"You can leave," I said. "Nothing will happen to you if you leave. Go to a safe place. Get out of town. Where are your parents?"
"I can't leave," Betty said. "I just can't do it."
"Where are your parents?" I asked again.
"They're dead," Betty said. "Everyone is dead."
"Are you at home?" I asked.
"Yes," Betty answered.
"Okay," I said. "I'm coming straight to your house to get you."
"Are you crazy?" Glen demanded after I got off the phone. "We can't linger here."
"I won't leave one of my friends behind," I said.
"I'll go after her once you're on an airplane," Glen argued.
"No," I said. "I'm going after my friend immediately. I have the daylight on my side. I'm not going to abandon her. I'm the one that brought this on her. If you don't want to help me, I understand, but this is happening with or without you."
Glen cursed.
Glen punched his steering wheel.
Glen demanded that my father speak to me.
Glen finally gave up and asked for directions.
It took us more than an hour of fighting traffic to reach Betty's house, just pulling into the driveway made me uneasy. Glen was the first person out of the van, and I watched him as he stood in front of the van for a few moments before motioning the rest of us out of the car.
"You feel that heaviness in the air?"Glen asked.
"I do," I said.
"They've been here frequently," Glen explained. "Did you see the cats run off when we pulled up?"
"Yes," I said.
"That's another sign," Glen explained. "We are in enemy territory. Daylight doesn't always keep us safe."
"I understand," I said. "What's your advice?”
"I'll go in first," Glen said. "Donny and Mark will go around back. You stay right behind me, ready to run."
"What about my dad?"
"He's better off in the van," Glen explained. "He's not doing very well."
I looked at my father. Glen was right; he didn't look well. He looked exhausted and heartbroken. I felt exactly how my father looked, but there were things that needed to be done, and I didn't yet have time to mourn. That would come later.
Glen pulled out a pistol and cautiously made his way to the front door. He knocked loudly, and he called out Betty's name but received no response.
"She might not answer for you," I said. "Let me try."
"Do you smell something?"Glen asked.
"Yes," I answered.
"What the hell is that?"
"That is the smell of death," I answered. "There are bodies inside that house. The smell is only going to get worse."
"Maybe you should go back to the car," Glen said.
"I'm in this," I said sternly. "So, let's stop with the chivalry."
Glen nodded, and I called out for Betty.
No answer.
Glen tried the door; it was unlocked, and swung open easily.
The smell that hit us was just about the worst thing to ever creep into my nostrils. The bodies in this house were at a stage of decay I wasn't very familiar with. The brothers always moved locations before the smell really bothered me.
“Betty!" I called out.
The smell was getting worse and worse with the open door. Glen had pulled out a handkerchief to cover his mouth and nose, but all I had was the sleeve of my shirt. The two of us involuntarily backed away from the porch.
"Selma!"Betty cried out in a weak voice.
"I'm outside!" I shouted.
"I'm scared," Betty said.
"She won't come outside," I said. "I'll need to go in after her."
"That could be dangerous," Glen said. "She might not be the person you once knew. The things these vampires can do to the human mind… she might not be your friend anymore. This could be a trap."
"Give me your gun," I said. "If things go badly, I'll make sure that she's free."
Glen did as I asked.
The pistol was surprisingly heavy in my hand. I'd gone shooting a few times when I was a kid, but I certainly didn't have any real experience with them either.
"All you need to do is pull the trigger," Glen explained.
Betty's house was warm as I entered, too warm. I was using Glen's handkerchief to block the smell, but it wasn't working very well.
I moved past the living room and kitchen. There was blood on the walls, and upturned furniture, but no bodies. Those had been placed in the bedrooms, the first of which held five bodies in various stages of decay. The second bedroom was crowded with bodies. I counted at least seventeen.
Outside I heard a sudden commotion. An older neighbor woman had approached Glen, and she was yelling about the smell coming from the house.
The third bedroom held at least eight corpses. I walked past all of them, and the flies they attracted and made my way to the window.
The older woman was still yelling at poor Glen. Her husband had gone missing a day or so ago, and she wanted answers.
"They've been feeding on the neighbors," Betty whispered from the cracked closet door.
"Betty," I said after damn near jumping out of my own skin. "Do you recognize me?"
"Yes," Betty answered.
Outside, a younger man was now standing beside the older woman. He also wanted answers. He was missing his wife. Both of them were growing more and more agitated as they smelled the foul odor coming from inside the house.
"Did they make you stay here?"I asked. "Did they make you stay here in this smell?"
"It was a punishment," Betty said. "I took you away from the young master."
I went over to the closet. Betty had no intention of hurting me. I had nothing to fear, but the smell. I really wanted to get away from the decay, and that clawing desire for clean air made me quick and impatient.
"Let's go," I said. "Let's go far away from here. Let's go someplace safe. Someplace they'll never find us."
"Does such a place exist?"Betty asked.
"It does," I said. "Now, take my hand."
Betty's pale hand emerged from the closet, but she quickly pulled it away.
"I can't!"Betty cried. "I can't. The little masters won't let me."
