The Blind Vampire Hunter (23 page)

Maintaining my composure and my business
tone, I continued, “Diana tried to wake her sister this morning in
preparation for getting her to a doctor appointment. It seems she
had a heart problem. Instead, we had to call her doctor to tell him
that Chris was not going to make her appointment. When we informed
him of Chris’s ... condition, he was not surprised. With results
from tests taken just last week in hand, Chris’s doctor had planned
to hospitalize Chris. He had planned for additional tests and very
possibly surgery.”

Silence followed.

Before that skin growling voice could speak
again, I continued, “But we know what really killed her, don’t we
... vampire.”

“Excuse...”

“No excuse, vampire. Yes, I know who you
really are, Elizabeth Báthory, Blood Countess and Vampire. I found
your bite marks on the side of Chris’s neck.” With my composure
lost, I nearly yelled out, or maybe I did yell out, “
You killed
Chris!
Why? What danger could Chris possibly have been to you
that you had to kill her?”

The skin crawling voice answered, “Since
Halloween, she kept calling me by the name you are using for me.
She kept calling me ... vampire.”

“Big deal. She was mentally challenged. Who
would have believed her?” I almost screamed for emphasis. I really
was losing my composure,
Get under control, get under control
for your family’s sake.

“Diana. I feared eventually Diana might
listen to her sister and I would have to kill both Chris and my
lovely Diana. I could hear Chris’s heart problem, I could hear her
heart laboring to function. I figured I could just take a little of
her blood, not enough to be noticed, just enough to trigger her
heart attack, all while she slept, with no one the wiser. But you,
blind man, see more than others see, don’t you? You, blind man,
hear what others don’t hear, don’t you?”

“You mean that I hear your real voice,
instead of the beloved voice everyone else hears? You failed to
mention how the room temperature changes every time you walk into
the room. With you in the room, it feels like being in a graveyard
at night.” I continued, “Mind telling me how you pulled it off? How
does everyone see and hear some raving beauty instead of seeing and
hearing the real you, the monster?”

“It bothers you that you almost have it all
figured out, but not totally.... If I supplied you with an answer
to your question, I doubt you’d believe me.”

“I’m talking to a vampire, not any vampire,
but the infamous Elizabeth Báthory, Blood Countess. I’d believe
just about anything right now, don’t you think?”

“In my travels, I spent some time in Greece.
While there, I happened to come across a mermaid. Yes, blind man, a
real mermaid. You humans can’t see them unless they wish to be
seen. Usually a mermaid is only seen when the mermaid or mermaids
wish to taunt sailors to their death through the siren song and
their magical flawless beauty. Humans who have seen a real mermaid
tend not to live long enough to tell the tale. A few have, hence
the folklore of mermaids. Since I am a supernatural creature akin
to the mermaid, I could see them at will. I could see the mermaids
as they really are, not as you humans see them. One night, when I
came in contact with one, I gave the mermaid a choice of becoming
my next meal or sharing her siren secrets with me. She chose to
share her secrets. It seems their magical ability is similar enough
to vampire enthrallment that I was able to put it to my use.
Afterward, she was an interestingly different dinner. I don’t often
enjoy seafood.”

“She gave you what you wanted, and you killed
her anyway?” I asked in astonishment of her pure evil.

She continued, “Mermaids live in large family
schools. It was just luck that I found this one alone. Would you
want to live on an island with a large school of mermaids out for
revenge? Would you like to live on an island surrounded by
murderous mermaids just out to kill off the leak in their magical
abilities by killing off the one who forced their magical secrets
out of a family member?. No, her death was more for my survival
than out of spiteful evil or a rare meal.”

“So Vampire, are you now going to have to
kill me, like you did Chris and that mermaid, to keep me
silent?”

“You tell me. Am I going to have to kill you
to keep my secret?” the sound of fingernails racking the blackboard
asked. “Seems you have everything figured out, except I don’t see
any wooden stakes, and I’m willing to bet that glass of water on
the coffee table is just drinking water and not holy water. Maybe
you plan to keep talking until the sun comes up and gives me a
burning sun tan. Oh, but Diana has the windows properly covered as
I have instructed her, not with her knowledge, of course. She
believes the window covering is her idea, to keep the baby from
being sunburned while in the house.”

