experimental weirdness, part 3
Title: goddamn, none still.
Rating: Still R, I suppose
A/N: I'm warning everyone right now that I have absolutely no background in action-sequence writing. And I still have like, zero ideas where this is going.
part one
part two
“So, these vampires,” Ryan started, glancing over at Seth. “Where are they?”
“Well, a lot of the bodies were dumped in town,” Seth said, making a right onto another dark, abandoned road. “But most of the victims lived down in the numbered streets, near the docks.”
“I see. And how many of these things are there?”
Seth shrugged and Ryan leaned into the back seat to grab the duffel bag. “I dunno, man. Could be a single vampire, could be a nest.”
“And a nest is…”
“Usually not any bigger than ten, that’s what the websites say.”
“Right,” Ryan swallowed hard, unzipping the bag. “So you were gonna go in and face ten vampires.”
“Well, someone has to,” Seth shrugged.
“Seth, you can’t even handle water polo players, what makes you think you can kill a vampire?”
He couldn’t believe he was having this argument; he couldn’t believe he was acting like this was actually real.
“Well, I have to do something,” Seth grumbled, glaring at him. “More people are gonna die if I don’t. Plus, tonight’s just a recon mission.”
“Recon,” Ryan repeated, finally looking down into the duffel bag. “Don’t you think this is a lot of… sharp pointy things for ‘just a recon mission’?”
“Better safe than sorry,” Seth shrugged. “But I’m not planning on killing tonight. I just need to see how many of them there are.”
“Right,” Ryan swallowed hard and pulled an axe out of the bag, shiny and sharp. “And then you’ll go back later and chop them up?” Then he frowned. “Where are the stakes?”
“That’s the thing,” Seth started, voice an excited whisper. “I don’t know if vamps can actually be staked. Like, I know all the popular myths and stuff says it’s true, and normally I’d go by the Joss Whedon definition, but I was reading some sites that said staking doesn’t work. And like, neither does sunlight or crosses or fire.”
“So you trust a couple websites over centuries of myth?” Ryan asked, wondering why he was even bothering.
This was ridiculous and Seth should never be allowed to say ‘vamps’.
“I’m just not taking chances, you know? Like, the sites say that only beheading works and Joss Whedon says beheading works, so I’m going with that.”
“Right,” Ryan said, zipping the duffel bag up and leaning back against the seat.
This was ridiculous.
…
He sighed again, but Seth didn’t notice.
They’d been sitting here for twenty minutes and nothing had happened.
Not that he expected something to actually happen, but Seth didn’t seem to acknowledge the fact that nothing had happened.
The building they were looking at was empty. It was a warehouse; shut down, abandoned, crumbling. It was just an empty building and nothing had happened, but Seth was still staring intently at it.
“Seth,” he said finally.
“I’m not sure they’re here,” his brother said, not even turning to look at him. “Let’s go.”
“Thank god,” Ryan whispered, but stopped when Seth grabbed a short sword out of the duffel bag and opened his door. “Seth,” he tried, but it was too late and Seth was already outside and stealthing toward the building.
He resisted the urge to punch something and opened his own door, pausing halfway out to grab the stupid axe out of the bag before following.
…
The building was disappointingly deserted.
He was so sure this was where the vamps were nesting.
The building was deserted and it was right near the docks and there were various reports of shady people coming and going during the night. He was so sure. But there was nothing here now and Ryan was getting that look, like he wanted to punch something.
Although that would actually be helpful if they did find vampires.
He hoped it wouldn’t come to fighting tonight, but next time, Ryan could definitely come in handy. But next time he’d totally make Ryan wear something less visible. Sure he had a leather jacket on, but the bright white shirt under it was so not stealth material.
“Seth, there’s no one here,” Ryan said from behind him, and he had to shush the guy.
Like, way to be really loud when there were vamps around.
“C’mon, let’s go in,” Seth whispered, eyeing up one of the side doors. It was unlocked and he went through, even though Ryan was protesting.
When they got inside, he let out a sigh of relief.
There were mattresses on the floor and signs of something living here.
Or not living here…
Get it?
Vampires?
Not living?
