Mind of a Killer
Quenching the Thirst
CONGRATULATIONS!!! If you're reading this right now, then that means that you have just solved the mystery of the 'dream numbers' in Justin's nightmares! Good work! :) But the fun doesn't stop here! This little surprise is but ONE out of the unlucky THIRTEEN extra sections that I've hidden inside the site for the premier of "Gone From Daylight: Mask Of Shadows"!!! If you want to find the other twelve, simply rearrange the sequential order of the numbers from Justin's dreams! There are only 13 correct matches, and every time you get the order right...you'll get another surprise!!! I hope you guys enjoy the little extra bonus this time around! Enjoy! And keep looking...there's MUCH more to be found! Such thoughts. The ones you have to deal with as soon as you awake from your daily sleep. It was only 7:30 PM...and you know, from the slight rumbling in your stomach, that another human life will be extinguished before the sun rises over the Chicago skyline again. A life that you are going to take, so that you can go on. It is sometimes frightening to think how utterly 'routine' the whole act has become over the years. How you can simply snuff out the light of some unsuspecting victim with only a brief moment of guilt. And even less regret. Tomorrow night, You'll be smiling again. But this faceless victim will turn up missing. Covered up by the slaghunter patrol that finds him first. You have to ask yourself sometimes..."Did I do this? Am I the heartless crazed murderer that I see in the movies and on the news? The ones that lurk in dark alleys and prey on the innocent?" It is a question you ask yourself every single time. And to this day, you still have no answers. Always left wondering if immortality is the only thing keeping the flames of Hell from swallowing you whole.
As you roll over in your bed, you find yourself face to face with the boy you love. A gorgeous creature with dyed red hair, light blue eyes, and a pair of perfect lips that seem to be pursed out for a kiss...even when he sleeps. You are drawn in and steal a kiss from your love before your own lips become tainted with the blood of your 'prey' for the evening. You rise out of your bed, and get dressed. Looking in the mirror, you are surprisingly emotionless when thinking about what you're about to do. Not like you were the first few times. You were so terrified. So torn between your instincts and your mind. Your survival and your sanity. But not now. Now...it seems that you have found a comfortable middle ground. A nexus where all of your emotions join together, and come to a point. A point that allows you to blur the lines of right, wrong, Heaven, Hell, fear, and strength. You comb your hair, and take one last look at your boyfriend before leaving. The covers have been pulled back just enough...exposing one of his nude, long, smooth legs from underneath the blanket. His bare teenage chest looks so soft and warm that you are tempted to wake him and let your hands roam back and forth across its frictionless surface. But you stop. Waking him would enjy the peaceful beauty that you see in a boy only when he's asleep. Not overly sexual, but quietly beautiful. The best part is the fact that the blanket and sheets are covering his genitals completely...just that part. It's more incredible than seeing him totally covered up, more amazing than seeing him completely naked. It is a sensual blend of the two extremes, and it's mouthwatering to look at. Your boyfriend.
As you leave your home and travel out to the summer crowd at Buckingham Fountain, your mind becomes numb. Unfeeling. It's almost as if you have no inner conversation at all, no thoughts, no memories. You just take in the scenery as it passes you, and push it out of your mind to absorb more, never holding on to a single detail. Not until you feel the familar rumbling inside you again, and realize that it will all be over soon.
Your mind begins to have small gaps in its awareness as your instincts take over. They lapses are small, only lasting 30 seconds to a minute or two...but they are there. And a small part of you wonders what you've been doing for that small amount of time. What were you thinking? And why did your conscious mind work so hard to blind you from it. Maybe, deep down, it was a primal instinct that mankind isn't equipped to deal with or understand. Something so fierce, so unbelievably savage, that being aware of it would instantly drive the average person insane. This is your theory...but who's to say?
