𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐀

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My eyes fell down, and I beheld the sight to a fat scaly creature crawling out from the hole my foot was stuck in and slinking up my legs and underneath my patch fabric frock gown. I could see its patterned scales of varying dirt browns, tarnished yellows, and murky black bend and coil, while it glided up my body.

“Whoowee, Dios mio!” Sister Quinn hummed. She bent down to her knees, cigar poking out her mouth. “What a nasty smuck!” She excitedly observed the snake’s bristly tail, before looking up to me and laughing. “Vete con Dios!”  

I couldn’t move a single muscle in body as the snake wrapped its tendrils around me, moving up my body faster than I could stiffly blink.

Every hair on the back of my neck rocketed upwards. I was constricted in place as the reptile roped its hold around me in its entirety. It slithered around my ribs and crept along my chest, gradually tying a taut noose around my neck.

Rattle!

Around the heel of my foot, I had saw the snake’s stripped black and white tail rattling. Finally, I became aware of  that nagging rattle sound I hadn’t registered.

Rattle! Rattle!

It buzzed so loudly it may as well been alarm bells clashing. Even louder than the thrashing sound of its ringing tail was its screeching hiss and snarl as it restrained my neck.

I wanted to scream, but the terror locked my tongue in place. The only that could fight against the petrifying horror were my shaking hands skyrocketing towards my neck. I knew one thing---I had to get it off.

“Hold your horses, twinkle.” Sister Quinn shook her head. “Don’t agitate that fellow.”

As if on time with her response, the snake vehemently hissed louder at my sudden sporadic movements, wrapping even tighter around me.

“Then get if off me!” I snapped.  

She tapped her cigar, eyeing me deviously. “Who you talking to, twinkle toes?”

“Sister Quinn! Get it off me!” I could feel scaly skin scratch against mines. “Get it off me, now!” I wailed in cringing dread.

She stood up straight, swiping at her nose. “Look at that pattern.” Her eyes examined the snake with animated mirth. “That’s a rattlesnake if I’ve ever seen one.”

Hiss!

It hissed so loudly the sound cut through my eardrums.

Sister Quinn, placed a hand on her hip, chewing on her cigar. “Look at them fangs.” She squints watching with a face contrary to my horror.

Hiss!

I was at eye level with the hissing snake, its spliced purple tongue flaring out while its bulbous bright yellow eyes battle with the fear in mines.

“Quinn!” I screeched, desperate for help. “Get if off me!”

“Ah-ah-ah.” Sister Quinn tutted. “Either say my name right, or don’t use it all.”

“S-Sister Quinn! Please!” I shrieked, the nearly choking on my own words.

“I hear,” she said, drinking her words. “They pack a deadly punch in those tiny little fangs.”  

Hiss!

The snake widened its mouth, exposing the dark fleshy pink of its mouth and the pointed tip of its perfectly bite sized fangs.

“Sister Quinn!” I was nearly at tears.

Unaffected by my wails, she continued to smoke her cigar. “What?” she questioned, as if she couldn’t see me shaking like a leaf and seconds away from wetting myself.

“Get this snake off me!”

She looked at my shivering body up and down. “You afraid of snakes, girl?”

“Just get it off me!”

She smacked her lips and snorted. “You know a critter little snake won’t kill ya, right? They fear you more than you fear them.”

“The snake around my neck says otherwise!” My voice cracked.

My reply got a little chuckle out of her. “A snake won’t kill ya. But, a snake bite will,” she emphasized with a smirk. “One little bite from that venomous sucker?” She points to my constricted neck and shakes her head. “We’re talking the shivers, swelling, nausea---the whole gang.”

Time felt nearly frozen as the snake continued to strangle me.

I felt glued in place waiting for the moment for the hissing snake to attack.

“S-Sister Quinn!” I stuttered, my lips trembling.

She didn’t move a muscle as she met my frightened eyes. Instead, she tapped ashes from her cigar and opened her mouth to sing out the words, “Pop Quiz time!”

She was the only one smiling.

