3. JEFF

Bruh, this club was off the chain. I wish I had more cash because these drinks were something else. The alien I was talking with wasn’t interested in me, but there were plenty of other fish in the sea, and they were some fine ass fish. I wondered where Todd and that sexy white-haired chick went, but picking people out from the dance floor was hard. While wandering, I only got some dances here and there. I lucked up with a few girls that let me sip their drinks, so I had a steady buzz going, but the pressure was on to get with a chick. Todd couldn’t show me up.

I had to go to the bathroom and heard people having sex in one stall. I wondered if it was Todd and that girl. That only encouraged me to want to get back out there and score. I hoped he had a condom, not that he could knock up a girl like that, but you know, for the other reason. I meant to give him some before we headed here, but it slipped my mind. While trying to fix my hair, my cell fell on the counter and someone was blowing it up. I checked it: Todd.

I called him back, and it took him two rings to answer. “Yo, what up? You got up in them walls, dude?”

“H-help me…” Todd whispered.

I had never heard him sound like that before.”Where are you?”

“Top level.”

“Alright, I’m coming man!”

I bolted up the steps. I had no idea what was happening, but it sounded serious. While running, I tried dialing Edgy, but he wasn’t answering. He was probably drunk or blasting metal music, or both. Two super-hot androids blocked the way when I got to the top level.

“Yo, my friend’s in there. I think he’s in trouble!”

“Nice try, birdie.” One robot said, shoving me away.

“Look here, pretty lady, I ain’t lying. Why don’t you just poke in and check? Your partner here can throw me out if it’s a trick.”

The robot in my face scowled and then looked at her partner. The other robot opened the door and revealed Todd lying on the floor, covered in blood.

“Aw shit!”

The robots and a nurse robot with bandages assisted me in getting Todd up. He was barely awake, and I can’t say I blame him. He had lost a lot of blood.

“What happened man!?”

“S-she bit me,” Todd whispered, barely able to keep his eyes open.

“Who bit him?” One of the security bots asked.

“Some sexy white-haired chick,” I answered.

The robots stopped in their tracks and started blinking. “Oh, I’m afraid the two of you will have to leave.”

“Leave? This woman done taken a chunk out of my friend here! Y’all got cops on this station!?”

“I’m sorry, but we cannot do anything.”

“Da fuck!?”

The next thing I knew, they were pulling us out of the club, and they left us standing outside. Well, I was standing. Todd was lying on the curb and trying to sit upright. Now, I ain’t the sharpest tool in the shed; Edgy will say I’m the dullest, but even I could tell something about this wasn’t right. So, I helped Todd, and we limped back to the ship. The walk felt endless, but Todd improved as it went on, eventually being able to stand and walk without me.

“Dude, what the hell was that?”

Todd shook his head. “T-t-that woman, she’s a vampire.”

“She drank your blood?” I asked. Todd nodded.

When we got back to the ship, we heard loud as hell death metal and found Edgy slumped on the couch with a bottle of booze and a bag of chips. On the HD was a music video of some sort of metal band with a post-apocalyptic backdrop. I hardly understood their words because of the growling and heavy guitar riffs.

When Edgy saw us and Todd’s bloody shirt, he sat up.

“What the fuck happened!?” He demanded, his words slightly slurred.

“Todd hooked up with a hot chick.”

Edgy blinked several times and just stood there. “I’m sorry, say again? It sounded like you said Todd hooked up with a hot chick,” he started chuckling.

“Oh yeah, she was bad,” I said, laughing at that part of the story.

“How bad?” Edgy asked while raising an eyebrow.

“Not important now!” Todd groaned.

“Oh, right. It turns out she’s a vampire. She took a chunk out of Todd, and we got kicked out.” I explained.

“Dammit, where’d the bitch go?”

“Hell if I know.”

Edgy ignored me and looked at Todd. “Todd!? Where did she go?”

Todd shook his head. Edgy and I helped him to his room, and then Edgy went into the fridge and grabbed a big ass bottle of water. Then he had me tell him everything. I tried my best with what Todd told me on the way back.

“I don’t know shit about vampires, but we should get that bite checked.”

“Checked?” I asked.

“The last thing we need is him biting us in the middle of the night.”

Edgy started for the bridge, and I followed him. He reached into a compartment on the side, pulled out a silver can with a black and green label called NUCLEAR PEGASUS, and cracked it open.

“Are there any doctors that deal with vampire bites?” I asked.

