The Summoning

by Bentley Little

  "Sure."

  "Aaron and Chefi? They deserved what they got." Rich stared at the principal. There was no dichotom' now between the eyes and the expression on the rest c the face, between the words and the body language. E, erything was in sync. Rich felt the hairs bristle on the bac of his neck.

  "They were engaging in premarital sex, and they wet punished for their sin."

  Rich put his pen in his pocket. He tried to keep h voice light. "I don't think they were killed because of skinny-dipping session at the river and a little back se boogie."

  "The Lord does not look upon moral transgressions lightly."

  Rich smiled thinly. "I'd have to say we disagree on t subject, Mr.

  Poole. But again, thank you for your time He turned to go.

  "Your wife would not be so quick to dismiss this warning." My wife?"

  Again, he faced the principal..,

  "Your wife is a devoted servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. I have seen her at church--"

  "Don't talk to me about my own wife." "She is preparing herself for the Second Coming. You should prepare yourself too." - .. Rich walked out of the office without saying goodbye. He did not stop to look back until he was safely beyond the administration building. Outside, Rich realized that he had been holding his breath, and he exhaled. Through the partially darkened window of the principal's office, he saw two figures watching him: the principal and his secretary.

  What the hell was going on here?

  He walked out to his pickup, got in, and took off. He did not look back .... Sue stared out the window of the cafe, seeing not the highway and desert outside but the reflection of her face and the faces of her friends, transparent ghosts against the solid blackness of night. -"I

  "Shelly, Janine, and Roxanne were talking--about music, about guys--but Sue wasn't really paying attention. She was thinking of what her grandmother had said, about the deaths, about the cup hugrngsi. It was ludicrous to think that a vampire was stalking the town, and she should have been able to laugh it off, but the disbelief wasn't there. : :"'

  She thought of Aadn and Cheri, of the photos Rich had taken of their bodies.

  Somewhere outside, in the darkness, something was stirring. A monster.

  A cup hugirngsi. It was crazy, but it was true. She knew it. She could feel it. Her grandmother was right; she had sensed the creature before, at the school that night, and though she'd wanted to deny its existence, she could not. She did not know if the creature was prowling through the town, slinking through the shadows in search of victims, or lying in wait out in the desert, but she knew that it was somewhere in the night, somewhere close. And tonight or tomorrow or the next night it would strike again.

  She shivered and looked away from the window, picking up a French fry from the plate in front of her and dipping it into the smeared puddle of ketchup.

  Shelly was complaining about her mother again, hinting broadly that she needed a roommate if she was going to be able to afford her own a49apartment.

  Sue looked around the cafe. They had spent many a weekend evening like this, hanging out, ordering soft drinks and fries, commenting cattily on the groups of guys and girls at the other tables, friends and enemies alike. But she noticed for the first time that, except for one elderly couple and families in booths, the care was empty. That was strange. The care was never empty on FriOay

  There was a lull in the conversation, and Shelly silently ate a soggy French fry while the others sipped their drinks. The silence lengthened, dragged. Sue glanced over atJanine, who gave her a halfhearted smile. She'd noticed too. There never used to be any dead time when they got together; the conversation never used to flag.

  Either they were drifting apart, the common interests they'd once shared disappearing as they grew older, or they knew each other so well that there was nothing left to say.

  Whatever the case, Sue thought, it was depressing; and she found herself looking at her friends in a new light, wondering whether she would be friends with any of them if she met them now for the first time.

  It wasJanine who broke the silence. "What's at the theater this weekend?" i): -" :

  Roxanne shrugged. "Sorfi cop movie."

  Sue forced herself to smile. "That's why God invented video."

  "Yeah," Shelly said, "only you always want to see those boring obscure movies no one's ever heard of."

  "A Room With a View?"

  "That's not obscure. And it's certainly not boring."

  "Not to you maybe."

  I Roxanne laughed. "But you liked the naked guys, didn't you?

