by Alan Ryker
He didn't want to make any trouble for her, as long as she stayed out of his county. He certainly didn't want Goodrich questioning her. Yoder didn't know how much she knew, but she knew something.
“Just a coincidence. But if you see her, get a hold of me. I'd like to talk to her.”
“If it's just a coincidence—”
“There's coincidences and there's coincidences, know what I mean?”
The deputy nodded and slapped the top of Yoder's prowler. “You head on home now. I got this covered.”
Yoder nodded and started down the dirt road.
Amy was gone. He set his jaw to keep the tears from slipping from his eyes.
It didn't work. He pulled over and let them go.
Amy had been gone for some time. But now he could finally grieve.
Chapter 13
Jessica tied Fatty to the bench outside the café.
“What are we going to do if the sheriff shows up?” Jake asked.
“We haven't done nothing wrong.”
Jack scoffed.
“That he knows about, anyway. You want to protect your family?”
“Of course.”
“Then we need to be visible.” She walked into the café and up to the counter.
“Hey, hun. How you doing today?” the waitress asked.
“Hungry,” Jessica said, smiling.
“I can't help with much, but I can help with that. What'll you have?”
“Three burger meals.”
“Alright, just take a seat. Won't be too long.”
“Can you bring them outside again?” Jessica gestured to the front door, where Fatty was visible, his mouth wide and his tongue lolling.
The waitress smiled when she saw him and then twisted her mouth and brow for a second. “You know what? Bring him in. You sit over there at that back booth and just keep him under the table.”
“I don't want to cause any trouble,” Jessica said.
“It's no trouble. I was watching him yesterday while you two sat outside and he seems to be a well-behaved little fella. No one will say anything.”
Jessica nodded. She got Fatty and headed for the back booth where Jack already sat. She stopped.
Another young man leaned over the booth, talking animatedly with Jack. He was dark complected, too. Darker than Jack. He wore a white apron stained with grease, a black t-shirt and jeans.
After a second Jack looked up at her. Then the other young man did, too. He nodded.
Jessica slid into the booth and pressed Fatty into the corner, where he laid his head on her foot. “Howdy,” she said.
He nodded.
“This is my cousin Bobby. He's the one who called me yesterday after you showed up. Bobby, this is Jessica.”
“I know.” To Jessica he said, “You're the cause of all this craziness.”
“You're confused. I'm more like the solution. Him over there,” she gestured to Jack, “he's more like the cause.”
Bobby smiled. He looked to be about the same age as Jack. Maybe a couple of years older. He was broader. “Yep, the family fuck up over here.”
“Hey, plenty of our family is fucked up,” Jack said. But he turned red.
“Not quite as bad as you. Anyway, Jessica, when you walked in yesterday I did a double-take so hard I just about snapped my neck. You're lucky I recognized you, with how Sheriff Yoder tried to snatch you.”
Jessica nodded, but her mind started working. She wasn't prone to conspiracy theory, but she was learning to be. “How'd you know me?”
“The guys numbnuts here runs with gave him a picture of you. He showed me. I've caught him drooling over it more than once.”
Jessica scowled. “Really?”
“Show her,” Bobby said.
“I don't have it on me.”
“Why'd you have a picture of me anyway?” Jessica asked.
“They were worried about you. They had us looking out for you.”
“I know you've got her picture in your back pocket,” Bobby said. “Let's see it.”
“I really don't—”
Bobby grabbed Jack in a headlock.
“You smell like onions and B.O.,” Jack said, jostling the table as he tried unsuccessfully to pry Bobby's big arm loose.
“Hey!” A voice boomed from the other side of the counter. The deceptively loud voice belonged to a short, white-haired old man also wearing an apron. “Cut that out. You shouldn't be taking your break in the dining room in the first place.”
The customers stared. Bobby rolled his eyes and let go of Jack's head. But he repeated, “Let's see it.”
