Misty Rose: Nature
Chapter 15
So, I haven’t really been talking about going hunting. Not because it’s not important, I mean, I’m not that jaded to having to beat up humans and drink their blood. It’s more that… I don’t really feel like I got to talk about every single time I went out looking for some mugger or rapist to smack. Not when there had been a couple days where nothing else happened. There’s really not a lot of variation, because the sort of guys I’d be looking for weren’t smart enough to come up with anything original. Same thing each time, they say give them my money, I tell them no, they try to hurt me, I end up slapping them around until they’re too messed up to fight back, drink some of their blood, go home, and either get Kaitlyn to fix whatever damage they’d done to my hoodie or fix it myself. Only thing really worth mentioning is that I was finding a really weird number of masochists because they all reacted to being bitten like the second guy I drank from. Like they’d just had sex. Scary lady said humans would enjoy being bitten for whatever reason, but what they were doing seemed… more than just enjoying it.
Well, I’m going to talk about the time I went out hunting just after the little creep got hauled off for being stupid because it didn’t go like the others. Started out the same… me dressed like a jogger just wandering around in bad parts of the city, I pass a dark alley, some guy comes out of it with a knife or a gun, grabs me from behind, that sort of thing. Where it changed was that the guy didn’t start screaming in my ear about giving him my money. Instead, he pulled me off my feet and slammed me face first into the alley wall and held me there. I’d managed to turn my head, but I was looking out towards the street and couldn’t see anything, and the asshole had his hand on my head, holding it against the wall. I could feel his other hand feeling around my body, looking for something.
“Shit,” I heard him say. “She’s not even carryin’ a wallet.”
“Not again,” I heard a second guy say.
“Guess she’ll hafta pay the other way,” a third voice said.
Yeah. Three of them, and I was up against the wall. Right about then, I started freaking out. This was too much like… well, what had happened to me before. I’ve been… avoiding talking about it because it still bugs me after everything else, but this time, I had a full-on flashback. This is why I sometimes say I’d looked up something on the internet about psychology or whatever. Started trying to look for help, but I dropped it when I found out how much it cost. Seemed like I could get by, you know? Long as nothing happened that was too close to what had happened to me back then. You think something like being turned into a vampire would wipe out just human shit, but it doesn’t. It just adds to whatever you already got.
And this was way too close. Except less drugs and more being overpowered by someone stronger. Same feeling of not being able to do anything and… and knowing what’s going to happen but not being able to stop it. It was like… my brain just shut down. I couldn’t move, and I was stuck on the one thought, running through my head over and over. They’re going to rape me and I can’t stop it, over and over. I started feeling dizzy and like I was going to throw up and… like someone’d given me GHB again. Happened every time something set off the memory. I’d start feeling like I did when it happened, and along with it came the feeling of the drugs they used. Feeling all weighed down, like I’m on some kind of downer. This was the same, right down to the little flickers of blackness that made me feel kind of like I was watching some old movie in my head. Pretty sure if I could still sweat and if my heart beat, I’d be getting that, too. But really the big thing was being helpless. Trapped in my own body. Can’t move, can’t fight, can’t stop what’s going to happen, and I know what’s going to happen even though everything else is hard to concentrate on. Like the fact that I’m going to be raped is the only thing in my life right then, and I’m stuck in that moment forever. Felt like forever. Then what came after… still couldn’t go there, you know? Hurt too much. Wanted to forget.
Sorry, even just talking about it… sends me there. I can… sort of talk about the lead-up if I have to do it, and… I feel like I couldn’t explain the alley if I don’t talk about what happened to me before. But everything just shuts down if I try to talk about the… actual rape. I’m still like that because there aren’t any vampire psychologists. Seems like I’m stuck with that knot in my brain, least for now.
Anyway, what happened in that alley. I almost didn’t notice then the guy who had me up against the wall threw me on the ground. The second guy went around behind me and got me around the neck in a choke hold. Third guy was already working on pulling his pants down. I could watch the fuckers, but I couldn’t move. Trapped, right? Except right when the third guy stepped up between my feet and kicked my legs farther apart, the animal or whatever inside me rolled over and growled, and it was like something inside me broke loose.
It was not a nice part. I pulled my leg back and kicked straight up as hard as I could into the guy’s balls. At the same time, I reached up and grabbed the guy who had me in a choke hold by the wrist and pulled as hard as I could. I started feeling his arm move, but he tightened his hold again and hauled me up and off the ground because he was taller than me. And a lot stronger, even as a vampire.