You look at the giant splashes of water shooting out of the fountain, lit by a myriad of changing colors, and begn to search for an appropiate donor. There are maybe two hundred people nearby, laughing, playing, buying glow sticks and slices of pizza. Completely oblivious to the fact that a killer walks among them...in the guise of a mere boy of 15. You notice that you are not alone out there. That other vampires walk in and out of the crowd as well. You were never quite sure how you could tell the vampires from the humans, but it was unmistakable. You could sense it, smell it, see it in the way the walked. Immortality, once realized, brings a gentle arrogance to those who are blessed with it. It seems they are hunting too. You continue to move forward, and file through the crowd of people around you. Surprisingly, you tend to avoid feeding off of children. Even though their blood is sweeter than that of a full grown adult, much more nourishing and energetic for the vampire that drinks from them...it causes you a moral dilemma that you can't seem to push aside. As though this one display of mercy on the masses of people you've murdered over the years were to make you any less of a killer. Still...even the 'wicked' have to live by some kind of personal code. Chaos has its formula too.
You experience another gap and wake to find yourself walking behind a college student heading towards the lake. Maybe the animal in you had targeted him without your consent and decided to persue its dinner for the night. But you stop. This is not the man you want. Something about him just isn't 'right' somehow, and you want to choose another victim. While your thirst is indescriminate, you are not. You turn around and walk back to the fountain, scanning the crowd for a target. Some of them have small infections, summer colds, a venereal disease or two...nothing overly dangerous. One larger man has too much cholesterol in his blood to be a target. The last thing you need is to quench your thirst and have a heart attack right afterwards. You see a young woman who may fit the description of someone you would like, but then you detect traces of drugs in her system. You don't have the money to support a habit given to you through the contents of her blood, nor do you want to suffer for the week or two that it will take your body to fight through withdrawal. Another donor will come along.
Ahhhhh....there you are. A handsome young man of about 30 crosses your path. You notice another vampire looking at him as well, but when you make eye contact, he gives you the nod and you take him as your own. You follow the man for about 25 minutes...he is alone. He takes a few pictures, grabs a coke from one of the vendors in front of the fountain, and takes a seat on a nearby bench for a moment. You watch intensely from a distance, and wait for him to walk off to a secluded enough area for you to strike without being seen. It is almost like hunting a rabbit, waiting patiently for the right moment. Knowing that it will eventually come and that you're hunger will be satisfied. You keep your distance for a while, but then experience another temporary loss of time, and when you realize that you are getting back to normal, you have moved much closer. Your body is hungry for him, and it is ready to attack without any knowledge of consequence or restraint. Even with an entire park full of people watching you. You will have to feed before you lose your senses.
No other vampire approaches him. They know when someone is being targeted, and our natural instincts are to stay away from another vampire's food supply. And just when I was beginning to get impatient, I see the man get up and start to walk. This is it! He walks back to Michigan Avenue, with you almost half a block behind him. It's no matter though. Your focus is already locked onto him. It's an unbreakable bond between you and he, and you won't lose him. No matter how far he gets away. You follow him underneath the tracks on Wabash, and continue your quiet persuit...getting closer to him with every step. The streets are pretty much empty once the shopping stores close, most of the activity surrounding the colleges to the South, the fountain to the East, and the restaraunts up North. Downtown, however, is transforming into a ghost town with the exception of traffic. If you push him into an alley, you can bleed him to death and walk away without so much as a whimper. Piece of cake.
You've made it a point to not read the minds of your prey anymore. It only distracts and discourages you. Just as every man, woman, and child is capable of great evil...they are also capable of great beauty. If you dig deep enough, there is simply something to love about everyone, and you will never be able to feed with that knowledge haunting your motives. THERE! He is going to cross an alley soon...now is your only chance.
You feel your eyes turn red, a swirling sensation that invades you and lets everything you see become crisp and clear. It's as though your body knows to increase your vision in order to make a clean kill. Then, with a pinch that you have grown quite used to...you feel your fangs instinctively shot down from your gums. You salivate at the thought of tasting your snack, and the lapses in your mind stop. Instead, the savagery bleeds its way into your conscious, pushing you, urging you, taking control again but allowing your mind to stay awake for whatever quick decisions you need to make concerning your attack. You feel weightless almost, as though your body was becoming light enough to fly and move with the greatest of speed. You are ready to strike.