The combination of the struggle and his apparent embarrassment had Jack a shade of beet red that Jessica had only seen in one other person: Lorna, a blond girl who couldn't sweat, and so had frequently passed out in gym class.
Jack took his wallet from his pocket, and pulled from his wallet a folded, grubby piece of paper.
Jessica snatched the piece of paper from his hand and unfolded it. One fold was so deep that it had worn all the way through into a tear. She smoothed the black-and-white picture on the table.
It was her. It was her junior year school photo, copied out of the yearbook.
“How old is that picture?” Bobby asked.
“Just last year,” Jessica said.
“Huh.” Jessica knew what he was thinking. That she looked a lot older. But he only asked, “So why those assholes on the lookout for you?”
“She knows things about their operation,” Jack said. The intense way he looked at Jessica as he said this, she knew he was trying to psychically transmit, 'He doesn't know about the vampires' to her. She nodded.
“Huh,” Bobby said again. Jessica could tell that he knew there was more to the story. “I heard their house burned down this morning. I heard that there's no word from any of them. What do you think's up with that.”
“I think good riddance,” Jessica said.
“So you think they were inside?”
“Listen,” Jack said. “Enough of your bullshit. I need your help.”
“You know you've always got my help, cuz.” Bobby slapped Jack on the back, then grabbed the scruff of his neck and shook him playfully.
“Cut it out,” Jack said, pushing away the big, grease-burn-covered hand. “I mean it. I need your help.”
“Okay. What's up?”
“They're not dead. You know they've been after me.”
Bobby nodded. Jessica watched an intensity enter his gaze. He liked to pick on Jack, but he apparently didn't like for anyone else to.
“They're gonna come harder now. I'm scared for my mom.”
“You think they'll go after her?” No smile remained on Bobby's face.
“If they can't get to me, they'll use her.”
“Over my dead body,” Bobby said. His jaw jutted forward and he leaned heavily on the table, like he was willing himself to be bigger.
“Maybe so,” Jack said. “Leave them to us, but protect my mom and dad.”
Bobby nodded. “I'll do what I can. I'll head over there after I get off here.”
“Thanks.” Jack looked relieved.
Jessica couldn't believe it. Bobby looked tough, but he had no idea what he was up against. Some family dynamic was obviously at play that made Jack feel that Bobby was more than he was. She looked at Bobby, and knew from his expression that she hadn't kept a straight face.
“You obviously have something to say,” Bobby said.
“The only thing I have to say is that if you can get your aunt out of here, you should.”
“You don't know my uncle. Anyway, I'm not too worried about those punks. They were scrawny little losers back in high school, and as far as I'm concerned they still are. You, though, you should get your ass out of town.”
The waitress walked up with a tray with three plates of burgers and fries and three Cokes. “I think your break is probably over,” she said as she sat everything on the table. “The food's not cooking itself.”
“How're you doing, Jack? You keeping yourself out of trouble?”
Jack nodded and fussed with his food. “I'm doing okay.”
“Good,” then to Jessica. “You let me know if you need anything else.”
For awhile, they just ate. Jessica was starving. Her body was still recovering from the chase and all the adrenaline. She slipped half a burger under the table to Fatty, and ate a burger and a half herself, and most of the fries.
Finally feeling full, she looked at her watch. Only a couple more hours until sunset.
“What now?” Jack asked.
“Now we strap up, head over to their lair, put our backs in a corner and wait.”
The crew had left the burn site, but Jessica didn't feel safe walking right up. From within the tree line of the neighboring pasture, she scanned the property through her binoculars.
A corona of ash and debris surrounded a grey pile. Surprisingly little was left considering it had been an entire house. Much of it had fallen into the cellar, then settled further after being soaked with water. The sight reminded Jessica of watching her own house burn. But in that case, the vampires had been in the house at the time. Her parents. According to Charlie, who was still tied to a tree at Jack's squat, these vampires were most likely snug as bugs underground.
