The Dead Days Journal: Volume 1

by Sandra R. Campbell

  Many died and he hasn’t slept. How am I going to convince him?

  I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “He’s our best chance against the horde.”

  Hard angry lines deepened my father’s brow. “Stupid girl, he’s one of them. Those things ripped your mother in half! They left part of her body in the courtyard and the other half in the woods. They opened up Harris and ate him from the inside out. Now move aside or I’ll shoot you both!”

  Mom’s dead…

  The memory of Halloween’s painful bite brought my hands to the blue residue stuck to my neck. My mother had endured so much more than I ever would. Tears stung my face as the dark place in my mind produced horrific images of her death.

  “Vincent, that’s enough.” Duncan bumped my father with his elbow. “We have to do this the right way. He’s not attacking. And this is Leo, we’ll hear her out.”

  Halloween and I were escorted to an empty mess hall at gunpoint and ordered to sit against a wall like a couple of terrorists. Halloween eased into his chair with his head held high. I slunk down in the chair next to his, doing my best to disappear.

  Ben was instructed by Duncan to stand watch while he took my reluctant father to retrieve the others from the panic room.

  Ben, who’d carried my pack from the closet and set it down at my feet, eyed me up and down until his eyes finally settled on the blue paste smeared across my neck. “Do you really think you can trust him?”

  I looked up through tear-soaked lashes. “I have to.”

  Ben scratched his face, digging his fingers into his dark stubble. “And if he succeeds in saving us and this is over, then what? You’re just going to do whatever he asks, let him fill his belly with your blood and leave everyone else behind.”

  Stiffening my spine, I did my best to ignore Halloween’s presence—he was too still. “If that’s what it takes, yes.”

  “The Leo I know and love is a fighter. She would never lie down like this. Not for anyone or anything.”

  “The Leo you know and love is a survivor. I fight the battles I can win and accept defeat in those I can’t win.”

  As he massaged his hand over the jagged scar on his throat, Ben lowered his voice. “There’s not just one solution to this problem. We can find another way.”

  “This is the best solution. It might not be the easiest one, but…”

  “No, this is the worst possible way.”

  Ben spun around, and I flinched when he kicked a folding chair across the room. I hated seeing him like this, helpless and hurting, and I despised the fact that Halloween was quietly witnessing everything that passed between us.

  “Arguing is pointless. It doesn’t matter if you agree with my choice or not; it wasn’t your choice to make. Halloween will help fight off the horde, and when everyone is safe again, I will leave with him, as promised. End of discussion.”

  “Oh, yeah? Tell that to Lincoln.”

  Just the mention of my brother’s name sent my heart crashing to my stomach, fracturing it into a thousand pieces. I can’t leave Linc! Slumping forward, my elbows on my knees, I buried my head in my hands and tried to ignore the multiple footfalls of the others filing into the mess hall.

  A few of them gasped, and others actually cried out. After last night, the sight of Halloween sitting smugly among them had to be a lot to take in. They’d seen what his kind could do, and here I was about to ask them to put their lives in his scary clawed hands.

  I can’t face them.

  Soft whispers turned to louder chatter. And then Lincoln boldly spoke my name. I stopped breathing but refused to look up.

  Lincoln called my name again.

  A sob caught in my throat. The cooling stroke of Halloween’s hand over my back helped me to swallow it down. It also silenced the room.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  I knew my plan would be met with opposition. It was difficult for my family to see me tied to their worst nightmare by a purple nylon rope while asking them to put their faith in that very nightmare, a being that looked like the ones who’d just ripped our family apart. Scanning the crowd, I noticed that more than just Harris and my mother were missing. I closed my eyes and silently prayed their fates hadn’t been the same. But Robert, of all people, let me know my prayers wouldn’t be answered.

  “Laura and Jin-Sang were taken. We are not sure where or if they’re alive. We lost Harris and your mother to the most brutal and merciless killers we’ve ever seen, and you expect us to believe that one of them has come here to keep us safe. It’s crazy. This vampire is using you to get inside this compound, to get to us.”

