“What’s going on? Why’s Ben upset? What happened?”
Halloween said nothing as he stepped out of the tub. He also didn’t bother to take the clothing I offered. By the turn of his head and redirected gaze, it was obvious he was going out of his way to ignore me. Not since the tunnel, when he’d commanded me never to bite without permission, had his eyes met mine.
Let it go…for now.
Rested, fed, and clean, we five mutineers sat at our wooden table in the mess hall and waited for my father and the others to exit the panic room. The events of the evening hadn’t been discussed. Other than the sequestered conversation between Ben and Duncan, Halloween hadn’t said a word. The only proof that anything happened tonight were the two red bottles Halloween brought back, which meant he’d taken out at least two vampires.
I was curious what happened outside the bunker, but I was also apprehensive that, if I broached the subject, I might hear more than I wanted to know. While Halloween yawned repeatedly, obviously close to his cut-off time, and Tilly wrung her hands in silence, Ben and Duncan took turns casting nervous glances in my direction.
Could all the blood I’ve taken from Halloween be changing me somehow? Am I going to turn into a vampire? And if that happens, will Halloween have any use for me? Will he abandon our deal and leave me to slaughter my own family because of my need for human blood? Is that what they’re so afraid of?
My whole body trembled at the thought.
“Are you feeling all right?” Ben asked as he stood and then moved around the table to crouch next to my chair. His eyes were wide, and when he placed his hand on my leg, his whole body vibrated with fear.
Holy shit! It’s true!
I sprung to my feet, knocking Ben off-balance, and fled to the first place I thought of—the small closet. Halloween would go there to sleep off the day and I could confront him in private, where he’d be more likely to give me the answers I needed. I wouldn’t allow him to keep me in the dark about my transformation. Besides, I really had no desire to see my father again, which was probably why I bumped into him as soon as I turned the corner.
Jumping away, I put my back to the concrete wall. My eyes stayed trained on him while my feet continued along their path.
“You’re still alive?” The disappointment in my father’s gritty tone was undeniable.
Halloween is right. If given the chance, he’ll kill me.
“No worries, Dad. I’m sure it’s not for long.”
That brought a broad smile to his sheer-white face. “Let me know if you need any help.” My father patted his fully exposed sidearm.
“No thanks. I’ve got it covered.”
I heard my father chuckle as I turned tail and darted away. No one else was around. To ensure their safety, my father would have ordered everyone to stay inside the panic room until he checked things out for himself. And once he saw my mother’s dismantled body displayed over the main entrance, he’d snap.
My father will want my head. And before I wait around to become a vampire, I’ll give it to him.
I slipped inside the closet hoping to see my pack, but then I remembered I’d left it in the outlook room. The closet was completely empty, not a single comfort. I slowly closed the door behind me, extinguishing the light as an anxious chill crept up behind me. Encased in total darkness, I inched my way down the wall and tucked myself into the nearest corner to wait.
Dead Day # 1,453
Duncan is walking a thin zigzagged line. While he assures his allegiance to me, his actions do not appear to match his words. Duncan has always been close to Leo, and since she was little he’s tried to protect her, but I never thought that protective influence would cause a problem. Again I’m wrong. She is a strong adversary. And much to my regret, she still lives.
I fantasized ways to kill my daughter all night, but when I ran into her, I failed to act on them. The desire to mutilate her is great, but any hasty unplanned action against her might interfere with my rule over the others. They do not see Leo for what she is, not yet. But soon they will all see her for the monster she’s become.
Lincoln and Zoe have begun their training. Just before dawn I took them to my private alcove, gave them instructions, and watched as they attempted to carry them out. As I expected, Lincoln is too soft and I need to toughen him up. When he cries, Zoe follows suit. After a harsh scolding, they both promised to do better next time. And I have all the faith in the world that they mean it. If Lincoln cannot carry out the act, then I will ensure Zoe’s consummation myself.
Either way, my legacy will begin tomorrow.
After I had sworn them to secrecy, I dropped them back in the panic room with the others so Robert and I could assess the situation with our unwelcome guests.
I sent Robert to check on our rations while I greeted the vampire supporters—who appeared anything but victorious—in the mess hall. They looked tired and beaten but spit-spot clean. The vampire has certainly made himself at home. Orrin, the one Leo calls Halloween, claims two of his brethren were dispatched by his hand and another six have taken off, deciding a fight with him wasn’t worth their lives, but the nine vampires who weren’t as easily persuaded still want blood. They want war. And if we don’t give them a blood sacrifice at nightfall, they will attack again. Only this time they’re threatening to burn our fields and the plentiful forests that surround the bunker.
Leo should be the offering. This is how she can save her family. She’s already given herself freely to Orrin. If she truly wishes to save her family, she will do this, and all my problems will go away. But, of course, before I even mentioned the obvious, I was informed that Leo was off the table. Orrin has laid claim to her and without her he will cease to be of assistance. I hate it, but I know we need his help.
