Authors Note: Holy crap, an update! welcome to chapter 9, the final cut! Well, not really final cut, as there will be a conclusion to follow...just the pink floyd album of the song I'm using.

In This Chapter, There Will Be: Night after night, going round and round my brain…this dream is driving me insane…

NIGHT CHILD: Ace's High

Chapter Nine: The Gunner's Dream

“Floating down through the clouds, memories come rushing up to meet me now. But in the space between the heavens and the corner of some foreign field...I had a dream...”

“And as the teardrops rise to meet the comfort of the band...you take her frail hand...and hold on to the dream...” --Pink Floyd

December 19th, 2018

Ace Jayson

“Why would Incarnate need me for...”

“We are unsure,” Sage shrugs. “All we know is that without you or someone like you—and there are not many...Incarnate can't complete the purge.”

She stares at me and smiles as I struggle to understand her intentions.

“...You're going to kill me?” I whisper.

“No Ace. Not kill you...” Sage says, reaching her hand back out to me.

“We don't want to kill you. We want you. To watch you...to try to figure out why Incarnate needs you. Ace Jayson....we extend an invitation to you. Join our Murder,” she says, strong and absolute.

No...

“You want to turn me into a...a full Vampire...” I whisper.

I step back, but she's shaking her head, holding me in place with her eyes.

“Not unless you want to. But to do that...your heart would stop, your blood would be still. You would not be alive, at least not in the conventional sense. It's the same reason we will not kill you. We do not wish to provoke Incarnate's wrath by resorting to extremes. All we want, all we need is you. As you are now.”

She traces my face, pushes my hair away from my neck.

“Ace, I offer you protection, a home. A family. A lover...,” she pauses, staring through me. “ All those things you've never had. All those things you want. Whatever you want. Just name it.”

I glance over to the stage. I remember a lifetime ago, the first place I ever played. The first place I ever sang. I look at the bones and ropes riddled across the floor...the bloodstained human skulls displayed on the stereo.

The human skulls...some no bigger than that of a small child's head. There's probably a dozen of them.

“What about them?” I ask quickly, turning to Heidi and Maxwell.

Sage glances back at them.

“If I go with you, will you not hurt them?” I ask. “Will...will you let them go?”

Rave snorts from the corner and he looks up over to me, shark teeth bared.

“Why do you want to let them live...after what they did to you?” he spits.

What they did to me....

“Hit you, cut you, tied you up. Starved you like an animal. Turned you into something they consider less than human,” Rave hisses. “Do you wonder why we do not call a truce? Alliance would let us starve before they could accommodate our need for their species blood, and they justify our slaughter when we are forced to hunt for ourselves. The humans will never treat us as equals. The blood and likeness we share runs to thin for their taste.”

His words cut deep, and I see Heidi and Maxwell exchange pained looks.

“Agreed, Rave,” Sage says. “Ace...for weeks, the blood I've had from you, still within me...it's gone so cold. As your Sire, I could feel it. Your fear...your hunger. Your pain. Your memories...”

She reaches down and takes my hand, tracing my scars.

“I felt all of it,” she whispers. “I can still feel it, even now. I know that you still feel tied to your humanity...but...how the hell can you have compassion for them? Look what they've done to you...”

She tilts my face towards hers, pulling me in through her eyes. I see myself reflected in them, I see me how she must. Scared and pale, I am met with my own yellow eyed gaze. I realize how withered I feel. How exhausted. I look every inch of it—as broken as a human could possibly be.

Not even human.

“Look at all your scars and tell me: who's the monster?” Sage whispers.

Maybe it's true.

I know better than most people the horror human beings are capable of. And even though Heidi and Maxwell had good intentions...what they did to me was horrific. But more than hurting me, starving me, locking me up...it was the fear. How they had told me what I was and left me there without proof or explanation.

Was their doubt in my humanity an excuse to torture me? Was it a game? Or worse, did they truly believe it? Would they leave me there to rot, waiting for a fictional essence in me to show itself?

And then, as my tastes changed....being forced to confront the horror that they may be right.

I look across the floor. Maxwell looks out at me through swollen eyes. Heidi stares at the grounds, her face baring not a trace of emotion. I see the faded scars on her neck where I had choked her... and the bruises and broken skin that disrupt Maxwell's face.

Even though we're no longer the same...the pain they feel, it's the same as the pain I've felt. And even though they did this to me... they had chosen not to kill me, hadn't they? I'd let that monster in me take control when I attacked Heidi...and still....

