Monsters in the Midwest ( Book 1): Wisconsin Vamp

by Scott Burtness

  Lois’s blue eyes flickered open, focused through the rain on Herb’s face. Herb returned her gaze, his smile incapable of showing the full magnitude of his relief.

  “Herb,” she whispered, her throat rough and dry. She coughed weakly and spoke his name again. “Herb, what happened? What are you doing?” Reaching up, she pressed her hand to his cheek, left it there as she continued. “You’re all wet. Are you crying? What happened?”

  Herb made a noise somewhere between a choke, laugh and sob. Grabbing her hand with his own, he impulsively kissed her palm, still unable to speak.

  She turned her head, taking in the night rain. As she stretched her neck to see off to the side, she noticed the truck upside down in the mud, door missing, and still inside, the upside down silhouette of Dallas trapped behind the wheel.

  “Oh. Oh god. Is that Dallas? Herb, what happened? Was there an accident? Oh god Herb, we have to help Dallas! We have to do something!” Turning onto her side, the hand that had been holding Herb’s face moved instead to grab a handful of grass and mud, pulling as Lois weakly started to crawl back toward the hell Herb had just rescued her from.

  Herb realized he’d completely forgotten about Dallas, so lost was he in saving Lois, so elated was he to see her draw breath, open her eyes. The rest of the world had simply vanished, but now crashed back in with the weight of a V8 pickup flipping over in the night.

  Dallas, who’d been driving while obviously hammered. Despite the rain, mud and diesel smells all around, Herb could easily detect the reek of bourbon and beer. Dallas, who must’ve made a drunken grab at Lois while driving, all stupid and horny. Her torn shirt was proof of that. Dallas, losing control of the truck in the process and flipping it ass over tea kettle into the ditch, damn near killing the both of them.

  Herb snarled like a feral beast. In one fluid motion, he’d gone from kneeling in the soaking grass to leaping up and over the truck. Landing on the far side, he pivoted to face the driver’s side door. Without even checking to see if it was stuck like the previous door, he punched out the glass and wrapped his freshly bloodied hands around the panel. With a sharp pull, the door wrenched free of its hinges. Herb continued the pulling motion into a two-handed discus throw, sending the door careening over the highway and far into the night-soaked trees. Crouching down with his arms splayed, mouth stretched unnaturally wide and wicked-sharp fangs glinting in the blue glow of the dashboard lights, Herb roared at Dallas. A lifetime of pent-up resentment and rage came pouring out like vitriol, brought to a volcanic head by the fact that Dallas had nearly killed Lois. Herb’s vision reddened and the whispers had turned to a multitude of demons roaring in his skull, demanding blood, demanding vengeance. Herb’s arm shot out, fingers like steel claws gripped Dallas’s skull, nails dug deep into his scalp. Violently pushing his head back and to the side, Herb leaned in, already stretched-wide jaws creaking as the tendons pulled even wider. Breath hot on the side of Dallas’s neck, he clamped his jaws shut, fangs piercing skin, muscle, vein, unleashing a torrent of blood into Herb’s waiting mouth.

  All of the emotions roiling inside him spun to a new frenzy with each hungry gulp. Like a drunkard trying to drown all his pain at the bottom of a whiskey ocean, Herb squeezed his eyes shut and guzzled Dallas’s life-blood, trying with each swallow to drown all the anger, the angst, the insecurity that had built up shovelful by shovelful over the years of their friendship. For so long, Dallas had gotten everything, everything while Herb had been content with the scraps. After all the long years, Herb finally realized it was all a lie. Their friendship, every moment they’d shared, all of it was just a way for Dallas to take and to leave Herb the beggar.

  No more, thought Herb, his thoughts soaked in bloodlust and revenge. Now it’s my time to take. And I will. I will take it all. The glory you crave, the girl you want, the life you so callously take for granted. All mine.

  Shifting his grip to ensure the maximum flow of blood from the gash in Dallas’s jugular, Herb opened his eyes. With his mouth sealed against the side of Dallas’s neck like a lamprey, Herb was able to clearly see past Dallas, through the truck, to the darkness of the ditch beyond the opening where the passenger side door use to be. As his eyes opened, he found himself staring directly into the fear-widened eyes of Lois as she watched Herb’s murderous feeding, horror plain on her face.

