Music Recommendation: The Drowning

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  Melanie had seen these creatures onscreen, but she had never expected to be anywhere nearly close to it. These were vampires? She asked herself, and her eyes zeroed in on the sharp fangs before she mentally nodded to herself.

  "Why do these things exist?" Melanie asked her parents, who stood in front of her, and hearing the growl behind her, she turned on her heel. She caught another vampire behind them and softly gulped. What the hell was going on here?!

  "These creatures have always been living side by side with humans. Only that most of the humans are unaware of it, but we, hunters, were well informed about what lurks in the darkness," said her father, who had pulled out his gun, and so did her mother. Soon, gunshots echoed in the forest as the hunters aimed against the vampires, who tried to get closer to them.

  Melanie felt her skin turn cold, and for a moment, her brain froze as if not knowing how to react to the things that were going on. Her father came to her side, aiming the gun at the vampire, who dodged.

  "Get to the jeep, Mel!" said her mother.

  "No, let her stay!" said her father, with a stern expression. The peace that had prevailed a minute ago had disappeared on the appearance of the vampires. "These are no regular vampires," he educated his daughter. "These are rogue vampires."

  "There are different kinds of vampires?" asked Melanie, who noticed the way the vampire in front of them was persistent and bared his fangs at them.

  "Yes, this is just the lowest level. Rogue vampires are the ones who don't follow rules but also are infected. Like zombies," explained her father, and he pulled her behind him. "They are persistent."

  "I can tell," murmured Melanie.

  The vampire moved too fast for her eyes to follow, and before she knew it, the vampire had moved towards her, and her father came in between them, where they both stumbled to the side.

  "Father!" Melanie wanted to help, and she noticed the vampire trying to get close to her father's neck. But her father pulled a sharp blade, piercing it through the creature's shoulder as it caught hold of his hand before he could push it into its neck.

  "Get yourself to a safe spot," ordered her father when he noticed there were more vampires than he had first gauged. "Now, go!"

  Melanie turned and noticed how her mother was trying to keep two vampires at the bay so that they wouldn't get too close to her. She took a step back, her feet staggering and everything turning numb for a moment. When she started to run away from there, following her father's words, she stumbled upon the man's body, who had been speaking to her father when they had first arrived here.

  "Oh my God!" Melanie paused on her feet before she ended up stumbling over his body.

  It wasn't just him, but there was another person's body on the ground and fear slowly started to trickle down her spine. One moment she had been in a sappy sad romance story, and the next forty minutes, she had been thrown into a horror movie.

  "Look whom we have here," whispered someone behind her, and Melanie turned around, noticing another vampire, whose face had roots like indentation on it.

  The vampire's eyes were nearly pitch dark in appearance, and there was a wide smile on his face. The man ran his tongue across his lips and said, "Today I am a little too hungry, and these old folks didn't help in quenching my thirst. You wouldn't mind if I take a couple of sips from you, do you?"

  Without responding to the vampire's words, Melanie started to sprint in the other direction, not realizing she was moving deeper into the forest side, away from where her parents or Conner were fighting.

  The vampire laughed at the weak human girl's attempt to escape. He slowly started to follow her, without feeling the need to run, as he knew he would be able to catch up to the girl in less than ten seconds.

  While Melanie tried to run away from the vampire, Conner stood with his father, who had a bizarre look on his face.

  "You need to pull the trigger. Aim and pull the trigger, Conner!" his father shouted at him, as he had quickly been given the gun to protect himself. A series of continuous gunshots could be heard, echoing around the forest that made it difficult for one to know where exactly it was fired.

  Two vampires jumped from the trees, chuckling and laughing, having a look of madness on their face. There was an obvious sneer on their lips, mocking at the humans.

  "So much blood, I cannot help but want to relish each one of you," hummed one of the rogue vampires. When one tried to get close to Conner, his father fired the bullets at the vampire, pouring most of it into the blood-sucking creature's head.

  Blood sparked on the ground, and some came to splatter on Conner's face. He saw the way blood oozed out from the person, trickling down his face before the vampire dropped dead. A sudden pain pierced through his head, and Conner caught his head with his hands. The pain was too much as if someone was squeezing both sides of his temples. When he closed his eyes, he saw hazy images that were red.

  "Conner?!" His father shouted from where he stood, but Conner had hunched his body, trying to gather himself.

  What was this pain? Asked Conner to himself, and he gritted his teeth. "Argh!" his fingers fisted in his hair.

  The vampire that was nearby came closer to Conner, ready to sink his teeth into his neck, but someone else drew an arrow to stop the vampire from getting too close to the human.

  In the meantime, Conner saw flashes of a body, but he couldn't identify who the body belonged to.

  'I think for your and our sake, it would be best if you forget the bad and the sad memories you have collected recently, Conner,' said a voice in his head. He knew whom the voice belonged to, but at the same time, he couldn't tell the name or see the face. It was as if something in his mind was trying to claw and make its way out, which seemed restricted.

  He saw blood, blood on the neck as if it wasn't the first time he was noticing something like this. When he opened his eyes, he noticed he was in the forest, where the hunters were battling with the rogue vampires.

  Why was he not able to remember where he had seen the blood? It wasn't a dream… he was sure of it. So why was he not able to recollect something so gory like this?

  When one rogue vampires caught hold of his father's neck, ready to snap it in anger, Conner raised his hand, which shook with the gun in it. It took a few seconds before he was able to bring himself to pull the trigger, and the bullet went and hit the vampire's arm instead of the neck.

  Gaining slight confidence, he raised his hand higher before pulling the trigger one more time, and this time it hit the rogue vampire's neck, who let go of his father. His father was the one who took the last shot at the vampire by blowing its brain out of its head with the gun.

  "Are you alright?" questioned his father, and Conner, who was staring at the dead vampire, his gaze shifted from his it to his father.

  "I think so…" his voice sounded distant, as this was not something he had looked forward to.

  The reason for Conner's sudden pain was that the young man had been compelled too many times, and it had created many layers of walls to stop his memory from being leaked. And now the actions of the vampires and the gore reminded him of a nameless and faceless person who had died.

  Who was it? He asked himself.