by Ian Hall
There were three of them, circling me like a pack of drooling mutts. Teenage boys - but, I’d never seen any of them before. They didn’t go to Everton. By their prissy uniforms with the burgundy sweater vests and ties, they were from Gregor Academy.
A.K.A. Vampire Freaking High.
“What do you want?” I snarled at the tallest one; some beanpole with bad skin and mean eyes.
“Mandy Cross, we’ve been looking for you. We’ve got a friend in common.” This guy stood like a square block, thick and wide at the shoulders. I totally know a jock when I see one, and this dude screamed linebacker. Unlike the jocks from Everton, though, he talked like he had a brain.
It’s not like I wasn’t afraid. Surrounded by three vampires - all bigger than me, I had reason to be. I just couldn’t act intimidated. So, I looked that jock straight in the face and forced my voice to be as steady as possible.
“Alan McCartney is not my friend. And if you’re friends of his then you’re no friends of mine.”
I tried to do the prima donna thing and kind of storm past them but they all squeezed in like they were shrink-wrapping me or something.
“Go easy on the guy, Mandy Cross,” Jock told me, with his easy-going smile and sultry voice; totally an Alan move. Any minute I expected him to make me sniff him so he could get me all loopy and stuff. “Who do you think sent us to find you? Alan’s totally heartbroken and misses you so much.”
“Oh, please.” I pushed the jock back a few steps. He looked surprised at my strength. “Alan never cared about me. He doesn’t care about anybody.”
Jock shook his head and forced a frown. “Not true. Seriously - I’ve never seen the guy so broken up in my life…and that’s a really long time, Mandy Cross.”
The dude almost had me going for a second with those puppy dog eyes he gave me. Too bad for him I’d seen this play before, and Alan was a much better actor than this guy.
“You know what, boys? I don’t have time for this shit. Because of your good buddy, I have to leave the only home I’ve ever known and start a whole new freaking life for myself. Up until about two minutes ago, I was super bummed about that. But, thanks to you three assholes reminding me how I got into this mess in the first place, now I’m kind of psyched to get the hell out of this town. So please get your fucking undead, lying asses out of my way before I rip all your fucking heads right off your fucking shoulders. Literally.”
Man! It felt so good to say all that. I don’t usually like dropping the “F” bomb; but sometimes it just needs to be done.
However, my moment of high self-esteem passed like, super quick. All three of those dorks busted out laughing.
“You’re so cute,” Jock said, all condescending. “I can see why Alan’s so hung up on you.”
I did the black girl thing, waving my hand around and doing the chicken-neck. “We’re done here. NOW GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY WAY!”
Playtime was over at that point. Jock quit the charm and went all balls-out vicious on me. Not even an inch from my face, eyes all squinty and lips all thin, he finally said what I figured they’d come there to say.
“Get this through your head, little girl; you’re an Amos Blanche vampire, turned by one of the greatest vampires of our age. You may think you’ve broken the bond that ties you to us, but you’ll learn differently. Just try to leave town, Mandy Cross - there’s nowhere you can go that you won’t belong to us and we WILL find you. You are one of us - even as you yourself pledged to be. And we are not setting you free.”
And just like that they were all gone. They left me standing there, in the middle of the sidewalk, with my pathetic little backpack and nowhere to go.
Something moved in my peripheral vision and I turned toward it super quick. I caught a glimpse of Alan just before he vanished.
Jock had called Alan the ‘greatest vampire of the age’.
What bullshit.
Turns out we had a fair bit to do, and we had to do it quick.
We had to tie Jim Creary securely, gag him, and get him in my small trunk.
We had to get any sign of blood spatter off the parked truck, and get any blood spills from the grass cleaned up, too.
Cartridge cases are ejected to the left, and I knew we had to find five. It took us a couple of minutes, but we found them all.
Last thing, we rubbed away any tire tracks which would identify my car.
