Chapter 12: I Can Hear the Banshees Screaming From Afar
Alex sat quietly in her Porsche outside of the playground in the outcasts of Mystic Falls. She had been watching it for the past 70 minutes, patiently waiting for someone to appear.
She had told him to meet her there by six. Of course she had been fashionably late herself, but the digital clock on the car's radio showed 07.30pm and that was way longer than she was willing to wait for a snack.
A sudden movement in the shadows caught her eye and intrigued she watched a teenage couple sneak out of the woods into the open playground.
"We shouldn't be here." The girl giggled. You could clearly see how nervous she was.
His fingers started to playfully tease her, going through her hair and tickling her stomach.
"I think we should." He breathed in her hair and Alex could hear how the girl inhaled a big breath and then let it sipper out of her through her teeth from the tingle through her body his breathing had caused.
"Luke…" She whispered. "I'm serious, I can't do it here." She looked down on the ground, ashamed of what was about to happen in a place where children played in daytime and silence sang at night.
He stepped back a bit and cupped her chin, forcing her to look up at her. He placed a light kiss on her lips.
"Jenny, listen to me. I love you and if you're not ready I'm totally fine with that, but just know that…" He stopped and smiled mysteriously, challenging her to find out what he had kept hidden from her in a bush a couple of feet away.
"I should know what, Luke? That you're gonna leave me if I don't sleep with you?!" Jenny exclaimed and started to walk out of the playground.
Geez! Alex thought to herself, observing and analyzing everything about the couple. That girl needs to take a chill-pill. Can't she see that he's to in love with her to ever leave her? At least before he finds out she's dating his… Okay that might have just been me.
"No, Jenny!" He ran after her and grabbed her hand, making her body shiver and her steps away from him stop, just by touching him.
Geez Patrice, could they take this cheesiness down a notch?
"I would never put you in that position! I just wanted to ask you if you would be more comfortable with a romantic dinner on a blanket instead!"
Apparently not. Oh God, was this night gonna end with a couple of teenagers 'in love' having more fun than she would?
He smiled a shy smile and led her out to the park area, which the playground was attached to, and made her sit down by a picnic basket by the pound. "Because that's how much I love you."
"Luke… I-I don't know what to say! And I'm still not sure I can give you what you want."
He opened the basket and pulled up a chocolate covered strawberry which he gently put to her mouth. She took a bite, sucking some of the liquid out of the strawberry, and she never once let her eyes wander from her boyfriend's.
Oh she wants to get laid. Alex thought and laughed in her mind. And I'm gonna sit here, alone, since he decided to not show up. But I guess that's what you get for seducing married men.
"Just eat and we'll discuss the other subject later, okay?" He said reassuring, not understanding at all that the girl, Jenny, was playing with him, testing his limits and seeing how far he would chase her.
Minutes later, when the erotic teasing with food had passed, they started kissing each other. The guy quickly moved the basket from thee blanket to get more space and then slowly leaned forward over the manipulative little bitch until she had her back on the blanket.
He let her mouth go for a second to catch his breath and looked serious into her blue eyes.
"Are you sure about this?" He asked, watching her every move, ready to jump off of her the moment he saw anything that suggested her being uncomfortable.
"Just kiss me, Jerkface." She murmured and pulled him back on top of her with a firm grip of his t-shirt.
They began to suck faces again and she slowly let her hands go through his hair and down to his shoulders, where they went inside of his Leatherman jacket and peeled it off, like it was another layer of his skin.
After watching them peel off another layer of clothes from each other, Alex decided that she'd had enough of this shit. It wasn't fair that that little whore was gonna get kinky with a handsome teenager, when she wasn't even gonna get something to drink tonight.
Hmm, that gives me an idea.
Alex snuck carefully out of the car and through the playground. Not that she had to; those two were too busy seeing who could get their tongue farthest down the other's throat to notice anything around them.
When Alex came up next to them, they still hadn't noticed her, so she threw Luke in the pound.
"Hey!" Jenny yelled angrily.
"What the fuck is your problem?!" Luke yelled from the water.
