Waiting for Sunset.

Waiting for Sunset

by Shane Benavides

Evan sticks his hand out the entrance to the cave and watches as his skin starts to burn almost instantly. He pulls it back inside and examines it, rubbing his fingers together and watching the ash fall away, knowing that the skin below the burns has already healed. He should take this time to think and starts pacing back and forth in the shadows, just out of reach of the setting sun.

He's impatient to begin his hunt, though, and grits his teeth as he remembers the scene that he woke up to. Knowing that his safe haven, his home, had been invaded and that someone had... he doesn't let himself think about it, he needs his head clear. A mistake he's unaware of was probably the cause of the situation he's now in, losing his temper wouldn't help matters.

A slight breeze stirs up the scent of the human that was here and he growls in anger. For a second it threatens to overwhelm him, knowing that he can't do anything until the Sun has set behind the mountains in the distance. He walks back down the stairs and into the crypt hidden below. Two coffins are all that occupy the small, dark room.

He walks to the one on the right side, once again taking in the burns that cover the inside of the coffin and the charred stake resting on the bottom. His anger surges beyond his control and, even though it's only in control for a brief second, it's enough time for him to toss the coffin into the wall, smashing it into a pile of splinters, burnt cloth, and ashes.

The sight of the coffin in ruins stops him and he bends down, picking up a handful of the scattered ashes, and is overcome with grief.

"Stephanie..." Her name escapes his lips, a mere whisper in the darkening crypt but all that he can bring himself to say. Stephanie -his wife, partner, and only friend- is gone. Lost forever. He has no idea who was responsible but he would find them and make them pay.

Another breeze shifts the air around and, again, he catches the faint scent of the human. His mind registers that it's not the fading scent of a human long gone but of a human that is no longer human. Before he can fully process what this means, a sharp pain shoots through his body. He feels the stake entering from behind but doesn't have time to react as it slides home, piercing his heart. His last thought is that he finally gets to rest and doesn't have to endure decades, or even centuries, without his beloved Stephanie.

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Jackson watches as the male vampire burns from his punctured heart outward, his limbs and body becoming nothing more than crumbling ashes. He then sits back against the wall, breathing deeply and wondering why the female couldn't have been as easy.

Standing, he climbs back up the stairs, amazed at how silently he can now move. He rubs the bite marks that the female vampire had given him, pissed at himself for allowing her to bite him and infect him with the virus that he's spent his entire life trying to get rid of.

He sticks his hand out the entrance to the cave and watches as his skin starts to burn almost instantly. He pulls it back inside and examines it, rubbing his fingers together and watching the ash fall away. He's amazed to see that the skin below the burns has already healed. He needs time to think and starts pacing back and forth in the shadows, just out of reach of the setting sun.