Sticky Valves: Book 1 of the Saddleworth Vampire Series

by Angela Blythe

  If he had really known how many predators were in his village there is no way he would even consider letting Bob out of his sight. There were now nineteen vampires in Friarmere. In their houses with the curtains closed. In their basements, attics and under beds, in someone else's house or safely tucked away in The Grange.

  They had all decided last night not to tell anyone about what they had found in the Butcher’s Shop. So Ian still hung there with Adrian's dead body lying nearby. Bob thought about this as he looked out at the snowflakes.

  Both men there, so cold. Silent, with just the sound of the snow. Maybe not going to school for a week would be worth not going to the party tonight. All the other kids from his school on social media didn't know what would be happening next week. Whether the secondary school would be open, or not. They had all their fingers and toes crossed. One kid had said that the local primary school would be still opening, as their caretaker kept going in and stoking the boilers up. The headmaster had had too many parents who complained when school had to be called off because they had to go to work. With the primary kids too, mostly their distance was short and most of the children went there on foot. They could easily get though five minutes of walking through the snow to their classes, then play on the floor with sand, or whatever they did. There was no point guessing about tomorrow. Just wish for the snow to carry on if he couldn’t go to the party. He thought again about Aidy and Ian, and if he was honest, he didn’t want that happening to him at a party. It was getting to the stage where, it was just a fight to survive. Time to look after yourself and each other now.

  Bob looked at up at the sky, then down to the ground. There were still no tracks in the road outside. He thought, there is no chance I am going out tonight, this is set in for the day. He said to his Mum that he was going to call Adam and let him know. He went upstairs to his room and tried him on his mobile phone. It wouldn’t connect. It was showing no signal bars. He wondered if there was a lot of snow on one of the mobile phone signal towers. Bob wondered what he could do now. He couldn’t let Adam know now. It was five minutes before he worked out that he could use the landline as it was so unusual. Luckily he had Adam’s home number written down or else there would've been no chance of contact. He went back downstairs, picked up his cordless home phone and called Adam. When Adam’s Mum Julie, had answered and realised it was Bob, she sighed and shouted upstairs for Adam. Bob heard footsteps, then heard Adam’s Mum moaning at him. She said loudly, that if he tied the landline up all afternoon then her friends couldn't get through and tell her if they were coming or not.

  ‘Have I got you in trouble mate?’ Bob asked.

  ‘No, she’s just having kittens about this party and the snow.’

  Bob told him about his current situation and his mother’s decision.

  ‘I would have been really shocked if you had been able to come anyway,' Adam said after he had explained, 'Lots of people won’t be coming, I bet. It could even get to the stage where it gets cancelled. So don't worry. We are bound to have a party at Christmas at any time. You know how she is.’ Adam thought his mother loved an excuse to get drunk. It told in her figure too, she had thin arms and legs but a great big belly. She said she was naturally apple shaped and couldn’t do anything about it. Adam said she had a beer belly, which she didn’t like one bit.

  Bob told Adam that he had an update on the pressing matter they were mulling over. He told him in every detail about the garlic cloves, he had hidden everywhere, which Adam thought was hilarious. When Bob told him about the discovery of Adrian and Ian. He wasn’t laughing. He could tell in Bob’s voice how terrible it was, and was fascinated about the texture of the vampire. Bob must have been on the phone to Adam for about an hour, because at one pm, his mother shouted to him to come off the phone as lunch was ready. She had cooked a piece of beef from Ian’s shop and they were having Yorkshire puddings, roast potatoes, vegetables and gravy. She had made an apple crumble for dessert with custard, so that cheered him up. The boys had decided that they would both play online this afternoon from two pm until the guests came which Adam thought would be about six tonight. Although his Mum said that people were already cancelling.

  So that was the rest of the day sorted for Bob. Adam said at six he would get some food, before everyone else came and take his games console up to his room, so he could carry on playing from about six-thirty.

