“Heck, she can have my brothers and sisters, as long as she doesn’t bring them back.”
Peter looked into Dill’s eyes. “Are you up for this?”
Dill glared at him. “All this to save a stupid girl. I don’t even like girls, man.”
“Come on.”
The two boys pedaled off, down the driveway and off into the night.
33
It only took 20 minutes to get to Katie Brammelson’s house. The bike ride took them past Our Lady of Perpetual Peace again.
“Wanna stop in and say hi to Father Stevens?” Peter asked.
Dill just snorted.
They found her house on a winding back road. Peter replaced the school directory in his backpack, and they stared up at the dark windows.
“Okay, now what?” Dill inquired. “Cuz I know if you weren’t going to call her dad back after he hung up on you, you’re definitely not going to knock on her door in the middle of the night.”
“Um…let’s check out the house.”
They crept around the back. There was a window ajar on the second story. Curtains inside blew faintly in the night breeze.
“You think that’s hers?” Peter whispered.
“This is the absolute stupidest thing we’ve ever done,” Dill said.
“Why?”
“Why? Cuz I’m standing outside of the house of some girl I hardly know, and we don’t know if that’s her room, and you won’t go knock on the door, so we’re gonna turn around and not do a dang thing, and any second I might get bit and turned into a vampire cuz all I’ve got on to protect me is a pie tin around my neck!” Dill fumed, then scratched under the metal. “And it itches!”
“Who’s that?” called a girl’s voice.
“Oh crap,” Dill whimpered as he hid behind Peter.
Katie Brammelson stuck her head out the window. She was a redhead, but in the darkness her hair looked almost completely black.
“Katie?” Peter whispered.
“Who’s that? Who are you?” Katie asked fearfully.
“It’s me, Peter Normal. And Dill Bodinski. From school.”
Dill waved over Peter’s shoulder. “Hi.”
“What are you doing here?”
“We came here to warn you.”
“Warn me about what?”
“Not to let anybody in.”
Katie paused and cocked her head. “You came all the way over here to tell me not to let anybody in.”
“Yes.”
Katie did an exaggerated shrug. “Uh, why?”
Peter and Dill looked at each other.
“You’re the big genius here, man, not me,” Dill muttered.
Peter looked back up at Katie in the second story window and took a big breath.
“Mercy Chalmers. She’s not dead. Well, she is dead, but she’s back. She’s a vampire now, and we’re worried that she’s coming after you. But vampires can’t come inside a house unless you invite them in, and that’s why we’re here, to tell you not to let Mercy or Agnes inside. Except Agnes won’t be a problem, because my grandfather has her locked up at home in the basement.” Even in the moonlight, Peter could see Katie’s look of alarm. He added hurriedly, “Because she attacked me. She’s a vampire too, now, and we thought that since Mercy turned her into one, she was coming after you next.”
“You’re freakin’ her out, man,” Dill whispered into Peter’s ear.
Katie disappeared and the window slid shut.
Dill hung his head. “Great.”
Peter tried to put a positive spin on it. “Well…now she knows.”
“Why’d you have to tell her the whole story? It’s a pretty freaky story, you know. She’s probably in there dialing 911. ‘Hello, police, I have two crazies out on my front lawn…’”
“I didn’t see you volunteering for anything,” Peter retorted.
“I haven’t even seen Mercy yet. For all I know, you could’ve gone crazy, and you’re just making this stuff up.”
Peter scowled at Dill. “What are you saying?”
“I believe you, I believe you,” Dill backtracked. “But I only believe you cuz of the other pretty weird stuff – ”
“You mean the dead guys in the garden patch.”
Dill winced. “See, why do you gotta go there? We’re out in the middle of the night, there’s a vampire on the loose, and you bring that up. I told you, I don’t wanna talk about – ”
CLICK.
Both boys jumped and screamed.
“Shush!” Katie said from the back door, now wide open. “You’ll wake up my parents.”
Dill sighed in relief. “Oh, man, we thought you’d split and called the cops.”
