Vampire Greek: The Burning King

Hidden across the street behind a truck, Barry watched the people standing in front of Roman’s house. He’d been watching them for ten minutes and there was nothing godly about them. They stood completely still. Were they planning to rob Roman or attack him? Barry had no clue. He tried calling Roman again. This time, Roman didn’t answer.

“Seriously?” He muttered to himself. “Your phone better be dead, man.” He began to put this phone back in his pocket when he heard glass shatter from across the street. Barry instantly got to his feet but the people were gone.

“Crap.” He ran over to the front door, and turned the handle. It was locked. He checked the windows. The lights were still on and he heard something loud, but he didn’t detect any movement. Running around the back, Barry saw that the back door window had been broken, but it was still locked.

They must have thrown a grenade in or something. He thought. He stuck his hand through the opening and let himself inside.

“Hey Roman! Are you still here? Are you okay?” Barry shouted. He waited a moment, but didn’t receive a response. There was a wide open cabinet and an uncooked bag of popcorn on the counter. The loud noise was the tv in the living room.

People don’t just disappear like this. Not even vampires. He could’ve turned into a bat and flew away, but he had that child with him. He wouldn’t leave her, would he?

Barry would like to think he knew Roman to be better than that, but he wasn’t entirely sure. He picked up the remote and turned off the tv. He sniffed the air. No human beings besides himself. He could pick up on Roman and the kid’s scent, but that was obvious. Somebody else was here, but Barry couldn’t tell if they were here with Roman, or if they came after him. They might have even taken him with them. Barry continued searching the house until he reached the hallway. This time, he could hear movement. Slowly, he made his way down the hallway, pausing once to inspect the bathroom.

There were two more rooms; the guest room and Roman’s. The guest room was always locked, even when Roman let Barry stay over. Sleeping in the living room was fine for Barry though, considering all of the times he’s ruined Roman’s furniture before during the full moon.

Roman’s bedroom door was wide open, his bed undone. There was a huge dent in the wall near the closet, like a bull had run into it. That wasn’t even the weirdest thing. Right in front of Roman’s tv stand was a huge black statue of a dog facing away from him. Roman likes creepy things, but he isn’t that big on decoration.

Barry entered the room and checked under the bed. Finding nothing, he got up and walked past the dog statue examining the dent in the wall. Whoever hit it was not Roman, so this was most likely the sign of a struggle. Something felt off at the whole room. Someone was watching him. Something was in here. He turned towards the dog statue again and bent down for a closer look.

The statue had lots of detail, especially around the dog’s mouth and eyes. The dog was shiny and black, with a matching flat pedestal to stand it up. Barry placed his hand on it’s head and it was cool to the touch. It felt like ceramic.

“I’m wasting my time playing with decorations. ” Barry muttered.

He turned back towards the closet and opened it slowly. Nothing jumped out. Turning on his flashlight to get a good look, he began to search thoroughly through all of Roman’s clothes.

“He should let me borrow some of this.” Barry mumbled, standing to his feet. He looked around, and the dog statue was gone.

“I knew something was wrong with it!” He scolded himself as he ran out the room.

He ran through the living room past the kitchen, straight towards the back door. Sure enough, the huge greyhound was there, getting ready to jump through the window.

“HEY! DON’T MOVE!” He shouted at the creature. It didn’t look the same as it had before. Now it looked alive, a living and breathing animal. Flesh, fur and blood instead of the cool ceramic he had felt earlier. It reared its head at him and barked viciously. It’s eyes glowed and it’s fur began to change. Within seconds it slammed into Barry, knocking him off his feet. He looked up and the beast towered over him, a massive Saint Bernard with drool dripping onto his chest.

Barry raised his arm right as the dog attacked. It sunk his teeth into his arm and began to run, dragging Barry through Roman’s house. Barry fought back and struggled, but something about this creature was unnaturally powerful. Even with his werewolf strength, Barry couldn’t free himself. Fortunately, for some reason the beast stopped and threw Barry like a frisbee. He landed in the chimney directly on his already injured arm, snapping it like a piece of bamboo. He screamed in pain but quickly rolled away from the fireplace, trying to recover as fast as possible. He could feel his hair growing everywhere, teeth clicking and jaw structure changing. His arm snapped back and he started to get back on his feet.

"I’m gonna rip you half you fucking demon dog!" Barry roared, letting his animal instincts take over. Running on all fours, Barry leaped over the couch and growled, his teeth gritting against each other. The beast was facing the opposite direction, looking at something down the hallway.

“TURN AROUND!” Barry roared, his voice hardly distinguishable from a bark. Barry readied himself to pounce when he noticed a weird presence in front of the beast. Narrowing his eyes, he saw the faint glowing outline of a woman, in a dim silvery light. She was reaching down and petting the creature. Barry paused a second and put his anger in check. What was her looking at?

Barry slowly creeped closer as the woman began to speak.

“That wretched girl. She’s protecting it. I’ll let Zeus know about this.” The creature whimpered and lowered is head. “It’s not here anymore, but you’ll find it, Laelaps. You always do.”

Laelaps? Barry thought. What’s that?

Suddenly, the beast turned around howled at Barry, the sound so loud the entire house shook and his hair stood on end.

“Yes, get rid of that. It could be a problem later on.”

The light around her grew brighter and brighter until she suddenly vanished. Barry and Beast eyed each other from the ends of the hallway, both waiting to attack.

Come at me. Barry thought, charging forward. I’ve fought worse.