by Minda Webber
I realized it the moment I spotted those striking blue eyes.
He was a vampire! Just my luck!
Glancing over at me, Debbs lifted up her stake. We were prepared for trouble (like Boy Scouts). I unstopped the Holy water with one hand, a flask I always carrymwith me, along with a small five-inch stake and my special-made gun. I hesitated on the Holy water bit and shook my head at Debbs.
I hated to see her stake him or me burn him with the Holy water, he was that fine looking. But a fresh vamp can really put on the moves and the bite on you when they first start rising. It takes about six months for them to get a pretty good handle on their bloodlust. I looked at Debbs.
She looked at me. I could tell she was thinking the same thing, he’s too fine to kill. But rough-and-tough vampire exterminator that she was, she was more prepared to do the dirty deed.
The vampire opened his eyes and blinked again.
His very fine chest took a breath.
I heard Hart catch his. “He’s a vampire.” Hart had finally caught on.
And this particular vampire was getting ready to wake up and take one or two of us out for dinner and I don’t mean dining at TGIF restaurant.
“This is so bogus!” Jason threw in his two bits sounding angry and disgusted. “We can’t use him for a mascot. How come you got us a vampire corpse, V.J.? You losing brain cells or something?”
No, we couldn’t use this vampire for a mascot, I thought. Maybe we could do a video with him. He had movie star looks, kind of like Brad Pitt in that vampire movie, but better looking..
“He’s gonna be real hungry,” Hart said, his voice sounded tense. Hart didn’t particularly like blood sports or contact sports, which were really about the same in my opinion. As big as he is and living in Texas, he should have been playing football. But hey, Hart didn’t like the necessary roughness. Texans loved football. Instead Hart played baseball. Left field. Vampire staking was way out of his comfort zone. “Really hungry.”
“Yeah,” I sighed and hesitated. I could feel the container of Holy water in my hand; it felt cold in its glass container. You have to use glass because metal contaminates the water. The movies get it so wrong.
My best friend raised her stake high and leaned over, but hesitated again. She didn’t want to stick him either. She was tons more shallow about looks then I was. After all, she was dating Seth and he really did have to ask and tell his Mummy everything, even secrets. That’s how come he got grounded on the toilet paper bit.
“Debbs, aren’t you going to stake him?” Hart asked nervously.
“You bet.” Debbs said as her stake started on its downward strike as this howl of pure demented delight cried out in the darkness beyond us.
Startled, she stopped the down thrust of the stake and turned; stake in hand. Quickly, Debbs started towards the ladder we had placed in the open grave with us. I followed on her heels as the sounds of scrambling reached us. And then the really dreaded and dreadful sound of long nails clasping and clicking like hundreds of rats crawling across the dirt and dried grass of the cemetery.
The noises were gaining in strength. Then the low guttural groans begin to fill the air with their harrowing menace. Combine the scrambling rat-like sounds and the deep throated groans and you’ve got one thing.
One thing only making those creepy sounds.
One deadly thing.
I shuddered. I took a breath and tried to swallow. My mouth suddenly felt like I had a blow dryer jammed inside set on extra high voltage. I just couldn’t stand the thought of being eaten alive. It’s why I wouldn’t go beyond two feet in the ocean when my family took vacations to the Gulf Coast in Corpus Christi, Texas. Yes, my ocean wading was due to one black-eyed, teeth-gleaming thing-sharks. Great Whites were the ultimate terror for me and the worst of the shark species as far as I was concerned. And even though I loved the ocean, I would only go out in the greenish-brown waters up to my knees. No shark was going to have me for dinner, lunch or a late afternoon snack.
As I scurried up the ladder, a harsh howling sound came from a stand of oak trees hidden deep in the black velvet folds of the night, interrupting my morbid thoughts of torn flesh and bright red blood. I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. We had a fresh vampire about to rise, and to add insult to injury, we had something nasty.
Something deadly.
Something foul coming at us from the shadows of the cemetery.
Ghouls!
“Vampires and ghouls! Oh my!” Debbs exclaimed.
