Polar (Prequel): The Turnagain Arm

by Julie Flanders

  “Washington? There’s nothing for me there, Vasyl.”

  “We could go anywhere then. Pack this place up…”

  “We’ve worked hard to build this business.”

  “We can do it again.”

  Lara shook her head. “I can’t think of that right now.”

  “Alright, alright, forget I mentioned it. With luck the railroad officers will find who did this and the camp can go back to normal.”

  “I hope so.”

  “All I know for sure is I’ll feel better with that Russian out of here.”

  Lara gave her husband a faint smile. “I never should have talked you in to hiring him.”

  “So you agree with me that he could be behind all this??”

  “I don’t know. I told you I don’t know what I believe. I can’t even think straight. I can’t think at all without seeing those bodies…” Lara closed her eyes as if trying to will the bloody image from her mind. “But I know Aleksei upsets you, darling. And you don’t need that right now. None of us do.”

  Vasyl crossed the room and took the bowl from his wife’s hands. He placed it on the wooden table and put his arms around her, holding her tight as she buried her face in his shoulder.

  “We’ll be fine, Lara. Whoever killed those men went too far. This will be an armed fortress now until they catch the killer. And we can take care of ourselves anyway, you know that.”

  Lara nodded into his shoulder. “I know, I know…”

  “It’s the shock that’s got to all of us. Nobody should have to see anything like that.”

  “I’ve never seen such a terrible thing. Have you, darling?”

  Vasyl stroked Lara’s hair and avoided the question. “Please try to stop thinking about it.”

  Lara stepped back and kissed him softly on the lips before returning to her cooking. “I need to get breakfast ready,” she said. “The workers need some comfort today. Something normal.”

  Vasyl nodded and grabbed a bucket of soapy water. “We all do,” he said.

  He left the kitchen and walked out into the saloon. As he prepared to clean the bar, he wrestled with the decision of whether or not he should tell his wife about his family and his book of spells. Perhaps he could ease her mind by telling her about the protection spells he knew and planned to use to help keep them safe. But would she be angry that he had never discussed his history with her before? Would she find him mad for even believing in the power of witchcraft?

  She didn’t need any more anxiety, of that Vasyl was sure. He’d keep his history to himself for now. Perhaps when the baby was born he’d share it with her.

  There was no reason to bring it up now. For now, all he wanted to think about was getting rid of Aleksei Nechayev.

  ***

  Chapter 11

  Aleksei could smell the terror that permeated the camp as he walked towards the Turnagain Arm to begin another night of work. The scene of his crime had been covered up with tarps and roped off by the rail security officers, who now buzzed about the camp like flies, but of course he needed only to turn to his memory to see and smell the scene in vivid detail. It was all he could do to mask his delight with an expression of concern as he walked into the bar.

  “Did you hear what happened, Aleksei?” the worker named James asked as soon as he entered the room. “Can you believe it?”

  Aleksei wondered what question he was supposed to answer first. And as usual, he wasn’t entirely sure whether the American really wanted an answer to whether or not he believed the event happened. He stuck with the first question.

  “I did. It’s horrifying.”

  “It sure is.”

  “Do they have any idea who would do such a thing?”

  James shook his head. “Not that I’ve heard. Some folks think it’s the Aleuts behind it.”

  Ah yes, Aleksei thought. In the short time he’d been in Alaska, it had been impossible not to notice the migrants’ distaste for the region’s natives.

  “I wonder,” he said. “I heard some saying there was a knife at the scene. Were you there? Did you see it?”

  “I surely did. A big butcher knife just dripping with blood lying right there on the ground next to those poor bastards.”

  “Aleksei?” Vasyl said, calling from the kitchen and interrupting the conversation. “Can I speak to you, please?”

  “Of course, Mr. Dzubenko.” He nodded goodbye to James and walked to the kitchen. “What is it?”

  “I’d like to talk to you outside.”

  The two walked out the back door of the saloon into the chilly night outside. “What is it?” Aleksei asked again.

