While Charlie changed into his new, clean clothes behind the curtain of a changing booth that was hiding in the corner of the store, I took the molten chocolate bars from my bra and put them in my new pants’ pockets. I also told Charlie what happened to me as I browsed the shop. I told him about Mr. Ugly Sweater, Sasha, and Caleb. I didn’t tell him about my feelings for Caleb but mentioned that he almost turned me. My story ended with me meeting my sister and how I was living like a vampire in her pack now.
“Wow, you’ve got some guts,” I heard him say in awe from behind the curtain.
I know. Not that I had much choice, though.
I kept quiet as I didn’t want to seem cocky.
“Did they have more of those fake fangs in the dollar shop?” Charlie asked when he shoved the curtain aside and stepped out of the cubicle in his new outfit.
“I think so. I was in a hurry, but I think there were.”
We both looked out the shop window, across the town square. Even though the square was deserted, the thought of crossing it was scary as hell. I had crossed it before, but Charlie wasn’t recognized as one of them yet and being out in the open could be dangerous. When I turned my head toward him, my nose automatically crinkled up.
“You still stink, you know. I think it’s in your hair.”
Charlie looked up from under those heavy eyebrows. “Thanks for letting me know, but there’s nothing I can do about it.”
“There’s a small kitchen at the back. You could try to wash your hair there,” I suggested.
Charlie raised an eyebrow and turned to check it out.
***
They even had soap. Charlie stood on a chair while I washed his hair as well as I could under the tap. I had to stand quite close to him and now and again I was very aware of my breast touching him.
After I rinsed the soap out of his hair, I found a large flannel shirt to dry his hair with. Automatically I began doing this for him. I realized he may not like this, so as I continued to rub his hair, I checked his expression. His eyes followed my every move which made me even more self-conscious than I had been before. To my relief, a smile crept on his face. I’m sure I started blushing, so I quickly finished the drying. I smiled back at him, and his smile became even broader. Together with his twinkling eyes, it was the sweetest face I’d ever seen. A moment passed.
“Thanks,” he said.
I didn’t know what to say back, so instead, I thought I’d throw the shirt I’d dried his hair with into the sink. My movement was awkward, like the moment, and the shirt didn’t quite make it. Instead, it fell onto the edge of the sink and began sliding down the cabinet. Charlie and I both reached down to grab it, and we bumped our heads. I laughed as my hand went to my head. Charlie laughed as well as he picked up the shirt and threw it in the sink.
“You okay?” he asked.
“I’m fine,” I said, embarrassed, and walked away.
Charlie joined me standing at the shop door, looking out across the town square.
“Come on,” I said, remembering I was one of ‘them’ now and shouldn’t be afraid. I stepped out into the open.
Chapter 25
We were halfway down the town square and everything seemed fine when an infected stepped from behind the war memorial. Of course, lo-and-behold, of all the infected on the planet, it had to be Mr. Ugly Sweater.
“Well, well, well,” he said, swaggering toward us. “Look what coincidence brought back to me.” His eyes shifted to Charlie and back to me again, accompanied by a sneer. “No Caleb to hold your hand this time, eh?”
The man almost made me puke. Charlie and I looked at each other. I knew we had the same question on our minds.
Does this creep know I hadn’t been turned?
Mr. Ugly Sweater stepped inside my personal bubble. With one hand he squeezed my face, nearly lifting me off the ground.
“Time to catch up on that kiss I missed,” he said, and his face moved closer to mine. I didn’t know if his halitosis was worse than the sewer smell I had smelled on Charlie or not.
So, this was what Sasha had meant with, ‘he won’t bother us anymore’. They had thrown him out of Caleb’s pack, and now he ran with Duncan’s.
Mr. Ugly Sweater’s lips were close to mine when his face turned from pleasure to pain.
“Let her go of her or I’ll break your hand,” I heard Charlie say.
Mr. Ugly Sweater uttered a groan of anger and frustration, but he let go of my face.
Charlie had a slight delay in releasing his hand. “Now piss off before I’ll tell Caleb and Sasha of your little stunt.”
I’m sure my grin was from one ear to the other as I watched the offender whimper off, muttering apologies.
“Wow, I can’t believe you actually listened to me back there,” I said in awe as I savored the sight of Mr. Ugly Sweater disappearing. “What did you do to him?” I asked, still smiling.
Charlie chuckled.
“It’s one of the perks of being a silversmith, you get really strong hands.”
Charlie had told me about his jewelry making past that first day we met at school. He had explained how he had made that woven Celtic ring he wore. It had impressed me.
I’m impressed again.
“No turning back, Smudge. From now on you’re an infected too,” I said. “That was so brave.”
Charlie’s face beamed, and I wasn’t sure if it was because I’d called him brave or because I’d called him Smudge.
Chapter 26
In the dollar store, we fitted each other’s fangs with the super-glue. The color match was amazing. At first, I thought they’d be too yellow, but apparently, the average person’s teeth were not sparkling white. I found some scissors and carefully made puncture wounds in Charlie’s neck, covering them up with Band-Aids. Charlie also ate his share of lollipops and energy bars and filled his pockets with them. As he was doing this, I wandered through the store, my mood plummeting.