She was doing the Wizard of Oz! I was terrified. I hated ghouls. From the sound of them more than a few were scurrying to feast on our flesh!
I wanted to howl in misery. Even though I’m a Frankenstein, and quite used to things that go bump in the night, and even though I’m not afraid of no ghosts, I am absolutely, beyond a shadow of a doubt, terrified of ghouls. Ghouls are the reason I carry a special gun that shoots bullets that burst into fire on impact. As much as I hate ghouls, I’m pretty sure that ghouls feel the same way about me and I know they absolutely hate fire.
I glanced at Debbs, my eyes white with terror as more of the blood-curling howling filled the night.
If we didn’t move fast, we were toast, or to be more realistic, red meat!
CHAPTER THREE
They came at us like demons from hell. Of course, in a way they are. For those of you that haven’t ever run into one, ghouls are creatures that live in cemeteries and can be called forth by necromancers or voodoo priests. Sometimes they can even rise on their own near a full moon in uneven years. In human life they were really bad people, not evil people, since evil people really do go to hell. Ghouls hunt in packs, and they aren’t just vicious, but violent and always hungry, their taste buds set for human flesh only. Although, I did know a few that also liked Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.
Hart gasped as he scrambled up the ladder, while Jason coming up behind him cursed. Debbs dropped her stake and yanked out her baby flame thrower. She had left the big one at home, not expecting a ghoul attack on so simple a mission as mascot stealing. She sniffed the air several times and cursed. I never hear Debbs curse since her mother washes her mouth out with soap if she does.
This was bad, worse than bad!
I knew why Debbs was smelling the air. The ghouls had been raised by black magic. I would worry about that fact later since I was too scared to do much but bring my gun up to my waist in firing position.
I know being a Frankenstein and all you’d think I would be used to this stuff. That my hands wouldn’t be shaking and my heart racing. Hey, I’m not stupid and I like my life just fine. Paranormal creatures are tricky, devious and deadly, never mistake that. Just because I’ve been around a bunch more of them than, say, other normal humans whose families like run a grocery store or whose dad is a coach, doesn’t mean that certain branches of the supernatural family don’t scare the pants off me. Of all the things I fear most, ghouls top the list.
They can’t be reasoned with.
You can’t run away and hide because they eventually find you even if it’s weeks later. The only way to stop a ghoul once he’s got your scent (they’re like bloodhounds that way) is to burn them to a crisp.
Their bite is like a black widow spider bite and can make you get really sick if you are lucky enough to escape them. And they are never, ever alone. They don’t even travel in packs of two or three. Generally, ghouls run in packs of ten or more, which, to my way of thinking, means there is a whole bunch of bad people out there who have died over the years, since so many ghouls haunt cemeteries. I gulped and looked outward.
Our mining hats lit up the darkness revealing the shuffling, nasty creatures. Tonight just wasn’t our lucky night. Our cemetery had at least thirty of the vicious things as I moved my head in a half circle, my headlamp reflecting dark shapes coming toward us.
Some of the ghouls stumbled along, some were dragging their legs and others, the fresher ones, were walking swiftly as if on the wings of demon
s. At least ten of them were close enough that I could easily see the cavernous red of their mouths and the long sharp teeth. The longer the teeth, the older the ghoul. Let me tell you, some of these guys had been around for quite a while.
“Don’t fire until you see the white or red of their eyes,” Debbs advised as she sent out a short burst of flame, making the darkness draw back as well as a naked ghoul who was slowly limping our way, dragging a leg that was only hanging on to its lanky frame by a small stretch of skin.
Jason came up beside me. “Be careful, V.J.”
I nodded as I noted how our headlamps highlighted the area as the ghouls drew closer passing by shining patches of tombstones. Some were in bad shape, rotten like the one dragging its leg; and one was more bone than flesh.
My stomach did a little lurch as a big heavily-fleshed ghoul, partially naked, hissed at me, his dark eyes almost dried out. I lifted my gun and fired two rounds hoping that my shots hit their target and killed it dead. I was so scared that I was shaking and my skin felt clammy against the cooling breezes of the night winds. Both my shots hit home. The special- made bullet struck the rotting ghoul’s chest and went into the chest a good half a foot. His face froze in surprise, then he burst into flame from the center of his chest and started howling.