“Fuck!” I heard one of them yell, while the third guy fell to his knees wheezing. The first guy stepped around him and punched me really hard in the face. Think he broke my nose or something because it hurt like hell, but vampires don’t get concussions or bleed, and I think he hurt himself too. I pulled up my legs and kicked out with both feet, hanging off the guy behind me, but I was too slow and missed the guy who punched me. So scratch that movie move. Guy behind me tightened his arm again, trying to actually choke me out, but that doesn’t do shit to vampires.
“What the fuck?” I heard him whisper right in my ear. Then he said, “Something ain’t right here,” louder, and I thought shit, I got a smart one. He still had me off my feet, and I couldn’t do shit to him. I sort of flailed my right arm around anyway, though. The guy in front of me came in with a punch to my stomach, which did exactly nothing. I kicked out at him again, but he was too close for me to really do anything to. He punched me in the stomach again, like that was going to help. Then the guy I kicked in the balls got back to his feet, and he had a knife in his hand. “Kill ‘er,” he growls, and then the guy in front had a knife, and the guy in back had one in the hand that wasn’t holding me, and… they all started stabbing me. Over and over and over.
Getting stabbed is kind of like being shot in the head. Not a lot of people you can ask what it feels like, so I don’t know what it feels like to a human. To me, it hurt, yeah, but vampires don’t bleed, and most of the organs and shit we got in our bodies don’t actually do anything, and they were stabbing me in the stomach and chest and side. Each stab sort of felt like a really hard pinch, and… I could sometimes feel the knife blade moving around inside me. Think I probably got stabbed a couple dozen times at least. Maybe more, but it didn’t take all that long before I got pissed and everything went red. Like at the park, not at the party. I don’t remember what happened during my freak out.
I came back with my fangs in the throat of the guy that had me in the choke hold. All three of them were on the ground, and I was kneeling over the smart one, with his blood going down my throat. I pulled back as soon as I could. Didn’t know how much I’d drank, but… he was still alive. He had an obviously broken arm, but otherwise didn’t look too bad. Same for the guy that punched me, plus a broken nose and minus the broken arm. The guy I kicked in the balls… well, he still had them. But from the look of the fucker, he was going to need some time in the hospital. Was pretty sure I’d fed off all of them because they’d all gotten worked up, but… couldn’t be totally sure. And I had no stab wounds at all. Even the broken nose was gone. Only problem with me was that what was left of my hoodie and bra were soaked in blood, human blood from the smell, and were shredded and torn up way past the point of being at all covering. So I was basically in an alley, covered in blood that wasn’t mine, with a bunch of beat up assholes, and half naked. Don’t you just love vampire life?
Wasn’t any way I was going to get home in just short shorts and shoes, so I fished my phone out of my pocket and just tore off what was left of my hoodie and bra, which went into a trash can down the alley. Didn’t seem like anyone had heard whatever I did while I was freaked out, so maybe I had some time. Enough to call for some help. I pushed the button to call Kaitlyn. After a few rings, she answered. She sounded grumpy and sleepy.
“Whatcha want?” she asked.
“Sorry I’m callin’ so late,” I said. “I need help.”
“Why?”
“I… sorta got beat up.”
There was a pause from the other side. “Thought that didn’t happen to vampires.”
“Yeah,” I said. “But it happened to me.”
“Are you okay?” Kaitlyn asked. “What happened?”
“I’m fine now. But I need you to pick me up.”
“Where are you?”
“Not exactly sure. South side. I’ll text you where when I get a chance to look.”
“Okay,” Kaitlyn said. I could hear her putting on clothes.
“Bring an extra coat or something,” I said.
“Why?”
“’Cause… my clothes got sorta torn up.”
“How torn up?”
“Rags. Small rags. That’s why I can’t walk home.”
I could almost hear Kaitlyn grinning. “Sounds cute.”
“It’s not cute, Katlyn!”
“You sure you can’t walk?”
“Kaitlyn,” I said, trying really hard to not yell at her. “I’m in an alley with three beat up assholes and I’m wearing shorts and shoes and that’s it.”
“Oh, I hafta see this…” Kaitlyn said.
“Just get your ass over here. Please. With a coat. I’ll try to clean the blood off.”
“Blood?”
“Theirs. I don’t bleed, remember?”
“Mmmkay. Heading out the door.”
