The Vampire Underground

by Brian Rowe

“I don’t know. Anything!”

  “Go cruise for girls?” Ash said with a smile.

  He shook his head. “Anything but that.”

  “Dad! I like girls!”

  The man frowned. “I know you do.”

  “And you’re gonna have to get used to it.”

  The father stared at his son for a moment, before crossing his arms. “So if that’s the case, what’s the story with you and Brin?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Are you ever gonna come to your senses and ask that girl out on a date? Like… a real date?”

  Ash stood up and kicked his DVDs against the bottom shelf. “Dad, don’t be gross. We’ve known each other since we were six. We’re friends. We’ll always be just friends.”

  “You’re telling me the thought has never crossed your mind?”

  Ash shook his head and walked toward the hallway. His father stopped him by sticking his arm out.

  “Whoa, hey,” his dad said, “where do you think you’re going?”

  “I’m gonna take a little drive. I want to get into some trouble,” Ash said, and then he sported an exaggerated smile. “Per your suggestion.”

  “Let me guess,” he said. “You want to find Brin.”

  “No.”

  “No?”

  “Maybe. Just… please. Can you move?”

  Dad number two moved to the side, but not before he leaned down and hugged his son with his large, muscular arms.

  “Dad, you don’t have to hug me every day.”

  “Why not?”

  “Cuz I’m sixteen. I’m not a kid anymore.”

  His dad shook his head and patted him on the back. “You’ll always be my special little guy.”

  “Even when I’m fifty?”

  “Even when you’re ninety.”

  Ash stared at his dad with a perplexed expression. “I don’t think you’re gonna be alive when I’m ninety.”

  “Stranger things have happened,” his dad said. “Now scat.”

  Ash ran through the house as fast as he could so he didn’t have to suffer any more pep talks or hug marathons. He sped past his younger brother in the kitchen, kicked open the side door, and found his car at the edge of the driveway. By the time he was in his Volkswagon Beetle and speeding down the one-lane road, he felt like he was finally safe from torment. He loved his dads—he always would. But they still treated him like a child, and he was now anything but.

  “All right, Brin,” he said to himself, glancing down at his phone, “let’s see if you’ve made it home.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  The pain intensified with each and every hurried step. She kept waiting for the ground beneath her to rumble again, open wide, and swallow her whole, sending her past the vampire purgatory toward the center of the earth.

  Brin knew she only had one more hill to climb and descend, but it felt impossible to conquer. Her feet were hard as stone, and her coughing, which had sprung up unexpectedly in the last few minutes, was out of control. Halfway up the hill, she collapsed and fell against the snowy ground.

  “No,” she said to herself, her loud cough echoing across the valley. “Come on. Get up.”

  She tried crawling for a minute, but then her hands became shaking nobs of numb sludge. She tried to stand back up, but her feet had minds of their own at the moment and preferred to stay planted on the ground.

  “Come on…”

  She tried to push herself up the hill, but it was too steep. She needed more strength. She needed help, but no one was around to give it.

  “Help!” Brin shouted, followed by another loud cough. “Somebody, please!”

  She knew nobody would answer. She was too far away from the ghost town for any of her group members to hear her.

  But she tried anyway. “Dylan? Lavender?” The only answer she received was in the form of a whispering wind.

  Brin stared up at the winter stars, which were sparkling in the clear black sky.

  This is it, she thought. I’m gonna die out here. I’m gonna die out here in the snow, all alone, that is… if another one of those vampires doesn’t find me first.

  Her next thought was: Too late.

  She heard the soft footsteps behind her. “Dylan?” she said, naively. “Is that you?”

  When the red glow appeared over the top of the hill, Brin knew she was done for. There she was, lying in the snow, live bait for the vampires to feed on.

  She looked down at her layers of clothing, wondering if the vampire clan liked to munch on that, too, or if they were like zombies, and merely preferred the flesh.

  They like neither, she reminded herself. They like blood. They just want my blood.

