From Sunset Till Sunrise

by Jonathan Rosen

  “One.”

  “Don’t! I mean it!”

  “Two.”

  “Stop counting! You never tell me what the plan is before we do it!”

  “There’s no time! Three!”

  Tommy whipped garlic powder at the vampires and yanked open the door. “Let’s go!”

  “Into the vampires?”

  An object whooshed by my ear and hit the wall with a thunk. I didn’t even look to see what it was.

  With a loud bunny shriek, Mr. Flopsy-Ears leaped from the desk and landed on my back. He grabbed my hair like the reins of a horse.

  “Ow!” I screamed and smacked him off.

  I wasn’t going to give him another shot. I wasted no time. While the vampires were clearing the garlic from their eyes, I burst through them, knocking several to the ground.

  Tommy was already twenty feet in front of me down the hall.

  “Wait!” I yelled.

  “No!” he shouted back. “You catch up!”

  I sprinted as fast as I could, trying to make up ground. I had no idea where he was going, and unfortunately, I didn’t think he did either.

  Finally, I caught up to him as we turned the corner to the next hall. We skidded to a stop. We were back in the lobby, where the whole night started.

  Thankfully, no vampires were there, but lots of tables and chairs were overturned. Dishes littered the floor along with the bodies of some of the guests.

  Blood was everywhere.

  I covered my mouth. “Ugh.” I started to heave.

  “C’mon!” Tommy yelled. “We don’t have time for you to be sick.” He pointed to the bodies. “Or that’ll be us!” He ran to the front of the school and motioned for me to follow.

  The door was locked, but through the glass I could see the metal shutters that the DJ had triggered with the remote control.

  I yanked on the door, but it wouldn’t budge. “It’s locked.”

  Tommy looked around. “Wait, I got it.” He ran over, grabbed a chair, and flung it into the door. The glass shattered, shards flying out in every direction. He used the chair to knock out the remaining pieces stuck to the doorframe before pushing against the metal shutter.

  It had some give to it, but wouldn’t open.

  “Aaargh!” he screamed. “We’re stuck!”

  I fished the iPhone out of my pocket. “Still no reception.” I glanced at the clock. “It’s already five in the morning! We’ve been here the whole night! My mom is going to kill me!”

  “She’s not going to kill you! After she hears what you went through, she’s never going to yell at you about anything ever again.”

  “You don’t know my mom.”

  Tommy rattled the shutters. “Never mind that. Look for something that we can use to get out while I see if I can get this open.”

  “Like what?”

  “How should I know? That’s why you’re looking.”

  I sighed. He always did this to me. Always, half-telling. Never giving the full information.

  I started searching all the tables.

  What the heck could we use to open a metal shutter?

  From the distance, I heard shrieks getting closer.

  It sounded like …

  “Bats,” I muttered. “Tommy, they’re coming!”

  He rattled the shutters again. “I can’t get it open!”

  “We don’t have time for you to get it open! We have to get out of here!”

  The shrieking grew louder.

  “Pssst,” someone whispered.

  I scanned the area.

  “Devin!” Another whisper.

  “Lily?”

  “No! Down here.”

  I followed the voice and saw Herb waving to me from under the DJ table.

  He had the long blue tablecloth bunched around his neck. “Quick, get under here!”

  I took a step back. “No way! You’re a vampire!”

  He shook his head. “No, not anymore! You must’ve killed the one who turned me. I reverted back.”

  I thought back to all the vampires we had killed that night. “Maybe, but it could be that Mr. Moroi is dead.”

  His eyes widened. “You killed Mr. Moroi!”

  “Well, no. Mr. Flopsy-Ears did.”

  “Mr. Flopsy-Ears?”

  I nodded. “Yeah, he’s back.”

  His mouth was a thin line across his face. “That’s not good.”

  “Tell me about it! He almost killed me!”

  He frowned. “It’s just as I thought. Just what I told you about supernatural creatures. Mr. Flopsy-Ears is now a sworn enemy of yours and needs to be the one responsible for your death. He simply won’t tolerate you dying unless he has a hand in it.”

