by Laura Hysell
“You believe it’s haunted?”
He shook his head, his eyes going back to the truck his wife sat in. “Strange things have been happening lately. Maybe it’s haunted, maybe not. Probably it’s just kids causing problems. Either way, we don’t go there.”
I shivered, my instincts telling me to listen to the old man. Elsie backed the truck up and pulled up beside me, rolling down the window. “Let’s go,” she said.
I took one last look at Phil before turning and climbing into the truck with Elsie. She drove off quickly, leaving a cloud of dust behind us. We quickly reached the fork in the road and Elsie turned the truck down the tree-lined path. We crested a hill and I saw the sun setting in the distance, painting the sky a beautiful red color as the last bright rays dipped below the horizon. The road dipped down and we were soon enveloped in darkness as the trees thickened on either side of the road. After a few minutes Elsie pulled the truck to a stop in front of an older large white house with lights on inside. Someone was definitely home.
A black Suburban was parked in front of the house next to a hot pink Corvette. I stared at the house, wondering what sort of people were inside. I turned to Elsie to thank her but she sat staring straight ahead. She hadn’t said a word during the short ride here, and I was growing nervous.
“Elsie, do you know who’s here?” I asked. Elsie continued to stare straight ahead, hardly blinking. I touched her arm, shaking her gently. “Elsie?”
Elsie’s eyes closed and she slumped in her seat, breathing softly. I shook her arm, but she didn’t wake up. I shook her again, saying her name over and over again to no avail. She snored softly. Maybe she was narcoleptic. After all the strange things that had been happening, I didn’t believe it for a second.
I quietly opened the passenger door and ran around to the driver’s side, pulling open the door. I pushed Elsie over onto the passenger side and climbed into the driver’s seat. I reached over to pull the door closed behind me and stopped. Holding the truck door open was Sarah, my brother’s old girlfriend.
Sarah smiled up at me, flashing fangs around her bright pink lips. Her blonde hair was big and wavy and she wore a hot pink dress and matching high-heels. The pink corvette suddenly made sense now. Pink had always been her color, and vampirism obviously hadn’t changed that. It also hadn’t changed her looks much, with the exception of making her paler than before. Sarah was as beautiful as ever, with a heart-shaped face and a perfect physique that made the guys drool and the girls envious.
“Oh, darlin’ Izzy, so good to see you,” Sarah said in a thick southern accent. “Please come in. We’ve been expecting you.”
“What about her?” I asked, pointing at Elsie.
Sarah waved her arm and Jin was suddenly at her side. He grinned up at me and I couldn’t help but stare at the blood at the corner of his mouth. “Jin will take Elsie home,” Sarah said as she stepped back and indicated I should get out of the truck.
I deliberated briefly, but knew I couldn’t do anything against one vampire, let alone two. I grabbed my duffle bag off the seat and slid out, jumping to the ground. “Don’t hurt her,” I said as Jin took my place in the driver’s seat.
Jin giggled at my words and I looked back at Sarah. “Jin, do not touch the woman or harm her in any way. That is an order,” Sarah said forcefully, glaring at Jin. “No biting.”
“Or her husband,” I added.
Sarah glanced at me briefly, irritation clear on her face before she turned back to Jin. “Do not harm her husband either, in any way. They are not food, Jin. Am I clear?”
Jin bobbed his head. “I understand. I won’t touch them.” He slammed the truck door shut and turned the truck around, heading back toward Phil and Elsie’s house. I crossed my fingers, hoping the older couple would be all right, but helpless to do anything about it.
“Come into the house,” Sarah said as she placed a hand on my arm. Her nails were filed into long pink-painted points that dug into my flesh, drawing a thin line of blood.
I let Sarah lead me to the house and she finally let go of my arm when she opened the door. I rubbed the spot on my arm that she had been holding, wiping away the blood that remained to see perfect unbroken skin once more. The front door opened into a living room that was lit with numerous candles. An older gray recliner with a pink blanket placed over the seat sat at the far end of the room, but that was the only furniture to be seen. Two men stood on either side of the recliner, looking very much like bodyguards in all black with hands crossed behind their backs and guns at their hips.
