“What was that?” The monster lost his humor. He took a step toward her, “Did you just-"
“Get back,” Tremaine steadied the knife.
He paused, and they locked eyes. He bent down and dove for the phone. Tremaine shrieked, and held tight to her phone. She raised the knife while she hid her phone in her pocket and brought the knife down. She drove it into his back, but because of the thick leather jacket, it didn’t do anything.
Skyler stumbled by the force of the knife and collapsed on the floor by the opening of the stairs. Tremaine held the knife to him, and expected him to run down the stairs, but instead he kept his energy focused on the phone. As he lunged, Tremaine kneed him in the chest and sent him back again, this time down the stairs. He slipped, and caught onto the stairs as he fell.
Tremaine could hear thumping like someone was coming up the stairs. Sky’s eyes widened, and he scrambled to get to Tremaine’s loft. She blocked him from doing so, and he muttered a curse.
“Tremaine?” It was her father’s voice. “What’s going on?”
“Help!” Tremaine screamed in false distress. Skyler rushed down the stairs and met Danny in the foyer. Danny gasped and froze in place, coming face to face with the tenant. Skyler took Danny’s hand and shook it, “Mr. Boppel, so nice to meet you. That roasted chicken you sent me, superb!” and he dashed out of the foyer door.
Danny ran after him, finally coming to his senses. Overwhelmed, he turned back to the foyer and went to Tremaine. He grabbed her upper arms, “Are you okay? What the hell happened? Who was that?”
“I-I… he’s the tenant!”
He let go of her, and went over to the door, “Josey! Josey!” Josey didn’t respond, due to her being two stories below. Danny took a hold of Tremaine’s wrist, “Let’s go down to the store, come on.” Tremaine and Danny rushed down the stairs, and Danny locked the door to the stairs of the apartment.
“Danny?” Josey said, turning from the counter. A customer was there with a stack of rentals. “What the hell is going on?”
“Some… thing just-" Danny’s eyes fell on the customer, “Finish checking him out and then tell everyone else browsing that we’re closed.”
“Are you kidding me?” Josey scoffed.
“Please, honey,” Danny pleaded. Josey rolled her eyes and began to scan the movies. Danny turned back to Tremaine, “I need you to go up to the store loft and make sure the two doors are locked. The one by the horror section and the one by the foreign film section.”
Tremaine nodded.
“Are you okay?” Danny asked, and then his eyes went to her coat pocket. He pulled out a handle that was sticking out, revealing her concealed knife.
“I used it to defend myself,” Tremaine said.
“I’m not mad, dear,” Danny placed the knife on the desk, “I’m going to call the police. You make sure the doors are locked, okay?”
Chapter Six
It was twilight when the police arrived. When Danny gave the description of the perpetrator, the dispatcher on the other line of the phone nearly laughed. “Oh, okay! You guys are new, right? I’ll send the police chief over and she’ll explain everything.” Chief Allegany pulled her aside and took Tremaine’s description of the creature.
“From a note he sent us, his name is Skyler Hornbostel,” Tremaine pulled out her phone. “I have a picture I took.”
Chief Allegany took it from her hand, squinting her eyes at the blurry photo. She smirked, and walked over to Josey and Danny, “Looks like we got ourselves another one of these creatures. Haven’t had one of these things in a year or so. Shame. I call in the St. Charles family; this is their forte.”
“That’s Hannah’s family,” Tremaine mentioned to her family.
“Wait,” Josey stepped forward. “You’re the police, correct? Isn’t this your job?”
“If the home invader was human, yes,” Chief Allegany explained, “Our task force is not fit for incidents like this. It’s not safe for us.” She took out her notepad and scribbled down a number. She ripped off the piece of paper and gave it to Josey, “This number is for Zac St. Charles. He’ll come in and promptly apprehend the monster. Since a crime was committed, we’ll pay for his expenses for his time and effort. The number is just for future reference. I’ll go back to my car and report the incident to him and his crew.”
