“I’m telling you, man, they’re a good size and look fantastic,” Jack finished.
“I’ll have to take your word for it, Jack.” Benny re-sponded, slinging the warm liquid down his throat. “So, is there a specific reason you wanted to get me here?”
Jack pulled a small bottle of clear liquid out of the pocket of his pullover. “Just this, Benny, I want you to take a shot of this with me.”
Benny glanced around the bar, “I don’t think these people would appreciate you bringing outside alcohol into their establishment.”
“Ah, don’t worry about them,” Jack said as he re-filled the shot glasses. “Cheers!”
Benny picked up his glass and gave his brother a look of doubt.
“C’mon,” Jack said, faking hurt at Benny’s hesita-tion, “I’m your brother, have I ever let you down.”
“Well, no, not recently anyway,” Benny braced him-self for what he assumed to be moonshine and drank the liquid down. Much to his surprise, there was no burning sensation in his throat, or terrible shock to his taste buds. As a matter of fact, the stuff didn’t have a taste at all.
“What do you think?” Jack asked, after downing his own.
“Is this…water?”
“It’s not just water, its holy water. I’ve been drinking it all day. You see, I got this idea; if we drink a bunch of holy water and one of those fuckers sinks their teeth into us, what do you think will happen.”
Benny shrugged his shoulders.
“Jesus Christ, Benny, use your imagination, if they get one of us we’ll take one of them with us. It’s brilliant, right?”
“That is pretty clever,” Benny admitted, “but, since when are you so anxious to fight more of these things?”
“The cornfield, man, fighting those werewolves was just such a rush. Me and the Old Man really fucked them up out there, you know? I know this is going to sound corny (no pun intended), but we’ve never been a real close family, I mean you and I have a good relationship; we hang out, shoot some pool and get fucked up once a week. The past few days I’ve felt closer to you guys than ever and I know Dad feels the same way.”
“Yeah, I know what you mean,” Benny said with a smile, although he was only partially listening. His attention had been averted by two well dressed individuals who had just walked in.
Jack could tell by the change in his brother’s posture that trouble had just pulled a seat up at the bar. “Who is it?” he asked.
“Two men, very well dressed, one of them keeps stealing glances this way.”
“Suns not down yet, couldn’t be vampires.”
“I guess,” Benny said uncertainly.
The two men threw back a shot each, then slid off their stools and walked toward Benny and Jack.
“You boys look familiar, have we met before?” the black man asked.
“I don’t think so.” Benny answered.
The other man spoke in a deep voice, “Why don’t we buy you a couple of drinks and maybe we could figure it out?”
Benny glanced out the window and saw the sun was quickly setting. “Sorry, friends, but we really must be hitting the road.”
“Maybe we could persuade you to change your mind,” the black one said. They each reached into their jacket pockets and pulled out small leather wallets and, like bad ac-tors in a 70’s cop show, flipped them open to reveal F.B.I. credentials.
“Yeah,” deep voice said sarcastically “now it’s com-ing back to me, you’re two of the three guys wanted by the F.B.I. for going on a killing spree across the country.”
Benny’s heart must have skipped three beats, as a sudden feeling of hopelessness filled his entire body. He dropped his hand stealthily to the butt of the gun that was tucked in his belt. He couldn’t let it end here.
Autumn was dressed and ready to go when Frank came knocking at the door.
“C’mon, we got to hit the road, it’s almost sundown.” Her father-in-law glanced around her room and added. “Where are the boys?”
“You haven’t seen them?”
“No.”
“They went for a drink at a bar down the street, but they should’ve come back by now, I just figured they were with you.”
Frank looked down the street with concern. “We bet-ter go find them.”
A few hundred miles away, Odin Sway was standing in a dimly lit room next to the lord of his clan, watching in awe as their god quietly approached them.
Deppleo is the beginning, the father of all vampires. The torchlight seemed to bend away from him as he passed, creating an ever present shadow over his presence. No one had ever been privileged enough to behold the true identity of Deppleo, but Odin felt greatly honored just to be standing in the same room.
“Oh, Great One,” the vampire lord said, bowing low, “lend us your wisdom in this time of tragedy.”
“I have no wisdom to share,” the god said in a low rumble, “though my anger is overflowing. These humans have killed far too many vampires already and I’m beginning to think all of our years spent building a superior species have been wasted. Obviously sending an unlimited supply of lesser vampire after them is not working, so I will leave it to you two to come up with a solution to this problem. However, I want to make one thing understood; I want the killing of my child-ren to stop, or I will hold the both of you personally responsi-ble. Do I make myself clear?”
The vampire lord stared unblinkingly at the dark form before them, “You are positively transparent in your directness.”
“Good,” Deppleo said as he turned to leave, “now if you’ll excuse me, I am a busy man these days.”
“Of course.”
Odin thought it was best to keep silent and watch the old god disappear into the darkness at the corner of the room. The vampire lord then raised one hand above his head and snapped his fingers. A few seconds later a bat flew in through an opened window and fluttered patiently around the two vampires.
