Task Four: Female Entries

Blythe Sullivan

No Entry

Jane Bruno 

She awoke to hell and knives and there Jane Bruno realized several things. Jane Bruno not want to wake up.

Terrors unnamed would walk the streets and the inhumane killers were all there before her. They dressed and walked and talked like humans. They blended in so well that it wasn't until she saw their teeth flash, their eyes change colors, their movements become too fast to be real, that it was obvious they were not human. When she was a cop, her greatest worry had been over humans. Now, her greatest worry was for humans.

I can't do this.

She balked against the idea of running and leaving the place. The idea of just leaving it all behind, never knowing why, never knowing what, never finding out who she was. Jane could die. She could kill herself, rid the world of a monster, but that wasn't what she was called to do and she knew it. Death came only to the pretty and the good. The rest of them were left to fend for herself, and Jane knew that she would have to let go of herself to save those left.

Eugene's hand rested against her shoulder and she leaned into him, feeling the warmth of his hand against her. "There you are, sleepy-head," he murmured. "I'm amazed."

"Why's that?"

"I thought you only slept well when you were smashed out of your mind drunk, you little shot away from AA," he told her. "Well, wipe off your ugly sleep and get ready."

Jane sighed and wiped at her eyes. She felt like death and around her the world was death. People moved left and right, everyone scrambling. Vampires, blood, knives, guns, everything too fast for her to grasp. Eugene lay next to her in a corner, a shot of vodka half drank on his left and she clinging to the entirety of his right.How long have we been here?

"There's another clan who wants to kill us—we have to get ready. Half of everyone is going. You should go too, Jane," he told her, reaching out to pull up her horribly tied pony-tail.

I'm going to die a vampire. I'm going to live a vampire. What is this? A fight? Clans? I don't want this. I didn't ask for this. Jane sucked in air deeply and blew it out through her nose, the opposite of what everyone had always told her to do when feeling anxiety.

"Yeah, why don't we?"

Eugene looked away and slowly stood up, letting her drop to the ground. In silence she thought, realizing with horror that he meant to stay. He'd never been one to back away from a fight before. In fact, she'd seen him take down several bartenders in the past.

Jane Bruno did not want to fight.

The urge to run away coursed through her yet she knew that she could not leave. I can't let them hurt Eugene. He wanted to stay. He wanted to be one of them. She did not want him to die—even though he already was dead. I don't want him to die again. I need him. She stuck beside him, too scared to stay, too stubborn to leave.

A buzz filled the air as the time ticked down and she readied herself. Some people fled, leaving only a handful behind. Those that had left were lucky. They would be safe. Jane couldn't say the same for herself.

Her hair, now tied back, looked darker than ever and her body felt sticky, in need of a bath. That would wait. Baths, luxury, peace of mind, all of that would have to wait. I won't be getting anything like that anytime soon, she thought to herself. Eugene handed her a drink and she drank, ignoring the color of the liquid, ignoring the taste. I hate myself.

She gulped it down.

I love it.

"Are you ready?" he asked her. Eugene seemed hyped up. He was ready to fight, to kill, to do whatever it took.

"No," she thought. "No, I will never be ready." But aloud she only nodded her head, taking a knife from his hands and squeezing it tight. He winked at her.

They came in through the windows, breaking the glass. It shattered everywhere as they screamed in high pitched words that sounded ancient and tribal. Guttural sounds came from all vampires as they streamed in, fangs blared, their pale faces twisted into something horrifically evil. They look- Jane did not get to finish her thoughts before she was pushed back, thrown into a wall. As her own fangs shot out she cried out, no tears, no sadness, not even anger filling her. She was blank.

Just a monster fighting the monsters. She did as she was told, biting into them, letting their wounds spray dark, nonhuman blood all over her. She stabbed with the knife they'd given her. It glinted and then didn't as it coated in the dark purplish blood, staining her body, her clothes, her dignity.

Jane Bruno did not want to kill.