“Don’t fucking know, but I can ask the internet.”

While Edgy looked for an answer, he asked me to watch Todd. I found Todd sitting in his room, shining a light on his neck. The skin around the bite was turning black.

“Oh, that’s not good.”

“What!?” Edgy called.

“Um, the area around the bite is turning black!”

“She said she’d see me again soon,” Todd whispered as he covered the bite.

“What the hell does that mean?”

“It means he’s going to turn into a thrall,” Edgy answered while coming in with a device on his arm that showed a web page. “It says it right here, if bitten by a vampire and not drained completely, the person becomes a thrall within three standard days of being bitten. Once made into a thrall, they will become a mindless follower of the vampire that turned them.”

“Shit,” I said, breaking the silence.

“Yeah, shit.”

“H-how do we stop it!?” Todd shouted, shivering as the words sank in.

“I see a post about a place specializing in many mysterious illnesses. It’s run by some guy named Doctor Bernard Gee. He’s got a clinic near a planet named Ocsid. It’s not far. We’ll get over there, and then we’ll get Todd cured, then we find this vampire and kill her.”

“Okay,” Todd whispered.

“Todd, keep the light filters cranked to the max. UV light will hurt you soon.”

He left, and I followed him out of Todd’s room. Edgy readied the ship for takeoff. We left C15 by disconnecting the ship from the dock and going to the desert. Edgy then brought the ship into the atmosphere and put in the coordinates. He told me to watch Todd, so I checked on him. Todd was shivering and had a thermometer in his mouth. He turned on an anime. I don’t know what it was about, but it kept him calm. The thermometer beeped, and he took it out.

“My temperature’s a little low.”

That felt like it was the least of our concerns, but it still bugged me. I kept my eye on him, but the booze, weed, and partying tired me out, and I fell asleep at some point. When I woke up, Todd was standing up and swaying. His eyes weren’t open, and his beak was moving. I think he was trying to say something, but I couldn’t understand him.

“Todd? Todd, you alright, bro?”

Todd said nothing. He just stood there and kept swaying back and forth. I stood up and shook him. Nothing.

“Todd! Snap out of it!”

His eyes opened, and they rolled into the back of his skull. Then his head went back, and he kept saying some gibberish. It was some straight-up Exorcist-type shit.

“Oh, hell nah! Edgy! Todd is tripping in here!”

“What do you mean!?”

“His eyes done rolled into the back of his head, bro!”

Edgy entered with a guttural groan. He appeared groggy and hungover. He looked at Todd before telling me to let go. Edgy grabbed Todd by his collar and lightly shook him. No effect. Edgy exhaled and released him. He slapped the shit out of Todd. He hit him with that front hand, then the backhand so hard Todd fell over. Edgy caught him and raised his flipper to pimp slap him again before he hit the ground.

“Damn dude!”

Todd started spouting that demon gibberish again. Edgy smacked him so hard I saw ton of spit fly from his beak like a spray bottle. Then he got quiet.

“Um…why does my face hurt?” Todd’s eyes were normal again, and he looked around in confusion.

“You good?” Edgy asked.

Todd winced. “D-did you slap me!?”

“Yeah, I did.”

“You were straight tripping,” I said as Edgy let go of Todd.

He sat on his bed and looked confused and horrified. “I-I saw her! It was like she was calling out to me!”

“This woman must be really desperate to be sliding into your dream DMs.”

“Jeff, shut the fuck up,” Edgy said without looking at me. “Todd, try to stay awake. I think we’re almost there.”

“O-okay.”

I followed Edgy out into the hall as he headed for the bridge.

“Yo man, how did you know slapping him was gonna work?”

Edgy shrugged his shoulders. “I didn’t.”

“You guessed!?”

Edgy nodded and climbed into the pilot chair. Exiting subspace, we faced a silver planet with many rings. When the light from the stars hit the rings, they were multicolored and changed constantly. The planet’s atmosphere was the same way. It looked like a mirror ball.

“Nice place,” I said.

“The clinic’s not on the planet. It’s in orbit around it,” Edgy replied as he dropped us into one of the rings.

Inside the ring, we found clouds of ice and bits of dust. It was beautiful man. We weren’t here for that. After steering the ship through the rings and into a big ass gap between them, we found the station. It was a large floating building with a light show going on. Without the giant pill and the word “clinic” on the holographic sign, I could have easily assumed it was an eccentric club. The landing pad was a bunch of squares lighting up in crazy colors. I could tell what Edgy thought when he turned around in his seat. This wasn’t gonna be good.

