Fall of the Mortals (Book 1) (2 page)

Mercedes didn’t speak much at all. She had long, wavy hair, cute brown eyes and olive skin. She held onto her stuffed koala bear toy, ‘Sadie’, and seemed to be afraid of everybody. After she watched her parents murdered by vampires, she fell into a state of shock and hadn’t been able to speak since. Betty found her alone on a street corner crying where she stood next to her dead parents. The vampires flew through the city streets grabbing people and biting them. Some they just killed and dropped to the street. Betty picked her up and ran to the bank tower, barely escaping three of them.

Tommy was a Japanese-American boy. He was overweight with chubby cheeks and had a helpful, likeable personality. He didn’t get along with Chris much of the time but liked the others. Tommy was rescued by Harold as a sweeping wave of vampires went through the city. Tommy was trapped in the back seat of a car that was catching fire and was involved in a five car pile-up in the middle of an intersection near the bank tower. Tommy’s aunt was the driver and was dead at the steering wheel. Harold kicked out the rear passenger window and cut himself to get Tommy out of the car.

“Mr. Phan? How’s your family?” asked Betty.

Mr. Phan glanced at his son, Thai, and said something in Vietnamese.

“My father says that you’re very kind to let us stay here,” said Thai.

Betty and Harold’s faces smiled warmly.

“It’s our pleasure,” answered Betty.

“How’s the chemistry studies, Yuri?” asked Harold.

“It is good,” said Yuri.

“Any closer to finding a cure with all that stuff you doin’?” asked Betty.

“Every sample I tried, it fails,” answered Yuri. “Persistence. Number one. Yes?” he smiled.

Chris and Tommy chuckled.

“Dude, you’re so funny,” said Chris. “
Yes?
” he said mocking Yuri.

“Guys. Stop it,” said Shaun.

“Don’t make fun of him,” Harold rebuked them. “I bet he’s the smartest guy here.”

“I apologize, Yuri. Chris is still working on having respect for others,” said Harold.

“It’s okay,” said Yuri, nodding with a smile.

He struggled with English. He felt just as awkward as everyone else did. They were a group of people with completely different backgrounds thrown in the mix together with nothing in common.

“Hey Sadie. You want to play with my dolls after dinner?” asked Kim.

Sadie smiled but stayed quiet.

“Sadie, honey. Kim asked you if you want to play. Answer her, sweets,” said Betty.

Sadie nodded her head. She didn’t answer. She was still frightened. Betty had a special soft spot for Sadie in her heart. She took her in like her own daughter. Sadie reminded her of herself when she was little. Betty came home from school one day to find that both her parents had overdosed on crack cocaine. She remembered being so badly affected by her parents’ tragic death she didn’t speak to anyone for a month either. When she was taken to the child shelter, the counselors were so nice to her. She had always wanted to return the favor to a child in need.

“Can I get some more damn toast for this soup, woman?” blared Mr. Jones.

Harold stared at Mr. Jones, trying hard to have patience.

“Uh, please?” said Harold.

Mr. Jones looked down and didn’t say anything. Harold hated that Mr. Jones didn’t try to show Betty more respect. It was as if his wife was his personal servant. He had to keep reminding himself Mr. Jones was mentally ill and couldn’t help it. Mr. Jones was a burden, despite his choice of words, his episodes of anger were becoming more frequent. Betty and Harold knew they didn’t have the medication for his erratic mood swings. They feared Mr. Jones would increase in flashbacks and lash out violently, especially at the children.

Everyone finished their meal, and a look of dread came over everyone’s faces. They drew their attention to the windows. The sun was going down. They knew what that meant. Another reminder that the nightmare they lived in wasn’t over and that the flying army of creatures would be out soon, fanatically searching for blood.

“Shaun. Yuri. Thai. It’s time,” said Harold.

“Sure thing,” said Shaun. “Let’s go guys.”

They got up from the table and hustled to the elevators. Each one of them had a roll of duct tape. Their job was to go to check the wooden blinds soaked in vampire repellant from levels sixty-eight to seventy-two and make sure they were intact and not pulled down by the vampires. This was a security measure to provide as much distance from them as possible.

They checked level sixty. Thai noticed that one of the blinds lay on the floor. The three of them scurried to fix it.

“We’re good,” said Thai. “Damn vampires must have knocked it down.”

“Next floor,” said Shaun. “Let’s hurry.”

Shaun and the others returned to level seventy-two hoping that everything was secured properly on the lower levels. Shaun turned and locked the set of double doors and then returned to an open area which was once used for cubicles and desks where everyone slept near each other on air mattresses. Everyone had a nervous look on their faces, pale and vacant as they watched the night fall out the windows. Harold held Betty tightly as they sat on the queen sized mattress on the floor. He had a pump shotgun next to him. He knew the buck shots wouldn’t kill any of them but it might buy them some time. Thai and Yuri also had small, loaded handguns with them. Mr. Jones gripped a wooden crucifix that he made. The sculpturing design was creative. The bottom end was sharpened to a fine, penetrable point. He had several of them in a box near where he lay. Tommy and Mercedes snuggled up with Betty and Harold underneath their blankets. They were scared as usual.

Shaun turned off the lights and sat down with the others. He wrapped himself in a blanket too. The moonlight crept in through the narrow cracks of the blinds which were heavily guarded with the repellant. The sounds of masses of people yelling and howling were heard outside far below the seventy-second floor. Vampires were coming out of their dark places to search for fresh blood. The yelling grew louder from the lower levels until a large group of them flew to the seventy-second floor. Shaun and the others breathed heavily in fear. They waited for them to reach the windows on their level. He saw the silhouettes of several personages drift back and forth outside the window that was adjacent from him.  Shaun hunkered down further with a blanket as he kept a stern eye on the window, waiting for the ungodly intruders to go away. He held a large kitchen knife close to him in case they got in.