“See you then,” I said and hung up, then sighed and looked around. Kaitlyn was my best friend, but sometimes she could be a pain in the ass. I’ve said this before, right? Well, it was true. The three assholes were still alive, so that was good, and one of them had a do rag that’d work to wipe off the blood. I did the best I could, then tossed that in the trash can too. Then I stuck my head out of the alley and looked around until I could see a street sign and an address plate. I texted Kaitlyn, and a moment later, she responded that she was about five minutes away. I looked at the three assholes. I still couldn’t just… leave them to die, you know? Like with the guy in the park. Yeah, I knew what they were going to do to me, would have done if I hadn’t gone crazy vampire on them. But that still wasn’t a good reason to just let them die. So I’d need to do something. I thought for a bit, then fished around in their pockets until I found their wallets and a cell phone. Then I waited for Kaitlyn to show up.
It was more like seven minutes, but she turned up on her scooter. And she had an extra jacket. One of mine, of course, because she wouldn’t have wanted blood on one of hers. She pulled up to the mouth of the alley, and the headlight on her scooter lit up the scene.
“Jesus,” she whispered, looking at the assholes laying around. I walked over and took my jacket from her hands, since she didn’t seem about to hand it to me.
“Yeah,” I said, slipping into my jacket. “Things went pretty bad. They’re still alive, though.”
“Dunno why you wanna save assholes,” Kaitlyn said.
“’Cause a lot of vampires usually don’t. Hold on a sec.” I walked over to the least beaten up asshole, which turned out to be the guy who had me in a choke hold, bent over, and slapped him a couple times. He looked like he was starting to wake up, so I grabbed his ear and twisted hard. He was only half awake, but he started whimpering and begging for someone to help him. Perfect. I took the cellphone I’d grabbed, dialed 911, and dropped it on his chest. I could hear the dispatcher asking what was the emergency, then hear the guy begging for help. Then the dispatcher said not to hang up because they were going to track the location of the phone and that EMT would be there soon. I patted the only half-awake asshole on the cheek and walked back to Kaitlyn. I also emptied out their wallets and tossed what I didn’t need into the trash can. Girl’s got to make the rent.
“EMTs on the way,” I said. “We better go.”
I got on the scooter behind Kaitlyn, wrapped my arms around her waist, and we… well, I’d like to say we roared away, but it was more like we puttered. Kaitlyn’s scooter was old and not in the best condition, so it didn’t go very fast. But it still got us away, which was the important thing. She cut over a block before heading back, and we heard the ambulance going the other way. Kaitlyn got the hint that I didn’t want to talk after I didn’t answer a couple questions, which was probably best. My mind was going all kinds of weird places. Badass vampire chick flees scene of carnage on scooter. Totally unglamorous vampire almost gets ass beaten by humans. That kind of shit. Don’t think vampires get punch drunk, but having a flashback then a freakout wasn’t making my brain any more stable than it usually was, if you know what I mean. So it was probably best not to say anything.
We got home after a few minutes, and I went straight to the shower to clean off the rest of the blood. I checked in the mirror, and I didn’t even have any bruises from getting stabbed dozens of times and my nose broken, so yay vampire healing powers. I got into the shower, turned on the water way hotter than humans can tolerate, and just… stood there. Waited for the shakes and the crying and shit to start. I figured there was going to be some kind of backlash, you know?
But there wasn’t. First time in a couple years where triggering flashbacks didn’t cause me to suffer some… aftereffects as soon as I was home and felt sort of safe. And I didn’t know how I felt about that. Okay, yeah, not getting the aftereffects could be good. Might mean I was… finally getting some of that shit worked out, right? That’d be a good thing. But what if… freaking out like that just… reset whatever went wrong in my brain? Or maybe being a vampire changed my brain too much? What if it just forced the aftereffects down? Because that could mean that… vampires didn’t really feel the consequences of the shit they did sometimes. Like, they could have all kinds of shit happen, and they’d never actually do anything to heal because they didn’t think they had to because they never felt any kind of emotional consequences. I’d have to look it up again, but I was pretty sure that just burying the pain was bad for your brain. And if being a vampire meant that some part of the vampire part of you automatically buried that kind of shit… maybe that’d explain why vampires were so fucked up. Or maybe vampires didn’t feel the pain because they were meant to do the shit they did, which was also fucked up. Well, fucked up for humans, anyway, and all vampires used to be human, right?
Anyway, that was what was going around in my head, so I was kind of distracted, which is why Kaitlyn startled me when I stepped out of the shower and she was leaning against the door frame looking at me. I grabbed my towel and held it up against myself basically on reflex, but she didn’t grin. Just kept watching me with this look on her face I couldn’t read.
“You mind?” I asked.
