The Spawn of Hate Read online

  CHAPTER 3

  The Longest Drive

  Detective Cranberry began driving away and kept glancing at me in the rearview mirror. I didn’t want to see her. She ruined my life based on a lie, no wonder people hated Cops. I used to hear about guys saying they were framed by the cops all the time, I never believed them until now. I bet she was real proud of herself, getting another black teen thrown in jail. It was at that point I wasn’t going to let her intimidate me. I fixed my face in a look of pure hatred and stared at her in the rearview. To my surprise the smug little witch I was expecting wasn’t there. She had a look of sadness and I could see tears forming in eyes. What the hell just happened?

  “Cory” she said, “I am sorry I got you into this mess, but you must listen to me. Your life is in danger. I got you arrested to protect you.”

  “You have a funny way of protecting me. Just tell everyone the truth and let me go home. You tried to kill me and now you are taking me away from my family. Just let me go home.”

  “Cory”, she said sounding annoyed “You are in a terrible situation, you cannot go home. The people you have stumbled across are unforgiving and will do anything to protect their secrets. The man that lied on the witness stand has gambling problems. We erased his debt for his cooperation. Sadly he died two minutes after we left the courthouse, the victim of a massive heart attack. The same sort of thing will happen to your parents if it is even thought that they know anything. Just sit back and listen to my plan on how to keep you alive, at least for another day.”

  “I don’t care what you have to say”, I said almost on the verge on tears. “I don’t know anything but this, I want you to tell the truth and let me out of this car. Just let me go home.” Suddenly she did the unexpected; she pulled over to the side of the freeway and stopped the car. She got out of the driver’s seat, opened my door took off my handcuffs and let me out.

  “There you go Cory”, Cranberry spoke. “You obviously care nothing about what I have to say, so now you are out. Go home if you can make it. Bye.”

  I couldn’t believe she was letting me go. Something just seemed off though. Part of me wanted to go home but I had a nagging feeling that was exactly what I should not be doing. Still, felt good getting out of that car. I looked as she turned around and was climbing into the driver’s seat. I rushed to stop her, it couldn’t be this easy.

  “Detective Cranberry you are seriously just letting me go?” I asked puzzled.

  “Cory you obviously only care about yourself and your freedom” She said. “I told you your parents’ lives were in danger and all you wanted was out of the car. Well now you are out of the car. Have fun with whatever time you have left. I should be at the school within a half hour and will tell them of your escape. Your family members will start dying mysteriously until you and your parents are both caught and killed. But I am boring you with things I have already told you. You wanted out, now you are out, now leave.” And with that she closed her door and drove off, leaving me stuck on the side of 880 freeway.

  Now what was I supposed to do? I whined about getting out of the car and I was out, but what if she was right? I just doomed my parents. I don’t know why I let my emotions get the better of me but this situation just seemed surreal. I immediately regretted my decision and started running the way she drove off and sticking my thumb out inbetween rest breaks to see if I could hitch a ride to where ever Lionel Wilson was. After about two miles of running a car finally stopped for me. To my relief it was Cranberry. She must have known I would change my mind and doubled back to get me. I was angry at her for even being put in this predicament, but I figured I had better play it safe at least for my parents. I walked up to the car and hopped in the back.

  “Cory, I am guessing you decided to stop acting like a spoiled child.” Cranberry spoke.

  I decided against letting my emotions get the better of me so I just kept my mouth shut, but the tears started to flow.

  “You don’t have to answer me Cory, just listen. When I came upon you that night..”

  I guess my emotions ended up getting the better of me. I was not going to let her diminish her part of getting me in this situation. I would listen to her but she wasn’t going to sugarcoat anything to me.

  “What do you mean by ‘came upon me’? You tried to kill me” I spoke.

  “Cory, if I wanted to kill you, you would have been dead.” Cranberry said matter of factly.

  “If you were not trying to kill me, then why in the heck were you trying to bite my throat out?”

  “Cory I will give you the no nonsense version.” She said. “Just hold all your questions until the end, we don’t have much time and I will answer anything you want tonight after you meet the principal. Now then, Cory I am not human. I am a Vampire and I know you saw my fangs. You are about to be brought to a place where most of the stuff you think couldn’t happen, happens. When we reach our destination, since you are not a wizard you will be put to death and if you are lucky, your parents will be paid a large sum of money as a hush money for the school not guarding your wellbeing. I am going to attempt to prolong your life by asking that you remain alive to provide sustenance to myself and any other Vampires who may need you. Now speak and tell me your thoughts.”

  I was shocked, did she think I was that dumb to believe in Vampires? “Detective Cranberry, do you think I am dumb enough to believe in Vampires?”

  “Why don’t you believe in Vampires? You were attacked by someone much smaller than yourself who turned out to be much stronger, faster and more resilient to injury than you are. Can you explain how all that happened if vampires are not real?”

