by Jerry Hart
If she ever got the chance again, she would learn more about them.
* * *
Chris sat in his car in the parking lot of San Sebastian Hospital, unable to actually go inside the building. What good would it do? He just had to see her again. He knew Stephanie had to be scared after the attack she had suffered. He felt responsible for her situation.
He couldn’t get her out of his mind. He wondered if it had anything to do with the fact the same vampire had bitten them both, if they had some kind of psychic connection—that’s how it always was in books and movies, right? If that was so, such connection should have been severed the moment Eric was killed. This was all guesswork, though; this was the first case Chris ever had to deal with. He and Stephanie were the only two people he knew of to survive an attack.
But wait! Eric and the others had to be cases of people who survived, too. Right? They had become vampires (or whatever), after all, so not every victim had been killed off. But how long would it take before Chris and Stephanie changed?
His cell phone rang in his pocket. He answered.
“Hey. You busy?” It was Owen.
“Kinda. What’s up?”
“I was just thinking about heading to the river. I need to talk to you about something. Think you can meet me there when you’re done?”
“Yeah, you got it. Is it bad?”
“I’ll tell you when you get here.”
Owen did sound concerned, but Chris’s desire to see Stephanie didn’t lessen. He said goodbye and hung up.
He hated hospitals—they were so alien to him. He snuck a peek at Stephanie’s room number on a chart at the nurses’ station and walked down the long hallway, glancing at the rooms until he found hers.
She was lying in her bed, staring at the window. The blinds were down, though. Chris approached slowly, as not to scare her. He figured she’d be jumpy.
“Stephanie,” he called gently.
She turned around and quickly wiped tears from her face. Her eyes were red and swollen.
“Remember me?” he asked.
She nodded. Chris noticed a faint smile and her pale face suddenly started to fill with color.
“Can I sit?” he asked.
“I don’t know. Can you?” She laughed.
“Ah, you got me there. May I sit?”
She nodded again. He grabbed a chair and sat at the end of her bed. He wanted to give her space.
“My name is Chris. I know you have a lot of questions as to what happened tonight, and I’m afraid I don’t have all the answers, but I want to at least try to help you understand.”
“I was bitten by a vampire,” Stephanie said bluntly.
“Okay.” This took him by surprise. “I guess you do understand more than I gave you credit for.”
“It wasn’t that hard to figure out. I meet a guy who thinks he’s a vampire. He bites me. Not that difficult.”
There was the rub. She didn’t realize Eric had actually been a vampire. How was Chris going to break it to her?
“Stephanie, there’s something you need to understand. Eric didn’t just think he was a vampire. He was one.”
Stephanie said nothing to this. What was there to say? Chris was expecting a slew of questions, but she seemed unable to form any. He pressed on.
“My friend and I weren’t there by coincidence. We were following you two. We knew what Eric was; he attacked a girl hours before. Maybe even more we don’t know about.”
Chris could see this news sinking into Stephanie. The color from her face—the color he had put there—was slowly disappearing again.
“But we got him. He’s gone now. I promise.”
Stephanie looked away. “Then why do I keep looking at the window, waiting for him to crash through it? He doesn’t feel gone.”
Chris had that same feeling. A sense of dread washed over him. He suddenly felt ill. He felt the urge to leave, but stayed in his seat.
“I was bitten by him, too,” he said.
Stephanie turned back to face him. He pulled away the collar of his shirt and showed her the puncture marks on his neck.
“You used me as bait, didn’t you?” she suddenly asked after a horribly long silence.
“We didn’t want to. We wanted to act sooner, but he was hard to find. We found out he was at that nightclub, thanks to a friend, but then we lost sight of you two. Since I knew who you were and that the vampire probably didn’t have a house, I chanced going ahead to your house to wait. We’re just glad you showed up.”
“Who’s ‘we’?”
Chris realized he was being vague. “My friend Owen. Actually, there are others. There’s also Daniel and Alyssa. We all fight monsters like Eric. Real monsters. They really do exist.”
Chris didn’t realize he had raised his voice excitedly when he mentioned monsters. Stephanie was gripping her covers tightly.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. I have monster issues.” He laughed.
“I think we all do, now.” She lowered the covers a little. “What happened?”
Chris, who had been looking at the floor with forced curiosity, looked back up. “It’s a long, horrible story. It’s not really suitable for right now.”
He tried to force a smile, but he could tell Stephanie wasn’t buying it.
“Well, you know my story—hell, you’re part of it—so when you feel like telling me yours, I’ll listen.”
“Thanks. I’ll remember that.”
“You know, I think I remember you from somewhere.”
Chris narrowed his eyes comically, as if wondering what she meant. Stephanie laughed; it was beautiful.
“We went to high school together, didn’t we?” she asked.
“Yeah, Newville High.” Chris smiled. “A million years ago.”
Stephanie laughed again. “Oh, my god. It’s all coming back to me now. I remember we had Chemistry together. We were lab partners and everything.”
“Yeah,” said Chris. “We accidentally made this gas that cleared out the whole room.”