I suddenly got an image from a Hammer Horror
film where Van Helsing, confronted with his nemesis, Dracula, dived
onto a table, dramatically slid across the polished table, and
ripped down the large curtains covering a large set of windows.
Dracula, suddenly trapped within the sun’s rays, burned to death in
the morning light.
I hadn’t thought of the morning light. If I
could burn her, would she burn to unrecognizable ashes? Would she
burn to a point of removing the evidence of her demise? Who knows?
It’s risky, possibly suicidal, but I believe I have a better idea
to save my loved ones from this bloodthirsty hell beast. Then
again, if I survive ... yeah, right ... but if I do survive this
confrontation with the blood countess, maybe I could get her out
into the light of the backyard and let the sun burn away the
evidence of my vampire hunting.

“I see that idea had not occurred to you.
Just as well. I would have noticed if the curtains had been
tampered with and would have treated the situation accordingly. You
don’t think I have existed this long without having to outsmart a
number of vampire hunters, do you?”

“How many vampire hunters have you ... on
second thought never mind. You really don’t think you’re going to
kill a member of my family, and I am not going to do something
about it,
do you
?”

There was a wash of foul air, and suddenly, I
was up off my feet as a machine like grip had me off the floor by
my shirt, with a breath that smelled like a graveyard full of
death, “And pray tell, what are you going to do to me...” she ended
her question with a very mocking ... ‘blind man.’”

The plan seemed to be working just fine so
far. I choked out, “I am going to tell Diana just who you
are...”

Everything suddenly came to a stop at the
sound of a knock at the front door, and a voice gently calling out,
“Jack, it’s Eric. Are you up? Are you awake my man?”

The machine-like grip tightened so that even
if I wanted to call out, I could not have.

There was an endless silence from the other
side of the door. There were no more shout outs from Eric, no
sounds of feet walking away—nothing. Then I heard a key put into
the key hole, a key being put to use.
I don’t recall hearing
this bloodthirsty bitch closing, let alone locking the door. I
guess I must have had my attentions too much on the coming
battle.

Then it hit me like a blow to the guts,
Oh, God, NO. Please don’t let anyone come through that door.
Please God.
My mind screamed as a vision of Diana and Eric
coming through the door triggering a blood bath, a bloody bath of
loved ones.

Eric or whoever it was with him trying to
unlock the door was having problems.
I really have to get that
lock fixed sometime soon.
I almost laughed inside myself. Then
all hell did break loose...

Eric, the intruder into the battlefield,
finally got the lock to work, and opened the door with a stage
whisper, “Jack, you awa...” He looked into the room and saw
Elizabeth Báthory with his best friend waving painfully in the air.
Eric yelled out, “Let that man down.” She did.

I suddenly found myself flying backward until
I landed, crashing into the large screen TV and (worse) the TV
table. Before I could shift my pain-racked mind back to anything
but my screaming back, I heard an audible snap like a chicken being
prepared to be dinner, “
Eric!
” I cried out.
That snapping
sound just had to be Eric, Eric’s neck, Eric’s death. At least he
died quickly, from the lack of a scream or any sound of
resistance.

A laughing voice from hell announced, “Sorry
Jack, Eric is a little busy going to Hell right now. Shame to have
ruined a perfectly good meal like that, simply snapping his neck
like snapping a twig, but the way your adrenaline-laced blood is
still pumping I’m sure you will be a pleasant repast.” The voice
was getting closer and the falling room temperature let me know
that she was moving back toward me.

“Vampire, go to hell.” It was not very
original, but when you’re hearing your death coming for you, what
do you want.

Her laughing voice was hurting my ears, and I
painfully heard her respond, “Been there. They threw me back.”

Suddenly, that mechanically strong grip
grabbed me off the floor as my injured back screamed in pain yet
again.

