Upload
ladysonoma
View
229
Download
0
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
8/3/2019 Her Last Days
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/her-last-days 2/43
Her Last Days
Chapter 1
It was the last day of school, thankfully. Starr
was looking forward to spending the next
couple of summer weeks with her cousin,
Lita.
She walked up to the plain white
house at the end of the block.
“Is she here yet?” she called aloud, as
she walked through the front door and madeher way into the kitchen.
“AAAAghhhh!!” a girl screamed, and
ran at her from beside the kitchen bar.
“When did you get here?”
“This afternoon. My parents dropped
me off and I’ve been waiting for you to get
home,” and she added, in a whisper, “what’swrong with Meghan? She’s been acting
strange all afternoon, didn’t want to talk to
me, and barely said hi. I thought we were all
buddies.”
“That’s a long story and, to be honest,
I don’t know all the details. She’s been reallycold and distant with me, too, the last few
months. I guess she’s just going through
8/3/2019 Her Last Days
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/her-last-days 3/43
something that she doesn’t want to tell
anyone about.”
“Okay, okay,” cut in Starr’s mother.
“You guys go upstairs. Starr, you still need to
pack. While you’re up there, make sure you
both have everything you need. Once we get
up to the cabin, there won’t be a store, for miles, around.”
They walked up the stairs and down
the hall, toward Starr’s room. She stopped, a
moment, and knocked on the second door to
her right.
“Meghan?” she called through the
door. “Do you want to hang out, with me and
Lita, in my room?”
“No thanks,” she called out.
“I guess she doesn’t like me,
anymore. We used to talk a ton, but today it
was like she hardly knew me.”
“It’s not you, trust me, it’s her.
Lately, she doesn’t want to talk to anyone.”
They closed the door to Starr’s room.
She pulled out the large suitcase from under
her bed and started packing clothes in.
8/3/2019 Her Last Days
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/her-last-days 4/43
“So what’s up? Tell me everything!”
said Starr.“Well, Mark, the guy I was telling
you about, last time we talked. He’s going
out with the biggest slob in the world. This
girl who wears sneakers and men’s tee shirts;
you should see her, a fashion-don’t. I’m
hanging with Maggie and Jessie, as usual.You met them last time you visited; they’re
my friends from school. Next year, I start
applying to colleges, but, other than those
things, there’s nothing new in my life.”
“Well, things have been boring, here;
everyone seems to be in their own world.
Mom’s gone back to work, and she loveslong hours, so we don’t really see her. Dad
has always been a quiet type, so he zones out,
watching television. Meghan just sits in her
room on her computer all night. I just come
home, do schoolwork, eat, and then hang out
up here, in my room, most nights.”
Through the wall, they could,
suddenly, hear Meghan shouting.
“Sounds like your sister is having an
argument?”
“Yeah, she’s been fighting with
someone, off and on, lately. It’s probably just
a guy she’s dating.”“Sounds pretty serious,” said Lita
sounding skeptical.
8/3/2019 Her Last Days
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/her-last-days 5/43
From downstairs, Starr’s mother called them down to dinner.
After a good meal, they went to bed
early.
The next morning, they piled into the
car and drove two hours until they got to thefurthest end of Lake George.
The cabin was dusty and dark, but it
looked kind of cozy. Everyone went to
unpack, and Starr’s parents to prepare for
lunch.
Down on the dock of the lake, they
had a light lunch, and then went swimming.
“Meghan, why don’t you have your
bathing suit on?”
“I don’t feel like swimming.”
“Eat a sandwich.”
“I’m not hungry, Mom,” she said
annoyed.
They talked and laughed, and swam,
but Meghan sat there looking glum. When
the sun started to set, they made their way
back up to the cabin for grilled burgers.
In the living room, after dinner, they
watched a movie. From the corner of Starr’seye, she noticed Meghan wiping her cheeks.
8/3/2019 Her Last Days
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/her-last-days 6/43
Why was she crying?
As she lay in bed, Starr reflected on
all the peculiar changes that had taken place
in her, once, overly cheerful sister. It seemed
like only six months before, they had a pretty
good relationship, for siblings anyway, and,
now, they were like strangers to each other.Well, she couldn’t take it anymore; she
decided to go to her, that instant, and demand
that Meghan talk to her, and she wouldn’t
leave her room until she told Starr everything
that was going on with her.
She climbed out of bed and tip toed to
her room. Gently, she knocked on the door, but Meghan didn’t reply. Starr opened the
door, a crack, and looked inside. While she
didn’t see Meghan in the room, she saw
through the large window, a girl bent over,
talking into a car with its lights turned off;
she could just barely see the shadow of it, by
the porch light.
It occurred to Starr that, not only was
it peculiar for Meghan to be down there at
such a time, but who would drive all the way
out to Lake George to see her?
