Living Like A Vampire

by Jacky Dahlhaus

  But it is funny.

  “Smudge,” was all I could think of saying and slapped him playfully on the arm. Charlie laughed out loud. I couldn’t help but smile. Hearing him laugh again was good. I turned the ignition key.

  The car engine roared which we could have expected from the size of it. It was facing the house, so I had to reverse into the street. The car was almost parallel with the street when I saw them stepping onto the road about thirty meters in front of us. Two suckers blocked our way.

  “Hit it!” Charlie yelled.

  I changed gear and floored the gas pedal. One of the suckers pulled out a gun and began shooting at us.

  “Holy shit! They’ve got guns!” Charlie yelled as he ducked down.

  We’d heard gunshots during the hunts, but somehow I’d always assumed they were used by humans in defense, not suckers attacking. I thought suckers would want to prevent spilling their food. Unfortunately, these suckers were of the opinion that if they couldn’t have our blood, neither should we.

  “Get down!” Charlie yelled, pulling my sleeve, but I was pumped with adrenaline. Nobody was going to keep me away from getting closer to Caleb any longer. While I kept my head low, I decided to play chicken. I kept going straight for the guy with the gun. A shot was fired and the windshield shattered, blocking my view for a moment. Then glass fell everywhere. I noticed the shooter’s aim was getting better as the next shot whizzed past my head, whirling my hair. Just before I was about to hit him, I recognized his ugly mug. It was Mr. Ugly Sweater. Instantly, my memory took me back to the town square in Bullsbrook, his ugly face close in front of me, remembering his horrible breath. I pressed the car to go even faster. The other sucker pulled my target out of the way just in time.

  Such a pity.

  It didn’t take long before Mr. Ugly Sweater was on his feet again, shooting at our tail lights.

  The Village

  I began to drive erratically from left to right, desperately trying to avoid being hit by Mr. Ugly Sweater and throwing Charlie from side to side in the car in the process. Both of us had forgotten to put on our seatbelts, and I nearly lost control of the steering wheel. I scraped a parked car and heard a bullet hit metal, but nothing slowed us. We got away unscathed.

  When we were at a safe distance from the town and sure we weren’t being followed by suckers in cars, I told Charlie I had recognized Mr. Ugly Sweater as the shooter. He didn’t get my point immediately, so I had to spell it out.

  “If I recognized him, don’t you think he could’ve recognized me?” I said. I bit my nails.

  “Oh shit…” Charlie said as he realized the implications. “Do you think Harry will be in trouble?” I threw a glance at him, and noticed he was looking rather pale.

  “I don’t know, Charlie. Harry does have Rhona as a backup for his story. It’s their word against his. I just hope Harry can pull it off, and that they believe him.”

  My mind drifted off into possible scenarios, but I didn’t dare to utter them out loud, just in case I would jinx them. The brick in my stomach tried out an Irish dance.

  We drove on in silence along the highway. Clouds appeared and blocked out the moonlight. The road ahead became as dark as my mind was now. I wanted to talk to Charlie, but I didn’t know what to say to him. I felt so stupid and irresponsible. I had put so many lives in danger because of my obsession with Caleb. It was my problem, not theirs. Yet Charlie, Harry, and Rhona had risked their lives for my happiness. I could’ve hit my head on the road surface again and again. I would have too if it wasn’t for the facts I’d have to stop the car first and that it wouldn’t make any difference to the situation.

  I found Charlie’s silence upsetting. I knew he was silent because he was against the whole plan in the first place. We didn’t foresee this complication.

  And because he’s fighting his own demons for letting me go ahead with it, taking me further away from him, emotionally speaking.

  I glanced at him and noticed his frown. Now and again he rubbed his face as if trying to get rid of a thought. Although I wanted to talk to Charlie about everything, I couldn’t make myself talk about anything. There was nothing positive I could think of that Charlie would want to hear.

  The little village where we had spent the night at the motel came into sight. We were to drive past it and go straight to Bullsbrook, but the car began to slow down.

