Things That Go Bump At Night

by C. A. Saari

  “Which is?” Jake frowned, he instinctively took a step closer to me.

  “There is a possibility that you’ll only be able to produce the light in dire situations. Like what we went through in those woods.”

  Silence greeted that.

  Awesome. So in order to use the one weapon we had that could wipe out large numbers of demons in just one fell swoop Jake and I would have to be moments away from death. Or maybe it was just Jake’s life I had to see in danger before I could make it work. I wasn’t positive if my own life had played any part in the miracle.

  “But…” I processed what Mr. Wagner said, couldn’t accept that God awful second theory, so I decided to stick with the first one. “You believe that there is a way to find this light in me again, and harness it as you said? Without…us” or just Jake “having to nearly die every time we want to tap into it?”

  “In theory, yes.”

  “Okay, so how do we go about figuring out how to light me up on command?” I asked. I did not like that frown, he should seriously stop that.

  “I don’t know yet. I can’t find out much more without raising suspicions.”

  “Well, what do you theorize would be the outcome if anyone found out about me?” I asked, I couldn’t help but to take a sidebar with myself and notice that Jake was letting me do my own talking. I glanced at him, but he was looking to his dad, waiting for his answer. So I guess I asked a pretty dang good question.

  “Well, I can only assume that our home office in Portland would most likely bring you in, the other home offices around the country would probably be alerted to your existence and I’m sure they would then work out a schedule to divvy up your time. You’d most likely be sent to the most demon riddled areas and work your way out from there. That’s my theory.”

  I swallowed. That was a lot of assuming. Okay, so researching for ways to light up on command was limited. We were going to have to figure this out ourselves because I certainly did not want the “home office” to take me away from Jake, or here; because I was actually starting to consider here my home. Mr. Wagner said he’d let us get back to work and as soon as he knew more he’d let us know. We all stood in silence for a few moment after he left.

  Jake reached out and took my hand, gave it a squeeze.

  “We’ll figure it out.” He assured me quietly.

  I think I liked it better before Mr. Wagner had given us any information, but I squeezed Jake’s fingers back and pretended to smile encouragingly.

  Why couldn’t anything in my life just be simple?

  I glanced down at Jake’s hand wrapped around mine.

  Okay, so the most wonderful thing in my life was actually pretty simple. I needed to stop whining so much.

  “Okay.” I said looking up at Jake with a small smile, but my tone was filled with warning. “You can pick my Halloween costume, as long as all my bits and pieces are covered.”

  “Really?” The worry in his eyes was replaced with a smile.

  “Yes, but I’m warning you Jake Wagner, if you turn me into a playboy bunny I will seriously be pissed.”

  “Yeah, but…you wouldn’t stay mad forever, right?”

  “Jake!” I picked Ana’s forgotten water bottle up off the floor and chased him from the shed.

  13

  Turns out, Jake was class all the way. I should have figured that cliché just wasn’t his style, and there was no way in hell he’d let his girl –whether it was me or not, but FYI, thank god it’s me- walk around looking anything but the classy girl he thought her to be. There’d be no Victoria’s Secret model or playboy bunny costume for me.

  I was a classy dame from the 1920’s in a black silk sheath of a dress over-embroidered with red sequins –granted the dress had a dangerously scandalous plunging neck and back line, he still liked sexy after all- and a string of long pearls around my neck. Kendra slicked my hair back for me into a knot at the lower back of my head and made my lips dramatic with red –lipstick was never an accessory I used since Jake was always wiping it off- and my makeup was a little more dramatic than usual.

  Jake had whistled when he saw me. And if I could whistle –yep, the whistle was as elusive to me as the single eyebrow hike- I would have done so right back. He was sporting a 1920’s black with white pinstripe three piece suit. Of course, there was no tie, he’d simply wore a white tee shirt under his vest –it was better than any tie in my opinion- a pair of shined black shoes and a simple black fedora with a simple even blacker silk band.

