Vampire Of The New World

Celie and I took cover behind the nearby trees. I heard a bullet hitting the tree and knew that we need to get away as far as possible. Celie was sitting on the ground with her back against the tree.

"Why is this happening? Oh my God! Romy, my security. Is he okay? Is he dead?" Celie covered her mouth with her hands and her eyes were wide with disbelief.

"Nothing we can do about your security without putting your life or mine in danger. We need to go," I said.

I pulled Celie up and we ran under the shelter of the trees. I knew that there was a village nearby and thought of seeking refuge in one of the houses there and call for help. We ran for about five minutes and saw a house made of bamboo and dried grass. A woman was hanging her newly-washed clothes to dry, oblivious to what was happening just a short distance from her house.

I approached the woman. "Someone may be following us and we need a place to hide. Can you help us?" I asked the woman.

The woman stopped what she was doing and looked at both of us. Then, she said calmly, "I recognized you," referring to Celie. "You're the mayor's daughter. How the wheel of life turns and it's the wealthy asking help from us poor."

"Please. We really need to hide. Is there somewhere safe you can hide us?" Celie pleaded.

The woman wrung the wet shirt she was holding and the water dripped to the ground. She then shook the shirt vigorously before hanging it on the clothesline.

"I can't let you hide inside my house. My daughter's there and your pursuers might enter." She paused and then continued, "You can hide inside the shed at the back."

"Thank you! Thank you very much!" said Celie.

We ran to the back of the woman's house and saw the shed. It was a little structure used to store farming implements. The walls were made of bamboo and woven dried leaves while the roof was made of straw. I immediately closed the door behind us, but immediately saw that there was no lock from the inside. There were a lot of holes on the walls which gave us the advantage of seeing outside while the darkness within the shed prevented us from being seen from the outside.

"I need to call my dad," said Celie after finding the handle of a wooden plow to sit on. "May I borrow your phone? I left mine at the car."

I handed Celie my phone and she dialed a series of numbers, but no call went out. We were out of coverage area.

"This is hopeless!" said Celie, giving me my phone back and sitting down with a hand on her forehead.

"We'll just have to wait it out. Word on what happened should reach your father within the hour and I'm sure he'll be sending the whole of city police to search for you." I said calmly. "We just need to stay put and hope that no one followed us here."

"Why is this happening? Who is shooting at me?" Celie asked.

"Your father's the mayor, it has to be politically motivated," I replied.

Celie looked at me. "My dad's a good man. Everyone loves him. He has no enemies."

"May be none that you know of. A politician always has enemies. A rival politician or someone who may be negatively affected by your dad's decisions."

We were silent for a moment and I could tell that Celie was thinking of his dad and how he too could have enemies that she did not know of.

"You asked me about missing funds back there. For the poor. Do you really think he took it?" Celie looked at me.

"I wouldn't really know, Celie. All my investigation led me to was that there were discrepancies between the disburs.e.m.e.nts and the actual funds that got to the beneficiaries."

Celie looked away and wrapped her arms around herself as if she were cold. The air inside the shed was stale and there was no wind outside that could pass through the hole-riddles walls.

"There was also another thing that I learned while doing my interviews." I said. Celie looked at me.

"What is it?" she asked.

"I was doing my research at the Drug Enforcement Agency and I had a trusted source there who divulged something." I paused and looked at Celie's face. "Your dad's name appeared on the list of politician's that may be involved in the illegal drug trade."

"No. That can't be." Celie fidgeted with her hands. "My dad would not do that. He had major campaigns against illegal drugs. He fully coordinates with the DEA and it led to some arrests of drug pushers." Celie shook her head. "You're mistaken."

"I'm merely restating what my source at DEA told me."

"Well your source is wrong!" Celie folded her arms.

We were silent for a while. As much as I didn't want to believe it, it seemed that Celie did not really know if her father were involved in some criminal activity. She got all the more agitated with what I told her as if it were a big revelation to her.

It was her who broke the silence.

"I want to thank you for what you did back there. For bringing me here to safety." Celie was looking at her hands and then looked up at me.

"I was just doing the right thing," I said. "I want to apologize." I took a deep breath. "I want to apologize if there were things I said that were hurtful to you."

Celie rose from where she was sitting and approached me. "Do you think they'll find us here?" she asked.

I shrugged my shoulders. Celie was standing really close to me and I held her arms. I looked into her eyes which were bright even with the meager light entering the shed. I leaned forward to kiss her.

"Are they here?" A man's voice broke the silence and Celie and I quickly looked at what was happening outside. There was a man holding a rifle talking to the woman who was hanging her clothes. She pointed to the shed.

Celie opened the door to the shed and ran outside. I followed her. The man in uniform saw us and took out his radio to report that we had been found.