The Vampire of Plainfield

by Kristopher Rufty

  Ed took a deep breath and, louder, said, “NO!”

  Apparently some of the vampire folklore he’d read was accurate—a vampire couldn’t enter a house without an invite. And this was a frailty Ed greatly relished.

  The vampire slammed its fist against the frame. It looked as if it was about to attempt entering regardless of the rules, but an arm appeared next to its shoulder, a human arm. The skin was smooth and pale, dotted with freckles. It rubbed the vampire’s head, gingerly, as if to calm it down. Ed recognized the arm even before Mary revealed herself. She wore a blue dress that covered much of her, but it clung to her bulging shapes and curves.

  “Let me, Master,” she said.

  “Master?” Ed said.

  Mary turned to him, smiling. “Oh, yes, Eddie. He’s my master…”

  Something clicked in Ed’s head. Things fell together and formed lucid patterns. The connecting piece all along had been Mary. “You helped him feed.”

  “That’s right,” she said. “Got him big and strong again.”

  Ed should have been shocked. He wasn’t. Mary, of all people, would’ve been the type to help a creature like that. Somehow it made perfect sense. She’d lured the men straight to their deaths.

  “And you know what else, Eddie-baby?”

  Ed stared at her, saying nothing.

  Her smile grew. “He hasn’t changed me.” Mary crossed the threshold. “So I don’t have to be invited to come inside.”

  “Damn…” Ed muttered.

  “And you know what else?” She raised her arm, slowly extending the blade of a straight-razor. The lantern’s flame glinted of the sharp block of metal. “I’m going to cut on you if you don’t invite my master inside. I’ll start with your fingers. Just slice them right off.” Mary frowned. “But you know what? I’d probably get bored pretty quickly with those, plus the bone would make it a lot of work.”

  She loomed over him, gazing down. Her red hair hung around her face in a cherry hood, shadowing her facial expressions. But the wicked madness of her eyes gleamed through. “I’ll probably just slice off your cock, piece by piece, instead, like cutting up a hot dog for a kid. Maybe start with your balls, since you’ve suddenly grown a pair. Take off the right one first, then the left. Then move onto your cock. Take off the head, then make my way down.”

  Mary crouched. She grabbed the waist of his pants and reached in.

  “Duh-don’t…” Ed said.

  Her hand groped his cock, fingers curling around it. Though the situation was scary and intense and awfully humiliating, he felt his member growing in her hand.

  Mary laughed. “I just have that effect on you, don’t I, Eddie-baby?”

  “Stop…” he said.

  “I’ll stop for a few minutes after the right nut comes off.” She started pulling his privates through his pants.

  “Please, Mary, don’t do this!”

  Mary laughed. Her arm moved forward. Ed felt cold metal against the thin skin of his scrotum. Mary would do it. She wasn’t bluffing. She’d start cutting his privates until there was nothing left.

  The blade pressed down.

  “Okay!” Ed cried. He held his breath until the blade moved away. “It can come in…”

  Mary laughed. “You have to invite him in, Eddie. Now, look at the master and ask him to come inside. It’s not you he wants, anyway.”

  “It’s…not?”

  “No. You just have something he wants. Or should I say—someone?”

  Ed leaned back his head. He could see the edge of the makeshift table Dorothy was lying on.

  The vampire came for her.

  But what would they do with him afterward?

  “Eddie?” said Mary. Cold hardness touched the skin of his sack.

  “Okay, okay!” Ed took a deep breath, then looked at the doorway. The vampire stood outside, bent slightly, its long arms reaching down to its knees. “Would you…please…?” Ed gulped. It tasted like sour copper. He must’ve bitten his tongue at some point and caused it to bleed. “Would you please come inside?”

  The vampire let out a rapid-fire of guttural laughter. It entered the summer kitchen without a problem. Though it walked forward, its eyes never left Ed.

  “You,” it said. “You are the one who awakened me from my slumber.”

  “Yuh-yes…”

  “For that, I owe you a debt. And that debt is your life. I will not kill you tonight, Edward Theodore Gein. And this deal will free me from any commitment to you. Are we in agreement?”

