Familiars

by George S. Mahaffey Jr.

  The voice from before, the still small one came to him again, whispering: Run, run as fast as you can, Evan. Run. Run! Run! Run!

  “So now you know,” said a woman’s voice behind him.

  Evan whirled in a flourish, feet tangled up as he crashed to the ground.

  Harmony was standing in front of him, one hand behind her back, the other flipping on the light switch.

  As the light blitzed on and hit her face, Evan noticed a change. Her hair was shorter now because of what was in her hands:

  A set of hair extensions.

  With the shorter hair and the play of light on her face it all came back to him. He remembered where he’d seen her.

  She was younger that night, her eyes brighter, more full of life, but it was her just the same. A country girl from a small town in South Carolina. Some place that had been built around an old Civil War brick factory if Evan remembered correctly. He’d seen her down on in the middle of town during a Fourth of July festival. She was there with her brothers and parents.

  He remembered these things because Gideon had murdered her father.

  Evan wasn’t there when the deed was done, but he’d overheard Gideon’s breathless confession to Lucy, bawling about the ancient urge that had compelled him to follow and then swoop down on Harmony’s dad near the rear of a factory where he worked the night shift.

  Evan had seen the end results, the dull red stains on Gideon’s clothes and hands. He knew the man’s neck had been ripped wide so Gideon could feast even as the vampire cried and promised never to do it again, that it was simply a biological impulse that could be controlled with time and practice.

  Evan remembered how much Harmony’s father had weighed when they slipped him into the dark, roiling river that ran cool and deep on the outskirts of town. He also remembered seeing her face in the bubbletop lights of the cop car as they drove past the scene of the crime. Evan’s face was pressed to the car’s window and his eyes locked with Harmony’s, if only for an instant. He remembered all of this now.

  “You - your father,” he croaked.

  “His name was Nicholas Jessup.”

  Evan stared at her.

  “Say his name,” she said.

  Evan did. She took another step forward. A dark light seemed to vibrate in her eyes and Evan thought she looked capable of almost anything.

  “Your name’s not Harmony is it?”

  “That doesn’t matter.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  She didn’t respond.

  “My dad died the same way,” Evan said. “Some men came for him in Texas and they shot him down. I watched him die.”

  “My dad was innocent.”

  “So was mine.”

  She shook her head, tears in her eyes.

  “What do you call a person who covers up the crimes of something else, Evan?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “An accomplice to murder. Your dad died because he was involved in horrible things.”

  Evan thought about responding to this, but realized it wouldn’t do any good to argue. And besides, she was right wasn’t she? Didn’t they all have blood on their hands?

  “How long have you been following us?” he asked.

  “Long enough.”

  “How?”

  “It wasn’t that hard. There are people out there that turned us onto you.”

  “Other vampires?”

  “None of that matters anymore.”

  Evan stared at her as she tapped her foot on the floor.

  “What are you going to do?”

  “What would you do if you were me?”

  Her other hand came from behind her back and that’s when Evan saw it.

  The Taser gun.

  It was bulky and dark and there was a blue light on the end of it that winked at Evan.

  A picture of his mother flashed.

  She was back at the house, probably still half-drunk. And the traps, what about the traps? What about her backpack? He’d forgotten to set the traps and had taken her backpack!

  “My mom – please don’t do anything to my mom.”

  She just stared at him and Evan knew there would be no more witty banter. No holding of hands or secret sojourns to California or loose-limbed dancing while watching bands in sweaty bars.

  She fired the gun and two electrodes slammed into his chest. There was a look of bafflement on Evan’s face and then every neuron in his body seized all at once and he hit the ground and blacked out.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Some time later, Evan roused awake. He pushed himself up, but fell to his knees. His muscles ached and his body felt heavy. Fighting to his feet, he realized after glancing at his cellphone that he’d been unconscious for fifteen minutes. Harmony wasn’t around and that sent chills down his spine because he knew where she was headed.

