Ethan started scavenging the cupboards and fridge for food. She wasn’t surprised by that, he look emaciated. She wondered how long he had been in captivity. She wondered how many of his bruises were inflicted prior to his abduction.
Thankfully the logs in the fireplace were the fake ones you just light directly with a match. She hadn’t been around a fireplace for a number of years, and even then, fire was never her strong suit.
A wave of heat billowed out of the fireplace. She closed her eyes and let the orange flame and deep heat take away whatever thoughts and concerns were rolling around her mind. Of which there were many.
Eventually, the smell of food drew her back into reality. She looked behind her and saw Ethan kneeling over the coffee table devouring cold chicken off the bone, ice cream, and chips without regard to any appropriate palate order. At one point, he dipped his chicken into the ice cream. She smiled and sat back against one of the chairs to watch him.
He paused with stuffed cheeks and looked at her. “Do you want some?”
She shook her head despite being extremely hungry. She got the impression he would have held back eating so much if he knew he needed to share. Given his condition, she didn’t want to interrupt. She had been on more calorie restrictive diets than the last two weeks.
After a few minutes of staring at the fire, Ethan let out a cavernous burp and sat back against the couch. “I’m so stuffed.” He looked back at her and shoved his plate over to her. “There’s a chicken leg there I haven’t touched.”
Satisfied that he was indeed done, she leaned over and took the untouched chicken. It tasted like heaven—cold, chewy, glad to be alive, heaven. After she finished the chicken leg, she felt her hunger spike, rejecting the meager leg as a meal. “Any ice cream left?”
“Yeah,” he shoved over the carton. “You want a new spoon?”
“No, I’ve had worse than cooties.” She gave him a half smile.
Ethan moved to toast his body by the fire. He rotated himself like a pig on a spit. Cori eventually gave in and grabbed the chips off the coffee table. She was hungrier than she thought. “I’m surprised he doesn’t have a big screen T.V. sitting above that mantle instead of taxidermy trophies.” She said between bites.
“He wouldn’t get reception out here would he?” Ethan asked.
“Maybe with satellite,” she pointed out.
“We should check the rest of the house.” Ethan suggested nodding to the hall leading to the open staircase.
She looked back at the other half of the house and decided that it was a good idea.
They searched the remaining rooms down the hall on the lower floor. They found a master bedroom with bland beige walls and simple furnishings, a pristine bathroom, a laundry room, and a study with ample books. None of the rooms contained a television or anything resembling modern electronics.
“Well, he has books.” Ethan said fanning his finger over the books lining the wall in the study. “If we read past the boring descriptions of inanimate objects, it might be like watching a sitcom.” He said as he pulled out a dusty, red, leatherback book with yellowing pages, and a spine that cracked when you opened it. “None of these books look like they have been touched in a century. I doubt he reads all that much. “What do you make of this guy?”
Cori searched through the study desk for anything that might clue her in on what she had gotten herself into. “I don’t make anything of him. I don’t plan to get to know him well enough to make anything of him.” The only thing of interest was the red phone on the desk. It looked like an old rotary phone, but the rotary part was missing. “Honestly, I just pegged him for a creepy boy molesting old man.”
“I’m not a boy.” Ethan objected with a slightly deeper voice than he had previously been using. “I’m seventeen.”
“Young enough to attract a man though.” She didn’t think for a second that Danato was a child molester, but she couldn’t help but push his buttons.
“Shut-up,” Ethan whined.
“I’m sorry, you’re right. I’m sure he won’t molest you. He’ll just train you to be a proper love slave. Within a few years he’ll have you believing you want it.” She smiled deviously as his face flushed.
“Maybe he will molest you!”
Cori couldn’t help but think of the last two weeks in captivity. She wondered how long it would take to clean off the stink of Yvette’s rotgut lackeys. She couldn’t claim to have been broken by the encounters, but only because she had already stonewalled every emotion she had about the experience. “At my age they call it rape, sweetie. It sounds sexier that way.” Cori shook her head as if the images were only an etch-a-sketch in her brain.
