by Ian Hall
Seriously - I could freaking hear Cami blushing. Puke.
“I- I have a boyfriend…”
That’s what she said to him, but the way she said it came off like, “I’m totally yours - do me now.”
Cami hadn’t changed; for some reason that thought made me happy. Maybe ‘cause she was pretty much the only thing that had stayed the same over past few months. All that desire I’d had the other night to French her big time and then suck all her blood out had totally gone. According to Jackson, the only reason I’d felt that way at all was ‘cause Alan had been messing with my mind. Jackson was a tool but I think he was right about that; I’m no lez, after all.
I went in a little closer. Not that I was on Broker Street for Cami; but the curiosity over who the dude she hung with ate me alive. His voice sounded so familiar but just…wrong. Disguised.
“I’m not trying to take you away from your boyfriend,” the guy said.
“You couldn’t if you tried.” Cami was still trying to sound hard-to-get but that slut flirted big time.
“Ooh…is that a challenge? I love a chick who says no.”
“You’re awful!”
Then she giggled.
Once I heard his next words, I knew ex-freaking-zactly who he was.
“So, what do you say, Cami Richter?”
I stood only one house away. They were right there on Cami’s front porch with the light on. Any human passing by could have seen them. I was still in the shadows; not that it mattered, Alan could have scoped me out in pitch darkness.
“C’mon,” he said to her, moving in real close so she could smell him. “Your boyfriend can have you back tomorrow. I just want you for tonight.”
He was getting to her. I could see Cami breathing in real deep, sucking in that vampire sweat, like sniffing glue. Alan’s hands were moving all up and down her thigh, getting way too familiar. At that point it didn’t matter if she was in love with Craig or gay for me or whatever…Cami was all about Alan. If he wanted to lay her out right there, she would let him.
I stepped out of the shadows, right up to Cami’s walkway.
“What the hell is all of this?”
Cami was so wrapped up in his mind freak that she didn’t even notice I was there. Alan, on the other hand, just smiled.
“Had a feeling you’d find us here,” he told me, guiding Cami’s hand to his pants. “I’m glad you showed up; the three of us could have one hell of a night, Mandy Cross. We’ll take turns on her…and I’ll let you be the one to change her. It’ll be a fucking blood orgy.”
I don’t know what hurt me more: the fact that he had his hands all over some other girl or that he enjoyed the fact that I’d caught him. To say Alan was rubbing my nose in it would have been a massive understatement.
I almost vomited from being so upset.
“Why are you doing this?” I came up a bit closer, but still not all the way up to the porch. “I didn’t mean for any of that to happen last night; I told Jackson him and his stupid family could shove it. I want to be with you, Alan; I’m one of you.”
It was totally like he didn’t hear me at all. Cami got ready to go down on him and he just lapped it the hell up.
Alan planted a big Frencher on Cami. “Damn, she’s a sweet one. Sure you don’t want a taste?”
I ran up on him then, fist pulled back like a freaking hammer. By the time I pushed it forward, Alan had gone, and I was punching the daylights out of the Richter’s screen door. Mrs. Richter, Cami’s mom, screamed from inside and called for their dog, Knuckles. I ditched back into the trees before the hound could sniff me out.
Alan and Cami, they were gone. Cami’s body spray, though, clung in the air like a little cloud. I followed the scent.
The Cheerleader Returns
I pulled my car to a different part of the parking lot, and we settled down to wait.
We did some talking, but nothing else. We were both scared we’d miss her somehow. Well, the time went by, Mandy stayed inside for fifty minutes, and Dave’s relief guard never showed. Then she came out with the older guy, all giggly and stuff, and they got into his car.
They took off into town, and I followed as best as I could, but heck, I’m new at the basic car-driving game, never mind the James Bond stuff. Plus, it got kinda grey-dark; not dark, but that weird in-between way, where shadows do weird things with your eyes.