Moses he was funny. Not that Ryan would laugh; Ryan was kind of a killjoy like that, but Seth totally knew he was hilarious. His dad thought he was hilarious, too.
Or he used to.
He ignored the blinding pain in his chest and turned toward his brother.
“See?” he pointed at the mattresses. “They’ve nested here.”
“No,” Ryan sighed. “What I see is a place where homeless people probably sleep. There are homeless in Newport, you know.”
Seth resisted the urge to scream. He wasn’t sure why Ryan was being so stubborn about this.
It’s not that he wanted to prove Ryan wrong. He wished… he wished none of this had ever happened. He wished demons and vampires and all this shit wasn’t real, but it was, and it had killed his parents.
He wished every single second of his life that this wasn’t real. That his parents weren’t dead. That his girlfriend wasn’t afraid of him. That his brother didn’t think he was crazy.
“Let’s go, I’m done with this,” Ryan said, his control obviously snapped.
“Ryan,” Seth started, needing to convince his brother that this was real.
“No. It’s two in the morning, I left my girlfriend at home and knowing her, she’s probably freaking out, and I don’t really feel like putting up with her phone calls that’ll probably start in another ten minutes.”
“Come on,” Seth tried. “We just have to find out how many are nesting here and then we can go.”
Ryan’s shoulders slumped and he just looked… defeated.
He looked like he had in the bar, after Marissa died.
“I’m tired, Seth,” he said, voice low, eyes downcast.
“I know it’s late,” Seth tried, shrugging awkwardly.
“No. I’m… I’m tired, Seth. We can’t keep doing this.” Ryan’s eyes finally rose from the floor and Seth felt his stomach drop. “I… I can’t keep worrying about you. I can’t keep looking out for you. I can’t keep listening to Summer freak out, I can’t keep listening to you talk about demons, I can’t keep listening to Taylor telling me everything’ll be ok. I can’t keep… I just can’t do this anymore.”
It was probably the most Ryan had said at once in a really long time and Seth opened his mouth to say something, but a crash from behind him stopped it.
“Who the fuck’re you?”
He turned to look at the group of people behind him and the feeling in chest went from one type of fear to another.
“Sorry,” Ryan sighed, and when Seth looked at him, he’d snapped out of whatever mood he’d been in. “We didn’t mean to intrude. We were just leaving.”
“Ryan,” he warned. They may not have their game faces on, but something wasn’t right with them and he knew these were the vamps. There were five of them, two girls and three guys, which was less than he expected, but still bad.
Because it was only him and Ryan, and who the hell had he been kidding? He was useless; he couldn’t fight.
“You’re not going anywhere,” the vamp said, and even though he’d been expecting it, Seth still flinched when the guy’s fangs dropped down.
“You’re not going anywhere?” he mimicked despite his fear. “That’s so cliché.”
“Shit,” Ryan whispered at the same time, taking a step forward.
“Alright,” the dark-haired girl vamp said, “the snarky one dies first.”
“Um, I vote the blonde one doesn’t die at all,” one of the guys said, giving Ryan an appreciative look.
Wow. Go figure Ryan’d get hit on by a gay vampire. The guy had the worst luck.
“I vote neither of us die,” he said instead of the joke about Ryan’s luck. He’d rather not get punched.
“Seth, what the fuck?” Ryan whispered to him, unconsciously shifting the axe in his hand.
The movement caught the leader guy’s attention and he snarled.
At the cue, the second girl vamp lunged forward and grabbed onto his jacket and swung him into a support beam.
Things went hazy after that and he vaguely heard crashes and Ryan shouting something in the background, but all he could really focus on was the chick pinning him to the beam and repeatedly smashing his head into it.
He was gonna die.
He could feel it; the chick was wicked strong and he couldn’t even go up against Summer on her ragey days, there was no way he was winning this.
Summer.
He hadn’t told her goodbye; he hadn’t said anything. The last thing she’d said to him was telling him he was crazy, right before she stormed out. That wasn’t how he wanted to end things.
Desperately, he lashed out with his right hand when he realized he was - somehow - still holding the sword. He hit something solid with it and knew it was the vampire when she let out a low hiss of pain and backed up for a second.
He blinked to clear his vision and swung, making her hiss again.