“What’s the matter?” Charlie asked when he found me sitting in a far corner.
I didn’t want to worry him, but I decided to share my thoughts, anyway.
A shared pain is half the pain, after all.
“We have to go back to the gathering now. I don’t think I can do it. I don’t think I can go up to a person and scare the living daylights out of them.” My eyes brimmed with tears, and I looked at every direction but Charlie’s.
He sat down next to me. We fell quiet.
Suddenly he punched me in the arm.
“Ouch!” I rubbed my arm, and when I frowned at him, I saw the spark in his eyes.
“Sorry about that, but hey, listen, we don’t have to go to the feeding. We can hide here and wait until they’re gone.”
I smiled for a second, but my smile soon wore off. “No, we can’t.”
“Why not?”
“My sister traveled half the county to get here. I don’t think she’s going to let go of me just like that. She’ll come looking for me.”
Charlie’s smile disappeared as well.
“Oh, that sucks. Not your sister caring, I mean, but … you know …”
“Yeah, I know. It sucks.”
We sat in silence again. After a few minutes, Charlie spoke.
“What if … what if we said that we’ve already fed ourselves because we were so hungry?”
This was of course true if you included the lollipops and energy bars we just ate. I saw the light at the end of this part of the tunnel.
“That’s a great idea. Let’s do that,” I said. “They’ll have to take our word for it. No, wait. Let’s put some fake blood on our shirts. That’ll make it look more real.”
“I don’t want to dirty it,” Charlie pouted as he put his hand on his chest. “I just got this shirt.” He always was amazing at lightening the mood. I pretended to smack him on the arm after which I got up. I took a bag with fake blood from the shelves, and we had a ball splattering each other with blood.
“One more problem,” I said, o
nce we were happy with our look of ‘we just fed.’
“What’s that?”
Looking Charlie in the eye, I sighed.
“Julie’s group only has girls in it.”
As he processed the information, his brows furrowed.
“Oh no, I’m not dressing up as a girl. If that’s what you’re thinking, you’re dead wrong. Crawling through human excrement, fine, but I am not dressing up as a girl!” Charlie was clearly upset. He turned around and walked away from me.
I went after him and put my hand on his shoulder.
“That’s not what I meant. I meant that we’ll have to take our chances whether she’ll let you join her pack. We’ll see where we go from there.”
He stopped. I let my hand rest on his shoulder but didn’t force him to turn around.
When he finally did, his eyes were teared up. “I … I can’t … I don’t want … to …” His hand touched my arm and his eyes were pleading this time, trying to tell me something.
“You don’t have to dress up, Smudge.” I smiled and took his hand. “Like I said, we’ll just have to wait and see what she has to say about it.”
Charlie took a deep breath.
“O … okay, that’s fine then. I can do that,” he said.
I hugged him, and he put his arms around me.
My dear, dear friend. You are not alone.
Chapter 27
We postponed leaving the dollar shop for as long as we could, but we knew we’d had to go to Julie’s pack at some stage. Back at the area in front of the dance hall, we found the same eerie sight we’d seen the night Sue had been taken. It was a gathering of victims, like dishes for a meal, surrounded by hungry looking vampires. Only this was no cold smorgasbord. This was a warm buffet.
Charlie and I kept to the edge, trying not to attract any attention. Through the melee, I noticed Julie scanning the crowd for me. When she spotted me, she came skipping toward us. I mentally braced myself for possibly flunking the teeth test and smiled a wide grin at her when she came near.
“Great! Your fangs have finally dropped,” she said. “Bloody painful, isn’t it?” She turned to Charlie with a big smile on her face. “Who’s your buddy?”
“Julie, this is my friend Charlie. Charlie, this is my sister Julie.”
Julie shook Charlie’s hand, and I saw her eyes drop down to his grip after which they conveyed their approval in my direction. She cocked her head to one side, and I knew she was assuming things as she always did when it concerned relationships.
“How did you meet Kate?” she asked, her eyes back on Charlie again. I had no time to let her know she was wrong as my breath stuck in my throat, taken aback by the question. Images of Charlie ogling me while I undressed in the thrift shop flashed in front of my eyes. Charlie probably struggled with a vision of the same moment as he didn’t reply instantly.
“Um, we used to be colleagues at school,” Charlie said as he recovered from the awkward moment faster than I did. “We just bumped into each other in the town square.” He was such a good liar.
Julie chatted away and asked Charlie all sorts of questions, like where he came from, what he had taught, and how long it had been since he was infected. I could tell Julie liked him. Charlie put on a good show and answered her questions without blinking. Until she asked whether he liked being in Duncan’s pack.
“Um, I’m not in Duncan’s pack,” Charlie said. “I used to run with Caleb’s, but I got separated from them after the gathering last night. I’m pack-less at the moment, so to speak,” and he elbowed me.
“Ah, yes, can Charlie possibly join your pack?” I twisted the corners of my jacket out of nervousness, rolling my left foot on its side. I felt like a little girl asking the dentist for sweets.