Unfortunately, this only made the remaining ghouls angry. Their howls of outrage echoed in the cool night breezes. A burst of flame to my right let me know that Debbs was firing again. She got the second closest ghoul to us and it lit up like a firecracker, howling and screaming. She always kept a cool head in times of stress or monster attacks, her Van Helsing blood running true to form.
“Boy they stink!” She glanced at me quickly and nodded, her face filled with confidence in spite of the overwhelming number of ghouls attacking.
“Yeah.” I gulped hard. I could smell the stench of burning flesh as the two ghouls burned and ran in circles trying to stop the flames. That’s why fire works with the creatures. They don’t have the brain power to lie down and roll in the dirt. Instead they try to outrun the red-hot flames.
Behind me I heard Hart start shooting as he shouted at Debbs to watch her back. He carried an old-time six-shooter with silver nitrate bullets. They wouldn’t kill a ghoul unless it was a direct shot to the eyes. Fortunately, because of his uncle, Hart was an excellent shot. He killed a third ghoul which was leaping over a tombstone to attack us.
I heard Debbs yell at him. “Good shot, Hart! Keep it up!”
I took aim as I dropped to my knees and fired a round into the red gaping mouth of a female ghoul dressed in tattered remnants of a business suit. She was creeping up behind me. Her jaw and long matted hair caught on fire. She stopped her attack and began to dance around with her hands to her head.
I heard Jason shouting encouragement to me over the roaring in my head and the thick taste of fear in my mouth. My heart felt like it would pound out of my chest. I absolutely hated this. While I was regrouping and shoring up my courage, Debbs had taken out two more ghouls with her flame thrower.
Luckily, Jason had managed to shoot two more with his water pistol. I know, a water pistol against a ghoul is pitiful, but his was supersized and filled with Holy water. The Holy water was slowing them down, giving them acid burns as their skin melted and fell away like leaves falling from trees in the fall.
“Take that, you ugly bad-breath-biter!” Jason yelled. He had just gotten one in the face.
I swathe ghoul scream with pain before she dropped to all fours, shaking her head like a dog as pieces of her flesh were flung right and left. I gagged. Yeah, tough monster-killer me, has a weak stomach when it comes to bits of flesh flying about.
Even though our hits were accurate, there were far too many of them. For every one we destroyed or slowed down, there were two or more who kept coming on. There was movement around us. This wasn’t good.
“Let’s make a run for it!” I shouted, and saw Jason and Debbs nod. I turned back and started running hard. Within seconds I could feel other feet hitting the earth hard. Jason passed me with his runner’s body. He also ran track, which helped. It was also why head a runner’s fine bod.
“I so, don’t want to be a late-night snack!” From the corner of my eye I spotted Debbs keeping pace with me and I could hear Hart a few steps behind me. My heart was beating like it was about to burst. My throat was tight with fear as I ran listening to the howling and shrieks of rage of which you’ve never heard the like. I felt like I was in hell with burning ghouls and cries from the damned.
As we dodged tombstones looking for a place to make a better stand, I just hoped it wasn’t going to end like Custer’s last stand. Debbs ran off to the right.
Suddenly, she called out to us. “V.J, over here.” A large dark shape appeared out of the darkness and I ran with everything I had in me, breath wheezing and lungs on fire as I reached a family crypt with a large marble angel standing guard. Glancing up I saw that Debbs had climbed to the top of the angel like a monkey. Not all that surprising, since she’s trained in gymnastics, like all Van Helsings, which she uses to good advantage as a cheerleader.
Debbs began firing down at the ghouls with her flame thrower. I took up point underneath the angel while Hart knelt down a little to the right of me and began firing. Together the three of us took down seven more ghouls, making our grand total somewhere around seventeen.
“Oh goody, only twenty or more to go,” I said sarcastically. I looked over at Hart. He was pale, but stalwart, not budging from his stance as he continued to fire, then reload and fire again. “I’m almost out of bullets,” I yelled.
