The Vampire Underground

by Brian Rowe

  “Oh my God,” she said, scooting back.

  She watched as Paul jumped on the vampire above her, snapped his neck, and then exposed an old but potent saw.

  “Don’t look,” Paul said. “This has to be done.”

  Brin was perfectly fine with not looking. She turned her head to the side and stared at the wall, the one covered with an ugly blue rug. She didn’t understand why Paul would feel the need to dress up his sad little quarters, especially since he said he never had any visitors.

  Until now, that is.

  “OK,” Paul said. “It’s OK now.”

  He tossed the second severed head into the back of the room and walked over to Brin.

  “Give me your hand,” he said.

  “Excuse me?”

  “You need to stand up.”

  She shook her head. “I’m fine. I just… I think I need a towel or a washcloth or something.”

  “I’m sorry, I don’t have anything like that.” He sat down on the dirt next to her and unexpectedly ran a few of his fingers through her fine black hair.

  “Anyone ever tell you how pretty your hair is?” he said.

  She stared at him with incredulity and tried not to laugh. “My face is covered in vampire’s blood and you notice how nice my hair looks?”

  He smiled. “Sorry. I don’t see too many living, breathing humans anymore.”

  She glanced past Paul to see two decapitated heads on the other side of the room. She shuddered, violently, as if a cold breeze passed through her. “Disgusting.”

  “You think I’m disgusting?” His warm smile slowly morphed into a look of constipation.

  “No, no, not you,” she said. “Those creatures. Those heads.”

  “Don’t look at them.”

  “How can I not?”

  She crossed her arms and sighed, figuring this night was never going to end. She swallowed loudly, wishing she had even the smallest glass of water to drink from.

  “Wait… what do you mean you never see humans?” Brin said. “Bodie Ghost Town is a tourist destination… a famous ghost town, right? People come here all the time.”

  “People aren’t here in the winter,” Paul said. “We come here during the cold months.”

  “And where are you during the warm months?”

  “We migrate west.”

  “You what?”

  “Come on, there’s no more time to talk. Let’s go.”

  Paul stood up and brushed the dirt from his pants. Again, he reached his hands out.

  “But…” Brin brought her hands not to his, but to her own forehead. She could feel a migraine coming on. “But where are we gonna go?”

  “I’ve killed two from the group,” he said. “They’re just the Leifers, so trust me, they won’t be missed. But they will need to be accounted for. And when the Volgas find out they haven’t returned, we’ll be in deep trouble.”

  She stared at him with a blank expression. “The Lief… the Vol… the what?”

  “We have to go,” Paul said. He wasn’t taking no for an answer this time; he grabbed Brin by the hand and pulled her up to her feet.

  She momentarily forgot how to stand. She was so shocked by the recent turn of events that her feet gave out from under her. But he pulled her toward his chest, kept a tight grasp on her arm, and shook her for a second.

  “Brin! Now is not the time for a nap!”

  She nodded and broke free from her daze. “I know.” She stayed upright without his help. “I’m fine. I’m fine now.”

  “You sure?”

  “Yeah.”

  “OK,” Paul said. He stood up on the table and leapt to the top floor.

  Brin didn’t move. “Am I… am I following you?”

  “No, stay there.”

  He was only gone for half a minute. She could hear him pushing heavy boxes and furniture against the entrance door to the shack and sealing up the open window. Then he dropped back down in front of Brin, a pile of weapons in his hands, a tiny box sticking out of his back pocket.

  “Here,” he said, handing her a pocket knife.

  “Oh, Jesus,” she said. “What’s this for?”

  “You’ll see in a bit. Just keep it in your pocket.”

  Brin dropped the knife into her left pocket, then crossed her arms in confusion. “Shouldn’t you be giving me a wooden stake? From what I’ve seen, stakes kill vampires a lot quicker than pocket knives.”

  “Actually, stakes can only wound us, not kill us.”

  “I thought a stake through the heart killed you all instantly.”

  “Not us,” he said. “That’s just what you see in the movies.”

  “And Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” she added.

  “Shhh. We need to go.”

  “Is that what makes you different?” Brin said. “The fact that stakes don’t instantly turn you into ashes?”

  “It is. But that’s not the only rule we break.” He took her hand. “Come on.”

  They started walking toward the wall with the rug draped over it.

  “Where are we going? It’s just a—”

  Paul clamped his hand in hers and pressed against the rug to reveal a giant metallic door. He pried it open to reveal a dark secret passageway.

  “Oh God,” Brin said.

  “What?”

  “We’re not going in there, are we?”

  “We must,” Paul said. “We have to go this way to save your friends. You don’t want to leave without them, do you?”

  She shook her head. “Of course not.”

  “OK. They’re alive, but they won’t be for long. We’re the only hope there is to save them.”

  Brin stared up into his big, kind eyes. She knew she could trust him. But she also knew things were going to get a lot worse before they got any better.

  She also knew she couldn’t possibly leave the rest of her group behind.

  “OK,” she said. “I’ll go with you. But I just ask one thing.”

  “Anything.”

  “You promise me the two of us will make it out of here alive.”

