It's the bitter taste of losing everything I've held so dear Who: Kristen, Missy, multiple Peloe NPCs Where: Brisbane, Australia When: Spring 2005 Warnings: Graphic content - death, blood, gore...
It was one of those beautiful days, too good to be passed up, with various birds singing their little hearts out. Missy did not even bother with the air conditioner in her car as she drove from her apartment. Windows rolled down was the way to go because it was not too hot it was just right and she liked hearing the birds. Her radio was going full blast, some Leah Haywood song that they were recycling, fingers tapping the rhythm out on her steering wheel. The drive between her place and where her family lived was just long enough to enjoy two songs before their voices took over. Not that she minded. If she minded seeing them then she would have gotten a place farther away.
Pulling up, noting that Marianne's car was there too, Missy just managed to get the car into park before the front door was open and everyone was coming up. There was no such thing as arriving and surprising people or going inside before they jumped you at the Peloe house, oh no. They spotted a car coming up the driveway and everyone was at the windows waiting to see who it was. And if it happened to be someone they knew, well, then they were on them in two seconds flat. At least her father tried to appear dignified about it, coming out last while her siblings were far too excited and flooded around her the minute she got her door open. First thing she did was swing her youngest sister, little Kristen, up into her arms before grinning. "Now come on you can't be that excited to see me! It's only been a few days since my last visit!"
"We know dear," her mother said with a fond smile as she managed to get in a hug. "But we like seeing you and knowing that you're doing alright. Mari's over to discuss some things with the family about an upcoming date... you care to join us or are you just going to take Kristen?"
As much as Missy would have loved to join in with the talks, it had been a few weeks since she had been a part of any actual family hunt, she had promised her little sister a day at the park. "If you put it off until we get back then I'd love to join in. Can't wait to see what Luke's like." She kicked at her youngest brother lightly, grinning as he dodged it and stuck his tongue out at her. Ah there it was, the gleam of a gun down by his shoe. He really was taking to the family business well. She was glad to see that. Reminded her a lot of what she had been like when she was fifteen.
Kristen had been looking forward to seeing Missy ever since she heard she was coming. Sitting in the living room playing with her dolls her mother had asked if she wanted to go to the park. What five-year-old said no to the park? Kristen had bounced right to her feet and plastered her face to the window, watching eagerly for the first sign of Missy's car coming down the road. And there it was! Kristen was the first one out the door, giggling as her pigtails bounced when Missy scooped her up. "Missy!" she said happily. The comments between her and mother went ignored mostly because she didn't know what they were talking about. Except that Mari was there, that she understood. But she could see her later. Missy was taking her to the park!
"Park now," Kristen nodded, wriggling until she was set down. Missy even had a carseat already ready in the backseat. Grinning broadly, Kristen pulled at her mom's jeans until she picked her up for a kiss before waving at everyone else and hopping in to attempt to buckle herself in. Eager to be off? Just a little, it wasn't everyday that she got to spend time with just Missy. And at the park! There were the swings there and the big sandbox for her to make sand castles out of.
"Behave yourself!" Luke called, tapping on the window. He liked to act like he was so much smarter than her. Kristen knew that he couldn't even blend paint properly, how was that supposed to be smarter? Was it just because he was bigger? Kristen stuck her tongue back out at him, sulking a little when he just grinned and ran off in response to something that their father had said.
"Just make sure she doesn't spend her whole time in the sand making things, little exercise never killed anyone and her teacher says she isn't trying as hard as the other girls," their mother said, hugging Missy and giving a little wave at Kristen, who seemed not to notice with how busy she was.
Grinning, Missy shrugged and hugged her mom back. "I'll stick her on the monkey bars or something, mum. Have a good session and make sure to leave a spot open for me. You know I like flanking Mari." Raising her hand up she waved at her older sister, who was off chatting with one of their uncles, and called a good-bye to the assorted others before slipping back into the car. Twisting around in her seat she reached back to get the buckles worked right. Kristen was surprisingly close for doing it on her own, but then she was probably used to their parents car. "So you excited about the park, little shiela?" Missy asked. One more wave for Luke and they were driving off.
