The Vampire of Plainfield

by Kristopher Rufty

  Ed went down on one knee, dropping the crossbow. The landing jolted the trigger apparatus and launched the stake. It whacked his forearm, stabbing into Mary’s flesh. He felt a quick stinging pain from the tip scraping him. If it weren’t for the suit, the stake probably would’ve stabbed all the way through his arm. Now it dangled loosely from Mary’s skin.

  Robin squeezed harder, pressing the neck piece against his throat. Though it was too stiff for her to accurately strangle him, it was enough to make it even harder to breath.

  Gotta get this crazy whore off me!

  Ed made his rump buck, as if he truly were a mule.

  A horse’s ass is more like it!

  He gave another hard buck.

  Shrieking and thrusting on Ed’s back, Robin held on. She even hooted, as if enjoying the ride. “That’s it, baby!” Robin shrieked. “Make me bounce!”

  And Ed did. On all fours, he crawled in circles, throwing his ass into the air. Robin stayed on his back, her arm bent over his throat. He thought he felt her swatting his ass as he made his way around. He pictured her on him, one arm high in the air, her breasts jiggling and swaying.

  “Get ‘er up!” Robin squeaked. “Whoo! Yeah!”

  This time, he was certain she’d smacked his ass like a horse. Humiliation aside, Robin’s crude gesture gave him an idea. He flung himself high into the air, like a horse about to make a heroic charge.

  Since Robin was only holding on by the one arm, his sudden springing thrust threw her off his back. Spinning, Ed plucked the stake from his forearm, and threw himself toward Robin as her back hit the ground. The hit jolted her, made her breasts shake. Her eyes pinched shut, mouth dropped open to let out a quick grunt. He spotted the fangs, and knew she was definitely one of the vampire’s minions.

  Then he slammed the bone stake above the mound of her left breast. It punched in deep. Ed put a hand flat on the stake, then put the flat of his other hand on it and pushed the stake in deeper. As the stake plunged, Robin groaned as if straining to lift something heavy. Her skin became parched and colorless as Ed pushed the stake.

  Her arms quavered stiffly. Her legs kicked. Her feet dug through the ground.

  When the stake could go no deeper, Ed sat back. He looked down at the dead girl. She looked like something he’d find inside a casket. Her hair was like an old doll’s, her skin the color of driftwood and the texture of seaweed.

  He pushed himself up. Standing, he tried to catch his breath. The limited air holes made it difficult. He felt a tad light-headed. He turned around, walked over to the crossbow, bent down, and picked it up.

  Timmy was standing beside him when he straightened. The boy’s face was pale, but not because he’d been changed. He looked famished and appalled, gaping at what was left of Robin.

  “You going to be okay?” Ed asked.

  Timmy blinked. “Yeah.”

  “Did you like her?”

  Another blink. “No. I loved her.”

  Nodding, Ed’s suit squeaked. “I understand.”

  “Do you? Because I don’t.”

  Ed sighed. “Honestly…I don’t, either.” He put his hand on Timmy’s shoulder. The boy jerked as if waking from a bad dream. Ed figured he was, in a sense that was hard to explain.

  Timmy looked at Ed, his head moving slowly down, then up. “That’s really you under there?”

  “It’s really me.”

  Timmy nodded. “Yeah, sure.”

  “We’re not done.”

  “I know.”

  Together, they turned and looked to where the bride had been put back down by Ed’s stake. The vampire, on his knees, had his back to them. Leaning over the bride’s shriveled carcass, he yanked the stake from her and quickly put it back in.

  It did this over and over, oblivious to Ed’s and Timmy’s silent approach.

  Watching the vampire’s desperate, unsuccessful tries to revive its bride, made Ed sad. He felt a tinge of pity for the creature.

  “You know it won’t work,” Ed said.

  The vampire stabbed the bone stake back into the bride’s chest. Instead of trying again, it let its hand hang by its side. “I know.”

  “She can’t be awakened again until the next full moon.”

  “I know this as well.”

  “How do you know that, Eddie?” Timmy asked.

  “Bernice told me.”

  “Nana?”

  “I see the boy has no knowledge of his birthright.”

  “Not yet,” Ed said. “But he will.”

