by A. D. Key
“Yeah. I get a vision of bar girl covered in blood, and now I see someone getting their face ripped off. In the same town.”
Leon’s comments sounded more like questions. I snatched up my backpack of clothes from the bathroom floor and returned prepared to leave. “Think this is somehow connected?”
“There is no way in hell it can’t be,” he said. The seer didn’t need any more unequivocal proof. Leon Carmany was convinced there was something seriously wrong with Hastings, Nebraska.
5: Out of the Clear Blue Sky
LANA & COLE
WHEN SPRING had arrived the trees certainly did not waste any time putting their clothes on. Every single one carried some sort of foliage in a variation of sizes and colors, even the green leaves present different shades. Not knowing the names of these trees, Lana adored the purple ones, whereas Cole did know most of the old but amazing looking trees, leaving him with a preference for maple.
They both could clearly see and hear that the vegetation was not lonesome. Squirrels observed and carried on, woodpeckers continued with their echoing decibels, and an amalgamation of birds chirping and tweeting would make you think they were inebriated.
The sun played the part of a slow moving disco ball. Overall Mother Nature was throwing a fabulous party.
Lana inhaled deeply. I love that smell! Gosh! Seeing the woods and being in the woods are two different things! Lana kept her thoughts to herself, their speed decreasing to a walk.
“I think I’m starting to sweat now,” Cole whispered, not wanting to alert anyone that might be in the woods.
“Yeah,” Lana let out a low laugh, tugging at her shirt trying to get an air flow.
It was quiet for a moment. Well they were anyways. Listening. Watching. Smelling. Tracking. Hunting. Conspiring to kill.
“I feel it more,” the female Shadow whispered eagerly.
“The sweat?”
“No,” she smiled. “The feeling.”
“It’s like a pull.”
“Let’s separate this time. See where our sixth sense leads us,” he nodded taking the space to the right and she branched to the left.
Out of the corner of his eye he could see Lana but they were quickly going in opposite directions. While his path lead him slightly upwards, hers was downhill.
Cole was aware that back at August Cemetery Lana did not so much as consider a momentary glimpse at what was left of her deceased family. This deeply vexed him. When it came to Lana he hated worrying.
RAVEN
SLIGHTLY IRRITATED, I sighed into my cell phone. “I know you are worried about me, but it is not necessary…” “Raven—” his voice pleaded.
“Olsen, please just do it and get safe… Ganesha drove me here,” I answered the voice on the other end. “I am pressing end now,” I said in my American accent. “Later.”
Going through airport security had been easy enough; no luggage, not even a purse. I sat solo for awhile watching a reporter on the airport’s TV. Future passengers (a few with overindulging issues, one girl that had to be visiting the toilet after every meal, a man who smelled like he took a bath in cologne, and another man who could stand to borrow some) gathered around trying to hear what the woman standing in front of the hospital on the flat screen was saying:
“It is believed that a doctor was admitted earlier today. When nurses and doctors sought to treat him they were attacked. It is still unclear as to who has this busy hospital locked down and why. The question now is, are there any hostages?”
I looked down at the plane ticket displaying my alias; the name nowhere near Raven. My hand threatening to crumble the ticket. Knowing that it did not matter if the hospital was locked or unlocked made my decision…difficult.
I desired to stay. To help those people turning into monsters.
But that is not my mission, I silently told myself.
Taking a deep breath, all five-foot-seven of me stood up to be the first in line before the male voice boomed overhead announcing the departing flight and people gathered their belongings. The female attendant behind the computer screen glared with a baffled expression. How did she do that? She was wondering. I can’t read minds, just very observant. I have many skills, but telepathy isn’t one of them.
