Shall we take a look at one of the smallest items in this unnatural collection?
Here it is in the palm of my hand – a spent bullet, crumpled and useless, having served its singular purpose to kill. I removed this item myself from the heart of its victim, post-mortem. But I am getting ahead of myself. This story very aptly demonstrates at least two things of significance. Firstly, that Love is always surprising, secondly, that death is always inevitable...
Before going over and introducing himself, Jacob took the opportunity to get a good look at the girl he was about to meet. She sat alone in an alcove of the busy bar, nursing two drinks. He liked what he could see of her - Short, raven black hair cut in the pixie style. Pale skin and dimples. Glasses that make her look both cute and over-serious. A leather mini-skirt short enough to greatly accentuate two slender crossed legs. Just a little cleavage on display. Yes, she’d do very nicely, he thought. He wondered briefly what she’d think of him. Well, it hardly mattered, he decided. Nothing really mattered, in the end.
Little did he know how she’d change his perspective on things.
He breezed alongside her and took the empty seat opposite, his flapping long leather coat having the intended dramatic effect. ‘Hannah? Is that you?’ he smiled, making an effort to be charming. ‘I really hope it’s you.’
She looked slightly startled for a moment before nodding, slipping her mobile phone away to give her full attention. ‘Jacob?’
He fixed her with a direct stare. Confident. ‘Jacob Dubicki, at your service. But please, call me Jake. I haven’t been Jacob for years.’
‘Jake,’ she parroted, liking the name. ‘Thanks for coming.’
‘It’s my pleasure. Can I get you a drink?’
She shook her head gently. ‘Already got you one,’ she grinned, emphasizing the cute little dimples on either side of her pretty face. She pushed one the drinks across the table towards him. ‘Thought you might appreciate this.’
‘A bloody mary?’
‘What else would you drink, right? Am I right?!’
He laughed at that, for the first time in what seemed like centuries. ‘You clearly have a great sense of humour.’
For the first time since they’d been introduced her smile dropped for a few moments as she considered the compliment. ‘I’ve had to develop it, it’s all that’s kept me going, to be honest.’
He put his finger to her lips. ‘Shhhh. Don’t give in to misery. You are comfortable, are you? With what we are going to do, I mean?’
‘Oh, more than comfortable!’
‘I don’t… disappoint you? I was what you were expecting?’ He was vain and felt oddly unburdened about showing it.
She let him wait for an answer. He was no Robert Pattison, but he’d do very nicely. ‘Oh yes,’ she eventually replied. ‘And I hope I don’t disappoint you?’
‘You really don’t disappoint me. Shall we go now, do you want to get this over with?’
‘Get it over with?’ she queried. ‘You make it sound like a chore.’
‘It won’t be a chore for me,’ he said quickly. ‘But I must confess, I wonder what it is that you think you’ll take from the experience? I must admit, I’ve never encountered someone quite so… willing before.’
She uncrossed her legs at the word ‘willing’. ‘And as we’re being honest, I didn’t expect you to be so considerate.’
Neither did he, if he was honest. ‘Your dating profile listed some pretty wild things that you’re looking for. I couldn’t quite believe what a perfect match we were. Too perfect, in fact.’ Jake broke his visual lock on this intriguing girl and glanced at the other clientele in the bar. ‘I… must admit I’m a little suspicious that this could be some kind of trap.’
She looked confused. ‘Sorry, what? Me trapping you?’ The idea seemed ridiculous to her.
Jake finished his scan of the room, seemingly satisfied there was no threat contained within, only ordinary people doing ordinary things. ‘You’d be surprised. There’s lot of people out to get me.’
She was sweetly incredulous. ‘What have you got to be afraid of?’
‘You’d be surprised.’ He put his hand over hers, and she didn’t recoil. ‘But I don’t want to talk about me. I’m finding myself more interested in you.’
She felt herself getting lost in his blue eyes. Drowning. Perhaps he was right about one thing - this was too perfect. ‘Well, what do you want to know, exactly?’
He broke physical contact with her and leaned back on his chair. ‘I didn’t expect to give a damn about this, but I would like to understand exactly why you want me to kill you.’
…
They walked and talked along the canal-side, mostly alone and unobserved, as few people were around at that time of night.
Jake instinctively gripped hold of Hannah’s hand where the towpath narrowed. When he became consciously aware they were holding hands he let it drop to her side. She tilted her head towards him, strangely disappointed.
‘I’m just so bored of life, you know?’ she continued speaking, pretending the sudden gain and loss of intimacy didn’t hurt her. ‘I just feel like I’ve done everything I’m going to.’
‘How are old are you?’
‘I’m 23.’
‘Only 23, and you feel like that?’
‘I’ve never been what you’d call a happy person.’
‘But you’re so funny. And you were smiling earlier – when we first met?’
She stopped walking. A conflicted look crossed her face, then she regained control of herself. ‘That’s because I’m pleased that everything’s going to end soon.’
He chuckled. ‘Well, you’re a bundle of laughs, aren’t you?’
She stiffened. ‘And the whole idea of dying this way really turns me on, if I’m honest. Makes me feel alive, in a weird way. Shall we do it now? Like you said – get it over with?’
She drew him forward along the path to the relative privacy afforded under a bridge over the canal.
‘Are you sure you want to go through with this?’ he found himself checking. He’d never checked before.
‘Yes,’ she whispered.
That was all the invitation he needed. He growled and pushed her up against the brick wall.
She gasped as he pressed firmly against her. ‘Take me,’ she murmured. ‘Please, take me now.’
The scent of her was almost overpowering. The familiar drumming in his head announced that his animal instinct was about to take over and Jake reached out and grabbed her head and yanked it to the right. Two glistening fangs extended from his widening mouth…
He shouldn’t have looked into her eyes before biting down, before tasting her warm, delicious blood. But he did and got lost in those eyes and suddenly the need to feed on her simply dropped away. His extended teeth retracted into his gums and he broke free of the deadly embrace and punched the wall behind her in sudden rage.
