Woah, holy shit. What's happening? Is this actually an update?

Yes, yes it is.

(Important notes at the end.)

Good lord it's been a while, hasn't it? For a long time I lost the motivation to write anything, and as the months went by that motivation made no move to come back. But, I re-read the Cirque du Freak saga and went back and read this story and thought… How was I going to end this? It's my own story. I need to know what happens. Well I guess I do know what happens. I just don't know yet! So, going off of what I remember for my plans, and what direction I want to take this story in now, I present to you… A VERY LATE UPDATE!

Chapter 7:

"And Empty Holes it Fills"

For a moment in my brief plummet towards death, one strong thought pervaded my disoriented mind. Just hold on. I couldn't die this way, not after everything else I'd been through. It would be a little embarrassing, to say the least! My hands reached out, grasping, hoping for something, anything, to break my fall. What I got instead was a possible broken nail as my fingers managed to snag on some brick momentarily. Hell, I'd probably broken a finger! It seemed that I spent forever falling, though in reality it had only been a breath of time.

WHAM!

I made contact with the hard ground, a meeting that left me breathless – and thoughtless – for a few moments. An indiscernible amount of time passed, while I lay on the ground, unaware of my surroundings. In my state, a vampire hunter could have easily nailed a stake into my heart! Fortunately, for me, this hotel seemed to be free of any stake wielding humans, as I began to notice when the world became less of a swirl and more of a tangible reality.

I need to get away. I need to run.

But I couldn't run. I couldn't do much of anything in my current state. The only option for me right now was a demented crawl. There was something glowing and wavering in the distance. The sensitivity of my eyes begged me not to approach it, but I had a deep feeling within my gut that I should go there. I'd never been one to ignore my instincts, so I slowly crept over to light. It became apparent that the mystical glowing area was just an ordinary swimming pool as I got near to it. I was about to turn around when I remembered that I was covered in blood. The water could wash away the worst of it and keep me from looking like I just walked – or crawled – away from a crime scene. Of all the times I pick to go swimming!

There was nothing I could do about the trail of blood that lead to my current location, but the water cleaned my clothing and soothed my cuts. I spent the next few minutes lounging in the kiddie pool, idly picking at the cloth of my clothes. It did little to protect me, but it seems like the clothes had mended itself! I pondered what sort of magic Truska used to sew this outfit, before a sharp pain coursed through me. I nearly screamed aloud as my body was wracked with another aftershock from blooding Darius… or was I not as done with the Purge as I thought? This was no time to try to debate the source of my pain; it was all consuming and inhibited my ability to think with even a semblance of clarity. I writhed in pain, until my brain grew fuzzy and I fell into a deep slumber.

"Sir?"

"Are you alright?"

"There's no way he's alright look at all the blood."

"Is he breathing?"

"Of course he's breathing, Abby. Look at his chest! It's moving."

There was enough fuzz in my brain to make a stuffed animal with as I woke up. My head felt heavy and my tongue felt dry and much too large for my mouth.

"Mmmggbbbbkkk", was the approximate sound of the grumble that tumbled out of my mouth. I cracked my eyes open and slammed them shut them just as fast. The sun was out! I needed to get out of here soon. How long had I been exposed to the deadly rays of the floating death ball in the sky?

"He's awake!" a child's voice rang out, drilling into my sensitive ears as hard as the sun had stabbed into my eyes.

"Hey dude, are you okay?" I could tell this child was older. Maybe in their late teens. Facing the inevitable, I sat up, internally winced at the pain from last night's fall, and opened my eyes. The harsh rays of the sun assaulted my retinas in a dreadfully painful way, but hey, hadn't Vancha said exposure was the best way to get used to the brightness?

"Yeah. M'fine," I said, shrugging them off. Judging by the position of the sun, it had to just be daybreak. I was lucky it was these kids woke me up or I could be in serious trouble. Not to mention, as soon as housekeeping went into the room Debbie was staying in, there was sure to be an uproar. I froze. Debbie. Had I really killed her? No. No. No. But she deserved it right? My internal crisis was cut short as a hand was waved in front of my face.

"I called an ambulance and they're on the way!"

"No. No Doctors. I just need to leave." I stood up, nearly falling from the vertigo that rushed into my head. My knees wobbled like a newborn calf's and I barely managed to remain standing. It was by the Luck of the Vampires – Or maybe the Luck of the Damned – that I didn't collapse.

My vision swam for a moment and then focused in on my surroundings. There were about six kids staring at me, jaws half unhinged in surprise as I stood up. I was a funny looking stranger, dressed in a suit meant for the rugged life of a vampire, with a face that had more scars than anything else. Not to mention I was standing, though I had a trail of – now dry – blood following me from the hotel. The older one, a male who only looked two or three years younger than me, appearance wise, put his hands onto my shoulders and pushed me into a sitting position.

"Man, you don't need to be moving," he commented, scratching at the weak stubble forming on his chin. "It looks like you got mugged. Do you remember anything from last night?"

I shook my head. It was better to let them think I got mugged. Heck, they might even think it was an attempted murder by the guy who killed Debbie! Of course that was wishful thinking. By the end of the day I would have wished I'd only been mugged!

"It's been at least fifteen minutes since we called the ambulance in. They should be here within the next few minutes," he continued, taking my lack of response in stride. "We'll get you fixed up. How old are you, man? Nineteen? You can't be much older than me. You got a name?"

Once again I neglected to respond. He might recognize my name if I mentioned it. We weren't in the same country as Mr. Crepsley's home, but we weren't far. Not to mention I was spotted recently, which was sure to make cops a little more trigger happy than normal. It was then that I realized my entire body felt heavy. The force of the sun weighed me down, draining me of any energy I might have had. It felt like I was being boiled alive!

Just then, my salvation – or my destruction – came within earshot. Charna's Guts, those sirens were loud. It was almost painful to listen to them. Thankfully, they turned the sirens off when they parked. There were people running all about me, waving their arms and shouting at each other. However, the atmosphere around me fell into a blur as I succumbed to the force of the sun and passed out.

That chapter was relatively short, since I'm still getting back in the swing of things. Good lord I have a lot of ground to make up. Past me was fairly terrible at writing, and I've been cringing at my writing for days. Yes, I have changed a few things, if you haven't noticed. I'm making Darren a little less... over powered, I suppose. I think it's more canon for him to rely on his brains, instead of just brute strength. I mean, look at Operation Arachnid! If you check out my profile, there is a link to the full cover for this story and to my shiny, new writing blog! Feel free to bombard me with asks if I don't update fast enough. It'll be a good motivator. I might even post teasers and more art on there!

Blood and guts

-Rebarbative