The Blood Talisman (27 page)

“
It’s Henry.”

“
Well, Henry. Why don’t you
have a seat?” Selene stood up one of the many overturned chairs in
the camera room. “Get yourself together and then we can talk about
what happened okay?”

Henry shook his head yes in compliance
and took a few deep breaths. “I was coming down here to mop and
there was some commotion within that room where she was, you know,
the vampire. She woke up and started ripping through the people
that were helping her. She was unyielding. It was like she had no
remorse. A complete shell of a person. As she was finishing up on
the last man in the room, a bright light flashed and the witch
burned them all up. I came in here and watched on the monitors as
they went floor to floor feeding and burning through the patients
and nurses and visitors. It was sick. They didn’t completely kill
all of them, though, ‘cause some of them that were bitten by her
got up after she’d finished with them and started eating some of
the ones that she missed. It was like watching a horror movie
unfold right before your eyes.”

They all stood there looking at him
shocked from the horrific tale that he just spilled on them
all.

“
Where is she now? Is she
still here?” Alex asked him.

“
No. They both left
together around thirty minutes ago,” Henry answered. “I’ve been in
here too scared to go out.”

Alex punched the wall in frustration.
He walked off out of the room and ran his fingers through his hair.
He felt as if all of the past weeks of his life had been a complete
waste. He wondered why she hadn’t waited for him to return. He
wondered what kind of animal she had become to kill and destroy so
many innocent lives.

Selene stood at the doorway behind
him. Ram remained in the room, asking Henry questions about his
staff.

“
We can find her. I can
help.”

Selene placed one hand on Alex’s
shoulder. Alex turned to look into her eyes.

“
I don’t know who she is
anymore. How could she do… this?” he cried, raising his arms wide
as if to encircle the environment around him.

“
She’s a vampire. Her
emotions are out of control right now. Her going with Sol could not
have been a worse decision on her part.”

“
That’s a cop out. Those
are excuses. She knows what she’s doing.”

Selene remained quiet. She knew that
anything she said at that point would not satisfy his anger towards
Amalia.

“
I have to get away from
here. I have to go.” He started walking away.

“
I’ll go with you,” Selene
said, following closely behind him.

He stopped and lowered his head down
towards the floor, searching for what to say to her.

“
What’s wrong?” she
asked.

“
I don’t want you to come
with me. I need to be alone,” he whispered.

He turned back to look at her. The
damage within her was obvious on her face. She reeked of hurt and
resentment.

“
Why? I can help you. Don’t
go through this alone. I love you.” She reached out and stroked his
face with her soft hand. He closed his eyes, taking in the love and
warmth from her touch. He grabbed her hand and gently pulled it
away.

“
I have to do
this.”

“
You don’t have to do
whatever it is that you think you have to do alone. You’re not
alone!”

“
I don’t know who she is
anymore. I don’t know who I am anymore. I don’t know who I am
without her anymore. Don’t you get it? I have to find her. I have
to find myself and I can’t do that with you.”

Tears streamed down her face at the
hurtful words that he spoke.

“
I love you,” she managed
to choke out. “That’s all I know.”

He pulled her up into his arms and
hugged her tightly. He breathed in the smell of her before letting
her go. She sobbed into his chest and her tears stained his dirty
shirt. It killed him inside to make her cry but she had to know the
truth of how he felt. He loved her too much to lie.

He kissed her on top of her head and
stepped back from her. He looked deep into her eyes, one last time,
and walked away. He turned the corner and he was gone.

Selene fell to the floor, laying her
book bag into her lap and crying for Alex’s absence. She had come
so far with him to have it end like this. She felt lost and
confused without him. She no longer had focus and restraint. What
hurt her the worst was that he hadn’t told her that he loved her.
He had only done that once, before they hunted for the blood
talisman. She sat there in shock and in emotional pieces, without
words.

Chapter
3
2

It was cool and dark when Alex reached
the double doors at the front of the hospital. The outside air felt
like a fresh start. It smelled like death but felt clean, all the
same. He scanned the parking lot for the most viable vehicle. A
grey Chevy Silverado peeked amongst some trees from the very back
of the parking lot. The truck had seen better days but it would
work to get him home.

He quietly avoided two zombies that
were mindlessly roaming the parking lot and hopped into the
unlocked truck. There were no keys in the ignition and the wires
underneath the steering wheel were all hanging out towards the
floorboard of the truck. He didn’t know if the truck would even run
but it was the best looking one in the parking lot.

He pulled the visor down and a single
key fell into his lap. He put it into the ignition and attempted to
crank it. It revved a couple of times and eventually turned over.
He put it into drive and pulled out of the parking lot. The truck
caught the attention of the two roaming zombies and they attempted
to chase after it.

Alex sped away, leaving the undead –
and Selene – behind him. There was no radio in the truck. It seemed
to have been ripped out of the dashboard, probably by a thief. The
silence quickly got old as Alex thought about all that had
happened. The back roads through the south seemed a nicer way to
take to get back to the home that he and Amalia once shared. If he
were to find himself, that would be where he would need to begin.
He needed to let her go. He needed to do that to move forward with
Selene.

He couldn’t imagine a life with Selene
without letting Amalia go. Banishing her from his mind and out of
his heart would be difficult. He thought about their first kiss as
he stared down the dark road ahead of him. She’d been shy with him
but brazen with everyone else she met. He had stood nervously at
her front door after their first date. They were both only fifteen
years old. Being best friends for years had made him nervous to
make his move but he gathered inner strength and went for it. She
reciprocated and their first kiss had been the last person that
they thought either of them would have to nervously kiss for the
first time.