Better to have Kristen away from these planning sessions until she was older anyhow. No Peloe had been exposed to the supernatural world - that Missy knew of at least - until their thirteenth birthday. She had no idea what it was about that age that made it okay, but it had worked for all of them so far and would continue right on to Kristen. Maybe. Sometimes Missy wondered if it would because, unlike the rest of them, the girl was a genuine prodigy. She may have only been five but she could do artistic things that Missy had never even dreamed of trying. The fae-blood at work, their mother said. Looked like it worked harder in her than any of the rest of them. All Missy could do was name any and every accent, some gift.
Of course Kristen was excited about the park! What kind of question was that to ask a kid? "Yes!" she chirped in response though, knowing Missy wanted to hear the answer. "The one with the sandbox?" That was the one she wanted to go to. Mom had said that Missy would take her there but she wanted to be sure. What was it Marianne had been saying the other day? Something about safe being better than sorry... Kristen couldn't quite remember. She forgot a lot of things that her family talked about especially if they were using their quiet adult voices. "Sandbox," Kristen declared firmly, dancing her fingers across the window pane as the wind from the open windows up front played with her hair.
"The one with the sandbox," Missy agreed, smiling in the rearview mirror at her sister. She was really too precious and Missy was glad that she had taken some time off to spend with her. Attending the meeting and knowing what they were going to do about that big family of vampires they had discovered living in Brisbane proper would have been nice too, but she could make do with this. Marianne would tell her all about it later. Or maybe she would ask Luke just to see how good he was at remembering all of the finer details about planned attacks. Probably still a little rusty but that was to be expected, he was not really that old and probably would not be allowed to come. He would absolutely hate that. "But we're not just going to play in the sand. We're going to play on the monkey bars and the swings... maybe do a little running around, I've got a football in the back."
Kristen made a face. She'd heard what their mother said but she'd hoped that Missy hadn't. Spending all of her time in the sand seemed like a really good idea to her. "Swings." Those were the best out of the options. So long as the football didn't come out. One of the charms clinking on her bracelet was of a football because it was a big family thing. Unfortunately, Kristen didn't care very much for it at all. No one seemed to notice or listen though so she just did it because she didn't want to be too different. Though if she could get Missy to do something, anything, else then she would. Even if it meant the monkey bars. Anything trumped football, although she really wouldn't have minded staying at home and sketching some. She had a really cool idea that she'd dreamed about the night before and wanted to get it done for their mother. Because for whatever reason, there was a terrible feeling in the pit of her stomach that only grew the further away from home they got. "I think I'm hungry, we should get lunch too."
Lunch? Well Missy had assumed that Kristen had already eaten but she supposed that it would not be all that much trouble. How much could a little girl eat after all? "Not a problem," she declared. There was a nice little cafe not far from the park where they were going. Surely there would be something there that Kristen would enjoy and then they could continue on. Or maybe even take it with them. It was not like it mattered very much. An entire day where the only plan was to spend time with Kristen and make sure that she had fun. Missy nodded to herself, letting the thoughts about what the rest of the family was planning slip away. Could always worry about that later when she got back and had the chance to actually know what was going on instead of just guessing. There would be the real fun of the day. "Tell me about your latest art project, little shiela."
The bad feeling that had started nagging at Kristen when they left the house had not faded at all throughout the day. She had not eaten more than a nibble of the sandwich Missy had bought for her or even touched the sweet. Playing had been a half-hearted thing done more for her sister than anything, the little girl not really wanting to. She was sure that Missy had been able to tell but she hadn't said anything and after a few hours, less time than normal, had decided it was time to go home. Kristen was more than happy to buckle herself into her seat and be off. For some reason she really, really wanted to be home to see their family. "Thanks Missy," she said as they started off, leaning her forehead against the window. Eager as she was to be home, Kristen was also amazingly tired from not even taking a nap. Before too long the music that was playing and the movement of the car lulled her off into a troubled sleep that left her whimpering and tossing the entire ride, though she didn't wake.
Kristen had not acted like herself at the park and that bothered Missy quite a bit. Her youngest sister was usually quite cheerful even when she was taken away from her artwork. Only not today for whatever reason. Missy was actually grateful that she fell asleep on the drive home because she did not know what to say to her. Instead she turned on the radio and sang along quietly as she drove.
