The Howling Twenties

by Fennel Steuert

  Doris folded her arms. She heard a car start inside of the barn and was torn between the familiar feeling of needing to be next to Gesine and the newer feeling of trying to ensure someone else wasn’t alone. She could hear the klansman rustling through trees less than a mile off.

  Caden carried the man several feet over yonder.

  Doris noticed he wasn’t as surefooted as usual. Hurry up, she thought.

  As the klansman’s shirt began to fray completely, Caden lowered him to the ground. He’d practically been playing possum, until he quickly zapped to life and spat in Caden’s eyes. The way Caden lumbered and grabbed at his own face – the klansman must have bitten into garlic at some point.

  Doris hurried over toward them as quickly as she could, given the circumstances. At the same time, the klansman reached into the lining of his trousers and pulled out a stake. He stabbed Caden in the chest in one swift motion. The stake went all the way through, like he’d been made softer by soaking in this air.

  Caden’s body contorted as it fell over. His remains seemed to calcify right before Doris’ feet.

  She dropped to her knees. The klansman ran toward the glow of the pitchforks in the forest. “Ain’t no demon going to hang me from a tree!” he yelled.

  Doris caught him by the back of the neck. She knocked him out, then dragged him and Caden’s corpse toward the car as Gesine drove it into the field.

  She threw them both in the backseat and got in the passenger-side next to Gesine. “Go the other way,” said Doris. “Please.”

  When they came to a clearing, Doris and Gesine buried Caden. Before the sun came up, Doris made sure to wake up the klansman, staring into his eyes as her own burned red.

  “You’re going to deliver moonshine for us,” she said. “You’re going to act like your friends, bust mostly you’re going to make things incredibly hard for them. At night you will break apart their world and let them know that it was someone pale who did it.”

  He slowly nodded.

  Gesine got out of the car.

  Doris tossed the man behind the steering wheel, then joined Gesine in walking back to around where the Freedman Bureau had been.

  “We could stay,” said Gesine.

  Doris blinked. “Even without Caden?”

  Gesine stopped walking. She looked away from Doris, no trace of emotion on her face. “Is this my fault? Him being gone?”

  “No,” said Doris. “Not at all.”

  They were back on their way to the city on an ice truck the next night.

  ***

  In a room that Argall and Mab had been converting into a lounge, Doris stood above Sable. The lycanthrope sat hunched over on a bed. Gesine stood in the corner, leaning against the wall with her arms folded.

  “They’re all right with me staying here?” said Sable.

  Doris raised an eyebrow. “Mab and Argall? Do you feel like this is imposing on them less than a cage?”

  Sable shrugged. “I … the wolf … we killed a man.”

  “We can reinforce the doors,” said Doris. “Myself and Gesine. Mab and Argall. You should have never given that part of yourself over to that gimmick.”

  “I wanted to earn my keep,” said Sable.

  “People … vampires … whatever we are,” said Doris, “we can work with you. All of you.”

  “Neither really have before,” said Sable. “People or vampires.”

  “Maybe someone can be both,” said Doris.

  Sable was silent for a few minutes, before suddenly springing up a little. “Do you smell that?”

  “Yes,” said Doris. “This is an airy room. It smells like it’s coming from straight off the ocean … It’s salty.”

  “It reminds me of no people being around, but in a good way. There aren’t very many rooms that make a person feel that way.”

  “No,” said Doris. “I suppose they aren’t.”

  “Can I ask a favor of you?” said Sable. “Maybe … maybe I can stay here, and you – you’ve got a good head on your shoulders. Maybe when the world is better on some moonlit night, you’ll let me know.”

  Doris closed her eyes. She found herself stretching, like she might have in some field on a comfortably sunny day. She stopped. “While you’re still human, you should tell me to eat my heart out.”

  “Your kind can sleep for a long time, can’t they?”

  “Yes,” said Doris. “But we usually have nightmares. At least I do, anyway.”

  “I’m sorry,” Gesine said softly in the corner.

