he felt. Not just his body, the raw open wounds, the sluggish flow of blood drying and sticking what was left of his clothes to his skin. But his mind, broken with images of things seen but not believed. Truth that couldn't possibly be true.

Ned lay in the darkness. There were bodies around him, two warm and one cold as death. Broken, like him, laying as they had been thrown, like dolls, arms and legs at odd angles, eyes closed or half open but sightless.

Broken. Ned watched as the man outside the cage-

biting, frenzy, monstrous teeth ripping

-paced suspiciously, looking over his shoulder at some noise. Listlessly Ned watched as the man lifted the bottle to his lips, turned...

And then another man, from out of nowhere.

"Boo."

Ned didn't even have the energy to feel the shock and horror as the second man lifted a machete and hacked the first man's head off.

There was enough of Ned left to feel something though. Not fear, he was beyond that. Perhaps just a small thrill of satisfaction as the head hit the ground with a dull thud and the body toppled like a felled tree. Yes, perhaps it was satisfaction as the head rolled a little and lifeless eyes stared out of the face that had smiled so eagerly at Ned before opening its mouth and revealing rows of teeth.

Truth that couldn't be true.

Vampire.

-666-

"I told you I'd come back," the man said, and he helped Ned up, someone else helped the others and they stumbled out of the cage and into the barn and then out into air that had never smelled so fresh to Ned after the fetid filth and blood of the cage. He tried to take a deep breath but his lungs caught as they expanded and he coughed and choked. The man under his arm, supporting him on his shoulder, gently patted his chest.

"Hold on, buddy," he said reassuringly, and he smiled in the shadowed moonlight. That was something Ned never forgot about those tortured days and nights of captivity. The strength of the man's shoulder supporting him. And that wicked smile, except it wasn't wicked, was it? Ned knew wicked now. He knew evil. It had tasted him.

-666-

"We called 911." A tall man, his back to the moonlight, his face lost in shadow as Ned's rescuer sat him down gently by the side of the road. "They'll be here in a few minutes."

"Vampires," Ned said. There was blood in his mouth and he wondered again if he was dying. For the first time in a long time this frightened him. Because for the first time in a long time he had hope. And he didn't want to die when that was so close. "They were vampires, weren't they?" he managed.

His rescuer patted him kindly again and straightened. He looked over his shoulder and Ned had the sense that his mind was already somewhere else. "They were," he confirmed. "But if I were you I wouldn't say that to the cops when they arrive. They'll just think you're crazy."

Ned tried to focus on his rescuers faces, he was aware that the others from the cage were laying near him, one was groaning, the other stirring awake, starting to cry. Ned was beyond tears but he had to ask as they turned away.

"Jennifer?" he said hoarsely. "They have Jennifer."

The tall one hesitated, turned around, the other one was already moving away. "I'm sorry," he said, and he sounded sorry. Sincerely so. "They made her like them. She's gone."

And then they were gone and down the road came flashing lights and it all should have been over.

But it was just the beginning.

-666-

They told him afterwards that it was some crazy cult or something. Squatting in the old barn, attacking travelers and hitch hikers. They found his stuff and ID, his and Jennifer's, in the barn, as well as the possessions of a dozen others, some reported missing in other states, some just drifters or runaways that nobody had missed.

The bodies turned up behind the barn on the third day. By then his mom and dad had come and seen him, barely hiding their distress at the bandages all over him, the one on his left cheek especially. When they were gone Ned stumbled to the bathroom and peeled the tape back. Nauseated he returned to his bed, glad that all they had seen was the bandage.

Jennifer's parents came too and he didn't know what to tell them. The body in the cage, the ones tipped into the shallow grave behind the barn, Jennifer wasn't among them. What could he say to them? Jennifer's a vampire now?

He'd taken his rescuers advice. He told the cops the facts that he remembered, even the describing the teeth. But he didn't say the word vampire and neither did they. Ned tried to talk to the other two rescued with him, but they just shook their heads. They didn't remember. Didn't want to remember.

His best friend came the day before Ned was due to be released with a big card from work and the promise that everyone was looking forward to him coming back.

"Jason," Ned said, looking sightlessly at the card. "I have to tell you something."

Jason nodded his head and listened, but his eyes were worried and he kept glancing at the door, as if he wanted to get help or maybe just run away. In the end Ned gave up and agreed that maybe he should take another couple of weeks to recuperate.

That's when he realized that he was all alone in this.

-666-

Ned wondered a lot about his rescuers. He couldn't really picture them in his mind, except for that cocky grin and that one sweeping moment when the machete had swung and struck evil to the ground. Who were they? Why did they rescue him, and not the dead who'd dwelled in that cage before?

Why couldn't they help Jennifer?

Getting out of the hospital wasn't the relief it should have been. His parents fussed, his apartment was clean and tidy, someone had filled the refrigerator with food. But when they were gone Ned was left alone with his thoughts, and his fears, and when night-time came he lit every light in the house and locked himself into his bedroom and didn't emerge even to go to the bathroom until the sun was high in the sky.

And that was when he knew he couldn't live the rest of his life in fear.

-666-

Ned began looking into the case. The cops were kind and patient, they thought he was looking for Jennifer, but in truth Ned had given up on her. He'd liked her a lot but she hadn't been the love of his life and he believed the tall man who'd told him with such regret that she was gone.

No, Ned wasn't looking for Jennifer. He was looking for answers.

He found them in the name of another victim. Daniel Elkins, killed just days before he and Jennifer had been taken. The cop in charge of the case gave him details not released to the media. That the killers had toyed with Jenkins for days, let him crawl around in his own blood, scratch numbers on the floor, finally letting him bleed out and die just inches from the front door.

The scratched numbers meant nothing to Ned as he stared at the photograph. But the file gave him the address of the cabin and the cabin gave him answers.

Books. Piled high, well thumbed, some with markers on pages and some with scribbled writing. Ned found a shelf full on vampires, one had whole pages crossed out.

"Sun won't kill them," the small cramped writing amended. "Pre-date Christianity - crosses won't repel them."

Something else caught his eye. Little stick figures sketched on the top corner pages. Memories of a child's game came to him and he flicked the pages, watching as the crude little animation played out. Two stick men standing, one swinging, the other's head falling.

Ned remembered the dull thud and a distant throb of satisfaction as evil was struck down.

And that's when he knew he didn't have to cower in the darkness.

-666-

After a month people really started to worry. His boss came to see him, politely ignoring the take-away food containers and the piles of books and scribbled note pads. He warmly told Ned his job was open to him as long as he wanted it, but if it was a change he was looking for then a generous redundancy package could be arranged.

Ned accepted it, not even hesitating. Once his career and the fast track meant everything. Now he couldn't wait to get back to his books and the email he was waiting for from a guy in a store in Los Angeles, that had a rare book Ned had been chasing.

A week later he walked into the store and the man behind the counter raised a brow and smiled. He nodded.

"I thought so," he said, glancing at the healing mark on Ned's cheek, and the one on his neck that was still livid and sore. "I have the book you wanted."

Ned didn't ask him how he knew who he was. He accepted the book and paid for it.

"You know," the book owner said. "If you're still serious after reading that, there's someone you might want to meet."

-666-

Another week later, a truck stop this time. A man walking in, nodding at the waitress, taking off his hat and scratching grizzled graying hair. Eyes scanning then falling on him and Ned just looked back, seeing those eyes take in the scar.

"Ned?" the man drawled, thrusting out a hand in greeting. "I'm Bobby. Pleased to meet you."

And that's when Ned learned that he wasn't alone.

---