4. EDGY

---

They say first impressions are everything, and mine was not good. Abysmal isn’t a strong enough word for what I thought when we approached. I double-checked the address to ensure I hadn’t fucked it up while drunk, but I was reading it right. Unfortunately, this was Dr. Bernard Gee’s clinic. I landed the Vermillion on a pad that looked like a disco dance floor.

I grabbed my handgun, ready to use it if this was a waste of time. Thankfully, the clinic had an energy field around it so we could exit the ship and go inside without needing space suits or oxygen masks. Todd looked at me in surprise and asked if we were serious. I hoped I was right on this shit for his sake and the doctor’s. When we exited the ship, they blasted us with funky music. Jeff enjoyed it and was nodding his head to it, while I found it beyond fucking obnoxious.

“Well, this place is…lively,” Todd said.

I checked where Todd got bit. The feathers around the bite withered to a sickly gray, like they were dying. Todd noticed it too, and I could tell he was nervous. Someone came up to us, an android. She wasn’t walking. Instead, her feet were roller skates. She wore a tight sleeveless jumpsuit that was the closest one could get to a wearable acid trip, as the colors kept shifting and swirling as she skated up to us. I could only tell she was a nurse because of the damn hat on top of her big-ass red afro.

“Hello,” she said, giving us a warm smile.

“We’re here to see Dr. Bernard Gee.”

“I see.” She pulled up a list of appointments on her arm. “Right this way, please.”

She skated towards the entrance and opened the door for us. I don’t think Jeff was paying attention. He was too busy listening to disco music. Todd looked at me, obviously asking, “what the fuck are we doing here right now?”. I wish I had an answer other than “I’m wondering that myself” because I had no idea. We followed the nurse; her name was Nina, judging from the name tag. She led us inside and then skated behind the desk.

Even the interior looked like a goddamn disco. The ceiling had a mirror ball, and the floor changed colors and furniture was hard to see in the dark. No other patients were waiting there. I wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad sign. Nina signaled me to come up to her while she interacted with the holograms.

“Please explain your friend’s condition to the best of your knowledge.”

“Some vampire bitch bit him.”

Nina stopped, blitzed some commands into the system, and smiled politely. “Dr. BG will see you shortly. Please have a seat.”

“Don’t waste our time,” I warned her, sitting down.

“I assure you, Dr. Bernard Gee is a licensed professional.”

As she said this, a loud scream echoed throughout the clinic.

“Um, nurse, darling, I’m gonna need some help here,” a smooth, chill voice said over the intercom.

Nina kept her smile, but it felt forced. “Please excuse me for a moment.” She skated down the hall and into another room.

Todd’s eyes were bulging out of their sockets. “I’m gonna die, aren’t I?”

“If you do, they’re going with you,” I grumbled.

There were a few more screams from that room, followed by silence and a sound that reminded me of when I took a chainsaw to a mob boss’s stomach. The sound horrified Jeff and Todd. I almost kicked the door in, but they came out shortly after.

Dr. BG was…something. Long, curly hair, a thick, short beard, and a flowing mustache adorned his face. Dr. BG was taller than us and wore an all-white shimmering jumpsuit that exposed most of his chest. He also had a giant necklace on with a crazy, heavy amulet at the center. The doctor appeared almost human, except for the blue skin and two antennae on his head. He also wore roller skates. He looked like some sort of disco singer. You wouldn’t know he’s a doctor without the gloves and mask.

“Well, howdy there, I’m Doctor Bernard Gee. Just call me BG. Everybody does.”

This guy could not sit still to save his goddamn life. He was kind of dancing in place while talking. It was weird. I’m willing to bet this guy was higher than fucking Mount Everest.

“Yeah, um, can you help my friend? A vampire snacked on him.” I told him.

His silver eyes lit up. “Aw, dude, a vampire, why don’t you three follow me? Oh, and Nina, please clear my schedule.”

“You don’t have any other patients today.”

He snapped and pointed at her with both hands. “Groovy.”

We followed him into the room. Despite the medical equipment, the disco ambiance remained, complete with mirror ball and multicolored floor. He had Todd sit on the table, grabbed some of the usual medical stuff, and checked Todd. Even while doing this, I swear this dude was still fucking dancing. I wasn’t paying attention to most of the tests, but I watched when he got to the UV black light. Todd’s skin smoked, and the place smelled like grilled chicken. After turning off the light, Dr. BG jotted something down on his tablet.

