Chasing Ghosts Who: Derek Mitchell, NPC (written by Rae) What: Infiltration Where: Las Vegas, Hotel When: Present, Night Ratings/Warnings: Violence
“Look, I’m your guy. What else do you want me to say?”
Derek stood before the two men, arms spread wide. They were looking at him with dubious expressions. He had even shown them the fangs. They still didn’t seem to believe that he was a vampire, let alone a random one just offering to help their little operation.
“This isn’t a free buffet,” the larger of the two finally spoke up. “This ain’t just to feed. You have to turn ‘em. You know what that means, don’t you?”
The vampire resisted the urge to roll his eyes. “Of course I do. How do you think I became a vampire? It’s like, well...not riding a bicycle, but watching someone else ride a bicycle. Eventually you pick it up.”
The two of them exchanged dark looks. The second one piped up. “All of our...volunteers have to pass a benchmark, first. A test.” He pulled out his phone and began typing something out. “We have a little something ready for you, so you’re lucky.” Derek swallowed but nodded faux-eagerly.
Fifteen minutes later, they were pulling up to a sleek boutique hotel. The occupants of the SUV, including a confused Derek, exited the vehicle in a makeshift procession. The vampire was led up an elevator, and presented with the door of a suite. “Turn this person into a vampire,” he was told, “and maybe we’ll consider.”
The door swung open and Derek was pushed inside by himself, and he heard the lock engage with an audible click behind him. In the middle of the suite, tied to a chair, mouth covered, was what appeared to be a teenage girl stunned with wide eyed fear. “Shit.”
This wasn’t fun anymore.
Her muscles ached in her arms and legs from struggling. She could feel the rope tightening - or was that just her mind playing tricks on her - with every move or pull. Another murmur, a shout into the swathe of fabric tied around her head, and a few tears spilled down her cheeks.
When the man who had initially approached her and asked her if she wanted to meet a real vampire, Daisy jumped at the opportunity. Seventeen. In love with the night, with death, the macabre. Daisy was too happy a name - she called herself Drusilla and made her friends call her that too. But right now she was flat scared. She didn’t know if she’d been drugged but first she was laughing and feeling excited, but after waking up here she was bordering on fear.
Her Doc Martens held tight against the wooden chair and the edges bit into her legs causing the mesh of her fishnets to split. Her plaid miniskirt had ridden up her thighs in struggle, the band tee shirt twisted. Her eyeliner left lines down her face as if she were channeling the Dark Avenger. All Daisy needed was the bird to complete the look.
As the latch of the door clicked she began to scream as best she could against the binding in her mouth, pleading, desperate. She looked at the man who appeared with panic. Was this a vampire? Was he here to hurt her more? Please.
“Please!” She screamed against the cloth.
Derek approached the girl slowly, hands raised. He needed her to calm down. He needed to think. There was no way he was gonna hurt her, let alone turn her into a vampire. No fucking way. But maybe he could pretend, or fool the men outside, or…
He knelt down in front of her. “I’m going to remove this,” he said, gently touching the cloth. “But please don’t scream. I don’t know what they’ll do to either of us if you do. Okay?” He tugged it down around her chin, then it slipped onto her neck.
“My name is Derek. What’s yours?”
She was hyperventilating - her heart was pounding out of her chest as he neared. Her eyes wrenched closed and she did the best she could to shy away from his touch and brace herself for what was to come.
But his words weren’t harsh. Quite the opposite. Daisy’s breath hitched. Her head turned and those watery green eyes would look at the man kneeling before her.
She nodded to let the man know she understood. And when the cloth was removed she had to bite her tongue to keep her jaw in place. Don’t scream, don’t scream.
“D-Daisy,” she said, catching her breath.
A wave of relief washed over him. No scream. Good. For all the people outside knew, he was turning her right now and that’s why she was so quiet. “We probably don’t have a lot of time,” Derek told her, beginning to untie the ropes that held her in place.
He paused, voices floating in from the hall. He could hear them clearly. Derek held up a hushing finger to Daisy.
’...Guy from the club. That’s definitely him in there.
’Let him take care of the girl, and we’ll deal with him after…
“Ohhh, shit.” Derek rubbed his face. He finished untying her and stood to look wildly around the room. He knew the windows weren’t the type to open all the way, and even if he could jump with her, they were too far up. “We need to get out of here.”
Her expression seemed to drop at his statement. Not much time. She was still afraid but she nodded anyway. Her frame would shift as his fingers twisted the ropes and bruises, burns would be left on her skin from the bindings. She pushed out of the woven ties and stood up, adjusting her skirt with her cheeks burning.
