by Emily Knight
Other than a short stumble through the park woods, Peter didn't stop running until he reached the house. He pressed one palm against the fence and gasped for air. A quick glance upward told him he didn't have time for a break. Sunset was less than an hour away, and if he wanted to avoid Rich incriminating him by escaping and walking toward the house he'd have to work fast.
Peter hurried into the kitchen and swept his eyes over the room. He needed some stakes. His eyes fell on the chair at the far side of the table. The wobbly chair with the short leg. He rushed over and proceeded to tear the chair apart as a sacrifice to his mission.
"What the hell are you doing?"
Peter whipped his head up and saw that Val stood in the doorway to the living room. Her eyes flickered between his face and the busted chair in his hands.
He grinned at her. "Um, kindling?"
She leaned against the door frame and frowned at him. "For what?"
"Uh, a fire?"
"We don't have a fire pit."
"Uh, would you believe I was thinking of pitching a tent outside and needed some-um, some stakes to hold down the corners?" he asked her.
She pushed off the door frame and crossed her arms over her chest. "All right, what's really going on, and don't tell me it's nothing. I heard about the guy escaping the hospital and heading this way. Rich is under watch to see if he'll do it, too."
He dropped his arms to his sides and sighed. The broken chair clattered to the floor. "Would you believe vampires?"
Val shrugged. "I can see that."
He straightened and blinked at her. "Seriously?"
Her face darkened and she pursed her lips. "After what happened to Rich I'm ready to believe anything."
He arched an eyebrow and pointed a finger at her. "But you're a medical student."
Val rolled her eyes and reached into her shirt. Peter's hopes were dashed when all she did was pull out a chain with a cross. "Medicine or no, I know when I see something evil at work, and there's definitely something wrong with what's been going on around here."
Peter's shoulders relaxed and he smiled. "Good, because it really is vampires and I have to go deal with something called revenant." He paused and ran a hand through his hair. "Or maybe just stake a dead body. I won't really know until I actually do it."
She arched an eyebrow. "You're talking about the woman who was killed last night?"
He whipped his head up and blinked at her. "A woman?"
Val nodded. "Yeah. The person who was killed was one of the female college students. The police have been hanging around the morgue all afternoon waiting for the autopsy report." She frowned and shook her head. "Those guys are pushier than my professors."
Peter winced. "Are the police still there?"
She shook her head. "No, they left when they changed shifts. There's only the one usual officer at the front desk." She paused and studied him. "Why?" Her eyes widened. "You're not serious about that staking, are you? You can't just go stabbing bodies at the morgue!"
Peter straightened and pursed his lips. "I was told by a pretty reliable source that she might turn into a revenant and wake up at any moment, so I have to hurry." He picked up the remains of the chair and proceeded with his destruction.
Val walked over to him and picked up a broken leg. She turned it over in her hand and studied the wood. "You're going to need some help getting into the morgue."
Peter paused in his destruction and looked up at her with a frown. "Why?"
Val rolled her eyes and tossed the stake onto the table. "Because not just anybody can walk into a morgue. You have to have a reason for going into the back room."
He cringed. "Would they believe research purposes?"
"Yes, but only if you were a medical students," she told him. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a slim plastic tag, and held it up even with her smiling face. The tag was a medical student ID with a picture of her smiling face. "But I might just have a solution to your problem."
Peter pursed his lips. "I can't let you get involved in this, Val. It might be dangerous."
Val frowned and shoved the ID back into her pocket. She picked up the stake and slammed the sharp broken end into the table. She let go of the wood and the stake stuck upright. "I think I can handle myself."
Peter's eyes widened. He swallowed and nodded his head. "Okay, I'll admit you can handle yourself, but you said so yourself this could get us into big trouble."
Val wrenched the stake from the table and tucked it under one arm. "First we'll go there and take a look at the body. Then we'll see if this 'reliable source' was right."
Peter furrowed his brow. "I don't know if you want to get me in through the front door. The police might not want the suspected murderer coming to see their victim."
She snorted. "They're stupid to think you're a murderer."
He perked up. "Thanks, that means-"
"If you were the murderer you would have left behind a bunch of clues and they would have caught you by now," she added.
His shoulders slumped. "Thanks. I think."
"No problem, now let's get this chair broken." She yanked the chair from his hands and scowled at it. "I always hated this one."
A quick bit of destruction and they had themselves a backpack full of stakes. A short stop at the vegetable aisle of the nearby grocery for some garlic, and they were on their way to the morgue in Val's car. They reached the morgue with a few minutes to spare until sunset. The city depository for bodies was a large, dreary building made of gray stone blocks. A flight of stairs led to the double-door entrance. Inside was a long hall with doors on either side. At the end of the hall and to the right was another hall, the entrance of which was guarded by a uniformed man behind a wooden desk. The uniform was for the local police.
Peter winced and scooted behind Val as she strode up to the desk and flashed her ID. "I've got some late lab work to do," she told him.
The officer leaned forward and squinted. He fell back and jerked his head toward the hall. "All right, but don't make too much noise." A sly grin slipped onto his face. "You wouldn't want to wake the dead."
Val rolled her eyes as the man chuckled at his own joke. "I won't."