  Doris got up and went to the door.

  “I’ll be staying here for a little while,” Gesine told her. “And I’ll keep visiting until the next full moon.”

  “That would be nice,” said Sable.

  13

  No ‘Us’

  Doris went out to the roof. Robin was there, looking out over the city.

  “Is all well?” he said. “Relatively speaking.”

  “No,” said Doris. “Did you find whatever it was you were looking for?”

  “Your partners and I are on the same page. They say they want to develop their company with a mind toward a better future.”

  “For whom?” said Doris.

  “For us. Nothing else is sustainable. When it all collapses, whoever is down there will need someone to guide them ... Yet again.”

  “Maybe they’ll evolve,” said Doris. She couldn’t hide the skepticism in her voice.

  Robin’s pupils shifted toward her from the corner of his eye. “Doris, can I hold your hand?”

  Doris didn’t respond.

  “You could come back with me. There’s a library that would astound you. I’ve given up on books, but ...”

  “Tell me, Lord Locksley,” said Doris, “have your very old friends ever lived life alone, with whole packs of wolves surrounding them? Every moment.”

  “I just told you ...”

  “That they’re waiting for the world to end? As if there’s one world? And not a thousand bumping up against each other? Or subjugating another. I only bumped into yours because I got bit. Otherwise my world would have been living with someone else’s boot on my neck. And I don’t know if I would have torn at the leg above that boot, but even if I had, that would have made for a particularly sad world to while away a short life, don’t you think?”

  “Yes,” said Robin. “I know what that’s like.”

  “Maybe a little, but ... I don’t believe there’s a ‘we’ in the cards.”

  Robin nodded heavily.

  He was by her side as she looked out at the city becoming quieter and quieter. When it was so quiet that it seemed like she could blink and it would disappear, Robin slipped away. The loudest sound in the world was the door creaking behind him.

  14

  Hostile Takeover

  Present

  Lorraine and Roger scoured the city for bad pumpkins. They’d taken Gray with them, and for every small, semi-bad pumpkin they got, they dumped it into a backpack he was wearing. They also went to Vincenzo’s, where one variation of the vegetarian pizza had lots of pumpkin puree on it.

  “So,” said Aaron, “you’ve moved on from garlic … to pumpkins?”

  Roger nodded, pushing a bunch of crumpled bills on the counter. “Yup. We’ll take all the pumpkins you got that are starting to go bad.”

  “If you guys need them, you can have them. But I hope you know how much the newer customers love the pumpkin pizza.”

  “I feel like Gesine would take offense at being lumped in with them,” said Lorraine.

  “She would,” said Roger, turning back to Aaron. “Also, I pay in cash and have a modicum of social skills, so what you get here puts you even more in the black, really.”

  “Yeah,” said Aaron, hustling behind the counter as he took a pizza out of the oven. “I guess it does.”

  He went into the back and brought out a box with about a dozen small pumpkins. “Where’s Desmond?”

  “He’s with Gesine,” said Roger. “We’re
moving.”

  Roger began to squish-check the pumpkins. He put the softer ones in Gray’s backpack.

  “How are you doing?” Roger asked him.

  Gray shrugged. “I still can’t remember who I am. I don’t want to go the home on the ID with my picture until it feels like … like something. Helping you guys feels that way. Other than that, I guess I’m okay.”

  Lorraine nodded. “Maybe we should get something to eat while we’re here. You can actually eat stuff here, too, right?”

  “I don’t think we have the time,” said Roger, “but yes, there’s food here, and it’s a nice place to be sometimes. Even these days … You can stay for hours here on just once slice, but it’s better if you have a friend.”

  They left and met back up with Doris around Josephine’s apartment as dusk set in, waiting at the nearby corner for their ride.

  It was particularly cold that night. Roger found himself freezing. He looked over at Lorraine, who was quite bundled up. He could only see the top of her face. He then looked around for Desmond out of habit, before realizing that he went with Gesine on her motorcycle.

