The Grateful Boys

by Françoise DuMaurier

  “It’s Sebastian 2.0!” Alex yelled as they were playing.

  “I dunno,” Sebastian shrugged. “Just practicing, I guess. Now let’s see if the others can keep up.”

  “Hell, I’m on your team and I can’t even keep up!” Mason quipped.

  The score for Sebastian’s team was 45. The score for Alex and Ben’s team was a paltry 17.

  “I know who I want on tryouts next year!” the coach yelled. “As soon as you hit high school, Sebastian! You’re gonna be on my team, alright. Hell, I wish we could have you now!”

  “Maybe you could pull some strings, Coach Stevens?” Sebastian said during a break.

  “As good as you’re playing, kid, I just might! You ever played on a real team before? Any sport?”

  “Never and nope!” Sebastian said before taking a sip from the water fountain. He rushed back to the center of the court.

  The game continued with Sebastian ducking, dipping, dodging, and dribbling away to victory in the best one-sided, one-man basketball game the coach said he’d ever seen.

  “What’s gotten into him!” Ben said, tired from running down the court.

  “Guess he’s developed a real love of basketball,” Alex said.

  “And everything else in gym class!”

  “You’re just jealous!”

  “So what if I am,” Ben smirked. “I can’t even do a tenth of that stuff. Hell, I run halfway down the court and I’m tired as the inhabitants of a cemetery.”

  “Wait,” Alex said, “Since when do the people in the cemetery feel tired? They’re like dead. Always at rest. So why would they be tired?”

  “I don’t know, man! I was just trying to say something that sounded mildly funny and self-deprecating. Didn’t mean for you to dissect every word. I’ll make sure I speak more literal next time.”

  “Game over!” the coach yelled. “And winner by too wide a margin to even count, Sebastian… and his team! But mostly just Sebastian.”

  Sebastian’s teammates all high fived him and congratulated him for pulling off a win that stunned even the coach. Ben told him how jealous he was while Mason and Alex teased him for playing so well.

  ***

  Unbeknown to them all, it was the blood of the vampire that heightened his agility. Sebastian felt greater, stronger, and more capable than he ever had before. Soon he would learn that the human-vampire bond changed other things about him, as well.

  As the boys returned to the locker room to change back into their normal attire, Sebastian spotted Alex, Mason, and Ben playing around as they usually did before changing.

  “I said get dressed, boys!” Coach Stevens shouted. “And stop playing!”

  Sebastian bypassed them. He walked further down the hall to where his locker resided. It was then that all the noise in the locker room seemed to… vanish. It was as if there was a mute button for real life, and the button had been pushed.

  Sounds started back again. But not the sounds of eighth grade boys playing in their locker room before their next class. Sebastian heard only the mundane – but far louder. He heard the shutting of lockers. He heard footsteps as if they were magnified tenfold. The vibrations of a stupid clapping their hands together made it feel as if the volume in Sebastian’s head had increased by a factor of ten.

  Sebastian was facing his locker when he heard the all too familiar voice, its soft tone radiating through the room.

  “Hello again, Sebastian.”

  He didn’t need to turn around to know who it was. But he did. And there he stood – Gregorious.

  “The sounds are so loud,” Sebastian said to him.

  “The increased senses are things you must get used to if you are to regularly consume the blood of the vampire. Imagine how it felt for me at first – try focusing. Focus all of your thoughts.”

  “Focus how?” Sebastian asked.

  “Release your worries. Release all that you don’t want to hear or see. Focus on… me,” Gregory said softly.

  Sebastian closed his eyes. He took a deep breath – inhaling and exhaling. All of the noise around him stopped. The clinging, the stomps, the smashing of lockers, all of it… stopped. He heard only the voice of Gregory.

  “Perfect,” Gregory whispered.

  “Are you really here?” Sebastian said. “Like, did you just walk through the front doors and hypnotize everyone around you except me?”

  “No,” Sebastian laughed lightly. “I suppose that would work just fine, wouldn’t it? But I’m not here physically.”

  “But I can see you… And I’m not asleep. So I can’t be dreaming.”