  Releasing Dallas’s torn and bloody neck, Herb fell backward in shock and revulsion at what he was doing. His eyes shifted from Lois’s terror-stricken visage to the nasty tear in the side of Dallas’s neck, blood flowing like a macabre faucet.

  “Oh shit. No no no no! No way. Oh crap,” Herb rambled over and over as he scurried back into the truck. Dallas was sheet-white, comatose. Biting hard into his own hand once again, Herb slapped his bloody palm against the wound, pressed hard.

  “Come on! C’mon c’mon c’mon Dallas. You’re gonna be ok. You’ve gotta be ok!” Pulling his hand back, he looked and saw the torn and jagged holes his fangs had made were starting to close. The gush of blood slowed, until it wept like tree sap. Grabbing the seatbelt release, Herb freed Dallas and caught him as he fell, pulling him from the truck and laying him out on the grass. Dallas’s chest rose and fell with shaky breaths and Herb heard him groan in pain. He was still unconscious, but Herb knew he would live, assuming he got to a doctor soon. Looking again at Lois, fear warring with incomprehension on her face, Herb made the only decision he could. Looking straight into her eyes, he said, “I’m sorry Lois, I’m so sorry but you have to forget. You have to forget this happened. I wasn’t here, ok? I wasn’t here and you gotta sleep now, ok? Just sleep and everything will be ok. I promise Lois. I promise.”

  Palm out like a benediction, Herb reached toward Lois as he worked his whammy. Her eyes misted over, face went slack. Laying down in the soaking mud and grass, she cradled her head on her arms and fell into a deep sleep. Not wasting any time, Herb raced back around the truck to her side. Finding her purse in the disheveled wreck of the truck’s interior, he pulled out her cell phone and dialed 911. After two rings, the operator picked up and Herb started to scream in his most convincing high-pitched voice.

  “Help! Oh please help! We flipped over, Dallas is hurt. Please hurry! We’re on the 19,” Herb stood quickly and looked around the nightscape before returning to the call. “Um, we’re maybe ten miles from the Lafayette turnoff, heading west on 19. Please, hurry!”

  Ignoring the operator’s response, he left the phone connected and set it in the mud next to Lois head. Backing away, he returned to his car and drove up the highway. After about a half-mile, he pulled off the road and headed into the trees. After almost getting stuck twice, he finished a three-point turn and reversed into the cover of the tree line, killed the engine and headlights and waited. Herb anxiously looked first to his left toward where Dallas and Lois lay unconscious in the mud, then to his right, hoping to see the tell-tale red and blue of help on the way. A sob of relief shook him when he saw the lights and heard the sirens as the ambulance and sheriff’s car raced down the highway. Only after they’d reached the accident, moved both Dallas and Lois onto the ambulance and headed back down the highway toward the hospital in town did Herb turn the engine back on and pull back onto the road. Since he didn’t need his headlights to drive in the dark, Herb left them off until he neared town. Following the blue H’s on the side of the road, he made his way to the hospital.

  Chapter 38

  Herb sat fidgeting in his car, far back in a corner of the hospital parking lot that the meager lights couldn’t quite reach. While he desperately wanted to go inside and see Lois, he knew there would be questions. Lots of questions. Maybe not from Lois or Dallas, but from the cops or paramedics. He also knew he couldn’t stay much longer. Every minute he fretted in the Pinto’s front seat, he could feel the sun drawing inexorably closer. He had finally steeled himself to go inside when Trappersville’s only cab arrived at the hospital. Herb watched from the shadows as first Lois and then Dallas exited the building. S
eeing that Lois was ok loosened the vice in his chest a couple of twists, but the relief was short-lived. All it took was one look at Dallas and that vice cranked right back up again. As Herb glared at his friend from deep in the shadows, he noticed that Dallas wasn’t walking naturally. He seemed unsteady on his feet and raised his hands up to catch his balance. Herb’s sharp eyes caught the glint of chrome on Dallas’s wrists. A moment later and the deputy Sheriff walked out of the hospital as well, whistling at Dallas like calling a recalcitrant puppy. Herb squinted to better see the scene unfold. When Dallas pulled up short, Lois kept walking determinedly toward the waiting cab. Dallas called out something to Lois. She ignored him until she reached the cab and opened the back door. Stopping suddenly, Herb watched her shake her head, turn on her heel and walk straight back toward Dallas. Once she was within arm’s reach, Lois slapped Dallas across the face, hard. Dallas’s head snapped to the side and sprung back, his visage a study in pained confusion. Even from where he was parked across the lot, Herb could read his lips as he said, “It was an accident! An accident!” over and over.