Then she felt silent.
“A few guys were going in and out through that door,” she whispered, pointing to a door across the room that led into another adjoining room. There were the windows but she didn’t think those even opened. “Or the vents.” A point up to a large vent above them.
Derek looked at the door. It would be easily broken down, but if there were men inside, there would be guns. And this girl wasn’t Shimmer. She couldn’t turn into a bulletproof orb of light. “Okay, plan.” He stood up and easily flipped the queen sized bed onto its side so that it provided a shield.
He turned to Daisy, his expression serious. “You need to get behind here, as low as you can to the ground. Do not sit up, stand up, or come out until I call your name. Do you understand me?”
A gasp. She nodded and raced behind the mattress before dropping down to the floor. Her bladder felt swollen. Her heart raced. Hands would lift and cover her head defensively. For whatever reason she trusted this random guy. He hadn’t killed her, he set her free and was trying to help her.
“I understand,” she managed, cowering but making herself lay still.
The vampire edged toward the door that led to the adjoining suite. He hovered, scrutinizing for any sounds within. No one was talking, but...could he hear music? Derek pressed his ear silently against the wood. It was distant and quiet, almost like it was coming out of headphones.
He braced himself, then broke the handle with a simple twist of wrist. Thank you, vampiric strength. Cautiously, Derek nudged the door open. A man in a suit was lying on the bed, legs crossed, eyes closed. White ear buds were visible. And was that…Celine Dion? Dude was bumping ‘My Heart Will Go On.'
Slowly, ever so slowly, the vampire’s hand snaked out and grabbed the designer, abstract lamp from a nearby table. He approached the man, whose eyes flew open as the object was sailing down toward his face. But it was too late. It collided with a sickening whack, skull cracking under the weight and force. Blood arced out, spraying the pristine headboard.
Derek turned back and peeked his head around the doorway. “Daisy!” he whispered. “We’re clear. Come on.”
She almost didn’t hear him, psyching herself up but then like a mad woman she was up and racing through the door. “Okay, okay. What no—oh god, is that guy dead?” Her hands cupped over her mouth.
She was crying again but she made herself look away, paler than usual. Guidance. She needed direction, distraction.
“Hey.” Derek placed his hands on her shoulders, turning her away from the crime scene. He ducked his head so that she could look in her eyes. He felt bad for her. This was pretty much the same reaction he had, after being turned by Veronica. The vampire wasn’t sure how others did it, but she had not been gentle. Or kind. More like a cat viciously chewing on a squeaking mouse.
“This guy was going to hurt you. Now he can’t. And we’re going to get out of here, and you’re going to go home. Do you hear me?” They were wasting precious seconds, but he needed her calm. Or at least, calmer than this.
She made herself nod, looking at him. “Okay.” A breath. Another deep breath and she began to calm down. “What now?” That was the question, wasn’t it? Another door would lead out into the hallway but were there more men outside on patrol?
What now, indeed. He stalked around the room, looking for any kind of inspiration. As he looked out the windows, he spotted something below. A fire escape, but it was about a twelve foot drop, and it was narrow. Derek knew what the result would be, but he tried the window anyway. It pushed outward from the top. The gap was nearly big enough for his slim frame to slide through.
He was turning to look at Daisy when a pounding issued from the next door over. “Hurry up!” called an angry, muffled voice. Alarmed, Derek crossed the room, shutting the broken door. With the man still dead on top, he shoved the bed against it. The vampire returned to the window, and with gritted teeth, began to push. With a resistant creak, the hinges loosened, and the gap widened.
“This is what we’re going to do.” The pounding began to intensify when no answer was received. “I’m going to jump down.” He pulled her to the window to show her the fire escape below. “You’re going to follow, and I’m going to catch you.”
She nearly squealed in panic but made herself quiet. Palms pressed over her eyes as the bed was flipped, pressed against the door. And then she lowered her hands and gaped at Derek.
Looking down through the glass she noticed the distance. It was a long way down. A nod. She didn’t want to but it was that or die. Maybe she would die anyway.
“Okay,” she squeaked.
With his heightened hearing, he knew that the door to the suite next door was currently being opened with the key card. He was glad that she couldn’t hear this, because she was freaked out enough as it was. “No time to count down, we go now.”
With that, he slithered out of the window and let himself drop feet first. He landed against the clattering metal and looked up. He could see her scared face peeking out. “Daisy, jump!”