“Wait, I’m so confused,” Josey stopped the officer from leaving. “This was just some guy in grey face paint; this wasn’t-"
Josey was cut off from Allegany’s laughing, “That’s what all the new residents think. ‘It wasn’t a vampire; it was just a man with sharp teeth. It wasn’t a ghost; it was just my mind playing tricks on me.’ Sure.” Her smile dropped, “All those people, they all end up victims of these damned creatures that lurk the streets. I’d advise you to stay in your video store, and only your video store until we can nip the situation in the bud.” She swung open the door, “Have a nice night. Mr. St. Charles will be over within the hour.”
After Chief Allegany had left, Josey stuffed the piece of paper in her pocket and put her hands on her hips. She turned toward her daughter, “Did you know about this?”
“Know about… the intruder?”
“The monster,” she made air quotes.
“I… kept getting these notes from him,” Tremaine explained. “They would appear out of thin air.”
“Yeah, right!” Josey laughed.
“Josey,” Danny said in a scolding tone, “I don’t think we should take this lightly.”
“Who are we dealing with here?” Josey said, gesturing outside to the police car that was driving away, “She’s referring us to monster hunters. Monster hunters.”
“Because what came in my room and attacked me was a monster!” Tremaine said, “Dad saw it, I saw it. The thing wasn’t human.”
“Well, why did this non-human thing come in the house and attack you?” Josey asked.
“Yeah,” Danny agreed. “Did it say anything to you?”
Tremaine didn’t answer immediately. Danny and Josey had no clue that when Hannah slept over, they snuck into the tenant’s home. She knew if she admitted that she trespassed, or Zac told her parents that she did, she would be in deep trouble. “It was just… it was demanding that… he thought we were hunting him. It was a confrontation because we came to his door so many times.”
Josey frowned and went behind the video store counter. She shuffled through the cabinets below. Danny turned to Tremaine, “Hon, I’m so sorry this happened to you. If you want to move your bedroom to the spare, I understand. Considering what you went through, I’m completely alright if you choose to do just that.”
Tremaine snickered, almost rolling her eyes, “Please. If it wasn’t for that leather jacket he was wearing, we wouldn’t have to be worrying ‘bout him right now.”
“What do you mean?”
“I stabbed him, or almost did.”
Danny gaped. “You… you attacked it with a knife?”
Tremaine nodded. Josey popped up and appeared with a gun. She checked to see if it was loaded. “Aha! Why do we need hunters when all we need are a couple bullets?”
“Jesus Christ!” Danny said, “I didn’t know you still had that thing, especially stored down here in the counter.”
“But this was a gift from my brother, Donny.”
Danny nodded and folded his arms. “Of course, Donny. Gave a pocketknife to Tremaine, and a gun to you. Why don’t we let the hunters deal with this, okay?”
Within minutes of Chief Allegany leaving, a Range Rover pulled up to the property. Josey unlocked the doors for the people who came in. Tremaine recognized Zaccaria St. Charles and a much taller man. His skin was tattooed, and he had muscles that could rival a wrestler. She saw Miss Vargas behind them, now dressed in darker, casual clothing. She didn’t see Hannah with them.
“Hi, Tremaine,” Zac said upon walking in. She prayed that Zac wouldn’t tell her parents about her trespassing incident. He went to her parents, “Mr.
and Mrs. Boppel, I’m Zaccaria St. Charles. These are my associates, René St. Charles, and Vanessa Vargas.” Miss Vargas gave a small wave to Tremaine.
Zaccaria and René talked with the adults, while Miss Vargas went over to Tremaine. The girl asked, “You’re a hunter, too?”
“Only when they need backup,” she said, but her voice was faint and uninterested, “and to keep these two under control.”
“Hopefully, you guys will catch him, right?”
Miss Vargas gave a small shrug, “I told them they should leave it alone.”
“Why?”
“It’s nothing important.”
The Boppel’s showed the hunters upstairs. Tremaine described the situation to the hunters, and then Danny finished, telling them how he found the creature in the foyer.
