by R. M. Garcia
“I love you, Donnie, get out of here!” Abbie exited the house, carrying the stove high above her head. She ran after Hulderich, and Donnie lost sight of them behind the veil of rain and wind. He continued to struggle to pull himself out of the cliff, but the water and the suction it was creating in the clay was hard to overcome. Hulderich hit the sand with tremendous force! The refrigerator had broken into several large fragments as it carried him down the beach. Several of his bones were broken, and he had difficulty standing but managed to regain his footing. He laughed aloud for a moment, relishing how wonderfully powerful his child was. His laughs made it all that much easier for Abbie to find him in the maelstrom. Abbie drove the stove into Hulderich’s back, knocking him down once again. She continued to hit him with the appliance until it was little more than a misshapen piece of metal. She only stopped when she was sure Hulderich was dead. She looked at his broken and crushed body and was sure he wouldn’t be bothering them ever again and ran back to help Donnie. She met him halfway; he had managed to pull himself free and came after her.
“Donnie!” Abbie said as she jumped into his arms and hugged him.
“Baby, oh, I’m so glad you are OK! Who or what was that?”
“It’s what we are now, Donnie.”
“What are we?”
“We are vampires!” Hulderich said as he entered in view of the young couple. He looked different now. His skin had lost its pinkish color and now had an ashy white texture to it. It made him look even more inhuman.
“No! I killed you!” Abbie yelled at Hulderich.
“You have a lot to learn, Abigail” said Hulderich. “Healing injuries faster than normal is a skill you have yet to learn, but one I have mastered.”
“What do you want from us?” Donnie asked.
“From you Foundling, nothing, but from my child, I want to take her before my Führer and beg for his pardon,” Hulderich said.
“I told you already I’m not going anywhere with you,” Abbie yelled. “I was ready to die, but now everything is different.”
“I told you, you have no choice. I will force you,” he yelled back.
“I’m not going to let you take her anywhere freak!” yelled Donnie as he leaped at Hulderich. He had been concealing the freezer door from the refrigerator and used it on Donnie. He delivered several ferocious strikes before Donnie could react. The final one sent him hurtling back toward the cottage. Abbie turned and ran toward the cottage and Donnie. When she got to him, he was already on his feet and moving with purpose back toward Hulderich.
“Donnie, we have to run,” Abbie cried out. “He is too strong!”
“He would only follow us. We need to end this here and now.” Hulderich emerged from the darkness and moved toward the pair once again.
“Let’s try that again,” Donnie said as he began running at Hulderich again. Abbie joined him at his side in mid-sprint.
“We’ll take him together,” she said. Hulderich seemed to be moving slower, and he was unable to block or evade the combined assault that Abbie and Donnie punished him with, but there was something different. He just kept shrugging the blows off as if they were nothing. Hulderich’s skin seemed much harder. It actually hurt their fists to hit him. Their blows seemed completely ineffective.
“Enough of these games,” Hulderich said as he reached out and simultaneously grabbed both of them by their throats. For all their struggling and kicks, they were nothing more than rag dolls to him now. Hulderich walked back to the cottage with the pair in his grasp.
“Last chance, Abigail. Come willingly, or I kill your Foundling.” Hulderich looked at Abbie and waited for her response. Taking her back by force and alive was going to be hard enough. He hoped he could intimidate her into submission.
“No! Leave him alone,” she cried.
“I’m not done yet either,” Donnie said as he continued to struggle.