“I don’t understand a single thing about what you said – ” Katie began.
Peter held out his hands, palms facing out, like you can stop right there. “I know it’s a hard story to believe – ”
“ – but I think it’s really, really mean of you to go talking about my best friend that way,” Katie choked, her voice a mixture of sadness and anger. “If this is some kind of a joke, it’s a really stupid one, and I hate both of you.”
“Whoa, nelly, hold the phone,” Dill said. “We’re trying to save you.”
“Good,” Peter whispered to him.
“See? I can step up,” Dill whispered back.
Katie started to cry.
Dill sighed. “Awwww crap. You handle it.”
“Katie, we didn’t want to make you sad, it’s just we were really worried about you.”
From bawling to raging, Katie turned on a dime. “It’s not nice to talk about people’s best friends like that,” Katie spat. “Don’t you know how it makes me…”
Katie trailed off, then peered more closely.
“Are those pie tins around your neck?”
Dill put his hand over his eyes in shame.
“Uhhhh, yeah,” Peter said.
“…why?” Katie asked.
“Because they’ll make her teeth feel all googly if she tries to bite us,” Dill answered with a complete lack of conviction.
Katie squinted like she could hear the words, but they weren’t making an ounce of sense.
Dill shook his head. “I know, I know.”
“Katie, you gotta believe me. Mercy’s shown up twice now, trying to get me to come with her. She got to Agnes – I seriously think she’s coming after you next.”
“Wait. Wait wait wait wait wait.” Katie held up her hands and snapped her head, like oh no you did NOT just say that. “Mercy Chalmers, my best friend, is back from the dead, and she came to you first, Agnes second, and me last? I don’t think so. Now I know you’re lying.”
Dill stood on his tiptoes to get next to Peter’s ear. “Explain to me again: why are we risking our lives to save her?”
“If she’s like this alive, can you imagine what she would be like dead?”
“Mm…good point.”
Peter turned back to Katie, expecting another outburst. Instead, she stood there with her mouth wide open and her eyes bulging.
“I didn’t mean it, Katie,” Peter apologized. “We’re all really scared right now, which is why I just said that, and why you’re being…the way you are, I guess, but – ”
“Mm…” Katie mumbled.
“What?” Peter asked.
“M-m-mm…”
“Huh?” Dill leaned in closer to get a better listen.
“M-m-m-m-mercy,” Katie stuttered and raised her pointed finger.
Peter and Dill turned around, right into the smiling black eyes of Mercy Chalmers.
34
“AAAAAAHHH!” Dill and Peter screamed. They immediately tried to back up, but instead toppled into Katie, which sent them all falling into the house.
“Huh? Wha – ha ha ha ha! We’re safe!” Dill crowed as he realized they were inside the kitchen.
He forgot about his leg, which was still sticking out over the cement porch.
With one swipe, Mercy snagged his foot a
nd yanked Dill out of the doorway. Kicking and screaming, he dangled upside down from her outstretched arm.
“You see this? This is a pie tin on my neck! Don’t even TRY biting me!”
Peter and Katie stood up inside the house.
“Mercy, let Dill go, PLEASE,” Peter begged.
“Mmmmm…no.” She gave an evil smile. “I’ve decided I like Dilly better than you. He’s not mean to me, are you, Dilly?”
“My name is DILL, and I’ll be mean to you, give me a chance! I was mean to you all the time behind your back, I said awful things – ”
“SHUT UP!” Mercy roared, loud as a tiger.
“Okay,” Dill squeaked.
“Mercy, please. Don’t hurt Dill…you can have me,” Peter said.
Mercy turned up her nose. “I don’t like you anymore.”
“That’s my fault, Mercy, not his…please…I’ll do anything you want, just don’t hurt Dill.”
“Yes, don’t hurt Dill,” Dill said in a little mouse voice.
“YOU TAKE AWAY ALL MY FRIENDS!” Mercy shouted at Peter. “You take away Agnes, you take away Katie – I think I’ll take away one of your friends, now, Peeeteeeeeer.”