Then he turned to us. “Well, it must be the Night Fever. We know how to cure it!” He spoke. Well, spoke wasn’t accurate. More like he sang it in a pretty damn good falsetto. Credit where credit is due.

“He has a lovely voice, man,” Jeff said.

“Right on dude,” he smiled. “But yes, he is turning into a thrall which is not good.”

“You know how to cure it!?” I asked.

“That’s right, but there’s a catch. The only way to stop him from turning is to kill the vampire that bit him. Once he’s a thrall, well, we’re gonna have an unpleasant decision on our hands.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” I growled, pulling out the handgun. “So there’s really nothing you can do?!”

“Now, now, I didn’t say that dude,” he touched a device mounted to the wall. “Nurse, get me serum CV-127-B.” He danced, skated back over to Todd, and grabbed a syringe. “Todd, I’m gonna hook you up with something that will buy you another twelve standard hours before you turn.”

Todd stared at the giant needle in horror. The syringe was insanely large and longer than my arm.

“W-why do you need a needle that big?” Todd asked, cowering away from it.

“Here’s the deal,” BG winced. “It’s gotta go into the bone marrow.”

The look of sheer “I am about to piss my pants” level of terror on Todd’s face was priceless. “D-did you say bone marrow?”

“Yes, I did. It has to go through the spine.”

“Aw shit!” Jeff shouted.

“Butch up Todd,” I said, trying not to laugh at him.

Nina came back with a giant vial of orange, glowing something. “Nina darling, please prep the patient.”

I could tell Todd wanted to run, but Nina stuck him with a sedative that calmed him down. He had to take his shirt off and lie on his back. They strapped him down to keep him from kicking and squirming too much, then Dr. BG got the big ass shot and swabbed Todd’s back. Todd mumbled and sobbed in absolute horror. Can’t say I blame him. That was a big fucking needle. Jeff couldn’t watch, but I whipped out my phone and filmed it. The needle had barely touched him before Todd started screaming like a little schoolgirl. I couldn’t keep the phone steady because I was laughing so hard.

“Nina, the Friday Funk playlist, please,” BG said.

Nina pressed a button, and funky disco music started blasting from speakers around us. Jeff and BG started nodding their heads to it. Nina had no expression and just watched. The music didn’t diminish Todd’s impressive screams. You would’ve thought we were water-boarding ducks back here. Todd relaxed briefly after being injected with the orange substance. Then he started flailing again, and his eyes turned red. I don’t mean just the white part. I mean the entire eye. Veins popped out on his face and arms like a bodybuilder flexing and posing. The scream then got several octaves lower, so it almost sounded like a grown man screaming his lungs out. He returned to normal after a few minutes. The doctor took out the needle, put a pad on his back, and taped it. After setting down the syringe, Dr. BG ran his hands through his hair and leaned against the wall.

“That was…something,” I said.

“Well, it seems to have worked. That’s an extra twelve standard hours to find this vampire.”

“Yeah, how do we find her?” I asked.

“Todd will do that for you,” Nina answered while checking him.

“Huh?”

“When he wakes up, he should know where she is. They are linked now. That link will get even stronger the closer he is to turning,” Nina spoke as she finished with Todd.

“How do y’all know so much about vampires?” Jeff asked.

“Oh well, I like to try and cure things people say are incurable. Have you ever heard of the Violet Plague on Kaon VI?”

I remembered hearing something about that. Two-thirds of the planet was dying from it. Then it stopped, and only a third of the people died. Which was still a metric shit load of people, but hey, it could’ve been worse.

“Well, my old team and I figured out a cure. We were going to try curing Night Fever next, but a vampire killed them. Now it’s just Nina and me.”

“Damn. That’s rough bro,” Jeff said while looking at Todd.

“I got a favor to ask. If y’all are going after this vampire, Nina and I want in.”

“You’re a doctor. How are you gonna help us?” I asked. He didn’t look like a fighter.

Dr. BG smiled, and he and Nina led us into another room. I saw a wall of crazy weapons when Nina pulled the curtain back. Most of them involved metal stakes and bottles of water.

“Let’s just say we have an unorthodox approach to treating those who have succumbed to the Night Fever around here.” Dr. BG skated closer to the weapon wall.

“Damn,” Jeff said.

I scratched my head. “How do you kill a vampire again?”

