“Mm, just like his dad and his older sister.” Phlox agreed, leaning over to rest against Jack. “Was Lilith a big baby? Was she active too?” _________________ Butts n' butts n' butts n' butts.
“She was long, her shoulder had to be dislocated to get her out.” Jack recounted thoughtfully, as though it were no traumatic event. Jack situated himself so he was resting back against the pillows, with Phlox under his arm, against his chest. “She was beastly, I’d always see her feet and fists, pushing from the inside.”
“I’ll gladly take all that as long as he’s nice and healthy.” Phlox said, giving her stomach a little poke when the baby stopped moving. He gave another little wiggle and some fluttering kicks. _________________ Butts n' butts n' butts n' butts.
“Well with enough of the right toast, I’m sure he will.” Jack reassured with a little chuckle, he rested his head atop hers and allowed his eyes to flutter back shut.
The months came and went with Phlox’s pregnancy. As often as Jack tried to stay home, he couldn’t stay home the whole time. Taking more jobs before Phlox’s due date meant, Jack could have more time with them postpartum. That being said, some jobs were best suited for Jack. While him and his brother dealt in all types of supernatural across the spectrum, vampires were the Maniac specialty (or maybe not, if they killed off more than half of the immediate family). Either way, Jack found himself again in another abandoned building, exterminating vampires.
The things about New York that Jack loved and hated, was that it was always under construction. Some catastrophes happened in such great succession, that these buildings were still in the process of being built after several years. They made adorable nests for the rats that weren’t actually rats. It was easier to snuff them out this way, knowing what their usual hiding spots were. Though Jack wondered if these spots weren’t readily available, then maybe there weren’t be a vermin problem.
Presently, he was creeping around the rafters of a theater. His dark eyes strained to peer through the darkness, he reached out and used his hand to cut through the cobwebs in his path. Besides being dark, it was dirty; Jack had pulled his shirt over his nose to try and filter out the dust and asbestos he was no doubt breathing in.
Black, was on the ground, stalking around the stage. He was wearing a mask, something high grade and expensive, knowing the state of the building he wanted to be prepared. He pushed curtains back with the hilt of his katana, looking for bodies wrapped in the dense fabric. They hadn’t found any formal ‘coffins,’ and vampires needed complete darkness from the sun if they were going to avoid being burned. Another job they did, younglings wrapped themselves inside of rolled up rugs. Black supposed they could do that in the stage curtain.
“Do you think they’re sleeping standing up behind those curtains?” Jack called down from the rafters, though it would have been better if he were quiet. Kept any quips to himself, that wasn’t Jack though. While Black was the more reasonable and practical twin, he never backed down from arguing with Jack, maybe because they are twins.
“They don’t need to lay down, do they?” Black challenged, calling back.
Jack slid down one of said curtains, a plum of dust exploding in his wake, as he dropped onto the hardwood beside Black.
“I think it’s a dud. We would’ve seen something by now.” Jack declared.
“Not if it’s a small group, this place is huge. Let’s keep looking.” Black argued, his eyes trained on the dark that lingered beyond the first three rows.
“Fine, let’s keep looking, I’ll meet you back on the stage in an hour if nothing happens.” Jack said, taking a running leap off the stage. “I want to hurry back to Phlox!” He announced, a final remark, as he jogged into the dark, and Black could no longer see him.
Neither twin could prepare themselves for the hard turn the afternoon would take. The sun was setting and the boys found themselves each in a precarious position. Black had found a vampire, a burly one that was broad shouldered. This vampire was probably seven inches taller than Black, and probably a hundred more pounds. The problem with their fight, was Black baited by barricading himself behind a door. The vampire rammed the door a couple of times, giving Black an opportunity to time it, so to spear his katana through the door, and into the vampires chest. Tragically, in this manner of death, the vampire was not going to combust. So his massive frame, was dead weight against the door. Leaving Black trapped inside.
Jack was more worse off. He found the rest of them. The sun was setting over the theater, and Jack was in a fight with hoard of vampires. There was rain of gunfire, Jack had foolishly trapped himself in the projector room with them. Despite the bodies dropping, Jack was still overwhelmed by opponents, back to the wall, he shot out the window to the projector room and allowed himself to fall out. Any escape, would still be an escape. The thought was short lived as he fall hard onto the ground below, and everything went black.
It was getting dark and Phlox was beginning to worry.