  I had no problem meeting Robert’s venomous glare, but he certainly had trouble meeting mine. His eyes kept shifting between a spot on the floor and somewhere above my head. Never once did he look anywhere near Halloween.

  But then Halloween stood, and everyone, except my father, shrank down. “If you don’t want my help, fine. But know that, if I leave, everyone here is dead.”

  My father stepped forward and addressed Halloween through clenched teeth. “My daughter is foolish. We have everything we need to fight the others like you and win. She seems to think that, without her, we are some incompetent little group, but I’ll have you know, two vampires died last night. Two more of your fang buddies were severely injured by shotgun blasts to the heart and the gut. I have no doubt they died when the sun came up. We don’t need your help.”

  Halloween’s eyes shifted to me and then scanned the crowd before him, slowly, intently, as if looking for someone he knew. “The injured will be healed by nightfall, and many, in perfect health, will return under the cover of darkness. They will take more blood, more lives… They will keep coming until there is nothing left to take.”

  My father rubbed the white hairs along his chin and then shook his head with a snakelike smirk.

  My father’s not going to budge, and my family will follow him to their deaths if I don’t give them a reason to doubt him.

  I grabbed the small bundle from my pack and stood up next to Halloween. “He can stop them.”

  “That thing killed your mother! How dare you bring it here?” When my father lunged forward, Ben lowered the barrel of his rifle as a barricade to keep my father from his target.

  I wouldn’t cower in front of him, not after what my father had done to me. He wasn’t in his right mind, and he needed to be challenged. The group needed to see. “Halloween wasn’t the one who killed her. But he can help us defend ourselves against the ones who did. Besides, he saved my life.”

  Spittle flew from my father’s twisted mouth. It was taking everything he had not to charge. “We killed several of his kind last night, and I’ll do it again, right now.”

  Halloween yanked the rope in an attempt to pull me away from my maniac father. I tried to stand my ground but ended up stumbling back into Halloween’s arms.

  “You’re tied up like an animal. You’re nothing but a puppet. Robert’s right. This beast is controlling you, using you to get to us. How dare you endanger your family like this?”

  I patted Halloween’s arm lightly, signaling him to let me go. When I took a step forward to oppose my father, Halloween followed. “I’m no puppet. This rope is here to keep him close and to keep me safe.”

  My father took a deep breath and a small step back. “I’m your father, your blood. These people are your family. We’re the ones who’ve kept you safe. Your mind is gone, child. You can’t possibly believe this sinister creature will save you.”

  Halloween protected me. We exchanged blood—does that make him my family, too?

  I threw the ski mask and bottle of chloroform at my father’s feet, probably a little too hard. The glass bottle exploded against the bare concrete. No one else except my father knew the meaning of this, but everyone stared intently at what I’d thrown down.

  “Mom’s cancer wasn’t my fault, and neither was her death. I’m the one who will do whatever it takes to keep my family safe, even if that means I h
ave to save them from you.”

  I watched his nostrils flare and his reddening face contort into something more monstrous than Halloween could ever be. “Leo, you know I had my reasons. Good reasons. Don’t be so stupid as to put your trust in this animal.”

  “He isn’t an animal.” You are. “Remember how I saved Ben in the alley. You would have left him for dead. I saved Ben, and because I saved him we have plentiful fields and warm baths. We have a man everyone loves and respects amongst us. I had a chance to kill Halloween, but I spared him because of the same instinct that saved Ben. And he will prove to be just as honorable.”

  I hope…

  Halloween moved up to stand beside me. “Leo convinced me to stay and help you. If you are so anxious to be rid of my presence, then you can either join in our efforts to save your hides or stand against me and be left to die quite horribly. The choice is yours.”

  My father was shaking badly, and I knew he was about to lose all control. “Why is my daughter so important to you? What makes her so special?”

  Halloween’s hair was somewhat disheveled from where he’d run his claws through it many times, probably to keep from attacking my father. Every now and again, his eyes flicked to me and I wondered if he was thinking of backing out. “She’ll go without a fight.”

