by Brian Rowe
“There’s nowhere to park,” Brin said.
“There has to be somewhere.”
“This is ridiculous.”
“I know. This tells a lot about our town. The big Saturday get-together is a freakin’ funeral.”
“Tell me about it,” she said, veering past the parked cars to find an exit back to the main road. “And to think, we’re gonna be one of the only ones here who actually saw Chace and Sawyer die.”
“I didn’t see Sawyer die,” Ash said. “What happened to him again?”
“I don’t want to go into it.”
Brin turned back onto the main road, where cars were parked alongside the street for seemingly a mile in both directions. She drove down the winding road for a minute or longer until she was finally able to find a spot.
“It’s gonna take forever to walk to the cemetery from here,” Ash said.
“I’m sorry, Ash. Did you want me to drop you off back in the parking lot? Like a chauffeur?”
“That would be fantastic!”
“I was joking. Come on. You need the exercise.”
“What did I just tell you about exercise?”
Brin kicked her door open. “Shut up, doofus. Let’s go.”
Brin and Ash stepped out into the morning sun, both yawning after getting just four hours of sleep apiece. Their movie night had gone later than expected, and when Brin finally got into bed, she couldn’t stop her mind from racing.
She went back and forth on it, but in the morning she decided to have Paul stay home from the funeral. Even though he himself had nothing to do with the deaths of Chace and Sawyer, he was a vampire, he was one of them, and Brin felt it to be in poor taste to have him dress up all nice and spiffy for the boys’ funerals. She was surprised when Paul actually agreed with her—he didn’t care to spend all morning in the sun surrounded by strangers anyway.
But as Brin stepped out of her car and started walking down the side of the street with Ash by her side, she felt bad that Paul wasn’t with her. She didn’t want him to think that she blamed him for what happened to Chace and Sawyer—because she didn’t. She hoped the funeral wouldn’t go on forever. She hoped she could be home in time for lunch, and for some friendly time with her vampire buddy.
“Do you know how long it’ll take to get there?” Ash said.
“I’m not going to dignify that question with an answer.”
“Where’s your mom? Did she come separately?”
“Yeah. She went with some friends like an hour ago. She’s probably in the front row, as if she actually gives a shit about these two guys.”
“Hey, at least your mom is going. My dads are in Napa all weekend.”
“Napa? What for?”
“Uhh, their anniversary.”
“Their anniversary?”
“Yeah. They’ve been together twenty-three years.”
“Twenty-three years?” Brin said. She pulled Ash closer to her. “Wow! That’s amazing. I had no idea it’d been that long.”
“Yep.”
“You’re lucky, you know? Your dads are pretty awesome.”
“I know,” he said. “You don’t have to remind me.”
After a surprising lack of whining from Ash for the last ten minutes of their walk, Brin stepped onto the familiar cemetery grass. She tried to forget about her little rendezvous with Lavender here a week ago, or the disappearance of her father from his very own grave. She tried to just focus on the sadness of today, with the hope of a promising tomorrow, when no more of her friends and fellow students would have to die.
Where is Lavender by the way?
Brin knew something was severely wrong with the cheerleader, and thought she might be turning into a vampire, but while she hadn’t reported to school last week, Brin hadn’t heard any tragic news that confirmed the worst. Apparently the girl was still alive, still human.
And she could see for herself when Brin and Ash approached the large assemble of funeral goers—some sitting, most standing—before a raised platform that contained a stunning, dark brown casket. A group of six people sat in chairs on the platform, and someone was already talking into a microphone for all the attendees to hear. Brin could see her mom toward the front, as well as Anaya and Dylan a few rows back. Brin was stunned to see two open seats to the left of Anaya.
“Look,” Brin said. “Over there.” She grabbed Ash’s arm.
As they trampled over multiple feet to reach the seats, the male figure at the podium stepped aside, and Chace’s mom Jeanie took the stand. She was adorned all in black, with her hair and most of her face hidden underneath a veil. Brin sat down next to Anaya just in time to see that Lavender was sitting directly in front of her.