  Shelly shook her head. "Two seconds can't ;s-ave a whole movie." ,!:

  :

  "You're hopeless," Sue said. ;.,:..: "

  I The conversation was back on track, the awkwardness gone, and as the talk shifted to upcoming movies, Sue knew that she would still be friends with these three if she met them now. Sitting here, she felt as close to them as she ever had. She looked from Janine to Shelly to anne: Part of her wanted to tell them about what her grandmother had said, about the cup hugirngsi, but she was acutely aware of how ridiculous it would sound. A week ago, if one of them had suddenly told her that a vampire was killing people in town, she wouldn't have taken it seriously either.

  But the temptation was strong.. " Maybe she could talk to them one-on-one.

  Make sure that it is stopped.

  Her brain suddenly felt heavy, slowed with the weight of responsibility as she recalled her grandmother's words. Her grandmother was right.

  If she knew what was happening, it was her moral duty to tell everyone she could, to let them know so that they could protect themselves against it. But how could she make anyone believe her? People were already talking about vampires---the subject was not that far from people's minds--but what could she say that would convince them that it was true?

  And what did she tuaow about protection against a cup hu rngsi?

  She absently fingered the jade around her neck. She would have to talk to her grandmother, get some more information. ::.i .";:i

  "I don't like any of them," Roxanne was saying. She turned to Sue.

  "What about you?"

  "Huh?" Sue blinked, caught off guard. "Horror movies. Do you like horror movies?"

  Sue slowly shook her head. "No," she said. "I don't."

  "See?" Roxanne grinned triumphantly. "Sue doesn't like them either."

  Roxanne and Shelly had already left in Shelly's Dart, and Sue walked with Janine across the parking lot to her car. There was the hint of a chill in the air, a promise that the unnaturally warm weather would soon shift back to its normal patterns. It was not that late and across the street, at the theater, the early evening show was just get ring out while the line for the second show was beginning to form at the side of the building. Even amidst all this, activity, Sue felt nervous. Her attention was concentrated on the pools of shadow next to each car, the darkened area next to the dumpster at the side of the care, the alley next to the movie theater.

  The places a monster could hide.

  She wanted to tell herself that she was being stupid. But she didn't think she was.

  They reached the Honda. Janine opened her purse, withdrew her keys.

  She looked up at Sue but did not quite meet her eyes. "Can I ask you a question? A personal question?" ........ "Of course. You don't even have to ask." "Have you.." have you ever done it?" "Done what?"

  "You know, had sex?"

  Sue's face felt hot, flushed. "Not... exactly. Not all the way. Why?"

  .: ..... "I'm pregnant," Janine said.

  Sue stared at her in shock. "Really?" Janine nodded. "Who is it?" one you know." ..... "God." Sue leaned against the Honda's hatchback.

  "This is serious stuff."

  " didn't want to say anything in front of Shelly or Roxanne because ..

  . well, you know Shelly. She'd give me a twenty-minute lecture. And Roxanne It'd be all over town in an hour."

  "Have you told your parents? .....
Janine shook her head. "Are you going to?"

  - - " "I don't know."

  I "Are you"---Sue's voice was too high, and she coughed' going to keep it"

  Janine shrugged, and the gesture suddenly seemed so adult. "I don't know."

  "How did it happen? ...... Jane smiled wryly. "I know your family doesn't like to talk about sex, but I thought you'd learned about the birds and bees by now..."

  [.

  "You know what I mean."

  She sighed. "He was staying at the ranch, and he thought I was staying there too, and , .. I didn't bother to straighten him out."

  I God, this sounds like a TV show." .... Janine smiled. "Yeah, The Flintstones. The one where

  Fred and Barney first meet Wilma and Betty at that hotel where they're working?"

  "So what happened?" "I was off work in my street clothes, and I was standing by the bar. He was waiting to get in, and we sort of struck up a conversation. I ended up having dinner with him. He'd come to the ranch with two friends, but they were on the overnight Cowboy Campout. He hadn't wanted to go, so he'd stayed behind, you know, to swim and hang around. After dinner, he asked if he could walk me back to my room. By that time, I didn't want to admit that I worked there, so I said no. He asked if I wanted to come up to his room." ' "And you said yes." "Yes."

