Night Things: The Monster Collection

by West, Terry M.

  Suddenly, a look of discomfort crossed Hor-Aha's face. "My friends, please help me up and then point me toward a chamber pot or a designated corner. By Osiris' flail, I must piss most long and foul!"

  ***

  Holly sat, confined in the quiet darkness. The Night Things hadn't terrorized her in hours and she had drifted off. Without a clock or natural light, she had no idea how long she had slept. She had dreamt of her mother. Her dreams had flickered with innocuous images- mommy cooking, brushing the tangles from her daughter's long hair before bedtime, singing a lullaby Holly hadn't heard in years but still remembered.

  She woke up sad, and wanted to go back into slumber and see her mother again. But she couldn't.

  Ella's cold but friendly face appeared near the bars, but it didn't scare Holly this time.

  "Good morning sunshine. The only sunshine I can bear," Ella said gently. She raised a paper bag into view. "I brought you a bagel and milk. You hungry?"

  Holly shook her head. "No."

  Ella frowned. "Okay. Well, I will leave this here near the edge of your cage. If you get hungry later, you can reach for it."

  "Thanks," Holly said demurely.

  "Listen, I have to warn you," Ella said, pausing to strain her eyes around for eavesdroppers before continuing. "Things are going to happen fast around here. You need to declare your loyalty to Dracula. Ask for his kiss."

  "Ella, I don't want to be like you," Holly confessed.

  Ella looked cross for a second, but she bit it back and smiled at the girl. "Sweetie, if you don't ask for his blood, Dracula will kill you."

  "That's okay. I will see my mommy again. In heaven."

  "You silly thing. There is no heaven," Ella said. "There is only being and not being."

  "When I was real little, my daddy used to tell me that monsters weren't real. That was before he made the bad movies and mommy made him move out. But the Night Things are real. Right? So if they are real, why not heaven?"

  "Do you think it would be so bad to be like me? Do you think we are all evil?" Ella implored, and Holly could see the vampire's black heart was breaking.

  "My mommy used to tell me that not all of the Night Things were bad, so no. And even though they killed her, I think mommy still believes that. You are a nice person. I just don't want to be a vampire."

  Ella suddenly flashed her fangs and rattled the cage. "You selfish brat! I should break this cage open and turn you myself!"

  Holly didn't flinch. She wasn't scared anymore. "Dracula wouldn't like that. He said it has to be free will."

  Ella's anger slid down quickly into despair.

  "Thank you for being nice to me, Ella," Holly said. "I was real scared and lonely, but I am not anymore. I am ready to die, if I have to. I am ready to see my mommy again."

  Ella looked resigned, exhausted and heartbroken all at the same time. "Goodbye Holly. I won't come see you again."

  The vampire left the girl alone in the darkness.

  12.

  Port-au-Prince, Haiti

  25 years ago

  The tepid night breeze played the bamboo chimes outside of Abraham Janvier's window. The boy had turned ten that day- the first birthday without his mama, Saraphina. She had been found in the woods a week ago. Her throat had been savaged by a wild animal and she had bled to death.

  Abraham had never known his father- didn't even have the man's name. All he had left was his granpapa. Granpapa was a very religious and superstitious man and he hadn't believed that an animal had killed his daughter. Abraham had slept fitfully most nights since his mama had died. His birthday had gone unnoticed by Granpapa, and he was okay with that. He had not felt like celebrating, but he did miss his mama's benitas pain de mais, a sweet cornbread she had made for him every birthday since his third.

  He lay there, eyes closed, cot wet from sweat and tears that came from him at the end of every day. He had no one to talk to. Mama had explained that Granpapa was not the type to discuss feelings. He was closed off and hard. Abraham was left to mourn on his own and he didn't want Granpapa to see how much it still hurt him.

  Granpapa's shack sat near the dark woods that had claimed Abraham's mother. Granpapa was a voodoo priest and he often communed with the spirits in the forest. It was not uncommon for Abraham to hear the chatter of nocturnal animals. He often wondered if he could hear mama's killer on the night growls that emitted from the brush.

  That night, like most, the animals sang softly and the chimes moved in the breeze. But suddenly, sudden enough to make him open his eyes curiously, the animals fell silent and the wind became still.

  Minutes passed and then he heard a soft voice outside his window.

  "En… De… Twa… Kat…"

  A woman's voice was counting softly in the night. Abraham climbed out of his cot. He was clad only in shorts. He moved his skinny, tall body silently and slowly through the shack. He creaked the back door open and saw a woman's form, bent to the earth, near the shack.

  She continued counting. "Vennde… venntwa… vennkat…"

  She paused, and rose slowly. She turned to Abraham and focused her eyes on him. Abraham immediately recognized the burial gown and headdress that had adorned his mother at her funeral.

  He gasped softly and sank back toward the door.