Phlox grew up in a hunter family and knew that the lifestyle came with high risks, but she also knew that Jack had a penchant for hunting and that often put her anxiety to rest. He was practical and efficient in the field, at least enough so that he returned home almost as soon as he left. He more often than not came home boasting triumph about his jobs for the day rather than complaining of any bumps or bruises. However, something did not feel right when Jack wasn't home as Phlox finished cleaning up the dinner she'd served up for she and Lilith.
She paused in her cleaning to give Jack's phone another call, Black's too, and when neither answered, she decided something was most definitely wrong and she had to investigate.
Phlox walked Lilith over to a neighbor's house, assuring her she and Jack would be back to pick her up before long, and proceeded to return home to pick out a few things from the armory. She was heavily pregnant, practically due any day, but she had kept up with most of her workouts and training with Jack, so she was confident she could offer some back up regardless.
She knew Jack and Black were investigating an old abandoned theater, so once she hailed (a very concerned) taxi, she gave him the address and headed out. Once at the old decrepit building, another wave of anxiety rolled over Phlox at how quiet it all was.
As the taxi drove off, she headed in. _________________ Butts n' butts n' butts n' butts.
Blacks phone had long since died, he wasn’t sure how long he’d been locked in the little broom closet. It could’ve been several hours or mere minutes for all he knew, but he was growing concerned about where his brother was. Surely Jack wasn’t bested by some beast, he would wait for Black and get annoyed and bored before searching for him. Surely, any minute he would be calling out to him, and rescue him, and gloat about it forever. But not knowing how much time has passed, made him anxious that maybe something had happened to Jack too.
Jack coughed weakly. After he fell from the projector window, he fell onto the floor below. The wood floors were old and rotten, though they only bowed on impact, a few minutes later the boards gave way. Jack fell again, deep into the bellows of the basement beneath the theater. He laid atop a pile of the debris; a piece of the floor, despite being soggy with rot, still managed to spear Jack through his shoulder. The tip of the spiked wood only jet a little from the front, piercing through his shirt but not his jacket. His head was bleeding too from somewhere, blood matted his ginger hair as it dripped slowly over his face. Some of it spilled into his mouth, causing him to cough involuntarily. He was alive though, and coherent enough to recall the previous events and deduce the rest. He was coherent enough to find the humor in the realization, he fell twice back to back.
Jezebel Maniac was an eccentric woman, putting it politely. Of her many quirks and ticks, she celebrated the number two, as her lucky number. The luckiest number. Two pony tails, two guns, two knives. And the day the twins were born, she declared weakly to their father, “one and one, how lucky!” Jack could recall his mom making breakfast, and she would crack and egg with a double yolk or pluck a mutated strawberry that was actually two strawberries fused together and proudly announce, “one and one! How lucky!”
Jack brought a hand to the spike protruding through his shirt, he chuckled and tried to wriggle it. It hurt and he was in no physical position to be laughing, so he coughed again, hard, spitting out some blood. Still he grinned as he gazed upward through the hole he collapsed in the floor. “One and one, how lucky..”
He could see moonlight, bleeding down from the abused slats in the the ceiling. He wasn’t thrilled it was night, but he was glad to see moonlight. Light was light, at least he wouldn’t be navigating this situation in total darkness. He took some uneven breaths, a habit, to steady himself. After a deep exhale he was quiet, he stared into the sparse moonlight and listened intently. His intention was to listen for lingering vampires. They hadn’t come down into the floor to suck him dry in the worst possible way, because they didn’t do that, Jack was assuming the remaining vampires fled under the cover of the dark.
Jack hoped he was correct about this, as he held his breath and quickly, like ripping off a bandaid, peeled his body forward from the spike.
Phlox climbed through some busted down boards slated across the main double doors of the theater, presumably the handiwork of her Maniac partner. She groped around in the darkness with one hand to press flush against the nearest wall and used her cane-sheathed rapier to feel out the ground in front of her. It was eerily quiet, save for some light scuffling that could have just as easily been the monster sized New York rats scuttling about or any of the vampires Jack and Black were sent to snuff out.
She hoped it was the former.
“Don’t worry, sweets, we’re just gonna find Daddy and your uncle and bring them home.” Phlox whispered quietly when she felt several soft kicks to her ribs. “In and out.”
She managed to make her way to the main seating area of the theater without incident, but let out a little hiss of pain when she reached out to grab the back of one of the seats and cut her palm open on something jagged sticking out of the back cushion.