  Staggering outside, dizzy on adrenaline, Evan hobble-stepped through the alley under a sliver of moonlight. The few people he passed barely gave him a look, assuming he’d just come from one of the nearby bars or clubs. Fumbling with his cellphone, he called Lucy, but her phone was off. He prayed he wouldn’t be too late and took some comfort in the fact that he hadn’t received a call or text from her.

  Evan raced through the city, redlining the Cressida.

  Dawn was only twenty or thirty minutes away as he parked the car in the middle of the neighborhood, engine still running as he quickstepped toward the rowhouse.

  He’d expected the lights to be on, or a commotion visible, but nothing looked out of the ordinary.

  Closer now, a sense of dread gripped his heart.

  The drums were pounding, blood beating a hi-hat tempo, obliterating all other sounds. The drums soon merged with the percussion of his heart which sounded like a hammer striking a piece of granite.

  He was a hundred feet away yet it felt like he was moving in slow-motion, his shoes filled with sand, his body wrapped in a steel-lined vest.

  A few more steps and that’s when he saw that the front door was open. It was ajar only by a few inches, but that was reason enough for concern as Lucy always made sure to lock it.

  Ten more steps and his boots crunched the shards of glass that littered the front steps.

  Evan could see that a window was broken.

  He flung himself up the steps.

  The air was thick with screams followed by a crash and finally a gunshot that iced Evan’s blood because he knew that without her backpack Lucy was missing her last line of defense.

  “NO!”

  Against the din of neighbors waking and the far-off echo of police sirens, Evan barnstormed up the front steps. He pulled a fist back, ready for anything. Expecting hell, he entered the open front door and was not disappointed.

  The first body lay in the threshold. It was one of the men Evan had seen Harmony with before back in the bar. He was on the ground and had been electrocuted by the trap. Evan could smell the stench of burning flesh and saw the man’s hand, the one touching a portion of the trap, blackened and smoking.

  Evan hurtled the body and glass from the busted window, his breath coming in stabbing gasps.

  He could see another man (the one Harmony had spoken to in the SUV), hanging near the back door, suspended by the torsion-spring-powered trap, speared by the sharpened carriage bolts. Lucy had probably remembered to deploy all of the traps, but likely not the sensors. The fact that he’d selfishly refused to do his job meant that they were able to sneak up on her.

  Harmony, or the girl he knew as Harmony, lay ten feet away from this man and perhaps another five from Lucy. Her neck had been punctured by a kitchen knife that still jutted out at an odd angle.

  There was a small crimson pond under her head and a shotgun and a metal-tipped stake lay near her outstretched hand. Harmony had probably triggered her shotgun at or around the same time that Lucy knifed her.

  Evan’s eyes moved from the still-smoking barrel of the shotgun to Lucy, who was on her back in a red, glistening heap. />
  Evan dropped to his knees as Lucy fought to elbow herself up. There was a nasty black hole where the shotgun slug had chewed through her stomach.

  She wheezed with every breath and blood dribbled between the gaps in her teeth and out of the piping of her nostrils.

  “I almost did it,” she rasped. “Almost… took them all down.”

  “Jesus, mom,” Evan said, head sagging as he leaned down and cradled Lucy in his arms.

  “But I understand it, Evan,” she said, bobbing her head in Harmony’s direction. “I know why she did it. I recognized her as soon as she came at me. I remembered… remembered her face. Remembered how she looked at me when we drove past. It’s so hard to lose your father.”

  Tear stung Evan’s eyes, his gaze hopping over to Harmony.

  “Don’t,” Lucy whispered, clutching Evan’s wrist. “Do not touch her.”

  “But she did this…”

  Lucy slowly shook her head.

  “We’re in a trap, Evan, and it’s one your father and I laid. I didn’t want to believe that, but it’s true. And if you take a life, you’ll never get out. If you spill blood you’ll end up like me. Indebted to them forever. I thought I could change things, make them see it all differently, but I was wrong.”

  Evan hugged his mother tightly.

  “What am I going to do without you?”

