The Feeding House (10 page)

Jack began to walk back to the saloon it was late into the night now and he was tired
. His body could take no more and he barely had enough energy to walk. With every step it felt as though he was climbing the steep incline of a mountain. It was then half way back to the saloon that the urge to feed came back to him once again. His body needed it, his legs buckled beneath him they would go no further until he had recharged. His eyes began to hurt, a swell of black and white light filled his vision and his head went light. The urge was just as strong as it had been in the saloon and this time he had little ability to resist, Jack could smell blood now he didn’t know how or why but he could smell the people in the houses that surrounded him asleep in their beds. He could feel there pulse throbbing inside of his head and he could feel his want to extinguish it and take their lives.

Jack shook his head in protest regaining some of his conscious as he pushed his fingers deep into his temples trying to stop the sound of the
people’s heart beats. Jack looked next to him. A stray dog was running along into the dark recesses of the alley way that was next to him. Jack knew it was looking for food too and decided to follow it down. He could hear it chewing on something meaty and wondered what it could be.

Jack approached the dog and saw that it had found half a dead pig obviously thrown away from the restaurant
that backed onto the alley way. Maggots crawled from its eye sockets and it was covered in flies. It had to only have been a couple of days old but obviously with the heat of the city on it, it would not take long for it to decompose. It looked disgusting but blood flowed from its insides and appeared in Jacks eyes to be a gastronomic delight.

Jack was far too deep into his want to feed and could not take it any longer he justified to himself that at least he was not feeding on a human at least this was a pig and a dead one at that
. He hoped that it would at least help his pain even just a little bit, well enough to take away the pain until he could find something better to do about it. But for now he had to feed.

Jack pushed aside the dog
. It growled at him, trying to protect its food, but as Jack bent down he returned with a vampiric growl of his own, its sound blasphemous as his eyes turned black and he revealed his fangs. The dog yelped and ran off into the light of the street. Jack raised his head the anticipation of the meal before him made every part of his body tingle.

He
sunk his fangs deep into the fleshy meal that lay before him and bit down hard feeling the blood ooze into his waiting mouth, the taste was metallic but refreshed Jack in ways that he felt previously impossible, he felt like a new man. Franticly ripping at the meat, absorbing as much blood as he could manage to get from the pig, he took little notice of its condition. To any other it was spoiled but to him it was special, it was the meal that he had been waiting for so long.

After around five minutes Jack once again raised his head and his fangs retracted seemingly by themselves his eyes returned
to their normal colour. He sat there for a moment, light headed from the relief of a meal, his clothes and mouth covered in blood. The urge had left him completely and although he was full he did not feel wholly satisfied. He knew that he couldn’t be as it was not human blood it was not what he truly needed to survive but it was a good short term fix and it would have to do for now until he could figure something out.

Jack looked d
own momentarily at the carcass which was now destroyed beyond recognition. Its ribcage torn wide opened where Jack had feasted upon the blood of the heart and other vital organs, its head now splattered across the floor where Jack had sucked the juices of the brain dry. It was late into the night now and Jack decided it would be best if he cleaned his clothes and washed before he returned in secret to the saloon that night. He had already attracted enough attention by running out of the door earlier, he didn’t need any more whispers about him. He felt however as he began the long walk back that he needed to get out of there soon and hide somewhere safe. Everything was becoming far too dangerous in the saloon now and it would not be long before it reached breaking point.

It had been a long night for M
issy there were a lot of men in the saloon that night. All of them full of drink and none of them it seemed possessed any self-control, there must have been some occasion in town for them to be out in such force buying drinks like there was no tomorrow some of the men had even been thrown out that evening for being a bit too drunk and being a bit too hands on.

Missy gathered her things thinking about Jack, news had spread around about his sudden departure that night and she wondered if he was ok
. It seemed that there were strong feelings beginning to build between the two of them and the patrons of the bar had noticed this some of her regular customers had gone with other girls that night, not brave enough to face the possible wrath of the madman that lived upstairs but missy didn’t mind she was willing to sacrifice a bit of money for the possibility of a future with this mystery man. However it might go she wanted to stay by his side.

