Officer Benson had already dealt with two drunk and disorderlies since his shift had started four hours earlier. One of them went home with a friend and the other was locked up in a drying-out cell at the police station. That was about normal for this time of night but after the witching hour he knew he’d have to call for backup on every call. Once the people of this city have a few drinks in them they can get very rowdy and after five years on the night shift, Officer Benson had the scars to prove it.
He picked up his third call of the night, which sounded like more of the same. An anonymous call came from the Paparazzi nightclub, saying that two young men had barged their way into the club and proceeded to knock hell out of each other.
Officer Benson suspected this wasn’t the truth. He had dealt with the security staff at Paparazzi before and knew they liked to teach wrongdoers a lesson but the punishment was always a little too harsh for the crime. The police department happily turned a blind eye to this kind of behaviour, as long as no one was seriously injured and the victims learned their lesson.
Officer Benson agreed with this philosophy. There had been endless ‘stop drinking’ campaigns and non-stop propaganda to point out the ills of alcohol consumption but the authorities were starting to realise that all people want to do when they finish their shifts is go out, get drunk and act like idiots.
It’s twenty-first century human nature.
As he turned his patrol car round the corner past the hospital, Officer Benson considered going into the club but thought he’d check the usual dropping off point for people who’ve been ejected: the dumpsters in the alley round the back.
He stopped his car and got out, seeing Josh looking into one of the dumpsters. As he unclipped his handcuffs, Officer Benson shouted to the young man, ‘Are you okay, son? What have you been up to tonight?’
Josh didn’t move an inch. As he approached the dumpster, Officer Benson noticed that the young man looked very scared. He had bruises and scratches on his blood-drained face. No doubt he was coming to terms with the beating he had just received. Officer Benson tried to offer words of encouragement. ‘Don’t worry, son. The bruises will heal. You’ll feel a lot better in the morning.’
Not two seconds later, the blood-soaked naked body of Officer Myers leapt out of the dumpster, grabbed the young man by the neck and threw him against the wall. Josh slumped to the ground, completely still.
Officer Benson drew his gun and pointed it at the naked man. Like everyone else who had seen Officer Myers since his rebirth, he couldn’t believe his eyes.
Blood was pouring down his face, coating his chest.
His eyes looked like they were staring straight through him.
His canine teeth were unnaturally long.
Am I looking at a real life vampire? I can’t be! More importantly, will the bullets in my gun take it down?
Before he had a chance to try and deal with this freak of nature, he heard an engine roaring behind him. He spun round to see a pair of bright lights moving towards him at high speed. He jumped out of the way and hit the ground just as the car stopped where he had been standing. Officer Myers was face to face with a hubcap. He breathed a sigh of relief to be alive.
Looking up, he saw a dog’s head hanging out of the back window, barking like mad. It was all so unreal, everything appeared to happen in slow motion. A tall, very pale man got out of the car and extended a hand to Officer Myers.
‘I’m here to help you. Get in the car and I’ll take you to safety,’ he said in a soft yet purposeful voice.
Very slowly, Officer Myers shuffled towards the tall man, who put an arm round him and guided him into the back seat of the car, next to the dog which had stopped barking.
The tall man got back into the driver’s seat and the car screeched out of the alley. Officer Benson got to his feet and ran to pick up the radio from his patrol car.
I definitely need backup on this call.
No comments:
Post a Comment