Jessica crashed through the branches of the pine tree that maliciously grew in the path of her fall. Being made of squishy bits, she didn’t take well to the situation. A situation that she put herself in—by jumping through the sky instead of taking a car. She would survive.
Willowbrook burned to the ground a couple months back, and Jessica’s been nothing but eager to send the creatures that caused it back to the Hells. You might take the same course if vampires had burned your home down. Maybe minus falling through the trees, though.
Purpose whispered into her ear. “Hey Jessica, how ya doing out there?”
“Wonderful. Just taking a quick break next to this fine tree.” She attempted to move, but her broken bones said otherwise. All of them.
“You’re going to fuck up one day and end up painting the trees if you ain’t careful.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
Timmy’s voice could be heard in the background. “Timmy asked if you can get him a soda.”
Jessica hummed an agreement.
Once her bones healed, she stood and brushed herself off. Above, her sword stuck into the trunk of the tree three quarters of the way up. She had herself a quick stretch, then leaped upward. Once at height, she twisted her body upward and put her feet to the sky, balancing on her sword with one hand. In one smooth motion, she ripped the blade from the tree and twisted her body like a helicopter. She landed on her feet, and the thick pine fell in several logs.
She sheathed the sword, then patted the pistol on her side. “Now why can’t I do that all the time?”
Breesport housed about the same amount of people as Willowbrook did. A hamlet near Horseheads, New York, vampires thrived in these more rural areas. A sort of natural selection as feral vampires that ventured into more dense areas get found out faster and dispatched by a hunter or a random human—getting turned in the process, like Jessica.
In the distance, the faint roar of an undead wolf echoed between the trees at the edge of the hamlet. Just about any creature could become a vampire. The phenomenon ran without limit, and spread more quickly in some populations—like dogs and wolves. She pulled her sword, then moved with an incredible haste, but silent as a gentle breeze. The darkness of night encompassed the woods, but her eyes peered through it like beams of sunlight. There existed nowhere a creature could hide as the world zipped by her. Scents of almond, fruit, honey, and mushroom, with hints of sulfur and feces met her nose long before the sight of the beast did.
As she came upon the wolf, she brought her sword down. In that moment, the wolf’s ears twitched, and it dashed out of the way. Its muscles rippled as it whipped its body around to strike at Jessica. It bared its sharp and broken teeth as it leapt towards her. She dipped to the side and brought the sword back around, connecting with its head, slicing clean through its body and heart.
The wolf exploded into blood and flames, singeing Jessica’s hair and covering her in blood. A nearby car’s alarm triggered.
She rubbed the blood from her face onto her hands before eating it. “That was pretty awesome,” she said into her headset while she cleaned the blade of the sword using her pant leg.
“Showboating will make you complacent, and complacency kills.”
“Yeah, them.”
Purpose sighed. “When you going to talk to your parents?”
“You heard anything about Nadia?”
“I don’t imagine she survived Willowbrook. If she did, chances are she’s feral by now, if she wasn’t then. You didn’t answer my question, shit head.”
The streets were dark, lit by the occasional street lamp every few hundred feet. The porch light to the home that sat in front of the distressed car flickered on. A man crept out, disheveled in appearance, and walked to the car. A shadow slithered along the roof of the home.
“Hey, you still there?”
Jessica braced, as if she were competing in the fifty meter dash. “Shh.”
The car beeped twice before going silent, and as it did, Jessica launched herself forward and up at the vampire waiting in the shadows. It grabbed her arm and whipped her back around and into the trees. A hefty pine shook as it took the force. Without a moment to breath, the vampire pounced, repeatedly slamming her body into the tree with an animalistic rage. Her sword sat out of reach, but her pistol wasn’t.
“Eat shit,” she said as she shoved the pistol in its face.
A loud bang, then a constant, high-pitched whine. The vampire fell limp to the ground. Jessica painfully pulled herself to her feet.
She spat blood on the vampire as she walked to pick up her sword. “I need a relaxing shower.”
“Can practically smell you all the way over here,” Purpose replied.
“Oh, stop,” Jessica said as she picked the sword up from the ground and walked back to the vampire.
“Hey, d—”
“You cut out,” she said, tapping the earpiece as if that would solve the problem.
The service sucked in the more rural parts of the country. One moment, you have a strong signal, the next, nothing. If you didn’t make the proper sacrifice to the signal gods at the start of your day, they would inconvenience you with a poor or slow signal.
