‘Ooops! I bet that smarted!’ Pat said. Brenda pushed the vampire, backwards with her foot, one hand still on the knife. She plunged forward again into the right breast. Freddie who was looking over at her in awe, raised his eyebrows.
‘Why Brenda? Have you got something against boobs?’ he asked.
‘I must have, and I never knew it,’ she replied.
Our Doris came behind the creature and took off its head. The creature dropped to the floor. Our Doris and Brenda looked at one another over the dead enemy and smiled.
‘Thanks, Our Doris.’ Brenda said, as if she had just been given a chocolate digestive.
‘I wish you had bought more of them from Japan, Our Doris,’ said Freddie. ‘We could all do with one of them.’
‘I know. I’m proper chuffed with it,’ she said.
‘I meant to ask… if you go tonight, can I have the Jag in the garage?’ He shouted. Our Doris shook her head, laughing
‘There is no chance of it, our kid!’
They were all focusing on different things. Our Doris, Brenda and Freddie seemed to be having a brief conversation after killing the female, about her husband’s car. Wee Renee was looking out of the window. Kathy was dealing with the young fierce male, with the heavily dripping cheek. No one was looking at Anne. She was no longer in the fetal position on the floor.
Terry, who was just about to help Kathy, just happened to glance backward, to see that Anne had bitten a chunk out of Natalie's neck, who still remained in the same seat, arms frantically trying to push Anne out of the way. Even scalded and slashed, she was definitely stronger than Natalie.
Kathy was just finishing off her vampire with another pickaxe strike straight through the forehead. He fell to the floor. Kathy put her foot on his neck, to remove her weapon. At this point she noticed what her father had noticed. Terry was walking over the dead bodies, scalpel in hand towards the two large women. Kathy tried to get round the others too with the pickaxe. Terry shouted ‘Freddie’ and Kathy shouted ‘Wee Renee’ at the same time. The whole room looked at Anne.
Anne dropped Natalie back into her seat as the young woman gave a last twitch. She grabbed Rose by a fistful of hair and began to pull. Rose still just watched everything going on. Anne pulled her head to one side so fiercely that they knew this would have been excruciatingly painful for Rose.
‘You take one step and this bitch is a goner,’ she said. Our Doris held her sword up but did not move. Her arms shook with the effort. Freddie had been more or less at the side of Anne, whilst this had been taking place. With his stick held high, he thought Anne could not see him. He moved one more inch towards her.
She quickly swiveled her head towards him, growling. She lifted her head back, again imperious. Looking down on the humans she felt superior to.
‘You are insane!’ Wee Renee shouted.
‘So what,’ Anne replied sarcastically. From its high and mighty position, she bought her head down and bit out Rose’s throat. She chewed the chunk, blood running down her clothes, as she looked about at them. Catching each and everyone’s eye.
‘You are all so sad. You really thought I was not going to do it!’ She laughed then shouted ‘Sophia!’ Freddie was just about to run at her with his stick, when the wolf that had been waiting just outside, ran through the door. It jumped, biting down on his hand between his thumb and first finger. Straight away the blood started to drip down over the carpet. They were terrified. Whilst Sophia kept Freddie at bay, Anne took this opportunity to move away from Rose and a little nearer to the front door.
‘I wondered where you were Sophia,’ she said, stroking the she-wolf’s head whilst Sophia still held on to Freddie's hand. He lifted his other hand, which was holding the stick upwards to bring it down onto the wolf.
Anne grabbed this arm with her thin bony fingers, pinching it.
‘Oh no, you don't!’ It was at this point that Brenda’s saucepan had boiled again and she rushed over, as Anne’s mouth opened towards Freddie's neck. She threw the boiling water inside Anne’s mouth some of it splashing on Freddie, most of it going on and inside the foul creature.
The noise was inhuman, not even animalistic. It seemed like something supersonic. Anne’s call of pain was a clicking, howling, whining noise that was terribly loud.
‘She sounds like a bat!’ Wee Renee shouted. Anne ran out of the door, into the cold night. The she-wolf still had its jaws locked on Freddie's hand. Wee Renee saw Freddie flinch and knew what he wanted to do.
