by Mark Tufo
“Where are those kids, Eliza?” I said menacingly.
“Where I wish them to be,” she answered cryptically.
That ranged from a room downstairs to a zombie’s belly.
“Eliza,” I started.
“Silence!” she yelled. “I owe no answers to you!”
The force of her words pushed us all back a step or two. I noticed April looking down the wall again as that was a potential avenue of escape. Hell, so was I. Maybe the zombies would break our fall and we could run on top of their heads. It could work, I saw something like it in a cartoon.
“This ends tonight Michael,” she said in a more even tone.
“About fucking time!” Travis yelled.
Tracy and I both turned to him. “No swearing!” we said together.
“Just get on with it Eliza. I figured you to be above the theatrics,” I told her.
She was quiet. Any chance I ruffled her feathers? I could only hope.
“Very well, but one more thing. I have someone here who wishes to say hello.”
“Hello Mr. T,” Tommy said in the voice we had all come to love but that no longer carried any warmth within its timbre.
“Tommy?” I asked, hoping above and beyond any recognizable chance that it wasn’t him.
“It’s Tomas,” he answered. The cold response sent shivers through me.
“Is there anything from the boy we love still in there?” I asked him unsteadily.
“Tommy died alone and in the dark, Mr. T.”
“I’m sorry for that Tomas.”
“So was he.”
“What a touching family reunion,” Eliza said, her voice as brittle as broken glass.
“Any chance of a one-on-one Eliza, me against you for the fate of our souls?” I asked. Rage burned through the fibers of my being like a wildfire sparked from a lightning strike.
“Mistress, let me be your champion!” Durgan shouted.
“He’s still alive?” BT asked me quietly.
“Apparently,” I said dejectedly.
“That could be amusing,” Eliza said.
“As soon as you open that door, I’ll blow a hole in his friggen’ head,” I said, meaning every word.
“Not very sporting of you, Michael,” Eliza laughed.
“I don’t much see any reason why I should get the snot beat out of me before I die,” I told her.
“But yet you wish to fight with me. Surely you know that there is not a mortal on this world that can defeat me,” Eliza said triumphantly.
“I would only agree to fight you if you let my family and friends go unharmed, to live out their lives as they see fit.”
“Michael, the fun will be when I kill them all one by one as you watch. I could never let them go. Perhaps we can work out a different arrangement.”
“I’m listening,” What choice did I have?
“What if I allowed Durgan to fight you? If you best him, I would allow your family and friends to go unharmed.”
“And what of my husband?” Tracy asked.
“Either way he dies, of course, and in front of his family,” Eliza answered as if this were the most insane question she had ever heard.
“No, Talbot!” Tracy said thrusting a finger in my face.
“Tracy, I will do whatever I can to make sure that all of you are safe.”
“What makes you think she will honor her end of the agreement?”
“What makes you think he could beat me?” Durgan yelled.
I hadn’t thought about Eliza not following through with her promise but it wasn’t like Vampires were noted for their honor.
“Eliza, how valid is your word?” I asked, although what was I expecting? If she lied about the first part, wouldn’t she do the same with the second? Maybe some morality would bleed through. Yup, little known fact, soulless demons can’t tell two lies in a row.
“Cross my heart and hope to die, Michael,” Eliza said coolly.
“Mike, technically her heart doesn’t beat and she is already dead,” Gary cautioned.
“Thanks for that,” I told him.
“Mike, let me fight Durgan, I’ve been wanting to bust his ass up forever,” BT said with a smile that scared the hell out of me. “I’ll fight that racist prick! I’ll be Mike’s champion!” BT yelled before I had a chance to tell him this was my fight.
“What is this, 1634?” I said, “I can fight my own damn battles.”
“Who you kidding Mike? He’ll kick your ass,” BT said none too softly.
“Don’t sugarcoat it man, tell me like it is,” I replied, a little perturbed at his lack of faith in me.
“Oh hell man, you know what I meant,” BT said, back peddling.
“Yeah, that he’d kick my ass,” I told him crossly.
“That’s what he said,” Gary clarified.
“I have no beef with you!” Durgan shouted through the door, “But me and Mike have some reckoning to complete.”
Durgan sounded like the coward that he was. He would only fight when the odds were clearly stacked in his favor. I was sort of surprised that he would even decide to go one on one. He probably figured that Eliza would have his back if I somehow got the upper hand. Although I doubted first that I would get the upper hand and second that Eliza cared anything about him.
“Did he say reckoning?” BT asked. “What kind of cracker ass speak is that?”
“I will allow it,” Eliza said as if she controlled the entire production, which ultimately she did.
“Okay, so there’s a lot going on right now. What exactly are you allowing?” Mad Jack asked her.