Julie’s face drained of blood. She blinked at Charlie and then looked back at me again. Her expression was too tense, so disproportionate to the simplicity of the question.
“Can I have a word with you in private?” she said as she pulled me aside.
“Sure,” I said. I followed her a few paces, but when I stopped, she did a few more steps away from Charlie. I was ill at ease and looked back at Charlie. His frown and clenched jaw told me he was as anxious as I was. As Julie didn’t step back to me, I walked over to where she was.
“I realize you only have girls in your pack—” I started, but she cut me off.
“It’s not that. Well, not all of it.” She scanned our surroundings. If I was ill at ease, she looked like she was about to have chemotherapy. I’d never seen her so spooked before. She inspected her feet, glanced at Charlie, who stood there totally lost, and then looked me in the eyes.
“You are really putting me in a predicament, you know.” I thought that stare was going right through me.
“Why? What is it?” I asked. Goosebumps formed on my skin.
She inhaled a deep breath through her nose and explained.
“Duncan fancies me and has asked me to join his pack. He has helped me a lot with hunts these last few days, so I owe him. But I don’t love him, and I certainly don’t like the way he runs his pack. Besides, I want to keep my independence. So, I refused him with the excuse that I have a girls-only pack to take care of.”
Shit, this screws up our plan big time.
“Shit,” was my only reply.
“So, you see,” she continued, “if I accept Charlie in my pack, he will know that I’m bullshitting him. And Duncan doesn’t take any bullshit from anybody.”
That last sentence was pure terror. Julie’s eyes were almost completely black now. I glanced back at Charlie, and he had the same dread on his face I’d seen in the pound shop. I was sure he’d heard Julie’s words. Seeing him standing there so lost and alone made tears well up in my eyes. I appeared to have more feelings for Charlie than I’d been aware of.
“Look,” Julie said. “I can tell you two are really attached to one another, the way he looks at you and you at him. I don’t want to stand in the way of your happiness, but you will have to make a choice here.”
My eyes shot back at her.
Choice?
I didn’t have to word it. The question mark was clearly written on my face.
“You either choose to stay with me and dump Charlie or stay with him and join Duncan’s pack,” she said.
What?!
The screams of the feeding frenzy started in the background, but my shocked brain screamed louder. I couldn’t believe what Julie had just said. I thought I’d been dragged through the puddles of hell already, but apparently I had missed one.
How can she do this to me? She had moved heaven to earth to find me, and now she wants to get rid of me? Why?
I turned away from her, and she grabbed my arm.
“You do understand my position, Kate?” she pleaded.
I yanked my arm free and walked away, trying with all my might to keep it together.
Charlie called my name. The sound of his footsteps coming my way stopped abruptly.
“This is something she has to decide on her own, Charlie,” I heard Julie say.
My mind was a whirlwind of thoughts. I was in Kansas territory. Julie thought I was in a relationship with Charlie. Charlie probably would like that, but I was in love with Caleb, who was god-knows-where but not near Duncan. Duncan wanted a relationship with Julie, but Julie didn’t want Duncan, nor did she want Charlie in her pack. It was obvious she was terrified of what would happen if Duncan found out she accepted Charlie into her pack. I didn’t want to lose Charlie, but leaving him with Duncan on his own was the same thing as signing his death warrant. So, basically, I had no choice.
What had I expected she’d say? I knew she had an all-girls pack.
I stopped walking and wiped the tears that fell when I closed my eyes. I took a deep breath, turned around, and regarded Julie and Charlie standing there. Both were anxious to find out what was going on in my head, both wanted to know whom I’d choose to stay with.
I strode back, their eyes never lea
ving mine.
“Charlie and I will join Duncan’s pack,” I said to Julie.
I didn’t get to see Charlie’s reaction as my sister threw her arms around me and gave me a big hug. “I’m so sorry, sis. I really am,” she whispered.
“It’s okay, Jules. It’s my choice.”
She let go of me and hugged Charlie.
“You take good care of her, you hear. She’s special,” Julie said to him.
“I know,” Charlie said, “and I will.” I could barely hear him over the screams as he said it.
Julie stepped back and smiled at us, but tears welled up in her eyes as she briskly turned around and jogged away, joining the feeding frenzy.
Nobody was interested in whether Charlie and I fed or not. As neither of us weren’t in the mood for mingling with others, we withdrew into the dance hall. It surprised me how small it looked on the inside. Behind the entrance area, with its wardrobe on one side and public conveniences on the other, was the proper dance hall. Horseshoe-shaped booths lined both sides of the dance floor.
Charlie and I looked around and picked a booth that was farthest away from the entrance. The booths were decorated with a worn, red, plush material, which gave it all a rather melancholic look. It perfectly suited my mood. We sat down opposite each other.
“Thank you,” Charlie said.
“Charlie, I don’t …, I’m not …” I still struggled with my emotions about Julie’s betrayal, and I couldn’t get the words to come out of my mouth.
So this is verbal constipation.
Charlie put his hand over mine and squeezed it. “I know,” he said, “Still … thank you,” and his expression was the same one I had seen too often lately, first on Duncan’s face and just now on Julie’s; the mouth was smiling, but the eyes were not.
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