They had spared me.

“Please...,” I whisper, sure of this. “I...I promise, I'll go with you. I'll do what you ask. Just let them live. That's all I ask.”

Sage sighs.

“So noble. But I'm afraid this is above all of us now. If we let them live, they'll go back to Alliance and tell them what we know of Incarnate. Do you know what Alliance could do to us if they knew how vulnerable we were?” she asks. “Perfect opportunity for them to move against us.”

“What's to say they wouldn't be willing to help?” I ask.

I look back to Heidi. She's looking up at me now.

“They...they're friends with Vampires,” I whisper. “These two.”

“Main-streamers,” Rave rolls his eyes. “Pussy's sired within the century, no doubt. All that separates them from humans is a heartbeat,”—

“Sang.”

It came from Heidi, and now all eyes are trained on her.

“Sang,” Lolita repeats, looking up at Sage.

“That is a bold claim to make,” Rave spits. “What reason would Sang have to befriend Alliance Hunters?”

Heidi looks up at Rave with strange eyes, poison eyes. He stops speaking.

“That may be,” Sage notes. “But Sang has denounced the claim he could've had in Vampire politics. He considers himself above this centuries rules. We're far from his ground...and far enough from his influence.”

“If you want, we could keep them as pets,” Rave offers. “Be warned, I don't know how long they'll last. Lolita is mad at the female.”

I look to Lolita, who smiles at me. She points at Heidi with the barrel of her gun.

“She owes me an eye,” Lolita says, pointing to her eye patch.

I shiver.

“I wouldn't mind Hybridizing this one for myself,” Rave admits, running his hand across Maxwell's tattooed neck. “He's a fighter. I like that.”

Maxwell spits at Rave.

“Fuck that!” Maxwell cries.

Rave digs his fingers into Maxwell's neck.

“Love the dirty talk,” Rave murmurs, smiling at Lolita.

“Murdering blood fucks. I'd kill myself before I became a monster like you,”—

I suck in a breath, and Maxwell glances up at me. He widens his eyes.

“No,” He says quickly. “No, not you, Ace. I didn't,—”

I turn my eyes as he is struck back to the ground again.

In wake of my hurt, I become aware of Maxwell's broken skin. The blood draining from him. I take a step towards him and to my surprise, Sage steps aside. I look down to him and Heidi, torn and bloody on the floor, as I was all those days ago. Neither of them meet my gaze, so I close my eyes and let my new sense reach them.

Through their blood.

I can feel it through the air, floating through them. Maxwell's dripping lightly out of the little holes Rave left in his neck. I can smell how salty and rich it is, I can smell that shimmer of liquid memories and poetry that pulse from them...but beyond that...I smell the pain.

I smell the fear.

I clench my fists tighter, drawing blood of my own. I realize that for a moment, I had involuntarily pictured walking over to Maxwell...dipping my fingers into his wound and tasting his blood. Biting into his tattooed neck and removing it for myself.

And it disgusts me.

What they turned me into...Vampires and Humans both. What I allowed myself to become...what awaits for this monster... the murder...the pain...the blood...

If there's anything I hate, it's this. This fear. This ability to sense it so perfectly. This hunger I develop for its product.

It scares me.

I scare myself.

I don't want this.

I don't want to be a monster.

I don't want to stand here and watch Maxwell and Heidi die.

I don't want to let them die....

I let my eyes linger up to the curtain nailed to the window panes. I see above the stage, where I had thrown the rock...it caught in the curtain, separating it from its nail. And in that one corner, I can make out the tape that holds down the plastic garbage bags to the window. I see how sloppily the plastic is tangled in the curtain and the nails. How old it looks, the haste it must have been laid out in...

The light seeping out of the tears in it....

--NC--

Heidi Black

It doesn't take a murder of Vampires to make me realize what I've done.

That I led us here.

I was the one who insisted on doing this to Ace. To wean out that Vampire in him, to treat him like a dog. To make him bring us here. And no matter how I've spun it in the past...

I kill monsters to protect people. To protect my kind. What I did to Ace, that wasn't what I signed on for when Alliance contracted me. And sure, yeah, I had no way of knowing...but son of a bitch.

He was fine. he would have stayed fine. The Hybrid in him would have never woke up. The Vampires would never have come for him again. Ace would never have to sell them his soul. We wouldn't fucking be here right now.