"Sorry," Alex said in a low tone and smiled a creepy smile. "I was bored, my date ditched me (which he'll regret) and watching you two getting sexy won't make me less hungry."
"Well, sorry about your date. There's still some food in the basket if you want some…"
"What do you mean 'watching you two'?" Luke interrupted his girlfriend's friendliness. "Were you watching us?! You psycho!"
"Oh My God" Jenny screamed and tried to get further away from Alex.
"It's not what you think." Alex explained. "I was only watching you to see if you really would fall for her innocence act, which you did you moron, and then I got hungry."
"Well, as I said, there's some food left in the basket, just take it and leave us alone." Luke said protectively of his girlfriend while he got up from the water and put an arm around her.
"But you see; I could easily get by with that kind of food, I just prefer something a little more… Fresh." Alex said and ripped Luke's throat open.
She felt the satisfaction from the boy's blood rushing through her veins and would have enjoyed the moment quite a bit, if it wasn't for the girl screaming in her ear.
"Enough!" She roared and broke her neck. "Gosh, I really hate that annoying teenage girl scream."
Alex sat on one of the playground's metal swings and pushed her feet to the gravel under the swing to get make it go back and forth two inches.
While she was sitting there, she listened to the squeaking from the swing's chains and whistled on a melody she'd heard in some horror movie.
The darkness surrounded her, but she didn't mind, darkness was her element, her home.
For any other person, being in her situation might have been creepy or even frightening, but not for her. This was where she belonged.
The woods behind her whistled with her melody in the wind, the same wind that grabbed her hair and let it go crazy around her face, the same wind that bit her cheeks and turned them red.
Alex closed her eyes and felt the presence of the surroundings. She leaned her head back and released a joyful shriek.
She hadn't felt this good in weeks. It was something about the atmosphere here that made her calm, it always had.
When she looked up, he stood there waiting for here, with his back to an old oak and his face twisted in an amused smile.
He looked so handsome in his casually laidback elegance and his black jeans falling so perfect from his hips. For a moment she actually thought it was him.
"You are aware that those things are made for children."
It wasn't a question, not really. More like a doubting observation. This was why she'd chosen him. He was perfect. He just reminded her so much about the one person she'd lost and still missed. He was like the poorly made copy.
Marc was a perfect copy of him in so many ways, from the dark hair and eyes, the choice of clothing and the age, to his perfect British accent and his way of speaking. But there had always been something that never felt right, like a scratch on the record.
How could two people be so alike and still the other person doesn't fill up the hole the first one left?
"You are aware that you're three hours late?"
She asked the question without expecting an answer; she already knew it and he was aware of that.
"I see you got bored." He nodded towards the completely exposed bodies of Jenny and Luke.
"You were late." She cut off.
"And I apologize for that. Fancy a drink?" He pulled up a bottle of whiskey from behind the tree.
One
Alex's eyes darkened significantly and she rushed in front of him and slapped him. Hard.
At first, he just looked confused, before he realized he had crossed a line she'd particularly put out for reasons she never wanted to tell.
"Oh, God, I can't believe I forgot you don't like me saying 'fancy'!" He said, shocked. "Alexandra…"
Two
Alex felt the rage vibrating through her body. The wind blew stronger around them and the earth felt like it was shaking underneath their feet.
They had an arrangement, three strikes and you're out, but this… She just couldn't handle this. It had become too much; listening to this man saying all the stuff only he could say.
A copy trying to calm her down by using her full name, being too close to the real thing. She'd had enough of this imposer.
Her eyes turned red and her teeth sharpened and got longer. She let the hunger she'd felt so strongly for this man's blood get the best of her, and went for his neck.
Draining his body of all blood wasn't hard at all, it just went easier and easier as she kept going.
"Alexandra…" He whispered in his last breath.
Right then, she could have sworn she heard him whisper her name and when she looked back at the drained body in her arms, she didn't see Marc Fluke, she saw him.
This isn't happening, keep it together you stupid bitch. It's not him it's just the worthless copy you killed. This kill is just one more body to add to the pile of corpses you've collected through the centuries.
Then why am I feeling so sad?
