This will be deleted soon - The Wrong Hope *Complete and Free*

24. Through the Ruins

Guy

Year: 1983 1st of August almost 3am Monday, Summer.

The porch steps creaked in protest but held my weight. I kept my arm stretched out behind so that Doll would walk behind and not next to me. She didn’t weigh a lot but I doubted that we would get away with simultaneously standing on the same section. I was itching to head towards the kitchen, I didn’t know for sure where the vault was but the basement was the best shout and with the layout of the house it was the most likely location for one. It had a side entrance that I could have gone straight to. I knew from the police report and the total melt down my little Doll just had that it would be a bad idea to drag her straight there, so I sucked it up and reached deep for a little more patience.

I took the door on the right in the foyer into what I presumed was the family room. I stopped in the middle of the room, Doll trailing behind, and pretended to look around. My little Vamp had been struggling to keep her emotions under control since the moment she’d ‘woken’, which for the most part was really f*****g useful and therefore I wasn’t going to help her get a handle on it; everything rolled to the extreme making her irrational and easy to manipulate. On the flip side it could be really f*****g annoying too, like right now. Patience really wasn’t my strong suit and I was getting really f*****g tired of waiting for her.

I took a deep breath trying to calm myself, I was starting to feel really on edge. God damn it was like her misery was palpable, I had heard that some of these monsters had ‘Ticks’ and as the hairs on the back of my neck stood to attention I wondered if Doll here had a Tick. There was an ache in my chest that hadn’t been there before.

Turning to look at her I kept the flashlight low, she was looking blankly into the empty back corner of the room and a dark glossy wet splatter mark near her left foot gleamed in the artificial light. In the hollow silence I heard a drip thud woodenly against the floor. Slowly I brought the light up to her hand. f**k. Doll had her left hand crushed into a tight fist, dark blood was seeping between her fingers as her nails dug into her palm. The small amount of her blood outside was one thing, the weather would deal with it and her general scent in the house would fade quite quickly as she wasn’t touching anything and all the broken doors and windows would air it out but this growing pool of blood on the hardwood was a big problem. The Brice vault was an enviable asset and Hunters were not the only ones that had been curiously exploring the old house.

“Enough.” I said sharply. Glassy eyed she looked through me before continuing to turn her head slowly looking around the room. A twinge of fear that certainly wasn’t mine passed over me; no f*****g way in hell was it, I wasn’t some p***y afraid of ghost and s**t.

“Stop it.” I demanded quietly but firmly, referring mostly to the absolute f*****g mess she was making of her hand, as of yet I wasn’t 100% sold on the Tick and even if there was one my little Doll wasn’t going to know how to stop doing what ever the hell it was. f**k I didn’t even know what to do about it. Doll just carried on standing there looking around the room so I grabbed her hand and started to try peeling it open. Considering how easily I had physically bested her it was a total surprise that for love nor money I couldn’t pry her pissing fingers open. Looking up from this seemingly impossible bloody task I found her observing me, when her eyes met mine there was a spark of recognition before she once again looked around the room. I continued my efforts but a moment later she opened her hand of her own accord. I thought about saying something but decided against it; instead making a mental note to come clean this up before we left.

“This way.” I gave a small nod indicating the door through which we had entered. Done with messing around I headed to the kitchen, I walked with purpose back through the foyer, across the dining room to the kitchen. Doll had kept up but after I moved through the doorway into the kitchen I was yanked back when she stopped dead at the threshold. I stood on the stone floor at the bottom of the step, our linked arms reaching out and looked up at her gauging the level of horror on her face.

“Sally-Anne?” I begrudgingly called out softly, I wanted to be done with this farce of ‘caring’. When she didn’t reply it pissed me off. So close to the prize I was sick of the holdups, taking a calming breath and trying to ignore how much I was dying for a f*****g smoke I followed her line of sight, shining the flash light across the kitchen floor. Despite myself my heart sank a little when I saw the issue.

“Close your eyes,” I said blandly. She did as I suggested and stepped down into the kitchen. As I began leading her forward I heard her take a breath.

“Don’t let me step there, not on it, I can’t step on it.” She begged but in a weirdly flat voice.

“I gotcha.” I replied, genuine in my intentions.

Carefully I guided her around the large dark mark that was clinging to the stone, from the positioning it must have been where her mother died. Using the mental image of the police photographs as a guide I shone the light a little further looking for the second stain that I knew would be there. Luckily, not that was really the right f*****g word for it, her dear Pa had died out of the way of my destination.

“You can look now.” I told her once we were in the pantry. Without checking on my silent ‘companion’ I started shining the light around. First the shelves got a cursory once over but nothing looked out of place, just old food stuffs, jars and canned goods tangled in cobwebs and coated with dust as would be expected. Next I inspected the floor looking for the little tell-tale sign I had spotted on my previous trip. Sure enough there was a groove in the floor just as I remembered. Keeping the flashlight clamped between my thumb and forefinger I pressed my other fingers into the furrow feeling the smooth cool stone.