“With the owner’s permission, we need to go to the tower immediately,” Zac announced, “He could flee anytime.”
“Yeah,” René agreed.
“Wait a second,” Miss Vargas said, putting up her hands. “Shouldn’t we plan out an attack or something?”
“That takes too much time,” Zac said.
“Some criminal attacked my daughter,” Josey said, near tears, “and you want to dilly dally. Not uh, I don’t think so.”
Tremaine looked at Miss Vargas. She felt kind of bad for her, but at the same time she wanted that thing caught so it would stop pestering her. The hunting party advised for the Boppel’s to stay inside their apartment, as they went outside and formulated an attack plan.
Zaccaria stood before the porch of the tower with René and Vargas. He said, “I would suggest that someone stays down here in case the perpetrator flees out those doors,” He pointed to the high balcony, “but we don’t know how many occupants are in here. Could be a few monsters, maybe even some human allies. We have to make sure we’re careful.”
“So what are you thinking?” René asked, “A full assault?”
“I don’t think this is well thought out,” Miss Vargas interjected, a nervous hand on her chest. “What… what if there are humans in there? We could get in massive trouble.”
“What, are you scared?” René teased.
“If it just so happens to be a human residing here,” Zac said, “then I’ll just pay them off.” Zac started walking to the entrance of the tower, with René following behind.
Miss Vargas took a sharp intake of breath, “I’m still not-”
“If you’re not up for this,” Zac interrupted without turning around, “then stay down here and watch the escape points.” He gave a lazy wave of his hand.
Vargas looked up at the balcony, and then back at the hunters. She shook her head, sighed, and then caught up with them.
Zac and Miss Vargas stood by the door, using the skeleton key they acquired from the Boppel’s to enter the room. They looked around, four flashlights shining into the darkness. They expected to find rats, or something ghoulish like that, but it was cleaner than assumed.
“Remember what I said,” Zaccaria said in a low voice, just above a whisper. “Be quiet until we have inspected the first two floors.”
As soon as Sky heard the growl of the Range Rover, he knew the hunters had arrived. He was planning on leaving in the middle of the night when the Boppel’s were fast asleep, but the threat of capture or assault made him jump up from his chair and hurriedly finish his packing.
Instead of neatly packing away his books, he just threw them in a bag. Things like photo albums, personal journals, and memory cards had to go with him. If he managed to escape, he couldn’t leave those items behind. The photo albums would no doubt reveal many of Samhain Island’s monsters that masqueraded as humans, and the journals and drives contained too much information in them.
He shoved on his leather jacket with the fur ling and wrapped a scarf around his neck. He could now hear voices. He stuffed a few bottles of water, a few pieces of fruit, and some pumpkin bread into his bag. He heard the sound of his front door opening. He looked over his bookcase, making sure he packed all of his secrets away, and then took the duffel bag and hid in the corner behind a black chair.
He heard a thumping below, like someone coming up the stairs. The noise was getting louder, the hunters coming closer. Skyler regretted living in a place with only one entrance. He zipped up his bag, turned off a nearby lamp, and unlocked the balcony door. He crouched down in the corner.
Sky could now hear their voices. They were murmurs, and then it was quiet. Sky could see three figures rush up to the third floor, their backs to each other. The one he recognized as René held a gun pointed to the kitchen area, and the leader, Zac, faced his sleeping area with a flashlight. “Alright, thing, come out of your hiding place and turn yourself over.” Miss Vargas and Skyler locked eyes. She blinked, and turned away. Please help me, Sky thought.
Sky concentrated on forming an apparition. By the time the Zac shined the flashlight in his direction, a hideous monster with glowing eyes was staring right into the light. René shouted, and fired his gun.
Skyler almost lost control over the projection from the ear piercing sound of the gun. The apparition shook and trembled, but Skyler made it move, and it came closer to the hunters. The gun fired again, away from Sky. With the distracted hunters, he swung open the doors and quickly stepped on his balcony.
“Over there!” Zac shouted.
