“I turned it OFF. Gosh you’re still so dumb. Oh well, I don’t care how stupid you are.”
“Turn it back on!” I shouted.
“I want to face you again, Janice, or should I say Marissa? Oh well, it doesn’t matter. I’m gonna lick up your blood anyway. Come on. You and me. One on one. If you want to go home, come and get it. If not, I’ll crush the switcher and you’ll never make it there.”
My hand holding the stake gun shook as he started to crush the switcher.
“STOP!” I shouted.
“Here kitty kitty….” he mocked.
Suddenly, someone jumped in front of me; a brave vampire with a heart of gold.
“You'll not hurt Janice while I'm here,” declared Mr. FreeCut, placing himself halfway between Rob and me. He pointed a long silver stake at my tormentor's head.
Letting out a growl of anger, Rob charged at my caretaker with his mega blade. I fired my stake gun at the devil but missed. Rob took a big swing at Mr. FreeCut, but also missed when my caretaker nimbly dodged to one side. The huge blade banged into the floor, the jarring impact sending it slipping out of Rob’s hand. Mr. FreeCut immediately lunged at Rob's heart with his stake, but thanks to the extra energy Rob gained from consuming human blood, he was able to avoid the thrust. Carried forward by his own momentum, Mr. FreeCut slipped on a puddle of blood and fell to the floor.
I rushed over to help, but was too late. Mr. FreeCut was already lying helpless on his back. I watched in horror as Rob plunged a large stake into his shoulder.
MR. FREECUT’S SACRIFICE
“NOOOO!” I screamed, rushing forward to confront Rob. When we'd battled before it had been simply a game. But this time it was freakin war! Drawing my blade, I gazed into his evil eyes.
“You may have beaten me once,” he snarled. “But you’re going down bitch, just like your little fake daddy did.”
I caught a glimpse of a badly injured Mr. FreeCut on the ground, the stake still sticking out of his shoulder. I was also aware that the remaining X-Fangers and TriFang newcomers were now battling it out all around me. Then I focused on the selfish dick in front of me.
“That's what you think, scumball!”
With vengeance raging, I swung my sword this way and that, hoping to cut Rob so badly that he would lose enough blood to die. However, his immense blade easily blocked my swings.
I battled on, all the time thinking about Mr. FreeCut suffering on the ground. How dare this asshole hurt the man who loved me just like a real father! I’d had enough of Rob’s selfishness. He was like a festering disease, trying to bring the world down with his sickness. He needed to die. Trouble was, I was making little impression on him with my attacks.
Rob laughed as he blocked another of my swings. “Looks like you’re not only too stupid to beat me, but too weak as well, little vampire.”
Not getting anywhere, I tried a new tactic of quickly backing up and putting some space between us. Then I aimed my stake gun and fired.
I missed. Rob was just too damn quick.
I wondered what the hell to try next. If such a thing was possible, he seemed to be getting even quicker. Then, in what was no more than a mere blur of movement, he knocked me violently to the floor. I landed flat on my back. With the monster sitting on top of me and a stake poking hard into my chest, I was absolutely at his mercy.
Hi giggled. “Let me give you one more kiss before you die.”
Just before his foul lips reached mine, with all the strength left in my body, I twisted my head and bit hard into his neck. Rob jerked back, releasing some of the pressure on me. With his blood on my lips and my left hand free, I slipped out a stake from my belt and thrust it straight into his heart.
I glanced into his suddenly drained face and wiggled the stake around. Blood shot from out of his mouth. “Looks like you're the one too weak to fight now,” I told him.
Rolling his decaying body off of me, I could see that Mr. Stake, Brett and the rest of the X-Fang team were finishing off the TriFangers with ease.
Recognizing that they had control, I rushed over to tend Mr. FreeCut. Already his face was green and peeling. But with Bloodstop ointment and reserve canisters of blood, I knew I could save him. The stake lodged in his shoulder was a more than safe distance away from his heart.
“It’s going to be okay!” I said while applying ointment around the wound. The clotting was virtually instant.
Yet something wicked hit me. A ghastly stench that caused my eyes to burn. I had smelled and breathed this crap before. As I looked at the stake again, an awful realization dawned. It was covered in garlic. And the garlic was inside of Mr. FreeCut.
“J….Janice…” he said. “I’m…dying….”
“No!” I shouted at him. “You’re going to make it! Drink this blood!”
Losing control, I shoved the life-saving blood into his mouth. But it wasn't working. Mr. Stake and Brett came rushing over.
“Help him!” I screamed.
Using a cloth, Mr. Stake attempted to wipe as much garlic as possible away from the wound entry point. But this was not easy to do. The garlic soon soaked through the cloth, burning his bare hands. He also applied more Bloodstop ointment.
“Come on old friend,” he urged. “You can make it!”
My caretaker’s skin appeared nastier each time I blinked. I knew this was not going to end well. “Come on!” I shouted.
“Janice,” Mr. FreeCut managed to gasp out. “Remember…w…what I said….you are the best thing….that ever happened to….m…m….me.”
“Don’t go!” I cried, my tears falling all over his now completely emerald face.
But it was no use. With my arms wrapped tightly around him, I watched him slip into death.
While I wept, a million pleasant memories of Mr. FreeCut all mingled together in my mind. The time he took me out of that hellish orphanage - all the delicious and bloody meals we'd shared together – even the time when I borrowed his car and crashed it into a tree.
“I love you,” I told him. I knew he couldn't hear me, but I still hated that he didn’t respond.
