The Grateful Boys

by Françoise DuMaurier

  Hailey used her hand to brush her hair down. She looked in the mirror and adjusted her clothes, attempting to look more presentable. Class had to start eventually. Hailey, however, was also attempting to distract herself. He was willing to wait for the moment they’d consummate their love, thereby transforming her into a vampire. And while Hailey loved him, she wasn’t convinced she wanted to really turn.

  “I’m not ready. I’m not sure if I ever will be,” she said softly.

  “Then we’ll take one day at a time. I can’t make you feel any differently. Not without truly losing your spirit. But I can show you the world through my eyes and leave that decision for you to make.”

  “That’s all I could ever ask for,” she said before wrapping her arms around him in a deep embrace.

  “I swear you’re the softest and warmest person I’ve ever hugged,” he told her. “I want to see you tonight. I want to take you somewhere.”

  “Vampyr Manor?” she asked as they continued hugging.

  “No,” but I’ll be at your window tonight awaiting my new invitation.”

  “And I’ll be at my window waiting to give it.” She gently pulled away from him and looked up to meet his eyes. “I love you, Percivell.”

  “And I, you,” he half smirked.

  ***

  Toward the end of the school day with only two classes left, Mason arrived in gym class along with Alex, Sebastian, and Ben. They’d spent most of the day looking over their shoulders, watchful of an ominous presence – not vampires but bullies. Harry and Jason to be exact. The unannounced shutting of a locker was enough to send Alex jumping.

  “What was that!” Alex yelled as he left the cafeteria, after hearing a door slam.

  “It’s… not a big deal,” Mason tried to reason with him. “They’re not going to do anything.” Ben, however, disagreed.

  Mason could do little to dissuade their fears that the two boys who’d threatened him and Alex were coming when they least expected it. On the other hand, Mason noticed that Sebastian didn’t seem as worried.

  “Glad you’re not freaking out over… y’know,” Mason told him when they were in the gym locker room.

  “Course not,” Sebastian said shrugged. “Like you said, nothing bad’s gonna happen.”

  “It’s been so interesting to see how much you’ve changed, Seb,” Mason told him. “I remember the night after the game, when they came after us. You were pretty troubled, y’know. But now you’re so different.”

  “I’ve learned a lot in a short amount of time,” Sebastian told him with a shrug. “And I just noticed you called me Seb.”

  “Yeah, I’ve always called you Seb, dude. That’s your nickname,” Mason answered.

  “You’re right. I’m not denying that. It’s just… I just finally noticed it,” Sebastian said.

  Mason thought that was a strange thing to notice or focus upon. He’d been calling him Seb ever since he first met him after moving to Corpus. And surely Alex and Ben had been calling him Seb even longer. Then Sebastian asked him something even stranger.

  “Mason,” he said. “What do you think the difference between isolation and loneliness is?”

  Mason removed his shirt, tossed it into his locker, and gave Sebastian a strange look of agitation.

  “Ugh, I dunno, man. Never really thought about it. I guess isolation is more like self-imposed. Loneliness is when you’re all alone by no choice of your own. That’s how I see it… I guess. Never thought much of it. Why do you ask?”

  “I’ve just been more considerate lately. I think…” Sebastian trailed off.

  “No shit, Seb,” Mason drew out a lengthy chuckle. “I don’t know what’s gotten into you but you’re not Master Splinter.”

  “I suppose not,” Sebastian answered thoughtfully before walking away to another section of the locker room.

  Soon Mason was joined by Alex and Ben. They’d been spooked all day, but their response to being afraid was less unusual than Sebastian pontificating. Still, Mason wasn’t sure which of them was truly the weirdest this day. It was like a full moon was turning each of his friends into a whack job.

  “What if they’re hiding in the locker room, waiting for us here?” Ben asked.

  “Yeah,” Mason answered in a tone consistent with sarcasm and derision. “Maybe they’ll pop out of a laundry basket after you toss your jockstrap in. Go ahead, give it a try.”

  “How aren’t you taking this serious?” Alex asked.