Sky gasped, and fled to the side of the deck. René shot a bullet in his direction, shattering the glass of the balcony door. He had no time to think about his ruined house as he jumped over the railing and lowered himself to hang from the balcony. When one of the hunters came outside, Skyler decided he had no choice but to jump down to the lower roof of the Boppel’s apartment. It was too far away, causing a hard fall, but he had at least landed on the roof and not another story down.
He looked up. René was pointing a gun right at him, trying to get Sky in his target. Vargas was at his side in an instant. She shoved René’s arm just as the gun fired. The bullet went off into the night sky. She shouted at René, “What the hell do you think you’re doing? Can’t you tell that’s a child?”
“So what!?” René growled, “It’s a monster, nevertheless!”
As they squabbled, Skyler took his chance to escape. He slid down the roof and let himself fall onto his landlord’s porch. He looked at the stairs, spotting his route to escape. He ran toward it, his heavy bags swinging back and forth on his body.
The front door swung open. Tremaine was holding the same butcher knife from earlier. Sky paused and backed up. He went inside his duffel bag and got a handle on something that felt like a weapon. What he thought would at the very least be a butter knife, was in actuality his grandmother’s candleholder with dullahans carved on the base.
Josey ran out, and pulled Tremaine back, “Are you crazy?”
“What?” Tremaine said. Skyler took off, disappearing down the stairs.
“Tremaine!” Danny appeared at the doorway.
Josey pulled her inside, “What do you think you’re doing?”
Zaccaria ran to the porch, only to see his prey running off into the dark woods. He cursed, and then took off down the stairs along with René. Miss Vargas paused at the top of the stairs and turned to Josey and Danny, who stood at the doorway with uncertain expressions.
“Don’t worry, Mr. and Mrs. Boppel,” Miss Vargas said. “You’re working with professionals here. You’re not the first humans on this island to be victimized by non-humans.” She took off down the stairs.
Danny shut the door. They all waited in the living room for the hunters to return. In the meantime, Josey started to give Tremaine a lecture about how aggressive she was. She barely listened.
Within the hour, the hunters returned to the Boppel’s residence but with no monster with them. René and Miss Vargas started to work on excavating the monster’s residence while Zac hung around their porch. Zac said, “We travelled about a mile into the forest, following the thing’s trail, but we decided to turn around and forfeit i
t for tonight. I have a feeling as to where he’ll be heading, though.”
“What? So that thing is still on the loose?” Josey said.
“Technically, yes,” Zac said, “We seriously doubt it will be returning to this residence.”
“Do you think Omokah would know anything about this?” Josey asked Danny, “He is the one who sold us this property. He should know something about it.”
“Ma’am, you don’t have to worry,” Zac said. “Everything is under control. In a few days time, it won’t be running around the town anymore.”
“I sure as hell hope so,” Josey folded her arms. Miss Vargas was walking outside with a couple books in hand. They explained to the Boppel’s that they were taking certain items they thought would help them and that they could confiscate anything in the apartment that they wanted. When the hunters left, Josey went down to the video store to properly close it.
Tremaine sat in the living room, watching a television show. Danny came in and sat next to her. She kept her eyes on the TV. Danny sighed and started talking, “Tremaine, I know you’re scared.”
“I’m fine.”
Danny gave a chuckle, “I know you’re a hardened city girl, or at least, you give a convincing façade of it. It’s okay to feel nervous.” He rubbed the back of his neck, “I’m scared, too.”
“I just…” Tremaine hit mute on the TV, “It had it out for me. Kind of like Robbi did.”
“Why would it think that?”
Tremaine stopped herself from admitting that they snuck into his house. She said, “I’ve been looking at his tower a lot, from my balcony, I mean.” She shrugged, “I guess maybe he felt I was… spying on him.”
“It’s not your fault,” he said.
“I’m goin’ to my room,” Tremaine stood, “Goodnight.”
“Do you need a ride to school tomorrow?”
Samhain Island (Episode One) Page 6