He watched from a corner down the block, never even considering interfering on her behalf. He'd watched how she fought, how she lived and died with every graceful move. But the odds were stacked against her.
She loves it, he realized. And she did, she loved to fight, even if she lost on occasion.
His kind of girl.
He became part of the shadows as the boys stalked off, nursing the wounds she'd given them. They split up upon reaching the street, and he began to track after one of them. The blonde one, the last one to kick her. A deep, satisfied growl emerged from deep within his chest as the hunt began. The kid was ruthless, savage even. All the better. It had been a while. Maybe too long.
Steve left the playground basketball court where he'd been shooting hoops with some of the other guys at around midnight. It had been a long day, being back at school. If it weren't for being in Shane's gang of senior guys, he probably would've dropped out a long time ago. It wasn't like he was going to college or anything, school made him sick.
And then there was that girl. Steve clenched his fists just thinking about her.
Little bitch had nearly broken his nose with a left jab. And there was nothing, nothing Steve could stand less than some bitch thinking she had anything over him. His girlfriend never would've tried that kind of shit with him. He smacked her around plenty, and she always took it. That was the way it should be. All these people were trying to make it out to be like women should have equal rights, and in his opinion they were full of shit.
Two blocks from his house he took a shortcut through one of the many alleyways littering the streets of Central City. When he'd just about reached the streetlights on the far side a garbage can clanged loudly to the ground behind him, stopping him dead in his tracks. Steve turned, squinting into the darkness, trying to see. He took a step closer, then another. It was probably just a cat or a raccoon digging for scraps. Damn wildlife, of course no human colony could live without natural wildlife from Earth.
Then, there, that shadow to his left, it almost looked like it moved.
He turned to face in that direction, trying to look threatening. "Listen up, whoever the fuck you are. You ain't scaring me. Come out and I'll whip your ass for trying to sneak up on me. If you're a Vipe then you should know that I'm in with the Flames, and you're on our fucking turf!" He paused a moment, waiting for a response. Nothing came from the darkness, not a sound. "Yeah, that's what I thought," he scoffed, turning to go.
Turning and running right into a wall, a wall that hadn't been there a second ago, a wall that grabbed him with one large fist and effortlessly lifted him off the ground by the front of his shirt. And as he looked up at the man who'd so easily made him helpless, he almost shit himself because staring back at him were the blackest, most hideous eyes he'd ever seen in his life. The man didn't have irises, just two, deep, black pits of nothingness where his eyeballs should've been. And they were burning in the moonlight, burning with the kind of fury and insanity you only heard of in horror stories and never thought could possibly be real. Those were the devil's eyes.
Steve started to scream when he finally noticed the wide, evil, Cheshire Cat smile staring him in the face; realizing that the nearly manic grin was sporting a nasty looking set of fangs.
"Holy fuck, holy fuck you're a vampire," he whimpered, struggling to get away and almost managing to drop out of his shirt before the grip on him tightened.
His screams and chronic shaking were met with a deep basso chuckle. "Na, kid. I ain't a vampire. I'm here to tell ya you won a vacation."
"A vacation?" Steve choked, trying to keep himself from being swept away by the fear and panic that was creeping over him. It was as if that madness were trying to seep in and overtake him too.
"Yeah, got your first class ticket, right here."
Steve didn't register the feeling of the ground come up hard to meet his tennis shoes. He was whipped around so he was again looking into the shadows, his back pressed up hard against the chest of the demon that had taken him hostage. It happened so fast, he barely even realized that it had happened at all.
"And when you get to hell, Steve, be sure to save me a seat."
He only felt the steel plunge between the ribs just to the left of his sternum for a second, but he did feel it. Felt the coldness, in his heart, that had always been lurking there. Just beneath the surface.
He didn't even get a chance to scream before his neck had been snapped sharply to the side with a sickening crack. Then his body slumped to the ground at the feet of the...thing...that had killed him. It started to laugh at how pathetic he'd been. How unworthy he was as prey.
The monster deliberately licked the blood from his blade, sliding the flat edge slowly from hilt to tip along his tongue, making sure it was clean before it disappeared among his clothes, and he disappeared back into the darkness that hid him so well.
Waiting, watching for the next opportunity.
For the next victim, for the next kill.
He promised himself that the next one...would be more innocent.
The next one...would be more fun.
