CURE THE NIGHT By Harry Ubhi

CHAPTER NINE

Ethan had slipped into his new look, a jean jacket, pen trouser and a cool pair of sneakers. He had literally spent up to ten minutes in front of the mirror, and he was convinced albeit by himself to add the final piece, a face cap that fit his head perfectly, considering the amount of hair he had.

The underground community is as busy as always, and as Ethan got to observe, sleep was one thing these lots don’t do. Ethan had taken a tour around, meeting several other half-blood, they treated him like an idol. He had shared his life tales, the very many bad and the few good and he has been intrigued to hear the various stories each vampire had to tell, some dating back many years ago before he was even born.

Ethan glanced at his new gold watch, it sparkled under the lights, it was really helpful as it was hard to tell the time of the day down here, by his watch, it was almost dusk again.

The sound of chatter drew Ethan’s attention as he walked towards the bar. The bar had a stuffed exquisite service. Several drinks ranging from the 90’s brand to the very latest, bottled blood, sure, that was for the vampires. This was already Ethan’s favorite part of this place. The alternating red and blue lights gave the place a disco feel.

The sight of Darris gave Ethan much joy, funny how your best enemy becomes your best friend. Darris wasn’t exactly ‘not’ busy; he was busy lip locking with a girl in a marathon make out. Ethan approached the two, his presence remaining unnoticed as Darris and the girl made out passionately, not even giving a space to breathe. Do they even breathe?

Ethan drew a stool nearby, sitting on it, the attendant brought a mug of beer immediately. Ha! So everyone knows his favorite now.

“don’t mind those two sir Ethan, they can do that all day” the fat bearded attendant said in a Scottish accent.

Ethan smiled at the remark, taking the mug in his hands before glancing back at Darris, still making out. These two might need a room. Ethan loudly cleared his throat, prompting the first eye movement from Darris as he looked at him through the corner of his eye. Finally he broke the kiss, wearing a wide grin, throwing his right arm around the lady.

“Ethan! How you doing man!?” Darris said, clearly in a happy mood.

“cool man, you were so fu*king busy, I see”

Darris let out a laugh “meet my mate, Lucy”

Ethan glanced at Lucy, her eyes glowed under the alternating lights, her gaze dark and so not friendly. “hey Lucy” Ethan tried to be friendly at least.

“Hey Ethan, I hope you brought your muscles into this place, you’re gonna need it” Lucy said.

Rude! Ethan thought, Darris let out another laugh, smacking Lucy on her back side

“why don’t you go catch some fun babe?” Darris said to her, as he kissed her again. She walked away but not before she glanced at Ethan with an expression that made his stomach turn.

“who marked who?” Ethan asked, they were both of same kind, same attitude.

Darris smiled sarcastically, “real men don’t get marked, we mark.” He definitely threw that at Ethan. Ethan gave a hint of a frown at the statement.

“I’m kidding man!” Darris burst into another round of laughter. “but I did mark her though. How is my sister? You two…. You know……”

“hell no, not yet, we just met” Ethan quickly replied, getting a hint of what Darris was implying.

“alright, alright, I always wondered what would be the offspring of a curer and a half blood.” Darris shrugged, grabbing Ethan’s mug of beer from his hands. For some reason, Ethan didn’t care, his alcoholism had taken a tumble since he was here, it had been a disguise, an excuse to deal with the pain he was going through but now he felt he had everything again, he was starting afresh, no more running from his past, or from…… Mr Johnson, it struck him, how did Darris get information that Mr Johnson was going to get rid of him?

“Darris, how did you know those bleep heads were coming for my as*?” Ethan asked

“you mean Mr Johnson’s assassins, well we’ve got guys on the inside, working face to face with him, guy is a jerk, wonder why you’d owe such a dude anyway”

“well things were fu*king bad, just thought I’d be able to pay but then I lost my job, so…” Ethan shrugged, he remembered considering suicide the day he got the letter, 3 months after the accident, sacked because of his alcoholism and bad attitude, his whole world was crumbling around him. The sound of the empty mug hitting the table brought Ethan back to reality.

“I think I now like you twenty percent, what do you say we go get some supplies together and I might think about upping that to twenty five?” Darris said with a raised brow.