  Simple and to the point.

  My father charged. Halloween slipped in front of me, but it wasn’t necessary.

  Ben’s hand moved like a piston to grab hold of my father’s throat, stopping him in his tracks. “Leo’s right, Vincent. I was there. He’ll help us. She’s assured everyone’s safety by sacrificing her own life. She deserves your gratitude, not your hot-headed temper.”

  Before that moment, it’d been me and Halloween against everyone. Now Ben had officially taken a side. Duncan, I knew, would never openly go against my father, but his pleading eyes told me he would do whatever he could to help. I wasn’t so sure about the others.

  As I searched the room in hopes of finding other kind faces, I spotted Lincoln hiding behind Robert, his head buried in Robert’s denim jacket. The rest of them were afraid, too; most shifted nervously from one foot to the other while staring at the floor. My father had ruled for years. He’d kept them alive and safe for so long—their loyalty wouldn’t be easily swayed.

  Then an unexpected voice chimed in. “What do you mean when you say Leo sacrificed her life?” It was Tilly, usually the meekest of the bunch.

  This is going to be the hard part. She won’t be sold on the idea once the truth is revealed.

  When Halloween spoke, Tilly dipped her head to him, and I wondered what Tilly saw with her impaired vision when she looked at Halloween. I’d noticed my own view of him altering. I no longer looked at him as a hideous monster. I now saw something strange and beautiful in his design, in his strong, sculpted physique. It reminded me of the time I saw the tattooed man at the circus. I was shocked at first, but up close, I appreciated the artistry.

  “Leo and I have an arrangement. A member of your group let me inside. I’ve been among you without your knowledge for days. I could have killed any, or all of you, at any time if that had been my desire.”

  “Leo, you let him in. How could you?” Tilly groaned and rolled her barely seeing eyes.

  Halloween sneered at his lackluster audience. “She didn’t. Jack did.”

  “Jack!” As the collective exclamation of his name sounded, every gaze moved to the front of the room. Ben’s hand fell from my father’s throat.

  Halloween leaned toward the crowd, purposely showing his fangs, and pointed at the mask and chloroform on the floor. “Yes, Jack, who was obeying Vincent’s orders when he followed Leo out to the woods to rape her.”

  “My God! No! Vincent? Is this true?” Tilly turned to him in outrage. Several followed suit, their heads snapping in my father’s direction. Others scoffed at the insinuation. But they stayed together as a unit, huddled close like a herd of sheep—scared but angry sheep.

  My father nodded. It was possibly his last admirable trait. He would never outright lie to them. “My reasons are just and I will gladly share them with you. Once I explain, you’ll agree the actions I took were justified.”

  “Then explain it to me, Dad, because I’d really like to know!”

  The tendons on my father’s jaw pulsed. He pursed his lips and then popped his jaw before answering Tilly and the crowd, but not me.

  “I will not be put on trial. Leo is the one on trial here, Leo and that thing she brought with her! My actions were for the betterment of our community. Know that much is true.”

  Duncan intervened, his pasty complexion splotched with a growing scarlet heat. “Rape? Valid? Vincent, no way can that be justified. Where’s Jack now?”

  As our only medic, Duncan would have noticed when a bottle of chloroform went missing. The broken bottle he’d just bent over to pick up had his handwriting on the torn label.

  Ben moved to me, eyes wide. He hadn’t known, but now that he did, I figured he wanted to go back to the woods and shoot Jack again. “Dead from a well-deserved shotgun wound!” Ben shouted louder than necessary.

  Gasps, whispers, and a few cries erupted from the group, and then everyone fell back into silence.

  Ben reached for my left hand. I was reluctant to touch him, afraid my emotions might get the better of me; but as soon as his skin touched mine, I felt warm and secure. Halloween promptly placed a possessive hand on my right shoulder, and I found his night-shadowed palm a comfort as well.