With all that safely done, we moved on to part two. Wipe my car down for Jim’s prints, and immobilize the truck should the two other vampires come back for it. We couldn’t shoot the tires out, as that would leave bullets. Bad idea. So I took Jim’s silver blade, and cut slits in all the tires.
The truck still hissed as we drove away.
We phoned Dave again.
Turns out we still had three problems.
A car with blood in the trunk, Jim Creary’s body to dispose of, and a gun involved in shooting three vampires.
“We have more than that to worry about,” Mary-Christine said after hanging up. “You look like you’ve hit a wall with your face. Several times.”
“But you should see the other guy.”
“Yeah, but how do you explain that tomorrow?”
My phone rang.
“Hi, Dave.”
“Look, Lyman, it’s all taken care of. Get yourselves up to the Deep Creek Bridge; it’s about five miles north of you.”
At the main road north, I turned left, heading for the dark mountains.
“Wait at the bridge for me.” Dave paused. “I’ll be there in fifteen, twenty minutes.”
“Okay.”
I didn’t drive fast, but we were soon at the bridge. I pulled in on the south side. When I turned off the engine, the night was still.
“You could have been killed,” Mary-Christine said, hugging my arm.
“But I had Buffy the Vampire Slayer to come to my rescue!” I joked, grinning through my pain. I felt like I’d been to ten dentists all on the one afternoon; puffy, sore, and awkward.
A truck pulled in over the road, and just as we began to get spooked, Dave arrived.
He hustled us both out of the car, and inspected Mary-Christine before looking at me.
“She was spectacular, sir,” I said, brimming with pride at my Buffy. “She put slugs into all three guys. If she hadn’t done that, they may have killed me.”
“Okay, we haven’t much time. The story is you hit a truck at the bridge, and went down the slope into the river. The ambulance is already called for.”
“What?”
“We have to dispose of the car.”
“This is dumb!” I began to shout.
“Listen up, Lyman!” Dave’s voice rang out clear and controlled. “If those kids are organized by anyone bright, they’re at home right now concocting a story that their friend, Jim Creary, has been kidnapped by you. With their word against yours, you’ll be on the line for kidnapping, assault, and murder. It’s their one big chance to get one up on us; they’d get a Helsing into deep trouble.”
I looked from Mary-Christine, back to her dad.
“But it’s two against two,” I pleaded. “Just their story against ours.”
Dave pointed to my face. “Except you’ve just done a round with Mike Tyson, and Jim Creary is missing.” He looked at me hard. “I can’t keep you out of jail with those facts flying around.”
I took a deep breath, sighed, then nodded.
Dave continued, “We’re now concocting an alibi, just in case the shit does hit the whirling fan. I can get a police report changed by an hour. The same with a hospital report. You lost control of the car, hit a truck, car went over the side, you phoned for an ambulance.”
“But how do you explain our injuries?”
“Your airbag didn’t open properly, hers did. You hit the steering wheel with your face; great advertisement.”
It wasn’t the best idea I’d ever heard, but it did explain everything. I remembered a phrase from somewhere; ‘plausible deniability’; l
ooks like that’s what we were going for.
The truck driver came over. “This is Clint Eastwood.” Dave smiled. “False name, of course. You two - get the stuff you would take out of the car in an emergency.”
Without further ado, we took out immediate personals, and the bag of shell casings. We left everything else.
Clint and Dave lifted Jim’s body from our trunk to Dave’s car.
“How long will he be dead?” I asked, as Clint pulled my carpet out the trunk.
“He could take days to recover consciousness, but he’ll be alive in a few hours. Good thinking to give him two in the heart, though. That’ll make it a longer, more painful process.”
“Would we take the guns out of the trunk?”
Dave seemed obviously caught in two minds, but Mary-Christine decided for him. “Dad! No matter how dazed I was, I would take the few seconds to lift the cases out of the trunk. We can take them in the ambulance. I would be too scared to leave them; they’re your property, Dad. I wouldn’t leave them for some passer-by.”