The attack is instantaneous, the entire act is a blur to your memory. You simply jump into it without thought, like the reflex that tells you to pull your hand away from a flame. It simply happens all on its own. You use your shoulder to push him into the alley, and he dops his camera at his feet. His first reaction is one of anger for being hit. He has no idea what is happening, and by the time the fear sets in, you are already in control. You knock his bags to the ground, and pull him further into the darkness of the small alley, your mouth watering for its meal. The man breaks free to fight, but you see hesitation in his eyes. Silly. A man has to think twice about hitting a 15 year old boy, no matter WHAT the circumstance. His mistake. You strike out at his ribs, the strength of your blow cracking them if not breaking them off completely, and he falls to the gravel gasping for air. You don't have much time. This place is much too public for any drawn out antics, you have to do it, and do it now! You turn the man over onto his back, and straddle his chest, anxious for the flavor of his life essence as it fills you up inside. You quickly use your hands and turn his head sharply to the side, then...without further delay...
...The bite!
It is comparable to biting into a warm peach or a tender breast of chicken. The squishing sound that it makes, followed by a warm splash that coats the side of your face with the penetration. You are always amazed at how hot blood is when it first leaves the body. It almost seems as though it should scald you from the contact. Your fangs do their job quickly, sucking away at his neck calmly and efficently as the man beneath you struggles to get free. But he has ceased to be a 'man' at this point...he is food. You share no sympathy, no shame, you don't even pay attention to his cries to stop. His squirming beneath you is more an annoyance than a wake up call to your sense of humanity. It won't be long until he has no more strength with which to challenge you, and then your meal will be finished in peace.
The muscles of his neck tighten like a vice around the sharp knife like fangs coming from your gums. You can feel his neck straining to become rock hard and avoid any more pain. But it's too late for that now. You have already pierced through the skin and tissue, the fangs are embedded in his jugular, there IS no need to struggle. Escape is not possible at this point. You feel his fear as the adrenaline rushes into his system in a flood. But that only makes you feel more exhilirated, absorbing it into your body as quickly as he manufactures it in his. It fills your senses with an invinceable feeling of godlike power. Your head spins in the delight of feeling his life transferring into your body. His memories are quick flashes in your mind, and you remember them as though they were your own. His life, his childhood, his good times, his bad, his achievements, and his sins. They become as much a rush for your mind as his blood is for your body, and you become sexually aroused involuntarily. You grow stiff, your erection painfully crying out for release, yet filled with the tingle of sexual satisfaction. You grind yourself into him as you feel his body begin to go limp, and moan softly to yourself as you revel in the pleasure of being reborn.
Finally...the struggling stops, the man's arms fall down to his sides, and you feel his blood going cold. Not so much in the literal sense, but you feel the life in it fading away. The taste becomes 'cold', bitter, salty. It tastes like....blood again. Not life.
You finish your nourishment and stand over him, looking down at what you've done. No remorse shows on your face. None. This is simply a part of your life now. Nothing more. At least that's what you tell yourself to be able to sleep at night. You lift the man's legs, and pull him over to the dumpster, covering him with some cardboard boxes to make him look like a sleeping homeless person. Slaghunters will take care of him in the morning. And you clean yourself up as best you can before walking back out onto the street.
As you walk home for the night, you feel the man's life inside you, adapting to its new shell of a body, and you become energized again. You feel like a ten year old at an amusement park, full of such a horrific rush. You later go back home, and climb into bed with your boyfriend once again, and close your eyes to sleep before the dawn takes a hold of you. You kiss him once again, and then drift off to sleep...wondering once again, "Did I do this?"
Yes.....you did.
I hope you guys liked the first little gift that I sent ya for the big Halloween update! And there is MUCH more to be found! I put a LOT of work into all of this! Consider it a thank you for being cool, for being friends, and for encouraging me to keep doing the one thing that I have such a passion for. Writing. Enjoy the rest of the update folks, and I'll seezya soon!
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