  Just after dark Stephen made another visit to Ian's butcher shop. He had enjoyed the way Ian tasted. Very meaty and blood rich, from eating his own produce, for all these years. He had tasted the blood that pooled underneath Ian and also had had a few bites out of his juicy bits. He had only been back in there for about five minutes, enjoying his feast, when he heard the shop door open. Startled, he wondered who it was. He thought this probably wasn’t going to be good for him, if he was found. Stephen backed away into the corner and was totally hidden in the shadows. The shop was naturally unlit and outside had been dark for at least half an hour. Ian didn’t need to invest in radiators so it was deathly cold in there with it being a butchers shop, and below zero outside. He heard at least more than one set of feet walking into the shop. They stopped just inside the door, walked to the back of the shop and then stopped a short way away from him. They waited in for a moment. Stephen wondered what was about to happen to him.

  ‘We saw you coming in here Stephen and we know you are here, because we can smell you are here.’ Keith's voice came from above one of the sets of feet. Stephen, relieved that it was not a threat after all, came out to see that it was indeed Keith. Stuart stood beside him. They were both dressed in their police uniforms.

  Their skin was so white with the cold and the fact that they were both dead that it was translucent. Stephen could see their veins showing through their skin. It looked like a mini map of the London Underground. Stephen thought that there would be no way that they would pass off as regular people anymore. And then wondered what he himself looked like. He decided to be sociable.

  ‘Have you come in for a feed Keith? Could you smell it?’

  ‘I couldn't no, not over the smell of the rest of the meat, but we were on patrol looking for lost little sheep, you might like to say and saw you coming into this shop. Is it good?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Stephen. He looked at Ian hungrily and then back at the two others. ‘You are welcome to have as much as you like,' he said, gesturing towards Ian with his hand.

  ‘I think not. We prefer it a little warmer and fresher than that,’ said Stuart.

  ‘It’s still fresh, I just had some. It’s lovely, try it. He’s just maturing.’

  ‘How did all this shit go down?' asked Keith as he looked down at Adrian.

  ‘Adrian attacked Ian and Ian managed to get him a good one with that meat cleaver but then I came and managed to overpower him from the back.’

  ‘What's with all the disembowelment?’ Stuart asked a little crossly.

  ‘Well, Michael was with me and said I had to make sure he wouldn’t get back up again. And I had been wondering anyway, if people were the same inside as sheep.’ Stuart looked at him for a long time. ‘They’re not.’ Stephen said as if Stuart was waiting for an answer.

  ‘I still aren’t sure that makes sense. It’s not civilized, even for us.’

  ‘He can do whatever he likes to anyone now. We all can,’ Keith angrily snapped at Stuart. As if to defy him he walked to the half frozen pool of blood, put his finger in and tasted it. He seemed to be processing with his mouth and his tongue clicked quickly on the roof of his mouth. He reached down with his hand and got some more on three fingers and put them in his mouth. ‘That is good mate,' he said after finishing what was on his fingers. ‘He was a tasty one. I can understand why The Master has decided to settle here.’ Stephen nodded.

  ‘What have you been up to these last few days?' asked Stephen.

  ‘Oh, you know, following The Masters orders. Taking out the mobile phone masts, important stuff like that.’

  ‘Right.
Me and Michael, we've moved into The Grange. The Master wanted us close as we are his right hand men.’ They seemed to be playing a little game of one-upmanship. ‘So what have you been up to, Stuart?’

  ‘Turning people on The Master's orders. Making new ones of us.’

  ‘What are you doing tonight. Do you want to go out, all three of us?’

  ‘No,’ said Stuart condescendingly, ‘That wouldn’t look good, would it? We are both in uniform and you aren’t. It would look like we had arrested you!’

  ‘Yeah, I forgot,’ Stephen muttered downheartedly. In the war of who was most important, the two policemen had won.

  ‘Anyway, we have got work to do again for The Master. No rest for the wicked. More important stuff so that we can cut off the village,’ said Keith

  ‘Yeah that is important. We don't want any interference,’ agreed Stephen.

