Submerging Inferno

by Brandon Witt

  Finn was still laughing, although not quite to such a ridiculous degree. “Last year, we had a guy in here. He was just a little bit smaller than you, actually. He screamed higher than any girl ever has. After jumping back about twenty feet, he reached out and snapped the thing right in half. Took Dad three months to get another one in. He thought it was the funniest thing he had ever seen.”

  “Seems like a good way to scare off your customers.”

  “Nah. People get a kick out of it. Anyway, most of the people who come back every year remember it’s there. They enjoy it as much as Dad when a newbie happens to wander by.” He reached past me and pushed the skeleton by the rib cage until there was a slight click, and it was safely hidden behind the masks once again.

  “Ya know, I’ve kinda had a rough day or so. You think you might be a little gentler with your humor?”

  He reached out and patted my chest, leaving his hand there briefly as he gazed into my eyes. “Come on now. You’re a big boy. You can handle it.” He turned abruptly. “This way.”

  I followed Finn down the winding path, which seemed to go on longer than I would have thought possible. The store was a lot bigger than it appeared from the outside, much bigger than the bakery had been. The farther in we went, the less gruesome the merchandise. Plastic scythes and swords gave way to fairy wings, wands, and wigs with long strands of what looked like Easter basket grass intermingled in the curls.

  Abruptly, we came to an arched doorway with blocks painted around it, making it seem like an entrance to a castle. As we stepped through, everything changed. Every wall space was covered in mirrors, the lighting was bright, and the ceiling was painted soft purplish-gray. From wall to wall, the room had row after row of costumes. Above each aisle hung signs labeling what you would find there: Medieval, Shakespearean, Roaring Twenties, Fairy Tale, Rock Star. It seemed that every possible time period and theme was accounted for. I felt my jaw go slack in amazement. “Did you guys use magic to make this place fit in here?”

  Finn rolled his eyes. “We are capable of doing things without magic, you know, and don’t let Mom hear you say magic, or you’ll get ‘the m-word lecture’ again.” He made quotation marks with his fingers. “The store makes an L shape. This section is directly behind the bakery, which didn’t need as much space, so Dad remodeled.” He smirked at me. “Using hammer and nails, not by wiggling his nose.” He gave me a crooked grin. “At least not entirely.”

  “Well, hi, boys!” Wendell stepped out from one of the aisles behind me, causing me to flinch. I never used to be so jumpy. I was going to have to get a hold of myself. “Sorry, there, Brett, wasn’t trying to startle you.”

  “It’s okay, Mr. de….” He gave me a look, and I faltered momentarily. “Sorry… Wendell. It seems I’m a little bit on edge.”

  “Finding out you’re a demon can do that to a man, I imagine.”

  It seemed to me they were all a little too casual using the word demon so often. I glanced around. I hadn’t noticed any customers, but they would have been easy to overlook in such a place.

  “Don’t worry yourself about that. There’s nobody here right now. The beginning of summer is always slow. Gives me a chance to get everything back in order.”

  “Are most of your customers other witches and warlocks?” That would explain his seeming lack of concern for other people hearing.

  “Oh no, not all. Most of my business is through schools and small theater companies needing costumes and props for their productions. Although, since Caitlin’s started making a name for herself as a crackerjack makeup artist, there have been a few independent film-type people come in and get stuff for their movies.”

  I couldn’t help but be impressed. “Really? They rent your stuff for movies?”

  Wendell swelled nearly imperceptibly with pride as he answered. “Well, not very many, and none you have seen, I would imagine. They’re all low-budget kind of deals. Are you into horror movies?”

  “No, not really.”

  “Ah, that’s too bad.” He looked somewhat deflated as he gave up hope of listing off a movie I might have seen. “Caitlin specializes in wounds and creating monsters with makeup and prosthetics. So far, those are the only movie people that have been in.” He held up his hand and crossed his fingers. “But let’s keep hoping some of the others hear about us. That’d be quite a break.”