Wondering if she were in some kind
of trouble, Starr snuck downstairs to try andeavesdrop. Instead of going toward the front
of the house, where Meghan was, Starr crept
8/3/2019 Her Last Days
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/her-last-days 7/43
out of the back and inched along the walls of
the house, staying in the shadow; she stopped just short of the porch light.
From where she stood, she could see
the man inside the car; he had a buzz cut and
deep dark eyes. He was unshaven and dirty
looking, and a cigarette hung from his mouth.
They whispered to each other,ferociously; Starr couldn’t make out a word,
with the engine of the car humming. Then, in
a sudden movement, the man grabbed
Meghan’s arms and she screamed. Starr ran
up and grabbed her around the ankles, but he
pulled her in and pried Starr’s hands off her.
Starr fell, hard, onto the gravel; shefelt jagged rock cut into her thighs and legs.
The car slowly reversed, and Starr could hear
Meghan screaming at the top of her lungs.
“Shut up!” she heard the man shout.
Starr ran down the driveway with the
intention of jumping on the car, but it had
already backed into the road where it turned
and sped off. Starr ran down the road, trying
to read the license plate but it was too dark.
After hours of questioning by thesheriff’s department, they packed up and
8/3/2019 Her Last Days
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/her-last-days 8/43
went home, only to be questioned again by
their own local police.Starr had never seen her parents look
so sad. Weeks went by without word from
Meghan, during which, they hounded,
repeatedly, the school and friends who may
have been in contact with her. The only time
they went out of their way to talk to Starr wasto snap at her, usually for bothering them or
forgetting to do something. She used to be
sad about having a boring home, and
spending every night alone in her room; she
never thought things could get even worse.
Now, not only did they ignore her, but they
seemed to be angry with her for lettingMeghan get away; every time they looked at
her, she could she disgust and loathing in
their eyes.
One day, Starr was sitting in
Meghan’s room, feeling sad. Her mother,
who had taken occasional opportunities to
badger Starr to death about the night Meghan
was kidnapped, had decided that Starr was a
terrible sister. She told her, plain as day, that
she wished it were her who had been
kidnapped, instead of Meghan.
As she sat on her sister’s bed, wiping
tears from her eyes, she looked down andsaw a little cord sticking out of the drawer of
Meghan’s desk. She opened the drawer and
8/3/2019 Her Last Days
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/her-last-days 9/43
found her sister’s little Samsung. It dawned
on Starr that Meghan had only stopped usingthe Samsung a few weeks before they left for
Lake George.
Immediately, she plugged in the cord
and turned on the phone. Why didn’t she
think of it before? All the messages she’d
been texting, for the past three months, werestored on the phone’s memory: over 300
messages, incoming and out.
Quickly, upon seeing all the
messages, she unplugged the cord, and
stowed away, back to her room and read
through every single message.
At first, it was just nonsense betweenher and Alison McComb; her best friend at
school. They talked trash and uselessness,
back and forth, but, then the tone changed.
“Alison: Meghan, where were you
today? You missed Sandra’s birthday party.
Alison: Meghan, I haven’t heard from
you in two days. Where are you?
Alison: Are we no longer friends?
Write back.”
Starr knew, at that moment, that
Alison was telling the truth, when she toldher parents she knew nothing, for the
message was dated to approximately six
8/3/2019 Her Last Days
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/her-last-days 10/43
months ago; about the same time Meghan
became reclusive.She skipped along and that’s when
messages from a stranger appeared: some
guy named Frank.
“Frank: Hi, Meghan, darling. You
looked lovely today.Frank: Where are you? I’m here and
waiting.
Frank: So I don’t care; skip school
and get your butt over here!”
“Meghan: I can’t meet you.
Meghan: We have to stop seeing eachother; you’re too old for me.
Meghan: You love me? Then who
was that blonde on your arm, the other night?
Meghan: STAY AWAY FROM
ME!!!”
Then there was one last group of
messages from Frank.
“Frank: I’m going to the city where
my buddy and I plan to make a lot of money
through some connections. Are you coming
or what?
Frank: Baby, I’m sorry… Pleasecome. I won’t leave without you.
8/3/2019 Her Last Days
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/her-last-days 11/43
Frank: I’ll be staying at the Froger
Apartments on Eighty eighth and second,meet me there when you can.”
Starr decided to go to the city, right
then and right there. She pulled out her
suitcase and dialed her best childhood friend,
Michael, at the same time.
“Hey, Starr!”
“Michael, there’s not a lot of time for
me to explain, but I need your help.”
“Anything for my favorite girl in the
world.”
“My sister’s in trouble. I need a placeto crash. I’m coming to the city, tonight. Do
you think your parents would let me sleep on
your couch? I don’t really have any money.”
“I don’t see why not. Just come on by
when you get here.”
