AN Thanks again to any reviewers out there. So far one person has guessed who one of us is. That person knows, and we are very entertained by all the other guesses!
Enjoy!
Ste decided he'd met enough mental people that day. He didn't bother replying to the one crazy enough to introduce himself as a vampire slayer, and turned to go home.
"Hey!" called Simon Walker the vampire slayer, "where are you going?"
Ste didn't turn, "Home, where I don't have to deal with crazy people!"
Simon Walker caught his arm, "I'm not crazy!" he hissed, eyes wide.
Ste pulled his arm away, "Yeah, that's convincing!" he said, walking on again.
"Your name's Steven, isn't it?" said Walker, "Steven Hay?"
Ste stopped where he was and turned slowly. "How did you know that?"
Walker shoved his hands into his pocket, sensing the turn in the conversation and relaxing into it. "I make it my business to know everyone who has dealings with Brendan Brady," he said, casually.
Ste folded his arms, "What, are you in love with him or something?"
Walker snorted dismissively, "Hardly."
"Or is it just attraction of the mentals?" Ste added, harshly.
"Why do you think a vampire slayer would follow someone?" said Walker, hardly acknowledging the nasty words.
Ste scrunched up his face, "If you say what I think you're going to say…"
"What, don't believe Brendan could be a vampire?" said Walker.
"Seriously?" said Ste, "and I suppose his sister's a werewolf, and Mitzeee's an alien."
"No," said Walker with a smile, "obviously they're all vampires, but Brady's in charge. He's the one I'm after."
"Do you even know how mental you sound?" Ste demanded.
"And how else do you explain William Savage's murder?"
"I don't have to explain Will Savage's murder!" Ste cried, "That's what they police are there for!"
"He's not the only one, Steven," said Walker, "and the police are getting nowhere!
"Well it's only bin a few days!"
"They won't get anywhere, Steven, because it wasn't a human who did it!" said Walker, as though it were something obvious and not his mental crap, "They're not set up to handle vampires; they wouldn't know what to do if they found one!"
Ste shook his head at the sheer amount of crazy one man could spout, "Look, mate," he said, trying to hold on to his temper, "I think you should see someone, you know, about all this. There's pills and stuff they can give you that'll calm you right down."
"I'm not crazy!" Walker snarled at him.
"There's no such thing as vampires!" said Ste.
"So, everyone at that club was completely normal, were they?" asked Simon, "no weird moments that you can't remember? No one moved faster than was possible? No one looked at you like you were a buffet?"
Ste blinked, "OK, that doesn't mean they're vampires!"
Simon's face showed a grim satisfaction in the darkness as he realised his words were resonating, "And no one tried to drink your blood?"
Ste rolled his eyes, "Of course no one tried to drink my blood!"
"Well," said Walker, "let's hope you believe me before they succeed, yeah?" He pulled out a ragged bit of paper, "If you change your mind, if you spot something that you think is suspicious, give me a call. A man on the inside could be invaluable to me."
Ste looked at the paper suspiciously, "If I take that, will you leave me alone?" he asked, dubiously.
"Unless I think you're in danger," Walker replied, holding the paper out.
"Fine," said Ste, taking the paper. "No bugger off and leave me alone. It's like half three and the kids'll be jumping on me in like four hours."
"Thank you, Steven," said Walker, looking genuinely relieved, and Ste supposed he wouldn't be mental if he didn't believe his own stories.
"Yeah, well, my name's Ste, so…"
"Ste," said Walker. "I'm looking out for you."
Ste turned and walked away, mumbling "I wish you wouldn't."
The dead body in front of him was delicious, mouth-watering even. He couldn't help but take a long lick of the dismembered arm on the floor, it tasted almost fresh. The memory of the man's fear as he was murdering him still made him shudder with pleasure. Now all that was left were pieces of his body; it was a shame humans were so easy to devour, so breakable and so full of sin. He'd sucked every last bit of blood out of him, like one of those box drinks you'd give a child.
He took himself over to the wheel chair in the corner and sat down. Murdering the boy in the glasses had its benefits, even if he hadn't tasted very nice. He began to circle the pile of body pieces, leaving a blood stained trail from the wheels. It was afternoon again, he hated afternoons. He was so bored and hungry, so hungry. He stood up treading in something that he could only assume was the doctor's liver and kicked it aside like a football. He made his way over to the mirror above the dirty sink and was surprised at what he saw. There was that boy staring back at him, the beautiful boy with big blue eyes and long lashes, messy blonde hair and the most amazing cheek bones. He opened his mouth and so did the reflection, revealing long blooded fangs instead of teeth.
Ste screamed.