  I could see what Finn had meant. His dad’s face lit up as he talked, and his eyes gazed far away as he envisioned outfitting a major motion picture. Finn caught my eye and grinned as he waved a hand playfully in front of his dad’s face. “Dad. Earth to Dad.”

  Wendell gave himself a little shake. “Oh, sorry. What can I do for you boys?”

  “I wanted to show Brett around. I didn’t think it was a good idea for him to be by himself today.”

  His dad nodded. “Smart. You don’t want to leave him alone in case the vampire comes back.”

  I stiffened. “What? You think he’s coming back?”

  Finn cut in. “I just meant that Brett’s been through a lot finding out about all this and thought he might need some time to adjust to being part demon.”

  Wendell’s face reddened. “Oh sure, of course. That makes sense.”

  I held up a hand. “Hold on. Why do you think he’s coming back? Is that how vampires are—once they take a drink of somebody, they don’t leave them alone until they kill them?” The thought shouldn’t have surprised me. Why hadn’t I even considered that?

  For a moment, Wendell seemed at a loss for words, but then started, “Well, not necessarily. You see, it depends on which type of—”

  From a distance, a chime interrupted, causing all three of us to freeze. Had the vampire followed me here? My eyes flitted between Finn and Wendell, trying to judge their reaction. Then I realized it was daytime. I didn’t need to be worried. Yet.

  “Dad?” Like the bell, the voice was far away. “Are you in the back? I ran out of latex sponges. Do you have any?”

  Finn and his dad let out sighs of relief simultaneously. Wendell grimaced. “What’s wrong with me? It seems you’re not the only one who’s jumpy, Brett. Come on, boys.” He motioned for us to follow him as he shouted out. “On my way!”

  As we made our way back toward the front of the store, Finn whispered, “It’s just Caitlin. Maybe it would have been better if it had been the vampire.”

  I almost stayed behind but took a look at the endless rows of costumes. Despite myself, I couldn’t help imagining the vampire lurking behind each one, and decided to take my chances with Caitlin. Within a couple of steps, I had caught up with Finn and his dad. Along the way back through the Halloween portion, we took a turn and ended up in a section of vintage Hollywood monster masks I hadn’t noticed before. As we rounded the next corner, I saw Caitlin, the red streak in her hair even more spiky than it had been last night. She stood at the counter beside the cash register.

  She had started to speak to her father when she noticed me. Her eyes narrowed. “What’s he doing here?” Her voice was a growl.

  “Don’t be rude, Cate.” Wendell’s voice was firm. “Brett is our guest. He’s welcome here.”

  Her lip rose in a snarl. “Since when did this family become demon lovers?”

  “Cate, really, that’s enough.”

  She turned to Wendell, her face softening. “Seriously, Dad! This is insanity. He’s going to get the whole family killed.”

  “We covered this last night. If Brett were a typical evil demon, we would all be dead already.” Finn’s smooth face creased in anger. “God, Caitlin, you need to get a girlfriend already. It’s been too long since you got laid.”

  Her snarl returned as she addressed her brother. “Shut up, Finn. Mind your own business. You know that’s not what I was talking about. The big oaf is obviously about as dangerous as a defanged poodle.”

  I knew I should have been offended, but it didn’t really seem worth the effort. I stepped around Finn and stood in front of her. “Do you mea
n the vampire?”

  She craned her head up to gape at me, her face showing surprise at me speaking to her. Her narrowed eyes shot back and forth rapidly, searching my face, as if realizing for the first time that there was an actual person in front of her, not just some thing that was causing her a nuisance. Gradually, the corners of her mouth relaxed, and she spoke with a gentler tone, but her eyes stayed hard. “Yes. I mean the vampire. Or vampires.”

  “Vampires? Plural?” Once again, I was embarrassed by my simplicity. I hadn’t thought in terms of multiple vampires being after me. It had been bad enough to consider the one in the alley.

  Finn reached out and turned his sister toward him. “Come on, Caitlin, do we really need to do this?”

  “You weren’t going to tell him?” She snorted. “I thought I was the one who was being rude to him.”

