Vampires in Devil Town

by Hixon, Wayne

Zack wanted to drop and join them but he knew this was not his place. Not yet. Not until the ceremony. After the ceremony, the blood would be his. His and Charlotte’s.

  But Charlotte tried to get away. She didn’t understand. Zack gripped her arm.

  “You’ll be okay,” he said.

  “I wanna go,” she said.

  Ernst sprang up from the floor, renewed and powerful, taking Charlotte down.

  “No!” Zack shouted.

  Ernst continued to sit on Charlotte, who was now screaming. He looked at Zack. “You knew she wasn’t the one. You’ve wasted your time with her.”

  “Just... let her go then,” Zack said.

  “Let her go,” Ernst laughed.

  He turned to look at Charlotte. “Do you want us to let you go?”

  “Yes,” she said.

  Amazingly, he stood up from her.

  “Well,” he said. “There you go.”

  She stood up, straightened her shirt, looked around the room, trying not to see Autumn at the mouth of Ilya. Slowly, she walked toward the front door.

  “Do you really want her to go?” Ernst said. “If she was dead, she could be your plaything. Your slave. As it stands, you may never see her again.”

  “Charlotte?” Zack said.

  And she turned. Perhaps because she thought he had changed his mind and was going to come with her.

  He crossed to where she waited.

  “One last kiss,” he said.

  “I need to go, Zack,” she said. “This is all... unreal.”

  He bent toward her and she held up her hands noncommittally. He brushed them away, leaned in, and tore out her throat with his teeth.

  Behind him, Ernst clapped and guffawed.

  Forty-three

  Still a good distance from the house, Rachel had seen three people wander across the field. A boy and a girl dragged another girl who was screaming hysterically. Rachel had stopped for fear of being seen. Waiting, she thought back to last night and it was almost like looking at the same scene only all of the characters had different faces. She wanted to run up to them right there and stop this, stop whatever horror was about to happen to the girl but she was afraid she would be outmatched and she couldn’t risk that prospect this late in the game. So, feeling helpless, she watched them drag the girl into the house and continued to wait.

  She crept closer to the house, more cautiously now she knew there was somebody inside of it. Were the people she saw dragging the girl the same ones who had brainwashed Bones?

  No, she thought. They couldn’t be.

  Whoever governed that house was afraid to leave. Either they were afraid to leave or they were unable to leave. Maybe they were weak. Maybe their power didn’t extend far beyond the house. Rachel thought she could stand outside the house and think about this for the rest of the night if she wanted to. Or she could crouch out there in fear for the rest of the night, not allowing herself to go in.

  There were only two things that would propel her forward. Two thoughts. The first was that, somewhere in there, there was a chance Jacob was still alive. If the house had remained crumbled after burning down, she wouldn’t have had that thought. Hell, she might have abandoned everything altogether and gone running home. But the fact that the house built itself back up only meant she now had someplace to go. Once again, she had a goal. Her second reason for not merely sitting outside of the house was the fact she knew she had been there before. She had sensed its power. That night two years ago when she had stood on the porch. Had that really been the beginning of all this? No, it hadn’t. Only for her. For her and Jacob, that had been the definitive beginning and she wanted to make tonight the definitive ending.

  Still, Rachel found herself terrified at what she might find inside. Would it be worse than last time? Could it be worse than last time? Those creatures who had wanted to do things to her?

  She waited for only a few moments, taking in the stillness of the night around her. It may be the last time she saw it, she told herself. She breathed in the fragrant fall air, thought about how much she had always loved the night, and vowed she would come out through the door or she would die trying to kill the things that had terrified her and Jacob and countless others.

  Forty-four

  The two stood up slowly from Autumn’s corpse, now even more covered in blood than they had been. Zack drank greedily of Charlotte’s neck and sex. His pants around his buttocks, he buried himself in her dying heat, his tongue lapping at the gaping wound in her neck, not caring that Ernst and Ilya were free to look on.

  “Upstairs,” Ernst said.

  “Upstairs?” Ilya asked.

  “Yes,” he said. “That is where it has to take place. Follow us.”

  Ernst moved slowly toward the couch, reaching under the cushion and grabbing the Leaves of Six.

  Ernst stood over Zack.

  “Finished?” he said.

  Zack continued to suck and hump away.

  Ernst swatted the back of his head with the book.

  Zack stood up from the corpse, buttoning himself and wiping the blood from his chin.

  “Follow,” Ernst said.

  Zack followed them up the stairs to the bedroom.

  “Shouldn’t the ceremony be performed near the Dark Fire?” Ilya asked.

  “Soon,” Ernst said. “The Dark Fire will be all around us.”

  “Just tell me what I have to do,” Zack said.

  “It’s quite simple really. Ilya and I are going to lie here on the bed and you are going to drink us until there is nothing left. You are to start with Ilya. The other will arrive in a few minutes and you may need my help to subdue her. Together, you will drink. Then our bodies are to go into the flames of the Dark Fire and all will be complete. You will have what you want and we will have what we deserve.”

  Ilya and Ernst lay down on the bed, placing the book between them. Zack didn’t really understand what the purpose of the book was. He could sense their anticipation and he was in a hurry to get this over with himself.

