[center] [img]http://i.imgur.com/uRFBukv.jpg[/img] [/center]


[center][u][i][i][b]American West Coast, Santa Somabra, 12 of July 1957[/b][/i][/i][/u] [/center] 

[center][i]Baby let me be your lovin' teddy bear
Put a chain around my neck
And lead me anywhere
Oh, let me be
(Oh, let him be)
Your teddy bear[/i][/center]

[color=ed1c24]“If I have to listen to this sappy -fucking- record one more bloody time…” [/color]Madeline Hollinghurst gave the jukebox a vicious kick, causing the great silver/brown contraption to shake, making the Elvis Presley song jump slightly. 

“Hey, Limey!” a heavyset man with greasy slicked back hair called over from behind the counter “if you’ve damaged that thing you better hope you’ve got the cash to pay for it!”

Maddie span around, her maroon eyes pulsing with tempered fury, long black curls fluttering around her pale shoulders [color=ed1c24]“Does it ever infuriate you to be so remarkably similar to every other brain-dead, prick-sucking, yank over forty with an America Dream complex?”[/color] she hissed, her nails digging into her palms with the intensity by which she was clenching and unclenching her fists. 

“You better start grovelling real quickly, pussy cat.” Fumed the man, a large vein is his forehead bulging visibly “It’s real easy to make bodies disappear around these parts.” 

[color=ed1c24]“You know; I used to think White Picket Fence syndrome was a joke, but seeing how badly you lot cling to a perfect lifestyle that doesn’t exist, in spite of the insurmountable amount of evidence that suggests otherwise, I genuinely think it might be an actual medical condition.” [/color]

“You’ve got a real way with words, lady.” Grumbled the heavyset man “but words won’t get you far in this city.” He darted under the counter, and when he next emerged there was a slim shotgun clasped tightly in his meaty hands. 

[color=ed1c24]“Bollocks.” [/color]

There was a deafening bang, then Maddie was flying backwards, slamming into something hard and cold, with something hot and wet pouring out of her chest. She was on the floor, her head pounding, blood oozing out of two fresh holes in her stomach, with the world slowly breaking away into ribbons as her eyes lolled back. Long tendrils of darkness crept across her vision, until there was nothing left but an all-encompassing void of nothingness. 

[center][b]*[/b][/center] 

[b]THUD![/b] Maddie’s head banged against something metal, knocking the life back into her dead maroon eyes. [b]THUD! [/b]She tried to hiss in annoyance, but the filthy cloth that was gagging her muffled the sound. [b]THUD![/b] Her world was now a dark coffin, her hands and feet bound behind her back. The thudding stopped, and the world became still again. Somewhere in the distance someone slammed a car door, and then faint voices were drifting in through the metal roof. 

“She’s dead, right? Why’d we need the gag and shit?” 

“Eddie said she was thrashin’ around and screaming even after he put two slugs in her. He was worried the cops would overhear or somethin’.” 

“Pah! When was the last time you saw a cop on Drab Street?” 

“Whatever. Let’s just get this over with.” 

“I swear to every fuckin’ God out there, if she’s still moving when we pull her out I’m retiring. Papa don’t pay me enough to deal with this shit.” 

The two thugs cracked the boot open, to find a pale teenager, dressed in a form-fitting pink Halterneck Dress that was drenched in blood, with jet black hair tied up in a bundled heap; her eyes shut.   

“Jeez, why’s Eddie going around smokin’ little girls? Fuckin’ animal.” Muttered the bigger of the pair. 

“When’d you grow a conscience? Let’s just dump her and get this over with. Being out here gives me the creeps.” 

The thugs grabbed Maddie by her hands and feet, and carried her out into the desert. Miles of dirt-red earth, turned blue by the night sky, stretched out around them, with huge jagged cliffs rolling off into the distance. Sickly brown shrubs thrust up from the ground in mismatched tuffs, and the ground crunched beneath the heels of the men’s boots as they made their way out into the wilderness. 

“What d’you reckons lurking out behind those cliffs?” Asked the smaller thug. 

“Shut the fuck up, Danny.” Whispered the bigger one. 

“Maybe some Ogres…” 

“I said ‘Shut the fuck up’!” 

“Or some man-eating trolls…” 

“See; shit like this is why you didn’t get invited to Romeraz’s wedding.” 

“Shit man, why you gotta make it personal?” 

The two men lowered her into a ditch, dropping her with a small puff of red sand, before standing over her and surveying their handiwork. 

“Cut her bounds.” Said the smaller one. 

“Why? The cops are already gonna know it’s a murder. It’s not like there are coyotes running around out here putting shells in people.” 

“No, you idiot, the bonds have got fingerprints all over them.” 


“You really think Santa Somabra cops give a fuck about who killed some little girl?” 

“You really wanna take that risk?” 

“Alright, alright! Fine.” 

The bigger one kneeled down, pulling a switch blade out of his pocket, before using it to gradually cut through the rope that was tying Maddie’s hands and feet together. Once that was done he undid her gag, before dumping the excess rope and cloth in one of his jean pockets. 

“There, you happy now?” her spat at his mate, slowly rising to his feet. 

Maddie’s eyes snapped open, and then she was up on her feet in a flash. Slamming into the bigger thug, her arms wrapped around his chest in an instant, and then her needle-like fangs were deep in the soft flesh of his pudgy neck, pumping hot red blood into her mouth. 

The smaller thug let out a yelp as his dazed friend collapsed on the floor, frantically foraging for his gun in his jacket pocket. Maddie darted towards him, blood dripping from her open mouth, but the thug was faster. 

Two pistol shots rang out, knocking Maddie to the floor, as a thick trail of smoke billowed upwards from the end of the gun. 

“The shit you see in this fuckin’ city…” panted the smaller thug, his pulse racing violently. He stood over the young woman, gazing down at her limp corpse. 

Maddie’s body jolted suddenly, and then her fangs were burrowing into the thug’s ankle, bleeding him dry. He cried out and dropped his pistol, and then Maddie tore upwards, slamming her fist into his lower jaw, sending him tumbling down onto the desert ground.  

She snatched the fallen pistol up off of the floor, before kneeling on top of the thug, forcing him down with one knee whilst she jammed the gun into his open mouth. 

[color=ed1c24]“There was this thing I always wanted to try with my ex-boyfriend…”[/color] she began to explain, gazing into the thug’s terror-filled eyes. 

[b]BANG! [/b]

Maddie dusted herself off, rising to her feet as the lifeless body of her victim fell back onto the ground. 
She turned and gazed up at the night sky, catching the distant spires of Santa Somabra gleaming on the horizon. 

[color=ed1c24]“I’m starting to think this might just be my kind of city, after all.” [/color]