Human Heist

I swept the musty basement for the 3rd time this evening. Not allowed to go upstairs on account of the Lamia Ball that Master Dorian was hosting, I had little else to do. As I swept, I daydreamed of the way life must have been before the age of night. I imagined my mother and father picnicking on the beach, the sun glinting off of the water as they enjoyed wine and fruit. I missed the sunlight more than anything else that the nightwalkers had taken away. I longed for the warmth that it had once provided, but it had been ripped from my life so long ago, I was not even sure I remembered the feeling correctly.

Suddenly, the door slammed open, tearing me away from my thoughts. I jumped as Master Dorian’s voice blasted through my ears, telling me to bring up more refreshments from the basement cooler. I hurried to get the bags of blood, knowing I would be punished gravely if my timing was not to Master’s liking. As I ascended the stairs, I reminded myself to keep my eyes down. Making eye contact with any of the Nightwalkers upstairs would surely land me dead or beaten – especially if anyone in particular took a liking to me. I rushed to place the blood bags on ice and get back down to the basement. But not 5 steps from the stairs to go back down, I was stopped. A tall, lanky vampire with long brunette hair cut into my path, causing me to stumble over my feet. He laughed as I barely caught myself, finding amusement in my clumsiness. I kept my eyes down and tried to step around him. Stepping in front of me again, he muttered “And where do you think you’re going, snack?” My heart thumped hard in my chest as my nerves rose. I must have taken too long to respond, because he grabbed my chin and forced me to look into his violet eyes. “I asked where you were going.” I tried to take a deep breath, but his wrist pressed against my throat. I squeaked out, “To the basement sir.” He pulled me close to him and took a long whiff of my hair. He then put me down, much more gently than I was expecting him to. He murmured “Be on your way then.” And turned to walk away. My heart still pattering on in my chest, I hurried to get back down to the basement before someone else could stop me.

As my feet came off the final step, I dropped to my knees and cried. My hand reached up to my neck, grasping my locket in my palm. I wished for nothing more than to turn back time, back to before the nightwalkers had taken over. Fifteen some odd years ago, they overthrew our government. And, in turn, turned all normal humans into 2nd class citizens at best. And at worst, into slaves such as myself. We were stripped of our rights, our privacy, and our freedom. They only allowed each of us to keep one small memento - one item that they thought might keep us sane. At the meager age of 10, I had chosen the small heart shaped locket that my mother had given me just before she passed away. Just days before the blood sucker murdered her in front of me.

Pressing the locket so hard into my hand that it was nearly drawing blood, I let out shaky breaths. I used the locket to help ground me and find my bearings. Once I could breathe normally, I stood and walked to my small palette in the corner of the room. Knowing dawn would be approaching soon and the vampire party above would soon end, I laid on my single blanket and closed my eyes.

I woke sometime later to someone shaking me. My eyes fluttered open to see the vampire who had stopped me earlier at the party. Instantly, my hair stood on end and my eyes opened wide. I skittered to get away from him, but he had a strong grasp on my wrist. Tears started welling in my eyes, sure that this was the end for me. Catching my eye, he let go of my wrist and put his finger to his mouth in a shushing motion. I stared at him in utter confusion, just waiting for him to leap and put his teeth to my neck. He looked at me with an odd gentleness in his eyes and his deep voice whispered, “I’m not here to hurt you. I am here to break you out.” I shook my head, not understanding the words leaving his mouth. The look in his eyes changed from gentle to that of urgency. “Look, your master will be waking soon. I can already hear him starting to stir. I swear to you, I am not here to hurt you. I am part of a vampire-human alliance. I was sent to break you out.” “But…but…but… earlier… y-y-you sniffed me. And called me a snack.” He smiled slightly at me, the urgency still in his voice, “All part of the act. I needed your scent to make sure I would be able to find you. I couldn’t let anyone at the party think that I was a sympathizer. Hence the creepy lingo and sniff. But I swear, I am here to help you. Look, I even have this.” He flashed a blue token that had a serpent etched into it. I nodded, recognizing the symbol as that of the alliance and choosing to believe that this man was my savior instead of my slaughterer. He pulled me to a standing position first then lifted me into his arm. “I know, a bit awkward, but I promise this will be much faster than letting you walk.” I nestled against his chest as he moved swiftly up the basement stairs, through the parlor, and out the back door.