  I didn’t have an answer. I still wasn’t buying it though. What I needed to know was why did she pick me to ruin my life? Why not some other guy? “Detective Cranberry, if you were not trying to kill me, then why did you attack me? Why did you pick my life to ruin?”

  “Cory, I picked you because you had the blood that I needed.” She said continuing, “I am pregnant, like a mosquito, pregnant vampires need blood to keep the baby inside them from dying. It cannot be just any blood though; it has to be that of a virgin male who has already hit puberty. I stood outside your practices for two days and you were the only one who fit that criteria. I could smell your scent from a mile away. The only vampires who need blood are pregnant vampires, normally vampires don’t eat or drink.”

  “Miss Cranberry you said I would provide ‘sustenance’, how?” I already knew her answer before she spoke. She expected me to let her come and drain me whenever she wanted.

  “Cory I believe you are smart enough to know the answer to that question. It won’t be as bad as you think because I don’t require much blood and you can give it to me intravenously like you would if you went to a blood bank.”

  “If it was like going to a blood bank, why didn’t you just go there instead of attacking me?” If what she said was true, I saw no reason on why she would attack me at all.

  “Pregnant vampires are rare. Vampires are rare period now. The blood bank we use just in case one of us is expecting was destroyed by a supervillian who knew its purpose. The principal I think purposely did not see fit to hurry and find me a replacement, even though he knew what it meant to my kind. Now enough with the questions, we are almost there. Do not make eye contact or speak to the other people we find inside. Just shut up and let me do the talking. We have our rules and the principal is very strict. Cory you probably will never get out of here and be doomed to live out your life here. I will at least make sure your parents both find excellent jobs while you are here as a consolation. No fix your face and erase any tears, this is not the place you want to show any weakness.”

  We pulled up to what I guess passed as a high school. Lionel Wilson was in a horrible rundown neighborhood. The only way I knew where I was is because there was a big faded sign identifying the rundown mass of singlewides as Lionel Wilson Academy for Wayward Teens. We drove around the back of the school and exited the car near the
most rundown of the singlewides in the yard. I did not see any kids walking the school grounds but I did notice a lot of security guys all around the place like they were guarding something. Maybe she wasn’t lying. We walked up to the singlewide and the door looked ready to fall off as she pulled it open.

  CHAPTER 4

  A New Beginning

  The place looked like a normal classroom with the exception that the teacher’s desk was in the middle of the room. There was a projector directly over where the teacher’s head would be pointing to a wall where the dry erase board was located. Detective Cranberry motioned for me to follow her to the teachers’ desk. Once we were standing behind it she reached up and pressed a few buttons on the projector and the desk slid sideways revealing a stairway going down. Detective Cranberry then went down into the passage way and motioned for me to follow.

  The passage way was well lit, like something you would see in a military movie bunker scene. The stairs seemed to go on forever downwards and there were at least three more doors she had to do something special to unlock like knock a certain way or step on the stairs by the door in a certain sequence. I figured we had at least walked down 15 flights of stairs when we paused at a door that looked a bit different than the others. While the other doors were made of steel, this door seemed to be made of some type of mirror. Detective Cranberry pushed a button that was placed where a doorbell would be but after all this walking I figured it was maybe some kind of intercom. Intercom or not, one thing was for sure, Detective Cranberry was in telling the truth in the car and I had better keep my mouth shut. After a couple of seconds after pressing the button the mirror showed a holographic image of a scrawny man with a bad comb over wearing a suit.

  “Miss Cranberry, I was getting impatient.” The man in the mirror said continuing, “I do not know why this could not have been done at the hospital or the jail instead of here. Bring him to my office right away and let’s be done with it. The image suddenly went off and we were standing in front of a mirror again. The mirror slid to the left revealing a very short hallway with another door, this one made of plain ole wood. We walked through the door and into the largest building I have ever been in.

  The area we stepped into was spacious, like they built planets in here kind of spacious. I could easily fit 20 Madison Square Gardens in this place it was so huge. I saw lush grass and trees, which surprised me because I always thought they needed the sun to grow. I also saw a bunch of structures that looked like some type of obstacle course. There were buildings lining all around this place and some were over two stories. This place had regular streets like you would see on a city street corner compete with cars. Okay technically they were electric golf carts but still. Detective Cranberry started walking towards the largest building I could see from here which my best guess was about seven stories high.

  Detective Cranberry slowed her pace so I could keep up with her. She then started talking to me very low so I guess we were being watched.

  “Okay Cory, let me do the talking.” She said nervously, “The principal is a man of rules but he can be reasoned with. He is not necessarily an evil man, but he is strictly by the book. If you have any questions ask now, you may not get the chance later if this fails.”

  Wow, what do you say when someone asks you for your last words? All I could think of was dying. I decided to just be quiet and shook my head no. We went into the building and took the elevator to the top floor. The top floor of this place was nothing but a giant office with all sorts of stuff hanging on the walls, some type of inventions that seemed right out of a first person shooter. Behind the single desk in the place was the scrawny guy from the mirror. He seemed around 50 and looking very impatient when we reached his desk.