Just shake it off.
“Anyway, I doubt it.” She sat down in the black leather desk chair and pulled it up to the desk. Despite the look of it, the chair was rather uncomfortable. It tipped forward too much, making her feel like she was constantly falling out of it. “He was trying to get rid of me. The only reason I’m here is to clean his damn toilets. Which are spotless, if you saw,” she added. “Easy job for me,” she propped her feet on the desk. “I wonder what jobs he’ll have you do?” She grinned.
Ethan glowered at her.
“If I were you, I’d go search that bedroom of his. If he’s hiding anything weird, you might as well find out now. Not that it will prevent anything, but it’s better than being surprised.”
Ethan placed the book back on the shelf and left the room. Cori dropped her grin, picked up the phone, and checked for a dial tone. Nothing. She tapped the release.
“Hello.” A gruff voice spoke on the other side.
“Hello?” Cori stared at the phone like it had grown wings.
“Girl, is that you?” Danato’s voice asked on the other end. He sounded out of breath.
“How…” She started.
“The phone goes directly to my office. There’s no outside line here.”
“This is insane. There is no reason to be this cut off from civilization.”
“Yes, there is.” He said without offering further explanation. “Did you really have anyone to call?”
After short deliberation, she hung up on him. It was true that she had no one to call, but that wasn’t something she wished to be reminded of.
The phone rang, or rather, hummed at her. She took in a deep breath and answered it. “What?”
“Look, I assume you are both making yourselves at home, but don’t spend the whole night exploring. Get some sleep.”
“Whatever?” She said tossing her head back. She was sick of being ordered around. She had had enough of that the last two weeks.
“Listen missy, the doors and windows are locked for your protection; don’t try to break out just for the sake of flaunting your resistance to this situation. You are safer in that house than anywhere else in this facility.”
“Don’t call me missy. It makes me sound like a cheerleader.”
“You certainly are not that,” he mumbled, “but until you tell me your name, I will call you Missy.”
“You never asked my name.”
“Ethan did. You didn’t seem to think we would need it, so Missy it is.”
Cori retorted with another hang up, or rather a slam down. Ethan rushed back in the room. “Were you talking to him?”
“Yes.” She said.
“What did he say?” He asked anxiously
“He said he wants you to wait in his bed naked until he gets back.”
“Knock it off!” Ethan shook his head. “You must really need a distraction.” He mumbled.
“What?”
“Nothing,” he left the room.
“I heard you.” She said following him. Ethan headed upstairs and she followed. “What’s that supposed to mean?” She asked.
“It means,” Ethan peeked his head into the far back room. Cori looked in beside him and found a standard spare bedroom, streamlined with bed, side table, and dresser. There was nothing particularly appealing or memorabl
e about the room. “You’re deflecting.”
“That’s a big word, for such a small boy.” Cori turned to face him down. She realized at that moment she was about an inch shorter than him.
“Do you know what it means?” He asked not backing down from her challenge.
“Enlighten me, oh, learned one.”
“It means you have a lot of pent up emotion about what you’ve been through, and since you don’t want to just crumple into a ball on the floor and bawl all night long, you have to find some way to alleviate that pressure. So, you take the high road of anger, projecting your fears onto me.”
She hadn’t realized that was what she was doing, but it sounded about right. “Okay,” she bit her lip to control any tremble that might threaten the firmness in her voice. “I’ll lay off the molestation teasing, if you lay off the psychological analysis of my emotions.”
After a quick hand shake to cement the civility, they continued to explore. Across from the first bedroom was another bedroom not unlike the first. Back by the stairs, there were two more rooms, and then the hallway ended with a railed balcony overlooking the living room and kitchen.
The first of the remaining rooms was a bedroom that held the same dresser, side table, and bed, but this one also contained a box. Ethan stepped inside to check the contents. He pulled out several items of clothing; men’s clothing.
