Cold Open.

Fortunately, the rain had stopped earlier in the evening. Rain did not make for ideal hunting conditions. A vampura needed there to be people to hunt and the rain kept people indoors. And if people did decide to venture out, they were always taking the shortest route running from building to car.

The only people who braved the rain in this town were the students from the town’s university campus. They’d be queuing outside of the club, walking home, waiting for a cab or sitting on the kerb side eating a kebab whatever the weather was, but alas, it was not a student night tonight.

Nope, for this hungry vampura, he had to prowl the streets this tonight in the hope that someone would be out. At one a.m.

He walked out of the park and across the road, heading for the river. At least there’d be a hefty swan if he got that desperate.

After five minutes of pathetically prowling through a residential area near the river, he finally came across someone walking ahead of him. The unsuspecting man had their hands stuffed into their pockets with their denim jacket collar up. He was walking slowly and cautiously, so the vampura slowed down to not get too close.

The hunt was on. Feeling his stomach rumble, he gave up on a stealthy attack and just started running for him. As he got close, Denim Jacket Guy crossed the road… But he was following someone himself! Ahead of the vamp’s intended prey was Unsuspecting Female walking ahead. This guy was following her. What a creep he was!

But this could be fun.

“Hey!” the vampura called out. Both Denim Jacket Guy and Unsuspecting Female turned around. “Watcha doing mate? Lady, is he hasserlin’ you?”

“What?” the guy blurted out, trying to feign innocence. “Why would you say that?”

“Oh my God!” she cried out at the suggestion she was being followed. She squinted at the guy from across the road. “Oh my God, Alex? What are you doing here? I thought someone was following me! Why are you following me?”

The vampura guy was enjoying this. He might not be eating yet but he was enjoying the drama.

“I… I wasn’t. I was just… getting some fresh air.”

“You don’t even live in Tarmsworth St Jude, Alex!! You live half an hour away!” she cried out hysterically. “Ew, are you the one who sends me flowers every week as well?!”

Alex looked frustratingly at the vampura guy, then back at the girl. “Please don’t be alarmed. I just really like you, Chels. I just didn’t know how to say it.”

“You sit across from me in the office when I say I hate receiving the flowers. I have allergies Alex, and you still keep sending me FUCKING FLOWERS!” she hissed angrily, but considerately considering they were still in a residential area.

Vampura guy moved in protectively towards the girl. At least for show. “I can’t believe you Alex,” the vamp said. “You’re a creep. You say you like her, but you’re scaring her.”

“I don’t mean to, Chels, you have to believe me. I really love you.”

“What?! You love me?!” She turned to look at her saviour, the vampura, who had come within a couple of metres of her, and who was now flashing a fanged grin at her. “Oh shi-” she managed to say, before the vampura lunged for her neck, sinking his teeth straight into her carotid.

Alex cried out, not being considerate for the people sleeping soundly in the houses, in horror as he watched the girl he unreciprocally loved was bitten by a bastard vampura!

“Nooooo! Not Chelsea!” he pleaded, although it was too late. Alex wanted to run, but couldn’t out of fear. He’d never been this close to a vampura attack. But what did he expect to happen walking around at this time? The vamp’s shoulders heaved with every suck of blood, as he took as much in. He moved off Chelsea’s neck and looked across at Alex, blood dripping down his chin and staining his jacket.

“She’s still alive, barely. Do you want to say goodbye before she goes?” the vamp lied.

Heartbroken and blinded by love, Alex tearfully and tentatively nodded, slowly walking across the road whilst not taking his eyes off Chelsea. “Chels, are you there? It’s me, Alex.”

“Of course she’s not there, she’s dead you dumb-arse!” the vamp snapped, punching Alex square in the face. And now I’m going to drink from you, creepy stalker!”

Chapter Seven.

“And finally before I do pairings for tonight, I have to say congratulations to both Mark and Henry for completing their probation periods! Mark achieved his twentieth three nights ago and Henry last night! So good job boys!” Alistair said. The room of Pin Corner Nasscies applauded their achievements.

“Thank you to everyone who helped get us to this point over the last few weeks,” Mark said politely.

“Well, quite! So to celebrate, and to give us all a break,” Alistair said smiling, “you two are going to help out the Town Centre Division! No mentors, no one checking in on you. You’ll be working together and making the decisions by yourselves!”

Mark looked at his brother, who was now looking at him with the same giddy excited look! “The Jackson twins out on the town together!” Mark cried out enthusiastically.

“T.C. better watch out!” Henry said, playfully flexing his biceps.

“Oh God, please don’t do that,” Lana said with mock disturbance.

“Some of us don’t mind it,” David interjected, giving a wink.

“But don’t they have more new members now? Why are they still taking pairs from other Divisions?” Bridget asked.