She didn’t know if she could, from one foot to another she would move. But the sounds of the door bursting open has her racing to the window, leaping out.
As promised, he caught her in his arms, but stumbled a little and they collapsed downward, her on top of him. Above, he saw an angry face now, and then the aiming of a gun. Derek stood and yanked Daisy up with him, blocking her with his body as he hustled them down the metal stairs. A shot rang out and ricocheted off the railing behind them.
“Just keep going,” he told her. “It’s going to be okay.”
She clung to him at first, and then she realized how close they were and her cheeks flushed again. And then they were running from bullets. Daisy finally yelped, unable to help herself. They raced down the metal stairs like rain on a tin roof their steps were loud.
They finally reached the bottom of the escape, and Derek kicked until the ladder disengaged and went clattering to the ground. He helped her onto the top rungs, urging her to go first so that he could follow. The bullets had stopped, which meant they were probably now coming down the interior hotel stairs to meet them at the bottom. Luckily, the escape let them out on the side of the hotel, not where the SUV was parked out front.
This wasn’t the plan. Not at all. He wouldn’t find any information out about Veronica now.
She scurryed down the ladder. There was no thought at all to the fact she was wearing a skirt, she was focused on not falling down the ladder. Rung after rung she descended.
Her feet touched the ground and she wanted to bolt but didn’t know if it was safe.
“I’m going to do something, and you might get dizzy. Please don’t puke on me, okay?” Without waiting for an answer, because he heard shouting voices around the corner, Derek picked her up in his arms and began to run. And not normal run.
She didn’t have time to protest. Arms and legs would curl around him and she clung for dear life. The wind from the run had the pockets in her mouth filling with air, exposing the backs of her teeth.
Her hair was whipping against her face hard enough to leave welts.
When it felt like they had gotten far enough away, Derek came to a gradual halt, setting her carefully down. He kept an arm slung around her in case she passed out. “Are you okay?” She looked an odd shade of pale, and her eyes were watering for a different reason now.
“I think so,” she managed. “Are you a vampire? Is this real?” She was on the verge of freaking out. “I have to get home. My parents —“ they hadn’t seen her but then she was known to sneak out and run off. But not anymore.
“I should go.”
“Yeah, this is real. And I am a vampire.” Derek straightened, his hands running exhaustedly through his hair. He could have killed her, and gotten what he needed. Why didn’t he? It wasn’t the terrified expression when she had first laid eyes on him. He had seen, and caused, many of those before.
“And they wouldn’t all save you, just so you know. So, like…” He shrugged. “Stay home.”
She could still be in danger, he would have to make sure she got home safely. “Where do you live? I’ll stay with you until you get there.”
Holy shit.
She believed him. She didn’t have to but she believed he was a vampire and that all of this was real. It was real and she straightened up. “No, that’s chill. Thanks for that,” she squeaked.
“Uh, like a long way from here. I don’t even know where I am.” She didn’t have her phone, they’d taken her bag.
Derek fished his phone out of his pocket. Shit. The screen must have shattered when he caught Daisy. This was his fourth one. Luckily, his finger was still recognized. He opened up the ride share app and handed her the phone. “Put your address into this. I’ll watch you get into the car. Deal?”
“Okay.”
She took the phone and put in the address, hands shaking. The thing looked like it had seen better days so she made herself be careful. ohgodohgodohgod.
And then she was pushing the phone back at him. Her feet wanted to pace, wanted to run, but home was the better option. Home was safe, right?
“What did they tell you? To get you into that hotel room?” Derek wondered if anything could be gleaned from her answer. A chime sounded -- the car was five minutes away. “Tell me everything that you remember. Please.”
“That I could be a vampire. They’d make me better, I’d be pretty forever.” She admitted. “Something about a woman, waiting for me.” She shook her head, “I can’t remember.”
Derek nearly dropped the phone. “A woman,” he repeated. He glanced at the screen. Three minutes away. “Did they say a name?” His hand was squeezing without him realizing it, and tiny pieces of glass were embedding themselves into his palm.
“I don’t know.” She was pacing, fingers gripping at her hair. “I can’t remember. Victoria maybe?” The car pulled up after another few minutes and Daisy vaulted to the door. “Thanks,” she offered. She wasn’t trying to be selfish but she was scared. And then she was in the car and heading for home.
“Wa--”
She was gone. Derek closed his eyes and leaned against a wall. Every time it felt like he was getting closer, he was really just drifting further and further away.