When she pulled up the familiar driveway Missy was fully expecting to see everyone come tumbling out like they always did. Only no one did. By the time that she slipped the car into park and climbed out there was still nothing. Nor could she actually hear anything. Her senses prickling Missy looked around and found nothing out of place in the front yard but when her pale eyes scanned back to the house itself she saw several things in quick succession - the front door was open and one of the windows was shattered, glass scattered in sparkling pieces all over the grass in front of it. It had been broken from the inside and... oh, oh no. Missy's stomach clenched because there was blood smeared on the bits of glass that were still in place around the edges. Something had happened when she was gone and every one of her instincts screamed at her to get back in the car and take Kristen away so that nothing could happen to her. But she did not do that.
Missy slipped back into the car and checked to make sure that her sister was still sleeping, grateful beyond all belief for the little blessing that was granted in her being out cold. Then she used one of the smaller keys on her ring to open the glovebox and pull out her two favorite handguns, both loaded with silver bullets instead of the regular sort. What sort of vampire hunter would she have been if she did not always have way too much silver with her? After checking to make sure that they were indeed loaded she patted her ankle to ensure that the silver dagger was still there. One last glance back at Kristen and she was out of the car, locking the doors so that the other girl could not get out and come in. She did not know what she was going to find inside but she did know that Kristen could not see it.
Sticking one of the guns in her pocket, Missy pulled out her mobile to fire off a quick text to her aunt telling her to come quick, something had happened and then she was at the front door. A quiet cry slipped out of her mouth before she had taken one step because laying there in a pool of her own dark, half-dried blood was her mother. Her long blonde hair was a mess and it stuck to a spot on her neck where the blood seemed to have come from. Choking back another cry and cursing herself for the first, Missy dropped to her knees without a care for the blood that smeared over her jeans as she reached out to touch the cold, lifeless body. "Mum?" she whispered, her voice trembling as bad as that of any child who had had a nightmare. But her mother did not stir and when Missy managed to pull her hair free of that spot she saw a raw, gaping wound that looked like something an animal would leave. Her stomach heaved again and she had to swallow hard to keep from throwing her lunch up. She knew that no animal could have done this to her mother and when she dashed the tears out of her eyes and looked up she saw what must have lying not five feet away, mouth open in a forever silent scream, fangs gleaming almost black with the blood that had dried. A large hole in the front of its head was singed black around the edges and against the wall behind it was a spatter of blood and gore. "Good shot, mum," Missy whispered as she stood. The world spun for a moment as her mind whirled to put together what must have happened.
Vampires had come for them. Vampires had come and somehow they had worked past the usual taboo of coming in. Either a spell of some sort of her family, her family and there be-damned pride, had invited them in. Pushing the thoughts out of mind Missy continued through the house, hoping desperately that she would find something to counter the terrible feeling that was starting up that told her everyone was dead. The family room was the first she came to and... Missy had been hunting vampires since she was thirteen years old and knew blood. Gore was one of her old friends and she had never shunned away for it or gotten queasy at seeing it shed. Until she saw her mother dead and now... Missy turned away and once again had to wipe the tears from her eyes. The reek of blood and death filled the air but it was secondary to the pain welling up inside of her chest as she turned back and forced herself to check every body in that room. Her father was there, slumped on top of a vampire whose head had been hacked clean off, his own head twisted around so that his unseeing eyes looked up at the ceiling while the rest of him pointed to the floor. Her uncle Tim not far away with a blood-soaked chest, his wife Anne pale as a ghost with two dark holes on the side of her neck. And their oldest son, Timmy who was really only seventeen and had been so proud when he had outshot her last summer... his arm was clear across the room, gun still clutched in his fingers.
One by one, Missy located every member of the family that had been there when she left. None of them were alive, some of them dead from being drained while others had suffered much worse fates. The worst was the last body that she found by the backdoor and the one that she had been dreading. Bile rose thick and bitter in her throat when she saw the messy, sandy-blonde hair. The blue polo and the white shorts, gun holster empty down by his ankle and the gun inches from his reaching hand. His eyes - the same exact shade of blue-gray as Missy's own - were wide and terrified in death, his mouth twisted in a scream, dark blood staining his lips where it had bubbled out. And it was clear how he had died. Some vampire had taken a wooden stake and driven it right through his heart. His fifteen-year-old heart. Only hours ago he had been grinning and waving at her as she pulled out, teasing Kristen and being just what a kid was supposed to be and now... "Luke," Missy whispered, wrenching the stake out of her little brother's chest and letting it fall to the side. She was going to be a mess when the police arrived, her fingerprints everywhere but right then she could not bring herself to care. Luke did not deserve to have that through his heart. He had been so eager to join in the family business, to prove that he was as good as every last one of them, and the business had killed him before he could so much as grow up.
