Dead-Man's Blood

P.A. Nightmares

Dead-Man's Blood

“Beep! Beep!” The chime of my phone went off. I was not sure who could be messaging me at this hour. I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and put on my glasses. I am as good as blind without them. Unlocking the phone and opening the message, “very clear Oliver,” was all it read.

I got up and dressed quickly. I quickly replied, “we will meet in 30 minutes under the south bridge! Come alone! I'll know if you're not.”

Getting my keys, and gun, I left. Meeting scum like this guy is never fun, but it must be done. Of course this guy would not come alone and I knew this. So I texted my partner, Jeremy. He was about 20 years younger than I am. He was a former sniper for the military. When I needed multiple hostiles subdued, he was my man.

It only took me and Jeremy about 10 minutes to arrive. The rest of the time, we got into position and got ready for whatever shit we were about to step into. Much like clockwork, I could hear the sound of his vehicle stopping not too far from the bridge. At least 3 occupants of the vehicle got out and shut their doors. Not more than a second later, I heard Jeremy call over the radio.

“Oliver, three hostels exited the vehicle. I have them in my sights. Let me know when to take the shot and I will subdue them.”

I pressed the button on my radio and replied. “I copy you, Jeremy. Maintain radio silence from here on. I will signal you, when ready, over.”

Right after we finished, the van pulled up and the target got out. Drake Ashmore stood just over 6 foot, and had onyx hair. He wore all balck, including a trench coat. If this were a movie he would be your cliche movie villain. But this was real life and in reality, he was far more dangerous.

Drake got out of the van and practically floated over to me. His foot falls so smooth and quiet, you would have sworn he was floating.

“I am here Drake, what the hell could not have waited until tomorrow night when we were supposed to meet?” I sneered at him. My heart was thumping loudly, in my chest. I knew the situation I found myself in was a dangerous one. One misstep from me could get both me and Jeremy killed.

“Oliver, you don't think I don't know who you work for? I was not about to meet on your terms and give you time to prepare the ambush. I let you choose the place we meet because all our information shows this would be the spot. I have come ready for you.”

After he finished, I heard the footsteps behind me. I rolled out of the way and set off my flashbang. This was the signal for Jeremy to take his shot. Like clockwork, I heard the three loud bangs and three bodies hit the ground.

I stood up and brushed myself off. While Drake was still blinded, I ran over to him pulling out the syringe and injected him with its contents. He screamed and fell unconscious. I quickly removed the ropes and bound all four men, after injecting the three that Jeremy incapasitated. We tossed them into my van and left the area.

“What was the threat level for this job?” Jeramy asked.

“It was a tier two job, but taking into account that he brought back up, that knocks it up to a tier 3. So the pay day should be nice. Don't worry! Our normal deal is in place, my old friend. 70-30 without you I would be long dead.”

We drove for hours in silence, until we hit the warehouse. Inside were the men that hired us for this job.

He pulled in and I was greeted by a elderly man in a very nice suit. “Do you have what we asked you to acquire for us?” The old man asked as his security detail patted me down for any weapons.

After they were finished, I looked at him and smiled at him, “I got him and so much more.”

I called out to Jeremy and told him to open the back door. I took the elderly man who I will just call K, to the back and showed him that I not only had Drake, but his whole crew.

K looked at me wide eyed and said, “this will make this show that much better. Well in light of the amazing work, I think a bonus is in order, what do you say 10k a piece, sound fair? That is on top of the 50 we are paying you for Drake of course.”

I looked at him and then at my partener. “Yeah that sounds fair to us. Same bank as always. Also I hope this earns me an invite to tonight's show. I would not want to miss these scum getting what they deserve!”

“Yes, yes of course my friend, as always I will send you the invite with your payment.” The old man waved a dismissive hand at me. “Well it's been a pleasure as always gentleman, but I must be getting off. I have a busy night of planning before tomorrow.” He tipped his hat at us, he got into his limo, and drove off.

Jeremy and myself got back into our vehicle. I dropped him off at his car and I drove home. By the time I got home, the sun had started to rise. I headed back to my bed. Tomorrow will be a long day and I need to be well rested. I fell back into a deep sleep to be woken by my alarm. It felt like only minutes had passed; however a quick look at my clock told me that several hours had passed by. I grabbed my phone and called Jeremy.

“Oliver what's up man?” he asked. From the sound of it, he had just woken up as well.

“Hey you coming over for the show tonight? If so, I will treat us to dinner.” I knew the second I offered to get us dinner, he would be more than happy to take him up on the offer.