  ‘Fear not, whilst me and Stuart are in control, everything will go swimmingly. So you just carry on with your work and we'll do ours. We will be off now and I'll leave you to your feed. Leave some for me. Ian is too good a dish to miss out on. I will be back later.’

  Adam's Mum had been cooking all day. There were empty boxes of frozen party food all over the kitchen and she was laying plates and serviettes out on the sideboard. Adam had been instructed to have a wash and not be rude to any of her friends. He had taken the games console upstairs. She said that surprisingly few people had called her to cancel as she had checked her mobile and it had no calls on it and also the phone hadn’t rang all afternoon. Adam said rock on and went upstairs. She followed him and put on her outfit, satin trousers and a sequined top. She felt great.

  Julie was getting a little worried, but at six thirty, the doorbell rung for the first time. Screeching excitedly, she went to open it. Adam was in his bedroom. She said he could come down and have some of their food when some of the guests had had theirs. His door was slightly ajar, and muffled voices could be heard in greeting. He could hear people knocking snow off their boots and then the door shutting after them. After about four doorbell rings he thought he had given them plenty of chance and he crept downstairs.

  His mother was preoccupied with all the people there. He got a paper plate and piled it high with food. Checking where his mother was again, he took a can of lager and shoved it down the back of his trousers waistband and pulled his sweater over it. He quickly and stealthily went back upstairs and thought if he was lucky, he might get away with doing that mission another two times tonight.

  He had his headset on talking to Bob online, whilst they played their game. Every time he moved it a little away from his head, he could hear how raucous the party makers were. At eight o'clock he said to Bob that he was going down to get another plate full of food. He noticed that there were roughly about twenty-five people in his house. Adam only knew about ten of them. The others were from where his Mum worked. He didn’t look anyone in the eye, as he didn’t want a conversation to start up. Then his mother would discover him and his game would be up. There was still plenty of food left, but he noticed the booze stash had certainly been depleted. Of course the food was cold now. Filling another paper plate, this time he took a couple of mince pies and balanced them on top. Then his second can of lager went in his secret place and up the stairs he went again. It was getting quite rowdy down there and he thought it was a good job his Mum had invited both sets of neighbours round to the house. There certainly would have been a lot of complaining otherwise. When he was last down there he did not see his Mum, but he hadn’t gone into the living room as he thought he might get told off. There seemed to be a lot of Steps songs on very loud and a couple of Spice Girls numbers that he recognised. A couple of women were singing loudly and tunelessly to these, and others were laughing at them. He didn’t want to see how his mother was involved in this, but he bet she was dancing on the coffee table or being sick or something. He had witnessed both these things before at parties and he never wanted to have a repeat performance.

  Just after ten o'clock he lost contact with Bob. The connection just went dead. He messed about with all the contacts, leads and plug. Frustrated, he thought that for the moment, there was no getting back online. He picked up the phone to call Bob but that was dead too. Maybe the snow had taken down the lines. So that put pay to him playing with Bob. He thought that he might as well play offline on his own for a bit. It might come back on. There was no chance he was getting to sleep, with all that racket still going on. He played for about another half an hour, but was getting bored without the banter from Bob. He took his headset off. It was surprisingly quiet, he thought that the guests must have gone home early, because of the snow. Usually these parties lasted all night. He opened his curtains a little and saw that it was still coming down heavily. Looking downwards from the front door, he could see several pairs of fresh footprints. He thought he would go down and see what was left of the food. Might not be able get that third can of lager if his mother wasn’t distracted though.

  Even from the top of the stairs, he noticed that the guests had laid waste to his house. There were cans, bottles, glasses, paper plates serviettes and bits of food everywhere. He imagined that this was what student accommodation was like, and in a couple of years, he would probably be one of the ones adding to his mess. He just knew he would definitely be blackmailed by his mother to help her clear all this up the following day. With him doing the majority, as she was in a delicate condition.