Grief momentarily switched to anger when I gazed at the dust that had once been Rob’s body. I eyed his still intact golden gloves; gloves that Mr. Stake told me protected his hands from the burning garlic and so allowed him to murder my beloved Mr. FreeCut with the poisoned stake.
Damn, I’d kill Rob again if I could. But what was the point of continuing to hate? He was dead. Let it end there.
Mr. Stake and Brett tried their best to comfort me. “I’m so sorry, Janice,” Mr. Stake said. “I’m just as devastated as you. Even though we had our disagreements, he was a great friend.”
I couldn’t stop crying. “He was like a second father to me,” I sobbed. “And in this world, he was my father.”
A melancholy Brett held me close. I thought about how his father had disowned him. At least I still had my real father to go back to. Even so, this was torture.
Soon, my tears began to burn even more uncomfortably. The stench of garlic fumes within the room was increasing.
Mr. Stake's voice became brisk. “Look,” he said, “I was wrong. I will support your decision and not destroy the machine. In fact, I'll go with you and help you get home. I'll also use X-Fang resources to protect you and others from TriFang in Vampire World, and on Earth.”
His words were uplifting.
“But you must go to your world now,” he continued. “Garlic levels in this room could become fatal soon.”
“Wait!” I cried out. “I have to bury him.”
“There is no time,” Mr. Stake warned. “Do you want to die?”
“I WANT TO BURY HIM!” I screamed. The way I felt right now, I would rather have died down here than leave Mr. FreeCut like this.
With the garlic stench now making him cough, Mr. Stake gave in. “Have it your way,” he said, moving quickly. “I’ll set the machine to Bitemore Cemetery. But you must hurry. TriFang is looking for you. Be careful
!”
Using Rob's start-up clicker, Mr. Stake revved up the machine. Once the neon blue force field was visible again, he went to a control panel and pressed several buttons.
“It is now set to Bitemore Cemetery,” he said. “Hurry, and when you’re ready to return, just press this green button on the clicker.”
Helped by Brett and Senator BloodHunt, I carried Mr. FreeCut’s body over to the portal and, with some difficulty, all of us jumped through together. Next thing, we were being whizzed around like we were caught up in a savage cyclone.
Then things settled down and beautiful Garlic Moon was shining down on the iconic graves of Bitemore Cemetery. I sighed. Okay, so I wouldn’t be able to give Mr. FreeCut the elaborate towering gargoyle or golden pyramid grave he deserved. But I’d be able to bury him and mark the spot where he rested. He deserved at least that.
I couldn’t stop whimpering as we grabbed some shovels and started digging. I thought back to the decision I'd made to forgive him for lying to me about my true identity. I couldn’t imagine the terrible pain I would be feeling now if I'd continued to hold a grudge. At the end, we had both loved each other dearly.
After digging a hole big enough, the memories continued to flood my mind. But the one that dominated them all was seeing his face for the first time at the orphanage. I’d never forget him staring at me through the prison bars of Bitemore Orphanage. Somehow I'd known he was mine, even before I was thrown to the floor by a bunch of other kids scrambling to get his attention. And I was right. Since then, his loyalty and kindness had been a constant and most treasured gift. Even though he was now gone, that gift would always remain with me.
I helped Brett and a tearful Senator BloodHunt lower Mr. FreeCut’s body into the grave. Setting him gently down, I took one final look at the great vampire who'd changed my world.
“Goodbye, old friend,” Senator BloodHunt cried.
I wanted to say something, but couldn’t at first. Then, two simple but heartfelt words that seemed to sum up everything just slipped out.
“Thank you.”
I couldn’t bring myself to watch as Brett and Senator BloodHunt shoveled the red dirt over his body. I'd just lost a father. He was gone, but not really. His spirit would be inside of me for as long as I lived.
Once the grave was set, I curled up the necklace that Mr. FreeCut had given to me and placed it on the dirt to mark the grave. I hated parting with something so precious, but I had to mark this very special place with something suitable.
I’d be back here to give my respects.
Someday.
CONCLUSION
Transporting back into the portal room, the smell of garlic was overpowering.
“I’ve set the portal to your planet!” Mr. Stake shouted. “We’ve got to go now! The garlic exposure will kill us!”
Yes. I was ready to go home. Clutching Brett’s arm, I witnessed his precious face turning a chilling dark green. I couldn’t lose him now. He was all I had!
Mr. Stake handed us both clickers shaped like skulls, along with red pills.
“You must never lose your clickers,” he said. “They are your tickets back to Vampire World. Click them, and you will be transported back here. And don't lose these pills either. We’ll be arriving on Earth at night, but the sunlight there is lethal to vampires. Take the pills for protection.”
By now, all of us were coughing and turning green. There wasn’t much time. The shiny portal was disappearing behind a dense yellow cloud.
“We’ve got to go!” screamed Mr. Stake. “NOW! I’ll follow behind you.”
I took one last look at Brett. He was amazing when I first met him. But now he was a miracle. As a vampire, I was keenly aware that I may never be able to see my mother, father or friends again. But I had Brett - a beautiful angel to comfort me, hold me, and most importantly, love me.
We ran through the portal, my only way back to Earth. But was it really still my home?
There was only one way to find out.
END OF BOOK ONE
About the Author
Rich Douglas is from New Orleans, Louisiana where he has lived the majority of his life. He loves reading, writing, storm-chasing, traveling and drinking orange soda while he writes young adult fiction, urban fantasy and science fiction.
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