Dr. BG smiled and pulled a weapon off the wall. “Well, if it’s just a thrall, shooting them in the head, hitting them with UV light, or blowing their bodies apart will do just fine. A full vampire, now that, you gotta get ’em in the heart with a stake or douse ’em in holy water.”

“So, guns don’t work?” I asked.

“Bullets will only stun them momentarily. Laser and energy weapons will damage them, especially if you can shoot their limbs off. But you can’t kill them that way,” Nina answered.

“If you let us come with you, I’ll do you a solid and drop the medical bills for your friend there.” BG said, while inspecting the guns.

That was tempting. Medical bills were the last fucking thing my bank account needed right now. “Alright, you got yourself a deal.”

“Yeah!” He again said it with a falsetto, but this time, something weird happened. Clones appeared behind him. They were different colored and sang like he did, in perfect harmony.

Then they all vanished.

“What the heck was that?” Jeff asked, taking a step back like I did.

He tapped the amulet on his chest. “Oh yeah…that’s something this amulet lets me do.”

“You can make decoys of yourself?”

He nodded. “I can only do that for about a minute, maybe two, if I push it.”

I remember thinking how strange that was, especially since the decoys weren’t the same color as he was. Still, in the middle of a shootout or at a distance, you might fall for it. Even if only for a split second, that could be enough to end a fight.

“Neat,” I said. Then I looked at Nina. I was about to ask if she had any useful skills, but something happened.

“Edgy!” Todd shouted.

We ran back to the room. Todd shook and squirmed in his restraints.

“What?” I asked.

“I know where she is! She’s still on Noron!”

“Groovy, let’s cure your friend,” BG said with a grin.

“Oh, hell yeah!” I said as I drew my handgun.

Todd looked around the room, kinda confused about the whole situation. “Uh…can someone untie me, please?”

---

5. TODD

Upon finally reaching Noron, Edgy had everyone assemble in the armory to prepare for vampire killing. Hundreds of weapons filled the room as Edgy had weapons on the walls, in crates, and hanging from racks on the ceiling. I’m pretty sure several are considered WMDs. Everyone had giant lamps on their shoulders that emitted ultraviolet light. Edgy had me wearing a space suit to keep the light from burning me. Edgy then gave me one of BG’s guns. It looked like a revolver but with a bigger chamber housing small metal stakes.

“Take it,” Edgy said while he grabbed one rifle similar to the pistol, but bigger. I carefully took it and turned it over in my flippers. “Just don’t shoot your eye out.”

Jeff and I aren’t good at firefights, but Edgy felt we needed as many people as possible. Nina opened a pouch and showed the grenades, but the sides were transparent. It seemed to contain liquid. It almost looked like water, but it had a strange white glow.

“What is that?” I asked.

“Holy water,” she said. “Don’t let that get on your skin. It’ll burn like acid.”

“O-okay.”

The doctor grabbed a grenade for himself. “Hey man, you wouldn’t happen to know what this vampire is called, would you?”

“She said her name is Thory.”

Dr. BG stopped dancing and stared at me. “Oh, that might be a problem.”

Edgy raised an eyebrow as he finished loading the rifle. “Problem?”

Dr. BG spun and anxiously scratched the back of his neck. “Vampires get more powerful with age, and Thory is ancient.”

“H-how ancient?” I asked, fearing the answer.

He shrugged. “I dunno, at least three thousand years old.”

“Shit,” Jeff said before nervously drinking his soda.

“Okay, so we gotta kill a really old bitch, big deal,” Edgy grumbled as he headed for the exit. “Wouldn’t be the first time I’ve killed something over a thousand years old.”

“A little cocky, isn’t he?” Nina asked.

“Oh, he’s serious,” I replied as I felt the ship docking.

“It’s go time,” Edgy said, leaving the armory.

When we exited the ship, Edgy told me to lead the way. Many people stared at us; to be fair, we looked like we were about to walk into a warzone. That was not far off.

“Alright, Todd, where is the bitch?” Edgy asked.

I shut my eyes. I don’t know how this works, but I could see her somehow. It was like mind-controlling a camera. Thory wore a backless white dress with her hair tied back in a large bun. She held a glass of blood in one hand and…what appeared to be someone’s jugular in the other. Thory had the vein in the glass and used it like a water cooler. As she filled her glass, she looked around and tapped her foot as if waiting for something. Then she shoved her unfortunate victim onto the ground and stood up. From the balcony, Thory observed the dance floor. I could tell this wasn’t the same nightclub she attacked me in; while searching, I found a name on a screen.

