The Monsters in Your Neighborhood

by Jesse Petersen

  “Now he’s got the help doing it,” the Mummy Girl said with a sigh.

  “Really, it’s so pedestrian to call us monsters. You’d think he could be more creative after all these years,” Natalie agreed.

  Both of them were speaking loudly enough that whoever was in the room could hear. There was another pause, and then the servant turned toward them.

  “Go in,” he sneered.

  “Thanks, buddy, we appreciate the hospitality. Fetch me a hot toddy, will you? Thanks so much.” Natalie clapped him on the arm as she passed by and reveled in how he recoiled.

  She stepped into the room . . . and found herself face-to-face with not a single old man named Van Helsing, as she had expected. No, there were five people in the room. And all of them were staring at her with loathing.

  “Hey, it’s a party,” Kai said as the door shut with an ominous click behind them. “You should have sent out invitations.”

  The old man rolled forward in his wheelchair and looked at the two of them with disdain. “Everyone who is important was here long before you two arrived, I assure you.”

  “And who is ‘everyone important’?” Natalie asked, her lips thinning as she glanced from one angry face to another. There were two men and two women in addition to Van Helsing, all of varying age but all sharing the same clear, hawkish eyes of the old man. Eyes she had been looking at for generations.

  She backed up a step. “You are all Van Helsing?” she whispered, her heart lodging in her throat.

  One of the men stepped forward. He looked to be in his early forties, tall and thin, but with a wiry muscularity that spoke of strength. He flipped a lock of blond hair from his forehead and said in a crisp British accent, “Indeed we are.”

  Kai shook her head, her voice breathless with surprise and disbelief. “But your records, they indicated—”

  “You mean those records you stole from me?” the older Van Helsing said with a laugh that petered into a cough.

  As he regained his composure, one of the women arched a brow. She was darker-haired and younger than the first person who had spoken. “I keep telling Grandfather that he should keep those records up-to-date or not keep them at all. But it seems his fading interest in the family genealogy has worked in our favor this time. You really didn’t know about us at all, did you?”

  Natalie drew a breath. So . . . this was bad. But she couldn’t panic, not here, not in front of them. She and Kai had come here for a reason, and she was not going to leave until that reason had been dealt with.

  “One Van Helsing or a dozen, it really matters very little,” she lied with a shrug.

  The old man smiled. “It matters when we are at war. You two are decidedly outnumbered, I believe.”

  Kai arched a brow. “Powers are a great equalizer, old man.”

  “Your powers have never saved you,” the blond man hissed. “And they never will.”

  “We’re here because of the video,” Natalie said. She kept her eyes on the older Van Helsing. He held her stare and did not waver. “The one that has been so popular in social media.”

  “The one that reveals you for what you are?” Van Helsing chuckled. “It is entertaining, no?”

  “Are you responsible?”

  He blinked, suddenly all innocence. “Me? I’m just an old man, Miss Gray. I don’t even own a computer.”

  Her jaw tightened and she was nearly overcome by a sudden, powerful urge to give in to hundreds of years of instincts and pummel him until the smirk was long gone from his face. Instead, she drew a long breath and looked at the others.

  “Then who?” She moved toward them. “Which one of you posted the video? And then helped it go viral?”

  The woman who had not yet spoken stepped forward. Her Van Helsing eyes shone large behind a pair of Coke-bottle glasses, the kind Natalie didn’t think they even made anymore. They looked strange on the face of someone who had to be in her mid-twenties.

  “I’ve been waiting to meet you all my life,” the girl hissed. “I’m Lydia Van Helsing. And I’m the one who made you viral.”

  Natalie stared at her; this woman was filled with rage and hatred, even though she’d never even met Natalie or Kai or Alec or any one of their kind. This girl had been raised from birth to despise them, to kill them if she could manage it without arousing too much suspicion.

  “And you call us the monsters,” Natalie whispered.

  Kai tilted her head. “It must have been a happy coincidence that those kids in the park caught images of that Creature, let alone that Creature actually attacking a human.”

