VAMPIRE IN PATHOS - CHAPTER 2

Chapter 2: Resurrection

-Luis-

The noise from outside had always come through muffled. Barely audible. It was the only grip I had on any passage of time. People talking. Even if I couldn’t understand what they were saying, speech was an anchor to me. There were also other noises. Thumps, cracks, crashes. I could never tell where I was or what exactly was happening to me, but at some point, I figured I was somewhere far, far away from the place I called home.

Today was a good day, I decided. If it even was day, it might also have been night as far as I knew. Not that it mattered to me, what mattered, was that it was a good time. There were many noises. Many sounds to cling to. Lots of talking, lots of clangs and such. I even heard the familiar sound of gunfire. Maybe if a stray bullet hit my prison, I could finally escape? I knew not to get my hopes up too much, it was not the first time I heard gunfire, but it always felt good to hear something familiar.

There was another crack and I felt my world shudder. Did someone just drop me? How careless could they be?! How dare they drop- Wait no, dropping me is good. If I break, I get to be free! I spread my form around the prison in hopes of finding a crack and to my surprise there was one. The outside was hard to make out, it was only a very faint crack and I felt the runes holding me in place aggressively, like chains strapped to my limbs.

Outside it was night. There was more gunfire. I was in an alley; I gathered from the house walls on the sides. There was also a person standing above me. She wore black jeans and a black leather jacket. Her hair was pink and her eyes were lavender. I took her form in within a moment, before my gaze fell on her red shirt. Well it looked to be white before, but it was red with blood now. Her lavender eyes glanced down to me as well and for a brief moment I felt like we looked into each other’s eyes.

Then she collapsed and crashed down on top of me. My prison shattered and my form was suddenly free. For the first time in an eternity I was free. Still nothing more than a cloud of smoke, but free. The stars were shining down on me. The soft wind was caressing me. The voices and gunshots weren’t muffled anymore. Although the wind could be a little less aggressive, it was almost pulling me along.

I started to strain against the breeze, but it suddenly picked up. It felt determined to take me along. Pretentious, I thought, but I didn’t have much strength in me anyway, so I might as well let the wind take me for a while. I stopped resisting and the wind pulled me closer to the dead girl. Very close in fact. Pretty much right… into her? Wait I’ve felt this before! Nonononononononono-

I started breathing heavily. Or… her body did. It felt unusual for a body to do anything. My previous one had been made out of terracotta and the only thing I reconned it needed was a good dusting every now and then. Part of me was frustrated again to be trapped, but this prison was much better than the old one. This prison was alive. Or at least had been. The correct phrase would probably be ‘alive again’ – fitting, I thought.

I slowly tried to get up and get my bearings. There were still gunshots and I looked around to see where they coming from. There was a redheaded girl on one side, shouting something at me and two men on the other side shooting at me. A couple bullets fired into me, but they weren’t silvered so they didn’t hurt.

“TINA GET THE FUCK OVER HERE!” the redhead screamed at me again. So Tina was the pink haired girl’s name. Good to know.

As I got more accustomed to my new prison I felt a familiar sensation in my jacket. Almost on instinct I grabbed the gun hidden under the leather. A couple more bullets sank into my flesh and I decided I had enough with them for now. They didn’t hurt, but they started to annoy me. The gun’s model was unfamiliar to be, but I could find the safety just fine. I turned to the two men and promptly shot one in the arm. Slightly off. This new prison still needed to get some getting used to, especially the eyes felt weird. I shot again and this time pierced his heart. He slumped down immediately. The other man cursed and ran away. I tried to shoot him as well, but my aim was still a little off. He quickly dashed around the next corner and I couldn’t be bothered to run after him.

“Holy fuck Tina you’re bleeding bad!” the redhead croaked. She was also wounded, but nowhere lethal from what I could tell. She stumbled over to me and ripped open my shirt. Rude, but it was ruined anyway, I guess.