  “Because I’m not gonna let some ridiculous irrational fear control how I act along with every aspect of my life. That’s so insane, guys. I’m more focused on what might pose a bigger risk to this entire town. Something more intimidating than two asshole teenagers with their daddy’s knife set.

  “Interesting that you brought that up,” Ben added as he changed into his gym outfit. “Because I just got one of my own. A pocketknife I mean. Can’t bring it to school, of course. But outside of school. Might as well be prepared… for the worst.”

  “If only you knew what the worst truly was, Ben,” Mason replied, shaking his head.

  “Mace is right,” Alex said, also changing into his gym outfit. “There’s so many other things we could be focused on. I can’t scream every time I hear a door slam in fear of who might be there.”

  “Now you’re making sense,” Mason said as he fist-bumped him.

  “What’s Sebastian’s take?” Ben asked.

  “Oh God! Don’t ask him,” Mason said quickly. “He’ll start exclaiming the meaning of life. I like him. But it’s… weird. It’s like he’s no longer the same kid.”

  “No longer the same kid?” Ben asked. “What the hell’s that mean?”

  “I mean he’s acting like some kind of temple monk ruminating on the tree of life. It’s weird.”

  “Alright boys! Enough playing! Time to hit the court!” the coach shouted.

  The boys filed through the locker room and onto the gym. Several rushed while others trickled out. Mason crouched over to tie his shoes. He looked up and through the corner of his eye spotted something out of the ordinary. The image was fleeting – and he was unable to get a clear look. But he was sure he saw something – someone, in the corner of the locker room. A tall older boy with long jet-black hair. His clothing was just as dark. He didn’t look like he was in eighth grade. This had to have been a high schooler. But where’d he go? In a flash he was gone.

  Mason thought for a moment… about the boy’s clothing. Who else had he seen dressed like that? The vampire in his sister’s room. It’s them.

  Were they watching him? Were the vampires out to get him? Would they come for revenge and accost both him and his family? After all, Mason had fashioned a stake out of a chair leg and charged at one of them. He’d intended to kill.

  The sight of the vampire, however, was too fleeting for Mason to be sure of anything. Anything other than the fact that the next time a vampire tried to enter his house he’d be fully prepared.

  “Come on, Lane! Let’s get a move on it!” Coach Stevens yelled to him before taking a more congenial tone with his friend. “Sebastian, I’m gonna see what I can do about getting you a try out on our team. You’ll be in high school soon, right? Who’s counting!”

  “Yes, sir. That sounds great,” Sebastian grinned as Mason watched him walk past the coach.

  Mason hurried after them onto the court, allowing the thought of the vampire to finally evade him. The day’s gym class was filled with an obstacle course. They had to jump over beams, run through hoops, crawl under nets, dash around cones, and whatever other crazy thing the Coach had thought to toss out onto the court. As expected, Mason watched as Sebastian completed every obstacle effortlessly.

  That was when the thought of the shadowy figure reemerged. The vampire in the locker room wasn’t looking at Mason. He was looking in the direction of Sebastian, who’d evaded every discussion about vampires in the past several weeks. The same Sebastian who was now physically performing at the apex of his
peers and now sounding like a person far wiser than his young teen years. Could he, Sebastian, be in leagues with creatures of the night?

  There was only one way to find out.

  Chapter 13

  The office of the Sheriff’s Department had been running smoothly. More than usual. Sheriff Zeddman was in the break room pouring himself a cup of coffee. It was a place he rarely had time to visit.

  In fact, things were quiet – too quiet. They’d still not caught anyone responsible for the double murder along Old Mill’s Road, or for the theft of blood from the mobile blood bank, or for slaughtering the cows of Old Man McIntyre. And McIntyre was the only person constantly and consistently calling the Sheriff’s Department, demanding answers. No one had been arrested for the crimes at the farm. And Zeddman strangely felt… okay about it all.

  “I can’t just be okay with an unsolved crime like this,” he said to himself. “But everyone around here is as nonchalant as if nothing wrong ever occurred. Why are we sitting around doing so little?” Zeddman argued with his own instincts.

  There was the part of his mind telling him to stop worrying, stop asking too many questions. But isn’t that my job?

