Blood Night

Chapter 18

She's running, weaving through empty hallways and deserted room, fleeing before the other man.

She knows she can't win, eventually, she'll be caught and sharp teeth will penetrate her throat, and it'll be over. She has to pull Jerry away from the building, far as possible from Jamie. She can hear the increasingly louder footsteps, the crackling of heavy feet on the tile floor. She scans the kitchen, steaming pots heated the room, plates in the dirty sink and pans and utensils hanging by the ceiling. The sharp point of the stake in her pocket reminds her she's armed by sticking into the meat of her own thigh as she shifts and the heavy crossbow strapped on her shoulder with one arrow. A dark laugh approaches her.

She reaches for the butcher knife at the metal table, her hand heavy and cumbersome.

Jerry gets there first, tosses it into his own grip, grinning briefly. "And here I thought you were just happy to see me." Charlie swallows and closes her eyes, hears the blade hitting step after step after it's tossed.

"Charlie, Charlie, Charlie," Jerry breathes. "You were doing well, you really were." Jerry scoots back when she starts throwing plates at him. "I haven't had this much fun with someone trying to hunt me down for..." Jerry bites his lip and shakes his head, and dodged a plate by blocking his arm. "for a long time."

He pulls in again, breath tepid. "Ridiculous, but kind of impressive, all the same." He draws in a deep breath, smelling up the side of Charlie's face and Charlie bites back an audible shudder as she ran out of plates, running behind the hot ovens, the long metal table blocking between the two. "Imagine being a wolf and watching a lamb trying to stalk you."

Charlie shakes her head and grabs the boiling water pot and throws it directly at Jerry's face but Jerry already noticed her actions and pushed the table at her, colliding her against the hot ovens, her waist trapped. She screeches at her elbows touches the oven, the skin steamed as she pulls them away. Gritting her teeth, the small strength of her arms trying to push the heavy table but couldn't make it move while Jerry slithered to the other side.

"I'll admit, I'm excited," he whispers. "The rest were a means to an end; I need them to survive and make sure we survive." He works the tacky tendrils of the table to move inch by inch. "But you're different."

Charley swallows, waist and hips bruised and there's defiance in the words when she spits shallowly, "You're not going to sell it to me."

Jerry looks down at her, surprised but pleasantly so. The glint of a fang touched by moonlight catches Charlie's eye. It's no less surreal than it was when she'd first seen this monster feed. It's unreal even when she knows her life is very possibly about to end the same way when she knows she'll be something else if she doesn't by some miracle get rescued or get out of this herself.

As her body finally can move in the tight squeeze, she grabs two butcher knives and ducks down on the ground, crawling away on her hands and knees to the exit door. It's then the cold hands gripped her ankle, she grunts, and squirms away, kicking away as Jerry made an attempt to yank her. He cries, fingers grazing on the floor, and Charlie throws a punch at that, does it without thinking, rage blazing and quickly put out when Jerry catches Charlie's fist with a quick laugh. "Easy," he coos and Charlie glares back, body shaking with anger and exhaustion, and strikes the one knife into his hand, piercing right through his palm. He yanks the hand away and she crawls with great speed and pulls herself up to her feet, crashing right at the exit door and running to the outside alley.

She freezes between two streets, the small hesitation as she chooses between the two is just enough for the other to catch her.

Charlie makes it as far as the car was in the front parking of the alleyway, heart pounding ferociously as she felt like her vision is going into a tunnel, the only thing she can hear is the constant heavy breathing that's burning her lungs.

She holds onto the car keys so tightly that the metal aches against her palm. Her heart thumps so wildly in her chest that it hurts with every beat. It's still too dark outside as she runs, but the first hints of dawn are starting to creep across the horizon. If she can just make it to the car in time, if she can wait for him to jump on the car and would drive off.

Her hand skims across the handle of the car, the key skating along near the lock, before the force of a freight train slams into her from behind. She chokes and her body thumps against the car. Her legs give out and she tumbles to the ground with a grunt, all her muscles aching.

Jerry grabs her by her shirt, his eyes black with anger. She pulls away, the plaid shirt sliding off her arms and grabs the dropped crossbow. "Where do you think you're going?" he asks angrily. Charlie fingers cling tightly to the keys, but Jerry manages to rip them free from her grasp with ease. He pulls Charlie to her feet, where the world seems to spin worryingly around her head.

"You're even troubled than you look," Jerry complains, keeping a tight hold of him as he half-leads half-drags Charlie.

Charlie doesn't agree with him for a second. With that, she brings the kitchen knife and plunged it on his throat. His thick dark blood pours on the pale hands; he screeched and his face morphs into the hideous true beast he is. She keeps stabbing him when he made no attempt to ever inflict any pain, but she drove it deep enough for the blade to touch the bone of his spine. He howls inhumanly and lets go of her, gagging and choking on his blood.

Taking the keys, she runs inside the car, starting the engine when the monster rips the knife out, the seeping wound starting to mend itself. And she slams the gas.

She drives crazy in the streets of Las Vegas, avoiding cops around the area and passing cars in an no passing zone, she finally gets to the bare road to drive over at Clark County. She glances back and forth at all the mirrors, seeing the tuff of Jerry's head and his monstrous face growling as he is hanging on the edge of the rim of the back trunk.

In a sudden shock, Jerry appears at the back window, his gnarly nails scratching the surface and he crawls up the roof. The eerie scratching metal echo Charlie's ears- he's digging his way in. She swerves the car, zig-zagging at great speed. At the rear view mirror, she sees his legs jostling at the side when she swerved, losing his concentration on digging in the roof.

She glances down at the time. It's four thirty. The sun should be rising by five. Jerry's clawing his way on the roof. She needs to continue driving up to Clark County for the sun to rise. Just having a 170 km drive will slow him down to claw his way in.

And suddenly, the body of the vampire appeared in front of Charlie. He lays on the window, the horrid face stared in her alarming eyes. And he swung his arm down, the fist slamming the glass window. She closes her eyes to avoid the glass hitting her face then screamed in terror when his strong hand grabs a hold of the wheel and jerked the wheel, losing out of her control.

The next thing Charlie felt was the impact of a ditch in a sharp turn, the car impacted to flipping to its passenger side. The car went flipping twice then sliding till the front side stopped as dust and dirt kicked up the entire car.

It happened in seconds.