  “A sworn enemy?” I said. “I’m too young to have a sworn enemy.”

  Herb waved his hand in front of his face. “We can discuss that later! Right now, you need to get under here! They’ll be here at any moment.”

  “Are you sure you’re not a vampire?”

  He held the tablecloth up. “Get under here!”

  “Okay, okay!” I called out. “Tommy!”

  He looked over.

  I motioned for him. “Get under here, fast!”

  “What? Why?”

  “No explanations now. Just get over here!”

  He ran across the room and slid under the table.

  I jumped under and pulled the tablecloth down, moments before we heard the savage sounds of snarling fill the lobby.

  Herb held his index finger to his lips.

  He didn’t have to tell me twice. I kept quiet. Too afraid to make a sound.

  All around us, there were growls.

  I mouthed, “What do we do?”

  Herb held his hand up. Soon there were the sounds of yelping, like wounded dogs.

  “Devin?”

  “Abby?” I whispered.

  Tommy, Herb, and I glanced at each other.

  “Devin, where are you?”

  I reached for the tablecloth but Herb snatched my wrist. “Don’t!”

  “I saw you run in this direction, and I hid until the vampires left,” Abby said. “I’m not a vampire anymore. I turned back.”

  I looked at Herb. “She changed back, like you did. Maybe we killed the one who bit her also?”

  Herb’s brow furrowed. “I guess it’s possible. But when I turned back I didn’t see her near me.”

  “That doesn’t mean anything!” I said. “We have to go out to her.”

  Herb shook his head. “Wait.”

  “Devin, please!” Abby’s voice cracked. “I’m scared.”

  “It’s a trap!” Tommy said. “Your sister never gets scared of anything.” He held up the pencil gun. “I think we have to eliminate her.”

  I knocked his arm down. “Will you stop with the eliminating already!” I grabbed the bottom of the table cloth. “Just one quick look.”

  I lifted the bottom of the tablecloth and peeked out.

  From my angle I could see just her legs. She wasn’t moving.

  There was nobody else around.

  I turned back to Herb and Tommy. “She’s alone. We have to get her now!”

  Tommy frowned. “I don’t like it.”

  “So what do you want me to do?” I asked. “Just leave her there?”

  Tommy raised an eyebrow. “Wait, is that an option? Because I can’t tell if you’re being serious right now.”

  “No, I’m not being serious. We have to go save her because we’re not staying under the table waiting for them to find us.”

  Tommy bit his lip. “Are those the only two choices we have?”

  “Listen to me. Those shutters are down, so there’s nowhere else to go.” I pointed at the tablecloth. “Unless we get out of here we’ll be trapped, and this hiding spot isn’t going to fool anybody for very long.”

  Herb sighed. “Okay, I know we have to save her, but the problem is we’re just taking her word about what happened.”

  “She sounds normal,�
� I said. “Well, normal for Abby.”

  “Let’s be safe,” Herb said. “Devin, you take the cross.” He handed it me. “Tommy, you take the gun, and I’ll take the Super Soaker.”

  “Wait! Why do you get the Super Soaker?” Tommy asked.

  “Because I’m the one who brought it.” He snatched it from Tommy.

  Tommy pouted. “Aww, man! Fine!” He took out a pencil gun from the backpack.

  “Are we ready?” Herb asked.

  I took a deep breath and nodded.

  He turned to Tommy. “And you?”

  Tommy lifted the pencil gun. “Ready.”

  Herb grabbed the bottom of the tablecloth. “Let’s go save Abby and kill some vampires.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  LET THE SUNSHINE IN

  If I was going to be honest, somewhere in the back of my mind, I always had the feeling that Abby would be responsible for killing me.

  And that was even before she had turned into a vampire.

  Now, I had no idea if she was still one or not. But when we jumped out from under the DJ’s table and were surrounded by over a hundred vampires, it kind of brought all those other memories flooding back.

  Abby stood motionless, staring straight ahead.