Mary-Christine’s on the phone to her dad asking what to do, when the car turned into an older part of town, and from what I saw, not nicer, either. I tried to keep close enough to see, but they were driving really slowly now, then they turned into a really seedy parking lot, next to an equally seedy motel.
I had to drive on to avoid being obvious, and it looked such a crappy neighborhood; I didn’t want to go outside.
“What do we do?” I asked, but she shook her head, obviously her dad wasn’t helping either. I opened the window slightly, and listened.
Nothing.
“We have to get closer,” I said.
We both climbed out of the car carefully, not closing the doors at all. A few steps down the road, and we found we could crawl down the side of a broken fence. It got us to within fifty feet of the car.
The pair inside were obviously having a disagreement, the Mexican guy leaned over at Mandy’s face, shouting at her.
Then, in an instant, she leapt on him.
He made no cry, just sat terrifyingly still for a few minutes.
For the second time in my life, I watched Mandy feed.
It must have taken her five minutes, then she left the lifeless body in the car and got out.
I didn’t say anything to Mary-Christine, but Mandy looked spectacular. All, heaving chest and alert.
Real sexy.
She walked around the car, sniffing the air, looking around carefully.
Then she took a few steps, and vanished.
“What?” I began, but found no words to describe it.
“Dad said they were fast.”
With nothing else to do, we retraced our steps to the car. Once inside, I gunned the accelerator, and got the freak out of Dodge.
Well, it did take us a while to find the main road, then get the freak out of Everton.
I didn’t give a rat’s ass. I was safe, and so was my perky baby.
Gun-club that night had a special relevance for me. I pictured Mandy’s face on every target, and hit it every time. I imagined her perky tits on those swinging white boards, and I made perfect holes in the center circle. Every time.
The next morning, I called at Mary-Christine’s. Dave met me at the door. “Do you want to be at the execution?”
I must have had a blank look on my face.
“Dorothy?”
I leant back against my car’s hood. “I don’t think so. Sorry.”
“That’s okay, I understand.”
“It’s getting too close.”
Dave looked at me hard. The kind of look you give your younger brother, when he’s been hit on the nose by the local bully, and you’re trying to tell him to hit back, regardless.
“Mary-Christine’s coming.”
Damn, he had me by the short-and-curlies. Literally.
I sighed. “Yeah. Okay, Dave. Count me in.”
Mary-Christine came out of the house and jumped inside the car. “Drive,” she said sharply.
“Damn it, Lyman!” she shouted after we’d turned the corner. “I don’t want to go to school today!”
I drove steadily up the road to the main intersection, doing just the speed limit.
I could see her point.
We were pretending to be normal high school students, and already we’d witnessed an execution, and we’d caused another.
With an almost full tank of gas, and Dave’s forty bucks, I headed for the freeway.
We were going to play hooky for a day, and damn the world.
I found Cami by the lake, on the same pier my dad used to fish off of. Same water Alan and I sunk my parents’
dismembered bodies into. I could feel their ghosts looking up at me from deep below.
Nobody else was around. Alan apparently had just dumped her there and shot off into the night. Honestly, I was just glad that he hadn’t hurt her. You would have thought I’d loved to find her dead but it was (strangely enough) just the opposite.
Cami was zoned the heck out, looking out over the rippling moon on the silvery water like she seemed mesmerized by it. Or maybe it was Alan’s sweat that had her all goofy.
Her elbows were up on the railing, her head kinda cocked to one side. A cool breeze wafted over us from the water, and even though her arms were bare, Cami didn’t seem to notice the cold. Seriously - she might as well have been sleepwalking again.
Anyway, I started walking toward her, super slow. Can’t explain it but the whole atmosphere just oozed a creepy vibe. The air seemed heavy, thick with the smells of water and blood. I had to really discipline myself not to let my appetite get the better of me; after all, there sat a walk-up buffet just obliviously waiting for me. And she smelled awesome.
