Out Past Dawn

 Originally posted in r/WritingPrompts, inspired by this prompt: https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/zw6twr/wp_you_have_been_stabbed_by_a_maniac_in_the/ 

"What do you mean?" I coughed as I backed away from the vampire. "What do you know about him?"

"The Warmblooded Slasher of Maple Street," the vampire said as he drew nearer. "He's been on a killing spree around these parts for the past three weeks. Thinks if he kills enough of his fellow humans he can dissuade us vampires from attacking him. That's certainly proven effective for a large chunk of our population, but as for myself, his actions are only putting a bigger and bigger target on his back."

"What are you gonna do to me?" I tried to back away even further, but I felt myself getting weaker and weaker.

"Relax," he said, raising his hands up in front of him. "So long as your heart is still beating, I do not consider you to be a potential source of sustenance."

"Why should I believe you? Slaughtering humans is in your nature, you blood-sucking leech!"

"Not quite," the vampire said, looking a little pained at what I said. "Drinking human blood is in our nature, yes. But that doesn't have to include taking innocent lives. I always carry around an emergency supply from a willing donor in case the urge hits me. It's only those who don't have access to willing donors that become dangerous."

"You mean to tell me that there are enough humans willing and able to donate to you that you've never resorted to killing?"

"Correct. I certainly won't let the blood inside an already-dead body go to waste, but I have never drained an ounce of living human blood without their consent."

"I'm practically already dead," I said. "I'm bleeding out of a gaping wound in my stomach."

"But your heart is still beating," the vampire said, kneeling down next to me. "Therefore, you are still alive. So long as that remains the case, my efforts will be to save your life."

"Why would you do that?"

"Because I was one of you, once," he said as he took out a large bundle of fabric from his inside pocket, pressing it firmly on my stomach.

"What?"

"It's true," he said. "I was bitten just as vampirism was first starting to spread to my area. A group of three vampires jumped me in the night as I was taking out the trash. My wife thankfully noticed and was able to fight them off before they had drained me of all of my blood, but I ended up infected with vampirism, and therefore transformed into one."

"How did your wife react to that?"

"She could tell I was beginning to lose control of myself, so she slashed her own forearm and drained as much blood from herself as she could safely lose, funneling it into a jug for me to drink from."

"I see," I said, nodding thoughtfully. "She must love you very much."

"She did," he said, looking downward. "She's no longer alive. She was murdered by the same man who stabbed you. I...couldn't get to her in time to save her."

"Oh," I said. "I'm sorry that happened. That must have been hard."

"You have no idea," he said, shaking his head. "Every day I lie awake in bed, wishing she were still next to me. Wishing I could have saved her. And ever since that night, I have been hunting the killer. Tonight was the closest I've ever gotten to catching him. But unfortunately, close only counts with horseshoes and hand grenades."

"I'm sorry," I said. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"You're in no condition to help me right now," he said, pressing more fabric against my wound. "You're still bleeding out buckets."

"I guess that's true," I acknowledged. I broke into a coughing fit, coughing up blood. "That can't be good."

"Hold on," he said, securing the fabric there with a belt. "I don't think I have the skills to save you at this point, but I know someone who might. Just hold on a little while longer alright?"

I nodded as he gently lifted me up off the ground.

"You're not gonna hog that one all to yourself, are you Vance?" A voice came from somewhere around us, though it was difficult to tell the direction. I assumed Vance was the name of the one who was carrying me.

"Yeah, give us some of that juicy goodness," another voice said. "Didn't your mother ever teach you to share?"

"Oh, for the love of peace and happiness, why?" Vance sounded exasperated.

"Our favorite human's been leaving gifts for all of us to enjoy, not just you," a third voice said.

"Yeah, and one of those 'gifts' was my wife!" Vance shouted. "He murdered the love of my life! So forgive me for not appreciating his so-called generosity!"

"You were married to a pathetic little human?" the first voice laughed.

"You will not speak of her that way! She was my wife, you hear me? My wife!"

"She'd want you to share your bounty, wouldn't she?" a fourth voice piped up.

"Don't you dare put words in her mouth! She'd want me to take down her killer so he doesn't have the chance to slaughter more innocent people like this one here!"

"Well that doesn't seem very nice," a fifth one said. "If you're not gonna use this gift, the least you can do is leave it for the rest of us."

"We're surrounded, aren't we?" I swallowed.

"Yeah," Vance said, tightening his grip around me.

"How likely do you think it is that you can fight them off or evade them?"

"While also protecting you, not likely. I'm gonna try, but I don't have high hopes, to be completely honest."

"If you infect me, will that bind up my wounds?" I asked. "Will that save my life?"

"It might," Vance said. "The transformation will be extremely painful, but it might just do the trick. Why?"

"You may not be able to fight them all off by yourself," I said, "but working together we might stand a chance."

"You're sure you're okay with that?" Vance asked.

"Well it's either that or we'll likely both die. And you and I both have some unfinished business to take care of."

"Well, if you're sure," he said hesitantly.

"I'm sure," I said, coughing. I tilted my head up to expose my neck. "Do it."

"Alright, here goes," he said. "Brace yourself for a world of pain."

I swallowed, taking a deep breath in. "I'm ready."

I felt a sharp pain in my neck, followed by a burning sensation all over my body. I cried out in pain. It felt like I was on fire.

I could tell there was shouting from the other vampires around us, but the pain was so intense I couldn't tell what was being said.

My teeth started throbbing with pain as my top canines lengthened and sharpened into a pair of fangs.