“Peter didn’t take me away – you didn’t even come get me!” Katie suddenly wailed. “You’re alive, and you didn’t even tell me?”
Mercy looked at her quizzically. “I’m not alive. I’m a vampire.”
Katie stomped her foot.
“And you went to Peter before me?! And Agnes – why would you choose Agnes?” Katie went from shouting to whining. “We were best friends, Mercy – why would you choose Agnes?”
“Because you’re so annoying?” Dill offered helpfully.
Mercy shook him back and forth violently.
“I’ll shut up, I’ll shut up,” Dill babbled.
“Agnes lives closer. Lived closer.” She glared at Peter. “And I made a mistake with Peeeteeeer here. He’s done nothing but hurt me and be mean to me and…and…”
Peter couldn’t believe it. Was Mercy choking up?
“…and I’ll never let you hurt me again, Peeeteeeer,” she snarled. “Now I’m going to hurt YOU.”
With one flick of her arm, she flipped Dill like a ragdoll and caught him by the collar.
“I’m gonna puke,” Dill hacked.
She hooked both of her arms under Dill’s and brought her hands up behind his head.
“Hey, that’s a full nelson!” Dill exclaimed, amazed. “Do you watch wrestling?”
“Shut up! Goodbye, Peeeteeeeer.”
“MERCY, NO!” Peter yelled as he launched himself out of the doorway.
Too late. She shot into the sky, dragging Dill along with her. Peter’s hands closed on air as she rose into the night.
Katie shrieked. Peter stared up as the two small outlines moved darkly against the stars and began to hover away over the treetops.
“Peter, help!” Dill cried. “Help me, help meeee!”
Peter rushed to his bike.
“What should we do, what should we do?” blubbered Katie. “Should I call the police?”
Peter whipped off his backpack, ripped out a pen and paper, and wrote down his telephone number. “Call my house, NOW. Ask for my grandfather and tell him it’s an emergency. Tell him Mercy took Dill and I’m going to save him.”
“How are you going to do that?”
Peter slung his backpack over his shoulder and stepped onto his bike. “I don’t know,” he whispered, then raced off down the street.
35
He could see them – barely – in the moonlight. Mercy was moving slowly over the treetops. Though Dill was a scrawny little kid, she probably wasn’t used to carrying something heavy while she flew.
Dill.
Peter cursed himself for dragging Dill along. He’d been right, this was dumb, DUMB – two kids against a vampire? And now Dill was paying the price for Peter’s stupidity.
Peter couldn’t afford to be stupid again.
Huffing and puffing, he pedaled fast as he could, his eyes on the night sky, trying to make sure he kept Mercy and Dill in sight. That was why he heard the truck first instead of seeing it.
Putter groan clank, putter putter clank.
Two beams of light cast Peter’s shadow far on the road in front of him.
The ancient truck swerved into the middle of the road and chugged up beside Peter. Through the passenger window, Grandfather was yelling and swiping his hand in a ‘STOP!’ motion.
Peter braked, and so did the truck. When they both came to a halt, Grandfather hopped out and ran to the bike.
“Boy, am I glad to see – ”
“Get off!” Grandfather commanded.
Peter almost fell, he jumped off so quickly. Grandfather grabbed the bike and threw it in the back of his truck. It landed beside an ominous-looking steel box that hadn’t been there at the cemetery. The box was slightly larger than a hotel mini-fridge and was crisscrossed with chains, which appeared to be bolted or fastened to the truck bed.
When the bike smacked into it, the metal case started to bang and clatter.
“What are you waiting for? Get in, get in!” Grandfather barked as he headed for the driver’s side door.
As he raced for the passenger side, Peter glanced fearfully at the metal box. It jumped about two inches into the air. The chains restrained it, though, and then it crashed back down.
Once in his seat, Peter pointed back behind him. “Is that…?”
“Your lady caller from earlier in the evening,” Grandfather growled. “Where’s she headed?”