Cami never acknowledged me at all. When I got close enough - like within arm’s length - I saw the bloody marks on her neck. I brushed her hair back and saw that Alan had bit her deep; from her pale complexion, I’d guess he’d drained her nearly dry.
But, he left her alive. Without changing her.
“Cami?”
Blinking slowly, she turned her face. The moon hung high overhead, round and bright. By the glow I could easily see the broken blood vessels in her face and eyes. Even her lips looked shriveled and cracked. He’d either gone too far or not far enough; Cami lay right on the edge between dead human and living vampire.
She answered me, only my name. Her voice sounded gritty and breathy. “Mandy…”
“I’m right here.” I put my arm around her waist and led her to the closest bench. Cami leaned on me hard; I practically carried her.
I meant to lay her down gently, but she just kind of slumped over - the way you do when you’re on the toilet and think you might chuck. Any second, she’d be gone.
Without Alan’s sweat to mess with my head, my thoughts and feelings were all my own right then. A person I’d been best friends with since kindergarten was fading out like a dying candle and I had no choice but to feel it. Didn’t matter that she’d betrayed me; I cared by default.
I lowered myself down to see her face better. “Cami… you’re going to be all right.”
Yeah. I’d told a lie. But, what would you have said in that situation?
She coughed out a reply, “Dead… I’m dead.”
“You’re still such a freaking drama queen.”
I smiled and it kind of broke my heart when she smiled back. It wasn’t Cami’s usual smile either; it seemed really genuine.
Her next words just about killed me where I stood. “I’m…so…sorry…”
I totally lost it then. Once she saw me crying, she knew for sure it was over. Before I knew it, I sat holding her in my arms, rocking her like a baby, and both of us were bawling.
I heard Alan come up but my mind focused on other things.
“Ah, isn’t that sweet? Best friends reunited. I’m all choked up; glad I could be of service.”
Cami’s face buried closer to my neck. I sensed her slipping away faster now.
I turned to face Alan. “Why’d you do this to her? To get back at me?”
He gave me a mocking look, full of spiteful and loathing. “You like to flatter yourself, Mandy Cross. I mean - Cami’s fucking hot…just ask Craig if you don’t believe me.”
I knew he remained mad at me for the Jackson thing, but the words still hurt, still stung. If he was trying to get a rise out of me, it worked.
“Screw you!” I shouted, clutching Cami like a teddy bear.
“You have the balls to say that to me? After the way you stabbed me in the back?”
“That wasn’t my fault! I didn’t want to go with Jackson; he made me! And… just in case you were wondering… I told him to go to hell, Alan. I want nothing to do with him or his retarded family.”
Alan became super still just then, looking me up and down, like scanning me for lies or something. I could tell he didn’t trust what I said.
“You’re saying you’re not one of them, Mandy Cross - the turncoats?”
Turncoats? I didn’t even freaking know what he yammered about. All I could do was shake my head and try to get Alan to believe me.
“You’re my family, Alan. I just want to be with you…I want to be a Blanche vampire.”
His eyes scanned me again. I don’t think he like me using the term “Blanche vampire.” But, after a second, his stare softened a bit.
“Okay. Prove it. Prove your loyalty, Mandy Cross,” he demanded.
I thought at that moment I would have done freaking anything. “How? What do you want me to do?”
“Make me an offering,” he said, his words just dripping with assumed authority. “Bring me your first recruit and lay her at my feet.”
Alan’s eyes shifted away from me and over to Cami. Even as she lay dying in my arms, there his look towards her was full of lust; but it went way beyond sex. For him, it was all about the domination.
What? He wanted me to sacrifice my best friend to him? He wanted me to give him another Blanche vampire, another recruit for his empire, and I didn’t think I could go through with it.
Seeing him like that, it was like someone ripped a veil away from Alan McCartney’s face and I looked at the real him for the first time ever.
“She’s almost gone. It’s too late,” I told him, fumbling for any excuse.