"Because it was better to have the lame ass copy than nothing at all…" She answered herself out loud.
"DADDY?!" Children's voices screamed behind her.
"Kids! Don't look!"
Alex turned around to find a woman stand at the playground with her eyes wandering over the two dead high schoolers, Marc and ending with a terrified stare at her. All around her stood children; there were four of them, all trying to get to their father.
"Oh My God! Marc! What have you done with him?!" She shrieked.
"I killed him." Alex said easily and smiled while the woman started to put her kids closer.
"I drained his body of aaaall of his blood. But don't worry, he deserved it. He disobeyed my rules and I don't like people who do that. Would you have obeyed my rules?"
The poor woman couldn't get a word out of her, she just tried to slowly get back to their car.
"You would, wouldn't you?" Alex continued, pretending she couldn't see the movement they made.
"I feel like you're a woman who would obey my rules, at least from what Marc told me, you are his wife Karen, aren't you?"
"Why does the bloody lady know you're name, Mommy?" One of the older boys asked.
"Because she knows your father, Kevin, now take you're siblings and go back to the car, okay?"
"I don't think that's such a good idea, you see I have this strict 'if they've seen my victims they become they next ones'-policy, which pretty much mean that you're all gonna be…" Alex licked her lips. "…Dessert."
"RUN KIDS! RUUUUN!" Karen yelled and turned around with the kids to run back to the car.
"And I had so high hopes for you…" She shook her head. "What a disappointment."
The oldest one, a girl holding an infant, turned around and saw how far back Alex was.
"Mommy! I think we've outrun her!" She exclaimed.
"What did you say little girl?" Alex said, standing in front of the little family.
"Please," The mother begged. "Let us go, let us live! At least let the kids go free! They've done nothing to deserve this fate!"
"Oh, but you see they have." Alex explained. "Because you heard my rule, if you see the bodies, you gotta become one. That's just how it is. And they've definitely seen the bodies. So they gotta go!"
"No! Please!" The woman pleaded her killer.
"And now you've officially broken too many rules, I've got to punish you!" Alex dropped down on the grass and sat there for quite some time, thinking about a suitable punishment.
"Aha!" She announced and got up on her feet again.
She twisted her face in a cruel grin.
"We're going to play a little game with these cuties here, and you… You're gonna watch your babies die."
Alex leaned forward and looked into the woman's eyes.
"You will sit down and won't move until I say it's okay. And you will watch… You will watch your kids die a slow death… And you'll enjoy it!"
"I will…" The mother said in a monotone voice and sat down on the grass.
Alex turned around to the three older kids and the infant. She clapped her hands in a peppy way and gave them a huge smile.
"Now kids! Who wanna play a little game I like to call 'Let's see who can keep on going the longest with the smallest amount of blood left in their body'?"
The kids looked half terrified and half intrigued by her.
"But Miss…" The oldest one said.
"Yes, you, oldest girl."
"Sarah." She corrected.
"Okay, Sarah, what do you want? I wanna start the game!"
"Isabelle can't play, she's just an infant."
"Don't worry about Isabelle; I have some extra special plans for her."
Like having her heart as a snack while you stupid kids run around like idiots with no blood in your veins.
"Well okay then!" She clapped hands yet another time. "Who wants to get rid of some blood first?"
The younger boy raised his hand, not really understanding what was going to happen; he just heard the word "play".
"You?"
He nodded.
"Well okay then, come here! Give Mama a big fat vein to drink from!"
Alex sat on one of the playground's metal swings and pushed her feet to the gravel under the swing to get make it go back and forth two inches.
While she was sitting there, she listened to the squeaking from the swing's chains and whistled on a melody she'd heard in some horror movie.
She watched the playground around her and smiled at her masterpiece; seven bloody, torn apart corpses forming the word "Revenge" in the sand, each body twisted into their own letter.
Alex looked over by the slide and felt so proud of her creativity when she spotted the blood trail leading down to the ground where what was remaining of the infant waited.
For any other person, being in her situation might have been creepy or even frightening, but not for her. This was where she belonged.
Alex laughed a cruel, psychotic laugh and went back to her car; she had school tomorrow.