I wouldn't be sitting next to the only human being I trust or care about in the world, about to be killed.

And he wouldn't have to die.

“I'm sorry for this, Owen.” I whisper.

Maxwell turns his face to look at me, his swollen, bloody face. No matter how many beatings this kid takes, I can see he's got more fight in him than I do. He's still ready to raise hell, to kick and claw and scream. Me? I'm hoping he'll take my hint that it will hurt less if he stops turning them on. Vamps get off on fight.

He meets my eyes, and after a moment, he shoots me his trademark smile.

“It's been an honor, Shorty.” he grins, blood dripping between his teeth. “But please...Call. Me. Maxwell.”

I suck in a breath. That smile of his, it makes me ache. I'll never tell him this, but it's the reason I let him fight with me. That light he brought into the dark places, that ability to look death right in the eyes and just say suck it. It's a courage, a strength, one I'd always tried to duplicate until I met him. One I can only dream I have now. He is not gonna go down easy.

And now comes the hard part.

“Ace?” I whisper.

I hear Lolita hiss behind me as warning, but I force myself to look up at Ace. To face him. He looks down at me with his glowing eyes.

Big, confused, piercing eyes.

Jesus, I hate this. Looking people in the eyes, letting them see right into you. I hate vulnerability. Owing up to my fuck ups is worse than knowing it's my fault. But shit...if Maxwell has the strength to take so many blows to the face and keep asking for it...then I can do this.

Shit, I have to do this. As far as I see, it's the last thing I can do to tell myself I didn't die a coward.

“I'm so sorry.” I whisper, tears burning the corners of my eyes. “For what I did, for whatever happens from here...I'm sorry.”

I watch Ace's eyes flicker, his pupils dilate. His clenches his hand tight into his pocket.

“I don't want to kill them,” he says to Sage.

“It's alright,” Sage whispers. “You don't have to. We'll take care of it...”

She touches his shoulder, his face. He closes his eyes and inhales, turning to her. He removes his hand from his pocket and brings his arm towards her.

What the...

Holy shit.

He's palming one of my hypodermic needles.

--NC--

Ace Jayson

All I needed to see was Heidi's eyes to make me break out of Sage's hold.

To see that fear, that passion, that regret. Her love for Maxwell. Her admiration of him. Her sorrow he was going to suffer, and the guilt that it was because of her. And as I looked deeper, I saw what she felt for me. The shame of torturing me, of turning me into this. Of walking me into a trap and letting the Vampires take me. I can feel how foreign and uncomfortable it is for her to die here, like this. What's more, I can feel how her apology to me was her final weakness. How admitting she was wrong and keeping silent was to her, the difference from a heroic death and a cowardly end.

It was all I needed.

To realize I had a choice now. That I didn't need to yield, to run as I've always done. Just because it was easier, because it meant less pain, because it was safer—it doesn't matter now. Now that I can rise above my passive roll.

I have the strength to fight back now.

“Ace...” Sage whispers, lightly brushing the flat of her fangs against my neck.

I look back at her and without hesitation, I slam the needle I had taken into her neck. I push down, and she screams.

Her skin blisters and bubbles, and in the moment it takes her to yank the needle out I've already cleared her. I run across the stage, over to the lowest hanging edge of the curtain. I hear a scream and feel a rush of air as Lolita takes a shot at me, missing by mere inches.

Unsure if I can make it, I step on the stereo and jump. My fingers tangle in the curtain, and I dig my nails into them securely as I descend the long way back down. The heavy curtain unsnaps from the nails, and after a painful moment, the jagged wooden boards groan before breaking apart and raining down.

--NC--

Heidi Black

I have less then a second to kick myself out of the way of chaos. The Vamps aren't even halfway into the shadows before the torrents of light erupt through the holes in the curtains.

You wouldn't imagine the effect light has on Vampires. Not in your nightmares, you wouldn't. It ain't consistent, it ain't predictable, and it is never pretty.

Above me, Rave and Lolita get in the direct way of the light. I watch their skin wrap around their veins and hear the hiss of their blood bubbling.

The ceiling cracks and glass shatters, forcing me to roll onto my stomach and out of the way. As I turn back to the screaming Vampires, their skin cracks and peels back, floating off into the air. Their blood hits the ground sloppily in shaded areas, leaving only bones and cloth. It takes a moment for the bones to fragment in splinters before the little of their remains blows away into the shadows.

