Chapter 2 – Chap 2

I’ve just found six teenage boys chained to the walls of a cabin and a further eight dead on the floor. The owner of the cabin has just returned home and from the muffled sounds of conversation coming from the above floor, he has brought a friend. The room was mostly empty but over in the right corner was a locker closet and a wooden chest. I acted quick and climbed into the closet just as the hatch door swung open once more, the light from upstairs slightly shone down the hole and illuminated the pit beneath. The voices were no longer muffled and their conversation had become easy to hear, one of the men speaking was Darren but the other I couldn’t place, that was until he stepped down into the room.

“Why is the light on down here?” Sid Skinner said his salesman voice was gone, replaced by an angry and bitter voice.

“I…I must have left it on, master. I’m sorry, sir. I won’t make that mistake again” Darren replied with legitimate terror in his voice. Sid turned on the spot and grabbed Darren by the throat lifting him from his feet with ease. Sid was much smaller than Darren so this sight was shocking, to say the least as he lifted a 6-foot teenager off his feet like a child.

“Make sure you don’t, boy or maybe I’ll drain you instead of all your friends you bring me” Sid replied before letting go of Darren and letting him fall on his ass. Darren gasped as he got control of his breath again before climbing back to his feet and dusting himself off. Sid then turned his attention to the boys, walking up to Brad he reached his hands out and grabbed Brad by the jaw moving his head slowly with his hand as he spoke.

“But you have done well for me, boy. Rarely have you brought me bad blood, you know my tastes” Sid said while opening his mouth on Brad’s neck, his incisors growing out of his mouth into pointy fangs the tips of his fangs poking into the skin but not puncturing it as Brad began to squirm. Sid pulled his mouth away and let go of Brad.
“Hmm, not yet.”

“Get their food ready, we don’t want them going hungry do we?” Sid said as he walked back up the stairs and out of the pit.

“Of course, master. I’ll prepare them now, sir” Darren snivelly replied as he switched off the lights and followed Sid up the stairs. His tough-guy bravado from the pool hall now completely gone.

I had these two caught red-handed but what could I do? I had my gun but from what I just saw I wasn’t too sure Sid was human. No, I had to escape and come up with another plan and hope that sick fuck doesn’t kill any more of these kids in the meantime. I slowly pushed the door of the closet open and made my way through the dark towards the steps.

“I’ll come back for you, I promise” I whispered into the dark ensuring I didn’t make too much noise. I slowly climbed the steps to the hatch door and pushed it open slowly, it creaked as it opened and my heart sunk. Darren walked out from the kitchen a split second after I had pulled myself out of the pit and scurried into the living room and out of sight.

“What the fuck? How’d I forget to close that, eh?” Darren said before closing the hatch door.
“C’mon, Darren buddy focus or master will get the hot poker again.”

I exhaled heavily as Darren retreated back to the kitchen only to immediately gasp in terror again as I noticed Sid laying on the sofa right in front of me. Thankfully, he was asleep but I couldn’t be sure how heavily or how long he slept. I tiptoed my way out of the living room towards the front door, taking one look back down the corridor towards the kitchen to see Darren with his back turned to me. Once outside I slowly and quietly closed the door behind me then sprinted as fast as I could back to my car before speeding out of the forest and back to the safety of St Cloud. I pulled in at the first bar I saw to order myself a beer – deserved after that day – and to concoct the plan to save those boys.

It wasn’t going to be easy but I knew I could stop Sid and get those boys back to safety and that coward Darren was going to help me.

I sat in my car outside Darren’s home in the early hours of the next morning waiting for his father to leave for work. The Chief came out of his home holding a coffee in his hand and a croissant clutched between his teeth, he got into his police cruiser and drove off for work. I immediately walked up to the front door and rang the bell, I waited a minute before ringing the bell again and again and again until finally, I heard some rumbling going on inside the house as Darren stumbled to the door.

“Okay, okay hold your hors–” Darren cut his sentence short as he opened the door and saw my gun low down at my hip aiming at him.

“May I come in?” I asked rhetorically

I walked Darren into his living room and ordered him to sit.

“You’re making a mistake, eh. This is the Chief of Police’s house, you know” Darren said in hopes of scaring me off.

“I’m aware of who’s home this is. I’m not here to rob the house, I’m here for you, Darren.” I replied, his eyes opening wide from the shock of hearing his name leave my lips.

“I’ve been in your cabin and I know you are behind those missing teenagers, some of them your friends but I also know that you done it for Sid Skinner so it’s him I want not you, help me bring him down and I can help you”

“I…I don’t know what you’re talking about” he replied while looking at the ground.

“I saw you there, Darren. Standing in a room containing your friends, some dead. How can you live with yourself?” I asked turning to bad cop mode.

“You wouldn’t understand, I had to do it. Sid made me, he’s going to turn me and all I have to do is provide bodies for him,” he explained

“And you think he will keep that promise?” I asked the question causing Darren to finally lift his head to look at me.

“What do you mean?” he replied.

“Think about it, why would Sid ever turn you into a vampire? Once he turns you then you don’t need him anymore, why would he ever give up a loyal servant?” I explained upsetting Darren in the process.