“Goddamnit,” the girl whined. “You ruined my favorite shirt.”
“Sorry,” he apologized, trying to ignore the fact that his head was probably split open.
She looked up at him and glared. “I’m so killing you now.”
He almost asked if she wasn’t going to before, but her hands slammed into his chest and the back of his head hit the beam again and his vision went blurry. Her nails dug into his shoulders and he could feel her hair tickle his neck and he knew this was it.
He wished he could’ve ended things with Summer better.
…
Ryan stared at the body on the floor.
He couldn’t believe he’d just done… that.
But the guy had been hitting him and the punches he’d thrown back hadn’t even fazed the guy. And then his teeth had been wrong and some girl was beating up Seth and he’d just… swung, and the guy’s head was on the floor.
He couldn’t believe he’d just decapitated someone.
To his left, the dark-haired girl shrieked and something in the back of his head told him that no human could make that sound. She lunged at him and they fell to the ground and he managed to roll on top of her and she was shrieking again with those freak teeth out and he didn’t know what was going on and he couldn’t really believe Seth had been right.
He grabbed the axe from where it’d fallen and put it to her throat and she snarled at him as he pressed down until it went clean through.
Something hauled him up and he felt a sharp pain in his neck. After a few seconds of blind struggle, he reached behind him and grabbed a handful of hair and dragged the thing off him and didn’t make a sound when the teeth were ripped out of his neck.
The guy had bitten him.
It was real. Seth was right; it was real. Vampires were real, which meant demons were real, which meant maybe Sandy and Kirsten had been…
Something had killed Sandy and Kirsten and it wasn’t here now, but these fucking vampires were and he didn’t hesitate when he punched the thing in its face.
“You taste good,” the vampire laughed, putting a hand to his cheek. “I think I’m gonna turn you.”
He didn’t bother responding as he swung the axe and chopped its fucking head off.
“Shit.”
He turned to look at the fifth vampire, the only male left.
“Shit,” the vampire repeated. “C’mon, Sarah, let’s go.”
The girl who’d been holding onto Seth stopped inches away from Seth’s neck and turned, pouting.
“But…” she protested, but stopped when she saw the bodies on the floor.
“Let’s go, Sarah,” the other one said again and she dropped Seth and they both ran out of the warehouse.
He waited for a few seconds until he was sure they were gone before dropping the axe and moving over to where Seth’s body had slumped against the ground.
“Seth,” he whispered, kneeling down and pulling his brother into a sitting position. “Seth,” he repeated desperately.
Seth’s eyes opened and his mouth stretched slowly into a grin.
“Nice timing, huh?”
…
Taylor bit her lip and rolled over for the sixtieth time since Ryan had left.
He’d been really weird - not that leaving at one in the morning wasn’t weird to begin with, but still. He’d looked so scared and he hadn’t called and it had been almost two hours and she was really starting to worry.
Fine, so she’d been worrying the whole time, but so far she’d resisted calling him.
Her phone was sitting on the bedside table, just begging for her to pick it up and dial his number. But Ryan had said not to worry and she didn’t want to make him angry if she called.
She let out a groan and rolled onto her other side so she couldn’t see her phone or the clock.
She was staring at the wall when she heard the door open.
“Ryan,” she breathed when he came in, but any other words were cut off when she really saw him.
His clothes were a wreck - dirty and torn and stained with something that looked scarily like blood. His hair was no better and his lip was split and starting to puff up and there was a nasty looking bruise on his left eye.
But it was his neck that really caught her attention.
“Ryan,” she said again, sitting up as he stumbled over to the bed. “Oh my god, Ryan. What happened?”
He shook his head and closed his eyes and sat next to her and she tried not to stare at the blood on his neck. She was about to ask what happened again when he let out a shaky breath of air and leaned into her.
She didn’t know what was wrong with him, but she tried to make soothing noises as she smoothed her hands over his back and tried not to cry when she realized he was shaking. She managed to get his jacket off and laid him down on the bed and wrapped her arms around him again.
“Shh, Ryan,” she whispered into his hair as he buried his face into her neck. “It’s ok; it’s gonna be ok.”
She felt her heart freeze in her chest when the first soft sob escaped his lips.