Sage isn't so lucky.

As she tries to dodge the falling boards, a wave of light strikes her across the face. In a slow, painful motion, her skin is blown off of her, not even crisping up before it swirls away into the air. Her eyes melt out and her hair uproots from her scalp. She cries out, throwing her hands in front of her face. They're stripped to the bone almost immediately, the skin that flies off still imprinted with her veins on the underside. Her arteries melt and bleed together, and she blindly pulls herself into the shadows, trying to heal what she can.

It's futile. The growing spots of sunlight in the ceiling shine down on her, stripping her of her skin in small sections. Her shrieks become so garbled and desperate that even I have to look away.

When I finally look back, I see a bloody skeleton hit the ground accompanied by an echo of a scream. She doesn't fall far from me, and the pile of blood and bones she left behind steams off, bits of bone evaporating into the sunlight. When I'm sure the bit of her left in the shadows is not enough to regenerate, I shut my eyes and turn over.

Jesus Fucken' Christ.

I lay on the concrete for a minute, breathing. I feel a bit scratched up, and I know well enough that light headedness can definitely lessen pain. As soon as I'm sure I'm not gushing blood, I pry open my eyelids.

A pair of slitted yellow eyes stares back at me.

Ace.

When I had kicked myself out of the way of the rubble, I ended up rolling less than a foot away from where he landed. Face to face now, he lifts his head gently, his pupils wide set and calm.

“Hey,” I mumble sorely.

He chuckles.

“You alright, Heidi?” Ace asks.

“Fine, yourself?” I ask.

“I've been better....” he sighs. “But...I'm glad you're alright.”

“Thank you, Ace,” I mumble, shutting my eyes for a minute. “Thank you.”

“I'm sure...you would have done the same for me...” he whispers.

I start to groan, but it comes off as a laugh. A terrified, relived, nervous laugh.

“If someone had done to me what we did to you...well, I sure as hell wouldn't feel like I owed em any favors.” I say.

“It's funny,” Ace mumbles to me. “For all I've been through...for...for what people've done to me...I've never hated anyone for it. Not you or Maxwell, not Sage and her Murder...not...not even...”

He pauses, and I make it a point not to look up to him.

“Not even...” I say.

“My stepfather.” he completes.

I nod.

“Maybe that's why it took so long for the monster in me to come out,”—

“There's no monster in you, Ace.” I cut in. “You've got instincts...hunger, fear, lust, same as me. Same as all of us. I get so caught up in protecting my own kind, I forget that sometimes. We...we're the same. We all get scared. We all get desperate. We all just want to survive. There's a difference between Humans and Vampires, but the bridge between us ain't 'monster'. It's never been.”

I take a deep breath and Ace sighs. We sit in silence for a moment.

“Thank you, Heidi,” he whispers.

I open my eyes and see a drop of blood running out of Ace's mouth.

“Ace...” I mumble.

With a heavy head, I look down the length of Ace's body. He flinches as I gasp. The dark blood oozes out from under him with every slow breath of his. I struggle against my ropes, trying to pull out my hands or snap them.

“Maxwell...we need some help over here!” I call.

A moan from somewhere behind me. I tilt my head and see Maxwell far too beaten to break free before I do. I turn back to Ace.

“Don't move. It's gonna take me a minute to get out of...this...”

I trail off as I catch the source of his bleeding. An angry, splintered board that had fallen from the ceiling.

It's gone clean through his side.

Oh Christ...

--NC--

Ace Jayson

I faded in and out of consciousness as Heidi had tried to unbind her arms. It was a touching gesture, but I think we both knew it was too late.

When I am jerked awake, I cry out in shock and pain. Another tug, and I feel the plank of wood that impaled me loosen against my muscle and flesh. I whimper.

“Just one more. Brace yourself.”

I open my eyes and see Heidi. Before I can question her, a third and final tug tears at me, and I feel both the pain and relief of the board being pulled out of me. The frayed muscles of my side quiver for a moment before Heidi's cool hands push them back inside me.

“I thought you aren't suppose to take it out...” I mumble.

“Normally, no,” Heidi says. “But you aren't normal, are you?”

She kneels next to me and rolls up my shirt. The red on her glimmers in my faltering vision, and I realize how distant the pain is as she presses close the mouth of my wound.

“Heidi...you don't have to...”

“Open your eyes, Ace.” She orders. “It won't take you long to heal.”

I look up at her and she adverts her eyes.

