Out After Curfew

Chapter 6

The loud crack of thunder resonates for miles in all directions. Streaks of lightening weave through the thick clouds of the night sky like giant glowing serpents, bright white light coating the surfaces of the old church on the outskirts of Dale City centre like enormous camera flashes. The rain starts to fall next in thin coatings, incrementally dampening the concrete streets, the areas of greenery and the large church, the doorway of which three individuals use for shelter. This is the latest in a line of various squalid locations these young people are resigned to calling home for the night.

The church is adjacent to the park and only has one UV streetlight nearby which shines into the doorway and keeps the demons of the night at bay. This location is a precarious one, being so close to the park, surrounded in darkness with only sparse ultraviolet protection, but it is the best place this troop has been able to find tonight. The local homeless shelter is always full to excess these days and never feels safe even when there is space. All the other better lit locations the group frequent on other nights are occupied now, and they cannot stray too close to the city centre for too long, for fear of being found by a particular foe.

"Here." Leon Turner says quietly – trying not to disturb Jas who lies to the side of him, flat against the large wooden doors of the church, sleeping – as he breaks off a segment of a chocolate bar and offers the piece to his counterpart, Tony.

"Thanks." Tony Garret replies, taking the small ration and consuming it as he huddles tightly for warmth in his grubby old anorak.

After eating his segment of the chocolate bar and wrapping the rest up for Jas, Leon pulls the strings running through the neck of his dark blue hoodie to tighten its hood around his head. As he does this he huddles up some more against the cold hard stone surfaces of the corner in which he sits, sheltering from the rain. He looks out into the sparsely lit park, many of the lamp posts running through it, fitted with just regular bulbs and not the new UV ones, thus providing extremely limited protection in this area of vast land. These two young men can barely even see any light at all in the park from where they sit. Most of the lamps are deeper into the park's heart, the view of them covered by trees which neighbour the city church, so close to it, the tips of their branches almost stroke the surfaces of its roof tiles.

Leon can't help but be on edge, a feeling not in any way alien to him after many nights spent on the streets. But until recent years he had only the threat of other people to worry about, people who shared commonalities with him, and although perhaps an unlikelihood, could theoretically be reasoned with should they demonstrate hostility or any kind of ill-intent.

Now, as well as the human threat, there is the much greater and unparalleled threat of mysterious remorseless killers of the night; hunters which seek only to consume blood, to devour any human they find – creatures which actively seek out human beings as a source of sustenance. These creatures present a much more terrifying threat and staring out into the darkness beyond the single light these three stay in the cast of, Leon can't help but wonder in fear how many vampires are watching them at this moment. How many are waiting patiently and eyeing them up as their next meal. Leon feels like a diver in a small, thin cage, underneath the sea, surrounded by sharks.

"We can't keep doing this, Tony."

"What do you mean?"

"This." Leon says, gesturing around them with his hands and eyes, indicating to the nature of their sleeping set-up. "We're sleeping among things that want to kill us every night."

"I know. But they won't come near us as long as we stay under this light....And if they do," Tony says as he reaches into the pocket of his anorak. "they won't get to taste our blood without losing some of their own first." he continues, holding up a switch knife, the blade kept encased in its shiny ivory handle.

"I don't think they even have blood."

"You know what I mean."

"Where did you get that thing, anyway?" Leon asks as he looks at the knife with its solid handle carved from ivory – a weapon of death created from death.

Tony flicks out the long blade, his eyes following it from top to bottom, admiring the aesthetics of the weapon, shining under the blueish glow of the UV light.

"It's nice, isn't it....Found it in this park here, way over on the other side where Garner Street is. Blade was out on the thing. Looks like someone might have been using it."

He then retracts the blade and puts the item back in his pocket. "Anyway, what do you suggest we do?" he says.

"What?"

"Well, you don't want to sleep rough anymore. What do you suggest we do instead? We've got nowhere else to go."

Leon looks away without an answer to give, about to contemplate the situation, something he has done many times in the past, reaping only results of futility. But his direction of thought is suddenly halted by something which induces instant panic in both he and his companion opposite, the two of them snapping their gaze towards each other as they both realize the urgency of their situation.

The UV lamp they are under has gone out.