Sanctuary

Chapter Twelve

Rusty bolts creaked and groaned as the ladder protested being climbed. Jake winced, the last thing he needed was for that psycho to hear and come running. For a creep, the fucker had keen senses.

Finally, a hiding place appeared at the top of the untrustworthy ladder. The shipping crate was pitch black and water was dripping somewhere. Allowing a moment for his heart to calm down, Jake dreaded that he would have to leave this small sanctuary and find a way out. Why the fuck was he even here?

As he went to move, a sound caught his attention. It was quiet, almost imperceptible. Jake desperately wanted to attribute it to his paranoia, dearly wishing that he was not hearing the quiet breaths of unwelcome company.

The raging debate going on in Jake's head as to whether he should turn on his torch or make a run for it was abruptly cut off by a clicking noise from right in front of him. His heart froze, it was so close. Now the breathing was louder and quicker, exhilarated. A small yellow flame flared to life as the clicking ceased, only to reveal the most horrifying sight.

Only a few seconds were allowed him, but in those seconds Jake stared into true madness. Those chapped and bleeding lips curled into an insane grin, those cold and empty eyes widened with anticipation, those filthy hands wrapped tightly around the knife as it glimmered above their heads. A hoarse voice like nails on a chalkboard grated at Jake's ears, striking fear into his very soul. "Found you~"

Jake let out a very unmanly shriek and threw the controller across the room. Clutching his chest, all Jake could hear other than the pounding of his heart was the raucous laughter of the five vampires surrounding him. The TV screen went red, 'Game Over' appearing in bold as pixelated blood splatters appeared on screen.

As Jake's erratic heart rate calmed, the laughter of his friends did the opposite. Apparently there was nothing funnier than his reaction to the horror game.

"He's got some lungs on him, that one." Cahya slumped against the chair, trying to catch his breath. Jake hit him lightly, pouting at the hysterics of his family.

Finally, the laughter died down as they tried to catch their breath. However, they made the mistake of looking at one another, which promptly led to all five bursting out laughing again. "Oh, come on guys!" Jake threw his arms into the air and slumped backwards onto the couch. "The fuck just surprised me."

"Alright, alright" Daegel wiped tears of laughter from his eyes. Seeing Jake's playful pouting, he had to bite his lip to keep from laughing again. "Awww, don't be like that Jakey. I still love you."

"Yeah, we'll protect you from any psychos out there." Raven had a big grin on his face as he got up from where he had rolled onto the floor. Smirking slightly, Jake just rolled his eyes.

"Whatever assholes, let's do something else." Eager to divert the attention from his little outburst, Jake spoke almost too quickly. Luckily for him, the others either didn't notice or let it go. "Let's go out to the town, maybe a bar or something."

"Sure, why not?" Onyx gasped out, collecting herself. "There's a city not far from here, we could just run."

"Sounds like fun" Cahya grinned. "Let's go."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cahya had once told Jake that it took a tremendous amount of alcohol to even make a vampire tipsy, nevermind flat-out drunk. Well, Jake may have just found out exactly how much alcohol that was.

As it turns out, dealing with four heavily drinking vampires was no walk in the park. Each was very, very different when drunk, and one human wasn't enough to reign them in. Worst of all, caution had been thrown to the wind in terms of avoiding suspicion. Though few people in the bar were even capable of noticing at this point, the bartender was looking at them as though they were ghosts. A fair assumption, seeing as any human being would have died of alcohol poisoning a while ago. Empty bottles of whisky and vodka were lined up on the counter, glimmering in the beam of the bar's overhead lights.