“Penny’s Choice”
Written by
Annette J. Archer
Copyright/Terms of Use
Copyright 2012 Annette J. Archer and FictionBattle.blogspot.com / Nazarite Limited). All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be altered, transmitted or reproduced without the publishers/authors prior consent.
This story is a work of fiction. The names, characters, and incidents portrayed in them are the works of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is accidental
Table of Content
(CHAPTER 1) Leaving the nest
(CHAPTER 2) Penny Saves the Day
(CHAPTER 3) A New Normal
(CHAPTER 4) The Cleanup
(CHAPTER 5) The Party
(CHAPTER 6) Vampire to the rescue
(CHAPTER 7) Meet the Family
(CHAPTER 8) The Move
(CHAPTER 9) The Day of Reckoning
(CHAPTER 10) To New Beginnings
(CHAPTER 1) Leaving the nest
Wind whistled through the upstairs window, rustling her grandmother’s antique curtains. Penny slammed the window shut. Her grandmother knew that she didn’t like the window left open. It’s how they got in the house. Of course her grandmother, the police, psychologists, and teachers, didn’t believe her story. The story sounded ridiculous even to her: Vampires. According to one psychologist that her grandmother had sent her to, vampires were a figment of teenage girls’ imaginations, built from a suppressed desire for danger, sensuality, and the proverbial bad boy. The solution to her hallucination: get out and date a little.
Penny peeked through curtain, causing a flurry of stagnant dust to dance around her face in the starlight. She saw them, though. Five of them, to be precise. And here she was living with her grandmother, being harassed by reporters, and being driven from one shrink to the next, instead of being on summer vacation with her family. Vampire: it’s what she wrote on the police report.
Penny glanced back at the clock: 2 am. She lifted the quilt from her bed and pulled her suitcase from underneath. She was leaving; she was joining the Brotherhood. She was going to get revenge for her family.
She left a note on the night stand for her grandmother. She wrote only one word on the paper: Vampires.
Penny opened the door to her bedroom quietly, stopping at the point where the hinges tended to creek. While her grandmother’s vision was failing, her ears were as sharp as a bat. She tiptoed through the hallway making sure to miss the two squeaky floor boards. Once outside she made her way down to the end of the lane to a taxi that was waiting on her.
“Penny?” The taxi driver asked. He shifted his baseball cap as he looked at her.
“Yeah, I'm kinda in a hurry,” she said as she clutched the suitcase closer to her body. “So if we could just get out of here, I would appreciate it.” She looked around the wooded area uneasily. She still feared that the vampires would come back for you. She was still unsure why they had passed her up.
“You expecting somebody, young lady?” The driver squinted his eyes at her. “You seem a little young to be going out by yourself...especially so late.”
“I'm 18,” she lied. She was only 17, but she didn't want to alert the driver that she was running away. “Best time to fly is red eye cause it's cheaper.” She avoided his gaze and looked back into the forest.
“Sure.” He opened the car door for her and she rushed in the back seat.
In the taxi Penny opened up her suitcase; it was packed only with a few family photos, a diary, and one change of clothes. She left everything, including her laptop and cell phone, at her grandmother's house. The last communication from the Brotherhood, as they called themselves, told her not to bring anything that could be used to track her and that they would provide anything she might need. She slammed close her suitcase when she noticed the driver eying her again.
Penny was not taking a flight like she told the driver. She was to meet her contact with the brotherhood at airport baggage claim 2. He would be wearing a green Beatles t-shirt and sitting on the edge of the carousel.
At the airport Penny gave the man two 20 dollar bills, the last of her money.
“Hold on, I'll get you some change,” the driver said.
“Keep it!” She was already half way to the airport door as she yelled back.
“That's lots of money for a 10 minute...” But Penny was already through the door and didn't care how long he had driven her. She didn't need the money anymore. It was on the do not bring list.
She made her way down the smaller corridors of the Gerald R Ford International Airport to the baggage claim area. She kept her eyes on the ground. She didn’t want anybody recognizing the girl whose family was slaughtered on a quiet cul-de-sac in East Kentwood 3 months ago. Or even worse, the vampire girl...
“Hey there Bella,” a boy said behind her. A chorus of snickers followed. She stopped in her tracks and clutched her small suitcase in closer. “You here to run away with Edward?”
She turned around to face a group of boys that recognized from her high school. “No...I was just leaving for...” she stammered.
“Oh, the vampires are coming back for you now,” another boy from the group taunted her.
“What you got in your suitcase,” the ring leader said reaching for her luggage. “Stakes? Silver bullets?”
Penny shrugged off his advance but the group closed in around her and the ring leader grabbed for the suitcase again. She held onto it tight and stumbled back into a boy with bright red hair. She fell on the ground in a heap; her suitcase was flung across the circle of boys.
“Everyone knows that silver bullets are for werewolves,” said a man from beyond the circle. 'If you're going to pick on a poor girl who's gone through a very traumatic experience, you could at least get your facts right.