“Okay, I gotta hang up. I’ll call you
when I get in.”
She called the cab company, and left
for the train station an hour later: her mother
didn’t even flinch when she saw her leave,
suitcase in hand.Michael surprised her at the station at
seven ‘o’ clock that evening. Starr wanted to
8/3/2019 Her Last Days
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/her-last-days 12/43
go straight to the address, but when Michael
realized what neighborhood the address wasin, he insisted they go to the police, first.
After waiting an hour and a half, they
finally sat down with an officer who seemed
to think Starr was as unimportant as the fly
buzzing around his head. When she
recounted the events of the night at the cabin,he looked more irritated, rather than
concerned; almost as if the last thing he
needed was Starr adding a load to his
shoulders. They left feeling rejected; Starr
furious and determined to get Meghan
herself, but Michael wouldn’t let her, saying
they’d be better off going in the daytime, asnight time was extremely dangerous in that
neighborhood. He forced her back to his
place, where they ate dinner with his parents,
and then went to bed.
But Starr couldn’t sleep, nor could
she wait until morning. She left the couch
and the apartment, quietly.
She walked half a mile or so, to the
Froger Apartments and stood outside.
Michael was right, the streets were
dangerous. Women looked devious on every
street corner, men looked slimy and slovenly.
Starr, having spent a good life in the suburbs,had never seen such people, but she wasn’t
afraid. When Starr was determined, there was
8/3/2019 Her Last Days
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/her-last-days 13/43
never any stopping her, and that night was no
different.In contemplation of Michael’s word,
and the visuals she was getting from the
shady neighborhood, Starr decided it was
best that she wait until daylight to approach
the apartment that was labeled Frank Catrelli
on the door buzzer. If he was as creepy as helooked, assuming it was he who took Meghan
that night, it wasn’t hard to imagine that he
could, easily, kill her and throw her body into
the Hudson River.
She walked around until dawn started
to peak out from the sky, and that was when
she saw Meghan. Starr recognized the black leather jacket with leather pieces cut into a
flower, on the back. She was ordering
something through the window of a bakery.
At first she didn’t believe her eyes,
but when she shouted “Meghan!” she knew
she’d found her. She turned her head to see
who’d called her name, then, seeing Starr,
she took off running.
Starr chased her down three blocks
and into an alley. She caught her by the hem
of her jacket as she tried to escaped up a fire
ladder, but she yanked her back onto theground and pinned her; Meghan struggled but
8/3/2019 Her Last Days
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/her-last-days 14/43
Starr, though younger, was too strong for
Meghan.“What are you doing here? Why
won’t you come home?”
“ Because I don’t want to! Get off me,” she tried to buck her with her hips but
failed.
“Stop fighting me and I’ll let youup!”“Fine!”Starr got off her, but as soon as
Meghan stood up, she tried to run. Starr
blocked her and Meghan tried to punch her,
but Starr did a reverse roundhouse heel kick,
landing her on the ground.“Look,” she said huffing, standing
over her, “we can either do this the hard way,
or the easy way. It’s your choice; we can do
this all day, if you like.”
Meghan stood up and Starr saw her,
clearly, for the first time. Her right eye was
healing from an injury, and the corners of her
nose were red and agitated; she sniffled
repeatedly and she looked thin.
“Meghan, you look like crap. Come
on,” she put her arm around her shouldersand guided her out to the street. “Try to run
and I’ll thrash you, don’t test me.”
8/3/2019 Her Last Days
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/her-last-days 15/43
“Where are we going?”
“You need to eat, Meghan.”
They walked up the street to a diner.
Over coffee and eggs, Starr tried to
question Meghan but she was reluctant.
“So are you gonna tell me what the
hell you’re doing here?”
“I’m in love with a guy, and I don’t
want to be without him.”
“Really?” said Starr disbelieving. “Is
he really worth it? Because, Meghan, you
look like hell.”“Money is tight, right now, but soon
we’ll be rolling in it.”
“How will you get this money that
you’ll be rolling in?”
Meghan looked away.
“Thanks for the eggs, and thanks for
visiting me. I know you’re worried, but I’m
okay, really. Tell mom and dad not to worry.
Now I’ve gotta go. I’m sorry.”
Starr watched her walk out the door,
and then hurried out the door herself.
Keeping a hundred paces behind, shefollowed her up to the Froger apartments
building.
8/3/2019 Her Last Days
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/her-last-days 16/43
Quietly, Starr pressed the button that
said Frank Catrelli. A muffled voice camethrough the little metal box. “What? I can’t
understand you,” said Starr, then someone
buzzed her. Up the stairs, she went until she
got to the seventh floor. She walked to the
door at the end of the hall.
Standing in the doorway, an
overweight, bald guy asked, “Can I help
you?”