It took Ste about five minutes to calm down his breathing, as he clung onto the covers breathing heavily. In his dream he'd been inside the head of the thing that had murdered Will. He had been the monster. Ste had been having weird dreams for a while, but he knew the last few he couldn't quite remember had been a lot more pleasurable. He'd never been inside the head of a monster before.
"Are you alright in there Ste?" Asked Amy's voice from outside the door. "I heard screaming."
"I'm alright." shouted Ste. "Just a bad dream."
It was at that point he realised how stupid he was being. No wonder he'd had a bad dream, it was the whole thing with that Simon Walker guy last night. It had put stupid ideas in his head. There was no such thing as vampires or monsters; they were make-believe just like vampire slayers. He rolled over and forced himself to go back to sleep, slipping into dreams about wolves instead.
It was just after dusk by the time Ste stepped into DOA and he was surprised to see that the club was already bustling with activity. There were men around everywhere putting up decorations and amongst the chaos Mitzeee sat at the bar calmly reading a book.
"What's going on?" asked Ste, sliding into the seat next to her.
"Cheryl's having a theme night." said Mitzeee calmly, not even bothering to look up from her book. "Brendan's not arrived yet, I can't wait to see his reaction when he does."
Ste glanced around and noticed the club had been transformed with bright pink glitter decorations and a large amount of fluffy white clouds with creepy looking cherubs on them. "What's the theme?"
"Tunnel of love," answered Mitzeee. "Though she would have been better off calling it tack-fest." she placed down her book. "Brendan should have sent Cheryl packing years ago; she's like a plague that brings glitter and animal print to wherever she goes."
Ste glanced awkwardly down at her book, knowing it wasn't the best of ideas to slag off one of his bosses. "What's Twilight?"
Mitzeee's eyes lit up at the question. "It's a comedy, about some boring girl and glittery vampires. If I didn't know any better I'd have said that Cheryl was the one who wrote it. I've never laughed so hard at anything in my life. I spent the whole book hoping the main character would get murdered."
A cold gust of wind blew across the club, causing Ste to shiver. He turned and noticed Brendan was now standing behind the two of them, like he'd been there all along. Ste was sure he hadn't been there a minute ago, wasn't super speed a vampire trait?
"Ladies," said Brendan smoothly. "Didn't realise I was paying the two of you to sit around and gossip."
Mitzeee picked up her book and went back to reading like she hadn't heard him. "I get paid to work in a club, not this freak show."
Ste disguised a laugh into a cough. Brendan's eyes once again found his and his heart started to beat erratically. Ste couldn't take his eyes off him; there was something about him that made his whole body alert with anticipation. Ste wanted to push forward and press himself against Brendan's body, feel his stone muscles against his flesh.
Mitzeee waved her hand in front of Ste's face. "And you're back in the room. What were you thinking about? You're practically drooling." then she glanced at Brendan.
Ste reluctantly drew his eyes away from Brendan, remembering to breathe again. He'd never wanted someone so much in his life. It was almost like an infection, a disease; Brendan Brady was infecting every thought and every heart beat.
"Aren't the decorations wonderful!" said Cheryl, standing in the door way and admiring her own work. She was wearing something that could only be described as a bright pink wedding dress.
"I didn't realise we were playing host to an episode of My Big Fat Gypsy wedding." Mitzeee muttered under her breath. "I wonder who the unlucky fella is; tell me, does he have a white stick with red band? Because that's not a fashion accessory you know."
Brendan finally seemed to tear his attention off Ste and notice the decorations all around the club. His expression switched to one of pure horror. "Christ Chez, what the hell have you done to my club?"
"You don't like it?" asked Cheryl, her smile suddenly wavering. "And what do you mean "my" club; I own half of this place Brendan."
"Let's go and sort you out a till float." said Mitzeee quickly to Ste, sensing danger.
As Ste followed Mitzeee out of the doors to the sounds of the siblings bickering, Cheryl seemed to be wearing red mascara.
It was two hours into his shift that Ste realised he couldn't stop Simon Walker's words ringing in his ears. The man had to be a nutter, right? Some of the people in this club couldn't be vampires, could they? He looked around and was once again blown away by the number of beautiful, pale, perfect marble faces. Real humans couldn't be that beautiful, could they? And what about Cheryl? He was sure she'd caused a dent in one of the club's pillars during her row with Brendan. Those pillars were made out of concrete.
Ste looked up and once again noticed Brendan watching him from above hungrily. Each time Ste felt Brendan's eyes on his back he actually felt, for the first time in his life, desirable...sexy even. But why would a man like Brendan Brady, want someone as plain as him? What if Simon Walker was right? What if Ste was just another snack on the menu that he was yet to try? Ste had images of himself being on display in a glass cabinet, like they did with those cakes in fancy restaurants. He forced himself to stop being silly, thinking about vampires; they were just silly things in books, they weren't real. But a voice in the back of his mind kept asking: How do you know?