 “How many fangs do Vampires have?”

My knees were ready to cave out as the snake watched me through its gigantic eyes. “Please,” I cried out, “just help me!”

“How many?” She tilted her head.

“….4.” I spat through gritted teeth, knowing, there was not a chance I was getting any kind of help if I didn’t.

“Bingo!” She clapped her hand on her arm. “Two at the top and two at the bottom. What’s the difference between the top row and bottom of their fangs?”

Hiss!

The guttural hissings were getting quieter, yet even more intense as it waited for me to try even just wriggling my neck. It was getting harder to breathe with every passing excruciating second.

“The top…” I whimpered with a weakening voice. “The top… the top row of their fangs are typically used for feeding. The bottom row is… is… used for turning.”

“Bullseye, friend!” She chortled. “Those evil fuckers will munch on a person all day and all night with their primary fangs, but once they pull out the secondary set? They’ll shoot up a person with all kinds of venoms to twist and drain the humanity out until there’s nothing left of a person.” She puffed her cigar. “Sick fuckers.” Hate burned in her narrowed eyes. “That’s why sometimes I like to bring the hammer.” Her hoots of laughter were like acid. “Oh, they don’t expect you bring the hammer out after you pop a cap in their ass. The look on their face when they’re holding their fangs?” Ultimate glee glazed her eyes. “Classic.” She celebrated the words. “Too bad hammers are so heavy for long travels.”

Hiss!

The snake was aggressively bobbing around my cheek, slinging its tongue out and barring its fangs.

“Sister Quinn!” I screamed, knowing at any moment the snake would pierce my skin. “It’s gonna attack me! It’s gonna bite me! It’s gonna kill me!”

“I sure bet it will,” she said, nonchalantly.

As if in tune with Sister Quinn’s bitter words, the snake dived at me ready to strike.

Horror filled my eyes as I saw it coming at an impossible speed.

All I could do was shut my eyes and prepare for the pain.

So, I braced myself, and waited.

I waited.

And waited.

But pain never came.

“Word of advice, twinkle toes?” Sister Quinn’s taciturn voice pulled my eyes open.

In her fist, she was gripping the snake by its glands, her cigarette stuck between the crack of her middle finger.

“If you don’t wanna die, fight. But if you wanna survive, don’t let em ever bite you.” She tugged the snake backward and in quick successions, she released her hand to snatch out her pocketknife and stab the snake directly in head.

‘If you wanna survive, don’t let em ever bite you.’

I hear those words echoing in my head, and for a moment they’re so overpowering I don’t even register the throbbing pain of fangs tearing at my neck.

‘If you wanna survive, don’t let em ever bite you.’

The little girl digs her teeth into neck, all 4 sets of her grinding and violently ripping through layers of my skin. With inhuman strength she holds me down, greedily slurping and sucking on my neck. I can feel the blood draining from body as a cataclysm of my blood splatters over my face and outflows into my gaping mouth.

It feels as if I’m being stabbing with strident serrated knives, over and over, in a dreadful cycle of chewing and crunching. My own blood is turning into a puddle around me.

“Get off her!” Zayne snatches the little girl by her back, and tosses her off me.

For a second, I’m relieved of the spellbinding agonizing pain. But I can still feel the beating, throbbing, burning sensation poisoning me.  

‘If you wanna survive, don’t let em ever bite you.’

I’m disoriented.

I’m sore.

I’m bleeding.

And I’m bitten.

‘If you wanna survive, don’t let em ever bite you’

I had always forgotten what she had said after she skinned the snake, but right now, I can remember it more than clear.

‘---And if by the devil’s luck you get bitten? Well, I’ll put it this way, your duty is to kill vampires---no matter who’s left standing.’

I’m ready to give into the exhaustion and pain.

But I have a duty to complete.

I grip my neck and grit my teeth. With all the energy I have left, I force myself to knees and gradually to my legs. I rip out my rifle and prepare my aim.

