The good,The Bad, And the Undead

-Chapter 1-

It was 11:24 on a warm September night as young girl trudged down a sidewalk, her mind ablaze beneath the heat of anger and uncertainty. “Just breathe,” she commanded herself, taking in a breath of the crisp night air. The girl’s name was Sky Jones. The seventeen year old walked along the nearly deserted street for the third time this week, silently trying to calm her self as she had done almost every night since she moved to this new town three months ago.
Sky snuck out her bedroom window and walked the two blocks to Starbucks for yet another caramel mocha. Somehow, the mixture of caramel and caffeine helped her ease the anger and sadness that fought to consume her ever since she had been forced to start a new life. To say she was angry would be an understatement, sky was royally pissed; pissed at her mom for yanking her away from the only life she’d ever known and forcing her to begin a new one in a whole new state. Sky was painfully uncertain about what would happen now. She would be turning 18 next week and going off to collage next month.
Back in Oregon Sky and her best friend Katie had already planned had everything out. From the exact apartment they would live in, to the cars they would drive to the collage across town. But now that dream had been shattered. Sky had never felt more hopeless in her life; Last week she had gotten a letter from the collage saying they were sorry but she didn’t qualify for the scholarship, and that was her only way to pay. Everything was different now. Reaching up with her free hand sky wiped away at tear that had managed to escape her exotic purple eyes. At least one good thing had happened today, she had gotten the scholarship from her second choice collage, Syracuse in New York.

Taking a sip of her mocha, Sky lifted her eyes to observe the other people in the shop. People watching was a great way to distract a troubled mind; and her mind was definitely troubled. In the far corner, a very dirty looking man in an old plaid jacket clutched an empty coffee container in his hand and stared up at the ceiling- muttering something to him self in incoherent babble. Near the door, a smartly dressed woman with a pixie-like hair cut picked at an uneaten bagel clicking away on the buttons of her laptop. But what really caught Sky’s attention was the young man now standing at the counter.
Tapping his fingers impatiently on the countertop the stranger waited for an employee to notice him. When someone finally did, Sky could hear his voice, tired and anxious, ask simply for something with lots of caffeine. The employee looked around in confusion, as if the stranger had demanded money instead of coffee, and she needed the help of another coworker to help solve the crisis. Sky struggled to hold back a laugh as she watched the girl dash around behind the counter in search of someone who knew which drink had the most caffeine, meanwhile leaving the frustrated stranger to wait even longer.
“Get the Chaotic.” Sky called out to the stranger.
The stranger looked back at her, surprised by the sudden sound, and smiled. The only previous noise came from the clicking keys of the woman by the door.
“What?” he asked, unsure if the statement had been directed towards him.
Normally, Sky wouldn’t repeat her self, but tonight she decided to be patient. “The Chaotic,” she repeated with a smile, “it’s got so much caffeine in it you won’t be able to sleep for a week.” the stranger looked at her oddly, as if a chair had spoken instead of a teenage girl. Finally, he turned back to the counter. “Forget it,” he said to the new employee standing behind the counter, “I’ll have what she said.”
With a relieved smile, the girl behind the counter smiled and nodded. The handsome stranger muttered a quick thanks, then turned and walked to the table beside Sky’s. Her interests were starting to sparkle with curiosity as she noticed he walked so gracefully and sat down at the table behind her. Something about this young stranger seemed ghostly and lost, like a shadow that didn’t belong to anything.
“I hate this place.” he said to no one in particular, shaking her out of her meditation. “None of the people who work here are ever any help.” Even his voice was quiet, she noticed, quiet and smooth
“If you really want to see something entertaining, when you pay for your drink give them five dollars and a penny.” Sky told him with still smiling. “That is entertainment.”
The stranger laughed and there was an awkward stretch of silence as the girl behind the counter prepared his order. Sky shifted her eyes to stare out the window, trying not to look as nervous as she was beginning to feel. She didn’t know at the time, but the stranger was doing the same thing, only better.
“Are you new here?” His question caught her off guard and she nearly tipped her mocha over as she jerked her head back to look at him. “Oh,” she started, “Yeah, I, uh, I moved her a few months ago. “Thought so,” The stranger said with a breath taking smile, “you have a lost kind of look your eyes. Which are beautiful by the way.”
Sky could already feel her cheeks blushing as her hand automatically shot up to fix her hair. “Oh, thanks,” she stammered. “Where did you move from?” the stranger asked in a politely curious voice.
Sky couldn’t tell if he was truly interested or if he was merely so bored and tired that he needed someone to talk to keep him alert. She guessed it was the second one. “Oregon.” she stated. “Portland, Oregon.”
The stranger nodded. “It’s nice up there.”
“It’s not as sunny, though.” Sky pointed out.
He shrugged. “I prefer it that way, personally.”
Sky smiled. “Yeah, I kind of miss it…” Her gaze wandered off to skim over the clock and stopped when she realized how late it was. With a groan of frustration, she pushed herself up off her seat. “I have to go.” she admitted sadly. “Hopefully I’ll see you around, though.” She turned to leave, but stopped and added quickly, “My name’s Sky, by the way.”
She had expected the stranger to introduce himself, but he didn’t. He merely nodded and said “Yeah, see you around.” Half-disappointed, sky smiled at him before walking dejectedly towards the door. She couldn’t help but feel slightly rejected, although she knew she shouldn’t have. But with a defiant sigh, she turned back and asked, “So, do you have a name, or what?”
The stranger turned and gave her an amused smiled- as if he had been waiting to see how long it would take until she finally gathered up the courage to ask. “Andre.” he said simply.
Sky smiled and nodded a quick goodbye. Now satisfied, she dropped her empty coffee in the trash and began her walk home. Little did she know that as soon as she walked out the coffee shop doors and out onto the deserted street, she was no longer alone.
****
Off in the shadows, a man leaned up against an old white van, looking around nervously as he talked into a cell phone. “I know I told you I would bring you three, but all I could find were two!” The man winced as a voice on the other line yelled his disappointment. “I’m sorry!” the man said. “Tomorrow I’ll…” He was cut off by more yelling from the other line. “But I told you, I can’t find anymore tonight! Can’t you just make do with the two?”

