Teal

I couldn't beleieve that I was staring into the eyes of Draven's deceased father.
"Draven told me you were..."
He followed up with the word,"murdered."
My grip loosened and I dropped the whiskey bottle. The shattered glass echoed in the night and I leaned up against the wall and asked the question that we bith knew was coming.
"How are you here if you were murdered?" I asked confused and disoriented at the possibel thoughts as to what teh answer would be.
Teal looked at me with his cold eyes and his smirked. a sharp edge was sticking from his gums.

"I'm sure Draven has told you about the antidote I was trying to come up with, a cure for vampirism. My research started when my lab partner and I were researching a cure for ALS, When testing my subject, I noticed that his blood was extremely thin and his heart looked dry. It was if something had drained the life out if him and left him an empty black hole. I couldn't believe what I was looking at. My lab partner, who was my best friend, took a deeper look and traced the reason of this discoloration of the heart back to a transfer of disease way back in the 1600's... vampirism. We both stood in awe over this historic corpse. Vampires were fictional..until that day we both stood and stared fiction in the face," he took out a cigarello that smelled like mint and puffed the sweet smoke like he had just an unforgetable one night stand," So, after our findings, i had to call Draven and confide in her, to tell her what has been discovered. While I was outside, my lab assistant was left alone in the room with the "dead" creature. He loved to just get closer and closer until he couldn't find anymore to squeeze out of our finding. He had been way to close...and the creature came to and transferred the disease to my best friend. I heard an ear piercing scream that was followed by loud crash, a growl, and shot. I rushed into the lab and saw a bullet hole through the once dead body's head and a blood trail that led right to the product of the vampire...my assisants neck."
Teal took another puff of his minty cigarello while I hung on every word of his story. I felt like i was around the camp fire of Are You Afraid of the Dark.

"I tried to bandage him up and stop the bleeding, but he had lost so much already that I was trying to win a losing battle. I pulled the monster's tooth from my assistant's neck and put it in a plastic bag to examine. He was scared. he kept asking me what's happening to him and that he felt cold and his mouth was dry. I told him to resist any tempation to drink. He just looked at me and his eyes dialated and his gums began to bleed. I've never forgotten the sound he made when his fangs potruded from his gums. It was like pushing a knife through sheet metal. I held my friend until he was done screaming. That day, I vowed to find a cure for him."

The minty air flowed through my lungs as I took a deep breath.
" What was your friend's name?"
Teal shot me a look, and a tear fell onto the broken glass of the whiskey bottle as he told me the name in a raspy voice.
"Luther Gaza."
My heart shriveled and cringed. The hairs on my skin felt prickly and I squinted my eyes at the sound of his name.

"Luther was your lab assistant and best friend? He turned me into the fucking beast that I am today! He stoel my life from me! And you're saying he's your best friend!"

Teal replied, "Was my best friend. You see, after that incadent, we both vowed to find a cure for him. I told Draven about it and I asked for her help. She was studying to become a microbiologist like myself, so she knew what to look for and what was at stake. For five years Luther, Draven and I tried to create an antidote but funds were running low due to teh lack of support from the government and the company I worked for. They both said the exact same thing. Like they emailed eachother what to say, 'Vampires don't exist. Are you trying to steal our money or our serioulsy that crazy?' I had little support, but Draven always seemeed to pull through for me. One day, I told her to go down in the lab basement to retrieve what I believed was teh last ingredient for the cure, while Luther and I mixed the last of the concoction. Luther hadn't been doing so well those past few years. He looked pale and he looked extremely weak. He fed on birds most of the for his quick fix. He would become violent, irratable, and nonreachable. The vampire within him was taking over. And I was there when he finally succumbed. I rememebr asking him if was ready to be cured and his words were, 'I am cured. I've never felt so alive. If only you could feel what I feel. We could turn everyone.' I looked at is dark stare and those were the last eyes I stared into before I knew what was about to happen. Luther lunged at me, mouth agape and he tore a chunk of my neck out. I collapsed on the floor leaving a puddle of blood at my feet. He bends down and says, 'Join me. You eventually will,' and escapes out the window, but not before buring all my books to the ground. He knows the recipe, but it takes way to long to make, but in my knowledge of what Luther was becoming, I put the remaining ingredients ina safe and gave the code to three different people. Two other assistants and Draven."

One last puff on the cigarello and Teal stomped out the ashes.

"He knows that one way will create a antidote and another way will create a serum to turn genes into vampire genes. But, what he doesn't have is the code for the lock o the safe or where the safe even is."

I sort the information that's just bouncing in my cranium walls and put the pieces together.

"How long do you have before you start following in the steps of Luther?," I ask not only for him but for me too.

Teal begins to answer when a figure steps into the shadow given off by the moon hitting him. There stood Draven with a bottle of whiskey in her hand. Like father like daughter.
TO BE CONTINUED.......