“Lavender?” Brin whispered.
The girl turned around. A black veil covered most of her face, too, so Brin couldn’t make out many details. But she could still see that the girl’s face was as pale as the snow-covered Bodie, and that she had a small scab on the top of her forehead. Brin couldn’t tell if she was still human. She easily could’ve been turned by now.
But Brin didn’t say anything more to her; she merely smiled and waited for Lavender to turn back around.
“What have we missed?” Brin said to Anaya. She tried not to notice that Anaya was taking up two of the seats.
“Nothing. They played some sad music for a bit, and then some pastor droned on and on, mostly about how Chace is with God and that he is in good hands now.”
“Why is there only one casket?”
“What do you mean?”
“I thought they were having a service for both Chace and Sawyer. I figured that’s why there’s so many people here.”
Anaya pursed her lips and looked back. “Wow. It got super crowded, didn’t it?”
“You didn’t answer my question.”
“Oh. This is just for Chace. They aren’t doing anything for Sawyer.”
“What? They’re doing nothing?”
“I don’t know,” Anaya said. “They’re probably having his service later today, or tomorrow. I don’t know—”
“Shhh,” an old woman said from behind.
Anaya crossed her arms and turned back toward Jeanie, who was struggling to get through her heartfelt speech. Brin did the same, although she had trouble focusing on the speaker when the disturbed and homicidal Lavender was sitting just inches away.
“It’s humbling to me, the outpouring of support, the turnout we have here today. Chace was a friend to everyone. People loved him not just for his athletic abilities, or for his outgoing personality, or for his boyish good looks. He cared about others. My Chace, my wonderful, beautiful Chace, was truly a friend to everyone.”
Brin rolled her eyes. She missed and reflected upon Chace as much as the others this morning, but his mother was making him out to be the eighth wonder of the world. She spent all of that chilly day two weeks ago with Chace, and even got to spend time with him alone during one of his last hours left on Earth. He wasn’t that special. He wasn’t everything these people were making him out to be.
As Jeanie babbled on for another twenty minutes, Brin thought about the kind of crowd the quieter, less popular Sawyer would receive. She figured he would get five percent of this crowd, maybe less. And it didn’t seem right. Not only had Sawyer been more helpful to the group, definitely less full of himself, he had suffered far longer and far worse during his end than the luckier Chace did.
And Sawyer didn’t leave me for dead, she thought.
Brin looked up at the podium. Jeanie was still talking, and now fighting away tears.
“What makes this tragedy so damn horrible is that we still don’t know, and we might never know, what happened to Chace. He was in California filming a movie for a class, but nobody knows how he died. For a mother to lose a son is hard enough. At the very least I could know what happened to my boy, at least that he went out a hero, at least that he—”
“VAMPIRES KILLED HIM!”
Jeanie stopped talking. A
hush fell over the crowd. Nobody moved. All eyes veered toward Brin’s direction.
“What… umm…” Jeanie took a step back, and then faced the speaker in the crowd. “What did you just say?”
Dylan stood up and screamed it loud enough for all of Grisly to hear: “VAMPIRES KILLED CHACE! THEY TORE HIM APART FROM END TO END RIGHT BEFORE MY VERY EYES!”
Chapter Eighteen
Brin brought her hands to her mouth. She looked at Ash in horror, and he stared back in total disbelief.
“Did you say… vampires?” Jeanie narrowed her eyes and stared at Dylan in confusion. Brin couldn’t tell if she or anyone in the crowd actually believed him.
“THERE’S HUNDREDS OF THEM! LIVING UNDER BODIE GHOST TOWN! THEY KILLED SAWYER, TOO! THEY’RE EVERYWHERE!”
Anaya leaned to her right to pull Dylan back into his seat, but Brin stopped her and shook her head.
“What?” Anaya said.
“Don’t.” Brin kept shaking her head. “Don’t touch him.”
