by Altas Opal
Altas Opal
www.atlasopal.com
© 2017 Bejelly LLC
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law. For permissions contact:
[email protected]
Editing by Amy Stewart
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Contents
1.Open For Business
2. Knock Knock
3. Missing
4. Drive
5. Combs House
6. Walk In
7. Breaking the Rules
8. The Visit
Open for Business
Shay stared at Maisie as she twirled her tarnished silver spoon around and around in her chipped blue plastic cereal bowl. She kept her face blank, but Maisie's grimace was enough to tell her that she was not happy with dinner. Instead, she focused on the slow drip of the faucet that would not stop leaking no matter how tightly she screwed the nut.
"Why don't we just skip buying milk all together and eat our generic O's with water? That's what this shit tastes like. I could get a some new eyeliner with the money we'd be saving."
Maisie was 13 going on 30 with same red hair as Vivian, their mother, cut into a pixie cut. She was thin as a rale and the only feminine feature on her was her wide, full mouth. It was a struggle to keep her from spitting out expletives every five minutes. It was going to be hell if she filled out like Vivian.
"Eat your dinner. There are still nutrients in the milk, and you need them." Shay said.
"I could sell my blood to the vamps so we could afford some damn milk." Maisie grumbled.
"Maisie, I swear by all that is holy if you mention that again, I will tan your hide. Eat!"
Shay was 25 with more gray hairs than she could count, and she was barely keeping it together. At 18, she had become the guardian to her sister when their mother had split, not that Vivian had been much of nurturer let alone a mother. Vivian had left them with a note saying that Shay was old enough to do the job she no longer wanted and five thousand dollars in unpaid real estate taxes on the beast of a Victorian they lived in. Thank God the house was paid off, or they would have been homeless that summer.
She stared at the faded blue wallpaper, that seemed to grace every wall, and the wide cracks in the pine floor boards. Most of the windows were now boarded up with plywood since Shay had discovered that the antique stained glass windows could fetch a good price on Ebay or Etsy. There was only one stained glass window left in the house, and it was in her bedroom. She couldn’t part with the patchwork of glass that had somehow comforted her during her childhood. Instead, she had sold off the antique bronze and crystal chandelier that had hung in the dining room. She had been shocked to discover something so valuable was in their purposefully neglected home.
Shay had never eaten a meal in the dining room. It was only out of luck and desperation that drove her to look online to see what she could sell the chandelier for. Thankfully, with her penny-pinching abilities, the chandelier had paid off the rest of the taxes as well as given her enough money to keep the pantry stocked and the bills paid for the a year.
Luckily, Vivian was not internet savvy and hadn't realized that the chandelier was worth over ten thousand dollars. Otherwise, she would have cut it down it herself.
However, when Vivian had lived with them, most of time there was a man around, who put food on the table and the electricity turned on. Therefore, Vivian’s only concern was keeping the current boyfriend happy.
Shay had never been carefree. Unfortunately, the last spark of hope that she could escape Benton had died when Vivian took off. That year had been tough. Not that it had ever gotten any easier, but then she had find a way to explain to a six year old why mama had left. She had hoped that Maisie wouldn’t ask why Shay’s skin was honey brown and her hair a riot of jet black curls. The only thing they had in common was their eye color, which was a soft grey that reminded you of the sky before a storm. Often, Shay had thought that it would have been easier if Vivian had actually died.
In addition, it was the same year the vampires came out. At first, most of the world seemed to think that it was some elaborate hoax. After all, the tv shows and hit movies, people just thought a director had come up with a way to create a new viral campaign but then an unauthorized video showing a human becoming a vampire went viral on the web. That set everyone straight to the fact that humans were no longer at the top of the food chain. Garlic prices had gone through the roof, and it was considered suicide to be out after dark. Then, vamps started making large charity donations to heartbreaking causes, such as Wounded Warriors and the Humane Society and their well-funded publicist had turned the vampires into victims. They even had a vampire spokesman, Ethan Combs, who was pretty enough to make most forget that you could be his dinner.
Shay didn't believe a word of any of it, but she had come up with an idea to help get them back on their feet. When she had told Maisie she was going to start a spray tanning business, she had gotten an earful of why it was an absolute waste of money in their small town of Benton with a population of 1000 - most of whom were over the age of 50.
Jason, her best friend, was the only one who knew that Shay was planning on offering spray tans to vampires. Shay believed that not every vamp wanted to be as pale as a bleached whale bone, and it seemed to her from the way that vamps primed and fawned during their press conferences that vanity had not escaped the living dead.
Jason had not liked her idea like she had hoped, but they had been thick as thieves since second grade. She thanked the gods that he had moved to Benton. Being a poor brown girl from the wrong side of the tracks was a little easier when she had a friend.
Everyone had expected her to marry Jason after they graduated from high school. However, the sad truth was that Jason was not into girls. She smiled at the memory of Jason telling her about his crush on Jack, the quarterback of their high school during senior year. There had been something between Jason and Jack, but they had been discreet enough so that their small town hadn’t gotten wind of it.