“Think we found it.” I said aloud, mostly to myself. Re-gripping the light I followed the curve to the bottom right of the shelving on the right hand wall. It was clear to me that the shelving unit must open out but how? After an initial tug I realised there must be a latch or a release mechanism.Looking along the edge of the frame I found a small button, with a gentle press there was a click. I let out the breath I hadn’t realised I'd been holding and pulled the shelf again. This time it moved with ease revealing a solid brick wall. Eyeing it suspiciously I turned to Miss Brice.

“What do you see, Sally-Anne?” I questioned her.

“A door?” There was confusion in her voice which amused me a little, she was so f*****g clueless. Christ, she had so much potential and here she was throwing it all away for a few twisted ‘promises’.

“Good.” I replied, hunting through my pockets. “This is important so listen carefully, in a sec you’re going to put your hand on the handle, then,” I brandished my carefully written note in front of her, “you’re going to say exactly what’s written on this, ya hear?”

She nodded but reached for the handle. f*****g b***h clearly hadn’t pissing listened.

“Whoa, whoa not yet!” I reprimanded, slapping her hand away. “We get one chance at this, Sally-Anne. ONE. so you can’t mess up. When you touch the handle it is going to hurt, real bad but you can’t let go and you have to say the whole thing, understand? Word for word.” Feeling the need to really get my point across I looked intently into her eyes, I saw her shadowy nod in the dark.

“Okay then,” Christ the nerves were hitting me, I wasn’t about to light up but boy I had to have a drink at least. I fished my flask of whisky out and took a soothing mouthful feeling it burn pleasantly on the way down. At the gas station I'd put another bottle of blood inside my jacket to warm up. Really it should be a red cap one as after this there was no reason to have her around, I could just dump her body in the woods, after I knocked her teeth out, in a spot where the sun could get to it and then it would decompose quickly looking like they had just missed her body all those years ago but deep in my gut this made me uneasy. My instinct was to keep her and I trusted myself. Perhaps I could get her to open her Uncle’s vault too - afterall we were pretty much already there.

“Here we go.” I smiled, offering my little Doll the white cap bottle of blood. Without hesitation she consumed the whole thing and ungraciously dumped it on the floor, the empty plastic clattered and bounced before rolling to a stop by the doorway. I put the flashlight under my arm and unfolded the piece of paper smoothing it out against my leg before double checking the wording. Everything appeared to be in order so I repositioned us both and gave her the note. Despite the dark I knew she would have no problems reading it out.

“Take a deep breath and then grip the handle, remember don’t let go and read everything as written, my middle name is pronounced ‘Owen’.” I added as an after thought, s**t if she got to that and couldn’t work it out then I'd be f****d. I could have written it the more common way rather than the Irish way to avoid it being a potential issue but... I also didn’t know if that would affect what was essentially a basic spell.

“I Sally-Anne Bethany Brice, true of name and last of my line, willingly bestow upon Guy Eoghan Murphy and his blood, the Brice Vault, I relinquish any and all claim to its wards and all that lies within,from now until the end of time.” She spoke clearly and without stumbling, a little pain bled through tinting each word but I knew it had worked because the wooden door shimmered into existence before my greedy eyes.

Clearly Doll was still in physical pain, as her hand was gripping the brass door handle the wards were unrelenting and the spell wasn’t quite complete. Not that she would know it, I grinned wickedly to myself, all Doll had to do was change her mind – speak aloud and redirect the wards, she could even issue them to her Vamp self but she was f*****g clueless. Formidable Hunter family my arse, only idiots would leave themselves such a weak link. With glee I gave her arm a solid yank wrenching her fingers off the door handle and wondered again if I could get her to repeat this performance at her Uncle’s farm.

“That was quite the ride, huh?” I said coming down to where she was slumped on the floor “You did it!” I cooed fiddling with the cufflinks, I released mine first and then her’s before tucking the cuffs in the bag. “Did a grand job there, very brave Doll.” whoops – ah well she either didn’t hear or didn’t give a s**t by the look on her face. I patted her on the head ‘good Doll’ I thought to myself before turning towards my prize.

Doll snagged my left hand with both of her’s, her skin felt cold against mine and a wave of pain filled sorrow passed over me, transferring the vault over had taken a lot out of her; I was gonna have to sort her some more to drink.

“Later.” I told her sadly, thinking Doll was going to beg me to end her existence.

“The last Brice?” Her voice was hoarse and broken. Not what I was expecting.

I cupped her cheek with my right hand, unable to stop myself. HOLY s**t. I couldn’t not answer her. The moment she held my hand I was done for, it was a stupid not to have been more careful after my earlier suspicions but my elation had made me sloppy. From the clawing sadness from when she had grabbed my hand only a moment ago I had thought she was asking for her death but instead she came out with this and I didn’t want to answer but she desired an answer so desperately, the feeling pulsing through me intensified where our skin touched: I was unable to resist.

“It’s just you Sally-Anne, the rest are dead, your Cousins, Aunt, Uncle – all gone.” Involuntarily the air whooshed out of my lungs as her grief began to seep into me, quickly I shook her off loosened hands and moved to the vault door so I could escape this overwhelming intensity. If I hadn’t been sure before I f*****g was now. Doll had a Tick, a strong one by the looks of it considering she was one missed meal away from becoming a mummy again.