From behind the guy, she saw a man
who had Meghan by the hair. It was the guy
who pulled her into the car, that night at thecabin: Frank. Without a moments delay, Starr
kicked in the door. The guy tried to push her
out, but Starr landed an axe kick that sent
him down to the floor, squirming.
“ Let go of my sister,” she shouted at
the guy.
He released her hair and backed
away, slowly.
Meghan looked pathetic, to Starr,
standing there allowing herself to be treated
in such a way. Starr was caught between pity
and disgust, as she looked at her. Grabbingher by the elbow, she attempted to guide her
out of the apartment, but when she resisted,
8/3/2019 Her Last Days
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/her-last-days 17/43
Starr put her in a chokehold and forced her
out of the apartment, down the stairs, and outinto the street.
Not wanting to take Meghan back to
Michael’s, in her condition – plus his parents
would have called the police - , they walked
the streets for hours, until they found an old
abandoned clinic in a fenced off area. It hadtwo boards nailed across a short walkway.
When Starr pulled back the glass door, a cold
draft blew back her hair, freezing her nose
and stinging her eyes. Inside, she sat Meghan
down on and old couch.
“We have to stay here for a fewhours. I can’t take you back to Michael’s,
looking the way you do. His parents would
not approve. Unfortunately, I don’t have a lot
of cash, so we’ll just have to crash here until
evening, which is when the train, to take us
home, is scheduled arrive.”
Starr sat down next to Meghan. She
put her arms around her and said, “It’s gonna
be alright, you’ll see: as long as we stick
together, everything will be fine. You don’t
need that jerk.”
They fell asleep, together, on the
couch.
8/3/2019 Her Last Days
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/her-last-days 18/43
Several hours later, she woke to findthat Meghan had gone. Immediately, Starr
went back to Frank’s apartment, but no one
answered her when she pressed the button, so
she waited for someone who could buzz her
in.
About five ‘o’ clock, she decided shecould wait no longer. She’d asked several
people to let her in, but they all refused.
Looking at her watch, she only had two hours
until their train was due to arrive, so she
snuck up the side of the building by climbing
the fire escape stairs.
When she reached the seventh level,she peered through the window, into the
living room of Frank’s apartment. Although
she saw no one, she wasn’t convinced. As
quietly as she could, she busted her fist
through the glass. Then she kicked in all the
jagged shards so she could crawl through the
window without cutting herself.
Slowly, with eyes wide open, she
walked through the living room and turned
right, into a hall. Someone coughed.
How could someone not hear her
break the window?
8/3/2019 Her Last Days
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/her-last-days 19/43
There was a large gurgling noise that
came from down the hall. Slowly, she walkedtoward where the noise came from. She
looked in the first bedroom and, there, a man
sat on a bed with blood shot eyes: it was
Frank, again, and he was high as a kite.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
he asked.“Where’s my sister?”
“You’re dead,” he yelled as he
walked, slowly, toward her.
She froze as he reached behind his
back and pulled out a gun.
“If you shoot me, everyone around
here will hear it. I broke the window and
there are cops downstairs busting some
druggy; they saw me break in and called on
their radio.”
He looked at her with wonderment,
no doubt asking himself if she were bluffing.
As if making up his mind not to take
a chance, he raised his hand with the gun and
struck down at Starr’s head, which burst open
and bled immediately like a water fount.
Then he put his hands around her throat and
started choking her.Starr was too dizzy, from being
stricken, to react quickly. Stars danced in
8/3/2019 Her Last Days
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/her-last-days 20/43
front of her eyes, and as she lost the ability to
breathe, she became dizzier.Although she felt too weak to
continue, her dojo master told her never to
give up; that she’d be surprised at how much
strength a person could muster, and even at
the end of a weakened life force. With that
thought, she pulled back her arm and punched him in the crotch. As he struggled
against the pain to keep his grip on her neck,
she took the minute opportunity to nail him
in the esophagus which sent him down to the
ground.
As she made to leave the room, he
grabbed her by the hair and yanked her back.Starr swung her head back and butted in his
nose, feeling it crunch against her skull.
Next, she sent a roundhouse to his face that
knocked him out cold.
She turned around and ran through
the other rooms. When she didn’t find
Meghan, she felt relief. Maybe she’d simply
left the clinic to get some food, or something,
but, when she walked into the last room in
the back, her heart sank fast and all went
silent, except a loud ringing in her ears.
Under the glaring light of shade-less
lamp, laid a dark haired girl. She walked upto the figure, tears already welling up in her
eyes, and looked down. The bed was blood
8/3/2019 Her Last Days
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/her-last-days 21/43
soaked, and her lips no longer the healthy
pink they once were.Someone was in the room with her,
likely Frank, but she was too stunned to
move; she couldn’t even defend herself. Her
sister was dead and she didn’t know what she
was going to do. How was she gonna tell her
parents? What would they say? They alreadyhated her for letting Meghan get away.