I wore a beige bra underneath, which felt so unusual to me… wearing a bra. It wasn’t the first time for me, I experimented with all sorts of clothes back when I was creating my own covers, but I never actually put a girl-cover into action. I simply didn’t have the figure or the voice to do it and I figured faking being another guy was already hard enough, faking being a girl would be so much harder.

My contemplating my feelings about bras was promptly cut short when the one I was wearing was suddenly ripped off as well. The redhead pressed some weird tube against the bullet hole in my chest and I felt an icy cold shoot through my nerves. It was nice having those again, nerves, though I could have done without the freeze. The redhead didn’t appear to be done with me yet and she began putting a rudimentary compression bandage on me.

I guess she didn’t notice that Tina actually died and it was someone else inside her now, not that it mattered, I could play Tina for a bit. The big debut for my first female cover! I’d need to figure out who Tina is first though… That was the biggest problem.

When the big wound on my chest was fixed, she pulled off my cool leather jacket and started fixing the back up as well. Then she moved to some of the smaller wounds, before taking care of her leg.

“Fuck… I could smell that bastard was up to something from the moment he came into the alley. I should’ve pulled the gun quicker. I thought I lost you there for a moment Tina.” She looked at me with a mixture of pity and adoration before pulling me in a tight hug.

It was such a warm and wholesome feeling that I was totally overwhelmed for a moment. It had been so long since I’ve been properly hugged. In the kind of way that made you feel the love the other one carried for you. Even before being trapped in the urn it was just something that barely ever happened. The last time I had that was from my mom before I moved out. All the other hugs were either just a formality or a lustful cry for attention during sex.

I tentatively wrapped my arms around the redhead. I just now noticed how small I was compared to her. Not that I minded much. I never liked my tall figure before. Being small and cute and able to fit into tight spaces was so much better.

It was only when she let go of me that I noticed I’d been crying. That was another unusual experience for me and I felt overwhelmed once more. This night was a rollercoaster of emotions.

“We’re alright Tina,” the redhead reassured me. “Let’s get you to Rodrigo, he’ll patch you up properly.”

I didn’t really know where exactly we were going, but we held each other upright as we made our way through the alleys, or rather, I held her upright, while pretending to be affected by the wounds.

*****

It took us about ten minutes to get to our car and I tried my hardest not to be overwhelmed again when I saw the world I found myself in. Many of the buildings were tall enough to dwarf the highest skyscrapers of New York. The streets were lit up with all sorts of glowing signs. Cars were flying high above the street and the ones that were still driving, like ours, were kitted out with countless glowing little buttons and doodads. I’d never seen anything like it.

The drive didn’t take all that long. Rodrigo’s clinic was only a few blocks away and the redhead called him on our way there to let him know we were coming. That way I also found out her name was Jamie.

When Jamie told me she was going to take me to a doctor, I expected a reception desk, waiting area, clean white walls, that sorta stuff. Instead, we found ourselves in a small steel and concrete apartment on the ground floor of some larger housing unit. There was no reception, only a man in his mid-forties in a utility vest filled with all manner of mechanical tools.

Jamie explained what happened and I was sat down on something that looked somewhat like a medical chair, although there were a bunch of things attached to it that made a dentist look amicable in comparison.

“Now then let me see the damage,” Rodrigo rasped. He proceeded to check up on my body with a bunch of weird tools and at some point, he plugged something into my head. I didn’t even know I had a port of some sort there.

“Honestly Tina, it’s a wonder you’re still breathing. The bullet hit your heart, but it somehow closed the wound almost immediately. It is beating, but very slowly. Your brain activity is also irregular; you might have a concussion or some hardware got bent out of shape a little. I’ve fixed up the holes in your body and I’ll give you some painkillers. They’ll help you sleep as well. If you notice any strong headaches, memory issues, or hardware problems, come around immediately, otherwise I want to check up on you in a week from now. Got all that?”