  Lydia shifted slightly, then shrugged. “Wait around long enough and everything reveals its true form. I’m sure if I followed you around with a camera, I’d find you doing things worthy of YouTube.”

  Natalie wrinkled her brow. Follow them with a camera? That wasn’t what had happened. The kids in the park had just happened to catch the film . . . or at least that was how it had seemed in the video . . .

  “And what about Drake?” Kai pushed.

  “Drake?” the older Van Helsing repeated, his voice dripping with contempt. “Ah, yes, that is what you call Drakule, isn’t it? Some foolish adaptation to make him seem human, just like Natalie or Alec or . . . Pat.”

  Natalie froze. They knew about Pat? She did all she could to keep a reaction from her face.

  “Yes, Dracula, if you prefer it. He was recently attacked. With a stake. Just like old times,” she said. “Speaking of old, did you do it? Own it if you did, since you are so proud of your war.”

  “What you are describing sounds like the way of nature to me,” the tall, blond Van Helsing said with a sneer.

  Natalie stared at him. “And who are you?”

  “Desmond Van Helsing. I would shake your hand, but I don’t believe one should train dogs to do tricks.” He smiled. “And this woman is my sister, Gemma.” He motioned to the other woman.

  “And what about silent but deadly back there?” Kai motioned to the last, unknown man.

  Natalie looked at him. He was a big man, though certainly not monstrously large. He had his arms folded and looked like a bodyguard. Except for those stupid Van Helsing eyes that revealed him to be a killer, not a protector.

  “Donald Van Helsing,” he spat out, and said nothing more.

  Natalie nodded slowly. She would have to remember these names so that Alec could do his magic and access any records that existed on them. Gemma, Desmond, Lydia, and Donald. The Van Helsing quartet. Carrying on the family business of brutally murdering monsters. Go, team.

  She shook her head.

  “This war is your choosing,” she said softly. “It always has been. These new weapons you have are impressive, but don’t think that we don’t have a few new ones of our own.”

  “Oh . . . so it can learn?” Van Helsing said with an arched brow. “Well, I look forward to seeing these new weapons.”

  She placed a hand on each armrest of his wheelchair and leaned down so that her face was mere inches from his. The two younger men jerked toward her, but Van Helsing held up a hand to stay them.

  “Old man, we are ancient enemies,” she said softly. “But I will give you a chance to step back. Stand down. Leave us alone.”

  “And if I refuse?” Van Helsing smiled.

  She shook her head. “Then you will make me become what you accuse us all of being. And you will not like it when that happens.”

  She pushed back and stepped toward the exit, continuing to watch them as she went. In truth, she almost expected an attack, guns and knives to come flying out and finish the war right there. But they did nothing, only watched as Kai and Natalie backed from the room and closed the creaking door.

  In the hallway, the butler was standing watch, and he sniffed as he led them to the front door. Once they were on the stoop, he looked them both up and down.

  “Next time, make an appointment,” he ordered, then slammed the door in their faces.

  They stood there for a moment, stari
ng at each other until Kai motioned toward the subway station.

  “So what do you think?”

  “They made it viral, but I also think they had a hand in the creation of the video itself,” Natalie said. “When that girl, the younger one, Lydia, said something about threatening to follow us with a camera, that rang true, like it was already the case. And she blanched right after she said it, like they hadn’t wanted us to know the truth.”

  “Wow, Miss Detail-Oriented, I’m impressed,” Kai said.

  They walked down the metal staircase into the belly of the city to wait for the subway that would take them to Drake and the boys. Linda and Pat would have to be texted or just told during next week’s meeting.

  “Actually,” Kai said as they pushed past exiting people and stepped onto the train, “I’m kind of impressed by you in general. I figured I’d be running that whole exchange, but you stepped up.”

  Natalie felt blood rush to her cheeks at the uncharacteristic compliment.

  “I guess I was motivated,” she muttered.

  “Their war is going to be different this time,” Kai said, staring off into nothingness. “We’ve grown accustomed to mobs and weapons; they’re going to be more sophisticated.”

