“What do you want?” Megan asked again, her voice sounding more like a croak than her actual voice.
Kathryn shrugged. “A lot of things. Are you in love with her?”
“Angeline?”
“No, Meryl Streep.”
Megan took the hint. “Probably. Why does that matter? Are you going to kill me because you’re jealous?”
“Of course not,” Kathryn said. “I’m not jealous. And I’m not here to kill you. I mean, I probably will, but you’re just collateral damage. Sorry about that.”
Megan felt the terror begin to creep up her throat again. She didn’t know what to do. Should she scream and yell and fight to free herself? Stay quiet and hope that Kathryn would lose interest in whatever little game she was playing and leave them alone? Taunt her? Compliment her? Megan couldn’t help but wonder how she had gone thirty plus years without staring death in the face, and now she’d done it twice in just a few months. Something was clearly working against her.
“Why now, though?” Megan asked, deciding keeping Kathryn engaged might be the best course of action.
“She did a very good job of keeping herself hidden over the years. I’ve come back to Massachusetts a few times looking for her, but she was never where I thought she’d be. That was my mistake, obviously. I should have checked every little hellhole this side of the Rockies. She always was a creature of habit.”
Kathryn pulled her hair forward over one shoulder, twisting it in her hands. Megan stared at her, trying to rationalize that the pale, unassuming little redhead was a toxic psychopath with the strength of ten men.
“How did you find her?”
“Fate? Coincidence? Could have been either. I was having a drink in a little pub in Worcester when a news story came on about a robbery in a tiny little town named Fog Hollow. One of the victims was found nearly a mile from the site with no recollection of how she arrived there, and gunshot wounds that weren’t visible. And the perpetrator was found with his throat ripped out like an animal had gotten to him. In his truck. With the windows up. I may be a lot of things, but naive isn’t one of them. It was quite obviously a vampire. I came to your little town and I sussed her out in no time. I didn’t know if I would find Angeline or some infantile baby vamp who didn’t know how to cover their tracks. I should have known it would be her, avenging the humans she seems to like so much,” Kathryn said, clicking her tongue.
“Why didn’t you just go after her when you found her?” Megan asked. She gave another futile tug on the bungee cords just in case they had suddenly loosened up.
“What is this, twenty questions? The first time I saw her, she was with you. Picking you up in some nightclub parking lot. I followed you back here and realized that you two had a thing. I remember that dewy look from our time in New York.” Kathryn grimaced. “Charlotte.”
Megan briefly closed her eyes. The invocation of that name wasn’t exactly comforting.
“Rather than just burn her alive or decapitate her or rip her apart piece by piece, I decided it would be a lot more satisfying to really hurt her. Make her suffer. Have her running scared. You know, all those clichéd things that a bad guy in any horror movie would do. At this point, I couldn’t imagine anything better.”
“You killed an innocent person to freak her out? Really?”
“People. You’re so sentimental. And innocence is subjective. But even if it isn’t, what do I care? I didn’t know them, and even if I did, I’m sure I wouldn’t have liked them.” Kathryn shrugged and went back to her magazine. It seemed like question and answer period was officially over.
Megan’s muscles were beginning to hurt from being suspended in that upright position without any relief. She searched her immediate vicinity for any sort of weapon, not that it would do any good in her current position. But it would have been nice if she’d had a loaded rifle lying next to her feet. The closest thing she had to anything dangerous was the garden tool organizer hanging on the wall behind Kathryn’s head. Megan wasn’t sure how a hoe, a rusty pitchfork, a broom, or a dented shovel would hold up against a centuries-old vampire, but her old guillotine paper cutter was on the other side of the tool bench. It had seemed silly to take that—along with about twenty staplers and ten boxes of paper clips—when her old office building had closed, especially since all of those items just sat in the basement untouched. But that could possibly inflict injury if the opportunity arose. The blade looked like a small sword attached to a table, and it was probably still sharp enough to do some damage.
A loud crash made her jump. The door to the basement burst open, planks of wood flying down the stairs like it had exploded. Kathryn was suddenly standing next to Megan, her hand clenched tightly around the back of Megan’s neck, even though Megan hadn’t even seen her move. She smiled, her fangs glistening in the low light of the basement.
