I walked down the busy streets of Khalidah, a dreary city that always has a gloomy look to it. I hated this city, especially because my village was the little one not too far from it, but also because of what goes on here. Even so, this place was once my home. But I didn’t come back to this town for any memories, or to visit my parents’ graves, or even to see what has become of my old house. No, I came here for one reason, and one reason alone. Vampires. I came for the vampires being held in the local pet shop, to take them away from that dreadful place. Some may say I'm crazy, helping vampires, but I'm not. In fact there are a lot of people who believe in the way I do. That all living things, including vampires, should be treated equally. We believe that if it can move and breath, it has a purpose in life. I came to this town to take the vampires away and take them back to my little village. Once they were there they could be treated properly and live happy lives with the humans and other vampires there.
I walked down the streets, getting closer to the sinister pet shop, with my two best friends in the whole world, Cary and Julia, who was a vampire. But Julia wasn’t like most vampires, she wasn’t afraid of humans or their technology. As I walked down the streets I had to have Julia on a leash, much to both of our dislikes, so that no one suspected us of being trouble. Cary trailed along about a block behind us, easily blending into the sea of people who flooded the sidewalk. I turned the corner and walked into the shop. The shopkeeper came over to assist me. It was dark out by now, so no one was there until morning. He came over to greet me. He was a plump old man, with his rosy cheeks and pointy nose.
"Hello Miss, what can I do for you?" he asked, his voice filled with stress and tiredness.
"Just wondering if there were any vampires here," I answered, being as polite as I could in this hellhole.
"Why would a young lady like you want a vampire?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
"My pet here needs a friend," I said, grimacing as I said 'pet', and pulling Julia gently over to me.
"Ah, so, what would you like? A male, female, child, what?"
"Just show me them all. I'll decide then."
"Yes, very wise. You have to see them all before picking, only to be expected from you, Miss Johnson," he said with a slight chuckle.
Now that made me mad. I hated when people acted like they've known me for a long time. This was actually the first time he's ever seen me in person. The only reason why he, and so many others, knew me was because of my father. Yup, my father was one of the professors who invented the 'medicine' for vampires to control them.
"Just show me where they are," I hissed through my teeth.
"Right this way, Miss," he said with another chuckle.
He led us into a dark, secluded room, filled with cages. The cages were a thin wire for the children but were laser bars for the older ones. It disgusted me to see the poor kids in there. It was more like a deserted basement than a room. There were cobwebs here and there, dust all over the place, the cages were all rusty, and it hadn't been cleaned in ages. I almost threw up as I entered the disgusting room. Julia just rubbed my back for a minute to calm my nerves.
"They are arranged from youngest to oldest. Now, I have to get back to the counter, take as much time as you like," he said before going out of the room and back to the counter, shutting the door behind him.
"Well, this is a dump," I said as I took Julia's leash off.
"Yes, it is by far the worst we've ever had to get into," Julia said, agreeing with me as she rubbed her neck. "And if you don't mind, loosed the leash next time."
"Whoops! Sorry, my bad."
"It's alright, just don't do it again, otherwise I might choke."
"Ok!" I said with a smug grin that said "sure, if I remember."
"Um, w-who's t-there?" asked a sweet, little girl's voice.
"Oh my god, those poor kids," I whispered to Julia. "Don't worry, we're here to help."
"O-Ok."
"How do we go about this?" I asked Julia.
"Well, let's start at the left and work our way down. After all, the man said that the cages were arranged from youngest to oldest. That means that the youngest will be on the left side and the oldest will be on the right side," she said, explaining.
"Yeah, but how do we free the two cages with laser bars and metal bars?" I asked, still not completely understanding.
"I have a mirror for the lasers, but you'll have to slice through the metal bars."
"Right, where's the mirror?"
"Right here," she said, grabbing it out of her pocket and showing it proudly, a huge grin on her face.
"Ok, let me see it," I said, taking it from her. "Let's help these vampires!"
I ran over to the cage on the farthest side of the left corner. It was the biggest cage in the room, but it was also the flimsiest. It had wires for bars and swayed when an invisibly breeze went by. It was rusted and the stench was horrible. It smelled like there was rotting food there that had never been cleaned in a few decades. When I looked inside and found not only one, but two kids. They were two little girls. They were twins, with blonde hair that was up in very messy pony tails and green eyes that had fogged over. I looked at them and grabbed the wire bars. They hadn't noticed me yet; they were staring off into space.
"Are you two ok?" I asked.
The one closest to the bars looked up at me.
"Y-Yes, are you going to help us?" she asked, obviously scared.
"Yes, my name is Katelyn Johnson. I'm here to help you and the others in here, along with my friend, Julia James," I said as I grabbed my pocket knife out of my pocket. "Now, stand back a minute while I cut these wires."
"B-But you c-can't c-cut them. Even Jordan can't break them," she said.