  "Abraham," she said, her voice raspy and low. "Happy birthday, my son. Come and give me a hug."

  He took a cautious step at her. His vision adjusted better to the dark, and he could see that his mama's eyes were colorless and hollow of soul. Her dark skin glowed a pale blue color in the moonlight and large fangs grew from her mouth at the sight of her son. "Give me a hug," she encouraged the boy again.

  "Saraphina, dear daughter, rice has been spilt on the earth," Granpapa said.

  Abraham looked to his left and Granpapa sat in a whicker rocking chair. He scratched the bushy gray beard that hung off of his chin and spoke to his daughter again. "How many grains of rice are on the ground, Saraphina?"

  "I am not sure," she said. Her brow furrowed and she seemed very distressed by the issue. She went back to the earth and started counting again.

  "En… De… Twa… Kat…"

  Abraham backed slowly to his grandfather. The man was lean and muscular. Abraham had seen pictures of Granpapa as a young man. This older version looked as if the younger were merely wearing fake gray color in his hair and beard.

  "Granpapa? Mama- I thought she was dead," Abraham said, watching as she counted.

  "She is," Granpapa said grimly. "I was hoping you might sleep through this. But maybe it is better that you are awake. Better that you see this for yourself."

  "How can she be here?" Abraham demanded softly.

  "She is a vampire. A Soucouyant," Granpapa explained. "Saraphina wandered those dark woods though I have told her for many years that evil spirits coveted our blood. We are special. Mystical. But your mama took me for a superstitious old fool and that's what the evil relies on."

  "What is she doing?" Abraham asked.

  "I knew she wouldn't be able to resist your birthday, so I poured rice around the house," Granpapa said. "I used a spell that would compel her to count the grains. She will do this until the sun rises and feasts on her. I didn't have the heart to stake or behead her. She is-was-my daughter. When it is done, I will search the woods for the beast who turned her and I will destroy it."

  "I am coming with you," Abraham said.

  To his surprise, there wasn't an argument. Granpapa merely nodded softly. "Yes, you need to embrace your heritage. Ignorance will only get you killed. Like your mama. There is much to teach you."

  Abraham sat cross-legged on the ground at Granpapa's chair.

  "When the sun rises, it won't be pleasant," Granpapa warned. "It will be a horrible sight. You can go back to sleep. This is handled."

  "I am staying here," Abraham insisted.

  "As you wish," Granpapa replied.

  ***

  New York

  Now

  Abraha
m awoke choking a scream. He panted and was heavily drenched in sweat. His eyes bounced around the small apartment he rented above an old-school gym. Reality asserted itself and he reached for the towel on the wooden chair that rested near his twin bed. He had dreamt of Mama, a newborn thing of the night, coming to him on his tenth birthday. Granpapa had warned him that it would be brutal when she met the sunrise. And the image still gave him nightmares.

  He lumbered out of bed and walked to the small bathroom in his place. He splashed cold water on his face and brushed his teeth. He walked back toward his bed and dug some clean clothes off of the floor. He looked through the small window and saw that night was falling. He hurried downstairs and grabbed his rolling cart from the back storage room in the gym. The gym was dark and locked now, so he used the keys the owner entrusted him with and locked up behind himself.

  He lived on 12th, a mere two blocks from the spot where he normally set up shop. The police left him alone. They looked at his business as a public service and they were also his best customers.

  Business had been very good these past few days, and this was cause for celebration and dread. That fat junkie, Gary Hack, had brought bad luck trailing behind him. And that Dracula was supposedly involved in the recent increase of Night Things crime was a prospect that chilled Abraham to the bone. He wasn't strong enough to face such a foe.

  He knew that such a powerful presence among the monsters warranted a caution of some kind, but though legend casually strolled the pavement these days, Dracula was still a pretend boogeyman to many. His passionate warning to Daniel Gonzalez, a cop buddy who regularly frequented Abraham's cart, had been met with a scoff of disbelief.

  "Bela Lugosi is dead," Daniel had told him. "Has been a long time."

  Part of him wanted to flee the city- seek sanctuary in the Jersey woods-but he knew he had a part to play in this. He could run, but the evil would find him, because his blood called to it.

  As he drew near 14th, he noticed that the usually brisk foot traffic began to gain in speed. The expressions on pedestrians evolved from sour indifference to unashamed terror.

  "Run!" a businessman advised Abraham as he raced by.

  A horde of twenty or so zombies rounded the corner. Half of them grabbed three startled pedestrians and sank their teeth into them. Abraham stopped, reached into his cart, and pulled two silver-edged machetes from inside.

  "It's the medicine man!" one of the zombies screamed.

  "The medicine man!" the others shouted along.

  The zombies that had been feasting at the crosswalk dropped their meals and joined the hunt for Abraham.

  They all came at him, oblivious now to any other human in the vicinity, and Abraham could see that they were in horde mode; acting as one.