  If that had been her calling out to me it would’ve been a fantastic trick, since she didn’t seem to be aware of anything going on around her.

  All around us were snarling, hissing vampires, with about a five-foot invisible barrier on all sides. Herb, Tommy, and I held them at bay, but there were so many of them. Every time one lunged at us, I thrust the cross out and it turned away.

  I wasn’t sure if they didn’t realize how easily they could have overwhelmed us, or if none of them wanted to be the first one sacrificed. Either way, we couldn’t stay like this forever. Eventually they would figure this out. We would get tired. I wasn’t sure if they could.

  “What do we do?” I asked.

  “Keep in formation!” Herb yelled.

  Tommy scooted back some. “I told you we should’ve left her!”

  “Shut up, Tommy!” I said.

  I glanced over at Abby. She was still expressionless. It was like she was in a daze. Hypnotized.

  Somebody whistled. The vampires all stopped snarling and backed away.

  There was silence.

  “What’s going on?” I whispered.

  Suddenly, I heard footsteps echoing throughout the lobby. A path cleared.

  Bryce came into view. He walked over to Abby and put his hand on her shoulder. “Hello, Devin.” He smiled.

  “Where’s Lily?” I asked.

  “Don’t worry about Lily.” He smiled. His fangs were out. “She’ll be just fine. As a matter of fact, I sent Delia after her.” He laughed. “But let’s talk about this little one.” He rested his hand on Abby’s head. “Watch this. Hello, Devin.” He said it, but it was in Abby’s voice. “Help me, Devin, I’m surrounded.”

  The vampires laughed.

  Bryce shrugged. “You like that one? It’s quite simple, really. We can impersonate voices. Vampires are natural actors. Makes the theater school a logical fit. A great way to lure humans over. Never a good idea to be their friends. Mr. Moroi forgot that, and look what it got him.” He pointed to us. “Moroi wanted to trust; them and look what happened. They killed him!”

  “Wait!” I lifted my arms. “We didn’t kill him! I swear!”

  Bryce laughed again. “Nice try. We saw your handi-work in that room. I told him you couldn’t be trusted, he didn’t listen.”

  “Wait,” I said. “He didn’t want to eat us?”

  “Eat you?” Bryce shrieked. “He practically wanted you to be the lead in his next play.” He frowned. “Sickening. But still, he didn’t deserve to die at the hands of some human garbage.”

  “We didn’t kill him!” I said. “It was Mr. Flopsy-Ears!”

  Yeah, I heard how stupid that sounded too.

  The vampires grew silent.

  Bryce’s brow furrowed. “Who?”

  I was too far in to stop now. “A murderous stuffed bunny.”

  Yeah, we were dead.

  The room erupted in laughter until Bryce quieted everyone down. “I never agreed with him about things, but he deserved better than to be killed by the likes of you. Thankfully, we’ll have some new management in this place. But first things first.”

  Before my eyes, his fingernails grew into sharp-looking points. He traced one slowly over Abby’s head and down her face until he reached her throat.

  I clenched the cross in my hand. “Stay away from her.”

  Bryce smirked. “Or what?”

  All of the vampires laughed again.

  Bryce snapped his fingers and they grew instantly silent. He turned back to me. “Devin, by the time you’d reach me I could have her throat slit many times over.” He held up his hand. “But I won’t kill her if I don’t have to.” He patted her head. “As a matter of fact, she’s a natural.” He took a step toward me. “I haven’t seen a girl take to being a vampire this naturally since …” He shrugged. “Well, since Lily.”

  Her name froze me over. I scanned the room. “Where is she?”

  He snarled. “I told you, don’t worry about her! We’ll take care of her later. For now, we have to deal with you.” He shook his head. “You know we can’t let you leave. Not with what you’ve seen.”

  “We won’t tell anyone about you or this school,” I said. “I promise. Just please let us go.”

  He clicked his tongue. “Devin, we can’t trust you now. You know too much.” He grinned. “So you have a couple of choices.” He held up two fingers. “Either you come join us and be a part of our clan … or we kill you.”

