Short Fiction Blog

Here’s the next segment. Things are starting to get serious now!

You can read the whole story by following the links in the side bar.

The traps were all set, everyone was watching their backs, and tension was high. It had been a week and nothing was happening. Some in the group were thinking the Elders weren’t coming.

Nathaniel knew they were coming. He could feel it.

“Where are they, Nathaniel?” Susan demanded. “It’s been a week with no sign of the all-powerful Elders. Why haven’t they killed us already,” she smirked.

Nathaniel sighed, “You will be sorry for what you’ve brought about here, Susan. Nothing will be the same again. We’ve been left alone to do as we please. It will be different after this…if we survive.”

“You’re scared shitless aren’t you?” she scoffed. “I can’t believe how everyone talks about the Elders. They’re just a bunch of old vampires that know nothing of the world. They live on a mountain in some backwards country, for God’s sake!”

“Those old vampires have been around for centuries. They know more about the world than we ever will. The blood of thousands runs in their veins. Don’t you realize how much power that is?”

“So what. It’s not like we haven’t taken our share of outsiders too,” Susan replied with a shrug.

“I’m not talking about outsiders.”

Here’s the latest installment. If you’d like to read the story in order, follow the links. Enjoy!

Night Stalker, Night Stalker-Remembrance, Night Stalker-The Children, Night Stalker-Clarissa, Night Stalker-Relationships, Night Stalker-Turmoil, Night Stalker-Mistakes, Night Stalker-Pride Goeth Before a Fall, Night Stalker-Preparations

Later that night everyone gathered to see what the next move was. Derek and Nathaniel had come up with a plan. It wasn’t fool-proof by any means, but better than nothing. Between themselves, Nathaniel and Derek thought defeating the Elders would require more luck than anything, but didn’t see any point in sharing this with the group.

“Ok, calm down everyone. We’ve come up with a plan that just might keep some of us alive. I’m not going to tell you we’ll all make it, because we won’t. The Elders are very powerful and some of us will die. What I will tell you is that we are going to do everything in our power to keep the deaths to a minimum.”

Nathaniel looked around the room to make sure what he’d just said had sank in. He knew it was harsh to tell them that some were going to die, but it was the best way to get their attention and bring home the seriousness of the situation.

Once sure that everyone was listening, he continued, “We have to plan traps. The Elders are more powerful than us. It will take at least three of us to drain one of them. Our one distinct advantage is in knowing the area. We can capture them in the alleys and subways if we plan carefully and work in teams.”

He looked around the room once more and then said in an urgent voice, “I can’t stress this enough! You cannot beat an Elder one on one! They will laugh in your face and then suck you dry. Don’t even try it. Stick to the plan and work in teams. It’s your only chance.”

“Does everyone understand?”

After receiving nods from all, he proceeded, “Derek and I will go over how to make the traps and separate everyone into teams. You’re on your own after that.”

This is my contribution to the Three Word Wednesday prompt for the week. The words were, Corpse, Damage, and Knife. Hope you like this part of the story!

If you’d like to read the story in order follow the links.

Night Stalker

Night Stalker-Remembrance

Night Stalker-The Children

Night Stalker-Clarissa

Night Stalker-Relationships

Night Stalker-Turmoil

Night Stalker-Mistakes

Night Stalker-Pride Goeth Before a Fall

Derek walked into the dining room and threw a jewel encrusted knife at the wall next to Susan’s head. Susan screamed as Jacob jumped up to run at Derek. Thankfully some of the others stopped him before a fight broke out.

“What the hell’s wrong with you, man?” Jacob yelled at Derek!

“She’s brought death down on all our heads, and you ask what’s wrong with me?” Derek scoffed.

“What are you talking about? Nobody’s dead.”

“Not yet, but some of you will be soon,” Derek said with a shake of his head. “The Elders are on the way.”

Everyone turned to look at Susan. They knew what it meant for the Elders to come. Some looked at Susan with pity, while others had hatred in their eyes. Things had been calm for a long while now and they didn’t want it to end.

 “What are you all looking at?” Susan hissed. “You’re all pathetic. Scared of a bunch of old vamps.”

“Those old vamps will eat you for dinner, young lady,” Derek replied. “They have no mercy. It is within their power to wipe you all off the face of the earth.