  “No. That is a fair assessment. This is not the dreamscape. And yes, you can see me quite clearly now in the waking world although I am not physically present. That’s because the human-vampire bond is growing stronger.”

  “So you can appear to me at random, in my head?” Sebastian asked.

  “Only if you’d like me to. The human-vampire bond can never be used to torment. I would just as easily disburse if you were to concentrate hard enough and will me away.”

  “You did say I needed to concentrate to do this,” Sebastian admitted.

  “That’s right. You need to concentrate in order to crystalize me here. I am presently sleeping at Vampyr Manor. It is that time of day, after all. And I’ve still five and a half more hours of rest to go.”

  “So right now you’re not a figment of my imagination? You’re here like astral projection?” Sebastian asked.

  “Recall I once told you, I do not like to repeat myself.”

  “I’m sorry,” Sebastian said, placing his head down.

  “Obedience,” Gregory smirked. “The favorite trait of a vampire.”

  “So,” Sebastian said, looking up again. “How many people can you do this with? Appear to them as you’re doing to me?”

  “However many consume my blood. So, at the present moment, just you.”

  “Just me? Am I really that special to you?” Sebastian asked.

  “You shall be more so when you stop doubting yourself, my reverie.”

  “I’ve gotta get to class now,” Sebastian said.

  “Time slows around us, moves at our pace. When we meet like this. To those around us, only a few seconds has passed. But to us, it may feel like minutes,” Gregory bowed his head to him when he finished speaking.

  “You should have seen me on the court. I really killed it out there. Everyone was impressed. Even the coach. I couldn’t have done it without you.”

  “Perhaps I’ll show up in person next time. Just to see you play,” Gregory laughed.

  “So why are you showing up now?” Sebastian asked him.

  “Have you stopped to think this though, Sebastian,” he pondered. “Perhaps I did not bring myself here. Perhaps I am here because you mentally summoned me. Because it was you who desired to see me. Just something to think about.”

  Then, he vanished.

  The middle schoolers had one more class, which passed by slowly – unlike gym. Soon thereafter they were released from school, free to do as they pleased. Outside, the boys all noticed the increase police presence. There were deputy cars parked in front of the school. Peace officers from the Sheriff’s Department were surveying the area as kids walked home, left in cars with their parents, or got on bikes to speed away. The deputies were silent as they patrolled the area. There was, however, one officer who they noticed was not present – Sheriff Zeddman.

  “They were serious about this cop stuff,” Mason said to the others.

  “Hey, guys!” they turned around and saw Matthew approach them from the area where bikes were kept locked.

  “Haven’t seen you guys all day,” Matthew said.

  “What’s up, Matt,” they each said as they greeted him.

  “Guys, the arcade is back open. Like everybody’s heading there,” Matthew told them.

  “Lies!” Alex exclaimed followed by Ben’s gasp of “I can’t believe they brought it back!”

  “That’s aw
esome,” Sebastian added. “We’re going immediately, right?”

  “Wait,” Mason said, unaware of what they were talking about. “What arcade are you guys referring to?”

  “That’s right, Mason,” Matthew remembered. “It closed before you got here. It’s called the Lightscape Arcade. Basically the only place we had to hang out.”

  “Yeah,” Alex said. “It’s darkly lit with neon lights everywhere. And all types of arcade games. I’m not just talking about those old boxy arcade machines or pinballs. We’re talking the coolest arcade games you could ever imagine.”

  “We’re talking about full on Jurassic Park simulators,” Sebastian said.

  “And guitar hero with these crazy glowing full-sized guitars,” Ben grinned from ear to ear.

  “Why haven’t you guys mentioned this place to me before?” Mason asked.

  “Because it got closed down like half a year ago,” Matthew told him. “Some poor kid got their hand severed. There was this Rambo simulation, see. And the kid’s friend was just going wild with the fake blade. Just chopping left and right at the screen until the poor kid got in the way and got his hand chopped off.”

  “I knew the kid,” Ben said. “Me and Alex both did. Parents moved away and sued the arcade for a million dollars.”