It was late
, about an hour after Jack had ran out the doors in pursuit of the man standing outside, when Missy finally waved good night to her fellow staff and went through the door heading for home. It was a surprisingly cold night and she felt a chill on her skin, it wasn’t usually like this, she had walked home hundreds of times and although it wasn’t recommended, as the streets are quite dangerous at this time of night, she was a tough girl and wasn’t afraid of anything well not usually anyway.

Tonight was different
. Missy had an uneasy feeling about walking the streets as if somewhere in the shadows there was someone watching her every move. The shadows of the buildings around her seemed to cast evil shapes as the orange light bounced off of them from the street lamps. She looked around herself trying to see if anyone was there with her trying to see this invisible watcher. More shadows moved about her, noticing them from the corner of her eye she darted around to see the figure that was no longer there.

She tried to persuade herself that it was nothing that she was just over tired and it had been a busy day that her childish imagin
ation was playing tricks on her. There was no reason to be afraid of the dark but no matter what excuse she used to try and make herself feel better it always led back to that overwhelming fear that something bad was on the horizon. She picked up her pace trying not to look back as she went. She could now feel the eyes on her back burning into her like someone was stood right behind her.

Her heart pounded in her chest as she began to break into a run madly looking up and down every building seeing shadowy figures move between
them like ghosts in the night. Her mind swam in a sea of bad dreams and terrible thoughts as she turned a corner; it was more dimly lit down here but she continued regardless trying to reassure herself that it would all be alright.

Missy turned her back the fear had swelled inside of her beyond belief and she could not take it anymore she span around trying to see who was watching her hopefully she would catch them out
. Maybe it was just one of the men from the saloon that night one of the ones who had been to hands on for their own good and had ended up getting kicked out; but once again no one stood there. She turned back around and tried to continue on her way but walked straight into something hard. Looking up it was a man stood there dead in front of her, well at least she thought it was a man, something seemed wrong about his face. He was pale and dressed all in black like Jack was, like the strange men that brought him in.

Missy jumped,
frightened by the strange man’s sudden presence, “Oh I’m sorry sir, I wasn’t looking where I was going my apologies,” she said as she tried to brush the hair from her face. Even though she was terrified she thought it best to still be polite, after all she didn’t know what this man was capable of and didn’t like the way that he looked at her. The man said nothing but gave her a strange knowing smile which sent chills down her spine. 

Missy tried to back away from the unmoving man
, his facial expression remained unchanged, as she took slow careful steps backwards making sure that she was looking straight at him at all times in case he tried anything. She continued to step backwards for a short while until she walking into something again this time she knew exactly what it was she didn’t even need to look it was another man standing behind her. How had he managed to sneak up so silently she was now trapped. She tried to scream but one of the men put his hand over her mouth as he quickly grabbed her by the throat they both took one of her arms and as she tried to scream dragged her off into the depths of the shadows.

Jack had spent most of the next day either asleep or deep in thought
. He was wondering what to do next. The time had come when he needed a plan, he knew he shouldn’t but tonight once Missy’s shift began he was going to meet up with her and tell her everything, try and make her believe the truth no matter how hard that may be. Jack wanted her to run away with him he had never felt that way about a person before and in all honesty he had always felt that he never would but romance can sprout in even the strangest of circumstances. Jack knew that he had to leave soon probably no later than tomorrow night and he had to do it in secret too, there were too many vampires around here watching him. He knew that if there was one that that would mean that there would be more and they would all be helping along with his demise planting traps for him to fall into.

Jack looked over at the clock
. It was just past ten which was perfect as Missy started at eight today. She should probably have been in for quite a few hours now, the girls always turned up early to get some drink into them before they began, it made time pass faster and the pain just that little bit less. Jack grabbed his coat and went downstairs. He lit his cigarette and ordered a whiskey from the bar. He began to search around for Missy, he saw plenty of other girls all of them walking around flirting and felt sorry for Missy that she had to live inside this world, trapped by circumstance.

