127, Silicon Street,
Belltown
Perium city
Kettlia Region
October 9th 6414
4:30 pm
Old man Roe...The proprietor of the building in Silicon street- was shocked to find himself leading the stranger up the stairs to room six-three-six. It wasn't long ago when the former residents decided to pack up and leave even though their lease contract had barely expired. He had been glad that someone had finally purchased a room in this goddess-forsaken building that his old man had left him. The building required repair, the few tenants that he had complained about the heat and gas. He wished he could fix the building up so that he could have more tenants but credit was tight especially now that the economy was in deep shit. Ever since the New King had taken over the throne, things had gotten harder for the human race in the kingdom. New rules and laws had been passed to discriminate against them. Jobs that had been available were all gone. A year ago he had been laid off from the construction work that he had. Now, this building was all the source of income that he had and he was barely scraping by it. It had been frustrating when the residents of room six-three-six had gone but the man... no, the vampire had paid a hefty sum of credit to him before he had left with those two strange girls. He didn't ask questions and was glad to not know anything. People pay to live here because they were running from something. But it seems whatever had been after them had finally found its way here. Old Roe turned to peek at the stranger. He was wearing a straw hat, a long black raincoat, and cowboy boots. If Old Roe had to guess.. this man was a bounty hunter. He had that vibe about him. And he had seen enough bounty hunters to know that playing along with their request was the smart choice. Especially in this case as this one was different. Something about him had freaked Old Roe out. He did not care for the credits enough to die. So he found himself opening room six-three-six to the bounty hunter.
*
Lee Abernathy perched himself on the threshold of the door to the room. He raised his hands towards it and an invisible barrier pushed against his fingers. As he thought, the room had been bought in a human name which meant that he, a Vampire, was forbidden from entering the room. A smart move by Sanders, no doubt about it. Which meant that the Kain girl was traveling with them. He could rent the room with her name and seeing that she was with them, they had no hard time coming in or out. But any other Vampire would not be allowed to enter. Mother nature's pathetic way of giving the inferior humans an ace up a sleeve in the food chain.
"I take it that the former resident's lease hasn't expired yet," Lee asked.
"Not for another two years." Old Roe said. Smart move. If the R.E.T.U were to ever find this place, they would be unable to search for clues inside the room. But Lee was no ordinary bounty hunter or Vampire. He raised his coat and out of it, came flying M.S.B (mechanical scouting bats.) They were the latest batch of biotech drones that had been designed by Bathory Corporation. He had been outfitted with them when he had taken this job and now he was about to use them. The M.S.B flew into the room and Lee synched his right eye which was bionic to the sensory unit of the drones. This way he could see everything that the Bats saw. He was in the living room which wasn't that big. The kitchen seemed attached to the living room. The paintings on the wall were peeling away. Nothing much to see here. The entire room was vacant. Even the master bedroom and the second room down the hallway were empty. They had made sure to wipe out all traces of them before leaving. Lee turned to Old Roe.
"Does the building still have any records of their going in and out," he asked Old Roe. Sketchy buildings such as this one were known to have nanite-sized cameras embedded within the walls. That way when Bounty hunters such as he were to ever come looking for their prey, guys like the old man could use it to make some extra cash. The old man nodded.
"Show me."
Old Roe took him to his office where he had kept all video recordings. To be honest, Old Roe had never had much need for the room. It wasn't like he wanted to use the recordings to make money off poor souls who needed a place to hide. But he was not going to lie about the recordings to protect them. He had to worry about his skin. They got into his office and Old Roe sat on his chair by his desk. He switched his uni-monitor on and brought up the video recording of room six-three-six.
"Let me see it." Old Roe stood up to let the Vampire sit on the chair. He made sure to put some distance against the Hunter. The grey hair on his skin was stinging with worry. Something didn't feel right in his gut. The Vampire's face looked bored as he watched the video of the residents going about their lives. "Do you have audio?" Old Roe shook his head. The audio capacity of the building was one of the things he couldn't fix. The Vampire paused the video on one of the girls. It was the tall, dark-skinned girl with an ugly scar on her lips. As much as the others had freaked Old Roe out, something about that girl had felt off to Old Roe. The Vampire's lips opened up in a smile, his fanged teeth revealed to Old Roe.
"So she's with them," Lee said. "How wonderful." Old Roe watched as the Vampire chose to delete the videos. Everything that had been recorded.
"What are you doing? You can't just delete-" It was faster than Old Roe could see. He stumbled backward on the wall. Blood gushed out of his neck. Old Roe's hand went to stop the bleeding but it was too late. So much blood flowing out of the neck. The bounty hunter watched as the old man struggled. He bent against the Human and bought his right-hand fingers, filled with the man's blood- up to his tongue. He licked it, the rush of sublime energy filled him. Human blood was so amazing. Nothing in the world could ever beat the feeling of live human blood. Not even the garbage synth blood that the world was pushing upon them.
"I thank thee, O great divine Mother for this food. May your gift, the eternal night watch and guide over me." The Vampire prayed before he sank his fangs into the man's neck for good.