  “So they’ve been closed for like six, seven, eight months now. I lost count,” Matthew admitted. “But now they’re open. Rambo’s gone. But everything else is still there. It’s like Cesar’s Palace but with arcade games.”

  “Then count me in!” Mason said.

  “I can’t go straight there,” Alex said. “I always gotta go home first. Mom doesn’t let me leave without eating dinner first or doing homework. And I’m starving anyway.”

  The boys agreed to head home and meet up at the arcade around 6:30 in the evening. This would give them enough time to get home, do homework, have supper, and leave for the Corpus equivalent of Disneyworld – or the MGM Grand.

  ***

  It was four o’clock in the afternoon when Sheriff Zeddman drove past Corpus Middle & High. Deputy Coleman was in the passenger seat of the sheriff’s cruiser. Students had left the school for the day and only a few scattered faculty cars remained. The patrol vehicles of the deputies were gone now.

  Zeddman was hunched forward toward his steering wheel, and looking up toward the sky through his windshield.

  “It was around this area that I saw the bat,” Zeddman said.

  “Round here by the school, right?” Coleman asked.

  “Yes, right around here. And I recall it flying thataway,” Zeddman pointed toward the sky, southbound.

  He continued driving. Past the school lied nothing but roads surrounded by fields. There was a vast view of plain acreage made of cropped fields. Then the beginning of a forest – a wide woodsy area that appeared never-ending from the road.

  “There’s nothing else out here, sir,” Coleman said.

  “This is the direction it was going in, Coleman! There’s gotta be something out here. Somewhere. Somehow.”

  “Sheriff, what if it went down this area then took a sharp turn and headed back into town? How would ya know the difference?”

  “Just got a hunch, Deputy. Haven’t you ever gone with your instincts? And mine tells me that I need to just follow the direction I saw that demon fly in.”

  The Sheriff drove his car off the road and toward the forest woods. He stopped his cruiser right in front of the woods and turned his flashing blue lights on, minus the siren.

  Zeddman and Coleman stepped out of the vehicle.

  “What are we looking for here?” Coleman said as he peered through the thicket of woods. “Don’t look like nothing but woods out here, Sheriff.”

  “You know exactly what I’m looking for, Deputy.”

  Sheriff Zeddman slowly walked along the forest’s entrance, looking ahead with apprehension. He spotted something along the grassy ground. There was a small flag just lying at the entrance of the woods.

  “What’s this?” Zeddman whispered to himself as he picked up the flag. He turned it over, inspecting it closely.

  “Looks like a flag, sir.”

  “A clue perhaps?”

  “Unless vampires or giant bats carry flags around, I doubt it.”

  “But what if it’s some kind of entrance sign. Letting certain people know this is where you want to go if you want to…”

  Coleman cut him off, “If you think it’s the equivalent of breadcrumbs, who on earth want would to follow a vampire?”

  “Let’s go,” was all Zeddman said as he pulled out his flashlight, clicked it on, and entered the forest. Then he drew his gun from his right hip holster. They walked slowly through the forest, their footsteps careful, precise, and deliberate. The cracking of a branch made Coleman jump as he pointed his gun at a tree.

  “Careful with that thing, Deputy. We’re looking for giant bats, not branches.”

  “It’s mighty spooky in here, Sheriff.”

  “No more spooky than your average forest, really,” Zeddman said, ignoring the fear in his deputy’s voice.

  They pressed forward, looking quickly from left to right. Moving as slowly as they were, surveying everything around them, it took many more minutes than average for them to reach the other side of the forest. There it was. The end of the trees.

  “Right through here,” Zeddman whispered as he stepped over fallen branches.

  Finally they made it through the woods, entirely out of view of the trees and brambles. Up ahead, spread across an immaculately manicured lawn, surrounded by tall black iron gates, was the pink manor. They put away their flashlights and guns.

  “What the hell’s that!?” Coleman proclaimed in a whisper. “I swear that’s the biggest house in all of Corpus.”

