The Vampire Underground

by Brian Rowe

  “What…” Anaya turned toward the video camera, which appeared to still be in tact. But she didn’t pick it up. She stared forward, at the windows, her mouth agape. “What the hell is that?”

  Brin turned toward the schoolhouse windows. A pale face, and a pair of red eyes, was staring back at them.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Brin tried not to feel scared. She was the first to stand back up and move forward.

  “Wait!” Dylan reached out for Brin. “Where are you going?”

  “Just… stay down.”

  “Brin… is that…” Anaya, for the first time, appeared interested in discussing something besides herself or the movie. “Is that a person?”

  “Stay down, and don’t move,” Brin said.

  It only took her ten seconds to find the window, but it felt like an eternity, like a slow-motion glide across a dusty old mansion. She had to maneuver around the desks, past the chalkboard, past the clutter that blocked her from the edge of the window. She leaned forward, as the red glow started to dissipate.

  She had thought it before, and she knew it now: this wasn’t one of the evil bloodsuckers.

  It was him.

  “What are you doing here?” Brin whispered.

  Of course he didn’t respond. The young vampire who had saved her life didn’t seem to recognize that she had said anything. Instead, he tilted his head forward and brought his right palm up to the window.

  Brin furrowed her eyebrows. “What are you…”

  He stared at her. She didn’t know right away, but soon the truth came to her: he wanted her to do the same.

  Brin turned around. Anaya and Dylan were standing close together, both looking on in fear and confusion.

  She turned back and pressed her right palm against the window.

  She couldn’t believe it: she could feel a connection.

  First Brin felt a spark go off in her hand, and then she saw something that couldn’t possibly be real. She had seen the red glows in the eyes of these strange creatures. But she had never seen the glow in any of the hands.

  Brin tried to pull her hand back. She couldn’t; it was glued to the window. The figure stared at her, without a smile, without a frown, but with intense focus, as streams of red light passed between his palm and hers.

  No pain ensued, but she wanted to start screaming, anyway. She didn’t know what he was doing to her.

  Am I gonna die?

  “Stop,” she said. She tried to pull back again. She couldn’t budge. “Stop this!”

  He pulled his hand away from the window and she flew back five feet or more, the top of her head smashing against the nearest children’s desk.

  “Oh my God! Brin!” Dylan rushed forward and jumped down to her level. “Are you OK?”

  “Is she dead?” Anaya said.

  “She’s not dead! She’s breathing!” He moved his face closer to Brin’s. “Come on. Wake up. Wake—”

  Brin leaned her head back and transformed her face into an awkward scowl. He didn’t know what she was doing, until she moved her head forward and sneezed so violently that Dylan was nearly blown off his feet.

  “Whoa,” he said, as Brin stood up all by herself. He rubbed his aching arm and stood up along with her. “Do you need any help?”

  “I’m fine.”

  “What the hell was that?” Dylan said.

  “I… I don’t know.”

  “You have to know!” Anaya shouted from the back. She marched toward the other two. “Brin, what are you not telling us?”

  “Anaya, calm down.”

  “I will not calm down! What is going on here? Who was that guy? And what the hell happened to the others in our group?”

  “I don’t know, OK?” Brin said. “I don’t have all the answers.”

  “But you know something! I can tell!”

  As Brin and Anaya started arguing yet again, Dylan turned around and walked to the same window Brin had her hand pressed up against. He stepped over all the clutter, with difficulty, and tilted his head forward. He looked out the window, but didn’t see the mysterious figure. He didn’t see anything unusual.

  Anaya got up in Brin’s face. “Chace didn’t go to get help, did he?”

  Brin sighed and shook her head. “No.”

  “Where did he go? Why didn’t he come back with you?”

  “Something… something happened. A few miles from here.”

  “What happened?” Anaya stared at Brin with increasing animosity. They both forgot Dylan was even there. “Are you telling me he’s in danger?”

  Brin took a step back and shook her head. “No. We’re in danger.”

