C5 What the hell?!

Moments later...

"What the hell was that thing?! ... And, why the fuck does it have to hurt so God damn much? Fuck!!"

The vampire is hunched over on his knees, taking refuge between two heating/cooling units on the rooftop of a building a few blocks over from the abandoned building where the killing took place. He wanted to put as much distance as he could between himself and whatever that thing was; but, the excruciating pain from the inflected wounds was making it too unbearable for him to keep moving, or transform back into his bat-like form for the time being.

There's an intense burning sensation radiating throughout his entire upper back and right side of his head, feeling as if those two areas are on fire. His body trembles as he clenches his jaw shut and feverishly grinds his teeth together, while balling his hands into extremely tight fists; all in a futile attempt to try and endure the overwhelming pain.

Unable to diminish the pain ... or even distract himself from it ... the vampire abruptly falls face first onto the tarred surface of the roof, and writhes around while moaning out in agony.

Not long after that, he suddenly hears a faint, familiar sound of approaching flapping bat wings off in the near distance, from the sky above; and, he immediately sends out a telepathic call for help. Shortly, another ominous, large shadowy bat-like figure descends from the darkened night sky and lands on the rooftop; then, quickly transforms into its human-like figure, and rushes over to the wounded vampire's side.

The second vampire instantly displays an appalled visage the moment he notices the ghastly condition of the right side of the other vampire's head and gasps...

"What the ...? ... Barry, what the heck happened to you? Your ear ... it's gone. Are you alright?"

Still reeling in excruciating pain, Barry grits his teeth and winces before sardonically quipping...

"I'm just dandy ... jeez, what the fuck do you think ... do I look fucking alright to you, Sam?!"

"No; not really. Sorry." Sam starts to help Barry back up onto his knees. "So, what happened?"

"I was attacked..." he briefly pauses before finishing, "by something."

A quizzical expression quickly overtakes Sam's countenance...

"'Attacked by something'? ... What was it?"

Barry sounds a little raspy as he speaks, while occasionally wincing in pain at the same time...

"Beats the fuck out of me; your guess is as good as mine. I've got no idea what the hell that thing was."

He briefly pauses before asking...

"Sam ... can you help me take off my shirt and jacket and let me know how bad it is? My back's fucking killing me. Take a look and let me know just what exactly that thing did to it."

Having spent all this time focused on Barry's missing ear, Sam hadn't even noticed the damage done to his back. When he looks down and sees the bloodied, shredded clothing, he's stunned by that sight as well and lets out another short gasp before quickly nodding and proceeding to help Barry remove his shirt and jacket.

Sam tries to be as careful as possible while taking them off, but Barry's in so much pain that it's nearly impossible to accomplish this without him experiencing jolts of intense, sharp piercing pain, causing Barry to keep wincing and jerking about in a spastic manner while screaming out in agony during the process. And once the clothing's removed, Sam lets out yet another gasp; and a shocked expression quickly overtakes his countenance as he bewilderingly stares down at Barry's back.

Barry's entire upper back is smeared with a thin layer of coagulated and dried blood; and ,as for the wounds themselves...

There are ten evidently deep, jagged lacerations ... clearly patterned in two sets of five parallel slashes crisscrossed ... stretching across his whole upper back. These lacerations appear to have already been somehow cauterized; scarred up with slightly graded, burnt flesh fusing the gashes together. And, it appears that these slashes were inflicted by some sort of animal's claws ... and a rather large animal at that.

Though they're like nothing he's ever seen before, the first thing that comes to mind to Sam...

"Barry ... you said that you don't have any idea what it was that attacked you? ... I don't know for sure, but these wounds look like they might have been done by a werewolf."

A dubiously confounded expression instantly overtakes Barry's countenance...

"What ... no fucking way! Impossible! It can't be. If it was a werewolf I would have known. There's no way I wouldn't have been able to pick up on its presence ... I can smell those mangy dogs coming from a mile away."

"I'm just saying that's what it looks like to me."

Barry defensively snaps back, "Well, you're wrong! It wasn't a werewolf!"