  He went into the kitchen and there were indeed a few bits of food left. So he put them on a plate. He still didn't hear any noise so thought that he would check on his Mum. She probably had passed out asleep on the sofa and left the doors unlocked. He checked the back door and that indeed was unlocked. He put the bolt on and thought he would check on her before doing the front. He popped a mini sausage roll in his mouth then began to walk into the living room. There was a woman leaning over someone kissing them.

  ‘Oh sorry,’ he said quietly. Even more incomprehensible, as his mouth was full of pastry and sausage. He started to pivot on one foot to go out, his fluffy socks silent on the laminate floor. The woman looked up quickly and turned round to look at him. He had never seen her before and there was blood around her mouth and the person that he thought she was kissing on the sofa was his mother, Julie. His mother slowly rolled her head towards him. She had a look of ecstasy on her face. He saw this and his legs went to jelly and he thought, oh god they are in my house. He threw the plate of food at the two of them and ran up the stairs. His fluffy socks slipped on the stairs and he missed his footing. Adam felt like he was fighting his legs, they would not go as fast as he wanted them to. It seemed like it took forever to get up those stairs and into his room. He shut the door and started to put things behind it. Soon he saw that the door was being pushed from the other side, it was open enough, for the vampire to look through at him, her one unblinking eye visible through the gap.

  He threw himself at the door and started pushing back. He heard voices and then stopped to listen. He heard his mothers voice. ‘What do you want me to do Diane?’

  ‘This can be your first. The Master wants to collect families and your son will help us get another family that The Master particularly wants above all others. You will do this now and I will help you.’ Adam stood the other side of the door desperately wondering how he could defend himself against two vampires, one being his mother who he particularly didn’t want to hurt. He tried to recall everything he had read, and seen. All he had talked about with Bob. It seemed inaccessible at the moment. Think. Think.

  Adam quickly looked around the room while he had his hands against the door. They hadn’t stormed the door yet, so he had a few moments to plan. He tried to think about what worked and what he had that he could use. A wooden stake, garlic and decapitation. His eyes darted at each item in his room and judged if it could be used. He had his console and TV, his homework and loads of clothes in his room. What could anyone do with that? Even the most inventive person could
see that he had nothing. Then he did see something that he could use, the problem being he would have to let go of the door before he got to it. Plus he would be lucky to get both of them with it. As if they knew he had finished thinking, they both started pushing against the door again. He realised that he wouldn't be able to hold it much longer against the two of them. Letting go and in a world record attempt, he tried to get to his bedside table. They were in before he could do anything about it and he had only got as far as his desk. The vampire Diane got to him pretty quickly, he picked up his console and slammed it across the side of her head, which knocked her against the wall.

  He stepped back a couple of paces and his mother was on him. Diane was in the corner but conscious.

  ‘Show me. How do I do it?’ Julie screamed angrily.

  ‘I am trying to get up again,’ Diane said through gritted teeth. She was tangled up with all of Adam’s cables and chargers. Adam’s Mum had been telling him for ages to tidy it. It had his belts in there, a goal net from football, his dressing gown belt and many other tangled items. ‘Do it now Julie! Do it!’ Adam got his bedside lamp, which had a wooden base, smashed the top off it and plunged it into his mother. It still had part of the plastic and metal bulb fitment on it. The lamp cut through her quite easily, making a two-inch channel from the front of her, straight out the back. It stuck firmly in her, the ridges of the turned wood getting trapped in her ribs. He tried to tell himself she was no longer his mother after all. Adam didn’t know whether it hit her heart but it seemed to do the trick as she fell straight down like a sack of potatoes. No gasping, or turning to dust or reaching out to pull it out of herself. As it hit her she fell. Diane jumped up, free at last.

  ‘You will pay for this, child.’

  Adam put his hands over his face, he had no other weapons left. Closing his eyes, he tried to imagine he was with Bob and everything was fine. He wished it was summer and he was in the school playing fields, the sun on the pair of them, kicking a ball around at break. The best of times. He needed someone to help him. Feeling the pain in his neck, he knew no one was ever going to. His very last thought was that he needed Bob.