Unseen Order

Drake approached the intersection of Fourth and Egret. His feet gliding him along the street lamp lit sidewalk with ease. A cold gust of wind scratched at his face. Nights in the city were peaceful, unlike the chaos he was accustomed to at his families ranch.

He walked the city streets on the nights his family tried his patience. Which seemed to occur more often in the past few weeks then it had in the past year. He attributed this to the increase of family members who had taken to living with him. It was his house and he could have turned them away, but he couldn’t bring himself to turn his back on them.

Drake stopped walking and watched as a tall heavyset man stumbled out of a bar. A man and a woman followed him out, but their attention was on each other. The second man wrapped his arm around the woman’s waist and pulled her close. The gesture was gentleman in nature, but after a few seconds his hand slid from her waist to the rear pocket of her form-fitting jeans. Her only response was a soft giggle and a slight blushing in her cheeks. The couple spared the time to yell a goodbye over their shoulders to the first man, before they set off in the opposite direction with the clear intentions of going to bed when they got home. Yet it was a certainty it would be a while before they fell asleep.

The first man didn’t respond to the goodbyes. His focus was dedicated to staying upright, and remembering where he parked. Drake cut across the street and followed the man, interested to see how this man’s evening would play out. Would the police greet him before he made it to his car, or would they snag him while he was driving home?

A few blocks away the man unclipped his keys from his belt loop and tried to jam the largest key into the small silver hole on the driver’s door. It finally slid in but not all the way. The man tried to turn the key, but after numerous attempts the door wouldn’t open. He stepped back and peered through the window into the back seat. A bag from Victoria Secret lay half-open and women’s underwear peeked out from inside.

He laughed and stepped away from the car. Four cars down sat an identical car to the first. The man reached for the keys on his belt loop, but he found nothing. Perplexed he checked his pockets, then his jacket pockets, and then his back pockets. When he was certain the keys weren’t in his pockets he checked the other loop on his pants. Then he looked back to the car he was at before. In the driver side door was a set of keys.

He retrieved the keys and was finally able to enter his small light green four door sedan. All the while Drake had seen not just one or two police cars pass, but a half a dozen. This drunk fool had unknowingly escaped certain imprisonment six times. After a great deal of fiddling with the keys he managed to get the right key into the ignition and start the car.

Drake stepped back into a small shop alcove to stay hidden when the headlights from the mans car illuminated the dark street, but they didn’t come on. Then all in an instant, a car passed and the man pulled out from his parking spot. The sound of metal scrapping metal violated the silence of night. Shattered glass sprayed in all directions as an overture of metal and screeching tires played to an invisible audience.

Drake rushed over to the second car, the one the drunken man had pulled out in front of, and checked his vitals. He was unconscious and hanging on to life by a thread. He then ran over to the drunk man he had been watching. He was alive and seemed virtually alright. Actually, it seemed as if the crash had barely phased him. Drake’s lips rose in disgust and anger. He pulled open the drunk mans door causing the drunk to look up at him with unfocused eyes.

“Give me your right arm.” Obediently the drunk reached out with both arms. Drake embarrassed him but rather then lifting him up and out of the car. He buried his teeth into his neck and drew the mans intoxicating blood down his throat. Drake tried to focus on the mans pulse, but the sweetness of his blood was overwhelming. He drank like an animal would drink water after traversing the desert. In an instant the sweet warm nectar was tainted, sour and cold.

Drake felt for the mans pulse, but it was gone. He retreated back from the door of the drunk man and listened. He could hear sirens getting close and running footsteps approaching. Drake whipped the blood from his face and returned to the victim’s car. He was still alive. He would make it through the night.

Drake turned to flee, but he could already feel the blood affecting his body. He turned the corner and ran. His leg muscles were still strong, the blood hadn’t reached them yet. He was able to cover four blocks before his legs started to feel the effects. He ducked into a residential yard and broke into a small tool shed just as his legs buckled. The last thoughts which went through Drakes mind before unconsciousness overtook him was, “At least there are no windows.”