  “Only one problem, it sure as hell ain’t listed in any directory. I know this town like the back of my hand. My maps don’t list a house back here. Only woods and more woods. But look what we just found.”

  “To be fair, Sheriff, it’s a mansion. Not a portal to the underworld.”

  “Yeah, well who knows what the hell is inside it!”

  “We don’t have a right to go in there, Sheriff.”

  “Don’t we, Coleman?”

  “Not without a warrant, sir.”

  “A fine constitutional right, indeed. But I just said this house ain’t listed in the directory. It’s not supposed to even exist. There’s not supposed to be anything but forest and more forest back here.”

  “So what are you saying, Sheriff?”

  “Do you see an address anywhere? Even a mailbox? I’m saying, if this house contains what I think it contains…”

  “And you think a giant pink manor contains a bunch of giant bats, sir? This just gets weirder and weirder to be honest with yer.”

  “Coleman, how about we shut up before somebody sees us. Let’s just get over this iron gate.”

  The Sheriff climbed up, pulling himself over the fence, and landing on the other side. “Easy as pie, Coleman. Now get your ass over here,” he said through the iron bars. So Coleman did the same, with much more clumsy effort. But he, too, made it to the other side of the iron gates.

  “This is mighty illegal, Sheriff.”

  “This is my town, dammit. Leave it to me to determine what’s legal and illegal,” Zeddman asserted as he walked with purpose across the lawn and up to the house.

  “This way,” Zeddman said, maneuvering around to the side of the house. “We’re not trying to get caught, aren’t we?”

  “I’ve just never seen anything this fancy before, least not in person,” Coleman bellowed, following several steps behind the sheriff.

  “Quiet down and catch up!” Zeddman told him, waving for him to step faster.

  Sheriff Zeddman stopped, noticing a door on the side of the house. It was a wooden door with a golden door knob, a small glass window near the center, and the ever-familiar doggie door below the window.

  “Why’d you stop here?” Col
eman chuckled. “I don’t think either of us can fit in that there doggie door. I’m not ten anymore.”

  Zeddman ignored him and rushed up to the door. He peered through the window and noticed a kitchen inside.

  “It’s a kitchen, Coleman.”

  “Well, that sounds about right, Sheriff. A kitchen and not Satan’s torture chamber. Like any house, y’know.”

  “I’m going in, Coleman. And you’re coming with me. Let’s hope no one’s in here. But I have a feeling this place is what I’m looking for. It being totally off the grid just confirms what I already thought.”

  The sheriff pulled out his metal baton, the kind that extended when you threw it out, and he did just that. He reached way back, told Coleman to brace himself, and smashed the baton directly in the window of the door. The glass shattered.

  Zeddman reached his hand through the window seal with the broken glass and unlocked the doorknob on the other side. He pulled his hand out and flung the door open.

  “You ready?” Zeddman asked him.

  “I still can’t believe we’re doing this, Sheriff. In all my years I’ve never…”

  “In all my years I’ve never seen a flying winged demon look me in the eyes!” Zeddman quietly asserted. “Sometimes the rules just change. Now shut up and follow me in.”

  Zeddman walked into the kitchen of the pink manor. He was surprised but relieved to find that no one had come running to the kitchen, nor had an alarm been set off.

  The two officers looked around the room. Nothing stood out as particularly alarming. The plate racks were racked with plates and the mallet racks were racked with mallets. The kitchen was clean, barring the shards of broken glass that now lay in front of the door.

  “What are we looking for?” Coleman asked.

  “Anything,” Zeddman said. “Just be quiet and careful.”

  “Yes, sir! Will do! This place is strangely clean, isn’t it? Immaculate even.”

  Zeddman began opening up cabinets. He found only utensils. “What kind of a kitchen has no food on the shelves? No canned goods or anything. A house where people don’t eat food, that’s what kind.”

  “Or perhaps they’ve just run out, Sheriff,” Coleman whispered.

  “Does this look like the type of house where people wound run out of food?” the sheriff asked him. The deputy shrugged, looked around, and decided on the refrigerator. He reached for the handle, pulled it open, and was left jaw-dropped by what he saw.