Damn, his balls must be the size of small boulders. His stock just went up in my eyes.
“I will allow Durgan to fight Michael,” Eliza intoned smugly.
BT shrugged his shoulders in frustration.
“Michael, if Durgan kills you,” she started.
“When,” Durgan said interrupting her.
“You do that again, I will rip your throat out,” Eliza told Durgan.
“If Durgan kills you,” she continued disdainfully, “those that you are with give themselves up willingly.”
Murmurs of protests arose from the group. I couldn’t blame them.
“I can’t speak for the people around me,” I told her.
“You will allow my zombies onto the roof with you during the fight so that I can be sure YOU hold up your end of the agreement.”
“What if I say no?” I asked her.
“I will burn this building and everybody in it, or on it, to the ground.”
“And when I win?” I said running my hand through my now sweating hair.
Durgan snorted in derision.
“If you should somehow best my champion,” Eliza said mockingly, “I will allow everyone you are with to walk away from this site unharmed.”
“I wouldn’t trust her,” Meredith whispered next to me.
“Will you allow them to live out their lives without your interference?” I asked.
“No,” she answered.
“Most likely the first honest thing she’s said,” Alex said.
“I understand that you humans like to confer on matters of importance. I will give you one hour and then you will give me your decision,” Eliza said. I could hear her entourage heading back down the stairs, her zombies following suit.
“Clearly the answer is no,” Mrs. Deneaux was the first to pipe up.
“I’d really like to thank you, but I’m pretty sure it has nothing to do with my personal safety,” I told her.
Mrs. Deneaux smirked at me.
“Should we take a vote?” I asked the group.
Deneaux shrugged.
“No,” Tracy said.
“No,” Justin echoed his mother. I looked at him sternly but the vote was already cast.
“Yes,” Travis said. Tracy looked at him with a smoldering gaze that said that she was going to ground him for damn near forever.
“I don’t see what choice we have. I say
yes,” Brian said. I nodded to him and received the same back.
“If Brian thinks it’s a good idea than so do I,” Cindy said firmly.
Perla was not dealing well with the whole proposal. Cindy went over to her and attempted to calm her down. “NO!” Perla shouted. “I am sick of seeing people die!”
I turned to Deneaux who had walked away to light another cigarette. “You already got my answer,” she said, never turning back lest the oncoming breeze put out her lighter’s flame.
“I will not place the fate of my children in the hands of him,” Marta spat.
“Does that count as three votes?” Meredith asked the group.
I shook my head no.
Gary walked up and looked me in the eyes for a lot longer than I felt comfortable with. “I think he can do it. I vote yes.”
“That was strange, but thanks for the vote of confidence… I think,” I told him.
“Oh, I didn’t see anything,” Gary said. “I was just trying to instill some confidence in you.”
“Again thanks, and don’t tell me any more.”
“Mike, I’ll vote however you want me to,” Paul said, coming up to me.
“I can’t tell you how to vote. It’s your lives on the line,” I told him.
“I trust you like no other,” Paul told me. “I vote yes.”
Erin placed her arm around Paul’s waist. “As do I,” she said.
“Do you people not understand what you’re doing?” Tracy screamed, “You are sentencing him to a certain death. Whether by Durgan or Eliza, Mike will not survive this!”
She was pissed. I briefly thought about going over to calm her down, but she’d just as likely pitch me over the side.
“We should all be fighting as one,” she continued adamantly.
“Tracy, there won’t be a fight,” Alex said to her pacifying her a bit. “Eliza will merely burn this place down. I would think that Mike would be honored that some of us survive rather than all of us perish. I vote yes.”
“You’ve all lost your minds,” Tracy said bitterly before storming off.
“I agree with her Mike,” BT said. “I say no.”
April, who looked like a jackrabbit getting ready to bolt, slid a few inches behind Mad Jack. “No,” she said meekly.
“Do I get a vote?” Eddy asked Joann.
She was about to say no. I stopped her. “It’s his life too, he should have a say.”
“Yes,” Eddy said beaming. “The crazy man can beat anyone.”
“Then I say no,” Joann said, not looking as Eddy scowled at her.
I looked to a staunch ally, Meredith. She shook her head and ran to catch up to her aunt.
“Interesting,” Mad Jack said. “I either decide the vote or tie it up.”
“Really?” I asked. “I didn’t think it was that close.”
“Nine ‘no’s’ and eight ‘yes’s’”.
“Damn, I had no clue,” I told him truthfully.
“Then how do you vote?” BT asked, rejoining the group.
“There is only one choice,” Mad Jack said. “Logically speaking, Mike’s willingness to fight Durgan is our only chance of escape. Albeit it sounds like it might be a slim one, it is a chance none the less.”