Charlie had wanted Jessica to cut him loose. Jack had wanted the same thing. Jessica told Charlie that he'd better tell them everything, because if they didn't make it back alive, no one was going to set him free. It wasn't a bluff. She taped one of his own socks into his mouth to ensure that no one would hear him.
He'd be a problem, regardless. At some point, she'd probably have to let him go.
The sun was setting quickly. She could barely see a red crescent of it overtop the bushy trees bordering the western edge of the pasture. So, letting Fatty lead, she jogged across the back of the property.
After a moment, she heard Jack follow. She didn't look back at him, but imagined him jogging after her. He held a shotgun.
She'd had to decide if he were part of an elaborate scheme on the vampires' part to capture or kill her, a scheme obviously gone wrong. She'd avoided making that decision until she had to. Back at his car, she'd watched him closely as she handed the loaded weapon over to him. He fidgeted beneath her gaze. She knew he was scared. She knew she made him uncomfortable. It still wasn't the expression she'd prefer to have seen on his face.
She didn't know what she could have seen on his face that would have given her peace of mind, though. He hadn't cut her throat in the night, though she slept lightly and Fatty had been between them. He hadn't immolated her with a Molotov cocktail, though burning someone covered in guns was a good way to get yourself shot. So had he proven himself?
Now, she was sure. Now that he ran at her back with a loaded shotgun and didn't shoot her. She almost laughed.
Fatty snuffled loudly at the ground, wandering back and forth in a meandering zigzag. To Jessica, the air burned. The comforting smell of a wood fire had been transformed as the ashes were drenched into lye with thousands of gallons of water. She watched Fatty work, but in her mind she stood in an oversized Looney Tunes t-shirt in the middle of the Kansas prairie at night and watched her own home burn. Watched her life reduce to ashes.
Then Fatty began to dig at the ground. A vampire slept there, at least for another few minutes. The sun was almost down.
“I wish I'd thought to bring my fence post driver. Could skewer them,” Jessica said.
“So they're down there?”
Jessica nodded. She pulled Fatty from the spot he dug at. After another few moments of sniffing, he bayed and began to paw at a nearby spot. She pulled him away again.
“There are three?” she asked.
“Willie, Douglas and Amy.”
They were far enough from the house that the earth was mostly dry. Ten feet closer and the vampires would have been buried in mud. But the new cellar was between them and the house, and the fire department hadn't gone that crazy with the hoses. She was sure the house had been a lost cause when they'd arrived.
Had they found the little one's bones? She felt that she should remember his name. Gabe. His corpse would have been right against the front of the house, the way he'd fallen back in the window.
“What now?” Jack asked. “Do we wait for them to come up? Do we hide?”
“No point in hiding now. They know we're here.”
Before long, the earth began moving. Jessica put her shotgun to her shoulder, then glanced back at Jack. He'd done the same, but shifted from foot to foot, his eyes wide with terror. She gave him an angry look and then nodded at his feet. He stopped his nervous shuffle. Jessica looked back at the ground. It still moved. The vampires knew they were there, but they had to come out sometime.
Fatty barked at the ground, so that by the time Jessica heard gravel popping under tires, lights were already spilling across the yard. The house should have been between them, but there was no more house.
Spinners lit up. It was the law.
“We've gotta go,” Jack said.
“Put your gun on him.”
“That's insane! We have to go!” He grabbed her upper arm. She wrenched it away hard and shoved him back with a shoulder, never taking her aim off the moving earth.
Sheriff Yoder got out of the car, but stood behind the door. “Put your guns down and get on the ground. Now, Jessica, Jack.”
Jessica could barely see him through the glare of headlights, but was certain he had a gun on them. She stood between the sheriff and Jack. Quietly, she said, “If you don't put your gun on him, he will shoot us both down.”