Who's right: Us, or them? The question didn't make sense. Was there a difference? In looks, not so much. The creatures all looked human yet flashed teeth and abilities beyond human comprehension. None breathed and yet Jane still filled her lungs with air. It was useless. She wanted to be living—they wanted to stay alive.

The other dead, the people attacking, didn't care who they hurt. She watched them rip each other open on accident and continue fighting. She watched them go after the younger ones. Jane watched them kill without caring. Us. I'm one of them now. She would not kill without caring. Am I? Can I ever be human again?

Eugene wants me to accept this, but I can't...I can't.

Blood rained down, a horror movie out of control. This would be so bad of a B rated movie, Eugene would invite me to watch it. Jane didn't have time to laugh at herself, at the bad joke she'd made, at the situation. All she could do was move, doing what she knew was wrong. All her choices were wrong. Nothing could be right anymore. Not now.

Not after what she'd became.

Jane Bruno did not want to be a vampire.

I'm not one of them. It's not true. This can't be true. She felt it, the urge to kill, to maim. It spread through her like a disease. So much of her life had become just that, a disease, a burden upon the world.

I'm one of them.

But, above all, Jane Bruno did not want to die.

I can't let them die.

Gareth is our leader—my leader. I have to protect him. He's the one who caused this—he's the reason I'm here. If he dies, I lose my only chance at living.

That's all I am now. One of them. A member. A being of death. A creature born of hatred and cursed to never live or die naturally. All I am is death. I am a monster. She threw the knife at the guy—slicing open his throat, yet not killing him. He attacked and she attacked. Skin against skin. Vampire against vampire.

Soon enough, he fell too. Bit by bit the few remaining managed to kill off most of the attackers. They began to flee. Gareth gave another shout—this one a victory yelp, and she felt it inside her mind. Their attachment, everyone's to one another, ran deeper than she could ever comprehend.

People came and people went. They died and they lived. They screamed and they fought. All the while, they existed. Good, bad, young, old, everyone fought. Both sides lost, and yet soon, more were lost on one and those continued to die. They screamed in agony, yelling, cursing the world, and yet the clan, Jane's new clan, survived. They lived. They continued to go, beating on them, pushing them back into the streets, leaving Jane and two others to pick up the dead.

Bodies moved out into streets. Bodies placed on top of one another. A hoard of dead. Not even in the most fierce gang-related battles had Jane ever seen so much death. This is what I've done. This is what we've done. Jane shuddered at herself and went to move more bodies.

It was then that she found the body.

It was common for the beautiful to die young. That must be why she fell—one too beautiful to last. Jane held the young beauty in her arms. Jane was only twenty-four, and the woman couldn't have been too much older. High twenties, perhaps. Her blonde hair had dark shadows of brown at the roots and her face had looked nearly ageless. She'd been the one who had told Jane to leave earlier and then thanked for her staying. Her name had been shouted by Gareth once and only once before he had gotten lost in the struggles of fighting. Pemele. A beautiful name, fitting for her, and yet it wasn't.

Beautiful people died young.

Monsters died young too.

Perhaps, Jane thought as she dragged the body to a corner, monsters can be beautiful too.


Adria Fuerte

Dropped Out

Zoe Katsaros

"I don't understand," said the little snake to the night. "I can fly beneath the stars and more besides. How could the sky be anything but safe?"

For an eternity and a day, the darkness gave no answer. Then, in a voice like wine it sang to her.

"Little thing, I have given you wings and strength and more besides; you have swallowed me, and become strong. But you are still but a tiny serpent under the stars, and the darkness still surrounds you."

Far off in the distance, the cry of a predator sent a shiver through the little snake, and she glanced to the horizon, where the stars themselves hid their faces.

"You are safe from the creatures of the land. But there live so very many little snakes who were once afraid to die."

~*~

The queen was dead. Long live the queen.