In the distance, I could hear sirens. The police were about to arrive. Somebody must have called them. Reaching into the dark closet, I grabbed Betty's arm and yanked her into the room with me.
The poor girl was filthy, pale as a sheet, and all but destroyed. She was nothing more than the shell of the healthy girl she once was. Her starved frame looked boney and brittle, and she had bites and bruises all over her body. She was a horror show, but underneath all that damage was my friend. I wrapped an arm around her and began pulling her from the house.
"NO!"A woman shrieked from one of the other bedrooms.
The blood froze in my veins.
Betty pulled free and ran back to her closet as a middle-aged woman wearing only a nightgown entered the hallway. She was tall with silver hair, and she was just as starved as Betty. Her neck was covered in dried blood, and she had small cuts all over her bare arms and legs. In her hand was a large carving knife.
"That little girl isn't going anywhere!"The woman hissed.
She walked towards me with a limp that showed off her twisted ankle. There was drool freely flowing from her mouth, and she began swinging the carving knife from side to side in the small hallway as she closed the distance between us.
I backed away slowly as a young man in a business suit entered the hallway from another room. His suit was torn and stained, and he also wore a maniacal look on his face. There were others as well. I could hear them rising to their feet amongst all the dead bodies.
I freaked out.
I couldn't go out the front door, but I could run back to the room where I’d found Betty, and I did just that. Once inside, I rushed to the dirty window, flung it open, punched out the screen, and crawled outside of the house right as the police were pulling into the front yard.
&n
bsp; A bunch of screaming and more than a few threats later found me face down in the front yard with my nose buried in the grass. The two policemen were soon joined by others, and after my entire group was placed in handcuffs, the officers decided to enter the house.
I heard shouting from inside almost immediately.
I looked up from my face full of yard grass, and I saw the officers backing out of the home as the madwoman with the carving knife followed closely behind them. She cringed as the sun hit her eyes, but she didn't burst into flame.
Three steps later, and a gunshot brought her down.
The other victims came soon after. Weapons weren't required to stop them as they were all unarmed, but the officers were confused. An ambulance was summoned, as was the fire department.
The second time the officers entered the house, they found all the bodies. That's when the scene became a true nightmare. Within an hour, the entire street had been blocked off, and all the neighbors were being questioned.
I was asked a hundred questions, but I didn't answer any of them. My father wasn't doing his usual magic on the police. He was still too broken-hearted to function. Glen was screaming out at anyone that cared to listen that we needed to get far away.
Poor Betty finally came out of her closet. I could see her in the back of an ambulance. Physically she was going to be fine, but I had no idea what her mental state would be like in the next few days.
If they took her to a hospital, I was going to lose her. She'd be killed just for knowing me. The only place Betty would be safe is with my father and me, far away from here.
"Glen," I said.
Glen stopped yelling at the police and looked in my direction.
"We can't let them take, Betty," I said.
"We don't have much choice in the matter," Glen said.
Time dragged on.
Minutes became hours, and the day grew longer and longer. None of us could understand why we hadn't been taken to the police station, but we also knew that we were as good as dead if that happened.
We would only survive if we managed to escape. If we remained in Southern California after sunset, we were probably going to be killed.
"Why the hell are we still here?"Glen demanded.
"Lieutenant Morris is on the way," an officer finally replied.
Glen and I looked at each other. There was hope. Lieutenant Morris had seen the brothers when they came for me at the hospital. She understood what was about to descend upon us.
It took her an hour to arrive.
I was still handcuffed when Lieutenant Morris entered one of the neighboring homes that the police had commandeered and stood directly in front of me. I looked up at her from where I was sitting and stared into her green eyes. Her red hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and her face seemed somewhere beyond exhaustion.
"Are you still with us?"Lieutenant Morris asked.
"What the hell is that suppose to mean?"I asked.
Lieutenant Morris didn't look impressed with my attitude, but I really didn’t care after all I’d been through.
"I'm just wondering if you've gone as crazy as your father," Lieutenant Morris said. "He's gone catatonic over there."
"He just saw the remains of his son after a vampire pulled the poor kid's arms off," Glen said. "Give the guy a break."
Lieutenant Morris looked shocked.
"Do any of you want to give me an update?"Lieutenant Morris said. "I've already called in about a billion favors to keep you folks out of jail, and I'm honestly not too sure about what else I can do after all this."
"We've been trying to survive," I said.
"There's a house full of torn up corpses," Lieutenant Morris said. "There are crazy people talking about little masters, and how they'll kill us all."
"You've seen firsthand what we're dealing with," Glen said.
"I saw something," Lieutenant Morris said. "I'm not sure what they were, but I saw them."
"We need a way out of here," I said."And Betty over there needs to come with us."
"That girl needs a fucking hospital," Lieutenant Morris said.
"If we're here after sunset, everyone will die," I said. "If you take us to jail, everyone there will die. We need to leave the country, and we should have left a long time ago."
"I don't have that kind of weight," Lieutenant Morris said."As everything stands, I'm going to have a lot to answer for, just because I've slowed down things over here."