  The vampire’s shroud of hair moved in a nod. “He and I will meet again.”

  “No,” said Ed. “It ends here.”

  “Does it?”

  “Yes.”

  The vampire released a throaty chuckle that reminded Ed of stones rubbing together. “A vampire defeated by a ghoul. Never would I have imagined such drivel.”

  “You know one thing my worthless father taught me at a young age, something that I’ve grown to base my whole life around?”

  “Yes?”

  “Sometimes, shit happens.”

  The vampire chuckled again. “That it does, Ghoul. That…it…does.”

  Ed felt something hard slam into him. The crossbow went flying away from Ed’s hand as his body went flying in another direction. The vampire’s blue face shot toward his, shrouded inside the blurry darkness of its flapping hair. Cheeks trembling around its opened maw, shaking like the sails on a boat under heavy wind, its body pressed against his, its large hand gripped his throat, the talons stabbing through Mary’s flesh to prick his own.

  They weren’t on the ground. Ed realized this from how everything zipped by on both sides of him before coming to a juddering halt when Ed’s back banged against something sturdy that clanged like metal.

  Not metal…silver.

  He was against the silver enclosure. As he started to wonder how the vampire was able to step inside the clearing, smoke began swirling from the cuffs of its tattered sleeves. Ed heard sizzling sounds as more thick plumes rose from the vampire’s wing-shaped collar. Gelatinous fluid oozed down the vampire’s face.

  It still can’t be in here. It just doesn’t care what happens to itself!

  Clawing at Ed’s throat, the vampire said, “Before I go…I will see you die, Ghoul!” Gooey chunks sloughed down its face, showing pieces of skull underneath.

  Its melting fingers ripped the throat piece of Mary’s skin away to expose Ed’s neck. Then its claws peeled back, tearing off as if held on by liquid wax.

  “I do not want your blood! I want your life!”

  The vampire’s chin cracked and crunched as it seemed to lower to the bottom of its throat. Smoke swirled from its cavernous mouth. A sulfur-like stench drifted out. Its jowls stretched until they ripped to unveil massive, glassine fangs.

  It’s going to bite my head clean off!

  And there was nothing Ed could do to stop it. Pinned against the fence, he wasn’t strong enough to fight the vampire off.

  Roaring, the vampire came in for the bite.

  Ed closed his eyes, primed for the pain.

  -42-

  The bite never came.

  Or maybe it had been so quick, he hadn’t noticed.

  All he saw was darkness. But maybe that was all there was after you died—an empty void of dark.

  But was there still pain? Ed hurt all over, and it felt as if he was being slowly crushed underneath a mighty weight.

  Maybe there was pain where he’d gone. Mama had warned him since he was little, he would wind up in hell if he didn’t repent.

  I never repented. Never even prayed.

  Maybe some weak, halfhearted prayers when he felt really desperate. Nothing major, unless he was asking for something.

  So maybe there was pain where he’d gone. A lot of pain.

  “Eddie?”

  Timmy was here too? Poor kid. What’d he do to be sentenced to eternity in a blank abyss of pain?

  Had the vampire dispatched Ed and then gone for
the boy?

  Seemed possible, though not likely.

  Ed cracked an eye open.

  Through thin layers of smoke, the vampire’s teeth filled Ed’s vision. Ed screamed. He squirmed and thrashed. He felt himself move.

  Also felt hardness under his back. The ground.

  Opening his other eye, Ed turned and looked. It was the ground. He was on it. Squirming and kicking, Ed tried to wiggle his way loose. Hands gripped his arm, and pulled. He was being held down. The vampire was holding on, not allowing him to get up.

  “Help!” Ed cried.

  “I am, if you’ll let me!”

  Timmy?

  Ed eased off on his struggles, letting his tugged arm guide him. He moved to the right, then left, wiggled his hips. His chest came free. The pull on his arm stopped. A moment later, he felt his shoulders being pushed.

  Don’t push me back in!

  He wasn’t being pushed back toward the vampire. He was being pushed up.

  Ed leaned forward. He sat there, arms limp, legs stretched and crushed under the vampire’s sizzling body. Sticking up from the right side of its back was the blade of his broken shovel. A lot of smoke clung to its pointed tip, growing thicker as it poured from where the wood was imbedded in the vampire’s coat.