  “What was the first one again?” Tommy asked.

  “Quiet!” I hissed, and turned back to Bryce. “We don’t want to be vampires. We want to go home to our family. Please.”

  Bryce shook his head. “That’s not one of the options, Devin.” He put his hand around Abby’s neck and tightened his grip.

  Black blood trickled from her throat.

  “Stop it!” I yelled.

  “Join us or die!” he screamed.

  “Please!” Tears started to well in my eyes.

  He reared his other hand back. “You’d better think fast.”

  I frantically scanned the area, searching for either a way out or something that we could use against them, when I saw the remote on the DJ’s desk.

  I glanced at the shutters.

  A small sliver of light at the spot where Tommy had bent.

  “It’s daytime,” I whispered.

  “What?” Tommy said.

  “I’ll give you ’til three,” Bryce said. “And then your sister says bye-bye.”

  I turned to the DJ’s table and saw two turntables, a microphone, and the remote. I turned to Herb. “I have an idea.”

  “Well, you better make it fast,” Herb said.

  “One.”

  The vampires started hissing and closing in.

  “That remote that the DJ used to close the shutters. It’s on the table.”

  “WHAT?” Herb and Tommy said simultaneously.

  “So use it now!” Tommy said.

  “Two.”

  “I can’t! If Abby is a vampire, it’ll kill her.”

  “But—” Tommy started to say.

  “No time!” I yelled. “You’ll know when.”

  “And …” Bryce said.

  “Just do it!” I grabbed the edge of the table cloth and yanked it out from under the turntables, sending them crashing to the ground. The mic and remote flew up into the air. I didn’t stop to see what would happen.

  I rushed straight at Bryce.

  His eyes widened. The vampires hissed, turned their attention to me, and attacked. There were bursts of sharp, jolting pain from where they clawed at me, but I pushed through.

  I leaped straight at Bryce and Abby.

  He released his hold on her and took a step back. He snarled a
nd held his claws out.

  I knocked Abby to the ground and wrapped the tablecloth around her.

  “Now!” I screamed.

  Nothing happened.

  The vampires swarmed me. Searing, sharp pain went through me as several vampires clawed into me. My arms, shoulders, chest, and legs.

  “Now!” I yelled again.

  What the heck is taking them so long?

  “Stop!” Bryce yelled. “He’s mine!” He pulled several of them off and grabbed me by my throat. He bared his fangs. “I’m not going to let them eat you. You’ve killed way too many of my friends tonight. Instead, I’ll make you a mindless, zombie slave. You’ll be serving us for an eternity. Helpless to stop it. You’ll watch as we devour your family, your friends, your—”

  “What is going on?” I screamed.

  Bryce dug his nails into my throat.

  I grabbed his wrist, but he was too strong.

  With his other hand, he held his index finger to his lips. “Shhh! It’ll all be over soon.” He opened his mouth wide. His fangs grew before me. “Goodbye, Devin.”

  Suddenly, a buzzer went off.

  Bryce and the other vampires all whirled toward the front. Fear was carved into their faces.

  Instantly, the shutters popped open, bathing the room in sunlight. It reflected off the chandelier and shot its way throughout the room. Vampire shrieks filled the air. The sound of sizzling, like bacon frying in a pan.

  Smoke everywhere.

  All around me, vampires either melted or exploded, sending vampire chunks shooting out in all directions. Bryce’s face melted like hot candle wax. First the skin, then the flesh, until finally the eyes.

  A skeleton in clothes collapsed to the ground and splintered off across the floor.

  I looked around the room. There were vampire puddles and parts all over.

  Tommy and Herb raced to my side. Tommy put his hand on my shoulder. “Are you okay?”

  I looked up at him. “What took the two of you so long?”

  “It’s not my fault!” Tommy said. “When you knocked the remote off the table, it hit the floor and the batteries rolled out. Herb and I had to crawl around looking for them.”

  “I must say,” Herb said. “It’s not so easy finding a battery among blood and body parts. It’s like the proverbial needle in a haystack.”

  The tablecloth started to squirm.