Vlad seemed to be searching for the right thing to say to the newcomer. Finally he let out a series of squeaks and screeches and the bat flew up through the window from which it came.
“Now, Odin, my friend,” The ancient vampire said with a satisfied smile, “we will let your new found fan club find their way here, then I will welcome them in my own spe-cial way. I do so love surprises.”
Benny was a split second away from setting his guns ablaze on the F.B.I. agents when he heard his father’s boom-ing voice; “Hey, Boys, where you been. Are you going to in-troduce me to your new friends?”
The old man gave Benny a look that seemed to say ‘don’t do anything stupid’ and Benny slowly removed his hand from the gun.
“Hey, Dad,” Jack interjected, “this is Agent Anderson and Agent Fields of the F.B.I.” The two agents reached inside their pockets and produced their I.D.’s once again.
“Wow, feds huh? I don’t think I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting real life F.B.I. agents. Let me ask you something; is there really a division for weird shit like on that show ‘The X-files’?”
Ol’ deep voice gave Frank a disbelieving look. “You don’t know how often we get that question.”
Just then, the front door of the bar banged open and several sharp dressed gentlemen walked in. Frank moved to the seats directly in front of the agents and leaned in to whis-per to them. “Look, I’m going to level with you guys. Where on a mission to avenge my daughter-in-law, who came back from the dead and is waiting outside in the car, and the men who are responsible for her death are vampires, five of which we were able to kill while they were sleeping, but the sixth one keeps getting away from us and we’ve had to kill a number of vampires and werewolves who have gotten in our way. Now, those guys who just walked into the bar are vampires and they are here looking for us, so I have to tell you if you value your lives you’ll get up and walk out of this joint right now, because some scary shit is about to go down.”
The two agents shared a comical look.
“Don’t you worry about us Mr.
Writeman,” the black one said, “I think we can handle ourselves against any ‘vam-pire’.” He used his fingers for the universal gesture for quota-tion marks.
“It’s not the vampires you have to worry about,” Frank said with a sly, crooked smile.
Now, Agent Anderson looked down right pissed off. “Are you threatening a government official, Mr. Writeman?”
“No, I’m threatening a couple of worthless, mangy, filth ridden, shit eating, butt sniffing, no good, cock smoking, goddamned, werewolves.”
The two agents shared another look; only their sar-casm was gone, replaced by a mixture of shame and anger.
“Don’t look so surprised,” Frank continued, “if you’re going to wear a disguise you might as well go all the way. When you opened your jackets to show me your credentials, I noticed neither of you are carrying a gun. Oh, but your proud hunters, right? It would be disgraceful to use man made weapons, even if it was on a man.”
The old man stared at the two agents for a moment longer, and then, without warning, Benny’s right hand came up in a flash. The 9 mm pistol roared three quick shots; the top of Agent Field’s head tore off and flapped backward. He looked as if his toupee had been partially blown off by a gust of wind.
Frank had a .45 pulled and was blasting Agent An-derson in the chest midway through the werewolf’s transfor-mation. The force of the bullets knocked the creature over in his seat.
The vampires at the bar were now moving toward them fast with fangs bared in hideous expressions of rage.
The Writemans began to move to separate sides of the bar in an attempt to split the vampires up among them. As they did, four more vampires entered through the front door. Benny spared a glance at Jack and was relieved to see a .38 revolver in his hand. He was afraid his big brother had forgot-ten to pack some heat.
Turning his attention back on the vampires, Benny lifted his gun and the dimly lit country and western bar sud-denly resembled a disco as gunshots flashed around the room. From his left, he heard Jack let out a scream that was followed by an inhuman shriek that could only be a vampire in great pain.
Benny turned to check on his brother, but the flashes from the guns had left a purple imprint on his eyes and he couldn’t see if Jack was still in the same spot.
He sensed the vampire before he felt it tackle him to the ground. The creature now had Benny pinned to the floor, his arms crammed at his sides. The purple haze had begun to dissipate and Benny could clearly make out the sharp white fangs that were only inches from his face. Twisting his left hand, he managed to grip the small wooden stake that was tucked into his belt. He drove the stake into the vampire’s crotch and felt gratified by the look of surprise that came over the creatures face. After knocking the thing off of himself, and putting a bullet in it’s forehead, Benny went to work on the remaining vampires.
Frank was now out of bullets with no fresh clips left on his belt, so he was relieved to see that his attackers had stopped in their tracks, and every vampire in the room was now totally focused on a bat that had just entered from the open front door.
The bat flew to a light fixture that hung over the pool table and clung to the bottom of it. Hanging upside down, it spread its wings and let out a series of squeaks and screeches. The vampires collectively put their heads down, like a group of kids who were just told playtime was over and it’s time to come in and take a bath, and walked out of the bar.
Benny looked over at Frank, “What the fuck was that all about?”
Frank only shrugged at his son, looking confused. The Old Man looked down at the floor and his confusion seemed to grow. “What could have caused that?”
Following his father’s gaze, Benny found a pile of steaming, bubbling, blood and guts that he assumed was once a vampire. Then it suddenly dawned on him what could have caused the mess. He ran to an overturned table and tossed it aside to find his brother lying against the wall, holding his neck with his right hand.