Ignoring my back pain, I taunted, “So, is
this were you go back to trying to bore me to death with your
hellish peasant twaddle?”

“Peasant twaddle!” She all by screeched out.
“I will remind you that I was once a countess. This was only my
birthright as I was born into a family of nobles that even included
kings. I have ruled over thousands. I don’t speak peasant waddle. I
roar with the nobility of generations.”

“And now you are the junior manager of a
third-rate movie theatre, during their graveyard shift,” I
continued to taunt.

“Enough.”

It’s about time I pissed her off enough to
force her into action.

With a whiff of the breath of a demon passing
my face, I suddenly felt her fangs sink deep into the side of my
throat. It felt like my neck was being invaded by a couple of large
dull needles. She wasn’t bothering to be gentle.
Good, drink
deeply, my dear demon.

It was about time. She fell deeply into my
trap.

As suddenly as she had invaded my neck, her
attack ended just as abruptly, with my body flying backwards like
the discarded rag doll of a spoiled brat. I hit the TV table again,
screaming in back pain as I slumped to the floor.
If I survive
this, my back will never be the same.

She screeched out in a tone that was doing
more than just threatening to hurt my ears, “What have you done to
me?”

My words were grinning just as lively as I
was, back pain, and all, “Going through a change of life, Vampire?
Or should a say “a change of death?” Ever heard of a cancer called
Melanoma? It’s a nasty skin cancer that, once you get it, can kill
you. You see, the cancer cells travel through your system to
develop cancerous tumors all throughout your body. Severe Melanoma,
like mine, can travel through the blood system....which is what I
have.”

I could hear her starting to strangle.

I continued, enjoying the sound of her
discomfort. “Yes, my dear Blood Countess, you just ingested
cancerous melanoma cells into your system.”

“I have read of this,” she interrupted,
choking out, “It takes months or years to develop to such a deadly
form.”

“Yes, my dear Vampire. It takes a long time
for melanoma to get so deadly in a human. But you are a Vampire
with an extremely fast metabolism. Yes, Countess Elizabeth Báthory,
your whole body is now developing cancerous tumors at such a fast
pace that you can already feel your blood getting clogged by the
cancerous cells traveling throughout your system. So what do you
think will kill you first, brain tumors, lung cancer, or possibly
blood clots that will stop the flow of your stolen blood, starving
you to death?”

She started gagging...

Totally enjoying the sounds of her impending
death, the gagging sounds gave Jack a thought. “Hmmm, maybe stomach
cancer. Had not figured on that one.”

Her horrid voice croaked out, “My head ... I
have not felt ... such a headache since my living years.” She
croaked, “You have killed me, blind vampire hunter.”

Her cold, deathlike hand reached to me, and I
could feel lumps on her skeletal hand, lumps that were even now
growing, lumps that Jack could feel moving and growing with much
haste.
Tumors?
Then Jack heard the weight of her body hit
the wooden living room floor.

Feeling downright giddy, I began wondering.
Dead? How can I tell? I can’t feel for a pulse. Vampires don’t
have a pulse. Their circulatory system is too sluggish to feel
their stolen blood pulsing through them. I can’t feel for a
heartbeat, which raises the question. If vampires don’t have a
working heart, how do they circulate their stolen blood? It was
Eric who told me that vampires don’t breathe, except to force air
through their voice box to talk. Feel her skin? Hell no. Change in
room temperature? She most likely would make the room temperature
feel the same, dead or undead.

Dummy, she is not trying to kill you. She
must be dead.

That just was not good enough. Jack felt for
her with his shoed foot. Once his foot bumped into what had to be
her, he kicked out hard and felt the body move a little, but
nothing more.
She must be dead.

The war is over, and the blind vampire
hunter is the winner. Now to call and explain all this to the
cops.

Jack got up off the floor with his back still
screaming like a banshee. He felt his way over to the dining room
phone and punched, 911. An emotionless voice toned, “Police, Fire,
or EMS?”

“Police,” I answered.

“How can we be of assistance?”