Crushed Hopes

_

A black van drove at high speed on the highway, a speed fast enough to alert the officials but as it was the middle of the night, they got off scot-free.

The van only slowed down when an officer flagged it down. His round belly protruded out of his struggling shirt and his mustache looked like it grew from inside his nose and onto the top of his mouth. His body bounced as he walked to the van,

"That's way over the speed limit, are you trying to cause an accident?!" he shouted but when he saw who was in the van, his supposed anger deflated.

"Oh, it's you, Theo," he said in a tone far calmer than his previous one.

"How's business going?" he asked with a smile. Meanwhile, the girls in the van heard the officer's shout,

"Did you hear that?"

"Yes, it sounded like an officer,"

"We have to let him know we're in here," they whispered amongst themselves. The van had stopped abruptly and they had heard the officer's shout so they thought that the vampire had been caught. All they needed to do was attract the officer's attention and they'd be saved, so they shouted,

"HELP!"

"HELP US!" but they didn't hear the rest of the conversation!

"Hmm?" the officer's eyes moved to the back of the van where he heard their cries for help.

"You still have goods in there, Theo?" the girls heard the officer speak and despair wrapped around their hearts, forcefully shutting their mouths and crushing the only speck of hope they had.

"Yes, we ran into some complications at the market," Theo replied while pulling out a fat white envelope from his pocket.

"I hope you'll keep writing a good report," he said while handing him the envelope which the officer received with welcoming hands.

"Of course, you can count on me," he slipped the envelope into his breast pocket. "You're free to go now," He stepped to the side and banged on the walls of the van,

"Behave yourselves so you won't get punished," he chuckled as the van drove past him.

The van drove far away from the officer before Theo ordered the driver to stop. He got out of the van and walked to the back. That had been a close call because the man had been an ally but what if he hadn't been the one?

He opened the doors with a bang and stomped his foot inside. "Which of you was it?" he asked calmly but when silence was all he got, his voice thundered, "WHO?!" making them flinch and cower in fear.

His eyes moved to the girl closest to him who was trying to run from him. Her heartbeat gave her away, it was her. He grabbed her neck and lifted her to his level, "It was you, wasn't it?" his eyes had gone wide in anger. "All you had was one f**king job!" he yelled in her face.

"H-help," the girl cried out as the vampire squeezed her neck but no one could help her. They could only watch helplessly as the vampire strangled her. He tightened his grip on her neck, his fingernails digging into her skin and her eyes slowly rolled backward as her consciousness slowly faded.

"I told you, I would have your head if you made a sound," he placed his other hand on her head, ready to pull it off when he felt a pat on his shoulder which made him freeze.

"Now, now, that is no way to treat a lady," Nicholas spoke from beside him.

"Let go of her now, would you?" his grip on Theo's shoulder tightened forcing him to drop the girl.

"I've released her, so let go of - ah!" he screamed when his grip tightened even more.

"I will release you when she wakes up," Nicholas said, his smile intact. To think they even engaged in bribery. Well, it was to be expected, seeing the people involved.

"Ahhh, who are you?" Theo managed to ask in between breaths.

"How rude!" Nicholas squeezed his shoulder until it cracked under the pressure earning gasps from the audience.

As if to the vampire's rescue, the girl coughed as she regained consciousness.

"She's awake now, so let me go!"

"She is," the king agreed but instead of releasing him, he applied more force until the vampire's shoulder blade snapped in half resulting in a spine-curdling scream from him.

Nicholas sighed, "You are a vampire, this should be nothing," he grabbed his collar and turned to the women in the van, "Kindly make some space for us," he requested and they did so.

After that, he threw the vampire into the van and entered, closing the doors behind him.

Meanwhile,

The driver tapped the steering wheel while wondering what was taking so long when he heard a scream. He was just a human so the scream creeped him out. He picked up a small knife and was about to open the door when the other door opened and he felt cold metal pressed on his temple.

"W-what do you want?" he raised his hands in defeat and side-eyed the man warily.

"Take me to your base," Sebastian ordered and closed the door behind him.

_

In a faraway town, the blue and red lights of numerous ambulances and the headlights of different cars colored and illuminated the night's atmosphere. The Medical practitioners attended to the injured while some formally dressed people moved in and out of the houses.

Some investigated while some made a head count of those dead and alive and some questioned the survivors who were able to speak about what they had witnessed.

Meanwhile, Alexander was crouched at the top of a tree with Mya watching him from below.

"Are you ready?" she asked

"Yes,"

Mya took a deep breath and then snapped her fingers. This was to activate the poison in her blood fully. Earlier, she had only done it partly to make the vampire slowly suffer before activating the full effect.

Meanwhile, Alexander singled out everything in his vision from the trees and their branches, to the buildings and even past fog but it was too dark.

"More," he said to Mya who snapped her fingers again in response.

"That's the last one, make sure to find him!" She urged as the last burst most likely incinerated the vampire to ashes.

Alexander focused harder, straining his vision through the tiny gaps between trees, branches, and bushes, he pushed past everything until he saw a short burst of fire within a forest.

It was faint but he saw it. He strained his vision more to try to locate a mark until he saw a large black tank and that was as far as his vision could take him. He jumped down from the tree after memorizing the path, landing gracefully on his toes.

"Did you see it?" Mya asked

"Yes," he answered.

"Well done," she patted his shoulder, "So, how far is it?"

"It's far. About two hours away at full speed," he estimated.

Two hours, that was a lot of running, Mya thought in her head. The place they just found was the place Elaina most likely was, as the vampire who drank from her emitted flames around that area. They had to wait to do it in the night as the vampires hid during the day, so she hoped that they wouldn't be too late.

She turned to check the officers moving about. Things had been in a frenzy since they had arrived earlier in the morning but the situation seemed under control now.

She also had to give a call to her husband but she could do that on the way,

"Let's go now," she said to Alex and they both turned to leave but before they could,

"Excuse me," a council officer called and they turned to face him.

"Is there a problem, officer?" Mya asked,

"You were the ones to alert us, right? If you don't mind, we would like to get your account of what happened," he waved his small notepad and a pen.

"Oh, alright," Mya covered her annoyance with a sweet smile. They had all day to do that but didn't do so until now?!

°°°

Mael and Xacier arrived at their destination after thirty minutes had passed. A forest on the outskirts of the city that had taken home to rogues. There was no route for a vehicle to pass so Xacier got out of the car to check for one.

He walked between the trees, searching for the route. He returned after five minutes and he tapped the driver's glass.

"The route is on the right," he said while pointing in that direction. He walked in front of the car as it drove slowly on the rocky path until it came to a stop.

The route ahead was blocked with fallen trees. Xacier stood in front of the pile of trees and his eyes traveled across the pathway that was considerably smoother but it had fallen trees at different intervals. It almost felt like they were hiding something because the road earlier was also blocked by trees.

They didn't do a good job at it though. He bent and picked up a tree and one by one, he threw them all to the side. After he was done, he signaled the driver to continue.

He removed the different obstacles in their path until they arrived at an intersection.

"Hmm," his eyes narrowed in thought. His instincts told him right but this was no guessing game, so he crouched and inspected the right side's ground. He saw tire marks on the ground and he smiled to himself, instincts never lie.

He signaled the driver to go right and when the car drove past him, the window on Mael's side slid down and they both nodded at each other before the car drove past. The path ahead was smooth so his help wasn't needed anymore.

He stared at the SUV for one more second before leaping into one of the trees. He was taking the left to see where it led.