  “The same thing you would have done anyway. Go out and live your life. You were always destined for bigger things anyway. Your father and I always knew it.”

  Lucy’s eyes rolled heavenward and a ghost of a smile blossomed on her lips.

  “R-remember, before?” she asked, barely able to keep her head up. “Remember you asked why we never had another child.”

  He nodded and wiped a tendril of hair back from her face.

  “It’s because I knew when you came out, Evan.”

  “Knew… knew what?” he asked, his words escaping as a sob.

  “That I could never love anybody more than I loved you.”

  Evan felt the press of tears, laying his head on his mother’s chest while silently mouthing the words:

  I love you.

  She smiled again and Evan could see the blood pooling at the edges of her lips, a steady flow of clear liquid oozing out one ear. She gripped his hand and her eyes rolled back. She shuddered out a sigh and then the light winked out of her eyes and she was gone. Just like that.

  Evan kissed her on her forehead and fell to his side, nose burning, barely able to breathe.

  A rustling noise drew his attention and he looked back to see Harmony. She was staring at him, eyes glazed, a bubble of blood on her chin.

  Her mouth opened and closed slowly, like a dying fish.

  “My d-dad,” she muttered.

  “My mother,” Evan replied.

  “He was…” she said softly, groping for the words. He… he was my whole world.”

  “My mother was mine.”

  Her eyes locked on him.

  “I had to do it… I had to… but I-I’m sorry it h-happened like t-this.”

  “I am too.”

  He reached for her hand which lifted for an instant and then fell slack. Something gurgled in her throat and she spit up a ball of blood and bile. Her eyes held the watery gaze of death. She was gone too.

  Evan’s heart fluttered and it all came out in a long, painful wail. He screamed for his mother and Harmony and all the others that had died because of the goddamned thing in the basement! Anger welled up inside him. He knew he couldn’t rely on his mother anymore. He knew now was the time to confront the horror that was ten feet below him.

  A bar of light hit his face.

  Dawn was very near.

  Evan grabbed the stake that lay near Harmony’s hand and threw open the basement door. He tugged on the light and advanced with a determined gait, suffused with the unshakable conviction that Gideon had to die.

  His grief super-charged to rage, Evan barreled down the stairs, holding the stake up like a pile-driver.

  He screamed out Gideon’s name.

  Beyond the reach of the light, something stirred.

  Evan stumbled over a collection of empty liquor bottles. The bastard had been too cowardly or too drunk (or perhaps both) to help his mom, Evan realized. He was hiding down here in the shadows when she was attacked.

  He gripped the stake with everything he had, wondering how Gideon would look when he drove it into his chest. He’d never seen a vamp die, but had heard tales from his mother. The skin would sizzle like bacon in a skillet and then the chest would implode like a dried gourd and the whole rotting carcass would turn to dust.

  “HAVE THE GUTS TO SHOW YOURSELF!” Evan railed.

  Evan saw something peripherally sharking through the grainy darkness. A pair of eyes glowed like pieces of blown glass.

  A form rose up and there was a flash of slicked skin with an alabaster hue. Gideon’s hand swung out, connecting with Evan’s shoulder with sufficient force to knock him back on his ass.

  Gideon appeared, eyes saucered, his face a mask of rage. For an instant he almost looked cartoonish, like some hack horror actor dressed up for a B-movie. He drew up on Evan who noticed the color had run away from his face. Gideon had the complexion of a cave dweller now as Evan wrestled himself up and Gideon matched him, step for step.

  A surge in anxiety washed over Evan which was soon replaced by white-hot anger. He adopted an offensive posture, measured his weight and lowered a shoulder, ramming into Gideon with surprising force.

  Gideon fell back and spider-scuttled to the right before taking a few predatory steps forward. Then he clamped his hands around a joist and swung himself around and dropped to his haunches. The dark energy a trapped animal possesses blazed in Gideon’s eyes.

  His lips pulled back, teeth bared, a runner of drool hanging from them.

  Gideon’s eyes seemed to double in size. He hissed and spat a gob of fluid at Evan.