“Duh, Mandy Cross. Your veins are pumping with the elixir of eternal life. You don’t have to let your B.F.F. die.”
I gave up on trying to weasel my way out of it. “I don’t think I can do what you’re asking me…”
Cami went limp. I cradled her head in the crook of my arm, thinking she’d already gone. But no. A faint puff of breath still passed through her lips.
“You can if you want. But, you don’t have much time to decide, Mandy Cross.”
In just a split second, all the possibilities flashed through my head. Cami could be saved. But, did I really consider it any salvation at all? Look at what had happened to me in such a short time. If I could change places with her and choose again…
Alan kept pressing his point. “Didn’t you just say that you wanted to belong with me? If you do this, not only do you get me but you get your bestest friend in the world back.”
Some part of me wanted that more than anybody could ever begin to imagine. I wasn’t good at being alone. Having Cami back would mean the world.
“Ask her what she wants, Mandy Cross.” Alan prodded me. “But you better ask quick if you want her to be able to answer.”
I ignored him and just kept rocking Cami as she shut down more and more.
Alan scooted up closer and put his face over Cami’s. “Okay then - I’ll ask her…Cami? You can be saved! You can live forever if that’s what you want. Just nod your head…”
Cami’s eyes opened up. She did more than nod.
“Save…me…”
Her voice seemed stronger than it had been before; she really wanted this. I wondered if Alan could make her do it. One thing for sure - she didn’t know what she was signing up for. Hell, I was only just beginning to grasp it myself.
“There you have it,” Alan grinned. “Shall you do the honors, or shall I?”
I freaked out inside, trying to decide the best thing for me versus the best thing for Cami. To be a Blanche or not to be a Blanche.
Alan didn’t give me much of a chance to reply. He brought his wrist up to his mouth and bit until it drew blood. Then he offered it to Cami.
She drank like a baby at a bottle. Even as I held her I could feel her getting stronger. Slowly, as she sucked on his arm, Cami revived, turning. She became lighter in my arms, no longer dead weight.
I watched Cami’s rebir
th before my eyes, feeling like I floated above her. As she sucked down the life from Alan’s veins, his mouth fell open and his eyes went glassy. Then she smiled up at me, glowing amber like something out of a horror movie. She brought her fingers up to my face, caressing my cheek. I remembered the excitement of my change and knew what she hoped for.
She would be the perfect recruit, I thought. Cami had the mean, manipulative side to match even Alan’s. She would be his perfect mate, and it seemed all I could think of.
I shifted Cami’s head to my lap, watching the strength build in her. Her eyes slowly changed from fiery desire to mocking me.
That made my decision a bit easier. I knew I had only an instant to work with. I held her face between my hands, looked down at her.
“I love you.”
Then, with a twist of my hands, Cami’s head snapped off clean.
Alan roared as if I’d shot him. I pushed Cami’s headless body off my lap, ran for the railing, and tossed her head into the river. It floated instead of sinking. So, Everton would have a homicide on its hands but at least it wouldn’t have another one of Alan Freaking McCartney’s followers to deal with.
I determined then and there that I sure as hell wasn’t going to be one of them.
When I turned around again, I expected a fight. I expected to lose. Instead I got… nothing.
Alan had already gone.
At times, he really pissed me off.
When we got home that evening, mom gave me her looking-over-her-glasses look. “Where the hell have you been?”
Mary-Christine and I had gotten our stories sorted out: Grandma had died and she wanted time away. It was my duty.
It got mom off my case for a bit, but I got grounded for the rest of the day. I shrugged my shoulders and went to my room. I’d spent so little time there lately; I thought I’d actually enjoy just hanging out.
After a while, I heard dad’s voice downstairs, heard a little argument, probably over me, and then nothing. Then a bit later, lame voices coming up the stairs.
Someone knocked at my bedroom door. “Lyman, can I come in?”
I stood and did a quick check for porn and stuff. “Eh - sure, Dad,” I said, a little bewildered. A stranger followed him in.