Chapter 8 :

"This was purely a violation of the Masquerade. If people like you keep running around showing your fangs, next time we'll be a little more...persistent with our demands. Now I know all about your, procedures and what not when dealing with these criminals, and frankly, I care about you and your protocol. Now I asked you kindly to enforce these laws, and until each of these rogue factions are eliminated, don't you think for a second that I won't make a house call on you. Now get out of my sight."
The nosferatu looked pleading, and even scared. But in silent agreement, they turned and slinked hastily out the door. The office was dimly lit, and the wooden door with the peeling letters "Office of A. Garand" was open with a trembling figure in it. A woman, by the age of twenty-two I'd assume, tall, in a purple dress. She was contemplating what she had seen, I suppose. New to the business. Heh, I remember the first time.
"Come in, Miss...?" I asked while extending a hand.
"Muh..muh muh ms." She stuttered.
"Tea?" I offered her. She took a sip, flashed a smile, and said "Thanks."

After we had both taken a seat, and gotten comfortable I asked her. "You seemed scared by the Nosferatu. Are you new to our industry?"
She looked a bit unsettled and mumbled "Yes."
"Aha, I figured. As you saw of me, they're nothing to fear. All you need to do is put them in their place. Vampires, Werewolves, Humans, they're all alike. If you show weakness, they'll exploit you. As a bit of advice, you must remember; as a denizen of this planet, it is your duty to send the impure of the dead, and the evil, to suffer eternal punishment."
She smiled again, and said "Amen." She laughed lightly and began to loosen up. "They all said that you were one of the best in our field. I guess now I know they were right."I grew uneasy. I knew that when she said they, that she was a messenger. And that always meant I was gonna be shipped right into the hands of disaster.
"Which brings me to my next point." She continued. "The division has been losing members left and right on the front lines. As such, you've been pulled out of management, and are now being re-assigned as a full fledged...hunter."
There it was. The kiss of death. She seemed to be cheery about it towards the start, as if I'd be happy to spill blood again. But she quickly lost her demeanor and actually turned away towards the end when she saw the look on my face.
"I...I'm sorry this is happening to you, but as you well know, our agency has fallen on hard times."
For the first time she looked straight into me. I lurched instinctively. Her eyes were blood red, a sign of a
"Vampire." She nodded and spoke with a heavy tone, "I'm actually not new to this agency. I'm Senior Officer Jaffa. On duty, a nosferatu got the best of our squad, and...well...I...it...I'm sorry, but I must be leaving now." she rushed. "Your first order of business is all listed in this package. God speed my friend." She rushed out the door.
"Wait!" I yelled after her. But it was too late, she had left and didn't think once of turning back. I suppose she was truly a creature of the night now. I walked back into my dimly lit office and sat down on the chair. It creaked as I leaned back a little while attempting to open the grubby package she handed me.

I spilled its contents on the desk. Several photos, video cassette, a letter, but the thing which truly caught my eye was a new clip of silver bullets. That told me what I would be facing. Vampires. The pictures included floor plans of the installation, pictures of the house from various angles, and even photos of the old owners, looking happy. I placed the cassette into a piece of junk I call a TV. Through the fuzzy black and white image I was able to discern that it was a news clip of some sort.
"What mysteries are contained in this old house? Well this reporter is brave enough to find out." A cocky old rabbit with slicked back grey hair and a trenchcoat was standing outside of the gates of a manor. It was night out, and lightly raining.
"My brave crew is going into the ol' Greenthorpe mansion, to find out if it really is haunted, and to quell these rumors once and for all, live, at channel Eight news." The camera man followed the host up the garden and through the path leading up to the front door of the manor.
"Huh...puh..why must this hill be so steep?" the camera man muttered. As they made it to the large wooden door, the host drew an axe and hacked his way through the barricade.
"Now we're inside the abandoned mansion, and no signs of life anywhere." the host said. The camera quickly turned and zoomed in on some decaying rat bodies. "Uhh, Mr. Berkly...." he uttered. "What is i...what...the..." the host replied. "They're dead. Dead rats. They...uhh...must be trying to live off of each other! That's it. Now, let's come over here." he beckoned while waving towards a dark corridor.
"This must be the den." he said emerging from the passage into an unlit room. He shined a flashlight across the room. Several beautiful paintings were hung on the walls, deteriorating furniture that had not been used for decades, some unlit candles, and a great brick fireplace.
"The previous owners of this manor, Lawrence and the fair Audry Greenthorpe, were rich people and the original founders of this town." he said while shining his flashlight across the room.
"This must have been where they spent their days in peace." the host continued.

As they came back into the lobby, the host turned to the camera. "Now I'd like to point out our good friends, the local marines."
The camera panned to reveal the armed squad that was following the host. "Now onto the next room." The host pushed open a door into what supposedly looked like a kitchen.
"Here we are at the...oh...my...god" In the room, a dark figure was clutching a rat. It winced at the light.
"CUT THE TRANSMISSION! CUT IT NOW!" The host screamed.
"We're offline." his camera man replied. "Good. Now shoot it." The host bellowed menacingly.
The marines opened fire on the figure, watching it be filled with holes. It immediately went limp.
"Haha, what a little son of guh...hur...uhbuh..." one of the marines started, but was interrupted by his chest being punctured by a steak knife. The camera followed as blood ran out of the guy’s mouth and eyes, all the while being lowered gently to the ground. It panned up to stare directly into the vampire's face, his eyes blank with no pupils or semblance of life. The camera was knocked over and fell to the ground. The audio was knocked offline, but the horror that followed was easy to determine. For about ten seconds there was nothing but blood running across the hard wood floor and seeping into the cracks, and eventually it was filming nothing until it ran out of video. At least I had assumed that. I ejected the film and began to read the letter that came with it.

Dear Alexander Garand,

It is my displeasure to ruin your business with this information, but in case our messenger, the lovely Mistress Jaffa didn't inform you, you have been re-administered to be a hunter. I apologize about this, but you are one of the most battle hardened veterans our development has under its belt, so it was only a matter of time before you'd have to fight again. Now to business. If you haven’t watched the tape, do so now. This cassette was footage from a film taken from the internet. The website that was hosting it was only linked to as a homepage by a new user on a message board, going by the name of Xavier. As is the nature of the internet, the footage was quickly spread throughout the internet, and outlived it's bandwidth in 2 hours. The film circulated for at least 48 hours, so countless people have seen it. We're under a full blown investigation, but are coming up empty handed. Be that as it may, this is not your case. You're being assigned to seek out and eliminate this unclassified vampire.

I do hope this won't have any adverse affects on our friendship.

Signed Walter

P.S: The arms department says that have a special order for you laid out somewhere in Prestbury. It was apparently a retirement gift, but during the re-org it was lost.

I sighed. It looks like I wasn't going to be able to worm my way out of this one. Not that I would have. That would be cowardice.