Once we had run at least a 15 or even 20 miles, he finally stopped and stood me up beside a tree. A bit wind whipped from the vampire’s speed, I sat down with my back against the tree and took deep grounding breaths. I heard him chuckle lightly, watching me with his bright violet eyes that shone even through the dimming light. I looked up at him and raised my eyebrows. “Something funny?” He gave me a goofy grin and turned to pop a squat next to me. “Just humans in general. I have rescued so many, and every time the do the same thing you just did. Without fail.” I grunted and rolled my eyes, “At least I’m not the only one I guess.” He nodded but said nothing else. We sat for what felt like forever. I looked around, seeing the world around me for the first time in 15 years. All of the buildings were large, practically mansions and skyscrapers. The whole block looked like it belonged to million and billionaires. I tried to remember if there had always been huge buildings everywhere. “Have these buildings always been here?” I asked the vampire sitting beside me. He shook his head and looked around himself. “Only since the takeover. Vampires ya know. Frugal is not exactly a word you could use to describe them.” I looked over at him, for the first time actually taking in how handsome he was. Not surprisingly, everyone knows even the ugliest of humans would make a beautiful vampire. But it was clear he had always been handsome, even before he was turned. His long brunette hair sweeped his shoulders. His long eyelashes practically brushed the thick eyebrows that sat atop his protruding brow bone. He must have felt my stare, as he turned to look back at me. My breath caught in my throat, realizing that I was staring. I coughed out, “You realize you are a vampire, right?” He chuckled again and nodded, “Believe it or not, I was aware of that.” I giggled myself, appreciating the momentary light heartedness. Suddenly, I realized I had no clue what to call him. “Um… do you by chance have a name?” His eyes widened, “Oh my! I’m sorry, I never introduced myself. I’m Wes.” I stuck my hand out to him, “Well nice to meet ya Wes, I’m Layla.” He grabbed my hand and shook, “I already knew that. But yes, a pleasure indeed.” I cocked my head at him, “You already knew my name? How?” He nodded and started to stand up, “Yep. We don’t usually rescue people that we don’t know exist. Thus, we know their names.” “Makes sense.” I responded as I stood up myself, “So where to now?” He started walking away from the tree and pointed to a set of mountains a way away from us. “Our ‘rebel’ base if you will is in a little cave up that way. On foot, we could probably make it in a day or two.” I scrunched my eyebrows and dropped my jaw. “Uh… A day or two? Is that safe? Won’t these streets be crawling with vampires in the next few minutes?” He held a finger up, telling me to wait a moment, and dug around in his jacket pocket. A few seconds later he was dangling a set of key in my face. “You had a car this whole time, and yet you had to carry me here? What gives?” He started walking toward the street and I rushed to keep up with him. “It’s not like I could leave the car at Dorian’s house. He might have noticed something fishy. So, I had to stash it a few miles away so no one would know that a human heist was happening.” Breathing heavily as I tried to keep pace with him, I guffed. “I don’t appreciate my rescue being called a heist. I am not something to be stolen like some jewelry or anything.” As we reached an old Ford truck, he opened the passenger side door and cocked an eyebrow at me, “Hate to break it to you sweetheart, but in their eyes, you may very well be less valuable than jewelry. So heist is probably being generous to you.” I sucked my teeth as I climbed into the seat, but said nothing else, knowing he was right. In the eyes of the majority of the population, I was nothing but an animal to boss around and take bites out of every so often. Wes climbed into the driver seat and turned the ignition. As the car began to roll away, I allowed myself for the first time to wonder about the future. I pondered about the new life I was starting, curious to see how much better it would be than the life of slavery I was leaving behind.