“Why don’t we just give Susan and Jacob to them? Appease their anger and assure them it will never happen again,” someone offered.

“You son of a bitch!” Susan shouted as she lunged for the speaker.

Nathaniel watched the others tear each other apart. He knew he’d soon have to step in, but for now they needed to let off some steam. Offering Jacob and Susan as sacrifice wasn’t an option. The Elders didn’t really care about them. They’d been waiting for a reason to wipe the group out and now they had it.

He knew the council approved the attack. Susan and Jacob’s actions had put them all in danger and someone had to be held accountable.

“Enough!” Nathaniel shouted into the melee. “The damage is done. Now we have to figure out how to survive. That should be the only thing on your minds. Fighting with each other isn’t going to help anything. Believe me when I tell you that you’ll need each other to make it through the coming days.”

“I don’t see what the big deal is. So we left a rotting corpse outside Figment. It’s not the first dead body we’ve left behind.” Jacob said to the group.

“Why don’t you ask Susan what the difference is with this particular dead body, Jacob?” Derek replied.

“What’s he talking about, Susan? What makes this one so special?” Jacob asked as he walked to Susan’s side.

“Oh, shut up, Jacob! If you had half a brain you’d have seen that wasn’t an outsider we took the other night!” Susan snapped.

Jacob was stunned. Susan had never talked to him that way before.

He thought back to the other night. The woman had certainly put up a fight. He had scratches on his face and hands to prove it. At the time he’d just thought she was on something. After all, he was, and so was most of the crowd in Figment that night.

Now he understood why it took so long to kill her. He also realized why Susan asked him along that night. It took at least two Stalkers to kill another one. And he’d been stupid enough to think Susan liked him!

Shaking his head at his own stupidity, Jacob went to sit on the couch with Clarissa. He didn’t know exactly what was going to happen, but he knew he’d played a part in bringing death to his friends. He’d heard enough stories about the Elders to know they left no survivors. Taking Clarissa’s hand, he just hoped Nathaniel and Derek could think of some way to stop the massacre before it happened.

“I don’t understand why the little bitch had to pick my bar; Derek was heard mumbling as he and Nathaniel left the room…

This is my contribution to the Sunday Scribblings prompt. The prompt was about bragging. If you’d like the read the story in order follow the links below:

Night Stalker

Night Stalker-Remembrance

Night Stalker-The Children

Night Stalker-Clarissa

Night Stalker-Relationships

Night Stalker-Turmoil

Night Stalker-Mistakes

It didn’t take long for the story to get around. Jacob started bragging the very next night. It wouldn’t have mattered anyway. Everyone knew something was up when the cops started patrolling the neighborhood.

Nathaniel heard all about it when he awoke from another restless sleep. The little angel of his dreams kept floating ever closer, calling out to him. He tried to reach her, to understand what she was saying but it did no use. She remained just out of reach. He had the feeling she was trying to tell him something important and it worried him.

He knew the voices would be squelched tonight. He had to feed. It had been too long as it was and he was getting weak.  The others laughed at his inability to take without prejudice, to feed each night. He just couldn’t do it. This world had too much wrong with it already and he hated adding his part.

It seemed he was going to have to feed more often for the next while though. He had to be alert to protect the others. Because Nathaniel knew the cops were the least of their worries…

This is my contribution to the Saturday Scribes prompt. The words for this week were: retribution, improvise, calculator, and figment. Hope you like the way I used them!

If you’d like to read the story in order follow the links below:

Night Stalker

Night Stalker-Remembrance

Night Stalker-The Children

Night Stalker-Clarissa

Night Stalker-Relationships

Night Stalker-Turmoil

Nathaniel walked around the city for hours contemplating what Randy had told him. He couldn’t believe Susan and Jacob had been so stupid. There was only two weeks until the ascension. They all knew how important it was. Their very lives depended on everything going smoothly.

He knew retribution would be swift and brutal for the mistake Susan and Jacob had made last night. Susan was always taking risks, living on the edge. This time she may take them all over the side with her when she falls.

Going to Figment was over the top, even for Susan. None of the Stalker’s in their group went there. It was too dangerous.

Figment was Derek’s place. All the others thought he was crazy when he opened the club. Working with the outsiders was unheard of. The only thing they were good for was feeding. Derek was different though. No matter that he was one of the Elders; he still felt the pull of the other world. He often said the music never left his soul.