  Ed couldn’t find his voice. Mary squeezing his cock as if she wanted to squirt milk from it brought it back. “Yes!”

  “Very well. This debt is no longer mine to keep after tonight.”

  The vampire’s voice, though demonic and gruff, was strong with an accent that Ed had never heard before, ancient and proper, almost delicate in its burr.

  “You may release him, sweet Mary. He will not be a threat to us tonight.”

  Smiling, Mary leaned close. She stroked Ed. “Want me to finish this for you?”

  Gasping, Ed pushed her arm away. Scooting across the dusty floor on his back, he pulled his pants up. Mary cackled as she watched him squirm backwards. Ed didn’t stop until his back hit the wall underneath his workbench. From this angle, he could see Dorothy on the table, the vampire creeping toward her, and Mary watching from the floor on her knees.

  Ed fastened his pants. He brushed his hair out of his eyes. There were weapons all around him, but he wouldn’t be able to get to them without being quickly stopped.

  The vampire reached Dorothy. It stared at her for many long moments. “Such a sweet child.”

  “That boy did this,” Mary said. “We shouldn’t have let him run out last night. Shouldn’t have let him out tonight. He’s careless…”

  “The boy did a fine job. Found me a daughter.” Its black lips curled into something that might have been a grin. “Yes. A beautiful daughter. A virtuous soul.” The vampire stroked her cheek, ran its long claws through her bright hair. “I will wake her now.”

  The vampire leaned over the table, putting a hand on either side of Dorothy. Its face lowered, delicately pressing its thin black lips against

  hers. Nothing happened right away. Then Ed noticed blue light spilling between the tight cracks of their connected mouths.

  It’s sucking out her soul!

  The vampire didn’t bring its lips away until the light no longer flowed between them. It stood up straight, loosing an orgasmic moan. “So delicious!”

  Dorothy sat up in one quick motion that made Ed jerk against the wall. He pulled his legs to his chest and hugged them.

  Unmoving, Dorothy stared ahead as if in a trance. Her eyes had turned into solid white, lifeless orbs. When she blinked, the white had faded to show dark dots inside.

  “Now, my daughter. Go and feed.”

  Ed watched as Dorothy wiggled in the ropes, making them swell. They broke apart with a whipping snap. Pieces fell around her. Some fell to the floor. She swung her legs around and began to climb down from the table.

  Ed closed his eyes, taking several deep breaths. When he reopened his eyes, Dorothy was gone.

  Mary was gone.

  He saw nobody in his summer kitchen. He began to think he had been left alone.

  Then the vampire’s face dropped down in front of Ed—its forehead at Ed’s mouth, its mouth at Ed’s forehead.

  Ed screamed. Before he could do much else, hands gripped his shirt and yanked him out from under the workbench. When he was all the way out, the hands released him. Ed tumbled across the floor. Coming to a halt on his stomach, Ed raised his head.

  Dust floated from the floor, creating a span of filthy fog. The vampire hung upside-down from the rafter by its talons, its head below the workbench.

  Like a bat! A damned bat!

  It dropped to the floor, landing in a crouch. Then it slowly stood.

  “I have an arrangement to offer, Edward Gein.”

  Ed wanted to sit
up, wanted to run. He wanted to get as far away from this creature as possible. He couldn’t move.

  The vampire moved forward. Its Y-shaped toes landed in fringed bits of rope that, until moments ago, had been coiled around Dorothy.

  “You are a ghoul, Gein. And I can use a ghoul like you.”

  It passed by the wall where many of Ed’s tools hung from nails, reached out, and took a shovel in an elegant movement that Ed hardly noticed. Then the shovel was flying toward Ed. He jerked back, throwing up his arms.

  And caught the shovel before it could hit him.

  “You start digging for me, and I will allow you to live.”

  “Dig…?” Speaking made Ed’s chest hurt. Wincing, he had a hard time finding his breath. “Me?”