  “Why are you slowing down?” Charlie asked.

  “I’m not.”

  Before long, the engine stopped and we came to a complete halt. I realized we were out of gas, but I didn’t know if the car being hit by a bullet had anything to do with it. Whatever the reason, the fact remained that the fuel gauge was at zero and the car wasn’t going anywhere.

  “Well, that’s it. We won’t be getting to Bullsbrook tonight,” I said. My heart grew heavy with the pain of Caleb getting further and further away from me, despair strangling me like a boa constrictor, squeezing the life out of me.

  “No, we won’t with this car,” Charlie said, “but we could get another car in the village and still make it to Bullsbrook tonight.”

  His words cheered me up instantaneously. I looked at him with a great, big grin on my face. “Awesome thinking.”

  We set a fast pace toward the village.

  The last few nights had been clear, but tonight clouds had kept gathering, and as we hurried to the village, it began to rain. We held our jackets over our heads and ran. Expecting the village to be deserted, we made no effort to hide our presence. It still looked dreadful, the rain adding to the misery. Puddles had formed in the streets, and I jumped over them out of habit more than anything else. As we slowed down, looking for a car, we noticed movement around us. Slowly, people were coming out from the shadows. They didn’t look friendly.

  In no time, we were surrounded by these angry-looking people. We hadn’t expected something like this at all. We thought everyone in the village had fled, been killed, or turned and gone. The number of survivors wasn’t great, but they were there, and I felt proud that humans could be so successful in hiding from such a deadly enemy.

  Go, humans!

  Unfortunately, these good people were not as happy with us as I was with them and, quite frankly, they were scaring me. They didn’t know Charlie and I were unturned, and it didn’t look like they were taking any chances. They looked like a lynch mob, carrying guns and stakes and all sorts of improvised weapons. Slowly, we put our hands up. As they drew closer and surrounded us, Charlie and I put our backs together. I looked around, hoping to find a person in charge, but couldn’t see one. What I saw was a mix of people; old, young, male, female. They had one thing in common though; they all had hatred written on their faces. Suddenly someone yelled out, ‘They’re suckers. Kill them!’ This roused the whole group into shouting as they moved in.

  “Hang on,” Charlie tried to make himself heard over the top of them. “We’re human. We’re like you. Unbitten.”

  But the people were saying things like, ‘Look at their fangs,’ ‘Filthy suckers,’ and ‘Murderers!’ They didn’t listen. They didn’t want to listen. We showed no sign of resistance as they grabbed us and dragged us to a blind wall. Charlie kept on trying to convince them, begging them to listen to him.

  The whole situation was terrifying. I too began shouting.

  “We’re human! We’re in disguise. Please, listen to us!”

  It was hopeless. These people were angry. Their families, friends, and neighbors had been taken from them. They wanted revenge. They pushed us against the wall, and as one they backed away.

  “Charlie?” I hoped he would come up with a miracle rescue, but he, too, couldn’t think of anything.

  As two men with rifles stood opposite us and lifted their weapons to aim, the people went quiet. Charlie turned toward me.

  “I’m so sorry, Kate,” and he took my hands and turned me toward him, preventing me from directly looking at the death squad.

  In return, I put my hand on his face with
a gentle and caring touch. As I closed my eyes, a tear escaped, and images of my life flashed in front of me. I always thought people made this stuff up, but it really happened. I heard the two guys cocking their guns. A recent image flashed by. My eyes flew open. I yelled.

  “Harry!” I took my hand from Charlie’s face, looked around at the crowd and again yelled, “Harry. We were with Harry!”

  One of them must have found the note in the refrigerator.

  People were looking strangely at me, tipping their heads and turning to each other with confused expressions.

  “Wait!” a woman shouted. She stepped forward and put her hand on one of the rifles aimed at us, pushing it down. Both the gunmen looked at her quizzically. The woman’s hair was disheveled, her dress ruffled. Her appearance was one of somebody who didn’t care anymore. She peered at me and tucked a string of hair behind her ear as if she did care all of a sudden.

