“Damn it!” She went to take off after it, but Aymun shouted at her from the Post Office. “Your friends,” he pleaded. “They are in danger. The Red Lord will kill them all.”
Hannah didn’t know what to do.
29
DR KAMIYO
Kamiyo entered the room he now considered the ‘main ward’ and found Vamps sitting on a chair with his head slumped. His breathing was unsteady. Kamiyo took a quick visual account of the sleeping patients in the room, then hurried to check on him. “Vamps, are you okay?”
He looked up at Kamiyo, making it clear he wasn’t okay at all. His face gleamed with sweat, and his eyes were puffy and red. Fever. “You shouldn’t have let Hannah leave the camp,” he said in a voice like crisp leaves underfoot. “She’ll come back to find you all dead.”
Kamiyo frowned at the oddness of the statement. “Everyone here is ready to fight, Vamps. The castle will keep us safe. We have plenty of weapons.”
Vamps shook his head and spoke from vocal cords that sounded covered in mucous. “Sticks and stones. You have no hope of defending yourselves.”
“Against whom?”
Vamps leapt out of the chair and seized Kamiyo by the jaw. “Against me!”
Kamiyo ducked and escaped Vamps’ grab before it was fully locked in. He suspected his escape might be because the young man allowed it. The way Vamps stalked Kamiyo now, swaying side to side, and humming a merry tune, made it seem like he intended to toy with him.
Vamps’ eyes turned black, revealing a horrid realm beyond.
Kamiyo tried to run, but his attacker rushed in front of him and kicked his legs out from under him. He crashed onto his face and struck his chin on the floorboards. Spencer, the boy suffering from Lyme disease, woke at the noise and started calling for help. It woke the others, and they all joined in.
But no one came to help. Kamiyo feared the cabin was empty but for the sickened children. He tried to get to his feet, but Vamps stamped on his hand. He felt at least one delicate bone splinter. Maybe more. He cried out in agony.
“I am trapped inside this festering bag of flesh,” said Vamps in a wet, clicking voice, “but it allows me to saviour mankind’s suffering firsthand. I shall stalk this earth, slicing your throats one by one, watching you bleed out. Soon, I shall grow fat on your suffering and consume existence itself.”
“Vamps!” Kamiyo yelled as loud as he could, clutching his broken hand against his chest. “Vamps, wake up. It’s me, Dr Kamiyo.”
“Vamps hangs above the inferno from hooks in his eyeballs. Soon, you shall join him.”
Kamiyo placed his uninjured hand on the floor and tried to push himself up. Vamps stomped on it, and he screamed again. Now, he had two broken hands, and was forced to shuffle along on his side like a slug.
Vamps resumed his merry humming.
In the corner of his eye, Kamiyo spotted Spencer and the other sick children running for the door. They made it and slipped out of sight. Once again, Kamiyo was alone with this vile, ancient creature, defenceless and at its mercy.
Kamiyo cowered. “You are the Red Lord?”
“I am existence itself. An existence painted red. Worship me mortal and earn your damnation.”
Kamiyo shuffled onto his butt and nodded enthusiastically. “I do worship you, Lord. Please, let me go. I shall worship you.”
“Only in death may you worship me. To live is to serve Him.”
“Please! Let me go.” Kamiyo tried to get up and reach the doorway.
Vamps blocked his path, but then began to writhe and contort. The blackness drained from his eyes, and they widened in confusion. “D-Doc? Is that you?”
Kamiyo gasped. “Vamps, is that you? Are you in there?”
“Doc, I… I don’t feel right. I… I feel like I want to see you… bleed.”
Kamiyo groaned. “W-What?”
Vamps shrieked with delight. His eyes turned black once more and his outstretched fingers lengthened into claws, bloody nail beds erupting. His lower jaw distended like a serpent’s. The monster became even more monstrous. And it was done playing games.
Twang! Zip!
An arrow struck Vamps in the leg, embedding itself in his thigh. The impact sent him tumbling backwards. Kamiyo scurried away on his butt, unsure what was happening but using the opportunity to escape.
Eric appeared and grabbed Kamiyo beneath the arms. Nathan stood in the doorway, notching a second arrow into a bow.
“No!” Kamiyo shook his head at the lad. “We need to get out of here.”
Nathan didn’t seem happy to comply, but Eric grabbed his bow and pulled him along. Together, the three of them raced out onto the cabin’s upper landing, then hurried down the stairs. Jackie and Philip waited anxiously in the reception area below.
“Outside!” Kamiyo roared at them. The pain in his broken hands added fury to his words. “Outside now! Don’t let it corner you.”
Jackie shook her head. “What is it? We heard screams.”
“Vamps has gone bad again. The monster has taken over.”
“He’s gone full-on Vlad the Impaler,” Eric shouted hysterically.
Jackie blew air out of her cheeks and groaned. “Oh no.”
“I knew this would happen,” said Philip.
Kamiyo heard no footsteps pursuing them, but somehow that was more frightening. The monster was not rash or impulsive, not a wild animal. It was a monster that took its time—that broke hands when it could just as easily have broken a skull.
Kamiyo made it outside, greeted by the dusk. There was no longer a campfire beside the lake, so it was difficult to see, objects already losing their detail in favour of shadow. The pain in his hands further added to his disorientation. But he could see Spencer and the other sick children racing up the hill to the castle. At least they were safe.
“What do we do now?” asked Jackie, her voice quivering.
Nathan notched another arrow. “We kill him.”
“I don’t think it’s a him,” said Kamiyo. “It’s a what.”
“Yeah,” said Eric. “That thing was not human.”
“We kill it then,” Nathan rephrased.
Jackie