A particularly loud stream of angry words caused the man to nearly drop his phone. “I’m sorry, you’re right, I was out of line talking to you like that. It’ll never happen again. Wha-what? No! Don’t fire me! Please, I need this money!” The man was silent as the voice mumbled something on the other line. “Okay, I’ll find you another girl…” the man said. “But you’re going to have to give me some time. Sorry, sir, you’re right, YOU call the shots not me…” The man stopped as his eyes caught on a girl walking out of the coffee shop across the street. “Sir, I think I may have found a third. No, she’s a brunette… eyes? I’m not sure, I can’t tell from here, weight? Oh, I’d say about 100 pounds… It’s hard to say from here, but I’m going to guess about 5’4, 5’5. Will she do? I know you said three blondes, but trust me; I think she’ll work fine. What? Okay. Don’t worry, I can do it… I’ll have her to you in…let’s say about an hour, deal? Great.”
Hanging up, the man slipped his cell phone into his pocket and silently crossed the street, only yards behind the seventeen year old girl he planned on soon delivering. The man’s name was Bernie Ensoa, a middle aged man, whose tattered life was kept sewn together by the unpredictable thread of income he received. But it wasn’t his name that was important. It was his occupation. Lately, Bernie hadn’t been making enough money at his low income job to survive, and with no other options; he was quickly swept up into the mouth of a monster. Bernie now worked for a very important man who earned all of his abundant riches in a very illegal business. Mobster, gangster, call him what you like, but Bernie’s boss was an important figure in the criminal community, and when he wanted something, he got it. And tonight, he wanted a woman’s company.

And Bernie’s boss always got what he wanted.
*****
Sky noticed a presence behind her. “God, I hate this city…” she muttered, assuming it was another homeless man begging for money. “I really do.”
Trying to ignore him, she sped up, keeping her head down as she turned a corner onto another street. All she had to do was keep him away until she got into her neighborhood…
“Excuse me, miss?” came a voice behind her. “Would you happen to have the time?”
She stopped and turned around. “What?”
“The time,” The man repeated. “The one day I don’t wear my watch is the day I need it most.” He chuckled and waited for sky’s reply. Inwardly, he cursed himself. This was wrong, but what could he do? Shaking his head clear, he looked back at sky with pleading eyes.
“Oh…” she said, looking at the small silver watch on her wrist. “Sure, its 11-”

Before she could finish, the man lunged forward and grabbed onto her arm with one hand. With his other hand he covered her mouth, and with the kind of skill gained only through profuse practice, the man twisted sky’s arms behind her back and held her wrists together in one hand as he drug her, kicking and screaming, into a back alley between two long closed shops. As soon as he took his hand away from her mouth, she started talking in a panic. “You can have my money; there’s $20 in my wallet. Please just let me go!”

The man pushed her face first up against a wall, pinning her against it with his knee as he began to tie her wrists together with rope. “Keep your money.” he stated. “I’ll be getting plenty of money very soon.”
“You don’t want to do this,” she pleaded as the man cinched the rope tighter around her wrists.


