A Vial of Life(75)

Whatever these creatures were, it appeared that they’d done something to anger the people of the Tavern. Julie’s sharks however, seemed to be far stronger and faster than any of the ships chasing after us. The ship endured another shower of cannon balls, but then the sharks managed to create more distance between us and the attackers and they could no longer reach us. Then it seemed that the aggressors slowed and gave up altogether.

As my eyes drifted over the rows of squirming vampires, my blood ran cold. One of them appeared to be thrashing about in particular pain. He looked different than the others, too—his skin much whiter and his body emaciated. He reached a hand up into his mop of thick brown hair and, closing his fist around it, began to tug violently. A clump pulled away in his hand. He dropped it to the floor and then slid both hands against his skull to draw out two more clumps. By the fifth pull, the hair seemed to be coming out much more easily—he barely even needed to tug. Just running his fingers against his scalp seemed to cause masses to shed… until he had not even a single strand left.

Rolling over on his stomach, he gathered himself together and stood up shakily to his full height. His gaunt face contorted, he teetered on his feet and began tearing the clothes from his body as though they were on fire. Then his eyes set forward and fixed on the frightful creatures standing in a pack on the other side of the deck.

The one who’d motioned to attack me loped forward and grabbed the hand of the sickly vampire, pulling him over to join the rest of its wraithlike comrades. It was as the vampire stood next to the creature, and I gazed at their faces side by side—growing more eerily alike by the moment—that the chilling realization crashed down upon me like a bucket of ice shards.

I couldn’t believe the sight, and yet I knew that I was not hallucinating.

Taking place before my very eyes was a phenomenon that I was certain had never occurred before in all of supernatural history.

God forbid… Could this really be happening?