Her braces had felt interesting to his
reluctant tongue. He remembered pushing her hair back behind her
ear and caressing her face. Her dad had come to the door and
interrupted. Alex’s face turned red and she ran inside. Her dad
slammed the door in his face and he felt his heart in his throat.
He didn’t sleep that whole night from wandering if she felt the
same.

They had lived happily with each other
for years after that. They had both been tempted to leave each
other at various points for one reason or another, but had always
found their own way of resisting and stayed together. When he
joined the service she cried for days before he left on his first
tour. The thought of her kept him warm at night and cool during the
day.

Tears welled up in his eyes as he
stared at the yellow lines on the road. They passed furiously by as
he sped to go faster. He became angry at Ram and John and Sol. He
blamed everyone else for his current situation. He pounded the
steering wheel with his open hand. He closed his eyes briefly and a
bright light flashed before his eyes. He opened them quickly,
expecting a car having crossed his path. He squinted his eyes
amongst the bright light and saw Amalia standing in the middle of
the road a short way ahead of him.

He slammed on the truck’s brakes. It
squelched and turned sideways, coming to rest within inches of
hitting Amalia’s legs. Alex sat there in the truck breathing heavy
from the suddenness of it all. He stared at her as she stood there.
He blinked his eyes in disbelief. Maybe he had thought about her so
much that she had come to him.

She stood there in a tight, short
black dress. Her hair hung stiffly down to the curves of her body.
Her hands rested firmly on her hips.

“
Are you gonna get out of
the truck?” she yelled out at him. She had a look about her as if
nothing tragic had happened.

Alex cautiously opened the truck door
and stepped out. He stood there staring at her in the middle of the
road. The headlights barely clipped her face and it made her look
even more beautiful in the dim light.

“
Amalia?” he asked, unsure
if she was just in his imagination.

She walked over to him and hugged him
tightly. He slowly did the same. She pulled away from him and
looked into his eyes for hope.

“
What happened? How are
you…?”

She placed three fingers over his
lips. He stopped talking and just stared, wandering what her next
move would be.

She perused her fingers down across
his scruffy face and pulled him in for a kiss. He returned the
favor and pulled her body in closer to his. She seemed more
aggressive than usual but he didn’t mind the welcome change. She
seemed to want him. She wasn’t the shy teenager that he remembered
from all those years ago. She had turned into a beautiful woman.
Her kiss quickly became tainted by his thoughts of all of the
carnage that she had left behind at the hospital. Flashes in his
mind brought up the hollowed-out bodies in the front lobby of the
hospital and the scared janitor in the basement. It ruined their
reunion for him and he needed answers.

He grabbed her firmly by the shoulders
and pulled her back away from him. “What happened at the hospital?”
he asked her.

Her face straightened from a pleasant
smile into a tight grimace.

“
I was sick. I had to feed.
Sol came and he helped me. He’s very powerful now. Where are you
headed?” she asked lightly.

“
I was heading home to try
and forget about… us.”

She frowned. “You can’t do that, Alex.
I love you. I forgive you for everything that happened. I was angry
but now I see you were tricked into sleeping with her. Sol told me
a lot about his sister and I understand.”

He watched her eyes as she explained
and they didn’t stray from his, not once. She seemed to be telling
the truth but, he was still curious as to how she could consciously
kill so many people. He let his face fall into her hands. She
reached around to the back of his head and pulled him against her
shoulder. He hugged her tightly and she looked off into the dark
forest at the side of the road. Sol stood there silently. She
winked at him and he glowed brightly and faded away.

Alex leaned up from her shoulder and
looked back towards the empty, dark forest.

“
What were you looking at?”
he asked.

“
I thought I heard
something. Must have been an animal or something. Let’s go
home.”

She took his hand, leading him towards
the truck.

They climbed into the truck. He put it
into drive and started back down the dark road. He frequently
looked over at her to make sure she was still there. He had so many
questions but for now he was simply glad to see her alive and
seemingly happy. She gazed out of the truck’s passenger window,
watching as the trees sped by them. He wondered what she was
thinking and if it included him.

She looked over at him watching her
and said, “You’d better watch the road. I’d survive a car crash but
you may not be so lucky.”

“
I’m not sure if werewolves
are immortal now or not. I don’t think so but you can never tell.
Things are so crazy,” he said.

“
Have you fed
lately?”

Alex coughed and choked a little and
said, “Wasn’t expecting that question.”

“
Well, it’s what we have to
deal with now. I think we need to both stay strong, don’t
you?”

“
I’m good. I think you
should be for days.”

She smiled and looked back out at the
passing forest. “I’m good.” she said.

He smirked nervously and looked
straight ahead at the upcoming hills. He wondered if she was happy
about it. He couldn’t read her like he used to be able to. Her
mannerisms seemed bogus. He ignored the unnerving thoughts and
focused on home. Maybe all she needed was to be home. Maybe she
felt as lost as he did in this new world. Maybe they could find
themselves together and be happy again. Maybe they would finally
have a happy ending amongst all the madness.

Chapter
3
3

Selene sat amongst the scattered
papers along the dim floor of the hospital basement. She attempted
to gather herself and decide how she could stop this place from
turning into a world of zombies. She hadn’t a clue what the answer
was.