by D.H.Irving
"The bitch BIT me!" came the bellowed cry of rage and disbelief as mugger bent over in pain clutching his hand between his legs. Straightening he spun in a slight circle and held his injured hand to the alley’s single flickering light, assessing the wound. His partner in crime laughed sharply, holding the frightened woman tight to the dark, filth encrusted wall.
"Serves you right. I told you to be careful." He chided callously before turning back to his captured prey.
"And you.." His words trailed off as his beady eyes assessed her. She was a pretty young woman, early twenties he had guessed, dressed to kill, and most importantly she had been alone. Her eyes darted frantically, like a trapped mouse as her body trembled with each wracking wave of fear. The contents of her purse lay scattered upon the alley’s trash coated floor, cruelly discarded and cast away.
"How is it, a fine young woman such as yourself, of obvious wealth, has no money or even a credit card in her purse." He leaned in whispering. Her heart slammed itself against her chest as if trying to escape it’s fleshy cage. His breath was fetid upon her, each exhale brought the scent of whiskey and decay. The scent of death. Fear held her weak, and as her stomach knotted in icy needles, she could feel her legs wavering, threatening to give out. The injured man turned to them, still clutching his bleeding hand.
"Maybe she keeps it somewhere else man." He grinned despite his pain, leering suggestively at her. Fear gripped her tightly as she shook her head, every drop of willpower surging, forcing the frantic, desperate words from her lips.
"N-no…I don’t have anyth-thing….please…d-don’t hurt me." She stammered, her voice no more than a whisper. Tears ran her face in warm streams, tainted gray by her mascara. She begged sobbing for mercy, and somewhere deep inside she prayed. She prayed to a God she had forgotten, she prayed for forgiveness, and she prayed that her tears would somehow sear through these cold men, touching something dead inside them, causing them to release her.
The man with the beady eyes reached up, stroking her cheek gently, the gesture causing her to flinch under his touch.
"Shhhh…it’s okay Princess.." His voice dripped with sugar-sweet insincerity.
"We aren’t going to hurt you." An evil, almost inhuman smile parted his lips revealing broken, decayed teeth.
"In fact, you may even like it."
These last words burned inside her, igniting her fear like a blaze of hellfire as energy washed her anew. Screaming and kicking she struggled against them as the two men easily overpowered her, pulling her to the alley’s filthy floor. Somewhere dimly she heard the two men laughing cruelly as they tore away her blouse and bra with a single rough motion. The collar of her blouse burned her skin as it lurched against her neck before finally ripping. Her mind went numb to the lips on her neck, the hands that crushed her breasts with a feral desire absent of all love or tenderness. She was being raped, and there was nothing she could do. She felt helpless and dirty as he mounted her, his hands struggling at his own waistband and the length of dingy rope that held up his pants. She wanted it over, she wanted to die, she wanted out, but was helpless against them. They were stronger and set on their evil task.
The man was tore off her with such unbelievable speed and force that her body still registered his presence. Free from her human bonds she scrambled backwards against the alley’s wall, tears streaming her face. Huddled between two large bags of rotted refuse she watched the scene unfold before her. A third man had appeared, tackling her attacker, and rolling to his feet. Before the beady eyed rapist could move her savior was upon him, and for one brief glimpse the alley’s flickering light illuminated him. Her heart froze within her chest as her mind’s scream echoed through the stillness in her. His porcelain skin was drawn tightly again his face, his eyes those of a beast focused upon pray. But his teeth. His teeth were what froze her blood within her veins and clutched her in an ice cold grip. In that once brief second of clarity she had seen him, seen him perfectly. His mouth was set in a growling snarl of rage, exposing two long, dagger like canines that gleamed death white in the artificial light.
Then the scene snapped back to reality, and unfolded with unbelievable speed. The new man’s teeth ripped through her attacker’s throat, rending the flesh and sending a hailstorm of crimson spray through the night air. The man’s eyes went wide, with both realization and fear as he staggered back, dropping to the alley floor. His injured partner screamed as the man beast turned to him. She could see the look in his eyes and knew the ice that tore icy shards through him as she watched a large spot of wetness appear at his groin almost comically. He turned to run, the only movement his alcohol dimmed instincts would allow, but the monster was too fast. Leaping upon his back the beast sunk his mandibles into the fleeing man’s neck as they both crashed to the hard floor with a sickening thud. Never making a sound except a low, constant growl she watched in revolting fascination as it bent over the struggling man, drinking from the blood that gushed like a river from the wound at his neck. Slowly, inevitably, the mugger’s struggling weakened and ultimately stopped as his life pour from him. The manbeast stood, his face, although wet with crimson life, appeared in all aspects normal, even serene.
Wordlessly he turned from the grisly scene, moving towards the mouth of the alley, never once glancing to her or in anyway acknowledging her presence. Struggling she tried to stand, knocking over a heaping garbage can, sending it’s contents to join the pooling blood at her feet.
"W-wait." she squeaked desperately, calling after the man, the thing, that had delivered her salvation. The man stopped and slowly turned, his face an emotionless mask of drying blood. Wolfen eyes of a predatory beast regarded her as she staggered towards him, dried tears still staining her cheeks, her undergarments gathered at her ankles, impeding her every step. Quietly she approached, timidly and looked up into his face.
"I..kn-know what you are…" she admitted to him the obvious in a shaking voice, her desperate eyes meeting his lifeless orbs. Her voice a pleading whisper she continued.
"P-please….I….I want to l-live f-forever…I.." Her words were cut off as a tallied hand tore across her throat. Her widening eyes watched her as warm blood spattered across his face, mingling with the clotting vitae of her attackers. His expression never changed as she grasped at him, his hands clenching his shirt as she sunk, dying, to her knees. Her mind screamed in desperate disbelief and confusion. This didn’t make sense, she told herself as she sunk to the alley floor, now slick once again with fresh blood. It doesn’t end like this, her mind frantically reasoned as she felt her body cooling, her eyelids growing heavy with sleep.
He watched as she collapsed at his feet, still weakly maintaining a hold on the hem of his jeans. Slowly her breathing stopped as she joined her attackers in death. Wordlessly he turned from the scene before him and walked calmly out of the alley’s mouth, the night once again swallowing him.