  “What do you mean by, ‘we were with Harry’?”

  My mouth went into overdrive.

  “We didn’t kill anybody. We had to pretend to be suckers to survive. At night we went into houses and ate the food from the refrigerator and freezer to survive. We didn’t kill anybody. We left notes in the refrigerator signed ‘Harry,’ to thank the people for their hospitality and apologize for the mess we made… We didn’t kill anybody. We… didn’t kill anybody.”

  I was out of breath and fell silent, hoping the woman understood my waterfall of words. For a second it was quiet. Then the woman gasped.

  “That was our house. You left the note in our house.” Her eyes bulged as she turned around and yelled at everybody. “They left the note in our house!”

  “Um, yeah, we left the note in their house,” I repeated to the mob.

  The woman took her turn to be a waterfall of words, explaining to all how they had survived the sucker attack. I bit my lip and put one hand in my back pocket. Charlie was still holding my other hand and squeezed it. We exchanged hopeful glances.

  The woman turned to us and gasped again. “Oh my god, and we nearly killed you.” She ran toward me and hugged me, held my head in her hands, patting my hair, crying, and thanking me what felt like a thousand times. With one arm she pulled Charlie into the hug. The angry mob turned into a confused bunch of humans.

  The intensity of the whole situation wasn’t over yet as most still didn’t look as though they accepted our innocence. They looked at our necks and pointed at our marks. We explained making them ourselves. They aimed bright torch lights into our eyes, one of them being a black light. As much as I tried, I couldn’t look into it. Charlie had no problem with it, and he gave the villagers the explanation I couldn’t because we’d spent most of our time in darkness these last few days and my eyes, being blue, were more sensitive. The villagers believed him, but as he shot me a quick glance, I knew Charlie wasn’t so convinced himself.

  We let them inspect our fake fangs as if we were horses on a market. Only when we ripped our fake fangs off, with a lot of trouble, did they believe us.

  Memo to myself: remember the brand of glue. It’s a really good one.

  There were dozens of questions for us, but I didn’t want to deal with them. I desperately wanted to get to Bullsbrook to look for Caleb. I came up with the story that I needed to save my sister and asked them if anybody had a vehicle we could borrow to get to her. The husband of the woman who saved us didn’t hesitate and gave us his car keys.

  “Thanks, man,” Charlie said to him, “we owe you.”

  But the man shook his head. “No, it’s us who owes you.” He turned around to pick up his son and embraced his wife.

  Charlie and I said our goodbyes and soon went on our way.

  Back to Bullsbrook Again

  Charlie’s mood worsened as we got closer to Bullsbrook. I could only imagine what he felt right now, getting closer to losing me.

  In contrast, I felt elated. How lucky were we to not have been turned, to be able to escape from Duncan’s pack, to survive a lynching party, and to finally be on our way to find Caleb. There was a huge grin on my face. Every time I looked at Charlie, he smiled back at me, but it was like the smile of someone who’d just had a root canal treatment. I didn’t want to hurt him unnecessarily, so I stopped looking.

  It was still night-time when we arrived in Bullsbrook. I stopped in the middle of the road and let the car run stationary before we reached the first house. My knuckles turned white on the steering wheel. I hated not being in control, not knowing what was going to happen.

  “Charlie, I don’t know what to do now.”

  He thought for a while before he answered.

  “You want to find Caleb.”

  “Yeah, but I don’t know where to look. He may not be here anymore.” I sighed.

  “We’ll find him, Kate. Let’s begin where you saw him last. That’s usually the first thing to do. Let’s hope we can find some clues there.”

  My eyes glazed over as I let my memory wander. Caleb had me pressed into a corner, his fangs caressing my flesh… I took a deep breath.

  “The school it is then,” and I shifted the gear into drive.

  I drove slowly to avoid shopping carts and garbage bins. Nothing much had changed since we left. I didn’t drive too slowly either as I didn't want to be surprised by more people wanting to attack us.

