Unexpected Encounter. Short story

There we both were, in a tiny, dirty bathroom. Even though it was a cold moonlit night, large beads of sweat were running down my temples. The beam of light from my gun painted a small green dot on her head that kept shaking and my index finger hesitated on the trigger. She, crouched behind the toilet, raised her skinny arms, making her look even more vulnerable than she appeared. Her matted hair barely let her childish face show, yet they didn't hide her dirty cheeks soaked with big tears and the gleam of anguish in her big eyes that didn't lose sight of my every move. In my mind, the human part of me kept wondering *How the hell was I supposed to end her life?

You may think I'm an assassin, wearing military assault gear, armed to the teeth, I may look like one but I'm really not, well not in the practical sense of the word.

Equipped with firearms with expansive and corrosive bullets, so destructive they could dissolve a block wall; a riot shield, explosive titanium stakes, and short-range grenades; anyone would think I was a soldier about to leave for war.

It was inevitable to end up like this. On my shoulders weighs a long lineage of vampire slayers, so long that it dates back more than 400 years of famous bloodsucker fighter characters. My grandfather, father, brothers, and even my sister were already part of the great legendary caste of vampire hunters. An underground faction that fought in the shadows against the horde of vampires that threatened the society we lived in.

Unlike all of them, I have never been in favor of killing a living creature, it's not in my being, and to top it all off, I don't even eat meat. I'm sure you're wondering: What am I worried about? Vampires are not living creatures, they are bloodthirsty and merciless creatures, whose only goal is to satiate their appetite with the blood of their victims. Or so I thought.

Despite having trained for 3 years in the art of killing vampires at the illustrious vampire-slaying academy and knowing all the humanly possible ways to exterminate these monsters, my legs wavered with every step I took.

At first, I thought it wouldn't be too difficult to exterminate a terrifying creature, full of menacing fangs, eager to sink into my throat, and who definitely wouldn't hesitate to tear me to pieces the first chance they got.

But this, surprisingly, is not what I expected.

My visor, insistently, kept telling me that a neophyte in front of me was possibly less than 6 months old. That made her an even more dangerous creature. Their blood lust compels them to throw themselves against their prey without mercy, their superhuman strength could tear a man in half if they so desired.

My mind is still bent on reciting the theoretical knowledge learned at the academy.

I don't know how much time had passed standing in front of her. I can't think that this little girl was a murderous monster. But if she was - I wondered - why was she crying? was she capable of having feelings? and if so, did she have a conscience?

"Get it over with once and for all," a cracked voice came from what I understood so far to be a shadowy, sinister creature.

Intrigued, I turned off the alarm on my visor and removed it from my face. I was able to observe more closely that her features were even more subtle than I had thought.

"I never chose to be what I am," the girl added grimly.

"To all of you we are scum and to the ancients, we only serve their purposes of gaining ground," she spat contemptuously, scrunching her moistened cheeks.

Was it possible that everything we learned at the academy was wrong? She was a neophyte and yet she retained her personality and apparently her conscience, otherwise, by now, I would have been her dinner.

Was she a special and unique case? Or were they all actually retaining part of their personality from their previous life? Perhaps over time, they forgot their old lives and immortality erased their memories.

My mind kept wondering about their unusual behavior. I motioned with my hands to carefully stow my weapon and sat down on the ground, two meters away from her.

"Do you want me to tell you a secret?", I asked, forgetting for a moment all my training.

She looked at me suspiciously.

"Neither did I wish to hunt v...", I paused and rolled my eyes, for some reason I didn't want to offend the girl, "creatures like you", I shrugged and continued to explain to her, "I'm just a guy who all I' ve ever wanted to be in my life is to be a famous YouTube personality, or what many people know as a Youtuber."

"A Youtuber!", I chuckled at the nonsense I had just said.

"Can you imagine?", I insisted, not knowing if she had any idea what I was talking about.

"Unfortunately, as you may know, there are many things about my extracurricular activities," I told her pointing to my attire, "my surroundings and my family that I can't make public. For obvious reasons, which at the time, I had no idea."

"Like you, I also had no choice," I explained, giving her to understand that I knew her situation perfectly well or so I thought.

She sat unconcerned for the moment, pushed her hair back with both hands, and blurted out angrily "Do you think you understand how I feel?"

"You can choose to be who you want to be at any time," she expressed annoyed.

She turned her eyes back on me

"I cannot change who I am, it is inevitable to give in to the killer instincts intrinsic to the new being that I am, to the hunger that is never satiated, to the cravings that claw at my insides and curse my existence."

She closed her eyes, as she threw her head back and clenched her fists.

"I'm sorry," I said sincerely.

"I admit it was foolish to compare your life to mine.....I had never considered putting myself in the shoes of a..." I paused and she completed the sentence without opening her eyes "vampire?".

"Yes," I nodded, "I always thought they were inhuman monsters."