Sarah moved toward the recliner and sat down, smoothing the skirt of her dress. “Thomas, bring me my pets,” Sarah called.
I stood by the front door, ready to bolt at any moment. Not that I could outrun vampires, but that didn’t stop my instincts from looking for the first escape route. Two men wearing only hot pink boxer shorts shuffled in with their heads bowed, followed closely by another man wearing a tailored suit that looked like something out of a mobster movie. The man had slicked back black hair and an unlit cigar clenched between fangs.
I turned my attention back to the two men in boxers, noting the red welts across their backs and the telltale bite marks on their necks. Humans, I guessed. Their backs were to me as they knelt on the floor in front of Sarah, heads bowed and arms held out in front of them. One of the men had a cast on his arm that looked dirty and appeared to be covered in dried blood. The mobster vampire who I guessed was Thomas moved back to stand beside me, leaning casually against the wall.
Sarah’s eyes flicked up to me so fast I wasn’t sure if it actually happened. She leaned back dramatically and lifted her feet into the air. The man with the splint on his arm immediately shuffled forward and Sarah dropped her feet onto his back, using him as a foot stool. “Come here, pet,” she said sweetly, motioning to the other man.
The other man stood stiffly and walked to Sarah, standing before her with his head down. From his posture I could guess he wasn’t happy to be there. Sarah’s eyes flicked to me again and I realized she was putting on a show for me. I was still unsure of what the purpose was though.
“Fido, make a chair for our guest,” Sarah said, pointing at me.
The man turned to look at me, and I sucked in some air. I knew this man. His name was Jared Bushing and he was a friend of my brother’s. He’d also been on the expedition with Justin as a guide and translator. He was ex-military and had always kept his hair cut short, but now it was grown out past his ears. I wasn’t sure if he recognized me or not in the brief look he had given me before he dropped to his hands and knees beside Sarah’s chair.
Sarah looked directly at me and pointed to the man on his hands and knees. “Sit down, Isabella.” There was no mistaking it was an order and not a request.
I tentatively moved into the center of the room, stopping when I reached Jared on his hands and knees. I glanced up at Sarah and the look on her face had me scurrying to perch on Jared’s back. I tried not to rest my weight on him, but he was tall and I couldn’t sit on his back fully and keep my feet still on the ground. Sarah made an angry growling noise and my head jerked up to look at her.
“Get up, Isabella,” she instructed, and I happily complied. “Fido, position 12,” she ordered.
Jared hurried to comply, re-arranging himself so he sat cross-legged on the ground with his arms out to his sides. Sarah pointed from me to him, indicating I should sit in his lap. I slowly sat down, with my legs spread out awkwardly in front of me. I wouldn’t be able to get up easily from this position.
From this angle I was forced to look upward at Sarah, so she sat as though seated on a throne. She seemed to be making a show of getting comfortable, rearranging her feet on the other man’s back. It took me a moment to realize why she was doing it. From this new angle so close to the floor, I could clearly see the other man’s face. I knew the rough angles of his jaw, the small scar above his eyebrow, and the hazel eyes that looked at the ground.
Sarah obviously
noticed my recognition and plastered a pleased smile across her face. “So, Isabella, what do you think of my pets? This here is Rover. Can you say hello to our guest, Rover?”
Rover, who Sarah was using as a footstool, wouldn’t turn and look at me but he did mutter a quiet hello. My heart wrenched at the sound of his voice and I clenched my fists in anger. “Shh,” Jared whispered behind me so quietly I wasn’t sure I had heard it or not. His hand moved discreetly, squeezing my thigh in warning. I had started to stand up, but I really needed to calm down.
I took a deep breath and settled back against Jared before looking back up at Sarah. “I came for my brother,” I said confidently.
Sarah sat up, moving her feet off her human pet’s back and stroking his sandy brown hair lightly. “Oh, dear, I don’t know if I can help you with that,” she mused. “Your brother is involved in a very special project for our company. He’s doing some very vital research. Jin was supposed to be in charge of it, but, well, his mind is not what it used to be. Perhaps we can come to an arrangement.”