She readjusted the bag over her shoulder and moved toward the hall, but the officer spoke up. "Who's that?" He nodded at Peter. "And where's his pass?"
Val glanced over her shoulder at Peter who sheepishly smiled at them both. "He's a student I'm training. He doesn't have his ID yet, but I'll vouch for him."
The officer studied Peter. "Don't I know you?"
Val grabbed Peter's hand and tugged him toward the hall. "Maybe his credentials went through the office already."
He wrinkled his nose. "Do I smell garlic?"
Val nodded. "We just had pizza. If you'll excuse us, we need to get some work done."
She pulled him down the hall. On either side were white doors with silver handles. Each door had a tall, narrow window to look into the rooms. Most of the rooms were small offices, but an entrance halfway down the hall and on the left had two white doors. Val stepped through those and released Peter.
He breathed out and wiped his brow. "Damn, that was close."
"Don't tell me you're getting cold feet," Val wondered as turned to the doors. She locked the handle with the bolt lock. "There. No we won't be interrupted." She strode to the back of the room. The back wall was filled with long, drawer-like freezers. She looked over the plates before she reached one. "Here it is. This is the woman."
Peter joined her at the freezer draw. There was a handle on the front. Val reached for the handle to pull on the drawer.
Thud.
Her hand froze mid-grab. A row of tall, wide windows occupied the right-hand wall behind Val. Beyond them the last vestiges of the sun disappeared behind the horizon.
They glanced at each other. Their pale faces matched the white linoleum floor.
Pet
er swallowed the lump in his throat, but couldn't get his voice above a whisper. "Are they supposed to make that noise?"
She shook her head. "No."
There came another bump. This one was violent enough to rattle the whole drawer. They stumbled back and away from each other as the front panel on the drawer burst out. The panel slammed into the wall close beside the entrance.
Peter tripped over his own feet and fell onto his butt as the sub-zero air inside the freezer flowed out like fog. The white air spilled onto the floor and washed over him. He paused mid-shiver when a dark shape rose from the drawer.
The fog cleared enough for him to make out the seated figure of a woman. Her body was covered in the body-bag up to her shoulders, but he could make out the pale skin of her neck. Her long black hair trailed down her back and over the bag. She stared straight ahead with a vacant expression on her pale face.
"Holy shit. . ." he whispered.
The woman slowly turned her head so she faced him. She curled back her lips in a cunning smile that revealed her long, sharp fangs. Her eyes glow red and she hissed at them.
The woman tore her arms out of the body back and crawled out of the freezer toward him. Peter yelped and scrambled backward. The woman was like a worm as she slithered across the floor in the bag. His back hit the wall, trapping him as the woman placed her arms on either side of his legs.
Her red eyes flickered over him as her long, red tongue slipped out. She whetted her dry lips and slyly smiled at him. He gulped and smiled at her. "H-hey, h-how ya doing?"
She hissed at him.
Peter slipped a shaking hand into his pocket. "Then I hope you like garlic."
He yanked a clove from his pocket and rubbed the garlic into her face. The woman whipped her head back and let out a terrible, high-pitched scream. She clawed at her face as the garlic oil sank into her skin. Black smoke rose from her flesh and the smell of burned skin stun their noses.
Peter slipped out from beneath her and stumbled to his feet. He spun around to find Val standing in a stupor on the other side of the room. Her wide eyes gawked at the creature as the revenant writhed on the ground. "The stakes!"
She blinked and shook her head. "O-oh right!" She pulled off the bag and drops it to the floor to dig out the stakes.
Val pulled a pair of stakes out and tossed one to Peter, who spun around to face the vampire. Val grasped the other stake between both hands and climbed to her feet. The vampire stopped paused in her torturous clawing and glanced over her shoulder at them. Her face was covered in long gashes, but no blood poured forth. She narrowed her eyes at Peter and hissed at him.
Peter gulped and held the stake in front of him. The woman turned away and leapt at the wall. She pressed her palms and body against the wall and slithered up the surface, defying gravity and belief. Peter and Val's mouths dropped open as they watched her climb to the ceiling and across the tiles toward them.
"Peter!" Val screamed.
He backed away. "I know!"
The pair heard a pounding on the doors. "What's going on? Open up!" the officer yelled.
The revenant hissed and pushed off the ceiling. Her long, sharp nails were extended toward his throat. Peter ducked and stabbed the stake upward. The force and speed of the revenant's fall pushed the stake deep into her chest. Her eyes widened and her mouth opened in a long, screeching wail before she exploded in a cloud of dust.
The gray ashes fell over Peter like a dirty stink-bomb. He cringed as he was covered head-to-foot in the dry, charnel-smelling remains of the woman. He peeked open an eye and looked at Val. "Please tell me it's over."
The double doors burst open with the force of the officer's shoulder. He stumbled into the room and drew his weapon. The officer pointed the barrel at the pair of college students. His eyes widened when he noticed the open, broken freezer, the overturned equipment, and the thin layer of dust in the air.
He pursed his lips and turned his narrowed eyes back on the pair. "What the hell is going on here? What happened?"
Peter shakily smiled at him and shrugged. "Would you believe a vacuum accident?"
CHAPTER 17