Turned

avoid her fate, but a familiar cadence filtered through the distortion of terror and pain and I bolted towards the sound.  After I’d taken only two paces the vampire that was walking with us had his hand on my shoulder and roughly pulled me to a stop.  I began to protest but a sharp look from my brother restrained me.  I looked around but we were the only thing moving.  My brother set a slightly faster pace and we continued walking towards the screaming which was broken with ominous silences returning weaker with each cycle.  My brother looked grim but the vampire that walked with us was almost salivating.  His eyes were bright, and his attention focused on the screams.  My stomach clenched and I felt like vomiting, but at the first taste of bile I swallowed and strode on ignoring my body.    We turned onto an even narrower lane just as a wail burst forth from one of the cabins nearby. A pair of vampires stood in front of it pistols in hand shuffling anxiously.   A cool breeze blew at our backs.  I could hear rustling in the little shacks that stood along the lane and I could see shadows moving through the chinks, but no one emerged.  My brother strode past the vampires as if they weren’t standing there and I followed with the vampire close behind me. One of the guarding vampires hissed as we stepped in through the doorway.  There was no light inside but even the tiniest light of a cloudy night is enough for a vampire to see clearly so that didn’t surprise me. The screams had subsided, but the cabin was filled with the sound of struggling limbs, cloth whispering haggardly against the plank floor and ragged breathing interspersed with a whimpering voice that begged, “Stop, stop.  I don’t want to die.”  I rushed forward but my brother grabbed me by the shoulder and threw me to the ground with a force that his size belied.  I grunted as I hit the floor.

Mary screamed louder and kicked her feet at the sight of me.  A vampire with his knee on one of her shoulders laughed as another knelt and lapped at her blood as it spilled from her neck.  In the darkness of the cabin its color shouldn’t have been visible, but it was, a ripe red running down the gray stretch of her neck.  I stood unsteadily and as I did my brother swung his gun around so that the black bead of its muzzle was pointed unwaveringly at me.  I stepped forward anyways.  “Get off her,” I yelled and prepared to kick the kneeling vampire from behind.  Another vampire swung his rifle and the butt caught me in the chest with a crack sending white hot sparks crackling in my vision as I fell to the ground.  I fell so that I was staring straight across Mary’s chest heaving in rapid quivering breaths.  The vampire that was stealing her life stared at me, his blue pupils so pale that they almost disappeared into his impassive eyes.   I struggled to my feet.  “What are you doing,” I said.  My voice was haggard.

My brother shrugged his face grim under the shadow of the brim of his hat.  I could only see his face, pale and shaven.  Mary had wanted me to shave my face, but I did not regret keeping it even if it placed me with the roamers. I felt as if all the civilization of the camp was draining as Mary’s blood drained away from her.  I felt cold and distant from my bother standing like a guard with his gun pointed at me and from the vampires with their blood-stained faces and zealous eyes bright in the dark like some feral animals.  I even felt distant from own my body as if I were only a floating spirit instead of a living, breathing human being.  My brother’s voice was harsh like an old man’s after he’s lived a life of smoking and running through cold foggy mornings.  “It’s part of the deal.  She knew that.  They all know that.”

“She knew that you were going to feed her to them like some fatted calf.”  I moved closer to him so that the barrel of his rifle was pressed into my stomach.

“The vampires have got to feed.  Would you prefer that they rove the countryside and pick up roamers?  Someone’s got to die for them to remain strong.  This way at least the whole camp knows what it has to pay for the security that the vampires bring us, for the ability to raise crops and livestock and let our children live without constant fear.  Besides what do you care?  She was just a lackey for that damn preacher anyways.  They’re just trying to use you to get to me. Well I hope that it was worth it to his cause.  He ‘d be the next one the lottery selected if I could have him eliminated.”  I felt as if he’d kicked me in the side in addition to the ache that burnt through my chest.  Red crept up the sides of my vision as if I were standing in a pit of fire.

Mary’s struggles had ended.  If her chest still moved, I could not see it from where I stood.  The vampire at her throat rose, wiped his mouth with sleeve and grinned at me, flicking his long fangs threateningly. “May I close her eyes?”  I asked in a voice that could have been hewn from rock. My brother didn’t answer just swung his head in her direction.  I knelt at her side on floorboards that were sticky with her blood.    I pushed her hair back and kissed her cold and sweaty forehead.  “May flights of angels bear you to your resting place,” I whispered.  I pulled her eyelids over her wide frightened eyes and closed her mouth.  Then I fold her arms on her stomach.  My