Jaden awoke fully at about 6:00 in the evening, just a little before the sun dipped under the horizon. As she lay in the warmth of her bed, she began to wonder why the Chief Commander gave her the night off in the first place; it at midnight that Halloween began, which the Vampires deemed as sacred. It was on Hollow's Eve that they unveiled themselves to the world, centuries before, and began the power struggle with the humans.
Jaden had heard that before the Vampires revealed themselves, Halloween was a night upon which children would dress up in costumes and go about to the houses in their neighborhoods to receive candy. The idea sounded preposterous; so ridiculous, that it was probably true. The people of history weren't the smartest, and they would most likely participate in such foolish acts. But that was in a time in which you probably didn't have to worry if your neighbor was going to turn into a Vampire and drink your blood while you were sleeping. Times were simpler. The people were too.
But Jaden wondered why the Chief Commander took her off duty on one of the busiest nights of the year; a time in which the most people would be attacked and turned. Especially when Jaden was the best Agent for tracking and destroying Vampires. But maybe the Chief hadn't learned that yet, he had, after all, only filled her father's shoes for less than a year, so it was understandable for him to be so ignorant.
Jaden when to sit up in bed, and nearly screamed as she tried to do so. The pain in her arm was so excruciating, and worse, it had spread up her arm to her shoulder and part of her neck. She lay on the bed, gasping in pain, as tears rolled down her cheeks. She thought back to the last words the doctor had said, I'm guessing that the pain you feel is an aftereffect of what the Faithful did, which I presumeā¦he mentioned the Faithful, but she was certain that she never had.
"Shit!" Jaden yelled, "that Bastard!!!!" he had betrayed and lied to her, there was something wrong, and he'd probably spoken with the Vampires when he left the room. They probably told him not to tell her there was anything wrong. Could the Chief be behind this as well, putting her off duty? No, impossible, she thought, that's just a coincidence, The Chief Commander would never involve himself with such acts; he was just being kind.
She somehow managed to lever herself out of bed, thought there was an abundance of swearing. She dragged herself into the kitchen and rummaged around until she found the bottle of Scotch that a former boyfriend had left behind, and took a swig of it. It numbed pain slightly, but it also made her head spin. She needed to get to a doctor, but not the same one she'd seen before, as he was obviously corrupted. She glanced up at her clock, it was about 7:00, Kay would be off her shift any minute, as the sun had set; perhaps she could drive Jaden to a Medical Center, for it was obvious that she wouldn't be able to it under her own power.
Jaden stumbled into her bathroom, and she caught her reflection in the mirror. She looked normal, except that she was a little pale. Jaden half expected to see something gruesome, but she suspected that it was some sort of Vampire poison that she'd been injected with when the Faithful stabbed her. She leaned against the sink and stared into the sink. She felt sick, and just as this feeling was processed, she vomited blood into the sink. She rinsed her mouth out. She decided that she would personally kill that doctor and that if this were some sort of Vampire plan, she'd make them wish they hadn't picked her!
On the other side of the wall, she heard someone quietly walking around in Kay's apartment. Just like Kay to walk softly, so the other Agents in the building could sleep. She smiled; then she heard footsteps in the hallway, and heard a key in the door of Kay's apartment. The smile disappeared. She heard the door open, the unmistakable sound of a struggle, a well muffled scream, a sort of hissing sound, and then silence.
Jaden was gripping the edges of the sink so hard that her knuckles were white. She crept out of the bathroom, being sure to be noiseless, which was quite a feat, as her whole left side was now affected by whatever the Faithful had injected her with, and was quite agonizing. She slid back into her bedroom, and pulled a metal bat out from under the bed, cursing herself for not keeping a gun in the house. She pulled on a pair of running shoes, and crept to the fire escape, outside her bedroom window, attached to Kay's bedroom window as well. She slid out onto the metal structure, and peeked in over the sill of the window in the other apartment. There was no one in this room, but the door to the room was open, and the light from the room without was pouring in. Jaden slid the window open, which was unlocked, as neither kept them locked, in case of emergency and the fact that one of them was always there, and slipped silently into the room, holding her bat in a death grip. She crept to the door and peeked through the crack.
Kay was being held up against a wall, as a very large Vampire sucked at her neck, one hand braced against her neck, the other between her breasts. Jaden felt herself go hot with rage and cold with fear; this man, was killing friend. The bastard!
Just as Jaden was about to burst into the room, she realized that there were other Vampires present, shifting from foot to foot off to the side, watching hungrily as Kay was being killed. The huge man withdrew from Kay's neck and murmured something in her ear. Kay shook her head and Jaden could see the word "never" upon her lips. He whispered in Kay's ear once more; Jaden lowered her head, and a single tear rolled down her cheek, as the Vampire bit into Kay's neck a second time. Kay stiffened for an instant, drawing a gasping breath as the man sunk his teeth in, but soon she grew limp. Jaden was almost sure that Kay looked straight at Jaden, a pleading, pathetic look in her dying eyes.