  “Yes. You rob from the dead like the ghouls of my time. Taking what you want and leaving the rest to rot to dust. I need a ghoul to burrow the graves of this village for me. Unlike the ghouls of my time, you can voyage in the daylight.”

  Ed planted the shovel on the floor and, using the handle for support, made himself sit up. His body protested his movements with quick, achy jabs. “I can’t just traipse the cemeteries and start digging up graves in broad daylight. I’ll get caught!”

  “Discretion, Edward. Move like the ghoul you are.”

  Ed supposed he could do it. He’d been digging up graves for years and nobody had become privy to it yet.

  But at night. Somebody might catch him if he worked under the sun.

  How does the vampire know?

  It might have read his mind. “You reek of the dead, Gein. Their putrid stench is in your skin. It flows through you and will never leave you. You have allowed yourself to become infected by the dead. And I want you to dig for me. Dig. Keep digging. Do not stop.”

  “What am I digging for?”

  “My existence.”

  Ed had no clue what that meant. “How will I know when I find it?”

  “I will know.”

  “And you won’t kill me?”

  “Kill you?” The vampire gave a squeaky laugh that sounded like rusted hinges. “We are in agreement. You will live.”

  “When do I start?”

  “Now.”

  “Now? I can’t…”

  “We are in agreement, Edward Gein. Do not break our bond. It will be your death.”

  The vampire held out its arms in a crucified pose. Wings snapped open with a loud slap. Tattered sails hung from the gaunt appendages. They began to flap, stirring up dust. Grits pinged Ed’s eyes. He looked away, closing his stinging eyes as that broken-belt sound filled the

  cramped space. There was a loud whooshing gust that made his clothes shake, and the noise died.

  When Ed was able to open his eyes, he saw the vampire was gone.

  He looked down at the shovel in his hands.

  -22-

  Carol Clark sat up in bed with a gasp. A nightmare had shocked her awake, but its effects were already fading from her memory. Her nightgown clung to her sweaty body, the sheets uncomfortable and hot on her sleek skin.

  She threw the covers off her. Russell grunted once from beside her, made a slight movement, then went still again. Carol looked down at her husband and the anger she felt inside cleared what remained of the groggy fog from her mind.

  We should be out there looking for Dorothy right now.

  The night howled outside. Trees limbs outside the window scratched at the glass. She saw the wriggling shadows they made through the moonlight seeping in.

  Sheriff Worden had said it was supposed to storm tonight, the first big one of the spring. So he’d ended tonight’s search early for cautionary measures. How raucous the wind was, it sounded like it might do something out there, but they could’ve handled some wind, if it meant the possibility of finding her daughter.

  And Russell? She thought he would’ve agreed with her, but he’d sided with the sheriff.

  “We need to be out there when the weather’s working with us, not against us,” he’d said.

  Seemed to Carol that everybody was working against her. She stared at her sleeping husband. Passed out husband. A bottle of whiskey sat on the stand on his side of the bed, within easy reach. It had been glued to his hand all night. She watched his facial expression, how his brow furrowed and his lips slightly puckered out.

  Like Dorothy.

  Carol liked to tell herself Dorothy had inherited her natural beauty from her, but really, it had come from Russell. Not that Carol was some kind of dog with sun-colored hair. Russell just had an effortless attraction that he did nothing to enhance. It was just there, like the hair on his head.

  Which had probably been the reason they’d had sex tonight. With everything going on around them, they’d still felt it appropriate to fall into bed together. But what they’d done tonight hadn’t been anything close to the kind of lovemaking she’d grown to enjoy with Russell over the years.

  This had been rutting.

  He’d nearly forced himself on her, and at first, Carol had wanted him to stop. Then she gave in and let him take her. And it had been good. Rough, but good. It was just what they’d needed in the moment, and it had ended with both of them satisfied and sleepy.

  Moving her legs caused an ache where Russell had been jabbing deeply inside of her. She wished she could be mad at him for that. She’d needed it as much as him, she supposed. A distraction from the worry and stress.

  Russell had fallen asleep naked. She’d at least managed to get her gown back on, though she was naked underneath.

