Switchblade - 15
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"Hello?" Taemin looks across the room to IU, "Is it working?"
She laughs a bit at him, "It's streaming. Go."
Taemin turns back to face the webcam, laughing a bit shyly. "Sorry. Hello? Umm, you can't answer..." He shifts a bit awkwardly in his chair, taking a breath. "My name is Lee Taemin. You might have.. a while ago... seen a video..." The words become more and more awkward as he says them, and with each one he sinks a little more in his chair. "People wondered who I was then, but they never got the whole truth.. I'm a vampire.. hunter.. honestly..."
When he looks over at IU, she gives him an encouraging thumbs up, even though her expression is heavily concerned. He straightens and clears his throat before looking back to the camera. "Up until now, hunters like me.. if there's any more left, they've been hiding, but right now I'm sure that at this moment, humans like us.. we need to stick together."
"So many people are dying or disappearing every day. We think it's bad now, but the only reason that our lives aren't completely controlled at this point is because vampires are too busy fighting each other. If we don't fight back now, there won't be a chance to fight back. The government tells us to let them handle it, but they don't know what they're doing, or if they do it's only because the vampires are telling them how. That's why I'm making this video... because every human should know exactly how to fight back."
"That was wonderful, Taemin," IU tells him as soon as the stream is over.
Taemin gives her a forced smile, standing from his chair. "I feel like I just fought a vampire."
"Actually, you just fought hundreds of vampires." IU beams at him, full of pride.
Her pride doesn't exactly spread to Taemin. Instead, he's concerned. "Thank you, again, for letting me do this with your blog. Are you sure you'll be okay though?"
IU's smile doesn't fade. "I think you just said it all to the camera. None of us are okay." With a deep breath, she gives Taemin a heavy pat on the shoulder. "Next time, you must let me interview you."
"Let's go ahead and do it."
"Really?"
Taemin smiles at her now, "You never know when you'll be out of next times."
The human that Jonghyun just killed must have more blood on the pavement than what could have got inside of Jonghyun. Jonghyun himself is clean, despite how violently he ripped the man's throat open. In fact, he was only being thorough to do so. He wanted to stop sucking as soon as possible after he saw the headliner of the newspaper that the man had carried.
He picks the newspaper up fast and slips just outside of the narrow alley, leaving Minho behind to finish off the man's wife. He leans against the wall nearby, straightening the newspaper out to read the front article.
'"REAL" VAMPIRE HUNTER COMES FORWARD', it says. Jonghyun can't help but smile, reading about Lee Taemin going online through IU's blog, a site that is described as 'an unbiased outlook on the going ons of vampires'.
'Lee Taemin uses the course of five minutes to guide humans through the basics of how to kill a vampire.' As annoying as the little brat can be, he sure doesn't give up.
"Jonghyun?" Minho's voice calls from behind him, "You're sure you don't need any more?"
"Mmhmm.." Jonghyun keeps reading.
"If you say so," Minho mutters, surely worried about how Jonghyun might feel later about how much blood he did.. or rather, didn't drink.
Jonghyun is too distracted to notice Minho's concern, of course, especially when he hears the distinct sound of footsteps headed their way. He lifts his gaze from the newspaper finally, finding an approaching shadowy figure. "Hey... hurry up..."
"What? Why?"
"Someone's coming..."
Minho sounds thickly doubtful, "Are you messing with me?"
Jonghyun, on the other hand, sounds entirely convincing when he yells, "Minho!"
"Okay!" Minho carefully moves a woman's lifeless body to the ground, "I'm coming.."
By the time Minho has leaned just a bit out of the alley to see who has Jonghyun so worked up, Jonghyun is much more worked up. Tense, he curses, "Shit," before dropping the newspaper to the sidewalk, "We gotta run."
"Why?" Minho can only see a black figure coming closer, "Who is it?"
"Kim Jungmo..." Jonghyun looks to Minho, "Go." He points in the opposite direction of the figure, "Find a different way home."
"You're not coming?"
"I'm gonna find a different different way home. Just go."
Minho is clearly worried, but he knows by now that in these tense situations, questioning Jonghyun is never useful. He forces himself to turn away and he runs as fast as he can the other way.
Leaving Jonghyun to.... Jonghyun looks around. It doesn't seem like there's much of any other directions to go. It's an overly simplistic solution, but finally Jonghyun turns back into the alley where the couple they just murdered still rests.
He looks around, relieved to see that the door he thought was there is, in fact, there. He gets a running start before he jumps, once off the ground, and a quick second time off the door's knob. His fingers just catch the edge of the small store's roof. He heaves himself up and over with effort, regretting that he didn't think of this a moment ago, when Minho might have boosted him up with his freak height...
No matter. Jonghyun gives a sigh of relief once his legs join him on the roof. He glances once down toward the alley he was just in. There's no one. He grins, satisfied, then lays down flat on the back of the roof, just listening closely for more footsteps.
... Why isn't there any?
After several minutes pass, Jonghyun is listening so hard he might have a headache. There's absolutely no way that Jungmo just left without a sound. This is some sort of trap, he knows it, to make him come out of hiding.
Then in the distance, he can hear the sounds of a fight, and knows without a second guess that it's Minho. "Fuck," he just says the word under his breath before he stands up, and a second later there's a soft grip on his ankle, jerking his leg out from under him. Jonghyun's head hits the roof just before he slides off the building, falling hard against the pavement behind it.
Jungmo drops down from the window ledge he perched himself on, sighing almost boredly as he looks down at Jonghyun. He lifts a cellphone, speaking into it, "I got him. Now what?"
"Bring him in," a voice says over the phone, sounding proud when it adds, "I've got Minho too."
"Great," Jungmo says without sounding too enthused. His head twitches when he looks down at Jonghyun though. "Look, is there any vampire that I didn't know before I was turned?" he asks with a huff, but bends down to grab Jonghyun's coat, lifting him somewhat off the ground. Jonghyun's head rolls, obviously still conscious, though barely.
"How the hell should I know? We only met the once. And it was to work together, kind of like now. Two different sides fighting for the greater cause..."
"Whatever, Joon. I'm hanging up."
Joon drops his phone into his pocket, laughing a bit. He scoops Minho's unconscious body up off of ground and throws him over his shoulder, repeating with a humor filled voice. "For the greater cause."
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NOTE!! Look for a comic I drew from this chapter on my facebook and probably soon on the bonded tumblr.
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