There was movement nearby that immediately put Phlox on alert. She immediately unsheathed her weapon and the movement paused. There was silence.
“Jack?” She called out quietly, feeling her anxiety picking up.
“Not Jack.” A voice hissed directly behind her.
Phlox spun in response, sword ready to thrust, however, she was grabbed up by her throat and immediately thrown into a row of seats an easy ten feet away before she could make a move or a sound. She let out a yelp as her body went sprawling. Everything hurt but it was painful ache inside of her that caused her to groan in agony. _________________ Butts n' butts n' butts n' butts.
Jack freeing himself from the spike, came in time with exclamation from above. The floors bowed and quaked, Jack heard a body plow into what he could only assume were the theater seats. The cry was plainly, explicitly Phlox.
“Phlox!” Jack screamed from down bellow. He was both furious and touched, that she would come here after him. There was no way he could pull himself up and out from the collapsed floor. His shoulder was pouring with blood, he didn’t know what he was going to do.
“I gotcha.” A voice chimed in from the dark, Black rushed in, putting himself between Phlox and the vampire.
Black had spent the better part of the evening, he’d been fighting with the door until the burly vampires body, slid down and offered and opening in the door. He had already heard a great clamoring, Jack when he fell through the window and the floor, and again when the vampire tossed Phlox. He didn’t know exactly where Jack was, but he could hear him, he was alive. Black knew that Phlox needed to be the priority, her and the baby, though he wasn’t feeling optimistic given the spill she had taken.
Black poised himself, Katana focused toward the vampire and charging.
Phlox struggled to sit up, but her knees buckled below her when there was another great twinge of pain from inside of her. Something was terribly wrong.
“J-Jack!” She cried, feeling a hot wetness slicking the inside of her jeans.
Though she couldn’t see it, she knew it was blood.
The vampire, who seemed to be in a mostly composed stand-off with Black, suddenly jerked his head to look towards Phlox, snapping it’s teeth eagerly and hissing. _________________ Butts n' butts n' butts n' butts.
Black didn’t waste time, spearing his katana forward to cleave into the vampires back as he turned.
“Phlox! I’m coming!” Jack called out, he paced about anxiously a moment before using all his strength, to hoist himself up and out of the collapsed floor. His shoulder pulsed and spurt in protest, but still Jack muscled toward Phlox. His adrenaline pushing him forward, rushing to her side, he practically slid into her. He felt for her hand desperately, putting it to his face so she could feel him. He couldn’t see how badly she was hurt, but hot tears pricked his eyes already. Overwhelmed by emotion as he was just thankful to be in this close of proximity to her.
“Jack, Jack, I can’t feel him!” Phlox yowled frantically. She had been cradling her belly with her free hand but allowed it to dip between her legs where she felt the denim soaking and sticking to her. She raised the hand up, as thoUgh she would be able to see the blood soaking it.
The vampire let out a screech as it collapsed, seemingly downed for now. _________________ Butts n' butts n' butts n' butts.
Jack could see the blood on Phlox’s hand now, he took it in his to help her to her feet. He could feel the thickness of it, squish between their palms as he attempted to help her up.
“We just gotta get you out of here. We’ll get you to a doctor!” Jack exclaimed.
Black wasn’t sure if a doctor could help now. He stuck the vampire one more time before turning his back to it to help his brother. He slipped an arm around Phlox, carefully supporting her other side.
Phlox's legs wobbled beneath her as she was helped up and she let out another groan as more wetness splashed the inside of her jeans with a cramping in her abdomen. The sudden onslaught of this additional pain made her knees buckle again and she gripped onto Jack tighter to keep herself upright.
"Jack...Jack...something's happening." She wept.
Beyond Phlox's crying, more shuffling could be heard throughout the building along with the uttering of words like "feast" and "delicious" in a chorus of haunting whispers. _________________ Butts n' butts n' butts n' butts.
“She’s not gonna make it to the door.” Black uttered, carefully shouldering Phlox back onto Jack. He turned around and drew his sword, once again putting himself between the vampires and his loved ones. “I’ll cover you, keep going.” Black instructed.
Jack was sputtering, sobbing as he carried Phlox to the best of his ability. He was feeling light headed from blood loss and adrenaline. “Hold on, baby. Please.” Jack wept, in time with Phlox. Though it was unclear if he was talking to her or their unborn babe.
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