"It's what they teach us at the academy, you know?" I defended myself.

She pursed her lips and nodded.

"Do you remember how you turned?"

She shook her head slightly. In the dim light that managed to filter through the bathroom window, her complexion looked gaunt, anorexic, weak.

Then I decided to do something no slayer would ever do in their entire life. The rules no longer applied anyway.

We usually carry in our backpacks, in addition to ammunition and food, a medical kit to temporarily heal wounds. In it, there is a bag of plasma and a bag of type O blood, a universal blood type for extreme cases.

I threw it to her and she quickly took it. She swallowed saliva and stared at the red contents that rippled lazily in her hands.

Obviously, she was not a normal vampire, anyone else would have torn the bag apart in seconds, yet she still didn't open it, fighting her thirst.

"Drink it," I suggested, "I assure you, you will not have harmed any human being by doing so," I smiled heartily at her.

For an instant, I had forgotten my entire team and where I was at that moment. My communicator came to life and we both heard.

"Rookie, the upper floors have been swept, meet us at the extraction point."

The girl flinched at my superior's words but was reassured to see that I simply turned off my communicator and ignored the orders. Terrible mistake

"You'd better drink it, in your state you're not strong enough to escape," I insisted again.

The girl hesitated for a moment, but after my warning and the possibility that my companions might appear at any moment, she decided to sink her teeth into the bag. The thick liquid disappeared in seconds. Her body shivered at the cold temperature of the blood.

An expression of relief relaxed her furrowed brow. Color returned to her cheeks and a tender smile painted her lips.

Suddenly her expression changed, her eyes turned redder, and menacingly looked at me. A shiver ran down my spine. For a moment I thought I had made a big mistake.

My hands wanted to reach for my gun, but I knew I wouldn't be fast enough to grab it and open fire. It would probably all be over in a couple of seconds.

I stood petrified waiting for the worst, but nothing happened.

"My suspicions, finally, have been confirmed. I see you are different," stated an unfamiliar voice coming from outside. Despite sounding non-threatening, my new friend looked reluctant and her terrified expression did not change.

My visor emitted a new alert that painted the small screen red. A class 1 vampire had appeared. It wasn't common for them to roam these parts, what the hell was it doing here?

I was definitely completely sure I wasn't up to the task of defeating a class 1, however, I grabbed both my weapons and exited the small bathroom opening fire in all directions. For some reason, I felt the impetus to protect this unusual girl. Bursts of light from the detonations bathed the room. My 34 bullets slipped away in seconds emptying my guns and shattering everything around them. Amazingly not a single shot hit the target and suddenly I had a class 1 specimen in front of me.

Bits of debris and clouds of dust covered my vision; the moonbeams filtering into the room made the ivory color of his skin glow in front of my eyes. His grayish face was neither hideous nor frightening, contrary to what I had learned in class, he was good-looking with a European air and expressed no resentment towards me; his eyes, unlike those of a neophyte, were light brown.

Suddenly, he grabbed me by the neck and threw me over his shoulders, as if my body were an insignificant piece of paper, I thought he would break my neck when I fell off guard, but fortunately, I landed on cold, marble-hard arms.

To my surprise, the girl had cushioned my fall, preventing me from crashing to the floor. Immediately, she interposed herself between the intruder and me. Her sharp fangs threatened the stranger who watched us in wonder at the neophyte's defensive behavior.

"You have nothing to worry about," the stranger explained towards her. "We are a group of immortals, who like you, do not feed on humans. We value all life."

Even with all my training and weaponry, I felt like a diminutive being before the pair of titans in front of me. Suddenly, the girl didn't look as innocent as she had a moment ago.

"We can help you if you come with me. But you must hurry in making your decision, their friends," he pointed with his eyes to where I stood, "have heard the detonations and will soon be here."

We were both speechless at the offer the stranger had made.

The girl looked at me asking what to do. I shrugged

"It seems your best option is to go with him," I said. "He's a class 1 being. He probably would have taken them both of us out if he wanted to, his battle experiences are unbeatable," I explained.

"I've never heard of anyone coming out on top in a confrontation with a Class 1," I added.

"And yet, you threw yourself at me, to give her time to get away."

We both looked at each other for a moment, perplexed at the last thing the stranger had uttered. On my part, as I suspected that he had somehow read my mind and discovered my plan. And she, since she didn't know that I was lashing out at him, even without having any chance of beating him.

"Don't put yourself down," he said kindly, "I'm sure between the two of you, you would have found a way to beat me." He was definitely reading my mind and to top it off, he was patronizing both of us.

"I like this guy," I said suddenly, chuckling, "I still think he's your best option," I reiterated with another shrug.

She nodded reluctantly. However, I held her arm before they left.

"My name is Gabriel. May I know yours?", I asked.

"Cynthia", her name floated in the air, and in the blink of an eye, their figures disappeared from my sight.

See you next time, space cowboy