“So what happened?” she said, like she didn’t hear me.
“Can it wait?”
“Why?”
“’Cause I just got out of the shower, that’s why.” I mean, I was literally dripping water, which was starting to get cold. Not fun, even for vampires.
“I need to know what happened,” Kaitlyn said, still watching me.
“Look,” I said. “Can I at least put on some clothes?”
“Misty, I need to know you’re okay,” Kaitlyn said. “Please?”
“Alright,” I said, and started drying off. While I was doing that, Kaitlyn grabbed my robe from the other room and handed it over. I put it on when I was dry and sat down on the toilet. And I told her what happened, getting grabbed, having a flashback, freaking out, the whole thing. She didn’t say much, just that it sounded like they’d attacked women like that before, and that she thought I was stronger than that. You know, stronger than just some asshole humans. But I guess I’m not stronger than all humans. Then I got to the part about healing all the stab wounds and whatever.
“Let me see,” Kaitlyn said.
“Why?” I asked. It’s not like Kaitlyn didn’t get a chance to see when I got out of the shower. I’d also been drying myself off while I was talking so it wasn’t like I had the robe on the whole time.
“Misty, there was a shitload of blood in that alley,” Kaitlyn said. “I wanna be sure you’re… all healed up. That you’re okay. Please?”
I realized I hadn’t thought of… what it would look like to a regular human. And how much blood was all over the place. But thinking back… yeah. I’d been really messy again, and even after healing myself and drinking enough to be full, three big guys would leave a lot of blood. Kaitlyn had a good reason to want to be sure I was actually okay. So I took off the robe again, though I did wrap my towel around my waist too. If I’d been alive, I’d have been blushing like crazy. I usually did. But since I wasn’t alive, I just felt awkward. And embarrassed. This was just like after the party. Like… I don’t know, Kaitlyn had some kind of weird fascination with me and how being a vampire let me do things humans couldn’t do, like beat up a bunch of guys and come out of it not even bruised. Or, well, heal up the injuries or whatever. I don’t know. Maybe me being a vampire wasn’t real for her unless she could see it? But it was still pretty embarrassing.
“Where’d they stab you?” Kaitlyn asked. I started pointing to where the ones I could remember had been, and Kaitlyn reached out to sort of… lightly touch me with one hand. It was… kind of weird. I mean, I couldn’t tell what was going on in Kaitlyn’s head, and… my own head got a little strange because the animal rolled over and flicked an ear. Don’t know how else to describe it. Not really awake, but paying attention. I’d see cats doing something like that. I guess maybe it showed on my face or something because Kaitlyn froze for a second, then her hand started going towards my chest in a way that was… a lot more intimate than just touching where I’d been stabbed. Like a caress. But before she got there, she pulled her hand away like she’d been burned, then whirled around and went straight to the fridge. Then she pulled her bottle of vodka out of the freezer, poured herself like a half glass and drank most of it all at once. She coughed a bit, then put her head on her arms on the counter.
“Put on some clothes,” she said through her arms.
I hadn’t moved. I just watched the whole thing with my brain kind of not processing any of it. I was used to Kaitlyn joking around sometimes. Or like at parties when she was scamming drinks out of horny guys who should have known better because life isn’t porn. But this… I didn’t know what to think. Kaitlyn seemed almost like… she was afraid of me and drawn to me at the same time. Which didn’t make any sense. Scared, I got. I’m a fucking vampire, you know? Attracted… Kaitlyn had her problems, but she wasn’t stupid. I wasn’t her type, and I was a blood drinking corpse. Not exactly relationship material, you know? Only thing I could think of was that people sometimes did weird shit when they were under a lot of stress. So maybe she’d been more worried about me than she said. That would at least make sense, and I was just… reading things into all this that weren’t there because being a vampire fucked up how you react to stuff. Yeah, that made more sense.
Did what she said, though. I put on a t-shirt and some shorts, then went over to where Kaitlyn was still sitting with her head in her arms. I patted her on the back. “It’s okay. I’m fine.”
Kaitlyn didn’t respond.
I put my arm around her as best I could and squeezed her. “Thanks for carin’. But I’m fine, really. Just got sort of rattled by everything, y’know?”
Kaitlyn just raised her head, then finished the rest of her vodka.
“Good,” she said finally. “Try not to get beat up again, okay?”
“I won’t,” I said, squeezing her again. After that, we just chatted a little, and Kaitlyn went to bed. It wasn’t too long until dawn, so I just… messed around a bit and went to sleep myself.
On the plus side, I did manage to make rent for the month.
