"And you people think this place is 'haunted'! " He put a mocking tone on the word, "You people are ridiculous. I haven't seen hide nor hair of this demon. And even if I did--" He took a swig of his drink, "I haven't met a vampire that I can destroy within an hour." He winked at a young lady passing by, and she scoffed in his general direction. The bartender groaned inwardly, and walked towards the young man.
"Boy, i'd warn ye. If yeh were wise, yeh'd leave town immiad'ly. Tha' demon...You'd be best to stay away from here. He don' mess with no one, unless ye be threat'nin 'im." The boy scowled.
"I'm no boy, good sir. I am a man! A vampire hunter...No...A vampire conqueror! Hah! I like that! Caleb, the Vampire Conqueror! You'll do good to remember it, too!" His eyes turned dark and lusty with passion. The man made a sign to shoo him out of his tavern, and Caleb walked out quickly. His confidence was high, high enough to be lethal.
He needed to prepare.
---
"All of these people...Klein, why did you do this? So many...they'll never survive."
"Did I say that I wanted them to?"
---
Caleb opened the door. The creaking of it was a harsh sound to his throbbing head. He winced, and placed his left hand to it, then walked out into the darkness. He had all of his materials ready...Stake. Holy Water. Another stake. A cross. Hell, he'd even brought along Silver Bullets, just in case. Not to mention that the gun that shot them was rather dazzling compared to normal shot guns. He munched on a hard biscuit, and looked up. The moon was up. He smiled a sinister smile, and licked his lips apprehensively. He flipped his slightly shaggy hair out of his eyes, and strolled out into the street.
---
Walking for about an hour, Caleb landed himself into a dark field. His only light being the moon, everything looked surreal, especially when a nine year boy floundered towards him. His clothes were for a man, yet he was such a young boy! He clanked and jangled with royal looking armor. Tears streamed down his face, making lines on it. His hair was matted with something dark red.
"Mud...?" Caleb thought.
"Whoa whoa whoa, are you okay boy?" Caleb knelt , getting to the boys height.
"There--there-there w-was a DEMON!" He shouted. "He...I was an adult! I was big, like you! We fought...He...He did this to us! Please, Please help me! I'm all alone. I'm all alone! Please! I'm an Adult! Please...listen!" He grabbed Caleb's face with his two grimy hands. He jerked away immediately, and knocked the boy down in the process. He began crying more.
"Look, kid. I'm sorry I hurt you...Now, why don't you run on home and get bandaged up? It looks like whatever you tripped on messed you up inside as well. And I have to go kill the thing your parents are telling stories about. I don't think it even exists, to be honest."
He left the boy sitting there, crying on the ground, walking forward without a backward glance or a regretful thought crossing his mind.
---
Continuing forward, he realized that this must be someones field...There were all kinds of children, all wearing the same stuff as the kid he'd passed previously. He didn't even think about it. he remembered when he was a child...That brief, happy period. He used to wear his father's armor, acting like a soldier,
"...trying to make daddy proud..." He said aloud, with loathing.
He saw many more children...All boys. Some were taller, and older looking, and some were around pre-teen age.
There was a rustle in the tall grass of the field.
---
"Klein...Please, no more of this violence. You used to do well with controlling this...this...urge! Now you do it purely because you enjoy it! Please, stop."
"Not if they outwardly threaten me, Father! Openly, as such. Those soldiers were imbeciles. I'll protect you, and keep you with me. Forever. No one will ever hurt you."
---
Caleb's head snapped in the direction of the noise. He held a stake in one hand, a small cross in another. Not that he believed in a god.
"Does that make a difference?!" He hissed at himself, in his thoughts. His mind was like this constantly.
"So, Caleb..." A soft voice floated through the field, reaching Caleb's ears. The voice was almost womanly, gentle, with its tone and pitch quality. But he knew it was only the lure of a vampire.
"It is young! Not near as skilled as those that I have killed in Romania. Hah, this will be just TOO easy." He thought. An evil smile stretched across his face.
"Yes..." He replied to the voice.