“Very well, I respect your tenacity, but I must destroy you now.” Hulderich tossed Donnie high in the air. Abbie watched him soar into the night sky and out of her sight. Hulderich delivered several swift devastating blows to her head, rendering her unconscious. He released her limp body, and she slumped onto the sand and ceased to move. Donnie landed on the Karmann Ghia with a sickening crunch of bone and metal. He turned to see where Hulderich and Abbie were. He spotted Abbie lifeless on the beach, but the rain’s continued deluge made it difficult to spot Hulderich. It wasn’t until the entire car began to rise that he looked back toward the cliff. Hulderich picked up the entire car again. Donnie tried to move, but Hulderich flipped the car, and he landed on the beach among a myriad of broken glass. Before Donnie could turn or move, the first blow struck him. Hulderich raised the car and cruelly brought it down upon Donnie. Every time Donnie attempted to move, the weight of the vehicle was brought down upon him. Two, then three times, and Donnie continued to rise. Six, then seven blows, and Donnie continued to move. Donnie was getting angrier with every strike. Nine and finally after ten clobbers, Hulderich tossed the car aside and jumped on Donnie’s back and grabbed Donnie’s head. “I cannot believe you are still able to move, and I am not easily impressed.” Hulderich started to pull Donnie’s head from his body. Donnie reached out and grabbed Hulderich’s wrists and continued to struggle. “Let me give you a lesson young Abigail failed to use,” Hulderich said, and he continued to squeeze and pull on Donnie’s head “The most efficient way to kill one of our kind is to rip your enemies’ head right off their body like so!”
“Let me tell you something,” Donnie said as he began to exert his own force on Hulderich’s wrists “There is no way I am getting punked with my dad’s car.” Donnie pulled Hulderich’s wrists off his neck and pulled him downward violently. He snapped his head backward, hitting Hulderich square in his face with the back of his head. Hulderich staggered backward, and when he recovered, Donnie was standing before him. The two combatants lunged forward recklessly and began striking each other wildly. Donnie seemed to be faster and delivered more strikes, but Hulderich was simply not getting hurt by Donnie’s blows. It was as if Hulderich were made out of stone itself.
“You cannot win boy,” Hulderich said, delivering a knee that sent Donnie back flying back onto of the car. “I am a trained soldier and you lack the strength to harm me. Your efforts are in vain.” Donnie’s brain began to whirl and start calculating odds. Every figure and calculation gave the victory to Hulderich. No matter what, Donnie had to continue to fight. He spotted the car’s gas tank, and it seemed surprisingly intact.
He ripped the tank from the chassis and took a flying leap at Hulderich. He bellowed as he brought the metallic container onto Hulderich’s head. Hulderich grabbed Donnie’s neck as he reached him. Donnie realized a split second before the flash that this was exactly what Hulderich intended.
The lightning bolt hit the tank at the precise moment Donnie hit Hulderich with it. The massive explosion that followed covered them both in flames and gasoline. Hulderich was slammed back into the cliff, and Donnie sailed in a high arc upward. The irony that he was once again airborne was not lost on him. Donnie hit the sand and rolled. The flames did not last long, thanks to the unyielding rain. Hulderich emerged from the smoke and grasped Donnie’s neck once again. “I am done toying with you!” he said, and he took hold of Donnie’s neck with both hands. Donnie could see that his flesh was terribly burned and that its color had returned. Donnie could see that in spots where it wasn’t burned, his skin once again had a pinkish hue to it.
“What makes you think I was ever playing with you?” Donnie grabbed Hulderich’s wrists and snapped them back. Hulderich screamed in anger, and Donnie could clearly see his fangs protruding from his mouth, and his own fangs sprung out involuntarily in response. Donnie wasn’t sure why, but he instinctively bit into Hulderich’s neck and began to drink.
“What are you doing? Get off me!” Hulderich screamed in sheer terror. Donnie strengthened his grip over him and used his legs to further grapple him, like a python cr
ushing its prey. Hulderich pulled, pushed, and struck Donnie repeatedly. He jumped, rolled, and tried to scrape Donnie off him with the cliff. Donnie had never tasted anything as delicious as the blood now flowing down his gullet. “How are you? How is this . . .” Hulderich said before collapsing in the sand. Donnie had drained him of all his blood. He stood up and looked down at Hulderich. He was still able to move his eyes but seemed incapable of any other movement.