Zayne’s grappling and struggling around with the little gir---the vampire. Any sense of her humanity is gone. Like an animal, she rabidly snarls and growls, my blood messily smothered all over her face. She got a set of 4 fangs protruding from her small mouth, white frothy drool leaking from her tongue. Even her fingers have turned into blade like claws as she kicks and flays with Zayne.

She’s looking directly at me, with hungry eyes, her squeaking voice howling for one and one thing only.

“Blood! Blood!” She tosses out her hands for me, roaring.

Zayne pull her backwards, his arms hooked around her shoulder, and he’s fighting to keep the vampire from me.

I can tell he’s holding back though.

He holds the vampire like he’s restraining a child. He’s careful not to grip her head, or scratch her as she jerks around. And not just that, he’s got this look in eyes as he brawls with her. It’s a look brimming with a of regret, pained understanding, and utter sympathy.

He won’t have the guts to snap the vampire and end it, even though the opportunity presents itself again and again in their scuffle.

I swallow the air with a shaky breath.

I have a duty to complete.

I aim my gun, steading it between my bleeding neck. Without another thought, I pull the trigger.

BANG!

My vision is too blurry, and the bullet misses the girl by just a millimeter.

BANG!

Missed by a micrometer.

BANG!

This time Zayne whips the vampire out of the line of the bullet. “What the hell are you doing!” He screams at me, tussling with the roaring vampire.

“Killing a vampire.” The moment their struggle moved, the barrel of my rifle followed.

BANG!

“It’s a little girl!” He snaps back, tugging their brawling bodies away from the gunshot in lightning speed. “You can’t kill her!”

BANG!

It’s another miss as he skirts her away from my shot.

“Nina!” He hollers. “You can’t shoot a little girl!”

BANG!

He’s getting in the way of my shot.

“Don’t make me have to shoot you first, Zayne.” I growl.

“I will not let you murder a little girl!”

The glare comes on quickly, a nasty taste lingering in my mouth. “She’s not a little girl anymore. She’s been turned already.”

“Blood! Blood! Blood!” The vampire screeches, her eyes fire red.  

“There’s nothing left of her except bloodlust.” I spat, remorse suffocating my wavering voice.

“She’s just a little girl.” He utters.

“Not anymore.” The words taste like ice on my tongue.

BANG!

Zayne manages to drag them out of the line of fire again.

“Don’t shoot Nina! Let me talk to her!” He pleads with me, his eyes jumping from me to the vampire he fights with. “Let me see if I can still find the human left in her! She just turned! Maybe there’s still something left in her!”

They tussle and shuffle, as he tries to pacify her with pleads and begs for her to ‘listen to him’ and ‘don’t let go of your humanity’, and ‘don’t give up’.

He speaks to her as if the creature comprehends anything he says beyond her absolute desire for blood.

If he thinks he can get a conversation out of a snarling bloodthirsty creature, then he’s fully misguided.

BANG!

“Nina!” He shouts. “I said don’t shoot! Give me a chance to---!”

Before he recognizes it, she breaks free from his hold and makes a deadly sprint to me with her mouth wide open for receiving.

I’ve got the perfect shot.

With a heavy heart, I raise my gun, trigger finger ready to fire.

BANG!

Red rains from Zayne’s hand as the bullet pierces through his skin.

He’s standing in front of me, hand blocking the barrel of my gun and his other hand holding back the vampire by its neck.

Slowly, he turns his head to me, his grey eyes glowing with the same crimson color of the dripping blood from his hand’s bullet wound.

The vampire he clutches by its neck, lowly growls jolting its tiny legs around in feeble attempts as he squeezes his grip.

He’s quiet as lifts his hand from the smoking barrel of my rifle and covers my eyes with the bleeding palm of his hand.

I hear a distinctive snapping noise, followed by a bone chilling thud.

After that, it’s silence.

Nothing but silence. 

𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖊𝖓𝖉 𝖎𝖘 𝖓𝖔𝖙 𝖞𝖊𝖙 𝖚𝖕𝖔𝖓 𝖚𝖘.....

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