Hell yeah man! I will be over in 30 minutes. I would have come over without the dinner invite, but not take backsies .He finished with a chuckle and abruptly ended the call. I laughed to myself and made a quick call. After a few rings a gruff man awansered.

“Hello, what can I get you?” He asked.

“Hi! Yes I need to order two number six meals and I want it fresh. None of that day old shit you give most of your customers. If it's still warm when you get here there's a huge tip in it for you!” While I waited on our food, I decided to grab a quick shower while I waited.

Shortly after I finished my shower, I heard the hard raps at my door. I opened the door. In my doorway stood a portly man with my food. I smiled and looked at him. “Well this is definitely as fresh as it gets.” I said smiling and very pleased with the quality of the food.

After giving him a large tip, I took my meal into the kitchen. Shortly after, Jeremy strolled. Anyone else just letting themself in my house would piss me off.

“Oliver, where are you?” he yelled.

“I am in the kitchen, food is here,” I could hear Jeremy walking towards the kitchen. His eyes lit up the second he saw dinner,

Tied to a chair was a woman, blond wearing glasses! While she was not fat, she was not all skin and bones. Just the way Jeremy liked them.

“How did you get a human? We are only supposed to feed on blood bags, Oliver,” he said, both worried and excited at the same time. The meal to come was something Jeremy wanted badly.

“Oh come on buddy. You know we have an organization in place for this kind of thing. Besides with the money K gave us today, we earned the real thing! Not that shit they force us to eat. Well, it's showtime! Let's take our meal into the living room.”

We sat in the living room, one wrist of the human in my hand, the other in Jeremy’s. We watched as K brought Drake and his crew onto the stage for tonight's show.

K started to speak. “Tonight , my lovely viewers, we have not only one, but four vampires. So let's start the show. If you have a method of tourture you want to see, you know the deal, donations take priority and then we will consider viewers suggestions after. Looks like we got our first donation from Sunlight 666! He says toruture him using sunlight. Well that's a little noisy, but it's a good one.”

K looked at one of his henchmen and they pressed a button. Then, sunlight was slowly directed at the vampire, a little at a time, leaving the skin a charred black! It moved up the body, until the vampire stopped screaming. He exploded all over the stage.

“Well that was funny, let's see what the audience has in store for the next one? Use religious paraphernalia. Hmmm I am not sure that will work, but hey it's worth a shot.”

Another henchmen rolled in a cart full of holy water and crosses. The vampire squirmed as they got closer! It looked like this would do something. They sat the crosses on different parts of his body. The skin could be heard sizzling, under the holy objects. Then they grabbed a funnel and poured the holy water down his throat. Once the entire bottle of holy water was inside the vampire, it had an acidic effect! The vampire melted from the inside out.

After it was finished, K looked at the camera, and said, “Well folks, looks like we just made a vampire smoothie. Bring on the next guest,” K stated.

They wheeled in the last member of Drake's crew. Looking at the computer K said, “Ah looks like they want to see if a vampire can die of blood loss.”

K pressed a button and the bed the vampire was strapped to slowly tipped backwards until the vampire was hanging upside down. K walked over and cut the throat of the vampire and watched as the blood quickly flowed from the body. After about an hour, they checked and the blood had stopped flowing.The vampire was not dead.

“Looks like bleeding them out, does not kill them! It only incapacitates them. Oh well!” K staked the vampire and it bursted into flames. “Now it's time for the main event,” K said as they wheeled out Drake. “For this one, we will take our time, as he is our main event. First let's start with the holy water.”

K pulled out a turkey baster, filled it with holy water. He put it in both of Drake's eyes. The screams that emanated from him were guttural. Once Drake calmed down K spoke again.

“My boys could use a little target practice. But for this we will be using a BB gun. However the BBs will be made of silver and dipped in dead man's blood. This should be fun,” K said with a smile. “Gentlemen if you will? But please avoid hitting the heart! We can't kill him too fast.”

Two men came up and started shooting BBs into Drake. His screams were so horrible. It was hard to believe they came from something that used to be human. After they were finished K looked at the audience, “Well looks like it's time to bring this show to an end.” He opened the ceiling and let the sun finish the job.

Shortly after, my Phone rang. “ Hello,” I answered, knowing who was on the other end.

“It's me, I have another job for you. Seems we have a pair of ghouls that have been causing trouble for the people in a town near you. Capture them for our next show,” K finished with a laugh.

“Of course, K. I will leave immediately.

I looked over at Jeremy and said, “We got another one. You down for one more partner?”