  He licked his chapped, gray lips and looked away from her for a moment. This reaction didn’t instill confidence in Brin.

  “I… I promise,” he said, still turned away.

  “Look me in the eyes and say it!”

  She pulled him super close to her. Their faces almost touched.

  He gazed into her eyes and sighed. “I promise,” he said. “Now please. We need to go.”

  “OK.” She turned back toward the black, scary hole in the wall and couldn’t help but tremble as she grasped the vampire’s arm. “But you’re going first.”

  Chapter Thirty-One

  There was no light in the hallway, not even a faint blinking bulb. The spooky walk was endless. One minute became five, five became fifteen, and the blackness that surrounded Brin started playing with her vivid imagination.

  As she tried to stay focused on Paul’s touch, she found herself thinking about, of all things, Splash Mountain at Disneyland. She thought about reaching the end of this tunnel to find an entrance to the famous log ride, albeit built underneath Bodie Ghost Town and only operational when Brin came to say hello. She would board in the front—of course—and rest her back and head against Paul’s chest. The first two dips would be minimal, but then, Paul would give Brin the most vivid glimpse of the Underground imaginable.

  They would ride past singing vampires, all boasting about their most recent kill, all carrying small plastic cups filled to the brim with thick, juicy blood. The vampires would wave to Brin, creepy grins on their faces, so much red light shooting out of their eyes that the entire Underground would turn into a water ride complete with a thousand laser beams.

  After passing the last of the singing vampires, the log would come to a complete stop, and then start to climb up the track so slowly that Brin would have to keep herself from screaming in anticipation. She would crush Paul’s hands with her own and try to keep from closing her eyes. As the
log reached the top, Brin could see Bodie Ghost Town, the sun, the exit, her dad standing by his junky old Jeep waiting for a tender embrace.

  But the track wouldn’t go all the way. Brin would reach her hand out, hoping to feel her dad’s touch, before the track veered left and approached the biggest drop of Brin’s life. She would lean back to hold onto Paul, but he wouldn’t be there. She’d turn around to see that he was gone.

  As the log reached the final curve, she would hear a loud, malevolent laugh pierce her ears. Her heart would start pounding, and her palms would start sweating. The laugh, just as she approached the edge, would become a fierce, booming guffaw that echoed through the entire Underground.

  Brin would scream as the log careened straight down into a black hole. The wind would blast against her face, her heart leaping into her throat, her eyes ready to burst from their sockets. Before passing out, the blackness below would disappear, and a bright, shining light would illuminate the giant, revolting face of a vampire. As big as Mount Everest that face would be, with Brin the size of an ant hurtling toward the vampire’s open, wanting mouth. One drop of blood would be the magnitude of a waterfall, and a fang would be as gargantuan and sharp as Titanic’s deadly iceberg.

  Brin would scream, one last time, as she sped into the vampire’s mouth, passed through the blood, dipped down underneath the fang, roared forward toward the pulsating uvula, and fell all the way down into a pool of scolding hot lava.

  “You OK?” Paul said.

  Brin broke out of her nightmare not at Paul’s question, but by tripping on a rock. She fell face first toward the ground but was yanked up at the last second.

  “I’ve got you,” Paul said, slowly pulling Brin back up to her feet.

  “I’m such a klutz,” she said. “But really… you don’t have to keep saving me.”

  He didn’t hesitate with: “I think I do.”

  She didn’t notice it until now, but she could now faintly see Paul’s face. “There’s… there’s light.”

  “Yes. Turn around.”

  She turned to her right and looked toward the ground. She stepped forward a few yards to find a giant cement wall. She tapped it with her hand. Then she got down on her knees to see the small space at the bottom; it was just big enough for a body to slip through.

  “Are we…” Brin said, not feeling the need to finish her sentence.

  “Absolutely.” Paul met Brin on her left side and put his hand out. “But hold on. I need to make sure it’s safe.”

  Paul brought his stomach to the ground. He pushed himself a few inches forward and peered through the slit to see the adjacent hallway beyond the cement wall. He turned his head to the left, then to the right. He scooted back.

  “OK, we’re clear,” he said.

  “Is there any activity?” Brin stared down at Paul, her arms crossed, feeling at this moment like she wanted to do anything but slip through this tiny opening.

  “Not here. But we’ll be at the center of all the activity in a few minutes.”

  She didn’t know what he meant by this statement, but she figured he knew what he was talking about. He sucked in his (non-existent) gut and started sliding through the small space.

  “Just follow me,” he said.

  The guy could barely fit. Clearly this entryway had been designed for the more athletically built. While Brin wasn’t overweight, she had her share of curves. She didn’t want to die by getting stuck in between these walls. It would be painful and scary, not to mention, embarrassing.

  “OK,” she said. “Here goes.”

  Even though Paul had scooted through on his stomach, she decided it would be easier to lie on her back. She grasped the outside wall and started pushing herself through. She sucked in her gut and held her breath, feeling lucky like never before that her breasts were as small as they were. The front of her chin scratched against the bottom of the cement wall, and her hair got caught, twice, but half of her body was soon through, and she kicked herself all the way out.