  Herb settled back into his seat, arms crossed and index finger lightly tapping his chin, and watched the deputy put Dallas in the back of a squad car. As soon as they had pulled away and turned out of the hospital’s parking lot, Herb put the Pinto into drive and headed toward home, a look of grim resolve hardening on his face.

  Chapter 39

  Lois was back at work three nights later. Herb was in the middle of a breakfast platter and heard her car in the parking lot. He quickly made an excuse of having to take a load of trash out to the dumpster and let the prep cook take over the flattop grill. On his way back around the building, he met Lois as she finished one cigarette and was in the process of lighting another one.

  “Oh, hi there, Lois. How’s it going? You, uh. You doing ok?” Herb offered a tentative smile and a half-wave, instantly elated when Lois returned his gesture with a smile and wave of her own.

  “Oh hi, Herb. I’m ok.” Suddenly nervous, she ducked her head and pushed her bangs back. “I suppose you heard about me and Dallas the other night, huh? News travels fast in a town like this.” Taking a long drag on her cigarette, she met his eyes for a moment, and looked down again, her attention suddenly focused on a divot in the concrete.

  Herb nodded. “Sorry. Yeah. The mechanics from Patt’s were in yesterday talking about how bad Delor- ah, Dallas’s truck is banged up. But I’m really, really glad that you’re ok.”

  Lois’s laugh was empty of all humor. “Deloris. I swear that damn truck means more to him than anything else.” Lois pierced him with a sharp gaze, asked in a low voice, “But Dallas, he hasn’t come round? Hasn’t seen you or told you what happened?”

  Herb shook his head, doing his best to play dumb. In truth, Dallas hadn’t been around. In the days since the accident, Dallas had barely left Deloris’s side. Or so he’d told Stanley. Herb didn’t doubt it, though. Lois had the right of it. Dallas loved that truck.

  Lois crushed out her cigarette and went to get a third from her purse. As she pulled it out, her hand started to shake so badly that she dropped it on the cement. Cursing under her breath, she bent down to retrieve it and flicked her lighter once, twice trying to light it. Hands still shaking, the flame kept extinguishing before she could light the smoke. Herb stepped forward, guided by sudden instinct. He reached out and plucked the plastic lighter from her fingers, lit it and held it forward. Leaning in, Lois lit the cigarette, inhaled deeply and pulled it away from her lips. Herb watched the glowing tip jitter and grow steadier as Lois exhaled through her nose.

  “That son of a bitch.” Lois gave him a searching look. “I know he’s your friend, Herb, and I don’t want to start shit between you two. But that jackass damn near killed me.”

  When Herb didn’t say anything, she continued. “OK. So you know how Dallas has been, well. Kinda chasing me for a while now, right? He’s nothing if not persistent. Anyway, I dunno. He’s never really been. I mean, it’s not that he’s not. Um.” She shook her head, continued on. “Well, I guess let’s just say that I’ve dated my share of self-involved, egotistical a-holes, and apparently haven’t learned my lesson yet.” Third cigarette only half-finished, Lois checked her watch, glanced inside.

  “They’re fine,” Herb offered. “There’s only like three tables and they’ve all got their food. We’ve got a little time.” Sitting on the slatted bench next to the ashtray, Herb patted the flaking paint of the boards next to him. “Have a seat, tell me the rest.”

  Sitting beside him, she pushed a still slightly shaky hand through her hair. “Well, anyway. So Dallas kept saying just give him one date, right? One date. If we had a terrible time, or even a kind of whatever time, he’d leave me alone. Never ask me out again. But if we had even just a tiny bit of fun, well then...” Her mood made her smile look sad. “Such a talker. Anyway, so we had a date. One date. And he was nice. Funny. Attentive. I dunno. He was sweet. I found myself thinking, maybe I’d misjudged this one. I mean, I know he has a reputation around town, but people change, right?”