“What was that sure way to kill a vampire again?” he asked Hulderich “Yeah, I remember now.” Donnie leaned over and savagely tore Hulderich’s head from his body. The body instantly turned to black sand and sank into the sand on the beach. Donnie turned and ran to Abbie’s side. With every step he took, the weather cleared, and the rain ceased. Within moments the night sky cleared, and the light of the moon lit up the area.
“Abbie, are you OK?” Donnie asked as he lifted her up. She moaned and woke up.
“What happened?” Abbie asked groggily.
“I beat him,” he said, taking Abbie inside the decimated cottage.
“How did you beat him?”
“I ripped his head off. He won’t ever bother us again.”
“Really, but there will be others after me,” Abbie said. “It won’t be safe.”
“We’ll deal with them as they come,” Donnie said. “For now, you need to rest.”
“I just need a few hours. Then I will be good.” Abbie checked her injuries. “Maybe less.”
“Why are they after you?” Donnie asked as he dried her with a towel.
“It’s a long story. I’m just glad I have you with me,” Abbie said, leaning her head onto Donnie’s chest. “Where do I begin?” Abbie closed her eyes and rested against him. Babump, Babump, Abbie smiled in amazement as she listened to Donnie’s heartbeat.
CHAPTER 21
You Can Never Go Home Again
DONNIE HELD ABBIE tightly in his embrace. She had fallen into a deep coma-like sleep. He could see that her bruises were slowly healing. Upon inspecting his own body, he could find no cuts, burns, or bruises. He knew that several of his bones had been broken when Hulderich pummeled him with the car, but now nothing hurt. He was not sure what had happened to him, but he had seen enough movies to figure out what had happened to him. He was a vampire, and by extension so was Abbie. How did this happen? Was this the reason she had acted so strangely? She woke up a few hours later. Her normally rosy skin had turned a shade paler, and she seemed colder to the touch.
“How are you feeling?” Donnie asked.
“Better now. Thanks for watching over me,” she replied.
“I’m not going to let anything happen to you I promise.”
“I know,” she said as she snuggled closer to Donnie.
“Want to explain everything now?”
“Oh, Donnie, I’m so sorry you got dragged into this. I tried really hard to keep everyone away.”
“Don’t blame yourself for me being in the middle of this. I made the choice to be here,” he said. “Just tell me what happened to you?”
“The man we fought, his name was Hulderich, and he was a vampire,” she began as Donnie paid close attention. “From what Stefan told me, I was selected to become one of them too.”
“Stefan, is he the one who took you against your will?” Donnie asked.
“Yes and no, I went willingly, but they didn’t give me much of a choice,” she explained. “They told me if I didn’t agree they would kill me and then kill you, my parents, and Kelly and Trista. The free trip to Florida was a huge trap.”
“Those bastards, I’m glad I tore his head off,” Donnie said angrily. “I felt really bad about it at first, but after it was done, I sensed that what I did was right.”
“Well, it wasn’t really his fault.”
“What are you talking about?” Donnie was again confused.
“These vampires, they call themselves the Reich, and they are a bunch of Nazis and white supremacists.”
“Nazis, what, didn’t they know you are Jewish?” Donnie asked. “Why would they pick you?”
“That was Stefan’s doing. He found me, and I had the appearance of everything they look for in a new vampire, what Hulderich was looking for, but it was all a trick,” Abbie said. “He knew I was Jewish all along, but he concealed it from Hulderich somehow, and after he birthed me, both of us were in deep shit.”
“That is why he wanted to take you back, to the head Nazi, so that you could say he was tricked and save his own hide.”
“Exactly, but after you found me, I changed my mind,” Abbie said.
“You were going to go with him?”
“Stefan told me that executioners would come from me and kill me, so I came here to wait for them,” she said. “Everyone I loved was safe, so I was ready to die.”
“I am glad I got here in time to stop you,” Donnie said. “Why go through all the trouble of faking your death just to wait and die?”