“Okay. Bring the guns.”
“Wait.” I grabbed Dave by the arm. “If I had an accident, they’d notify my parents. My mom would go mental.”
“That’s all taken care of, young man. Roni’s there right now, sorting it all out. The story to outsiders is ‘you hit the truck.’ The story just for your parents: you got jumped by a gang, and we needed an alibi.”
“Dave,” I almost didn’t say it, but then I did. “That’s kinda lame.”
“What can you say?” he held his hands up in mock of me, the worst Brooklyn Italian accent I’d ever heard. “It’s all I got!”
Then I watched in horror as Clint took my car and drove it right at the side of his truck. Man, he was some driver. He hit it, then spun so close to the edge of the drop, that we barely had to touch it to put it over. Down she went.
“My insurance will be toast.”
“Hey, your Uncle Dave will buy you a new one!”
Then the ambulance arrived. I looked at my watch. “Half past ten.”
“No, Lyman. It’s half past nine, remember, Uncle Dave time.”
After the whole scene with getting barricaded by Alan’s little gang, I went back to my old house. Going back to the Coles’ didn’t really seem like an option since Mona freaking hated me.
In the dark, I hunkered down in my old, empty house and listened to the ghosts of my parents telling me how pissed they were that I turned vampire and killed them. Not literally; but, it sure felt that way. It felt miserable to be there. It simply wasn’t my home anymore - just a decent place to hide.
Three separate times I tried sneaking out and leaving Everton but every time I’d get tailed and it’d take a lot of maneuvering to lose them. Moving at super vampire speed didn’t do much good when the people chasing you were just as fast. Whenever the coast seemed clear, I’d sneak back to my house. Almost as if they were freaking corralling me.
Seriously, in the middle of the night, early, early morning, it didn’t matter. I even made one last attempt right when school got out so I could just blend in with the other kids walking around. That turned out to be the dumbest idea of all - people who hadn’t seen me in months and months were coming up to me, hugging me and crying. Turned out most assumed I hadn’t come back to school ‘cause I felt too broken up about Cami.
Mostly people were freaking out about there being some kind of lunatic on the loose. Although there were those who thought Cami had gotten knocked up and skipped town to have it or just hooked up with some rich, older guy and ran off.
But, just in case the lunatic theory proved right, everyone walked in packs. Me being all alone made me stick out like a sore thumb.
Craig spotted me passing by the Lucky Charm on Eighth and Crowder, a little convenience store the kids liked to haunt right after school. I’d been out of the teenager scene for a while and kind of spaced on who’d be where at what time. Craig, mine and Cami’s former boyfriend, was not someone I wanted to run into. Oddly, he didn’t feel the same.
He looked all excited and happy, running up to me, burning cigarette in hand.
“Mandy! Hey!”
Craig grabbed me so hard, I wondered if he’d taken up sumo wrestling or something.
“How’re you doing? Damn, I barely saw you all summer and now it’s like you’ve dropped out of school! What’s going on with you, woman?”
It felt so weird to have him all fawning over me. Maybe three months ago or so I would’ve creamed myself. But, now it just really ticked me off. Not only had Craig been a total dick, dumping me for Cami…but, now that Cami was dead (well…“missing and presumed dead” was the official status) he was going to act like we’d been best buds this whole time? What a freaking loser. Oh - and let’s not forget that he totally kept me hostage when I tried to bolt without being noticed.
“Too much to explain,” I said, kinda with an attitude. “And now’s not a good time.”
“Okay…when is a good time?” Craig rubbed my arm, like trying to free a genie from a bottle. “I’ve really missed you, Mandy. It’s been rough since…Cami up and vanished and you’re always so great to talk to.”
“What? So, now I’m like, your therapist?”
Ooh. He didn’t expect that. Craig’s face went totally blank. He backed off then and stopped with that lame rubbing thing.