Brin couldn’t believe what was happening, that Dylan, of all people, was flapping his gums for the world to hear. She thought it was going to be Lavender. But no. The quiet, nervous, simple-minded Dylan was the one to tell everyone the big Bodie secret.
“Vampires killed my son?” Jeanie said.
“Yes,” Dylan said, catching his breath and keeping his eyes glued on Chace’s mom up at the podium.
Jeanie bit down on her bottom lip for a moment. Then she started to laugh.
The laughter didn’t come fast. It built over a minute or two until a hundred guffaws from every which direction echoed through all of Grisly Cemetery. Brin figured there would be a few surprises at this crowded funeral today, but she definitely didn’t expect this exorbitant wall of chuckles.
Dylan closed his mouth and surveyed everyone surrounding him. He took a seat and brought his head down between his legs.
“What is he doing?” Anaya said to Brin.
“I don’t think you want to know.”
Dylan blew chunks all over the grass in front of him, then stood up, dry heaved a few times, and started working his way down the row.
“Shit,” Anaya said. “Should we go after him?”
Anaya started to sit up again, but Brin pulled her back down. “No! If we go after him, if the rest of us who were in Bodie go after him, we’ll look suspicious. We have to stay put.”
“But what about Dylan?”
“There’s nothing we can do for him.” Brin shook her head and let out a loud sigh. “Goddammit, Dylan, what the hell’s the matter with you?”
“It’s fine,” Ash said. Sitting on Brin’s left side, he seemed more immersed in Jeanie’s speech than the others. “Nobody believed him. No one will.”
“But what if someone does? It only takes one person here to investigate his story and find—”
Lavender slowly turned around and stared eerily into Brin’s eyes. She brought her index finger up to her mouth and said, “Shhh.”
This girl is gone, Brin thought, but she didn’t say a word. Lavender turned toward the front as everyone finally stopped their laughing.
“Vampires,” Jeanie said, shaking her head and resorting back to her serious demeanor. “I don’t know who said that, but I am shocked and horrified that somebody would make a joke out of my son’s death, on the day of his very own funeral. I know I laughed along with all of you, but honestly? I’m mortified that someone would speak out of turn and make up a sick joke like that. You know how I know that no vampires, or werewolves, or aliens, killed my little boy? Because if anyone, supernatural or otherwise, would have tried to hurt my Chace, he would’ve kicked the shit out of them!”
The applause was defeaning. Brin and Ash looked at each other, knowing in the speed of their glances that they agreed what Jeanie said had been super cheesy, but it was apparently something this audience had been looking for. Many leapt to their feet and cheered. Apparently Jeanie wanted her little boy to be remembered as someone who kicked alien ass.
“That’s all I have to say right now,” Jeanie said as the cheering calmed down. “Chace, I love you, and I miss you.”
“This is turning into a freak show,” Brin said to Anaya.
“Tell me about it. I feel like I’m in the middle of a political rally.”
“I just hope nothing else crazy happens. You’re not gonna start shouting about vampires, are you?”
“You’d have to hold a gun to my head,” Anaya said. “And even then, I’d keep my mouth shut. Isn’t that Dylan a friend of yours?”
“He’s… an acquaintance. A guy I’ve had classes with. I haven’t spent much time outside of school with him.”
“He needs to be on drugs or something. I can’t believe he decided now was the time for a nervous breakdown.”
“I’ll talk to him.”
“It’s too late for that. The secret’s out.”
“Hey, remember, Brin,” Ash said, butting into the girls’ conversation. “Something that should keep us out of trouble is the fact that nobody here but us actually believes in vampires.”
Brin crossed her arms as a giant male figure approached the microphone. “It’s funny how supernatural creatures suddenly become believable once you’re face to face with them,” she said.
“I just hope it’s only vampires we ever have to contend with,” Anaya said.
“Shhh!” a woman to the side of Lavender said to the trio. “Stop talking!”
“Sorry.” Brin decided they should shut up for a while. It was probably best not to discuss the vamps around all these people.