Missy would have stayed there cradling Luke's body for longer if her ears had not caught the sound of a swing creaking. Carefully she set her brother's head back down, closing his eyelids before grabbing her gun and darting out the back door. If there was even one vampire left then she was going to - "Marianne!" Sure enough her older sister was sitting there on the swings that their father had put up when Missy was just four. There was blood all over the front of Marianne's shirt and her skin was paler than Missy had ever remembered it being, her eyes vacant as she swung, their father's 'hunting sword' cradled in her lap and stained with dried blood. But she was alive. Oh god, Missy had never felt so relieved in her life as she stepped towards her sister, shaking with relief that one of them had managed to make it through this tragedy.
"No!" The sound was a whip and Missy stopped in her tracks more out of habit than anything else. Marianne was always the leader between the two of them and Missy knew better than to not listen. "Don't come any closer, Miss."
"Mari," Missy started, "you're covered in blood. You need medical attention. Just let me get you bandaged up then I'll call the ambulance and you'll get treated. You're in shock. Bloody hell, I'm in shock."
Marianne shook her head. "Doc can't help me. They didn't kill me, Miss." There was a high tremor to her voice, a breaking line that made Missy's blood run cold. But she understood why it was there. What kind of human being could know that their entire family had been slaughtered and yet they lived?
"Not your fault." Missy took another step forward only to get growled at. And that was when it felt like her heart stopped beating because she saw into Marianne's mouth. Saw the gleaming, sharp fangs that curved out from where her human canines had been only just that morning. Fangs. Fangs in Marianne's mouth. Once when they were kids Marianne had had a pair of those cheap plastic fake fangs and had chased Missy all around the house with them until their mother took them away. Said something about how that was not something to be joked about. So why was she doing it now? It had to be a joke. A sick, twisted, completely inappropriate joke that Missy was never going to forgive her for. "Take... take those out of your mouth, Mari."
"Can't."
"Take them out!" Like a petulant child being denied the toy that she wanted for Christmas Missy stamped her foot, feeling her lip trembling as more tears welled up in her eyes. For a moment it time it felt like she was a child again, not a twenty-three year old. "Mum told you so long ago-"
"Mum's dead. They're all dead. We lost, Miss, and they didn't just let me die too. I tried to stop them and I guess I killed the wrong one. That bloody bastard who staked Lukey." Her eyes had been dead but when she looked up at Missy they changed. Became predator eyes and her lips curved up in a snarl. The hunger of a vampire was starting to work its will on her and unlike before there was now a source of fresh blood right there. It took a visibly taxing power of will for her to stay seated as she was and not lunge for her sister's throat. "I'm one of them now."
Words refused to go past the lump in Missy's throat. Her entire body had gone numb and the gun fell from her fingertips as she stood there staring at her sister. Marianne was her hero. She had looked up to and idolized her big sister since before she could remember. Everything that she wanted to be was her. And now she was the very thing that they had been hunting for most of their lives, usually together. Was she supposed to kill her? No! No that's my sister - she's a vampire! She's the enemy! She's my sister! Conflicting, confusing thoughts whirled through her mind and Missy felt her knees give out as she sank to the ground, teary eyes still locked on Marianne. "Not you..." There was no way that she could shoot her own sister no matter what she was. "Mari, no. Please."
Marianne knew that Missy would not hurt her. Not her little sister who had always looked up to her so much. "Me," Marianne whispered as her hands gripped the handle of the sword that their father had used for his entire career. And his father before him and so on if the stories were believed. She placed it at her neck and took a firmer grip, already feeling the burn of silver. She could feel the new strength of her new body coursing through her veins and oh how she hated it. "I'm sorry, Missy. Take care of Kristen for us." And then she put all of her strength into drawing the sword through her neck and it was over for her.
Everything seemed to slow down as the sword came up to Marianne's neck. Missy tried to stand and cry out for her to stop but she could not make herself do anything as she watched, horrified. And with an apology and a request the sword flashed, blood sprayed and her sister's head went tumbling across the ground while her body thumped down a moment later, sword still in hand.