Angeline moved down the stairs at such speed it was as though she was flying. She continued toward Megan and Kathryn and then stopped short, nearly toppling over from the sheer force of her sudden stop.
“No. You’re supposed to be dead,” Angeline said softly. Her eyes glinted and she covered her teeth with her lips. Megan could see the shock on her face, accented with the slightest bit of panic.
Kathryn chuckled hoarsely. “Clearly, I’m not. Here I am. Live and in person. Have you missed me, Angie? Because I have certainly missed you.”
“But I killed you. You burned to death. I saw the flames. I saw the smoke when I drove away.”
“Yes, the house was on fire. And holy hell, did that hurt. We may not feel pain in most cases, but when your skin is burning and broiling and liquefying? It fucking hurts.” Kathryn eased up on Megan’s neck slightly. “Someone was kind enough to call the fire department. A nice man in full gear broke down the door with an axe and was able to pull the sword out of my stomach with some rescue tool he had on him. He brought me outside and laid me on a stretcher. I was a pulpy mess by that point, so I’m lucky he didn’t just write me off. By the time he finished searching his first aid kit, I was almost completely healed. I thanked him, of course. And then I had to kill him.”
Megan whimpered involuntarily and Angeline flinched.
“What? Can you imagine the questions he would have had? I had no choice. That one is on you too,” Kathryn said, pointing to Angeline.
“Why did you wait all this time?” Angeline asked, her hands fisted at her sides.
“I already answered all of this with your chatty girlfriend.” Kathryn waved her free hand in condescension. “Your disappearing act worked quite well. I figured with the advent of the internet I’d be able to find you easily. But no, you covered your tracks and did nothing newsworthy, so it was dead end after dead end. I knew you’d end up back here, though. I’ve been to Lowell more times than I can count over the last six decades. Luckily for you, you weren’t that stupid.”
“You’ve been looking for me ever since? You’ve wasted sixty years on a revenge mission?” Angeline asked. She seemed disheartened, almost resigned. Megan watched her carefully.
“Of course. I mean, I’ve done other things too. You weren’t my sole focus. But no one, no one, can do what you did to me and just walk away.”
Megan’s eyes met with Angeline’s. Angeline took a step toward them and Kathryn tightened her grip exponentially. Megan couldn’t help the frightened squeak that made it past Kathryn’s clasp.
“Ah-ah,” she scolded in a singsong voice. “Like a toothpick, Angeline. Like a toothpick.”
Angeline stepped back.
“What do you want?”
“I want you to die. But before that, I want you to feel everything you felt that night all over again. But this time you don’t get to walk away.”
Angeline blanched but stood firm. “Don’t. Please. She did nothing wrong. Your grievance is with me, Kathryn. Let her go, and you and I will finish this.”
“No!” Megan whispered.
Kathryn gave her hair a tug, prompting a hiss of pain. Angelin
e stepped forward again, but heeded Kathryn’s warning.
“You know, the more I think about it, I miss having someone around. I’ve had a few yous over the years, but none of them were able to fill your shoes. Maybe it’s time for another Massachusetts girl to fill the void.” Kathryn bared her fangs in a maniacal smile and bent toward Megan’s neck.
Angeline was on her in a fraction of a second, Kathryn’s head clanging against the pipe, though she didn’t loosen her hold on Megan even a fraction. She pushed Angeline off her so forcefully that Angeline fell back twenty feet. She scrambled backward until her back hit the bottom stair. She was up again in an instant. “Don’t fucking touch her, Kathryn.”
“And what, exactly, do you plan to do about it?” Kathryn traced her fingernail along the length of Megan’s neck, ending at her chin. “If I want her, I’ll have her.”
Megan felt tears pool in her eyes. She wondered if she’d ever see Aunt Susie again, and chastised herself for waiting so long in between each visit. And Merlin. Stacey would have to take him. He’d be confused at first, but he’d eventually settle in, and hopefully forget her. It was all too much. This wasn’t supposed to happen to a normal person. Megan was supposed to live her life and enjoy a few moments along the way, before it all ended in a very anticlimactic final breath at a ripe old age. Tears began to slide down her cheeks.