  Kendra couldn’t tell us enough how much she hated us and wished she had a man to match costumes with. I reminded her that she did, that Dane was more than ready to kiss the ground she walked on –but Kendra liked to play hard to get. Kendra herself was going as Sleeping Beauty –and yes, true to girl-Halloween-costume-code she had sexed it up. The standard pink dress that Aurora was known for barely went past Kendra’s butt, and her shoes were studded spiked heels.

  At least she’d gotten the crown right.

  The girls at the party weren’t much different than Kendra. There was more flesh showing at Dane’s party than on the skinemax channels on TV.

  This party was similar to the first one I’d been to. Parking was a mess and the house was packed wall to wall with bodies. Drinks were flowing and people were either dancing, playing beer pong or taking turns at a piñata shaped like donkey –though I’m not really sure what a piñata had to do with Halloween. Jake and I were consumed into the crowd. At one point we stood around a kitchen table and shots were handed out. I declined –I was still nursing the first beer I’d been handed shortly after walking in the door. Jake accepted, but when everyone threw their shots back he dumped his into the beer glass of the guy next to him and slammed his shot glass down on the table with everyone else. They were none the wiser that he hadn’t taken it. I smiled when he winked at me.

  Kendra pulled me onto the dance floor and this time I was able to finish a whole dance –or five- before getting sweaty enough to need a break. I’d gone in search of Jake when someone grabbed my arm from behind, I spun, already on the defense. Even more so when I saw it was Ben who was pulling on me.

  “Peace.” He said putting his hands up, palms towards me when I narrowed my eyes at him.

  “What do you want Ben?”

  “I just wanted to say I’m sorry.” He explained, his expression told me he was sincere. I spied Jake around Ben, making his way towards us, his own expression grave.

  “Apology accepted. Now you better skedaddle.” I loved that Jake would defend my honor to the end, but the party was going so well that I didn’t want to end the evening with a fight.

  “What?” Ben asked, wasting precious seconds.

  “Get out of here now.” I ordered. Ben looked over his shoulder to where my gaze was riveted and swore under his breath, he beat feet just as Jake made it to us, his glare followed Ben through the crowd. I touched Jake’s arm when it looked like he was going to continue after him.

  “It’s fine, Jake. He just apologized.”

  Jake still scowled after Ben for a moment, then grabbed my hand.

  “Come with me.” He led me through the crowd, nearly shoving people out of our way.

  “Nothing happened Jake.” I hissed at him as people tossed us dirty looks for shoving them around –though, I do have to say, their looked turned from dirty to apologetic when they realized it was Jake and I doing the shoving. Yep, I was officially cool.

  Jake didn’t respond. He led me up the stairs and down a hallway where he turned into a room, closed the door and flicked on the light. I glanced around, we were in a girl’s room and I watched as Jake went to a dresser and started pulling drawers until he found what he was looking for. He then tossed me a pair of…sweatpants? And was headed off to the closet before I could say a word.

  “Put them on.” He said when he glanced at me and saw me just standing there, unmoving and confused. But, he said put them on, so I put them on. I was assuming this was Dane’s sister’s
room. She was in college and to my joy she was as tall as I was! Though she was obviously a size or two larger because I had to cinch the waist to make the pants fit. Jake then tossed me a t-shirt from the closet. I dropped my dress over the bed and pulled the shirt on.

  “What is going on, Jake? Why am I wearing someone else’s clothes?” I pulled my head through the shirt as Jake thrust out a pair of converse tennis shoes –much nicer than the ones I used to wear. Thank god Dane’s sister wore a seven.

  When I was dressed, Jake led me to the window.

  “Look.” He turned his own gaze from mine to the window, I followed.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me.” I muttered. The tree line just past the side of Dane’s house was littered with red dots. Demon eyes.

  “I think they followed you here.” Jake explained.

  “Of course they did. Because it is my destiny to always be interrupted any time I’m doing something I enjoy.” My sarcasm was thick. Jake actually smiled.