Despair was sinking her like a ship.
Then something whooshed around the
room. Starr turned around to try and see what
it was, but all went black.
Present Day
She stood under the street lamp, head
tilted back, watching the window of the
apartment on the seventh floor, just like she’d
done nearly every night, since she got back
from Boston. Using her mind, she’d sense the
inhabitants and what they were doing; an
advantage of being what she was, extra
sensory perception or ESP. She could sense
the presence of other people and see, in her
mind’s eye, what they were doing. For
example, in her mind, she could see the
residents in the apartment were sitting downto dinner. Frank Catrelli was no longer a
resident, there.
8/3/2019 Her Last Days
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/her-last-days 22/43
Perhaps it seemed pointless to go
back every night and watch them, but it wasall she could do, in the hopes that someone
familiar would happen by, thus leading Starr
to the man who killed her sister. Sure, she
could have gone to the police, but after the
way they treated her, last time, Starr decided
not to waste her time. Besides, she wantedrevenge; the kind that the judicial system was
unable to provide, so, like she’d done a
hundred times that month, already, she
walked the neighborhood.
She turned and walked up the street a
bit. Over and over again, she thought about
the last day they had together, at the clinic.Up until a few weeks ago, Starr could
only remember flashes of what happened that
night in the apartment where she found her
sister. It was only when her friend, Michael,
confessed to having been there, that it all
came back to her. The jerk, Frank, stabbed
her in the back, cutting her spinal cord clean
in half, and that was when and why Michael
turned her.
“Starr.”
She didn’t have to turn around to seethat it was Marla walking behind her, calling
her name.
8/3/2019 Her Last Days
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/her-last-days 23/43
“Hey” she said without looking back.
Since she’d been back, Marla had been, in asense, trying to talk her down from a
proverbial ledge.
“It’s 3am. I’m just getting off work.
Want to get a drink at The Gaul?”
The Gaul was a club where her other
friend, and fellow vampire, Mica, worked.“No, thanks,” said Starr sourly, as she
had still not entirely forgiven either of them
for trying to kill her a while back.
“Starr, you can’t spend your life
walking these streets. What happened is
terrible, but now you got to worry about Lily.
We need to get her back, and we need you todo that.”
Starr stopped and, for the first time
since being turned, felt like blood was
circulating in her veins. Her face heated up
and the hair on her scalp rose up.
Lily was a girl who was abandoned
by her mother. Starr had taken it upon herself
to look after her, but, while they were in
Boston, a group of old vampires abducted
her.
“Look, I know I seem callous but
she’s okay. In fact, she’s probably getting all
the luxury she’s never had.”“How do you know that?”
8/3/2019 Her Last Days
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/her-last-days 24/43
“Because I met them; they’re a couple
old, bored vamps with nothing better to do. If anything, they’re treating her like a doll.”
“What if they turn her, Starr? She’s so
young, still.”
“They won’t. They’re adamant that
she needs a few more years. Look, I know
what I sensed and, what I sensed is theywon’t hurt her. They continued to compare
her to their own kids, and looked at her with
adoring eyes. She’s fine, for now. Besides, I
don’t need to go after them, they are coming
for me, remember?”
“Look, I don’t want to make light of
you avenging your sister’s death, but if theycome here, and you are not ready for them,
we can’t help you. We aren’t strong enough.”
“I know, Marla. I just can’t, right
now. I have to find Frank Catrelli, first.”
8/3/2019 Her Last Days
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/her-last-days 26/43
Questions
Chapter 2
The sun glared down upon her face; a
burning smell of trash worked its way up her
nose. She’d fallen asleep against the wall in
the alley of the Froger Apartment building, behind the trash dumpster.
She stood up and walked, fast, to the
pharmacy drugstore, several blocks down.
Inside, she hurried, with her head hung down,
to the section with hand mirrors; whereupon,
she saw a large black splotch burned on her forehead; though it was painless, it smelled
awful and looked grotesque.
Although the legends say that sunlight
killed their kind, it was really the ultra violet
radiation. Nowadays, it was common that
vampires should live by day, given all the
SPF lotions on the market.
Starr grabbed the first bottle within
reach and immediately wiped it all over her
face and hands. Next, she walked to aisle of
cheap clothes and chose a black and white
bandana, which she wrapped around her
head, covering the black spot.
8/3/2019 Her Last Days
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/her-last-days 27/43
Outside, she started all over, combing
the neighborhood, block for block. After hours went by, she decided to grab a coffee.
The fables would have you believe
that their kind could only drink blood, but it
just wasn’t so. Not only did they enjoy other
food and drink, but they could go days, and
sometimes weeks, without blood; althoughthis wasn’t true for everyone because no two
vampires were the same.