“How did I forget that?” She wasn’t laughing now; she seemed concerned now as she stared off at space.
“You’ve probably had a busy, interesting life. Why would you remember little old me?”
She looked back at him now, a crooked smile on her face. “You saved my life tonight. I’ll never forget you again.”
She reached her hand out to him. He grinned as he took it into his own. They stayed that way for a long time.
* * *
Owen stood, watching Trident River rush by. He was only a few miles from the condo. Although it was night, the river was still beautiful; the moon was shining off of the water’s surface. The sound of it was tremendous. It almost made him forget Chris still hadn’t shown up. Owen checked his watch. It was 2:33 a.m. He couldn’t believe the day he’d had. First, they’d tracked the vampires to the Trails, and then followed one to a night club, and then to Stephanie’s house. That was several days of monster hunting in just a few hours.
He sat down on the concrete slope just inches from the water. He wasn’t afraid of falling in, but he was careful anyway. He and Chris used to come to this river a lot when they’d first met. It was their little hangout when they needed to get away from everything. Owen crawled closer to the rushing water, staring at his reflection. It seemed more distorted than it should have been, as if there was a small black object under the water directly where his face reflected back at him.
“Here I am,” a voice said from behind, “making it my life’s work to fight the evils of this world, and yet, I’m contributing to teenage alcoholism.”
Owen spun around, almost falling into the river. Chris was standing behind him, holding a six-pack of beer. Owen crawled back up the concrete wall and grabbed the beer; he and Chris sat down and both opened a can. It had been a while since Owen had alcohol. It tasted fantastic. Alyssa always complained about the taste of beer, but he couldn’t see why. She had to have her wine coolers.
“Stopped off at a friend’s house and liberated it from him.” Chris winked.
Owen laughed and nodded.
“What’s so important?” Chris asked, hypnotized by the water. “You’re not thinking about leaving us and starting a new life, are you?”
Owen knew that was a joke. Since he had never finished high school, he had no diploma. He didn’t even have a real driver’s license. Nevertheless, he was pretty happy with his life as it was.
“I don’t know what I was thinking when I said it—I guess I was afraid you’d be disappointed in me—but I wasn’t entirely truthful when I said Eric was dealt with properly.”
“You didn’t bury the leftovers?”
“There were no leftovers. I didn’t kill him—he escaped.”
Chris said nothing. He didn’t even look at Owen. He continued to be hypnotized by the river. He was quiet for so long, Owen started to worry. Then, Chris finally said, “I know.”
“Bullcrap!”
“Really, I know. I can feel him.”
“Yeah, that’s not weird at all.” Owen smiled, nudging Chris’s shoulder.
“Watch your mouth.” Chris nudged back.
“Yes, ma’am.”
They were both laughing now. Then Chris became serious again.
“Stephanie can feel him, too.”
“How do you know that?”
Chris didn’t answer right away, instead taking a swig of his beer. He looked like he was thinking really hard. That river had him transfixed.
“I went to see her before coming here,” he finally said.
“How is she?”
“She’s scared, but she’s holding up. She’s a lot tougher and smarter than most girls I know.”
He took a longer swig.
“You’re into her, aren’t you?” Owen suddenly asked.
“You just now figured that out?”
“That’s why you acted the way you did at her house?” Owen asked, remembering the shivering Chris had done when he saw Stephanie with Eric.
“We actually went to high school together. She just barely remembered me. I had the biggest crush on her. Still do.”
“Are you going to tell her how you feel?”
Chris took his final sip, and then crushed the can in his hand. “Maybe, but not now.”
Owen thought about Chris’s last words for a moment. Owen himself had never been in love, but he figured if he ever did finally meet the girl of his dreams, he’d tell her immediately how he felt about her. He couldn’t understand why Chris was refusing to take action. What was he afraid of?
Chris tossed the can toward the river. It landed right on the edge of the water. Owen started climbing down to it.
“First you’re contributing to underage drinking, and now you’re littering.” He reached for the can. “You’re totally going to hell—”
Something burst out of the water and snapped at him. Water sprayed him in the face; he jumped backward. Chris crawled down and grabbed Owen, pulling him back.
They both watched in amazement as a small, dark creature began chewing on the beer can. It had dark brown fur all over its body. Its face was short and squashed, its legs and arms tiny. Its large yellow eyes glowed in the darkness like little flashlights. Chris and Owen didn’t know what to do—they couldn’t move.
The creature continued to eat the beer can Chris had discarded. Owen could see the creature appeared to have gills on its neck and reflective scaly skin under its fur, like a fish. But this was no fish he’d ever seen before; fish didn’t usually tend to walk on all fours. This must’ve been some kind of mutant, though it reminded Owen of a Chihuahua, only with large, bulbous eyes on the sides of its head, like a big-eyed goldfish.
The fish-creature finished its can-snack and looked up to Chris and Owen. It tilted its head to the side as if studying them. It was actually a little cute, if you looked at it from an angle, which was what Owen was doing. He reached his hand out slowly. Chris tried to stop him, but it was too late. The creature stepped forward and licked Owen’s fingers.
“I think he likes me,” he said, laughing.