“Because he promised, he wouldn’t break a promise!” Darren angrily responded while jolting up from his seat.

“Darren, c’mon you’re talking about a vampire who eats teenagers, do you really think he cares about keeping a promise?”

This response seemed to get through to Darren, he went silent for a moment before slumping back into his chair.

“Oh no…no, no, no” he muttered. I put my gun away and got down on one knee to meet Darren at his level hoping to breakthrough further.
“Darren, he’s using you and when you are no longer of use to him he’ll kill you, just like your friends. He doesn’t care about you or anyone”

“I let them die…I led them to their death. What the fuck was I doing?!?” he screamed before throwing his hands over his face and beginning to cry.

“You fucked up, Darren I won’t lie to you about that but you were manipulated. You can’t take back what you’ve done but you can try and redeem yourself, there are six boys up in that cabin who need saving and they need your help. I need your help.” I said while reaching a supportive hand out to pat his back.

Darren cried for a few more moments as I continued to hold onto his shoulder and ask for his help pleading with whatever humanity may have been left inside him. Eventually, I broke through and he agreed to help. We took his father’s van and drove towards the cabin.

“What do we do if Sid is there? I don’t really have any holy water or garlic” I jokingly but nervously asked.

“He should be at the shop but if not I’ve got this.” Darren replied before brandishing a small two-inch golden blade.

“I wore a gold chain around Sid one day and when he grabbed me by the throat he grabbed the chain and it burned his hand. He banned any gold jewellery from then on saying it was tacky but I knew the real reason. I had a friend melt down the chain and repurpose it into a blade just in case that son of a bitch ever tried to kill me” Darren explained.

“Hmm, smarter than you look, kid” I replied.

Darren drove the van up towards the cabin before stopping and getting out, he explained that he would go up and make sure the coast was clear. After a few minutes, he called me up towards the cabin. Darren grabbed the key to the shackles in the basement from the kitchen. We opened the hatch and quickly descended into the basement knowing we needed to be as quick as possible. One-by-one we freed the boys from their chains and helped carry them up the stairs and into the back of the van. Brad was the final person into the van, it felt wrong to leave the dead boys down in that dark pit but we didn’t have the time to bring them, the safety of the boys still alive was imperative. After getting Brad into the van we locked up the hatch and went to leave, however, as quick as we thought we were, we weren’t quick enough as we walked out the front door and saw Sid Skinner standing right in front of us.

“Oh, Darren, Darren, Darren. I should have known you’d stab me in the back. After everything I did for you, this is how you thank me” Sid said.

“You never did anything for me, you made me help you kill my friends. You’re a monster” Darren replied.

“Well, what does that make you then?” Sid quickly replied.

“The person who’s going to kill you” Darren responded while pulling the golden knife out of his pocket.

Sid darted at Darren with immense speed, faster than my eye could keep up with. One moment he was thirty yards away, the next moment he was right in front of Darren slashing his claw-like nails across Darren’s chest and plunging his other hand into Darren’s torso. Darren bent over and vomited up blood before falling to his knees.

“I doubt that.” Sid said with a grin, he lifted his hand up to land the death blow but I wasn’t allowing that to happen even if it got me killed. I pulled out my pistol and fired the entire magazine into his back doing little more than annoy him. Sid turned to face me with an even bigger grin upon his face before pouncing at me with his shoulder. His shoulder hit me directly in the stomach sending me flying through the air and tumbling across the dirt, the pain hit me immediately and I struggled to breathe from the rib-shattering blow. Sid walked over to me as I climbed to my knees, blood now pouring from my mouth.

“From the moment I met you, I knew I’d end up killing you.” He said as he reached out and picked me up by the throat with ease. I could see Darren stumbling towards Sid as he opened his mouth and extended his fangs. Darren slowly dragged his leg behind him while still holding the blade. I shook my head signalling for him to run, to take the van and leave but he refused. With his last bit of life, Darren leapt through the air at Sid being caught in mid-air by Sid’s other hand. Sid dropped me and pulled Darren in closer.

“You just couldn’t stay down could you, boy?” Sid said before sinking his fangs into Darren’s neck.

“I’m not your boy!” Darren defiantly screamed before plunging the golden blade deep into the side of Sid’s neck.

Sid immediately pulled his teeth out of Darren’s neck and dropped him. His confidence and swagger were gone as he panickedly pawed at his neck trying to pull the blade out but it was too deep. Sid screamed and cursed as his neck began to burn, the flames moving out from the wound and consuming his whole body. He dropped to his knees as the flames absorbed his form and left nothing but ash on the forest floor.

Darren lay on the ground drowning in his own blood. I stumbled over towards him holding him in my arms as he slowly passed away, he was unable to speak but he smiled as he looked at me before taking his last breath. He had fucked up, there was no denying that but when push came to shove he sacrificed himself to save those boys and the whole city.

Sid had manipulated him, he had manipulated the whole community really. A monster casually living among them as a much-respected businessman and pillar of the community, which begs the question.

How many more are among us?