  In one of Josephine’s old down coats, Gray nodded at him.

  Roger smiled a bit at the thought of how fashionable he looked.

  “Roger,” said Doris. “Do you want my coat?”

  Roger tried to suppress that rarity or rarities – the full smile. At least if he died tonight, somebody like Doris cared about him – somebody who didn’t have to. He looked into Doris’ eyes and shook his head.

  She shook hers back. “You’re obviously cold,” she seemed to say.

  A limo soon pulled up. None of them moved until the door opened, and Robin popped his head out.

  “You lot coming or going?”

  “Classic Robin Hood,” said Roger.

  They all loaded in, taking seats wherever they could among several vampires whose eyes began to glow red seemingly in offense.

  “Please tell me you stole this and just didn’t take it,” said Roger, next to what he thought was a bulletproof vest.

  “It’s not what you think,” said Robin as he handed Doris the same kind of vest. He and the other vampires seemed to be wearing them under their shirts and jackets; Roger thought they had a stiffness that among vampires he’d only seen in the one called Argall.

  Doris stared at the vest. “How long have you had these?”

  “A century or so, but we rarely need them.”

  Doris continued to stare at the vest. She put two fingers together, with the nails extending to claws, and quickly tried to pierce the shield to no avail.

  “Stake-proof,” she said wistfully. Slowly looking around her, she snapped to and handed the vest to Roger – who tried to hand it back.

  “You do have enough for him, Lorraine and Gray?” said Doris.

  “Why would we?” said a vampire who was a stranger to her.

  Doris turned to Robin as if he had asked the question. “Because they’re more fragile than we are.”

  Robin closed his eyes. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I don’t have anyone with me who thinks of such things, though I wish I did.”

  Roger tried to hand the vest over to Lorraine, but she refused it as well.

  “I don’t think anyone is going to try to stake us,” Lorraine said.

  Gray put his hand up. “I’ll take it.”

  Roger didn’t know why he just didn’t take it. Maybe he just wanted to seem strong to Doris, which he realized was a bit ridiculous.

  As Lorraine handed the vest over to Gray, Doris closed her eyes. When she re-opened them, she took off her jacket and handed it to Roger.

  He put it on. “Thanks.”

  “Okay,” said Doris. “Gesine is out there already, with Desmond. She has a blue tooth … And yes, I know that’s probably not the most apt way to describe it.”

  Robin nodded with a lightness to his features that quickly melted away. “Yes ...We’ll try to keep the ghouls and the vampires occupied.”

  “And you,” he said to Lorraine, “are going to try to help us get with our ghoul problem?”

  “I am,” said Lorraine.

  “I’ve got the pumpkins that are just starting to turn bad,” said Gray.

  “How about ‘go overripe’?” said Robin. “I like that term better.”

  Roger looked at him through one eye, then nestled into his coat. Instead of just appreciating it, he could have done with letting himself feel more warm than he would have let himself admit.

  ***

  As Simon and the custodian watched TV, Argall walked around the Greenblatt living room. He looked up at the makeshift cross on the wall – the one that looked more like an “x” than a “t.”

  “Did you really think a cross would help ward off anything?”

  Simon nodded. “Well, you know, something dropping on you from a tree will probably affect your critical thinking abilities … Shit. Even down here I can’t watch TV without seeing some special report?”

  “Argall,” said the custodian, “it’s not about you. Not entirely. Both Doris and Mab visited the ground above you every night. Now they’re at odds. Another faction of vampires is trying to take over your company. Doris thinks they’re just an older version of you and Mab. I don’t think they’ll let her keep the company herself.”

  “What can I do about any of that here?” said Argall.

  Simon waved goodbye. “Later, asshead.”

  Argall found himself clawing in the dirt. His senses made him feel like he had nearly emerged to the surface of an ocean.

  When he cleared himself from the earth, it was snowing and his back was curved again.

  The fusion of metals had not worked. With a sigh, Argall crawled out of the pit.