  Not Dallas, Herb thought as he nodded, waiting quietly for her to continue.

  “So anyway, when he popped in the other night, it was a nice surprise. You were there. You saw how he was. He didn’t seem like he’d been drinking or anything. But over at Stein’s, he must’ve put down five or six beers, a few shots of whiskey and was really starting to get revved up. There were a couple of guys playing pool and Dallas kept trying to get me to play, to help him “hustle the little bitches,” as he put it. I suck at pool, but what the hell right? So we played some pool, I had a few drinks, Dallas had more than a few. But even then.” Lois stopped, shook her head angrily. “God, I’m so stupid. I still thought he would be, like. You know. OK to drive. And my car was here, and it was so late.”

  Lois paused in her narrative, her eyes focusing on some indeterminate point in the darkness.

  “Geezuz, Herb. We were driving, and he... I mean, I can’t believe he… Dallas was, well. He was trying...” Lois’s voice broke a little and she cleared her throat before continuing. “Dallas was doing something when he lost control and we swerved off the road.” Herb didn’t miss the look of disgust that crossed her face like a dark cloud across the sun. “Christ. Forget it. He lost control of Deloris and we flipped over in the ditch and that jackass cares more about the damn truck than me.” She ground her teeth in frustration, while Herb shrugged woodenly, not trusting himself to speak.

  Lois turned her head and looked at him strangely for a moment. “But I guess what is there to worry about? By whatever miracle, I’m fine even though the truck is damn near totaled. It was upside down, for Chrissake.” Lois paused again, struggling with the memory of the accident. Her voice dropped a little as she continued, causing Herb to lean in a bit closer to hear. “But how the hell could I have been ok? The doors. Both doors were completely ripped from the truck.”

  Herb felt the back of his neck flush and his palms started to get clammy. “Oh. Um. So like the doors broke off or something. That doesn’t sound so weird. I mean, since the truck flipped and all, right?” he offered.

  “The doors didn’t just get knocked off when we flipped. The cops found one on our side of the highway, but we were in the ditch and it was all the way over in the trees. The other door, Dallas’s door, they finally found it across the highway. In the trees on the other side of the road. Herb, that’s like thirty or forty yards away. Straight across the highway from the truck. It’s like. Oh, I don’t know. I feel stupid even saying this. But it’s like something threw it across the highway.”

  Ice cold beads of sweat trickled down Herb’s spine, causing him to squirm uncomfortably. He really wanted to change the subject, but Lois continued before he could speak.

  “The crazy thing is that I was fine, Herb. When I came to in the ambulance, there was nothing wrong with me. I was muddy and dirty and soaked from the rain, so I must’ve been tossed from the truck when it flipped.
Which I guess means the door had been ripped away first. But I was wearing my seat belt. I know I was! The police were grilling me on that, giving me the whole “seat belts save lives” spiel. I told them that maybe when the door got ripped off, my seat belt was torn. But the seat belt was fine. So I don’t know, Herb. I have no idea what the hell happened. I just know that the truck flipped, the doors came off, my seat belt somehow magically unbuckled itself and I was tossed into the ditch.”

  Lois’s eyes widened in remembered fear. “My shirt, my hair were covered with blood. Covered.” Lois paused again before she continued in a near whisper. “But I was fine. There was barely a scrape on me. So where did all that blood come from?” Her head shook in confused frustration. “I can’t remember, Herb. I can’t remember! I know Dallas tried to grab... um. Dallas swerved, we flipped, and I woke up in the ambulance, like nothing worse than a quick tumble in the mud had happened. What the hell, right?”

  By this point, Lois had started to shake, on the verge of sobs. Herb shifted on the bench, arms open, and watched dream-like as Lois leaned into his arms. Pulling her in close, he stroked her perfect hair, held her tight to his chest. Herb and Lois sat in the fluorescent light outside of Ronnie’s as she fought to control the tears that wanted to spill out. Finally, she took a deep breath and released it. Herb felt the muscles shift in her back, felt her chin rise up as she brought herself back under control. She returned Herb’s embrace fiercely before pulling back. Suddenly, she leaned back in and kissed him on the cheek, lips lingering for a moment before she pulled away.