Revenge

• Tahlia Bratt, Grade 9, Banora Point High School
• Short Story
• 2014

Excellence Award in the 'The Text Generation 2014' competition

Smoke rose from the wreckage and something sizzled dangerously as the ‘thing’ began to groan and wakeup. The control panel glowed eerily in the darkness making everything look a sickly green colour and the Thing’s eyes opened.
I woke from my haunted vampiric slumber, with hot, sticky sweat running beaded lines down my forehead. The room was cold and dark, with a few candles burning in the far corners of the room; just the way I liked it. Though tonight, my stone castle felt new to me. It felt different; as though an artist with the finest detail had sketched new life into the weak little canvas.
I blinked and stood up, brushing myself off as I walked out my bedroom door and into the long hallway. Two candles flickered in the distance; the rest had been blown out.
I shivered slightly as I passed an open window. The rain had come through and now soaked the blood red rug at my feet. I sighed and closed the window. The lock clicked into place after my forceful attempt.
“I knew you’d find me,” I said bluntly, as I felt hot breathing down my neck. “My nightmares have been telling me, though before tonight, you never opened your tired, hungry eyes. Strange, isn’t it?”
The ‘thing’ groaned and a flash of lightning appeared outside in the bucketing rain. I cowered for a few seconds before coming to my senses. The thing lashed out at me with its many serrated claws, like a dozen steak knives all in a row. It tore at my left cheek, allowing an exit way for my black vampiric blood to leave my forever dead body. I howled in agony and, on instinct, leapt for the mutilated creature.
The two of us fought ferociously as the rain continued to bucket down outside.
My body ached and was sticky with blood. The devil’s creature snarled and hissed, blood foaming in its mouth. We were both growing weaker with every blow we received.
Eyeing the full length window and the blood thirsty thing, I roughly unhooked the sword from its wall hanging and gave a final blow to the hideous creature. It seemed to cry out in rage as it stumbled backwards, fell through the window and landed dead, in a large muddy puddle hundreds of meters below.
I leant against the wall, my head peering around the corner and out the broken window to eye my dead enemy. I wiped my bloody cheek and slid slowly down the wall in exhaustion.
“That’s what you get for setting that old laboratory alight,” I mumbled as I closed my eyes against the soft moonlight. “My only chance of becoming human…”