  Dylan turned around and gave Brin a look of terror, even though he hadn’t yet seen the red glow. But Brin and Anaya did. It didn’t just softly bounce off Brin and Anaya’s shoulders. The glow encapsulated the entire room.

  Brin turned to the window, as did Anaya.

  “Oh my God,” Anaya said. “What…”

  “Oh no,” Brin said.

  Dylan stared at the two in confusion. They stared back. He realized, bringing his eyes down to the ground, then up to the ceiling, that either a red atomic bomb had been dropped outside, or another one of those strange creatures was making himself known.

  “Dylan!” Brin shouted. “Get away from the window!”

  “What?”

  He heard the loud growling noise from outside. He thought he’d turn around to greet a bright-eyed set of ferocious wolves.

  Dylan turned around. There wasn’t one of those spooky red-eyed creatures. There were several. There were twenty or more.

  Some were men. Some were women. There was even a trio of vampire children.

  “Oh my God!” he shouted. “Oh my—”

  A loud shriek from the center figure enveloped not just the schoolhouse but the entire ghost town. Brin and Anaya slammed their hands to their ears, as the enormous glass windows burst into a thousand pieces.

  Dylan screamed as ten pale arms reached forward, grabbed him by the head, and pulled him out into the black, scary night.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Ash stepped out of his Beetle, walked slowly down the pavement so as not to slip and slam his head against the icy concrete, and made his way inside Grisly Video, only one of two video rental places still open in town, and the only one that stayed open after eight on the weekend.

  He nodded to Kurt, the store owner, who said, “Hey Ash. Haven’t seen you here since... yesterday.”

  “Actually it’s been two days,” Ash said.

  “Really?”

  “Mmm hmm.”

  “Well you’ve already rented enough movies in January to pay for your monthly subscription, so everything from here on out is free until February.”

  “You think I don’t know that?”

  Kurt, who at a tall six-foot-six commanded the room, laughed and started organizing some DVDs on the counter. “It doesn’t hurt to remind you, but remember, you can only rent two movies a day. That’s the rule.”

  “Duh.”

  “Oh, and I got a few new horror DVDs in today, if you’re interested.”

  “Yeah? What are they?”

  “We got the umpteenth new special edition of Evil Dead 2. Especially for you, Ash.”

  Ash smiled. “Well, thank you.”

  “Let’s see. We got Audrey Rose, Return of the Living Dead, Bride of Re-Animator, Human Centipede 3.”

  “They made a third one?” Ash said.

  “Oh. And we got two copies of the vampire flick Let Me In. It’s a remake of Let the Right One In.”

  “Is that horror? Looked more like a love story.”

  “You should check it out. It’s really good.”

  “I don’t know. I’ve had enough of the vampire genre for one week.” Ash approached the counter and sighed, looking up at the New Releases promo on the white board. “It’s sad, really. Let me guess. You have the one copy of Evil Dead 2.”

  Kurt nodded. “That’s correct.”r />
  “And answer me this: How many copies of the new Twilight movie did you get? A thousand? A million? Twenty-six billion?”

  “Ninety-seven.”

  “Ninety-seven? That’s ridiculous!”

  “You wanna know what’s more ridiculous?” Kurt sat up on the counter. His casual behavior didn’t seem to matter; only two other customers were in the store. “Ninety-seven people will rent Twilight. And nobody will rent Evil Dead 2.”

  “That’s sad.”

  “It sucks.”

  “It’s a comment on our culture, isn’t it?” Ash looked like he wanted to cry. “Vampires aren’t meant to be lovey-dovey. They’re meant to be scary. Vampires are supposed to be freakin’ scary!”

  A woman in her early thirties tiptoed up to the front counter, a copy of the newest Twilight DVD in her hand. “Umm… I couldn’t help but overhear,” she said, “but I think your guys’ problem is that you’re out of touch.”

  “Excuse me?” Ash said, crossing his arms.