Afterlife.

As soon as I saw it, my view returned to her. Thory turned around to face me, leaned against the rail, and smirked.

“Finally come back to me, Todd?” Her voice echoed throughout my mind. She raised up the hand caked in blood and licked it. “Well, don’t keep me waiting.”

Someone grabbed me. I screamed and jumped. I was standing on the platform with Edgy and the others.

“You good?”

I ignored the question, accessed a wall display, and located it on a map. I pointed to it for Edgy and told him Thory was there, and she knew we were coming.

“Right on Todd, let’s get this party started,” Dr. BG said.

Dread built in my stomach as we got on the elevator. It felt like I had an ever tightening noose around my neck. We didn’t waste any time reaching the club. Cadence was miniscule compared to Afterlife. It was a giant black tower covered in neon lights with buttresses and other gothic architecture across it. Holographic banners ran down the sides of the angular tower, displaying advertisements for drink specials and other attractions of the nightclub. Even if I didn’t know about the vampire lord, this place felt evil. I grew increasingly ill as we got closer to it. I had knots in my stomach, and my head was pounding.

That wasn’t the worst of it.

I started seeing her. She was there one moment, gone the next, when I blinked. Thory taunted me every time I saw her. The doctor believed she was trying to control me, but the medicine would temporarily prevent it. Instead of waiting in line, Edgy started threatening people with his gun. The security bots tried to stop us. Edgy nonchalantly shot them with stakes, impaling them against the walls.

“That was…brutal,” Nina remarked while grimacing.

I refrained from looking at the aftermath. Edgy kicked the doors open and stormed inside. More security androids moved to stop us, but before Edgy could attack, the robots powered down. The club’s music stopped, and then I heard clapping. Some lights shined onto the upper level. She was there, leaning over the railing.

“Aw, couldn’t stay away, Todd?” Her voice, it wasn’t just coming out of her mouth. I was also hearing it in my mind. She scooped up her wine glass filled with blood and took a sip. “And you brought friends, how sweet of you,” she giggled.

Edgy fired the rifle. Thory moved to dodge it. He missed her, but he hit her glass. Blood coated her face, dress, and hand. Edgy fired again. She exploded into a cloud of mist.

“Ooh, a feisty one. I’ll enjoy bleeding you dry.”

I heard a ringing in my head. My brain felt like it was on fire. I almost fell over; I couldn’t stand upright. Then I saw them. Almost half the clubgoers glared at us, and their eyes shone blood red. The other patrons stepped away from them. Thory descended on the bar back, became solid, and lounged on it, not looking at us.

“Kill them, but bring me those two alive,” she pointed at Edgy and me.

The clubgoers started snarling, and I watched them transform. Their hands became bigger and clawed, and I could tell they were growing fangs. At least a hundred of them were looking at us like hungry teens eyeing a hot pizza.

“This might’ve been a bad idea,” Dr. BG said.

We were severely outnumbered. Thrall bartenders climbed over the bar to attack. Edgy looked over his shoulder at us and nodded.

“Let’s rock!”

Together, we faced away from each other and pressed our shoulder pad buttons. The UV lights activated, and a horde of thralls caught fire and screamed in pain. Edgy started unloading into the ones that dodged the lights. A bartender swung from the ceiling at me. I raised my revolver and fired twice, missing both.

I grazed him with the light, and the skin on his sides melted and burned away. The nightclub quickly filled up with vapor from the burning corpses. I’m glad I couldn’t smell anything through the space suit. The bartender pounced. I fired again. I missed, but the thrall exploded into a pile of ash before it slashed me. Turning around, I saw Dr. BG there with a smoking gun.

“Now, this right here is a party!” He proclaimed while turning on his music and connecting it to the club’s speakers.

Despite being in a battle, BG still danced to his music while shooting! Somehow, he was more accurate than me! Loud, funky disco music became the soundtrack to this intense fight. I looked around. Despite our UV lights, they were still coming and doing their best to avoid them. Edgy emptied his gun into them, killing several before he had to eject the cylinder. One thrall moved in to kill him. I raised the gun and fired.

The creature exploded into cinders and ash as the metal stake pierced its heart. Edgy nodded to me as he loaded another cylinder into his gun. The partygoers that were not vampires ran as best as they could. I steered clear of hitting anyone who wasn’t one of those creatures, though it was a madhouse. I don’t think Edgy cared who he hit.