  “Lara and I aren’t going to need your services anymore. I’ll pay you your wages for tonight and give you a week’s pay to help you get set up someplace else but I don’t need you to stay.”

  “What?”

  “I believe you heard me,” Vasyl said.

  “Have I done something to displease you?”

  “No, no, that’s not it at all. We simply need to tighten our belts. I can’t afford your salary anymore.”

  Aleksei stared down at Vasyl with a look that made him take a step back towards the saloon. He put his hand against the wall and steadied himself before reaching for the money in his pocket.

  “Like I said, I’ve got your pay here. But you can leave now.”

  Aleksei took two steps towards Vasyl and stared straight into his eyes. “I like working here,” he said. “You’re not getting rid of me.”

  Vasyl swallowed the fear that rose in his throat. “This is my saloon and I’ll do as I please. Leave now before I withdraw the offer of extra pay.”

  Aleksei stepped forward again and put a hand on the wall next to Vasyl’s head. “I’m not leaving, Mr. Dzubenko.”

  Vasyl stared into the soulless eyes of the blond man now towering over him and recalled the chapters he’d read in his magic books about the undead that haunted the night. There was no doubt in his mind now. He knew what Aleksei was. He slid a shaking hand into his pocket and withdrew the crucifix he’d taken from his trunk earlier that evening.

  “Get away from me,” he yelled, holding the crucifix out in front of his body.

  As Vasyl knew he would, Aleksei snarled and jumped back. Vasyl stretched his arm to its full length, forcing the vampire back even more.

  “Get away from me and get out of this camp!”

  To Vasyl’s surprise, Aleksei started to laugh. He bent forward and put his hands on his knees as if trying to compose himself. When he stood back up and faced Vasyl, two fangs protruded from his mouth.

  “I have to say I’m impressed, Mr. Dzubenko. I knew there was something different about you. But I didn’t suspect you knew what I was. I should have though. We know all about my kind in the old country, don’t we?”

  “I’m not from your country, beast. I’ll tell you again, leave this camp.”

  “Or what? что вы собираетесь делать?”

  Vasyl faltered, momentarily taken aback by the switch to Russian. He knew that was what the creature wanted.

  “What am I going to do?” he asked, repeating Aleksei’s question back to him. “I’ll kill you, that’s what I’ll do.”

  Aleksei started to laugh again. “How? Do you think you can stake me?” He took a step towards Dzubenko again.

  “Get back!” Vasyl yelled in Ukrainian.

  Aleksei stopped walking. “Do you know how easy it would be for me to knock that cross out of your hand? I could break your arm before you even knew I was coming for you.”

  To prove his point, Aleksei disappeared into the trees in a blur of movement. He returned and was speaking again before Vasyl could follow where he had gone.

  Vasyl recited the words of a protection spell his father had taught him after he’d learned of the family magic. He didn’t need his books for this one. The words were firmly planted in his memory in spite of the decades that had passed since he’d last used them.

  “Is that a spel
l?” Aleksei asked. “So you’re a witch then, are you? I knew I sensed something about you.”

  Vasyl continued mumbling the spell.

  “Oh do shut up, Mr. Dzubenko, please. Your magic is useless against me.”

  Vasyl shook his head and continued his spell.

  “Okay,” Aleksei said. “You go right ahead with your магия. But I’ll tell you how it’s going to go. I like working at your saloon. And the fact that you know what I am doesn’t change that. So you’re going to forget this silly notion of yours and I’m going to go in and do my job just like I have every other night.”

  Vasyl finished his spell just as the vampire stopped talking “I don’t want you in my saloon!” he yelled.

  “And I don’t care what you want.” Aleksei pulled in his fangs and gave Vasyl an icy smile. “All that matters is that you do what I want.”

  “I won’t. And I’ll tell the others what you are.”

  “And you think they’ll believe you? How about if I tell them what you are? Do they know? Have you even told that pretty wife of yours that you’re a witch, Vasyl?”

  Vasyl’s face burned red. “Don’t you speak of my wife.”