  Brin didn’t expect to fall more than a few inches but down she went, a whopping six feet to a stone-cluttered walkway below. She fell on her back in a way that temporarily knocked the wind out of her.

  “Brin! You all right?”

  She mouthed a few words, but nothing came out.

  “Oh God,” he said. “Can you breathe?”

  She shook her head in a way to suggest she was fine, that she just needed a minute, but he took her head shaking the wrong way.

  Paul jumped on top of her, and brought his left hand to her nose and his right hand to her chin. Before she could attempt another word, he brought his lips over hers and started to blow.

  Brin hadn’t kissed a boy in two years; she didn’t want her next smooch to be with a dead vampire. She coughed loudly into his mouth and pushed him out of her face.

  “Oh, thank God,” he said, standing back up. “You’re OK.”

  “Of course I’m OK, you jerk! I didn’t need mouth to mouth!”

  “Oh, I thought—”

  “I just got the wind knocked out of me!” Brin coughed a few more times, then stood up and rested the back of her head against the cement wall.

  “Are you ready to go?” Paul said. “We need to keep moving.”

  Brin brought her hands up to her face. The emotions overwhelmed her. She didn’t know if the tears started flowing because she was fatigued, or because it was late, or because she didn’t know where she was, or because her group was in danger, or because she was in danger, or because she was stuck in dirt hallways under an abandoned ghost town with a goddamned vampire. She just started crying.

  The tears flowed fast and freely, dripping down her cheeks and to the rocky ground below. She turned around and pushed her forehead against the wall. She had been on edge ever since she left Grisly nearly twenty-four hours ago, and now she was at the breaking point.

  “Brin, what is it?” The vampire took her hand, but she pulled it away.

  “Why…” She could barely talk. Her eyes were stinging. “Why did we have to come here? Why couldn’t we have just stayed home?”

  “You don’t have to worry. I’ll protect you.”

  “How can you protect me?” Brin said, turning around, her eyes bloodshot, drool running down her chin. “You’re dead!”

  He gave her a knowing look. “I’m not dead.”

  “You’re one of them! How am I supposed to believe you’re gonna get me out of here? The more time I spend with you, the farther down we go! I don’t get closer to an exit. I get closer to Hell!”

  “Brin, please.” He grabbed her waist and pulled her close. She didn’t fight him this time. She brought her hands back up to her face. “I know you’re upset. I know you’re scared to be down here. But they’re looking for you. And I guarantee you they are searching the grounds up top, especially now that I’ve beheaded two of them.”

  She took in his every word. She wanted to calm down. She wanted to believe everything he was saying. “You’re telling me… they won’t think I’m with you.”

  “I told you before. They don’t know I’m here.”

  “How can they not know that?”

  “You’re just gonna have to trust me.”

  “I don’t know if I can!”

  He pulled her closer and brought his hands up to her tear-stained cheeks. They stared at each other for a moment, one that felt like an eternity.

  “You… are going… to be fine. I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”

  “Why do you care so much?” She sniffled, and wished she had a Kleenex in her jeans pocket. “You don’t even know me.”

  He continued staring at her. She thought he might try to kiss her, for real this time. Even though she found him dreamy in an inexplicable way, she would’ve slugged him if he tried. Now was not the time for romantic gestures. Now was the time to survive.

  Paul didn’t kiss her. Instead, he said, “But I want to.”

  They didn’t break from each other until a
loud, echoing cheer erupted down the hallway.

  Brin diverted her attention to the right. “What was that?”

  “It has begun,” Paul said. He took a few steps forward, but stopped when he realized Brin wasn’t following. He turned back to her. “Are you coming?”

  “I presume I don’t have a choice.”

  He shook his head. “I’m sorry to say… you don’t. But if you stick with me, I promise… I will protect you.”

  He put his hand out. She looked at it for a few seconds. She had never been a girl who needed protecting. She had never been a girl who needed a man. But now, in this moment, she felt relieved to return the gesture and press her palm against his.

  The cheering from afar grew louder. Brin loudly gulped.

  “Let’s go,” he said.

  They made their way across the wide, empty hall, and started ascending a winding, granite staircase.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Ash came to a complete stop and stepped outside his Beetle, the third time he would do so in the course of the last half-hour. The snow hadn’t been paved on Route 270, and he had to keep stopping to make sure he was on the right path. He was in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the night, one hundred percent alone, and he didn’t want to go the wrong way. He didn’t want to end up in a place even more desolate than Bodie Ghost Town.

  He took out his phone. Still no text or voice-mail from Brin. And now there was zero service.

  “Great,” he said, making a sharp left and climbing yet another snow-covered hill. He was thankful for the clear sky and bright moon above him, but he wasn’t happy with his inability to see the paved road. “What if my car breaks down? What the hell am I gonna do?”

  He knocked three times for good luck against the dashboard of his car, even though it wasn’t made of wood, and tried to get comfy in his seat. His butt was numb, as was his tired legs. His whole body was telling him to go to sleep, or at least take a nap, but Ash didn’t want to stop. He wanted to continue on. He was super close, after all, and he needed to see with his own eyes if Brin and her group were in the mysterious Bodie.