‘Don't pull it Freddie! It will take a chunk out of your hand and then we won't be able to stop the bleeding!’ She screeched. It was so tempting for Freddie to do this. He was now burnt and bitten. Weakening by the second. Our Doris sprinted over, her face set, determined. She lifted her sword high as she ran.
‘Geronimo!’ she shouted and brought the sword down from top to bottom taking the head off the wolf so fast, that the wolf did not have chance to pull away. Wee Renee grabbed the wolf’s head, by the ears. The body fell away. She held the weight of the head whilst Terry opened the wolf’s jaws forcefully. Brenda held Freddie’s arm and he pulled it off the upper set of wolf’s teeth. One deep hole after another.
His skin made a quiet popping noise only he could hear as each tooth was removed from its current circular home. His hand was free. The bloody punctures had gone all the way through. Freddie's hand and arm were covered with his own blood.
32 – Carol
Terry and Brenda got Freddie by either arm and helped to seat him in the armchair. There were no longer any wolves or creatures alive in the house. He was shaking with shock, blood loss and stress. Terry quickly examined the wound.
‘Brenda fetch a clean tea towel,’ he said. She darted away, fetching the cloth immediately. Terry bound Freddie’s hand, telling him to bend his elbow up, elevating his hand, so that the hand faced upwards against his shoulder. Brenda kissed his forehead, and stroked his head.
‘It will be alright, we’ll be fine,’ she quietly said over and over again.
Wee Renee walked to the open door. What was left of the party that had attacked them were close to the bottom of the cul-de-sac, apart from one. Anne, herself was nowhere to be seen. There were several dead creatures behind her to deal with, including a headless wolf.
The only threat remaining was Carol, who stood at the bottom of Our Doris's drive in the snow.
She had not been part of the fight. Carol was sadly looking at Wee Renee. Her eyes were mournful, lost, pleading. Wee Renee walked towards her. As more of the pavement was exposed from behind the wall, she noticed that there were four wolves lying in the snow. She did not know now whether they were drugged or dead, but at least they had not been part of the fight. Wee Renee stopped six feet away from Carol.
‘I bet that this was you, wasn't it?’ said Carol. Her voice was different, it had a rumbling deepness about it.
‘Aye, it was.’ Wee Renee said. ‘What's it like Carol?’
‘Horrible. I had no choice in the matter. I am what I am now. You are still what I was.’ She cried out to her old friend, her arms open, pleading in distress. ‘I don't know if I am alive or dead. I hurt all the time. I think I am a wolf. I walk with the wolves, I sleep in the pens with them, I eat raw dead animals. I think I am turning into something.’ Then she seemed to have an inward conversation with herself. ‘Are you a vampire Carol? Are you a werewolf Carol? Are you? What are you? Dead? No you can’t be, you’re speaking.’
Then she turned to Wee Renee and addressed her again. ‘Have you seen my face? I have felt change in it, when I touch it. I can’t look. Wee Renee, I am sorry that this happened to your friends, but you must understand that we cannot fight what we have been asked to do. Besides it is our nature now. To feed. To kill. I have not helped tonight and I will be punished for that. As an old friend, I ask that you help me. Can you think of a way that I can be what I was, instead of this wolf thing, this beast?’
‘How much of the old Carol is left inside you?’<
br />
‘Enough. Enough to ache for my old life and be shameful about my new one. But not enough to change back. Too much of that part has gone.’ She began to talk to herself again. ‘You can change back, of course, Carol. Don’t tell her anything. Shhh!!! Silly Carol. Kill her!’ Wee Renee ignored this conversation.
‘Look at yourself.’ said Wee Renee. ‘Apart from your face. Your hands are bruised because they are trying to be paws. You have a red rash with hair growing out of it. On, your face, Carol, you are halfway to having some kind of a muzzle. A dog’s face. You are well….very unusual. This does not make you a werewolf, I think. You are a vampire. You are definitely dead. Your Mistress has infected you with the vampire strain. You are a strigoi. Carol love, you can never go back. Part wolf, part vampire. Whatever you have to call yourself, Carol, you are a creature of the night and I cannot help you. You can’t go back because you are dead.’
‘Please help me. Who else can I turn to?’ She asked.