It was then that Missy's body decided that it had had enough and she turned to the side as everything she had eaten that day came up violently, leaving her weeping from that and the pain and trauma that she had just gone through. It was almost like she had been staked too, an empty hole aching in her chest as she curled up in a ball and wept for the family she had not been there to save.
Missy did not know how she got through the next few hours. She remembered things in vague snippets, like a movie that was fast forwarded and played at random. Dragging the bodies of the vampires out of the house and into the yard to set on fire, face grim as she tossed kerosene on and then there was nothing but a blur until her aunt arrived. She must have set the fire because her face was smeared with soot along with the blood but she could not remember lighting the match. Marianne's body had been burned too because the police could not know that their had been vampires. Let them think that a mass murder had took place. Let them think whatever they wanted, Missy did not care. So she had tampered with evidence, so what? It was her bloody family and they deserved better than to be drug through the tabloids and stuck on every other show for the next year because fanged creatures had been found in their home with the bodies.
What she did know was that her world, everything that she had known and worked for, was gone. Blown away in a single day like it had never even been. Oh sure she was a reporter with a degree and promise but Missy had never wanted that to last. She was a Peloe, a hunter and all she needed was her family and the thrill of the hunt to survive. Now what was she supposed to do? A lone Peloe was no Peloe, had that not been what uncle Dave always said? Uncle Dave won't be saying anything now. Hard to talk without a throat. A nervous laugh had escaped and gone on for long minutes, worrying her aunt who had touched her face to wipe away even more tears, and then Missy forgot again.
Everything after that blurred right up to the flashing lights and sirens of the police. She was sat down and spoken to by someone but she could not remember what she said. Her name, how she had been gone with Kristen - oh god, Kristen! Sprinting towards her car she found that Kristen was awake, though still bleary-eyed and Missy unlocked the car to reach in and pull her sister out, cradling her close. "It's okay, Kris," she whispered, her voice raw with some emotion she could not put a name to. "We're still here."
The sirens were what woke her. Kristen sat up, rubbing the sleep from her eyes as she peered around through the gloom. "Missy?" she asked, struggling to undo her restraints. The door wouldn't open when she tried so she pressed her nose to the glass to try and see what was going on. "Missy!" That terrible feeling was not gone and it only got worse when Missy, looking terrible even in the dark of nightfall, came rushing over to scoop her out. Confused and frightened she clung to her sister like a koala. Why were police and ambulances at her house? Why were stretches going in empty and coming out with lumps covered in white on them? Where was everyone else? "Mum? Dad?"
Hearing Kristen ask for their parents broke something in Missy. The last remaining piece of her ability to keep together and the weeping started again. Her aunt came rushing up to take Kristen from her because Missy could not even keep herself up. All those years of training as a hunter and the following ones to become a reporter did not matter for anything right then. No one could ever be prepared to lose their entire family in a day, to see them all bloody and dead and worse - to watch one take her own life because she had been turned into the monster that they all lived to destroy. Missy's face pressed into her hands as she wept for their family and the life that neither of them could ever have back. Flickers of hate were finally starting up within her as the exhaustion came, creeping in to fill the painful voids left by each and every dead face that she had seen inside that home that was nothing more than an empty shell now.
It frightened Kristen even more when she heard Missy crying like that and she knew with a stunning clarity few five-year-old's possessed that those shapes she was seeing on the stretchers belonged to their family. They weren't out making sure she and Missy were okay because they couldn't be. You couldn't walk around when you were dead. "Are they dead?" she asked her aunt, little face buried in her shoulder, shaking violently as she waited for the answer she already knew. That was why she had felt so sick all day. One of those 'gut feelings' as her mom had called them, telling her that danger was near and she hadn't told anyone.
"Yes."
One word and Kristen felt her world, her little world that had been growing every single day, crumble to pieces around her. Her cries were softer than Missy's because she didn't understand everything but what she did understand was that dead people couldn't play games with you. A dead mother couldn't compliment her art and a dead father couldn't carry her around on his back and call her a little koala and a dead brother couldn't tease her and then read her scary stories at night when their parents were pretending they didn't know... none of that could happen anymore. It was all gone and she didn't even know why.
All she had wanted was a day at the park with Missy. Not a broken world.