Standing over the healing vampire, she thrust the sword through its chest. It exploded with a fireball and covered the area with blood. The car became distressed again. The disheveled man had never entered his home before the tussle began. Probably in shock.
Jessica waved. She disappeared into the trees, knowing the person likely called the police. The night had just begun, and she’d already pulled two vampires. It’s quite unusual. It’s entirely possible that she could make a new personal best record tonight, though. Her previous best had been four vampires in a single night.
To her left, water gently trickled along a creek bed. Pine, maple, mossy tones, and odors of decaying leaves permeated the wooded area. The pine nearly stung Jessica’s nose, strong like some of those household cleaners. There were no cars coming down the road a couple dozen feet to her right, and no signs of police lights or sirens—which was good. She thought about taking a quick dip in the creek to clean off the blood, but it made no sense to do so until she knew she was about done for the evening.
Jessica got back onto the road to give herself more visibility on the community ahead. Immediately, she saw several figures hopping across roofs. One of the figures was massive. She hit the jackpot tonight. She drew her sword and pistol, then sprinted toward the vampires. As she closed in on them, she sped up until, eventually, she was at speed enough to launch from the ground at one of the rooftops.
While midair, she let off several shots. All but one missed—the one causing violent disassembly of one vampire. Pure fucking luck. Jessica practiced aiming and shooting a whopping zero times since she first got the pistol in Willowbrook yestermonth. To be fair, handguns aren’t exactly the most accurate firearms at range. She did, however, steal the attention of the rest.
In the distance, police lights flipped on and moved in her direction. Houses below Jessica lit up as folks awakened by the gunfire and explosion stirred to investigate.
“What the fuck is going on out here,” a voice yelled from below into the darkness.
Jessica landed on the roof, then slipped in the blood. She toppled and slammed her ribs into the crest of the roof, send waves of electric pain through her torso. She tensed, a loud bang, and then an intense, throbbing heat radiated from her knee.
“Fuck!” She quickly holstered the pistol and stabbed the sword into the roof before grabbing her knee.
The big, beefy figure doubled over in laughter, and the other vampires stared at her in confusion. To her left bolted to the roof sat a satellite dish. She ripped the cables from the dish, ripped the dish itself from the roof, and threw it like a frisbee at a vampire. It zipped through its face and continued off into the woods behind. The vampire fell from the roof, limp. The others did not approve.
Jessica took the cables and tied them around the hilt of her sword. She stood, applying more weight to the knee that didn’t have a hole in it, before swinging the sword around her twice. She brought the sword back around once more, then whipped it at the vampire that fell to the ground. Another explosion, and several car alarms responded. She tugged the cable, snapping the sword back to her hand. Red and blue lights alternated on the ground below.
“Everyone off the roofs and on the ground!” An officer said with his weapon drawn.
The larger creature obliged the officer, jumping from the roof it perched on. Landing a couple hundred feet in front of the officer, it slowly paced toward him.
The officer tightened his grip on the pistol. “Freeze! Stop and get on the ground!”
It did not. The creature continued. The police officer fired two shots into it, but it continued toward him unfazed. Jessica and the vampires on the roofs looked onward curiously.
“STOP!” The officer yelled.
More lights from surrounding houses came on, and folks filtered from their homes, some with firearms. The police officer fired round after round at the beast until Jessica heard the slide lock backward on his pistol. The creature’s pace slowed not.
It reached the officer, and picked him up from the ground. Every person with a rifle started shooting, scaring the vampires from the roofs as they silently scattered into the forest. Jessica kneeled and untied the cable from her sword. The beast ripped the officer limb from limb, plucking each off with ease as the man screamed and cried. He went silent as the creature twisted his torso in half. It threw both halves of the officer, then leaped away. Jessica followed, leaping from the screams of the crowd below.
The air grew cold and thin as she neared the peak of her leap. Below, the creature landed gracefully—something that immediately spurred anger in Jessica. Gravity controlled the situation once Jessica left the ground, and she didn’t have muscles or bones strong enough to withstand the impact of such a large leap. The beast turned and waited, with a smile.
Jessica stuck her sword out forward like a spear. It grabbed the blade of her sword as she was about to crash down, and used her momentum to spin her back around and into the air in the opposite direction.