“Just get it over with, Kathryn,” Angeline said. “Take me. I won’t fight you.” She stared at Megan, who couldn’t stop the silent sobs that kept coming.
“No, Angeline,” Megan said, breathing in deeply. “Don’t sacrifice yourself for me. She’ll kill me anyway.”
Kathryn nodded. “She’s got a point. But unless you want me to drive her to the brink over and over again, until she’s finally begging me for the sweet release of death, I suggest you come on over here and take a seat.” Kathryn pushed one of Megan’s old wooden bar stools in front of her.
Megan’s chest hitched as she saw Angeline sit on the wobbly stool. Angeline mouthed the words “I’m sorry” and closed her eyes as Kathryn finally let go of Megan and circled Angeline.
“I brought something a little sturdier for you, my dear.” Kathryn reached onto the worktop and produced a twenty-foot binder chain with tow hooks on either end. She snapped it tightly for effect.
“You don’t need to use that, Kathryn. I already told you I won’t fight you.”
“Where’s the fun in that?”
“So, you’re doing this for fun?” Megan asked.
Kathryn didn’t respond. Megan tugged futilely one more time. She glanced up toward the ceiling, where the metal clamp holding a few rusty screws jutted out. If she could only extend herself a few inches higher, she might be able to reach it. Even on her tiptoes, she was just shy of the clamp.
Kathryn continued to wrap the chain around Angeline’s feet, pontificating about the disadvantages of betraying someone who was kind enough to take a person under their wing. Megan eyed the small suitcase to the left of her that still had the Newark Airport tags on it from a real estate conference she attended a couple of years ago. She kicked her left leg out and was encouraged by the fact that the suitcase rattled a little. She froze, but Kathryn was still focused on Angeline.
“I did what I did to you because of what you did to me. Are you really so wrapped up in your revenge fantasy that you can’t see that? That I hurt you because of how many fucking times you hurt me?” Angeline asked. Kathryn bent so she was eye to eye with Angeline. The chain rested in her hand.
“Do you really think I care? After everything that we’d been through together, you so callously tried to wipe me out of existence over a girl. A girl. And not a very worthy one at that.”
Megan kicked out again, slightly harder this time. Her toe landed on the hard plastic of the travel bag, and she was able to inch it over to herself, just a hair. It wasn’t enough.
“Then just get your revenge, put me out of my misery, and let Megan go. Try to summon that tiniest bit of humanity that you must still have inside you. I saw it back then. Not often, but it was there,” Angeline said as Kathryn crisscrossed the chain around her shoulders.
Megan prayed for just another minute or two before Kathryn turned to her with the intent to kill. She wasn’t asking to be rescued, just asking for one more minute. She let out a loud sob as she dragged the suitcase over just a little bit more. It was enough. Maybe.
Kathryn turned to her, so Megan dropped her head in sorrow, letting her hands drape loosely over one another. Would Kathryn notice that the suitcase had moved by a few inches? Megan wept loudly again, hoping for any distraction that would keep Kathryn focused on her body and not the space around her.
“Any humanity I had left drifted away with the smoke that night in New York, Angeline. You showed me what I had always known. Trust and loyalty are figments of the imagination. A nice notion, but not real. You need to keep quiet,” Kathryn said, still staring at Megan. “I’m sure you’ll feel bad if I need to tear out a neighbor’s throat for poking around to see what all this commotion is about.”
“Sorry,” Megan choked out, relieved that Kathryn turned back to Angeline. She felt a rush of adrenaline course through her and, for the first time since listening to Aunt Susie’s message on the answering machine, had the slightest inkling that she and Angeline might live to spend another night together.
Kathryn walked over to where she had kept the chain and picked up a closed shackle padlock. “If you can break through this, then I’ll serve myself to you on a platter,” Kathryn said. She chuckled and fiddled with the key, trying to open the heavy lock.