Pausing Bernie sighed apologetically. “I wish I didn’t have to, I really do. But I have to live too, you know. I have to keep food on the table somehow…” The sound of duct tape being ripped off the roll only crushed sky’s hope further. “I’m really sorry kid…I mean it.”
But when she said “You don’t want to do this,” she wasn’t trying to convince him to have mercy; she was giving him a warning. As the man’s hands came over sky’s head, about to place the duct tape over her mouth, she did what any girl would do.
Letting out an ear shattering scream, she flung her head back, smashing her head into her attacker’s. As he stumbled backward, hands covering his bleeding nose, sky pushed herself off the wall and sent herself sailing backward with enough force to knock the man into the wall behind him. And with that, she took off running.
“Somebody help me!” she screamed, running out into the deserted street. “Please, somebody help!” The sound of shoes crunching on pavement was picking up speed behind her. With no one in sight, sky only ran faster, sure that her only chance of escape was if she made it back to the open coffee shop before the man could catch up with her. There were still employees working there who were sure to hear her screams. If only she could get close enough! Rounding the street corner, she heard the man running even closer behind her. “Hey!” he yelled, gaining speed. “Get back here!”
Suddenly, sky started to tip forward. With her arms still tied behind her back, she had no way to balance herself out and soon braced herself as she started to fall forward. She hit the pavement with a crash, slamming her head down hard on the blacktop. Before she could get up, the man was upon her. Straddling her back, he cut off her screams with a piece of duct tape expertly placed over her mouth. Standing up, he picked her up and threw her over his shoulder. Her hope quickly fleeting, sky watched with panicked eyes and a throbbing head as the coffee shop became further and further away.
“MMMPH!” she screamed beneath the tape, twisting violently. “MMPHT, PHMM MMMH!” Her desperate thrashing and squirming didn’t slow the man down at all. In a matter of minutes, he had brought her back into the alley and dropped her down next to a dumpster.
“Look, we can do this the easy way, or we can do this the hard way.” he stated, out of breath. “I’m sorry, kid, but there’s nothing I can do! It’s either you or me.” With a sigh of regret, he kneeled down next to her. “Just take a few deep breaths. You won’t feel a thing…”
Confused at first, she soon realized what the man was talking about when he pulled a needle out of his coat pocket. He only had time to remove the cover, however, before Sky kicked him in the jaw, sending him tumbling backward.
“Man, you pack a punch…” he muttered, holding his jaw. Sky merely glared at him. “Looks like we’ll have to do this fast,” Sitting on her, he tried the needle again. Even though Sky was moving in around in her best attempted to stop him, they proved useless as he tapped the needle lightly against his finger. “Just a second now, there, all ready.” Holding the teenager’s head down, he pushed her jaw back to allow him better access to her neck. “Just a little prick; you won’t feel a thing…”
Sky had finally stopped squirming, which the man assumed to be a sign of defeat. Unfortunately for him, no one had ever warned him to never assume things.
As Sky lay still she tried desperately until she was finally able to wriggle one hand free and, just as the needle pierced her skin, her arm swung up and raked her nails across his face.
“What the-?!” was the shocked reply as the man jerked back, pulling the needle out of her neck and quickly bringing his hand up to cover his face. Before he could finish his sentence, Sky shoved him off of her, ripped the tape from her mouth, and, pulling herself up on the side of the dumpster, and began to run.
“Oh, no you don’t!” the man said, regaining his composure in time to yank her to the ground. Falling to her knees, her outstretched arms catching her fall, Sky’s hands searched the ground desperately until she felt something hard lying beneath the dumpster. Without even bothering to see what it was, she clutched her fist around it and sent it slamming into her attacker’s head. Blood gushed from the man’s forehead when she pulled her arm back and saw a broken piece of rusty pipe held in her hand.
“Get AWAY from me,” she roared, sending the pipe colliding with his head again. The second blow knocked the man flat on the ground. Picking herself up off the ground, Sky made a mad dash for the street; but not before the injured man stretched his hand out to grasp onto her ankle. Without slowing down Sky slammed her heel onto his hand, causing him to yelp and release her. Throwing the pipe at his head in a last attempt to keep him down, she ran for the street.
It was then that the street started to tilt sideways and the single streetlight multiplied into two. Sky tried to shake her head clear but to no avail. The sidewalk blurred in with the street and the stars above merged into one glowing mass as the needle’s contents started to take effect.
“Just make it to the coffee shop…” she commanded herself. “Just turn this corner and run a few more yards…” Sky stumbled, catching herself on side of a building. “Just a little…farther…and…” She could feel herself start to drift away now… She was starting to lose herself; and she could feel it. “Just…a…little…”
A hard blow to the back of her skull dropped her to the ground.
“You’re not going anywhere,” came a dark voice. Behind where she had been standing stood the man, the same pipe she had used on him gripped in his hand. “Not tonight.”
But sky hadn’t heard him. She hadn’t heard anything. Her hearing had already faded to the point where she was completely oblivious that he was running up behind her until it was too late…
The man sighed. “Now why did you have to go and make me do that? Now you’re too damaged to take to my boss!” He frowned. “What am I supposed to do now, huh? I can’t let you go! You know what I look like! And I can’t waste away in prison for this...”
Sky opened and closed her mouth in silence, taking in gasping breaths as she urged her legs to crawl. Digging her nails into the pavement, she pulled herself up a few inches, but not nearly far enough to escape the man staring at her with uncertainty. “Looks like I’ll just have to finish it,” he admitted sadly. “I hate it when this happens. It just kills me to do this. But you’ve got to understand, kid, it’s you or me! If any of this gets to the police, it’s over for me!” Sighing again, he picked up her legs and began to drag her back towards the alley.
All Sky could do was weakly try to dig her fingers into the pavement as he drug her on her belly, leaving a trail of blood on the black asphalt. She tried to scream, but only a gasping squeak emerged from her mouth. Between the blood gushing from the back of her head and the chemicals injected into her body, she began to shut down. Somewhere in her mind, her stubbornness sparked the urge to try just one more time, and with the last of her draining energy Sky released one last gurgled scream.