"You don't know what I'm capable of. Just watch."
I grabbed one of the middle wires and put my knife up to it. I sliced once and cut it right in half. I did that with a few others until there was a big enough gap for them to get through.
"Ok, you can come out, I've cut them enough," I said, reassuring them that it was ok.
They just sat there in the cage, looking at me with surprised and curious faces. I stared at them and crouched down so I could crawl inside the cage a little bit.
"C'mon, I won't hurt you, or would you like my friend to help you?" I asked, a warm, encouraging smile place on my lips.
"N-No, w-we'll come," answered the twin closest to me, who I have established is not Jordan.
"Ok, just take your time until you're ready."
I back out of the cage to stand next to Julia, who was watching the girls very carefully. We've discovered, over our time breaking vampires out, that sometimes vampires get so warped inside their cages that they will freak on you, whether you're from the species or not. Even little kids could, and would, try to rip out your throat.
The two girls slowly climbed out and I asked them their names. The one that has been talking to me was Marie and her sister was, obviously, Jordan, and that their last name was Loral. Strange, most of the time the drug that we humans gave the vampires made them forget everything but their first name. usually even their last name was forgotten.
After we introduced ourselves again, I walked over to the next cage to find al little boy with purple-ish hair and golden eyes. He was standing up and holding the wires of his cage, staring at us with those big eyes that pleaded us to help him. We would anyways, but I noted that he sure had the Puppy Dog look down. When I approached his cage, he slunk back and stared at me with those huge, gold eyes. I quickly cut through his wires like I did to the girls' cage and pushed them out of the way. After I had the wires out of the way, he came out and started to talk to us about himself. His name was Michael Teri, he and his brother, Jake, were kidnapped after birth and taken to this damn pet store. I pitied the little guy, he didn't even know his parents.
I walked to the next cage, Jake's cage, since he looked so much like Mike, and found it a little bit more difficult than Michael's. Jake's wires were a little bit thicker and had twice the wiring. He didn't look much older than Mike, maybe a year? He must have done something for him to be put in a cage like that. My knife kept grinding into the wires, bit by bit, until I finally cut them free. After a few minutes there was enough space for him to crawl out of. Once he was out he thanked me for freeing Mike and himself. I thought he sounded a little bit older than his age, probably form taking care of his little brother.
Now all I had to do was take Julia's mirror, reset where the lasers went, and somehow break through the huge metal bars.
"Hey, is anyone in there? I'll help you with the lasers if you can help me break through the metal bars," I called into he cage, but I received no response in return.
I walked back and forth in front of the cage two times and stopped again to peer into the darkness.
I sighed as I stated, "I know you're using a type of camouflage, an illusion to make me see only darkness. I know you're in there because even a plain, empty cage has more light than that."
Then I saw them. Two eyes that glowed brightly in the blackness of the cage. They were a strange green-ish yellow with the pupils in a slit, like a cat's but a little thicker. I was startled at first, jumping back a few inches, but then regained my calmness and stepped back to were I was. Bu I jumped back further when a body flung itself against the cage bars, shaking the entire cage with the force. The bars shook and a loud ring came from them. I thanked God that the shopkeeper didn't come down. He came so fast that I was truly scared for a minute, but then I straightened back up and came face to face with the purple haired vampire.
He grinned and looked at me with amusement written all over his face. I scowled and pointed my finger at him, "You shouldn't startle the people who are trying to help you bust out of this dump."
"True, very true," he replied while trying to bite my finger. I pulled in back just in time. "But why would you rescue a creature like me?"
"Because I want to ," I stated crossing my arms over my chest. I didn't like him already. "Bastard."
"Ouch, that hurt. You shouldn't be calling the rescued names, you know," he smirked and made a tisking sound. "Not very ladylike at all, little girl."
I glared daggers at him while I growled, "I'm don't want to act like a lady and I'm not a girl."
"Right," he stated sarcastically.
I looked back at Julia and the kids, giving er a 'Kill-Me-Now' look. She nodded and walked over to me, the kids trailing behind. I stepped to the side so that she could see the jerk and talk to him.
"We're not your enemies. Yes, Kate is a human, but she's helped many, including me, find peace. Now, we're going to help you out and you're going to play nice," Julia said in a voice without emotion, chillingly cold.
"Ok, help me out and I won't make a fuss, or kill the stupid human," he replied with an arrogant smirk directed at me. Oh, how I hated him already.
"I have a name, use it, Bastard," I hissed trough my teethe.
"I'll use yours if you use mine, Human."
"What is yours?"
"Dmitry. Dmitry Thompson, at your service."
"Ok, Dmitry, let's get to work." I said as I gave my knife over to Julia.
"Yes, let's" he agreed with an annoying smirk, how I wanted to smack that off of his face.
Email this story 
Print Story 
Add to reading list