‘What is it?’ Hannah eventually asked, massively disappointed. ‘I thought we had an arrangement?’
Jake roared in impotent anger, his voice echoing under the bridge. Why was he feeling like this? What was it he was feeling, exactly? It had been so long since…
‘Is it me?’ she offered, unaware of his line of thought. ‘You don’t… like me?’
‘I do like you!’ he shouted, the words echoing under the bridge. ‘That’s the f**king problem! Who the hell are you, Hannah?’
She wanted to help him with the answer but couldn’t as she didn’t know it. ‘I’m just… me. I don’t get what the problem is?’
Jake took three slow breaths to steady himself. ‘I can’t bring myself to do it, Hannah. I thought I’d be able to pick you up and use you and cast you aside like all the rest.’
As she came to understand and accept what he had said, just a little of that initial smile he’d been warmed by returned to her face. ‘What do you want then? Have you fallen in love with me? Is that it? You couldn’t love me – I’m unlovable. And besides, we’ve only just met!’
He ran over to her again, pressing her against the wall, even harder this time. Brick dust fell on her shoulders. Again, she did not resist. But the intent behind his actions was different this time. His mouth found her ear. ‘I just want to f**k you, Hannah,’ he hissed. ‘Can I f**k you?’
She loosened the belt of her mini-skirt and let it drop to the dirty concrete. ‘Oh God, yes,’ she surrendered. ‘Do it now!’
They didn’t care if anyone saw or heard them. Nothing else really mattered apart from their most basic of needs. She moaned as he entered her, lightheaded all of a sudden, and he ground against her with an almost frightening ferocity. After several minutes of pure pleasure he came to a glorious climax, enjoying the sensation more than he had for decades - since he was human. As he filled her with his warm seed, Hannah came to a shuddering orgasm and threw back her head and laughed deliriously. This rapture they enjoyed came from more than just sex. A happy existence suddenly seemed available for the both of them, and in that one moment they both independently came to the blatant and obvious conclusion that, in fact, life was worth living after all.
‘I must be going soft in my old age,’ Jake panted between kisses.
‘Oh no,’ she deadpanned as she squeezed his behind. ‘We can’t have you going soft, can we?’
They basked in a mutual glow for a while before Hannah admitted, ‘We make an odd couple, don’t we?’
A couple? His cold dead heart almost jumped for joy. ‘Are you happy now, Hannah? Do I make you happy?’
‘No,’ she answered immediately, ‘But, I really think you could, you know.’ Not a doubt in the world about it, she kissed him full on the lips.
It was then that the sound of a gun being cocked broke the magic. A little old man had joined them, his features obscured by darkness. An old-fashioned revolver shook in his right hand. Hannah, and Jake, even with his sharpened senses, didn’t notice it at first. ‘Leave us alone, old man,’ Jake warned. ‘We’re not doing anything you didn’t get up to, back in the day.’
Hannah scrambled to get dressed, deeply embarrassed. ‘Jesus, he’s got a gun!’
‘I doubt that’ll worry a monster like him,’ the old fella croaked. ‘It should worry him, though.’
‘What do you mean, grandad?’ Jake spat. ‘Why don’t you just piss off.’
The old man took an old photo from the pocket of his dirty raincoat and held it out with his free hand. A faded black and white photograph of a smiling girl. Judging by the fashion of the clothes and hairstyle, it was taken in World War Two or just after.
Jake froze. The man placed the photo back in his pocket and patted it affectionately.
‘What’s wrong, Jake?’ Hannah asked, suddenly reminded of how little she actually knew this creature of the night, and how little she could ever fully understand him. ‘Do you know that girl?’
‘Do you even remember her name?’ the old man crowed.
The slightly guilty expression confirmed he did not. Yet he hadn’t forgotten her face. Or the taste of her blood.
‘My little sister. I’ve been looking for you for a very long time, Jacob Dubicki.’
‘If you know what he is,’ Hannah found herself defending him, ‘You’ll know bullets can’t kill him.’
The old man grinned toothlessly. ‘Silver bullets can. Step aside, darling, I’ve only got one shot. Silver’s bloody expensive these days.’
She refused to move so Jake pushed her gently to one side. ‘This is my problem,’ he told her. ‘Let me deal with it. I should face the consequences of my actions. Funnily enough, I hadn’t realised that until I met you.’
A wrinkled finger curled around the trigger. ‘Time to die.’
In a fluid movement, Hannah positioned herself between the gun and the target without even thinking. The gunshot split the night and echoed in the darkness. Jake looked down at his chest, expecting to see a hole, expecting blood, but there was nothing. Beside him, Hannah groaned, dropped down on her knees and sank forward, face down onto the towpath. Jake tried to help her up, but it was useless. Her body slumped back down immediately. Her blood coated his pale hands. Blood that had once looked appetizing now appeared absolutely revolting.
‘You stupid girl,’ the old man snapped. ‘That bullet wasn’t meant for you. What were you thinking?’
He didn’t live long after that. The Police recovered his mutilated corpse from the canal three weeks later. His eyeballs had been forced back into his brain before he drowned.
The last thing Hannah saw was Jake leaning over her. ‘Why?’ he said quietly. ‘Why did you do that for me?’
She smiled back up at him, dreamily, and closed her eyes.
So, that’s the tale of the spent bullet. A beautiful life was ended by this small piece of metal, but it is steeped in more than just blood. All that unfulfilled potential remains held inside it. An undying love, cut short before it’s time. An eternity of Jacob’s pain and loss. Forever is a very long time when you’re immortal. Take my word for it.