“This is the last night of other areas doing it. It’s just to give the puppies a better feel for it before they are left to do patrols by themselves. Besides, it’s a Wednesday night and nothing happens on a Wednesday night,” Alistair explained.

“You jinxed it now,” Stanley muttered.

“Right enough chatter! You two go and get the bikes out and be on your way. I’ll go through the other pairings.”

***

“I can’t believe we’re doing this, it’s so cool!” Henry shouted as they cycled as fast as they could to the Town Centre are.

“We’re getting to do it for real! Like, fighting with you in training was fun, but this is so sick!” agreed Mark.

When they entered the top of the High Street, the brothers slowed to a stop. “Mark and Henry from Pin Corner here to assist,” Mark said into the radio.

“Thanks lads,” came a voice back. “There’s plenty of us out tonight so welcome to the party. Be on the look out for a manky looking greyhound dog too.”

“Oof, you’ve still not found it? It’s a good job we’re here then,” Mark teased. He put the radio back on the belt clip and felt his phone vibrate. GOOD TO HEAR YOU’RE IN THE AREA. HOPEFULLY BUMP INTO YOU TONIGHT.

“Is that your girlfriend?” Henry asked, slowly circling his brother.

“Noooo. Zoe’s just a friend. That’s all. And no distractions tonight.” Mark put his phone away. “That means no texting your boyfriend too.”

“He’s not my boyfriend,” Henry said with a straight face.

“Well whatever. It’s just me and you tonight, dusting motherfucking suckers!” Mark said, beginning to pedal off.

“Ooh the way you talk just makes me tingle,” teased Henry.

***

An hour had gone by and the twins were on their second lap of the pedestrianised high street shopping area. They’d gone a bit further afield but had bumped into three different pairings from the Town Centre Division. And none of them had reported any sightings.

“Stop up there,” Mark said to Henry, seeing a bench. Henry did and the pair dismounted from their bikes and sat on it. “I’m going to say it, and I don’t care, but my God it’s quiet!”

“You dick,” Henry grumbled. “I was just going to suggest we ask the Captain if we can go back to Pin Corner. They don’t need us here do they really?”

“We still can. Or we can just doss about here for a bit?”

The noise of a screeching cat ahead of the boys attracted their attention. Seconds later, from a side street about twenty metres to their right, appeared a grey hound dog padding across the street. There was plenty of street lighting but Mark and Henry both got up to make sure they were seeing things correctly.

“Does that…” Henry started to ask.

“Yeah, that dog's got a cat in its mouth,” Mark said.

“And is that…?”

“Yeah, I think that’s the vampura dog.”

They both started to jog to catch up and see where the dog went off to, just watching it’s tail slip into another side alley down the side of the local abandoned library. It jumped onto a red Biffa bin and through a small gap in a lazily boarded up window.

“Are we going to follow it in?” Henry asked, a little concerned.

“Yeah… Yeah?”

“Ok, just asking. I’ll radio it in.” Henry grabbed his radio. “The vampura grey hound has been spotted going into the old library. Mark and I are going to follow it in.”

“All received,” came back a reply.

“Ok, you first,” Henry said.

“Why me? You’re smaller.”

“We’re literally the same Mark.”

“Well, you’re the older one.”

“Fine.”

Mark held onto the wheelie bin while Henry prised the woodchip board that had partially obstructed the window off from it’s screws. The glass in the window had completely gone, so Henry was able to swing in one leg through first, straddling the pane, and ducking to move into the building. He hopped down.

“Careful when you come in. There’s glass on the floor and it’s about a two metre drop,” Henry whispered up. Mark did what his brother did and landed next to him. Henry already had his stake out and his phone with the light activated.

“Thanks H.”

“Where shall we go first?” The library was a three storey building, with a large staircase that ran through the middle. There were lots of different rooms on each floor, it was quite the labyrinth, and slightly spooky in the near empty darkness. “If you were a vampura dog hiding in a library, where would you eat a cat?”

“The Pet Care section?” joked Henry.

“Or the Cookery section?” suggested Mark.

“Hmmm, I don’t know then, we both make valid points.”

“Let’s start walking. We look like wusses stood here,” Mark said. They left the small office they had landed in and walked out into what was the reference library with desks which would have had computers on once upon a time. Once through, they came into the big atrium of the library, where the check out desks were in front of the exits. There was a sound of scuttling from up above on the second first floor.

“That was spooky as fuck,” Mark whispered.

The brothers climbed the staircase. Moonlight shone through the glass roof three storeys high, so the pair put away their phone torches. They stuck close together as they slowly went up, listening for any other noises. Their hands grazed each other and instinctively they wrapped their little fingers around each other’s, something they did growing up when they were watching TV or sitting in bed together.

At the top of the stairs they had the option of going round to the left, to the right or ahead into the children’s library. The doors to the children’s section were shut, and there was nothing to suggest that in it’s vampura form, that the dog had learnt to open and close doors.