  "How could you?" Sue shook her head. "What if he had AIDS? You knew nothing about this guy."

  Janine smiled. "I knew he was cute."

  "I'm serious."

  "It's been a long time, you know? I mean, I broke up with Jim almost two years ago, and there hasn't been any one else who's even interested. That's the problem with this damn town. When you're born here, you know every one in it. I mean, do you think you're actually going to find someone here?

  "No." ........... "Me either. And this guy... I don't know. I liked him; he liked me. We just sort of hit it off."

  "What are you going to do now?"

  "I have no idea."

  Sue stared up at the sky, at the wash of stars against the moonless backdrop of night. She felt strange, adrift, disassociated from the events around her. The world she had lived in, the world she had known, had changed, moved from clearly defined black-and-white into a shifting realm of shadows. Janine was pregnant by a stranger. Yet she was not a slut or a whore, merely a frightened friend who was being unjustly punished for an understandable transgression. The supernatural, which had been merely the ticfional basis for books and movies, a conceit of popular entertainment, had suddenly moved from the periphery of make-believe to the arena of reality,

  Reminded again of the cup hugirngsi, she looked be hind her, through the back window into the car. The Honda's seats were hulking black shapes in the enclosed darkness of the interior. The area in front of the vehicle was completely obscured by the night's gloom.

  "Let's drive around for a while," she said. "And talk?"

  Sue nodded. "There's a lot to talk about."

  "I wish there weren't." Janine moved around to driver's side, opened her door, and got in. She unlocke the passenger door for Sue.

  Maybe I'll tell her about the cup hugirngsi, Sue through] as she buckled her seat belt. But then she looked at the hopelessness on her friend's face and decided that was not the time.

  Janine started the car, backed out of the parking lot "Are you sure you're pregnant?" Sue asked. "Positive. I took an EPT."

  "Those things aren't supposed to be that reliable." "I'm a month late."

  "Oh." Sue didn't know what to say to that.

  They headed down the highway.

  It was after midnight when Sue finally arrived Janine dropped her off in front of the house and wait until she had reached the porch before taking off. Noting had been decided, no resolutions had been made, b Sue knew that her friend felt better for having talked all out.

  Everyone was asleep, and the house was silent as let herself in. She had hoped that her grandmother wouldn't be awake, but there was no sound coming from her room and no light shone from beneath the door. In her mind Sue saw her grandmother lying in bed, arms folded across her chest, bone white and drained of blood, her face that of an ancient mummy. She was tempted to knock on door just to reassure herself that the old woman was alive, but she knew that it would probably wake her up and her mother as well, and she continued down the hall to her own room.

  She locked her door, checked her window to see if it was closed, and felt the half-circle lock on top of the sill to make sure it was fastened before taking off her clothes, putting on her nightgown, and crawling into bed. laundry room door was open, and the visibly escaping steam humidified the hallway outside. She quickly pushed the cart through the doorway to Ramon and backed away before she started to sweat and her makeup began to run. She was scheduled to work the desk this afternoon, and she couldn't very well take care of guests looking like the Bride of Frankenstein.

  She waved to Ramon and Jose, then ducked out of the building and walked outside, around the boulder-enclosed pool, to the vending machines. She popped two quarters and a dime into the coin slot, pushed the button for Diet Coke, gave the machine a quick kick, and her can tumbled down into the cradle. She popped the tab and took a long drink.

  She turned around, watched the two couples at the pool for a moment.

  The two guys and one of the women were swimming, but the other woman, obviously pregnant, was lying on one of the chaise lounges in a maternity one-piece, casually reading a magazine. : One of the men said something, the pregnant woman turned, looked at Janine, and their eyes met. Janine glanced away and started walking toward the main building, moving behind the boulders so she couldn't be seen.