"Do you want to go collect some glasses?" asked Mitzeee.
The club was completely dead tonight and most people were leaving. The bar was averaging out on about one customer every few minutes. It seemed Cheryl's decorations were either scaring people off or not creating the right ambiance.
"Sure." answered Ste; he slipped out from behind the bar. Looking for any trace of empty glasses, it was then he noticed Brendan was no long on his walk way.
Brendan Brady was stood at the bottom of the steps that lead to the curtained rooms, talking to an attractive brunette woman. Ste tried to push away any feelings of jealousy, but found himself unable to do so. He casually strolled over to where they were standing, trying to catch a snippet of their conversation. The two moved away up the stairs and Ste inwardly cursed, watching them disappear as they reached the top. Ste waited about a minute and then slammed the glasses he'd managed to find on a nearby table and followed them.
He crept up the stairs, checking nobody was watching him. As he reached the top he noticed that only one of the curtained rooms was in use, that's where Brendan must be with that woman. If Simon Walker was right then Brendan would be inside sucking some woman's neck or he could be having sex. The thought of Brendan having sex with the woman made him feel sick, made him want to rip the curtains apart, violently drag the woman away kicking and screaming. Maybe him being a vampire was the better option after all, even if it was a bit of a far-fetched explanation.
Ste edged to the curtains and almost fled when he heard a long throaty male moan. He stepped closer, feeling numb and trying to make as little sound as possible. Through the gap in the curtain he could just make out a man and woman merged together in a tangle of limbs. The man was pounding into the woman as she screamed out in pleasure. Ste stepped back, not wanting to see any more. He didn't expect to slam straight into a solid wall of flesh.
"I thought you were meant to be collecting glasses Steven, not taking on the role of the neighbourhood pervert." said Brendan softly. He was eyeing Ste like he was something delicious, like he wanted to devour him.
"I was-" words failed Ste; as he thought about himself being naked like the woman behind the curtains, with Brendan pounding away at his hole. His cock sprang to life with alertness. Just being in Brendan's presence was driving him crazy.
"We could show them how it's done." said Brendan huskily in his ear. "Why watch, when you could do it with me?"
Ste found himself trapped in Brendan's gaze, like he was hypnotised, or a rabbit caught in a car's headlights. Every part of his body was ordering him to do what Brendan wanted; go behind one of the curtains and submit to this beautiful man. Let him do anything he wanted to his body. Brendan stepped forward to close the gap; the spell was suddenly broken as he seemed to breathe in Ste's scent. No that wasn't it, Brendan Brady had sniffed him! What type of nutter sniffed people? And why did the sound go straight to Ste's cock?
"Brendan," came a woman's voice from behind a door Ste hadn't realised was there. "I've checked the stocks of Special Brew and they're still okay for consumption. Where do you want the new donations?"
"I'll be in a minute Lynsey."
It was while Brendan was momentarily distracted that Ste decided to do a runner. He practically flew down the stairs, breaking into a run as he reached the door. He knew it was stupid to run away from your boss, but it seemed in Brendan's presence he could barely think straight. He just needed a minute to get his head together, work out how he was feeling.
The night was bitter cold, with an eerily big full moon sitting above the club. Ste leaned against the wall of DOA, closing his eyes. Tonight he'd set out to prove Simon Walker wrong, but the only thing he'd ended up doing was watching a couple have sex and probably getting himself sacked. Maybe it was for the best, all he did during his shifts was fantasise about shagging the boss any way.
"I'm such an idiot." Ste moaned.
Something cold and wet brushing against his hand made Ste jump in shock. He glanced down and noticed a small dog looking up at him with sad eyes. He was pretty sure the breed was a spaniel or something.
"Hi ya." said Ste, he bent down and patted the dog on the head. He felt around for a collar wondering if the poor thing was lost. "Your name is..." he glanced down at the metal disk. "Nate. Well that's a proper stupid name for a dog."
The dog whined at him, seeming almost offended by his comment. But dogs couldn't be offended right? Ste knew he was starting to loose his mind. Something else in the moon light caught his eye; it looked like the arm of a mannequin sticking out of a black bag. He stood up and went to step towards it, but found his leg being pulled back. He glanced down and noticed the dog had its teeth clamped around his trouser leg, trying desperately to pull him backwards.
"Get off." muttered Ste, breaking free of the dog's grip. As he got closer to the bag Ste realised that it wasn't a part of a mannequin, but a real human arm. The arm was deadly white, with a bone jutting out from the top. Ste opened his mouth to scream, but no sound came out as a cold hand clamped itself over his mouth.