  “I don’t know. By outing us, aren’t they just hoping for a different kind of mob?” Natalie asked with a sigh. “Look, we’re three stops away; we can just talk to the guys about this when we get there. There must be a way to combat what that family is trying to do.”

  Kai pursed her lips, but was quiet for the rest of the ride and the walk up to Drake’s apartment. Natalie knocked on the door, and as they waited for one of the guys to open it, Kai looked at her.

  “I get that it must be freaky to realize there are other Creatures out there when you thought you were alone,” she said. “But don’t let it put you off your game, Natalie.”

  Natalie looked at the mummy. It was so easy for Kai. She’d had Rehu out there for as long as she’d been a monster. They might have fought, but she’d always known what it was like to have someone of her kind out in the world. Natalie had spent decades thinking she was an endangered species. Now she wasn’t alone and it frankly freaked her the fuck out.

  The door opened before she could admit all that, and revealed Drake himself. He had a little color in his cheeks, his hair was combed. Basically, he looked like the living dead again.

  “Hi!” Natalie said, smiling despite herself. “You look better.”

  He pulled the door back and motioned them in. “I feel better, though where the stake pierced will sting for some time to come.”

  Natalie nodded. When monsters were weak to something, they were freaking weak to it. It was the same for her with fire. One little burn from a stove top and it was almost impossible to bear for weeks. That was why Alec did so much of the cooking.

  Drake guided them into the living room Natalie hadn’t had time to admire a few days before. Rehu was sitting on the couch, looking utterly uncomfortable as he watched television. Igor had the remote and had chosen Project Runway as their entertainment of choice.

  Natalie looked around. Alec was nowhere to be seen. He was probably in the bathroom, but that didn’t stop her from being disappointed. Turned out she kind of needed a hug from the big dummy right now.

  “So how did it go?” Drake asked as he returned to his recliner, of all things.

  Natalie stared at the scene before her. Three guy monsters, just hangin’ out . . . watching a show about fashion. ’Cause that was normal.

  “Did you guys check Twitter?” she asked without answering his question.

  Drake nodded. “Still the same thing: #realmonstersNYC and the video are wildly popular.”

  “Shit,” she said with a sigh. “I figured as much.”

  “Okay, so what about Van Helsing?” Rehu asked with a scowl.

  “Um, I’d rather wait until Alec is here to talk about it,” Natalie said.

  “Why wait?” Rehu asked, then suddenly tilted his head at one of the fashions coming down the runway. “Now, that’s just hideous.”

  Natalie blinked, still confused by this very strange combination. “Well, why not wait? I’m sure he’ll want to hear it.”

  Igor glanced over at her. “He’s not here, honey.”

  Natalie stiffened. “What do you mean, ‘he’s not here’?”

  Rehu broke his attention away from the screen. “He got a call and started acting all weird about twenty minutes after we arrived, and then left.”

  Natalie stared at the group even harder. Alec didn’t have school tonight. He had been pretty clear with her that he was just going to hang out with Drake and wait out her report on what had happened at Van Helsing’s.

  “Where is Alec?” she asked. “Where did he go?”

  Rehu grabbed the remote from Igor and clicked mute so that Heidi Klum’s accent no longer filled the room.

  “Look, Natalie, I don’t know. He just got up, said he had somewhere to be, and left, okay?”

  “No,” she said, sinking into the closest seat as irrational fear mobbed her. “It’s not okay. It’s actually not okay at all. Something has happened to him. I can feel it.”

  8

  It was thirty-six hours before Natalie saw Alec again. Actually, it was thirty-five hours, fourteen minutes, and twenty-eight seconds. She was counting, her emotions swinging from terror that something had happened to him, to rage that he had just roamed off without telling her, to absolute certainty that he had hooked up with a Brazilian model and gone to live the high life in Europe without so much as a thought for her.