The small crowd gathered in front of the flat screen was last to the two rows of waiting passengers. Two male teens—one with a mole on his cheek—quietly chatted about who had the best chance of getting away with “accidentally” rubbing up against me. For this I did use my special hearing powers. Partly flattered, I silently laughed at the absurdity, as if they could do such a thing. The revolted part of me smiled maliciously in their direction, all the way at the end of the line. The boys tensed when their eyes met mine. Instantly destroying their perverted plan. And then I turned, putting them out of my mind.
In God I trust. My last thought in the terminal.
LUCAS
BITING my nails, I was uncharacteristically silent. Driving with one hand on the wheel of the Biscayne while Leon stared out the passenger window. It was easy to tell we were nearing the end of the city. Buildings not only dwindled in size, but the houses seemed to grow bigger lawns.
A fast-paced vehicle moving towards us adverted Leon’s attention.
The speed limit sign up ahead read “forty-five”. He glanced at the speedometer. We were moving ten over the legal limit and we curiously eyed the woman in the golden suburban as she noticeably sped by…
After a few more acres of unbroken silence and open space, we passed a road—New Hope Road—and a graveyard on the left with very little appreciation for its beauty. We had business to take care of.
KIMBERLY & JIMMY
“HOSPITAL.”
“Hospital,” Jimmy agreed with his girlfriend on their next course of action, going the opposite direction of the Chevy Biscayne.
Devin wiped the tears from his small eyes. “I saw him walking. I thought he got hurted in the place where animals play.” He dug into the black seat with his baby-like nails. “But then he looks really scary so I only watch.”
“Kim, what is your dad doin’ in the woods?” Jimmy asked, turning away from his bleeding little brother in the backseat.
“I-I don’t know. He said he thought that when he was done mowing he saw Lee in the woods.” Lee was supposed to close their dad’s cemetery last night. But after dark her father called in a blind panic. Her brother’s truck had been abandon inside August Cemetery. The driver side window busted out.
“Why would Lee be in there?”
“I don’t know that he was, Jimmy! I just figured dad was getting drunk during the day again. I’m used to him drinking at odd hours, then going weeks without even a sip, but this… I’ve never seen my dad, or anyone, pick up a child and do what he did to Devin.” The scenery of hogs and cattle pass by in the rearview mirror.
“What’s with him?” Jimmy asked.
Kimberly shrugged. “Don’t know…”
LUCAS
WE SAT IN FRONT OF RUSH CEMETERY. “The setting is just the way it appeared in my vision. Vines emergent on the iron rods. But we can still see tombstones on the other side,” Leon said. An eight foot gate that was made out of iron as well, but did not have climbing plants, towered at the entrance. He easily spotted the streetlight; it was the only object that remained taller than the entrance.
One thing the seer had not seen in his vision was the open land to our right that was occupied by a descent size, well-kept white house several acres back from the road…
“This is the place. So far nothing unusual. Think we should drive through to see if we can find anything?” he asked.
Without a word, I put the car in drive. The lettering, RUSH, was easy to spot because it definitely stood out in the center of the clustered bars to our left. Judging by the conditions of the tombstones, I guessed that the black chipping barrier not only kept vandals out at night, but also attracted curious folks during daytime hours.
“You’ve been quiet,�
� he said.
I pretended to take interest in the aged markers. The people we save have a latent possibility to become exalted and significant. And ever since we arrived in this state I hadn’t a clue what was happening. Nothing seemed to add up.
“Not once did you turn on the radio.”
“I don’t like this, Brighton.” Calling Leon by his forename usually meant I was serious. “Why is your vision extremely different? You’ve only seen two things. Vampires and Potentials. And Potentials do not find out about us and Vampires existing,” my voice began to rise. “Because we KILL the vamps before they strike! Now she is going to find out about US!” I referred to the girl we were here to save from whatever the hell he saw.
The small roadway forced me to calm down and make a decision. Right or left? Broken and cracked headstones, along with dying grass, awaited to the left. “What else is going to change?” I asked, choosing big ancient trees, above ground tombs, and creepy statues to the right.
“Guess I haven’t thought about it that way.”
“You’re always charge then ask.”
