Blood of Bryce

“Another day, another murder,” Detective Bryce said to an officer on the scene of the latest murder. The officer ran outside and threw up. Detective Bryce followed the officer outside, put his hand on the officers back and said, “First murder scene?” The officer nodded.

“Don’t worry son, you’ll get used to it. Most people throw up at the site of their first dead body,” Detective Bryce said, then walked back inside to look for more evidence.

Detective Bryce had been tirelessly pursuing a serial killer known as Khazra. They called him that because ‘Khazra’ was the name carved into the chests of the two victims the cops managed to find after he killed them.

Detective Bryce’s reputation for solving difficult and complex cases had earned him the respect of his colleagues, but Khazra remained elusive, leaving behind only traces of his work, and there was always barley any evidence to be analyzed.

“You there, with the bags, bag everything,” Detective Bryce said to the forensic tech and smiled.

“That’s what I’m doing, sir,”’the forensic tech said.

“Bag faster, then,” Detective Bryce said. He liked giving the rookies a hard time.

At each crime scene, Bryce meticulously analyzed the collected evidence before and after it went to the lab. He figured this way he could piece together the puzzle left behind by the elusive Khazra. There was rarely a body found at the scene, making evidence harder to find, and the bodies he did discover had vanished, as though they had gotten up and walked away while he was engaged in questioning suspects or witnesses, distracted with the collection of evidence. He had yet to realize the victims were still alive, changed forever into the living dead creatures known as vampires.

**********

Khazra, a lonely and isolated vampire desiring the company of someone relatable, watched longingly over the mountains surrounding his cabin. His craggy pale face, framed by short hair on his right side and long hair on his left, was staring out the window of his old rotten cabin that smelled of must with his beady gray, blue and black eyes that mirrored the coldness of his undead eldritch existence. He listened to the wind whistling through the snow and blowing it across the ground like a chef powdering breakfast pancakes with sugar then blowing on it. He was driven by a hunger for blood that forced him to venture out into the world, but his isolated existence made it easy for him to escape any humans on to him and hide in his cabin. Despite his need for isolation, he felt alone and depressed, but what could he do? He had to eat, and if he made friends with his food before feasting, he’d be too sympathetic to eat it and he’d starve. It would be like a cow farmer making friends with the cows before sending them off to slaughter, or a chicken farmer making friends with the chickens.

“Is there anybody out there? Does anybody care? I need a friend, so out this window I won’t need to stare. I need someone to look at my ridiculous hair, someone who will judge it to be fair,” Khazra sang. He loved the sound of his singing voice, and if he ever made a friend, human, vampire or otherwise, he hoped they’d enjoy his singing too.

***********

Detective Bryce’s pursuit intensified as he uncovered more evidence of Khazra's whereabouts. Bryce knew he was getting closer to Khazra every day, with every piece of evidence collected at every crime scene bringing him to his goal. Despite almost never finding a body, and the two bodies he did find managing to disappear with lots of blood and broken glass everywhere, Detective Bryce knew Khazra was a serial killer. Otherwise why would the bodies be there at all, let alone be there with Khazra’s name carved into them. He knew there were more murders, he saw bloodstains at other houses where the residents had been reported missing. But where were the other bodies? And why had the two that were found disappeared? Questions Detective Bryce knew he needed to answer.

After hours of searching the crime scene and some time at the forensic lab, Detective Bryce called it a day and went to Cafe Coffee Land to get a pick me up for his long drive home.

“Hello, what can I get you?” A barista asked Detective Bryce before looking up. When she did, she took notice of his soft, silky smooth hair, his beautiful skin and captivating gray eyes.

“Coffee, black, two sugars,” Detective Bryce said. The barista stood silently for almost a minute, gazing into his kind, beautiful eyes.

“Ma’am,” Detective Bryce said and cleared his throat before slowly waving his hand in front of her face.

“Um… yes sir. One coffee, black, two sugars,” she repeated. Detective Bryce smiled.

“Don’t worry, it’s been a long day for me too!” Detective Bryce said. He waited, grabbed his coffee, sat down and chugged it down before heading home and reading his book, Fishy Joe’s Detective Stories for Kids. He liked reading kids stories because he could always finish them before bedtime. He then got into bed and attempted to get a good nights sleep. Having an unsolved case go on for as long as it did bothered Detective Bryce, and he tossed and turned for hours before eventually dozing off.