  Aleksei chuckled. “I won’t. You do as I say, and I not only won’t speak of her, I won’t lay a hand on her either.”

  Vasyl’s hands shook with rage as he struggled to hold onto the crucifix in front of him. Aleksei’s threat was as chilling as it was obvious.

  “You can put the cross down. I’m not going to hurt you. In fact, I’m just going to go back inside and get to work. You should go upstairs and get some rest. Check on your wife.” Aleksei glided past Vasyl and headed towards the back door of the saloon. “We’ll pretend this conversation never happened.”

  He walked inside, leaving Vasyl alone and shivering from both cold and fear. He let his arm fall to his side and collapsed on his knees as he the crucifix dropped onto the ground beside him.

  ***

  Chapter 12

  “Lara, Lara, wake up, please,” Vasyl said as he gently shook his wife’s shoulder. She opened her eyes and immediately sat up, alarmed.

  “Vasyl! What is it? Has something else happened?”

  “It’s Nechayev. He’s a monster, Lara. A monster!”

  Lara grabbed her husband’s shaking hands in her own. “Shhh, darling. Calm down. What has Aleksei done?”

  Vasyl stared into his wife’s pale blue eyes and silently begged her to believe him. “It’s not what he’s done. Although I know now he is the one responsible for all the trouble here. It’s what he is. He’s not human at all. He’s a vampire.”

  Lara sat back against her pillows and stared at her husband with concern. She gently took his face in her hands.

  “Vasyl,” she said quietly. “You’re not talking sense. Please, try to calm down.”

  “I am calm. And I’m telling you the truth. Please, you have to believe me. We have a beast downstairs right now who is pretending to be human.”

  Vasyl watched as the concern on his wife’s face deepened. Desperate, he jumped from their bed and pulled out his trunk. He opened it and took out his books.

  “My father gave me these when I was young,” he said. “They explain about Aleksei and the beasts like him. He was a witch, Lara, he knew about these things. My family – we’re all witches.”

  “You’re scaring me, Vasyl.”

  “I should have told you a long time ago, I know. But I didn’t think I would ever be faced with it here. I didn’t want to practice. I wanted to leave all that behind in Ukraine.” The image of his burned little sister came unbidden into his mind, bringing tears to Vasyl’s eyes. “I never wanted to practice magic again, Lara. When I was young and foolish I hurt someone with my magic and I swore I’d never use it again. But now I know I have to do it. I have to get rid of him.”

  He returned to the bed and took his wife’s hands in his again. “I know no one wants to believe in magic and monsters anymore. Nobody wants to talk about them. But the Slavic people, we know about these things. We’ve never forgotten them. Aleksei would have known it too, long before he became what he is.”

  “Why are you telling me all this?”

  “Because when I tried to tell him I wanted him gone he threatened me. He showed himself, bared his fangs.”

  “Fangs?” Lara asked, growing increasingly alarmed. “Vasyl, have you been drinking? Please, try to calm down.”

  “I am calm! Please, darling, you have to believe me. And we’re not safe now that Aleksei knows that I know the truth about him.”

  “He threatened to hurt you?”

  “Yes. And he threatened you as well. He’s a devil, Lara. He truly is!”

  “Did he kill all of those men? And Rebecca?”

  “He did. I’m sure of it.” Vasyl shook his head. “He can enchant people. Put them under a spell almost. That’s why everyone likes him so much. That’s why he could learn English so quickly. He’s not human. Please, I need you to believe me.”

  Lara stared at her wild-eyed husband, the practical and straight-forward man who had won her heart from the moment he’d shown up to buy her waffles. She knew he was not one to make up wild stories. She knew he believed everything he was saying. He needed her to believe him.

  “I believe you, darling,” she finally said, unsure if she was actually telling the truth.

  Vasyl leaned forward and kissed her. “Thank you,” he whispered.

  “But what is it you want to do? Do we need to leave here?”

  Vasyl stood up and returned to his books. He picked up the book of spells and sat back down next to his wife. “I can stop him. I can get rid of him. So he can’t hurt us or anyone else.”

