Bloody Tears

Posted on Mon Nov 2nd, 2026 @ 8:11pm by Captain Shran dh'Klar & Commander Samantha Howard & Lieutenant Kate Kono

1,883 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Creatures of the Night
Location: Planet Stoker - Forest of Stakes

Suddenly there was a high-pitched playful yet sinister laugh, distinctly feminine in nature. Belmont didn't know who it was, but he knew it was something he would have to deal with. He readied himself as he looked to see where the laughter was coming from. He spotted the responsible party perched atop one of the stakes like some sort of vile gargoyle. It was a woman, her hair a golden hue with the body of a young female, likely around 19 or 20, with a face wreathed in a seductive voluptuous smile, her lips and mouth unnaturally bloodstained by fresh blood, her fangs visible as her eyes burned like unholy light, wearing a black Victorian-esque style dress that was formfitting and yet seemed to move in a free flowing manner as if a flag caught in the wind. Belmont didn't recognize this vampire, but as new vamps weren't something he saw often, his guess was this the poor Lucy girl, and she was taking to her change with a fervor.

"Oh, look what has become of my friend Mina. Such a shame you allowed her to be maimed by that beast. Then again, you allowed me to be equally mauled. Such poor leadership on your part" she said as she stared savagely at Kate.

Kate’s gaze lifted from the body and found Lucy standing farther off. A hollow ache opened in her chest. Her mouth fell slack and her breath caught somewhere between a sob and a gasp.

“Lucy?” The word came out ragged. A tear slid hot and unchecked down her cheek as she stepped forward, careful not to look down at what remained of Mina.

“Just let us see you. We can help.” Her voice trembled, thick with tears she could no longer hold back. “Please.”

"Help? You think you can help me? With what exactly?" Lucy mused aloud. Then as quickly as she had appeared atop the stake, she was now behind Kate. She gripped Kate in a hug from behind, one in which Kate could not break free. She whispered to her, "I could drain you dry before the others could even lift a weapon, but that isn't why I'm here at the moment. I came for Mina, and I find her in a sorry state."

She let loose of Kate and was instantly at Mina's side, picking up her arm, and biting it. Blood flowed, and the wounds she had taken from the Lycan began to visibly heal.

Belmont pulled out a silver stake and unfurled his morningstar. He grumbled in a hushed tone, "I warned them we needed to deal with the body before this happened."

Sam was gobsmacked, almost transfixed at the sight of Lucy being one of them. Belmont was pissed that they hadn't dealt with the corpse quick enough, and Sam felt guilty, having wanted to run more scans. Now Lucy was feeding off what was left. Better her than them. She raised her blade and lunged at the feeding Lucy.

Lucy dropped Mina's arm and easily dodged the lunging Sam, delivering a swift blow to her right knee. The sound was loud and unmistakable as every tendon and ligament in Sam's right knee snapped and she likely had bone fractures in and around the knee as well. Sam collapsed to the ground in obvious pain.

"Doctor, so naughty of you, trying to break your oath of doing no harm. Serves you right" Lucy sinisterly teased. She crotched down as looked at Sam hungrily, "Perhaps I help you heal, let you experience eternal life."

Suddenly Lucy was hit by a pair of phaser blasts from behind. Coming into view was Shran, Deanna, his away team and the Sypha woman, along with two others that were unknown to Kate and Sam. "Get the hell away from my doctor. You want a fight, you come for me" Shran grumbled angrily.

Belmont wasn't letting things get any more out of control than it already was. He swung his morningstar and it sung in the air, striking Lucy in the chest. She looked towards Kate as she cried out, tears of bloody streaming down her face as she burst into flame, burning to cinders and ash. Belmont looks to where Mina had been, but she was gone. "Dammit..."

Sam swore, managed to shift herself into a sitting position with her weapon in front of her, world spinning lazily on it's axis from the pain. "Goddammit!" She looked around for further threats before reaching for her medkit.

Kate’s hands were already in Sam’s medkit, working before she’d even finished kneeling beside her. Blood soaked the ground beneath them, dark and slick.

“Looks like I finally get to help you for a change,” Kate said, her voice tight. She didn’t ask if it hurt. She knew it did. The splint unrolled stiffly in her hands. “You really are prepared for anything, aren’t you?” Her fingers trembled only once as she fitted the rigid support along Sam’s leg, wrapping gauze in firm, practiced loops around knee and shin. She kept talking, a low stream of words meant to anchor them both. “Remember that time you fixed my shoulder after a damn monkey hit me with an arrow? This is nothing.”

She cupped Sam’s ankle, her thumb pressing into the pale skin just above the sock line, feeling for the faint pulse there. A slow, steady beat answered back. Kate let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding and managed a thin smile. “Circulation’s good.” She tossed the unused tourniquet back into the kit with more force than necessary.