It was a cold frosty morning when Detective Bryce awoke to his phone loudly buzzing. He forgot to put it on silent, so he took the blame for the call. He was called into work early, and he could already feel his shoulders tightening from stress. He was worried about driving on black ice and the slick roads, but his captain told him just to ‘throw chains on his tires’ and ‘not worry about it.’ Jinny, the new lab tech, had an idea to help catch Khazra and everyone at the station who was working the case wanted Detective Bryce’s opinion.

“The two bodies that were found were drained of blood before mysteriously disappearing. This means Khazra’s probably the one draining the blood, so if we use my special UV light, we can pick up on a possible blood trail, which will hopefully lead us to wherever Khazra is hiding,” Jinny said.

“Good work Jinny,” Detective Bryce said and smiled. Jinny showed Detective Bryce how the light worked and handed it to him. Detective Bryce smiled at Jinny and gave her a thumbs up before leaving.

The snow clouds outside made for perfect conditions to use the light.

Detective Bryce used the light outside the house of the victim in an attempt to find any trace of a blood trail. After searching several minutes, he he found a trail of bloody footprints and he followed them. After several hours, this led him to a hidden cabin deep within the snowy mountains. By this time, he was tired and thirsty, and he sat down to take a break. He brought an energy drink with him and took it out of his jacket pocket and chugged most of it down. That should give him what he needed to carry on. But of course, one drink was never enough.

After searching his other jacket pocket for more hydration and chugging down some water, then finally sipping some whisky out of his flask to warm up, he decided he was now ready to endure the cold and catch Khazra. He got up and continued his venture toward the seemingly abandoned cabin. The winds howled around him as he approached cautiously, his senses heightened and the hairs on the back of his neck raised.

He felt a crawling sensation on his arms and looked at them.

“Damn goosebumps,” he muttered.

As he stepped inside the cabin, the smell of rot and mildew permeated the air with the most foul odious foetor imaginable. He smelled enough corpses in his time as a homicide detective to recognize the miasma of a human corpse, and there was definitely something dead around here. He searched for a light switch, but couldn’t find any. He pulled a flashlight out of his pocket and scanned several rooms before he found himself face to face with a pale, slim, tall and eldritch looking man with long, curly and oily hair on one side of his head and short, straight clean looking hair on the other side.

“Khazra,” Detective Bryce hissed. Khazra gave the faintest smile, just barley exposing one of his sharp vampire fangs.

The vampire eyes started glowing orange and red, and he towered over Detective Bryce. Khazra continued to stare at him, frightening Detective Bryce to his core.

“What the hell are you?” Detective Bryce asked.

“Your worst nightmare. Run while you still can!” Khazra said and laughed heinously.

Bryce's eyes narrowed as he grabbed his Glock out of his holster. He quickly raised his weapon, ready to end Khazra's miserable reign of terror.

"It ends here, Khazra. You’re a maniac. I’m going to find out what you did with the bodies, I know it was you who made them disappear. And after I have you in cuffs, I’m taking you to the optometrist to figure out what’s up with your creepy eyes," Detective Bryce declared. Khazra scoffed.

“Ha. I didn’t do anything with the bodies. I didn’t have to, they left on their own,” Khazra said and smiled wide, this time fully exposing both of his fangs.

“I don’t know what that means, but you’re coming with me right now. Get down on the ground, NOW! You have to the count of three before I blow your brains out,” Detective Bryce shouted.

Khazra's orange and red glowing eyes met Bryce's gaze, a hypnotic stare putting the detective almost fully into a trance.

"Ah, Detective Bryce, you've proven to be quite the challenge. I love a challenge, though, and always win," Khazra replied charmingly, almost singing.

“You better not… hurt or… kill… me… I have… back…" Detective Bryce mumbled before almost fully falling into the trance.

Detective Bryce covered his eyes and tried to avoid using lethal force on Khazra because Bryce and the other detectives had loads if questions to ask him.

“Don’t make me shoot you,” Detective Bryce shouted.

“Drop your gun,” Khazra said, almost singing the words. Detective Bryce let go of his gun.

“How did you do that?” Detective Bryce asked.

“Let me sing you a little song,” Khazra said and started to sing in the most beautiful and hypnotic opera voice Detective Bryce had ever heard.