  She walked slowly, sipping her drink, trying to finish it before she got to the lobby steps. She was still not sure how she was going to explain her pregnancy to her morn. She was not even sure how her morn would react. Her parents had gotten married when they were both seniors in high school, because they'd had to, because her morn had been pregnant with her. It was amazing toJanine how much her parents seemed to have forgotten from their younger days, how rigid and moralistic and unyielding they'd become in their attitudes toward her.

  Janine felt bad about what she'd told Sue. She'd given her friend an overly romantic impression of what had occurred, and she knew she shouldn't have. But she simply had not been able to bring herself to tell the truth because the truth was so sleazy and sordid and cheap.

  The truth was that she'd been filling in for Patty Pullen, cleaning one of the rooms, and Cutler, the new handyman, had seen the open door, walked in, and come on to her........ They'd done it there on the unmade bed.

  She had not been sure then or afterward why she had done such a thing, why she had gone along with his crude suggestion. She wasn't a slut, at least she didn't think of herself as one, but she couldn't deny the fact that she'd agreed, with very little prompting, to have sex with a guy she barely knew, didn't really like, and whose first name she didn't even know.

  And now he seemed to have disappeared.

  She'd fucked up royally this time.

  There'd been close calls in the past. The time after the Winter Formal in high school when she'd gotten drunk and nearly rolled her mom's car, making up an elaborate excuse about a crazy hit-and-run driver who'd forced her off the road. The time one of her mom's friends had seen her topless in the backseat of Bill Halley's Buick, and she'd had to go to the woman's house and actually burst into tears to get her to promise that she wouldn't tell her morn. But there'd been nothing like this. Those were minor in conveniences. This was a major problem.

  This could affect the rest of her life. She looked down at her abdomen, which, thankfully, was still not showing. She was leaning toward getting an abortion, she thought it was probably the quickest and cleanest way out of this mess, but the idea frightened her, and she had no idea how to go about it. She needed to talk to her morn.

  Janine finished her Diet Coke, wiped her wet hands on her jeans, and straightened her cowgirl vest before walking insi
de.

  Sally Mae was working the front desk, and the older woman greeted her with a relieved smile when Janine walked through the door. "I was afraid you weren't going to show up."

  Janine frowned. "I'm not late."

  Sally Mae laughed. "No, I didn't mean that. It's just that I have a big date tonight, and I had this horrible feeling that something was going to happen to ruin it for me. Let's face it, dear, my luck with men hasn't been all good."

  Janine smiled. "Go on. Get out of here." "My shift isn't quite--"

  "I'll cover for you." "You're a good girl."

  "That's debatable," Janine said. She glanced down at today's event schedule, posted on the counter. "So where did you meet this guy? Not here?"

  "Oh, no. We met at church." Sally Mae lowered her voice. "He's one of the men who volunteered to work on the church for the Second Coming."

  Janine's smile froze on her face. She stared at the older woman, not sure how to respond. "Oh," she said noncommittally.

  "He's going to introduce me to Jesus."

  Goose bumps arose on Janine's arms. "Well, you'd better get going," she said. "I can handle things here."

  Sally Mae put an arm around her shoulders and gave her a quick squeeze.

  ""Thanks. I owe you."

  Janine stood behind the counter, unmoving, and watched as the other woman grabbed her purse and, way ing, walked out the door.

  She looked down at her stomach and, for the thousand time that day, placed her palm on it.

  " It was a somber rather than festive Columbus Day. A three-day weekend for many people in the state, Columbus was the only holiday between Labor Day and Thanksgiving, and a lot of local businesses counted on the extra influx of tourists to get them through the season.

  But though the tourists were here today, the businesses weren't. An inordinate number of stores were closed, and there was a general feeling of confused disorder along both the Highway 370 and Highway 95 shopping districts.

  There were also a hell of a lot of crosses propped up in the closed storefront windows, and the funny thing was that Robert was not sure if the crosses were being displayed to ward off vampires or as a show of faith in Jesus Christ. People were not about to tell him which one it was, either. The sheriff had never been the most popular man in town--generally speaking, when he came in contact with people it was because they had done something wrong--but he was usually treated with respect. Not these days, though.. =; ........ - -. Things had changed. ,