I gave a small nod and he helped me out of the chair, not that I needed the help, but it was still nice of him. He quickly fixed up Jaime’s leg as well, then he shooed the two of us out of his clinic.

“It pierced your heart, Tina!” Jaime said exasperatedly. “And it just fixed itself! I don’t know what the fuck is going on with your body, but you’re beyond lucky, I hope you know that.”

I felt a little bad to be lying about Tina, but I couldn’t tell her the truth either. Best case scenario, I’d turn her entire worldview upside down and leave her mentally scarred for the next couple of years, worst case scenario, she would try to kill me for possessing Tina’s body. It was easier to just continue playing along. Thanks to the doc this was also much easier now. There was some kind of technology implanted in my head that worked as some sort of brain extension, mostly to handle the “cybernetics” that my body was equipped with, like my eyes.

By extending my consciousness into the implant, I could now actually make use of those cybernetics. My eyesight was much better now and I was confident I wouldn’t have another embarrassing miss like the two earlier tonight. Apparently, there was also some light armour plating in some areas of my body and some modules to increase reaction and movement speed. “Standard Kitsune Implants” according to Rodrigo, whatever that meant. Kitsunes weren’t real the last time I checked, but then again, a lot of time had passed since then. It was the year 2420 after all.

After our visit to the doc, Jaime drove us to one of her safehouses in the city. She told me she’d drop me off at my place the next day and I was kind of excited to see what it would look like.

First, we’d need to get some sleep though.

Jaime’s safehouse was a cosy little one-bedroom apartment with a big window overlooking the river. There was a small bathroom with a shower and all the other necessities, a twin sized bed set into one of the walls and an open concept living room + kitchen situation. Jaime told me to take the bed, while she flopped down on one of the sofas.

I felt a little bad to take someone else’s bed, but she was already fast asleep before I could protest, so I made myself comfortable and quickly drifted off as well.

-Tina-

I shot awake and breathed in heavily. Whatever nightmare I’d found myself in had finally passed. I dreamt me and Jamie were on a big job, selling some kind of antique. But the job suddenly went bad and I… I died. That was still an uncomfortable thought, especially how real it felt, even now that I was awake and well.

I blinked away the sleepiness and rubbed my eyes before focussing back on the apartment I found myself in. It was a classic one-bedroom apartment, though slightly on the upper end, I gathered from the large window to the river. There were two sofas a loveseat and an armchair placed around a round coffee table in the living room section and a simple kitchen on the other side next to the door.

One of the sofas was currently occupied by my crush, I mean, my mentor. Funnily enough she looked exactly like in my dream, didn’t even bother to take off her shoes. I couldn’t help but giggle a little at the sight.

I slowly slipped out of the bed and noticed my shoes next to it. At least I had to curtesy to take them off last night. I still had my black jeans on and a grey shirt I’ve never seen before. I didn’t remember last night at all and from the way my head was pounding I was definitely hung over and absolutely filthy.

It didn’t take long to find the bathroom and I started to strip down to hop into the shower. When I pulled off my shirt, I froze for a moment. My entire torso was covered in bandages. My mind flashed back to the nightmare I had. The image of my shirt soaking through with blood lingered for a while. But… it couldn’t be. The hangover aside, I felt fine. I couldn’t even feel any pain on my torso, where the bandages were.

I took a deep breath and then carefully took one of the bandages off. I immediately furrowed by brow when my eyes fell on the perfect unblemished skin below. What the fuck was I wearing bandages for then? What did drunk-me get up to? Jamie would probably know, I gathered, but since she was still asleep, I might as well take a shower first. I’d rather be presentable in front of her, for no reason in particular.

I took off all the other bandages and even found one on my back that was a hassle to get rid of. Then I took off the rest of my clothes and was met with another surprise. I had an ancle tattoo. I didn’t have one before, as far as I was aware. Now there was a ring of symbols wrapped around my ancle. The way they were arranged reminded me a little of letters. Like some sort of friendship-bracelet-tattoo in some obscure language.