  And she needed to go to the bathroom.

  That was going to be a painful chore.

  Carol climbed out of bed, feeling soreness on many places of her body. The worst of it was between her legs. She didn’t bother hunting for her slippers and hobbled barefooted to the doorway. The carpet felt soft and ticklish under her feet. Air drifted up her gown, caressing her with a gentle coolness that felt good on her heated skin.

  Though she couldn’t remember it, she figured the dream must have been a doozy. As she entered the hallway, she tried to recall what it had been about. No images would come. Maybe it was for the best.

  Carol left the bathroom light off and the door open. The toilet was a faded shape in the dark, but familiar to find. She checked to make sure the lid was down, hiked the gown up to her hips, then dropped down. The cold porcelain made her tense up.

  “Damn that’s cold.”

  Though she’d whispered, it could’ve been a shout in the silent house. The wind howled and gusted outside in response, making the house pop in many places. After the shock of the frigid bite on her rump, Carol relaxed and let her bladder release.

  Mommy.

  Carol jerked. Her stream cut off as if it had been corked. She put a hand to her chest and felt her pounding heart through the cool silk of her gown. “Dor…Dorothy?”

  A quiet house answered her.

  Sitting on the toilet, Carol looked around. The tub was beside her, the curtain pulled shut. Had the voice come from there?

  Sounded close.

  But it also sounded far away.

  How was that possible?

  Carol looked at the dark sheet next to her. “Dorothy, sweetie? Are you in the tub?”

  Soon as the question left her lips, she realized how dumb it had been to ask. Why would her daughter come home and hide in the bathtub?

  Is she hurt?

  Carol reached for the curtain, her arm a dark streak in the heavy murkiness of the bathroom. She saw the smudges of her fingers extended, felt them brush the curtain, heard it whisper with movement.

  Carol took a deep, trembling breath.

  Then jerked the curtain open. She leaned back, gasping.

  The tub was empty.

  Carol stared at the white walls, glimmering from a recent polishing. She should laugh at herself for acting so foolish, but couldn’t find the humor in what she was going through.

  “Stupid, Carol.”

  With a sigh, Carol allowed herself t
o finish what she’d come in here to do.

  Out in the hallway, she felt wide-awake now and knew going back to sleep would be impossible. Maybe she should go downstairs, make some coffee, and sit in the quiet for a while.

  The thought of being alone in this big house scared her.

  Russell’s here.

  Passed out, though. Same as being alone.

  Anything beat sitting in bed all night while her husband snored beside her.

  On her way to the stairs, she paused at Dorothy’s room. The door was shut. Tempted to look inside, she forced herself to leave it be. It was still a mess from Worden and the other officers rummaging through everything. Besides, she knew Dorothy wouldn’t be in her bed.

  The sense of loss she’d felt for a couple days now hit her all over again. Her throat tightened, and tears filled her eyes. Backhanding the moisture out of her eyes, she walked to the stairs.

  Carol was halfway down when the front door clicked and swayed open. Bits of leaves and grit fluttered across the floor. The moonlight cut a bleached arc on the shadowy floor around the dark shape of a person’s shadow.

  Carol stopped, her hand gripping the rail.

  The shape was noticeably human, but little, and seemed to have smaller, thinner shadows flapping around its head.

  Long hair…

  Carol recognized the dark silhouette easily. “Dorothy!”

  Carol rushed down the stairs, nearly falling more than once. Reaching the floor without injuring herself, she ran to the door. Her bare feet slapped the floor. She felt hard things prick her skin from the debris that had blown inside. Her foot came down on some leaf shards and slipped out to the side. She tried to catch herself on the jutting doorknob but only managed to knock the door away from her.

  Her hip whacked the floor. Not allowing herself to feel the pain her fall had caused, she scrambled to her hands and knees and crawled halfway through the doorway—her hands on the porch, her knees on the floor inside.

  She gazed into the yard.

  And spotted Dorothy, standing naked on the stone-lined dirt path that led from the driveway. The wind made her hair dance and lash around her head.