Ten vampires sat around the corpse of the woman Caroline, trembling with remembered pain. I saw one woman, blonde hair perfect even after her ordeal, weeping silently even as she remained as still as a statue cut from marble.

I stayed standing. I had paid dearly for the ability to do just that, and no psychic haymaker was gong to take it from me, even if Caroline's death featured in my nightmares for years to come.

The correct response was not to do as the reptilian part of my brain suggested and curl up into a ball to cry forever. The correct response was to find that smug bastard Gareth and pull his intestines out through his nose for putting me through it.

I took a trembling step, then another. My stomach rolled, and I gave up the fight for just a minute to dry heave on my hands and knees. A few splatters of bloody bile marked my place on the floor.

Footsteps sounded at the door, and I glanced up at the only exit to see Gareth leaning against the door frame, grimacing and wiping at the tracks of a few stray tears. Some instinct whispered inside me, hissing that the tears indicated pain and weakness, and that he was prey ripe for the taking. I ought to strike for the spinal column first, to cripple without spilling any precious, precious blood—

My own eyes narrowed; my lips peeled back into a fang-laden snarl of their own accord.

Forget prey—this one had injured me. I was going to show him what a lethally stupid idea that truly was.

Fury stilled my trembling limbs, and I flew towards him at speeds that would have done Leah proud. My hand clenched into a small, tight fist that hurtled towards his sternum with what I was sure would be lethal force.

His eyes widened, and he twitched to the left just enough to save himself. My strike hit his shoulder instead of his ribs, and he was knocked into an uncontrolled spin as my own momentum carried me past him and into the hall beyond. The remaining force in my punch struck the wood panels of the wall, and with a crack the wood gave.

I tried to withdraw my hand, only discover with a certain amount of chagrin that I had gotten stuck.

As I tugged harder and harder to try and escape, Gareth made his way beside me. I noted with vicious satisfaction that his right arm was dangling uselessly at his side.

"That was unwise, Miss Katsaros," he said, tone giving away none of the pain I was dearly hoped he was feeling. "It is rarely the correct decision to give in to one's anger."

"You sick son of a bitch," I snarled in response. "Your sternum is going to give in to my anger as soon as I get my damn hand free. I don't care if she was your girlfriend or your dominatrix or just some random plague victim you found on the street. You had no right to put me through that—"

"No. I didn't. But it was necessary nonetheless. You had to know what it was like for our elders— for all of us. You were with her when she passed; couldn't you sense her? Did you understand who she was and what she wanted?"

I shuddered for an instant at the memory; the Higher Blood's mind was a terrifying mix of rage, pain, and fear, tempered only by an iron will and a kindness as voracious an merciless as bloodlust itself. It had frightened me in a way that was totally different from Leah's casual cruelties. Had she lived, I was completely certain Caroline would have torn the world apart in order to let it heal cleanly.

"The same illness that killed her threatens the elders of our clan. They were the ones keeping our territory safe from invaders— but at the moment they are too weak to defend themselves, let alone our entire city. You owe us nothing, Miss Katsaros, but you were with Caroline in her last moments. Tell me, was she so very unworthy of your loyalty? Was she evil in your eyes?"

Evil? I couldn't call her evil any more than I could call the blind might of a star evil. She loved her clan with a force and passion that could only be described as Biblical. Gareth saw my hesitation and pressed his advantage.

"Help us, Zoe Katsaros. We are not alone, and we do not have the luxury of waiting for our elders to recover. Even as we speak, another clan is moving to invade the city, and I promise that they will not be nearly as merciful to the humans as we have been."

I let out a short, sharp laugh. "Merciful? Everyone in the city is terrified to leave their houses at night. Everyone who stays on the streets after sunset has a nasty habit of disappearing under mysterious circumstances."

He tilted his head, expression betraying mild confusion. "I'm not sure I follow you. That more than anything should convince you that we are the best option. Don't you want that to stop instead of get worse?"

It was my turn to look confused. "What are you talking about? Wasn't your clan responsible for the disappearances?"