To be honest, this wasn’t the first time I woke up with a tattoo and a hangover, so I wasn’t all that worried about it and I wasn’t saving my ancles for something special either. The only thing that bothered me was, that I didn’t even know what the fuck it meant. After pondering about the tattoo for a bit, I finally slipped into the shower and cleaned myself off properly. I could deal with the tattoo some other time.

When I felt clean enough, I towelled myself off and threw one of the unused bathrobes on. It was a burgundy red one that felt incredibly soft on my skin. I set a reminder in my memory core to buy a bathrobe the next time I went shopping, I’ve clearly been missing out.

By the time I was done in the bathroom, brushing my hair and all that, Jamie was already awake. She was standing in the kitchen and from the smell I could tell she was making pancakes.

“Gmorning,” she mumbled and focussed her attention back on the pan, humming quietly to herself.

I only met sleepy-Jamie once before and that was the day my light admiration for her turned into a full-on gay panic. The usual professional and dominant woman was gone, instead there was messy bed hair and very slow response times. Instead of her lesbian-cowgirl outfit, she put on an oversized black shirt, some beige lounging shorts and red loafers.

“Pretty sure the morning’s long gone, it’s like 2 pm Jamie,” I giggled before sitting down in the loveseat. There were already two cups of coffee and plates waiting on the table.

“Morning’s when you get up, evening is when you go to bed, night is when you sleep. Everyone knows this Tina, t’is science,” the redhead lectured. She fished the pancake out of the pan and placed it on the small tower next to the stove. “How are you feeling, Tina?” she asked, while making her way over with New-Pisa tower.

“A little hungover… there were a bunch of bandages all over my body but no wounds or anything? It was super weird. There’s even an ancle tattoo that wasn’t there before. I don’t remember what happened yesterday at all,” I grumbled and stacked three of the fluffy treasures on my plate before covering them in unhealthy amounts of sirup.

Jamie did the same then asked carefully: “You don’t remember anything about yesterday? Nothing at all?”

I was already munching on a piece of sirup-doused pancake, so I quickly swallowed it down. “Yea, like last thing I remember, I was at my place and it was late so I probably went to bad or something, then I had this terrible nightmare and woke up here. I know I probably got drunk or something, but if I try and remember anything, I only get flashbacks to that nightmare.”

Jamie studied me for a moment. “How much of the nightmare do you remember, Tina?” There was a wariness in her voice, like she was scared something was going to jump at her.

I quickly went through the nightmare. Got a call from her to meet for a merchandise job, simple handover situation. But it went bad. The buyer started shooting, I got pierced through the heart and then fell on the merch and died. It was honestly super uncomfortable going through it all again. When I was done Jamie just looked at me in disbelief.

“Do you remember anything after that?” she asked carefully.

“No… I just… died and then there was just darkness till I woke up.”

Her expression grew increasingly more worried the further the conversation went and I started to think that something really bad was going on.

She bit her lip before speaking up again. “After breakfast we’re getting dressed and go visit Rodrigo. He said to come by if you have memory issues.”

Okay so now Rodrigo was involved? What the hell happened last night that we had to visit the doc of all people? Is that where I got the bandages from? And where did I get that tattoo? My head was buzzing with questions, but before I could ask any of them Jamie already started answering them.

“Your ‘nightmare’ happened, Tina. We went on the job. The deal got bad. You got shot and for I moment I thought you died. But then you just… got up again and started shooting the bad guys. You killed the other henchman, but the buyer got away. You were bleeding a lot and I fixed you up as best I could, then we went to Rodrigo. He did his thing, then said your heart somehow ‘fixed itself’ and that you might have a concussion.”

I felt myself panicking as she went on and by the time she finished, only one thought remained in my head: The nightmare was real.