Once more, the air became cold and thin before warming again. Maybe luck played a role, but this time trees wouldn’t be the landing pad. Instead, a small shack filled with chopped wood broke her fall. Her bones, broken. Bladder, emptied. The creature’d knocked her over to the other side of the hamlet. What in the Hells even was that thing? She knew not, but the fire of curiosity burned within. It landed so effortlessly, and Jessica yearned to do to the same.
A few moments later, after she healed, Jessica climbed from the collapsed shack. She patted herself down. Everything looked and felt in place; no missing limbs, and her pistol was holstered. She needed only to pull the sword from the cow that lay in the field. Such a nice gesture from the cow, to volunteer itself to the sword. Jessica cleaned the blade of blood using her tongue before she sheathed it.
“I guess that was the end of tonight’s hunt,” she said to herself, punctuating with a sigh.
Her earpiece beeped and she tapped it to answer. “What’s up?”
“What’s going on over there? Police scanner is going hot right now and law enforcement is swarming to the area,” Purpose said.
“I’ll have to explain when I get back. Let me clean myself up and hit up the store, then I will be on the way.”
“Stay safe, Jessica.”
“Mmhmm.”
Nearby, Newtown Creek gently trickled along as it rounded several bends. Below the strong odor of the blood that soaked her outfit sat lovely scents from the fallen leaves and mossy stones. She savored the moment like you might a barbecue at the park. Putting the pistol and sword on dry ground, she flopped into the creek whole-body. She relaxed underwater for several minutes, allowing the water to rinse her clothing. They were naturally a dark red and black. Not her favorite colors, but they made cleaning a touch easier after hunting.
She raised her head above the water and tapped her earpiece. “Call Purpose.”
It rang for amount before she picked up. “What can I do ya for?”
“Someone needs to invent stain-proof clothing.”
“Plastic?” Purpose chuckled.
Her face scrunched. “Eww, God no.”
“Hey.”
“What?” Jessica said as she scrubbed herself with mud.
“Don’t forget to grab that junk for Timmy.”
“Oh, yeah, of course. I’ll grab a cola and peanut butter cups for him. Did you want anything?” She asked as she stood up from the creek, picked up her gear, and started a jog to the store not far away.
“No.”
“You don’t want anything?!”
“If I did, I would’ve said so.”
“Come on… how about one of them meat sticks?” Jessica asked with a chuckle.
A long, heavy breath pierced through the radio waves. “I ain’t had meat in a very long time, and I do miss it,” she began. A hammer pounded in the background. “But, I’m not about to commit suicide over some fake ass meat from a convenience store.” Purpose laughed.
“I’ll grab you a bottle of water,” Jessica said as the chime of the store’s doors rang.
“Fine.”
Jessica made her way to the soda fridge and pulled several drinks from the racks. As she did, she felt someone’s eyes stuck to her. Why did people always stare? Such an annoying thing to deal with, even as a vampire. As she walked to the candy, she caught a glimpse of her reflection on a glass fridge door.
“Mm, mmhmm,” she hummed, seeing the reflections of her weapons.
She’d forgotten to leave them outside the store. New York police aren’t entirely friendly to folks wondering around open carrying a firearm and a sword. Lucky for her, store clerks weren’t the police. She glanced over to him, and he immediately moved his eyes elsewhere.
“Slow night?” She asked as she grabbed the peanut butter cups.
“Ye—yeah.”
Police zoomed by the store with flashing lights.
She grabbed a bottle of water before walking toward the counter. “They look like they’re having a rough night.” She reached down, and the clerk tensed up. “Relax, dude. I was LARPing, these are plastic with metallic paint.”
She pulled a plastic bag with money from her pocket, and his demeanor immediately lightened. Jessica could’ve used the vampire trick to change his mind or whatever, but she just got an ass whooping and didn’t want to waste the energy. Lying was easier. She handed him the money, he returned the change and put the items in a paper bag.
“Stay safe, bud,” she said as she walked toward the doors.
“You too.”
Then, the lights died and her connection to Purpose was severed. “It’s always some bullshit.”
The clerk sighed. “Tell me about it.”
Outside, no street lights, pump lights, house lights, police lights, or anything. She tapped her earpiece. It didn’t respond. She pulled it out and put it in her pocket. The night was lit by the moon, and a deep, dark, nearly-black red that lightly kissed the night sky.