"So you've come..."
"I have. "
"And what do you expect to find? A ghost?"
"No."
The voice paused and the grass rustled again. Closer still.
"Caleb...Do you value your life?"
"The real question is, do you value yours?" He replied, with heavy sarcasm. Vampires were undead, of course.
"Actually, I do. And it's not my own at stake here." The rustle came closer still, and then a small, lean figure straightened up out of the grass. The eyes were dark in the moonlight. Sunken in, with dark circles underneath them. Thick black hair up in a pony-tail, with some stragglers in the front.
"It's only a TEEN!" He rejoiced in his head. An easy kill, an easy glory in the small, over-populated town.
"Caleb...Shall you mock me more? I do not believe you are prepared."
"Do....Do you read minds?" He was messed up for a second.
"Yes. Many other things you have not taken account for."
"No. I have. Don't you worry, you undead brat. You wont have to worry about me much longer...You wont be undead anymore."
"Is that a Challenge, Caleb the Vampire Conqueror?" Caleb blushed slightly.
"This kid CAN read thoughts..." He realized.
"Maybe so."
"Are you ready?" the boy bowed, and stopped when he was bent at a right angle. His head bent up, no emotion on his pale, sunken...and slightly beautiful face.
"Always." As soon as the end of the last syllable escaped his lips, he was forcibly pushed onto his bum. Then, it was as if there was a strange sucking feeling...starting at the very bottom of his stomach. He felt his clothes loosen slightly.
"What the hell!?!?"
"You came prepared!! Didn't you, O Vampire Hunter?" The vampire yelled into the night. He was nowhere to be seen.
"Did you prepare for ME!?!" He shrieked. Calebs eyes widened as he again felt the sucking feeling. He groaned, and swung blindly into the darkness with his stake. He stood up, eyes crazed.
"Where are you!?" Caleb cried.
"I am..." He wrapped his arms around his shoulders. "Behind you..." He stood in front of him. "In front of you. He sped from each of his shoulders. "At your sides...in your mind..." Caleb felt his armor clank, and he noticed that everything was visibly bigger. His rugged features had smoothed out, his first stubble disappearing altogether.
"Ah..." he started to scream, but realized he couldn't moved. The sucking was like a vacuum...his whole being screamed in protest.
"I. Am. Everywhere." An actual scream erupted from the bottom of Caleb's soul as he reached for his gun. The holster had fallen to the ground, being too loose. He shot four shots into the air wildly.
"Ah ah ah." He acted as if to gently scold the boy, and took the gun. The vampire bent it to its breaking point, where it snapped in half like a twig.
Caleb felt himself shrink. His testosterone no longer helped to pump the adrenaline through his body...He fell to his knees. The vampire continued to suck his age away...first he could barely sound like a man...then he was a toddler, which immediately fell over. When he could barely make a sentence, the vampire knelt beside him.
"I will watch you with much enjoyment. I will see how you were born, Caleb Sky." He continued stealing his age away from him, closing his eyes and sighing. Caleb finally was reduced to a baby. Klein gave him the courtesy of picking him up. The baby screamed, at the top of his lungs. He took him to the middle of the court square, and dropped him there, swaddled in his shirt.
---
"Father...I have gotten rid of the boy. He wont remember us. How much of a thrill will it be, to be here in another twenty years, Father?"
"Klein, this is a heinous thing you've done. I must retrieve him. I cannot save the older children from the beasts...but I will save the youngest from certain destruction."
"Father...why? Aren't I enough?"
"That isn't it and you know it Klein."
---
A very debonair young man stepped into the town square, and picked up the swaddled child, who had finally lost his voice. His mouth was open, but there was no sound coming out. He stroked the childs cheek.
"Hush, Caleb Sky. I will take care of you. Please don't cry." The babies mouth closed and his reddened eyes opened in astonishment. A small peep came from his mouth, and the man tilted his hat just slightly.
"Come, Cain." The small boy from the field followed him sullenly, and they walked out of the town, heading toward the field.
A soft, womanly laugh floated on the wind.
Fin!