  Ernst said, “You already have the powers of a Devil, although they may need a little refinement. What you will be getting when you drink our blood is immortality. It is up to you how you choose to use that although, let me warn, you there will be great demands placed on your sanity and your morality. Demands that you have never known before. You will become a house for one of the Old Gods.”

  “I’m ready,” he said.

  “It’s best if you drink from the neck,” Ernst said, running his finger down Ilya’s ivory skin.

  “Yes,” Zack said, kneeling down beside the bed, placing his mouth on Ilya’s neck.

  He sunk his teeth into Ilya’s flesh. His eyes rolled back as her blood, centuries old, flooded into his mouth. His tongue came alive. It was like drinking aged wine.

  The house trembled, rumbling from deep down.

  “This isn’t supposed to happen,” Ilya said.

  “We need to finish this quickly,” Ernst said. “Drink. Drink.”

  Forty-five

  Rachel felt as though she had gone on autopilot. She had no idea what awaited her and she didn’t really care. She opened the front door onto the sight of the two corpses. She nearly slipped in a puddle of foul smelling blood. It looked like one of the girls had been violated as well, her pants around her ankles, her underwear shoved to the side. Rachel looked away. She didn’t want to see that. Knowing these two had been vibrant teenage girls only ten minutes ago made her want to burn these people out even more.

  The house quivered around her. She didn’t like the way it felt but she didn’t really pay it any notice. She didn’t like the way a lot of things felt. She resigned herself to the fact that she didn’t really have a choice in any of those matters.

  She knew if there was something in here it would have to be down in the lower sections of the house. Whoever stayed in this house had to have a place to hide during the fire. But she was not in a hurry to go down there. She figured it was best to make sure the
upper floors of the house were empty before walking into the very heart of the beast.

  Moving slowly toward the back of the house, she saw the staircase ascending to the second floor. Hearing voices coming from up there she closed her eyes, straining to listen, desperately hoping one of the voices was Jacob’s. Try as she might, she couldn’t figure out if any of the voices were him or not.

  Brandishing the can and the lighter in front of her, she slowly walked up the stairs. Once on the landing she turned to her right and gently pushed open the bedroom door. She didn’t know what it was she witnessed upon opening the door but she knew she didn’t have time to figure it out.

  A man and woman lay on the bed. The boy she had seen earlier crouched on the far side of the bed, his mouth clamped to a striking blond woman’s neck. Something that looked like a book lay in the middle.

  Rachel rapidly approached the bed and began spraying the can. She didn’t need to wait for an explanation. These people had to be the Devils. If they weren’t, she was willing to live with that mistake. The only person in this house she was concerned about was Jacob. Nothing else mattered. And if it turned out that Jacob was dead then she would find some way to destroy this house. She wouldn’t care how much time and energy it took.

  The shooting flames brought the threesome out of their collective stupor.

  The boy removed his mouth from the woman’s neck and looked at Rachel, confusion in his eyes.

  The bed caught fire and began burning quickly.

  The man stood up slowly in the bed.

  “Take her!” he shouted.

  Zack lunged across the room at her. Rachel backed up and shot fire at him. It caught on his clothes and he stood there as if deciding to pursue her or put out the flame.

  Rachel turned to run. Jacob was not in this room and that was who she had come for. She darted down the stairs, wondering if all of the people upstairs were going to follow her.

  Ilya and Ernst followed Rachel out of the room. Ilya was also weak, paler than usual.

  “Ernst? What’s happening, Ernst?” she stammered.

  Zack stood at the foot of the burning bed, flapping his arms and screaming, “Help me! Dear God, I’m burning!”

  But the room was now empty, save for him. He was all alone. Feeling betrayed. If they had just followed his plan then everything would have worked out fine. He wasn’t going to give them the satisfaction. He would see their plan never came to fruition. They couldn’t use him if there wasn’t anything there. What did it matter whose bodies the old gods inhabited? He had his heart set on Charlotte. Something had drawn them together. But Ilya and Ernst hadn’t even listened to him. Not only did they not even consider his plan, they’d made him use Charlotte as meat. Not even worthy of being consumed by the Dark Fire. And Zack, caught up in the violence of the moment, had taken her blood, had taken her sex, as if that could somehow bring her back to life. It hadn’t. And now he was alone and confused and mad as hell.

  They wouldn’t expect him to do this. He found something sweet about that revenge. Maybe he was still feeling some lingering madness but he liked that thought. He was the sure thing. He knew that’s what Ilya and Ernst thought.

  A sure thing.

  Fuck them.

  If life was this painful, why would he want to continue living after death?

  His skin burned.

  The bed burned before him, its flames licking the ceiling. The book still lay in the middle of the bed. Zack hoped it would burn too.

  Spreading his arms, he collapsed into the bed, throwing his body on the book, merging with the flame and tasting darkness.

  Following the rumble that now threatened to topple the whole house, Rachel found the door to the lower level. She pulled it open and darted down the slippery steps, nearly losing her footing. At the bottom of the steps was another door. She pushed this open and entered a room that looked like some kind of spartan dining room, adorned only with a large table.