  “Hey Sheriff!” Coleman saluted the Sheriff as soon as he entered the break room. “Since when do you ever spend time in here, boss?” Coleman laughed.

  “Never,” Zeddman said absentmindedly as he took a sip of coffee. “This all feels very weird.”

  “What does, Sheriff?”

  “I… I don’t quite know,” he answered.

  None of them knew. Not after having been cast under the hypnosis of a vampire.

  “Well, I don’t know about you but I’ve never felt better. I feel like I had the best night’s sleep of my life. How ’bout chu?” Coleman hiccupped.

  “Yes, Deputy… I feel… fine. I slept… fine. But there’s something I can’t quite put my finger on. Like an elusive dream. The kind you wake up from and can’t recall. Do you know that feeling, Deputy?”

  “Ugh… I’m not sure where you’re headed with this, Sheriff. My head’s occasionally fuzzy but I’ve never felt better. You’ve not been back on yer whiskey, have you?”

  “No,” Zeddman scoffed. “This has nothing to do with liquor. I didn’t drink a thing yesterday. No, this elusive feeling goes far beyond alcohol.”

  Zeddman slumped against the counter in the break room as he spoke.

  “You okay there, Sheriff Zeddman?” Deputy Coleman hiccupped again.

  “I will be. As soon as I realize what’s so… off,” the sheriff answered grimly. “Sure everything feels fine. But I can’t ignore the nagging feeling in the back of my mind telling me the opposite.”

  “If you got a voice in your head, sir–”

  “Not that kind of voice, Colman! It’s just a feeling, I mean.”

  “Sure we got an unsolved crime or two. What county don’t? As long as we’re keeping the schools safe and the people aren’t complaining then I don’t see how things could be going better,” Coleman shrugged.

  “That’s what bothers me, Deputy. Things should be fine. Well, aside from us still having no leads involving a double murder with a coroner report containing the acknowledgement of an unknown animal at the site of the crime. But sure, other than all that we’re not doing too shabby. I just can’t help but feel that we’re overlooking something.”

  “But what, sir? What on earth could we be overlooking?” Coleman threw up his arms.

  “Dammit, Deputy. If I knew the answer to that I wouldn’t be chugging down coffee in this break room.”

  “I hate that you feel that way, Sheriff.”

  “You hate it? Imagine how I feel. I know it’s something. Some specific thing. And as soon as my mind tries to reach it, it just eludes me. Like I’ve known all along but my mind is forcing me to forget it.”

  “Try not to be too hard on yourself, Sheriff.”

  “You’re right, Coleman. I’m going to return to my office. Whatever it is, I know it would be ruinous to dwell on something I can’t reach.”

  “Of course, Sheriff. Let me know if you need anything.”

  “Actually, Deputy. Come with me for a moment,” Zeddman told him.

  Together they left the break room and Coleman strolled through the open offices along with Zeddman.

  “So, Coleman,” Zeddman inquired intently. “What have you been telling Old Man McIntyre?”

  “Only three calls from him today, Sheriff. That’s like a record low. We typed up a little response to give him every time he asks. Just a standard message about how committed we are to bringing justice to his farm.”

  The Sheriff nodded, walked over to a fax machine, and neatly rearranged a small pile of papers. He pressed forward to his office with Coleman in tow. As soon as they entered the Sheriff’s room, there came a knock at the door.

  “Get that for me, Deputy.”

  Coleman answered the door. It was the secretary, Linda. She was an elderly lady in a polka-dotted dress, with a bob haircut, and the type of glasses that had a string connecting one end to the other.

  “Hello, Linda. What may I do for you?” Zeddman asked her.

  “I’m sorry I was out yesterday, sir. Thankfully the throat’s not as sore today. I hope everything went well in the search or whatever it is you were doing. But I wanted to ask you about the local radio show. The interview the local DJ had again with the conspiracy theorist, Mr Snow. Is it not sort of a public relations nightmare? And what should we do about it?”

  When Linda mentioned the part about a search, Zeddman looked at her strangely, unsure of what she was referring to. But the radio show – he knew exactly what she meant.