  “Holy shit,” said a man who’d been walking along the street.

  He offered his hand to Argall as he climbed up.

  Argall took it, careful to not drag the man down as they made it to the sidewalk.

  “You okay?” the man said. “What happened?”

  “Got buried alive,” said Argall. He wanted to avert his eyes from the man, who had yet to mention the curvature in his spine.

  “That’s a nice suit,” said the man. He looked up and down the street, before resuming: “I don’t suppose you have anything to spare.”

  “Look,” said Argall. “I can hear your stomach growling. But I’m hungry, too.” He let the pupils of his eyes turn red and luminescent.

  The man’s eyes widened as he backed up.

  ***

  Doris, Roger and company were in a convoy of sorts. The limo was one of a few vehicles circling the company building’s block. Gesine joined their convoy on motorcycle as the driver of the limo sped it up.

  With a quick swerve, the man drove through the parking lot’s chain-link gate. The other vehicles all followed the limo.

  Everyone got out of their vehicles, which were the only ones there.

  “All right ...” said Robin.

  Doris interrupted him. “Roger will go with me and Desmond. Gesine will go with Lorraine and Gray. We’re going to try to find the tech room. Try to just immobilize the ghouls. They’re not themselves.”

  “If you say so,” said Emilia.

  Robin nodded. “And she does, Emilia. The rest of us are off to find Mab.”

  The elevator got to the parking lot level with a loud beep. It was over maximum capacity. When the doors’ opened, the ghouls poured out like water – each clinging a stake to their bosom. Some of them scrambled to their feet. Others lurched over each other and charged at anyone in the center of the parking lot.

  Lighting up flares, Robin’s comrades charged into them. Some of them held the ghouls at bay with the lit flares. Others tried to fight them with one hand and were swamped by two or three ghouls stabbing at the metallic vests on their chests.

  Lorraine unzipped Gray’s bag.

  “Desmond, Gesine,” said Roger. “Close your eyes.”

  Lorraine tossed pumpkins to Rog
er and Doris. They rolled them along the ground, ‘causing some of the ghouls to stop and stare but not the ones behind them who simply knocked over the ones in front, often making a sort of bridge over the pumpkins or smashing them altogether.

  Roger held on to one and held it up as Gesine revved her motorcycle. She nodded at Lorraine and Gray.

  “No,” Gesine told Lorraine as she tried to sit behind her. “You behind me.”

  With Gray in front of her and Lorraine clinging on behind her, Gesine took off for the eastern stairwell and burst through its door.

  Pumpkin in hand, Roger followed Doris and Desmond as they ran toward the service elevator. Doris grabbed a ghoul that lunged at her and twirled as she tossed it back toward its comrades.

  Roger pushed the button by the service elevator’s door, and it opened immediately. He got on along with Doris and Desmond.

  When the doors closed, Roger took a breath in between hyperventilating. “You two, okay?”

  Doris shook her head as she pushed the button for the top floor.

  Roger bumped his fist lightly at her shoulder. “What about you, Des?”

  “You rarely ever used to call me Des,” he replied.

  Roger raised an eyebrow. “So you’d prefer ‘Desmond’?”

  “Yes,” said Desmond.

  “Yeah, okay,” said Roger with a smile.

  When the elevator got to the top floor, its doors opened. Doris held her arm aloft in front of Roger and Desmond as they moved forward.

  Roger, so used to the beats from a bass-heavy stereo, thought such was what he was hearing. A rapid beat, when the large gasps of breath became just as Doris pushed off the wall of the elevator and into the wolf that had swiped its claws at him. Doris and the wolf crashed into cubicle after cubicle, and as Desmond rushed out to help, a redheaded woman dropped down from the ceiling. She grabbed his shirt by the collar. Desmond grabbed her arms.

  Stake in hand, Roger got out of the elevator and glanced up. Only the ceiling’s framework was there. A few vampires were perched along the metallic frame, watching Doris fend off the wolf. Roger paused as well. He was only human. What could he do?