Seeing how Barry's becoming highly agitated ... not to mention still in a great amount of pain ... Sam decides to concede on this issue, and goes along with whatever Barry insists...

"Fine; it wasn't a werewolf. I must be mistaken. Sorry; I didn't mean to upset you." He pauses briefly, then sheepishly asks, "So ... then; what do you think it was?"

Barry momentarily stares at Sam ... looking as if he's forcibly contemplating something ... then slowly shakes his head...

"It's like I said, I have no idea what the hell it was."

Suddenly, the vampires hear the shrilling reverberation of a blaring police siren rapidly passing by ... shortly followed by another one ... and another one ... and another...

Barry mutters aloud under his breath, "Looks like they found her."

Displaying a puzzled visage, Sam inquires, "Who?"

"The human I was going to feed off of. Before I was able to drink her blood, that thing got to her first. It swooped in and took her into the building; then, tore her to pieces before I could even get there. ... And then, that's when it attacked me; when I went after them."

"Okay ... so you say you don't know what it was; but, what did it look like?"

Again, Barry momentarily stares at Sam before replying...

"I can't tell you what it looked like, because I didn't even see what it looked like myself. It all happened so fast that all I saw was nothing more but a big, white blur."

"A big, white blur?"

Barry slowly nods.

************

Moments later, and a few blocks over...

A vibrantly shimmering 'red sea' of beaming, pulsating police and emergency vehicles' lights encircles the abandoned, dilapidated building. The immediate area surrounding the building has been cordoned off, as a rapidly growing number of curious people passing by, 'lookie-lous', and members of the media begin amassing.

An unmarked unit blares out a couple of short siren bursts to disperse the obstructing crowd, and slowly rolls up to the police barricade. After the driver flashes his credentials, the vehicle is quickly allowed to pass. It then pulls up to the crashed through section of wall ... where a number of police officers and emergency personnel are gathered ... and stops. Senior Homicide detective Terrence Rollins exits the vehicle, and immediately heads over to the officer currently in charge of the scene; Sergeant Bill Hopkins...

"What do we got, Bill?"

Just as he asks that ... a patrolman comes rushing out from the building and faces the wall, throwing his hands up against it to support himself as his knees start buckling; then he vomits.

The detective briefly watches this; then, turns back to the sergeant and grins...

"Don't tell me ... a rookie?"

Sergeant Hopkins glances over at the puking patrolman, then looks back at the detective and informs him...

"Actually, he's a four-year vet, and this isn't his first homicide scene. And, I can vouch that he usually has a pretty strong stomach when it comes to them ... but this..."

Sergeant Hopkins becomes silent. A quizzical expression appears upon the detective's countenance as he curiously asks...

"'But this' what?"

"Terrence ... I've never seen anything like this before throughout my entire fourteen years on the force."

He pauses for a moment ... taking in another quick glance at the patrolman ... then looks back at the detective and sullenly shakes his head...

"Come on; follow me ... you're gonna want to see this for yourself."

Sergeant Hopkins goes into the building; closely followed by a now highly intrigued Senior Homicide Detective Rollins.

Once they reach the actual crime scene itself ... the room where Sabrina was savagely torn apart ... the veteran homicide detective is totally taken aback by the horrific sight. Because ... just like Sergeant Hopkins ... this was nothing like anything he had ever seen before, either. It was something that he probably wouldn't even be able to conceive using his own imagination.

Blood was splattered everywhere ... reaching every corner of the room ... with each gorily mangled piece of body part being unceremoniously tossed about. Each one of her limbs had clearly been ripped from their sockets, revealing shattered bone and strewn, tattered shreds of tendons and muscle protruding out from the ends ... with all of her fingers and toes torn off of her hands and feet.

Her chest and stomach were split wide open, and all of her organs and intestines were pulled out; essentially leaving behind nothing but an empty cavity within a 'flesh shell'. And, her head was ripped off of her neck; with a small section of spine torn from her torso dangling from it. As for her face; it was evidently chewed on to the point of making it unrecognizable.

The detective's momentarily speechless while standing there motionless. Finally, he utters out with a wavering, cracking voice...

"Jesus Christ ... what the hell?!"