Derek actually enjoyed interacting with the outsiders. His club was filled to capacity every night, even though the doors didn’t open until after two. If anyone dared look into his office, they’d see the calculator smoking when he tallied up the nights slips.  

Some stalkers were brave enough to go to the club on occasion. If any of the outsiders got suspicious, Derek would improvise and come up with some excuse for the Stalker’s behavior. He could be heard uttering, “It’s all a figment of your imagination” often. On the rare occasions when he couldn’t talk himself out of a situation, all the money the club made came in handy with local law enforcement. Some things that needed to be pushed under the rug were expensive.

There was one rule never to be broken. No one was to be taken on club property because the cops weren’t likely to turn a blind eye to a dried out corpse. It was in all of the Stalker’s best interest to follow this rule. None of them wanted the cops dissecting in their activities. The rule had never been broken…until last night.

As you all know, I’m doing a vampire story. I’ve never did one before, although I have watched movies about them plenty of times. What I’m wondering is this…can you change things around on stories like this? Make stuff up as you go along? Or should you always stick with the tried and true stuff from legend?

For instance, could I make up new ways to kill vampires in my story? Or am I supposed to stick with the stake through the heart, garlic, and sunlight stuff. I would like to make up my own things, but don’t want to if it’s just never done. Any opinions?

I’m going to ask this on the Accentuate Writers Forum also. I figure there are enough writers on there that someone will have to know the answer. I’d love to hear what everyone else thinks too though.

Here’s the next part of the story. This one isn’t for a prompt. Hope you like it. I introduced another character!

Upon waking the next night Nathaniel heard commotion in the living room. As he walked through the door to see what was going on a chair narrowly missed his head. Ducking, he ran to the other side of the room where Clarissa was hiding behind the couch.

“What’s going on?” he whispered.

“Rissa is throwing a tantrum,” Clarissa replied.

“What about this time?”

“She’s still upset that Susan went out with Jacob last night. They won’t tell her where they went, so she’s pitching a fit.”

“Why won’t they tell her where they went?”

“Who knows? You know how it is around here. They probably found fertile hunting ground and don’t want to share.”

Nathaniel thought that was very possible. The members of the group weren’t big on sharing. The only odd part was that Susan usually told Rissa everything. He was pretty sure he could find out what was going on.

Staying low, Nathaniel made it out of the living room without getting hit. He was going to see Randy. If anyone knew what was going on, it would be him. He was always in everybody’s business.

Randy was the oldest member of the group. He’d wandered in one day a few years ago. At first everyone was suspicious. They didn’t want an old timer coming in and setting rules and talking about the old ways. They’d got rid of the last person in the group who kept harping on the way things were supposed to be. It was a new generation, and if you didn’t see it that way you didn’t stay around long. Nathaniel shuddered as he thought of the way the group had dealt with the dissenter.

He didn’t have time to dwell on that right now though. Pausing outside a heavy metal door, he pounded until getting a reply.

“Who is it?” the occupant barked.

“It’s Nathaniel. I need to talk with you, Randy.”

The door opened after a few minutes. Randy looked Nathaniel up and down, trying to decide if he wanted to let him in or not. Nathaniel tried not to look at Randy. To say Randy was unkempt was an understatement. He sported shaggy red hair that’s never clean, an orange goatee that’s braided and cinched with a cross, and when he smiled he revealed the only two teeth he had left, which were his fangs.

He must have decided Nathaniel was ok because he pushed the door open and let him enter. He offered Nathaniel a seat, to which he politely declined. The only seating in the room was the bed Randy had just got out of.

“What do you want?” Randy growls.

“There’s a problem with the group. Susan and Jacob are being secretive about where they went last night and it’s driving Rissa crazy. I came to see if you know what’s going on.”

“How would I know? I’m not exactly mister popular around here.”

While this was true, Nathaniel also knew that Randy had a way of finding things out. He wasn’t sure how he did it. He suspected it was a combination of enlisting spies and sneaking around himself that netted the results. Randy had been caught outside Rissa’s room on more than one occasion, which only reinforced this belief.

“You always know what’s going on, Randy. Tell me so I can quiet everyone down. We don’t need this right now, you know that.”

