Chapter 2 | Bury a Stranger

One hour has passed and a knock awakened Raverine from his short nap. Diego's scent, he thought, because of his ability to sense someone nearby. Although it's not as strong as it used to be, he can only sense a vampire or a human if the smell is very close to him. All vampires can sense a vampire or a human but as their thirst to drink a clean-blood is not sustained, their abilities will soon disperse. They will grow old and will share the same vulnerability that the human person has.

Human blood nowadays is corrupted and unhealthy because of alcohol, eating without nutrition, drugs, smoking, and any other way to make the blood unhealthy. There are ways, illegal ways, to acquire clean blood from humans like drinking from a newborn human. Babies' blood may be clean but it is not mature enough to revive a vampire's supernatural abilities. It also depends on their mothers' blood, if a mother does not have a nutritious lifestyle while carrying the baby then the baby's blood is not clean. But the modern world will always come up with a modern solution. Vampire clans lurking in the underground, hiding in the shadows, can kill human babies and preserve the infant blood in a wine bottle to sell in the black market for trading.

These vampires are called shadow vampires, the opposite of scavengers. Scavengers are human-like vampires, those who chose to live normally and die like a human after many years. Merciless shadow vampires and ordinary scavengers co-exist in secret with humans but they are living on the edge of extinction. They are not getting any younger and stronger. But once a mature clean-blooded human is found, hope for their bloodline will also be found. But it would ignite a deadly war among themselves. Greed... it's an unavoidable vice of all living things.

"Raverine Agustine!" Diego exclaimed in joy when Raverine opened the door for him. “Wazzup!” Diego stuck his tongue out and open his arms for a brotherly hug.

Diego Monterey has this cheerful vibe wherever he goes but is dangerous when being infuriated by those who underestimate him. Five feet and nine inches tall man with hair like a raven. His creamy skin complements well with his coffee-brown eyes, giving you the warmest feeling when he stares at you.

Raverine's face was cringed when he heard his squeaky, annoying voice. "Too noisy..." he grumbled and shut the door, leaving Diego in dismay outside his room.

Raverine and Diego are like Tom and Jerry. Raverine has Tom's personality, getting annoyed so easily by Diego but he could never kill his annoying Jerry. Raverine is two inches taller than Diego and has these alluring coal-like eyes, porcelain skin, and dark messy hair.

"Hey!" Diego called and knocked at the door. Raverine held the knob and twisted it to open the door again. "Come inside with your mouth closed tight," Raverine warned and went to the round table. Diego with a frown face and heavy steps entered the room and looked down.

"Shit..." he blurted out when he saw the dead woman's body. "You drained all her blood! Poor, lovely woman!" Raverine scoffed and leaned to his chair. "Everything is ready on my car," Diego said and went to the mini-fridge then threw his blue cap on top of it. He opened it and saw that the fridge was loaded with canned sodas and beers, and bottled waters. "Jackpot," he whispered and clenched his fists from excitement.

"Do you have any news about Calil?" Raverine asked while massaging his nape.

"Calil again," Diego opened a can of soda before continuing, "All I saw on his I*******m was his happy face while wearing an apron and carrying a spatula." Diego walked towards the bed and settled himself on top of it. "Oh! And he captioned, 'I am happy to announce something tomorrow.' And then he added a fire and smiley emoji," Diego added and took another sip of his Coca-Cola can.

Raverine crumpled his face and grabbed his phone from his pocket. "That Calil shit won’t announce something that won't make him truly happy and insult me as well," Raverine mumbled and opened his I*******m account.

"You should stop competing with him, Raver," Diego said, making Raverine glare at him. "Oops, sorry!"

Diego finished his can of soda and took another one from the mini-fridge while Raverine was busy looking at Calil's post from three hours ago.

"Look at him, so happy," Diego teased behind Raverine. Raverine turned his head around and scowled at Diego.

"Shut up, will you?"

"You know--"

"What the heaven, Diego? I just told you to shut up..."

"Well, I-I..." Diego stammered and groaned, "I was just gonna advise you to stop looking at your fucking phone, and let's burn her."

"Who?"

Diego pointed to the dead woman lying down on the floor near the door. Diego sighed and relaxed his nerves. "You are making yourself crazy, Raver, soon enough you'll be staring at a wall and wonder why you exist until you'll look for a knife and kill yourself. And hey! Don't you ever leave a note for me, it'll be a hassle drama."

Raverine scoffed and stood. He walked towards the dead body. "You are the crazy one here."

"Alright, let's stop arguing, and let's put her in my car." Diego held the dead woman's left arm then hung it around his neck. Raverine opened the door and walked straight outside of the hotel who was owned by a vampire too. They casually walked and ignored the other vampires in the hotel lobby.

An ordinary vampire who acts like a normal citizen and appears as a human in our world is called a scavenger.

"Key," Raverine said to Diego who was carrying the dead woman on his shoulder.

"What? No! I will drive, that's my car," Diego disagreed and Raverine opened the back door of Diego's car. "No!" Diego yelled when Raverine thought that the dead woman will be seating in the back seat.

"Why?" Raverine asked without any consideration for the clean seats of Diego's new midnight burgundy pearl Honda civic car.

