The Blood Room | Alternate Endings 1, 2, & 3

† SIX - PART 2 †

Page after page I turn, the sharp crinkling of the broken-in pages seeming to be all I want to hear as two more people drown in their own blood as it gurgles up into their mouths. Twice I felt the need to puke, but not once does it escape from my mouth. I turn the page to Mark, completing the book of Matthew. I've always been an avid reader, but this time it's life or death. If I can't equip myself I won't be able to win this battle. Or could I possibly list it under the description of a war?

Markus has been shuffling around the room, the white walls stained and streaked with blood, handprints reaching up as far as they can as if its body could climb the walls like Spiderman. How I'd love to have his powers; perhaps I'd last longer. But if these vampires can shape-shift like legend has for them, being Spiderman wouldn't really matter.

My eyes lift from the tiny Bible and up to my new friend as he makes his way to the opposite wall to the left of the door. I try to focus on him as the vampires shuffle back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. He's bowing his head with someone weeping. A girl, maybe the age of thirteen. It's hard to tell; she has blood splattered on her face. She nods her head and sniffles loudly, closing her eyes and ducking his head as Markus' mouth moves, praying for whatever.

I take a shaky breath and decide to do the same, diving in whole-heartedly and probably going on and on longer than I should have and repeating my sentences playing inside my head many more times than necessary, but I'm scared-terrified. But I shouldn't be. God will protect me just as long as I stay true to Him and His word. I need to keep Him at the front of my mind, something I used to do all the time but have strayed away from because of how distracting this life gets. God should always have been there in my thoughts, even when I would be out at a group event. But the past is in the past and that's where it'll stay, and in the past are the sins that were cast as far as the east is from the west and there they will stay. No need to regret now, God tells us not to. So I'm deciding to use this moment, this-I don't want to say opportunity-predicament (that might be a better word) to start over. Every day is another chance, and, although mine are slim to none, this is another chance. I've just got to stay positive, and I can do that. Extremely optimistic person right here-unless I'm having a bad day or run, then I become excessively pessimistic, but I won't let that be something today. Not today.

I have he urge to stand. My heart pounds in my chest as worry dawns upon me, but I remind myself God said not to worry. Trust in Him with everything I have even if I have nothing, and right now that's about all I've got.

My brain warns me, adrenaline spiking through my body, reminding me of the dangers. Humans are very self-preservant and our bodies fight anything that could potentially kill us. And that's just what it's doing now: responding to the stimulating dangers of my environment, but I've got to adapt now. I can't be scared as I always am. I have to be unafraid.

God has me.

My vision wavers as I find my feet and use the wall to help me straighten my legs. As I incline, my vision broadens, and I can see the dead bodies lining the room. Some were dragged to the center and what's left is the empty carcass rotting away. Even my smell becomes greater, but fades away once my body realizes this is the environment now and it has to become accustomed to it. Eyes dart over to me, some fearful, some triumphant, but all full of hope. Some more than others, but there is hope. The hope God has given them of being set free one way or another.

In the same way, I feel that hope rising inside of me (it's not just a wave of relief to stand as my body tingles with anxiety), and I find my breath. The vampires begin to wander closer to me; one even dares to push a hand out and touch my ratty hair, watching it with curiosity. I hold in a scream as my chest lurches for air, my brain blank.

"You can't defeat us," I whisper, my voice hollow and nearly silent as it slips past my lips. "You will never prevail when it comes to God's unlimited power."

The girl vampire smirks, the one that had touched my hair. She thrusts her hand forward and wraps her fingers around my neck, squeezing.

"Your god is invisible, intangible, and never there when you need him."

"If He was-" I choke out, gasping on air as every fiber in my body cries out for me to shut up. "Then how-could I be-safe from your fangs?"

"Enough, Sam," a male toward the back of the pack hisses. "We aren't allowed to touch the Christians. The experiment will never be complete if we do."

Sam, the girl vampire crushing my trachea, grunts and releases me as I collapse to the floor, hand caressing my neck, and coughing like there's something wrong with my throat. Anger boils up inside of my ribcage and I clench one of my fists. I've never been able to become friends with my anger, it would always lash out at the nearest victim or pile up inside of me. I never know what to do with it.

But right now I do. People say Christians aren't supposed to grow angry. I recoil with Jesus overturning the tax collectors tables in the temple. I should be angry for the things God would be angry at.

And so I am.