  Her neck didn’t hurt anymore; it was currently numb. But the longer she stayed out in the cold, with no shelter or food or water, the more her everlasting headache slowly turned into an overwhelming dizziness.

  “Hello?” she said again, hoping to get some kind of answer, even if that answer was to be a low, ferocious growl.

  She looked up. The red eyes stared back at her.

  But they weren’t the red eyes of just anyone. Standing before her, a few feet up the hill, was a man, the same one she had seen by the frozen lake when the group initially arrived in the area. He looked ready to enjoy a thick bloody milkshake, yet Brin couldn’t help but notice that he had an innocence to his face; the vampire appeared harmless.

  But you’re not harmless, are you? You can’t be.

  “Please… help me…” She reached her hand out.

  The man, she realized now, wasn’t a man at all, but a teenager, close to her age, maybe a year or two older. The glow of his red eyes bouncing against the fullness of the moon above allowed Brin to get a proper look at his pasty face.

  It was surprisingly pleasant, Brin couldn’t help but think, given the repulsive visage of the older creature she had just killed. She looked past the white face and the red eyes. His cheeks were thin, but his lips were plump, and his cute little chin was proud and prominent. His hair was parted down the right side, and the color of the red in his eyes amazingly lessened, not brightened, the closer he moved toward her.

  When his foot came close enough to strike Brin in the face, she braced herself for impact. She didn’t know what this creature of the night wanted from her. When he didn’t move for a second, and instead analyzed her features, she wondered if, miraculously, this mysterious young vampire would refrain from getting drunk off her blood.

  She put her arm out. “Please… don’t hurt me…”

  He turned his head to the left, and then to the right, like he was thinking about what to do. The fact that he hadn’t pounced on her yet made her confident that this creature didn’t want to hurt her.

  Wrong again.

  His mouth opened wide, and Brin saw fangs inside his mouth the size of darts. His eyes, which had almost resumed normalcy, shot back to bright red again. She didn’t know what had changed his mood, until she turned her head around, realizing he had caught sight of the blood oozing out of her neck.

  He dropped down to his knees and got on all fours, like a wild animal. He crept by her legs, her arms, her torso. He opened his mouth wide, and aimed it straight for her neck.

  “Nooooo,” Brin said. She could feel tears welling up in her eyes. She hoped they wouldn’t turn into ice particles.

  She closed her eyes and waited for the vampire’s teeth to sink into her.

  Chapter Nineteen

  She closed her eyes and breathed through her nose. She felt the figure’s breath land against her neck. She wanted to fight back. She didn’t want it to end this way. But she was too weak. She couldn’t go on.

  The breath lingered. She wondered if he was searching for the perfect spot. But as ten seconds became thirty, Brin opened her eyes. He hadn’t touched her.

  Instead, he looked to be sucking on his own blood.

  She stared at the creature in horror as he tore through his right wrist with his teeth and let the blood drip do
wn his arm.

  “What…”

  He averted his eyes, both still bright red, to Brin, and he shoved his wrist up against her mouth. Droplets of ice cold—not warm—blood struck her tongue, and she wanted to gag. Even worse, the blood was black, not red. She turned her face to the right and let the blood splash against her left cheek.

  “What are you doing?” Brin said.

  “Drink,” he said, uttering his first word. His voice wasn’t low and scary like the other ones she had heard; his was smooth and calming.

  “No! I won’t!”

  “There’s no time,” he said, and he shoved his wrist back up against her mouth.

  She looked back into his eyes. The red slowly faded back out. After a few seconds, only a hint of red in his eyes remained, now tiny sparkles buried deep inside his corneas.

  Brin closed her eyes again. She didn’t want to vomit but knew it was a likely outcome to this unthinkable scenario.

  She let more drops hit her throat.

  “Good,” he said. “Keep going.”

  More drops followed. She pressed her lips against his wrist and started slurping his blood like it was Cherry Coke. It was extra salty, not at all like the gloppy putrid flavor she was expecting, and she was able to keep it down without gagging or choking.