  “Not always.” He shot me a smile.

  That was true, if we waited –and most of the time we couldn’t- until everyone else had gone to bed, then the nights were always ours, interruption free.

  “What do we do, Jake?” I hated to wipe that smile off his face, but my nerves were spiking. Jake sighed and looked out the window again.

  “I’m not sure yet, it’s just the two of us. I tried to call dad, but there was no answer, I tried the others and they didn’t answer either, so I’m assuming there’s trouble at the farm too. I gave a call to Mick since he’s in town, but no luck there either.”

  “Well…” I looked out the window too. “The protections seem to be holding.”

  “Yeah. But eventually people here are going to start leave and some of them are parked outside of the protections.”

  Crap.

  “So we go out there, make sure everyone gets to their cars okay.”

  Jake nodded.

  “That’s what I was thinking.” He was shrugging out of his jacket and he laid it over my dress on the bed and topped it with his fedora. I guess fighting demons in a suit jacket and a hat was only done in the movies. “We’ll get our stuff from the truck, hide out at the tree line at the end of the drive, and keep them at bay while people leave. We have to lay low though, we can’t let anyone see us down there with knives and guns.”

  I took a deep breath.

  “Okay, let’s go.”

  “Wait.” Jake stopped me and turned me back to him, he gathered me up in his arms and kissed me. I sighed and leaned into it, felt strength and safety as he held me tight against him. Felt how much he wanted and needed me and reveled in it, let myself drown in it. My head went hazy and all I could think about was getting my skin against his, but he pulled back from the kiss before I could make that happen. His forehead rested against mine and we tried to slow our heavy breaths. “Hold that thought.” He whispered, his breath brushing my lips.

  “It isn’t going anywhere.” I whispered back.

  Eventually Jake pushed back from me, his eyes scanned my face and that jaw worked as I knew he debated whether to waste a few more minutes and take what we both very much wanted right now. Instead he reached out and touched my cheek, smiled softly.

  “I’m so lucky.” He said. It made me smile.

  “So am I.”

  “Damn demons.” He growled and finally stepped back. He led me out, we avoided as many people as we could by taking a back stairway that led to the kitchen, then out a sliding door at the side of the house. There were still couples around every dark corner inside and out of the house, the night reaching the point in both time and inebriation for people to couple off. I’d spied, momentarily, Kendra and Dane in the porch swing just off the sliding door we’d come out of, but they were out of sight as Jake and I made our way to the front of the house where the truck was parked.

  Jake stopped suddenly and I nearly ran into his back.

  “Remi,” he hissed. “We’ve got a problem.”

  “What?” I came around him and followed his gaze.

  Oh no.

  The thing about the protections was, it caused the demons agony, it sucked power from them, energy, but it did not kill them –because so far no hunter in history had found a way other than good old fashion head wounds, to kill a demon- It weakened them and any spirits they’d collected they’d lose and they’d have to start all over again. Demons avoided the protections like we humans avoided the plague.

  Right now, we were watching as demons pushed other demons right through the protections. There was intense howling that only Jake and I could hear and demons scrambling to gather what strength they had left after passing through the wall to be able to defend themselves from the hunters that they knew were on this side.

  And there was a whole buffet of people here to help provide them with sustenance again.

  “They’re trying to break the protections.” Jake frowned. “I think they’re hoping that by shoving some through the line’ll be broken.”

  This new development presented a couple new problems; we couldn’t fight them here in the open where people could see us waving guns and knives at apparently thin air -they’d have the police here in minutes, and they’d probably have us committed- and we couldn’t jump in the truck and drive away, a demon couldn’t keep up with a vehicle, so they’d just stay behind and join the party.

  “Jake, we’ve gotta get them out of here.” I glanced around at the couples outside. They’d die first. Kendra was outside.

  “Shit. We can’t get to the truck.” Jake said. I looked to see that several demons had made it there before us, and more were coming. We were weaponless.

