The Feeding House (9 page)

Wi
th a friendly pat on Jacks leg Missy stood up and left the room, quietly closing the door behind her. Jack settled back down to relaxing as he took a long draw on his cigarette and had a gulp of whiskey to follow. He liked Missy she was kind to him something that he had not experienced before in his life time. It seemed as though she genuinely cared about him. Jack was looking forward to the following night but at the same time felt nervous something felt very wrong about allowing himself to get closer to Missy after all stuff like this could only end up badly. He shouldn’t be forming emotional attachments to humans, but at the same time he didn’t care, he needed someone to talk to, someone to care for him and help him with some of the pain. Jack decided that it was a risk worth taking.

The following evening Jack walked down the stairs to the bar room floor just as the clock turned nine
. He had spent a bit of time, it would be fair to say, trying to sort his appearance out a little. He wanted to smarten up for when he met her, running a comb through his hair and making sure that there were no crinkles in his clothes. It was the least that he could do.

Jack noticed Missy sitting
by one of the bar room tables in the far corner of the room. She had already brought a couple of drinks, two tall glasses of beer. She was in her work gear, as it would be fair to call it, but looked good anyway her hair flowing over her shoulders. She didn’t look like the other girls working that night, she didn’t have that flirty air about her. It seemed as though the men had noticed this as no one had bothered her while she was sitting waiting for Jack. That might partially be due to the fact that she didn’t seem like she was working or it could be down to the fact that she was meeting Jack. News had spread around about what he had done to the man who picked on Missy and, as Jack walked along the bar room floor to the table, the eyes of the patrons that once watched him with morbid interest now tried to avoid looking at Jack as much as possible for fear of what he might do to them.

“Hello Missy,” said Jack as he kissed
her on the cheek, taking in her lavender fragrance as he did so. “Thank you for the drink It’s very kind of you,” Jack sat down opposite and took a big refreshing sip of the cool beer, it relaxed him instantly.

The two spoke for over an hour but it felt like only minutes as the time flew by without either of them even noticing
. It would not be long now until Missy had to start working this upset Jack ever so slightly as during their conversation Jack had really felt that they had formed a sort of bond that was, for now, friendship but it felt as though it could be pushed further and made into something else, maybe even love. But that was a thought better saved for the future. One thing was sure they both seemed very keen to spend more time with the other.

Missy told Jack about her family and her early life about how she grew up not knowing her mother an
d how she had an abusive father. She was the oldest child of six and would usually have to spend her days looking after her brothers and sisters while her dad went off every night to get drunk and start fights. This of course eventually ended quite badly for him as it always does with people like that.

It wasn’t short after M
issy’s fifteenth birthday that her dad disappeared for a couple of days. All she knew about it was that he had gone out one evening, like he always did, and hadn’t returned. He had a job working in the stables for a little bit of money; enough to feed the hungry mouths at home at least but it was getting to the point where, if he didn’t come home soon, there would be no money for anything. Missy had tried going to the police about it but they didn’t seem to want much to do with her being so young. They just said that they were looking for him. He was notorious with the police as a trouble maker so it didn’t seem as though they were ever going to put much effort into it anyway.

It was about a week later that missy’s fathers body was found dumped just outside of the city borders he had been there for quite a while and apparently he was barely recognisable. Missy regaled Jack with the tale of the horror that she felt when she had to identify his body
. It was an image that even to this day she could still not get out of her mind. His corpse was bruised and battered. Someone had really beaten on him hard. It was always going to end up this way it was only a matter of time before he would start a fight with the wrong person.

Missy was left with the house which they were soon to be evicted from if they didn’t start coughing up some money and a lot of hungry mouths to feed as well. She had no skills as her
dad had never taught her anything, and her brothers were no help in the fields what with a role model like their father. They were becoming more like him by the day as they started to steal and become petty thieves and muggers.

Missy had no choice there was only one thing left that she could turn to, she
started selling her body out on the streets, going back with strange men to their houses never bringing them back to her house for fear of what they might do. She was scared but quickly got the hang of it cutting the cord from her conscious mind and her emotions.

After a while
she ended up at the saloon working shifts. It paid better than the streets and it was a lot safer as well. Jack listened intently to everything that Missy had said, absorbed into her story he really felt a strong connection to her past. He had gone through many problems as well and it was good to have someone to relate to who had also had to put up with a lot in their lives too. Jack didn’t speak about his past that night even though he wanted to and Missy asked questions. He felt it was better he stayed quite for now, maybe at some point in the distant future he would tell missy what had happened and who he really was but he needed to get to know her better before then. Still Jack was glad that he was thinking of the future, it was something that he had not done for a long while. He returned to his room that night feeling happy and satisfied. They had arranged to meet again that following evening at the same time and he couldn’t wait. For the first time in his life he was genuinely happy in someone else’s company. Maybe he could get through this, maybe he could fight this battle and come out victorious.

Jack had fallen into a deep slumber that ni
ght comforted by his talk with Missy and his thoughts of how the future could now turn out for him. Unfortunately his mind was not being quite as kind. Jack tossed and turned in his bed sheets as dark and evil dreams flooded his mind. He was unable to stop the thoughts from manifesting themselves into visions behind his sleeping eyes. Jack was in a cold sweat as he dreamt of the girl locked away in the cruel cellars of the feeding house. He dreamt of feeding. He could see the subtle white flesh and the satisfaction of that first bite, the scream of his victim and the oozing of the blood as it gushed into his parched mouth. The satisfaction seemed immense as every drop ran down his eager throat.

