Fiction Fragment Friday
This is the next part of the Vampire story I posted on October 8th. I thought this part was completely lost, but found the notebook that it was in recently. It was still hand written and had to be typed up. Since it is Halloween season a vampire story seems fitting. I had quite a few rules thought out for how my vampires worked.
“Ahhhhhhhh” She woke to a stream of cold water pouring against her back. Thunder cracked and echoed through the tunnel. With great effort she stumbled from the drain onto the ground. “Eeeh” Her back arched as she reacted to the rain pouring down on her. She was drenched and had no idea where she was. Wrapping her arms tightly around her chest she tried to fight the shivering, but it was overwhelming. It wasn’t just being wet and cold; hunger shook her to the very core.
It was about noon, but you couldn’t tell by looking at the sky. The sun was completely hidden by rain clouds. Wind roared through the forest and threatened to rip the trees from the ground root and all. She screamed in frustration and smacked her hands down into the puddle around her. The water splashed high into the air. The frustration could only hold the tears back for so long and when they came, they rivaled the rain pouring from the sky.
With the tears came memories. They were jumbled images, but one face kept coming back to her. She focused on the strange man who had helped dig her out of the ground. “Help me,” she whimpered. She found that this thought comforted her and with great will power she forced the tears back. She imagined him in a car driving.
The ground slipped out from underneath her as she tried to stand up. “Of course, it couldn’t be easy.” She grunted as she slowly pushed forward on all fours. Despite splashing and more slipping she was determined and forced her way out of the puddle and onto her feet.
As she stumbled through the woods, she realized that she had nowhere to go. No memories of a name also meant no memories of a home. She couldn’t remember any friends or family that could answer these questions either. for lack of anyone else her thoughts kept coming back to the man from last night.
The rain had finally started to die down and the sun started to peek through the clouds. A flush of heat ran over her, her heart started racing, and she could hear herself breathing heavily. There was no denying that she was terrified. “Why would I be scared of the sun,” she wondered to herself. With the fight or flight instinct kicking in she started to run. She had no real sense of direction, but a strange feeling told her where to go.
A final push through a line of brushes dropped her into a parking lot. I was completely empty except for a single car. The man from last night got out and rushed to her side. He was speaking, but her mind was too blurred to make out the words. He put his coat around her, and she let him help her into the back seat. As the sun shined in the windows, she curled up across the seat with the coat over her. “I’m glad the dog isn’t here,” was her last thought as she faded to sleep.
William had relived last night’s events in his head a dozen times. He was second guessing what he had seen. Surely, he didn’t really help dig a woman out of the ground. She couldnn’t have really had fangs. He decided that if she was real, he had to help her.
He thought about calling the police but was afraid of the questions they would ask. The one that scared him most was the one he didn’t have an answer for. Why didn’t he call them last night?
“Pacing around the apartment second guessing myself isn’t going to help anyone.” William grabbed his coat and headed for the door. “Hank, you be good while I’m gone.” As thunder loomed, he grabbed his umbrella and left the apartment.
As William turned on the car, he suddenly had an overwhelming certainty of where he needed to go. The night before he had exited the woods into a park. There was no reason she would be there since she ran the other way, but the closer he got the more it felt right.
William pulled into the parking lot and found it empty. “I guess not to many people want to go to the park in the middle of a storm.: Not for the first time he wondered why he was there.
The storm had started to die down and William could see the sun peeking through the clouds. For a second, he thought it would help his search, but then remembered all the mud the storm would have created. As he glanced at a line of bushes he decided to finally get out of the car.
The woman from last night burst through the line of bushes. She was covered in mud and her cloths had even more rips than the night before. Even from across the parking lot William could see the water dripping off her. She stared at William as he got out of the car and ran towards her. He could see a look of shock on her face. “Please don’t run. I just want to help.”
He could see that she was shivering and her hands where over her stomach like she was hungry or in pain. He took his coat off and was pleased that the woman let him slip it over her shoulders. “Come on, let’s get you somewhere warm.” William knew that he should take her to a hospital, but for some reason he decided to take her home instead. He didn’t want to answer their questions.
She still had not said a word and William began to wonder if she could speak. He put his arm around her shoulder and started to walk her towards the car. She leaned into him and didn’t seem to have any issue letting him lead. “I’m going to take you back to my place. We will get you cleaned up and then I’ll get you something to eat.” He looked at her expecting a reaction, but only got a blank stare.
As he opened the back door and she slid right in. He couldn’t take his eyes off her as she curled up into the fetal position and gripped his coat tightly. “What have I gotten myself into,” he wondered as she shut the door. The strangeness of his situation finally hit him. “I have a woman who was buried alive sleeping in my backseat and I’m taking her home. How in the hell am I going to explain this to anybody?”
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