“Don’t shower all the confidence on me at one time,” I told him. Mad Jack looked at me with a blank stare, he didn’t get it.
“I vote yes,” Mad Jack said.
“You’re kidding me? So it’s a tie?” I asked.
Mad Jack nodded in the affirmative.
“It looks like the decision is yours, Talbot. What will you do?” Tracy asked with a sheen of tears in her eyes. She already knew my answer.
“I will fight, because that is what I do,” I told the group.
* * *
CHAPTER TWENTY NINE - Tracy’s Journal Entry 1
I cannot believe the pig-headed stubborn man that I married. My mother was right when she told me not to marry a Marine. ‘Marry a Navy man,’ she told me, ‘they’re much more pliable.’ He’s been huddled up with BT going over strategy on how to fight that steroid induced crazy bastard Durgan. He’s barely even looked over at me. Good, I hope he knows I’m mad at him for what he’s doing. I have absolutely no doubt that my husband will kill Durgan, but what good does that do his family, I ask you. Either way he dies. I’d rather burn with him, but not my babies, no, not that.
Eliza’s coming!
CHAPTER THIRTY – Talbot Journal Entry 15
“What have you decided, Michael?” came Eliza’s question. Her tone betrayed nothing of which way she wanted me to answer.
“My only condition as it has always been Eliza, is that if I agree to fight, when I win you honor your end,” I told her.
“Will you believe what I have to say?” Eliza asked. That she had a small measure of mischief in her words was not in doubt.
“There is the locket,” Tomas said.
“What locket?” Eliza and BT asked at the same time.
“The Blood Locket that Mr. T holds,” Tomas answered.
Eliza’s gasp of surprise was amplified in the small space she now inhabited.
“What do you have?” BT turned to me.
“My brother gave this to me before I left the house, he said he had no idea what it was for but that I might need it,” I said as I pulled out a large white gold locket with a rose and a blood red jewel on its face.
“You possess the Blood Locket?” Eliza asked. It was the first time anyone had heard a tremor in her voice.
“It looks that way,” I said, turning the locket over in my hands. I pulled away quickly as something snagged my finger. A fat bead of blood welled on my thumb, “Damn, again?” I questioned, sucking the wound. The locket opened to reveal an ancient picture of Eliza.
“You will give it to me now or die!” Eliza fairly shrieked.
“It looks like I’m going to do that anyway. So I don’t necessarily see the reason to relinquish this,” I said, thrilled that I had set Eliza back on her heels. “What does this locket do?” I asked the question of Eliza, but it was Tomas that had an answer forthcoming.
“She is bound to the locket…” Tomas started.
“Tomas, you are walking down a dangerous path,” Eliza growled.
“No, Sister, you started down this path when you decided to open up your world to me.”
“You will not betray me, Brother.”
“I will do as I wish, Sister.”
It was unclear what was happening behind the closed door, but it was Tomas who spoke next.
“Do not think that I cannot wrest control of these zombies from you Eliza.”
A muffled thud and cry of pain carried through the steel door.
“Eliza, help me,” a pain tinged plea came from Durgan.
“Fool!” she spat. “I did not tell you to attack him. I would always take side with a wayward brother over that of a slave.”
“I was only and always trying to help Mistress,” Durgan begged.
The door to the roof crashed open. Eliza strode through, Tomas right behind her. In the darkness of the hallway was the huddled form of Durgan.
“Michael, I will honor our arrangement,” Eliza said with a rage fueled voice as she approached us.
BT discreetly grabbed the locket from my hand which had gone slack at the sight of Eliza. He clutched it close to his chest. I knew vamps had many more powers than mere humans. I hoped her sight wasn’t too enhanced as I grabbed the truck keys in my pocket; this might work, they were sort of goldish.
“That’s far enough, Eliza,” I told her. Any closer and Mr. Magoo would have caught my ruse. Eliza did not stop her forward progress. It had been a long time since she had taken any orders from anyone, least of all a sworn enemy. “Travis, give me your shotgun.” Travis did not hesitate as he handed over his weapon. I dropped the locket (keys, careful to place my body and my foot in a way that made her viewing difficult, if she got a good look we were screwed) onto the roof and pointed the shotgun straigh
t at the piece of jewelry. I had no idea if this ploy would work until Eliza stopped in mid-step.
“Will she die, Tomas, if I destroy this locket?” I asked. (Oh pretty please!)
“She will not be the same,” Tomas answered.
I could tell Tomas was watching in amusement as the white around my knuckle spread with the incremental amounts of pressure I applied to the trigger. The inner debate waged within me.
It was Tomas’ next words that stopped me from blowing that ‘locket’ to hell where it belonged. “I do not, however, think that you will like the outcome.”