  And the shovel seemed to be growing.

  Hollering, Ed kicked. The vampire tumbled sideways off his legs. Stabbed through its chest was the jagged tip of the handle.

  Ed pulled his legs to his chest. Mary’s skin showed restrain, as if it wanted to jerk Ed’s legs straight. It made popping sounds while he hugged his knees.

  “What the hell…?” he muttered.

  “I killed it.”

  Ed looked up at Timmy. It was easy to do now, without the neck piece. Flaps of Mary’s skin dangled under his jawline. “You?”

  Timmy nodded. He showed no hint of pride for what he’d done. “Yeah.”

  “With my shovel?”

  Another nod. “Yeah. Got him from behind. He was about to bite you, Eddie. So I…” Timmy’s lips quivered. He took a deep, trembling breath. The boy was about to cry. “I stopped him.”

  “Thank you.”

  Timmy nodded. “Yeah, well…it had to be done.”

  “Thank you…again.”

  “Yeah. It’s hard to look at you with…that stuff on you.”

  Ed reached up, and gripped Mary’s hair. It felt as if it might rip his face off as he pulled the mask back. Finally, it came free with a sticky pop. He let it hang behind his back, where it was stitched on. “Better?” he asked, winded. He took a deep breath. Though it smelled like old feet cooking over a fire of shit, he smiled.

  “Not really.”

  Ed looked down at his suit. “Can’t take this stuff off.” He patted the stomach appliance.

  “Why not?”

  “Not wearing anything under it.”

  At first, Timmy frowned. Then his shoulders jerked. Ed thought he was about to let out his cry, but the boy began to laugh.

  Ed joined him.

  And it felt good.

  -43-

  Timmy helped Ed load the bodies in the back of his truck. Then, working as a team, they reburied the bride. Finished with that, they walked through the cemetery, and filled in all the graves Ed had dug up for the vampire. Ed demanded that Timmy be careful while he worked, since he was down to three shovels. With the others broken, his supply was very limited.

  Timmy promised he would be.

  It didn’t take nearly as long with the both of them working as it would have had Ed been alone. He was glad to have Timmy’s help.

  There was no reason why they recovered the graves, but somehow both seemed to know it needed to be done.

  After that, they drove over to the church and filled those in as well. Neither of them spoke while they worked. Ed didn’t explain anything, and Timmy never asked any questions.

  Their final stop was the small graveyard back in the woods, the site of where this macabre ordeal began. There, they returned the vampire to its grave. Before filling in the dirt, Ed shoved his hand into the vampire’s chest and pulled out its heart.

  “Why’d you do that?” Timmy asked.

  “So nobody can make this mistake again.”

  Timmy was quiet for a moment, then nodded. “What are you going to do with it?”

  “Keep it.”

  “Then take this too,” said Timmy, tugging something out of his pocket. He tossed it.

  The small object smacked Ed’s chest. Bringing his arm up, he opened his hand. The shrunken head he’d given to Timmy landed in his palm. “You…don’t want it?”

  Shaking his head, Timmy looked at Ed. The boy’s eyes were grim. “I don’t want anything that’ll remind of this night.”

  Frowning, Ed dropped the head in the grave. It bounced off the vampire’s chin, rolled, and came to a stop against the stake. He understood why Timmy would want to bury the trinket, just as the boy probably wanted to bury the memory. But Ed still felt sad that Timmy gave it back. It had been a present, for luck.

  Brought the boy no luck at all.

  He thought he remembered Bernice telling him something about shrunken heads welcoming evil. If that was true, then he’d doomed Timmy from the start by giving it to him.

  “Let’s get started,” Ed said.

  Neither spoke while they piled the dirt back in.

  Together, they dug three fresh holes where Ed had found the original corpses. Ed made Timmy wait in the truck while he handled the task of burying Peter and Robin by himself. Before putting them in the ground, he laid the kids on their backs. Then he put the blade of his shovel to their necks, and stomped it down with his boot.

  Their heads tumbled away from their necks.