“You’re not? I’m surprised you don’t have penis funk.”
“Hey, I wrap it!” I said defensively.
“What happens when you don’t have anything to wrap?”
“It’s not like I do it every day with everyone. Why am I talking to you about this? Let’s leave the weird-cousin-sex-talk to Rachel.” Our youngest cousin has a way of purposefully making us uncomfortable. And it wasn’t like Leon and I never talked about the things we do with the ladies, because we do—me more than Leon. It’s just that I desperately wished this business in Nebraska to be finished so I could head back to my cousin Rachel and Uncle Joe in Tennessee, escaping this nervous tension building in my stomach like there was an atomic bomb about to be dropped on my world…
KIMBERLY & JIMMY
“I NEED TO CALM DOWN,” Jimmy said, rubbing his short sweaty palms up and down his jeans. The fight with his girlfriend’s father was over but his adrenaline was not finished pumping.
Jimmy turned the knob on the radio. They heard a male voice: “It is official. The only hospital in Hastings is on lockdown. Police and reporters have surrounded the campus but why is unclear,” the man announced through the speakers. “Unfortunately, if you or someone you know needs to be admitted to the ER it won’t be in Hastings.”
“Maybe we should just go to the police,” the balding man in his twenties suggested. “I mean I don’t even think your dad knew us or himself. And you just don’t turn into a cannibal overnight unless you’ve been…turned into—”
“Sweetie you’re babbling,” Kimberly said, touching the top of his hand with hers.
“I know. I just—”
Kimberly was in the middle of the intersection before it occurred to her that her college sweetheart was not wearing the thin piece of material across his chest; his seatbelt. The side of her suburban crunched against the side of a dump truck. Her freckled hand no longer clenched the smooth steering-wheel…
COLE & LANA
IN ALL THE TIME I have come to know her… I cannot help but notice the changes. The more Lana looked at Cole the more he noticed the sparkle that he adored so much… It is almost gone. But does Lana know? Know how much she is starting to obsess over Kronos? Or the fact that I even care? Do I care…? Yes. Yes, I care.
Would he not speak up and tell her she was a danger to herself? She would never physically harm herself, but her pulling away from all her friends and being alone… That can’t be healthy.
But what am I supposed to say? Hey, yes, Kronos is evil stop trying to end his existence? That would go over like a turd in a punch bowl. Wow, I can’t believe I just thought about a turd in a bowl.
Cole laughed at himself while trudging through the woods.
✽✽✽
Excitement rang in Lana Queen’s mind and she gasped. “That’s it!” Her adrenaline was moving at speeds she had long since forgotten.
Surrounded by oversized tree trunks and huge branches was the entrance to a well-hidden cave. A squirrel had ran a straight path through at the bottom of the trees. Lana looked closely, saw something back there, and pushed her way through the tree limbs and discovered it. There before her eyes, hidden within the dull brown, radiant green, and popping white foliage, was her nemesis’ hiding place.
I’ve been through here five, six, eight times in my life and I’ve never noticed this? Then again, why would I? Those times me, Cole, and Loki were hanging out around here we were doing just that, hanging out.
In one of the rare acres of trees, each one of them had come to the welcoming and calm atmosphere on weekends to forget life. For Lana it was obviously Kronos and the teasing at school. She openly knew her friend and neighbor, Loki, came to escape the consequences of her parents’ divorce.
But now days, Loki liked going anywhere that was not her own house for good reasons, reasons Lana still tried to ignore. Cole came because that was where she and Loki went—being around them helped him cope with being adopted.
Cole’s entire family had died in a house fire on the night of Christmas when he was eleven. He woke up choking from smoke that had drifted down from the top of the stairs. He ran out of the basement door that was practically next to his bed and sat in the snow. He cried while he watched the flames spread from the first floor to the second.
Cole had told Lana and Loki he had heard his sister and mother screaming. And Lana could see why he would want to forget that nightmare. Who wouldn’t?