Her eyes fell on the blood seeping into Sam’s clothes from the ground that seemed as if it were bleeding. Without a word, Kate shrugged out of her jacket and folded it quickly, sliding it beneath Sam’s hips to keep them off of the nasty Earth that Kate knew they couldn't wait to beam off of. “There,” she said softly. “Now you won’t look like you lost a fight with a slaughterhouse.”

"Trevor!" Sypha exclaimed, her voice flush with emotion. She ran to Belmont, embracing him.

"You were with the captain, and I see you brought Gabriel and Anna as well. Won't this be a fun reunion my love" Belmont mused somewhat ironically.

Shran rushed to Sam's side. "Managed to get yourself into another situation I see" he joked, hoping to ease the tension of the situation.

Deanna looked around and then put forward a sobering thought, "I am sensing Mina nearby. She is confused, she has primal thoughts rushing around her mind. I am also sensing a powerful mind, male, calculating, disciplined."

"Was the Mina girl bit" Gabriel questioned.

"She was killed by a werewolf, and then Lucy bit her, fed on her for a moment before Belmont dealt with the situation" Price noted, his voice strangely calm despite all that was going on.

"She was attacked by a werewolf, and then bit by a vampire?" Anna questioned, looking at Gabriel.

"I think that was the plan. The Lycans were sent by Camila, I am certain of it" Belmont noted.

"What the hell are you people going on about?" Shran questioned.

"Camila would very much make use of something like that, Viktor on the other hand would see it as an abomination. She would be a new piece on the board" Gabriel noted.

"Dracula would become the wildcard" Sypha noted.

Kate knelt beside Sam, a useless anchor in the sea of their crew's speculative chatter. The tricorder in her hand felt cold, its hum a low thrum against her palm.

"Mina is dead," Kate said, the words tasting like ash. "You can't be talking about her up and about because we watched her insides get turned into outsides,” Kate said to Shran and Belmont.

Still, Kate’s thumb brushed the activation panel of her tricorder and the screen flared to life, painting her face in sickly green light. Mina's combadge signal pulsed a steady, mournful rhythm… Then it moved. Not drifting. Not carried by wind or animal. It shot away at a velocity that made Kate's breath catch. Too fast. Impossibly fast. A blink, and it was thirty meters out. Another, and it vanished from her sensors entirely. The signal didn't fade; it was simply... deleted.

Kate blinked, the rapid flutter of her lashes the only outward sign of the cold dread solidifying in her gut. She stayed knelt, frozen, the silent tricorder in her hand was proof of the impossible.

"This planet is fascinating," Vincent breathed, his voice full of a reverent awe that made Kate's teeth ache. "Where the dead rise and join the living…"

The sound of his worship broke her paralysis. She stood, the movement sharp, and fixed him with a stare so cold it could have flash-frozen plasma. Every ounce of her wanted to tell him she was two seconds from testing if a silver stake or a tricorder would do more damage when shoved up his ass. It was all there, in the flat, dark promise of her eyes. She decided she liked being a Lieutenant. Demotion paperwork was a nightmare. Hell, she was Asian; it was a miracle she’d made it past Ensign at all. She wasn't spending that hard-won currency on a man who idolized the supernatural over two eviscerated crewmates.

"Kate, help me up" Sam extended her arms, planting her good leg and preparing to lever herself to her feet. "We can't stay here, I can move with a crutch, or a shoulder. Until we get back to the ship, I can't fix the damage completely." She took a breath and injected a painkiller into her arm. The splint would hold until she could do something better, designed to immobilize injury yet remain sturdy in the field.

Shran looked to Sam, "I don't want you risking further injury. I've apparently lost two junior officers; I don't want to lose you as well."

“We might be able to save Mina.” Kate’s voice was quiet, but it cut through the speculative chatter. She didn’t sound certain, only stubborn. Her eyes moved between Shran and Belmont, a strange light in them that was half dread, half fragile hope. Her grip on Sam’s arm tightened as she helped support her weight. “Her comm badge signal went west. It didn’t fade. It just… vanished from the sensors. Like something swallowed it whole.” She turned her face toward Belmont, her expression earnest beneath the grime and green sensor-glow. “I know this is your kind of curse. But if there’s even a chance she’s still in there, maybe with our technology, your knowledge it’s enough. We don’t leave people behind.”

Belmont shook him head. "You won't be leaving anyone behind. She is dead, her body simply doesn't know it."

"We have trouble coming Trevor" Sypha noted.

Anna and Gabriel both drew weapons. "If you want to leave captain, this would be the time" Gabriel said in earnest.

The sky grew dark, clouds blocking out stars and the moon. Shran looked to the natives, "What is happening?"

"He's coming" Sypha said in a hushed voice.

"Who is coming?" Deanna questioned.

"Dracula" Belmont said in a low grim voice.


TBC

 

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