I heard a snarl from above me. I looked up, and the lights hit the thrall. Not enough to kill him. He pounced on me, knocking me down and the gun out of my flipper. The creature snarled and struck the lights on my shoulders, destroying its own hands and taking away my primary defense. It reeled back in pain after shattering the lights. Then a vial of holy water hit it, and its body melted like a candle. Nina grabbed me by the shoulder and helped me up.

“You alright?”

“Y-yeah, but m-my lights are down!”

She tossed me a new pistol and told me to stay in the center of them. She and Dr. BG frantically attempted to make up for losing light, but this was not going well: they still outnumbered us. Edgy took the brunt of it from the front. He emptied his rifle into the enemy, dropped it on the floor, and pulled out two pistols. I came behind him to help as best as possible, but most of my shots missed. When the handguns ran out, he tossed them and drew another pistol that wasn’t firing stakes. When he shot one thrall, the round exploded, only leaving a bloody stump.

“This is getting a little dicey!” Dr. BG called.

One of his lights was down too! Nina screamed and fell to the ground next to me with a giant slash to her chest. They disabled one of her lights. She kicked the thrall, and a stake sprouted from her foot mid-kick. She hit it in the heart, and it exploded into a pile of ash.

I looked back at Edgy. He fired two more explosive rounds and chucked the holy water grenades, but they were still coming! When the handgun clicked, I thought he was out of weapons. I was mistaken. He holstered the handgun and drew a shotgun from his lower back that was hidden under his coat.

“I’m running out of moves!” He announced as he fired a shell at several thralls. The little needles inside the shell exploded as they embedded in their targets.

“We need to split!” Dr. BG said.

“How cute. You think I’m going to let you leave?” Thory’s voice boomed.

I shifted my gaze to her previous position. I was too late. A javelin of coagulated blood smashed into Edgy.

He went flying towards one of the couch areas.

“Edgy!” I screamed while running over to him.

I couldn’t tell if the blood on the off-white couch belonged to him. As I got near him, Edgy sat up slowly, and I saw where it had hit him. It struck the light on his shoulder, but worse, it hit the battery pack. He was out of lights! Edgy ripped off the shoulder lights and stood up. He grabbed a bottle and drank from it. It happened so fast. Edgy grabbed me by the front of my suit, dragged me down with one flipper, then came forward and crowned the thrall behind me with the bottle. I spun around right as Edgy brought up the shotgun and fired. The blast knocked it across the club, then it exploded.

Before either of us could say anything, Thory chucked another javelin. This time she hit BG. Again, she went for the lights. She was toying with us! A shiver ran down my spine, and I gulped. More thralls came from above as we ran out of lights.

I realized Edgy’s intention as he stood on a bar back and pumped the shotgun. He fired at Thory. The explosive flechette rounds didn’t reach her. A wall of blood erected between her and the blast, absolutely insulating her from it. She didn’t flinch or react to him.

“Over here, old bitch!” Edgy shouted at the top of his lungs.

Her expression changed. Thory’s eyes narrowed as she hissed and showed her fangs. Now she was livid, and my stomach was in knots. She raised her hand and pointed to him.

“Bring. Me. His. Tongue!”

The thralls snapped towards Edgy in scary unison. Without realizing it, I had done the same thing. Then Thory tossed another spear. Edgy dove behind the bar and began firing blindly over the counter.

“BG! Get them out of here. I’ll buy you some time!”

I wanted to object, but BG snatched me while skating by. Nina had Jeff under her arm while she skated towards the exit. Panic ensued outside as the city’s cops set up a perimeter.

“You gents might wanna clear out now.” Dr. BG said while switching off his music.

They didn’t have the time to speak. Burning thralls erupted out of windows on the upper level. They crashed amongst the cops and immediately ripped into them like a plate of ribs. Absolutely horrific. The surviving cops panicked and opened fire while we weaved past them. More of them poured out of the building as we escaped the perimeter.

Then the club exploded. The shockwave knocked us all down. My ears were ringing from the loud boom. I could still feel the heat even with the space suit’s protective layers. I turned over onto my back to observe the situation. The explosion had blown half of the nightclub’s lower levels to bits. Amidst the lull of the flames, I spotted him. Edgy stood there in the thick of it, shrouded in a fiery orange-red aura. He had his shotgun mounted on his back.

He didn’t need a gun.

