by Alan Ryker
“Oh yeah? There's vagrancy and trespassing laws. I bet you aren't asking anyone's permission before you camp out.”
“You've got a bloody crime scene and missing people and your sheriff is going to come at me for trespassing?”
“Goddamn it,” the frustration and concern on the young deputy's face finally made Jessica see his age. He was only a few years older than her. Not much older than the 21 years required for him to carry his gun. “You asked if this is a quiet town, and it is a quiet town. But I wonder about the ways it's kept quiet, sometimes. I haven't been a deputy here long, but I'm starting to see how things work. You don't want to be here. I don't want to see some silly girl out having herself a little adventure get caught up in this mess. I'm putting my damn neck out here. I hope you recognize that.”
He took off his hat and rubbed the back of that neck, as if he could sense the blade falling. He had blond, mussy hair. Jessica looked at the name over his badge. Goodrich.
“I understand that, Deputy Goodrich, and I appreciate it. But I'm a stubborn girl. I'm headed for that diner.”
He shook his head and put his hat back on. “Have it your way. I'll be seeing you later.”
“Maybe.”
“Definitely.” He tipped his hat at her and his face went blank again. He turned and leaned back against his car.
As Jessica walked into town past the watchful eyes of the people of Krendel, she knew she was getting herself into something. Something bad. She didn't know what. She didn't even know how it really concerned her. But it had something to do with her vampire, so she would stick it out. Besides, she'd never in her life been one to turn away from trouble.
She'd been through Krendel before, but not on foot. Most of the houses were small. Many had tricycles and skateboards and other toys scattered on their front lawns. There were no sidewalks at first. She and Fatty walked on the shoulder. Every so often a pickup would drive past, and she could feel eyes scrutinizing her.
She wanted to go home. She wanted to get back to her ranch and to hole up there alone for weeks. But that made her feel weak, and that drove her on.
And she was really, really hungry.
Eventually the businesses started. It was just after six, and most everything was closed. She walked past an auto shop and an antique store and a drug store and another antique store. Across the street stood a post office and a small grocery store. The storefronts were all connected. Krendel had two solid blocks of businesses. After reaching the other side, she found the diner.
Quite a few trucks sat outside. She looked in through the window and saw lots of people. There were families and old retired couples and a lot of men sitting and eating together. As she looked, more and more people noticed her and looked back. Her ears grew hot.
There were too many customers to try to bring Fatty inside. If it had been empty, she would have given it a shot, seen if the waitresses would have gone along. He was a damn cute beagle and he could get away with a lot. But she tied him to the bench beside the door and went in.
Jessica walked up to the counter. She felt the eyes of everyone in the place. Yeah, she looked out of place with her clothing, hiking pack and bruises, but it still got her anger up.
Angry was better than uncomfortable.
“What can I get you, dear?” the middle-aged waitress said.
“Are your burgers big?”
“Pretty darn big.”
“I'll take three burger meals, to go. With Cokes,” she looked over at little case of baked goods, “and one of them big cinnamon rolls.”
“No problem. Just take a seat and—”
“Actually, can you bring it to me outside? I got my dog tied up out there.”
“Sure thing, honey.”
Jessica went back out, took her pack off and sat on the bench beside Fatty, who nuzzled and licked her in wriggly ecstasy at having not been abandoned. Eventually he calmed down, and Jessica watched the citizens of Krendel go in and out. Most of the men wore jeans and cowboy boots or Dickies and work boots. A lot of them looked her over and smiled at her, but she glared at them. The last thing she wanted at that moment was to be hit on.
The waitress brought her food out personally: three big Styrofoam containers and one small one all stacked inside a plastic sack, and a drink holder with three drinks.
“Okay, now that little guy is worth waiting outside for.” The waitress bent down and scratched the loose skin around Fatty's ears, which he loved more than anything. “What a cutie.”
Jessica opened one of the big Styrofoam containers and shoved fries into her mouth. She was tearing open a couple of packets of catsup when the waitress said, “You're gonna eat out here?”
Jessica shrugged, “Don't have anywhere else to be.”
“Well, at least it's a nice evening. So all that food's for you?”
“Me and Fatty.”
“Fatty, huh.” She chuckled. “Well, you must have quite the metabolism. Enjoy.”
Jessica ate the first burger and fries quickly. Then she opened the second and sat it on the ground for Fatty before starting on the third, which she began eating slow enough to taste. It was really good. Even if she hadn't been about to keel over from hunger, it would have been good. The fries were thick, and crispy on the outside but mealy on the inside, just how she liked them. The hamburger bun seemed to have been buttered and then set on the grill for a bit. Well, she figured she didn't have to worry about clogged arteries quite yet.
She mostly ignored the people going past. She did notice that by that time more people were leaving than arriving. Farmers tended to eat supper early. She was halfway through her second burger and fries when someone stopped right in front of her.
She noticed the shoes first. Skate shoes, not boots. She looked up at a young man in loose jeans with stringy black hair. He was dark with a high-bridged nose. She imagined he was part Native. Maybe even half.
He stared at her. She stared back and chewed her fries.
“I can't believe it. You're Jessica Harris, aren't you?”