I felt Jared jerk at her words and I figured I wasn’t going to like any arrangement Sarah devised. I still had the gun and knife, along with a bullet-proof vest on. No one had bothered to take them from me, but I supposed no one thought of me as any sort of threat. The sad part is they were probably right. My experience with guns was limited to .22s and my experience with knives was limited to the kitchen. Jared, on the other hand, definitely knew how to handle a gun.
“I’d like to speak with my brother,” I replied, thinking fast. If Jared could somehow get my gun, maybe we’d have a chance to shoot our way out. Bullets hadn’t seemed to slow Patricia down, but maybe they’d work on newer vampires.
At the thought of Patricia I felt a pressure in my head before I heard her voice. “Get out,” she said.
“What about my brother?” I asked back in my head.
Sarah spoke, distracting me from my internal conversation with Patricia. “Your brother is out on a project, darlin’. I can take you to him, though,” she drawled sweetly.
“Where is Justin?” I asked both Sarah and Patricia in my head.
Patricia’s voice came back quickly, but she seemed distracted. “Not here,” was her clipped response.
Sarah smiled at me; still petting the man she called Rover. “I had to send him away, but I can take you to him. Justin has been… petulant. I think having you near will help him concentrate more on his work.”
“Help him concentrate?” I muttered, more to myself than to the vampire before me, but she responded nevertheless.
“I have tried numerous ways to motivate your brother, but he has been willful thus far. We figure you can be a good influence on him.”
I caught the “we” reference and I had a feeling it didn’t refer to her and Jin. My guess is it had to do with whoever was in control of this company she referred to earlier, whether it was still NuvaDrug or something else entirely. I looked around the room, wondering again how I could possibly escape. The mobster vampire still stood near the door, so I’d have to get past him to get out. But then what? Vampires were too fast to try and outrun.
The front door opened and Jin entered, bleeding from several wounds. “That Patricia woman attacked me. I hurt her and she took off,” he said simply. Jin moved into the room, his black eyes turned toward me. “I need a drink.”
My heart began pounding as I quickly realized he meant to drink from me. Jin moved forward, leaving a trail of blood on the carpeted floor behind him. “Get your own snack,” Sarah snapped and Jin’s eyes turned angrily on Sarah.
“I’m hungry and you already have your two pets! Let me have her!” he cried, stamping his foot on the ground.
Jared moved, wrapping his arms tightly around me as he scooted us backward and away from the vampires in front of us. Sarah continued to pet Rover, leaning back in her chair as though she had no care in the world. The two men on either side of her stepped forward though, pulling guns out simultaneously and aiming them at Jin.
Jin seemed oblivious to anything happening around him. He continued to stamp his foot and yell. “I’m hungry! I’m hungry! I’m hungry!”
“Jin, stop it now!” Sarah ordered, pointing a finger at Jin. He stopped yelling and pouted out his lower lip. He crossed his arms and I thought I saw a tear roll down his cheek. “Thomas will take you to get a snack, won’t you Thomas?”
The gangster vamp moved from his spot by the front door, the unlit cigar still in his teeth. “I suppose I can take him into town,” he replied, shrugging his shoulders. “Just don’t blame me for the mess he’s bound to make.”
Sarah glared at Thomas and bared her fangs. A hiss escaped her lips and I shuddered as I watched her face contort with anger. Seeing this new side of Sarah made me realize all too quickly that she was not the same person I once knew. “You will keep him under control,” she ordered of Thomas.
Thomas pulled the cigar out of his teeth and stepped up behind Jin, his eyes glued on Sarah. He was obviously not cowed by her look of rage. “You forget I don’t work for you,” he responded, pointing at Sarah with his cigar. “I’ll take Jin to town, but you’re responsible for him, not me.”