“A thousand years ago, I died and my soul went to hell. I found the devils door and rang his little skull shaped bell. I made a deal with him to come back to earth, as long as I didn’t mind draining the blood from humans, my life depending on their continual birth. I said that was fine, not knowing how lonely I would feel. I drank their blood in order to heal. I eventually noticed if I let them live, they’d become like me. They’d also need blood to stay alive so we could all go ski. But ignorant humans like you hunted all my friends down, again and again. So now I need new friends, I hope you don’t mind living in this pig pen. I was the only one able to survive, as the oldest vampire I had the most experience hiding. But they were all trying, but sadly died fighting. I figure you can be my new friend, because you’re trained to survive, you’ll thrive and thrive. And you can also protect my other friends from dying, I don’t want to lose anyone else, because then I’d be crying,” Khazra sang.

Detective Bryce resisted as hard as he could, refusing to be hypnotized by Khazra’s beautiful voice. But just as he prepared to reach into his boot and grab his backup gun to shoot, one of Khazra's loyal and obedient followers lunged forward, sinking her teeth into the detective's exposed neck. A surge of pain coursed through his body, and darkness came upon him as he lost consciousness and passed out.

When Bryce awoke, he was disoriented and weakened. He found himself surrounded by an eerie presence. His once soft skin now had bumps and marks on it, and briefly seeing his reflection in the mirror before it disappeared, he noticed his eyes were set ablaze with a red and orange glow, just like Khazra’s.

“What have you done?” Detective Bryce shouted. He looked at Khazra, then his female companion who had fresh blood dripping down from her fangs.

“You’re blood tasted like a fine wine. Thank you,” the vampire woman hissed then licked her lips.

Khazra, standing with an air of confidence, approached Bryce, his voice sounding arrogant.

"Welcome to our family, Detective. You’ll be staying with us for eternity," Khazra said loudly, the hubris in his voice echoing off the walls.

“What the hell does that mean,” Detective Bryce asked, his voice deeper and more heinous sounding then it had been just a few minutes ago.

"You are no longer my hunter. You will no longer try to kill or capture any of us. You are now one of us."

“What kind of cult is this?” Detective Bryce asked.

“One where you will be my friend forever. Now obey, friend,” Khazra said.

“Yes, my friend. I will obey, our friendship means everything to me,” Detective Bryce said.

Detective Bryce’s words might have been controlled, but his thoughts were still his own. Bryce's mind swirled with confusion. How was he being forced to say things he didn’t mean? Why was he so hungry? The hunger within him stirred, demanding sustenance.

"What exactly have you done to me? Why am I craving food? And not food I usually eat?" he growled, his voice angery and filled with rage.

Khazra's lips curled into a wicked smile. "I have given you a new purpose, Detective. Together, we shall forge a path drenched in the blood of humans, forever bound by our immortal existence. We will be bound as friends, blood brothers if you will," Khazra said and laughed heinously.

Detective Bryce got up and tried to leave but the door wouldn’t budge.

“You can’t leave without my permission,” Khazra said and laughed.

“Now go get some rest. I’ll teach you how to hunt humans for blood tomorrow night,” Khazra said. Detective Bryce didn’t want to do this, and in his head he was shouting no, but no words came out of his mouth.

He laid down, but couldn’t sleep. As the day went on, Detective Bryce struggled to accept his new reality.

He tried to justify being a vampire since he didn’t seem to have a choice, but he was torn between what remained of his humanity, like having a conscience and a soul, and existing as a cold hearted vampire who unjustly feeds on human blood just so he could live for eternity.

Months had passed, and Detective Bryce still had not eaten anything except for a few drops of chicken blood, which did absolutely nothing to satiate his horrible hunger and disgusting urge for human blood.

With encouragement from Khazra and the female vampire who he learned was named Jezebel, he had finally accepted his fate.

Detective Bryce and Khazra embarked on a reign of terror, draining blood from any human they could find. Their victims resurrected as obedient vampires, and eventually they built up an army of soldiers strong enough to resist any and all human encroachment on their territory forever.

Detective Bryce eventually went back to work and explained he got lost in the woods while tracking down the alleged killer. He claimed he couldn’t find Khazra, then continued to use his position to cover up not only Khazra’s tracks but his own and the tracks of all of his new friends that him and Khazra converted.

Detective Bryce eventually developed a small conscience and felt guilty about the people he had hurt. Being a soulless vampire isn’t the same as being a human, even if you do get to live forever.

But Khazra, not wanting to lose his most helpful friend, made sure to check up on Detective Bryce daily, and every time Detective Bryce mentioned his urge to break free from the clutches of darkness, Khazra hypnotized him and rid him of any such feelings.

Detective Bryce and Khazra remained partners for eternity, working together to keep each other safe.