“I ran out of bullets,” Jack said weakly, “fucking revolver, I should have known better than to grab a fucking revolver to carry on me. I got him good, though, see Benny?”
“The holy water,” Benny stated.
“That’s right, man, the fucking holy water,” Jack continued, and then, switching from triumphant to regretful. “Oh shit, maybe I shouldn’t have said ‘fuck’ and ‘holy water’ in the same sentence. Do you think that would be seen as sa-crilegious?”
“Try to calm down, Jack.” Frank interjected, “Let me have a look at your neck.”
Slowly, Jack moved his hand away from his neck, revealing two small holes that were still oozing a good amount of blood.
“Come on, Benny,” Frank said, “help me get him to the car; we need to get him to a hospital.”
“Do you think they can help him?”
“I don’t know, but we have to give it a shot.”
Frank and Benny helped Jack to the passenger seat in the hearse. Benny joined Autumn in the back, and the old death cab peeled out of the bar’s parking lot.
“I thought I was going to die on this trip,” Jack told his father as they drove east toward the middle of town, “all this time I couldn’t shake this feeling that I’m the bit actor in this tale, only written in so I could be killed in some horrible way by the monster we’re all fighting. Then, earlier today, I was taking a shit back at the motel and I came to this crazy realization that I was kicking so much ass I might actually make it through. Now I’m lying here, dying.”
“You’re not dying,” Frank said forcefully, “you’re going to be alright.”
“No, I’m not dying. At least not like everyone else dies. I’m turning into one of them, aren’t I?”
Frank looked at his son sternly, “Yeah, and we don’t have much time, but I think we can clean it out of your sys-tem. According to James, it’s kind of like snake poison.”
“He’s wrong, Dad,” Jack said breathlessly, “He’s wrong.”
“Just…just calm down, Jack, you’re going to be alright.”
Frank pulled the car into a medical center that he noticed when they had come into town. There were two men dressed in scrubs and puffing on cigarettes standing outside the automatic doors as he pulled up. He brought the car to a stop, flung his door open and approached the men.
“Hey,” the old man said in an urgent tone, “can you give us a hand, my son has been hurt.”
The younger of the two men looked the hearse up and down and said; “Dude, I think he’s beyond our help.”
“NO!” Frank shouted, making the two men flinch, “There is no time for jokes, he’s not in the back, he’s in the passenger seat.”
The two followed Frank around the front of the car where they met Benny, who was just coming from the back. They all stopped and stared at the open passenger side door. Jack was gone.
Benny walked toward the parking lot, his eyes searching franticly; he began to shout his brother’s name.
“JACK! JACK, COME BACK, PLEASE.”
“Benny,” Frank interrupted, “get back in the car.”
Suddenly, Autumn was at his side with her cold hand in his. He looked down into her brown eyes and knew that this wasn’t the time to go off looking for his brother.
After apologizing to the hospital employee’s, the three of them managed to squeeze into the front of the hearse and in a matter of minutes they were back on the road, heading west.
“Why did he run away?” Benny asked, with tears rolling down his face, “Is he one of them now?”
“Not yet,” Frank answered, “but, he will be, even-tually. I think he knew that and that’s why he ran. He didn’t want one of us to be forced to put him down.”
“How long does it take to change completely?” Au-tumn inquired.
“Three or four weeks,” Frank said, “and from what I understand, it’s a fairly painful transformation.”
“Maybe we could still help him,” Autumn said, hope-fully.
“Right now we need to focus on one go
al at a time, and our number one priority is finding Odin Sway and giving you the peace you deserve. Benny and I can find Jack after-ward and we’ll do everything we can to help him.”
“And if you can’t help him?”
“There’s an answer to every problem, if you look hard enough.”
Benny remained quiet the rest of the trip, before long the sun began to rise and in the distance he could make out the dark shape of the Rocky Mountains.
11. Revenge and Redemption
Once Benny and Autumn were out of school, they were ready to get married and settle down together. Their wedding was small and inexpensive, and the honeymoon was a road trip to New York city, where they made stops at all the tourist attractions and even took the time to stop in and visit a friend from school that moved up there last year to try and be an actor in a Broadway musical.
Something that caught Benny’s eye one day while they were about to enter Macy’s department store, was a crazy, unwashed, old man who was wearing a large board sign that covered front and back, and read “Don’t become one of them, it’s time to fight back!!!”
“The vampires are taking our city from us,” the man shouted. “Don’t let them seduce you into their service. The time has come to fight back.”
Benny couldn’t help but stop and stare at the man for a few minutes, his mind going back to that night in a dark bathroom after a concert. A night he hadn’t thought about for a couple of years.
When the man noticed he had gotten Benny’s atten-tion, he stopped shouting and addressed him directly.
“You’ve seen one of them, haven’t you? You know exactly what I’m talking about.”
Autumn grabbed Benny’s arm and pulled him away from the stranger.
“What are you doing?” Autumn asked. “This is my first time to New York too, but even I know to stay away from the crazies.
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