  This room contained two doors. The rumbling seemed to come from her right and she was convinced she also heard screams coming from that direction. She darted through the room and opened that door.

  This door opened onto something that looked like the interior of a church. There was a large altar at the far side of the room, blood covering its smooth gray surface. At the back of the room was another door. She ran to meet the door, pushing it open to see the raging Dark Fire and, in front of the flames, a crumpled form.

  God, she hoped it wasn’t Jacob.

  She ran to the person on the floor, not even realizing the fire didn’t seem to generate any heat. She put a hand on his shoulder and he turned his face toward her. Whatever it was, she thought, it had once been Jacob. The sight of him removed the life from her body. She collapsed onto the floor and screamed, tears pouring from her eyes.

  She wasn’t even aware of Ilya and Ernst entering the room behind her.

  Forty-six

  Stranger things happened when Ilya and Ernst entered the room.

  The Dark Fire pulsed with even stronger life, emitting a white light that was nearly blinding.

  Rachel crouched next to Jacob, holding him, rubbing him, saying over and over, “Oh, Jacob, what have we done?”

  Ernst stormed across the room, Rachel snapped away from her ministrations, staring up at the intimidating man.

  There was nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide. She was lost. All was lost.

  Ernst grabbed her from behind her neck, pulling her up, pulling her close to him and whatever power she thought she had left. He raised his other hand, prepared to swipe it across her neck.

  And stopped.

  He looked behind her, his eyes growing wide.

  It pleased Rachel to see that look in his eyes. She thought, maybe, it was fear.

  His hold loosened.

  Rachel turned toward the fire, following his gaze. She was prepared to charge into the fire. She would do that before letting him and his bitch get to her.

  Tongueless, near death, Jacob moaned from the ground.

  Rachel’s eyes adjusted to the light of the fire and yet another wave of disbelief grabbed her, pulling her into the undertow.

  People emerged from the fire. They looked like ghosts. They had the coloring of ghosts but these people were more substantial. They stepped from the fire, ethereal, and gained definition the farther they walked from it.

  Sometime during the proceedings, Ilya had moved next to Ernst, leaning on him.

  “We have to get out of here,” she said.

  “No!” Ernst shouted.

  “Yes,” Ilya returned. “This is the end. We have to run.”

  “I’ve waited lives for this!” Ernst screamed, shoving Rachel out of the way as though she stood between him and his grand prize.

  The people surrounded Ilya and Ernst, a multitude of hands taking them down to the floor. The ghost things, the other Devils, fell upon them, each of them squirming for a piece, squirming for a taste, stealing the flesh and drinking the last bit of life from Ilya and Ernst.

  Rachel moved closer to Jacob, feeling his warmth against her body, happy he was still alive.

  The group of people surrounding Ilya and Ernst laughed as they suckled and Rachel didn’t think she had ever heard a sweeter sound than that.

  “It’ll be okay,” she whispered to Jacob, taking his bloodied head into her lap.

  The ghost people were now tearing Ilya and Ernst apart. Rachel could hear the sickening rending of flesh as they did this. She couldn’t bear to watch until the screaming had stopped. When she was left with the roar of the fire and the somewhat contented moans of the dead, she turned, watching as they carried the remains back into the flames.

  After the last of the Devils had filed back into the Dark Fire, a bright light filled the lower chamber of the house. It was a cleansing burst of fire. A hungry burst of fire, devouring the house around them, taking it back into whatever dimension it had come from, leaving Jacob and Rachel to sit in the hollow, trying to piece
together what had just happened to them.

  Rachel spread Jacob out on the ground and moved her hands over him. She knew she wouldn’t be able to undo the damage in a single night but, given time, just about anything could heal. For now, she only hoped to make him well enough to walk back up to his car. She was way too tired to carry him and she just wanted to go home.

  Surrounding the house, the other Devils, in all their various forms, watched…

  The house was no longer burning. But something was different. The predatory Devils, the ones who took the shape of wolves and dogs, gave pause. They no longer felt protected. There was a time when they would make sure no harm could come to the two powerful figures that lived in that house. But that time had passed. Now they knew they were being watched by the good Devils. The ghosts, the ones who inhabited the trees.

  They didn’t know what to make of this.

  And so they watched.

  And they waited.

  Conclusion

  Several months later, Jacob lay on the bed in the guest room of Rachel’s parents’ house. They had both agreed they would not take him to the hospital. She thought her parents would go insane at the sight of Jacob, demand a doctor be involved. That was when Rachel had broken down and told them everything. The legend of the Devils was powerful in Lynchville. Just the mention of it made them stop questioning her.

  Rachel had nursed Jacob back to health with her hands. It was a long tedious process, running her hands all over him, all over his broken places. He did not heal all at once. The damage was extensive. He was still not up and moving more than a couple of steps at a time.

  Rachel thought they needed to put the incident behind them. At least for a while. She knew Jacob knew far more about the situation than she did. She waited to restore his tongue. She didn’t want to know what happened to him for the moment.

  Eventually, she couldn’t put it off any longer.