  “The most I’m afraid we can do about Snow is just ignore him,” the sheriff answered as he took a seat at his desk. “There comes a time when the public must realize that some nonsensical story about the Sheriff’s Department working hand in hand with the government to hide details of an alien invasion or whatnot is just as ludicrous as it sounds. That anyone would even take that man seriously is a mockery unto itself.”

  Zeddman shook his head. He knew the local radio show often served a useful purpose for the town’s residents. But he didn’t have time for the peddling of insane conspiracy theories centered around television-like plotlines.

  “Sad, indeed,” Linda sighed.

  “Well, to be fair…” Coleman gulped, “I used to listen to Snow all the time. I considered myself a fan ’til just recently.

  “Oh and get this,” Linda laughed. “On top of the conspiracy that the Sheriff’s Department is covering up this massive secret along with homeland security, Mr Snow stated this morning that there’s this other rumor he heard from someone who heard from someone else. That somewhere in Corpus contains a portal to the underworld or the realm of the dead. I couldn’t stop laughing.”

  “Oh yeah,” Zeddman began laughing. “We are definitely done here.”

  Coleman slapped his knee and hawed as the three of them were doubled over laughing.

  “Snow just gets crazier and crazier. Maybe you’re the King of the Dead, sir!” Coleman bellowed to the sheriff, nearly wiping tears from his eyes.

  “I’m afraid,” Zeddman laughed and told his secretary, “the best thing we can do to this nutjob is to simply allow him and his rumors to slowly die out. Or perhaps I ought to do an interview with the DJ on WKP-26. He’s only giving that wacko a platform because we’re being so silent. Alright, Linda. Don’t call the station just yet. But I’ll consider it.”

  “Yes, sir. Right away, Sheriff,” she said before Zeddman thanked her for all of her efforts.

  Linda left the office and closed the door behind her, leaving Zeddman and Coleman alone.

  “Alright, Sheriff. I’m sure you got some important stuff to do so I’ll just be on my way.

  “Actually,” the sheriff told him. “I’m going to head out for lunch soon. I was thinking about stopping at the Grits ’n’ Gravy Diner.”

  “Oh you just wonna see that prett
y young lady, Ms Lane.”

  “Mel,” Zeddman smiled. “Just Mel. And any excuse to see her is a good one. I can’t think of a better pick-me-up.”

  “Go get ‘em, Sheriff!” Coleman hawed and left the office, leaving the sheriff alone to his thoughts.

  ***

  Nightfall encroached upon Thursday. At the Lane household, Mom made dinner for three, consisting of salad and potatoes. Not Mason’s favorite but a hungry kid was a hungry kid. He wanted to head out to the arcade before nightfall but Alex’s mom was making her son complete all of the homework he was behind on. Sebastian claimed he was busy. The back tire of Ben’s bike was flat. That left only Matthew. He was willing to go but an arcade visit without three of your best friends wouldn’t be nearly as much fun.

  “You guys better promise me you’ll make it some other time then,” Mason told them over the phone. They each agreed to varying degrees.

  So Mason was stuck at home on a Friday night with no arcade and no meeting for the Cool Kid’s Horror Lovers Club, if such a thing still existed.

  With the others too busy to be bothered, Mason was left to play video games with Matthew via headset. He told Matthew about how afraid the guys had been about the ominous threats. He, however, left out the part about catching a fleeting glimpse of a vampire in the gym that may or may not have had some kind of connection to Sebastian.

  Mason knew he would confront Sebastian, but not now. He did, however, broach the subject.

  “Seb’s been acting a bit weird, don’t you think?” Mason asked him over the headset.

  “Well,” Matthew said, “I think he’s just going through some growing pains.” Mason considered Matthew the voice of reason.

  “Like a growth spurt?” Mason asked.

  “Nah. I’ve never used the term to mean physical. Growing pains are more mental. The way you think changes when you grow up and get older. He’s questioning a lot of stuff. The funny part is how it connects directly to what you were saying before you mentioned Sebastian.”

  “Wait, what? The part about Harry and Jason?” Mason asked.