The Stray Vampire

One step.

No matter how fast Katherine ran, all it’d take was one missed step. One moment of hesitation, one stumble and the demon would catch her.

The monster behind her couldn’t walk. Its legs were stiff as flagpoles. All it could do was jump after her, but that was enough. Its shadow rose and fell behind her with a rhythmic crunch, crunch as it scattered the tall grass and loose concrete with each impact.

She was panting, out of breath. She ran off the road and onto the dirt, the shock of the change almost buckling her knees. Crunch, crunch. She could make it to that house. It was ruined, windows shattered, wood bloated, roof collapsed. Was it worth trying?

Crunch, crunch. She didn’t have any choice. Maybe it could break in. But could it turn in midair?

She jumped left, over a small hedge, and landed with a roll while the monster jumped straight forward, towards where she’d been, and blew past her. She stole a look.

It’d stopped, twisting its body. It was trying to face her, but it was hard for it to turn on those dead legs.

Katherine scrambled over a heap of rubble, through what had probably been a backdoor. Her boots crushed rotting scraps of furniture, and her eyes adjusted to the darkness. She saw the walls and ceiling of the house were in good shape – the only hole was the one she’d come in through – and breathed out.

That’d bought her a second, but it’d have turned towards her by now. She needed to slow it down. She couldn’t go back to running on the road; it’d run her down like a rabbit and kill her, or worse.
But there was a ceiling. There was a second floor, or the remains of one. If she couldn’t run, she could hide. Maybe. The thing couldn’t bend down, could it? It’d give up, wander off. She’d fuck up her job, letting it go without tailing it, but she had to.

She scrambled up the broken remains of some stairs. A crunch, crunch split the floorboards behind her.

There was space to crawl, underneath broken planks collapsed onto each other, held up like a house of cards. If she crawled in, she’d be lucky to get back out, splintered wood on both sides, narrower at its front.

Crunch, crunch, creak. Better than being eaten.

Katherine got down on all fours, facing away from the tent of wood lodged into wood. Then she crawled backwards, pushing her chest closer and closer to the broken floor as she went until she was flat against the warped floor.

The dimmest bits of moonlight got through the roof and then through the top of her hiding spot, but even with those she could barely see her fingers beneath her, let alone the demon.

The floor buckled.

The demon had followed her, its lamppost legs visible from her hiding place. It turned its body like a rusted wheel, slow and with creaking bones.

In another bound, it came up next to the rubble where she was, and her heart nearly leapt out of her throat. Could it smell her?

One thing was for sure: it couldn’t bend down. She heard a moan, and it turned away from her. A muffled slam. Katherine guessed that it had punched the wall out of frustration, as much as it would with its arms. They were just as stiff as its legs.

It couldn’t bend down, it couldn’t scoop at the rubble, and there wasn’t enough space between the rubble and the remains of the ceiling for it to jump on her. It fell silent and stopped moving, and she could practically hear the gears turning in her head. Or maybe that was her heartbeat. Maybe, then, it’d give up on her.

Then it started jumping up and down.

The entire house shook like a wilted leaf. Katherine felt like the world would crumble around her. And then she’d be lucky to die impaled by the wood and rock below before the demon could drink her dry.

She closed her eyes and thought. Maybe she could grind a message into the wood with her nail. Maybe, if she did get impaled, the demon would lap up her blood and leave her body alone and her friends would find it and recognize it. Maybe–

A flurry of gunfire filled her ears, as loud and rapid as a turboprop in flight. Smoke filled with debris washed over her face, she coughed. She had enough room to cough without it hurting much – there was no more weight against her back. No more rubble keeping her pinned down.

No more rubble to protect her either. She stumbled to her feet and ran, away from where she’d last seen the demon’s legs.

“Second source of movement detected!” called out the voice of a young girl, high-pitched but monotone. “Get down! Releasing second circle weapons!”

Whatever gods claimed Moss Bay were having fun with her, Katherine thought. But when someone with an automatic told you to get down, you got down. She threw herself against the cracked floor, and felt something fast and heavy rip through the air behind her.

An explosion rocked the house, drummed her bones, and left her deaf for a few – uncomfortably long – moments.

Whoever this was, she’d fired a rocket at the demon.

Katherine was already down, as much as she could be. She couldn’t improve on her situation, either. She’d die here, if the girl hit the rubble she was under with a rocket, or collapsed the roof, or anything, really.

But the girl – if it really was a girl, as it often wasn’t – had noticed her somehow and told her to get down.

As she waited, she did it holding onto the hope that she wouldn’t die in the crossfire.

The floor buckled and wood whined and snapped somewhere near her. The vampire had leapt away. Katherine wondered if she should try to leave her cover, then dismissed it. That was what someone who wanted to die would do. The vampire could turn back on her, the girl’s weapons could shred her…

Sure, she was as underequipped and helpless as any rank-and-file guard in the province. But, she reminded herself, she had discipline. Training. And this was a lot like a trench. She’d wait for help to arrive, instead of putting herself in an even worse situation. Or dying.

A mechanical whirr stung her ears, followed by a rapid series of thunks. Bullets hitting one of the walls from outside.

Did the girl have the demon’s attention?

“Explosive weapons, withdrawn,” the high-pitched monotone announced over another mechanical whirr. “The target has been damaged. Melee weapons deployed. Estimated time to elimination, two minutes. Remain where you are.”

More bullets. These ones hit a different wall, going by the direction of the noise.

Katherine shivered, smiled, and let out a dry chuckle. That had to be a good sign. The girl had the demon’s attention; the fight wouldn’t have moved to a different side of the house if she didn’t. The best way to fight that thing, if you could, would be to stay on the move and get away from its landing points. That must have been what she was doing.

Her smile died. Unless the girl was running and leaving here. But the girl’s voice didn’t sound like she was running in fear; it just sounded the same as before.

To be continued…