  “Good,” he said, bringing his hands down to his sides.

  She swallowed the last of it and stared forward. She felt the jolt of adrenaline first up top; it was as if she had taken fifteen Red Bulls. Her headache was gone, and her mind was now clear.

  Then she sat up, without difficulty, not feeling any pain in her shoulders or arms or back. She didn’t even feel cold.

  She jumped up to her feet and looked down in amazement. She could bend her knees and stretch her legs. She felt hypnotized with unwavering positive energy.

  “It won’t last long,” he said. “Hurry.”

  He started backing away.

  “Wait,” Brin said. She didn’t reach out to him. She leapt forward and latched onto his coat. They were almost the same height, he an inch taller. “Where are you going?”

  “I shouldn’t be here,” he said. “You shouldn’t be here.”

  The loud rumbling returned, and the ground started to shake, again. She stared at the vampire, ready to ask for help, when he shook his arms out of her grasp and pushed her down to the ground.

  “Hey!” she shouted.

  She could feel the enormity of the supposed earthquake as her body sprawled out on the ground. It didn’t feel like anything was shifting underneath the soil; it felt like another world existed beneath her, waiting for her, watching her, wanting her to come down and join the party.

  She shook herself out of her daze and turned around. The figure was gone.

  Where…

  Brin darted her eyes in every direction, but he was gone. And she knew, at this moment, she needed to focus on herself.

  “Oh shit,” Brin said, noticing a small opening in the ground a few yards up ahead. A crazy part of her thought about diving in, to see what kind of Hell existed beneath. The smart part of her, however, took hold; she stood up and moved away from the opening.

  Her newfound energy hadn’t depleted. She ran past the shaky ground, past the thick snow and boulders and rocks in her way, until she reached the top of the hill.

  She wanted to stop and look back to see if the shaking had ceased or not. But she didn’t feel like risking death. Brin kept on running, down the hill, toward the town, toward the three members of her film group she hoped were still alive.

  Unless, she thought, the vampires got to them, too.

  She started running even faster, but instead of immediately tiring, she could feel a strong power entering her system. The snow beneath her feet slowed her down, but by the time she reached the first building of the ghost town—a dilapidated courthouse—she was moving at the speed of a varsity sprinter.

  “Lavender? Dylan?” Brin started screaming her group members’ names as soon as she reached the center of the ghost town. She looked in every direction. Nobody was in sight. Not any of her classmates. Not a single thirsty vampire. Nobody. “Somebody answer me!”

  Brin raced toward the scene of the accident. Most of the fire had been replaced with a thick smoke.

  She called out again. “Hello?”

  “BRIN?” The shout was loud in the distance. She ran past the destroyed van and jailhouse and looked up a small hill to see Lavender peeking her head out from a window. “Brin, is that you?”

  “Hey! Oh, thank God!”

  Brin prepared to run toward the building, but Lavender pushed open the small window and tumbled down to the ground below.

  Anaya revealed her face behind her. “Lavender,” she whispered. “What are you doing?”

  Lavender didn’t listen to Anaya. She just started racing toward Brin.

  “Did you get help?” Lavender shouted at Brin. “Did you find help in Bridgeport? You’re back so fast—”

  The girl looked on edge, to say the least. Her cheeks were uncomfortably red and her lips were chapped and bleeding.

  “Shh,” Brin said, grabbing Lavender’s arms and pulling her close. “Calm down.”

  She didn’t say anything for a moment. She tilted her head and looked behind Brin. “Where’s Chace?”

  “He’s…” Brin stared at the poor girl. She looked ready to cry, or worse, start harming herself. She knew she had to lie. “Chace is fine. He’s getting help.”

  “Where’d he go?”

  “Just… stay calm. Everything’s going to be fine.”

  “I don’t believe you!”

  “Lavender, I—”

  “Something happened to him, didn’t it?”

  “No.”

  “Didn’t it!”

  “Lavender!” Brin slapped the girl hard across the face. Lavender blinked a couple times, and then rubbed her hands against her cheeks.