He looked at her with concern in his eyes. He was undoubtedly a little disturbed by the planning that had been put into his acquisition. She checked the last room, which was also a bedroom. She saw a box on the bed. She checked the contents. It contained women’s clothing.
She looked up as Ethan stepped into the doorway. “These are female clothes. How did he know he was going to…I can understand your clothes, but why…how?”
“Why don’t we,” Ethan said crashing her train of thought. “Get dressed and ceremoniously burn these rags were in.”
She conceded to that line of thinking and shut the door to what had presumably been designated as her room. She rummaged through the box and found a set of pajamas and slippers. They looked comfortable and warm. She slipped out of her rags and made a mental note to rip them to shreds before she threw them on the fire.
She opened her door, just as Ethan opened his. He looked back at her, wearing the same style top/bottom pajama set she was wearing; only instead of fluffy clouds like hers, they were plaid. She smiled and shook her head.
“Ready to burn our shrouds of scourge?” He asked.
Before she could respond, an explosion rocked the entire house. Ethan dove to the floor. She planted her feet and ducked down as if to ride out the house trembling like a surfer.
The upper level balcony gave them a clear view of the prison through the second story windows over the front entrance. They could see flames spewing from the top of the prison. “What the hell…” Cori approached the balcony.
As the flames quelled, lightning bolts followed, dancing over the prison’s exterior walls. Trails of black blemished the building wherever the electricity touched. “Unbelievable.” She moved to the banister mesmerized by the scene.
“Hey, come here.” Ethan had peeled himself off the floor and moved into his bedroom. “I can see something—ahh!” Ethan let out a yelp, which was followed by a thunk.
She ran in and found him back on the floor. Nothing was in the room, but he was visibly disturbed. “What is it?” She asked looking over the room more diligently.
“Something flew past the window.” He said pointing an unsteady finger.
“A bird,” she enunciated sarcastically.
“Really, that’s what put me on the floor!” he shouted. “It was something big!”
She rolled her eyes and moved to the window by the bed. She knelt on the mattress and looked outside into the dark. The prison still reminded her of a castle. The lighting around the base it made it look more like a Vegas Casino than a legitimate facility. “I don’t see anything, but the guards are looking up at the sky. They must have seen whatever you saw.” She looked back at him. “What did it look like?”
His eyes widened. “Like that.”
She turned back to the window and saw a sort of bird or bat coming at the window. The only feature she was certain about was the size. “It’s huge.” The creature made a quick approach and flattened itself against the window. She screamed and jumped back to the floor with the now hyperventilating Ethan.
The creature’s legs were short with sharp, clawed feet. Its wings extended from the depth of its back and spanned beyond the reach of its upper body, which was unmistakably human. Pale, sickly skin covered the pectoral muscles and biceps of the human torso. The neck, which was barely there, held an oblong head with short tipped ears, a flattened nose, and solid black eyes.
The creature looked through the window at them and opened its mouth. Two tiny rows of teeth lined the jaw. It shrieked piercing the air with a dreadfully high-pitched sound. They both cringed protecting their ears. Two teeth in the creature’s upper jaw lengthened into sharp, flesh penetrating fangs.
“What the hell is that thing?” Cori yelled rhetorically over her covered ears and the shriek.
“VAMPIRE!” Ethan answered. The screeching stopped and the creature flew away from the window.
“What?” She uncovered her ears.
“IT’S A...vampire.” Ethan repeated.
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
“Look at it. What other definition would you give it?” He reasoned.
“Fair enough,” she conceded. “It’s a vampire. As long as we both agree that that explanation is ridiculous.”
“Most insane thing I ever spoke in my life.” He nodded.
The window shuddered as the creature crashed into it and flew off. Ethan screamed causing Cori to scream. “Will you stop screaming, it’s making me scream.” She stood up to search the room. “I hate screaming, it makes me sound like a girl.”
“You are a girl.” He looked her over. “Aren’t you?”