Thomas put a hand on Jin’s arm and led him out the door, while Sarah seethed angrily from her chair. Her two bodyguards returned the guns to their holsters and settled back in on either side of her chair. Sarah turned to face me and I shrunk back into Jared, not happy to be the focus of her anger. I watched her eyes turn black and felt a flutter of panic. I stared at her for a beat, wondering what I could possibly do. I shifted minutely and slowly reached for my gun.
Sarah moved faster than I could blink, ripping the gun from my hand before it had even cleared its holster. I heard the gun skid across the floor but I had no chance to go after it. In the blink of an eye she had hauled me up by my vest so that my feet dangled a good foot above the ground. She pulled me toward her, so my face was inches from her own. I stared at her mouth, not wanting to look into the black pits that her eyes had become. Suddenly I was flying through the air, flailing my arms in a desperate attempt to catch myself on something. I slammed into a wall, coughing as sheetrock rained down around me. The pain was immediate throughout my body, but not severe. I struggled to regain my footing as Sarah stalked toward me. I quickly blinked away the sheetrock dust and rolled out of the wall, but a second later I was being pulled up by my ankle and flung across the room once more. I instinctually covered my face with my hands before I flew into the opposite wall and crashed to the floor.
I was lying on the floor staring up at the ceiling as a pair of pink high-heeled shoes came into view. Sarah’s yanked me up by my vest again and spun me around and around, my hair whipping into my face and stinging my eyes. My stomach churned and I felt like I was going to throw up. Before my stomach could heave, I was flying through the air once more. I watched the ceiling come quickly into view and I had just enough time to close my eyes and cover my face before I hit and burst through the ceiling.
The ceiling shattered around me and I dropped back to the floor just before the rest of the ceiling broke apart on top of me. I coughed and struggled to breathe, but each breath was pure pain. The room had grown dark and there was a loud ringing in my ears. I felt no pain, just lightheadedness as darkness began to descend rapidly.
In that moment I knew I was dying. My mother’s face was above me, serene and smiling, softly caressing my face. Something grabbed my arm and I was flying, but I couldn’t see anything. I felt an impact again and heard someone yelling, but spots danced before my eyes, obscuring my vision. The pain was gone now and I felt peace envelop me. I closed my eyes as I soared through the air once more. There were so many noises around me, but they were muffled and distant.
I shivered suddenly as darkness enveloped me and my last thoughts drifted to my brother. The peace that had been surrounding me was no longer a comfort, because I was a failure. My brother was still missing and being coerced by vampires. Would he survive
? Was he being treated well, or being tortured? What would happen when the vampires were done with him? Would they make him a vampire as well, or just kill him? Either way, I had failed to save him. Would he know that I had tried? Did it matter since it had only resulted in failure? What was I, but a useless woman amidst the monsters of the world? I was useless, powerless. I was a failure.
Chapter 15
I opened my eyes, but all I saw was darkness. Was this the end? I was curled in a ball, lying on my side on something cold. I tried to sit up, but my feet hit a wall. I felt around with my hands, feeling only cold metal below and around me, like a cage. My heart began pounding as I struggled to move, but I was trapped and only able to get myself into a crouched sitting position.
I had died, and now I was being punished. There was nothing but the darkness and my small cage. Was this how I would spend eternity? Was this the punishment for my failure?
There was a sensation of movement and the cage rocked back and forth. It was too dark to see anything, but I could use my other senses. I ached all over. I tried to stretch and loosen my cramped muscles. Do the dead get cramped muscles? I was also freezing cold. I ran my hands across my body. My Kevlar vest was gone, as were my shoes and socks, but the rest of my clothes remained. The knife Patricia had given me was surprisingly still strapped to my side. Would I still have a blessed knife in the Underworld?
The cage bounced again, and I guessed I was in a vehicle of some kind. I could hear a low rumble that could be an engine of some kind, although it was distant sounding. My cage rested on more metal and I reached through the bars, feeling metal on one side of my cage and nothing but open air on the other sides. I moved my hands around the cage until I came to the door, feeling for a latch. I could feel the latch, but it wouldn’t budge. Something clinked and I moved my hands up, feeling a thick chain around the cage as well. I trailed my hands around it until I came to a padlock.