The patrons of the bar looked at him as they remembered the goings on of the night before, it just added extra mystery and distrust to his character
and it seemed that they had all come to the decision that Jack was a man who was best left alone and certainly not one to go messing with. Jack stood at the bar for around twenty minutes before he began to realise that Missy wasn’t coming he wondered where she had gone. It seemed unlike her to take a day off, she didn’t seem like that sort of person and she hadn’t displayed any signs of sickness the day before. Jack began to speculate as to what had happened to her and slowly began to worry but for now he just passed those thoughts off, after all it had only been twenty minutes.

Valerie
came out from behind the bar, as usual she was shouting about something. Jack confronted her about Missy as soon as her shouting had died down “Where’s Missy today I haven’t seen her around anywhere?”

Valerie
took one look at him and he could tell that she was unhappy but then again when had he even seen her in a happy mood? “That’s something I was hoping you could tell me. I’ve seen you two around talking and laughing and all that I told her not to mix with people like you, regardless of if you saved her or not, but she wouldn’t listen.” Valerie took a long breathe and seemed to calm a bit “Look no one’s seen her all day. I even sent one of the bar staff down to her house to see if she was there but her family hasn’t seen her since she left for work yesterday, I don’t trust you Jack and that’s why I ask you this question. Did you have anything to do with this?” Valerie looked deep into his eyes as if she was trying to unravel some hidden truth.

Jack held his ground trying to make it clear that it wasn’t him
while at the same time his heart sank. Although he hadn’t touched a hair on her head he was the reason why she was taken. He knew that it was the vampires trying to sabotage him, watching out for an easy way to get at him and they had found it. There was no point trying to pretend that he didn’t have feelings for Missy.

“It wasn’t me I swear to you
Valerie that I haven’t touched a hair on her head but I think I might know the people who have taken her and they’re not nice people at all, I’ll do my best to find her.”

Valerie
could hear the conviction in his voice and his body language showed it as well. He meant what he said and she believed him, after all she had misjudged his character in the past and she was usually a very good judge of character, there was just something about Jack that she couldn’t put her finger on. Everything about him screamed danger to her but in reality he was actually a really good person, maybe he was just misunderstood she thought.

“Alright,” said
Valerie, her expression changing from one of stern anger to a fairly placid neutral expression, “If you truly know who might have taken her I’ll leave it in your hands but don’t go causing me more trouble than you already have.”

Jack nodded and with that
Valerie left. He stood there for a moment at a loss as to what to do. A deep sense of sadness clouded his mind and a sense of regret and stupidity filled his mind. He shouldn’t have got so close to her, it was a dumb idea to begin with. He had landed her in this position and didn’t know how, or indeed if, he could get her back; but he had to find a way, he couldn’t bear to have another person die needlessly because of his mistakes.

Missy was blind folded and scared as she was led down a hallway that even in her blind fold she
felt that she did not recognise. After being captured by the vampires she had a blind fold put over her eyes and been taken a long way by horse and cart. She could feel the presence of the two vampires who had taken her sitting next to her for the whole journey and had cried until her eyes were red and swollen and she had no more tears left.

She heard the sound of a large door open in front of her and was guided i
nside until they came to a stop. Although she could not see anything she could sense that there was someone else in the room; his mere presence sent chills down her spine. Whoever this person was they were certainly evil. Her animalistic instincts were going mad telling her to get as far away from him as she could.

Missy was
pushed down onto her knees, her blindfold remaining firmly in place, she began to panic inside losing her mind as she wondered what this person was going to do to her. She heard their harsh voices for the first time as they began to speak to each other. Their voices were as though a snake or a frozen wind was talking and Missy shuddered with every word that tunnelled its way into her ears.