“Stefan said that I needed to detach myself from everyone, because if I didn’t, people would never stop looking for me. Just look at you, you somehow found me out here,” Abbie pointed out. “I thought it was the cruelest thing I could do, but I now understand how necessary it actually is.”
“Detach? I am not following you.”
“The detachment is their process whereby you separate yourself forever from your former life,” she explained. “You’re going to have to do it too.”
“Why?” Donnie asked, and Abbie’s lower lip began to tremble.
“Because I killed you, and somehow I birthed you into a vampire.” She was completely shaking now. Donnie held her closely.
“No, this wasn’t your fault. Don’t blame yourself. I was as good as dead after the fall. If you hadn’t done what you did, I wouldn’t be holding you now. In my book you saved me, not killed me.”
“Oh, Donnie, why aren’t you furious at me! I made you into a thing that has to drink blood to live, a dead thing!” Abbie said crying.
“Because it was my choice, and I would do it again, a million times over.”
“It wasn’t your choice! I was starving. I lost control and drained you of blood until your heart stopped beating.”
“It was my choice. I was brought here by the spirits to this very spot. They told me it was dangerous, and they asked me, if I was willing to trade my life for yours, and I said yes,” Donnie explained calmly.
“I don’t understand,” Abbie said, looking up at Donnie.
“I thought about it while you were sleeping and as best as I can figure, everything happened the way it was supposed to.”
“I still don’t understand.”
“I asked the spirits to explain why you killed yourself, and they brought me here to find answers. You were dying without blood. My blood fed you and I died, so in a sense I traded my life so that you could live.”
“Whoa that is freaky, almost too hard to believe.”
“Said the vampire,” Donnie replied. “Is it so hard to believe that a spirit helped me find you? I mean I now have my answers.”
“I guess it’s possible, but however you got them, they came at too high a cost.”
“I would gladly do it again for you,” he said and held her close.
“I’m just relieved not to be alone anymore. I have been so scared and alone for the last few days.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” he said. “But what do we do now?”
“You need to detach yourself, and we need to run,” she answered.
“There’s no way I’m not putting anyone through another funeral.”
“You don’t have to die, err again anyway,” Abbie said as she retrieved her manual. “You can do the first detachment. You tell everyone you are going away on a trip or something and just never come back.”
“That could work with everyone except Misha and CeeCee,” Donnie said. “They have been watching me like hawks, probably expecting me to off myself.”
“So what do we do about them then?”
“Donnie, no. That will put them in grave danger!”
“The Nazis don’t know about me, so why should they care anything about me or mine?” he asked. “All I have is a dead-end job I can quit tomorrow.”
“Hmm, I guess you are right, but I’m still not sure.”
“Let’s go to my house, then we’ll head as far as we can from Florida in a few days.”
“You aren’t seeing the big picture, Donnie. I will need to feed tomorrow, and you should be starving right now.”
“I don’t have all the answers yet, but we’ll work to find them.”
“Wait, why aren’t you hungry?” Abbie asked. “After I woke up as a vampire, I was starving, and I drained you dry.”
“I don’t know. I wasn’t hungry or weak when I woke up. I came outside and started praying. I felt kind of weird, but otherwise I felt fine.”
“Well, you will need blood soon.”
“I drank blood already,” he said.
“You did, how?” she asked. Donnie looked away for a moment and took a breath.
“Before I ripped Hulderich’s head off, I drank him dry,” Donnie said, slightly disturbed in himself.
“Donnie, you are not supposed to be able to drink vampire blood!” Abbie said, turning to a page in her manual. “See, it says that no vampire can drink blood from another vampire. It says that once it enters our bloodstream, the blood completely dies. I don’t understand.”
“It tasted good, and I’m full,” Donnie said. “Maybe the manual is wrong.”
“So far it’s been packed with good information,” Abbie said. “Well, if you are full, you should be fine for a few days, but I will need to feed tomorrow and no more dogs.”
“You drank blood from dogs?” Donnie asked, slightly alarmed.
“Yeah, I don’t recommend them,” Abbie said, slightly saddened.