  I looked away from her toward Finn. “Tell me what?”

  Finn sighed and slowly forced himself to meet my gaze. “I hoped you wouldn’t need to know.” He glared at his sister. “I still do, but it seems that’s not going to be an option any longer.”

  “What? Just tell me already.”

  Wendell interrupted. “Brett, the deal is”—he gave me a rather helpless expression—“we don’t know which type of vampire attacked you.”

  I stared at him, confused. “Which type? How many types of vampires can there be?”

  “Two. Just two.”

  Just two. Like one wasn’t enough. My brain seemed to stop functioning. I was sure I should ask something, but I didn’t understand enough to even form a question.

  I felt a squeeze on my hand. I glanced down. Finn’s hand had found mine. He pulled it a little closer to himself. At any other time, I would have felt pleased by the gesture.

  “Brett, I’m sorry. Maybe I should have told you this morning, but I didn’t want to worry you. We don’t know what kind it is, so I didn’t think I needed to give you anything else to stress over until we knew for sure.”

  “Which is why I wanted to call the Vampire Cathedral last night. If they were in charge, then we could have turned him in and been done with it.” Caitlin’s last words tapered off until they were almost imperceptible. She glanced up at me and then away quickly. “Sorry, but it’s what needs to be done.” She actually did look sorry.

  Finn’s grip tightened as he turned on his sister. “How evil can you be? You want to turn him over, just let them take him? Let them kill him?”

  Caitlin’s voice rose again. “And what do you want to do? Keep him as your boyfriend till the whole mess of them shows up and kills us all? Either way the end is the same. The only question is if we get to live or not.”

  I pulled my hand free of Finn’s and stepped closer to Caitlin once more. “Tell me. What are the two types of vampires? Why am I dead either way?”

  Again she seemed surprised to see a person, demon or not, in front of her. For the fist time, she didn’t have anything to say. She cast her gaze down at the floor, flushing.

  I waited for a few seconds, staring at her. Finally I gave up and turned to Finn and his dad. “Well?” I was pleasantly surprised to hear my voice sound firm. Everyone talking in circles was starting to irritate me “You might as well just tell me and get it over with. I want to know what I’m up against.” I glanced at Caitlin and then back. “Whether or not you turn me over to the Vampire Cathedral.”

  Finn sighed. “We’re not going to turn you over to the Vampire Cathedral. You don’t need to worry about that.”

  “Either way, I need to know.”

  Wendell interrupted, “Why don’t we go over to Paulette’s? We can sit down and talk it over with some coffee and pastries.”

  I shook my head firmly. “Just tell me.”

  The three of them stared at the ground, each other, the Halloween crap around us, everywhere but at me. Less than a minute ago, Caitlin had been ready to turn me over to die, and now she couldn’t even look at me. I felt my face flush as I began to get more agitated. “Finn!”

  He gazed up at me, his eyes wary.

  “Tell me about the two types of vampires. Which one do you think attacked me last night?”

  He nodded. “Fine, but I still say you don’t need to worry about it until we know for sure. I guarantee you. It was just your run of the mill solitary vampire. Nothing to worry about.”

  Caitlin’s voice rose once more. “You don’t know that.”

  Finn ignored her, holding my eyes with his. “Most vampires are like stray dogs. They wander around by themselves, never staying in one place too long, and taking a meal from wherever they can find it. They are pretty much like what you would have seen in movies: only come out at night, sleep during the day, not thinking about much more than drinking people’s blood, and always on the lookout for the next source. It’s not going to be a big deal. From what I’ve been told, most of the time they are gone before you can even track them down. They’re not gonna care if they only ate someone halfway. They will just move on to the next person in line.”

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Caitlin open her mouth to argue, but Wendell reached out and put his hand over hers, silencing her.

  “So, if this thing that bit me is one of those, you think he will just let it go and forget about me?” I wanted to feel hopeful, wanted this to be the case so I could move on with my life. Forget about vampires, forget about demons.

  Finn shrugged. “If that’s the kind of vampire he is, then yeah, he probably will. Although he may hold a grudge for burning him. They have a propensity for vengeance.”

