Hell Found Me...A Short Story

“Hell found me”

The low hanging light flickered overhead as the detective leaned forward, placing a tape recorder on the table in front of me, his large chubby fingers pressing play before he sat back his stern features lost in the shadows just beyond the table that I was handcuffed to.

“Tell me” he prompted the flare of flame from his lighter as he drew back on the cigarette made me close my eyes.

The image of her burning as the flames licked over her perfect skin flashed behind my eyelids. Gasping for breath I sat back, shaking as my hands balled into tight fists.

“At this point Mr…” with a sigh the detective looked down at his notes “Hagen, you are going to charged, so if you have anything to say at all now is the time to do it”

Lifting my head I stared at his eyes,

“Do you believe in the devil detective?” my voice was still raw and raspy as I cleared my throat

With a confident smile the cop shook his head, “no, mankind has been blaming…”

“He believes in you” I couldn’t help the dark humourless smile that twisted my lips, “Trust me detective…” peering into the darkness I read his nametag easily “Cooper, he knows you”

“What happened to your girlfriend Hagen? Where did all the blood come from?” the tone was a little less friendly now, as he leaned into the light, his face stern as he glared at me.

“Did you kill her?”

“Jessica?” the sound of her scream as she tried to escape echoed in my ears again as I shook my head slowly. Staring at the blood covering my hands I couldn’t help but flinch as he watched my every expression.

“I didn’t kill her” Looking up slowly I met his judgemental eyes “you did”

Giving a short snort of a laugh the detective shook his head, “Haven’t heard that one before, are you forgetting that it was you found in a house covered in blood?”

Ignoring him I stared into my memories as her face seemed to float behind him.

“Jessica was beautiful, inside and out” my voice seemed to strengthen with every word, “just meeting her made people feel special”

“Is that why you killed her?”

“It’s why she was chosen, lured here to your town” my fingers tightened around the steel of the handcuffs, Jessica was the only good thing I had ever had in my life, she had made every bad thing in my life fade into nothing with just a smile and a soft touch. What this town had done to her was unforgivable.

“Arriving here she found hell all dressed up, waiting for her” moving my eyes from her haunting image I glared back at him. My anger starting to swell again as I looked into his eyes, evil hiding behind a badge, with no idea of the danger he had placed him self in.

We hadn’t known the danger we were in, as we had packed for the free holiday she won, arriving at the old manor had seemed a dream come true, its old world beauty, charming as the staff had fawned over her arrival. Perfect, until the other guests awoke for the night.

“They came for her straight away,” Holding his gaze I refused to look away. “Tearing at her like vultures as she tried to escape” There had been so many of the pale strangers with their glowing eyes that we never had a chance.

Forced to watch her struggle the demons had pinned me down, their fangs flashing as they bit into my body, so many times I lost count, leaving me to drain out on the marble floor.

“She was taken to the masters chambers, like some lamb for his feast “My lips curled up over my teeth as I growled. I could do nothing more but scream her name, left to die in misery in the dark empty room my throat growing raw as I cursed them all.

The chair the detective was sitting on rocked backwards with his shock as he fell to the floor, his eyes wide he scrambled to his feet, staring at my face dumbly  

“Are you alright detective?” my head tilted to the side, the sight of my teeth lost to him as I frowned.

His breathing ragged he nodded as his gaze flickering to the handcuffs still around my wrist’s keeping me firmly secured to the table.

Pulling the chair back up, he ran a hand over his bald head before sitting gingerly down again.

“Let me get this right, your now blaming your other victims for the murder of your girlfriend?”

“Victims?” again I couldn’t help the evil smirk that crossed my face “How many bodies do you have detective?”

“You’re covered in blood Hagen, and not a scratch on you, looks awfully suspicious”

I had lain lost for a long time neither dead nor alive, my blood pooling around me trembling as the heavy footsteps crossed the crimson surface.

His eyes intense in the darkness, he had kneeled down in my blood, his words filled with evil promise as her screams faded beyond my mortal hearing. Ignoring the light that tried to beckon me, I had turned to him, grasping his hand with the last of my strength; his eyes had glowed before he had dragged me into hell.