“Silver bullets, stakes, whatever,” the ringleader replied. “She's still crazy.”
Suddenly the ringleader was on the ground not far from Penny and the rest of the boys were scattering.
Penny stayed on the floor, trying to hide the tears welling up in her eyes.
“Hey, man, you can't do that!” The ringleader tried to get off the ground, but a giant combat boot met the back of his shoulders and smashed him back into the ground.
“On the contrary, I can.” The boot dug harder into the boy's shoulder blades and he squeaked underneath the pressure. “What was that you said?”
“Stop it, please, stop it,” the boy said with the last of his breath.
“No, you stop it,” Penny's rescuer said. “Leave the girl alone and you can go.”
The bully didn't respond. Penny couldn't tell if it was because he couldn't breathe or because he was just being stubborn. The boot dug in again.
“Ow, k...” the ringleader finally responded in a barely audible gasp.
“Good, now you and the rest of your goons get out of here before I use her silver bullets on the lot of you.” The bully slowly pulled himself off the floor and crawled away to his goons. Penny looked up just in time to see them running away toward the concourses. She crawled slowly over to her suitcase. She wasn't hurt, but her pride was damaged and the contents of her suitcase were strewn about the airport floor.
“We didn't realize that you were such a local celebrity,” her savior said as he stooped down to help her pick up her meager belongings. “Perhaps it's been your outspoken “craziness”, so to speak, that has kept you safe from them coming back for you.”
Penny just sat cross legged on the floor. She hardly heard anything the man had said, but rather was looking intently at a picture of her family.
“Penny? Penny, are you ok?”
“Yeah...yes. I'm fine. Wait coming back for me?” She
looked up at her savior and realized for the first time that he was wearing a green Beatles t-shirt. “Oh, you're my contact.”
“Yes I am. You can call me Charles.” He locked the suitcase back up and pulled Penny up. “I was sitting over there when I saw them taunting you. Then I heard something about stakes and silver bullets and figured I was probably meeting you. Do you get attacked often?”
“Yeah, first by vampires then humans. Not sure which are worse at the moment. At least vampires don't linger...”
“Oh, vampires linger. Trust me, if you would have stayed with your grandmother, they would have come back for you eventually...ya know when the media died down. And they wouldn't have made it quick like your family either.”
“Oh...I didn't...I need to sit down.” When she leaned over her blonde hair fell into a heap on Charles' shoulder.
“There will be time to sit in the car. We need to get going now.” Charles put his arms around her waist.
“No, no, I'm fine.” She stood upright quickly. “Just a little emotional. This has been my home my whole life. But I'd like to get away from being called Mary Shelly!”
“She was a pretty good writer,” Charles mumbled in reply.
“I don't care if she's a good writer! I'm not Mary Shelly, or some other vampire whore. I'm Penny Wolf.” Penny marched right out of the airport doors and into the street, straight into oncoming traffic.
“First rule of hunting vampires: pay attention!” Charles said as he pulled her back onto the sidewalk; a dark blue sedan whizzed past.
“Sorry,” Penny replied. “I just get a little worked up sometimes.” She hung her head and starred at the sidewalk.
Charles took her hand and smiled. Penny felt better when she looked into his green eyes. There a was a comforting deepness in them that reassured her that things were going to get better and that she was indeed going to the right place.
“I know what you're going through. Well, mostly, I never had the local media brand me as a vampire crazy.” The black nondescript car drove up as Charles was talking. “There's our ride.”
Charles opened the back seat door and motioned for her to get in the car. Penny poked her head in cautiously, hoping she could get a peek at the driver, but there was a tinted divider. Penny shuffled her butt to the other side of the seat. Charles put the suitcase in the middle and climbed into the car with one swift swing.
“Get comfortable. It's gonna be a long drive,” he said as he buckled his seat.
“Where are we going?” she asked. Penny studied his expression. Penny liked his crooked smile and the locked in place curls that adorned his head. At least I'll have something nice to look at on this long trip.
“Out West,” he replied. He closed his eyes and clasped his hands on his stomach.
(CHAPTER 2) Penny Saves the Day
Penny and her sister Violet were fighting in their bedroom. Penny smacked her sister and screamed at her about stealing the boy that she liked. It was the last straw; it had happened too many times before. Penny was about to strike her sister again when her parents entered the room to break up the fight. But, no sooner had her parents entered than five vampires, dripping with blood entered through the window. One female vampire went directly for Violet and sunk her teeth into her neck before her sister even had a chance to scream. Penny was hurtled into a closet by a gruesome looking male. He bit into her neck and briefly fed on her while her family screamed in agony outside.
The vampire didn't kill Penny. He cut his own wrist and fed her his blood. Penny kicked and screamed, trying to refuse the blood, but to no avail. She was turning and she had a hunger for blood. She burst through the closet door looking for the first living thing she could feed on. She grabbed her sister's neck and was about to consume her first meal as a vampire.
“Penny, Penny, snap out of it,” Charles said. He was leaning over her and rubbing her arm.