  “Leo wants to save everyone here, the ones she calls family. Desperate and without options, she demanded my assistance. Services such as mine do not come cheap. I have agreed to protect this bunker and those inside for a fee.” There was no emotion in Halloween’s deep rasp.

  “What kind of fee?” Tilly anxiously wrung her caramel hands together. She knew the answer even before she asked the question.

  “Blood.”

  The room was still for a long while.

  Shaking her head, Tilly moved forward to fill the space on the other side of Ben. “Leo… You’re a crazy-brave girl. But after last night, we all know extreme measures are necessary. For the good of the group, I will stand with you, Ben, and this Halloween.”

  As she passed, Halloween bent over to address Tilly. “My name is Orrin.”

  Tilly smiled timidly. “Okay.”

  Duncan didn’t look happy when he leaned to the side and whispered in my father’s ear. I wondered if Halloween, with his inhuman abilities, could hear his words. When my father nodded, Duncan stepped forward.

  Before he could speak, my little brother jumped out from behind Robert and ran over to us. Stopping mere inches from Halloween with his tiny hands balled into fists, a sliver of a blade sticking out between his middle and pointer fingers. “No! I won’t let you kill my sister.”

  I kneeled and reached out to him. “Linc, he’s not going to kill me.”

  Lincoln shook his head wildly. “Yes, he is. He’s going to drink your blood. You’re going to die.”

  “He’s not going to kill me. Halloween has already taken my blood, and you can see that I’m fine. I’m alive.”

  Lincoln closed his eyes as a tremor passed through him.

  “Trust me. He doesn’t want to end my life. Halloween saved me twice already.”

  I inched forward and placed my hand lightly on Lincoln’s cheek to wipe away a falling tear. “Open your eyes and look at me, Linc. Have I ever lied to you?”

  Lincoln’s eyes opened, and then his gaze turned upward as he thought the question through, checking his memories to make sure I had indeed always told the truth. A few seconds later his watery eyes returned to me, and I knew I wasn’t going to like his answer.

  “You lied! You said if I told you about my nightmares, they couldn’t come back. But it did come back. Lots of them came back. They killed Mom and now he’s going to kill you!”

  Lincoln spun around and threw himself into my father’s open arms. I just lost my baby
brother.

  I wanted to run to the solace of someone’s arms, too, but I couldn’t. Instead, I stiffened my spine and tried to hide my tears. Ben made an attempt to comfort me, but I brushed his arms away.

  My life is over.

  “Lincoln!” Ben demanded. “Halloween could have drained her dry, taken his fill and then moved on to me. But he didn’t. He saved Leo. I watched him hea…”

  Halloween silenced the rest of Ben’s sentence with a snarl and another flash of teeth. The tension in the room grew as the two of them squared off, and I was stuck in the middle.

  With a firm hand pressed against each of their hard chests, I addressed the anxious crowd. “Halloween didn’t have to kill me to get what he needed. Can any of you say the same about your last meal?”

  Duncan moved shoulder to shoulder with Ben. His eyes were kind, void of anger when they met mine. “A deer and a person are very different,” he said calmly.

  “Unlike us, Halloween has a choice. He can choose to take what he needs without killing…"

  “Wait a damn minute!” Robert shouted. “Are you telling me your plan is to allow those monsters to come here and feed on our blood, to use us like cattle?”

  Robert’s quick assumption grew to disgust and traveled rapidly through the group. The herd moved toward the door now, toward the protection of the panic room—toward my father.

  “That’s not what I said.” I wanted to defend myself, but I couldn’t because I had no plan.

  I searched Halloween’s bright eyes hoping to find an answer. The differentness between us hung heavy and dense in the air. He didn’t have the answer and neither did I.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  An uncomfortable silence fell over the mess hall as the last echoing footsteps in the outer corridor dissolved into nothing. Night would be upon us soon, in an hour or maybe two, and then the vampire horde would return to our doorstep. The problem we faced now was that no one had a solid plan for how to deal with the inevitable disaster. While Duncan and Ben fidgeted with the shoulder straps of their rifles, Tilly inched her way to my side.