Jason had cursed and fought her when she told him her idea for the spray tan business. However, in the end, he had given in but only with the promise that she would use a spray tan formula that he created specifically for the vamps. She had agreed and thanked him for helping her. To be honest, she had never even considered that products used for humans would not work on vampires.
Jason had always been a tinkerer and scientist. He made all Shay’s beauty products. She told him time and time again that he should start his own business on the internet and get out of their small town. In response, he would smile and say that Benton was the place for him.
Now, after a three months of practicing on every living person she could get her hands on, Shay had finally gotten down her technique as well as renovated the milk shed out back. With just a few buckets of paint, nails, some thrifted furniture and accessories, "Midnight Tan" was born. She had placed an ad online on a reputable vamp website and had her first appointment at 12:01 tonight.
Maisie pushed back her chair with a clatter and stomped out of the kitchen.
"Be home before dark!" Shay yelled.
Shay didn't expect an answer as the front door slammed shut. She knew that she should keep better tabs on her sister, but, right now, she felt like she had a bowl of lead in her stomach, and she still needed to visit Jason.
Shay cleared the empty bowls and placed them in the sink. Quickly, while washing her hands, she glanced at the clock. Six p.m., and she only had another hour and a half of light left. S
he slipped on her flips flops as she pushed open the front door. Jason lived just two houses away, which was a quick two minute walk.
It was drizzling outside, which wasn’t a surprise since it was late fall. Benton, Oregon, was the typical small town where everyone knew everyone's business. Heavily-wooded, Benton was once a lumber town that had boomed and bust like so many others when the industry had changed. Shay’s house was tucked into a cover of old cedars, and there was a worn path between her home and Jason’s.
Walking under the umbrella of old trees, her heart slowed and she felt calm for the first time in the last 24 hours.
Shay knocked on the door, and Jason answered half-naked, as to she had come to expect.
"You're late." Jason growled.
"I'm sure that you found something to keep you occupied." Shay replied.
As they headed through the spotless craftsman-style house towards the basement, Jason snagged a shirt from the sofa. It was always a marvel to see what he looked like considering he had been a good 80 pounds overweight until their senior year of high school. It had been seven years, but she still could not get over his transformation from a short overweight teenager to a tall, six-pack sporting bronze god. She had no idea how he could have gotten a tan like that in this dreary part of the world. It couldn't of been natural, and Shay was hoping it was the same concoction that he had made for her to use on the vamps.
Shay loved the smell of his basement - lavender, mint and something else she could never name. In the corner was a large cardboard box with jugs of what looked like spray tanning solution. She headed in that direction, but Jason called to her from the large wooden desk in the middle of the room before she got to it.
"Shay come here I want to give you something." He said in parental-like tone.
"What now?" She replied somewhat exasperated.
"I want you to wear these earrings from now on since you plan on working with the vampires. Here's another set for Maisie."
He grabbed her and proceeded to place the studs in her ears. She fingered the earrings for Maisie and gulped.
"What are these made from? Please tell me this isn't a precious stone. They look expensive."
"Once these are placed in your ears, you will have a devil of a time getting them out. I've made them from a metal that repels vampires. They will help protect both of you since you've decided to take up this insane line of work."
"I've been eating garlic like crazy since I came up with this plan."
"Garlic doesn't work on vampires like people think. These stones will help you from becoming mesmerized and protect you from any form of supernatural attack."
"Jason, please don't tell me you believe that. Someone sold you a load of fool's gold if you think that these will work. I'm good with a knife, as you know, and I have a bunch of colloidal silver spray on hand just in case."
"Shay, why don't we just leave it? I never wanted you to do this, but you went blazes ahead into this crazy idea. What time is your first appointment tonight?”
"12:01, and I would never be able to charge the outlandish prices for a tan if I weren't offering the service to vamps. I'm making $500 from one tan! That will stock the pantry, pay off the light bill and I can do a shopping trip with Maisie to Center Point Mall."
"Please, for the love of God, don't call them vamps. Call them the “Nosferatu” if you refer to them by anything other than their formal name.”
Jason paused and held out a bottle for Shay. “I want you to take this bottle of water and outline both your home and milk shed with it. Also, outline the path from the milk shed to the house, and I want you to promise me that you will only take this path to get from the house to the shed from now on."
Jason had always been peculiar. Who knew where he had gotten the earrings and this fancy liquid, but Shay would be an even bigger fool if she didn't do what he said. There were too many circumstances in their past where he had been right. Therefore, it was easy for Shay to defer to him.
"I will do it. Is that the tanning solution on the corner?"
"Yes, I'll carry it to your front porch and then I have some errands to run. I don't know who's the bigger fool in this scheme Shay. Me or you? I could take care of you and Maisie."
"I don't want you to take care of us, and I'd appreciate if you didn't keep bring it up. "
Ever since Jason's parents had decided to move to Europe, a good six years ago, he had been offering to take her and Maisie in. For Shay, it was bad enough that he was her only friend, but she would not be a financial burden to him as well.