“Just breathe, alright?” she says roughly. “Just stay awake and breathe.”

“Heidi,” I whisper.

She looks down, revealing the red of her eyes. Her trailing, thick eye shadow. I bring my hands to hers, and almost instantly I feel the blood pooling out of me engulf both of our fingertips. I blink my eyes slowly and sigh. I can feel her through her skin and fingers. I feel her gratitude, her sorrow. I can feel how deeply she stores it down. I feel her hatred for vulnerability and her indifference towards baring it to others. And I feel the unfamiliar sting that comes with having all these emotions bubble to the surface.

“It's alright,” I say, smiling. “I...I'm alright.”

“It's not fucken right,” she mumbles, her voice breaking. “You don't...you don't fucken save us and ...”

She struggles. She doesn't want to say it. I nod.

“I understand,” I say, saving her the discomfort. “Don't worry about me. It...it doesn't really hurt that bad. And...you know, maybe it's better this way. Now Incarnate won't be able to use me...”

I blink my eyes slowly, readjusting my senses. I can hear her slow breathing in the quiet air, accompanied by Maxwell's coughs and the low buzz from the ancient stereo. A surge of emotion from Heidi's end pulls me back. I look up to see her, tears now running freely down her face.

“I'm sorry, Ace,” she mumbles. “I'm so sorry I led you here. I'm sorry for what we did to you...”

“Heidi, don't. Don't worry about it,” I whisper.

“Ace, I...”

“You already said sorry. Let's...lets not go there again...”

I smile, purposefully using the words Heidi had when I had apologized for hurting her. Immediately, something sharp stabs at me. I cough, tasting blood in my throat and mouth. Heidi's chin trembles.

“You didn't want to die,” she whispers.

She tightens her fingers against my wound, against my hand. I squeeze back.

“I don't think anybody wants to die,” I whisper. “I've run from death for my entire life. But... after everything that's happened...I...I'm not so scared anymore. And...I'm thankful for such a peaceful way out...”

As I close my eyes again, I feel Heidi let go of my wound. Still holding my hand, she wraps her arm around my shoulder and lifts me up onto her lap. Another faint sting washes through me, and I tighten my hand to hers. I can feel my pulse in my ears, and as it slows I become aware of another familiar sound. Soft, quiet, nostalgic...I open my eyes and look up to the little blur that's left of Heidi.

“Hey,” I whisper, feeling the blood pool out of my smile.

She looks down, and I gently gesture over to the stereo.

“They're...playing my song...” I mumble.

The low hum of the music overwhelms my senses. The memories of recording that song in the studio, the guitar, the piano...the words. The lyrics. The memories those came from. The pain and ache, the hunger and fear... that condemning feeling of being made out to be less than human. The relief that came from creating something from it, from producing something beautiful out of such suffering. From... knowing it wasn't wasted... that... that there was a reason everything happened the way it did...

As the song fades away, so does the sharp intake of nostalgia. My vision blurs and melts away even though my eyes are still open. I feel Heidi tighten her hand on mine, and I part my lips to thank her for this last little pleasure of human comfort. When all that escapes is a sigh, I tighten my fingers to hers.

This isn't so bad...

Her soft skin...the rotating blood beneath it...the pace of her heartbeat thrashing it against the walls of her veins.

A nirvana...

I am rocked with the tide of her pulse. As it grows distant, I gently loosen my fingers from hers. I let out a final breath, and the world fades away to black.

Nirvana...I wonder what awaits me...

--NC--

“In the corner of some foreign field, the gunner sleeps tonight: What's done is done. We cannot just write off his final scene...take heed of the dream.”

This one took me a while to write. Not that the emotional demand for it was too much or somethin', but for some reason, it took me a while to fine tune it. And also, I moved out of the house and went to college! The combination of having stricter writing time and an unreliable computer gave me a bit of writers block ,but hopefully, finishing Ace's High will help out with that. Now, it's late, but I know it's now or eventually, so I'm posting it now and I'll correct tomorrow!

Annnnnyway, this is one of the few chapters that actually had a comic pre-thought. Unpaneled frames, concept art, yadda yadda. I think the transition worked pretty well. I've known from the begging that this song was going to come into play in this story. Gunners Dream is a special one for me.

Stay tuned for the Conclusion/epilogue of Night Child: Ace's High. Hope you enjoyed! As always, leave a review, and I'll leave ya one too!

Write on!