‘The only way to help you is to kill you again. A final death. I really don't want to do that, but that would be the best medicine for you, if I am honest.’
Carol looked at Wee Renee for a long time. She had listened to every word. The wind blew. Her hair untethered and full of straw blew in the arctic wind. She groaned, clutching her stomach.
‘So much pain, burning unbearable pain.’ Carol put her arms round herself and rocked herself for a moment. Wee Renee felt the utmost pity for her. This unnatural state had been thrust on her. Her life was gone, whichever way she looked at it.
Carol’s spasms, seemed to ebb away.
‘Do me the kindness, please. Take it all away for me,’ she begged. Carol squared up her shoulders. Her gaze fixed on Wee Renee. She gave the briefest of nods.
Her friend acknowledged her in the same way. Carol closed her eyes. Wee Renee held her machete in one hand. She put both her hands on the handle, lifting the weapon high in the air. The streetlight gleamed off the blade for one moment, before she brought it straight across the neck of her friend Carol.
The vampire collapsed on the floor amongst the four bodies of the wolves. Wee Renee dropped the machete, which embedded into the snow. She screamed up to the sky.
‘No…No….arrghh!’ The noise came from the bottom of her soul, a dreadful scream. Her body was rigid, the sound raw, nearly an inhuman sound too. A scream of mourning, lost hope, desperation.
Pat, Our Doris, Brenda and Jennifer came rushing out to see Wee Renee. They all put their arms round her. The street was so silent, they had heard the conversation inside. She started to cry, great heaving sobs. With each sob, her body relaxed slightly. This had been pushed down. She let every bit out. The women still held her. A five woman island, drifting in a snowy ocean. Terry came out to see the sobbing group, then thought again about interrupting them. He put his hand on the wolves one by one.
‘They are all drugged, not dead,’ he said. His voice was loud in the street. ‘I’ll do it with my scalpel, it’s fine,’ he said.
‘I want to do it. I’ve lost people tonight. I need to kill some more,’ Our Doris said. She let go of the others and wandered exhausted back to the house, picking up her sword. Our Doris dragged it down the snowy drive. She methodically plunged it in to the heart of each wolf.
‘Check them again,’ she said to Terry. She stood over him as he checked. She was ready to stab again if required. He moved from wolf to wolf nodding over each one. All were dead now. That would form part of her revenge. Anne had lost four more of her beasts. The thought gave her strength. No time to grieve. She needed this pain to keep going. Never give in, Our Doris thought. Never, or else lie next to Rose and Natalie. She painted a smile on her faced and lifted her head. Our Doris was back.
The group went back in, still holding one another, and shut the front door. Kathy had stayed to look after Freddie. His face looked quite grey, but in good spirits.
Our Doris, forever a glass is half full lady tried to lighten things up a bit, even though she had just lost her sister and niece. She took a deep breath.
‘Well, I don’t think my living room could look any worse. We might as well have a wild party whilst we are at it. Who’s for a Malibu?’ she laughed. It was a crazy little laugh, but that could be excused in the circumstances. Apart from the smashed antiques, and upside down furniture, there were two dead humans, six dead creatures and a beheaded wolf. There was blood, fluids, brain tissue and two saucepans full of boiling water sprayed over carpets, furniture, curtains and wallpaper. Outside there was another dead vampire and four dead wolves.
Jennifer sighed, looking at the two dead family members.
‘They did nothing. Nothing to defend themselves. Why?’
‘Not to speak ill of the dead and all,’ said Freddie from the chair, ‘but that was Rose all over for you. It finally caught up with her.’ He shook his head. ‘I can't believe they did nothing. I mean it’s a natural instinct. Fight or flight. They didn’t do either one. The pair of them might as well have just stood out in the street, waiting for them, like Rose said. A steak dangling round their necks. What was the point of being in here with us?’
‘What are we going to do with all these, though?’ Terry said as he looked around at the bodies on the floor.
‘I don't want any of them in here. I want to forget it happened,’ Our Doris said.
‘Do you think she'll come back tonight?’ asked Jennifer.
‘No. Not tonight, I think,’ Pat said.
‘Yes, she'll be off somewhere licking her wounds.’ Our Doris said thoughtfully. ‘Remember we have made a massive hole in her plans. She has lost five wolves. I don't know how many she has.’
