VAMPIRE DATING AGENCY
The Finale
Rosette Bolter
CHAPTER ONE
It was a shadow, nothing more. Not quite a figment of the imagination – as it had once existed – but with each passing year the monster seemed a little less real. In his place, there was a new monster. One whose misdeeds were hidden under cloth – one whose heart was not reflected in the mirror. The eyes told stories, but then the stories might have been lies. Even with her own playing games of pretend, she knew it was he who had deceived her, rather than she deceiving herself.
And who, was she?
Haley could not see herself. Strapped and locked down to a seat at the back of the helicopter, she puzzled over Brock’s last words to her on the castle’s roof.
“You were thinking about him, weren’t you?”
And she had allowed him to believe that she was thinking about him – him being Julian Echo, the master Brock had betrayed to save her from his clutches. At that time there had been no doubt for her. Julian was the killer, Julian was dead, and now she and Brock were to live happily ever after.
But ‘ever after’ was not stagnant. It was not one perfect moment that would carry on in repeating itself. Perhaps there was that moment for them, perhaps they had shared all the trust and intentions two lovers dreaming the same dream would have… But time changed people. Haley had changed. And now her husband was someone she feared rather than believed in.
Haley sighed.
The memories beneath them – the voices in her ears, the images in her mind –
It was perhaps, not all his fault. There was still a story behind his heart and actions that accounted for good, even if that story might not have been true.
The main problem was that Haley didn’t know. She had found herself become fragile. Often, afraid to speak.
Brock had said not to forget.
Not to forget how much he loved her.
But hadn’t the killer once uttered the same words to her?
No, it was not the return of Julian Echo that Haley most feared – it was that the man she had been living with, sleeping with, looking after, and caring for – could be one and the same that killed her family.
That would one day try to kill her.
And it was almost as though he knew it too.
CHAPTER TWO
The room was dark. Like the inside of a coffin. I didn’t want to rush anything from where I was, although there was certainly a deadline to be had. I kept thinking about what I was going to say, whether I should put on a fancy voice (although the synthesizer would hardly do it justice) or change my speech patterns in a certain way to possibly confuse her. What I thought about most of all, was how I wanted her to feel. It was important at this stage in the game, that she didn’t completely flip out. I didn’t want to terrorize her specifically. I just wanted to sharpen her up.
I cleared my throat and put my mouth to the phone.
Listening.
Waiting.
It rang out. Voicemail.
My fingers curled. My eyebrows raised. I was not appreciating this setback.
“Let’s try again.”
Beep, beep. Beep, beep. Beep –
Cut out.
She’d canceled my incoming call.
“Hey!” I shouted. “What the fuck?”
I dropped the phone. Stood from the bed.
This wasn’t right. It wasn’t right she should have any power.
Of course, she didn’t know it was me calling but – how could she ignore a stranger? Was whatever she was doing, that important? That she couldn’t be disturbed!
“This is your last chance. I swear if you don’t pick up…”
Beep, beep. Beep –
“Hello?”
“Oh!” I exclaimed. “Thank God! I was worried I couldn’t get a hold of you!”
“Who is this?” Haley demanded. “Do you know who you’re calling?”
“Of course I do, Haley. Do you know who this is?”
A pause. “No.”
“Well, it has been a while. Perhaps you’ve forgotten about me.”
“Brock… Don’t play games with me…”
“Is that really your assessment of this call? That it’s your stupid husband pranking you? Really?”
“What the fuck do you want?”
“Nothing. I just thought we could catch up like old friends before things get started.”
“What things?”
“You know I always thought you were really beautiful. Even from the first time I saw you. Back then it was just … you were tonight’s meal, so to speak. But then I felt something deeper develop between us. Like you were the only one who could really understand me. The good side of me, anyway. No one understands that other one.”
“I don’t know who this is,” Haley said. “But whether you’re someone I know, or someone I don’t know, you’re a fucking coward if you can’t identify yourself.”
“I will identify myself, you just have to give me time –”
“It’s been five fucking years. Isn’t that long enough?”
“Alright. If you can guess who I am, and guess correctly, I’ll let you know whether you’re right. Fair’s, fair, isn’t it?”
“No,” Haley said.
“No? I was being charitable after all –”
“You want to play games? Here’s a game for you. Give me three questions. Yes or No answers. And I’ll figure you out.”
I sat back down on the bed. “This could be interesting. I would like to add some conditions.”
“What conditions?”
“You can’t turn the three questions into three guesses. You can have your three questions then you can have one guess.”
“Understood.”
“I also get to ask you three questions. And you must be truthful.”
“Fine.”
I inhaled deeply. “I guess I’ll go first then. Question one … How often do you masturbate?”