Penny sat straight up in her seat. She was a little disoriented in the strange surroundings. She grabbed onto Charles' arm as she recomposed herself. She had drifted off to sleep after about 10 minutes of riding in the car. She hadn't slept much or well since the incident with the vampires. The nightmares that woke her up screaming almost every night, along with the insistence that her family had been attacked by vampires, was what prompted her grandmother to send her to a string of highly qualified psychologist. None of them were able to help her.
Penny felt more secure around Charles already. Unconsciously she thought that he could protect her in her dreams. But he could not.
“Sorry, I just have these dreams,” Penny said as she finally relaxed by putting her head back on the seat and releasing her death grip on Charles. “Do they go away?” She asked.
“Not completely,” he replied. “The best thing to help them subside, is to kill the damned creatures.”
Penny looked outside at the scenery. Mostly barren landscape met her gaze. There was a sign for Salt Lake City in 75 miles.
“So, are you going to tell me where we are going yet?” Penny asked, thinking about how far west they had already come.
“California.”
“And, anything more specific,” she asked. His mysterious answers intrigued her. He was a challenge, and Penny always loved challenges.
“Southern California,” he said, still evading her question.
“Are you trying to avoid answering my question?” Penny prodded him a little deeper.
“Yes,” he said looking vacantly at the window.
“Oh, come on Charles, what am I going to do? Do the vampires not know where the brotherhood is?”
“Oh, they know...” he said still staring blankly.
“Then why won't you tell?” She crossed her arms and thumped back into the seat. Penny didn't like it when people thought she was untrustworthy.
“The public doesn't know,” he said looking at her, as if he were trying to decide if she was trustworthy.
“I'm not the public anymore either,” she said. She uncrossed her arms and planted an accusing finger on Charles's nose. “My family was killed by those monsters!”
“So was mine. And I wasn't told till I got there.” Charles lifted her finger off his nose and held her hand in his. Penny wasn't sure if she wanted to kiss him or slap him. She just turned her head and huffed.
Charles sighed and let go of her hand. “The Winchester Mystery House,” he said quietly.
“Where?” Penny had never heard of that place before, but of course, she had never been west of the Mississippi before she met Charles.
“The Winchester Mystery House is a very unique building, and popular tourist attraction, that was built by an eccentric widow and heiress.”
“Why are we going to a tourist trap?” Penny asked. She didn't like the idea of staying at a place inundated with noisy tourists.
“Because that is just a ruse and a way that we support the Brotherhood. It was built to keep vampires out, well, and tourists too. The building has 579 rooms, but the public only know about 160 of them. Every odd feature of the house – there are many – is designed with one thing in mind: keep the vampires out.”
“Oh, so she had vampire problems too?” Penny asked. Perhaps this place might be more interesting than she thought.
“Took her family from her,” he said. “Her husband died several years after the initial attack that claimed her newborn child. She spent the rest of her life building a fortress against vampires.”
“Oh,” Penny said. She puckered her lips in deep thought. “I'm sorry about yelling at you. It's just been a long couple months.”
“It's alright,” he said. He squeezed her hand lightly before he let it go. “You're entitled to be a pain in the butt occasionally.” A half smile flickered across his face.
Penny slugged him in the arm.
“Okay, okay, save the violence for the vampires.” He resumed his position with his arms crossed and his eyes closed. He was done talking for now.
Penny was about to resume her slee
ping position when the car lurched to the side. Charles immediately jerked up and pressed a button on the center console.
“Bradley, what seems to be the problem?” Charles asked while he was grabbing a gun out of the back of the seat and handing it to Penny.
“Um, Bradley...this is Thomas,” The man replied.
“Thomas? Thomas, what the hell are you doing?”
“Saving you from hungry werewolves,” he replied and the car swerved down another road. Penny saw the skyline of Salt Lake City on the horizon. She thought they must be going over a hundred miles an hour. She looked back behind the car and saw a large wolf chasing them.
“How long have you been driving?” Charles asked as he loaded a gun for himself.
“Since you left San Jose,” the man said. “Overheard some werewolf talk. Lost the rest of them a couple miles ago.”
“Thomas, you can't be here...driving,” Charles said. Penny thought he was complaining about a rather odd thing. Let the man do his job and drive, she thought as the car lurched again as the wolf butted its head against the vehicle.
“Wow, that thing is fast!” Penny said when she realized that the wolf was keeping up with the car's pace.
“And strong,” the voice said over the intercom.
“Just shut up and drive, now that you're here,” Charles said.
“I am guessing these things have silver bullets? Or is that just a werewolf myth?” Penny asked.
“Silver bullets!” Charles said as he unbuckled his seat belt.
Penny followed his example by unbuckling and readying her gun.
“Oh, no you don't!” he said as he pushed her back into the seat. “That is for back up protection only. I don't want you to get hurt already.” He went to open the window, but Thomas spoke before he could accomplish his task.
“I'd prefer that neither of you get hurt, so both of you just sit back and hand me the gun,” Thomas said.
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