‘Not to mention, lots of lovely creatures of hers. Some that were quite well turned,’ Kathy said.
‘Well the thing is, they are all going to be quite heavy. Where are we going to put them, in the garage?’ Our Doris asked.
‘Not with the Jag!’ said Freddie shaking his head. She quietly laughed.
‘Alright Freddie. You can have the Jag. We won't put them in there. What about next door?’
‘What do you mean?’ Brenda said.
‘Well the house is for sale and there is no one in there. I have a spare key that the previous owner gave me. Sometimes he sends people over without an Estate Agent and I show them round. We could put them in there, out of the way at least. Maybe, think of a better solution, another time. I think house prices will have plummeted in the street anyway, don't you?’ she said and they all agreed.
‘Right, let's get it over with,’ Terry said, standing up stiffly from the sofa. He looked sore and tired.
‘Then we will have a nice drink and a calm down,’ said Brenda with a smile. With a person holding onto each leg, they all, apart from Freddie, managed to pull a vampire corpse through the living room and down Our Doris’s steps into the night. Here it got easier as the person slid on the compacted snow on the drive. Off they went, down her drive, onto the pavement and up into the next person's house. After the first one there was a trail of blood and goo, going from one door to the other. Like a large blackish-red U. Our Doris wasn’t bothered at all.
‘No one will question this, with what’s been going on,’ she said. Our Doris thought that surely there must be people still alive in their cul-de-sac besides them. But not one person had come out to help them at any point. So if they were alive, well….they could all knickers.
Freddie was the only one that wasn't taking part for obvious reasons. It was easy to move the wolves. There were a couple of heads, to dispose of and Our Doris walked with one under each arm, which Freddie found hilarious. The others started nervous giggling at this too, and although feeling guilty for it, it was a tonic to them all.
When it came to moving Natalie and Rose, Wee Renee, Pat, Terry and Kathy said they would do it. Our Doris went upstairs and got two bed sheets and they wrapped them up, which was the only distinction between the vampires and the people.
Wee Renee picked up the wolf�
��s decapitated head up, by a fistful of it’s hair. She turned the face of the wolf towards her, looking at the she-wolf’s dead eyes square on.
‘I tell you what, if I could get in Anne’s house, she would find this in her bed a la Mafia. Casa Nostra Anne!’ Wee Renee said. Pat chuckled. She was currently on her knees, trying to prise the mask of skin out of the carpet with a metal kitchen spatula.
After they had finished, they were absolutely exhausted. When the room was empty of corpses, the devastation could be examined properly. It would need a full decoration, that was for sure.
‘So, er…..if I give this a full clean tonight, are you happy staying here?’ Our Doris asked, who was very hygienic. She thought that she would do a really thorough clean of it and it would be fine for her guests to sit in, for tonight, at least. They were shocked that she would start cleaning for them at this hour of the night, after a battle. She was still recovering from a debilitating illness too. They told her to leave it, and would just try and avoid the worst patches.
‘If you are really sure, that is alright, then I will manage to leave it,’ Our Doris sighed and put her hands on her hips.
‘When things are back to normal, I am going to have new carpets throughout. Upstairs and down.’
‘Are you sure about that?’ Wee Renee asked.
‘I am.’
‘If you are set on it. If nobody else wants it, I would love to have your carpet that you don’t want. I could fully carpet downstairs, just with your bedroom carpet!’ Wee Renee asked meekly.
‘You can definitely have it.’
‘Thank you, Our Doris. You see I can fit it all myself, that’s no problem either.’
Freddie smiled at one side of his mouth.
‘I bet you could as well, Wee Renee,’ he said. Terry had another look at Freddie’s hand.
‘I’m happy with the way that looks. Quite clean indeed. I have those antibiotics that I have been taking, along with Our Doris. You must start on those too. Also, and lucky for you, amongst the liquids I gave to Wee Renee was a painkiller injection.’ Terry went into the kitchen where the drugs were in different bags, inside a brown cardboard box. He returned with a syringe, the liquid, tablets and a glass of water.
Silver Banned: Book 2 of the Saddleworth Vampire Series Page 21