“You’re right. I’m sorry. It’s just that we used to be so tight.”
“That was before you fucked and dumped me for my best friend.”
Craig didn’t have anything to say to that. He just turned around and started walking back to the store where a group of his buddies hug back and totally watching him get shot down. I felt pretty liberated; that is - until a car I didn’t recognize pulled into the parking lot and a whole big group of kids got out of it…most of them I’d become all-too familiar with lately.
This time, Alan was with them. He got out, leaned up against the trunk and just stared at me with that cruel grin of his. I didn’t know what else to do; I figured lingering with the humans was my best bet since the vampires didn’t exactly want everyone else to know what they were.
“Hold on, Craig!” I yelled and then trotted up to him. His car sat parked right next to where Alan and the others had just pulled up. “You know what? I could use a friend right now, too. Let’s get out of here for a while.”
The doofus seemed more than willing to oblige and we drove around for a long time; he went on and on about his lonely life but I just overtly tuned him out. I watched over my shoulder; Alan and his gang were pretty good at the cat n’ mouse thing. They followed just enough to keep tabs and let me know they were around without Craig even noticing.
After it’d been dark for a while, I asked my whiney chauffer to drop me off by the mall. That way, I figured Craig could drive away and they wouldn’t follow him - that’d keep his useless ass alive a while longer. He pulled into the parking lot outside Macy’s but far away from the building and in a darkened spot. He seemed pretty freaking determined to get into my pants.
“…. Lately it’s like I don’t even know who I am anymore. You know what I mean?”
I’d been peering around, looking for the vampire wagon to pull in. Honestly, I hadn’t heard a word Craig had said in like two hours.
I faked like I’d been hanging on every syllable. “Yeah. Totally.”
Craig kind of twisted around to face me. He put his hands on either side of my face, clamping them down like a vice. Not a swift move when you’ve got a vampire in your car. That really pissed me off.
“Listen, Mandy,” he said all pathetically, “whatever happens between us I just really need to tell you something…dumping you for Cami was the biggest mistake of my life. I mean, yeah I was totally infatuated with her for years. But, once I got her, I realized that she was nothing compared to you. You were so much prettier and smarter…better in bed…”
Man, I really wanted to bite his neck. As he moved in to suck my face, I could li
terally feel my fangs tingling, dripping with saliva. If any guy deserved to be turned into a TV dinner, it was Craig.
I raised myself in my seat, just about to lunge, when a bang on the window distracted me.
Craig bellowed. I mean - he squirreled around and shrieked like a little girl. Then I turned around to find the ancient mummified face of Mona Cole at my window, squished up against the glass, eyes sockets dark and mouth hanging open. Then I saw a set of fingers twined into her hair, another set carefully supporting the chin, holding the crumbling head up to the window.
It was Alan.
Then another bang on the driver’s side window. Steve Cole’s skull, already falling apart, teeth dropping down the window, skin desiccating as I watched, being held by Jock.
I got all upset then, expecting any second to see Jackson’s head on the windshield. To my immense relief, that didn’t happen. Instead, Alan just tapped casually on the glass. I took a deep breath (Craig totally flipped out still) and rolled it down.
“This is what happens to Blanche vampires who break away from the family. It may take fifty years, Mandy Cross, but we will get you, too. So, think it through very carefully before you try to leave town again.”
Alan, Jock, and the rest got back in their car and drove off like they were leaving a barbeque. I just watched them go, knowing for sure that they were never going to let me be.
Craig cried hysterically. I didn’t blame him. He’d seen way too much for the Blanche vampires to just let him walk away now. I guess they were expecting me to handle it. Looks like they were right, too; I couldn’t keep Craig alive at that point. But, I could keep him from being turned into a vampire slave.
Besides, I felt really, really hungry.
I put my arm around him like a warm blanket and eased up to his ear, letting my sweet-smelling skin intoxicate him.
“This is for your own good, sweetie.”
Keeping the Story Straight