She had been scooping up catsup with a couple of fries, but stopped. She looked more closely at the guy. She didn't think she'd ever seen him before.
“Do I know you?” she asked.
“You are Jessica Harris then. We have to get out of here.” He started towards her, then stopped at her glare and started fidgeting. “We have to go. They know.”
Jessica calmed herself and continued eating. “Who knows what? And how do you know my name?”
“Because you're the fucking vampire hunter.”
Jessica swallowed her mouthful of hamburger with effort. Adrenaline rushed through her system and the food in her stomach sat like a brick. “Who are you?”
“I'm Jack. You can trust me. But we have to get out of here, like, right now.”
A Sheriff's Department car pulled up, and a big, broad-shouldered man got out.
“Shit,” Jack said. “This is bad.”
The man wasn't all fat, though his tight tan outfit didn't flatter his figure. “Jessica?” he said.
“How does everyone know my name?” she asked.
“Deputy Goodrich told me. I understand you're just passing through.”
“You understand right,” she said. She bristled in the presence of authority. Even the pleasant way he spoke conveyed that he believed he had enough control over the situation to afford to be polite.
“I'm Sheriff Yoder. I've got a few questions for you, then—”
“About what?” Jessica was no longer hungry in the slightest, but she opened up the Styrofoam case with the cinnamon roll, peeled off a sticky hunk and put it in her mouth.
“There was an incident last night, and I'm sure it's just coincidence that you happened to pass through, but I need to talk to you. After that, I can help you be on your way.” He smiled. He had a mustache, and a tired smile. He had tired eyes, not dangerous ones.
“Anything you have to ask her you can ask her here,” Jack said.
Sheriff Yoder had been pointedly ignoring Jack's presence. His face hardened, and his eyes suddenly looked both tired and dangerous. “You stay out of this. I'll deal with you later.”
“What's going to happen when she disappears after all these people saw her?” Jack asked.
Disappear? Jessica stood up and reached for her pack. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the sheriff's hand settle on the butt of his pistol.
“Stop right there,” he said to her. Then to Jack, “She wandered in, and I'm going to help her wander out. Nothing strange about that. But I think I'm going to need to talk to you, too.”
“You think you can get rid of us both quietly, huh?” Jack ran up to the huge plate glass window of the restaurant. A few people had already been watching. Once he started to slap the glass with both palms, the entire restaurant turned and stared. “Hey!” he shouted. “Hey, crooked cop out here!”
Sheriff Yoder tipped his hat and waved to the people inside, and then shook his head in mock exasperation at Jack, but he hissed with deadly seriousness, “That was the dumbest thing you've ever done in your life. You've been hanging on by a thread up to this point, but now you're done for.” He looked from Jack to Jessica, who had managed to put on her pack. “He's a junkie and worse, Jessica. Come with me and I'll get you back to your ranch. I'll drive you the whole way personally.”
Alarms sounded in Jessica's head. He didn't just know her first name. He knew exactly who she was. It apparently showed in her eyes, because the understanding of his mistake revealed itself in Sheriff Yoder's suddenly cold face. Jake kept banging on the glass, and the sheriff said nothing more as he walked back to his car and drove away.
“We have to go now,” Jack said. “He's going to loop around and try to follow us.”
Jessica didn't know who Jack was and had no reason to think she could trust him, but she knew for certain that Sheriff Yoder was dangerous and she had to get out of there as quickly as possible. So she ran after Jack and got into a rusty Oldsmobile Cutlass with one primer-colored front panel. She put her pack and Fatty in the back and got in the passenger seat.
“What the hell was that about?” Jessica asked as Jack tore away, heading west through town.
“You don't know? They sent the Sheriff to kill you.”
“What are you talking about?”
Jack looked at her with confusion on his face. “I thought it was pretty ballsy of you, but I assumed that's why you were here. They sent some people to kill you the other night, didn't they?”
Wheels began to turn in Jessica's head. But important cogs were missing. She asked, “Who's 'they?' Who's trying to kill me?”
With a perfectly straight face, Jack said, “Willie, Douglas and Amy, of course. The vampires. “
Chapter 6
Willie's night had begun normally, with a party. With feeding. With violence, yes, but the type they controlled. But the night had ended in chaos.
It began, though, with a party. Once the gravel turnaround had been full of cars for hours, once the guests were properly wasted on free booze and cheap drugs, Willie joined them, sitting quietly in his recliner with his large, clawed hands in the pockets of his hoodie.
Douglas rarely attended their parties, anymore. He was too far gone. Too much of an animal. Even drunk and high off their asses, people might notice that something was very wrong with Douglas. He stayed down in their cellar or went off into the night.
Amy, though, she was practically still human. Willie didn't let her feed on vampires, so she'd never grown stronger. Never grown stranger. Like Douglas.
Willie knew he'd been growing strange, too. But not like Douglas. The beast inside Douglas had begun to take control. Something else in Willie had begun to take control. A void.