Several of them came up to the window and sniffed ardently against the glass. They coughed harshly.

“The blinds are still there,” one growled.

“But they have weakened,” another said. 

Damien, a male vampire, scratched along a window until he got closer to where Shaun and the others were hiding in the dark. He smelled them through the repellants. Tommy and Mercedes hid underneath the blanket and clung to Betty and quivered. Damien hovered outside the broken window.  Shaun watched him draw closer. His eyes were frightening; his glowing white irises and pin-pointed pupils gleamed through the narrow space of the window between the blinds.

“I know you’re in there,” Damien whispered loudly.

He pressed his face against the broken glass. He gnashed his teeth trying to withstand the powerful fumes of the repellants.

“I smell your blood.”

He backed away and coughed horribly. The others stayed back watching Damien regain his strength. He flew back at the window, punching through the blinds in frustration which caused his hands to catch fire. He screamed. The others backed away in fear watching him. He smothered the flames under his arm. He hollered out again looking at his burned hand. Shaun and the others began to pant. Shaun’s face perspired. The others didn’t dare look up but stayed hidden under their blankets.

“Break the window!” shouted another.

“It burns!” Damien growled.

“We’ll die,” another one said.

“It’s worth it for fresh blood,” another said in a creepy, whispery voice. 

 “So much to share.”

“Feast!” another said.

“It’s all mine! Go away!” Damien shouted, smothering his hand under his arm.

Several of them hissed at him.

“Why is it all yours?” another male hollered.

Damien flew at him. They fought with each other in mid-air. Damien spun him around and threw the vampire through a window of a neighboring building. The male vampire crashed violently through the glass, tumbling on an office floor.

Shaun filled with fear; they would barge through the window and overtake them. Damien returned to the window after his brief scuffle. His eyes gleamed angrily through the glass. He gnashed his teeth and let out an evil grin.

“I will feast on your blood in there!” Damien growled. “You can’t hide forever.”

Damien and the other vampires flew away. Shaun closed his eyes and exhaled in relief. Everyone slowly pulled their blankets down. They all were breathing heavily.

“Are they gone?” asked Tommy with tears rolling down his cheeks.

“For now,” answered Harold.

“They’ll be back,” said Shaun.

Tommy and Mercedes sat up with pale, clammy faces, panting.

“We gotta do something,” said Thai.

“What? Were trapped here,” said Yuri.

“We gotta get out of L.A.,” said Shaun.

“Go where? Vegas?” said Mr. Jones mockingly.

“I don’t know but somewhere,” replied Shaun.

“We need to take these blood suckers head on, man!” said Mr. Jones.

Harold rolled his eyes.

“As long as we’re here, we’re prisoners,” said Shaun.

“We have food and stuff here,” said Chris.

“One day that’s gonna run out, bud. Then what?” said Shaun.

Chris looked worriedly at Harold and Betty. Harold looked down knowing that Shaun was right. What they had wasn’t meant to last forever. He knew that, one day, before their supply ran out, the vampires would find a way to get into the tower and kill everybody.

“I know what you’re saying, Shaun, but we need a solid plan,” said Harold.

Shaun was stumped. He didn’t know what to do.

“Let’s try to get some sleep. We’ll talk about it the morning,” said Betty.

Shaun took Harold’s shotgun. Everyone lay back down. Shaun stayed up and watched the windows for the next attack. After a few hours, he fell asleep.

***

Damien and a large group of vampires landed in a parking lot near the tower. His tall body slumped over in pain holding his burned hand. His older brother, Kristof, and Miranda waited with several others. Kristof was tall, dark and sinister; Miranda was brunette, shapely, and had a cold stare. She was Kristof’s woman. Damien walked up to Kristof breathing heavily through his teeth. Kristof opened his hand and looked at his injury.

“It hurts, brother,” said Damien.

“The power of the garlic and rose are irreversible,” said Kristof, looking at the tower in the short distance. “Someone up there has mastered a potion to hurt us.”

“My hand was inside the window, Kristof,” said Damien.

Kristof glared up at the tower, staring at it for a moment.

“They were within my reach,” said Damien, clawing his hand with wanton eyes.

“How many?” asked Kristof.

“At least ten,” Damien responded.

Kristof stepped away. He closed his eyes at the thought of the cache of fresh blood.

“They are poorly guarded, brother,” said Damien. “We can take them.”

“You could’ve been incinerated, you fool,” said Kristof.

“What do we do?” asked Damien.

“Come with me,” said Kristof.

They followed Kristof through the air. They flew to the line of vehicles parked in front of the tower. Kristof landed brutally on top of a new Lamborghini, crushing the top. The windows shattered causing the glass to explode outwards.  

“What are we doing here?” asked Miranda.

“Find something about them,” ordered Kristof.

“Like what?” asked Damien.

“Anything!” hollered Kristof.

The vampires ripped apart the vehicles. They tore large pieces off and threw them several yards away. Damien punched through a windshield; Kristof tore off passenger doors. He pulled out papers from the glove box and jockey box.  There was nothing. Kristof hollered and scattered the papers everywhere. He stepped over to Shaun’s motorcycle. He lifted up the seat and found his diary and a picture of Sharon and Kylie. They were hugging each other and smiling. A short note was written on the other side;
Shaun. Here’s your two favorite girls! Love Sharon.  

The others continued to destroy the vehicles in the background. Kristof read through the diary. He read Shaun’s last passage,
Sharon and Kylie. I miss you so much. You both left me behind in this world alone. I would do anything to bring you back.
Kristof formed an evil grin.

“Stop it!” he shouted at them.

The others ceased. They flew over to Kristof.