  We entered the school grounds, and I automatically parked the car in the staff parking lot. After killing the engine, we scanned our surroundings. We got out of the car when we didn’t see anyone. Together hurried toward one of the buildings. We hugged the wall as we moved on. I took a peek around the corner toward the main schoolyard. My heart skipped a beat as I couldn’t believe my luck. There stood Caleb. Excited, I turned to Charlie with a huge grin on my face.

  “Caleb’s here,” I whispered.

  Charlie wasn’t mirroring my enthusiasm. His face showed quite the contrast, actually. It was a mix of disappointment, sadness, and fear, but I refused to acknowledge all of it.

  I turned around again to go to Caleb, but Charlie grabbed my arm. Annoyed, I looked at him.

  “Kate,” he whispered, “are you sure you want to do this? What if—”

  “Charlie,” I interrupted him and grabbed both his hands. “We talked about this before. Yes, I really want to do this. And no, there’s no way on earth you can stop me now.”

  I can’t believe he’s even trying.

  “I don’t know, Kate. I have a bad feeling about this.”

  Charlie’s expression was pained. His shoulders were hunched, and he had a grimace on his face. His hands were squeezing mine so hard it almost hurt.

  He was staring at me now. It was obvious he expected me to say something. When I didn’t, he took a deep breath and let his body relax, letting go of my hands.

  “But if you’re one-hundred percent sure, I’ll let you go. I’ll be in the staff room if you need me.”

  Again, he waited for me to respond. Eventually, he put his hand on my arm and gave it a little squeeze. Without another word, he turned around and walked away from me.

  Rubbing my hands on my pants, I watched Charlie. It was as if a part of me walked away. I always felt so at ease with Charlie. He made me laugh, and he soothed my pains. He made me whole. He was my dearest friend, and I loved him so much. But I wasn’t in love with him. I was sure I wasn’t. Yet I had feelings for him I couldn’t explain. It confused the hell out of me. I had hurt Charlie by rejecting him, and it was painful to see him hurt. How I wished there was something I could do to ease his pain, but what he needed was something I couldn’t give.

  They may write a book with that title; ‘The girl who didn’t love him.’

  Life can be such a bitch.

  When I returned from my thoughts to the here and now, I realized Charlie was gone. Had he looked back? Had he hesitated and waited for me to come running for him at the last moment? I didn’t know. I didn’t want to know.

  I turned around, closed my eyes, and breathed deeply a few times.
I wasn’t sure what I was going to say to Caleb. I was too excited all of a sudden to have any coherent thoughts. So, I stepped out and walked in his direction.

  Reunited with Caleb

  As I walked onto the schoolyard, I registered the scene. The sky was overcast, the ground still wet from the rain that had fallen here earlier, and the moonless sky colored everything in different shades of gray. The school buildings loomed a near black as the rainwater had darkened the brickwork. The schoolyard was empty but for Caleb and the dead bodies from the feeding a few nights back. The bodies were piled up in two distinct heaps and emitted the horrible smell of death. Water dripped from lampposts, like huge teardrops mourning the loss of all those innocent lives, their drips a monotonous sound of sadness. The whole scene could very well have been taken from some gruesome war movie.

  The downpour in the village had soaked me, and I was chilled to the bone. I wasn’t sure if it was just the wet clothing clinging to my body that was the cause of my chills. All my senses were screaming at me to get away, but the obsession I had nurtured the last few days kept pushing me forward.

  I resigned to be more focused on Caleb, who stood in between the two heaps of bodies. He was going through the pockets of a dead person he was holding. I shivered again and wrapped my arms around me. As I walked on, I saw the body Caleb was holding positioned in an unnatural position. It was as if it was being held up by someone else. Walking closer, my view swept around the pile of bodies.

  Sasha.

  What a disappointment it was seeing Sasha here. Her presence brought an acidic taste to my mouth. When Sasha and Caleb finished searching the body, they added it to one heap and picked up another body from the other. I heard them talk now. They were agitated, arguing, their communication tense. The closer I came, the louder my senses screamed at me.

  Get out! Get away now you still can!

  Sasha saw me first. She let go of the body.