The emptiness had opened in Willie on the night of the meth lab explosion. Despite their horrible injuries, he and Douglas had managed to fight off the feral vampire, but with the change came the emptiness. It had started small, but it was a vacuum, a tiny little vortex. The more he fed and the stronger he grew, the more of his old self the vortex pulled in, until he barely felt happiness or anger or anything. At first, he thought that that must be what it was to be a true vampire. Watching Douglas's evolution made him question that thought.
People filled the big old house. Willie and Douglas's parties were so legendary that people came from other towns. People Willie and Douglas didn't know. People no one knew.
And that's how it worked.
Strands of Christmas lights strung high up on the walls provided dim, psychedelic illumination. The stereo blasted some sort of loud music. Willie had found his appreciation for music diminishing until he could almost only understand it as noise. It annoyed him. But it helped make the losers who staggered from room to room or slouched on the furniture and the floors even more oblivious to the real nature of the event.
They were being baited, then sedated and finally culled.
The bit of Willie that still enjoyed things enjoyed watching his prey. Though he couldn't take part in their festivities directly, he remembered some of the old joy he'd felt at the first shot of bourbon, the first drag off a cigarette, the first bump of speed, the first time getting a new girl alone in a room.
Faintly, he felt cheated. He no longer experienced the pleasures humanity had to offer, but he also didn't experience the pure, animalistic pleasures that true vampirism had to offer. Somehow, Douglas had been luckier, and as his humanity faded, his predatory nature increased. Willie was slowly being left with nothing.
Willie looked over at Amy. She stood against the wall, nodding her head to the music, ignoring the occasional male attention. She still looked human. Beneath their clothes, Willie and Douglas had changed. Evolved. If their guests weren't always so far gone, they'd certainly have noticed. Amy, though… Willie could imagine men still finding her attractive.
Amy must have sensed his gaze. She looked, gave him nothing, then looked away.
Things were changing. They were all changing. They no longer fit together neatly. They would fall apart soon, Willie knew. He wondered which way they'd fall.
Charlie, their big moose of a human pet, nodded at Willie, then at a couple standing beside him. A ragged couple. Pupils fully dilated. Pulses pounding visibly in their throats. Charlie would have made sure they weren't from their county, and that they knew no one else at the party.
Willie nodded back at Charlie, who led them over.
The woman knelt beside Willie's recliner and began squeezing his thigh and cooing nonsense in his ear.
“I told them about the good stuff we've got. They'd like a taste,” Charlie said.
“Then let's give them a taste,” Willie said. He stood, took the woman by the wrist and led her through the kitchen, toward the cellar door. If she'd been in any sort of coherent state, she would have noticed the enormity of his hand. He didn't look at her, because even given her state, she might have noticed the fangs growing reflexively in his mouth, pressing against his lips.
Amy had wrapped her arms around the man's waist and nuzzled his neck.
They descended into the basement quite willingly.
Charlie stayed above and closed the door on the foursome, leaving them in total darkness. Willie saw the beginning of fear on the faces of the two humans.
Then the dogs began barking and lunging at the end of their chains.
“Hush,” Willie said, and they obeyed. They'd been trained to keep humans out, but wouldn't defy their master.
“What is this?”
At one time, Willie would have lied to them. He would have told them that he was headed for the light switch. He would have cajoled them.
Instead, he tightened his grip on the woman's arm, grabbed the man with his free hand and dragged them further in.
“I'll let you choose,” he said. “Which do we take?”
“What?” the woman asked. She tugged lightly at his grip, not yet dedicated to escaping, not certain that this wasn't all part of them getting
their fix.
“If we have to share again, the man's bigger,” Amy said.
Willie nodded. Despite the darkness, he and Amy could see fine.
He led the blind humans over to a spare dog kennel and tossed the woman in. She began shouting, but the music above was so loud.
“I'll feed you to the dogs if you don't shut up,” Willie said.
She did shut up. She didn't have so much to shout about, anyway. She could see nothing, and her man hadn't even had time to scream before Willie had torn his throat out. He drained most of his blood within a minute.
Willie stood, wiped the gore from his mouth and nodded to Amy. She'd watched. Fangs filled her mouth and venom dripped from her chin. She fell to sucking the corpse dry immediately. Watching her, Willie fought a strong impulse to rip her head off.
It was nothing personal. She was a vampire, and he hated vampires. He knew she felt the same way about him.
As Amy fed, Willie withdrew the woman and gagged and bound her. Douglas didn't like to feed from the dead, but he might not be back for hours, and Willie didn't want to have to listen to his meal moan.
“You done?” he asked.
Amy nodded, licking her lips.
Willie tossed the man to the dogs, which snarled and nipped at each other as they ripped at his bloodless flesh.
Later on, Willie, Douglas and Amy settled in for the day. They didn't live in the cellar. At first they had. But Douglas stared. The cellar was one big room, and there was no way to escape his eyes. Besides, it was a convenient place to keep the dogs, where they wouldn't eat the human help. So they had the yard behind the house dug up and a concrete basement put in, a bunker that connected to the old basement. A bunker with three separate rooms and a common area. Willie had designed it so that they could escape each other. It was the only reason their group had lasted that long.
The only other feature of the bunker was a porthole that opened onto dirt. That had confused the contractors.
Big chunky Charlie had cleared the partiers out. Their parties had only one rule: no one crashed.