  Caitlin spoke up, ignoring her father’s protests. “And if he isn’t a typical vampire? What then?”

  “Really, Caitlin, do you think the Vampire Cathedral is going to send one lowly vampire out to kill the offspring of some demon? They’re not that careless. If it had been them, Brett wouldn’t have gotten away, and I probably wouldn’t be alive today either.”

  I broke in before they could continue. “So if one kind is just a regular vampire, whatever that is, then what’s the other kind?”

  It was Wendell’s turn to play teacher. “You see, Brett, that’s a little harder to explain, at least to someone who wasn’t really aware of other races besides human.” He reached over and pulled a pair of fake fangs out of the box of novelty items by the cash register and began turning them over with his fingers. Abruptly, he realized what he was doing, tossed them over to the side, and then leaned his elbows on the glass counter. “The other type of vampires are the royal family….”

  I couldn’t stop myself. As soon as he said “royal family,” I let out a loud belch of a laugh. “The royal family? Are you kidding me? I think I would have noticed if it had been Prince Charles or Queen Elizabeth who had attacked me last night.”

  Wendell’s eyebrows creased in confusion.

  “Not that royal family, Brett,” Finn interjected, “our royal family.”

  “You guys have a royal family?”

  Catching on, Wendell let out a little chuckle, which quickly fell flat. “The royal family is what everyone calls them. Actually, they are just called the Royals. Who knows what they actually call themselves, if anything. They are the self-proclaimed rulers of our kind.”

  “Your kind? You mean witches and warlocks?”

  He nodded. “Yes, but not just us, all of the nonhuman races.”

  I let that sink in for a moment and then involuntarily lowered my voice. “You mean there are more out there than witches, demons, and vampires?”

  This time, Wendell did laugh. “My goodness, boy, yes! I forget that you really know nothing of the world that you live in. There are werewolves, fairies, nymphs—”

  I held up both my hands. “There are werewolves?”

  “Of course there are werewolves, not to mention—”

  “Stop! Please. It’s too much. I don’t think I need the entire list of what’s out there.” I kept feeling that nothing new could surprise me, but every few moments, there was something I never really
dreamed existed. Surely there had to be some way to rewind to yesterday, never give into my craving for Mexican food, never go to Old Town, never follow some stranger into an alley. While I was at it, even go back far enough to never have taken that boy to the beach.

  By Caitlin’s demeanor, whatever pity for me she might have been feeling had washed away, and she was back to seeing me as the thorn in her family’s side. “We’re getting a little off track here. Do you wanna know about the Royals or not?”

  I nodded.

  “Fine. Here’s the down-and-dirty, then. The Royals don’t have to sleep all day like their disgusting little cousins. They can walk around in the daytime and not get so much as a sunburn. They’re also stronger than most regular vampires, which shouldn’t even be feasible, and they never do anything alone. Which means, if you were attacked by a Royal last night, then there has to be another, or several, around.”

  I started to ask a question, but she cut me off with a wave of her hand.

  “And if they were Royals, then they won’t give up. They will hunt you down, leaving no stone unturned, no accomplice unkilled, until you are found. They don’t leave loose ends, and they don’t change their minds. Which all means that every second you stay here is another second that you are leading them closer and closer to our family and to our deaths.”

  “Way to be dramatic, Cate. Nothing like overdoing it.” Finn gave his sister a look of disgust.

  “Say what you want, Finn. You know as well as I do that I’m right.”

  They continued to bicker back and forth, but I couldn’t concentrate on anything they were saying. One second I was picturing an army of werewolves and vampires slowly closing in on us from outside the costume shop, the next I could see myself morphing into my true demon form, whatever that looked like. Then I was back in the alley, the vampire overpowering me, his teeth glinting above me as he started to burn. “Wait!” For a second, I was sure I had found a loophole. “Why would the Royals be after me? I’ve never done anything to them. I didn’t even know they existed. Hell, I didn’t even know I existed. At least, not really.”