She made to cross the street, but
something caught her attention, a loud
smacking noise, followed by a groan. In the
alley to her left, there was a group of guys
who were beating someone they pinned to thewall.
Starr didn’t think twice about helping
the guy.
“Hey,” she yelled, “what are you guys
doing?”
“None of your business. You’d better
just turn around and walk away,” said a guy
with a backwards cap.
“I don’t think so,” she looked him
straight in the eyes.
He walked, fast, at her and tried to
push her back out onto the street, but he
might as well have pushed a brick wall. Since being turned, Starr had incurred the strength
of twenty men; there weren’t many vampires,
8/3/2019 Her Last Days
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/her-last-days 28/43
let alone humans, who could give her a run
for her money.Taken aback, the guy tried to shove
her again, but she was immovable. The guy
pulled back his arm and then extended it into
her stomach, but he might as well have hit
her with a pillow.
From his pores, she could smell sour,like lemon, notes coming from his pores:
pheromones indicating his irritation with her.
When she picked him up,
singlehanded, and tossed him at the wall like
a dodge ball, the other guys tried to grab her,
but she was too fast, side stepping with her
preternatural speed.One guy, who kept coming at her like
a fly, she punched in the face; she felt his
nose and teeth smash in as she drew back a
fist covered in blood.
At that point, all the guys circled her,
and a few even took out knives. Starr,
however, was distracted by the sight of the
blood on her fist; it had been weeks since
she’d had a taste. Although they didn’t have
to drink it, they did crave it, frequently, and,
on a few occasions, Starr vamped out at the
sight of it; this usually happened when she
didn’t have blood, regularly.Vamped out was a term coined by an
infamous author, L. S. Credenza, on the
8/3/2019 Her Last Days
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/her-last-days 29/43
subject of her kind. Essentially, a vampire
could turn into a mindless zombie, at times.This was the result of the virus, within,
becoming stronger than the workings of the
human mind; under which, one would
become unable to control his or her actions,
unable to mimic human behavior, and with
the absence of human conscience, only ananimal, like the Dracula’s minions depicted
in the twentieth century, was left behind.
If Starr were alive, she would have
been scared by the threat of being
surrounded, but since being turned, she’d
become more ‘animal.’ According to
Credenza, once a person is turned, he or sheautomatically lost a bit of their humanity. So,
for example, while Starr could feel love and
hate, she could only feel these things in
extreme situations; and never at the same
time like humans could. Additionally, the
rainbow of complex emotions were closed
off to her; she couldn’t feel, anymore, what it
was like to find something humorous, yet
disgusting, to want something, yet have fear
or anxiety hold her back; even in her
situation, she could feel nothing for herself,
or the men who threatened her very life.
Perhaps that’s why she continued to seek revenge; it was for the rage she felt, and for
the death of Meghan. Rage was the only real
8/3/2019 Her Last Days
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/her-last-days 30/43
feeling she’d had, consistently, since being
turned.A short guy with a bald head, wearing
a black and grey plaid shirt, punched Starr in
the face. Like a dog, it was hard to distract a
vamped out vampire from a meal; it usually
took a jolt of some sort to, in a sense, wake
them up. The punch provided the jolt neededto bring Starr back to reality; however, the
guy who’d struck her recoiled in pain,
screaming like a little girl.
Another, in a white tee shirt, tried to
punch her, too, but she side stepped, looking
at him calmly; he tried again and missed.
After a third miss, someone grabbed her byher long black hair, with the intention of
holding her in place. When he felt she was
solid as a stone statue bolted to the ground,
he attempted a choke hold and yelled, “Get
her, now!”
Once again, the guy pulled back his
fist and swung wildly. Starr ducked; leaving
the one who held her to get a full four, square
in the face.
Then, all at once they came at her,
hitting and kicking every square inch of her
body, like a hundred flies napping at her,
leaving their annoying red itchy pock marks behind.
8/3/2019 Her Last Days
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/her-last-days 31/43
It wasn’t that Starr didn’t feel pain
anymore; it’s just she only felt severe painand injury, like when she was shot many
weeks back.
Starr caught a fist that was meant for
her face, and felt it break into pieces; she
grabbed the foot meant to cripple her kidney,
and raised it skyward, and watched the owner tumble back; she stepped aside, grabbed a
jabber by the elbow and tossed him into the
wall, and watched him bounce back, trip on
himself and fall to the ground; then she
ducked a side kick, and returned with a punch
to the stomach that, likely, stopped him from
ever breathing again.The remaining guys, realizing they
weren’t hurting Starr began to stand off as
they saw, one by one, their comrades’ fall.
Then, from the other side of the alley came
the guy they were beating up, moments ago,
and he’d brought back up.
A dozen guys ran at them; they all
exploded into fist fights all around Starr.