  The woman flipped her blonde hair back and smiled proudly. “I’m not gonna stand here and admit the Twilight movies are Citizen Kane. But they’re entertaining… they’ve got action and comedy and romance… the most beautiful actors… everything you could want in a movie. They make me happy.”

  “Really?” Ash said. “They don’t secretly make you hate yourself? They don’t make you resent the fact that you’ve just wasted two precious hours of your life?”

  She snickered. “You’ve probably wasted a whole lot more than two hours rambling on about how much Twilight sucks. You know what I have to say to that? Get a life.” She turned to Kurt. “Can I check this out, please?”

  Kurt looked at the woman, then at Ash, then back at the woman. He calmly took a deep breath. “No.”

  “I only have a credit card,” the woman said, “but I can…” She stopped, then tilted her head in astonishment. “Wait… what did you say?”

  “I said, no. I’m not gonna let you rent it.”

  Kurt grabbed the DVD from her and threw it on the back counter.

  “Hey!” the woman shouted, reaching for it. “Hey, give it back! You can’t do that!”

  He stepped to the side and pointed at the sign behind him: WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO REFUSE SERVICE TO ANYONE.

  “Oh, for God’s sake,” the woman said. “Are you serious?”

  Kurt nodded, as did Ash, as if the latter had a say in the manner.

  The woman shook her head and stormed for the exit. “Whatever. I’ll just download it online. Good luck keeping this stupid ass store in business! I give you two months tops!”

  The door slammed shut and Ash approached Kurt. “That… was awesome.”

  “Thanks.”

  “She did have a point, though,” Ash said.

  “What? About Twilight?”

  “No. About the store. You don’t get a lot of customers anymore, Kurt. People have turned to Netflix, Redbox, Apple TV. You probably shouldn’t be refusing service.”

  “It’ll be fine,” he said. “Don’t worry about me.” He pointed to the back of the store. “Now go to the horror section and check out Let Me In. It’s really good, I promise.”

  “OK. I’ll take a look at it.”

  Ash roamed through the Comedy, Drama, and Classics sections to get to Horror in the back. Unlike any other movie rental store in northern Nevada, this one features a stellar horror video library. Ash passed the big sign that said “YOU’VE ENTERED THE GRISLY SECTION” and made his way to the newest selections. He saw some titles he recognized, like the Wrong Turn sequels, An American Werewolf in London, and the newest Criterion Collection DVD of Repulsion. His fingertips grazed the covers. The last one on the left was the remake of The Last House on the Left. The one next to that was Let Me In.

  Ash grabbed a copy and analyzed the cover. He’d considered seeing this one in theatres, but the movie left the local theatre faster than Gigli, due to poor box office. He still didn’t like the idea of watching a horror movie about a human who befriends and/or romances a vampire, but the incredible Stephen King quote on the cover—“The best horror movie of the last twenty years”—tipped Ash over the edge. He fastened the copy to his side and started walking back to the front counter.

  Halfway there, he stopped, and looked up at the video screen. Kurt wasn’t playing the newest Pixar film or the latest in the line of Adam Sandler’s dreadful comedies. It was frowned upon for him to play anything R-rated—kids swarmed the store every day after all—so he preferred mixing the clean with the controversial by playing classic horror movies.

  Tonight, he had the original vampire classic, Todd Browning’s Dracula, playing on the screen. Taking place was the famous scene where Van Helsing first meets Count Dracula.

  Ash stopped and watched a few minutes of the film. Vampires weren’t his favorite horror movie creatures, not by a long shot—he preferred zombies—but he apparently wasn’t going to be escaping them anytime soon.

  “I never drink… wine,” Bela Lugosi said in the movie.

  Ash smiled along with Bela. “Maybe vampires aren’t so bad, after all,” he whispered.

  His leg vibrated. He broke from his daze and looked down, pulling his phone out of his pocket. His eyes opened wide to see a text from Brin.

  “Oh, thank God,” he said.

  “You gonna rent that or not?” Kurt said in the distance. “We’re closing in a few minutes.”