“This is lame,” Hart shouted, his eyes wide with fright, his face a mere shadow among many shadows as the clouds overhead grew thick with the threat of rain.
“Where Jason?” Debbs yelled.
“I don’t know,” I answered, heartsick that he might already be ghoul supper. I knew that we couldn’t go back to look for Jason or we’d all die. I wasn’t being a drama queen, just being a truth queen. Death lurked behind us, an ugly, painful death. If we went back into that rotted mess, more of us would die. Maybe all of us.
“Jason went to get the car and drive it here if he can,” Hart replied, his voice sounding raspy. “Geez, this is like Night of the Living Dead, but with ghouls instead of zombies. That didn’t end good for the humans.”
I could tell Hart was worried about his cousin. That eased the guilt. I hoped Jason made it. If we could reach the entrance to the cemetery, he could break through the gates with the CRV and drive part of the way to where we were before the tombstones got in the way. We just might make it.
It’s amazing what thoughts run through your mind when you’re fighting for your life. I wanted to tell Frankie, my little brother, and Roxie, my little sister, that I was sorry for picking on them. I wouldn’t tell Allie, because she deserved being picked on. I wanted to tell Jason I would date him again. He had kind of asked me to go to the movies about two months ago. I’d turned him down flat. I didn’t want to go back to dating him. He made a better friend than a boyfriend. He wasn’t so critical and he wasn’t always pushing for me to do more than kiss with him. I wasn’t going to do more than kiss. I know some people thought nothing about doing other stuff, but not me or Debbs. We weren’t ready and we didn’t care what other kids thought about it, which is another good thing about being a Van Helsing or a Frankenstein. We were leaders. Not followers. We weren’t the popular group at school, but we were well-known and basically liked. We did what we wanted to do and not what some other girl or boy told us to do to be liked. We hung strong and didn’t fold to peer pressure. And that’s a tough one, because peer pressure, is about as tough, well, like the same force of pressure as that in Niagara Falls.
Just then a ghoul leaped from behind the crypt, landing about three feet from where I stood. From shadows to substance in mere seconds made my breath catch and I quit thinking about Jason and peer pressure and waterfalls. I had important stuff to worry about like being g
houl dessert.
This ghoul in front of me was more bones than skin and he had rotted black teeth and nasty black claws which had once been fingernails. I could smell his stink from where I stood. I aimed hastily and wasted a shot as my heart raced and I felt my stomach leap into my throat. The ghoul’s eyes were dark and bloodshot and his teeth were razor sharp and at least three inches long. He snapped at me as I rolled away from him and Hart shot three or four times. Close enough that my ears started ringing.
Hart hit the ghoul in the shoulder, missing the heart shot. Still, it slowed him down. He fired again and hit the heart which I could see through the remaining flesh and rib cage. It was wrinkled and black and burst within the skeletal rib cage.
“Thanks, Hart, you saved me,” I told him gratefully as I scanned the distance between me and two more of the ghastly creatures.
Hart nodded, his throat moving convulsively as if he was trying not be sick. I understood all too completely. Ghoul hunting was the worst of the worst, and talk about stinky.
I shouted up to Debbs, “I’m out of ammo. Let’s get out of here.”
I saw her leap to the ground and start to run. I took off next with Hart following closely behind me.
We continued to run hard our breaths rasping in the dark along with the howls of pain from wounded ghouls and howls of rage from those hunting us. I wanted to puke and was mad because I didn’t have more ammunition. But never had I heard of more than twenty ghouls in any cemetery before. This wasn’t right. Still, my stupidity could get us all killed.
“Hurry up,” Hart yelled as he passed us, finally getting his second wind, his long-legged stride taking him several paces in front of us.
Just as he finished speaking, I heard Debbs yell. Turning, I saw two ghoulish hands rise up from the grave, grabbing her by the ankles.
“No,” I cried out and changed direction, heading towards her. Unfair, I thought all the ghouls had surfaced. They shouldn’t be able to have ghoul party crashers come late to the party of eating us.