She offered him a sarcastic grin for his quip. “Yes, but it doesn’t mean I have to sound like one. Ah-ha,” she grabbed a standing lamp from the corner of the room and brandished it in front of the window.
Ethan found the matching table lamp and did the same, with slightly less effect. “Wait a minute, does that mean you think I sound like a girl when I scream?”
“Do you want the truth?” She asked.
“Not really.” Ethan grumbled no doubt sensing that an insult would be her response.
“No, it doesn’t. You have a manly scream.”
He glared at her. “What’s the truth then?”
“Truth is, screaming makes you sound like your testicles haven’t dropped.” The creature hit the glass again. Ethan yelped. Despite the fear she felt, she smiled, and he glared at her all the more.
“I hope I get to watch that thing eat you.” He turned his table lamp to threaten her.
She turned to him and laughed. “You’d miss it anyway. You’d be hiding in a closet.”
“Shut-up, I’m here aren’t I?”
“I…” Cori trailed off feeling the hairs on the back of her neck raise. She sensed a change in her peripheral. Ethan must have had the same feeling, because his face went pale.
They turned their attention back to the window. The creature was perched just outside. Blood dripped from its fangs. A decapitated human head dangled from its clutches. The glazed eyes of a human head stared in at them.
Cori’s throat convulsed, in preparation for the return of her chicken and ice cream. She shook her head and dropped her lamp. “No, forget the lamps. We can’t fight this thing.”
“But…” Ethan objected but she knocked the lamp out of his hand and pushed him out the door shutting it behind them.
She pulled him downstairs by his pajama collar into the office and locked the door behind them. The office had one small window covered with a thick drape. She peeked behind it to assure their solitude.
She could h
ear thumping and screeching from upstairs. She listened for the sound of glass breaking. For a few seconds she meditated on the idea that this fear was worse than being kidnapped and sold into slavery. Somehow, the worst a man could do to her seemed tame compared to having a vampire rip her head off.
As she focused back on the room, she saw the phone on the desk and jumped on it. “Duh!” she scolded herself.
She held the receiver to her ear. The other end rang and rang. No one answered and her face cringed ready to cry. She noticed Ethan watching her, reflecting her own fear back at her. She shook her head to shake that etch-a-sketch back to a clear mental picture.
Ethan was just as eager for a response on the other end as she was. She turned the chair away from him and spoke loudly into the phone. “Yes…oh, he isn’t…well, yes, that would be great.” She turned back to him and rolled her eyes. “Their getting him,” She lied. “I’m just on hold.” She sat back to listen to the relentless ring on the other end.
Ethan’s body visibly relaxed and he sat down in the chair across the desk from her. She conversely tensed and started tapping fingers and feet. With every minute on the line, her foot twitched faster.
Ten minutes later, Danato picked up. “Hello.” He said winded. “What’s wrong?”
She threw her head back and exhaled when she heard his brusque voice. “Yes, we seem to have a problem with a…eh…vampire outside our window.”
“Vampire?” he questioned.
She leaned forward in the chair feeling her stomach tighten. “You do know about the vampire, don’t you?”
“Oh, right, yes, I guess that makes sense.” Danato said.
“What makes sense?” Cori asked.
“Look, I can’t come get her yet.”
“It’s a boy.” Cori corrected.
“Shit!” He said flustered. “Nevertheless, I need you two to stay calm, stay inside, and ignore him at all costs. Close the drapes where you can, and just…don’t speak to it, yell at it, or provoke it with weapons.”
“Don’t provoke it? It came to the window with a human head; I think it was already provoked!” She yelled.
“Yes, I know, but don’t worry; he didn’t actually kill that man. Something…someone else did. The photo…vampires are more like scavengers. They are fairly lazy. They usually only suck blood from unconscious bodies and they are notoriously good at tormenting people. The more you ignore him, the sooner he’ll settle down.” Danato assured her.
Corn, Cows, and the Apocalypse (Part 1) Page 21