The man at the podium was having trouble speaking through his sobs. “My name is Steven, I’m Chace’s stepdad. I only knew this incredible young man for three years, but they were the three best years of my life. I’d always heard the worst thing in life was to bury your own child. I know such is true today. Chace’s life had only just begun. He had so much more to do, so much he wanted to give to the world, that my heart breaks right now, it truly does…”
“Oh my God,” Ash whispered to Brin. “How many more accolades can we hear about this guy? He wasn’t a saint.”
“It’s a funeral, Ash. They’re not gonna say bad things about him.”
“But what about Sawyer? He died, too.”
Brin shook her head. “I don’t know. This is apparently all for Chace.”
Applause rose in volume as Chace’s stepfather finished his speech. Brin turned to her right to see Dylan being escorted away in a police vehicle.
“Oh my God, Ash, look.” She pointed to her right, and Ash peered over her shoulder. They were stunned to see Dylan being taken away by the authorities.
“This is bad,” Ash said.
“Really bad,” Anaya added, looking in the same direction. “Are they gonna question us?”
“I don’t know,” Brin said. “Haven’t we been questioned enough?”
Ash and Brin turned back toward the podium as Chace’s wrinkly grandmother tiptoed to the podium. If the mom and stepdad had given arduous speeches, this old lady was going to be spending the longest time of all addressing the crowd.
Brin closed her eyes. She could feel her heart beating faster. She knew more serious trouble was on the horizon.
She felt Ash’s touch, so soft and tender. His fingers brushed against her left hand, and, without thinking, she clamped his hand in hers. They didn’t look at each other. They didn’t acknowledge the touch. They just stared forward as the old woman said her first few words.
“Hello everyone. My name is Bethany. I was Chace’s grandma.”
“At the very least,” Brin whispered to Ash, “things can’t get any worse.”
Brin watched as the grandmother mumbled some more words into the microphone, but her attention soon veered toward the activity in front of her. Lavender, who had barely moved a muscle since Brin and Ash’s arrival, lifted the veil up over her head and leaned forward in her seat.
What the hell is she up to?
&nbs
p; Slowly, Lavender rose all the way to her feet, and turned around to face Brin. Lavender didn’t look human anymore. Her teeth had turned piss yellow, her face looked like it was defrosting, and her eyes were full-on black, as if she were some kind of demon.
As if she’s related to Droz, Brin thought.
The grandmother kept talking, but a hush fell over the crowd. Lavender opened her mouth wide and said, “I’m home.”
Lavender pushed past all the people in front of her, leapt up onto the stage, and sunk her teeth deep into the grandmother’s face.
Chapter Nineteen
“Holy shit,” Brin said.
“Holy crap!” Ash shouted.
They both jumped up and held onto each other as the panic began and screams started escaping from hundreds of mouths. Lavender chewed the grandmother’s nose clean off her face and then started ravaging the dangling cartilage underneath the old woman’s chin.
“Oh my God,” Ash said. “It’s happened. She’s turned into a vampire!”
Brin shook her head. “I’m not sure if that’s what she’s turning into—”
A large male figure bumped hard into Brin, knocking her down to the grass. Another person stepped on her back and started running for the parking lot.
“Oww!”
“Brin!” Ash shouted, grabbing for her hands, but another person stepped toward her. Ash turned around and slugged the guy in the face. “Step around, you asshole! Step around!”
The guy did, and Ash was able to pull Brin up to her feet.
“Are you OK?”
“I’m fine,” Brin said. “We need to get out of here.”
They turned to their left to see the funeral goers charging toward their cars in the parking lot and on the street. It was going to be chaos trying to get past all these people.
“Let’s go this way,” Ash said, pulling Brin the opposite direction of everyone else.
Brin turned back to the stage. The grandmother had fallen to her side, while four others were pulling the homicidal Lavender off the stage. Her eyes wide with fury and her mouth dripping blood, Lavender was chewing through a fatty chunk of the old lady’s dry skin.