Diego groaned and pointed to the trunk of his car, "Open the trunk, she won’t be sitting inside. Seriously, Raver." Raverine smirked and opened the trunk. Diego pushed the woman in then shut it close. Both of them went inside the car and ended their childish argument about who was going to drive. Raverine sat on the passenger's seat while Diego sat on the driver's seat with a victorious grin on his face.

***

It was ten and dark when they started driving to look for a place to burn the dead woman. The ride to the old cemetery was a little bumpy while Diego continued to annoy Raverine but Raverine kept his gaze and attention outside the car window the whole time. Diego slowed down the car when he noticed that they are approaching closer to the entrance of the old cemetery with little light emitting from the two lamp posts built on each side of the rustic, tall gate. Diego removed his foot from the accelerator and pressed on the brake. Diego crossed his arms atop the steering wheel and observed the place through his front car window.

"Spooky old cemetery," he whispered and quickly turned his head to Raverine's grumpy face.

"Old and spooky enough for your coffin soon," Raverine joked and opened the car door. Diego hissed and wasn't amused by his joke.

"You know... you always have those dark jokes and you thought that it's funny but it’s not, Raver." Diego went out of his car and placed his hand on the roof of his sedan car.

Raverine opened the trunk and dragged the dead woman out. He also took the can of gasoline and shut it closed. "Matches?" Raverine simply asked if Diego has the matches.

Diego inserted his hands into his jeans and withdrew a white lighter. "Lighter."

"Let's find a shovel," Raverine instructed and went towards the gate. He pushed it and the gate creaked open.

"Wait... Am I gonna carry her again?" Diego complained while pointing at the corpse.

"Yeah."

Diego did not have a choice but to grunt and carry the dead woman on his shoulders again. "Thank you, Diego. You are a fucking true friend, Diego. Bullshit..." Diego mumbled as he followed Raverine. Raverine went to a tree with a shovel leaning towards it. Raverine snatched it and held it above his shoulder while his other hand was carrying the can of gasoline.

"Look at him, trying to be cool..." Diego mocked. "Hey, Raver!" Diego yelled which stopped Raverine from walking, "Why do we need to burn her if we are going to bury her?"

Raverine's brows were pulled closer together and the corner of his lips was pulled upwards, mouthing the word, “Eh?”

"I am serious, Raver, why bury her if --"

"So that, if ever, cops found her body in this place they wouldn't know who is that burnt daughter of a pig."

Diego scoffed and whispered, "That's kinda cruel."

Raverine laughed and countered, "Don't act like you haven't sucked a human's blood before then just throw them on the river."

"At least I did not burn them then buried them," Diego muttered.

"You think it's less cruel if you throw them than bury them?" Raverine argued.

"But I did not cover their body with gasoline and threw a match on it then dance around their burning body. Fire is cruel than water, remember that."

"What? That's so crazy," Raverine muttered. Raverine ignored Diego and continued to look for ground that he can easily shovel out its dirt.

Diego placed down the dead woman on the ground when Raverine stopped at a space between two tombs. Raverine shoved the ground and threw the dirt away. He kept doing that until it was enough for the dead woman's body.

"Drag it in," Raverine instructed Diego and Diego frowned at him. Diego held both her arms and dragged her down to the pit. Raverine picked the can of gasoline then bathed her with it. Diego withdrew the lighter from his pocket and quickly rolled the spark wheel of the lighter.

"Can you get me that stick," Diego said to Raverine referring to the stick below him.

Raverine picked it up and gave it to Diego then waited for the stick to flare up. When the stick was burning, Diego pouted and whispered, "Bye, my love."

Raverine looked at him with complete disgust then threw the burning stick to the dead woman's body. They waited for the body to burn completely and fall to ashes then covered it back with dirt. When the scrap was burnt and taken off thoroughly, they went back to the car. It was already eleven and Raverine still need to open his restaurant early tomorrow.

"Is it really hard?" Diego blurted out while driving, “To forgive and forget the past?” Raverine did not answer and leaned his head to the car window. "Try to find a girl, a distraction could work. "

"Find a girl to suck out all her blood again then we'll burn her body back at the cemetery again. Is that what you mean?" Raverine contradicted with a hint of sarcasm in his tone.

Diego tsked and glanced at him. "Maybe? Maybe have fun with her - drink, party, sex - or worse, love her? True love conquers all, says a book," Diego said but mumbled the last statement. It was silent for a while then Diego glanced at Raverine who was wincing at him. Diego laughed so loud and continued to drive straight on a dark road.

"Fun, love, commitment... whatever that is that woman wants," Raverine whispered, "They are the same naive and weak type of human being."

Diego nodded with his lips pulled downward.

Raverine clicked his tongue. "I don't care about them. All I care about is finding that mature clean-blooded human and regain my ability."

There are different types of clean blood — infant, mature, and stale. Infant clean blood is from a human whose age ranges from months to one year old. While mature is from a teen to adult. And lastly, stale is from an old human being. Infant clean blood will not increase a vampire's ability but it will stop a vampire from aging. The mature clean blood has a delicious taste that will make a vampire stronger, younger and dominant among the rest. Stale clean blood is bitter and does not give you anything other than its disgusting taste.

"That's impossible," Diego said, "We are all going to die like a human but with a fang."

Raverine chuckled and shook his head in disagreement with Diego's hopeless judgment. Diego returned his gaze to the road and continued to drive until they reached back at the hotel.