M.A.Z.E
006: Villain Monologue
Cordelia smiles at me over the bartender’s shoulder, a big, toothy smile that tells me she’s extremely pleased with herself.
“Oh my god,” Cordelia says, her face shifting from giddy demon to concerned citizen in a blink as she helps lay the victim- my victim- gently upon the ground. “Oh god, Sarah, What happened?”
Fuck… Sarah? I just murdered this woman and didn’t even know her name.
“So much blood, oh God, Sara, I don’t know if I can stop it!” Cordelia really plays up her concern as she presses a balled section of Sara’s shirt into the wound. Sara is crying now, her eyes red and puffy. Her mouth is open, still trying to speak as she clutches tightly at Cordelia’s sleeve.
“You’re not going to make it,” Cordelia should get an Oscar for her performance. “You need help.”
I see where this is going now.
“No, do-” is all I get out as I take a step forward, then Brady’s charred arms are wrapped around me from behind, clasping his hands over my chest in a tight bear hug and pinning my arms to my sides. I try to break his grasp but he has vampiric strength on his side and doesn’t budge an inch. When I stab him in the calf with the boot blade, Jock 2 grabs my legs and takes the boot, stripping me of my last weapon. When I try to kick him he grabs my ankle, then takes hold of my other leg, and I’m left completely immobilized. It’s futile, but I try to get free anyway; kicking, flexing, twisting.
“I love it when they struggle,” Brady coos in my ear. “Makes me so fucking hard.”
He’s been a vampire only a few weeks and he’s already a sadistic fucking bastard. I really don’t want to indulge him, but I can’t stand idly by while this plays out in front of me.
“I can help you, I can save you,” Cordelia brushes Sara’s hair out of her face and gently cups her cheek in her palm. If vampires could shed tears Cordelia looks like they’d be pouring from her like a fountain; like she actually gives a fuck. “I just need your permission.”
Of course Sara nods, and mouths the word ‘please’.
Cordelia places a hand over Sara’s eyes, blocking her view as her fangs extend. She locks eyes with me as she props the bartender in her lap, brushes her hair to the side, and gently bites into her shoulder. I’m helpless to do anything but watch as she drains her, and Sara is too weak to resist by the time she realizes what’s happening.
Once she’s done, when Cordelia has drained all but the most minuscule amounts of blood required to keep a person on the verge of death, she bites her own wrist and holds it to Sara’s mouth. The bartender is too weak to pull away, even though her eyes are filled with disgust at the thought… at first. Once the first few droplets get past her lips and hit her tongue she finds a new strength to wrap around Cordelia’s arm and hold it close while sucking at the open wound.
Cordelia only gives her a few seconds before ripping her arm away. I’ve read about turnings before, and they usually require a lot more time than that, a lot more blood. But; Cordelia wants this one hungry.
“You probably don’t recognize me,” Cordelia stands, dropping Sara to the ground; she doesn’t have to pretend to care anymore. Sara lays where she is dropped, not moving so much as to even stop her face from hitting concrete. Her body thinks it’s dead… but, it will wake again soon.
“I can’t expect you to, I guess, since I wasn’t there at the time,” Cordelia approaches me, stopping just a foot from my face. “I don’t know how long you observed my old hidey hole, but that was my clan you killed last year. You killed two of my oldest friends that night and I vowed I would get you eventually.”
“Oh great, a villain monologue,” I roll my eyes. “Please, spare me the details of your revenge plot and just kill me.”
Cordelia looks past me to Brady and gives him a little nod.
“Do you mind?” She says. “I’m getting real tired of the sarcasm.”
Brady shifts his grip to hold me with one arm while his now free hand rises and covers my mouth. I jerk my head away but to no avail. He gets his hand over my mouth and I cringe at the scent of burnt flesh. Fortunately I don’t have to suffer the smell for long, as he decides to have some fun and pinches my nose under his thumb and finger, cutting off my access to air.
Behind Cordelia the body of the bartender begins to twitch, then goes into full spasms as if she were having a seizure. In a way, she kind of is; the vampiric blood is rewriting her body, forcing evolutionary changes at a rapid pace, in the same way acid forces rapid evolution of an arm to have less skin. Violent reconstruction of the internal workings of the body to adapt to a new life as a predator.
My lungs are burning. I hadn’t expected to be suffocated. I didn’t prepare a big breath to sustain myself for more than a few seconds, so I’m already struggling to breath. My body rebels against me, spasming and trying to break free as my brain screams at me from the inside to just do whatever I need to in order to breath.
I’m fucked. I fucked up. I never stood a chance against three vampires, and now I’m going to die for my stupidity, and I’m taking this innocent bartender down with me. I knew I could die, but I thought it would be quick; have my head ripped off or something. I didn’t expect suffocation and a show.
Cordelia’s sweet smile turns dark.
“There it is,” she moves closer, inches from my face, staring deep into my wide, watering eyes. “There’s the fear. I love this look people get; the one where they’re still looking for a way out, trying to find a way to escape their fate. This can’t be real, this can’t be happening, this only happens in movies, not to people like me. Reality is setting in and it ain’t pretty. You’re fucked, and you know it.”
My head is growing heavy, I’m going limp in Brady’s arms. The world is fading to darkness at the corners.
Cordelia gives a little nod and Brady pulls his hand away. I gasp, sucking in a deep br- he puts his hand back before I can fill my lungs. Just enough to remind me what breathing is like and what I’m missing out on. Cordelia chuckles and backs away from me until Sara is between us.
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