“Hagen!” Looking back at the cop I blinked my eyes refocusing on his tanned face slowly.

“What happened to Jessica?”

“The master had chosen her for his new bride” She had died on satin sheets in the arms of a stranger, tears on her cheeks and my name on my lips. The images had haunted me again and again feeding my rage past anything my mortal body would have been able to handle. Leaving me filled with nothing but vengeance and anger, a never-ending thirst I happily accepted.

“So she left you,” the cop gave a smirk in the darkness, “Is that why you killed her and everyone else?”

“You are a fool” how I hated this man, with his smooth voice and bald head. “I killed all of them because of what they made Jessica” Leaning closer to the tape recorder I glared at him “A vampire”

Meeting my eyes the man swallowed hard, “You keep working that insanity defence” his voice not as strong or as smooth as it had been, the glow in my eyes making his heart beat faster as he looked back at the interview room door

“She tried to escape,” my voice dropping to a low whisper, “found an unlocked door, by the time the sun hit her body she was too far from the manor to return. The flames…” my voice stopped as the memory threatened to break my careful control.

Nothing I experienced in climbing out of hell had been close to the agony of finding her burning. Everywhere the sun touched her newly changed flesh; flames would burst across the once creamy skin. Her horrified screams as she reached for me were going to haunt me for all time.

The blood that coated my clothes was only the start of my vengeance, so much more had been promised me,

“I think we have enough” His voice was shaky as his hand reached out to turn off the tape recorder. “Robert Hagen you are under arrest…”

Snapping the handcuffs without thought, my fingers snaked around his wrist as I pulled him to me, my right hand tight over his mouth.

“Do you really think I will take the blame for your crime?” I growled my carefully controlled rage finally snapping as he struggled. “How many other girls did you send free holidays?” Pushing him away I muttered a word of power as the door he was racing for melded with the walls, trapping him in the room.

“How many did you send to that house of horrors?”

Running frantic hands over the now smooth walls, he turned to face me his hand finally reaching for his gun, pausing as I shook my head.

“What are you?”

I no longer knew every day in hell had been a minute here, the torture of my change was not something I was willing to think about right now.

“Answer the question” I growled again as the darkness stated to cover my skin, the back of my shirt ripping as I towered over him. My thoughts becoming more clear to me as I breathed in his fear.

“I  ...I  ...Had no choice, the vampires have always been here, and I had to…to protect the township...”

“You lure girls that you know the vampires will like, with fake competitions, never caring what the hell happens to them, as long as you and yours are safe?”

“I’m sorry, we have no choice”

“There is always a choice,” flexing the claws that had extended from my fingers I snarled “and now I have to fulfil mine”

With a quick thrust he was doubled over, bleeding over the floor as he tried to hold his stomach together.

“You have to die, Detective cooper” sighing I drank deeper of my rage, “you betrayed your own kind for the devil, and soon you will seek redemption,” leaning down I dragged his head up by his hair. “And he doesn’t want that, forgiveness for all you have done here” the very thought of it made the demonic fangs in my mouth lengthen, “you don’t deserve to be forgiven!”

Without a thought I threw him across the room, turning my face away from the spray of blood and intestines as he landed in a crumpled mess, his face pale as he gasped for breath.

“Hell has finally found you detective,” looking down at him I smiled as I held my hand out to her. Drawing her out from the shadow’s where my new powers had hidden her, her every step painful as her burnt skin flacked off behind her.

The smell of her burnt charred flesh filling the small room as he screamed, His voice raw with fear as he tried to drag himself away from her bloody touch. her lipless mouth filling with vampiric fangs as I pinned him beneath her...

                                                      ***********

In a year’s time the small town stood empty, those that hadn’t died in the unexplained murder spree had left without even bothering to try and sell the houses in a town now considered cursed. Watching the last car’s headlights disappear into the night I smiled, taking her scarred hand we walked back into the manor, back into the hell that had become our home.