Ethan didn’t have much of a choice, he was doing nothing, and whatever ‘supplies’ meant, he would love to feel the fresh air again.

“sure”.

***

The Van had travelled some distance since they left the barn, the supplies as Ethan had discovered were food stuffs and some livestock, the use of the livestock very obvious. The supplies were made once every month at a place called ‘de lour’, Darris picks it up himself, he saw no one else as being able to do a clean job and keep the motives of the purchase hidden. He was taking no risks.

Ethan sat at the front passenger seat besides a driving Darris who was busy humming and singing to the stereo as the rock music blurted out. Ethan looked out of the window, the moon basked in the cloudless sky. He was only going to remember one thing each time he looked at the moon, ‘vampires’. Some years ago, all he would have seen on the moon was a mother bathing her child or a face smiling down on the earth.

Lights came into view ahead; a town at last, all along the journey, the road had been flanked left and right by bushes and fields. The town came more and more into view as their van approached. They drove past a sign board with ‘welcome to de lour’ painted quite in an amateur manner on it.

The town was not as big as Ethan had imagined, some few shops and buildings, most of the goods showcased by the shops were perishables, mostly vegetables. Some female night workers lurked around here and there, most of the cars were old fashioned. The town looked alive even at night.

Darris finally turned down the music. “de lour!, you know, you get more hot chicks here than new York and DC combined” Darris grinned, slowing down the van and putting on the left turn indicator but he hit the brakes. The road was a cross, ahead it continued, to the left was another busy street, but to the right, the lights were out, the road disappearing into darkness, and for some reason, Darris had his sight down that road despite indicating left.

“what”? Ethan asked, confused but Darris remained focused on the dark road.

“I’m hearing something” Darris replied, his face wore a look of fury.

Ethan listened, trying to hear, but all he could hear was the honking of the cars and the country music played in a store nearby. Without warning, Darris turned the van in the direction of the dark road as he hit the accelerator, the headlight illuminating the path. It was an alley, the van moved at a very high speed down the narrow way.

“what the fu*k is wrong?” Ethan yelled

Darris didn’t give an attention; his focus was on the wind screen as the van cruised at speed, the settled birds took flight as the van disturbed the silence of the alley with the roaring engines. Ethan looked ahead, a wall coming into view.

“it’s a fu*king wall! Darris!” Ethan yelled.

Darris hit the brakes, the van coming to an abrupt halt as the seat belts stiffened around Ethan, holding him firm to the seat. A figure stood ahead of the van just before the wall, the man turned towards the van, his hands were bloody, a knife was in his right hand, the ground where he stood was covered with blood, Ethan gasped when he saw a lifeless body close to the feet of this man. The blood must have come from…..sh*t! he fu*king killed him. Ethan glanced at Darris who squeezed the steering wheels in a tight grip. He looked back at the murderer who started backing away from the headlight of the van, attempting to scale the wall.

In a fraction of a second, Darris who was beside him on the driver’s seat was already gripping the man by the neck, his feet off the ground. Ethan watched as the headlights cast its beams upon them, he watched as the normal teeth of Darris turned into long fangs. Darris dug his fangs into the man’s neck, he struggled for some seconds before limping in Darris’ grip, his head fell backwards as he turned pale. With a shove he landed with a thud on the ground as a dead empty mass.

The eyes of Darris were blood shut, his fangs slowly retracting and his mouth covered by blood. Ethan had never seen a vampire feed before but this was brutal, a tingle moved up Ethan’s spine. In another fraction of a second, Darris was back in the van with a whoosh. He closed the door, wiping off his mouth with a handkerchief. Ethan looked at him, finding his words

“what the fu*k was that?” Ethan asked

“he killed the guy” Darris replied, still clearly furious.

“do you know the guy?”

“I don’t know him! I heard him screaming for help! The jerk killed him!”

“well you fu*king killed that man too, I might be the last person qualified to pass a judgment but what’s the difference between you and the man you just bloody sucked the life out of?”

“look curer! Or whoever you call yourself! Don’t judge me okay? Fu*king don’t!” Darris said in an angry tone.

Ethan decided not to reply, remembering Amber once told him vampires had heightened emotions. “fu*k it! Just get us out of here”

Darris put the van on reverse, as the darkness ran back to where the lights left. Some cleaning to do by morning for the neighborhood, Ethan thought.