****
Although weak, her faint scream attracted the attention of another, more familiar man, silently trudging down the sidewalk away from the coffee shop. At the sound of the feeble scream, the stranger stopped and turned his head back. Only an empty street greeted his eyes. About to turn back, his eyes caught on something that made him stay. A dark pool of blood glimmered beneath the streetlights. Looking closer, he saw long trail of red streaked down the asphalt that disappeared around the corner. His interest sparked, the stranger followed the trail curiously.
He turned the corner just in time to see a man dragging the girl he had been talking to in the coffee shop only minutes ago into a dark alley. The stranger’s eyes widened when he saw the girls arms stretch out to scrape the pavement weakly before disappearing into the alley. She was still alive.
His first instinct was to help her. Whoever she was, she was still alive…and judging by her situation he doubted she would stay that way for very long. But something in the back of his mind made him stop. As much as he wanted to save her, he knew doing so in his present situation would only cause more trouble. Looking back at the alley, he started to turn around, but stopped. Which was more important, a stranger’s life, or his own?
Back in the alley, the man dropped Sky’s legs. Standing back he observed the girl who now lay on the cold pavement, her life draining. “This is going to hurt me, too, you know.” he said, clutching the pipe in his fist. “I’m sorry, kid, I really am…” Raising the pipe high above his head, he prepared to bring it down on her head one final time. But before he could deliver the fatal blow, a voice behind him made him jump.
“Don’t even think about it,” said a voice from behind him. Bernie turned; surprised that he hadn’t heard the stranger coming. “Get lost.” he said, seeing that it was only a boy no older than 20. “This is my business, not yours. Now get out of here and let me take care of it.” Turning back around, Bernie positioned Sky’s head in alignment with the pipe to insure a direct hit.
But the young man was persistent. “I can’t let you do that.” he said. “Just drop the pipe and we can both walk away and pretend like nothing happened.”

Bernie, now annoyed, slowly moved his hand down where a switchblade rested in his pocket. He stopped suddenly as the young man cocked a gun and held it in perfect aim with his head.
“I don’t think you quite understand” the stranger continued, his once tired voice taking on a dark edge of something sinister. “Either you can drop it and leave, or I can kill you. Your choice.”
“Look,” the Bernie started, panicking as he raised his hands up. “I’m just doing my job! It’s not up to me. Just let me do my job. That way I can finish what I’m supposed to and you can go right on with your life just like you’re supposed to.”
“I can’t let you do that.” the young man said, raising the gun to the man’s head.
“Look, kid, I’ll make you a deal! How much money do you wan-”
Before the man could finish his sentence, the gun fired; and the string that bound together Bernie’s tattered life finally broke as he to the ground.

The stranger turned his attention toward the girl. Kneeling down, he cocked his head to the side curiously, contemplating what to do with her. How could he help her without suffering responsibility for her? It was hard enough keeping himself out of trouble, let alone a stranger.
He could simply leave her there, he thought. Someone would be bound to find her. Leaning closer, he slid a hand beneath her head and turned her face towards him. She would be alright here for a few hours, or until someone discovered her. But as he laid her head back down on the pavement, he noticed something wet and sticky covering his hand, blood.
“Damn.” He said aloud, turning the girl’s head to allow him self better view of the sickeningly deep gash on the back of her head. There was no way he could leave her here with that kind of head wound. For a brief second, he entertained the idea of taking her to a hospital. But in a flash, the thought was extinguished by the fact that, in such a public place, there lurked the ever-present chance of recognition. With a sigh of frustration, the stranger looked back at the street, then again at the girl.
“Damn it,” he muttered finally as he gently lifted the limp body up off the ground, “I know I’m going to regret this later.”