Jack awoke in a panic but remained motionless
. He could feel the urge to feed slowly receding but it was stronger than ever. Even once for the most part it had disappeared. Jack couldn’t take it, he felt sick to his stomach and his head throbbed with pain. He needed to feed. He felt it in his bones it was like a terrible unrelenting hunger that wouldn’t leave. The final stages of the transformation were taking place and Jack knew that he was now for the moment extremely dangerous around anyone that he may encounter. Jack most likely would not be able to control himself in the state that he was currently in, he was too far gone.

Thought
s began to race around his mind. Maybe one feed wouldn’t be that bad, just find someone no one cared about, that no one knew. Surely they wouldn’t be missed after all that would be better than feeding upon someone nearby. He could easily get caught out for doing that and then it would all be over. Thoughts like these ran through Jacks mind as he lay there on his bed but it didn’t sound like his voice it was almost as if another was telling him to do these terrible things. It was as if the hunger had gained a voice and was now telling Jack what do to take the pain away. He needed fresh air. He needed to get away from this and get out of this mind frame. He could beat this. Jack had suppressed the urge once and was sure that he could do it again no matter how strong it was now.

Jack got himself up and out of bed
. The hunger made him feel arthritic and crippled his joints clicked and his stomach roared in protest. Jack pulled back the curtains and opened the window wide revealing the night time city scape to him. The stars shone brightly in the sky. Lights from the houses and streets mimicked the ones in the sky. A cool breeze brushed Jacks face softly and he took a deep breath of the crisp night air it made him feel relaxed and pushed the thoughts of feeding to the back of his mind as he paused for a moment to look at the city and feel the cool breeze across his face. It ebbed and flowed along his skin just like the sea upon the shore.

Jack looked down at the street below him
. He took in the details of the buildings opposite. It was the first time that he had properly looked at the world outside of the saloon for quite a while and he tried to take in the surroundings. Jack looked across at a street lamp that shone brightly at the corner of the road. Previously he had thought that the streets were deserted at this time of night but it turned out on closer inspection that there was in fact a figure standing just away from the light of the lamp. If it wasn’t for that it was doubtful that he would have noticed the person standing there.

Jack looked closer at the figure he didn’t know why but he began to get an unnerving feeling about the person standing there
. It almost looked as though they were looking straight up at Jack as he hung his head outside of the window. The figure was dressed in full black, a large black hat covered his face for the most part but then Jack saw the teeth; they shone in the dim lamp light and were not teeth at all those were fangs. The man staring up at Jack was a vampire.

Jack knew instantly what was going on it was obvious that
Dreno had sent spies to watch his every movement and check in with him so that he could make sure that Jack was dead. But Jack did not worry about this as he stared down looking at the vampire he was worried about something much worse than that. These vampires would try and make sure that Jack was smoked out, they would no doubt set traps and place bait.

A great rage built up inside of Jack as he watched the vampire down below, he wanted them gone
. Things were hard enough already without them trying to ruin everything. The vampire had obviously noticed Jacks suspicious look as without a moment’s hesitation the mysterious vampire that had been watching him began to take off down the street running as fast as his legs could carry him. Jack threw the door of his room open and didn’t turn back to close it. He sprinted down the stairs ignoring everyone still in the bar who no doubt wondered where he was going in such a hurry. He ran out of the door and onto the street, the vampire was still just about in sight as Jack began to give chase.

Jack ran after the shadowy figure trying to figure out if he had seen that particular vampire before but he didn’t know, obviously he was quite a low rank and so might not have come to the attention of Jack while he was at the feeding house but still he s
eemed vaguely familiar, Jack jumped over obstacles and ran down back alleys in pursuit of the vampire who had been spying on him and as he did so he realised where he remembered him from, his memories flooded back to him playing in front of his eyes it was so obvious now how could have he missed it.

Th
e vampire had been in the saloon the whole time, sitting there watching his every movement from the dark recesses of the shadowy corner seats of the bar keeping himself to himself the whole while. This should have been the sort of thing that Jack had remembered. He should have been more observant. He always had been a stickler for noticing the detail in things before as it came in handy with being a harvester but obviously with the condition that he was in at the saloon for the past few days the vampires sharp features, dark clothing and pale skin had slipped past his notice. He kicked himself for not realising as he tried to pick up his pace.

Both Jack and the vampire that he was in pursuit of were running faster than any human could possi
bly run even at their top speed. Both of them moving with a great agility, like time was just that bit slower for them allowing them to easily move past obstructions and think carefully about every step. The vampire moved much quicker than Jack however and was soon disappearing off into the distance. Even without the head start the vampire still seemed physically superior to Jack who was still regaining his strength after his transformation.

Jack slowed his pace to a crawl and then finally
, feeling all hope of catching up failing, stopped completely and began to pant for air as he spat on the floor. He watched as the vampire continued to run at full pace into the distance until he was no longer visible. The chase had not lasted long but Jack was completely worn out. He realised, as he regained his breath, that he was nowhere near ready yet to attempt such feats of endurance and strength. He needed to rest more. Still at least he now knew that there were vampires following him and he would keep a close eye out for anymore. The thought of Dreno’s spies watching him unnerved him, though as Dreno wanted him dead and it would not be long provided he survived longer, that Dreno gave the order for them to try and kill him. He had to find a way out.