  “Mr. Price” he spoke. “You undoubtedly know why you are here. Miss Cranberry did something she knows were against the rules and you must pay for her mistake. If it is any consolation, your parents will not be impoverished anymore and I have fixed it to where they will get the help they need to have another child, anonymously of course. This will not hurt a bit and we can conclude our business here together.”

  He then reached for some type of touchpad and suddenly glass tubing sprang up all around me. Before he could press any other buttons Detective Cranberry snatched the control from him.

  “Miss Cranberry have you gone mad?” The scrawny guy said. “Hand over my controller this instant! I am trying to clean up your mess.”

  “Principal!” Cranberry screamed, “Hear me out before you do something rash. You can always kill him later”.

  I thought she was on my side. “Kill him later?” That did not seem like she was trying to help me out at all.

  “I am listening Cranberry”, the principal said. “However, I know you vampires have no love for anyone other than your own kind, so I see no reason this should be prolonged.”

  “The only reason he is in this mess is because of you, not me” Cranberry spoke. “You knew I needed blood and you did nothing to help me, like you wanted to see my race die. You already won the war between us, that is no reason I see for you to punish us. Now, let the boy live because I need a food source until my baby is born. Other vampires will also need blood when they are with child. Unless of course you lift that stupid rule and let us feed off of the wizard students.”

  The principal seemed to think this over in his head for a bit, but his answer was not one I liked.

  “Miss Cranberry I will not have you subject a human to torture until the end of his days for your pleasure,” He snarled. “Furthermore I will not have you attacking the students either, besides I have secured another source of blood for you. Now if there isn’t anything else…”, He snatched the touchpad and was about to press on it again when Detective Cranberry snatched it from him again.

  “Stop”, she pleaded. “At least give him the test to see if he is one of the empowered”.

  “Miss Cranberry”, he sighed. “I honestly do not know what has gotten into you. Before you were pregnant you couldn’t care if the entire human race perished; now you are fighting for this one boy? Very well, after this if you snatch anything away from me again I will consider it an assault and although you may off me, I will ensure every vampire in this school pays the price”.

  The principal then took the touchpad and made the tubing around me lower. He then walked over to a wall and took this weird looking helmet that was hanging from a hook off of it and began walking over towards me. I figured Detective Cranberry’s plan didn’t work and he already had it planned for me to die. If I was going out, I was going out fighting. He stood in front of me and slipped the helmet over his head. Some type of eye piece shot down and he made a frown with his mouth.

  “Hmm”, he said. “This is quite…” He never got to finish the sentence. I took a step back and kicked him as hard as I could in the balls. He fell over backwards spread eagled; and I mashed his balls again as hard as I could with my foot. I felt Cranberry tackle me from the back. As I was falling forward I made sure my elbow landed in his crotch once more for good measure. I am not sure what happened after that, I heard a lot of screaming coming from the principal and Cranberry hit me with something hard as my world faded to black.

  CHAPTER 5

  Still Kickin’

  I awoke on a lying down on some sort of bed with a nervous looking blond girl standing over me and sweating profusely. Another thing I could gather by looking around was in some type of treatment room and the Principal was in the room also. The most important information to me at the moment though was that I was not dead, unless the principal wanted me healed so he could kill me in style.

  “Mr. Price”, he spoke. “You gave young Miss Patterson here quite the workout. She was here for at least an hour trying to get you to come around, a job that normally only takes minutes.”

  “Sir, something is different about him”, the blonde girl spoke. When I try my powers it’s like my healing is diminished, his body fights me every step of the way.”

&
nbsp; “Mr. Price is a mystery to me also Miss Patterson, go rest now and leave me and our patient here to speak.”

  The blond girl left the room. That’s when I noticed I was alone with this psycho. As the fog in my head started to clear, I began thinking of a way of defending myself if he tried to attack me. The only thing I had handy was the wad of bubble gum that I pilfered out of Cranberry’s car that somehow stayed in my mouth after getting knocked out in his office.

  “Mr. Price, did you know Miss Patterson is a one woman emergency room team?” The principal spoke. “Do not answer that, of course you did not know. It took her a matter of seconds to heal my pain after your vicious attack. I however, should have known better than to get in arms reach of someone I just announced I was going to kill. Miss Patterson can heal humans far quickly than any hospital could. She cannot heal vampires or werewolves at all though. You however, as you may have gathered by my earlier conversation with the young Miss Patterson, were a special case; she could heal you but at a far slower rate than a normal and it seemed to take a lot more out of her. This correlates to the findings I had earlier, findings which you would have heard if you did not decide to attack me.”

  I wasn’t sure what he was talking about and I really did not care, the only thing I cared about was the fact that I wasn’t dead. I still didn’t have a plan on getting out alive but I had to make sure I wasn’t in immediate danger.