CHAPTER THREE
She thought she might be dreaming. As if her thinking about her old enemy had somehow given his spirit life to her phone.
The truth was far more sickening. That here she was, awake. Sane. Her senses acute.
And he had decided to call her. Of all these moments, he had decided to come now.
Was it the ravens?
Had they somehow spoken to him?
Told him what she was thinking, and that she would be alone?
Or … was it Brock this whole time?
It seemed all too likely…
“How often do you masturbate?”
The sick bastard. He honestly couldn’t expect her to take that question seriously.
“Yes or No answers, remember,” Haley reminded him.
“That was part of your conditions. Not mine. I can hang up right now and it will mean nothing.”
“Alright,” Haley seethed. “Since you asked. I don’t masturbate.”
“You’re kidding? Come on, tell the truth, Haley.”
“I am telling the fucking truth. Not that it’s any of your business.”
“Everyone masturbates. What are you, some sort of a nun?”
“Is that your second question?”
“No, no, no. Okay. I got the second one. Do you ever dream about me, or hear my voice in your dreams? If so … tell me about them…”
Haley reflected.
The man on the other end of this telephone had no face.
He wasn’t a person.
He wasn’t an object with thoughts or feelings.
His actions, had thrown a tornado through her life – but what of him after? How could he exist to her when she hadn’t even seen his face?
“I don’t dream about you. Next question.”
She heard the caller stir. He muttered something inaudible.
Perhaps she had upset him.
“Alright, Haley. You want to play it that way, fine. I’m gonna get you this time. This time you won’t be able to lie your way out. If you had a chance to see your family again, alive as they once were, would you willingly surrender to me?”
The question went down Haley’s back like nails on a chalkboard.
“Who are you pretending to be now?” she fired back. “A genie granting wishes?”
“There’s magic in the world, Haley. Magic I’ve acquired. I could bring them back to life for you. I could erase the damage I’ve done.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“In the context of this question, let us assume you have no doubts.”
Haley swallowed. She felt as though she was being tricked.
“Haley?”
But then there could only be one answer.
“Haley, you get to ask me your questions after this. So just –”
“If I had no doubts in their being alive, then of course. I would surrender.”
“See? That wasn’t hard, was it?”
“Do you have the power to resurrect them?”
“I don’t know,” the caller replied. “Shall we count that as your first question?”
“You bastard. You want me to waste one then?”
“What questions you ask me are entirely up to you. Although, I must now add on another condition.”
“What’s that?”
“Of the three questions you ask me, I shall answer two of them truthfully, and one of them false.”
“What? That’s not fair!”
“Well, I think you owe me for lying on the masturbating question. Anyway, that’s the deal. Take it or leave it.”
Haley hesitated. “Five.”
“Five what?”
“If you’re going to mix in the truth with the lies, then I want five questions. And three correct answers.”
“Very well. When you’re ready.”
Haley removed the phone from her ear a moment.
She looked out from the window into the dark ocean waters below. Lights from a distant city sparkled across the surface.
He has a name.
He has a face.
He is out there somewhere, speaking to you now.
You must know it already, Haley.
You must know who he is.
She put the phone back to her ear. “First question: Have you and I ever had sex?”
CHAPTER FOUR
He said she couldn’t guess who he was, but perhaps she could figure it out by process of elimination. Of her two main suspects, she’d only slept with one of them. Haley was also aware that it may not have been either Brock or Julian she was speaking with now, and if the line of questioning didn’t size up with either of them she would have no trouble veering off into unknown territory.
“No,” the caller said. “We’ve never had sex.”
Haley was immediately suspicious. It sounded like a lie.
“If I heard your voice, in it’s true form, would I recognize it?”
The caller hesitated. “No.”
“No, I wouldn’t?” Haley said almost disbelieving. “Remember you can only lie twice.”
“I know the rules.”
“Okay…” Haley thought for a moment. She didn’t want to waste the next one. “Have you ever run or worked for the Vampire Dating Agency?”
No hesitation. “Yes.”
“Would I be accurate to describe you as a tall, white, male vampire with short hair?”
“No.”
Now Haley was confused. If the answers to the first two questions had been lies, then the next true would have to be true. Which meant Brock could be eliminated.
“You have one more question,” the caller said. “Use it wisely.”
Truth or lies, perhaps it was enough.
Enough for her to guess anyway.
So she could spend her question on something else…
“Do you really have the power to bring my mother and brother back to life?” Haley asked.
Silence.
Her ears strained.
“Hello?”
“No,” the caller said softly.
“Oh,” Haley said, disappointed as if it was a straight answer. Could No really mean Yes? “Alright then. Will you let me guess who you are?”
“Please do.”