“Shall we split up?” Mark asked.

“That sounds like something we could regret…” Henry mumbled.

“This place is just so fucking huge, and c’mon… it is just a dog, right? If it was the vampura I fought in the toilet the other night, then I’d definitely not want to split up.”

“Fine. You go left, I’ll go right,” conceded Henry. They gave each other’s fingers a tight squeeze before parting and going their different ways. They could still see each other from across the open stair case but they were just further apart.

A noise coming from a room off of Henry’s side made him stop still. Mark noticed his brother had stopped, but without knowing why. He froze and watched.

Henry pointed to his own chest and then at the doors he was in front of, gesturing that he was going to go through them. Mark gave him a silent thumbs up and started to quickly walk back the way he had come to go and join him.

Mark passed the stairs they had climbed earlier and saw that Henry had already gone through, so he quickened his pace into a faster walk. He still wanted to be as quiet as he could.

He entered the room Henry had, what was once the DVD, CD and VHS library, and dug out his phone from his pocket again. Mark swung the light from left to right, getting a feel for the size of the room and where things were.

Walking through, past the racks, Mark came to an aisle created by two bookshelves. Henry was stood at the opening of the aisle with his back to Mark.

“What is i- oh, you’ve found it,” whispered Mark, standing just behind Henry’s right shoulder, seeing for himself what his brother had been facing off with.

It was staring right at Henry, stood about fifteen metres away over the dead cat it had taken from the street. “It’s just staring at me Mark,” Henry whispered. It barked twice and growled.

The dog ran for the boys. Henry screamed and Mark jumped. “Oh fuck, no! Bite Mark!” Henry yelled. Henry turned and before Mark could process what he’d heard his brother yell, he felt himself being grabbed by the chest and thrown in front of his brother. The dog jumped and Mark was shoved at it.

“Arghhh!” Mark screamed, throwing his arms up, but it was too late. The dog landed on Mark, sending him falling back into Henry who also fell back. The dog growled, gnashed and snapped at Mark who thrashed and screamed. “H! H! Help me!”

Henry, completely frozen by fear of the dog and what he had just done, didn’t react in time. The vamped grey hound bit at Mark’s cheek, before biting his neck, just at the exposed flesh at the front of his neck corset. Mark gargled a yell and tried with what little strength he had left to try and push the dog off him.

Mark’s arms flopped to the ground. He’d stopped moving. The dog manically and hungrily continued to nibble and tear at the wounds he’d created.

Henry snapped out of his daze and lunged at the dog, staking it into the side of it’s chest while it was occupied with Mark’s corpse. Out of breath and suffering with shock, Henry fell back onto his bum against one of the shelves. It was silent save for his heavy breaths and the echoes of his brother’s desperate screams and shouts.

Something clattering out in the hallway made Henry jump. “H-h-hello?” he stammered, his dry throat making him trip on his words. No response.

Shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit! Henry screamed internally. He crawled over to Mark, pushing the statue of the vampura dog over. Henry started crying, pulling at Mark’s shoulders. “Oh Marky,” he sobbed, calling his brother by the nickname he used to call him growing up. “I’m so sorry,” he whispered, burying his head onto Mark’s chest.

“Oh my God, what’s happened?” an Italian voice called out. Henry looked up to see the Captain for the Town Centre Gillo and another woman come running into the room.

“It’s my brother. I couldn’t save him!” Henry cried.

Gillo came to his side and gently held him by the shoulders. “Come on young man, let’s get you out of here. Brandy here will stay with Mark for a bit, alright? Brandy, just leave the dog there for a bit. The police are going to need to see it.”

Henry let himself be walked out of the room. As they left, Zoe came up to them, tears in her eyes. She looked at Henry for a moment, their eyes locking.

“I wouldn’t go in there Zoe,” Gillo said softly.

“Are you sure Mark’s dead?” she asked, trying to be strong and fighting back more tears.

“I’m just taking Henry downstairs,” Gillo said, side stepping the question, but his answer saying it all. They walked off leaving Zoe where she stood, ultimately deciding whether she went any further to see him or not.

Entry had been forced downstairs at the boardings that covered the main entrance doors, to allow for emergency personnel to gain access.

“Sorry, can I get a blanket for this young man?” Gillo asked a paramedic entering the library. “He’s suffering from shock.” He paramedic sympathetically smiled and took Henry from Gillo. Henry allowed himself to be manoeuvred towards the ambulance. The medic sat Henry down on the back step of the ambulance. He numbly obliged and stared straight ahead, watching people Nasscies, police and paramedics running in and out of the library, the night illuminated with whirls of blue.

“Henry, I’m just going to be over here to call Alistair, ok?” Gillo assured. “I’m really sorry for your loss.”