  Just as he’d found the others, he put the bodies in the ground, placing their heads between their legs. He gave each body an equal amount of garlic from Bernice’s wreath. When he finished, a vacant string dangled around his neck.

  By the time they reached Ed’s house, the dark sky was cracking with sunlight.

  Neither of them washed up, but Ed did excuse himself to peel off Mary’s flesh. He put on some clothes, and though they weren’t clean, they felt much lighter on him. His skin was able to breathe again.

  In the living room, they waited for Bernice to wake up.

  And she did before the sun had fully burned away the night. Since he didn’t have an icebox, Ed soaked rags in cold creek water, letting Bernice press them against the hardened lump jutting from her temple. Though she was battered, she seemed okay.

  Ed sat in silence while Bernice explained everything to Timmy. She went into every detail, leaving nothing out, sharing much more than what she’d told Ed before.

  The boy barely reacted to any of the information, and Ed could tell this bothered Bernice. It bothered Ed, as well. He figured the boy was having trouble absorbing everything he’d witnessed, and what he’d been told. Too much all at once. Plus, the boy had survived hell.

  And he was…just a boy.

  Ed thought Timmy was handling everything just fine. He’d be okay. So long as his parents didn’t ring his neck for being gone all night.

  Timmy left with Bernice shortly after nine in the morning.

  Ed entered the kitchen, found a paper bag, and put the vampire’s heart inside. Then he rolled the bag up, tossing it into a box on his way out of the kitchen.

  He went to his bedroom and collapsed on the bed.

  Ed was asleep within seconds.

  -44-

  Ed strained to open the window in the living room. Grunting, he tugged at the base until it popped loose. The window flew up, banging inside the frame. The night’s mild air drifted inside. It smelled fresh, like springtime. Crickets chirped, frogs croaked. Together, they made a calming melody that Ed enjoyed.

  He took a deep whiff, and sighed. Already, the stuffiness of the room began to thin.

  Walking over to his favorite chair, Ed sat down, letting his body relax. His achy muscles tingle
d with relief. He felt cozy and tired in the soft cushions hugging him like fluffy arms.

  Moaning, Ed kicked off his boots.

  It’d been a long day.

  He’d tilled the ground for Bernice’s garden. They’d spent the rest of the day making hills and planting seed. It had taken till suppertime for them to finish. At least Bernice had fed him afterward.

  He wished Timmy could have been there, but the boy was still grounded.

  “Better grounded than dead,” Bernice had said.

  Her idea that they should go along with Tom Worden’s wild animal theory had paid off. She’d convinced Timmy to go home and say he and Robin were attacked by some kind of monster. He wouldn’t be lying to his parents, but she knew nobody would believe him. They’d assume he was in shock, and had mistaken some kind of animal for a monster.

  Neither Ed nor Bernice had expected somebody would actually shoot a bear a few days later. Since there had been no other disappearances, the bear was blamed for the deaths of Dorothy Clark’s parents and the missing kids.

  But that didn’t explain the mutilated cattle, and the disappearing dogs. Or the strange footprints that kept popping up in the fields strewn with the body parts of dead cattle.

  Worden believed they had wolves coming in from the deeper parts of the woods, looking for food. Now the farmers watched their livestock around the clock, rifles ready to fire.

  People figured Mary Hogan had run off with some scoundrel she’d met at the tavern. Ed doubted Tom Worden was looking too deeply into it, because of the relationship he’d had with Mary. Probably, most of the men in town were glad she was gone. The women, too.

  When Timmy came home from the hospital, and was able to sleep in his own bed again, Tom and Barbara Worden informed him it was all he’d be doing for a month. Didn’t matter what he’d been through, he’d lived to see his punishment, so he would get it. He bet Timmy was somewhat relieved to be prisoned to his room for a while. It gave the boy plenty of time to fiddle around with his stories.

  And Ed doubted Timmy was in any kind of hurry to see Ed, maybe not ever again. Bernice also acted as if things had changed between them. Ed thought the vampire ordeal would have brought them all closer together, but instead, the aftermath put up some kind of invisible barrier between them all. He hated it. But he also figured he deserved it. He’d been the one who caused everybody so much pain, so maybe he was being punished for it.