From down the street, Starr heard the
cops coming from a few blocks down. Her
hearing wasn’t superhuman, like Mica’s, but
it was still better than the average human’s.
“The cops are coming, guys, so you’d
better run!” and she took off herself.
8/3/2019 Her Last Days
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/her-last-days 32/43
“Hey,” the guy, who was ganged up
on, called to Starr. “Come on,” he waved ather.
She followed them down another
alley, two blocks over, and into an abandoned
warehouse of some sort.
“Hey, thanks,” he said, holding out
his hand to shake.“Not a problem. To tell the truth, I
needed that,” she replied with a note of
pleasure in her voice.
“Well you’re a bad ass. I can’t believe
how you fought. We watched you for a
moment, not that we’d let them hurt a girl but
we got all kinds of respect for you, girl. I’mBali,” he said enthusiastically. “This is my
crew.”
A dozen heads nodded at Starr, who
nodded back.
“We run the Eastside,” Bali
continued, “and we are in your debt.
Anything you need, anybody bothers, you,
you come to us, just tell them my name.”
“Well, I do have a little something,
but I don’t know if you can help me. How
long have you all been in this
neighborhood?”
“Most of us grew up here.”“Well, my sister was killed by a street
lord. All I know is his name is Frank Catrelli
8/3/2019 Her Last Days
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/her-last-days 33/43
and he lived on the seventh floor of the
Froger building on the eightieth. I’m sure hehad several businesses operating from his
apartment, if you know what I mean, and I
got an unfinished score to settle.”
“What did this guy look like?”
“He was about 6 foot, skinny with
large dark eyes, unshaven face, short buzzcut, looked like he was on something all the
time.”
The men mumbled amongst
themselves.
“We know what building you mean. It
was a bad place, made us look like angels.The place got busted, though, when they
found a dead girl, your sister? Maybe?”
Starr flinched at his words.
“Sorry,” he said regretfully, “I meant
no disrespect. All I can tell you is the place is
clean now. No more business.”
“Have you heard anything else? Like
maybe they moved, started anew somewhere
else?”
“You might want to check with Loco
Poco, on the upper East Side.”
“Who?”
“Loco Poco, Little Crazy, I’ll takeyou because he might not talk to a white girl,
and he ain’t scared of no fists either.”
8/3/2019 Her Last Days
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/her-last-days 34/43
Starr followed Bali out of the door and up the street.
“So where did you learn to fight like
that?”
“Uh… years of practice.”
“So how did your sister get mixed up
with those guys? Was she into partying?”“She thought she was in love with
that guy, Frank, but he treated her bad and
she didn’t walk away, like she should have.”
“How come the police don’t go after
him?”
“I don’t know. When I reported her
abduction, the officer just looked at me like Iwas just another cockroach from the sewer.
After that, I was determined to get her
myself, but I was too late.”
“I’m sorry for your loss, really I am. I
know where you’re coming from, though. I
lost my little cousin in a similar way: hanging
out with the wrong people. The cops don’t
care around here; everybody is scum here,
and they figure if we cancel each other out,
it’s less work for them. Here’s the place.”
They walked up to a dirty white house
with weeds growing up its side as well as
sticking out of the cracks of cement.Bali knocked on the door, and a fat,
middle aged tattooed man answered.
8/3/2019 Her Last Days
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/her-last-days 35/43
“Hardly Poco,” whispered Starr.
“Callate,” he said. “Man, who is this puta?”
They talked in Spanish but Starr was
able to catch some of what they were saying.
After a moment, Bali looked back at
her and said, “Well, my friend used to go to
that apartment, occasionally, to pick stuff up but they moved to Brooklyn, nearly a year
ago. Unfortunately, I can’t come with you
because I gotta be at work. If you can wait,
and I strongly advise you do because those
guys don’t play; if you wait, me and some of
my boys will go with you.”
“No,” said Starr. “Just give me theaddress or the neighborhood,” but as he was
about to protest, she added, “Look, I’m going
for blood. You and your boys don’t want to
be anywhere near me right now, unless you
want to go to jail for the rest of your lives.”
“Oh and you do? Want to go to jail?
Maybe you need to see a psychiatrist, my
friend. Vengeance is not always the answer,
your sister made her choice to be with a bad
man, to risk her life.”
“Maybe,” she said. “But I’ve been
waiting to have my revenge for too long. I rip
his heart from his chest and make him look atit while he dies.”
8/3/2019 Her Last Days
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/her-last-days 36/43
“Yeah, okay girl. You know, I
actually kind of believe you; you’re one scary puta.”
8/3/2019 Her Last Days
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/her-last-days 38/43
Over the Bridge
Chapter 3
The train rattled all the way to Brooklyn; a
dark woman with a bandana on her head gave
her a dirty look. Starr stared back,
unblinkingly, until she looked away. As shegot up, she caught her reflection and realized
that she was still wearing the bandana from
earlier. Perhaps the lady thought she was a
gangster.