Robert has reported missing rations. The mice have helped themselves to the cupboard. Today we’ll tend to the fields, harvesting whatever we can and taking as much as we can inside to limit the amount of damage the vampires can do by theft or fire. Then I will have to spend the rest of the day deciding if one member of our beloved family should be condemned to death. Damn Leo for putting me in this position.
Population: 18
Rations: 123 Days
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
I lifted my head when the closet door opened. Halloween slipped inside with a stack of blankets and a pillow tucked under one arm. The slim ray of candlelight went out again when the door latched shut. I listened as the lock slid slowly into place.
Halloween made almost no noise; there was just a faint rustle of fabric as he readied a makeshift bed. I strained my eyes, wanting so badly to see some movement in the pitch-black space of the closet. But without a speck of light in this small space, I saw nothing.
I clamped my eyes shut and fine-tuned my ears to his movements, and I pictured him adjusting the pillow under his head. Shutting the dark out behind closed lids made it easier for me to relax. I took a deep cleansing breath, and then another and another, while working up the courage to speak.
Don’t let your fear keep you in the dark. Say something!
“Are you hyperventilating?” Halloween’s gruff voice touched my face just before his fingers brushed loose strands of hair from my forehead. I jumped to my feet swallowing a scream—his bright eyes were so close.
After several more gulps of air, I forced my vocal cords into action. “I wasn’t before, but now I am!”
Halloween’s eyes rose above me. He made an unfamiliar sound, but if a grin crossed his lips, it wasn’t for me to see. “I brought blankets and a pillow. Get some rest.”
The last thing I wanted to do was sleep. Every muscle in my body ached from sitting too long on the concrete floor. Flicking my arms and legs around to get the blood circulating again, I circled around the two orange orbs in the closet using the walls as a guide, and I steeled my nerves for the conversation we were about to have.
“I know what’s wrong with me,” I said, taking another lap.
I mana
ged three more steps before a barricade suddenly dropped, stopping me short. Assuming the invisible barrier was Halloween’s arm, I ducked to get around it.
“Do you?” he said mockingly.
Smug bastard! Of course I do!
I shot him a dirty look in the direction of his voice and hoped with all my heart that he saw the rage I’d flung his way. “Yeah, I do. Call it instinct or a woman’s intuition… Besides, Ben’s terrified for me, and there’d be no other reason…” My pacing grew more frantic. I was terrified, too, but I knew better than to let fear plant its meat hooks in me.
Panic leads to bad decisions, which will always end in stupid mistakes. “Rule your fear.” That’s what my father always told me. “It’s good to be scared. Fear will keep you sharp. But never, under any circumstances, give in to that fear.”
Funny thing—my father had done just that. Digging my boot heels into the concrete floor, I stopped in front of the only thing I could see: Halloween’s eyes. “Why did you tell them and not me? This is happening to me, not them!”
“I wasn’t sure how you’d handle the news.”
“Really?” I might have stilled my feet but I was too pissed to control the rest of me. I struck out with both fists and, to my surprise, made immediate contact with his mid-section. “You did not just say that to me.”
Halloween seized my fists. “I shouldn’t have said that. Obviously, I knew you’d react badly.” Once again, his touch did something to cool my temper.
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “How do you know for sure that this will happen?”
Halloween guided me a few steps to the right and down on the blankets that he had laid out on the floor. “I caught a glimpse of your future.”
Some part of me knew I should ask how. I wanted to ask him about his “demon blood” and what it meant, too, but I couldn’t bring the questions to my lips. Pulling my hands out of his grasp, I crossed them over my waist.
“The future can always be changed. There has to be something I can do to stop it.” Like meet my father in a dark cave.
“Not this time.”
I couldn’t see Halloween move, but the coolness in the air around me shifted.
“Why?” I searched the darkness for his eyes and found nothing but an empty void. “I don’t want this.”
“You said you would do anything to save your family. This is what I now require of you. Leo, in the history of mankind nothing like this has ever occurred. You have to see it through.” Halloween’s rough tone boomed with absolute authority. Without a visual to put with that voice, it could have been my father speaking.
Halloween’s not my father.
“You’re happy about this, aren’t you?”
The temperature to my left changed drastically, delivering a chill to my skin. I shivered as Halloween’s breath stirred the hair covering my ear. “Very.”
My stomach lurched without warning. When nothing came up, I coughed to clear my throat and scooted back. “But why are you happy? You said a human could never become a vampire. How is this possible?”
“Possession of a human can occur, but that isn’t the case here. I have told you what I could of the truth, but now the truth has been altered. What was once impossible is now possible. That which has never existed will live because of you.”
The thought of becoming a vampire had disgusted me until that very second. I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of it sooner. As a vampire, I could protect my family from the horde. But I knew I could also slaughter them…
Halloween was calm and collected all the time. Since he'd “made” me, I had to believe I’d end up like him.
I reached down beside me and pulled at the soft blanket, tucking the edge under my chin. “How long do I have?”
An extended period of silence followed before Halloween answered. “I can’t say for certain what the incubation period will be. Six months, maybe a year. We’ll take it day by day.” His speech was soft and slow—he was winding down.