“What makes you so sure it’s a he?”
“Because I can see his privates from here.”
Suddenly the creature bit down on Owen’s hand. He screamed and tried to shake it off, but it was biting hard. Chris crawled down to him and grabbed the creature, trying to pry its mouth open enough for Owen to pull his hand free. It let go of him and snapped at Chris. Owen took this opportunity to kick it back into the water. And then they crawled back up the slope.
Owen studied his hand. It was stinging and bleeding badly.
“What the hell was that thing?” Chris asked.
“It was a fish, I think. A … dogfish,” Owen responded, groaning at his choice of words. A “dogfish”? Really?
“That was the ugliest fish I’ve ever seen,” Chris added.
With that, the fish-creature burst out of the water again and ran up the slope toward them. Chris and Owen ran into the woods, climbing up the nearest tree. The dogfish tried furiously to climb the tree as well, but it kept sliding back down to the ground.
“Well, that’s a good thing, I suppose,” Chris snorted. He and Owen were twenty feet off the ground. The branches of the tree were thick.
Down below, the creature crouched as low to the ground as it could manage, as if it were preparing to leap. And then, it did. It leapt to a quarter of the length of the tree. Chris and Owen were almost at the very top. The creature leapt again, clinging to the tree as if its life depended on it. Now it was halfway up.
“Damn, it’s a determined little sucker,” said Owen as he and Chris crawled across the branch and jumped to the closest tree. Chris lost his grip on the branch they had landed on and nearly fell. Owen grabbed his hand, but he too lost his grip and they both fell a few feet down the tree. They landed hard on another branch.
Owen looked up and saw the dogfish now on their tree. It was dropping down, branch by branch, to get to them.
“Climb down!” Owen shouted. “It’s coming!”
Chris felt for the next branch below him with his feet. He found it and dropped down. Owen followed quickly. They could hear branches snapping and leaves rustling above them. The dogfish wasn’t far behind.
Chris and Owen were now close enough to the ground to jump. They landed hard, but did not waste any time. They made their way to the path running along the river. Owen could hear the sound of claws on pavement. He didn’t dare turn around to look. He knew the creature was running after them.
“Hang on!” yelled Chris. Owen stopped running and saw him grab a nearby trashcan. The dogfish leapt at them. Chris caught it in the can and then tipped it upside down, trapping the creature inside.
CHAPTER 8
Les wiped his forehead with the back of his sleeve; he couldn’t remember the last time he had sweat so badly. He drove his shovel into the ground, wanting the hole much deeper than it had to be. He didn’t want anyone finding Marco’s head. Ever.
He looked back at the head; it was in a black garbage bag. After he buried it, there was still the matter of cleaning the blood in the fridge. He looked back to the house, where Michael was more than likely going through Les’s stuff.
“I wish you’d never been born, Michael. I don’t care what you are.”
“Careful now,” a voice said from the darkness. “That’s my brother you’re speaking ill about.”
Les nearly emptied his bladder. He looked around frantically, but couldn’t find the source of the voice. “Who’s there?”
Suddenly he saw a figure in the darkness moving toward him. Les’s heart hammered so hard in his chest that he felt light-headed. The figure finally made it into the light of the moon so Les could see him. It was a young man, dressed nicely in a black suit with a red tie. He had short blond hair.
“Michael can be a little aggre
ssive,” the figure said, looking at the garbage bag, “but he’s a good boy once you get to know him.”
“You’re his brother?” Les asked nervously.
“That I am.”
Les became even more nervous.
The figure smiled. “You can call me Jason.”
Jason spoke very politely. That didn’t put Les at ease very much.
“Pleasure to meet you,” said Les. Then, he bowed.
Jason laughed and bowed his own head. “I don’t mean to intrude,” he said, “but I just stopped by to give my brother something. He’s going to need it on his quest. It helps him think, so to speak.”
Les realized Jason was holding what looked like a brown bowling-ball bag.
“His quest? You mean the person he’s looking for?”
“Exactly. My brother tends to be a little hasty, and when beginning his search, he left an important item behind.”
Jason set the bag down by the hole Les had dug.
“What is it?” Les asked.
“I suppose, since you’re courteous enough to help Michael, I can tell you. It’s a device, one I need to use but don’t have the means to operate. I believe the person we’re looking for can operate it.”
“What does it do?”
Jason smiled. “You’re very curious. I like that, however, I cannot tell you what it does. Not because I don’t know, but because it’s a secret. Life is full of secrets, isn’t it? That’s what makes it so interesting. You can understand, can’t you?”
“Yes, sir.”
Jason laughed. He grabbed the bag with Marco’s head and dropped it into the hole.
“This is a fine hole you’ve dug. I think it will do just fine.”
“Would you like to come in and say hi?” Les asked, indicating his house.
“No, I mustn’t. I don’t want to distract Michael from his task. He was already reluctant to begin in the first place,” Jason said, shaking his head. “If he sees me, he’ll beg me to come back home, and what I have charged him with must be done. Tell him to take care of the device. I would hold on to it myself, but Michael needs it more than I.”