A thrall rose to attack him. Edgy kicked it. As he did, a wall of heat slammed into it, vaporizing the creature. Thory hovered above with a pair of bat-like wings sprouting from her back. The attack shredded and singed her dress, but her body was unharmed.

“Holy cow!” Dr. BG exclaimed.

“Yeah, he does that,” Jeff said.

As Edgy stood there, I watched the remaining metal beams glow orange like they were in a forge. The air distorted from all the heat. Edgy trembled with unhinged rage. I don’t know how he got these powers, but they’re fueled by anger and you don’t want to experience them.

More thralls erupted out of the rubble to charge him. Edgy rushed them. He leaped into the air, brought both arms overhead, and slammed them on the ground. A shockwave of destruction traveled across the ground, disintegrating them on contact.

Then Thory attacked. I tried to shout, but the explosions, police sirens, and gunfire drowned me out. Thory slammed into Edgy, knocking him down. If the heat he put out affected her, I couldn’t tell. Edgy rose to his feet, blood trickling from his beak. Dr. BG moved to assist. However, the thralls were too many, and they targeted us.

“Split!”

I got to my feet and followed his lead, but I looked over my shoulder, hoping Edgy would be alright. I couldn’t shake the feeling that he was in trouble. Running, a voice in my head made me stop. I wanted to move, but I couldn’t do it. Only my eyes moved.

“You cannot escape,” her voice said.

It sounded like it came from all around us. My vision changed. I was high above the wrecked nightclub. Edgy was still fighting Thory. Her claws had torn up his clothes as she kicked him into what remained of a bar. Edgy erupted out of it in a berserk charge. He caught her by the neck, slammed her into the ground, then dragged her across it, ripping it up. She rose, and Edgy’s flipper crashed into her jaw, dislocating it and sending her flying. Growling like a beast, he pursued as she crawled to her feet.

She kicked him in the ribs and knocked him back. Then, using her wings, she sailed into the air out of his reach. Edgy stumbled to his feet. His aura was fading, and he couldn’t stand upright.

I heard a snarl, and somehow, I had control over myself.

I saw it a second too late. The thrall slashed my helmet and hit it so hard that he tore through the visor and almost ripped out my eye. The blow knocked me off my feet. I fumbled for the gun, but the thrall smacked it out of my flipper. I was good as dead. Then a stake slammed into its chest, and it exploded. I looked over my shoulder, unable to breathe. Dr. BG stood there.

“Whatcha doing on your back?” Before I could answer him, he summoned light clones of himself. “You should be running! Yeah!” They all sang in perfect harmony.

That’s when I noticed the thirty thralls barreling towards me. I ran like hell. As we were nearing the ship, something flew overhead. It crashed into a car and a shop near us. We all stopped in our tracks, and so did the thralls. As the smoke dissipated, I recognized Edgy and Thory. Edgy rolled over and slowly tried to rise. Before he got up, Thory snapped her jaw back in place. With her torn, burnt dress and blood-red eyes, she looked like a demon. Thory raised her leg high into the air and brought it down like a guillotine on the back of Edgy’s head, dropping him and cracking the ground beneath him. Thory extended her fangs. She never touched him. A stake went through her chest, almost taking her down. BG was the one who fired the shot.

Much to our horror, it didn’t hit her heart.

Thory apathetically reached up and began pulling the metal spike out of her body with no signs of pain. As she finished, the damage to her body healed completely. BG tried to shoot again, but his gun clicked.

“Aw, man,” BG said.

“Now you understand. You will not leave this planet alive.” She crept towards us, her hands becoming claws, “I’m going to take my time killing you all.”

No way we would get past Thory and her incoming army of minions. A hailstorm of gunfire erupted from our left. The city cops unloaded into Thory. Their shots were as deadly as snowballs and only made her flinch. It did anger her into ignoring us and attacking them by summoning more blood spikes, using her own blood to create them. While the cops distracted Thory, Edgy made his move. He tackled her. He failed to knock her down, but that wasn’t the goal. When she opened her mouth to bite, he shoved something in there. I heard it crack, and then Thory screamed in pain. She shoved Edgy away and flew into the air.

I caught of glimpse of what had happened. Most of her face and throat were melting! He hit her with holy water. She retreated, and as I looked around, so did her minions. Jeff and I ran to help Edgy. He was barely awake as we dragged him back towards the hangar.

We quickly boarded the ship to leave the city before the police could question us. I knew Thory wasn’t gone for good as we took off. She bombarded my mind with vulgar insults. I don’t want to repeat the messed-up things she said.