Peter looked dumbfounded. “I don’t know, she’s in a box.”
“The other one, the other one!” Grandfather raged.
“Ohhhh, Mercy! I don’t know – she’s up there.”
Peter pointed up at the sky, where a tiny black shape could still be seen over the trees. Grandfather cursed when he saw it, then slammed the truck into gear and drove off down the road.
“She’s got Dill!” Peter moaned.
“I know – a blubbering little snot called the house. I would have been here sooner, but I had to…pack.” Grandfather squinted at Peter. “Is that a pie tin around your neck?”
Peter half-winced, half-smiled.
Grandfather groaned and turned back to the road. “This is not going to go well,” he muttered to himself.
“Why’d you bring Agnes?”
“I wasn’t about to let that that thing stay in the same house with my daughter and granddaughter.” Grandfather glared at Peter. “You I might let her alone with, for getting me into all of this nonsense. Grab the bag by your feet, and be careful.”
Peter reached down and pulled up a canvas bag – the same one he’d seen Grandfather wearing at the cemetery.
“Open it up. Mind you don’t cut yourself.”
Peter’s hands trembled as he pulled the bag open and stared at an assortment of props straight out of a horror movie. Wooden stakes. Two hammers. Crosses. A knife that gleamed silver in the moonlight. A string of garlic bulbs.
“Take one of each and put it in your backpack there.”
Peter started gathering the tools, then hesitated. “Grandfather, I…I don’t know if I can do this…”
“Do you want to save your friend?”
“Of course.”
“Then you’ll do what you have to.”
Peter jerked his thumb back towards the rear of the truck. “What about her?”
“Who, the one in the box? There are some books that say once the head of the vampire line is destroyed, all his victims return to normal. We’re going to test that theory tonight.”
“But…what if Mercy’s not the head vampire?”
Grandfather was silent.
“What’s going to happen to Mercy?” Peter whispered.
Grandfather shook his head slowly. “There’s only one thing to do.”
“She’s a kid,” Peter protested.
“Who’s taking other children from their familie
s. She’s not the girl you knew, boy. She’s something evil now, something rank and foul. Remember that, and don’t hesitate when you have the chance. Your great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather Willard didn’t.”
Peter stared. “Are you talking about…”
“1822. Gilbraith Chalmers. You asked who stopped the madness back then? Willard Flannagan, the son of John Stephen.”
“The guy with the hobos in the garden?” Peter asked, shocked.
“John Stephen, yes. Willard was his son, just a lad when the Todenhorns met their grim end. When he saved Duskerville as a man, he had to fight to do it. The Chalmers family…” Grandfather gritted his teeth. “The Chalmers family did everything they could to stop him. They knew – they knew, boy. They helped. They aided and abetted, and if they didn’t do that, they certainly turned their heads while their son went from family to family, destroying one life after another. They even profited off it, what with the uncle selling coffins to the families, knowing that his nephew had done his murderous deeds, and would bring him more business to come. But the books never recorded that, did they? When it was all said and done, Willard was an outcast, and a quarter of the town had died from cholera. Well, history repeats itself tonight. My great-great-great-great grandfather then, and you and I now. Let’s hope the results are the same, but that the body count is a good deal less.”
“Did, uh, anybody help your great…whatever grandfather?”
The old man ignored the question. “Do you know how to do it?”
“Do what?”
“A stake through the heart. It’s the only thing that will stop her...that you would be capable of. If you get the opportunity, take it. Then wait for me, I’ll finish the job. But whatever you do, don’t take out the stake. Leave it in. If you don’t, she could come back to consciousness. And that will not be a pretty sight, I guarantee it.”
“There’s no way to stop her without hurting her?”
Grandfather shook his head ‘no.’
“There’s no way to bring her back, you’re sure?”
“None, boy. In all my readings, the books say there’s only one thing to do.”
PETER AND THE VAMPIRES (Volume One) (PETER AND THE MONSTERS) Page 19