  She took a deep breath. “Sorry. I don’t know what…” She shook her head and took a step back. “I’m sorry.”

  “You need to keep your voice down,” Brin whispered, bringing Lavender closer to her. “We’re not alone out here.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I’ll tell you. But first, tell me where you and the others are hiding.”

  Lavender pointed. “A children’s schoolhouse. We found an open window. It’s real dusty inside, but at least there’s a roof over our heads.”

  “OK,” Brin said. She surveyed the area, again. She didn’t see any unusual activity. “Now, Lavender, this question is very important. Besides the window, is there any way in or out of the schoolhouse?”

  She stared at Brin dumbfounded. “I… uhh… I don’t think so. The door was bolted shut.”

  “OK. And the ceilings?”

  “I… I don’t know.”

  “Think.”

  “I think so. I’m pretty sure.” Lavender pushed away from Brin and waved her on. “Why don’t you see for yourself? It’s just up the way—”

  Lavender’s eyes went big, as she glanced past Brin’s shoulder.

  “What?” Brin said, turning around. “What are you looking at?”

  “Chace?” Lavender said. “Is that you?”

  A big smile appeared on her face. Before Brin could stop her, Lavender started running toward the jailhouse, where a figure stood in the shadows a few feet behind Sawyer’s still motionless body.

  “No…” Brin said, softly. Then she got louder. “No! Lavender! Stop! It’s not Chace!”

  Lavender could barely hear Brin’s shouts, but she could trust her instincts. She stopped a few yards before the grinning figure. She saw, for the first time, his red eyes.

  “Oh no,” she said, taking a step back. “You’re not…”

  The figure snickered. “No, pretty lady,” he said. “I’m not.”

  The ground started shaking as two additional figures sped in from both sides and grabbed hold of the screaming Lavender, who turned around and reached her hands ou
t for Brin.

  “Help!” she screamed. “Brin! Oh my God! Help me!”

  Brin reached her hands out, too, even though there was nothing she could do for the girl, and no way in hell she would attempt to save her from not one but three of the blood-sucking fiends.

  “Oh my God! Nooooo!” Lavender shouted, and the small plot of land in front of the jailhouse caved in underneath her.

  Lavender fell backward into the hole and the three creatures dove in after her, all disappearing in a matter of seconds.

  “Lavender!” Brin shouted. Then, much more quietly, she said, “Not you, too.”

  She kept her hands reached out as Lavender’s screams and the vampires’ cackles dissipated, the loud noises replaced immediately by an eerie silence.

  Brin brought her hands to her side. She prepared to turn back toward the schoolhouse.

  But she didn’t. Brin looked in amazement at the unexpected sight in front of her.

  Sawyer started crawling forward.

  “Oh my God,” she said, planting her hands on the top of her head. “Oh my God! Sawyer! He’s alive!”

  Chapter Twenty

  Ash yawned from boredom as he drove his Volkswagon Beetle across town and entered the quiet neighborhood of Diablo Shadows. He flipped through the radio for most of the trip, never landing on a song or station he liked. He finally settled on a classical music station and tried to pretend that it was the film score to his own life.

  He pulled up to Brin’s home in a surprisingly positive demeanor. He knew there was nothing to worry about: she wasn’t tired of him, she wasn’t ignoring his calls. He knew it was weird that his best friend was a girl, and he figured Brin would soon move on to new friends, a boyfriend, a brand new life. He’d expected this ever since they first walked through the halls of Grisly High two and a half years ago. He knew, though, at least in the meantime, that she wasn’t going anywhere.

  Ash stepped outside into the fierce cold and slammed the door shut. He stared down the street—the only discernable activity was a dog barking in the distance. Nothing unusual could be seen. It was a night like any other in Grisly, Nevada.

  He checked his phone one last time—again, nothing—before tiptoeing up to Brin’s front door. He thought about using the doorbell, but it was past 10 P.M. He decided to lightly knock.