They gathered up the supplies and headed to her house, and each step just felt like she was walking closer and closer to her doom. She was kind of counting on Jason being with her tonight and, from the sounds of it, that was not going to happen.
When they got to the milk shed, he put the box down and wished her good luck. He also reminder her to give Maisie the earrings, and to outline the house, pathway and shed.
She watched him walk away, and her resolve started to falter, but she thought of Maisie. There was so much in life that she wanted to give her, and there was no way she was going to do it with the dead end jobs in Benton. Yes, her idea was crazy, but she knew that it could work. With the help Jason had just given her, she was hopeful that she wouldn't end up drained and in some ditch by the first rays of daylight.
She pulled out the bottle of liquid he told her to use to outline the house and began a slow walk around the perimeter. She had just finished outlining the house when she heard the front door slam.
Part two of Jason's checklist popped in her mind, and she followed her sister into the house.
"Maisie, come down here. Jason gave me a gift for you."
As expected, Maisie came tearing down the staircase from her bedroom. Their house was two stories with two bedrooms and one bathroom upstairs. Shay's bedroom was on the lower floor with the kitchen, living room and another bathroom.
"Give it to me."
"Not with that attitude. Ask nicely"
With a smile that would freeze fire, Maisie answered. "Please, darling sister, may I have my gift from Jason?"
"Yes, you may."
She handed over the earrings and was greeted with a high pitched squeal of happiness. "Oh my God! They're gorgeous!"
Before Shay could even blinked, Maisie had them in her ears and was in front of the mirror.
"I love them. I'm going to thank Jason personally for these. Oh my god."
"Maisie, it's getting dark and I need to go set up in the shop. I have a client coming shortly. As we already talked about, I want you to stay put and keep the front door locked."
"Uh huh, sure. I'm going up to my room." Maisie bolted up the stairs and Shay prayed she would just get on Facebook and chat with her friends all night. Jason had given them tablets for Christmas, and he was also sharing his wi-fi with them. After many protests, Shay had given in and was really thankful for the gift. It kept Maisie from growing crazy in the sticks. Also, Shay had been able to buy used tanning equipment online as well as take a course on how to do it.
Shay slipped the earrings into her ears and stared at her reflection in the mirror. Her hair was a mess. With the humidity, it was constantly trying to curl even though the best it would ever do was a slight wave without the extra help of curlers and massive amounts of gel.
The sparkle of the gems brought out her gray colored eyes, which were only feature she had in common with Vivian. The rest of her was straight from her father’s family, whoever he was. Even during such lean times where she would only have one solid meal a day, she was a solid size 12. It has been nothing but constant criticism from Vivian about having a fat daughter. Add on to that her honey brown skin, it was as if the gods had painted a big bulls eye on her.
She did a quick run through on the bottom floor to make sure the windows were all locked and headed upstairs to perform the same task. When she knocked on Maisie's room, she got silence, which was typical. However, when she pushed open t
he door, she was surprised to find Maisie fast asleep. Honestly, Shay stared at her sister for a good minute before she walked over and felt her forehead to make sure Maisie was okay. Shay got a push and a grumble for her worry and then helped tuck her sister into bed.
Shay glanced at the sun out of Maisie’s window, and she could tell she had a good five minutes before sunset. She quickly ran down the stairs, grabbed some snacks out of the kitchen, and locked up the front door. She made it to the shed in under a minute as the last rays of sunlight hit the shed door.
Knock, Knock
Shay walked to the wooden desk and picked up her tablet. She settled into the comfortable chair and glanced around at the improvements. Rich earth colors graced the walls, and the floor was a rustic whitewash. The room was a 20 square feet, and a large brown velvet curtain created a private space in the right corner. She planned on watching Jane Austen movies until Mr. Sunrose's appointment. She'd made it through "Pride and Prejudice" when she heard a slight scratching on the back window that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.
Shay opened the drawer and slipped out three of her knives before she headed to the window. Shay was not one to back down from anything. She had become a mother to her sister at the age of 16 and fought for every single luxury they had, and she really was deadly with knifes. It had saved her a time or two and had put the fear of God into every prepubescent boy in town who'd started circling around her sister. Her first memories were of the silver glint of knives weaving in and out of her fingers. At the age of 5, she could shoot a fly out of the air. Her mother, Vivian, tried to turn her into a performer but, thankfully, was easily distracted by Bob, Maisie's father, and stopped pushing her to try out for daytime talk shows. The only time she had accepted a gift from Jason without a protest was when he gave her a set of 12 hand-crafted stainless steel knives. She had kissed him and watched as he turned a beet red and left the house with a few grumbles and stammers.
As she approached the window, she saw a black crow perched on the frame and watched as it jumped off. Little pest, she thought. She didn't like crows and it was fitting that one would give her a nice scare. She walked to the center of the room and scanned it. She had hidden several knives throughout the room, and she had a second valve fitted to the spray machine that was filled with colloidal silver. A big part of her knew that this was a foolish and the odds of tonight going well were slim to none, but the moment the idea had popped into her mind, it just wouldn't let go.