After what seemed like forever, the pain finally subsided. I felt...stronger. And...hungry.

A straw was placed in my mouth. I instinctively started sucking on it. I kept drinking and drinking, barely stopping to breathe until I couldn't get any more out of it. My head started to clear up. I felt satisfied, for now.

"Are you alright?" Vance asked.

"Yeah," I said, taking a deep breath and nodding. "You weren't kidding when you said that would be painful."

"I sure wasn't," Vance said. "Probably the worst pain you've ever experienced, wasn't it?"

"Nothing even came close to that," I said as I got to my feet. "But on the plus side, I'm not bleeding out buckets anymore. My theory was correct."

"That's good, because I think our 'friends' have just figured out what's happened. And from the looks on their faces, I don't think they're too pleased with us."

I looked around as several vampires started closing in around us.

"Take this," Vance said, placing a wooden stake in my hand. "You'll need it."

"Thanks," I said, clutching it tightly in my fingers.

"You're outnumbered," one of the vampires said as the group drew nearer and nearer. "Give yourselves up right now, and we'll get this over with quickly. Make things difficult, and we'll tie you up and leave you to burn up in the sun."

"I didn't go through the most painful experience of my life just to let you kill me," I said, getting into a defensive position. "If I'm going down I'm gonna take as many of you down with me as I possibly can."

"You all have one chance to get out of here," Vance said, cracking his knuckles. "I really don't want to go all Vlad the Impaler on you, but I will if I must."

The group of vampires laughed viciously.

"Alright, it's your funeral," I said, shrugging my shoulders as an attempt to disguise my nervousness.

"You take that side, I take this side?" Vance suggested, his back to mine.

"Sounds good to me," I said. "Let's see how many of these guys we can take down."

Almost immediately, the group bore down on us, each of them using ropes to try to restrain us. Vance was, without a doubt, much more experienced than I was, managing to stake about five or six of them before they became too much for him. I only just managed to take down one. But in the end, the two of us were both restrained with ropes, our wrists and ankles tied together, and gags around our heads.

"You don't know when to quit, do you?" one of the remaining vampires sneered. I assumed he was the leader of the bunch. He took several bags of blood from the many pockets lining Vance's coat. "Thanks for the generous donation."

The vampires then stripped both of us down to mere rags, securing the both of us to the flag pole on top of the roof of one of the buildings.

"Enjoy the sunrise!" the lead vampire laughed before he and the others disappeared into the night.

Well this wasn't at all how I expected my night to go. I struggled with my bonds but soon found it was pointless. The ropes were too thick to break, and tied too tightly to slip out of.

I looked over at Vance. He looked back at me with tears in his eyes.

No. I refused to let it end like this. Vance had saved my life, risking his own to do so. I wasn't about to give up now. There had to be something I could do.

Then I saw them. A huge colony of bats soaring overhead. I'd heard somewhere that vampires had the ability to call bats to their aid. Perhaps if I made a high-pitched noise it would draw their attention. I took a deep breath, and let out the highest-pitch screech that my vocal folds would allow, which, strangely, was about three octaves higher than I thought I was capable of.

Needless to say, that got their attention. The colony swooped down towards the two of us. And, as they got closer, I swore I could hear and somewhat understand their screeches. I couldn't make out exactly what they were saying, almost as if they were speaking in a different dialect, but they seemed to want to help. The reason came almost immediately: these were fruit bats. It was vampire bats that we had the closest affinity with. But these fruit bats were still related enough that I could communicate basic ideas to them.

I screeched again, struggling in my bonds in the hopes that the bats would get the idea.

Without hesitation, the bats started tugging at the ropes that bound me. Making quick work, they managed to chew through the ropes enough to free me. My feet started to slip on the icy shingles of the roof, but the colony swarmed around me long enough that I could grasp onto the flag pole. In a matter of seconds, I had untied Vance, grabbing onto his arm to keep him from falling.

"Thanks," Vance said as he tore the gag off his face.

I nodded in reply, not having a free hand to remove my own gag.

Almost as if on cue, one of the bats latched onto my gag, chewing through it until it fell to the ground.

"I can't believe that worked," I said, my eyes open wide in amazement.

I then felt a burning sensation on my skin. I looked eastward, and sure enough, the sun was starting to rise.

The bats swarmed around us, shielding us from some of the sun's scorching rays. Even still, we didn't have much time to get inside.

"We need to get off this roof," Vance said. "Let go of the flag pole. I'll make sure you get to the ground safely."

"But what about you?"

"Whatever will happen to me as a result of falling off the roof of a three-story building is negligible when compared with what the sun is capable of doing to both of us. Don't worry about me. I'll be okay."

"Alright then," I said. "Here goes."

I let go of the flag pole, and we immediately slid off the roof. Vance wrapped his arms around me, breaking my fall as we hit the ground.

"You alright?" I asked.

"Yeah, just a little bruised. Nothing I can't handle."

"Do you know of anywhere we can go to seek shelter?"

"I do. It's a bit of a walk, but if you can convince those bats to give us shade we might be able to make it." Vance gestured southwards.

I looked around at the bat colony. They seemed to understand what I needed from them. "Lead the way."

By the time we arrived, we were both covered in painful blisters due to sunlight seeping through the gaps of our furry guardians, but we were alive.

Vance winced in pain as he knocked on the large stone door in a specific pattern.

A small child peeked out from the other side of the door. "Dad?!"

"Hey kiddo," Vance said with a weak smile. "I may have stayed out a bit past dawn."