The huge man dropped Kay, who slumped, bleeding sluggishly, against the wall. He turned and motioned for the Vampires to follow, and they left the apartment. Seeing this as her only chance to save Kay, Jaden, triple checking that they were gone, skulked into the room. She hurried silently over to Kay, and gripped her hand hard. Kay opened her eyes, and started as she saw Jaden, she lifted a hand, laid it on Jaden's shoulder, and pulled her close. "You have to leave! Now!" she whispered.
Jaden shook her head adamantly, "I'm not going to leave you! I'm going to get you out of here!"
A tear slithered down Kay's face as she shook her head more insistently, gripping Jaden's shoulder with a greater strength, "no!" she whispered fiercely, "it's a trap! Go now, before they get you too!" She gave Jaden's shoulder a shove, and whispered forcefully, "GO!"
Jaden, tears streaming down her face, hugged Kay one handedly and rose up, turning to leave the way she came. Just as she entered the dark bedroom, all the lights in the apartment went out. She froze. There was a shape that loomed up out of the darkness, blocking the window, blocking her only exit. Suddenly, she was seized from behind and dragged out into the main room of the apartment. The lights sprang back to life, and Jaden found herself wrestling to get free from the grip of a red-haired, female Vampire, and surrounded on every side by other Vampires.
She lashed out with her feet and managed to free a hand, with which she managed to seize a lamp that she used to beat back the Vampires' approach. The agony of her left side threatened to make her pass out, but she knew that even blinking could get her killed. Finally, she was able to break through the wall of Vampires and raced to the door, and sprinted down the hall. She could hear yelling behind her, but all she paid attention to was the ground in front of her, and the doors on either side, to be ready for the next assault. She kicked open the door of the stairwell, there was no one there. She slid down the railing at breakneck speed. She got down six floors in less than a minute. She burst out into the lobby, still hearing the Vampires in pursuit.
She ran out of the apartment building, and into the street. There was almost no traffic, for no one was foolish enough to be out, after dark, on the Eve of Halloween; well, no one except her.
Jaden could hear the Vampires close behind, and as she ran around a corner, she glance back, and was able to make their silhouettes out in the darkness. She ran harder, ignoring the screaming agony that had enveloped her left side. Jaden knew that if she stopped, she'd die the same death as Kay! She ducked into an alley, and seized a piece of lead piping that lay on the ground; the problem with the choice of weapon, someone else thought it was a good idea too.
The man holding the other end of the pipe grinned; he was one of the men from Kay's apartment. Jaden stared for a moment and released the pipe when he tugged on it. She clumsily ducked under it as he swung at her head, and seized it, jerking it so that he fell over. As he rose up to his feet, Jaden smashed the pipe into his stomach, and then jabbed the end of it at his throat, nearly crushing his windpipe. Gasping for air, he keeled over, and lay still. Jaden dropped it and ran.
She rounded the corner, running right into a group of them that had separated from the others to cut her off. She skidded to a halt, and stared from one to the next. There were four of them, and they all looked like experienced fighters, judging by the way one of them held a staff with blades on the ends.
Her eyes shifted around, searching for a way out, searching for weak-spots in the Vampires' stance and positions. There were none, as usual. There was an instant of stillness, no one uttered a sound, or made a move. Then, as a wave breaks upon the rocks, chaos erupted. The one with the staff took a swing for Jaden's head, as another took a kick a Jaden's knees, a third tried to punch her in the stomach, while the fourth lashed out with his fists at her head.
At that moment, she blessed every combat instructor she had, thanking them for beating her into watching and being able to fight on multiple levels, as she was able to duck under the punch and the blades, back away from the blow to her stomach, and jump over the strike to her knees. She staggered back, putting a wall behind her, so that none could sneak around her and gut her from behind. The blond man who went for her stomach first, was the first to recover from the moment of confusion that Jaden had caused with her avoidances. He ran at her, and attempted to kick her, but Jaden bashed the leg out of the way. A brunette woman charged at her, pulling daggers from her sleeves, and whipped one at Jaden. The Agent ducked and the dagger stuck in the wall, exactly behind where her head had been. She ducked under another punch, swatted away the staff, and dove through an opening in the wall that the four Vampires had created.
In her desperate moment of freedom, she ran as fast as she could, the pain she had been feeling back in her apartment a mere memory. Her entire body was numb, and she knew that the moment she stopped running, that she wanted to go into a coma.
She dashed around another building, when she heard a gun firing, and an explosion of agony coursed through her neck. Her fingers scrambled over her neck, trying to find what cause the pain. She found it.
It was a huge dart, which had been shot into her jugular, and whatever was in the dart, was now in her bloodstream. But even as this thought was processed and she pulled out the dart, when suddenly, it felt as if her blood was afire, burning, incinerating her veins. She screamed at the torture, and writhed upon the ground. As blackness closed over her eyes, she saw the faces of the four Vampires loom over her, and they all looked fairly happy.
ya...i fixed a spelling mistake...now Kay comes off her shift...not her shirt...oops...just realized that i made that mistake
