A Vampire's Rotten Heart

Rays of Light

    Angeltwice bolted and scooped up my entire body. God she was strong for a little old lady.

    Or perhaps I just wasn't that heavy.

    The ground rolled beneath me, getting darker and darker until I was surrounded by pitch black again.

    "All of this for nothing..." I closed my eyes. There was nothing to see, anyway.

    "Nothing? This has been a treasure trove of information!"

    "I know this is only intellectual stimulation for you, but keep in mind that this is my reality."

    There was a long thread of silence. Angeltwice made her way to the exit.

    "Thank you," she said, "for saving me. Sort of. Though I absolutely could've gotten out myself."

    "You're wel—"

    Her face pressed up against mine. Eugh... Old lady lips... I pushed her away with my healthy arm.

    "Ignoring the fact that I'm horribly mangled at the moment, I'm nineteen!" Or perhaps I was twenty. Or twenty-one. The sentiment still stood.

    "Really? You look closer to sixty."

    "You're blind!"

    "I can see things close up!"

    Thanks a lot.

    "Let's just get back to the surface."

    "Agreed. But I can't climb up dirt like that. Do you have enough strength to carry me?"

    I didn't want to do that anymore.

    "Think so."

    She set me on the ground, and I shakily stood back up. All my wounds had clotted over by then, but I was still weakened.

    Angeltwice was all too eager to climb up my back.

    I anchored my fingernails and the claws of my wings into the soil and heaved my way up. I let one hand go to push the boulder away, only to be met with a beam of blazing sunlight beating on my face.

    I froze.

    "Garrett? Are you alright?"

    I skittered all the way back down like a spider.

    "Garrett?"

    I threw Angeltwice off and covered my body with my wings, hissing like an animal.

    The sun didn't do anything to me, but I didn't like it. I didn't like it.

    "Is it... the light? Garrett, the light isn't going to hurt you."

    I knew that!

    "How about you just..."

    She walked over and slid my busted tailcoat off, then draped it around my head.

    "Is that better?"

    No! She didn't understand!

    But yes. It was better.

    Up we went again...

——————————————————

Back at the facility. Angeltwice put my skeletonized hand in a sling, blindfolded my eyes again, and told me to take it easy.

What wonderful help.

"...And there's one more thing I have for you."

"It's not another kiss, is it?"

She took a vile of grey-ish purple fluid out of her pocket and shook it around. Looked a lot like the "pus" that was coming out of my neck.

"Should be enough to synthesize something. Though I'm no chemist. I'll have to send it off to one. Spend a little bit of my personal money on it."

"How long will it take?"

"I don't know. I'm no chemist."

"I don't know" sounded a lot like "too long". This was going to happen to me whether I liked it or not.

I leaned back and tried to focus on my physical pain instead.

I hoped Wilford was taking good care of Spud.