Alone - Vampires and the Life of Erin Rose

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the club, I would have been careful with them around, but not overly afraid. Aside from being illegal, murdering humans there would be bad for business. People paid a premium for the experience, to be around vampires and maybe drink or dance alongside them; they didn’t go to be killed. But that was at the club. Alone at the bus stop, I fixated on how inhuman the vampires seemed as they rose into the air. I saw powerful animals on the brink of battle and feared what would happen if they saw me. When shots rang out, I remembered with relief that those animals were also surrounded by men with big guns, presumably loaded with silver bullets. Heading toward the sky, the vampires pulled out handguns and returned fire, but the men on the ground quickly hit their marks. The Sanguans slowed their ascent and, as they started to fall, two more vampires climbed out of the far side of the sports car. With the men in gray focused on the sky, the two new vampires escaped to hide behind an empty car. They ran, moving faster than anything I had ever seen. In fact, I hardly saw it happen at all. The men in gray turned toward them and, in the same manner, ran to the near side of the empty car. At that moment, I knew those in gray weren’t men at all; they were Spectavi. Presumably the Sanguans were being hunted for killing illegally. I reached to feel the scarred-over bite mark on the right side of my neck. My assumption was that a Sanguan had left it, but, after a lonely year and a half of searching for answers, I still didn’t know what had actually happened to me. At first, I held out hope that on any day, at any time, at least a part of my memory would return, or someone would show up and explain that they had left me in that apartment. Neither ever happened. Eventually, it became exhausting and depressing to hold on to those hopes, so I let them go and tried to be proactive. The police hadn’t helped, nor had the Spectavi who worked with them. They all had never seen me before and had never heard of anything like what happened to me. That left the Sanguans. Lately, when the prospect of more hours, nights and years of wondering about and guessing at who I had been became too much to stand, I would change out of my work clothes and put on something like my current outfit—knee-high black boots with big heels, short skirt, and tank top—to visit Sanguan hangouts with hopes of finding any small clue to follow toward another. In spurts of motivation, anger, and excitement, I convinced myself to be brave.
Sheltered from the rain, I knelt and reached for my phone with my right hand. My left was still at my neck on my scar until I stood back up and finally let it go. Early on, after growing tired of wearing turtlenecks every day, I had covered the black bite mark with a tattoo of a cross. Before that, I couldn’t stand the scar in the mirror and felt like it was all anyone else saw when it was exposed. Shots came from behind the Spectavi, who were focused on those hiding at the car. Two new Sanguans had joined the battle, and some of the Spectavi sped toward them, guns firing. The Sanguans proved elusive. They split up and moved to avoid the bullets coming at them, dancing around the street and onto the surrounding buildings. They fired back when they could and caused their assailants to scatter. Time seemed to slow as the chaos unfolded at vampire speed. Amidst the stream of bullets, windows were shattered and small pieces of buildings burst upon impact, then crumbled to the ground. The vampires moved so quickly that, in one second, they accomplished more than a human could have in ten. I mostly glimpsed them where they paused before another move and then saw the results of their gunfire. Finally, one of the Sanguans was hit in the stomach. The wounded vampire slowed dramatically and, with one hand trying to hold blood inside him, he fired back with his other. His eyes grew wide, and he roared as he shot. I flinched behind my glass as the sound filled the night. He got one of the vampires in gray before a few others hit him. Full of lethal silver, he fell to the ground. I thought again of the tattooed cross on my neck. Had the vampire just died, or had he already been dead? According to some religions, people died when they became vampires, and their souls died with them, but I wasn’t sure. I didn’t consider myself Catholic, Protestant, or anything in particular, but I did believe in God and Christ. They knew who I had been before I could remember, and when I woke up, alone, they were who I had to talk to. I chose the cross to remind me of that. Cold wind blew through the shelter. I regained my composure and saw the Spectavi surrounding the newly arrived Sanguan, who continued to fight back. The combined groups of attackers formed a wide circle and began constricting it around him. He ran out of room and was gunned down all at once, without the parting flair of his companion.
Page 2 and 3: Copyright 2011 Steve Perlow Alone V
Page 4 and 5: Prologue Cold air hit my neck and f
Page 6 and 7: I picked up the license first. “E
Page 8 and 9: Over the centuries, they had ruled
Page 12 and 13: The shots stopped, the block was ca
Page 14 and 15: I cringed at the gruesome sight. Th
Page 16 and 17: future. And I had new questions, bu
Page 18 and 19: I had told Kristi the story of that
Page 20 and 21: People told me I looked very seriou
Page 22 and 23: which actually didn’t mean much e
Page 24 and 25: “Have you ever seen the devil or
Page 26 and 27: I told him how I had stopped at the
Page 28 and 29: I didn’t find her downstairs in t
Page 30 and 31: 3 The rest of the walk home was str
Page 32 and 33: My boss ran the company until the c
Page 34 and 35: She stood in the lobby wearing a pu
Page 36 and 37: 4 That night, Kristi texted to say
Page 38 and 39: a place of business and should actu
Page 40 and 41: Behind him, the door flew open. Sta
Page 42 and 43: I nodded again and put my hand down
Page 44 and 45: them?” “Surely the police would
Page 46: “Sure.” I took another sip of w

Alone - Vampires and the Life of Erin Rose

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