Vampires
Argon was originally from Puerto Rico born during the 1930s. His father was a member of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party and a strong supporter of Campos. They were living in Utuado when Campos gave the call to revolution. He watched his father get gunned down in the street, because he wanted freedom. He wanted Puerto Rico for the Puerto Ricians.
As his father fell to the ground he grimaced knowing it was the land of the free and the brave that ordered his death. An ironic ending.
He changed his name to Argon and shaved his head.
His first tattoo was acquired during a stint in a mexican prison. A commanche shaman granted him assurances he would never die and tattooed an ancient symbol above his left ear. It was payment for saving the shaman’s life, by killing his enemy. Two months later he would receive his freedom at the same time as another convict named Utheus.
“Why did you shave your head?” Utheus stood in the inner office waiting for the sun to dissapear.
“To better resemble the feckless dog I am.” Argon replied.
“So then why did you change your name from Juan to Argon?”
“Argon is what my father called me when he used to beat me. It means Lazy one. Because I refused to stand up and fight for our people.”
Utheus watched the sun falling in the horizon. “My father used to beat me like a dog, and tell me I was no better. I was forced to eat the scraps with the dogs after he killed my mother for being a useless whore. Nothing but foul vermin came from the fruit of her loins and I should count myself lucky I was all that survived.”
Argon felt a kindred brotherhood with Utheus. “Then let us dogs form a pack and prey on the self-righteous for their sins.”
Utheus smiled and unveiled his blackened, rotten, broken teeth.
“Close the door, the car wont start.” Argon barked at Utheus.
Utheus sat in the passenger seat and slammed the door shut, “You sound like a woman.”
“You’re sitting in the woman’s seat, so I guess you’d know.” Argon sped off towards the corners of Oak and Palomino.
Their new house stood on thirteen sixty four Palomino. It was a typical upper middle class, two story brick house. Augustus had hired the same lawn care company to take care of all five houses. The houses while not evenly spaced, were no more than two blocks apart. The plan was to have at least two vampires per house on any given night. Augustus had shown that the houses were being watched and systematically hit when the owners went on vacations or one person was left alone for more than a day at time. However there was always a lapse in time between the hours of four and six when the gang had no movements. He had assumed the gang consisted of no more than twenty teens, some urban and some local. Each teaching the other and perfecting their burglaries and assaults. The plan was to leave the locals and eat the rest, when possible. If you caught a local, you recruited them to lure others back. If they refused, Lunch.
Jessica’s dark skin hid her outline as she walked from the house to meet Argon. Her slender curves and petite build were the perfect bait for any invasion. “All was quiet, then I got a call at twelve. Trying to spook me out of the house.”
“About time.” Utheus grumbled. “We’ve been at this six weeks.”
Argon and Utheus entered the house.
Jessica looked over the car they brought, last years luxury model. “You’re just going to leave the keys in the car like that?”, she questioned after she entered the house.
“What do you think we’re going to do to the person who tries to steal it?” Argon scoffed and quietly shut the door behind them.
“When you attack try not to get any blood on the furniture.” Jessica complained. “The smell lingers in the house and it makes you constantly hungry.”
“All you do is pick pick pick.” Utheus stood up to her. “It’s been two days, I’m starving.”
“I don’t know why I got stuck with you at all, I thought you two were Jeremiah’s friend.” She fished.
“Why don’t you put some more activator on your Jheri curl.” Argon barked. “We switched with Pieotre and Tlantli, they ate last.”
“Over on Crosscrest.” Utheus moved Jessica’s nick-nacks around.
Jessica touched her drying hair. “This is why I think Augustus shouldn’t have misplaced Elizabeth. My hair always looked perfect.”
Argon and Utheus exchanged glances, they’d have killed her to stop her whining if Augustus wasn’t leader.
“What are you worried about hair for anyway?” Utheus tried to take his mind off his hunger.
“It helps to lure in food.” she glared at him. “It’s bait.”
“Doesn’t seem to be working.” Argon declared.
Just as the words left his mouth they heard scratching sounds at the rear bedroom window. Utheus walked to the kitchen silently, hiding in a shadowed alcove between the pantry and the fridge.
Jessica took her position, pretending to be asleep in the upstairs master bedroom.
Argon unscrewed the lightbulb then sat quietly in the shadows of the living room.
They filed in, one at a time. Five males between the ages of seventeen to twenty two, dressed uniformly so they could not be identified. Dark navy clothes and ski masks, the pants were tucked neatly into black combat boots. They wore gloves and had burnt cork around their eyes, so you could not tell their ethnicity.
Argon watched the first two cautiously walk past him, then up the stairs towards their sleeping victim. A third entered the room and began rummaging amidst the nick-nacks. As soon as he heard the bedroom door close, Argon grabbed the teen from behind. One hand firmly on the teen’s larynx, the other over his mouth. He did not waste time biting into his prey once he had insured it’s silence. As the hunger pains subsided, Argon began to feel his strength return. His focus began to sharpen. Then finally as he drained the last bit, his full array of senses were returned. He walked outside to breathe in the stillness of the night air.
Utheus waited until his food got to the refrigerator door. In a split second he bashed it’s head in. The body began to fall limp as Utheus caught it and brought it up his lips. “Finally.”, he grunted and began to feed. He tossed the useless corpse to the ground after he noticed the final visitor walk past the kitchen.
Upstairs the first male already had his pants unzipped as he crept up to the bed. He pulled the sheets down and watched her sleeping. Slowly he grabbed her wrists and began to pull her to maneuver her over the side of the bed.
Jessica smiled as her eyes flashed open.
Her assailant jumped, but now it was she who had his wrists. He began to stumble backwards due to his falling pants.
His partner seeing the flash of teeth ran for the bedroom door leaving his friend to his fate. He ran down the stairs as the final scream came from the bedroom.
Just at that time the last man entered the living room and noticed the corpse. He turned to go back the way he came and stood face to face with a large white skin head of a man with rotted out teeth. He turned to flee with the last remaining member, out the front door.
Argon pressed into the shadow of the garage door and watched the youths run towards the car. He and Utheus took immediate chase.
The boys opened the door and jumped inside.
Argon and Utheus on opposite sides of the car grabbed the doors as they flew open.
“START THE CAR! START THE CAR!” the passenger screamed as Utheus and Argon ripped off the doors.
The driver turned the key furiously over and over while stamping the gas petal with all he had.
The blood brothers decided to put the boys out of their misery.
In fifteen seconds it was over.
“I’m glad I didn’t apply that activator to my hair. It would have made a huge mess on my pillow case.” Jessica remarked as she joined the picnic.