Before I lost him to oblivion, I needed to address the other pressing matter. “What happened outside tonight?”
“The worst and most unreasonable were slaughtered and then contained. That convinced several others to abandon the fight. They’ll seek blood elsewhere. But the rest are standing strong. They are demanding a blood sacrifice, or else.”
I tossed the blanket aside and grabbed a piece of his flesh. I think it was an ankle. “Or else what?”
“They’ll burn the crops.”
Halloween had tucked me against his side before he lost consciousness. I did my best to get some sleep, but all I could think of was the vampire-thing I would one day become. Since possession wasn’t part of my transformation, Halloween couldn’t tell me what to expect. This was going to happen naturally, as some sort of biological-spiritual metamorphosis that, as far as I knew, went beyond anything that had ever occurred.
Will I be the same person inside? Or will I lose myself completely?
There was nothing comforting about the unknown, which might be why I couldn’t relax in Halloween’s cool embrace. I was too wired. My body needed to move. The longer I laid there, the stronger and more insistent the itching-twitches in my legs grew. I needed to run.
Now!
I slipped out of Halloween’s arms. When I didn’t hear him stir, I jumped to my feet. The closet was pitch-black, but I eventually found the door knob. Feeling along the seam of the door, I slid the lock open and stepped into the candle-lit hallway. I almost tripped over Tilly, who squealed as I scrambled back into the closet, grabbing the open door to keep from falling over.
Slowly rising to her feet, she reached out. “Leo?”
I took her wrist and pressed her hand to my cheek. “Yeah, it’s just me.”
She sighed before withdrawing her hand. “What are you doing?”
I inched into the hall and closed the door quietly behind me. “I need to go for a run. Can you make sure no one disturbs Halloween? I’ll only be an hour.”
Tilly shook her lopsided braids. “That’s not a good idea.” I couldn’t help but smile at the image of Duncan attempting to braid her hair for the first time. Of course, it could have been Ben.
Emotions I didn’t want to analyze pulled at the corners of my mouth.
“It’s still daylight, right?”
The back and forth shake of her head switched to an up and down motion. “But your father and the others… It’s not safe. You need to stay inside with Orrin.”
“I’ll be fine.” I ended our conversation by running up the empty corridor.
With pieces of my mother’s body hanging over the front entrance, I knew Duncan would do everything in his power to keep my father away from there. That meant it would be the safest exit for me to take. However, my escape didn’t go unnoticed.
Robert’s shocked expression barely registered when he happened to step out of the pantry as I blew past the doorway. He yelled for me to stop, but now that I was running, nothing would stop me.
As soon as I opened the door, the mid-day heat and smell of baking rot hit me like a putrid brick wall. I slammed my hand over my nose, refusing to throw up. I knew the farther I ran the better I’d feel.
I kept running, and only after I’d cleared the courtyard did I remove my hand. The sun was high in the sky without a single cloud in sight. Insects and pollen danced in the heavy beams of light shining down through the trees. I raced to the edge of woods and had to stop again. The thick canopy blocked too much light. The dark shadows in the woods weren’t so much a retreat from the heat as a place for sinister creatures to hide from the sun.
But then I remembered how comatose Halloween was during the daylight hours.
I love the day. I’ll never be able to live in the dark.
An uphill run would use more of the pent-up energy coursing through me, and so I turned right and headed up the mountain, running faster than I had in years. I ran from the dark, ran from what I’d soon become. I pictured clawed hands
reaching out of the shadows, inches from catching a strand of my hair, as I raced through the woods. Without the heavy burden of my pack, I weaved around roots, bushes, and rocks, and easily ducked under partially fallen trees without missing a step. I knew the route well and arrived in the wildflower field in what had to be record time. The fragrance of flowers rushed to my nose.
The sun warmed my face as I tilted my head back to pull longer breaths into my aching lungs. I refused to think of the time it would take for me to get back down the mountain or the fact that I had no water or provisions. All I had was the knife sheathed on the belt of my pants, which were suddenly way too hot.
Stripped to my underwear, I walked with my arms raised through the high grass and flowers to cool down. I picked several dandelions and clovers, and even snagged a grasshopper to nibble on. This would be all I’d have to sustain me until I made it back to the bunker.
I tried my best to enjoy my time alone, but I knew Tilly would be frantic with worry. The sun was resting just above the treetops. I still had several hours of daylight left, but I was well over my stated time of one hour. And it would take twice as long to walk down the mountain as it did to run up. After getting dressed, I decided to shorten that time with a light jog.
Before I walked through the courtyard gate, I spotted Lincoln sitting on a partially crushed log staring up at the front entrance. He was looking at what I didn’t have the strength to look at—our mother’s rotting head. I almost turned around, afraid of what my little brother might say if he saw me. My father’s hatred I could tolerate, but if Lincoln hated me…
He’ll have a really good reason soon enough. I’ll be his worst nightmare.
For a few moments I watched without him taking notice. Several times he forced his eyes to the ground and viciously shook his white-blond head before bringing his gaze back to our mother’s dismembered parts.
The Dead Days Journal: Volume 1 Page 14