Must find— It is as though he read her thoughts. On top what she had thought was a hill, but in actuality was an enormous cave, appeared the dark-haired boy.
Her presence clearly surprised Cole. “Why did we both end up here?”
She beckoned him with her hand. He jumped down.
“I don’t see…” Cole trailed off, looking past the trees. “Is that a cave? I’ve have never seen that before!” His enthusiasm poured out and they raced through the thick entanglement, her lustrous black tresses bobbing. He made it inside first.
“Hey, do you think this is the exit to that cavern we played in a few years back?” she whispered hoping not to alert Kronos.
“I don’t know. I mean the only thing I remember other than the fact it’s behind August is that we got lost because we couldn’t…see.”
It dawned on them that they were pretty much in the same situation.
Granted, being a Shadow has its advantages; running faster than an Olympic athlete, being physically stronger. Having above average hearing and a better sense of smell than other humans. But it usually took a minimum of two Shadows to dismember a Vampire. They did not possess the strength of their predators, and no matter how quick one moved their feet the Vampire usually won. Lana had become stronger over the years but unfortunately, the Shadow’s eyesight was that of an ordinary human when exposed to total cave darkness. If they continued without light they wouldn’t even be able to see their own hand right in front of their face.
“So how many people does it take to get flashlights?” Cole joked.
Lana rolled her apple green eyes. “I’ll go,” she volunteered since her house was closer.
But suddenly a familiar scent invaded her nostrils.
Blood. Human blood.
“I smell…” Cole inhaled deeper. And then they knew they were in trouble—their instincts intensifying to the extreme. The sudden change can only mean one thing.
“Run!” Lana shouted.
The Shadows knew they had seconds. Seconds to escape into the sun…or seconds to be claimed by one or several unhappy Vampires. Well maybe happy depending on which way they choose to look at the situation. Angry their habitat was being disturbed, or happy two blind-in-the-dark humans imprudently strolled in.
The frantic Shadows knew that no matter how hard they listened in the dark, even as advanced as their skills are compared to others like them, it would not save them. While Shadows cannot be Pushed—the Vampires feed
ing ability by standing at a distance and expelling a human’s blood from them and into the mouth of the predator—more than three blood feigns would surely rip them to pieces.
A pair of feet smashed into Lana’s face from above, knocking the breath out of her as she landed on what felt like unleveled rock. Her own nose blood flowed freely into her dry mouth.
Something wet dripped down from the cave and slid down the side of Lana’s neck…
A fist connected against Cole’s cheek and then a foot hit him not once, not twice, but three times. Lana heard the dirt sling about from its rapid spin kicks. Taunting laughter ensued in front of them, echoing through the cave unveiling the voice of a woman.
Even though there wasn’t much light there was enough shining through at the top of the egress to create a silhouette of the villain. Knowing she must act quickly, Lana wrapped her fingers around the chunk of rock that had come loose when she landed spine first. The Vampire’s body bent over backwards, avoiding the flying object. Cole, seizing the opportunity, dropped down sideswiping the Vampire’s feet out from underneath her. But the bloodsucker quickly sprang up into a back flip, filling the dark cave with more disturbing cackles.
The Shadows charged.
The night creature landed, bare feet packing down the earth. And four hands pushed her through the forestry and into the beaming rays of sunlight.
Her Vampire eyes fell upon them. They were the same colors as any vamp in its form; the sclera in both eyes was emerald green. And the pupils and irises orange outlined heavily with violet.
“Even the Goddess will not be able to save you,” she cryptically said.
Touching the sunbeams, red blood seeped out from her old, wrinkly skin like meat that was being cooked on one side. A green flame—the same color as the Vampire’s sclera—ignited from her taunting eyeballs. Juddering, her long white hair waved up and down in the wind before it burst into the same horrid blaze. The Old Lady Vampire exploded into huge flames of emerald green. Her entire body on fire.