“Shit, I can't—”
“If he shoots, he'll hit me. Then you shoot him. You'll live. Just put the goddamn gun on him, Jack.” The words rumbled in her chest as she growled the last sentence through a clenched jaw.
Jessica held her breath as Jack brought his shotgun to bear on Yoder.
“Put the gun down!” Yoder bellowed. But he didn't fire.
“You're supposed to protect this community,” Jessica said with a calmness she didn't feel. “These people elected you and put their faith in you.”
“I said to put the gun down, Jack, and get on the goddamn ground. I'm not going to ask you again.”
Jessica knew then that he wouldn't shoot. He let things slide. He looked the other way. But he wouldn't kill two kids for these vampires. Not even if one of them was his daughter. She didn't know if it was out of fear of the consequences or if there was just a bit of conscience left in him, but she knew he wouldn't shoot if they didn't shoot first.
Then Amy came out of the ground, and she wasn't so sure. She rose from the earth like some sort of soiled mermaid emerging from a grimy ocean, pressing herself up, her head back, her hair plastered to her head. Her eyes black. They stared at each other for a moment.
Then without a smile, Amy nodded at her before continuing to drag herself from her grave.
Jessica wanted nothing more than to blow her head off, but she couldn’t with the Sheriff's gun on her. Even if he didn't want to shoot, he could be jarred into it.
“Walk with me, Jack,” Jessica said. Then to Yoder, “We're going, Sheriff. But soon we'll take care of your vampire problem, whichever side you decide to be on. Let me tell you something: I dealt with a vampire like this once. She's not your daughter anymore.”
They walked. Jessica didn't raise her gun, but Jack didn't lower his. Yoder shouted, but did nothing more. As they moved away, the clawed hand of another vampire burst out from the earth. It glowed sickly in the light spilling from the Sheriff's car.
Once the pair hit the tree line, they turned and ran.
Chapter 14
As that little bastard Jack swung his iron up, Yoder's trigger finger twitched. He had his own shotgun on them, and knew that even though it was twilight the two kids would be blinded by his headlights. He figured he had even odds of putting
both of them down before Jack ever got a shot off, let alone an accurate shot. His finger twitched, but that was all.
The vampires could make the corpses disappear. The girl was a wanderer with a history. The boy, a known druggie and troublemaker.
But there had been the incident at the diner, when he'd tried to pick Jessica up the first time. There had been a scene that people would remember. And then the kids had returned to town earlier that evening. He couldn't believe that when he'd heard it. They'd been talking to people, and he wondered what they'd been saying. They couldn't have been talking about vampires, could they? No one would listen to stories like that from a pair like them.
But it wasn't just that. He didn't want to kill them. He didn't even want to hold them until the vampires could kill them. So what the hell was he doing?
He had no idea.
He felt old and tired. He wasn't even fifty yet. A year ago, he hadn't felt old. Sure, he had the ache in his lower back from sitting in the cruiser too much. He had the creaky knee he'd blown out playing football. But he still had energy. He still woke up looking forward to the day ahead, to cruising around the beautiful countryside and to joking with the good old boys in his community.
The past year, though, had sucked the life right out of him, and he never knew what new horrors the day might bring.
He watched the vampires claw their way from the ground. He'd never seen that before. It was like in the movies. His first impulse had been to offer his daughter a hand. He didn't approach though, even as she struggled to pull herself from the dirt, climbing hand over huge, clawed hand across the ground.
He didn't think he was protecting her anymore. Maybe. He watched her scrabbling across the ground, covered in black soil, her tank top ripped away so that he was embarrassed to look at her. She didn't notice, though. Her claws were out. Her fangs were out. Her features were distorted like in a funhouse mirror that only brought out the evil in a face.
Once, she had worn sundresses, had run through fields in them despite her mother’s constant warnings about ticks. Once, she'd cared for their chickens, feeding and watering them and collecting the eggs. She'd loved the new chicks, and only his warnings that they couldn't be handled too much caused them to ever leave her hands.