“What if you don’t really want to know what’s going on,” he replied cryptically. “What if it’s something better left alone? Some things shouldn’t be tampered with. You can’t tell those hotheads that though.”

Nathaniel had no idea what Randy was talking about. They already had enough to worry about with the ascension coming soon, they didn’t need any complications. After assuring Randy that he did want to know what was going on, he sat back with a sigh to listen.

How do you pick the characters for your stories? Do they just come to you? Are they created off of people you know in real life? What is your process for picking fictional characters?

Until recently I just made them up off the fly. For my last story, Night Stalker, I’ve created a few of the characters off of people I know. Not that the characters are anything like the people, just general things. The ages, races, hair color, all that are not the same. It has been fun using real people to base the characters off of though. I don’t really know why even.

Have you ever done this? What did the person think?

So far everyone is ok with me using them in my story. I’ll be sure and give them credit if I become famous…he he.

Tell me about the characters in your latest story!

This is my contribution to the Meme Express prompt. The word this time was sarcastic. I hope you like the way I worked it into the story. If you’d like to read the rest of the Night Stalker story, follow these links:

Night Stalker

Night Stalker-Remembrance

Night Stalker-The Children

Night Stalker-Clarissa

Nathaniel watched as Susan sauntered over to Jacob and lightly caressed his jaw with her fingertips. She then reached up and whispered something in his ear. It must have been something good judging by the look on Jacobs face. He quickly told Clarissa goodbye as he and Susan headed out the door.

With a pout, Clarissa watched them go. If it had been anyone other than Susan, Clarissa would have asked Jacob if she could go with them. But she knew children weren’t allowed in the places Susan went.

Nathaniel watched as she stared after them, her hands clenched into fists at her side. She had a crush on Jacob. Everyone knew it, but didn’t know what to do about it. Nathaniel thought it must be terribly hard for her. She was trapped in the body of a child, but had the sensual awareness of an adult. For even though Clarissa had no problem taking children, she still preyed far more often on adults. With their blood came their secrets, desires, and experiences.

Clarissa wasn’t the only one who was disappointed with the recent activities. As Nathaniel stepped out the door, he met Rissa. She was watching the departing couple with open animosity.

When she noticed Nathaniel standing there, she threw a biting look over her shoulder. Rissa was beautiful. Very beautiful, with flowing blonde hair, sky blue eyes, and a tight body that she showed off to perfection in short skirts and tank tops. The men in the group all salivated over her constantly. The problem was that Rissa only had eyes for Susan.

Nathaniel started to say something, but Rissa issued a sarcastic, “mind your own damn business,” before turning to go back inside.

This is my contribution to the Three Word Wednesday prompt. The words for this week were: ache, difference, and suffer. I thought they went along well with the Night Stalker story, so made another section for it. If you’d like to read the story in order follow these links:

Night Stalker

Night Stalker-Remembrance

Night Stalker-The Children

As Nathaniel rounded the corner, he saw Clarissa talking with Jacob. He couldn’t squelch the ache the sight of her brought to his heart. She was so beautiful. Small and delicate, proud and defiant, by far the most outgoing of them all. Of course, he imagined she’d always been that way, even before becoming one of them.

He can still see her on the last day of her mortal life. She was running in the fields, trying to catch butterflies. Her laughter rang through the valley.

He and the others were staying in a cave on top of a mountain at the time. He’d had another nightmare, this time bad enough to wake him, and was looking out the entrance of the cave when he heard her laughter. He watched, envying her excitement and happiness. When he went back to sleep his dreams were much more pleasant.

That night they attacked a family at the base of the mountain. Nathaniel didn’t know it was the girl from the meadows until it was too late. When he walked into her bedroom he recognized her right away. She looked so frightened. He couldn’t imagine having her invade his dreams at night. There was only one thing to do.

He turned her. Watching her suffer through the change was the hardest thing he’s ever done. He held her as her body shook with pain, tears silently rolling down his cheeks. The others couldn’t understand why he’d done it. Who wanted a kid traveling with them? He tried to explain, but of course it did no good.

She still laughed often, but it was different now. Her laughter was no longer carefree and happy, but sarcastic and biting. She laughed at the expense of others. Though still a child in body, she was as much an adult as the rest of them. Taking lives does that to you. The only difference was that Clarissa didn’t have any problem at all taking children.