  And to cap it all off, the entire time she waited she was forced to endure Igor sitting next to her, watching the clock with her, pressing her with questions about her “relationship.” He even patted her hand and clucked his sympathy at her like she was the Widow Frankenstein.

  Which was exactly what he was doing when there was a jangle of keys and her apartment door opened to reveal Alec.

  She pushed to her feet and stared at him. His hair was disheveled and he was wearing the same clothes he had been in when she’d last seen him, so they were wrinkled and there were a couple of stains on them.

  He glanced up as he dropped his keys and wallet on the little plate she had put on her console table just for that purpose.

  “Hey,” he said, wrinkling his brow as if her staring at him wasn’t to be expected.

  “Hey?” she repeated, her mouth dropping open with shock she couldn’t mask. The relief, that she was able to cover up just fine—because she was going to kill him. “Hey?”

  He reached back and shut the door behind him, his brow furrowed. “Um, yeah. Hey.”

  “Igor, can you leave us alone for a moment?” she asked, without sparing a glance for the staring lab assistant.

  She could feel him eating this up and was not about to give him the satisfaction of watching them come unglued.

  “Oh, sure, I’ll just go to my room,” he said with a quick glance first at Alec, then at her.

  She pivoted on him. “No,” she ground out past clenched teeth. “Go somewhere else. Take a walk around the block or something. Now.”

  Igor’s eyes widened and he nodded. “Okay, okay. I’ll go somewhere else. Plenty to see here in New York, even at eight o’clock in the morning. No problem.”

  Alec stared at her like she’d sprouted a second head. “What is up with you?”

  Igor grabbed his jacket and slipped past Alec with one final, rather disappointed glance, and left the apartment. The moment he was gone, Natalie charged Alec.

  “Where the fuck have you been?” she asked, grabbing his collar and spinning him around to shove him at full force into the living room.

  With most people, that push would have put them into the table all the way across the room and through the door in the kitchen, but her monster strength was pretty evenly matched with Alec’s, so he only staggered a little.

  “What are you talking about?” he asked, but she saw his eyes glint w
ith his own monster defensive anger. So this was how it would end, with them destroying each other in her living room.

  So totally typical. This was why monsters didn’t date.

  “What am I talking about, suck fucker?” she repeated. “What the fuckity fuck am I talking about?”

  “Yes, what the fuckity fuck are you talking about, Natalie?” he asked, hands up in a defense stance. “And why are you saying fuck so much?”

  “I figured you would lie,” she muttered, more to herself than to him. “I figured you’d be all like, ‘Oh, hey, babe, lost track of time in the library, slept at a friend’s, my cell battery died so I couldn’t call, I had to do a late-night favor for a stripper . . . ’ something, Alec.” She shook her head and swallowed hard past the sudden lump in her throat. “Something other than pretending that there’s nothing wrong.”

  He swallowed. “Natalie, what is wrong?”

  She wanted to punch him so bad, her fists were actually twitching. “Really? Really, you want me to say it? Okay, asshole. You’ve been gone for a day and a half.”

  Alec stared at her with a blank, disbelieving expression.

  “Nooooo,” he said slowly, drawing out the word. “I—I wasn’t. Babe, I’ve only been gone for fifteen minutes.”

  Natalie hadn’t looked at him or spoken to him in at least five full minutes. All she did was pace around the apartment, slamming her hand against furniture and muttering things about what a lying, scheming, cheating asshole he was.

  “Look, Nat,” he finally said with a sigh. “I don’t know why you’ve lost your mind, maybe it’s this whole Creature thing getting to you, but—”

  “Lost my mind?” she interrupted, pivoting toward him with a twisted, angry look on her face that he hardly recognized. It was monster rage mixed with scorned-woman rage. “You are the king of the assholes.”

  He lifted his hands in surrender. There was no use arguing if she was going to insist on her crazy talk.

  “Natalie, I left the house fifteen minutes ago, I’m sorry, I guess it’s been twenty minutes ago. I don’t know why you’re so pissed.”

  She stared. “Are you saying you really think you left the house less than half an hour ago?”