  “I could’ve killed you a thousand times before! I could’ve crept up through the air vents in your room and eaten your fucking soul!”

  “You never had the guts! Everyone knows you’re a goddamn coward!”

  Gideon threw a punch that caught Evan in his chest. The force propelled Evan back near a basement window.

  Evan levered himself up and swung the stake, shattering the window. A few slivers of light crept in. One of them hit Gideon’s hand which sizzled and smoked. Evan laughed.

  Gideon’s flesh smelled like a burned match as he withdrew past the fringes of light. Evan saw panic grip the vampire’s face and he used the moment to throw open the stormdoors. More light shafted down and Gideon clamped down on Evan’s ankle and yanked him back. With his other hand, the vampire grabbed a piece of rebar and swung it at Evan.

  Just like back with Lucy and the wooden dowel, Evan caught the rebar between his hands. Gideon’s eyes went wide as Evan wrenched the rebar away.

  Gideon howled and sprung at Evan when—

  WHAM!

  A football slammed into the vampire’s face.

  Evan looked back to see Dez, peering at him from the top of the open stormdoors.

  “GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!” Evan screamed.

  Dez couldn’t or wouldn’t move. Gideon took a step toward Dez and Evan surged headlong into the vampire, head down, pistoning into his ribs.

  Gideon exhaled and fell to the floor. Quicker than he could believe, Evan mounted Gideon who stiffened and shrunk, not expecting such an attack.

  “SHE’S DEAD, GIDEON!” Evan screamed, raising the stake over his head.

  Gideon reflexively threw his hands up.

  “My mother is dead because of you!” Evan said as a torrent of tears rolled down his cheeks.

  Gideon’s hands came down and what followed next was a few seconds of cold, deep silence.

  The fire died in the vampire’s eyes and his rage expired. His entire body wilted, making him look very small and insignificant. Evan rolled off of him.

  Sunl
ight swelled the broken window and stormdoors. Evan felt the warmth of the light and rose to his feet. He could hear Dez calling out to him, but he didn’t look back.

  Gideon lurched over and knelt at Evan’s feet like a penitent seeking clemency. He blubbered, dredging for the right words, the same ones he’d spoken so many times in the past:

  “Help me, Evan. God knows I don’t deserve it, but this time it’s different. I swear it.”

  “I’m leaving, Gideon.”

  “You can’t just… leave. For God’s… they’ll send someone for you! You know that don’t you?!”

  “So let them come. Go on and tell them if you want. Tell them I’m going to go and get some things my mom kept hidden and blow the lid off this. And if they mess with me, I’ll burn the whole goddamn thing down.”

  Evan turned and Gideon heaved his agony-wracked body sideways to clutch Evan’s ankle.

  “The one thing I didn’t lie about is that there is one universal truth, Evan. Oh, I know now is not the time, but you need to know. You need to. It’s that no matter how many lives you lead, you keep making the same mistakes. Over and over. At least I have.”

  Gideon pointed to the stake and then thumped his chest.

  “Here I am, Evan, offering myself up to you. Clothed in all my weakness. Please. Go on and get it over with.”

  Evan gazed at the stake and then broke it over his right knee. He flung the pieces at Gideon.

  “I’m free, Gideon.”

  Evan pivoted and marched back up the staircase as Gideon screamed, calling out to him:

  “I’m sorry… I’m so sorry for everything! I love you, Evan! I loved your mother!”

  Evan moved up through the stormdoors under the bleak light of dawn, listening to the racket coming from behind as Gideon frantically searched for a forgiving section of shadows, anything to hide himself from the sun’s cleansing rays.

  Dez helped Evan up, the two just standing there silently for an instant. Evan had fleeting thoughts about going back for Lucy’s body, but what good would it have done? The woman back there, the one marinated in gore and splayed on the kitchen floor, wasn’t his mother. Not anymore. He wanted to remember her the way she was, an effortless beauty holding his hand as they walked down to a beach on the Pacific Ocean.