Megan’s stomach flipped as she pressed her toes onto the very edge of the suitcase. It gave her just the height advantage she needed, and she tried to silently raise her arms toward the protruding screw. Angeline caught her eyes and widened her own. Her hands were shaking profusely, which didn’t help her aim. She’d moved the frayed part of the bungee just below the screw when she felt a crushing blow to her stomach. Megan exhaled, groaning in pain, her body nearly bent in half, held up only by her bound arms. The world in front of her grayed out for just a moment before coming back into a blurry kind of focus.
“Are you that fucking stupid? Really?” Kathryn asked, running her tongue along the tips of her fangs. She grabbed Megan by the back of the neck and sank her teeth into the soft flesh above her collarbone.
Megan screamed in shock and agony as her flesh was breached by the tiny daggers. She gripped Kathryn’s shoulders, trying to push her away, but she didn’t budge. Megan felt her arms grow limp around Kathryn’s neck.
Until Kathryn was suddenly ripped off her, her teeth dragging painful tracks up the length of Megan’s neck. Kathryn screamed gutturally as she was slammed up against the hard metal of the oil tank. Angeline wrapped a length of chain around her neck and pulled tightly while Kathryn clawed at her.
“You should have locked it first, asshole,” Angeline growled. She continued to pull on the chain around Kathryn’s neck.
Megan tried to catch the suitcase with her toe again, but Kathryn had pushed it too far out of the way. Blinding pain continued to explode from the wound on her neck, but she knew she had to push past it if they had any hope of getting out of this alive.
Angeline looked over at her. Megan shook her head, trying to give Angeline a silent sign to keep doing what she was doing. Don’t worry about me. I’m not going anywhere, obviously.
It was the distraction Kathryn needed. In a burst of energy, she brought up her knee and slammed it directly into Angeline’s midsection.
“No!” Megan cried as Angeline stumbled backward. Before Kathryn could latch on to her, Angeline reached up and pulled on the bungee cords securing Megan to the pipe. She used so much force that the pipe dislodged from the wall and the cord snapped in two. Megan fell to her knees as Kathryn lifted Angeline off the ground like she was a toddler.
When Kathryn slammed Angeline to the concrete floor, Megan was sure she heard the bones in Ange
line’s back fracture. Megan lurched over to where Kathryn had Angeline pinned. She grabbed the steel shovel from the wall and slammed it into the back of Kathryn’s head.
Kathryn shrieked in pain but didn’t move off Angeline. She sank her teeth into Angeline’s neck, tearing the flesh as she shook her head back and forth like a wild animal.
“Megan, run!” Angeline yelled, her tone urgent and garbled.
“What the hell is going on here?” a deep, booming voice called from the top of the stairs.
Megan’s head, as well as Kathryn’s, whipped around to see who was coming down the stairs. Detective Nolan walked slowly toward them with his gun drawn.
“Get up and I want to see your hands in the air,” Nolan said, training his gun on Kathryn.
Kathryn’s face broke out into a grim smile. “You ever heard of wrong place, wrong time?”
Kathryn looked at Angeline, who lay beneath her, motionless and bleeding, her eyes closed. She moved off her and made her way toward Nolan.
“Stop or I will shoot you!” he yelled.
She continued walking slowly toward him, her eyes glinting like the predator she was, blood dripping from her chin. Nolan cocked his gun.
“What the fuck?” he said as Kathryn opened her mouth to reveal her fangs. Megan covered her ears as Nolan discharged his weapon, four bullets in all. Kathryn didn’t stop walking toward him, though she winced in pain as each bullet breached her skin.
Megan raised the shovel to hit Kathryn again, mustering all of her strength. Before she could bring the cutting edge down on her head, she felt Angeline rush by her with ethereal speed. She impaled Kathryn from behind with Megan’s pitchfork, producing a gurgled scream of outrage from Kathryn. Kathryn looked down in horror at the sharp points of the pitchfork protruding through her chest. Nolan scrambled backward up the stairs so fast, he tore the leg of his dress pants. Megan rushed over to the tool bench and detached the sharp blade from the paper cutter.
In the Shadow of Darkness Page 19