He shook his head very slowly, and I felt a low, heavy feeling in the pit of my stomach.

"No. The mass deaths would be the result of your sire's stay here. We realized too late that the Leanansidhe was not working alone, that her presence and death toll on the humans was a test of our confidence in our might. If we had known..." He broke off in disgust. "We should have attacked her sooner. But there were so many ill already, and your sire would tear apart anything less than a squad of experienced fighters.

My hand came free. I quelled the lingering desires to rip his head off, forcing myself to see reason. "You're saying Leah is responsible for the murders in the city? An entire city, all by herself? Just to see what would happen?"

"Yes. I am. And it's only a matter of time before she comes back with reinforcements. We'll need to evacuate the elders and build up our strength."

"Or," a deliciously sultry voice purred from directly behind him. "You could die."

My breath caught in my throat, and single, exquisitely pale hand rapped sharply on Gareth's temple. His eyes rolled up in his head, and he crumpled immediately. Leah stood behind him in all her mind-rending splendor, dressed tonight in a red evening gown with a long slit up the side that exposed pale, lovely leg. She smiled wickedly at me, and my head throbbed.

"By the Morrigan, child," she said with the tone of an exasperated schoolteacher. "I gave you a single instruction: keep well away from the vampire clan in the city. Have you been this contrary all your life?"

"Leah. This—this isn't—" I was forgetting how to object, how to react at all. Leah shook her head in disapproval.

"I came here to take care of a spot of business, and I did not anticipate finding you underfoot. I shall be rather cross if you make this take any longer than it should; I've not fed tonight, and I do not wish this to take longer than it must."

Business. The word penetrated the fog on my mind. I shook my head, staring at anything but her. "He said— he said you killed all those people. That you want to kill his clan. Is that true?"

"Obviously." Her tone had the mild annoyance and condescension of one who was speaking to a small child.

I felt as though someone had tossed a bucket of cold water over me. "What?"

"I want this city for me and mine." She said with perfect equanimity, as though describing a set of household chores They stand in the way. My clan and I will kill them, and take this city for ourselves. This includes you, naturally. I had intended for you to stay out of the fighting— we can take the clan without you, and you are not yet fully matured. You would be expected to contribute to any later battles, once you have grown."

I stood stock still. "Leah, you can't be serious. They're totally defenseless."

"That's rather the point, impossible child. I promised you the life of a goddess. Did you think Ishtar and Sekhmet ever tolerated a rival?"

With a jolt, I realized two crucial facts.

The first: Caroline Withers had been barely bound by sanity, and her clan was likely to be full of individuals I would deeply detest.

The second: They were human in all the ways that mattered. And Leah had not been human in a very, very long time.

"I won't let you hurt them."

For a very long moment, Leah stood completely still. Then:

"A pity."

She moved with blinding speed— but I had gotten faster as well. My hands came up to protect my throat, and Leah's claw-like fingers were swatted away. I retaliated with a punch of my own, an enormous thing like the one I had used to break Gareth's arm, and she skipped back a step. I grinned fiercely at her.

"Stronger than you expected, right? Must be dear old Granny Lamia's genes kicking in. Still think you can take me?"

I made the mistake precisely then— thriving on my humanity, full of confidence, I slipped into a human habit no vampire needed to perform.

I blinked.

Pain exploded across my side as Leah's bare foot impacted my side with terrible force. I flew sideways into the wall of the hallway, my head smacking the wood and making my head swim. Leah stood over me, eyes cold as the void of space.

"Arrogant brat." Her voice could have frozen oceans with those two words. "I will forgive the excesses and bravado of your youth. Eventually. First, I am going to show you what it means to cross the eldest vampire of Éire. I would have made their ends swift. Know that your stupidity has made their deaths painful." She turned on her heel and marched through a nearby doorway. No— not just any doorway. Caroline's sickbed. A sickbed with ten traumatized vampires helpless beside it.

I lost consciousness, but not before I heard the first scream.

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