  “Oh my god.” I whispered. Now would be a good time for the blue light special; but I felt nothing. “What do we do?”

  “We’ll lead them away.” He nodded towards the woods and every fiber of my being wanted to object. Really? He wanted us to run out into the woods with an undetermined amount of demons without weapons? Was he crazy? But Kendra’s pearly laugh reached me and I knew he wasn’t crazy, we had to get them away from the party.

  “Okay, let’s go.” I made to move, but Jake grabbed me.

  “You stay with me, Remi. I don’t want any heroics out of you if things get rough. No running off trying to lead them away from me, got it?”

  I nodded.

  “Promise me, Remi.”

  Damn it, he was too smart for his own good. I would have led them away if I thought this man was in danger and that I could save him, even if it meant sacrificing myself, I would. In a heartbeat.

  “Only if you promise first.” I retorted, knowing he’d do the same. But we both knew that he couldn’t lead them away from me, since it was me they wanted.

  “Remi!” He said through gritted teeth.

  “Jake!” I spat back.

  “God damn you’re stubborn. Fine, I promise, we stick together.”

  “Okay, I promise too.”

  With that we made for the woods next to Dane’s house, trying to look casual as we disappeared into the tree line, all the while keeping an eye on the demons advancing quickly behind us. The second we reached the tree cover Jake grabbed my hand and we ran. We dodged low hanging tree branches and jumped over tree branches lying on the ground, we veered left when group of demons came from the right and right when they came from the left. We came up short when they came from directly ahead.

  Jake went low, a football move I’d recognized and took one around the middle slamming it on its back, he double tapped it in the face then stood and spun, jamming his hand in the next demon’s throat. A third came forward, and a fourth. Both turned their attention to Jake. I ran forward and tackled one, we tumbled over the ground, and I reached out and grabbed a stick and jammed it through its eye.

  Jake called my name and I sprung to my feet, we ran again.

  I glanced behind me once to see if the demons from the party were still following –not that I could tell any of them apart- the larger number b
ehind us meant there was a good chance the partygoers were safe.

  There were a lot of them behind us. My fear ratcheted.

  “Jake.” I nearly choked.

  “Keep running.” He ordered just moments before we were blindsided by several demons coming at us from our right side. I was tossed back, my shoulder hit a tree and I went down. I had thought it healed, but this pain was intense. It knocked the wind out of me and I saw stars, my stomach rolled and I groaned. I vaguely heard Jake call my name and I forced myself to focus. I had to get up. I had to get moving. I forced myself to focus my eyes and saw the demon who’d hit me was nearly on top of me, but I saw Jake grab it from behind and twist it’s neck until it snapped.

  “Come on baby.” He held his hand out to me. Oh, those strong hands. I took it and let him haul me to my feet and we began our race again. The demons behind us so dangerously close now.

  “Where are we going?” I gasped, choosing to ignore the pain shooting through my shoulder and the fact that I was now winded because of it.

  “There’s a parking lot on the other side of these trees. A 7-11.”

  Were we planning on hiding out in a convenience store?

  That was certainly not his plan. We burst through the other side of the tree line and sprinted across the highway. We had put a little distance between us and the ensuing demons, though I wasn’t sure how we’d managed that, they were fast. I suspected maybe they weren’t as strong as they normally were, had they been too busy hunting me down to feed? We needed the little extra time we’d given ourselves because it only took me a second to realize what Jake actually had in mind. He led me around the three different vehicles parked in the lot and finally decided on an old pickup truck parked in the shadows far enough away from the front doors. It was unlocked. He pulled open the driver’s side door and shoved me inside, then climbed in after me and closed the door. He reached down and pulled paneling away from under the steering wheel, found wires and hotwired the truck.

  He was just full of talents that I wasn’t even aware of yet.

  “What are we doing?” I felt slightly guilty at stealing someone else’s truck.