  “How?”

  “With fire. He’s vulnerable to fire. That’s one of the only things that can kill him.” He paged through the book and stopped at the spell he was looking for. “I can set him on fire and destroy him.”

  “God in heaven, Vasyl. How do you know you can do such a thing?”

  “Because I did it before. Back home in the Ukraine. I accidentally burned my sister with fire I conjured from a spell. I was arrogant and couldn’t control my power. But I can now. I know what the power is and I respect it. I can burn Aleksei with fire.”

  Lara blinked tears from her eyes. “I can’t believe we’re speaking of such a thing.”

  “It’s what has to be done! None of us can match him physically. And our guns, our knives – they won’t hurt him.”

  “What are you planning? When are you going to do this?”

  “Tomorrow night. That’s when it has to be done. He won’t come out during the day. The sun burns him, that’s why we never see him during the day. Why he said he wanted to work at night. He never worked on the rails like he said, that was all a lie. He couldn’t have. He can’t be outside in the daylight. That’s why he didn’t even come out when everyone was screaming about the dead guards this morning.”

  “Okay. So what are you going to do tomorrow night?”

  “I need to lure him away from here. I can’t let anyone else get hurt. I’ll do it in the woods.” He stared at his wife. “Tomorrow evening when he comes to work, you tell him I want to speak with him privately. Say I asked that he meet me out back in the woods behind his tent. Tell him you’ll be working the bar while we talk.”

  “What makes you think he’ll agree to this?”

  Vasyl thought back to the vampire laughing in his face. “He’ll be amused by it. He’s so arrogant, Lara. He doesn’t believe I can hurt him. He’ll want to meet with me just to taunt me.”

  “What if this…”Lara shook her head, unable to believe she was actually speaking the words. “This spell you say you can do. What if it doesn’t work? What if he hurts you?”

  “It will work, trust me. I just need to study tonight and remember.” Vasyl pointed to his forehead. “It’s all in here,” he said with a smile. “The Dzubenkos have been the most powerful witches in the Ukraine for centuries.”

  La
ra returned his smile, realizing that in spite of the lunacy of the situation, she truly did believe her husband. They had all known something was terribly wrong around the camp. In spite of the protest from her rational mind, she somehow knew that Vasyl’s explanation was correct. “Look at me,” she said. “Married to a witch. Who would have guessed?”

  “I have to do this, darling. Not just for us, but for our baby. This monster, he won’t leave us alone now. He won’t stop coming after us. And he won’t stop killing the rail people. He sees these camps as his own personal dinner bowls.”

  “We’ll stop him then,” Lara whispered. “We’ll go through your books tonight and we’ll stop him.”

  Vasyl smiled and kissed his wife’s hands. “We will.”

  ***

  Chapter 13

  If there was one thing Aleksei was sure of, it was that James Hawkins was one of the stupidest human beings he had ever met. And considering the rampant stupidity of the species that was quite a feat. But James was exactly what Aleksei wanted. He was a perfect pawn.

  “So James,” he said as he poured the man another shot of whiskey. James was his last remaining customer. The other workers had all wanted to leave in groups for fear of walking alone with the murderer of the guards at large. And the whores had been too scared to leave their tent at all. “Tell me again about that knife you saw by those dead men.”

  “It was the biggest damn butcher knife I ever saw. And there was blood all over it. Whoever this murderer is, he must have gutted those men with that knife ’fore he broke their necks.”

  “You know, I haven’t been able to find the butcher knife Mr. Dzubenko uses here in the kitchen. It was in the drawer last night, but now it’s gone.”

  “That so?”

  “Yes. It’s strange isn’t it?”

  “Why’s it strange?”

  “A weird coincidence. There aren’t too many butcher knives around the camp I don’t imagine.”

  “You think somebody broke in here and stole Mr. Dzubenko’s knife to kill those guards?”

  Aleksei shrugged his shoulders and poured more whiskey, encouraging James to drink up and quench his thirst. “I don’t know. I guess I was wondering more about Mr. Dzubenko himself.”