After making sure the black spot, on
her forehead, had healed, she stuffed the bandana in her pocket and she walked off the
platform and into the neighborhood. The
smell of cars and factory fumes made her
nose twitch and her stomach convulse, so she
scanned, with her mind, the presence of all
the people around her but found nothing
familiar; just a bunch of people wanting to
get places quickly.
As she walked to the address Poco
had given her, Starr became exuberant at the
thought of finally getting her revenge. She
wondered if she would feel good while eating
his kidneys because, despite her kind’slimited emotional range, there were still
things that excited her, like the scent of fear.
8/3/2019 Her Last Days
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/her-last-days 39/43
When people feared her, it was like catnip to
a feline; her senses became peaked and sheinstinctively wanted to pursue them. Like a
mate arousing lust, so did the scent of fear, in
her.
What went so wrong?
She asked herself as she walked.
Why didn’t Meghan want to comehome? She’d had the best of everything, just like me.
Although trashy, Starr liked that
particular neighborhood because it had some
of the best butchers for a vampire’s appetite.
Seeing as she’d had a mild vamp out earlier,
Starr figured she’d better stop and eat so that
she could keep her focus while killing Frank.
She walked to Bustley Deli and
ordered an uncooked, uncongealed goat
blood pudding, and then she sat on the wall
outside, dipping her bread in the pudding and
drinking a coffee.
She thought about Levi and the other
vampires. They told her, a few weeks ago,that they’d be coming for her; that she’d
started a war, because she nearly killed him,
8/3/2019 Her Last Days
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/her-last-days 40/43
but that was after he tried to kill her friend,
Antony. Grant it, he was killing and stealingout of control, and Starr wound up putting
him down, herself, but she had every right to
protect her friends.
She sucked some of her pudding from
the casing, and a couple bits of black chunks
and sauce dribbled down her chin. Two kidswalking passed looked at her and ran,
screaming at the top of their lungs. Confused,
Starr turned to look in the window behind
her.
Normally the color of silver, her eyes
were iridescent, with specks of blue, green,
yellow, and even bits of red here and there,like a kaleidoscope. She opened her mouth
and saw that her teeth had extended, too; they
were smeared black with blood. Taking a
swig of her coffee, she swooshed it around,
rinsing most of it away.
No wonder those kids were scared, I turned while eating. The only thing that prevents this is eating blood, regularly.
She pulled out her sunglasses and put
them on.
When done, she continued toward the
address. Starr was sure glad she didn’t live in
8/3/2019 Her Last Days
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/her-last-days 41/43
that neighborhood. As she passed by one
house, she heard a girl getting beat by her guy. Starr didn’t know if she should go in
and stop him, or walk away. After stopping a
moment, she decided to mind her business.
Then, in a brown house on the corner, the
smell of death hung omnipotent in the air.
Using her inner eye, she saw there was a maninside the house. He was a drug dealer who’d
killed someone, fairly recently, and buried
the body in his basement.
No matter. I’m here for Frank, and Frank only.
Her phone rang.
“Starr,” said Marla.
“Yeah.”
“I got a call from Lily, just now. She
says they’re coming for you; that you should
get out of the city, now. Also, don’t worry
about her; she’s fine.”
“What? I’m not going anywhere. I
can’t! I haven’t got Frank yet. I’m so close.”
“Starr. We don’t know anything about
these people, except that they’re old and very
strong. Do you want to die?”“I’m sorry, but I gotta go,” and she
closed her phone.
8/3/2019 Her Last Days
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/her-last-days 42/43
She made it to the address that Pocohad given her, but no one was home, so she
trolled the neighborhood for a few hours,
hoping that Frank would return.
For many hours, nothing happened
inside the house, and no one came by. She
was getting more and more anxious; all shewanted was to hurt Frank to death.
Finally, she rested on a wall across
the street from the house and stared. A couple
police cars drove past her, each slowing and
looking at Starr through their driver’s side
window. After the third one passed, she
considered breaking into the house andwaiting, so that the cops would stop noticing
her.
Besides, it would be like just out of amovie: he opens the door, turns on the light,and see me sitting there on the couch.
She laughed to herself at the sight,
she imagined, of his face when he saw that
she had not died that night.
As she made to cross the street, she
got it: a scent, a something familiar to her, a
presence. But no one was in the house! Shespun around, sniffing the air in, deeply
8/3/2019 Her Last Days
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/her-last-days 43/43
inhaling and urging her inner eye to work
harder.She sensed the something familiar a
few blocks up the street: she walked fast
toward it. Turning left into an alley, she
immediately knew she’d made a mistake: it
was a trap.
“Hello Starr.”
It was Levi and several others who
she’d never met before.