  “Shh,” Ash said. “One second.”

  Kurt crossed his arms and pointed, half-jokingly, to that big sign behind him.

  Ash read the text from Brin. It hadn’t been sent from her recently. It had been sent from her hours ago. But somehow he hadn’t received it until now.

  Hope your shoot’s going well, the text said. Call me later. We should hang out. Jimmy Stewart night? J

  Ash stared at the text for thirty seconds or more. He had been right. Brin did want to hang out with him tonight.

  He glanced at the time. It was almost 11 P.M.

  Ash tried calling her. For the twentieth time today, his call went to voice-mail.

  “What the hell…” Ash tried to call her a second time. Again, nothing.

  “Well?” Kurt looked restless behind the counter.

  Ash looked around the video store. No other customers remained inside.

  “Sorry, Kurt,” he said, stepping toward the counter and setting the DVD down. “I can’t watch this tonight. There’s something I need to do.”

  “After all that?” Kurt sighed. “What do you need to do?”

  Ash didn’t smile or frown. He started biting down on his tongue. “Road trip.”

  Kurt scowled. “Comedy. On the left. But you could do a lot better than Seann William Scott—”

  “Not the movie,” Ash said. “I’m taking a real road trip.”

  “Really? Where?”

  Ash tiptoed to the front door. He hesitated a moment, as if stepping out into the night would bring him face-to-face with a real-life horror.

  He turned back to Kurt. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  “Dylan!” Brin screamed, reaching her arms out, as if she actually had a chance to save him. She watched in horror as the vampires pulled him out of the schoolhouse, by his head of all places, disappearing into the clan of monsters outside.

  “Brin!” Anaya, for seemingly the first time in her life, looked terrified. She hid behind Brin and backed up against the wall behind her. “What the hell do we do?”

  “The only thing we can do,” Brin said. “Get the hell out of here!”

  One of the creatures jumped through the shattered window, reaching down toward the dusty schoolhouse ground to find his footing.

  Anaya started screaming. “Oh my God! They’re coming inside!” She started running toward the chalkboard.

  Brin’s mouth shot open. “Anaya! You idiot!” She raced toward the girl. “Where are you going?”

  “There’s gotta be anoth
er way out! Right?”

  “Wrong! No!” Brin grabbed Anaya by the arm and turned her around. Now two of the creatures were inside, standing up on their feet, staring at them like they were in the mood for a bloody red cocktail.

  The larger of the two figures, the one drooling and sporting his massive fangs, ran for the two girls, while the other creature stayed put. He dove for Anaya, but Brin fell to her knees and pulled Anaya down with her, just in time for the creature to miss and slam his wretched face against the wall.

  “Stay down, Anaya! And hurry!”

  Brin started crawling on all fours, toward the center of the room, making her way stealthily and efficiently to the open window she had entered the schoolhouse from.

  Brin turned her head to the left. Only two of the vampires were still inside. The others were standing outside, screaming and cheering, like they were at a football game cheering for their team.

  “Where’d they go?” Anaya said, trying her best to crawl past the desks.

  “I don’t know,” Brin said, wanting to stop and turn around to look, but knowing if she did it could mean the end for both of them. She kept moving.

  But then, as they passed the halfway point, they both heard the loud crashes behind them.

  “Oh God,” Brin said.

  Anaya slugged Brin on her butt. “What the hell was that?”

  “Move! Faster!”

  Brin turned around fast enough to see that both of the creatures were flipping over one desk after another, walking with poise and confidence as they started destroying the archaic schoolhouse. Most of the desks shattered into two or three pieces; others landed upside down and stayed miraculously in tact.

  No matter how fast the two girls were going, the vampires were catching up.

  “Who are they?” Anaya shouted, panic in her voice. “What do they want?”

  “What do you think, Anaya? They want our blood!” Brin shouted. She had two more desks to pass.

  “They want our what?”

  One of the creatures pounded on his chest like he was Tarzan and started flipping over two desks at a time. The cheering outside grew louder and louder.