“And if I’m right, you promise to tell me.”
“I promise.”
“Because if you lie to me, I’m not going to be very happy with you.”
“Well, I know you hate my guts anyway,” the caller said. “But in respect for our exchange here, there is no way I will lie to you if you can correctly guess my identity.”
“Alright,” Haley said. “Are you Julian?”
Silence.
“Are you The Count, Julian Echo?”
More silence. Haley waited.
“No,” the caller said. “Talk to you soon, Haley.”
CHAPTER FIVE
He could smell her perfume on the pillow beside him. It was faint, but it was still there. She herself wasn’t there. He knew that much. Even with his eyes closed and under the blankets just as though it was any other night, he still knew he was alone in the bed. Until of course he realized, he was alone forever and always.
Tears stream down Jason’s cheeks. He had seen them. Piled on top of each other. The bodies. The blood. Someone had ripped their throats right out. They’d been eaten into. Like meat for a wild animal.
He opened his eyes.
Stared up the ceiling.
How long had he been out for – How long and how –
“Hello,” he gasped. “Hello, somebody?”
He felt around blindly in the dark for his walking stick. It wasn’t here. Had Amelia put it in the drawer again? Because if she had, then he must remember to tell her –
“Oh no, no, no, no, NO!” Jason shouted slapping his forehead.
He remembered now.
The cane had broken outside.
He’d been chasing someone. Someone who had been inside his home and –
“What the fuck?” he whispered. “What the fuck am I doing up here?”
He forced himself out of bed and stepped out into the floor. There was no balance anymore. Only pain.
He broke his fall, resting his palms on the edge of the bed.
Now, he needed something. Something for support.
He got down onto his belly and dragged himself out of the room. After a minute or so of grueling intensity he reached out to the handle above him and pulled open the cupboard door. Inside he began pulling apart the vacuum cleaner. Once finding the extending pole, he used it to prop himself upright. Unfortunately, the pole was rather small. Hunched over, he used it to make his way down the stairs.
All the lights were off. He hadn’t left it that way when he’d come in. Who had turned them off?
Glancing around through the hallway, he could see the dark outlines of his wife and daughter’s bodies in the lounge room. He looked away from them putting his hand to the front door. There were people talking outside.
Once the door was open, he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
There was at least seven or eight people standing by the edge of the road.
“Hey,” he said angrily, as he approached them. “Hey – you there!”
They stopped talking.
Nadine’s face bobbed up from the crowd. “You’re awake.”
“What gave it away?” Jason shot back. “What’s going on? Who are all these people?”
Another familiar face made his way to the front and centre. “Hi Jason,” Luna greeted. “Nadine called our offices after your discovery here. We’re all terribly sad for your loss.”
“I – I don’t remember –” Jason began. “I don’t remember going to sleep –”
> “You fainted,” Nadine explained. “When we went back inside, remember?”
“No,” Jason shook his head. “No, no –”
“How are you feeling?” Luna asked stepping in front of him. “Do you need a doctor?”
“No,” Jason said. “I mean I – maybe I do. I –”
He looked down at the lawn. There was an urge to vomit.
When he looked back up he saw headlights advancing towards them from down the road.
“More people?” Jason asked.
Luna followed his gaze. “Looks like Dino and his security guard friends.”
“What are they doing here?” Jason demanded. “What’s going on?”
“You weren’t the only one attacked tonight,” Luna explained. “Dino’s wife was killed as well as Riley’s boyfriend.”
“Are you kidding?” Jason said. “How is that even –”
“It’s all part of his game,” Nadine said. “It’s what he’s wanted from the start. To bring us all together.”
“What the fuck?” Jason muttered. “Why is that even –?”
“An ambulance with regular police will be here soon,” Luna said. “If it’s too much for you, you can stay with them. But otherwise –”
“If it’s too much for me?” Jason exploded. “My family’s just been fucking killed! What the fuck are you thinking –?”
“You want to get him, don’t you Jason?” Nadine asked.
“Get him? Get who? This phantom we’ve been chasing around. The mysterious killer no one has a clue who –”
“Well, actually, we know who he is,” Luna said.
Jason grabbed her arms. “Who?”
Nadine stepped between them. “You tackled him. I was there. I saw his face.”
“Fucking who!?”
“It’s the Count,” Nadine confirmed. “Julian Echo.”
CHAPTER SIX
He had been there. There was nothing he could do now, that she had seen him. Nadine = 1, The Count = 0. If we started keeping score as of an hour ago. Perhaps the board deserved to be balanced further in her favor. She had after all put a bullet in his forehead. The Count still remembered. He might be an undead creature, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t feel pain.
Vampire Dating Agency: The Finale Page 1