"I can help you," Glen said. "I know people, important people. I can make some calls if you can take the cuffs off."
"You think so?"Lieutenant Morris asked.
"It's a possibility," Glen said. "Things have never been this bad before, but nobody wants us here after sunset, you really need to trust me on that."
Calls were made.
Glen called his contacts, and Lieutenant Morris spoke with her supervisors. I listened to both of them until I couldn't listen anymore. Every inch they gained came with a foot lost. It was too frustrating.
An hour before sunset, and things finally fell into place. Lieutenant Morris seemed excited finally to get results, but Glen looked worried.
"We can leave for the airport in just a few minutes," Lieutenant Morris said.
"We can't do that," Glen said.
"Of course we can," I said. "This is our way out of here. "
"If the vampires come while we're at the airport, just imagine how many lives will be lost," Glen said.
"Would they be so bold?"Lieutenant Morris asked.
"I never thought they'd be bold enough to attack the police station," Glen said. "I certainly never thought they'd be bold enough to expose themselves at the hospital. We can't take the chance."
"I know a private airport," Dad said.
It was the first words he'd spoken in hours, and he instantly had the entire room's attention.
"It's only about an hour and a half from here," Dad continued. "It isn't used very regularly, but I believe they have a few private jets and at least one pilot on-site at all times."
"Are you positive?"Lieutenant Morris asked.
"I've had a few clients that have used the airport," Dad answered. "I'm positive."
"Should we call?"Glen asked.
"They won't answer," Dad said. "And I don't have the number."
"What if we show up and there isn't a pilot?"I asked.
"I can fly," Glen volunteered. "It's been a while, but I can manage. The problem isn't transportation."
"Vampires are the problem," I said. "We missed our window, and the vampires will be coming."
"We'll be moving quickly," Lieutenant Morris said. "There's a chance we'll be able to avoid them completely."
"Not likely," Glen said. "They won't take too long to lock down on her scent. It may be enough time for them to catch up with us. We really don't know their limitations."
"He'll know to come here," I said. "He'll sense something wrong with Betty. He may also have a connection to me. Sometimes I feel like he does. They'll catch up with us. All this wasted time might just be the end of us."
"We need backup," Lieutenant Morris said.
"Well, that's not likely to happen," Glen said.
"I don't think you understand your situation properly," Lieutenant Morris said. "You're surrounded by people that willingly risk their lives for the safety of others. The police were with you in the hospital, and they'll be with you now."
"I can't ask any of your people to help us with this," I said.
"You don't need to," Lieutenant Morris said. "It's our duty."
Within just ten minutes, twenty heavily armed police officers were gathered around our ragtag band of exhausted survivors.
"You all know what this is," Lieutenant Morris said. "Most of you were with us in the hospital and those of you that weren't have heard the rumors. Well, the rumors are true. We're about to face off against monsters. They're terrifying to look at. You can feel the evil just radiating off of them. Don't look them in the eyes, and don't
hesitate to shoot."
We piled up into three SUVs and drove off rapidly as the sun sank lower and lower on the horizon. I was watching that sunset as the sirens blared, and we rushed past as much freeway traffic as possible.
The sky slowly turned pink, and the last of the sun's rays warmed up my face as thoughts of Tyler pushed themselves into my mind. It was my fault that my brother was dead. I trusted a vampire. I invited a vampire into my home.
Tears welled up in my eyes, and I quickly brushed them away. Suddenly Glen's warm arm wrapped around my shoulders, and he pulled me in tight.
"It's not your fault," Glen said. "You weren't in your right mind. These creatures make you do foolish things. You can't blame yourself. You're the victim."
That was it. That was all it took. I grabbed hold of poor Glen as tightly as I could, and I started bawling into his shoulder. Glen was caught by surprise, but in his defense, he recovered rather quickly and started whispering warm thoughts into my ear as he gently rocked me back and forth.
"Is it really that bad?"
Glen and I looked over to the police officer sitting shotgun.
"I'm not trying to be rude," the officer explained. "I'd just like to know a little bit about what we're going to face."
"They're worse," Glen said. "And I can't tell you how sorry I am for what you're about to experience."
"I saw them at the hospital," another officer added. "From a distance, they look like kids, but when you get up close…"
"What?"The original officer pressed.
"It's hard to explain," the second officer said. "They look dead. They aren't at all natural. They don't even move naturally, and when they look at you, it's predatory. You can feel it in your bones that they'd enjoy killing you."
"Son of a bitch," the first officer said.
"Just don't look them in the eyes," Glen said. "They can enter your mind if you look them in the eyes."
"Don't listen to them either," I added. "They'll pour honey in your ear to get what they want."
"I'll shoot them before I speak with them," the officer said.
"I have flamethrowers and explosives," Glen said. "They'll prove much more effective than your firearms. Nobody needs to be a hero. There's a chance they won't even find us."
After that, the officers discussed their plans, which involved providing protection until we were in the air. After that, everyone planned on evacuating the area just as fast as they possibly could.
The Forgotten: A Vampire Story Page 27