  He kicked his cart into them, managing to send five or six sprawling to the ground. A throng pressed around the cart and came at him with outstretched hands and a wail of hunger escaping through their blue lips. He swung at them, quickly scooting back as they came.

  His weapons took greedy hands and wailing heads but the zombies continued to come. Abraham could smell the wounds his silver weapons were burning into dead flesh. He suddenly heard snarls behind him. He jerked his head back and forth, his dreadlocks whipping his jacket, and he saw a large number coming at him now from the other direction.

  "You are in violation of the horde law!" a voice boomed through a loudspeaker. "Disperse or will we open our flamethrowers on you!"

  Abraham glanced quickly to the streets and armored vans and police in riot gear had closed off the block. It was the NYPD Spook Division. A huge portion of the zombies immediately sprinted to the street and engaged the police.

  Abraham took out five or six more rotters before making a run for a fire escape. He dropped his weapons, jumped up and pulled down the cold iron stairs. He scrambled up them as the police began to roast the undead on the streets.

  13.

  The Devil's Bit

  September 10, 1894

  Primul sat near a fire in a cave. He fashioned a new fishing spear as the firewood crackled and heat penetrated his perpetually cold skin.

  "Primul!"

  It was Dracula. The rage in his voice shook the mountain. "Come out here and face me!"

  Dracula didn't require an invitation inside the myth-soaked cavern. He obviously wanted to air their differences so the moon could see.

  Primul slowly put the spear down, stood and walked out into the night. Dracula met him at the maw of the cave.

  "How did you find me?" Primul asked.

  "It didn't require my special perception," Dracula said solemnly. "I found you in a cave the first day we met. I suspected you would be cowering here, if anywhere. I knew you wouldn't be able to resist the symbolism found here at the bit."

  "Father," Primul began.

  Dracula grabbed Primul by his blood-soaked lapels and snarled.

  "I should tear you to pieces and scatter them!" Dracula proclaimed, and Primul had never seen him so angry. He released his first son. "Tell me why you killed them? My beautiful children."

  "They mocked me," Primul said sadly.

  "They teased you because they were jealous," Dracula said, his angry voice waning only slightly as he tried to understand things. "None of them stood as high in my affection. They only had kind words for you, but they were children. And children challenge their elders. I know you. This isn't what drove your hand."

  "They murdered orphans," Primul explained. "And then burnt the orphanage after I had forbidden them to do so. They nearly killed me for opposing them. My temper got the better of me."

  Dracula scoffed. "They fed on human children and you murdered them? A vampire is never told no when it comes to a meal."

  "None understand the pain of an orphan more than I," Primul confessed. "I begged them, as kin, to slake their thirst elsewhere. I have no problem with them hunting mortals, but I can't stomach a child feeding their fangs. Especially an orphan."

  "Human children grow and so does their hate," Dracula said. "I will confide something- if I could obliterate every mortal on this planet with but a thought, I would. My goal is to dry the earth of them and brand my mark to the molten core and hear dark hymns sung in the night. I will enlist every thing of the night in my crusade against man."

  "You want a war with the humans? That's madness," Primul said incredulously. "They far outnumber us and can walk in the sun. We will be massacred."

  "The world won’t always be like this and our ranks have centuries to swell. We will grow in shadow until it is our time."

  "I thought you wanted peace," Primul said. "A place for us."

  "A world for us," Dracula said, passionately. "There will never be tranquility as long as the humans compete with us for the soil of this planet."

  "I never wished to murder humanity. I only wanted to be left alone," Primul said. "I thought we took the rock to grow a family."

  "And an army," Dracula added. "Of course, your little tantrum has cost us our home. The townspeople saw the high crosses you decorated and I have had to abandon it. You have made quite a mess."

  "I am sorry, father," Primul said, his eyes downcast.

  Dracula struck him across the face. Primul crumbled to the dirt. He cleared his head and managed to stand and he faced his benefactor silently. Primul's face was hollow. Dracula struck him again. He rose back up, prepared for more punishment. Dracula clutched him roughly.

  "Fight back, you foul thing!"

  "No," Primul said. "I have already mourned one father. I won't strike you."

  Dracula released him. "I should kill you. But I won't. I have a far crueler fate in mind. You are not welcome in my family. The creatures of the night will scorn you, just like the mortals, whom you seem to harbor a shine toward. You are truly alone. And I take your name with me. You are no longer Primul, the favorite son in the house of Dracula. You are no one. You are nothing."

  The creature with no name stood there, his eyes anywhere but on his fathe
r, and an unparalleled sadness shook his soul. "As you wish," he whispered despondently.

  "Go back to your cave," Dracula said.

  Suddenly, the creature felt a fire surge inside. "No- no more caves," he swore. "I will build my own empire. I will find a place and prosper there. I will not hide again."